9 The Pagoda of Fleeting Thoughts

Tien Lyn stared at the decrepit retaining wall. 'We have arrived,' he'd said, but... where?

Above the wall rose a dark mass of a slope thickly covered in brambles. But just as she was about to voice her bewilderment, the darkness shifted. The clouds overhead still hid the moon and the stars, so the glow was coming from the hillside itself. The pale light solidified into a handsome gate and another wall, disappearing inside the hill, rather than hugging the landscape's lines.

A lump of soil shaped into a warrior wearing an ancient armor set and pushed the gate open for the ladies. His face and hands remained the texture and color of clay.

"Welcome to the Pagoda of Fleeting Thoughts," he rasped and took a step back into what should have been solid a dark mass of soil and roots.

Instead, after passing beyond the gate, Tien Lyn found herself in a courtyard generously illuminated by blue and silver lanterns. In front of her stood a seven-tier pagoda, intricately carved and brightly painted. This architectural jewel should have been visible from afar in flat Xichon.

Tien Lyn turned around, trying to understand just what could have blocked the bright lights and the pagoda, and saw nothing but impenetrable darkness behind her. Even the clay warrior was gone.

She shivered and turned to her mother for support just in time to see Lady Chen Guang prostrate herself on the tiles of the courtyard. She followed her mother's suit immediately, without seeing whom they paying obeisance to. This was no ordinary household.

"Enough with the ceremony, Dew-on-a-petal," an amused and impatient voice said above them, "Make an old man a pot of decent tea, yes, yes, tea would be good. Let us talk. Oh, Finch, please show Lady Tien Lyn to one of the empty dorms before joining me in the Chamber of the Waning and Waxing Moon."

Tien Lyn heard her mother's dress rustle. She lifted her forehead from the tiles hurriedly to look at the speaker. 'Dew-on-a-petal' was her mother's private name, so whoever he was, he must have been close kin.

Yet the man who stood at the top of the stairs circling the base of the pagoda was unfamiliar to Tien Lyn. He was imposingly tall and, judging by his stark-white hair, very old. His face was smooth, however, if not youthful, and his moves did not appear impeded by the infirmities of the old age.

He offered Tien Lyn a smile: "I am sorry about the turmoil you had to endure, child. If you are not averse to climbing stairs, come and visit with me on the morrow. Now, go with Finch. Rest."

The mother ascended the staircase then followed their host inside the pagoda. The host who ordered their guide, the senior apprentice, around. This was the Master, the mage!

Tien Lyn remained seated on her heels, staring at the dark recess of the door through which her mother and the mage disappeared.

The senior apprentice Finch waited for her in silence, his arms folded across his chest. He seemed to possess an inexhaustible supply of patience.

"I am sorry," Tien Lyn said.

He shrugged. "The first floor is called the Place of the Nourishing Moderation. Care to see it?"

Tien Lyn climbed the staircase staring at his back. She did this for so many hours, she now noticed the changes in the shape of the creases that plunged down his tunic to the thick waist to be cut off by the belt. Stepping through the pagoda's doors did not reveal any new wonders. She saw chopping blocks, a huge pot of simmering broth, woks, pans, and the doors that must lead into the store-rooms.

"Or, in layman's terms, the kitchen," Finch intoned behind her.

She glanced back quickly, to see if he was smiling. The man's face remained solemn.

"Now, Lady, if you please proceed up this staircase. We are going to the third floor, past the Rooms of the Eternal Contemplation, where you can choose a dorm to your liking."

Now, Tien Lyn could detect a trace of flippancy in his voice. She could not catch him smiling still, but she was certain he was more at ease now. Perhaps the man had been extremely focused on his task while he led them through Xichon. Perhaps now that he had returned successful, he relaxed? As strange as this hidden pagoda is, it was his home, and perhaps he was used to giving the tours as a senior apprentice.

"Are there any more apprentices in the Pagoda?" Tien Lyn asked.

"Master instructs four junior apprentices," Finch responded more readily than before. "Coincidentally each of them was given a challenging task that requires at least two weeks travel."

"And these ah... challenges, were they assigned just before you had been sent to retrieve us?" Tien Lyn guessed.

"Composing the appropriate challenges was the first and the most enjoyable part of my mission." Finch's dark eyes flickered with unmistakable merriment. "I have a talent for writing cryptic verses and more than an adequate grasp of geography."

"I am sorry that my family's misfortunes have disrupted the order of things in the Pagoda," Tien Lyn bristled.

"There is a downside. I have to mind all the chores the youngsters were responsible for. Yet I enjoy the respite from teaching. Young minds can be unbelievably stubborn. We should play a more active role in the world and---" he checked himself. "Forgive me, Lady."

"I don't mind." Tien Lyn said. And she did not. The small, normal things -or as normal as she could find in a magic tower- kept her from breaking into tears.

"Should you want to accept the Master's invitation on the morrow, you will find him in either one of his two favorite places." Finch went on.

"I would rather wait until I am summoned," Tien Lyn said. Finch, despite his barbaric looks, felt less threatening than the mage.

"If you wish," Finch said, "but if you reconsider, the first one is the Hub of Enlightenment That Shall Outlast the Ignorance on the fourth and fifth floors."

"The Hub of Enlightenment That Shall---?" Tien Lyn felt bewildered.

"Our library, Lady." Finch explained.

"Oh, obviously," Tien Lyn sighed. "And what of the second one?"

"My Master's quarters, the Chamber of the Waning and Waxing Moon, is on the sixth floor," Finch said proudly.

"Oh. What's on the seventh floor?" Tien Lyn asked, bracing herself for another mouthful.

"It is called the Bird House, Lady."

She was starting to get the gist of it. "Also known as?"

"The Bird House. The Master is fond of his birds."

Perhaps she was not getting the gist of it. "Birds?"

"Yes, Lady, the birds. Larks, pigeons, canaries, blackbirds, swallows...."

"Finches?"

"A fair few," the senior apprentice smiled. Tien Lyn got a feeling that in the Pagoda of the Fleeting Thoughts it counted as a social triumph.

It should have been awkward to be shown to her bedroom by a man, but Tien Lyn did not feel that special tension that she normally experienced around young men. If she could discern any desire at all in Finch, it was his impatience to rejoin his Master. But the senior apprentice dutifully opened the door to an empty dorm for her and ascertained that she had no complaints about the mats, the blankets, the washing basin, the ceramic jug, and the writing desk.

"It is lovely, Finch," Tien Lyn repeated after his every question like automation. Finally, after running out of things to discuss in the spare room, she told him: "Have a very good night, Finch. And... thank you. Thank you for everything."

It sounded silly, saying "thank you" for killing five men as if it were a token courtesy. But she could not let it remain unsaid, even if the words were artless.

Finch seemed pleased by her simple 'thank you'. Maybe among the mages, this sort of thing counted as a small favor, or maybe Tien Lyn had a ways to go before she could read faces schooled in giving nothing away.

Finch paused in the doorway, also searching for words. "Your father died bravely, Lady. The arrangements were made to give him a proper burial."

"Thank you," Tien Lyn whispered. There they were, those same two words again. Truly, there should be words, entirely different words for times like this, and for things like this!

The Senior Apprentice then left her room.

Tien Lyn managed to hold back her tears while the wood creaked under Finch's light steps. Only afterward she finally started weeping for everyone who had died that day.