Chang-li stepped into the gardens for a bit of fresh air. The Brotherhood kept their grounds exceptionally well-tended, even now. Little paths meandered between hedges and shaped topiaries. He passed a pair of servants with clippers who bowed their heads and ducked out of his way.

He rounded a corner and came up short. There, sitting on a bench under an overhanging willow, contemplating a small display of rocks, was Min's grandfather, the Eldest Brother of the Oaken Band. He looked up and saw Chang-li and beckoned.

"Chang-li, come, join me."

Chang-li didn't have an excuse, so he approached the master of the Oaken Band and nodded to him.

"I understand your operations have been most successful. My brethren report nothing but good things about you and your comrade, Young Master Joshi."

"We've done what we can," Chang-li said. His words felt awkward. He forced himself to meet the older man's eyes. He was not a member of the Brotherhood. He owed this man filial respect as the grandfather of his wife, but not obedience. "I'm glad we were able to do as much as we have."

"Indeed," the Eldest Brother agreed. "We have a chance to converse, you and I. Come, sit, relax." He gestured to the bench beside him.

Chang-li very much did not want to sit, but he forced himself to cross the space and take his place beside Min's grandfather.

"It is, I think, time for us to speak of our next plans," Grandfather Jiang said calmly.

Chang-li tensed. "What do you mean, next plans?"

"Only exactly that. With Vardin City beginning to recover from the tower breach, it is a time for a strong hand to step up and take the reins. Noren serves well, but at heart, he is only a hired man, not part of our family," Min's grandfather said. He smiled at Chang-li as he spoke. "He will do to train the young disciples while you climb as far as you can, grandson. The full strength and power of the Brotherhood is behind you. What is it that you need to progress? You will have it. Resources, they will be given. Bin tells me that entrance to your next tower may be costly. We will sponsor you."

Chang-li felt himself torn. On the one hand, the offer of support was overwhelming. To be able to attend whichever tower cull seemed best without worrying about money, to purchase resources that would make it easier for him to reach the next stage of his progression, seemed almost too good to be true. But it was clear Min's grandfather knew nothing about what it meant to be a cultivator.

"Sir," he said, trying to keep his tone polite as he addressed the older man. "I think well of you and the Brotherhood, but I can't..." He shook his head, struggling to find the right words. "I can't be beholden to anyone on my climb. And what if it took me decades to achieve my goal? Surely the Brotherhood doesn't want to invest without return."

Min's grandfather laughed. "We have reached where we are today because, as a young man, I made several long-term decisions that have paid off. My grandchildren do not always follow in my footsteps, but Min, at least, is far-sighted. She will see that you have the backing you need." He rose, beaming down at Chang-li. "But I can tell you are weary. You have done well, and I don't want to push you now. Relax, enjoy the evening. We will talk again, perhaps when Min has returned."

He strode off before Chang-li could decide how to answer him. Chang-li stared after him, his insides churning. He might think too much like a scribe and not enough like a cultivator, but at least he didn't think like the leader of a quasi-legal organization.

Yet, the prize dangled was enticing. If Chang-li were to turn it down, he'd have to find his own resources for making it higher up in the tiers, not to mention making an enemy of a man who had spent his whole life in back rooms and back alleys. But how could he explain to the Eldest Brother that funding wasn't what he needed, when he himself didn't know what he did need?

Chang-li felt trapped. The garden seemed to close around him, smothering him with its greenness. He got to his feet and hurried toward the gate, desperate to get some fresh air.

As Chang-li stormed through the gates of the Brotherhood compound, heading who knew where, just needing to clear his head and rid himself of the anger he felt toward Min's grandfather, he nearly ran straight into Joshi coming in from outside. Astonished, he pulled up short.

Joshi looked him over in surprise. "Something wrong?"

"You could say that," Chang-li said. He took a deep breath. "Come on. I could do with a walk to clear my head."

"I already tried that." Joshi gave a wry smile. "It didn't work."

"Ah, but I have an idea," Chang-li said. He beckoned to Joshi, and they set off together, Chang-li heading for the ramp leading downward. They crossed a devastated Petal where they had fought a pack of lux-mutated rats suffering from a spreading plague, two days ago. Then they descended a long curving walkway into a largely-intact neighborhood, before crossing a bridge to their destination Petal. Here piles of debris had been pushed back and small tents and recently erected huts had been raised.

Joshi looked around. "They have made progress."

"Yes, indeed," Chang-li sniffed. The smell of roasting meat filled the air, and his stomach rumbled. He grinned. "Let's get something to eat."

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He strode over and found where a man was roasting long skewers of meat Chang-li hoped was chicken over a fire, then trading them to onlookers for a couple of copper coins. Chang-li dug some out of his purse, but the man spotted him and shook his head, holding up a hand.

"No charge for the cultivators who have worked to bring peace back to Vardin City." He handed each of them a long skewer.

Joshi sniffed before ripping a long chunk of meat off the skewer with his teeth. "This is excellent."

The man beamed with pride. "Thank you, elder brother!" He bowed low.

Chang-li let out a sigh. Even these folk were confusing Morning Mist and the Brotherhood. He filled his mouth with the delicious meat and wandered away.

"What's getting into you?" Joshi asked as he chewed on a bit of the soy and honey-coated chicken.

Chang-li swallowed his bite. "Talking with Min's grandfather."

"Ah," Joshi said, nodding. "And he said?"

"He's offering me everything I could want at a price I don't want to pay," Chang-li spat. "And he expects me to be honored by it. And part of me is, but I can't accept what he'll put on me." He stopped because there was a knowing look in Joshi's eye. Chang-li sighed. "Right. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Yes and no." Joshi shrugged. "We walk similar paths."

Chang-li had neglected to tie his hair back again after rinsing his face and hair earlier, and now it fell well past his shoulders. He might still be thinking like a scribe, but he didn't look like one any more. His body was tight with muscles, and he could feel the difference in his walk when he stopped to think about it. He had set off down this path more or less accidentally, but now he needed to start making real choices. "I can't stay here," he told Joshi. "I don't want to accept the Brotherhood's offer. Not yet. I'm not strong enough."

Joshi nodded. "I understand exactly what you mean. If you were higher ranked, like Master Noren, you might be able to accept the help that your grandfather-in-law is offering without it making him entitled to a claim on you."

"I need to get stronger. I knew that. I've always known that. Noren challenged me, asked me why I'm cultivating, and I didn't have a good answer for him."

"It is a difficult question," Joshi admitted.

"Why are you cultivating?" Chang-li asked, then quickly added, "Sorry, that might be too personal."

Joshi shook his head. "I have been asking myself much the same question, and I have started to have an answer. I am cultivating because I wanted to prove to my father that I am just as good a son as my brothers. You know, I think, that my mother was not of the Darwur people."

Chang-li nodded. "You've mentioned that."

"She was a kind woman." Joshi's expression was distant now, as if he remembered back. "But no, not like the rest of the Darwur. She read books. She sang poetry in different languages. She was my mother, and I was very proud of her. But my half-brothers taunted me with being soft, and yet I was the one my father chose to go to the monks of Harupa for training." He shrugged. "Probably because I could read, which does make it easier. For a time, I wanted to come back and prove myself to them. Then I had other things on my mind." His face went through a complicated series of expressions. "Now my father is dead, and I find myself wishing to return home again."

Chang-li's stomach felt like it was dropping out from into his feet. So this was it. "I will miss you," he began.

Joshi interrupted. "I'm not strong enough to return home yet." He looked around and lowered his voice, though there didn't seem to be anyone to overhear. "And this is not a thing I wish to say in a city full of cultivators, but if you were to come, there are secrets my people hold that I think you would find most fascinating."

Chang-li couldn't guess what he meant specifically, but it was clear Joshi was offering something valuable, and Chang-li wanted to know more. "What are you suggesting?"

"Before I return home, I need to reach the Peak of Spiritual Refinement," Joshi said. "I am not yet strong enough to influence my people. They don't understand what a cultivator can really do. I must show them."

Chang-li leaned against a pile of rubble, looking out across the Petal to the open lake. The sun was setting on the shore beyond, lighting the whole lake golden. It was a beautiful place and very restful right now. Chang-li had enjoyed his time here. Joshi was right. It was time to move on.

"You have a goal," he said finally. "You have something that's driving you to take the next step. I don't yet. I don't want to be made a tool by the Brotherhood, but that's not a goal. I need something more." He grinned to himself. "Noren's right. I am still a scribe at heart. I think the answer's out there, and I think I know where to find it."

Joshi's eyes blazed as he turned to look at Chang-li. "Oh?"

"The sect of Morning Mist had a headquarters once," Chang-li said. "It was destroyed when the sect was, or partially so. Scribe Wulan's journal describes vaults and rooms that were sealed. They may still be intact. He wants me to take him there so I can plant his shade there among the ghosts of the sect. And I wouldn't mind having him gone," he admitted. "More importantly, you know how he and Cultivator Kang brought records of the first few tiers of advancement? Well, if their sect had other records, they might still be there."

"And you think something in these records will help us progress." It wasn't quite a question.

Chang-li shrugged. "Morning Mists records have brought us this far. Who knows what else they might contain." He hesitated, then shook his head. "But that's not the real reason. I need to find my reason for climbing. When I read the records of ancient cultivators, their drive, their focus speaks to me. I feel if I could just learn more, read more of their words…" Chang-li trailed off and glanced at his friend, slightly embarrassed to have said so much.

Joshi was nodding. "I think I understand. Does the shade know where this headquarters is?"

"No," Chang-li said. "But I have a map. Min found it, actually, in the records at the cultivator library in Fai-Lan City. I've spent some time looking it over. I think I can match it up to current landmarks. It's two provinces over."

"Not far then," Joshi said.

Chang-li reminded himself that Joshi's homeland lay all the way on the other side of the empire, even farther than Chang-li's home city of Yellow Sky City, and that his sense of "not far" was a little confused. "It's a week's journey," Chang-li warned, "and in the wrong direction if we are to go to your people."

"Travel is easier the higher you progress," Joshi said. "When shall we leave?"

"Very soon," Chang-li promised. "We're not going to sneak out. There's no reason to do that. I will speak with Noren and," he squared his shoulders, "Grandfather Jiang and arrange for us to have what we need for the journey. Why, we might even take some of the disciples with us," he considered, then shook his head. "Probably not. The senior disciples like Brother Stone are needed to help train the new ones, and the lesser ones would just be in our way."

Joshi clapped him on the shoulder. "Yes, I like this plan. Let us make ready and be off before much time passes."

"All right." Chang-li got to his feet, his heart feeling lighter than it had in days. It was good to have a plan, good to have a purpose. "I think we'd both better speak with Grandmaster Noren, though," he said. "He told me to find a purpose and then come to him. I'm interested in hearing what he thinks about this."

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