Chapter 4

The door opened to Lord Hara’s sitting room, and a man stepped in. For half a second Kora didn’t recognize him; the last time she’d seen Tren Shen he’d been dressed in the robes of a grandmaster. This time he was in simple linens without any adornment aside from a bit of dirt. At first she thought that he was a peasant here to petition their lord over something or other, then she recognized him and quickly hastened to her feet.

She bowed politely, one cultivator to her elder.

“Hello, Master Shen. I hope that you didn’t rush on my behalf,” she said.

“I took my time in getting here. You’re not important enough to make me truly rush,” Tren answered.

She blushed at the casual insult, accepting it without rejoinder. “Even so, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance again. Especially if you are to be my father-in-law.”

“That remains to be seen. I’ve promised your family the opportunity for you to win my son’s heart. It’s up to you to capitalize on that opportunity,” he said judiciously. “Tell me. Whose idea was it to arrive early?”

“Did the letter not say to arrive at noon?” she said. “I thought we were punctual, despite the bad roads and—”

“Is your family playing games with me?” Tren asked, and she felt something that, before meeting the emperor or Renton Shen, she wouldn’t have been able to identify.

The Intent of a grandmaster.

She swallowed nervously and met his intent with her own. She stood firm under his glare, and raised her eyebrows as though she were not staggering under an impossible weight. “Are you quite done?” she asked.

His eyebrows rose in surprise. “I see my son is not the only person to have grown in the last two years. Show me your cultivation,” he instructed.

She grinned and brought her Qi to bear. She was proud to have reached the ninth stage of the initiate’s realm after receiving guidance from Renton and utilizing the fruit of the Everburning Blackberry Bush that he had planted in their garden. If it weren’t for this meeting, she would still be in a semi-closed door cultivation session reflecting on the lessons and insights she had gotten from her mentor, and also the Treatise of the Rising Sun, that gift from the emperor himself.

“You have chosen to walk a different path than the one I was expecting of you,” Tren admitted. “There is less destruction in your aura and more creation. Who set you upon this course?”

“I am pleased to have the privilege of having been tutored by Grandmaster Renton Shen, and have received blessings from the emperor himself since we last met,” Kora bragged.

“Is that so…” Tren said, a cloudy expression coming over his face for a second. “I wonder what his angle is in this…”

“I could not speak to the mind of the emperor,” Kora said quickly, “But according to Master Shen, it was simply to ensure that anyone marrying into the Shen family was worthy of the honor.”

“As I noted earlier, you have a long way to go before you’re marrying anyone. Tan literally forgot who you were since your last meeting until we reminded him,” Tren said.

“That might be for the best,” she admitted, blushing. “I did not make the best of impressions when we met. I am grateful for the opportunity to start again.”

Tren studied the young woman for a minute, then sighed. “You have two choices. I can either carry you, and we’ll be at my home in moments. It might be a little undignified, however. Or you can ride in your carriage and—”

“I submit myself to your care,” Kora said, daring to interrupt him. She grinned. “I’m certain that I am perfectly safe in the care of the illustrious Shen family, and am not afraid of a little indignity.”

Tren shrugged indifferently. “Alright then. I’m going to pick you up and carry you. It will be best if you close your eyes, my movement technique is a little disorienting.”

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She allowed him to sling her over one shoulder, closing her eyes. She felt a sudden swooping in her stomach that lasted for half a moment, and then he was setting her down again. She blinked and opened her eyes.

“Was that it?” she asked.

“We are here,” he informed her, turning her to face a large manor house, a smaller house off to one side, and a variety of outbuildings, with a barn being the largest among them.

She blinked. “You live here ?”

“Home sweet home,” he said, a smile on his face. “Come along now, let’s show you to your room in the guesthouse first. The other children should still be getting ready for the meeting at this point, so we’ll get you settled first.”

“Um, I was scheduled to stay for a week, but we seem to have left my baggage behind,” she said.

“You can wear my wife’s clothes while you work for us,” he commented.

“Work? Won’t we spend most of the time cultivating and getting to know each other?” she asked.

“This is a farm, Kora. The work never stops.”

Kora blinked.

“Wait, what?”

In the bathroom of the main house, Tan was drying himself from his recent bath and changing into the formal clothes that his mother had recently let out to fit him. He’d grown a few inches since the clothes had first been tailored to him, but they’d been tailored for a young boy who was expected to grow, and mending them to fit him was a simple matter for his mother, who was quite skilled with a needle herself.

Her husband, on the other hand, was completely hopeless when it came to mending clothes. Which she was just fine with, as it gave her an excuse to sit in the shade while he toiled under the sun all day.

As he dressed, Tan frowned as he considered the upcoming meeting. He glanced in the mirror, examining himself briefly, then shrugged. He was a normal looking boy, and that was about all the more he cared about. He supposed a girl might think he was handsome, but who cares about that?

Once he had finished, he opened the door to let Pao take his turn at the bath. The twins had gone to the pond to bathe to save time, since the bathtub only fit one person at a time. Pao had already stripped to his underclothes and was quick to close the door behind him once Tan was out of the way.

Tan shook his head, wondering what it was that the other kids were thinking lately. Ever since Uncle Renton had shown up they’d just been weird.

He went down into the kitchen, where his mother was bathing his sister. It wasn’t really a bath, just a quick wash in a basin of water while the girl stood and let her mother do all the work.

“Tan, your stupid girlfriend is stupid and she’s the reason I have to have this bath and I hate her,” Safron pouted.

Tan glared at his sister, although his heart wasn’t in it. “It’s not my fault! And she’s not my girlfriend. She just … I don’t know. Mom, she’s not my girlfriend, is she?”

“No. You’re not formally courting. We’ve promised to entertain the idea of a formal courtship between the two of you and that’s it. This is just another formal meeting between the two of you,” his mother explained. “We met at the Zang family’s location of choice last time, so this time it’s at our turn to host. There’s a certain etiquette to these things. Honestly, the only reason we’re even entertaining the Zang family is to keep them from making a fuss. If they raised a fuss, then some other people would wonder what the fuss was about, and they’d come investigating, and that would be inconvenient.”

“So you’re saying that I don’t have to like her if I don’t like her?” Tan asked.

“No, you don’t. If you don’t get along with her then we can reject the marriage proposal without making too many waves,” Wensho explained as she washed Safron’s hair. She used magic to spray the girl down, washing away the soap, which caused Safron to giggle.

“Okay, step out and we’ll dry you off,” Wensho said. The girl did, and Wensho made a gesture. Tan sort of saw the magic as the water on his sister was pulled away and put back in the basin. “Tan, help your sister dress, would you? I need to change into my formal wear myself.”

“Okay,” Tan said, and it was his time to be a good big brother.

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