Book 12: Chapter 70: You Were Wise

Even though the orphanage and school only existed because of his word, Sen had spent almost no time there. There were reasons for that. Some of it was simply time. There were many demands on his time, and the hours when he might have visited were also hours when children should be sleeping. He supposed he could have gone and looked in on them anyway, but he found the idea vaguely distressing. Maybe it was just that he wouldn’t want a stranger looking at him while he slept, but he’d found it easy enough to resist the impulse. Misty Peak had pointed out the second reason to him.

“It’ll be chaos if you go,” she said with unusual bluntness.

“It won’t be that bad,” he answered.

“It will be exactly that bad, and you know it.”

“I thought you foxes liked chaos.”

The fox-woman shook her head violently and said, “Not that kind of chaos. Even if they didn’t all think you were their savior, it would still be chaos. The fact that you are their savior will make it ten times worse. Are you really telling me you don’t realize any of this?”

Sen huffed out a breath and said, “Okay, yes. I do realize that it might cause a little disruption if I go.”

“Pandemonium. The word you meant to use is

pandemonium

,” corrected Misty Peak, taking pains to enunciate the last word.

He hadn’t liked it but was hard-pressed to deny the truth in her words. Even that wasn’t his final motive for avoiding the place. While the last reason was nebulous, but also more powerful in its own way. He honestly didn’t know how he’d react if he spent any time with those children. In his heart, Sen knew that his connections with Ai and Shui were special. He didn’t fully understand how or why they were special, but they were absolutely forged of different stuff. Of course, he hadn’t really sent Shui off with a plan in mind.

Some of it was just that he hadn’t had the time to really decide anything. Everyone else had figured out first what he hadn’t even realized. He meant to keep her, but beyond that…He had no idea. Her inexplicable ability to know where he was played a part in it. He couldn’t explain it. Auntie Caihong couldn’t explain it. Even Master Feng and Uncle Kho had seemed at a loss when he’d told them about her ability.

“Cultivation is a strange beast sometimes,” said Master Feng. “We don’t always understand why things happen the way they do.”

Those statements had been frustrating in their benign uselessness. What Sen did know was that Shui’s ability would make her a target. That meant she needed the same kind of protection that Ai was getting back at the sect. She was, for all intents and purposes, becoming a second daughter. However, the relationship was new, and he was leaving. They didn’t have the history he had with Ai. It made knowing what to do with or about her complicated. That was on top of the already complicated feelings he had about effectively taking her in and abandoning her. It wasn’t abandonment like he’d been abandoned. She was going to a place where people would be kind and look after her, but it was abandonment all the same.

He supposed he felt some of that with the orphanage children as well, which layered on some guilt. That was despite knowing he was leaving them in a much better situation than he’d known as a child. He would have cut someone’s throat for the chance to sleep in a safe place where there were regular meals. It wasn’t even figurative. Life was so hard in those days that Sen would have gladly murdered someone for an opportunity like that and considered it a good trade.

At the same time, he knew an orphanage wasn’t a replacement for having a family. It wasn’t the same as having a name. Those were the things that those children truly wanted deep down. After all, it was what he had wanted. He’d been so grateful to Grandmother Lu for giving him a name that he’d basically created a noble house from whole cloth and

given

it to her. Not that he’d framed it that way. He’d made out like it was a huge favor for him because she’d have never, ever let him just give her that much power. Now that he was king, he supposed that also came with a lot of additional headaches. So, maybe it was a bit of a mixed blessing.

Of course, none of those children could or would admit anything like wanting a family and a name to another person. The admission alone would be taken as a sign of vulnerability. It would make them targets. And there were always people ready to take advantage of the vulnerable. Every child on the streets learned that lesson very quickly, or they didn’t survive at all. It was an unforgiving life at the very best of times. So, they kept that desire hidden from view in the secret places of their hearts.

It hurt Sen that he couldn’t give them the things they truly wanted. At the same time, he couldn’t adopt them all. It wasn’t feasible. He was going off to war, which meant there wasn’t anywhere better he could send them. It wasn’t like he was going to be around to help them find their way in life. That was why he’d started the orphanage and school to begin with. The first was to give them a safe place. The second was to give them a chance at life. They’d never have the parents and history that might give them a boost in life, but he could give them valuable skills. If they had skills, he could find work for them in the empire he’d build. It wasn’t perfect. It was so far from perfect as to be painful, but it was

something

.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

It was that sense of inadequacy paired with the overwhelming desire to help children like he had been that kept him away. With the army ready to march, this was his last chance to do it. Not going would have haunted him afterward. He knew that much about himself. So, it was with an uncertain heart that he landed in front of the former Soaring Skies Sect compound. There were soldiers from the army guarding the front gate, but they didn’t act hostile toward anyone. Their presence was a simple warning not to bother the people inside the compound without a good reason. They bowed as soon as they caught sight of him.

“Lord Lu,” said one of the pair. “We weren’t told you were coming.”

“I didn’t know myself until I decided,” admitted Sen. “I just wanted to get a better look at what’s being done here before I leave.”

“Of course, Lord Lu,” said the guard.

With that, Sen walked through the gate. Even though it was still winter, children were playing in a courtyard beneath the watchful gazes of adults. Sen even sensed a few cultivators scattered through the buildings. It took a moment before he realized that Falling Leaf was standing next to him. He was so used to her presence that his mind often overlooked that she was nearby in his spiritual sense.

“When did you get here?” he asked.

She shrugged and said, “I knew you would come here. I just waited.”

“What if I hadn’t?” he asked.

Things still felt a little awkward between them ever since Misty Peak had decided to say things she shouldn’t have. At least, they felt awkward to Sen. Not that Falling Leaf had brought it up since then. A fact for which he was enormously grateful. Still, a worry hovered in the back of his mind that she would, eventually, want to discuss it.

“You were always going to come here. They’re you,” she said, gesturing at the children.

Sen was still sometimes as stunned by the ghost panther’s insights as he was by the gaps in her understanding. She had known and been

so certain

that he would come here that she was waiting for him. It made him wonder if she understood his character better than he did.

“I guess, they are,” he said.

That was when one of the children saw them and started pointing their way. There was the natural hesitance he’d expect from children who had been living such desperate lives so recently. Even so, life hadn’t completely beaten the curiosity out of them yet. Some of the braver ones started to drift toward them. When someone finally figured out who they were, Sen had to admit that Misty Peak had been right. It was pandemonium. The children were gathered around them in a crowd, shouting questions, shouting for attention, and some of them were just shouting because of the excitement. The children’s minders looked equal parts amused and exasperated.

Falling Leaf looked a bit uncomfortable with all the attention the girls in the crowd were lavishing on her, but she made a heroic effort to be nice. Sen did his part, as well. He performed minor tricks with his qi. He made flowers grow out of the snow. Then he made small fireballs fly around in the air, well out of reach of any of the children. He ended the tricks by lifting the smallest, shyest children up on qi platforms. They all looked embarrassed by the sudden attention, but also pleased to have singled out.

After that, Sen got a short tour of the place. Some rooms had been converted into classrooms. There were children in most of those rooms, stumbling their way through learning to read and write. Others were making fumbling attempts at math. In one room, a group of bleary-eyed children listened to a man talk about history. He suspected that most of them would be asleep before the man finished talking.

“What about the adults who need shelter?” he asked.

A complicated expression crossed the face of the woman who had been, as far as Sen could tell, put in charge of this project.

“They’re being housed and taught at some of the—” she hesitated.

“The empty noble estates?” he asked.

“Yes, Lord Lu. Most of them are simply happy to have a chance to be warm, eat something, and maybe learn a skill.”

“But?”

“But some of them aren’t safe to have around the children. Honestly, I’m sure they’re safe to have around other adults either.”

Sen grimaced, but nodded. He’d seen a little of that even back in Orchard’s Reach. There were people who had illnesses of the mind that didn’t yield to alchemy or mortal medicine.

“On the whole, though, we find it’s simply better to keep the children and adults separated.”

“You don’t need to convince me,” said Sen. “There’s a reason why you’re in charge of this instead of me. If you say that’s for the best, it’s for the best.”

A look of profound relief crossed the woman’s face before she smoothed back to something closer to a neutral expression.

“Thank you, Lord Lu.”

“Are they being taught to fight?” asked Falling Leaf.

“What?” asked the woman, clearly caught off guard by the question.

“Are they being taught to fight?” repeated Falling Leaf.

Giving Falling Leaf a hard look, the woman said, “They’re children.”

“The spirit beasts won’t hesitate just because they’re children,” answered Falling Leaf.

The woman looked like she wanted to answer that with something, but there wasn’t really anything

to

say to that.

“She’s right,” said Sen. “I’m not trying to turn these children into soldiers, but they should be taught how to fight. They won’t always be children, and spirit beasts aren’t the only danger in the world.”

The woman’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

“I know. I just hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.”

“I’m not saying to put a jian in the hands of a five-year-old, but the older ones can learn how to use a spear and how to fight with their hands. Talk with the army or even the cultivators. They know how to teach people to do those things.”

“I’ll see to it, Lord Lu,” said the woman with a sigh.

After that, they went back outside. Sen looked around the compound and felt, if not satisfaction, a minor sense of accomplishment. He

had

done something good here. Well, he’d enabled something good at the very least. He hadn’t personally done that much. Then, a thought occurred to him. With a small smile, he searched through the beast cores in his storage rings. It had been a while since he made a sapient shadow construct, but he couldn’t think of a better place for a few. He’d done it often enough that the task had become fairly easy for him.

Unlike the constructs with the army, he gave these a lot of personality and a few basic orders. Protect the children. Protect the compound. When he was done, Falling Leaf examined the constructs closely before nodding in approval. While the children were distracted by their new shadow guardians, Sen and Falling Leaf walked out the front gate.

“You were wise this time,” said Falling Leaf. “You gave them panthers.”