15. Reunion
“Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.” Another day passed in silence.
“Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.” Another day passed in silence.
“Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.”
“Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.”
The days blended into one as Di Phon continued his silent criticism of his lord. Lord Loshi, in the guise of a handsome young man with long blond hair, rested nearby throughout, ready to pounce on any word that he said that was not thanking Mai Mai for her service.
He would have to wait for a very long time, for there was nothing that Di Phon could think of that would soften his heart towards his lord. He hadn’t expected his silent condemnation to consume his lord so much, but let it.
Loshi stood from where he had been reclining suddenly. He hadn’t attempted engaging Di Phon recently, and Di Phon wondered what new tactic the ancient lord would try now.
“Mai Mai, may I please have a cup of tea as well?” Loshi asked, kneeling nearby to join them.
“Of course, my lord,” she said, and she began the slow process of selecting the tea leaves to prepare another pot.
“I have been thinking of my mistake from every angle. However, I have come to the conclusion that, although you may criticize me for my cowardice, cutting Atla off from the network resulted in the greatest good. Combating the corruption would have cost millions, perhaps billions of lives. Whatever method that was used by the child-lord to staunch and correct the corruption has resulted in a small fraction of that. I could not see that future from my vantage, but had I not acted as I did, it could not have happened,” Loshi said, waiting patiently as the water was set to boil.
Di Phon said nothing, patiently sipping at his tea.
“You are correct to criticize me for cowardice,” Loshi continued. “But I was correct in my action, even if it was for the wrong reasons. I had once thought to employ you as an advisor, seeing as you are unafraid of criticizing me and so very, very effective at it. But I see now that I do not command your loyalty as I would hope to command the loyalty of my trusted advisors. As such, effective immediately, I am releasing you from my service.”
A gasp, but it was not from Di Phon. Mai Mai looked shocked at the words, for she had gathered along the way who this young man truly was.
“I will not give you any orders on what you must do next. I release you from service, but you may either remain my guest, or you may move on to one of the realms of the other Xian lords. The choice is yours. You must merely make your desires known, and I shall endeavor to make them a reality.”
Recovering from her shock, Mai Mai continued the tea ceremony with shaking hands, as her own fate was about to be decided as certainly as Di Phon’s. And it was entirely out of her hands.
Di Phon closed his eyes for a moment, then when he opened them, he smiled kindly at Mai Mai. “Would you follow me wherever I choose to go, Mai Mai?”
Loshi felt a surge of triumph, having finally made Di Phon break his silence, even if it meant severing the bond between them forever.
“Yes, my lord. To the gates of hell if that is your destination,” Mai Mai said with conviction.
“Nowhere so terrible as that,” Di Phon said. He finished his tea and set the cup aside. “I wish to go home.”
Loshi nodded, taking his own tea and quaffing it in a swallow. “You may leave at your convenience.”
~~~~~
“Father, father, someone is coming,” Atla said, interrupting his rant about squid. He liked squid.
“Is that so?” I closed my eyes and felt along the edges of our bond, careful not to look too closely at his rapidly developing ego. I thought he meant somewhat more locally, but I saw that his attention was focused on the edges of his perception, where a diamond path cultivator was pushing against the current to reach our world.
“Do you know who it is?” Atla asked. He suddenly plopped down on the ground, kicking his feet up in the air as he continued to play with his toy horse.
“I don’t recognize them, no,” I admitted. “But I don’t sense malice from them. And when I look at their fate, I don’t see violence. I think we should extend them an invitation to the Six Mountain Sect.”
“Sure,” Atla said, and his own eyes glowed as he aligned the formation near the peach tree to pull at the unknown cultivator. While I had erected the formation myself, it was easier for him to handle this part of these things, as he could key the formation to an individual without much effort.
For my part, I split off an avatar to go meet this individual, picking up Di Ram along the way, for when I had peaked at fate I had seen that the best options involved Di Ram being present for this meeting. There were no bad options, exactly, but some were better than others.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I was stretched in a dozen different directions at present, as I’d sent off a number of avatars to begin the formation of the waygate network. But with both Di Ram and I being on the diamond path, and with the way-gate shortening the distance considerably, my avatar arrived well before this unknown guest.
Like the others, he arrived in a flash of light, although his was a golden yellow. He paused, looking up at the peach tree for a moment, then walked in a circle around it until he found the stump of the one that had preceded it. He put a hand on the stump and his face had a saddened expression.
“I am sorry that it came to this, old friend. It is not the future I had hoped for when I planted you,” he said to the stump. “But you would be so pleased to see your daughter thriving as she is.”
Another flash of light, much smaller than the first. A pleasant green color, and a young beautiful woman stepped out of the formation. She looked around.
“Lord Di Phon, have we arrived?” she asked. Then she saw Di Ram and jumped. “Ah, we are not alone!”
“They mean us no harm,” Di Phon assured her. “Mai Mai, this is my son, Di Ram. And this other individual is the Lord of Atla. When I knew him first, he was a promising student, but he has risen high in my absence. Higher and faster than I could ever imagine.”
The welpakian woman bowed low to both of us, while Di Phon continued to count the rings of the chopped down peach tree.
“This one greets the Lord of Atla and the son of Di Phon humbly and with pleasure,” she said, and she shifted her pack. “Perhaps the lord would like a cup of tea?”
“I think I would like that very much, Mai Mai,” I said, smiling. “But it will rain soon, and it is not good to drink tea in the rain. Let us find shelter, and then we can speak of tea and reunions and the future.”
“Of course, Lord. Might this one know the lord’s name?”
“Call me Little Bug.”
~~~~~~
We made our way to the Patriarch’s mansion, arriving just as the rain began. Mai Mai quickly found the servant’s rooms and began searching for fresh water before eventually changing her mind and placing a basin outside to collect the rain.
We sat in silence for some time as she worked, filtering the rainwater and then boiling it thoroughly while she selected the finest tea leaves from a basket she carried. The inside of the basket was larger than the outside, but not limitless, and eventually she would have to replenish her supply.
When she had completed the ceremony, she served each of us a cup with a polite bow before taking a cup for herself.
“This one does not feel quite comfortable drinking in the presence of such illustrious names, but Lord Di Phon insists that he will only drink with my company,” she explained nervously.
“You needn’t feel out of place, Mai Mai,” I said. “I was born a peasant boy to a mortal family in a land where mortal truly means mortal. Ten years ago, my mother would have feinted at the thought of a tea maker on the silver path serving me so finely.”
I took a sip of the tea, and was indeed floored by the richness of it. Both in flavor and in spirituality, it surpassed any cup of tea that I’d ever tasted in this lifetime. I savored it in silence for a moment, and when I opened my eyes again I said seven words.
“Thank you for the tea, Mai Mai.”
For some reason, she burst into laughter.
Di Phon also smiled, but he remained more solemn. He was looking at his son, who was likewise awkwardly uncertain how to handle this change of fate.
“You have returned—”
“You have done well in my absence,” Di Phon said, interrupting his son. “I am so very proud of you.”
Di Ram looked shocked at the words for some reason, then he bowed to his father. “This unworthy son and disciple has only—”
“Enough. I was tired of the bowing and scraping centuries ago. Now, when there is nobody around to see it, I would dispense with it entirely. More importantly, we both stand on the diamond path, my son. Though we remain father and son, we are equals. I would not have you continue to bow to me, even in public,” Di Phon said. “Besides. I have failed you and the world of Atla. In failing to recognize the corruption that was taking hold in my sect, I allowed demonic cultivators to—”
“Nah, that was Ant,” Atla said, abruptly materializing in the room, having apparently decided that this conversation was more interesting than squids. “Besides I wouldn’t be awake if you didn’t, so I’m happy that you screwed things up.”
Di Phon blinked at the sudden interruption. He looked at Di Ram and I for an explanation, and I nodded.
“This is my son, Atla. He is the Eidolon of the world itself. He only recently managed to manifest himself in this form, but he has been awake since the final battle with Ko Ren and the necromancer Ant. Had things have turned out differently, he would not have been quickened. I, for one, am also grateful that things have turned out in this way.”
“They turned out this way because I failed,” Di Phon said. “First I failed to stop Ko Ren on the mountain. Then I failed to convince Lord Loshi to intervene. The weight that fell upon your shoulders, Di Ram, Little Bug, is weight that—”
“It is weight that you bore in silence for centuries,” I interjected. I took another sip of the fragrant tea. “It was time for someone else to pick up the burden. You did not fail, you entrusted the future to the next generation. And they will carry the burden farther and farther into the future, while you remain to give your guidance. That is how I see things.”
Di Phon was silent for a moment, then he nodded. “So then. I understand that you are attempting to unite the world under one banner. How might this old man serve this endeavor?”
His son nodded, and began to speak of the alliance.
At some point, Atla decided that the conversation wasn’t as interesting as he thought it was going to be and vanished to elsewhere. I hoped he was behaving himself, but ultimately I wasn’t too worried. He could be mischievous at times, but he cared about the lives that made him their home.
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