Chin’s family was one of the most well to do in the provincial town in which he was raised.

His father was one of the seconds to the regional governor. So, while his family were not quite so rich as the governor, they were still very rich.

The town where Father had been posted, was on the southern continent. In the mandate granted to the Khaganate after the war. Consequently, besides the families of those working at the government house, everyone else in the town were low caste elves. Either local dark elves, or gold skins brought over the sea from the steppe.

It didn’t matter where they came from. They were all low elves, and they all lived in dirty hovels that didn’t often have even a single bath. Whereas Chin’s family had two.

Even still, Chin couldn’t stand how long it would be before he could take one.

Sometimes Father or one of his brothers would be away, and the water would still be rather uncomfortable. But when everyone was at home – as they were that night – it would be so cold when it was his turn, that he felt like he could cry.

Because their house had two baths, they divided them up so that men used one, and women the other. But that wasn’t fair, because he had two brothers to wait for; the youngest girl Sun had only one sister.

Sometimes, in fact, he wished that they did have only one bath. Even though that would mean Mother would go before him, and make the water even colder. At least Sun would come after him.

The absolute worst was on nights like the present one, when Father and their eldest brother would both take so long, that he and his middle brother were both still waiting when Sun went in for her bath.

The last time that had happened, Chin had ended up bawling so loudly that Mother had to come back upstairs and console him. She told him that he must leave Father and his eldest brother in peace, because it was very difficult to work for the governor, and it was their work which paid for the family home they all lived in.

His eldest brother often talked about building another house alongside their home, where he and his wife could live in more privacy together. But – as he was married to their eldest sister, to preserve the absolute purity of their elven heritage – that would shorten both siblings’ lines at once, and Chin’s position relative to Sun would remain unchanged.

So, for that reason, Chin could not care less.

Because Chin’s family had more boys than girls, Father arranged a marriage between Chin’s middle brother, and the governor’s daughter. Even though he couldn’t be absolutely certain of her blood purity.

The governor's daughter was considered quite the prize. Both because she was very beautiful, and because she was her father’s only heir.

That was a good sign. Infertility in a family was a trait of extremely pure elven blood. Like hemophilia, or... eccentricity.

If they got married, then that brother would leave to go live with the governor’s family. That would even things between Chin and Sun properly.

What Chin really hated was when Sun finished before he had even begun his bath. He would try and use her bath, since it was free. But she always let all the water out as soon as she was done, just out of deliberate spite towards him.

Then she would come back out with a poisoner’s smile and say, “Oh, I didn’t know you were still waiting for a bath, so I drained all the water. I’ll try and remember next time.”

Lying witch!

Chin was sure that Sun must be a witch, or a changeling, or something. No little sister of his ought to be as evil as she was. She ought to be more of a help to him than a nuisance, but as he was barely forty years old, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

A replication of the terrible scene he dreaded played out before him as he closed his eyes. His middle brother hadn’t even begun yet, when Sun started her bath. Chin’s hands balled into fists with rage at the injustice of the whole scenario.

Why did the gods allow such unjust acts of cruelty as this? Not one person around him understood true suffering, like that which was what he endured.

I can only bear up silently, and not bother anyone in my torment, Chin thought, as he tried to cry loudly enough for Mother to overhear.

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He was still at it a long time later, when he heard Sun open the door. There was no way he would give her the satisfaction of seeing him like that, and he straightened himself up.

“Oh, I thought you might still be waiting,” she began, with barely restrained glee at his misery. “I left the bathwater for you. It’s still a little warm.”

Chin felt very surprised for an instant, before he narrowed his eyes and began to study her face for some sign of a joke.

He didn’t see any. And so, against his better judgement, he took a few tentative steps in her direction.

Past her was indeed a full tub of bathwater.

This left Chin even more unnerved. He had no idea what her game was, and so he also had no idea what his position in it was.

He tried to study her again, but she was already off downstairs.

Chin was left alone to decide what to do. Briefly, he came to the conclusion that he ought to just let out the water and wait for his brother to finish. But then, as he reached in to pull the plug, the temptation got the better of him.

He climbed all the way inside.

The next morning, Chin went down to the cliffs beside the river. There he became lost in his own musings, as he was wont to do.

He was fished out of his inner considerations by a hand on his shoulder.

Sun had put it there to steady herself, as she sat down on a rock next to him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Playing.” He replied, nonchalantly.

“You look like you were thinking.”

“I was thinking. You don’t have to be moving to be playing.”

“That’s true.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, until Chin found it intolerable. “What do you want?”

“Are you nervous about brother’s wedding?”

“Why? I’m not doing a part of it.”

“I’m sure Father will insist that you do something at the ceremony.”

“Maybe. But anyway, it’s not here yet. So why bother about it? I’m not the one getting married, at least.”

“Not yet.”

So that was what she was angling at. Chin had it all figured out at last.

She wanted him to make a big show of it at the ceremony, asking her to become formally betrothed to him. So, she was launching this little charm offensive to sweeten him up.

Well, he was a step ahead of that game.

“No. Not ever. I’m going to become a monk.”

“A monk?” She sounded incredulous, which was no surprise.

This was a moment he had been saving for some time, and Chin could not think of any more appropriate time to pull it out than this. Let her stew on this revelation.

Father would be upset when he learned about it. Their family’s elven blood had become very pure indeed, and that meant that very few births were ever successful for them any longer. As the head of the family, it was Father’s responsibility to have as many of his children working on producing grandchildren as possible.

It was dangerous enough to have one son married to an outside family, even if they were technically second cousins.

Fortunately, monastic vows were religious. They would transcend his Father’s authority over him as a patriarch.

“Well, I think that’s wonderful!” Sun said.

“You do?”

“Yes! I’ve never wanted to marry you anyway. I think I’d like to travel when I get older. That fortune teller in town told me that she thought I had the gift, and that she could teach me to become a diviner.”

“Fortune tellers are all liars.”

“Not this one.” She smiled smugly. “All the fishermen say she knows where to find the fish and when the storms will come. She says that together we’ll go to all sorts of foreign places, like where Dr. Pinastel is from.”

“Why would you want to go there? They’re just a bunch of barbarians who agitate our gold-skins.”

“If they’re just barbarians, why were they the ones to build steamboats, and railroads, and airships?”

“You sound like one of the reds.”

“What do you care about politics anyway? You’re becoming a monk.”

“That’s right. But I don’t think-”

Chin stood up and took a single step, when the ground collapsed underneath him. He hit the ground hard.

“Chin! Big brother, are you alright?”

Chin coughed and tried to wave the dust and dirt in the air away from his face. He had fallen into an underground chamber, and could barely breathe the stale air.

There were man-made beams and arches supporting the roof. The wood directly beneath him was rotten. It must have collapsed under his weight.

Shoddy southern craftsmanship, he thought.

He didn’t see anyway to climb out, but he could see Sun up through the hole he fell through.

“Yes, I’m alright!” he shouted back.

“Dr. Pinastel’s camp is nearby! I’ll go ask them to come help!”

“No-! Go tell Father! Human’s never do anything right!”

It was no good, she was already gone. She either didn’t hear him, or she did, and pretended not to.

No good could come of it.

Getting sub-elven races involved always brought trouble. His Father railed for hours about the governor’s decision to allow those archeologists into the region. They were certainly spies.

But, of course, the governor had received a very fat envelope from them. Then it was decided that this would be an important cultural exchange.

Chin wondered exactly where he had fallen. It was dark, but it looked like he was in a hallway. There were no mineshafts in the area that he knew of.

The way behind him was blocked by a stone slab, but he could see a way forwards in front of him.

It would be undignified for a high elf to be rescued by a human and a bunch of local dark elven workers. He owed it to his family’s honor to try and get out on his own. Perhaps there was a way out somewhere ahead of him.

He thanked the purity of his heritage as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He was scared, of course. But he was a grown up forty-year-old boy now. He needed to be brave.

Chin stepped forwards.

The path went forward, before turning to the right.

He went around the corner, and found an immediate dead-end. This stymied him.

Then, Chin decided that there was obviously a secret door nearby, which would lead him to a way out. Fortunately, his keen elven senses would soon lead him to it.

He searched the walls. Every little bit of them. For what felt like an hour.

All he found was a stupid clay pot, with a bunch of local gibberish scribbled all over it. Absolutely no use to him at all.

With nothing else to do, he sat down below the hole and waited for the doctor and dark elves to arrive. When they did, they winched him out with a rope.