With his spiritual sense spread across the entirety of Tide’s Rest, if only at a very low level, Sen was aware of the exact location of every person. That was why he was standing where he was on the wall and hiding. It put him in a position to observe a group of children who were so achingly familiar to him. If necessary, he would gather them up and personally put them in one of the carts or wagons. What he wanted to know was whether or not it would beco necessary. The children were dirty, cold, and huddled together, watching the rest of the people prepare to leave. He could see the fear and uncertainty on their faces.
They didn’t know if they should go to the wagons. What if they were chased away? But if they didn’t go, they’d be left here alone. Not alone as they had always been, abandoned but surrounded by other people. Able to survive, if only just, by scavenging the things and food others considered trash. They would be truly alone and at the rcy of the spirit beasts. Caught between those fears, the children watched and waited in a kind of terrible paralysis.
Sen knew that the people back in Orchard’s Reach wouldn’t have hesitated to abandon him and the other orphaned street rats. After all, none of them had family nas, let alone families. They weren’t even whole people. If he had seen them all packing up to leave, he knew that he wouldn’t have even bothered to approach. He hoped that the people here were of better quality. However, as the hours dragged on, he beca convinced that they weren’t. No one was concerned. No one was looking for these children.
He’d almost convinced himself that the ti had co when sothing finally changed. Of all people, Zhu Fen and Sun Xue separated from the caravan that was forming. They walked directly to where the children were hiding, which caused the street rats to retreat into the shadows of the alley. It was Sun Xue, the quiet one, who entered the alley. He could hear one of the children let out a whimper of fear. Yet, the cultivator was calm.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “Everyone will leave soon. It’s ti to go to the wagons.”
Sen watched with a little amusent as the oldest boy there positioned himself between Sun Xue and the smaller children. He was trying so hard to be brave with his little fists clenched at his sides. His quavering voice gave away his fear.
“We can co?” he half asked, half demanded.
“This place isn’t safe anymore, so, of course, you can co. Lord Lu has commanded that everyone must co, after all.”
It took a bit more coaxing but, soon, a pack of bedraggled, nervous, wide-eyed children moved toward the city gate. While the cultivators were distracted by the children, Sen moved from his place on the wall to standing behind them. When the children were far enough away that they couldn’t hear. Sen stopped hiding. The cultivators spun to look at him, their eyes almost as wide as the children’s had been re minutes ago.
“In case you were wondering,” he said, “that is how you pass a test of character.”
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“Lord Lu,” gasped Zhu Fen.
Sun Xue appeared to have stopped breathing altogether. If she’d been a mortal, it might have concerned him.
“I was one of those children in Orchard’s Reach,” he said. “I lived just as they have lived. Little better than an animal. Fighting for the freshest scraps of discarded food just to fend off starvation for another minute, or hour, or day. Stealing when I couldn’t scavenge. Sleeping in whatever place I could find that was just a little bit warr or sheltered than open ground. Cultivators worship strength, and yet I would pit the will of any one of those children against any cultivator. You have struggled against the heavens for power. It is a test. I won’t deny that. By contrast, those children struggled ceaselessly against the world itself for every minute of life. And they did it with nothing but their wills and what smidgen of mortal strength is in their frail bodies. That is the harsher test by far.”
Zhu Fen and Sun Xue were both staring at him with their mouths hanging open.
“They could have chosen death,” he continued. “At any ti, they could have chosen death. It would have been easy. Death is rarely more than a breath away when you live as they have lived. You need only reach out your hand, and it will co. It would have been a sweet release for them. No more shivering until you feel like your body will shake itself apart. No more ache in your belly that grows and grows until you’ll do anything to make it stop. No more injuries that you can only hope will heal because no tender parent will bandage it, and any adult you ask for help will shout at you to leave. That’s assuming they don’t kick you away. No more half-sleeping because you’re afraid that soone will take what you have or slit your throat for the rags on your back. No more watching families and knowing you’ll never have that.”
Sen fell silent as all those old feelings ca back to him like it hadn’t been years but minutes.
“Every second isn’t rely a battle against the elents or death, but against your very self. You must battle hopelessness. You must battle despair. You must battle your envy and hatred for everyone who has all the things you wish to have. You must battle your feelings of helplessness against those who are stronger. If you ever fail to battle them, you will drown in them as surely as you will drown in the sea. So, here is the lesson.
“You look to your elders and your seniors as examples of strength, but they have faced every challenge with power in hand. Your power may feel inadequate in the face of your enemies, but rely possessing it makes you feel as though you can change things. When I look for examples of strength, I look to those children. With no power at all, they have fought far more demanding battles than you have ever faced. And they live to speak of it.”
There was a mont of silence, and then Sen felt sothing in him shift. It was like he ca out of a trance. He looked at Zhu Fen and Sun Xue. They both looked shaken. He wasn’t even sure why he’d told them all of that. He wasn’t convinced that he’d been speaking to them at all. It felt like he’d been telling himself more than telling them. For all that, though, he felt lighter and more prepared to face what was to co. He looked in the direction of the sea. This was assuredly not the insight that he’d co to Tide’s Rest for all those years ago, but he couldn’t help but feel like there was a strange symtry at work.
It was almost as though he’d needed to co back to this place to have that mont of revelation. For those few minutes, he’d been able to briefly shed Lord Lu, reluctant monarch, and return to being Lu Sen, the wandering cultivator seeking insights and balance. It was a brief reprieve, but he suspected it was also sohow vital. Having had his reprieve, though, it was ti to assu the mantle once more.
“Co,” he ordered, causing both won to jerk slightly. “As you told the children, this place isn’t safe anymore, and everyone must co. That includes the two of you.”
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