Despite his misgivings about what he might find when he got back, Sen was surprised to discover relative tranquility. Fu Ruolan had decided that the best thing for a young child was to have something to chase. So, she had conjured qi constructs for Liu Ai to run around with under the unblinking gaze of Glimmer of Night. By the time he got back, he found the little girl peacefully sleeping on a bed that had been incongruously summoned in a small grove of trees. That had apparently been a sign to Glimmer of Night that the best thing that he could do was construct an almost incomprehensibly complicated web of qi throughout the trees around the bed. Sen had spent nearly ten full minutes studying that web, certain that there was a pattern hidden in it. Before he could glean any true meaning from it, though, the spider had come walking up.
“Did she behave?” asked Sen.
The spider glanced over to the bed before offering Sen a shrug. “She didn’t do anything obviously harmful to herself.”
After a pause, Sen nodded. He supposed it had been an absurd question to ask the spider. Glimmer of Night was likely only marginally less knowledgeable than Sen himself about what was or was not good behavior in a human child. Give the spider some obvious threat, and Sen had no doubt he would identify it immediately. Something as vague as what a mortal child should or shouldn’t be doing, well, that was probably asking a bit much. Sen wasn’t even sure if they should let the girl keep sleeping or not. He’d made those kinds of decisions for himself back on the streets of Orchard’s Reach and even on Uncle Kho’s mountain now that he thought about it. Of course, he wasn’t living what anyone would describe as a good life on the streets and the expectations were very different once he got on the mountain.
The problem was that he wasn’t trying to make himself a disciple. He just wanted the little girl to be healthy and feel safe. Beyond that, he hadn’t thought it through. She’ll need to eat, he realized, and not just occasionally. While he and Falling Leaf ate semi-regular meals, it wasn’t unusual for either of them to go a few days without bothering with it. He knew from personal experience that children could survive that, but it wasn’t a good thing. Once he started thinking about it, though, he started realizing that she was going to need all kinds of things. She’d need clothes, a room of her own, toys, and she would have to start learning things. Uncle Kho might actually murder me if I don’t make sure that she learns to read and write, thought Sen. That thought brought Sen up short, and he turned to look at Glimmer of Night.
“Do you know how to read?” asked Sen.
“Read? What’s that?” asked the spider.
“It’s, well—” Sen mentally cast around for the right description.
He’d literally never had to explain reading to anyone before, so he didn’t have a good answer at his fingertips. He finally had a minor epiphany and summoned a scroll from his storage ring. He unrolled it and showed the spider the writing.
“All of those symbols are called writing. Each character means something, and you string them together to explain or describe things. If you can look at them and understand it, that’s called reading.”
The spider tilted his head back and forth as he looked at the scroll. Eventually, he shook his head.
“I think I’ve heard of this writing before, but spiders don’t do this thing.”
“Of course they don’t,” said Sen, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Well, Ai needs to learn, so I guess I’ll add teaching you to the list of things that need to be done.”
“Why?” asked the spider.
Sen felt a surge of empathy for Uncle Kho’s reaction to learning that he couldn’t read. It didn’t seem important when you couldn’t do it. Once you could, you realized just how many things in life were made better, easier, or simply possible by reading. Sen gave it a moment of thought before he answered.
“If you’re going to be moving through the human world, it’s an essential skill.”
Glimmer of Night’s expression didn’t change exactly, but Sen got the impression that the spider had just accepted his words at face value. Thank the heavens, thought Sen. That was a fight he didn’t want to have.
“If you say it is necessary, I will learn it.”
“Good,” said Sen, turning his mind back to everything Ai would need.
As the full scope of the responsibility he’d taken on settled over Sen, he felt a tightness in his chest that he was pretty sure didn’t have anything to do with his body. He wondered if he might not have done Ai any favors bringing her with him. Then, he remembered the way the other people from her village had simply not paid any attention when the girl had gone missing. That still made him angry enough that he had to suppress an urge to go back and do… He wasn’t sure what. Do something to them. He had no idea if that’s how all villagers were about other people’s children, although he sincerely hoped not. If that was the standard, though, he doubted he would do worse than that. At least, he hoped he wouldn’t. A soft snicker brought Sen out of his mental world. He turned to see Fu Ruolan standing a few feet away.
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“What?” he asked.
“You have that look,” she said.
“What look?”
“The look of a man who just realized that something is going to be much harder than he thought it would. Tell me, have you figured out how you’ll handle bathing the child?”
Sen’s eyes went a little wide. He had not considered that problem. The mild anxiety he’d been experiencing exploded into full-blown panic. That went on for nearly ten seconds before Fu Ruolan had finished having her fun.
“I’ll deal with it,” she said. “Or your wife can.”
Glimmer of Night looked at Sen. “You have a mate?”
“I don’t,” said Sen. “She means Falling Leaf.”
“Aren’t you worried that the ghost panther might eat the child?” asked the spider.
That sent Fu Ruolan off into a fit of laughter that Sen thought was a little inappropriate.
He eyed the spider and said, “Not really. Should I be worried that you’ll eat the child?”
“No,” said Glimmer of Night. “Humans don’t taste good. Also, she is very small. I prefer spirit boar. That is a true meal.”
Sen couldn’t decide if that answer was comforting in its pragmatism or not. After all, he had said he wouldn’t eat her, but he also knew what humans tasted like. Sen gave the spider a thoughtful look and smirked a little.
“And you like her,” said Sen.
“She is not objectionable. Not like the always talking one.”
Sen wasn’t sure if the spider meant Li Yi Nuo or Misty Peak. Probably both, thought Sen. Shaking off that line of thought, Sen turned his attention back to Fu Ruolan.
“I assume you didn’t come over here just to taunt me.”
“Isn’t that a good enough reason?” asked Fu Ruolan. “Your expression was priceless.”
“So glad I can entertain you,” muttered Sen.
“It’s one of the small compensations for being a teacher,” said the nascent soul cultivator. “You get to make your students squirm.”
“That sounds productive.”
“It’s not productive at all, but it is funny. Sometimes, you just have to sacrifice efficiency in the good cause of personal amusement.”
“You remind me of a couple of nine-tail foxes I know,” said Sen.
“Well, they can be frustrating, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong about everything.”
“Seriously, did you just come over here to make me squirm?”
Fu Ruolan tapped her chin for a moment before shaking her head. “You got to go off and have fun, but it’s time to get back to work. I’ve decided what you’re going to learn next.”
“Fun? I don’t remember having any fun,” said Sen, turning to Glimmer of Night. “Do you remember having any fun?”
“It was fun watching you fight that horde of devilish beasts. I liked it when you made tribulation lightning,” said the spider.
“What?” demanded Fu Ruolan. “You made tribulation lightning?”
Sen sighed. “It wasn’t real tribulation lightning.”
“It looked real,” Glimmer of Night helpfully added.
“It wasn’t.”
“We are clearly going to need to have a longer talk about that at some point,” said Fu Ruolan.
“If we must,” said Sen.
“In the meantime, come along Sen. I’m sure your spider friend can keep watch on little Ai until we’re done.”
“Do you mind watching her?” Sen asked the spider.
“I can watch her. I’ll practice my webs while she sleeps,” said Glimmer of Night.
“Thank you,” said Sen, before trailing after Fu Ruolan.
They walked to her strange wooden house before the woman detoured over to her garden. It had surged back to life while he was gone, and he heard a few bees flying around it. The nascent soul cultivator took a moment to poke and prod a few of the plants and even picked a few ripe vegetables before she led Sen inside. She waved a hand at a teapot while disappearing into another room. Sen dutifully prepared the tea and poured a cup for each of them when she returned. She studied him while sipping at the tea.
“You’ve advanced again,” she noted. “I’d say you did it a couple of times if I didn’t know that was impossible.”
“I did advance. It was not what you’d call a normal advancement.”
“In what way?”
Sen released the suppression he maintained on the divine qi in his skin. One of Fu Ruolan’s eyebrows shot up when the glow from his skin added another layer of illumination to the room. He felt her spiritual sense wash over him and didn’t try to resist it. He might be able to stop her but couldn’t see the point of it. He simply endured the poking and prodding until it was over, at which point he suppressed the visual evidence of his changes.
“Well, that is certainly interesting. I’d be curious how such a change came about.”
“The heavens like to play games with me. At least, that’s the best answer I have.”
“Explain,” said Fu Ruolan.
Sen took a second to organize his experiences into something that another person might understand. Then, he walked her through that particularly unpleasant advancement. He did leave out the bit of opening some kind of gate inside himself where a bunch of divine qi drained away. He had the feeling that it was something he needed to keep to himself, at least until he understood it better. When he was done, Fu Ruolan shook her head.
“You are either the luckiest or unluckiest core cultivator alive. I’m honestly not sure which.”
“Any thoughts other than that?” asked Sen.
“A lot, but I need to think about it. Plus, that’s not what we’re here about. We’re here about that shadow qi affinity that you have shamefully neglected in its entirety.”
Sen thought that he could argue that he hadn’t neglected it, but he hadn’t put it to a lot of good use recently either. He waited. Fu Ruolan set down her teacup, stood from the chair, and walked over to a corner.
“This is the first thing you’ll learn,” she said.
With that, she took a step backward and vanished into a shadow. Sen shot to his feet as the other cultivator simply winked out of his senses. It was abrupt, jarring, and complete. She was there one moment, gone the next. He strode over to the corner to see if there was a formation in place to hide the woman only to discover nothing. He examined the corner with his spiritual sense and his qi, but there was nothing special about the space itself. Just when confusion and curiosity were about to give way to annoyance, there was a strange rippling sensation that made Sen spin around. He watched in surprise and a bit of awe as Fu Ruolan stepped out of a shadow on the other side of the room. She gave Sen a self-satisfied little smile.
“It’s got a lot of names,” said Fu Ruolan. “Most people just call it shadow travel or shadow jumping. With your affinity for shadow qi, it’s just appalling that you don’t know how to do this yet. So, I intend to fix that.”