Everyone gathered in the suite Gregory shared with his wives. On the table in the room sat a few small chests— that confused everyone for a few seconds until the memory came back to them.
“Oh, those are for me!” Clover said, rushing to the table to check them.
“Alchemy supplies,” Yukiko agreed. “We should let you practice while we talk.”
“I can do a simple unguent while we do. It won’t be complicated enough to stop me. It’ll only be good for minor cuts, though.”
“Every little bit helps,” Mindie said.
“Let me go secure the things Hemet left for me,” Ling said, leaving the room with quick steps.
“The table is yours, Clover,” Jenn said. “We’ll sit back so you have space.”
“Okay. Roshana, can you put a cup of water into my cauldron?” Clover asked as she set up the enchanted cauldron on the table.
“Gladly,” Roshana smiled before condensing the water vapor in the air into water for her friend.
The others got settled, waiting for Ling to return and for Clover to start her alchemy.
Ling was back after a couple of minutes, a bright smile on her lips. “He left me a scale of difficulty to work with.”
“That’s good,” Clover beamed. “I’ll be working, but I can listen at the same time.”
“Did it seem like Lightshield knew Sage Windfoot?” Roshana asked.
“Old friends, at least,” Jenn replied.
Gregory nodded. “There’s history there that Laozi didn’t want to talk about.”
“Greg, I know that we’re very informal, but he is a sage,” Yukiko said softly.
“Oh, I’ll call him Sage Windfoot when we see him in public,” Gregory was quick to say. “But here, between us? He told us his name was Laozi when we first met him, and that’s how I think of him, even if we know the truth of who he is now.”
“Hmm… there is that,” Yukiko agreed. “We cannot make a mistake in public, though. That would be disastrous for us.”
“Agreed,” Ling nodded.
“Did he favor us?” Clover asked.
“No. He made Roshana use her turn for us to get the extra questions in,” Ling answered.
“It was well spent,” Roshana grinned.
“Agreed, as that got Clover and Ling the chance to consult with him again,” Yukiko smiled.
“Which also cost you and Jenn a question,” Gregory pointed out, “but the trade was well worth it.”
“We’ll make sure to use them wisely,” Ling said.
“We know,” Jenn grinned. “We trust you.”
“I think the fact that he gave them the chance to consult him is unusual,” Roshana said. “He looked a little happy when he did.”
Gregory considered what she said, then nodded slowly as he thought back to the moment. “Yeah… his lips ticked up briefly. He’s looking forward to it.”
“He’s friends with our elder,” Yukiko said. “I wouldn’t put it past Lightshield to have arranged for a way that can’t be challenged.”
“Good point.”
“We’ll do our best, Yuki,” Ling said. “We’ll help solidify the base of Aether’s Guard.”
“None of us doubt you’ll do your best,” Gregory said. “Clover has another important job to handle, too.”
“The kids,” Clover nodded as she added some supplies to the cauldron, turning on the heating enchantment it had. “I’ll do my very best for them. Both in training them, but also in making sure they laugh and smile.” She looked up with a bright smile of her own.
“You have the right personality for it,” Roshana giggled. “I’ve never met someone as happy as you.”
Clover’s smile faltered for a moment. “I’m happy, but part of that was because I had to be. It was to be happy and silly, or be beaten. While I used it as a mask for so long, it’s part of me now.”
“Oh…” Roshana whispered. “I’m sorry, Clover.”
“You didn’t know,” Clover said, her smile coming back.
“We’re sure you had troubles of your own,” Ling said. “All of us with eurtik heritage have.”
“Mine wasn’t as bad as many others in most ways,” Roshana said as the conversation deviated. “My family lived in a cluster of other immigrants from Limaz, so I know many of the social mores from the country. My family still practices many of them, like bathing. But, unlike them, we worship Aether, which caused many arguments about how we were abandoning the truth of Mortum.”
“Problems from both sides,” Jenn said, placing her hand on Roshana’s knee.
“While those of the empire would spurn my family for our blood,” she touched her ear absently, “I know what it is to be mocked, derided, and even beaten for being different. But I trusted in my grandmother and mother… I held on to those beliefs and hopes. Even when I was at my worst, I would focus on the hope of what was to come.” She looked up, meeting Gregory’s eyes. “And then, I was rewarded, for I found someone special to me.” She looked at the others. “Many others who are special to me.”
“And now, you have those who will help guard you against those times,” Mindie said, “or heal the hurts that are caused.”
Roshana gave Mindie a bright smile. “Yes, dear healer.”
Mindie flushed, then smiled. “Thank you for the book, I’m almost done with it. It’s helped me so much.”
“My grandmother would be happy to hear that it’s been useful.”
“Very much so.”
“To bring the conversation back on topic,” Yukiko said softly, “the sage stressed that he isn’t favoring anyone. We accept him at his word.” When she said it, she made sure her meaning was clear. “We are thankful that he answered our questions and let our dear friends consult him in the future.”
“Greg, I was curious about why you asked him what you did?” Mindie asked.
“The first two were small things that had bothered me slightly,” Gregory said. “Finding out he was a sage made them even more questionable to me.”
“I remember that first meeting, as it was our first date in a way,” Yukiko smiled gently. “His words were a deflection of the truth, but not a lie. He gave us partial information, and we didn’t seek to question him. He has tight control of his aether, too. I never felt any from him,” she trailed off as she spoke, her brow furrowing.
“Oh, right,” Gregory nodded. “All the other magi have a pressure to them, a gravity of power. We all suppress it without thought, but it leaks out. The mist we see with our resonance. I never thought about that.”
“He must be spirit path,” Roshana said. “Only the spirit path would allow one to so thoroughly hide that feeling.”
“I agree,” Mindie nodded. “One of the books I was reading at the archive about spirit path mentioned that as an advantage. You can sense other magi, but also hide yourself from them. I’d written it off as only being useful for clan troubles, but now, I can see it being more.”
“Rafiq has books from the archive with him… well, copies of books, I believe. We could ask him about it?” Gregory suggested.
“It rarely hurts to ask,” Yukiko agreed.
“He spoke to me of a different path he was following that combines mind and spirit,” Gregory said. “Let me tell you what he told me.”
It took him a few minutes to fill them in, but there was an eagerness to everyone when he’d finished.
“That’ll make our fighting better,” Jenn said excitedly. “We need a copy of that book, too.”
“We can see if he has them and will let us read them,” Gregory said. “If he does, we can read them out loud during the trip so we can all gain from them.”
“A solid idea,” Ling agreed.
“I still find it so hard to believe that all three paths can be combined,” Mindie said a little guiltily. “I know we’ve been working on it, but still…”
“There’s a reason,” Yukiko said. “Once you marry into our family, there are secrets that can be told. Secrets kept even from my parents, because they’re that dangerous for us.” She looked at the other three. “I have faith that you will all hear them in time.”
“We understand, Yuki,” Clover said as she stirred her cauldron. “I don’t mind. Daciana would probably have a drooping tail and ears right now, though.”
“Yes, she would,” Jenn nodded.
“Nessa would calm her,” Ling said. “Daciana just yearns fiercely.”
“That she does,” Yukiko smiled.
Gregory extended his resonance to the room, filling all the space he could with his awareness. Each person present came back feeling true, firm, and honest to him. He cleared his throat and looked at each of them slowly. “I will say one thing… not the full truth, but part of it. A part you can share with our friends when you see them again.”
Yukiko looked like she was about to object to it, but then she closed her eyes and Gregory felt her resonance touch his. After a second, she bowed her head to him, trusting that he wouldn’t give too much away.
Jenn looked worried, too, but seeing the exchange, she did as Yukiko had done, extending her resonance. After a moment, she also bowed her head to him.
“That felt… good… but weird,” Mindie giggled.
“What?” Clover asked.
“We all extended our resonance out,” Gregory answered her.
“I felt it,” Mindie smiled, looking at him. “A warmth that comforted me. All three of you.”
“Check your resonance in the taproom tomorrow,” Gregory told her. “It’ll help you feel the vast difference between those in harmony with you, and others.”
“I will.”
Taking a deep breath, Gregory looked over the room again. “I can’t say how— not right now— but I will say that there is a solid reason why you can walk all three paths. There’s a being called Darkness that I’ve spoken with.”
Yukiko tensed a little bit, then relaxed, understanding what he was going to say.
“I call her Darkness because she won’t tell me her name, and she stays shrouded in her namesake. I first spoke with her on my age day, when I passed out from the bane wolf attack. It is Darkness that makes walking the three paths possible.”
“Darkness does?” Ling asked slowly. “Why?”
“She has her reasons,” Gregory said, giving Ling an apologetic smile. “But she’s helping everyone near me do so. If I call them special to me, they can do it. Even those not special to me, but still in the clan, will likely be able to walk the path of the Peaceful Fist easily.”
“It’s because of her that we can. Jenn and I have spoken with her, too,” Yukiko added, “during tea ceremonies and a few other times. I don’t doubt that you will all speak with her in the future.”
Clover turned the heat off her cauldron, then sat forward. “Because we’re special to him and you two?”
“Yes,” Jenn nodded. “That’s why, Mindie, you’ll be walking all three paths even if you already aren’t.”
“I’ve seen the sparks for the channels,” Mindie said slowly, “but the mind path is so hard to gauge.”
“It really is. We don’t know how to compare it since we’ve been on our own path for so long.”
“The aether grows smaller, but condenses,” Ling said. “On just the mind path, it starts to grow much larger. Once we trained with you, it shrank back down, but I could see the difference in the density of the flames.”
“My flame has grown larger, the way it is supposed to on the mind path. Not by much, but some. I can tell that I’ve touched all three already,” Roshana said. “I believe you, Greg. I can feel that, as long as we’re true to you, we can do what we are.”
Ling and Clover agreed with Roshana.
Mindie bowed her head. “I didn’t mean to question it…”
“We know,” Yukiko said, touching her shoulder. “You’re worried that you’d be left behind the rest of us.”
“Yes…” Mindie’s voice was a bare whisper.
“You’ll never be left behind, dear healer. Your resonance showed you the truth. Greg is what you desire, and we know that feeling well. So calm your mind. Just accept and grow with us.”
Mindie hugged Yukiko. “I will, first wife. I will. Thank you.”
The striking of the hour was distant, but Gregory caught the faintest edge of it. “Time for bed?”
“Yes,” Clover sighed. “Mindie, help me gather this for you, please?” She motioned to her cauldron. “The unguent is ready.”
“Of course.”
As everyone was getting ready to leave, Yukiko giggled. When they all looked at her, she grinned. “I remember Fureno arguing with the sage when he was trying to change the papers for the arena. How do you think he’d have dealt with finding out who the sweeper really was?”
Gregory began to laugh, as he could imagine the dinner with the Eternal Flame. “Fureno would have gone pale and stared at the sage, then he’d try stammering out an apology. If I recall correctly, he threatened harm to Laozi if the old man didn’t move.”
“Yes,” Yukiko started laughing again.
The others began to laugh when they thought about the same thing.
