Dai Bao trudged toward Sen like a man marching toward his own execution. It was obvious from his expression the man knew that Sen wasn’t happy and that he blamed Dai Bao for some of that. Sen did him the courtesy of walking them away from the small collection of townspeople and erecting a wind barrier to keep their voices from carrying. Sen knew that he might have some unkind things to say to the man, but he didn’t particularly feel the need to shame Dai Bao publicly. It wasn’t as though Sen had provided any guidance about how things were or were not to be handled here. He could see now that had been a failure on his part. He simply hadn’t anticipated any of the men in town trying to bully a woman. After he put up the wind barrier, he gave Dai Bao a flat look.
“So, that seemed acceptable to you?”
“No,” said Dai Bao with a shake of his head. “But he was just saying what a lot of men think. It could have been what you think.”
“You see the company I keep. You really thought I’d object to women training here?”
“The pretty girl of yours is a cultivator. Not a mortal.”
Sen waited for more, and then he realized that there wasn’t any more coming. Sen forgot sometimes just how stark that divide really was, yet, hadn’t he had a conversation with Jing about how cultivators were just visitors? That cultivators walked in a different world. Everyone in the town was, as far as Sen knew, a mortal. On top of that, cultivators weren’t known to treat mortals all that well. Dai Bao was probably justified in thinking that Sen might well consider mortal women not worthy of training. Sen hadn’t shared his thoughts about almost anything other than wielding spears with the man. You can’t expect him to read your mind, thought Sen. It isn’t fair to be angry with him for not knowing expectations you never set. Sen frowned but nodded.
“I can see why that might seem like something that would make a difference,” said Sen. “This place is open to anyone who wants to learn how to protect their homes and families. Men, women, and even children, though hopefully things will never be so terrible that children need to take up spears in their own defense.”
“All right,” said Dai Bao.
The man still looked like he expected some calamity to fall on his head any second. Sen couldn’t help but think that the man had dealt with cultivators in some other part of his life. He’d learned to wield a spear somewhere. It had probably been in a mortal army, but kingdoms sometimes hired cultivators to fight with their armies. Judging from the man’s expectations of doom, his experiences with cultivators had been about as good as Sen’s own experiences. Sen needed to do something to alleviate the man’s fears.
“I’m not trying to start a sect here,” said Sen slowly. “I’ll help teach, but this place shouldn’t be about serving my ego or reputation. It needs a mortal face on it. I’d like that to be you.”
Dai Bao goggled at him. “What?”
“The people here respect you. You’ve had some experience with the spear. They’ll listen to you.”
“I’m too old and broken for that kind of responsibility,” said Dai Bao.
They were the kinds of words that Sen would have expected to hold a lot of bitterness, but all he heard in Dai Bao’s voice was a kind of sad resignation. He’d moved beyond whatever anger he felt.
“Well, I can’t help you with the age part. The broken part is a different matter.”
Sen explained to Dai Bao what he thought he could mend in the man’s body and that he’d try if the man would take on the daily responsibilities of the place. He had to give the grizzled man some credit. Dai Bao didn’t immediately accept the offer.
“You say that you can heal some of these old injuries. What does that mean?”
“In practical terms?” asked Sen.
“Please,” answered Dai Bao.
“It’ll hurt. It’ll hurt a lot. It might even hurt more than the original injuries. I can do some things to ease that pain, but it might mean spreading out the process for longer. Afterward, though, I expect that you’ll feel about ten years younger. You should also be mostly without pain.”
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Caution warred with hope in Dai Bao’s eyes.
“You can really do this?” asked the man.
Sen nodded. “I can really do this. You don’t need to decide right now.”
“I want to do it,” said Dai Bao, grabbing Sen’s arm in a desperate gesture. “When can we start?”
“You should consider this carefully. I can’t emphasize enough how much pain it will cause you.”
“I’m already in pain. All the time. Every day. If you can put a stop to even some of that, I’ll endure whatever I have to.”
Sen nodded. “Then, we’ll get started in the next few days. In the meantime, though, I should probably say something to everyone else. They’ve been watching us for a while now.”
Dai Bao let go of Sen’s arm. He turned a hard look on the townspeople who weren’t doing anything even remotely like practicing. They all hurriedly turned away, some even doing mostly acceptable versions of basic spear thrusts. Sen removed the wind barrier, and Dai Bao walked back to where he had been. A quick glance around showed that Ai had gone over and apparently provided a distraction for Zhi. The two looked like they were playing some kind of made-up game using a rock that one of them had found somewhere. Sen didn’t see Falling Leaf right at first, but he finally saw that she had grabbed a few of the townspeople and led them off a little way. She was encouraging them to attack her while she expertly fended off their thrusts with her three-section staff. He was uncertain and mildly concerned by that turn of events. At first, Sen couldn’t understand why she had done it until he realized that she wanted to be helpful to him if not the townspeople. His concern was that she’d accidentally hurt one of them, but she’d limited her strength and speed to something a mortal could mostly manage.
“Thank you,” said Li Hua, drawing Sen’s attention away from Falling Leaf. “It wasn’t necessary, but thank you.”
Sen eyed the woman’s expression. She was torn about the whole incident. There was relief on her face, but he saw frustration as well. Some of it was directed at him. He supposed he might have undermined her in some way, but he was hard-pressed to really feel bad about it. That man wasn’t going to see reason. He also wasn’t going to stop until she was gone. If that meant dragging her out by the hair, he would have done it. Sen was pretty sure that she knew it, too. On the flip side, Sen had to decide how things were going to happen in this place. He might put Dai Bao out as the face of things, but everyone was going to look to Sen to make the rules. He couldn’t let what that man was doing go unaddressed. And he was pretty sure that Li Hua also knew that. It was one of the situations where there had only been a handful of options, none of them ideal. Sen had chosen the one that suited him best. Still, he could help the woman save a little face.
“I didn’t really do it for you,” Sen lied.
“No?” asked Li Hua, lifting an accusatory eyebrow.
“I did it for them,” he said, gesturing at Ai and Zhi. “They might want to come here and learn someday. I’d rather threaten one man now than be forced to murder someone later because I didn’t send a clear message.”
“You think you’ll still be here when they’re old enough to learn?”
Sen shrugged. “I might not be, but it doesn’t mean that this place won’t still be here. For all I know, you’ll be in charge of it. But only if things get off to the right start.”
“Me?” scoffed Li Hua. “In charge of this place?”
Sen gave her a level look. “Why not?”
“I—” she trailed off.
Sen inclined his head to her. “Excuse me. I need to make an announcement. It’s that whole getting things off on the right foot thing.”
Sen left Li Hua to her thoughts and walked over to where Dai Bao was drilling some younger men. The grizzled man called a halt to the drill and, at a signal from Sen, bellowed out an order.
“Everyone gather around!” roared Dai Bao.
Around fifteen people clumped around Sen. Most of them were young men, but there were a few older men and Li Hua. Sen gave them all his best stern face, and everyone straightened a little under his intense gaze.
“As you all saw earlier, there is some confusion about what this place is for. About who it is for. Let me clear up that confusion. This place is for anyone who wants to learn how to defend their homes and families. Anyone. Men. Women. Children. All are welcome here. The moment you decide that you know better who should or should not be here, expect to find that you are no longer welcome. If you have grudges, you leave them at the town wall. If you have blood feuds, you leave them at home.
“If you bring your grudges and feuds into this place, you make them my problems. I will solve those problems for everyone involved, immediately and permanently,” said Sen, and he watched more than one face pale. “When you come here, come with an open heart. Do just that much, and I will do what I can to teach you. I will not lie to you. Mastering any weapon is something that takes years. It takes effort. It takes practice. Now, you all know Dai Bao. He will be in charge when I’m not here. Do as he tells you, which will likely be that you need to practice more.”
“And I’ll be right,” growled Dai Bao.
That got a few laughs, which broke the tension. A moment later, Ai snuck between some of the people and rushed over to Sen. He picked her up, and she looked around nervously at all the unfamiliar faces.
“This is Liu Ai,” said Sen before he gave her an encouraging smile. “Do you want to say hello to everyone?”
Ai gave everyone a shy smile and whispered, “Hi.”
Then, she buried her face in Sen’s shoulder. He kissed the top of her head, which elicited a giggle from the girl. Dai Bao stepped up next to Sen and pointed at Ai.
“In case any of you were wondering, now you know who’s in charge.”