Page 36 of The Wind Dancer
It hit me that Sima didn’t know my mentor as well as he thought. I had already been dragged into this, and now I had to continue his work.
“Thank you for the advice, Uncle Sima.” I bowed again. “But I have come here tonight for a different reason. The dragonblood have taken an active interest in me.”
Sima motioned for me to sit down and took out a couple of cups and a jug of rice wine.
“It’s deadly for us commoners to meddle in the affairs of the dragonblood.” He poured the wine. “Any of them could kill a dozen seasoned fighters without breaking a sweat. And if a dragonblood follows the path of Ascension...” His voice lowered, filled with unmistakable reverence. “Then they stand at the boundary between mortal flesh and something far greater. They are a force of nature.”
Judging by his tone, he had witnessed this more than once.
I shuddered. That eerie cold voice and its words rang in my head again.
“The Ascension protocol has been activated.”
“Uncle, what is Ascension?”
The old man gulped down a cup of wine and immediately poured another. Even though I was short on time, I didn’t dare rush him.
“Do you know how one becomes a dragonblood?”
I shook my head. I always assumed they were born that way, especially because of the name.
“It is the name given to those who have the chance to stand upon the path of Ascension, or who already walk it. Ascension is the endless climb toward Heaven,” he said slowly. “Each step a dragonblood takes along it, the stronger they become, the more deeply they are bound to the essence of the ancient dragons. The higher they rise, the more that essence reshapes them. Strength grows, their flesh changes, and their spirit hardens. They begin to wield magic.”
He turned the cup in his hand, swirling the wine before continuing.
“In the age of legends, it was said that great heroes reached the ninth level and awakened the spirit of a true dragon within their blood. But nowadays, even those who reached the fifth level are rare and revered.”
“To be honest, I don’t understand so much about it. Does it begin within an ordinary human? When does this awaken? How does it grow?”
The old man chuckled.
“I’m not surprised you have so many questions, boy. The answers to such questions are tangled in theories and old speculation. You would need to speak to scholars and court philosophers to get answers. And from what I’ve heard, even they don’t truly understand it.”
He put his cup down.
“You have more important things to worry about now. Lian Rui rose from nothing and awakened as a dragonblood of fire. As far as I know, he’s reached the third level of Ascension. Though he used to be a commoner, he now commands much of the shadow world of the eastern part of the Empire. If someone like him has taken an interest in you, then you’re in a world of trouble, and need patrons strong enough to protect you...”
I remained with Uncle Sima for nearly half an hour, listening as he told me how the dragonblood differed from ordinary men and from one another. The further one was along the path of Ascension, the more they connected with their element. It affected both their body and character.
Those elements aligned with the elements of the great ancestral dragons: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Metal.
The information was invaluable, but right now, I was interested in how to get rid of Lian Rui and his impending proposal. Uncle Sima was right in saying that dealing with dragonblood was deadly.
I had only a couple of hours before I needed to go meet with Mei Lin, and the meeting place wasn’t close. And with those lotus bastards around...
The Middle City greeted me with a vicious, damp darkness. While I was talking with Uncle Sima, a short but very heavy rain had fallen, and the wet stone underfoot still glistened from the storm. Water dripped from curved rooftops in a slow, steady rhythm. I moved confidently and kept my pace relatively normal. Rushing could attract attention, and I really didn’t want that. Inhaling on the first step, exhaling on the second. My eyes moved to reflections in puddles, dim windows, and silhouettes on rooftops.
It was possible I was being watched, but I didn’t feel any obvious threat yet. Or was I mistaken?
The damp air still carried the smell of smoke, cheap wine, and rotten wood. Around the corner, a lady of the night was pretending to laugh while chatting with a customer, and somewhere in the distance, hooves clattered on the stones, probably a cart.
I couldn’t focus on too much now, as I was busy going over my options.
The guild... was out of the question. Trusting the guild was like knowingly playing cards with someone who had an entire deck up their sleeve and a dagger under the table. Besides, the Nightmaster was the one who sent me on the deadly job. And I’d have to resolve this with him, perhaps with some radical methods. In any case, the guild was a terrible option for finding protection.
The House of Fire Mist? I was a junior now, but I had no idea how to contact them. And I didn’t know what I could offer in return. They were a family, a closed, tight-knit circle forged in shared blood and years of loyalty. Not by random chance. If I had more time, they would be a wise option. The amulet would grant me access to the family, but that wouldn’t be helpful immediately.
I had the mistress of the Garden of the Nine Gates and Tongs to cover me to some extent, but I needed a stronger patron, an organization powerful enough to shield me from Lian Rui. The Lower City would stand for me within its bounds, as I was its flesh and willing to pay, but its reach didn’t extend far enough to defy the dragonblood.
