“As soon as I found this manual, I had an idea. If I could separate two different types of madra into different cores, then maybe I could learn two Paths!”
“Two Paths,” Yerin repeated. She didn’t sound nearly as excited about it as he was. “That’ll cost you twice the work. You’re having enough trouble with one Path as it is, I wouldn’t scrape yourself too thin trying for two.”
“I’m sorry, you must have misunderstood. I’m not on a Path. They wouldn’t teach me. I’d be open to learning a sword Path, if you had some extra time…”
She turned to him, her scarred face still streaked with blood. “This is why my master would have killed your clan elders.”
“Because they didn’t teach me a Path?”
“I’ll feed it to you in small pieces. You saw me stick solid sword-madra in the doorway, true?”
“Right,” he said. “Uh, true.”
“What kind of a technique do you contend that is?”
“It’s a Forger technique,” he said.
“And when I throw madra out of my sword?”
“Striker.”
“And when I call up aura from every sword in the room?”
That was a Ruler technique, and he saw where she was heading. “I know about all that. Some of the elders in my clan can use techniques outside their discipline.”
She nodded along. “Since you know, then answer me this: if anybody can do anything, what does your spirit matter?”
“Anybody can’t,” he said. “Most people can only learn a technique if their spirit has an affinity for it.”
“Is that true? That’s a mind-bender for me, then, because Heart of Twin Stars sounds like a classic Enforcer technique.”
He paused, because he wasn’t sure. Enforcers could use their madra to make themselves stronger, and their techniques had to do with strengthening the body…but the core was part of the body.
“Here’s another riddle for you. That Empty Palm you worked out? Looks to me like a Striker move.”
“It only reaches a few inches.”
“It’s a rotten Striker move, then, but a runty cub is still a tiger. See, your test everyone in Sacred Valley loves? That bowl of liquid madra? It’s a rotting trap of a test, and it’s filled you all up with lies.”
Lindon’s breaths were coming more and more quickly until it felt like he couldn’t breathe.
“That test doesn’t show you what you are. It shows you what you’re best at. Shows where you start, not where you end up. You start as a Forger, well cheers and celebration for you, that means you’ll have to work extra hard as an Enforcer. Outside of the valley, you don’t get to call yourself a sacred artist until you’ve at least learned the basics of all four disciplines and harvested a Remnant. To my eyes, every one of your elders is still in training.”
“So then…how could I be…”
“Unsouled?” She shrugged. “Never heard that word before coming here. You just started two steps behind, that’s the spine of it. Nothing worth crying about. Some of them polished families can take a squalling baby from Foundation to Jade in two and a half pills. It’s practicing your Path that’s hard, and it sounds to me like you’re halfway through with yours.”
For a long time, Lindon couldn’t say a word. The truth blasted through him, leaving him numb. He didn’t need to find a Path of his own.
He was already on it.
The wind pressed icy needles against eyes covered in tears, and suddenly he was scrambling through the pack on his back, digging out the Heart of Twin Stars manual. It was only halfway complete; the rest of the pages were blank. While Yerin asked him what he was doing and if he was crying, he juggled the manual, a brush, and a jar of ink. Anyone who founded a Path was expected to take careful notes, to pass their knowledge on to future generations.
With careful hands, he wrote at the top of the page:
The Path of Twin Stars.
EPILOGUE
Information requested: current status of Wei Shi Lindon.
Beginning report…
Wei Shi Lindon and Yerin, Disciple of the Sword Sage, leave Sacred Valley on the back of their constructed cloud. They plan to hide and rest before moving into the forest. Sacred beasts the size of buildings prowl in the shadows beneath the leaves, and even Yerin has no confidence in her power to protect them both. She knows that only if they are stealthy and quick will they survive, and then only if nothing goes wrong.
She is not aware that the Transcendent Ruin has risen in the heart of the forest, for the first time in eight hundred years. Its promise calls to sacred artists for thousands of kilometers around…and to the other, older, darker things that wait in the surrounding wilds.
DIVERGENCE DETECTED: the Desolate Wilds, Transcendent Ruin. Continue?
Divergence accepted, continuing report…
On the peak of Mount Samara, a crippled Heaven’s Glory elder named Anses picks through the ruins of what he calls the Ancestor’s Tomb. His pride is trampled, the power of his school has been questioned, and now it seems that they have created for themselves a powerful enemy. The Sword Sage’s disciple will return, he knows, with greater force and with vengeance.
But despite his certainty, he has a deep-seated fear of the wilderness outside Sacred Valley. He could not survive it, and therefore he believes no one could. In his judgment, the Sage’s disciple must have doubled back. Where will she go if not to the home of her ally, the Unsouled Wei Shi Lindon?
He crafts a message to his fellow elders, urging them to march with all their flagging strength on the Wei clan.
DIVERGENCE DETECTED: the destruction of the Wei clan. Continue?
Divergence accepted, continuing report…
As the members of the Heaven’s Glory School excavate their ancient tomb, a five-tailed snowfox the size of a man waits nearby. He is soundless, scentless, his presence masked to both sight and spirit. He is an ancient sacred beast, one of the original inhabitants of this valley, and he is only seen when he wishes to be.
He has followed the Unsouled Lindon since the intervention of Suriel, the Phoenix, Sixth Judge of the Abidan Court. Though he does not remember the events prior to her temporal reversion, he has noticed the effects of her involvement and believes that Lindon is favored by heaven. He watches the two young sacred artists leave the valley, and for the first time in centuries, he experiences hope. Maybe these children, blessed by the heavens, will save the valley from the Dreadgods’ return.
DIVERGENCE DETECTED: return of the Dreadgods. Continue?
Iteration 217: Harrow
[Divergence denied,] Suriel’s Presence said. [Report complete.]
The reports came to her in a mix of words, images, and impressions, retrieved by her Presence and transmitted to her in an instant. She’d looked into Lindon’s past, his surroundings, his upbringing, even his future. He was an interesting distraction.
Her Presence told her he had a seventeen percent chance of surviving the Desolate Wilds, a four percent chance of making it past Gold, and a zero-point-three percent chance of ascending beyond Cradle.
But in every world, in all the thousands of variations on humanity the universe spun out, people always loved to bet on the underdog.
She would return to the reports later, but although they took virtually no time, they did take her attention. She needed to focus now, to treat the situation with the gravity it deserved.