I will not tell you of the rest of my visit to the Pole of Earth. To mediate upon that spot is one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences an Earth-aspected Terrestrial can manage. I do not think I could put it into words, even now.
I feel a great pity towards the other aspects, whose associated poles are so distant and so engulfed in the Wyld that to journey there makes my own pilgrimage seem little more than a walk through a well cultivated garden.
Suffice to say that when I descended to meet my companions, I had managed to enter the plateau that I sought and no longer got a painful headache just looking at the man who claimed to be called Righteous Granite.
It was just possible that he got a headache from my occasional knowing smile. I hope so. Viziers are so smug that giving them something to worry about besides their own schemes is practically a public service.
I didn't really have to put up with him, or him with me though. A day after my visit to the summit, a second monk led me down the mountain on a second strenuous hike down to the Virtuous Ascendance of Mankind temple where I was reunited with Ayama and Uzuki.
By mutual assent, the three of us didn't discuss the insights that we had received from our time here and we continued our pilgrimage by descending the long path at the same leisurely pace that we'd taken going up. As much as I would have liked to explore the northern and western faces of Meru, where the bulk of those ruins that had not cleared away by time or Immaculate Monks were found, I would have had to have a very good excuse to leave the safe routes - and probably leave the two mortals behind.
However, I'd done very well by finding the tools and I suspected Vaicha would know if I left the trail. What he might do, I wasn't sure, but I wasn't inclined to argue with him.
In total we'd spent more than half a year on the mountain and rounded out the spring by hiking several hundred miles through the Dragon's Nest mountain range, the comparatively modest mountains around the feet of the Imperial Mountain. We got as far as Portee, a decent sized town known for breeding small and annoying dogs (my description, not their advertising of the breed) where there was a convenient coach house.
From here, Uzuki parted ways to go south to her family while Ayama and I took a coach up to Lord's Crossing. It was somewhat ironic that given all the travel I'd done to and from Juche, this was the first time I'd travelled more than a day by coach.
I think I would have preferred to walk.
I arrived in time for the final examinations and the entrance examinations for various secondary schools. Contrary to popular belief, there are more than just four schools for students older than fourteen. The others are simply private institutions rather than being sponsored by the imperial government or the Immaculate Order, sometimes with a focus on subjects that aren't considered quite as critical to the Realm's security as sorcery, military science, martial arts or administration.
(Look, I don't enjoy administration, but without the Thousand Scales managing the Realm's government the entire Blessed Isle would be a feudal morass like some parts of the Threshold. Yes, it's a tyrannical autocracy but at least it's a competently run tyrannical autocracy.)
No one was waiting for me at the entrance to Root and Reed School, but I would have been surprised. I waved Ayama off and then entered into the main building to let the school's staff know I was back.
That obligation taken care of, I returned to the familiar environs of the Exalted dorm, only to find that someone else was using my room.
Somewhat put out by this – I admit it was foolish to think it would stay reserved for me when I was just here for a few days - I set my pack down in the corner and put off checking for a room that wasn't taken yet. There were always some, Exalted were few and far between, but the school would hardly want to be unable to accommodate us. I put my feet up on a couch and dozed.
"Who…?" someone wondered out loud and I cracked my eyes open, realising I'd napped most of the afternoon. "Alina!"
I had to blink a few times to adjust my eyes. "Oh, hello Emari. How are you?"
To my surprise she half lifted me from the couch in a hug. "How am I? I didn't know what had happened to you. You just didn't arrive for this year and the teachers just said your parents had other plans for you." She almost sniffled. "Lyta was telling everyone that you'd been sent to the Palace of the Tamed Storm."
I laughed and petted her still short hair. "Nothing like that. Goodness, I'd be hard pressed to have earned that without you noticing it. I was on a pilgrimage. I don't know why the teachers wouldn't have told you that. I would have sent a letter but it was arranged in something of a hurry." A thought struck me. "Mela! Lyta hasn't exalted, has she?" If that was who was using my bed then I'd throw her out of the window.
And then find another bed, because using a room that she'd slept in… ugh.
Emari crouched back on her haunches. "What? No. I think that that's making her more poisonous than ever though."
"It would."
She reached up and brushed my own hair – or rather the stubble that had grown back over the last two months - with her hand. "What happened to this? I almost didn't recognise you without your hair."
"I shaved it off for the pilgrimage," I explained. "I was living under the rules of an Immaculate monk while I scaled the Imperial Mountain. I'll have to get used to it, since I'll be under most of the rules of a monk of the First Coil as long as I'm a student at the Cloister of Wisdom."
Getting to my feet, I looked myself over. "I'd better bathe before dinner. Hopefully no one will mind me attending in a pilgrim's robe, I didn't bring my uniforms."
No one, it seemed, minded. In fact, I was something of a minor celebrity among this year's new students, with older students bringing their relatives over to introduce them. For most, however, the coming examinations were of greater interest.
Emari, Udano and Erika fell back into our accustomed study group but we did so with a degree of melancholy for this would probably be the last time we could gather like this. Emari was applying to a smaller private school, one that had featured heavily in Nalan's last letter about his own future plans.
I'd made a point of mentioning them to each other – not in a matchmaking sense but it would make me feel better if Emari had someone to look out for her. And while I hadn't crossed paths with Nalan much over the last few years, I wouldn't mind another pair of eyes on him. He had been my best ally in the nursery after all.
All too soon, exams came and went. I had to get permission to rush into Lord's Crossing to get a uniform for the graduation ceremony. It seemed a terrible waste, but apparently the teachers had thought I was wandering around in a monk's robes as some sort of statement and by that point getting my last uniform sent from Juche was impractical. It might not have fit anyway; I'd been growing like a weed and was anticipating hitting five feet over the summer if that kept up. Even my shoulders probably wouldn't have fit inside an old uniform jacket if I'd tried.
Tepet Jita surprised me by attending the graduation – fortunately, Tepet Vergus did not or we might have had a sizeable audience to the two Tepet elders jabbing at each other. Or perhaps they could behave in public.
Slightly less welcome was Tepet Serakan, accompanying a young man wearing the V'Neef mon on his cloak.
"Alina, darling. I wanted to introduce you to Aviselu," she warned me as he approached. I took it as a warning, anyway.
I gave him a second look between an exchange of formal bows. He wasn't a bad looking fellow, and I guessed him Exalted though he wore no visible artifacts, for there were simply so few V'Neef that any member of the house his age would have to be an Exalt.
Granted, I could not guess his age other than somewhere upwards of twenty. He could as easily have been headed into his third century by his looks. Although more than seventy or so would be unlikely given the date of V'Neef's founding as a Great House.
"My congratulations," he offered. "To be offered entrance into the Cloister of Wisdom a year early is a remarkable achievement." His eyes flicked to my bracers, which I had cinched around the sleeves of my jacket. "Are those a gift? I don't recognise the style."
I shook my head. "My own work."
Aviselu paused and Serakan laughed to cover the moment. "Your talents never cease to amaze me, Alina. Are you sure that you shouldn't be going to one of the schools aiming for crafting? My daughter said your essence was sufficient that you could have applied to the Heptagram."
"I have philosophical concerns about some of their policies," I answered politely.
She would likely guess that I meant the fact that I'd owe a favour to the throne. That was the official repayment of the costs borne by the Scarlet Empress of educating every sorcerer to attend the academy. I could have lived with that - probably - but I was more concerned that once the Scarlet Empress vanished, those favours were called in by the Deliberative… and usually in ways calculated to kill off rival Houses' most promising sorcerers.
Otherwise the Heptagram has much to recommend itself. They are also smart enough to ban Mnemon from setting foot on their private island after she was the sole survivor of Versino, the predecessor to the Heptagram. The truth of her part in its destruction was a state secret that would get me killed if anyone learned I was aware of it. Probably after excruciating torture to find out how I knew it, given the Scarlet Empress had debriefed her daughter privately afterwards. The only other witness, after all, was the Demon of the Second Circle that had been unleashed in that catastrophe.
"I am deeply envious," Aviselu confessed. "My own talents lean more towards seafaring. It may seem odd to one of my aspect, but the waves have always called to me. But while I have done well in trade, I have yet to have the chance to obtain a weapon of jadesteel. And to have made one in the time that you've been a student here…" His lips quirked up. "Do you, by any chance, take commissions?"
I matched that smile. "I'm not opposed, but I may have limited opportunities for such work until I graduate from the Cloister."
He made a dismissive gesture. "There is time. I imagine I would need to amass the wealth and materials for such a commission. That will be the work of years."
We spoke further of his visits to sea ports in the south-west before the dinner was announced and Aviselu excused himself to clean up.
"I believe you've made a good impression," Serakan assured me. "The prospect of you crafting not only an artifact for him but for profit in the future is a superb way to ensure he meets with you again. If only Elana was so adroit."
I shrugged. I had been unsure at first if the matron was working on my mother's behalf or trying to brag of a connection to persuade the V'Neef to consider a marriage to Elana. She had escaped across the Inland Sea on an investigation, as last I heard. It seemed that it was the former possibility.
"What do you make of him?" the woman asked me in a low voice. "He's got a good career and the right connections, but if you have strong sentiments against him specifically… well, I know that romance is not the key to a good marriage, but a strong dislike is a genuine issue. If you find him repellent then I think V'Neef is sufficiently interested to simply present another candidate."
The prospect was worthy of consideration.
What did I think about him? The prospect of being married was suddenly and viscerally real. Fifteen, twenty years? For an exalt that was no great time at all. Barring injury, most Dragon-Blooded lived two or three centuries. Her Scarlet Majesty was at least eight hundred years old – if you didn't know her exact age, you were well advised not to ask.
"I… don't object to him?" I half-asked, half-concluded.
Serakan patted my shoulder sympathetically. "Perhaps we should wait until you're a few years older. You're such a swift developer in some ways that it wouldn't really be a surprise if it took you a little longer than most in this one. And you have plenty of time."
That wasn't implausible, I conceded. I could think of other reasons, neither of which necessarily ruled out marriage.
The initiation into sorcery involves sacrifice. Not of others, as some lurid tales claim, but of one's self. Something prized must be given up. And I, who had sired a host of Dragon-Blooded heroes without ever settling down to turn them into a family, had chosen to give up the ability to ever do so. I could care for my children, as I did in my way. But I would never love those who gave me children, or at least, not in a romantic sense.
Was that sacrifice something that carried over to this life, even if the sorcery I had purchased with it was no longer within my reach? Had I scarred my soul for all time?
It was far too soon to panic over that, I thought that there was another possibility that might be simpler and more likely.
Perhaps it was just that Aviselu was a man.
"Who was that?" asked Emari as I joined the other graduates for dinner. "The man in green."
I shrugged helplessly. "My parents have him in mind as my husband."
Emari looked at me, then glanced to where Aviselu had just re-entered the room, moving to sit with the other distinguished guests. "I'm jealous," she said lightly.
The Cloister of Wisdom lay on the east coast of the Blessed Isle, near the city of Sion and the Palace Sublime, the headquarters of the entire Immaculate Order. The city was a noted source of fine cloth but I would have little use for that over the next few years – seven, probably. That was the maximum time a student could remain at the Cloister. After that, I would be allowed to return only if I attained sufficient eminence to be invited to teach there.
I didn't anticipate that I would be doing that.
There was no wall around the school. Like the Palace Sublime, it was considered sacrosanct. And more to the point, inhabited by some of the finest martial artists in all Creation. The coach carrying Ayama and I halted at the mouth of a valley that led down to the sea. I knew from my reading that the hills on either side ended abruptly in high chalk cliffs.
Ayama rubbed her eyes. "I hadn't expected it to be beautiful."
I looked at the gardens and nodded quietly. They were in a classical style rather than the lusher style of the east, austere but clearly carefully tended. The closest thing there was to a border was a stream that flowed across the mouth of the valley before it followed the edge of one slope down towards the glittering sea.
I had not seen the sea once in thirteen years. It was not quite an emotional event.
A small footbridge crossed the stream, although I could have jumped the water easily enough. An arch depicting the five Elemental Dragons rose up on this side and I gave the depiction of Urwl a crooked smile. Had it been specifically portrayed to resemble Pasiap or had the images of Pasiap deliberately been crafted to resemble the first Earth elemental to begin with?
Before we crossed the bridge, Ayama and I used salt water from a stone basin beside it to cleanse ourselves ritually. Wearing only sandals and hemp robes – all else would be provided or was unnecessary – we entered the Cloister. My bracers were allowed for lessons where they would be useful, but they had been sent ahead and would be left in the care of the teaching staff except for those lessons.
At most the Cloister had space for only one hundred and twenty-five students. It was a rare year that they accepted as many as twenty new applicants. Sifu Voish had been overcome with pride that three of his students would be accepted in the same year.
Yes, three.
I saw a familiar face made alien by the shaving of her long brown hair, among those students who had already arrived. There were a few robes of linen among those observing the new arrivals, but most wore the same hemp, suggesting they were junior monks or perhaps older students. Or, naturally, they could be both.
Sesus Lyta and I exchanged no words as we waited in the sun for the last arrivals. Little was said in fact, the serenity of the valley overcoming even the Dragon-Blooded among the adolescents – about half the total I guessed. A handful tried to sit or stretch but just a reproving look from the monks had them chastised.
I folded my arms behind my back and half-closed my eyes, bringing my breathing under control. One did not need to be in the lotus position to meditate. Beside me, Ayama did likewise.
My eyes snapped open a moment before one of the monks spoke up. She had seemed unremarkable at first glance, but her robe and belt were silk, the latter undyed despite her evident Air-aspect. When she spoke, all those present snapped to attention.
"Welcome to the Cloister of Wisdom. We have not invited you here to receive that wisdom, like water poured into a waiting bowl. It is the way of our academy that you shall instead join us in seeking wisdom."
"As those who have gone before you, we will provide guidance at first. Through your first year, instruction will be provided in the core of our training: meditation, martial arts and the mastery of your spirit. For those of you who have exalted, the latter will include lessons to prepare you to begin to study the Immaculate arts." She smiled serenely. "You will also learn the skills to help support our community. Some of you may find this harder than others."
"There are no servants here, only students and masters. Some students have the duty of passing on lessons and we call these students masters. Your own duties may seem more onerous, but this too is an illusion of the outside world. Many of us would consider our burdens greatly lessened were we only to cook, clean or garden as you will."
"The lessons available from our masters cover many fields. We will make it known when they will provide instruction and it is for you to approach them and request the right to heed the wisdom they will share. As a rule, you will have too much to learn and unlearn during your first year of study. A master will only permit you to become their student when they judge you ready. Humility and hard work in your first year will be a good beginning in earning this privilege."
Her gaze hardened. "Some of you will study with more masters and others with fewer. Those in the latter category will be lauded for their willingness to take on other chores to support our community since they will have more time to do so. Those who neglect their duties to the Cloister in search of other lessons will not find that they have earned the approval of the masters and may find themselves dismissed by existing masters for their hubris."
"Those who do not heed their lessons have stepped aside from the path of wisdom. It is with regret that masters will turn these shirkers aside. With far deeper regret, it may be my duty to ask an incorrigible offender to leave our community. It is for you to find the balance between these extremes, but you may find guides towards that wisdom amongst your elders."
The woman fell silent and older students moved gracefully towards us, wordlessly picking out individuals to guide away. I found myself led by a young man towards a hall surrounded by potted plants that I recognised had been imported from the eastern Threshold.
"Each of the Young Dragon Halls honours one of the Immaculate Dragons," he announced once other student pairs joined us – each made up of one new arrival and one experienced member I guessed. All the new students were girls. "You've been chosen to live together in the Hall of Sextes Jylis for your first year."
Unfortunately, Lyta was amongst those with us. She raised her hand as if in class. "Wouldn't it make sense for an Earth-aspect to be in the Hall of Pasiap?" she asked innocently. "Wasn't there room for Alina?"
I was going to have to bunk with her, wasn't I? I knew I'd suffer trials here, but this was worse than I'd envisaged.
"For your first year," the older student repeated himself with just the slightest emphasis. "Every year the students rooming together are changed to prevent the existence of cliques and broaden our connections. Most of you will find yourselves rooming in each of the Halls at least once."
He pushed open the wooden door to the hall almost without breaking stride and led us through a passageway through into a meditation garden in the centre. Around us, rooms were built upon each other in an irregular fashion, few of them even sharing a floor with those on either side of them. Stairs threaded through that chaotic and yet harmonious arrangement, providing access to rooms above (sometimes well above) ground level.
"Your chore during the first year will be to tend to this garden and to the rooms around it," he instructed us. "My name is Distant Wave and I shall instruct you in these tasks."
"What times should we be doing that?" asked a girl with the slightly harder edge of an accent to her High Realm that marked her as coming from the Imperial City or at least somewhere near it.
Distant Wave shook his head. "Classes for the first year take place in the morning, following breakfast. The rest of the day is yours to practise what you have been taught and carry out your chores." He smiled without any fondness. "Be aware that as your elders we care for the wellbeing of the rest of the Cloister. If we find that we must also care for shortfalls in your much lighter obligations, we will express our displeasure."
Most of the classes were the same whether you were Exalted or mortal. If someone were to calculate class rankings then the top slots would probably be dominated by the Exalted but the teachers and their assistants from the older students were careful only to grade us in comparison to ourselves.
The point was for us to be the most enlightened each of us could be, there were no points for being 'more enlightened' than the person next to you, assuming that that was even measurable.
Other than the Dragon-Blooded vs mortals divide but that was just assumed and rarely spoken of.
Mind you, if Cynis Verdant Road was more enlightened than Ayama at this point, I was a llama. I'm fairly sure that he and his cousin Salan had found a hidden corner to go do something prohibited, judging by their smug and satiated smiles some mornings.
If someone caught them, then they'd be exploring an entirely different back passage. The occasional slip was tolerated since we were just students (if I came across a bacon sandwich somewhere, I would own up to my offense only after I'd devoured it) but premeditated and repetitive offenses were another matter.
Verdant Road was only on my mind because he'd stepped in to partner me during one of the few classes where we were segregated from our mortal brethren.
"Did you follow that?" he asked as Master Crane finished lecturing us on the balance of essence flows between the two charms he was trying to teach us. Crane looked younger than Righteous Granite, but I was fairly sure he was older or at least more experienced since I could almost believe that he was simply an itinerant Dragon-Blood who had been recruited into the Immaculate Order after he exalted in the south-western swamps.
Almost.
I tried to let my awareness that the young-looking man was probably one of the Five-Score Fellowship not surface, since they'd gone to quite a bit of trouble over the last millennium and a half to not only hide their presence but the fact that they even existed.
Having an entire order of monks to throw at rival celestial Exalted might not work so well if the rank-and-file knew that you were also a celestial exalt, after all.
"Yes," I answered the green-haired boy. "Pasiap's Humility allows us to see the dematerialized, but at the expense of clouding our perceptions of the mundane world. But by living in the Moment of Daana'd we straddle the line between the natural and the supernatural, and thus not only can we understand what we are seeing on both sides of that line, we can also touch both at will."
"Bravo," murmured Crane, who had closed in on us as we talked. "I see that you have a good grasp of the theory, Alina. Would you feel ready to attempt the charms?"
I considered a moment and then nodded. I knew both these charms and some more archaic forms, having at first received this initiation via techniques that the Celestial Exalted of the First Age had taught their Dragon-Blooded lieutenants. The Immaculate versions I'd learned later and with a considerably better grounding in the principles.
Crane gestured for the other students to back off and give me room. "Then if you would be so good as to begin with humility."
Inclining my head once more in acknowledgement of the warning I shaped the essence flows through myself.
My vision of the classroom around me blurred as I saw the least spirits of the walls, floor and furniture around us replace the items themselves. Crane and the other Exalted seemed to explode into their anima banners, masking their presence and actual postures behind light and quiescent power.
"Very good," I heard Crane affirm as if from some distance.
I heard a rustle of movement and snapped around, reflectively channelling my essence to intercept the projectile heading for my face.
The classroom came back into definition as my finger caught not only the spit wad but also the snarling and drenched paper-spirit of the 'weapon' and flicked them back to the point of origin.
"Ow!" Verdant Road caught it as it rebounded off his forehead and tossed it onto his desk. Littering would probably get him a good kicking next time he sparred with whoever cleaned this study chamber. "That's bullshit!"
"No." Crane examined me, watching how my eyes tracked the movement of his finger as he moved it before my face. "This is the synthesis of the two enlightening charms I have been trying to teach you."
"She's a year and a bit younger than I am. Why did she get it first?"
"I really couldn't say," the teacher declared. "It's almost as if one of you was strictly following the strictures of the first coil, as all of you ought to, and the other was indulging themselves at the expense of their spiritual advancement." He shook his head as he moved back. "What a mystery. Do end the charm, Alina. Maintaining the two charms can be draining until you have sufficient practise to keep your essence stable."
I didn't expect that to be a problem, but nor would I expect the masters to accept that without demonstration. I released the charm and saw the dematerialized world fade from my awareness. "What would constitute sufficient practise, Master?"
The young-looking teacher chewed on his lip thoughtful. "Five full seasons is the usual minimum before a master would consider beginning to teach you to use Immaculate charms. And I do mean minimum. The consequences of even an apparently slight error can be deadly."
"So not until you're as old as I am," Verdant Road declared heartily and slapped me on the shoulder as if the previous byplay hadn't happened.
"Or perhaps older," Crane amended himself. "While your talent is considerable, Alina, teaching you before you're fifteen may be considered rash. Needless to say, if you were to seek instruction until we are quite sure you are ready, the Masters will have to reconsider if you are sufficiently mature for other lessons besides that."
"Never mind, Alina." Verdant Road took a half-step away, out of retaliation range. "Perhaps we can be the ones who give you pointers."
"Only if you are able to master these charms yourself." Our teacher gave the Fire-aspect a stern look. "Not to mention, I imagine Alina will seek instruction in her native element and you in yours. Cross-training would require each of you to master your native styles, something that generally takes more than merely the span of time you will be studying here."
I was cleaning the floor of the training chamber of the Hall of Sextes Jylis when Crane entered the room. The repetitive scrubbing was meditative in its own way and I was practising Pasiap's Humility, seeking to balance its distractions through more mundane charms to bolster my awareness. Such tricks come comparatively naturally to those of my aspect, but even so, I didn't notice the master until his shadow crossed my vision.
Which suggested that I hadn't mastered this yet.
Crane closed the door behind him, indicating to the rest of the hall that the room was in use. Private instruction of this kind wasn't unusual, but interrupting someone working at their chores was.
"I've heard complaints that this room hasn't been maintained properly," he mused, looking around.
I didn't look up. "Perhaps that is why I was asked to take care of it rather than taking another turn at weeding."
"Yes, I would not expect you to show less than due diligence." He stretched lightly and walked onto the half of the floor that I hadn't worked on yet. Despite walking across the still drying wooden planks I'd scrubbed; he left no damp footprints on the drier wood. "Join me for a moment."
I draped the rags I was using on the side of the bucket and rose, letting my knees adjust. I must have been getting soft for less than an hour of basically crawling around to make them ache like this.
Crane let me recover myself and join him. My own footprints were clearly visible, I noted. "I am aware that you may find it frustrating that you are being held back from studying the Immaculate arts at this time," he began. "That is quite normal, but it may be more so for you as your age makes us sufficiently cautious that you may not be instructed until some of your less adept peers have caught up with you."
"I understand that there are two particular reasons for this decision," I told him frankly. "I would agree that it is frustrating, but I can't say that I wouldn't make the same decision."
"Two reasons?" He looked at me quizzically.
"Firstly, to some degree it would be easier to have students begin training at the same time."
"A fairly trivial concern given the small number of students we teach at any given time," he agreed. "One we would set aside however, were it not for the very real possibility that you might permanently cripple yourself if you moved ahead too fast."
I let the corner of my mouth arc up. "Yes, I would prefer not to endure that."
Crane folded his arms and examined me, then nodded in approval. "I hope that you are never in the position of seeing one of the Dragon's Chosen overreaching themselves in that fashion."
Too late for that, given my past life. The memory was vivid despite the decades since and several other, quite memorable events that day. Granted, it hadn't been the Immaculate arts that killed him, but the image of a Dragon-Blooded perfectly executing one of the charms of the highest martial arts, the bulb of the lotus, only to explode violently an instant later as his essence rebelled…
What a tragic, pointless waste it had been.
And yet, he himself might have disagreed with that assessment. After all, he had succeeded, if only for an instant.
Crane reached over and almost patted me paternally on the head. "Your patience is noted," he said after I drew back slightly. "I promise that as soon as you are ready, we will begin your instruction. You might not realise it but your early entry has drawn considerable attention. No less a personage than Ragara Myrrun has suggested that he might be willing to complete your training in the Earth Dragon style if you have not mastered the style by your graduation from the Cloister."
I started at the name, glad that the sheer distinction of it would cover for the uncomfortable match to my thoughts. Myrrun was precisely the man whose death I had just been remembering. "The grand master himself?"
He nodded politely, forbearing to mention that there were two other bearers of that title at this time. Likely no one else would have disagreed – Myrrun had mastered the Earth Dragon style by his graduation from the Cloister, one of the youngest ever, only to move on and study each of the other styles in turn.
He was still the only Dragon-Blooded master to have learned all five Immaculate arts in less than two hundred years. Such an offer was all but unprecedented. A grand master might offer to bring along a promising master seeking to learn a second or third style, but to offer someone who was barely even at the beginning of their path…
"What have I done to receive such attention?"
Crane smiled slightly. "Just between the two of us, how many martial arts have you mastered?"
"None." Which was the truth. I hadn't fully mastered any style since my rebirth. And I was getting close to having learned all I really felt I needed to of the terrestrial martial arts that I had known previously. I would continue to push at them but it didn't feel like as much of a priority now that I had learned some of their more potent charms.
Instead, I had been spending most of my private practise time melding the disparate styles into something resembling my techniques from my past life, tearing the arts down and rebuilding them into a coherent shared personal style.
It was just a pity that I dared show no one, much less put them into practise against a sparring opponent. In the chaos of battle, it would pass without notice, for anything less serious… it would be socially disgracing and perhaps lead to reprimands and attention I would prefer to avoid.
The vizier gave me a knowing look. "And how many have you studied?"
I hesitated. "Counting the initiation charms you have taught me as separate from the Immaculate arts… four."
He arched an eyebrow. "Terrestrial Hero style and Five Dragon style. Our enlightening charms and the theory of Earth Dragon style…" And then he leaned closer. "I do not believe that is all that you have studied, Alina. Now…"
I considered stonewalling him, but he wasn't just fishing. A celestial martial artist skilled enough to pass for an Immaculate might well be able to read into my stance and see the imprint of my practise. No, I needed a deflection… and it would be best not to actively lie.
"I have found no manuals for them," I allowed carefully, "And I suppose I would not expect to. But I have read something of the Golden Janissary style and a substyle of some larger art that is, I believe, referred to as the Central Noble Honour Blade." The latter was the 'central' school of Crimson Pentacle Blade style. And it was absolutely true that I had never seen a written manual to either style… in this life.
Crane studied me searchingly and then relaxed. "I see. Both styles that employ the spear and thus sometimes seen as complementary to the Five Dragon Style. Inferior to the Immaculate Arts but not without their uses to those who do not have access to them."
"Since I at times lacked the physical rigor for active practise, I wished to explore the theoretical underpinnings of the martial arts."
He waved aside the excuse. "In truth, our need to enforce proper doctrine may unavoidably mean that we are unable to fully explore the potential benefits of a broader base of training. If nothing else, an ignorance of prohibited styles will not protect you from them if you encounter a practitioner. You are wise to keep your exploration of them quiet however. What will be excusable once you are an Immaculate master is less so in a student."
I bowed my head.
"I believe you have the makings of a master," he continued slowly. "Perhaps… just perhaps… of a grand master. It would require great commitment on your part, you understand."
"I know just enough to realise how little I understand the challenges of such a path."
Crane laughed lightly. "You have found some wisdom here, already. It is probable that if you were to become Ragara Myrrun's apprentice that you would be expected to formally join the Order, if only at the first coil."
I really couldn't be bothered doing that, but I was curious as to where he was going. "I couldn't make such a commitment without a great deal of thought and consulting with my elders."
"Naturally, I'm merely speaking of the future."
He rubbed his hands together. "I have been extending some lessons to younger students who need a little counsel. Would it help to vent some of your frustrations with some additional lessons?"
There was really only one acceptable answer. "If you believe I am ready then I would be honoured."
He nodded. "There are some less well-known techniques used by the Water-aspected that build upon the charms of Terrestrial Hero style to include a harder portfolio of manoeuvres. They would come a little less naturally to you; but I can perhaps bring you up to proficiency with them. Shall we say every other evening?"
Terrestrial Hero style was predominantly a soft style, with a focus on clinches and other close quarters moves. I was somewhat aware that other Terrestrial Exalted had built upon it but their actual use would be new to me in either life. "I would be honoured, Master Crane."
And maybe I'll figure out what you're actually up to.
I knelt in one of the cells and meditated.
I wasn't a prisoner; it wasn't that sort of cell. I could leave any time I wanted. It was just a small room where you could meditate without distractions. In theory I could have slept here, but school regulations required that I use the shared dorm room rather than avoiding the rest of the community.
Lyta and I had agreed on one thing without ever speaking about it – the mats we slept on were as far apart as the room allowed. The one person who thought it would be funny to switch our mats for each other's, thought it was a lot less funny when they wound up in sparring matches with at least one of us for every day for the next week.
I was close to breaking through. I could almost feel the barrier separating me from the final mortal plateau, the greatest level of essence control attainable for an Exalt less than a hundred years old or without certain other… options.
I didn't expect to receive those opportunities now. I'd initially made the leap through the direct and personal intervention by one of the Celestial Incarnae while fighting an actual invasion of Yu Shan. Generosity that had only been merited by the dire situation.
All things considered; I would prefer to prevent that particular crisis even if it meant not receiving a literal divine intervention.
The exploit I'd discovered after that was that I could essentially cheat Creation's expectation of a certain degree of age and, hmm… entrenchment within the Loom of Fate before an Exalt could enter the immortal courts of essence manipulation. Unfortunately, the method involved having a dynasty of Exalted descendants to essentially claim their fate as your own in that regard.
There were some slight technical barriers to having six or seven hundred children in the near future. I mean, it wasn't impossible, but given that it's not really recommended for a Dragon-Blooded woman to give birth more than every five years or so…
Don't look at me like that, I'm a licensed physician. Or I was. Or would be. I'd invent proper tenses to deal with this, but then people would wonder why I needed them.
I let that little chain of thought die off, having distracted myself once again from the breakthrough. There was something holding me back, I felt. Something unresolved in my heart that I must address if I was to progress past my current limits.
I had the unfortunate suspicion that it might be Lyta.
I'd known her almost half my life now and since one of us had to be the mature adult, I didn't really hate her. Even if she had almost all Hunt's worst characteristics. Unfortunately, the reverse was not true.
It was sad but understandable that dynastic children who didn't exalt would bear the weight of their family's disappointment in them. Lyta had been raised in the expectation that she would become a Terrestrial Exalt, like her parents and, if I recalled correctly, her older brother. Now that she was fifteen, she was more than halfway through the years when she could reasonably expect to. And those who exalted late were generally felt to possess weaker exaltations or thinner blood.
It was still a huge step up from being a mortal, but there were degrees of respect even among the Exalted.
A patrician might have weathered the disappointment, since however much they might hope for exaltation, realistically they knew that the odds weren't in their favour. But Lyta wasn't a patrician, and it was eating her up inside.
She was a Sesus, and while they didn't have quite the high rate of exaltation of Mnemon, Cathak or V'Neef, her house still bore the blood of the Scarlet Empress herself and were among the most rigid in the largely forgotten tradition of Terrestrial Exalted only wedding their fellow Exalted.
And rather than her exalting, early and strongly, who had?
The bastard offspring of a mortal and a fairly junior household in House Tepet, who were admittedly of somewhat less fruitful lineage than her own family. (I doubt it would have assuaged her envy to know that my actual father, Ragara Nova, was probably also a descendent of the Scarlet Empress. I hadn't checked into his exact lineage, but Ragara was the oldest surviving child of the Empress and her husband Rawar so odds were good that Nova was descended from the old man).
And thus, she hated me, and to a lesser extent the rest of the Terrestrial Exalted around her.
For now, it was banked up and of little immediate danger, but with the Jade Prison open and her right here, everything was lining up with the story I had heard years ago. Of a Solar mad with zealotry and a deep-rooted hatred of the Terrestrial Exalted both from her own life and from the memories she inherited from a past bearer of exaltation who had died in the Usurpation.
That Solar had exalted in this exact area… different versions had proliferated but I was fairly sure by the accounts that it was either in the Palace Sublime or right here in the Cloister of Wisdom. It was entirely possible that some of those recounting the story hadn't known the difference.
Lyta was, I had to admit, genuinely talented. Combine that with the power of a Solar Exaltation and I could reluctantly believe that she might be able to fight her way out. And I doubted that many in her path would survive.
With a sigh I rose from where I was sat. I wasn't going to resolve this tonight and from the angle of the sun, I should go for dinner. I had chores, even if today wasn't one of the evenings that Master Crane was training me.
Distant Wave intercepted me as I walked the path between the Cloister Temple where I had been meditating and the Hall of Masters, the building that housed – among other things – the dining hall. "Alina." He offered me a scroll. "A letter arrived for you."
"Oh?" I accepted it and checked the seal on it. The mon stamped into it was a variant on the Tepet Demarol seal, but not one that I had seen before. Not that I'd seen all of them, admittedly.
Cracking the seal, I unrolled it and scanned the content.
A hand fell on my shoulder a moment later and I paused, realising that I'd been about to walk into a wall. "An engrossing letter?" the older student asked, grinning at my mistake.
The grin faded as I turned to him. "After a fashion. My… Doreg is my nephew, but a year or so my elder. He's enlisted in the legions."
Distant Wave nodded. "He's just turned fifteen then?" It was the minimum age that the Legions accepted for recruits.
"Yes." The last I'd heard – from Nalan – was that Doreg had been granted permission to live in Lord's Crossing for a year before he committed to a secondary school. Sometimes that was a polite cover-up for not passing any of the entrance exams, but to give the elder of the twins credit, he was probably smart enough to have got into any school he wanted. I could only assume that he'd been planning this the entire time.
"Well, that's not unusual for your House."
"No," I agreed. "But he'll be training as they march. The Eighth Legion is marching to the Caracal River where they'll ship out for Greyfalls. He's going right into a war."
A war? Hah. The war. The war that broke House Tepet's legions.
Icole would likely be going as well, he was with the Forty-Third, another of the legions that recruited heavily from the Lord's Crossing Dominion, drew its auxiliary forces largely from Tepet satrapies… and whose officers were drawn almost exclusively from House Tepet's mortal and Exalted members.
The numbers that I'd not been able to forget since my first meeting with Icole, while I was still sleeping in a barred cot, came back to me.
Nine-tenths of the Tepet Legions died fighting the Bull of the North. Even among the Exalted. And both Doreg and Icole were mortals.
A letter from Icole arrived a few days later, confirming what I'd already expected. He was on his way east.
Tepet Berel Ayama approached me at breakfast the next day. "A moment of your time, please?"
I looked up and nodded. We had a little time before our first class and took a short diversion down to the stream flowing through the Cloister. There were several ponds that it fed, some of them used for the training of those being taught Water Dragon style, but she led me to one of the small bridges that went across it.
"What do you know about the Haltans that worries you so?" she asked bluntly.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I guess I'd been a bit too obvious in my worrying. "It's not the Haltans, it's their allies. The Linowan have been fighting the Haltans for centuries and they wouldn't usually ask us to get involved. If they need help it's because there's something new in play." I hesitated. "And then there's who is being sent."
"The Tepet Legions?"
I nodded. "They're Imperial Legions, but there's no denying that they may look more towards House Tepet than to the Realm as a whole."
Ayama shook her head, "That's not unique to us."
"Most Great Houses patronise one or two legions," I agreed. "But only the Cathak and Sesus dominate as many as our house, and neither of those houses hold a Dominion. The reason the Scarlet Empress hasn't granted any other Houses the right to rule a prefecture privately as we and the Ledaal may not be just that we've maneuvered to keep our rivals from obtaining similar power. It's possible she sees it as a mistake. And it's not one she can readily undo."
The other girl leant against the rail facing me, head cocked in thought. "The Ledaal?"
"They aren't a military powerhouse. But right now, House Tepet could potentially have more military and economic power than the other Houses. It's not unprecedented for a House to rebel, or even to just flex its muscle in ways that Her Scarlet Majesty isn't quite unhappy enough to unleash the Imperial Manse upon them."
Ayama didn't ask me if I was being paranoid. We were both dynasts. The only question was: were we being paranoid enough?
"I don't think she wants us destroyed. But a long campaign in a distant land where our legions are not only far from home but can be ground down – and perhaps even one or two of them disbanded or rebuilt with officers and soldiers not tied to us?" I shrugged. "For that matter, it might not be a specific military policy. Mnemon is pretty close with House Cynis and House Sesus. None of them are incredibly fond of us and that's a big slice of the Deliberative."
The Deliberative was… an interesting commentary on how the Realm functioned. The upper house was made up of Exalted, the lower of mortals, and a motion passed by both chambers was passed to the Scarlet Empress to enter into law. Most of the Realm assumed that her confirming it was a mere formality, but I suspect it was mostly just a tool she used to keep her from being buried in frivolous petitions, and let the Great Houses think they had more say than they did, since she could and did veto motions with near impunity. But if there was enough momentum behind a vote, then it was certainly able to influence her decisions.
"I see. And these… allies you mention."
I rested my elbows on the rail and looked at the sun, still quite low in the eastern sky. Heading towards us, and rising. Like an omen. "Anathema numbers are up. Sharply. Since we returned from the Imperial Mountain a year ago, the Wyld Hunt is receiving twice as many reports as they used to. And – pertinently – sometimes they're reports of their previous failures."
Ayama blinked. "Failures?"
"It's rare, but it does happen." I recalled Yurgen's tales. "A few years ago, a Hunt chasing an Icewalker barbarian was lost to the last. No one knew what happened exactly, but no one heard of him either so the working assumption was that either they killed him and didn't make it back – or they weakened him to the point that the snowstorms finished the job."
"Was?"
I nodded. "He's back. And the shikari of the Wyld Hunt chasing him are not. He has an army… and some say that he's bringing other anathema together to fight for him. His empire is growing and if he keeps pushing south, he'll hit satrapies that the Realm has to fight for."
"And the Linowan and Halta are further away."
"Exactly." I gave her a sour look. "I don't know that that's who the Linowan are frightened of. But if they are, then they have a good reason for their fear."
"Now I'm worried too," she said quietly.
I reached over and gave her shoulder a little shake. "You know what they say: a problem shared is a problem doubled."
Ayama cracked a smile. "And a friend in need is a friend to be avoided."
"Come on." I turned back towards the school buildings. "We have classes. It's not as if there's anything else we can do right now?"
"You're Exalted," she noted, falling in beside me.
I frowned, glanced sideways at her, then down at my hands. Impishly I let my anima banner flicker to life for a moment. "My gosh! I am! When did that happen?"
The brunette (if she hadn't shaved her scalp like the rest of us) shook her head slightly. "But you also feel that there is nothing that you can do?"
I looked at her. "In the ancient days, the beings to whom even the Incarnae bowed heard horns of challenges outside their gates. And thus, they marched forth in full panoply of war, expecting some great foe. Some challenger from their own kind, or perhaps some wildling host waging the oldest war, the war of which the Balorian Crusade was but one small campaign. And when they looked around, they saw nothing but ants."
"And so they asked: 'who is it who comes here to challenge us?'"
"And those ants, those tiny creatures, beings so miniscule and puny that it was barely within the imagining of the primordial creators that they might even think, much less speak, declared: 'We are here.'"
"And the great titans stared down at the insects who called themselves mankind. And they laughed. And laughed. And laughed. And when they had had their laugh, it is said that one of them deigned to explain: 'We made you to pray that we might feast. To offer prayers of worship that we made you, of submission that we might not decide to unmake you, of aversion that we might not trample you unknowing, for you are so small. Know your place!'"
"And men and women drew weapons and declared: 'We are here to change the order of things.' And thus did those ancient tyrants learn of death. The true death that never before had touched them. Where now can you find them?"
Ayama looked at me, as did several other students who were converging on the classroom.
"Are you talking about Anathema?" asked Salan, curious.
"No. Something older. Myths that even the spirits have trouble remembering sometimes."
"I don't see your point then," Ayama told me.
"Creation was not humanity's by birthright," I explained. "It is ours because we saw an opportunity and took it. Do you see an opportunity to do something about the problem we've been discussing?"
"No."
"Nor do I." I smiled slightly. "Today. But who knows about tomorrow? In the meantime, learn, grow and become stronger so that when the opportunity comes…"
"How very inspiring," snarked Lyta as she arrived. "Are you planning on a career in the Deliberative?"
I made a gesture to avert evil. I think if I was ever named a senator then the time would have come to steal a ship and make for the Threshold never to return. They spent months at a time in the Imperial City, listening to each other's oratory and then being bullied by their elders to represent their House's interests.
