Book 5: Chapter 21: Gifts
Much as he’d expected trouble coming down the mountain, Sen at least half-expected trouble when they were bypassing the town at the base of the mountain. They had killed a lot of people who, presumably, had answered to someone. If nothing else, some of those people had to have had families. When no trouble manifested, it didn’t lighten Sen's apprehension. If anything, it heightened it. He wanted to chide himself for being paranoid, but he’d lost the idea that good things came out of his expectations going unmet. The longer he went without something bad happening, the worse he imagined the blow would be when it did finally arrive. He chose to share none of those persistent bad feelings and worries with Falling Leaf. He’d been chided often enough for withholding information that he doubted he’d do that again, at least with those closest to him. In this case, though, he had no information to share. Telling Falling Leaf would only make him feel better while giving her unsubstantiated cause for concern.
So, he stewed in silence as a day turned into a week, and a week turned into two. The miles flew by as they made their way back to Fu Ruolan’s home as both Sen and Falling Leaf fretted about the three-month time limit that he’d been given. They often ran later into the evening than Sen would normally have tolerated. That meant setting up galehouses and formations after dark. While it wasn’t as risky a proposition for him as it might once have been, it was riskier than he liked. Sen was very comfortable having reinforced stone walls around him at night. Yet, his eye twitched a little any time he saw a spider taking what seemed like too much interest in them. He knew, intellectually, that the spiders he was seeing couldn’t be connected to the matriarch he had faced. They were too far away for that. Every time he saw a spider, though, it took him right back to the moment when he realized that undulating mass out in the darkness was thousands of spiders.
He made a new type of formation a standard part of his setup at that point. He wasn’t good enough yet to tune a formation to only kill spiders. That was a disappointment to him. He’d have to ask Uncle Kho about that the next time they got together in a non-crisis moment. Sen was, however, good enough to tune one to kill any insect that wandered too close to the galehouse, assuming it wasn’t too large. Given that he routinely left small slots in the walls for airflow, it was all too easy to imagine hundreds of small spiders crawling in through them. The formation should prevent that horror show from occurring, which made it easier to sleep at night. When trouble did eventually find them, it was far more mundane than Sen expected. The pair had stopped for the night at an inn in a smaller village simply to take advantage of convenient baths and food made by someone else. After two weeks of fast travel, Sen also thought they could use a little break from the routine. When they went to leave in the morning, bandits descended on the village. When they spotted Sen and Falling Leaf, they surrounded them.
A pair of identical-looking men stepped forward, essentially declaring themselves the leaders. They were both heavyset, with round faces and their eyes a little too close together. Sen idly noted that they might even look a little jolly if they smiled or at least smiled with less malicious intent on their faces. Sen glanced around at the group while the leaders babbled about something Sen didn’t pay any attention to. When noises stopped coming out of their mouths and they directed expectant looks at Sen and Falling Leaf, Sen tuned back in to what was happening. Falling Leaf was completely disinterested and had pulled an apple from her storage ring and started eating it. The absolute unconcern showed by Sen and Falling Leaf made the bandits and the bandit leaders all trade wary glances.
“You have no idea what a magnificently bad day you’re having,” offered Sen with a shake of his head. “I mean, really, you just don’t have any clue.”
“Why is that?” sneered one of the twins.
“Because I usually give people the chance to run away. The only people I don’t do that with are bandits. I only made that mistake once, and I’ve regretted it ever since. So, none of you get to run away.”
The bandits all started laughing and jeering.
“Oh ho, is that right?” asked one of the twins. “You think you’re tough. That jian isn’t going to help much against all of us. Or maybe you’re a cultivator. Is that it? Are you a mighty qi-condensing core cultivator? Well, so what? Half a dozen poison crossbow bolts will put you down just as fast as anyone else.”
“Qi condensing? No,” said Sen. “Core cultivator, yes.”
That put an immediate end to the laughter and jeering. Sen had been trying to decide about the best way to deal with the bandits. He didn’t have any specific animosity toward them, so he didn’t want to draw things out or make it as painful as possible. Quick, he thought. Yes, quick is the best way. Sen started cycling for wind and split it into enough separate threads that he could get all of the bandits. They didn’t need to be massive techniques. It’d be easier to control the direction and speed if he kept them small and contained. He fixed the positions of all the bandits in his mind using his spiritual sense for reference. One of the bandit twins opened his mouth when Sen raised a hand and snapped his fingers. A dozen or so tiny wind blades shot away from him and cleanly parted heads from bodies. As the bandits’ corpses slumped to the ground, Falling Leaf looked around in annoyance. She only said one word.
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“Fools.”
Sen briefly considered burning the bodies so as not to leave a mess for the villagers. In the end, he left the bandits where they were. The villagers could pillage the bodies for weapons and any loose taels the bandits might have had. Before they could make good their exit, the villagers poured from their homes. They were shouting, cheering, and thanking the wandering cultivators for freeing them from the bandits who had plagued their village on and off for years. Sen wanted to feel a little annoyed that the villagers hadn’t risen up in their own defense, but he remembered just how fragile he’d felt as a mortal boy with no training in how to defend himself. He suspected that many of the villagers had wanted to fight back against the bandits but simply didn’t know how. Sen let the villagers go on for a little while, mostly so they could feel that they’d said thank you. He could see it on her face that the people crowding around them made Falling Leaf uncomfortable.
“We need to prepare a feast for you,” a gray-haired elder with a thin mustache announced.
Sen needed to kill that idea in a hurry. He didn’t want to spend the time, and he doubted the villagers could afford the extravagance. He waved the elder off.
“There’s truly no need for that. It’s better if you save that food for yourselves,” said Sen.
Sen and the elder did the dance of insistence and respectful refusal for a few moments. The elder looked relieved and grateful that Sen had declined. When the formalities had been taken care of, Sen and Falling Leaf started slowly migrating toward the edge of the village. They had just about made it to the edge of the village when a toddler stumble-ran out of the collected villagers and wrapped her arms around Falling Leaf’s leg. Sen had to hide a smile as a look of panic briefly crossed Falling Leaf’s face. She shot an imploring look at Sen.
“Just talk to her,” whispered Sen.
Falling Leaf glared at him, but patted the girl’s head.
“What’s your name?” asked Falling Leaf, seemingly at a loss for what else she could say.
The little girl mumbled something into Falling Leaf’s Leg. Even with his enhanced hearing, Sen couldn’t make sense of it. Once more looking at her wit’s end, Sen took pity on the ghost panther. He crouched down next to the girl.
“That’s a very pretty name,” he said.
The little girl turned her face so she could peek at him with one eye. He smiled at her and mentally took inventory of what he had in his storage rings. He didn’t have anything appropriate for a child tucked away, not even a few basic toys. He made a mental note to remedy that. A couple of toys would take up practically no room in his storage ring and would make situations like the one before him so much easier to manage. What he did have plenty of was money. Ridiculous, absurd piles of it filled his storage rings. He summoned several silver taels from his storage ring. The little girl eyed them curiously but clearly didn’t know what they were. Sen decided that was for the best. He cycled metal qi and giving the girl a wink, he slowly fused the metal before he started stretching the taels out. The girl’s eyes went wide with wonder. Sen tried not to take too long with it, worried that the child would grow bored, but the girl never took her eyes away from the magic that he was performing. It took a lot more concentration than he expected, but Sen managed to form the metal into a series of extremely fine links. Working with the silver gave him some insight into just how soft it really was, so he scanned the area. With an effort of will, he snapped a small piece of steel off of one of the bandit’s daggers and summoned it to himself. He reshaped the metal into a basic blunted hook and a ring. He connected those to the final links on either end of the chain. He showed the girl the necklace.
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
The girl’s eyes were opened as wide as they go. She nodded enthusiastically. Sen smiled and gestured for her to come a little closer. She wobbled forward a few steps, and Sen gently hooked the impromptu necklace around her neck. Then, because he was already feeling good about this part of his day, he withdrew one of the smallest beast cores he’d used to store divine qi. It was a trivial amount to him, but if the girl ever started cultivating, the qi inside it could help take her a big step on the path of cultivation. Plus, it was one of the prettier beast cores he’d seen with swirling greens and blues across its surface. Even if she never figured out what it really was or what it contained, it would be a small point of beauty in her life. He eyed the core that rested on his fingertips before he gave the girl a long look.
“Do you mind your parents?” he asked her in a mock-serious voice.
The girl nodded as her little fingers wrapped around the necklace.
“Are you kind to others?”
That one seemed to stump the girl, and she sucked in her lower lip for a few moments. Her face brightened and triggered another nod. She had probably remembered sharing something with someone. Sen smiled again and held out the core.
“Then, this is for you.”
The toddler’s face lit up as she plucked the core from his hand. She cradled it in her hands for a moment before she stumble-ran back to a young man and woman who both wore shocked expressions. The little girl began showing her parents the core as though they hadn’t just watched Sen give it to her. Clearly a favorite with the adults, they clustered around the little girl, making appropriately impressed noises. Sen stood back up and pointed at the road. Looking relieved and maybe a little frustrated, Falling Leaf fell in beside him. By the time anyone from the village thought to check on the strange, generous cultivators, they were gone.
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