Page 16 of The Wind Dancer
“And say I choose the second option?”
“You’ll get protection. Connections. Influence. And perhaps you’ll find what your mentor was hiding from everyone. Along with his true identity.”
Her offer may have mostly been true, but there was a glaring lie in its core. The Chancellery never gave freedom. It would only put a leash on you. Depending on the situation, it would be long or short, but it would always be there.
I took a step back and grinned.
“I’ll think about it.”
She smiled.
“Smart. Just don’t take too long. I’m not the only one looking for answers.”
She tightened the belt of her robe, picked up her hairpin from the table, and headed for the door.
“Good night, Feng Lao,” her voice was almost gentle.
I didn’t respond. I just watched her disappear through the door, leaving the scent of jasmine in her wake.
My mind was in complete chaos. You didn’t refuse offers from the Secret Chancellery if you wanted to live. But that meant falling under their control, and word was that no one ever left their grasp. At least, not alive.
I was sitting on the edge of the bed with my elbows on my knees, staring into the dim room, trying to figure out what kind of mess I was in. And then, slowly, the pieces began to fall into place.
Previously unconnected fragments of my life began to fit together like mosaic pieces forming a picture I couldn’t see before.
I wasn’t just taught to survive. Or just steal.
I remembered my mentor’s lessons again: how to move quietly, how to read facial expressions like words, how to eavesdrop unnoticed, how to memorize other people’s habits... I thought those were just necessities for a Shadow Walker. Even the ability to hide, avoid danger, and stay in the shadows wasn’t just limited to us.
Looking at it from a different angle, I saw a different intention behind the training.
Yes, Shadows needed all those, but did they really need to be so thorough when analyzing people? Did they really need to know them better than they knew themselves? They needed to know how to break into houses, to leave without a trace, to set traps, to get away from pursuers. Again, a thing other professions needed. But there were other things that narrowed that other intention down.
The ciphers my mentor used. How he taught me to code my speech, to say one thing, but convey a completely different message to someone in the know.
Those were skills meant for spies.
For the Secret Chancellery.
I had always thought my mentor was some famous Shadow Walker from the capital, hiding out here. But now everything clicked into place — he was from the Chancellery. I didn’t know why, but he didn’t want anyone to know about him.
I clenched my fingers into a fist.
If he trained me to be an agent instead of a Shadow... The most important question was why? He did teach me to always ask who benefited from this.
I was so frustrated by not knowing that I wanted to swear. Why had the old man died so suddenly? Why hadn’t he trusted me enough to tell me?
And then it dawned on me. If he had important information, he might have been eliminated so he couldn’t tell anyone. My mentor always told me that one day everything could change. And now it had.
I remembered the strange note that an equally strange old man had given me.
I took it out of my pocket and unfolded it.
Thin rice paper with jagged edges. At first glance, it was a nonsensical mess of characters, as if someone had just scribbled fragments of thoughts. But I now knew better.
“The moon hides behind clouds when the wind blows from the southwest.
Mountain flowers bloom before the first light.
