The Fate of Flowers in the Mirror
Of course Lu Fei was in the dojo. He trained more than almost anyone the Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory had ever met. He threw his body against the muk yan jong night and day, learning better how to die. The goddess watched him throw a vicious elbow strike at the practice dummy. He hit so hard that he splintered the wood, but he had made an Undefended Assault and come in too close for safety and one of the dummy's outstretched arms caught his rib. Lu Fei coughed and staggered back, flecks of blood on his lip. Still, he moved to charge forward again.
Sweet Brass stepped in. "Lu Fei, wait."
The godblood turned, he caught Sweet Brass' eye, and he waited a beat before he dropped out of the Falling Blossom Form. He held his shoulders rigid as, with exacting politeness, he said, "My lady?"
"The circle's preparing to leave. An hour more and we'll all ride east, after Green Frowning Bear. I thought you and I should speak before we left."
"Should we, lady? I wonder; we've never found it necessary before."
"I wanted to tell you that I think you made the right choice in this." The goddess sat down at the edge of the training mat and folded her legs beneath her.
"Thank you for your kind words. But excuse me; now that we've spoken, I have some preparations to make for the journey." Lu Fei stepped off the mat, to the edge of the dojo's floor, and slipped on his waraji.
Sweet Brass looked up at Lu Fei and smiled. "You're not very comfortable around me, are you?"
Lu Fei bit his lip. He watched the goddess for a while, then sighed and sat down across from her. "My father was Lufthorya, Celestial Censor of the East; my mother was the Captain of his guard, the Seraphim of Bright Bastion. The echo between their lives and yours and Storm of Amber's brings back memories."
"Bad ones?"
"I'm sure you've heard the gossip."
"I hadn't, actually." The goddess shrugged.
"Ah, yes. You, too, were fallen from Heaven."
“It’s my return to Heaven’s grace I came to speak to you about, and the man in whose service I returned.”
“Storm of Amber.”
Sweet Brass nodded. “Intemperance and need have seen my lord swear to answer Heaven for Othoclase’s crimes.”
“I remember. I stood by when august Jin Ryu carried my mistress and he away to the Court of Eternal Flame.”
“The gemlord has been busy, it seems, and I do not think Jin Ryu’s first visit will be his last.”
Lu Fei sighed. “Storm of Amber will not long stand by and be Othoclase’s puppet. But to fight a gemlord...” The godblood shook his head.
“That’s a war we all need to be spared from.”
“Surely you could restrain him?”
Sweet Brass smiled sadly. “How, when his honor and freedom are at stake? If I could hold him back, he would not be the man I love; and if I tried, I would be no woman for him. But you, Lu Fei...”
The godblood’s eyes went wide. “I’m a poor excuse for my father’s son. You can’t expect me to stand against the Solar Thunder, by word or deed.”
“You will be censor, Lu Fei, and a censor has much authority. Including that needed to reject Storm of Amber’s vow.”
“If his oath is Heaven-sworn, there’s nothing anyone can do to bring him out from under it, even a censor.”
“No, this oath is personal. Othoclase did not think to call on your mistress to bind it, nor would Storm have given him the time. The choice would be yours.”
“As was your choice to come here? Storm of Amber doesn’t know?”
Sweet Brass scratched idly at her foot. “He does not break his vows.”
Lu Fei rubbed his eyes. “The gemlord wages war with his rivals, without consideration of propriety; a censor tries one man for another’s crime; a goddess who has solicited illegal worship comes to me to seek redress because her Solar husband will not. Another reason you make me uncomfortable, lady: you remind me too much of how far fallen this age truly is.”
“I’m sorry for that reminder, Lu Fei, but there is injustice in this any way you look, and you know you cannot shut yourself away from it.”
The goddess rose to her feet. “Something else you should know is that Storm of Amber is not my husband.”
“What? ”
“There is love between us, but how could we be wed? A Solar Exalt and a lesser goddess? Before whom should we make our vows, when the laws of the corrupt age you speak of say we must not interact?
“The Solars were the princes of the earth in the First Age. One would not have had to bargain with Othoclase as with a merchant – he would have had the authority to command and the backing of the bureaucracy and the censors to see his command followed; my worshippers would be lost in the throngs pledged to gods far mightier than I; and Storm of Amber and I could have stood before the Unconquered Sun Himself to proclaim our wedding vows.”
“The old ways, the old worship lead to corruption.”
“Then be a censor of the new. With the Oath of the Glass Canyon, Nameless Ravine declared the dawning of the Third Age. Let its guiding principles be the justice you enforce, and remember that the Solars have another name: lawgivers.”
Lu Fei sat silently for a while. When he stood, he slipped off his waraji and stepped back onto the practice mat. He looked towards the old muk yan jong as he said, “I will have to consider this.”
The Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory nodded and stepped to the dojo’s door, where sunlight framed her shoulders. “Lu Fei, a question?”
“Yes, lady?”
“Is Storm of Amber a righteous man?”
Lu Fei thought, and then nodded. “I believe he is.”
“Then add that to your considerations.
“But quickly, Lu Fei; we leave in half an hour.”
