Chapter 51

Once Tan had departed for his nap, the other children resumed their conference.

“So who do you think he really is?” Won asked, glancing at the old house that the adults were airing out for Renton to sleep in.

“Tan’s uncle, just like they say he is,” his sister answered. “Why would they lie about something like that?”

“I didn’t think they were,” Won said. “But I don’t mean who is he in relation to Tan. I mean who is he really ? He arrived in lightning. Who does that ? I didn’t even know it was possible and this guy uses lightning like a horse.”

Pao frowned, looking at the sky. “Maybe if you ask him he’ll teach you how to do it too,” he suggested.

“I think I just might,” Won admitted. The other children fell into silence as they reflected on the strange encounter with Tan’s exuberant uncle. “They called the cherries imperial fire cherries,” he pointed out.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Ko said. “It’s a type of cherry, not proof of anything.”

“He called his niece the imperial princess,” Won insisted.

“He was joking,” Ko said.

“He might have been joking,” Won said. “What if he wasn’t? What if they’re imperial royalty? It would explain how Tan’s parents are so damn strong. Why when we went to Mosanatas they rolled out the red carpet for us.”

“It doesn’t explain why Tren and Wensho have been out here in the middle of nowhere for the last thirty years,” Pao pointed out.

“Yeah, but something has to explain it. I mean, I didn’t realize anything was weird about it either when my parents told me to be extra nice to Tan because his parents were hidden masters, but what if they’re more than that?” Won said. “What happened thirty years ago in the capital? Who do we ask who’d actually know?”

“Lord Hara might,” Ko admitted. “Do you think he’d talk to us and give us a history lesson?”

“We could ask. We’re cultivators. We might just be kids, but that still puts us above the nobility who aren’t,” Pao pointed out. “He doesn’t have to answer our questions, but he might.”

“What about Tan? What do we tell him?” Ko asked.

“That we’re running an errand for our parents,” Won said. “He might get weird if we tell him we’re investigating his family. He doesn’t think that there’s anything weird at all going on.”

“He was born into this weirdness. It’s hard to see from the inside,” Pao said. “Okay then. I’m going to go let the adults know that we’re going to be gone for most of the day tomorrow. I’ll tell them it’s something to do with your parents. I don’t think they’ll check, but you should go into the village today and talk to them to make sure they’ll cover for us.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Won said.

With their plans thus cemented, the meeting of the children broke up.

Nearby, next to the pond where a certain spirit carp made his home, a fox, a rabbit, and a monkey were talking to a fish. They too were troubled by the appearance of another powerful cultivator, one whom they hadn’t been getting to know for years and who was unpredictable.

“We remain under the lady and the lord’s protection,” Elder Pike said calmly. “I doubt that even if the fire lord becomes aware of our presence that he’ll hunt us without their explicit permission.”

“I don’t like it,” Clover said. “He smells like blood. I can tell that he’s eaten spirit beasts in the past.”

“The children ate the snake that the Lord cooked for them,” Elder Pike pointed out.

“That was a snake who attacked him first,” Clover said. “We don’t know that--”

“Exactly. We don’t know,” Elder pike said, interrupting her. “I’m not saying that he’s innocent, nor that you should approach him with your belly up and ask him to put you in a pot. But he hasn’t done anything to show us any malice. He deserves the benefit of the doubt.”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on going anywhere near him,” Thume said. “It’s not because I’m afraid of him, but let’s be honest, how many people do you actually reveal yourselves to on average? Aside from the kids and the adults on the farm, does anyone even know we’re here? Why would we change this sort of policy just because a powerful cultivator showed up?”

Ember nodded. “I think I’m going hunting in the north for a week or two. I don’t think that he’d hunt me for my skin, but I don’t see the point in taking the risk. And it would be good to get back to the wild again.”

Clover nodded. “Okay. So we hide from him. That’s good, I’m good at hiding.”

“It’s not hiding,” Ember said, exasperated. “It’s being somewhere where the fire lord is not.”

“Right. So we’re hiding,” Clover said.

Ember sighed. “Okay, fine, we hide.”

Elder Pike sighed, but he too planned to feed in the depths of the pond, and generally make himself scarce until the powerful unknown cultivator left.

~~~~~~

Lord Hara had been having a good couple of years. Ironically, the cultivator was largely responsible. Over the last ten years or so, the Qi in Susuka county had seemingly exploded. Whereas before the county had been quiet and poor, suddenly the produce and goods crafted by its people were actually worth exporting.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was strange, thinking that a cultivator might actually care about the land and the people living on it. However, the results were undeniable. In an ever growing circle based around the little village where the cultivator made his home, there was a growing Qi oasis which was slowly transforming the entire province.

Nobody outside had noticed quite yet, and Lord Hara was dreading the day that they did. He was not a particularly corpulent man, but he was no fighter either. Not with weapons, and not with the more subtle means that members of his caste typically enjoyed. If he were to face competition for his lofty position out in the middle of nowhere, he could think of only two choices.

One was to abdicate. That would be the safest option. But it would also leave him with only his meager savings from his portion of the tax revenues of his province. While eighty percent of taxes were sent off to the capital, he was entitled to pay himself with whatever funds he did not spend on his official duties, going up to half of the remaining revenue.

Any more than that would be corruption, but still, ten percent of tax revenue of a province could be a substantial amount. It hadn’t been when Lord Hara had taken his position, but he had been steadily building a nest egg for his retirement.

With the portion that he didn’t pay himself, he had been reinvesting in roads and infrastructure. He’d never really thought about the necessity of those things; he just had to have something to spend the money on and those had seemed like safe choices. When the empire had suddenly given him a grant to complete the projects which he’d been slowly chipping away at twenty years ago, he had of course simply taken the money and used it for its designated purpose.

After all, he didn’t relish meeting the headsman, and that was the price of corruption.

He was going over his ledgers when he heard a knock at the door to his modest hall. He frowned, wishing that he could afford some servants other than the crones who cleaned his home twice a week, but he was too frugal for live-in servants. So he rose to go answer the door himself.

His eyes bulged out of his skull when his guests turned out to be little cultivators. Not so little in case of the teenager, but along with the other two children he recognized them immediately. He bowed respectfully to them in greeting.

“See? I told you he’d do that,” Won said, grinning.

“Yeah yeah, okay. It’s just weird,” Pao said. He sighed. “Tan would be so confused if he saw this. He really doesn’t think there’s anything weird at all about the respect people give cultivators, but I don’t think that includes all non-cultivators, not just the common people.”

“May we come inside, Lord Hara?” Ko asked. “We have several questions that we’re hoping you could answer for us.”

“Of course, of course,” Lord Hara said, cursing his hospitality even as he showed them to the sitting room. “Would the young masters and mistress enjoy some tea?”

“No thanks,” Pao said for the group. “And we’re not the young master. That would be Tan. I think we’re more like his attendants, although the Shens place less importance on things like that.”

“If we’re right though, what does that mean for us?” Won asked.

“That we’re his attendants,” Pao said. “And his friends. Nothing changes, even if the Shens are who we think they might be.”

“We’re right here, we might as well ask. Lord Hara, we were hoping that you could educate us on the history of the imperial court.”

Lord Hara blinked. He looked at them, then shrugged. It was an easy enough request to fulfill, but a thirsty one. “You may not want some tea, but if I’m going to be lecturing then I want some, and it’s as easy to make four cups as one. I’ll go heat the water while you make yourself comfortable.”

“You needn’t bother,” Ko said. “Just bring the water and we’ll heat it for you.”

Right, they had magic, Hara reminded himself. And they weren’t above using it to help with everyday chores, either, he noted.

Several moments later, everyone was seated in his sitting room with a steaming cup of tea in front of them, and Lord Hara began.

“For the previous six centuries, until fifty years ago, the Blue Dragon Empire was ruled by Haoatonian Shenlong, the water dragon of the north. He was a water cultivator without peer, said to have bonded the spirit of the oceans themselves. He was mighty, and he was just, and the lands were prosperous.”

“But we’re ruled by the fire emperor,” Won protested.

“Yes, I’m getting to that. About a century ago, Haoatonian decided that ruling wasn’t enough for him. He decided that he had reached the pinnacle of what could be achieved on our world, and decided that it was time for him to ascend to the next. He knew that his responsibilities as emperor, however, would have created a heart demon that would have prevented his ascension, and that he could not leave the world behind without seeing to its needs.

“When he came to this conclusion, he came up with an answer. He needed an heir. So he courted the most powerful female cultivators in the world. He had quite the harem, according to the rumors. Unfortunately, while the body ages very slowly once a cultivator reaches a certain level, it often also leads to problems with fertility, and it was two decades before the first heir was born, and then another ten before the second.”

For some reason, the children perked up at this.

“Anyway, the first heir was bound to mother Gaia, one of the most powerful earth spirits known to exist. The second heir was bonded to Solarius, a fire spirit of similar power. They were raised and educated to the highest standards that the emperor could manage. They toured the other three great empires and were fostered for a year by each of the other emperors. They learned well the matters of court, and fifty years ago, Haoatonian decided that he had fulfilled his responsibilities to the empire by siring such fine heirs.

“He ascended to the next world, and his eldest son ascended to the imperial throne.”

“But you said that the eldest son had an earth spirit,” Pao pointed out.

“Yes, I’m getting to that. The earth emperor ruled for twenty years, during which time he fell in love with a water cultivator of peerless strength, and --”

Suddenly, the various dots and data points that had been in Lord Hara’s head began to connect themselves. He trembled as he continued.

“He fell in love, and decided that he hated ruling. He abdicated to his younger brother. The eldest brother ascended with his wife, and they … we have been ruled by the Fire Emperor ever since.”

“Do we know for certain that they ascended?” Pao asked. “What if they just went into hiding?”

“It is nearly impossible for a cultivator on that level to hide for very long,” Lord Hara said. “There would be signs of their presence. The land around them would burst with blessings and bounties, and … and … and I think that I have educated you enough on the matter. Would you perhaps mind leaving? I am a very busy man, and I need to get back to my paperwork.”

“Of course. Thank you for your time, Lord Hara,” Ko said. She got to her feet and bowed respectfully. The other children did the same.

“I knew I was right,” Won said as the door closed behind them. Lord Hara, left alone, found the strongest bottle of brandy that he possessed and began drinking from it directly.

How could he possibly handle this situation?

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