Heavenly Shae

After about a dozen of the rocky hurdles, Shae wondered if she should have kept count. It could be useful to know, she mused. Then her stubborn side welled up and she refused to count them. If they make me run them, I'll just be counting every time and wishing for the end. She shook her head and pressed on.

While she wasn't tracking the time it was taking or the number of hurdles, she did notice immediately when the hurdles stopped. The place where the next one should have been was empty, and a little past it the path sharply rounded the cliff to form a blind corner. She slowed slightly, wary of the supposed traps and dangers of the entrance test.

She also checked up the cliff face, but spotted no obvious man-made features or signs of regular traversal.

When she rounded the corner, her breath caught and she almost tripped, stumbling forwards she kicked up rocks and swore at her own surprise.

Before her, perhaps a hundred paces away, a light shone over a doorway which was set into the cliff side. She continued to walk towards it.

Another weak light shone nearby, a small candle set on the ground with a figure sitting at it. Shae had missed them until the black clad figure stood. Now that she was moving, her black clothing stood out dramatically against the greys and browns of the rocky area.

Shae stumbled again, far more surprised that she recognized the black clothing. "What?" She mumbled.

The mystery woman waved at her and called out, "Shae? Miss Shae, is that you?"

The voice was familiar, but felt out of place. Shae scrunched her face up to concentrate. She was distracted enough to startle when she suddenly found herself in front of the woman. She tilted her head at the taller woman, recognizing her in the candle light. "Lari?"

"Ha ha! Yep. Glad you finally made it." The courier smiled, the mask that went with the outfit was nowhere to be seen.

"Uhm? What are you doing here?"

"Snrk. Well I am a letter-runner, or package courier in this case. I'm here to deliver something!" She spread her arms wide in between them.

"To who?" Shae's mouth answered before she could think it out.

"Hah! To you, silly." She leaned in to look at the young woman. "Are you feeling well? Tired from the trip? I suppose it is late."

Shae felt the back of her neck heat up. The expectation of who she first thought it was going to be, combined with the sudden close attention, it all fed into a rush of emotion. "Uh... Um- yea, a little tired."

"Wow! Miss Shae, your face!" Lari's eyes went wide, showing off her dark irises as deep black pits which looked somewhat intimidating in the dim candle light. "You look so pretty with all that makeup on!"

"Ah? Um- thanks." Shae was caught off balance by the compliment. "It's from- I had a... Well, it's been quite the journey."

"No kidding! When those spirit beasts attacked outside Gatewash, I was super worried."

"You were there for that?" Shae gawked.

"Aha, yeah." Now it was Lari's turn to be embarrassed, she rubbed the back of her neck and shoulder with one hand. "Sorry, I didn't find you to say hi more often. I only joined back up for the leg before Gatewash, they weren't letting us runners make the trip without guard. When I did look for you, you were off scouting behind the 'van."

"Oh, yea, I guess I didn't spend much time socializing amongst the actual caravan." Shae frowned at herself.

"Heh. Hey, don't look so glum, we can catch up now, or later since you're tired. I'll be in the sect city for a few days, at least."

"Mhmm! That'd be great. You can tell me how you got the new outfit." Shae tried to smile naturally as she blurted out the most important question on her mind.

Lari laughed, "Hahaha! That's not that long of a story. Some farm girl wanted something more normal, and some coin. She said it's shadow silk, a special fabric that blends into the dark and makes you practically invisible."

"Uhm." Shae pointed at the cloth that was clearly just black. "It doesn't look like it's doing that. Did she scam you?"

Lari shrugged. "Nah, I've heard of shadow silk before. Merchants are always trying to sell it to would-be assassins and the dark brooding types. They'll claim just about anything, because they can always say that you need to use qi with it to get it to work. Of course, by the time any kid is strong enough to use qi like that, they don't care or have forgotten about the claims." She waved a hand around while talking, then pointed her thumb at herself. "I bought it because it's durable and super comfortable to run in. Doesn't even get hot in the sun."

"Oh." Shae mumbled, trying to hide her disappointment, then blinked herself out of it. She reached out, "May I?"

"Hmm? Oh sure." Lari offered her sleeve so Shae could test the fabric.

"Hmmm, that is quite nice." It felt light and smooth, even the seams were well woven and hard to distinguish. "It seems quite high quality."

"Yeah, I know, right? Pretty sure I robbed the poor girl."

Shae couldn't resist a smirk at that. "Heh, well-" she bit her tongue. "Lucky find! You going to get it appraised by the sect?"

Lari tilted her head. "Huh, hadn't considered that. I was just going to run in it until the threads split. Can never have enough good clothing as a runner, same as shoes." She ran her own fingers over the fabric. "If it is high quality, though." She stared at it for a breath. "It might last a whole season of running! That'd be great!"

"Hah!" Shae smiled and shook her head. "I think it could last much longer than that. It might even resist cuts and tears if you find yourself in trouble."

Lari's eyes went wide again and she bounced in place a little. "You think so!? Dang, I'll have to thank the girl if I can find her in that mess of a city again."

Shae resisted the urge to cough and just turned to the side slightly. "Uhm, which city?"

Lari flapped a hand towards the trees. "Oh, Gatewash. Such a mess to get around. So many stairs." She shook her head. "Glad I got that letter for here so I could get out quick. Didn't want to wait around for another caravan south."

"Letter? Just the one?"

"Oh, yeah, from the same girl as the clothes." She pinched the fabric and pulled it away, it snapped back when released. "Once I have one for the sect, I can usually get a handful more to Tail's Wake, and that was enough to follow the recruits up here. They left real quick though, so I didn't get as many as I would have liked." She shrugged and smiled. "Sect didn't charge for the travel though, so still lots of profit in it."

"Huh. I guess that would limit letter deliveries." Shae nodded.

"Oh!" She slapped her forehead. "Speaking of deliveries." Clapping once, she turned away to dig into the shadows along the cliffside, then hefted up a familiar travel pack.

"My pack!" Shae shouted as soon as she recognized it.

"Haha, yep. And with that, my work here is done!"

The younger woman grabbed the pack in a bear hug and squeezed it. "My stu~uff!" She swayed left and right with excitement. "Never thought I'd miss carrying this thing around." She dropped it and began untying the main drawstring into the pack. Soon, she stopped making progress and her mind caught up with the moment. She hesitated and looked up. "Uhm, do you need me to sign for it, or pay for the delivery?"

"Hah, not this time. It's all paid up. Wouldn't say no to a tip, but I like you, so you can buy me lunch instead. I've not many friends in this city, yet."

Shae froze at the mention of lunch, then relaxed when she heard friends. Stupid teenager brain, she's like twice my physical age. She cleared her throat and forced out a chuckle, "Heh, sure, that sounds great. We can catch up and..." She hesitated as a thought passed through her mind, is this Apollo? She pushed through the rest of the sentence while trying to feel the qi in the area, "and I'll tell you about my first few days in the sect."

"Yeah, that'll be fun. Don't wait too long though. Work could drag me away sooner than later. Ask for me in the town's courier office. They'll know where I'm staying, or if I've left."

Shae nodded along, only mildly distracted by the local qi, or lack of it. It felt thinner than earlier and a trickle of uneasy intent was hidden underneath. Her eyes wandered to the nearby candle, flickering subtly in the night. She frowned at it, there was something wrong with it that she couldn't place.

Lari let her stare for a breath, then chuckled. "Heh, noticed it, have you? As expected of someone who intends to be a cultivator. I couldn't feel a damn thing from it, but they said it would keep the spirit beasts away."

That brought Shae back to their conversation. "Sorry, I just barely noticed it. Just enough to be distracting. Who gave it to you?"

Lari shrugged. "Just some newbie, forgot to introduce himself. Apparently there was a bounty mission to sit here and wait for you; it included the candle. But I guess they felt it wasn't worth their time and a lowly mortal could do it." She waved a hand dismissively and smirked. "Idiot doesn't understand what a couple sect coins are worth to us mortals, showed me the bounty paper and went halfsies on the reward."

Shae snorted and shook her head. Guess it wasn't Apollo or Long who hired her then. An idea crept into her head, "Have you ever..." she started.

"Oh, and there's a little note at the top, inside the sealed strings." Lari pointed at her pack. "Sorry, you were saying?"

She looked down at where she was failing to untie the drawstring and found them sealed over with a lump of wax. Feeling at it in the dark, it felt to be stamped from both sides. She frowned briefly that she couldn't see it clearly. "I was wondering what was going on." The fingers on her right crumbled the wax easily and freed the drawstring. "There we go." She quickly found the letter and an unknown bundle at the top of the bag. "I'm not going to be able to read this here, am I?" She looked over at the candle and frowned.

Lari pointed at the doorway carved into the cliff side. "More light over there."

"Ah, good idea." She hefted the pack up onto a shoulder and set off.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The runner stepped smoothly to keep up. "Have I ever what?"

"Oh, right. Uhm. Since you're here at the sect anyway. Have you ever considered joining?"

"Oh, that. Heh. No one's asked me that in a decade or two." She smirked ruefully and shrugged. "Low grade spirit root means I won't get in anywhere."

Shae frowned. "But you're up here, right? And the qi density doesn't bother you?"

"Huh? Oh, I guess not."

"Did it ever? Or maybe in Gatewash?"

"Hmm. I guess when I started running there was the itch, as we call it. That might be what you mean?"

Shae frowned. "Calling it an itch is a bit misleading. It's more like working around smoke, without the coughing. You get tired fast, feel a bit heavy and sluggish, and it's hard to breathe."

"Ah! You mean rookie tar. Yeah, we get that in some places for the first year or so. Longer if you stay away from the rich towns like Gatewash. You just gotta work through it and it passes eventually."

The younger woman frowned again. Tempering can't be that easy for them. "I'd think it's a little worse than that. If you go somewhere with too much qi pressure you can pass out and die."

Lari rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah. But we just don't do that. New runners like Curly don't work alone, so us more experienced folks can keep an eye on them. Eventually they stop noticing the tar and start to get the itch, that's how you know they're good to go out on their own. Well, sort of. As long as they don't run themselves to death."

Shae gave the older woman her most concerned expression she could manage. "Why would they do that? What's the itch?"

"The itch to run. Leap out of the tar and you can't stop running. That's how the old running songs go."

"You're a singer?"

"Hah, not if you like your ears. It's just the old coots like Thanh that like to keep the old songs going. Itch only lasts a couple days anyway, not really dangerous if someone else is around to make sure you stop for water. Hells, if you plan it right, you get way more running done. Newbies tend to run twice as far with the itch."

Shae tilted her head in thought and looked up at the doorway they were approaching. She almost missed reading the sign above it.

> Administration: Lowest Entrance.

> New recruits of qi gathering stage, please use supplied cleaning facilities first.

She squinted at the sign, the word Lowest was using unusual characters. An odd choice, she thought.

It wasn't the wrong thing to put in the sign. It was factually accurate and was probably as good as numbering it. Shae might have ignored it if she wasn't already suspicious of the test.

Most of that suspicion had started when Long and Hon had introduced the test to her. It had only brewed and catalyzed in the time since then. Why didn't they mention anything about my higher stage? Surely any cultivator beyond qi gathering wouldn't have issues with the test. That can't be enough to pass, can it?

These questions and more had been accompanying her walks from the first mountain ridge to each higher ridge. She was quite certain there had been something in the wording that she had missed, some clue as to her real goal. And now I'm jumping at the first shadow I see. She huffed out a breath.

"Hmm? Something wrong?" Lari asked.

"Oh, sorry Lari. Just stuck in my own head. Maybe I just got lucky, but this entrance trial was way too easy."

She glanced back the way they had come. "Really? You're one of the last of the caravan to make it up here. How is that easy?"

Shae smirked. "Heh. I didn't start at the same time as them. I started about an hour before sunset."

Her eyes stretched wide enough to show the whites above and below them. "Wha~? You did the whole trip in the dark? Why?" She looked out into the shadowy forest then shuddered violently and shook out her hands.

"Heh, didn't have a choice. Err, well, I guess I did. Yet doing it today will rank me with the others, so I have a better chance at early rewards."

Lari blinked, tilted her head, then scowled in confusion. "Uh, congrats on being almost last, then?" She shrugged.

Shae frowned back. Then tilted her own head and opened her mouth to say nothing.

The young woman glanced at the door again. "They wouldn't do that, right?" She glanced back at Lari who was very carefully not looking at her. "Lari?"

"Uhhm. Sorry, Miss Shae." She covered her face with one hand and fumbled for something with the other. "They told me not to help, or not interfere or anything. You know I'd help if I could, but I don't really know anything."

Shae took a deep breath and huffed it out slowly. "Sorry, Lari. I didn't mean to press you. Say, did you happen to catch what it said above entrance higher up?" She pointed at the doorway, then up the cliff.

"Uhh," she looked at the sign, "Worst Entrance? Why does it say that?"

"Heh. I think it's Lowest entrance."

"Well, they used the wrong word. Like, I'm not great at reading but that says Worst."

"Mhmm. It's both, really. Words can mean multiple things, can't they?"

Lari frowned at her. "Yes, obviously. I'm not five, Miss Shae."

"Heh, sorry. Old habit." She pointed up the cliff again. "And the other entrances?"

"I've only used the next one up, the middle entrance, they call it." She set her chin in her palm and tapped her lips. "But now that I read this sign... I'm not sure..."

Shae waited a breath and then spoke, "Yes?"

Lari squinted at her, then back at the door, then turned back to glare at her harder. "What's your game, shorty?"

"Snrk!" She snorted and started giggling uncontrollably.

The older woman let her laugh for a few breaths, then sighed and reached over to muss up Shae's hair. "Well, I'm glad you're having fun." She said with a sigh and walked away.

The younger woman snapped right out of her laughter. "Lari?" She called to her back. "Lari, I'm sorry." She scrambled to grab her pack and followed the woman back to her little camp site.

The strange candle still burned and Lari had sat between it and the cliff wall, leaning back against it.

Shae stopped herself short of the woman's personal space. "Hey, I didn't mean it as a trick. You're right, the sign says Worst. Lots of people wouldn't read it that way, but it's strange that they wrote it like that. I just wanted to know if the other higher up entrances were weird too. Maybe it says Medium instead of Middle, that kind of thing."

Lari remained silent for a breath, she stared forwards at the candle flame. "They told me not to help the new recruits. Do you know what happens if I do?"

The young cultivator paused, unsure. "No. What?"

"I don't know! And that's the problem, they're cultivators. Maybe for you, you just get a wrist slap, or even rewarded for tricking me. But they could do anything to me." She pulled her knees up in front of her and wrapped her arms around them.

"Oh, Lari." Shae whispered. She dropped her pack, letting it tip and spill out. She rushed to the woman's side and crouched to wrap her in a hug.

Lari grunted at the sudden contact, but leaned into the embrace. After a breath she freed an arm and patted the young woman on the back. "That's enough. Thank you, Miss Shae." She was slightly startled when the young cultivator didn't back off and instead squeezed her a bit too hard. "Unf."

Shae released the runner, and stayed crouched. She brushed the ground off beside her, sat abruptly and leaned into the taller woman. "Hmmm, mind if I keep you company?"

"Heh, if you like, but I'll be out here longer than you, regardless."

"Thanks." She sighed. "You should join the sect with me. I need some friends on the inside."

"Really? You didn't make any on the journey?"

"Hmmm, well, I suppose I did. None that are starting when I am, though."

"And you think I'll be able to keep up, heh heh ha! You can already outrun me, why slow your journey and wait?"

"Pfff, okay. Maybe I'm already starting ahead. But you're not as far behind as you think. Your body must be tempered, so you'll cultivate faster from that. Hells, I'll bet your constant running has done some work cleansing you already."

Lari sighed and leaned into the young woman. "Youngling, always thinking it's so simple. Don't you wonder why every mortal doesn't step into the path?"

"Hmmm, I keep hearing excuses but not actual reasons."

She sighed again. "Shae... Cultivation is like going for a run. One you cannot stop. Once a cultivator, always a cultivator, and always the dangers and struggles of one. Until you and fate find the end together."

The young cultivator stayed silent for a pair of breaths. "Is that how they scare everyone off? How they keep the rabble down?" She exhaled angrily. "Toil away for your short lives. Better than standing up, better than facing a challenge?" She muttered angrily, trying to control her frustration. Her personal qi roiled and surged at the comments.

Lari stilled, her muscles tensing as she slowly drew away. She cautiously whispered, "Miss Shae?"

Blinking, she pulled in a deep breath and sent her excited qi to the arm opposite Lari. She clenched that fist and slammed it into the rocky ground, pain shot up her arm and she gasped and hissed. "Ah-sssshit." She rocked side to side, "Ow -mgmm. Sorry, Lari."

The woman moved to dodge Shae's sudden side to side movements, pulling herself along the cliff base. Then she froze at the apology.

Shae got to her feet and walked back to her bag to clean up the spilled items. She slowed while placing each back, looking them over. She could tell one was a bundle of arrowheads, and another was a small narrow box, sized perfectly for her special hairpins. She ran her fingers over it but couldn't find the catch, only a waxy seal on one side suggested it could open. She tucked it away, being sure to memorize where she had placed it.

Lastly, the letter that was most certainly from Apollo, the light was too poor to even make out the seal. Shae sighed and closed her eyes for a breath before dragging the whole bag over to lean it against the cliffside.

"Huh? Something wrong?" She asked when she saw Lari staring wide eyed at her. "You look frightened?"

The older woman glanced around, avoiding eye contact. Her gaze lingered on the spot where Shae had just sat. On the spot her first had hit the ground. In the candle light, it looked no different from any other.

"Ah, fuck." Shae covered her face with her free hand and leaned against the cliff, bending forwards so her face was close to it. "I'm sorry, Lari. Again, I'm sorry. It's been a long day- ... No. That's a shit excuse. You've been around long enough to have had a few rough times with cultivators. Hells, I'm barely out of my village and I've had a few incidents."

"It's not... not you, Miss Shae." The runner spoke hesitantly.

"No, but I get why you could be afraid. I may be young but I have a creative imagination. For better or worse." She worked her jaw, resisting the urge to ask what happened. Not really my business, and I've already poked at her trauma. She inhaled deeply. "You put on a brave face. I'm sorry I broke you out of that. I won't ask you to deal with the people that have hurt you."

The woman remained silent, but seemed to relax slightly. Her gaze shifted back to the candle.

"A few times on the journey here I've had to ask myself if this is the right destination. If the sect is really a place I want to be." Shae sighed. "A lot of what's happened says it's not a place I will enjoy associating with, yet it also seems like sects are the only places that can match my ambition." She sighed again. "Does that make sense?"

Lari tucked herself into a ball again. "I guess so."

Shae forced a note of laughter through her nose. "Ha. Yeah, that's about how I feel too." She looked down at the candle and just stared for a breath.

The little flame sparked an idea. She got out her notepad and carefully sketched the campfire formation onto it. As the symbol started to glow, she used it to find a loose stone, then a ledge above where they had sat. The stone held the thin piece of wooden paper such that it hung over her and the formation shone flickering firelight down on them.

Shae smiled at the warm and comforting feeling the qi gave off. Looking down, she saw that Lari had been ready to scoot away again. Yet, she was looking up with a surprised expression. Her fear had been replaced with confusion.

Shae smiled. "That candle is a poor replacement for a nice campfire. This isn't much better, but should last a little while before the formation burns itself out." She stepped away and returned to her bag.

"It's... It's nice." Lari spoke softly, then moved back to her previous spot. She was still curled up, but sighed as she settled, resting her arms on her knees instead of clutching them to her chest. Her remaining tension began to slowly melt away.

The young cultivator also exhaled a bit of tension. Good recovery, can't leave on such a sour note.