"How far is he?" Min demanded as she followed Brother Stone what felt like halfway around the Crown Ring. They passed groups drinking, dancing, socializing, feasting, and hosting various competitions. In one square, half-naked men were wrestling while the boisterous crowd placed bets upon the outcome. In another, cultivators were practicing their own versions of the fancy show of lux illusions taking place in the sky overhead. Min spared a glance or two as she went. She'd never seen illusions like this, and they were worth looking at.

  "Your grandfather did not wish to intrude upon the highly placed," Brother Stone said stiffly.

  "I didn't mean to leave Chang-li for so long," Min protested.

  "I am certain your husband can take care of himself, and he must assuredly know that you can do so as well," Brother Stone said. He didn’t sound like himself at all.

  Min caught his sleeve and held it. Brother Stone turned. "What is it, Elder Sister?"

  "Something's wrong," she said. “What is it?"

  Brother Stone wasn't meeting her eyes. "Nothing, my lady. The eldest brother has requested—"

  "Spit it out," Min commanded.

  Brother Stone sighed. "Your grandfather is a decisive man, a strong man, even an insightful man. But he is not a patient man, and he does not understand cultivating."

  "He's not satisfied with our results?" Min demanded. "We're making great strides toward the Peak of Bodily Refinement for several of our disciples. And I've had my own core condensation. We’re doing well!”

  "That's just it," Brother Stone said hastily. "He's seen what a little cultivation can do for me or Cui or Shou, and he wants more of that. He's been recruiting more acolytes for the sect."

  Min groaned. There weren't enough hours in the day to instruct another batch of acolytes, not when Noren and Chang-li were the only ones really willing to put in any time. "I'll speak to him about it," she promised Brother Stone. "I'll make him see that we don't have the scope to train more."

  "That's just it," Stone broke in. "He's talking about hiring more sectless cultivators to help instruct.”

  "Hiring?" Min asked. "Did he use that word?" Already she was steeped enough in the politics of sects to wince. One did not hire a cultivator, like a workman, to complete a task.

  "He did."

  She sighed. "That's enough then, unless there's anything else you want to tell me. I can see this is going to be a difficult discussion." She hoped her grandfather hadn't brought too many other people with him. It was hard for her to stand up to him at the best of times. Doing it in front of witnesses was tricky.

  On the other hand, her blood was still boiling from her run-in with her brothers just now. Min was tired of being underestimated by those who loved her. Maybe that was what she liked so much about Chang-li. He never underestimated anyone except for himself. And he was getting better at that, too.

  She thought fondly of him, a smile spreading across her face as they reached the quiet court over which her grandfather was holding court. In daytime, this was a small garden plaza flanked by a pair of restaurants and a tea shop where the officials who did their business on the Crown Ring could enjoy a lunch together, walking out across the lake valley to the hills beyond. It was one of the more beautiful views in Varden City, to Min's mind.

  Now it was filled with Brotherhood people. Music was playing. Tables creaked under their loads of food. And there, sitting beside the closed teashop on a well-lit platform, was her grandfather, at small round table and two chairs. He was sitting in one, while the other waited, empty.

  Min put back her shoulders and made her way across the crowd. The members of the Oaken Band Brotherhood recognized her and called various greetings, reaching hands out to touch her hand or shoulder, smiling at her as she went past.

  She felt warm, loved, and accepted. This was where she had always been most at home, in the midst of the Brotherhood. Now she felt more than a little out of place. Maybe it was her robes. The Morning Mist colors —gray, white, and black, trimmed with red — stood out among the mostly brown hues of the Brotherhood. She wasn't wearing a Brotherhood rosette. It would have been inappropriate with a sect robe, after all.

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  Min stepped up and took the seat beside her grandfather without waiting for him. He smiled beneficently at her. He had a bottle of rice wine in front of him and two tiny cups. He poured one and offered it to her. She accepted and sipped. "Congratulations, Min. You've done far better than I think anyone expected."

  "I expected us to come this far," she said. "With Li Jiya's drive and Chang-li's determination, we couldn't help but succeed."

  "I agree," her grandfather said. "So, what do you think of your grandmaster?"

  Min hesitated because the truth was she liked Noren. Oh, the man was keeping his cards close to his chest, certainly, but he knew a great deal about cultivation, and the few tips he'd shared so far had already helped her. She knew Chang-li was upset about Noren being foisted on them, and rightly so, but she thought it was a good fit. "I'm surprised that such a talented man is sectless," she said.

  Her grandfather nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I had been told he was a skilled cultivator, hungry for a sect, but I admit I had not quite expected the glowing reports I hear from Brother Stone and the other brothers who are part of Morning Mist now. He is working out exceptionally well. Is he here tonight, by the way?" he asked, glancing around as though expecting to see Noren materialize. "I have yet to meet him."

  "Really?" Min was surprised. "I assumed you had interviewed him yourself before sending him along to the sect."

  "No, no," her grandfather waved his fingers dismissively. "I need to keep some distance from the sect, after all, and thought it was wise not to interfere. I had hoped to meet him tonight. And you’re not with your husband?"

  "Chang-li has an appointment to train with one of the Prisms later," Min explained.

  "Oh, yes, that's fine. What we discuss here need not concern him anyway."

  Min smoothed her irritation. Grandfather didn't know about her encounter with her brothers, after all. "Have you had time to review the proposal I made you?"

  "Yes.” Her grandfather's lips were a tight line as he poured more rice wine. When he spoke again, he didn't meet her eyes. “I must decline to back any plan which involves you going so far from Riceflower Province. I believe the Arinat Tower proposal will be a much more appropriate choice."

  She shook her head. “Arinat Tower is almost worthless. If we go to Havaldan City, we'll at least get something out of it. But Arinat Point is, according to Grandmaster Noren, almost useless to anyone past the Peak of Bodily Refinement. If Chang-li and the more advanced disciples are to continue to progress, they need at least a sponsorship to Havaldan City." She leaned forward. "Grandfather, I beg you to think of the wider possibilities. Cultivators who've reached the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, perhaps even gone beyond it —”

  "What can they do for the sect?" her grandfather asked roughly.

  She blinked at him. "Well, um, that is..." Now confusion flooded through her. "I thought you wanted cultivators for the Brotherhood?"

  "Of course I do. But it's pointless to have more than one or two at those higher ranks, and we already have Grandmaster Noren. Cultivators like Brother Stone are more than enough to give the Brotherhood the advantage over all of our rivals. I intend to make Stone the cornerstone of an enforcement team. He can have his pick of the newer recruits once they've gotten a little higher. I've already got a dozen different plans in mind. There's the Qawhiri bandit crew preying on the rice farmers down south. The farmers have applied for Brotherhood aid. We haven't been able to extend it to them, but this is our chance to expand our umbrella. And then there's the..."

  Min interrupted him. "Grandfather, do you think we're cultivating so that we can become enforcers for the Brotherhood?" She felt disgust at the idea, and revulsion. Clearly, her grandfather didn't understand anything about cultivating. Then again, she'd met plenty of cultivators who probably would have leapt at that sort of chance.

  "Well, we certainly don't need cultivators past the Peak of Spiritual Refinement. Is there anything past that rank?" her grandfather asked curiously. "You lot are throwing around a great deal of terms that I have never heard in my entire life. I must admit, it makes me feel something like a peasant hearing discussion of copper futures." He laughed at his own witticism, but Min didn't find it funny. He was right; he didn't know anything about cultivation.

  She was beginning to be aware of just how little she did. But her early training in the Governor's Palace was coming in good stead here. “Highly trained cultivators aren't the sort of people who shift the power dynamic between bandits and peasants in one region of one province," she said. "They can shake the course of empire."

  Her grandfather frowned. "That's all well and good, but I don't want or need to change the course of empire. I need your help to strengthen the Brotherhood. No. No. I think we'll put our funding into backing more students and send you to Arinat Point," he frowned. "Is your husband going to make this difficult?"

  "Chang-li wants to continue cultivating," she said quietly.

  "Well then," he smiled broadly. "What if I offer to fund him and that friend of his to travel to the far distant tower that you mentioned? Ramsnath? They can cultivate there. By the time they return, you and I will have the sect well in hand. Yes,” he was nodding to himself. "Yes. Why don't you propose that to him, my dear? If he's eager to keep cultivating as you say, I'm sure he'll leap at the chance."

  Min's mouth didn't want to answer. Her tongue felt thick in her head. For the second time tonight, her family was frustrating her. She closed her eyes and saw Yuan-li's face as he talked about her obligations, saw her other grandfather lying good as dead in his rich bed. Then she was seeing Chang-li putting himself between her and her brother. She opened her eyes.

  "I'm not going to help you take the sect away from him," she said quietly. "This was Chang-li's scheme, not mine, not yours."

  Her grandfather's frown deepened. "I'm not taking anything away from anyone."

  "He'll see it as a betrayal because it would be," Min said. "No." She rose. "Thank you for speaking to me tonight, Grandfather. I'm going to talk to Chang-li, and if we have a petition for you, we will present it."

  She strode off as the sky above broke open in dancing rainbow lights.