Chapter 39

In the morning, a hung over Zenith and Tren greeted the children in the formal dining room, where Tan held the uncut ruby that had the fire spirit that would likely be bonding with his sister. He concentrated carefully, attempting to communicate with it.

“Oh, it’s you,” Zephyr said, making Tan blink.

“Huh?” Tan asked.

“Oh, it’s an old friend of mine,” Zephyr explained. “We fought a few times when we were bonded to different people. We never really hated each other, but our humans did.”

“Oh,” Tan said, frowning. “Is that why he’s not answering me?”

“It might be. I’ll talk with him a while and try to make him less stuffy,” she promised.

Tan chewed his lip as an unpleasant thought occurred to him. “Zephyr, is he going to cause problems between me and Safron?”

“I don’t think so,” Zephyr said. “He might be a little stubborn because my human was always stronger than his when we were sort of enemies.”

“Was not,” a voice came from the stone.

“You never once won in the fight,” Zephyr reminded the fire spirit. “Or are you saying that it wasn’t your human’s fault?”

The fire spirit didn’t answer, but Tan got the feeling of a sulking child from it. He gave the spirit-stone back to his father and explained the conversation that had just happened. Tren looked troubled for a moment.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” he said eventually. “Safron already has a fiery personality, but she loves her big brother. I don’t think that the spirit would poison her against you, but you might have to deal with some fierce competition from her.”

“What if it makes her hate me?” Tan protested.

“I’ll speak with it on the way home and make certain that it understands that the past is the past,” Tren promised. “It’s going to be part of the Shen family now, and it won’t do for brother and sister to be out for each other’s throats.”

Tan nodded, and promptly stopped worrying about it. His father said he would resolve the problem, and that meant it wasn’t worth worrying about anymore.

After breakfast and saying goodbye to Zenith, the Shens returned to the modest little inn where they had stored their travel gear. They changed out of their fancy clothing and into the modest travel garb they’d traveled in. Tren paid the innkeeper, who was as grateful to be done with the cultivators as he was to receive coins for rooms that had been effectively empty for two weeks.

They left the city, passing over the horizon before Tren pulled out the carved Qi constructs, which he promptly turned back into magical horses. Some of the children groaned, recalling the more unpleasant aspect of travel which they would once more have to deal with: saddle soreness.

With a flash, the powerful earth cultivator and the four children he was mentoring vanished over the horizon. And then the next, and the next, and the next horizon as well.

Even so, it would take them several days to reach the isolated Shen farm in the western corners of the Blue Dragon Empire.

~~~~~~

Elder Pike was sweeping the snow off the path between the little house and the large manor of the Shen farm. Upon his shoulders was a four, soon to be five year old girl, who was bouncing excitedly and directing him on how to use his magic to clear the snow away. He sighed and shook his head at her enthusiasm when he detected a fluctuation in the spiritual fields that had grown into place around the farm.

He swallowed nervously, his large fish-like eyes going wide as he realized ‘oh, it happens today.’

He pulled Safron off his back and told her to go find her mother.

“Why?” Safron asked.

“Your mother will know when you find her why I sent you,” Pike assured the little girl. She pouted at him, then ran off to do as he’d said. She was getting bored bugging the fish-man anyway.

Elder Pike returned to the small house where the two children had been born. He could still sense the magic of those events in the bones of the house; the birth of members of the Shen family was not something that the world would easily forget, and with his affinity to water magic, the blood shed during those births continued to call to him.

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Among the spirit animals of the farm, he alone had deduced the truth of who their hosts really were, which made him no more anxious than the others who simply thought they were very powerful cultivators who were hiding from the world. Because they were right, that is exactly what they were.

It was just a matter of scale in the difference between Pike’s understanding and Ember, Thume and Clover’s.

“The Master and the children are returning today,” he informed Ember and Clover, who were warming themselves by the fire. “We should prepare to greet them. Where is Thume?”

“Search me,” Clover said.

“He went off flying somewhere,” Ember answered. “Don’t know where though.”

Pike cursed. They had an hour, perhaps two before the arrival, and he wished for it to go--

“Hey, do you all sense something weird in the air?” a voice asked as the monkey-man stepped inside behind Pike. Pike jumped, he hadn’t sensed Thume coming at all. The monkey-spirit grinned at him, and Pike realized that Thume had sneaked up on him on purpose.

“It’s the wake of the Master,” Pike explained. “I sensed it moments ago. They are arriving soon. We should get changed into the formal attire that Mistress Wensho has lent us.”

“Oh. Yeah, nope,” Thume said, and then he ‘Popped’ and turned back into a monkey. “You all can deal with those brats. I’ve already fought them once and I’d rather deal with the cold.”

The monkey flew off into the forest. The fox-boy and the rabbit girl exchanged looks, then went to change into the spare formal clothing that Wensho had given them. Pike changed too into the fine silk robe, watching with some amusement as the embroidery changed color. It did not pronounce him a grandmaster. Only a master.

He nodded. He had much to learn, despite his advanced age.

Neither of the other spirits had their robes light up, but that was expected. They were very young compared to Elder Pike, and while their connection to the land of the Shen farm was growing profound, and their abilities were climbing steadily, they were less advanced than the children that were returning from their adventure.

After twenty minutes, the monkey reappeared, shivering. Thume dashed into his room and emerged ten minutes later in human form and dressed in a formal robe. He shot a look at the others, daring them to say something, as he warmed his hands at the fire.

Pike shook his head in amusement at the monkey’s antics, and then he closed his eyes. The waves of Qi were growing more rapid as the wake moved towards the farm.

“They will be here any moment,” Pike said, and he walked outside, leading the others into the part of the yard that was kept clear of snow. Wensho and Safron were already there, the little girl puffing on her hands to keep them warm as they waited for her daddy to get home.

Which happened moments later as the Qi constructs appeared in a streak and were suddenly standing in the middle of the yard. With a large grin on his face, Tren dismounted and caught Safron mid-air as she literally flung herself at her father. He swooped her around once and planted a kiss on her forehead.

“That’s the best welcome home I could have asked for,” he told his daughter. “Here, as promised, I got you a present.”

Tren gave her the uncut ruby that contained the fire spirit which he had promised her.

“It’s not my birthday yet,” she said.

“It’s close enough,” he informed her. “It will take you some time to synchronize with it. The spirit will do most of the hard work for you, you just have to keep it on your necklace and wear it all the time, even in the bath and when you sleep. Once you start to hear its voice, let me know, okay?”

“Yes Daddy.” And then she ran off to bug her big brother, who was watching the scene with a smile on her face. “What about you , Tan? What present did you get me?”

“Why would I get you a present?” Tan teased.

She pouted at him and went to smack him when he pulled out a doll. She paused in the wind-up for the smack she’d been about to give him, snatched the doll away and ran into the house.

Tan scratched his head. “You’re welcome!” he called after his retreating sister. He grinned. It was good to be home.

That was when Tan noticed the strangers standing nearby, waiting to be addressed. He sensed a bit of spiritual pressure coming off of them and, for a second, thought that his mother was housing wandering cultivators for some reason. Then he noticed the bunny ears on the girl, and that one of the men had fox ears and a tale, while the other young man had a monkey tale and the final man had the eyes of a fish.

“Oh, have you four decided to be people now?” he asked them.

“It is a temporary arrangement, for the winter, Young Master,” Elder Pike said. “This humble spiritual-fish greets the Master and Young Master of the Shen farm.”

Each of the spirit animals greeted the returning Shen family in the same words that Elder Pike had used, bowing humbly to them.

“We’ll talk later,” Tren informed them. “Right now, I think everyone needs a hot meal and a hot bath!”

The children enthusiastically agreed, and they went inside the manor, where Tren revealed the fire cherries and gnasher-cobra meat he’d been saving for Wensho to help him cook for the children. She gave him a kiss for the present, and then set him about cutting vegetables as the children took their turns in the steaming spiritual water that she’d prepared for them.

And that’s how Tan’s journey to Mosanatas, the capital of the Red-Tiger Empire, came to a close.

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