Duet

Dàilán blinked awake in the stuffy dimness of the small tent that she and Chénli had been given to rest in. She held still, trying to determine what had awoken her.

Chénli still snored quietly at her side and listening beyond the tent, everything was silent, besides the natural sounds of wind in the leaves and 'dusk chorus' of birds singing, screaming and chattering the Golden Crow to its nest - she could see the low setting light coming through the tent flap that she knew faced a westerly direction.

She frowned to herself in annoyance and glared up at the dimly backlit fabric. Why was she even awake? Both the Healer and Chún had told her everyone in the camp would sleep until the next morning.

Deliberately closing her eyes, she let herself slip into a light meditative state and started checking the state of her body, worried there might be something wrong. Had that waste Jiàn managed to leave her with some hidden wound?

Around a Kè later, Dàilán opened her eyes in confusion. As she was scanning her Essence flows, she kept feeling small pulses or waves of Essence resonating with her own cultivation, especially the aspects of her Essence that had developed since…

The thought made Dàilán pause and she frowned harder. The ripples resonated with the aspects of her Essence that had developed since she had broken her previous bottleneck in cultivating - after she had started using the meditative techniques deciphered from that ancient bamboo book.

Not only could she not find anything wrong with her body, her Essence levels and general health state was much better than she understood that it should be. It felt like she had only slept for a couple of Shí, but her body was not showing any sign of exhaustion, just regular tiredness - as if it was nearing her usual sleeping time.

Carefully, she spun out a few essence threads and very delicately checked the state of her friend sleeping beside her; a moment later her eyebrows furrowed.

Chénli's state was exhausted - in a very deep sleep, with low levels of Essence that were slowly replenishing - which matched what she had been told.

This contrasted with her own situation - where her condition was almost normal. Slowly she sat up on the thin sleeping mat, pushing off the blanket that someone - probably Chénli - had placed over her.

The only thing she could think of that was different - she thought, as she quietly crouched and walked out of the entrance of the tent - closing the tent flap behind her, was that Chún had healed her and also given her one of those pills in addition to the medicine that the camp was given. Looking out across the silent camp and the last arc of fire from the Golden Crow as it flew behind the horizon to its nest, she sighed, "Jī - but I still feel tired - why did I wake up?"

With the lack of Cultivators walking around doing chores and releasing Essence from their actions, the prickle of the fully powered Defensive Formations around the camp was very noticeable and Dàilán frowned in irritation.

Another soft brush of Essence made her own Essence resonate like a bell and she shivered. It was not unpleasant, but it felt like someone brushing feathers across her skin.

Closing her eyes, she threw out threads of Essence as she was growing increasingly used to doing. The pulses were coming from outside the formations and her frown - which was starting to feel permanently etched on her face - deepened again.

Could Chún have run into trouble? He had sworn to protect the camp while everyone was incapacitated… After a moment, her expression relaxed and she shook her head ruefully at her own paranoia. Given the level of power and ability she had already seen the - since he had admitted to being human - young man exhibit, anything that gave him trouble would likely be much more audible, noticeable and destructive.

Thinking of that power sent Dàilán a little thread of interest and anticipation curling down her spine and she blinked as she faced in the general direction of those odd pulses of Essence. It had to be him, since he was the only one supposed to be out there - and she was sure anyone who could pass for a 'Mountain Spirit' would be aware of anything else with malicious intent - part of why she had accepted his pledge as the local authority for protection.

"I wonder what he is doing," she muttered to himself as she exited the wards, looking around at the early dusk painting the sky in lambent colours of fire and purple, and headed at a brisk walk towards the area her probes had indicated those strange touches of Essence had come from.

Briefly she wondered why she was the only one who had awoken; surely if she could sense this, the BloodWitch and other higher levelled Cultivators would be able to as well. But the camp remained silent.

Well, if she was the only one to notice, she would have to be the one to investigate - just in case it was a threat to the camp.

---

Caution meant that Dàilán proceeded slowly, pushing the Veil technique out at full power and spinning out threads of Essence in all directions as she walked to try and catch the precise direction of the strange brushes of Essence she kept feeling; she did not want to stumble into another conflict - or worse - without warning. The threads and the Veil might give her the chance to escape unnoticed if necessary.

Consequently, it had taken most of a Diǎn - the Golden Crow was well and truly over the horizon with only pale colors left in the sky directly above the nest of the crow - for her to follow the strange feelings to a small, but remarkably densely wooded area a couple lǐ away from where she had exited the camp formations.

Her eyebrows rose as she stopped a few yǐ away from the much more thickly wooded section of the otherwise lightly forested area. Despite the deepening twilight, there was a subtle glow emanating from the corpse of trees, which were clearly larger, closer together and more luxuriant than the rest of the forest in this area.

She cocked her head as a faint snatch of singing - a thread of a recently heard tune - drifted out from the miniature jungle in front of her.

"So it - is - the Mountain Spirit," she murmured to herself, "whatever is he doing that could cause this…?"

The pulses were much stronger this close and Dàilán listened carefully. She could not hear or sense any violence, but she was still curious. By rights she knew she should probably turn around and walk away - but that resonance with her recent Cultivation almost demanded that she find out what was causing it.

She walked slowly into the thicket of trees and blinked in surprise as she passed the first few trunks; Essence swirled around her, warm and comforting. A subtle pressure made her breathe in as she adjusted to the sudden increase in the Essence levels that reminded Dàilán a bit of the Medicine Gardens… gone with the rest of her Clan's lands. Tears sprang to her eyes and with no one around she let them run slowly down her cheeks and just let her body follow the flow of warmth.

After a few moments, despite the nostalgia, she had to admit that unlike the heavy pressure of the Formations that she had previously experienced, this weight was much more… gentle, feeling more like a blanket or a cloak enveloping her rather than a crushing weight despite the greatly increased level, which only thickened as she wandered deeper within the trees.

"It must be a Formation," Dàilán murmured, looking up at the odd motes of light she could see dancing in the air around her as she drew a deep breath in, "the air seems crisper - and…"

she realised she could smell several delicate scents in the air - peach, mint, some other pleasant smells she could not identify - and, "is that apple blossom…?" Dàilán wondered in bemusement - it was completely the wrong season for it.

A few more steps and her feet fell on what felt like a small footpath, lined with various plants on either side at irregular intervals that glowed softly with Essence of various colors; Dàilán felt her mouth drop open at the sight. Those had to be mid level Sky Essence herbs at the least - enough for Cultivators to kill over.

Dàilán walked blindly down the path - her eyes focused on all the luminescent plants and motes of colour that she saw floating through the air - there were so many precious glowing Essence plants and herbs of different colours that the darkness was reduced to a soft dusk-like environment, holding the grove of trees in a dream-like state that was only accentuated by glowing curls of Essence mist that started drifting between the trees and the steadily increasing warmth. The young woman only stopped when she reached a thicket of softly glowing bamboo that stood like a wall between whatever lay ahead and the rest of this - place.

"Jade Bamboo… how?" Hardly believing her eyes, Dàilán reached out and touched the nearest wrist thick stalk which flashed gently at her touch with ripples of bright green and purple, that spread out against its surface from where her fingers brushed.

"This…" her disbelieving hiss was cut off by another snatch of song from beyond the wall of bamboo and… a waft of steam?. Tilting her head, in curiosity, she stepped around the bamboo, her fingers trailing lightly on the smooth surface as she went around the corner.

Dàilán blinked In surprise as she took in the scene in front of her - a pool of gently bubbling water two or three yǐ across, steam gently rising from it. Interestingly shaped boulders and miniature trees, bushes and plants ringed the pool - many of the plants glowing different colors and emitting those scents she had noticed earlier.

She shook her head in amazement at the sight of multiple Penjing scale trees growing apparently naturally together - she spotted a classically contoured apple tree that looked like it was a hundred years old, growing to no more than a zhàng high, flowering as if it was springtime - across the pool from a similarly sized and aged in appearance peach tree also flowering in profusion.

Other glowing plants and herbs ringed the pool at random intervals adding their own scents to the air. She recognised several Essence plants conveniently close to the edges as ones used by nobles and wealthy people to wash themselves with - although such an extravagant display was usually considered ill mannered - the plants were more commonly used in soaps, oils and perfumes among the wealthy.

'It is a miniature treasure land - turned into a hot spring,' she thought in astonishment, even as another almost insane consideration began to push against the back of her thoughts and she looked around again, noticing the artistically 'natural' layout of the grove and hot spring; as much as it looked like a fortunate coincidence, it almost reminded her of her 'meditation garden' - although it was much less obvious - in fact, she was almost positive the only reason the idea occurred to her was because she had seen plants react to the young man as she followed him back to the camp.

'Did he create this?' she guessed in wonderment even as the man in question became visible as an errant breeze blew aside some of the thick steam shrouding the pool, revealing that heart-stopping figure again from the chest upwards, the jade-perfect skin and muscle now artistically adorned with beads of water.

Dàilán took a couple of carefully quiet steps back to lean against one of the boulders close by, enjoying the pleasurable feeling of seeing such masculine beauty without having to worry about anything else, temporarily pushing aside all her other concerns and worries. Under the Veil technique she watched the beautiful man softly singing:

"...Clean air and

Sun fire

Bird song and

Earth's breath;

Better than gold,

More precious than,

Power...

Treasures of

Heaven;

Treasures of Earth..."

With each verse he washed a portion of his flowing hair with some of the herbs; dunking his head in the steaming water, throwing the long platinum locks back through the air - before collecting the next bunch of hair, crushing some leaves in his hands to release an astringent scent she could smell from where she relaxed against the warm stone - and repeated the process.

An amusing thought occurred to Dàilán and she smiled mischievously to herself as she watched, rolling the thought over in her head. In most of those Cultivation stories written for the civilians that Chénli and her giggled over, there was almost always a scene where the hero - usually a male - peeked on a maiden bathing, or 'guarded' her as she bathed in the forest. She was reminded of one in particular where the hero had built a bathing hole in a forest, heated it with fire stones, then gave it to the beauty and pretended to wander off while his female companion bathed - even going so far to make obvious noises as he left - before secretly coming back to watch.

'Does that make me the hero or the maiden then?' she laughed at herself, smiling at the realisation that those over the top stories with their inappropriate scenarios suddenly seemed a lot more reasonable now.

Listening to Chún sing, she closed her eyes in pleasure. He had a voice that raised the hairs on the back of her neck with how resonant it was - the man would make a fortune reciting poetry in Hujian, she thought - leaning her head back to rest against the warm rock behind her.

Her enjoyment was cut short as the song stopped abruptly, replaced by a muttered curse, "another bastard rock…"

Dàilán opened her eyes and watched as Chún placed a hand on one of the stones that protruded out of the water near the edge of the pool. A bright glow came from underneath his hand and she felt that resonance within her Cultivation again even as the rock shifted and sculpted itself like clay into a vaguely bench-shaped rock with a smooth surface.

As Dàilán closed her mouth which had fallen open in amazement, she watched intently as the young man ran his hand down the stone and nodded with a pleased expression on his face, then sat down until only the area above his shoulders were visible above the water, leaning his head back against the stone pillow of the new 'chair' that had been shaped out of what had looked like an ordinary bit of stone only moments before and started scrubbing his skin as he began to sing again.

'So that is what I felt,' realised Dàilán, 'he must have made all of this. Chénli would have mentioned if there was a bathing spot - let alone a place with so much Essence and precious Essence herbs.'

Watching the young man clean himself suddenly made Dàilán realise how long it had been since she had had a proper bath - not since the morning of the shopping trip with everyone - she shuddered in disgust and the urge to join the young man in the hot water and start scrubbing madly was almost suddenly overwhelming. Biting her tongue fiercely, she considered quickly. She wanted a bath now. So she had to announce her presence and convince him to leave without giving offence - preferably of his own volition.

Blinking, she grinned mischievously as another scene from a different of those silly romantic cultivation books swam to the forefront of her mind. Every good singer should have an accompanist, right?

Quickly and quietly, Dàilán took the few steps required to bring her to the convenient bamboo 'wall' that surrounded the pool. A moment's searching found what she was looking for - a slender stalk around three fingers in width. She extended out the Veil technique to hide her actions as she reverently pulled it up, dropping one of her Essence daggers into her hand to trim off excess leaves and segments to leave a segment as long as her forearm, with one end closed off by a natural bamboo node and the other open.

The dagger glowed as she worked, pushing her Essence into the blade to keep the weapon cutting steadily and accurately; the ten thousand year Essence bamboo was - hard - and she shook her amazement that she was even able to consider making a bāwū out of what would normally be considered a heavenly treasure.

Thankful that her tutor had been an old fashioned sort who insisted that to really know an instrument a master also had to know how it was made and maintained - although at the time she had resented it, Dàilán cut out a small rectangle of material that served as a mouthpiece into the side of the stalk almost a third of the way down the closed end of the bamboo.

Next, she drilled finger holes down the length of the rough flute with the tip of the dagger - suddenly wishing fiercely she had the proper tools - part of her was suddenly screaming at the absolute waste of treasure materials at such an amateurish attempt at creating an instrument. Quickly picking up one of the bamboo leaves she had just trimmed off, she cut a narrow piece of leaf off, once again marveling at its strength - it felt more like she was cutting through a thin piece of metal than grass.

With care she cut a V into the small piece of leaf and curled the resulting little triangle out with her finger; its sprang back, but was now slightly offset, leaving a small triangle shaped gap - a brief breath set it vibrating satisfactorily and she nodded before carefully placing that inside the mouthpiece - most of the leaf disappeared inside the bamboo with only a little sticking out. With a little careful effort she slit a thin groove inside the lip of the 'mouthpiece' and folded the remaining portion of the reed she had fashioned that stuck out into the slit to hold the reed in place, shaking her head again at the absolute waste of material and poor work.

Carefully making sure her veil technique was still at full strength, Dàilán held the stalk of bamboo as if she was a dàxióngmāo planning to eat it and blew into the mouthpiece; her eyebrows rose at the remarkably pleasant and mellow sound that resulted. A thought occurred to her and she blew again, this time letting her Essence flow through her fingertips and her breath as she had been doing lately in her cultivation sessions as she played. Her eyes prickled again as she realised that her precious instrument had been another thing lost.

The bamboo which had been slowly losing its glow as she worked suddenly glowed brightly in colours of jade, gold, green and purple - seeming to writhe in her hands. Before she had a chance to release it in her shock, she realised that the bamboo had literally reshaped itself to fit her grip. The flute suddenly appeared to have been perfectly carved by a master craftsman - the mouthpiece even had a natural raised ridge of bamboo that held the reed seamlessly as if it had grown naturally into the perfect bāwū.

"Jade Bamboo is Jade Bamboo after all." she muttered to herself and raised the bāwū to her lips again. This time the sound was almost comparable to her old instrument, which had been an Essence Treasure kept in the Clan for hundreds of years after it had been purchased - supposedly from an old wandering Cultivator who claimed it was an ancient instrument.

Looking around, Dàilán spotted a conveniently flat topped boulder to one side of the hot spring. It was the work of a moment to hop on top of it and arrange herself in a casual position, keeping her eyes on the hot spring where the young man still relaxed, softly singing his song.

Pulling her Veil Technique inward, the young teen girl allowed herself to become visible as she started playing her new instrument softly around the notes of the singer, using Essence to soften the volume of the notes slightly, both eyebrows curved upward in mischief.

To her surprise and increasing amusement, the young man did not immediately react to the soft notes gently weaving around his own song; so fighting back a grin while keeping her eyes fixed on him, she dropped the Essence away and played normally, improvising around his song, gradually bringing the strength of her breath up to the level she usually used when playing.

It took almost three verses - by which time she was thoroughly enjoying the feeling of the instrument beneath her fingers and the impromptu duet - for Chún to stiffen and sit up, his singing trailing off as he stared at her first in surprise - then dismay.

Smiling, Dàilán lowered the bāwū and pouted slightly, "Why did you stop? That was fun!"

"What are you doing here?" demanded the young man, spots of color clear on his cheekbones.

"I woke up," Dàilán shrugged unconcernedly, "I thought I felt something strange this way - everyone else is still asleep so - I thought I should check to make sure it was not a threat," the young teen heiress waved her free hand around indicating their surroundings, "I was surprised to find this. Unless I miss my guess - you made it? I saw and felt what you did to that rock you are resting on."

Chún's eyes widened and he rubbed his forehead, before looking at her, "This… wait, you felt it?"

"It resonated with my Cultivation base," deliberately the young woman lowered her voice as she replied, leaning forward towards him from the rock, "please do not mention it to the others… it could cause difficult questions to be asked."

"I should be asking you that," pointed out the young man, "but I agree - as long as you agree to not mention your theory that this is not just," he lifted a water beaded arm out of the water and gestured, "a side effect of the landscape being affected by the recent outpouring of Essence caused by recent… events."

Dàilán quirked an eyebrow, "We shall keep each other's secrets then. Feel free to continue." She leaned back and raised the bāwū back to her lips, watching unabashedly with every evidence of enjoyment.

"What… wait… no! I am getting out now!" responded Chún in a flustered tone of voice, "Could you please leave - or at least - look away?"

The young woman giggled, placed her flute down and unfolded herself to lay on her stomach across the warm rock, with her legends up behind her letting her feet swing up above her head as she propped it up on her elbows and palms, not once taking her eyes off the man in the water, "I do not really see a reason why I should - unless I am truly making you uncomfortable?"

The heiress laughed as he facepalmed, shaking his head and continued talking with a thread of laughter lilting through her voice, "En, the Cultivator heroes in the books never leave when they are asked and - I am really enjoying the scenery. Everything here is just beautiful," she let her eyes rest on his for a moment and despite the flush of his cheeks she saw his lips curl in a smile at the compliment, "I would have been forced to marry some old man next year - let me have my dreams."

"Who is the hero here?" Chún asked, winking at her, the flush gone as he stood in the water, which dropped to his waist - and Dàilán found her mouth going dry as she drank in the sight, suddenly finding her own cheeks burning.

"You know - I have heard those stories too - and as far as I can remember," pointed out the young man reasonably, "it is meant to be the Hero peeking on the Fairy - not the other way around."

"Well, you are welcome to look at the Fairy as much as you can," shot back a flustered Dàilán, refusing to be defeated, "you did save my life, after all." Her eyes dropped to study the rock beneath her elbows as her last words trailed off quietly.

"What would your Father say to that?" asked Chún rhetorically and Dàilán raised her head quickly in irritation to catch him shrugging, "I must thank the Lady for pointing out an obvious deficiency that I overlooked in constructing this hot spring," he winked at her once more and she felt her eyebrows raise as that glow came again, this time from under the water.

Moments later, with a series of soft splashes, a line of slim Jade Bamboo stalks emerged from the water from the center of the pool and one after another grew out of the water - continuing across to both sides - dividing the hot spring in half, except for a narrow gap on one end where the bamboo did not quite grow right to the edge; leaving just enough space for a person to walk through. Within moments the young man was completely obscured by the tall wall of bamboo and soft splashes indicated he was leaving the water.

"So that is how…" Dàilán remarked in wonder as Chún came around the side of the spring, clad in a simple tunic that left his arms and legs bare to the knee.

"More or less," agreed the young man carefully, "did you have a particular point to all of this?" as he padded over on bare feet.

Dàilán shot him a mischievous look, "I have not had a proper bath since I left Hujian," she hopped off the boulder, leaving the bāwū behind her on the rock, "I wanted to use this beautiful facility you have so graciously constructed."

"Camp full of tired, filthy, noblewomen - sort of obvious," admitted the young man leaning against the side of the boulder as he watched her appraisingly as she quite deliberately began loosening her robe, "although I admit it was not them I was thinking of."

"For me?" Dàilán felt her cheeks heat and she bowed quickly, "it is quite literally a heavenly gift," she hesitated, suddenly feeling awkward, "I… I have not really done anything - I have nothing of equal value…"

Chún rubbed the back of his head, appearing equally awkward, "Actually, I was just thinking I wanted a bath to start. Then I thought of you after…" he waved his other hand, "you do not need to repay me - it is a gift. Perhaps you could add… everything implied by it... to your consideration of my proposal."

The mischief bug bit the heiress again, "A proposal now… how bold of you, Lord Rén," she raised her eyes to watch an array of interesting range of expressions cross his face, as she pulled off her outer robe.

"Pardon the wording, Lady…" he paused slightly, a flash of an indecipherable expression flashing across his face, "...it is not completely…" he shook his head, interrupting himself, "You could have just asked me to leave the spring so you could use it."

"Where would the fun have been in that?" grinned Dàilán, watching him as she draped the robe over the boulder, "are you planning to watch me undress?"

The young man rubbed his chin with a hand, "seems fair Lady," he raised an eyebrow, "you started all this, after all. And you did say I was welcome to look as much as I liked."

Refusing to let him push her into retreating, Dàilán kept her eyes on Chún's as she peeled away another layer of her dress and placed it on top of the boulder as well.

"Actually, I what I said, was," Dàilán unwrapped the next to last layer of her clothing slowly as she spoke, "you are welcome to watch as much as you - can - ", she corrected as she pushed the Veil Technique outward at full strength and the young woman laughed as Chún pushed off the rock to stand upright in surprise she vanished.

Moving quickly, she was on the far side of the hot spring between breaths, hidden from view by the bamboo wall Chún had grown for his own modesty as she shimmied quickly out of the rest of her clothing, although she made sure to keep the wrist sheaths for her Essence Daggers on - she had detached the sheaths from the sleeves of the robe where they normally sat when she took the robe off.

Dàilán shuddered in pleasure as she entered the Essence heavy hot water that was almost boiling, thankful for her Sky level Cultivation that left it pleasant and invigorating against her skin as she walked through the water that came up to her chest. Dropping the Veil Technique, she moved towards the opening in the bamboo wall to emerge on the side of the spring, making sure to lower herself until into the steaming water came up to her collar bones and burst out laughing at Chún still stood at looking around in amazement.

"Since I have seen your disguise," she told him, giggling at the consternation on his face as she looked up at him, "it was only fair you saw mine. Now," she indicated the bushes, herbs and plants around the pool, "I assume you know which of these is best for cleaning what?"

"Remarkable," he uttered, staring down at her.

Dàilán laughed happily as he shook his head and started smiling, "Yes…" he answered in response to her question and quickly pointed out various plants - this for skin, this one for hair, this for Cultivation impurities, this one for oil and so on.

With assurances that he would stay on that side and guard against any interlopers - like young women much too sure of themselves, he stated dryly, prompting her to giggle - she gathered the appropriate parts of each and went back to the other side of the thin bamboo wall that now bisected the hot spring to wash herself clean of almost a week's work of accumulated grime, hard effort, blood, sweat and tears as well as the remaining impurities of a Cultivation breakthrough.