Chapter 8

Won stared at the fire at the top of the hill. It was his fire. He’d provided the spark that had lit it. But he had no idea how it worked.

He wasn’t just woolgathering as he stared into the flames. He was genuinely trying to figure it out. He was pondering the dao in his own way.

Where did this endless flame come from? Master Shen had promised him that if he came to understand how it worked on its own, how it seemed to generate an infinite amount of Qi without actually consuming any fuel, then he would experience a breakthrough which would allow him to pull ahead of the others.

Maybe.

Probably not Tan. Tan was …

Dammit. It was unfair that a little brat was so much stronger than him, but at the same time it only made sense. Tan was Master Shen’s son, and it only made sense that he’d be this strong, having been coddled from infancy towards becoming a cultivator of rare worth.

Besides, Tan was only two years younger, so it’s not like Won was getting his butt kicked by a toddler. If Safron had been stronger than him when he’d finally broken the secret and consumed the spirit in his stone, then he would have returned home in shame. But she wasn’t a cultivator yet, and by the time she was, he’d have had has breakthrough and become strong enough to teach her like an older disciple should teach a younger disciple.

He’d be gentle and fair, but there was no way he was going to let her win.

Not unless she earned it. Which she might, he reflected, when they were adults and she had surpassed him. Right now she was just a cute little brat, but both of her parents were cultivators, and it was clear that they were hoarding some sort of resources to give to their own children to enhance their growth.

Or at least that’s how Won justified it when Tan broke through into the seventh stage of the initiate’s realm while Won was still in the first.

He was jealous, but not angry. It only made sense that Master and Mistress would do that sort of thing. He was quite certain of his deduction; it was the only thing that made sense for Tan’s rapid progress compared to the rest of them.

Well, that and his heritage, but they were all learning from the same source now so unless the Shens broke their own promises about playing favorites that should even out soon, right?

“Blaze, are you there?” he asked. He listened hard, but his spirit didn’t answer.

“Where does that fire come from?” he asked anyway. “How does it burn on nothing?”

He waited, staring at the fire as it burned merrily away, producing a constant source of heat that kept the children on the hill warm as they cultivated. Only Pao remained on the top of the hill, still cultivating.

It was strange, but the fire on the small brazier with the magic markings burned brightest when all four of them were on top of the hill cultivating. Tan always left first – the cheater – and it would slowly weaken to about half of its power while the younger boy was present. When his sister left, it would weaken again by about a quarter. If Pao left before Won, then it would cut in half. If Won left first … he wasn’t actually certain, since he wasn’t around to observe it, and he didn’t want to ask Pao.

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It always came down to Pao and Won being the last ones on the hill. The other boy seemed to completely disregard Won’s presence, but Won was certain they were in a competition to show Master Shen which one was the most dedicated. Pao had had three long years to make good impressions with the hidden master, but as the saying goes, what had he done recently? Whatever advantage that Pao had been earning to advance so fast during the previous three years, Won was determined to earn it for himself.

If that meant taking it away from Pao, well, life was competition. There was only so much to go around, wasn’t there?

“It doesn’t,” a voice said. Won looked up, surprised to see the other boy looking at him.

“What?”

“You asked your spirit how your fire burns on nothing. It doesn’t,” Pao told him.

Won frowned at him. “What do you mean? What are you talking about? We haven’t fed this fire since I lit it months ago and it’s still burning.”

“That doesn’t mean that it burns on nothing,” Pao said. “Sorry. I’m not supposed to interfere with your path. But I think that I understand it enough to say that you’re asking the wrong question. You shouldn’t be asking how a fire can burn on nothing because it can’t. That much is true even with magic.”

“What would you know?” Won challenged.

“Sorry. Forget I said anything,” Pao said. He got up and brushed off his pants. It was getting chilly in the late autumn, but the older boy was still wearing the light clothes of summer. He said that the earth doesn’t hide from the cold and neither would he.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Won said as he watched Pao walk off. He grinned. He’d won today. He’d outlasted the older boy. Even if all he’d been doing was sitting in front of the brazier and pondering the dao.

He looked back at the flame.

He bit his lip.

If the fire wasn’t burning on nothing, then what was it burning?

~~~~~~

Ko blushed and closed the door behind her leaving the stunned older boy standing in the hallway. She had promised to kiss him if he took her seriously during the spar, but it had taken her a while to work up her courage. Long enough that Pao looked completely shocked when she caught him on the cheek as he was coming out of the bathroom, fully dressed but still damp from the bath.

She smiled as she prepared for her turn in the bath. It was only slightly dirty from the previous two bathers, more soap than anything else. She frowned at it and wished that she had the skill to make the dirt go out of it, like Mistress Wensho could. Then she wished that she had the skill to warm it up, but she couldn’t.

Instead she pulled the kettle of hot water off of the hot-plate that worked by magic that none of the children understood. It kept water hot, but when the kettle was empty the magic device was cool to the touch. Convenient and magical all at once, but Ko was quickly becoming accustomed to it.

It was Master Shen’s device, of course. Mistress Shen needed no such crutch to keep her baths at exactly the right temperature. Or so Ko had been told; she’d never had the honor of bathing with, or being bathed by the woman. She was, after all, just another field hand.

She smiled. How clever of the Shens to build their sect in this way, she thought. Two hidden masters, their family and their students out in the middle of nowhere. As she poured the steaming hot water into the bath and swirled the water with her magic to bring it to the right temperature, she pondered why it was that Mistress Shen didn’t need to do this step.

How was it that Wensho could control the temperature of water? Wasn’t heat an aspect of fire?

For that matter, how could the woman make the dirt and soap fall out of the water?

And why was the bucket in the corner always filled with spiritual water that was refreshing in multiple ways when drunk?

She sighed as she sank into the hot but dirty water. She soaked for hours, pondering her dao without even realizing it.