Chapter 14

In the wake of the round-robbin tournament, the children did what they always did. They retired to their cultivation spots and cultivated, reflecting on their lessons, their triumphs, their mistakes, and their losses. Even Tan, who had won all of his matches, reflected on what he had done wrong or could have done better, as well as what had worked well.

“So are we friends with Kora now?” Won asked bluntly, pulling Tan out of his meditative trance.

“Huh?”

“I was wondering if we still hate Kora or if we’re friends with her now or what?” Won asked.

Tan glanced at him. “Have you guys been being mean to her on purpose?”

The other children exchanged looks.

“Not intentionally,” Pao admitted. “Mostly I’ve just been staying out of the way and avoiding the whole thing. It’s none of my business who you marry or why.”

“Me and Won have been mostly ignoring her too,” Ko said. “But if we’re friends with her now then we’ll stop giving her the cold shoulder. It’s up to you, Tan. Should we start being nicer to her or not?”

“Yes, you should,” Tan said, growing annoyed. “I didn’t realize you guys thought you had to be jerks to her just because I … was weird about the whole marriage thing. Now that we’ve settled that there’s no reason at all to be a jerk to Kora. She’s actually not bad.”

“She’s weak,” Won pointed out.

“She’s never been in a real fight before,” Tan said, defending the older girl. “Anyway, it’s not really any of our business if she can fight or not. Not every path needs to fight to get stronger, and she cultivates the sun, so really all she needs to do is … okay I don’t know what sun cultivators need to do but if she doesn’t need to fight to improve then why would she?”

“Okay, Tan, we get it,” Ko said. “We’ll be nicer to her from now on.”

“You didn’t decide that you like her now that she’s not trying to marry you anymore, did you?” Won teased.

“Shut up or I’ll kick you in the nuts like your sister did earlier,” Tan said, and that was the end of the discussion. The children went back to cultivating, and the matter was closed.

Dinner was stuffed cabbages. When Kora wasn’t prompt in arriving to eat with them, Safron was sent to fetch her. The little girl returned five minutes later to declare that Kora was coming, and two minutes after that the teenager arrived, still wearing the outfit she’d worn for the tournament with just a jacket pulled over top of it.

The competition for food was as fierce as always, with very little talking. When the feeding frenzy died down, the contemplation began.

“So, what did we learn today?” Tren asked after everyone had mostly finished. Kora pulled herself out of her trance for the discussion.

“I learned that getting kicked in the nuts still sucks no matter what your cultivation level is,” Won said bluntly, earning a round of chuckles from the table.

“I learned that I can go toe to toe with Pao, even if he did win in the end,” Ko said.

“I learned that getting struck by lightning sucks almost as much as getting kicked in the nuts,” Pao said.

“I improved my afterimage technique,” Tan declared.

“I learned that hair smells bad when it burns,” the littlest child at the table declared.

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“I learned that I am weak,” Kora said when everyone turned to see if she’d participate in the discussion.

An awkward silence followed.

“Are you going to do something about it or just accept it?” Tan asked. “Because you don’t have to be weak. It’s like being stupid.”

“You can’t fix stupid Tan,” Won declared.

“You can try.”

“It doesn’t work. You’re both proof of that,” Ko teased.

“I meant that you can read stuff and talk to grownups to teach you. It’s the same with fighting,” Tan explained.

“Being educated doesn’t make you smart,” Pao pointed out. “It makes you less ignorant. Ignorance and stupidity are two different things. That’s why there’s two different words for them.”

“Whatever. My point is that if you want to learn to fight, then you have to train, Kora,” Tan said. “If you want, you can spar with us tomorrow.”

“But we just had a tournament,” Won complained.

“Kora’s only here for a few more days. If she’s going to get any stronger when she’s here we need to practice with her while she has the chance,” Tan explained. “I know we usually take a week off after a tournament, but this is different.”

The children sighed and accepted their leader’s judgment. Kora swallowed, realizing that if she didn’t rise to the challenge she might loose whatever respect for them that she had managed to earn. She opened her mouth to say--

“Unless you don’t want to, Kora,” Tan said. “I mean, it’s up to you. I don’t know your path and I’m not your master. If you don’t need to be strong to follow your dao then there’s no point in fighting just for the sake of fighting.”

Kora blinked as the implications hit her. “You’re all on martial paths?”

“Not really,” Tan said. “I’m trying to understand the strength of the wind. The wind can blow ships across the ocean, it can turn windmills and blow down houses and trees. It even wears down rocks into sand and dust. If I’m going to master it, then I have to be able to do the same. But that doesn’t make me a warrior.”

“I am learning the meaning of steadfast,” Pao said. “To endure and stand strong in the face of adversity. So Tan and the others are my whetstone.”

“Fighting is part of life. I must strike a balance between peace and violence,” Ko declared. “That means that sometimes I must be violent, even when I am at peace.”

“I’m not really a warrior either,” Won said, “But my path is one of self-improvement. Of becoming more than I was yesterday, and being more tomorrow than I was today. So I fight to improve myself that way.”

“Why do you fight, Kora?” Tan asked her.

She blinked. “Because everyone else was doing it,” she admitted lamely.

“Is that all?” Tan said. He didn’t sound disappointed in her lack of insight.

“I … wanted to fit in?” she said.

“Then you don’t have to spar tomorrow unless you want to,” Tan said. “I didn’t realize that the others were being weird to you when things were weird between us. Since we decided to be friends and not get married, they’ve promised to be friends with you too.”

“I want to spar,” Kora declared.

Tan just nodded. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to be weak.”

“If that’s a good enough reason for you, then it’s good enough for me,” Tan said. “I’ll be happy to spar with you after we finish our chores.”

The conversation turned to less weighty matters as the children discussed how to fix Safron’s hair. Tan noticed his parents proud gaze as the family discussion turned to consoling Safron and assuring her that she was still pretty with short hair. He returned their looks with one of confusion, wondering what it was that he’d done.

They probably would tell him if he asked, but before he could his sister made him promise that he would help make her a doll with short hair, and he got distracted.

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