Sky Pride

Chapter 5- The Burden of Choice

Tian spent twelve hours moving from field hospital to field hospital. The actual hospitals were fully staffed by mortal doctors, and Tian accepted that he couldn’t be everywhere and save everyone. That was an early lesson beaten into him by the wasteland. You could do your very best, and still not save everyone, and you would lose even more people if you tried.

The wounded seemed grateful enough for whatever care he could provide. He wasnʼt the only ‘holy man’ going around ministering to the injured. Some could only use mortal magics, prayers really. In Tian’s opinion, they were only useful as a distraction. The mortals seemed to disagree. Others had a more practical bent, administering medicine and providing first aid. There were even a few retired doctors willing to help out, moving their old bones once more. There was no city-wide system for managing sick or wounded civilians. Everyone just did their best, and for today at least, everyone helped.

He sent Han home to rest after the first four hours or so. It seems that his endurance was still lacking, unable to persist after fighting a battle. No matter. That’s what training was for, to get better.

When he had done all he thought he should, he made his way to the former Jin family compound. Now much changed, he noticed. The street had become populated by shopkeepers selling protective amulets and figurines. The site of “The Noble Sacrifice” was naturally too precious to leave in the hands of a merchant family, particularly when heresy was involved. On the other hand, land in the city was too precious to simply expropriate without any sort of compensation.

If the people looking for compensation were the Long Clan, backed by Heavenly immortals, anyway. Other people might have struggled.

In a compromise, they were given a big piece of the block next door to the old compound, which they then converted into a small warehouse, a few shops, and a small manor. There had been people living there before, but they were far more easily moved. Besides, the neighbors who didn’t have to move were delighted. A new shrine and more passing merchant traffic from people in an entirely different field? Blessings upon blessings!

Tian walked down the street slowly, taking it all in. Nobody was running away this time. No doors slamming shut, no dogs and horses bolting for the alleyways. No echoing tap of the broom handle against the flagstones, no chant bouncing off the walls and filling the ears of the mortals nearby. He never did find out how people hearing his chant were affected.

The new compound was nothing like the old one. It was considerably more grand. If you didn’t know, you might have no idea the Long clan had any relation to the Jin clan at all.

Liren met him at the gate, golden robes still on, spear in hand, though she was wearing her hat and veil.

“Some quick witted types figured out the compound would be empty, and that while we would eat the meat, surely we would leave them some soup.”

Tian blinked at her. “I am not a cannibal. I would be willing to swear you aren’t either.”

“I’m quoting here, and the expression means we would take the most and the best, but we would leave a little bit for everyone else.”

“Oh. I suppose that would be frugal.”

“Should I open the warehouse to the public?”

“Hell no!” Tian felt the spirit of both his teacher and his grandfather upon him, surging with outrage at the thought of not stealing everything. He faked a cough and amended. “At least not until we have been through everything and freed the prisoners. You said they needed medical help, but were stable?”

“Yes. Zihao, we got it wrong. Very wrong. They werenʼt being prepared as slaves. This is a weapons cache for that mantis heretic we killed.”

The warehouse had a wide variety of crates, barrels and sacks. Going from the smell, some of the sacks contained grain. Beyond that, a quick sweep of his senses told him there was nothing of interest here. All mortal grade goods. It probably would be best to open it up to the public. He would ask Han to sort it out with the City Lord. The city already had a rice shortage. Padding the granary seemed like a good idea.

He swept his senses through the warehouse again, and once again, found nothing.

“Found it yet?” Liren asked.

“No. In fact…” Tian slowly swept his senses through a third time letting them linger in the space. Trying to find the feel or taste of the qi and the elements in the room. Still nothing. Liren’s teeth pulled back in an approximation of a grin.

“I borrowed a trick from you.” Liren flooded the horn spear with yang qi and banged the butt against the brick floor. The qi spread out, flooding the room, shifting and subtly changing as it passed over and through all the sacks and crates. Tian’s attention immediately snapped up to the rafters. He still couldn’t see anything, but the flow of qi through the space was disturbed.

“The horn of a xiezhi despising illusions. Fitting, I’d say.” Liren didn’t smile. There were twenty three bundles of something hanging from the roof.

“I could feel the breath of their vital energy yesterday. Now? Nothing.” Tian murmured.

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“I checked them out earlier, just to see what was being hidden. Once you get close enough, the illusion vanishes. I didn’t touch them. You will see why when you get up there.”

Tian called out the flying sword and flew up. The rafters were very dusty. Clearly never cleaned. Disgraceful. His brothers in the West Town Outer Court were always cleaning the rafters. Tian found them up there all the time, usually when he had questions.

The illusion broke when he was within arms reach. He had to control a flinch. It looked like a spider’s pantry, or perhaps hams curing in a shed. Twenty three bodies, wrapped tightly in white silk thread and hung from the ceiling. The threads were wrapped around long paper talismans, covering most of the body. The talismans were written in a script Tian didn’t recognise, long sinuous shapes that seemed to drip down the yellow paper. Small ivory plaques were sewn to the top of the bundle, over the forehead. Carved on the ivory were the characters “Nourishing Rest.”

Tian’s hand hesitated for just a moment, before reaching out and hovering over the bound forms. Whatever else the talismans did, they kept away investigating qi. He had to concentrate and push his awareness past the barriers to see what was within.

The bundle he picked was a woman, level five or six of the Earthly Realm. Her middle aged appearance suggested her cultivation art and her potential were both ordinary. Vital energy was still being gathered by her. She was breathing it in. Her cultivation art wasn’t properly cycling, but he could see it minutely growing with every slow breath. Then the gathered vitality would dissipate, leaving a void for the next breath. He followed the dissipation into the body, threads of fine qi digging into muscle and viscera. Seeing what could be found. He soon wished he hadn’t.

“I’m guessing you didn’t find…” He spoke slowly, almost tasting the words.

“I didn’t dig past the talismans. I know a gu sorcerer’s incubator when I see one.”

Tian nodded faintly. “For the best, for the best. I’m going to call over Little Han. He should see this.”

He sent the message mentally, reminding Han to not eat anything before coming. He cut down the woman, and laid her out on a board over a stack of boxes.

“Should we bring down the rest?” Liren asked.

“Leave them for now.” Bitter, bitter words, the taste of them twisting his mouth.

He started examining the talismans. They were unfamiliar to him, though they shared similarities with the talismans used in the Broadsky Kingdom. Mostly the paper and ink, though the characters and symbols seemed a little familiar. Liren figured it out first.

“Caligraphy, but not from this dynasty. No idea what it means, though.”

Han arrived while they were still analysing the talismans and planning the surgery. “Han, this is going to be painful for you, but I want you to see this as part of your education. You have probably heard your teachers saying some unlikely things, particularly about our time in the Redstone Wastes. Perhaps you wondered if we were fooling your bloodline somehow. We spoke only the truth. Let me show you one of many, many reasons I want to see every heretic in every corner of the world dead.”

He waved his hand over the mummified woman. “This woman has forty insects inside her belly and chest. They have eaten away or shifted major parts of her organs. She is being kept alive by a combination of the talismans covering her and a sort of ooze the bugs excrete that is working as a vitality supplement. She should have died weeks ago. Instead, she is a living incubator for these insects. The talismans are here, I believe, to keep her alive and the insects dormant. The silk binding is simply a way to keep any accidents from happening and to prevent anything from falling off.”

His hand chopped down, pointing at each item as though he was cutting it apart with a saber.

“Now then, Young Hero Han. I can kill the insects easily enough. They are still in the Earthly Realm, about Level Three. I can kill them easily with qi, but in a long operation, qi and vital energy must be conserved. Medicine- My Gu powder will work well, and hopefully neutralize any poisons they might release on death. They do that, incidentally. Gu will often try to kill the host if they think they are being extracted or killed. But that’s all maybes and theory. I don’t know. I’ve never done a surgery like this, nor seen seniors performing exactly this surgery. Somewhat similar, but not exactly this. I was a little distracted at the time, too. I was hauling the bodies of my brothers and sisters to be incinerated, lest the curses on them kill everyone else.”

Tian pressed his hands together with a terrible smile. “I can kill the Gu. I might, possibly, with luck, even save her life. But it will be a life with missing and ruined organs. A life of misery, and given the amount of her bowels that are simply gone, one of profound humiliation and weakness. What’s more, I can’t even ask what she wishes, or what her family wishes, without awakening her and risking waking the insects inside of her. So what should I do? Keep in mind, those forty gu are equivalent to forty low level cultivators suddenly appearing in the city, all under control of someone who views virtues like compassion, frugality and humility with contempt. We killed the one coming to control them, but there are always more heretics. Left alone, she is a hidden danger to the city.”

He sent his darts upwards, destroying the concealing array. Han staggered back, his eyes wide at the sight of the hanging bodies. His hand squeezed his spear until the wood creaked and his knuckles were bone white.

“And what about the rest, Young Hero Han? Where does my doctor’s path lead me? Where is the righteous way through this dilemma? What is kindness, what is cruelty, what is mercy or charity or grace? What does it mean to save a life, or to take one, or even just to take the responsibility of the decision? What is fair?”

Tian leaned forward, his eyes fever bright. “What is fair, Young Hero Han? What is fair to her, to me, to you, to the tens of thousands of mortals in this city? What is my responsibility? And to whom? I took no oaths to protect this city or its people. Everything I have done here has been my choice. This will be my choice too.”

The energy drained from Tian, coldness filling the sudden void. “She is stable, for now. I don’t have to do something right this second. However, inaction is also a choice. One with unpredictable consequences. There will be other sorcerers that come to this city. Perhaps the shamans could make use of such insects. I don’t know. The best available doctors I know are more than a week away, and that’s flying. Liren and I won’t be parted. Should we leave this city without Heavenly defenders for at least two weeks, just as an invasion army gathers around it?”

Darkness did not wrap itself around Tian, for all that Han and Liren felt like it did. It was an illusion brought on by the gathering of his qi, the killing cold of winter and the black depths of the ocean. “When I say I shall not suffer a heretic to live, this is why. Not only is the heretic evil, they deny me the ability to be good.”