A cocoon of shadow surrounded Sen. He had made and sustained it all night while he sat cross-legged on the roof of the galehouse. The hope had been that imrsing himself in shadow that way would help provide so insight into the shadow walking technique. That hadn’t happened at all. It had mostly just served as a way to sharpen the other skills that let him evaluate the environnt around him without recourse to sight. It wasn’t a wasted effort since Sen couldn’t know when an enemy might deploy a technique that would temporarily blind him. It just hadn’t done much to help him understand how one stepped through a shadow into so other place. He felt it when Falling Leaf jumped up to join him on the roof. He relaxed his iron grip on the shadow qi and let it disperse, which revealed the pre-dawn illumination just barely lighting the horizon. Falling Leaf studied Sen for a mont before she sat down next to him.
“Why didn’t you offer to teach to write?” she asked without preamble.
“You didn’t seem interested,” said Sen, frowning as he thought. “Also, I guess I thought you already could since you can read. People who read can usually write.”
Falling Leaf shook her head. “I learned to read by watching the humans in town, and by watching you. The Caihong also helped learn a bit more.”
“But no writing?”
She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Paws are not good for holding objects like brushes. There were other priorities since I got hands.”
“Right,” said Sen feeling a little foolish for not recognizing the obvious there. “Well, you’re certainly welco to join in when I’m teaching Ai and Glimr of Night.”
Falling Leaf looked away then. “It’s not important.”
He squinted at the ghost panther in the dim light. I don’t understand what is happening right now, thought Sen. She’d co outside, jumped up to the roof, and asked the question. Then, when he’d told her that she could join in, she suddenly didn’t care anymore. While social signals were often lost on Sen, even he could see that there was sothing else at work. If it wasn’t about the writing… Sen wanted to bury his face in his hands for being so oblivious. He’d been pouring ti and energy into taking care of Ai. He’d been spending ti with Glimr of Night, trying to use the spider’s insights to generate so of his own. He’d been spending ti with Fu Ruolan before she stord off in a huff. He’d even been spending ti with the people in town. He'd been spending ti with everyone but her.
“I haven’t been a very good friend to you at all these last few years, have I?” asked Sen. “You’re only here because of , and I’m gone or training most of the ti. That’s when I’m not almost dying. I know you’ve been training with Fu Ruolan, but she’s not a friend. Glimr of Night is basically a stranger. And Ai—”
“She is a kit,” said Falling Leaf. “A kit must be tended and protected. All understand this.”
“True. Still, I haven’t been making much ti for you.”
“I’m not foolish. I know much is demanded of you. I also know that what happens to matters to you. You would not have brought the elder fox here if it didn’t.”
“Not that bringing him here did much good,” said Sen.
“Perhaps not, but even the fox thought he could help. How could you know that he was wrong? You also could have demanded knowledge or treasures for your own use, but you bartered with him to help . I do not doubt your care for , human boy. It is simply that I miss you.”
Rarely had Sen felt so damned by such a basic utterance as I miss you. When the person saying it shared the sa ho, he couldn’t help but feel that it had gone beyond re inattention and progressed into flat-out negligence. It hadn’t been malicious. Sen wasn’t delusional. He had been insanely busy for most of the last few years. There had been long stretches where there just hadn’t been any ti to spend on anything other than surviving. Since he’d gotten back from his little adventure with Laughing River, though, he could have found ti. He could have, but he hadn’t. For once in his life, though, the problem in front of him was sothing fixable.
“There’s no reason why I can’t teach you to write after Ai goes to bed for the night. It’s not like we need that much sleep.”
Falling Leaf didn’t say anything. She just smiled at him and nodded. Then, as fast as she had appeared, she was gone from the roof. Sen didn’t know if he’d actually end up teaching her to write, although he might. It was a useful skill, and she’d benefit from it. It was the commitnt Falling Leaf cared about. The reassurance that he would make ti to spend with her now that madness and looming death weren’t infecting every part of their lives. And it was such a small thing to ask for when compared to everything she had given him. If he could find entire days to spend in ditation and travel to town to teach people how to use spears, he would find a couple of hours to spend with her most days.
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Sen stayed up on the roof for a little longer. He watched as the sun slowly crested the horizon and considered if he was working hard enough to sustain any of his important relationships. While Master Feng, Auntie Caihong, and Uncle Kho were used to long absences in each other’s lives, he doubted the sa was true for most of the other people he knew. He supposed it was easy to ignore a five or ten-year gap in communication when centuries were trivial to you. Most people didn’t have that perspective. Still, most of that was a problem for another day. His more imdiate problem was utterly prosaic but oddly pressing. He needed to make Ai breakfast. It was going to be a busy day. She’d been asking about Dai Bao and the little girl she’d t, Zhi. So, Sen had promised he’d take her with him to town the next ti he went.
I should invite Falling Leaf, thought Sen as he prepared so food. As had beco her habit, Liu Ai groggily ca out of her room, shadow ball clutched protectively in one arm and a blanket dragging from the other. Sen settled the blanket around her shoulders and put her in a chair, where she slowly woke up as he finished making breakfast. Falling Leaf ca into the galehouse not too long after, which made Ai stir and hold out her arms. The ghost panther had co to so kind of accommodation with her discomfort regarding human children. She dutifully picked up the girl, who put her head on Falling Leaf’s shoulder and started snoring lightly.
“We’re going to town today as part of my grand plan for Ai to get glimpses of normalcy,” said Sen. “You’re welco to co with us. You’ll get to see so mortals fumble around with spears.”
“They don’t like ,” said Falling Leaf. “After what I did at the inn.”
“I don’t care what they like. I like you, and they can deal with it.”
Falling Leaf still looked uncertain.
“If you don’t want to go because you simply don’t want to go, I understand that. If you don’t want to go because of what those townspeople think, to hells with that. That whole town owes . If the only thing I ask for is that they behave nicely to my friend, they’re getting off cheap.”
Falling Leaf’s face cleared up at those words. “I’ll co along. I can leave if I don’t like it.”
“Good plan,” said Sen. “Plus, you’ll get to et Ai’s friends.”
“The grumpy man?” asked Falling Leaf.
Sen nodded. “Yes. There’s also a little girl there she seems to like.”
“Zhi,” mumbled Ai around a yawn. “She draws birds.”
“Yes, she does,” agreed Sen.
“I draw orchids,” declared Ai.
Falling Leaf looked to Sen for confirmation. He subtly shook his head in the negative.
“Ai does draw lovely flowers,” he added to try to give Falling Leaf so kind of context.
The flower conversation was summarily ended by the appearance of hot food. Then, it was ti to get ready to leave, at which point Ai couldn’t decide if she should bring along her brush to show off. It was clear she wanted to, and equally clear that she was worried it would get damaged. Sen decided that letting her make the occasional decision would probably be good for her in the long run. She eventually plucked the brush out of its cubby and brought it over to Sen. He could see her trying to formulate the question. Confident that phrases like spatial treasure were beyond her, he didn’t make her stumble through it.
“Would you like to hang on to that for you?” he asked.
She nodded. “Please.”
Sen held out his hand, and she gently rested it across his palm. He dropped it into his storage ring. As usual, this disappearing trick delighted the little girl to no end. If he was going to be storing things for her, though, he thought it was ti she knew where the stuff went.
“Do you know where things go when I do that?” he asked.
Ai shook her head. Sen held out a hand and pointed to one of the rings he wore.
“It goes in there.”
Ai shook her head and smiled at him in a way that said she knew he was trying to trick her.
“No, it doesn’t,” she declared.
“It does.”
“It’s too small,” she said.
“It’s a magic ring,” he told her. “And its magic power is to store things and keep them safe.”
Clearly doubting Sen, Ai looked over to Falling Leaf.
“It’s true,” said Falling Leaf. “I have a ring like that, too.”
An apple appeared in her hand, making the little girl gasp. Ai imdiately ran over and poked at the piece of fruit as if to reassure herself that it wasn’t so terrible grownup deception. Falling Leaf handed her the apple. Ai examined it closely before she ca back over to Sen and very deliberately touched the apple to the ring he’d pointed at earlier. He smiled.
“I have to use my magic to tell the ring to work,” said Sen.
It wasn’t exactly true, but he figured it was close enough. She gave him another dubious look.
“Really?” she asked.
“Do it again, and I’ll tell the ring to work.”
Ai once again pressed the apple against the ring. Sen activated the ring, and the apple disappeared. It was only after Sen made the fruit reappear and re-disappear several tis that Ai seed to accept that he wasn’t tricking her. Then, she said sothing that Sen felt like he should have anticipated.
“Put in the ring!” she shouted excitedly.
Thank the heavens Lo ifeng isn’t here, thought Sen. She’d be encouraging the girl.
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