Book 2: Chapter 25: Complications
When Sen finally roused himself the next morning, he felt odd. It took him almost three full minutes to understand what had changed. He felt relaxed, possibly for the first time as an adult. He was willing to accept that there were probably benefits to abstinence. It was almost unbeatable as straight-up willpower training. Yet, he wasn’t about to pretend that he regretted being able to release that iron control he’d had to maintain for years. For his part, Sen hadn’t tried to hide his inexperience from Song Ling. She’d been surprised but also intrigued. He, naturally, had offered no explanations. What he had done was bring the same level of focused attention to what they were doing as he brought to martial training or cultivation. Song Ling had seemed to find him an adequate student. Enough so that she had seemed put out when Wu Meng Yao stood outside Sen’s tent and announced in an overly loud voice that it was Song Ling’s turn to watch over the prisoners.
“We should do this again sometime,” Song Ling had said, then her confident air cracked a little. “I mean, if you’re interested.”
“I’m sure you still have one or two things you can show me.”
Her confidence restored, she’d shot him a wicked grin. “Oh, one or two things for sure.”
Sen had slept a little later than usual that morning, so he half expected to find the sect cultivators and prisoners gone when he came out of his tent. Instead, he found those complications that he hadn’t been able to pin down the day before. For her part, Song Ling was walking around with an attitude of positively smug satisfaction. The hulking Changpu was looking at the sect girl with heartbroken eyes every few minutes. When the big cultivator spotted Sen, he grimaced and looked away. The other sect cultivator gave Sen a look that wasn’t sad, exactly, but more like the guy was resigning himself to something unfortunate. Sen was happy to see that the young man wasn’t blushing every time he looked Sen’s way anymore. The prisoners caught sight of him and started pointing and grinning. Sen wasn’t sure he’d be that cheerful on the way to what was probably an execution, but he supposed it was better than them plotting a bloody escape.
When Wu Meng Yao noticed him, she went from casting annoyed glares at the other sect members to directing an icy glare in his direction. Sen wasn’t sure exactly why she was glaring, but he didn’t have to wait long to find out. She walked over to him and, much to his shock, poked him in the chest.
“I hope you’re satisfied with yourself,” she said.
“About what?”
She poked him in the chest again. “About what? The state you left my team in. I still have to get them and those prisoners back to Emperor’s Bay.”
“No offense, but how am I responsible for any of that?”
“Changpu is heartbroken. Wang Chao is, well, not heartbroken, but disappointed. And Song Ling is unbearable right now.”
Sen sighed. “I gathered all of that from looking at them. Again, though, how is any of that my responsibility? Song Ling is clearly someone who isn’t afraid to tell someone what she wants. If she wanted Changpu, she’d have had him by now. If he’s hanging on to some fantasy about her, that’s sad but not my problem. As for Wang Chao, I’m sure I’m not the first man who disappointed him by preferring women. Frustrating for him, maybe, but also not really my problem. I certainly didn’t encourage him.”
Sen could see Wu Meng Yao gritting her teeth, but all she said was, “That’s all true.”
“As for Song Ling, I may be part of the reason she’s acting that way, but I didn’t tell her to do that. I don’t think I can stop it without doing something everyone would object to. So, again, how is that my responsibility?”
Sen tried to stop and look at the problem from Wu Meng Yao’s position. She almost certainly knew that he wasn’t really to blame and that he hadn’t acted with any malice. Of course, it didn’t change the fact that her team was a mess at the moment. She’d wanted someone to blame, and it did all kind of circle back to him. She also had to know he couldn’t really do anything to fix it, either. So, what would he want to hear if he were in her position? What were her priorities? She had told him her priorities. Get the other cultivators and the prisoners back to Emperor’s Bay safely. He looked from her to the prisoners and then to the other sect cultivators.
“I get it,” he said. “You had them all working in some kind of equilibrium. I screwed that up. I didn’t set out to, but I did. It’s going to make getting them home safely harder for you. I am sorry about that part.”
Wu Meng Yao closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “You don’t understand how hard it was to get them working as a team. Changpu was following Ling around like a puppy at first. Wang Chao didn’t really care if we ever found these criminals. Ling didn’t really care either. She just wanted to go exploring. It took weeks to get them on task, and then it only happened after we ran across some of the gang’s victims. Now, everyone is distracted again.”
Wu Meng Yao shot another glare at him. He shrugged.
“I already apologized,” he said. “There’s not much more I can do.”
“This wouldn’t be so bad if you hadn’t slept with her.”
Sen frowned at that.
“Well, I suppose that’s probably true, but it’s not like there was another option. At least not one I cared for anyway,” he said, glancing over at Wang Chao.
When he looked back at Wu Meng Yao, she was back to glaring at him.
“No other option,” she said. “Am I so mannish that you don’t even consider me a woman?”
Sen rolled his eyes. “Stop trying to pick a fight. Song Ling made it perfectly clear that she was available. You didn’t. Besides, I don’t think you even really see me that way.”
“Don’t be an idiot. Very nearly everyone with a pulse sees you that way. Some of us just have a little more dignity than Song Ling.”
“Well, I guess you see what dignity gets you.”
Wu Meng Yao looked across the clearing at the other sect members. “I wish I could say you were wrong.”
Feeling that conversation probably couldn’t go anywhere good for him, Sen turned to his tent and started packing up.
“What are you doing?” asked Wu Meng Yao.
“Breaking camp. I do it every morning.”
“Wait, you can’t go.”
Sen looked over his shoulder at her. “I think you’ll find that I can.”
“I mean you can’t go until you help me fix this mess.”
Sen was quiet for a minute or two as he finished dealing with his tent. He didn’t know if she hadn’t thought it through or if Wu Meng Yao was being intentionally dense.
“Fix it?” he finally asked. “What do you imagine I can do to fix that mess?”
“You could guard the prisoners.”
Sen lifted an eyebrow. “Until when? Actually, never mind. The answer is no.”
“You owe me.”
“I may owe you something, enough to cook you all dinner again, maybe. I don’t owe you nearly enough to make me travel all the way to Emperor’s Bay with you. Especially since I know it’s a ploy to try to get me to visit your sect. That’s never going to happen.”
“My sect isn’t your enemy.”
“They’re not my ally, either.”
“They can’t be your ally if you won’t even meet them.”
“They also can’t put me in a cage if I don’t meet them.”
“They wouldn’t do that.”
Sen sighed. “You think they wouldn’t do that. Do you actually know? I mean, have you ever actually asked your elders what they think of wandering cultivators?”
Wu Meng Yao stammered for a moment. “Well, not in so many words. I don’t really interact with the elders very often.”
“Plus, I know all of you have made a few guesses about how my cultivation works. Can you guarantee me that no one in your sect will want to make me into some kind of project?”
“No,” she admitted.
“There you go. Maybe your sect really is as honorable as you make it out to be, but it’s not your life or your freedom on the line. I intend to keep both of those things. That means not taking stupid, avoidable risks like walking into a sect compound of my own free will.”
“Fine,” said Wu Meng Yao.
“Great. Here’s what I will do for you. I will watch those prisoners for the next hour, so you can talk some sense into your people.”
The young woman looked like she wanted to object some more, but she ultimately just nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” said Sen, retrieving his spear from his storage ring.
Wu Meng Yao eyed the spear and then him. “I thought you used the jian.”
“You say that like it’s only possible to use one weapon,” said Sen, walking over to the prisoners. “You should expand your horizons a little.”
Wu Meng Yao made good use of the hour that Sen bought her. While the other sect members weren’t exactly as they had been in the previous days, they did all seem more focused on the tasks at hand. When Wang Chao took over watching the prisoners, Sen took the opportunity to slip away. He was determined that he’d get far enough ahead that he wouldn’t have to deal with any more of their group nonsense. Some things were just more trouble than they were worth.
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