Lyn awoke in the morning to a dull light shining in her eyes. She hoped it was morning, skipping the morning chores lead to bad things. Which made it weird that there was light in her eyes. She only fell asleep a few moments ago. She opened her eyes, which was hard since she spent most of the night sobbing into her pillow about her own mortality.

 

 Hoping for the chance to distract herself, she looked for the light source.

 

Which was easy to find. There were three little brown coins on her pillow. She was paid three copper pennies. 

 

Hope that was impossible to find last night bloomed through her chest. She was given almost a fortune. Three months of pay were set oh so delicately on her pillow it didn't make a dent in the straw stuffed inside. 

 

She reached out for them, a fortune gifted to her in the dead of night. Careful not to lose a penny through a crack in a floorboard, she gathered them in the palm of her hand. Lyn felt her eyes tear up once more. 

 

She wasn’t going to die tonight. The monster gave her mercy. She would live to see tomorrow. 

 

She grasped her fortune in her hands. Oh so tight, hunching over it, letting her tears soak into her mattress. She cried, just as hard as the night before.

 

Through her tears, she realized the room was darker. Some light pooled in from the cracks in the roof and the door. But it wasn’t as bright as the light that woke her up. 

 

Wanting to look at her good fortune again, Lyn opened her hands. Her newfound treasure glowed in her hand, just like any good treasure should. 

 

THEY GLOWED IN HER HAND!

 

Lyn cupped her hands and brought them to her face. Lyn looked at those coins so closely that her eyeball almost touched the little copper coins.

 

“Why, the fuck are they glowing?” Lyn was perplexed. They looked like regular copper pennies. One side had some guys' faces on it, and the other a sword and fire. Just like every other penny she had ever held, it was round and about the size of her thumbnail. These were some of the only full pennies she ever received. In the countryside, everyone chipped off parts of coins to pay for things they didn’t barter for. When she was paid at the beginning of every month, instead of getting a full penny, she would get a small pile of chips that hopefully weighed out to be one penny. 

 

Lyn put a coin to her lips and licked it. Yep, that’s copper. 

 

She put it between her teeth to bite it. Lyn could usually put a small dent in the copper. She bit, harder and harder. Her teeth started to hurt. That’s not copper. 

 

She needed to go and ask someone about this. She knew the perfect person to keep her secret. 

 

Lyn changed out of her ao dai uniform that she slept in that night. Hung up the wrinkled mess that she would need to somehow unwrinkle and clean for her task that night. She put on her good rags and hid her glowing not copper, but possibly copper, coins in a secret pocket sewn into the hem of her collar. 

 

She learned long ago that her room was not a safe place to hide her valuables. She hid her money and all of her other treasures under a stump in an abandoned stand of trees. 

 

She walked down the corridor, passing hand-polished bronze mirrors, old vases, and tapestries depicting the old forest that used to be here. She would need to dust this section today. 

 

Four doors down from her closet was another “room”, her friend Nguoiban Quantrong was hopefully still inside. Lyn cracked the door a bit to peek inside. She saw a stripped-down version of her own room. A limp mattress on the floor, and a pile of clothes in a corner. Nguoiban ao dai uniform, a copy of Lyn’s own, hung from a peg on the far wall. Luckily the girl was in.

 

She was a small girl, only up to Lyn’s own nose, and Lyn was small too. She had silky black hair. When she let it down it reached the back of her knees, but usually, she twisted her hair into twin buns on either side of her head. All of the girls thought it made her look like a cute mouse. Nguoiban also had a smattering of freckles across the tops of her cheeks reaching over to her ears. Her little button nose twitched as she stared off into space, a common pastime of many of the girls here. 

 

Lyn knocked on the door frame. It was a small series of knocks that they made up years ago to let the other know they were there. 

 

Nguoiban’s full body flinched. Shocked out of her daydreams, Nguoiban looked up to Lyn and waved her over to sit on the understuffed mattress. Lyn dropped onto the mattress, laying across her best friend’s lap, and stared up into her green eyes. 

 

“I need some help,” Lyn begged. It wasn't uncommon that Lyn needed help with a scheme. Usually just to distract Nhabep the kitchen master, so Lyn could steal some food to bribe someone else. Or, for Lyn to do something outrageous so Nguoiban could finish a task she was slow to do. 

 

Nguoiban nodded. Combing a hand through Lyn’s raven tresses, untangling knots that her night of despair created. Lyn leaned into the touch. 

 

Lyn reached into her secret pocket and withdrew one coin. She trusted Nguoiban, but she didn’t trust the door to keep them private. The coin let loose its copper light, brightening up the little closet like a candle would. It was magical to have this treasure. 

 

“What do you think it is?” Lyn couldn’t look away from her treasure. It had to be worth something. Cultivators didn’t just leave useless things after them, except bodies, and destroyed wastelands. Since this was neither, it must be important.

 

“Where did you get it from?” her friend asked in a whisper even quieter than usual. Tearing her eyes away from the coin, she could see that Nguoiban’s green eyes devoured the coin in jealousy. 

 

“The Cultivator. I showed him to his room and brought food. And, when I woke up this morning it was on my pillow.” Lyn recounted. Her eyes were once again drawn to her magical treasure. 

 

Ever so slowly Nguoiban’s small hand reached for the coin. First with a gentle poke, when that did nothing to harm her, she scratched it with a red lacquered manicured fingernail. Again nothing. Nguoiban took the coin, pinching the edges with only her forefinger and thumb. Twisting and turning the glowing thing to see it from all angles. 

 

“It’s a penny,” Nguoiban confirmed.

 

“Ya, no shit it's a penny,” Lyn was out of her depth, “but, why is it glowing.”

 

“Cultivator magic?” her friend responded. “You should get rid of it, nothing good comes from them.” 

 

Lyn knew the stories as well as anyone. She always made excuses to stay in the tavern when a bard came to perform. Epic stories of cultivators obliterating mortal armies with a wave of their hand. Champions that could destroy entire empires in a matter of months. Competitions to destroy the most mountains, only for the chance to be looked at by a beauty that ruled entire immortal sects. That the clouds in the sky were just the aftermath of battles hundreds of leagues away and centuries in the past. 

 

Cultivators are not to be trusted, because they live in a completely different world than the mortals. 

 

Lyn knew that Nguoiban was right. This coin was dangerous to own. She should have thrown it away just as soon as she woke up. 

 

Lyn couldn’t. This coin, although the potential for danger was immeasurable, so too was its ability to do great things for her. She could use it as a candle, which would be super useful when she was trying to clean out the warming shelf, or when she needed to go into one of the cellars. She could sell it to someone for a lot of money, they might just want an artifact from a cultivator. One of the bards that came through talked about how some people collected cultivator stuff. She could sell it that bard and make mortal money.

 

Ideas and schemes flew through her head, Lyn took the coin from her friend. Placing it back with its sisters in her hidden pocket, she stood. 

 

“I got to hide them. See ya.” Lyn left, ignoring the pleading of her friend. 

 

Lyn knew how to sneak out of the inn. You would look at the maid job board. You needed to make sure someone saw you, then take your little token off its peg. Lyn had Duu Huu make one with the north star pattern on it, she thought it symbolizes her need to move forward. To choose a chore for the day, you place your token on a map of the inn and you do all of the chores in that section. After placing her token in the attic, she looked around to make sure one of the other maids saw her. Phi Thuong, the tavern manager from last night did. 

 

Lyn started to make her way out the back door. It was accepted at the inn, that any girl that wanted to clean the attic was really trying to slip away for a while. Of course, if you did it too often, the other girls that had sweethearts in the village would take you to task. Especially when someone else called dibs. But, it was important today. 

 

“Sorry, Cogai. But I really need this.” Lyn whispered to no one. She turned away only to see the Master there. She bowed and stayed bowed, just like her training dictated. She went and helped the cultivator, and she even got an amazing tip. She did her job, apparently very well. 

 

Which was why she was very confused when she found herself on the floor, head spinning from his blow. Through her haze, she saw his golden slippers right in front of her. One of them came forward, and she felt the silk as forced her chin up to look over his fat belly, into his beady eyes. 

 

“Girl. What. Did. You! DO!” Master's voice started soft and rose in intensity. His splotchy puffy cheeks were red with anger. She saw him shake, his balled-up fists quivering by his sides. 

 

Lyn’s head was still dizzy, “wha…” she was seeing two of the master, and he just wouldn't stay still. She tried to push herself into a sitting position, only for a slipper to crack across her temple.

 

Lyn lost her hands. She swore they were attached to her at one point. She could smell the color of the floor. Kinda like copper, oh she had some coins, were they valuable? Can she eat the coins?

 

“You put the cultivator in the Gold Room. Didn’t you girl!” His voice regained its high-pitched timber. Like something was constantly kicking him between the legs. “And, my sister made a meal for him, DID SHE NOT!” 

 

Lyn couldn’t follow what was wrong. She closed her eyes to stop the room from spinning, and to stop the stars from flashing. It didn’t help. 

 

She felt the cold wooden floor beneath her cheek. Lyn thought she was still standing, how did she end up on the floor? 

 

“THEN WHY DID I NOT GET PAID!” 

 

Paid? Lyn got her penny on the first of every month. Did the Master need a different personal assistant? If she did the job, would she get more pennies?

 

OH! She has pennies in her secret pocket. Should she give them to the master? Maybe the darkness would get dark if she paid it, after all, money is what usually solves things right?

 

Lyn tried to move her hand to her shirt. She had a little pocket sewn into a hem of her color.  But something stopped her. She cracked her eyes open just a little bit. Her wrist was free. 

 

Why was she reaching for her collar again? She felt something hit her on the side of her chest. 

 

Wow, she was flying again. Just like the dream last night! Maybe she was green again.

 

“DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT COSTS!” someone was yelling. Why was there someone yelling, the master would get mad and beat them or even worse take them to his room.

 

She felt her head hit something and she felt the nice cold floor again. 

 

Something was wrong. She knew it. Somewhere in her mind, she felt like a klaxon was going off. Was there another spirit beast walking through the fields? Maybe she could get some of the beast’s hair and use her needle and make something for Duu Huu. 

 

“YOU COST ME TWO SILVER LAST NIGHT!” Lyn’s mind told her that one silver was twenty copper pennies. And twelve silver was a gold coin. Why was something worth more than three years of work? “GUESS WHAT GIRL! BECAUSE OF THAT, YOU OWE ME ANOTHER FOUR SILVER!” 

 

Lyn’s mind spun even faster, she felt her body heat up. If her head was light before, now it was flying away. Was the cultivator back?

 

 Why did she suddenly owe another six years of labor? Something was wrong, very wrong. 

 

Lyn forced her eyes open again. Things were really blurry, and there was red on the floor. The floor wasn’t supposed to be red, the floors are brown. She would need to clean this before the master came.

 

Master. Where was he, she needed to clean this before he saw, was there anyone nearby to help?

 

She looked up and saw her Master. Red-faced, puffing, belly heaving, hands in fists. 

 

Oh, she's not supposed to look at his face, only his shoes. Lyn lowered her eyes. She saw his gold slippers. Why were they sprinkled with red? One of the girls will be in real trouble if his shoes aren’t clean. 

 

Something was wrong. 

 

Lyn put her hands underneath herself and pushed again. She sat up, and the world spun even more. She closed her eyes. She needed to stand. Lyn didn’t know why, but she needed to. 

 

Someone was yelling something. Lyn didn’t understand their gibberish. If they wanted her to listen then they should use a language she knew. Something grabbed her shirt. She was lifted onto her feet.

 

Opening her eyes she saw her master's face right in front of her. He was ugly. His nose was flat, smallpox scars were scattered across his face, and his cheeks were large and puffy and really red. His chin met with his jowls, making a smooth curve to his chest. His wispy hair was receding, and to make it look better he had a bright red wig on. Only this one wasn’t correctly glued on so it was slightly twisted and at a jaunty angle. Patches of brown hair poked out from the sides. 

 

Lyn laughed. The girls loved to say that the master was handsome and give him bad fashion advice. It looked like he followed the “trends” to a t today.

 

Was there an earthquake? Why was everything shaking? She needed to get outside or else the inn might collapse on her. 

 

Lyn took a step back. And started to fall over. So she took another step. And she still felt like falling so she took another step. And another and another. Soon she had a hand on a wall. She shouldn’t touch the walls or she’ll get hand prints in the paint, and it was a pain to clean handprints. 

 

She pushed away and spied the back door. 

 

OH! She was going to her hiding place to check on her money! She had a big debt she needed to touch! Lyn stumbled on her way over to the door, she needed to find the buried treasure.

 

She felt a big hand try to hold her shoulder. She NEEDED to go to her treasure. She brushed off the hand. It grabbed hold of her shirt. Lyn kept walking. She heard a tear, and her back felt a little colder. Oh well, she needed to go. She felt too hot, so the cold felt good.

 

She made it to the door, but her head felt wet. She reached a hand to touch the wet and looking at it it was red. Was it the lunar new year already? Did Nguoiban convince her to wear makeup again? Nguoiban knew how expensive makeup was, even making it from scratch cost at least a half penny. Lyn didn’t have that kind of money to spend. 

 

Well, she did, but that was for something else. That's right she was on her way to find buried treasure! To eat it! 

 

Lyn stumbled through the door and out into an ally behind the inn. She stumbled up to the wooden wall that surrounded her village. Her legs felt weak for some reason. She put her hands on the wall, she wasn’t to touch the walls at the inn. She would need to clean that handprint later.

 

She tried to walk like she usually does, but for some reason, she kept stumbling. Her legs and feet just wouldn’t work right. 

 

She felt another hand on her shoulder. Turning she saw broad shoulders and a long neck. It looked perfect to rest her head on if only she was tall enough to reach it. Instead, she settled for the chest in front of her. That felt good too. 

 

“Lyn!” she knew that voice. Nice and smoky. Just like Duu Huu. “Did he do this?” 

 

“Wha…” Who did what? Her makeup? She opened her eyes again, she didn’t remember closing them. Duu Huu’s shirt also had some red on it, so it must be the lunar new year right now. She would need some money if she wanted to buy some snacks with Duu Huu. 

 

“I need my…” What did she need again? She needed a hug from her Duu Huu, so she did. He smelled like metal and copper. OH! She had coins in her special pocket. She needed to put them in her treasure pile. 

 

“I neeed, my stuummpp” That almost sounded right, did Phi use her to test her mixed drinks again? It was the lunar new year, so probably. 

 

She felt arms around her. They were nice and strong, she smelled copper and smoke. Duu Huu smelled like smoke and metal, was Duu Huu here? She wanted Duu Huu here, it was the lunar new year!

 

Something touched her chin. Why was she thinking about golden slippers? Did she want to buy some? She didn’t have the money for that. Besides, gold is supposed to be heavy, maybe Duu Huu would know if that was right? 

 

She opened her eyes again. Duu Huu was there! “Ish gold heavy?” Maybe next time Lyn should tell Phi no. Lyn didn’t think she was such a light drinker.

 

“Yes.” Lyn felt arms around her knees. Duu Huu was carrying her. Was she getting married? Is that why she had red makeup on? It would be nice if she married Duu Huu, she really liked him.

 

Lyn felt the world moving, but she wasn’t walking. Just like last night with the cultivator. Did he come back? She needed to thank him, but she can't remember why. It was really weird. 

 

Lyn opened her eyes again.She saw that she was past the village gates. The open fields of green swayed in the breeze. The completely overcast cloudy sky is nice and bright. There was a slight chill in the air, and her back felt cold. Did she need to sew more patches on? It's expensive to get sick in the winter. 

 

As her head rested against something, she felt uncomfortable in her chest. Like something hard was pressing into it. She reached a hand, very slowly, to the uncomfy area. 

 

Oh, that’s right, Lyn had to show Duu Huu her treasure. She slipped a coin out. But her head felt light. She needed something to hold her head onto her shoulders. So she grabbed her head, the coin forgotten in her hands.  

 

She floated to a wood line almost two miles away from the town. 

 

She landed near a familiar stump. It had a nice hollow beneath it, maybe a fox lives there. Her Duu Huu reached into the hollow to pull the fox out. He should be careful, foxes bite, and this one might have mange. 

 

Instead of a fluffy red fox she could cuddle, Duu Huu only pulled out a wooden box. 

 

“Oh, That's my box. Be careful with my little box, it's special to me, I don’t want anyone to see it. It’s my special place where I only put special things in.”  Her head hurt. She kept a hand to her head. 

 

 Why did her head hurt? 

 

Oh right, she had a debt, and she forgot to pay. Right?  

 

Lyn tried to remember, but it was fuzzy.

 

Duu Huu gave her her box. She put it on the ground and leaned up against the stump. She could feel the blood trickle down her face. 

 

“I'm going to go and get the wise woman. Stay here Lyn” The smokey voice in her head said. She liked that it sounded like Duu Huu. 

 

She nodded. Of course, her Duu Huu would know her head hurt. When her cycle was coming due, she would get really bad headaches. She of course would complain to her Duu Huu. He was a good friend for helping her. 

 

She looked at her little box. She made it out of some off scraps from the lumber pile. It was the reason why she needed nails. It was the reason why she first kissed Duu Huu. Really, an excuse to kiss him. 

 

Lyn touched her head. It felt really tender. 

 

“Don’t go. Stay here.” Lyn said. Lyn felt her thoughts trickle back to her. 

 

She had been hit by the Master, badly. She looked at her hands, they were stained with blood. She looked up at Duu Huu, there was a long streak of blood running down his shirt. 

 

She was bleeding. Badly. 

 

She knew what to do. This wasn’t the first time a girl was hurt by the master, usually all the other girls took shifts at night to make sure the others survived. 

 

First is to apply pressure, then get a rag, and put that on. The wise woman said that you need to keep the rag on, and not remove it. 

 

Lyn ripped a rag off of her rag clothing. She pressed it to her head. Except for the pain that should be there wasn’t. 

 

She looked around the small stand of trees. It was her hiding spot. The place she ran to when she needed to leave the inn. The place where she kept her secret stash. 

 

She opened the little box, the lid was just a scrap of wood that was larger than the opening. It was tied on with a strip of leather that she made her belt out of. Opening it she saw her life's possessions. Almost 3 silver worth of copper coins. She only had 3 whole copper coins, the rest were chips that the villagers made to pay for items. 

 

Lyn remembered her payment from the cultivator. Her glowing coins. She retrieved the other two from her secret pocket. Together a copper color lit up her face. 

 

Duu Huu kneeled next to her to inspect her, and her items. She saw his eyes widen, the light giving his face a healthy glow, she wanted to kiss him. 

 

“You…” Duu Huu reached up to her head, removing her makeshift bandage. “You stopped bleeding. How?” 

 

She could feel his hands pawing around on her scalp, not the type of massage that she wanted at the moment, but it would do. She leaned into his touch, one of the better ones she had this morning. 

 

“How did you heal so fast? What happened? What are those coins? Why are they glowing?” Her Duu Huu was asking a lot of questions. Her headache was gone too. 

 

“I don't know. Apparently, the cultivator didn’t pay last night so the Master took it out on me. The cultivator paid me with them. Probably cultivator magic.” Lyn absently replied, she stared at her magic coins. Looking closely, one of them was dimmer than the rest. Did the coin heal her? It had to, it's a magic coin. Lyn wondered what else her three magic coins could do. 

 

She looked around once more. Her safe place. A small stand of trees, she didn't have a home, and she didn’t have people to care for her aside from Duu Huu. Nobody carried her from the inn, nobody stopped the Master from hitting her, and nobody followed when she stumbled bleeding down the alley. 

 

“I’m gonna run away.” Forcing her eyes away from the magic life-saving coins she looked into Duu Huu’s. “Come with me. We can run together. We can find the cultivator, he can help us.”  she pleaded with her Duu Huu. She sounded weak. 

 

She could see their future. She would be his helper, finding out what to make and getting him supplies, and selling their wares. He would be a journeyman blacksmith. They would follow the cultivator being his retinue. She could taste the freedom, the ability to travel and be beholden only to their whims. 

 

She needed this, more than anything before.

 

“I can’t.”

 

Something inside of Lyn broke. 

 

“I need you.” It was a guttural cry, she needed him. More than air. Lyn tried to breathe, but the air just wouldn’t stay inside. Maybe he didn’t hear her.

 

 “I need you!” She didn’t have the breath to scream, so she whispered.

 

He only looked away. “I can’t. I have to finish my apprenticeship.” Lyn knew that they both knew that was flimsy.

 

“You can get another. You don’t need this one. We’ll be following a cultivator, you probably won’t need to be a blacksmith.” She pleaded with him, her air was coming back, and she could breathe.

 So she used it to scream. 

 

“Come with me! I need you!” she was losing her mind, her body shook more than the night before. Her master was prophetic, she would die tonight. Her body felt like it was ripping itself apart.

 

She felt the dried blood on her face get wet again. Her tears mixed in with her lifeblood. 

 

“I can’t.” Duu Huu broke her heart even more. “I’m not as strong as you Lyn. That's why I love you. You're the strongest person I know.” She could hear his voice hitch. Through her tears, she could see him crying too. 

 

“You are smart, you're creative, you don’t give up, and you think the best in everyone. I love you Lyn, but… I can’t come with you.” He fell to his knees. He wrapped his traitorous arms around her neck and pulled her close. 

 

She tried to fight him, but her arms only clawed their way into his blood-stained shirt. 

 

“I’m a coward, Lyn. I can’t throw away my life here on the off chance a cultivator would accept us as a tagalongs. My mom needs me. She paid everything to get me this apprenticeship. If I run, then she’ll be sold to the inn. I won’t let that happen.”

 

Lyn knew that, she always knew that. It hurt all the same. 

 

“I love you too.” Lyn’s muffled whisper must have made it to his ears. He only held her tighter. She felt bittersweet. 

 

“When my apprenticeship is over I’ll find you.” He pried her head away from his chest. He looked deep into her eyes, and slowly he came down and kissed her lips. It was a slow thing.  A goodbye. The world was large and violent. They both knew this may be the last time. 

 

Lyn tried to enjoy her lover’s kiss, but she couldn’t. 

 

She broke away, “ You only have 5 more years. If you don’t find me at seven, then… Then I’ll convince the cultivator to tear apart the world looking for you. You hear me. You better find me. I’ll even make it easy for you.” She pulled him back into a rib busting hug. “I’ll get so rich, so famous, everyone will know where I am.” 

 

She pulled away. She needed to plan. 

 

After all, it's not every day that you try to gain an immortal monster's attention.