It must’ve been morning, the dew, the coldness of the stairs, it all pointed to it being early morning, maybe the sun just came out sooner? How many times was he told to be very careful on stair, to hold the railings placed there specifically for him? Kaixue found it strange, how much he could think, despite the fall being only a few steps in height. In this short time, he was capable of fully processing what had happened, and the sort of mistakes and misjudgements he had made. His hair finally got wet, it touched the wet stone. Pain would come, soon enough.

A thick orange line stretched from the exit to the gardens, flew above the stairs, and ended in the middle of one of the grass patches. When the line stopped moving, the grass around it turned black and crumbled, with thing white lines of the now evaporated dew rising. And what first appeared like a fragment of the rising sun turned into a person, Gangzhi, and he was holding his brother.

Kaixue’s voice was shaking: “I’m sorry, I really am.”

“Are you okay?” With how fast he had moved, Gangzhi couldn’t be entirely sure that grabbing his brother wouldn’t snap some of the younger sibling’s bones.

“You can put me down.”

Gangzhi obliged his brother, placing him out of the circle of burnt grass.

“I need you to calm down, Kaixue.”

“I-I thought I overslept, I had horrible dreams.” The younger sibling started explaining

“And you almost died.”

“I’m sorry, you told me a hundred times to not run around.”

“I did?” Gangzhi was perplexed, that didn’t sound like it aligned with his memory.

“Well, you all did, Depai, Mom, you, Nayu, Dad back when he could…”

“I didn’t hurt you by grabbing you, did I?”

“No, I’m fine… that was dad’s movement technique you just used.” Kaixue switched moods mid-sentence.

“Yeah, I’ve been practising it for the past month, and I saw no other option that would spare me the sight of my brother’s head splattering over his favourite garden’s walkpath.”

Kaixue chuckled at this.

“Why did you run to the gardens if you were so scared you were coming late? Did you think we’d be that mad at you?”

“My present for Cherei is hidden here.” If speaking about a third person that was equal or higher in status, it was considered proper to use a title or their relation to one of the speakers. It was a mild slip, but it told Gangzhi that his brother was still feeling in danger.

“Want me to help you get it?” Gangzhi offered his presence more so than his help.

“I have to go alone.” Kaixue said seriously, but cleared his throat for a more cheerful tone of voice. “I can’t have you knowing all my hiding spots.”

”Get your present, and get dressed into something less gloom, it’s our sister’s birthday party.”

Kaixue circled around the garden twice, before heading to one of the few lakes hidden in the very centre of the garden, a place not even the gardeners were allowed to visit. The bushes and reeds that surrounded the centre were groomed perfectly, but no one knew by whom, or by what.

The western lake had crystal clear water, some said it could clear the mind. The northern lake had fish with scales that had the same sheen as platinum. And the eastern lake had swans, ordinary swans. And one large, black swan, in size, it compared to a deer. Kaixue knelt down at the shore, and waited.

The black swan’s neck had a majestic curve, and with it’s size, it ended up looking down at the young kneeling noble. It’s presence was overwhelming, and it radiated greater Force than any cultivator Kaixue knew could store in their entire body each second.

In their first meeting, Kaixue randomly wandered into the Inner Gardens, and upon realising he couldn’t exit the place, panicked, tore off leaves of bushes that grew back immediately, punched the stone path so hard his fist cracked and started bleeding, and lost his breath for a couple of minutes. When the black swan first laid eyes on him, it had taken him another hour to adjust his breathing, he couldn’t even sit upright. It had told him its, or rather her name: Ponava. She then told him the reason nobody could enter the Inner Garden, only people with the ‘right blood’ could enter, and there was an exit fee, if they failed to pay, they would become the feast of all the swans, and their bones chucked to the fish in the northern lake. If they paid, they could take a fish, if they managed to catch it, or a jug’s worth of water from the western lake. They would then be made to forget that they had entered, and the thought of the Inner Garden would fill them with terror.

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Kaixue was horrified at the idea of being eaten and forgotten, and full of dread, asked Ponava the price. It was ‘something his Father had given him’. He was deeply scared of the swan, it’s soothing, beautiful voice that was seemingly held back in it’s melodicity by the language it spoke was making it feel even more alien and terrifying. He would have given away anything his father gave him, but the fact was, he didn’t have anything from his father on him. The only things he remembered his father giving him that were still around were his pet canary, his sword, which was a smaller copy of Gangzhi’s and was being kept safe by some of the guards and a family ring he didn’t want to dirty were he to touch dirt or mud in the garden. He never asked his father for anything, he was simply glad for the life he was given. It was this gratitude for life that made him remember how beasts from stories often worked on a less literal level, that he did in fact have something with him that his father gave him. If bleeding gets deep enough, it isn’t just Blood Force that can be felt exiting the body, eventually, Life Force starts leaking. He held out his fist to the swan, who did not say anything but that he was free to go.

He held as much of the western lake water as he could in his hands, but since it would all slip through anyway, he drank two hand-bowl’s worth. He did not feel any effect, not that moment, not any day later. But he had enough, and left without pushing how much was a jug’s worth, and what would happen if he overdrank.

The black swan must have been merciful, or forgetful, because his memory was never altered, even after completing more visits to the Inner Garden. One was out of curiosity, and he paid with ‘something he was taught to do’, he started a fire from some of the bushes, and was let go, he tried catching a fish, but was re-told to leave after about twenty minutes of trying to grab a fish out of a lake by his bare hands.

He felt strange power and wisdom from Ponava, and returned a third time. Asking for a gift for his sister, because he was powerless to get something himself, not being allowed to leave the palace and all, and couldn’t rely on a servant either.

Ponava had an offer, ‘the most precious thing any swan in the world could give thee’. In exchange for it, she had asked for a total of six other favours. ‘Something from your mother’, he let his oldest blindfold drift in the lake that day. ‘Something given to you by someone who loves you, but shares not your blood’, he was a little worried the offering of the canary’s bird droppings might offend the swan, it simply accepted.

Today, it was a final one, Ponava even told him in advance what to bring. ‘Something only you can give’. At this point, Kaixue understood her riddles like he understood Depai’s teachings of poetry.

“Then will our deal be satisfied.” The bird’s voice resonated, it was almost strange nobody ever heard her from the outside.

“Both sides of it, I hope.”

“You better not dare accuse me of deceit, human.” It was the closest thing to emotion the bird’s voice gave away, or maybe, it was the first time the emotion was comprehensible enough for Kaixue to hear a glimpse of it.

Kaixue sang, it was his original creation, there was no plagiarism from a different song or poem he heard. He sang of the wind and grass mostly, he sang of freedom like he knew what it meant, he sang of the green, like he knew what it was. He remembered last night’s dream, and switched seamlessly to singing of the mud he felt all over himself(?) in the dream. He surprised himself with how easy it was to improvise on a song that took him two weeks to finish. The bird rose from the lake, walking past him, he would turn around, and ask for his part of the bargain, but he was shocked by what his ears had told him. First there were clumsy and somewhat heavy steps of the webbed feet one would expect of an oversized waterbird. They slowly transitioned into the stride of a human, a woman. The power he felt from the black swan was also long gone. The world now felt empty of any Force, in fact.

“’Most precious thing any swan in the world could give thee’ was that right?” She had asked.

“That is correct.”

“Were those my exact words?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to change anything about the deal, human? I’m sure you noticed that I could give you something else entirely, something worth much more.”

“I would like to honour our deal, and whilst I had suspicions, I trust Lady Ponava’s first gift suggestion to be the superb present for my sister.”

“’Trust’, huh?”

Kaixue remained silent.

A large amount of Force was formed into an orb, Kaixue could detect Water, Beast, Light, Dark, and even some Life Force in it. He also felt there were other things outside of his comprehension in it.

“Deal is finished, everyone with eyes that can see will see the value of such a gift, the love you have for your sister.”

Kaixue thanked silently by bowing his head.

“And have a parting gift from me, Kaixue.” Ponava was looking away from him whilst addressing him, it was a rude gesture, that somehow instead showed a great amount of majesty.

Kaixue now raised his head attentively.

“It’s advice: Do not let go of Daybreak if you wish to live a short and bound life.”

This resonated within Kaixue, it was accurate to say it triggered a reaction from his very soul. The voice in his dream, that grabbed his ankle, and he couldn’t understand, he now knew its words.

“Ceasing what you have seized is just weakness, ceasing of what was gifted to you will bring suffering, but will give you something real.”

Kaixue understood the words, but they were far too cryptic to dig out any meaning out of them, even if he now had two hints instead of one.

He wanted to ask about his dream, or about her words, but Ponava was gone, she disappeared in the delay between her saying the words, and Kaixue hearing them. The only evidence of her was the orb that floated in the air, it still floated in his hands after he ‘grabbed’ it. Kaixue pulled out a special package with ceremonial engraving he had ordered to be made a few weeks ago. The orb still refused to simply sit down on the bottom of it, it now floated in the perfect geometrical centre of the wooden cube that was too big for it, Kaixue did not know the size of the gift and (perhaps a little foolishly) ordered a box that was almost half his size. As he carried the light, almost empty wooden crate out of the Inner Garden, another of the swans started turning black.