61. Children

  “So we asked Lukal Lukal to build the campus. We’re still putting the staff together, but this will be your room,” Taimei said, escorting Sora into the room that had been assigned to her in the girl’s dormitory. The walls were built of solid stone, with wooden doors and furniture. “At least, if you still want it.”

  “I do,” Sora said, glancing around. It wasn’t much, just a room with a bed, a window that faced the quad, a dresser, a closet, and a desk. It was more than she’d ever had in the tower, and in the tower she’d had to fight for every privilege. In the tower, the most luxurious room she’d ever had had six children sleeping in it at a time. In the tower, she’d--

  She shook her head. The tower wasn’t her world anymore.

  Neither was the Six Mountain Sect, she thought. Until she reached silver rank, at least, she was a disciple at the Thunderous Illumination Academy. That the name might change in the future was of little consequence. The building and the promises of the people who had founded it were what gave it a sense of permanence.

  “I was thinking I’d break through to bronze soon,” she told Taimei. “I was holding back for the tournament. I was going to advance right afterward, but I heard a whisper that I thought might be the worldfather telling me to wait. So I waited. But I think it’s close to time, and it feels right.”

  “You should always listen to you instincts. But if you want my advice, give us a few more days to get a better understanding of your path before advancing. If Polkluk and I both think you’re ready for it, then yes, I think you’re old enough for bronze. But just remember that, for the present moment, we plan to graduate children who reach silver.”

  “I know,” she said. “The whisper says that I should plan to spend eight or nine years at bronze if I want a good foundation. I want a good foundation.”

  “You should talk to Polkluk before you make any decision about advancing to Bronze,” Taimei repeated. “He’s the expert on the foundation realm. Did you know that he tore down his foundation and completely rebuilt it from scratch? There’s a lot more to that story than that, and he loves to tell it, so you should ask him soon.”

  “Okay,” Sora agreed. She looked out at the sky, recalling the tear that she had seen before the battle. “If the enemy comes from the sky again, will you fight?”

  “Yes,” Taimei said. “And if they come again, you and all of the other students will go into the shelters that we’ve built. They should be able to defend you even against a platinum cultivator’s attack. The wards protecting them were designed by Little Bug himself and protect the entire city, but they’re strongest in the shelters.”

  “Uh-huh,” Sora agreed. She kept staring at the sky for a moment, then turned back to the adult. “I’m not your daughter, you know.”

  “I know. I’m not adopting you. I have my own child on the way. Soon I’ll be busy running the school and we won’t have as much time to talk,” Taimei agreed, keeping the emotion out of her voice as she stated these facts.

  “Good. My last big sister was brokenhearted when I told her that I was leaving. She thought that I really thought of her as a sister, but in the tower we moved from family to family all of the time. It was easier to pretend that someone was helping you out of the goodness of their heart than admit the truth.”

  “And what was the truth?” Taimei asked.

  “That the older kids who couldn’t move up the tower were leeches. They gave us advice and stuff in exchange for time in the cultivation rooms and better sleeping arrangements and things like that. Every time we moved up a floor, we said goodbye and they had to find a new kid to leech off of, so they didn’t really want us to advance. They got meaner and meaner to each other the higher you climbed, because when you’re down at the bottom you had only a few big brothers or sisters, and at the top you had so many. It was pathetic.”

  “I see,” Taimei said. “Having lived through that, it makes sense that you’d be suspicious of older people.

  “I would have done it too, if I’d gotten stuck on a floor,” Sora admitted. “Until I managed to break through whatever was keeping me there, I’d definitely have exploited whatever weakness I could to advance. Even if it meant being a big sister. Or a girlfriend. Or whatever.”

  “Things don’t work like that on Atla,” Taimei reminded the girl.

  “I know that up here,” Sora said, pointing to her head. “But sometimes I forget it here,” she said, pointing to her chest. “Anyway, when do the uniforms arrive? I only have two sets of clothes, but you said when I arrived I’ll be getting more?”

  “Oh, yes! We need to get your measurements for the seamstresses,” Taimei agreed. “Let’s do that next.”

  ~~~~~~~

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  The children sat in a circle. They exchanged nervous looks. They were an even mix of boys and girls, twenty of them altogether, and they were very nervous.

  “Who’s going to ask him?” one of the boys asked.

  “We should ask him together,” a girl answered. “As a team. We all agreed on this. He always talks about what a big thing it is. He says that it’s more important than getting married or doing sex. So we gotta be certain, and if we put it on just one of us then he won’t think that we’re all serious about it.”

  “She’s right,” A second boy said. He was older than the boy who had asked, almost being of an age when he would be asked to leave the comfort of the great fire and expected to find his own way in the world. “You’re young, so I don’t think you really understand yet. I think you will, when it happens, but we’re embarking on a great journey. I still hear our Master weeping over the loss of Xol the First Disciple. He was a Jaguar, but our Master mourns him like a father mourns a child, like a husband mourns a wife. Like I mourn my parents. If any of us dies, we will mourn the others like that. That is what we are committing to.”

  The twenty children exchanged nervous looks.

  “Are you all certain that you can really commit to something like that?” the older boy asked. “Because if you have any doubts then he will see them. Our master can see into our hearts and know our truths better than we know ourselves. Do not go before him if you are deceiving yourself, or if you do not commit to loving everyone in this circle with just as much devotion as you love yourself.”

  The children went silent. Then, one by one, they looked up with determination.

  “We ask him together,” one boy said, standing up.

  “Yes, together,” a girl said, standing.

  One by one they stood, until only the oldest boy was left.

  He smiled at them. “There is no need,” He said, and abruptly he shifted and the children saw that their Master was sitting in their circle. There were still ten boys and ten girls, but none of them had noticed that there had been one extra until their Master decided to reveal himself.

  “Lukal Lukal has heard your conviction and he approves. Sit back down, and I shall guide you through the North Star Guiding Formation. Be warned that it will take some time to perfect, and that the learning process is very unpleasant. But soon, you shall be stronger together than you will ever be when you are apart.”

  ~~~~~~

  The three walked quietly through the town square. Without a word, they each tossed a gold coin into the collection receptacle at the base of the statue. Then, the woman among them reached out and touched the statue.

  Matla’s eyes turned gold. She sighed and withdrew her hand.

  “I knew it,” she said. “But it is nice to have early confirmation, I suppose.”

  “I suppose this is one step of our path which we cannot share quite like we typically do,” Farun said, taking her hand.

  “But we will be at your side as much as we can,” Arjun said, taking her other hand.

  Lahri sighed again, and allowed herself to feel their reassurances. Their words, their actions, and their bond were comforting. “I was worried that this would drive a wedge between us.”

  “What? You mean because there can only be one father?” Farun said.

  “Yes,” Lahri admitted.

  “I’m happy to raise Arjun’s child as if he were my own.”

  “And I would do no less for Farun’s,” Arjun agreed.

  “We have no secrets from each other. But I think that this is one secret that should be kept from all of us,” Lahri said. “Let us never question which one of the two of you is truly the father.”

  The men shifted, but then shrugged. “It might become obvious, depending on how the babe looks and grows,” Farun pointed out. “But we shall simply say that we are both the fathers to this child, and any future children you—”

  “You both are fathers,” Atla said, manifesting as his boy-eidolon nearby. “You’re not just pregnant, Lahri, You have twins, and they have different fathers. Congratulations.”

  The boy ran off, laughing, as the trio looked after him for a moment.

  “I think he was waiting quite some time to reveal that information,” Lahri said.

  “Yes, and it made him so happy,” Farun said.

  “The little prick could have told us sooner,” Arjun muttered. “I mean, it wouldn’t have made a difference, but you’d think that we’d get special treatment or something.”

  “We just did,” Lahri reminded him.

  “I know, I just wanted to mutter about something,” Arjun muttered, and they laughed. The Dao companions walked back before too many in the crowded streets noticed them visiting the statue of Matla.

  But still, they had come in the middle of the day, and there was no keeping that secret for very long.

  ?