Chapter 11

It was two more days before Kora even realized that Tan had had a breakthrough. And those days were mostly miserable.

She worked hard, stretching muscles she didn’t realize she had and getting blisters on top of blisters on top of blisters. Part of her wanted to just throw her hands up and demand that she be taken home, but the part of her that wanted the power and prestige that went with marrying into the Shen family kept her from simply abandoning her quest to woo Tan.

A quest which wasn’t going very well at all. Whenver she complimented him, he got a funny look on his face and said something to her which might have been an insult. She complimented him on his appearance, and he said that she looked slightly better than she had in his dreams. She complimented his work ethic, and he complimented her for working twice as hard for half the result. She complimented his cultivation progress at having achieved the first stage of the Foundation Realm, as the Shens referred to it, and he complimented her on her blindness.

She blinked at that and asked what he meant.

“Can’t you tell? I broke through the other day,” he said.

She frowned and scanned the boy with her spiritual senses and realized that he was right, there was a noticeable difference between when she’d arrived on the farm and today.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant by being blind,” he said. “You’re stumbling around with your hands out in front of you to gauge my progress instead of just looking.”

She frowned. What was he talking about? This was how she’d been trained. “Can you feel it when I scan you?” she asked.

“Of course I can. It’s like you’re grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking me. Or trying to at least. I’m not so easily shaken,” the boy answered.

“How do you do it then?” she asked.

“Different ways. I could do it the way that you do, but that’s just rude. Mostly I smell it. It’s not as precise, but if you know someone you can tell when they have a breakthrough based on the scent of their cultivation getting stronger. Or I listen to the way the Qi around them vibrates. My parents are almost silent, so I don’t really know how strong they are except for that they’re way stronger than me. But I can hear everyone else loud and clear,” he answered.

She went silent as she contemplated this. Was he just pulling her leg? She’d learned by now that he had no issues with lying to her, and this might have been one of those times. “Well, congratulations on your advancement anyway. Why wasn’t there an announcement or celebration?”

“There was. We had honeycakes for lunch,” he said. “Everyone knows what that means except you I guess.”

He said this with such a casual dismissal, simply going back to hoeing his row, that she could only stare at his back. He was right, she realized. She was an outsider, unwelcome and unwanted. Why was she even here?

The power and prestige of the Shen family? Yeah, right. They were literally dirt farmers who happened to live on top of a Qi oasis. She threw her hoe down in the dirt and stormed off to the guesthouse. Tan stopped working to watch her go, then went back to work. Things went faster when he didn’t need to make certain that she was doing her job the right way.

She didn’t go to dinner that night, and Lady Wensho found her in her room crying when she brought a covered platter that smelled utterly delicious.

“What did my son say?”

“Nothing,” Kora answered angrily.

“Alright then. Do you want to talk about it, or do you want to stay here and cry alone?”

Kora glared at the woman, the grandmaster cultivator who was condescending her, and she opened her mouth to say something biting when she realized that the woman was genuinely asking.

“Why do you live like you do?” she asked at last. “I’ve seen only a glimpse of Renton’s strength, but if you and Tren had a tenth of that then you could each live a life of luxury and ease. Why are you out here in the middle of nowhere? Farming of all things?”

“Because we’ve been there and done that and it got boring after about a decade of having our every whim catered to,” Wensho answered honestly. “Some people enjoy that sort of thing. Tren and I enjoy a careful harvest and actually spending time with our children instead of decades of closed door cultivation and pointless power games with others who are looking to cut our throats, metaphorically or otherwise. So we just left it all behind and came somewhere that nobody would look for us.”

“Until my family happened along,” Kora said, the pieces finally falling into place. “You were never serious about joining our families.”

“We never promised more than that we’d introduce you to Tan, and give you some time together to see if you had chemistry,” Wensho said. “That’s all we’ve promised, nothing more. What were you expecting?”

“That I would—that you would—I don’t know! Give a damn!” Kora screamed.

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“Kora, I’m sure you’re a fine young lady,” Lady Wensho said, ignoring the outburst, “But honestly, it’s unlikely that my son’s heart will soften towards you. Perhaps it would be best if my husband takes you home early.”

“No!” Kora said sharply. She would not give up. If Tan rejected her after the week was over, that was one thing. But to simply give in, to tell her family that she had failed, she wasn’t ready to do that.

“Alright. Fine. I wasn’t trying to kick you out. I was just raising the option,” Wensho said. She sighed. “There’s the tournament tomorrow, you know. Maybe if you can break my son’s nose, he’ll look at you differently.”

“You think that would help?” Kora asked, scoffing. “I suppose it couldn’t make anything any worse.”

“Things can always get worse. You’re trying to woo an indifferent heart, not a hateful one,” Wensho said. She turned to leave. “If you’re just worried about what your family thinks, then that’s fine. They won’t know what happens here on the farm. You can just wait for the end of the week instead of trying to fit in. If you don’t show up for breakfast tomorrow, I’ll bring you something to eat again, and if you want to talk then, we’ll talk some more.”

The lady of the farm left Kora alone. Kora continued to sulk for a few minutes before the delicious aroma of the platter that was left behind lured her out of her shell. She sat on the bed with the platter next to her and ate the Qi rich food, savoring each mouthful. When she had finished, she cultivated until she fell asleep with her clothes still on.

She woke up early in the morning, before dawn, she realized. She looked at the sky through her window and realized that this was the perfect time to cultivate in the orchard, so she quickly put on her shoes and raced over. Once she was ensconced in the center, she entered her meditative stance and guided the Qi through the exercises she had learned when she was young and perfected under the tutelage of Renton Shen.

As she cultivated, she reflected upon her heart.

She did not love Tan. That much had never really been in question. She’d hoped that she might come to love him after they were married, but she’d ultimately only been interested in his family, their connections, and his prodigious talent. If she were to say anything else, she’d be lying, even if it was to herself.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t want to marry him. Marriages didn’t have to be about love. Lady Wensho had pointed out that cultivation wasn’t about power or prestige, that those things were side effects of bettering oneself through cultivation. But that didn’t change the fact that those things went together. With one came the other.

A marriage to Tan Shen would certainly increase the Zang family’s reputation, if she could figure out how to get the to cut out this nonsense about being dirt farmers and act like proper cultivators at least. There were at least three grandmasters in the Shen family that she knew about, and who knew how large the family really was? Even the emperor cared about them, and she had sensed his unfiltered power when he had brought his Intent down upon her.

But that was not the only path she could take to get the things that she wanted. If she became strong enough, then it wouldn’t matter who she married, or if she married at all. She could become the rock upon which the Zang family could build the next generation, rather than simply enriching the family line through marriage.

She frowned, seeing now a contradiction. She had been praised for all of her life as a prodigy, and yet the first thing that the family did when she came of age and bonded a spirit was to start looking for a husband for her. Was she not good enough to stand on her own?

“You’re in my spot,” Safron said, jarring Kora out of her trance.

“What?”

“This is my orchard. You’re in my spot,” the girl repeated.

Kora looked around. There was plenty of space for the girl to sit, and Kora was hardly absorbing all of the energy that the sun and the trees were putting out. “Tan said that I could cultivate here.”

“Tan has the hilltop. The orchard is mine. Mom and Dad said so,” Safron said. “You’re in my spot and if you want to stay in my spot then you need to braid my hair.”

Kora frowned, but gave in. She braided the little girl’s hair, then, once the sun was up fully up, they returned to the manor to eat breakfast with the rest of the Shen family. Breakfast was awkward, but it wasn’t just Kora’s absence from the night before that was bothering the other children. She didn’t realize it at first, but as the tension grew, she realized that they were each preparing themselves mentally for the day to come.

After a few brief chores, which Tren quickly issued to everyone but Kora, the children would be fighting each other in another training tournament. The first and only one to take place while Kora was at the farm.

After the other children left, Kora remained at the table with the two adults.

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” Tren said bluntly. “It should be obvious by now that there’s very little chance that you’ll win Tan’s heart.”

His wife swatted his shoulder. “Don’t be so blunt about it.”

“It’s fine,” Kora said. “You’re right. But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing for me to learn. I’ve … never actually been in a fight before. A bit of training with my masters, but nobody who was willing to put hands on me has ever challenged me to a real spar. I’m not going to leave without seeing how I match up against other kids my age.”

“So you’re giving up on this marriage nonsense?” Tren pressed.

“Yes. But that doesn’t mean that I want to cut ties with your family. Even if Tan won’t marry me, there’s so much that I want to learn from you. You and Lady Wensho and Lord Renton are the most powerful cultivators I’ve ever met, and I am honored and humbled to receive your wisdom,” Kora said. “Even in its most unpleasant forms.”

“We’re not looking for more disciples,” Tren said bluntly. Then he softened. “But we did promise you that you could stay a week, and if you’re still willing to put the effort in, then go join Tan in the fields again. It might help to tell him that you’ve given up on wooing him and just want to be friends.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks, Lord Shen. Lady Shen.”

Kora left the table, and went to follow Tren’s advice. When she told Tan how she felt about him, he just scratched his nose and said “Yeah okay we can be friends.” And that was it.

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