“Congratulations!” Mu shouts and sweeps An into a hug. The exhaustion of awakening catches up to the girl and she sags into her master’s arms. Mu holds her tightly and leaps off the poles to land on the ground, her lesson in progress utterly forgotten already. “Come on, let’s go see Master Suwan!”
And with that all her exhaustion is forgotten once more. She slides out of Mu’s grip and takes a step back, her hand clutched to her chest as she begins to panic. Does her master no longer want her? Has she been waiting for an excuse to get rid of her? No, she has to remind herself, Mu wouldn’t do something like that. Her master likely has good intentions. An feels woefully unprepared for this, it hasn’t been nearly long enough since her conversation with Immortal Soulfire for her to process everything. Her mouth opens to ask Mu for some time before making a choice and then closes again. Does she really want to slow them down again?
“What’s wrong, An? Are you hurt? Oh no, did I hurt you by accident?!” Mu asks frantically while swinging her arms around in front of her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to! Come on, let’s go see Master, she can make you better I'm sure of it!”
An drives her heels into the ground when Mu tries to pull her along by the hand. She chides herself for hesitating, her guts churning due to the guilt over making Mu worry. She pulls her hand loose, the limb slipping free of her grasp with comical ease and kowtows in front of her.
“Teacher Gao Mu, please accept this lowly An as your disciple.”
“Huh?”
Mu stops in place, blinking in confusion at the scene in front of her. A master? She hasn’t even reached Foundation Establishment yet! Yet seeing An kowtow with so much determination she doesn’t want to just brush her off without hearing her out.
“An, why do you want me to be your master?”
“Master is the only master for me!” An shouts shakily, tossing the words out before she loses the courage to say them. Her heart drops when she hears Mu sigh and sit down in front of her. Two hands clamp around her shoulders and pull her upright. She quickly uses her sleeve to wipe away the tears forming in the corners of her eyes but not quickly enough to prevent them from being seen.
“I’m no teacher, An.” Mu explains with a self-deprecating smile. She shifts around until she’s sitting cross-legged and lets her head hang. “I’m weak. It took me eight years to get to the seventh stage of Qi Gathering, Zhi got to the second stage in a week. I’m not exactly smart, without you and Zhi there’s no way I’d have succeeded in Master’s first mission and it takes me far too long to understand Master’s lessons. I even nearly got myself killed.” She trails off, the effort required to keep looking at An instead of turning away in shame clear for all to see.
“Master’s amazing! You’re the best! I want you as my master!” An shouts back with tears running down her face. “Please don’t leave me.”
Mu freezes. A scene from her past repeats in her mind as she looks at the girl that seems so much smaller than mere moments before. Before she even finishes thinking about it she wraps her arms around her once more and pulls her deeply into her chest. “You’re like a little sister to me, An. Of course I won’t leave you.”
Gao Mu swallows before continuing in a whisper, too quiet for anyone but An to hear. “I know what it’s like to be left behind. I know it’s my fault it happened too. It hurts, An. I’d never do that to you.”
“But what if we have to leave each other? I want to stay with you, master. Far more than I want to stay with Venerable Suwan. Please let me be your disciple.”
Mu blinks. “Fellow disciples are usually close than master and student though?” She replies uncertainly, it takes her far longer than she’d expected to eventually convince An to accept one of the legendary Song as her master. It’s only then that she remembers they haven’t asked Suwan if An’s even allowed to become her disciple.
-----
Sitting in front of the younger of the two blondes she suddenly looks far more imposing to An. Nevertheless the girl gathers her courage. Mu is right, she has a far better chance of keeping up with her if she becomes Suwan’s disciple as well. A fact so simple An can’t believe she didn’t think of it herself. Or did she? She vaguely remembers having a similar thought in between bouts of terror when she was talking to the legendary Immortal Soulfire. Realizing her thoughts digress she focuses on the matter at hand: how to convince Suwan to accept her as a disciple.
She kowtows three times before her, each time thumping her head against the ground harder than the last. “This lowly An humbly requests to become Venerable Song Suwan’s disciple. This one knows she is unworthy on her own merits but swears to prove herself however Venerable Suwan deems appropriate.”
“Teacher Song Suwan greets Disciple An.”
“This one shall do anyth- huh?” She falters, her mouth opening and closing as she struggles with her words. “But, but, don’t I need to prove myself?”
Suwan snorts. “You’ve long proven yourself An. You’ve had a fated meeting with my first disciple and assisted her in her task. You’ve kept up with cultivators as a mortal, an achievement that quite frankly verges on the impossible, let alone for a child. You’ve internalized our lessons far faster than even most sect disciples would. Each of these achievements by themselves already more than qualifies you as my disciple and yet still there is one act that weighs far heavier. You’ve saved Mu’s life. Had you not acted as quickly and decisively as you did she may have suffered damage beyond what she could survive long enough to survive the journey here. So allow me to be the one to ask you, An. Will you become my third disciple and first grand disciple?”
“Disciple An greets Teacher Suwan.” An says while pressing her forehead into the ground, her wide smile hidden away from the world, a secret just for her.
-----
“You’re a granny now, Suwan.” An overhears Immortal Soulfire saying to Suwan while waiting for her medicinal bath to be prepared. She looks at her new master with near worshiping eyes, to think she herself would not just suggest her becoming a disciple of both her and Gao Mu but consider it a done deal already. It feels strange to become both disciple and grand disciple to Suwan yet it is the perfect solution, making her feel more at ease than she has been ever since her first meeting with Gao Mu. “You must feel younger now, having become a great-grandmother.” Suwan fires back and promptly disappears, a thunderous crash resounding mere moments later.
“Putting ‘that’ aside,” Huan begins while gesturing towards the dust cloud in the distance. “Let’s get this over with. Family visits are nice but so very tiring, I can’t wait to kick you all out of here.”
With a final swirl of the wooden oar The Infernal Blade deems the medicinal bath ready and beckons An to approach. An peers into the large basin while divesting herself of her attire, a simple black robe her master had bought for her shortly after they met. The waters are murky and have a greenish tint with several strands of medicinal herbs floating both across and under the surface. Dipping her toe in she finds the water temperature to be quite pleasant.
Letting out a satisfied sigh she sinks into it and sits down in the lotus pose, the water level with her chin. She can feel the heat suffuse her, warming her body to the core. The warmth seems to slowly pierce her skin and creep all the way into her bones until it feels like she is boiling alive. She chalks the sound of the water beginning to bubble up to a trick of her imagination. Inhaling deeply her breath comes out rattly and she coughs up a wad of phlegm that sizzles and dissipates into the rising steam when it hits the water. Her next breath is crisp and clear, as if she just chewed mint after a lifetime of having one nostril pressed shut. Qi floods her system without need for more effort like an oasis filling in the midst of a drought.
Her patience is rewarded and now it is her decisiveness that is tested. She greedily gulps down the qi and merges it into herself. The herbal essence within the bath responds in kind and she melds that too into her system, the blend entwining and spiraling through her veins, fortifying all it passes through. Over the course of the next few hours the bath starts to darken until it is nearly pitch black. An can hardly tell where her body ends and the water begins. On a hunch she lets herself sink entirely under the surface and lets the liquid subsume her.
The experience is profound beyond belief. She feels as if she were floating within the vast void between the stars, its bright lights mere prickles of light surrounding her. She seems to diffuse amidst the eternal shadows cast by those vast balls of flame, a small piece of the shade and the whole at the same time. One amongst millions fulfilling the same role, forever bound to the brightest lights yet never to get close, forever following in their wake. Out of the veritable cornucopia of luminescence there is one small spark in particular that draws her attention. Her vision tunnels until it is all there is to her and she travels to reach it, traversing distances beyond comprehension and staying in place all at the same time. The tiny flame flickers and nearly dies out before blazing all the brighter, its glow increasing in intensity causing flecks of shadow to peel off the girl until she separates entirely from the everlasting dark to once more be An.
She opens her eyes and heaves for breath. Turning on her side she coughs up the water filling her lungs until she can draw in air once more, the spat out liquid being the sole remainder of the solution within the tub. An lays at the bottom of the empty basin like a frog in a well, her view once more limited to the two eyes set within her skull. It takes her quite some time to adjust back to being so limited and for nearly an hour she simply lays there looking up at the fake sky that knows no night.
-----
Walking through the woods she can feel something beckon to her. As Suwan presses the jade slip with the trial’s location to her forehead once more An passes her by and takes the lead. She can feel it calling to her, like it is there solely for her to claim. Like it has been waiting for aeons for her arrival. The semi-opaque darkness making up the gateway is entirely too reminiscent of the endless void, a coincidence she doubts is one at all. Yet she can’t help but be concerned. The void between stars holds no will, merely an amalgamation of the reflections of trillions of souls. This gateway most definitely holds one. A singular will powerful enough to last for millennia after having been put out into the world. She gulps. Will she even be able to survive in there, much less claim anything at all?
