Bearing Destiny Chapter 3 Commission

Rixiong turned to face the speaker with a frown.

A dark green gaze met his eyes. It was a young woman, one of the many disciples in their physical cultivation course. Her long brown hair was pulled back and wound into two tight buns. A good head shorter than he, she wore the Sect’s silver disciple robes, for the moment in deference to their exercises but he recalled seeing in her much richer silks, with flowers and jewels wound through her hair.

“Miss, I will be honest, my temper is frayed, if you want to speak to me then speak plainly please,” Rixiong said tiredly, scratching the back of his neck. He didn’t know what she wanted but he just wasn’t in the mood to chase a sunbeam in circles like a cub.

She tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully, looking up at him. “You are not quite the prideful brute I’d judged you. Not fully. I did expect you to put Cao Yun in the medicine hall. Well, I expect you will put the next set there, if only because they ambush you with numbers. They let Cao Yun go first because he is far too straight edged for such tricks.”

Rixiong set his shoulders. “Who would dare make a mockery of the dueling circle so?”

She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. “Goodness you really are serious, are you certain you were raised by beasts and not an old storybook?”

He couldn’t help the low rumble of a growl that started in his chest. “Miss. Do not insult my teachers.”

She quieted, giving him a curious and thoughtful look. Before making a small bow. “I apologize, a jest in poor taste.”

He blinked, stumped for a moment. He had already lined up the next retort for the insult he was sure was to come, but it now died in his throat. Scrubbing his hand through his hair, he gave her a suspicious look. “It is forgiven, what do you want of me?”

She straightened up and gave a small nod. “Well, let me be plain. You are ignorant of many things, and this is causing you to make enemies and receive derision beyond what is unavoidable,” she said plainly. “I want to offer my help in correcting your education.”

He stared at her. He didn’t hate the idea, the most frustrating thing was the way that none would explain themselves, even the business with Cao Yun came about from his ignorance, but all the same… he recognized a forest cat's hungry eyes. “What do you receive from this?”

“Your partnership in the upcoming physical cultivation trial. I am not the most skilled, but the elder’s instruction is invaluable. I would like to make it into the advanced courses. Your strength is my ticket there.”

Blunt. It was refreshing after all these months. A suspicious part of him, born here at the Sect wondered if he was not merely being set up for a jape, but…

If she needed him to pass the elder’s exam that would not make sense. Or at least if it did, only by some twisty logic he could not follow. Bah! He would not let himself be tied into knots by uncertainty!

He thrust his hand out to her, and blinked when she took a hopping half step back, looking at him warily. Oh… Oh that was right. He grimaced, withdrew his hand and bowed instead. “I am agreeable. What is your name?”

She studied him for a moment, lips pursed, and then returned his bow. “This one is Ran Fen, born of the Celestial Peaks Ran family, I am pleased you see the wisdom of the arrangement.”

He had a vague notion of the peaks, this was where the Empress lived, in the far north, beyond the Heavenly Pillar. Ran Fen had traveled far to be here. “This one is Rixiong, I bear no family name, but I am of the Emerald Seas, and dedicated unto the Zenith Sun. I am pleased to make your acquaintance!”

His booming declaration drew eyes to them, and Ran Fen winced a little, shooting a glowering look at several girls who looked her way with sneering expressions. “Well, at least you are an eager student. I do have some ideas of where to begin. The Sect does not advertise it well, but primers on matters of court etiquette are available. I can show you where to acquire…”

He held up his hand, expression sheepish. “I am sorry, Ran Fen. I know some formation characters, but not the courtly ones…”

She blinked, her expression scrunching up. Rixiong lowered his head with a sigh. He could feel the scoff coming.

“...Well, I suppose that is where we need to begin then. Itts not uncommon for mortals out in the st- the provinces to be illiterate either, so the Sect has materials for that too,” Ran Fen sighed. “We can begin after the Elders lesson?”

“Please,” Rixiong said, grinning. Finally, he was getting somewhere!

***

Ran Fen was good to her word, as it turned out, even if he couldn’t really say he enjoyed  her lessons.

Courtly characters were complicated enough standing alone, so many fiddly little strokes where a single errant twitch of your hand could ruin an hour's brushwork! And they taught these to children?!

But no, the individual symbols were only the beginning, and he thought he could begin to see why his peers thought in such twisty ways, if this was how they put their thoughts to paper!

It did make him wonder about Ran Fen, who he suspected did not have many more friends than he. She wore the silks and the jewels and spoke fine words-when not with him- but his instincts told him she was not much higher in the order of things than he.

“No, you see by wording the advice thusly, you avoid the implication that you know better than your superior, and are instead merely offering an observation for them to use as they wish. This is important, especially if one is not personally close enough to be more frank, or if the statement needs to be made in public.”

“But if they are wrong, then should it not be made known?” Rixiong complained.

They sat in one of the lecture halls, during its empty hours, books and scrolls open across the long desks which curved around the amphithere. These were free for disciple use when lessons were not going on, but in Rixiong’s experience, disciples rarely did so.

“No, not in a public venue, and certainly not if you are not trying to challenge their authority,” Ran Fen replied, jabbing her inkbrush toward him. She was dressed in the airy silks and jewels now, with so much cloth and lace that he thought she looked rather lost in it. “Gah…. Does a wolf challenge its pack leader's decisions in the middle of a chase?”

He wrinkled his nose in consternation. “No,” he reluctantly allowed. “But standing around talking is not the same thing as the heat of a hunt!”

“You may not think so, but it is. The Empire moves its goods, its armies, its laws, on people who ‘stand around and talk’,” Ran Fen replied frostily. “You may dislike it, but when you so bluntly contradict someone in public you are challenging them in their position. If they fail to slap you down they are showing a crippling weakness to their other subordinates. If you wish to do so, by all means, but do not do so in ignorance!”

….He did understand that. Wolves were not the best example of what she spoke of, but he did understand dominance and submission displays, even if he found the form of them his fellow humans practiced very strange.

Well, he supposed that also explained some of the more outlandish clothing he’d seen too.

“I understand,” he agreed after a long moment, arms crossed and brows furrowed. “I will try to speak less… confrontationally, unless I want to pick a fight.”

She regarded him with sharp eyes over the scrolls between them, but nodded. “Well, I do at least understand that you mean what you say.”

Rixiong grinned. “And I am learning fast, yes?”

“It would be very worrying if a cultivator failed to pick up something as simple as literacy quickly,” Ran Fen said. “But yes. We should discuss the elder’s test as well though, I have not been able to gather anything more on it ....”

“It is going to be a survival test taken over the course of a week,” Rixiong said promptly.

Ran Fen blinked several times rapidly. “What?”

“I have heard from the beasts around the mountain, there is an area being prepared, and the beast clans in it are enticed to help, something about earth spiders?” Rixiong said, scratching his head. “I suppose they will be making many traps for us!”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. “You… of course you would just talk to the beasts.”

He nodded happily. It was good that he could be helpful. “There are things I do not know though. The animals do not understand everything they see, and I have not tried to talk to the spiders themselves, I don’t think they would be too friendly.”

He did not like spiders very much! He had almost been eaten by one when he was very small, but Hujian had rescued him.

“Still, even that much is useful… a survival course? I suppose with the hostilities in the Wall, that makes sense. The Talisman Department is likely too busy to turn resources to testing,” Ran Fen said under her breath. Her inkbrush twirled, zipping across the page before her scribbling down hasty squiggles that Rixiong could not quite make out upside down. “Hah, in that case, my cooperation with you is truly an excellent investment. A test well suited to your talents.”

“Have you ever spent time in the deep wilderness Ran Fen?” He asked curiously.

“Well, the sect lands are hardly deep wilderness, even if I am sure the allied beasts of the sect will be riled against us…”

He stared at her steadily.

“...No, I have not,” she finally huffed, tilting her chin back. “Really, how hard could it be though?”

Rixiong rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I would say it is about as difficult as a wild man understanding courtly ways.”

She scowled at him. He grinned.

“You will just have to hold your end of the bargain then, as I have mine,” Ran Fen said. “Now, look here, these diagrams show the correct degree to which you should bow given the station of the person you are greeting…”

Rixiong sighed, sinking his chin down onto his hands as he peered at the scroll she shoved toward him, filled with people bowing at different depths and angles and with their hands arranged just so.

He would be very glad when the test began.