Editing Chapter 1 (section)

==Five days earlier…==

…at the [[Plum Blossom Retreat]], the newly amalgamated team was preparing for its send off.  They were the last team to be assigned, and had watched as their four predecessors each received their equipment for the task: two suits of gunzosha armor, two shockpikes, various other (nonmagical weapons), a folding servant, maintenance equipment for the artifacts, teaching supplies, a well-stocked medicine kit, and a week's worth of food.  One cart.  Two draft horses.  Five matching brown robes.

The Lord and Master of the amalgams, [[Rivers Between Us]], stepped up to the final team.  In spite of himself, Zhou Wing could feel a wave of breathless anticipation, excitement, and affection whenever he turned to look at him.  He knew it was just the magic; he'd been warned about it before the spell.  At the time he hadn't cared.  The solar exalted were awesome.  Why shouldn't he follow their lead?  Even so, this was a little more unnerving than he had expected.  He looked to the other team members to see their reactions.

He had only met them five minutes earlier.  He had seen them all before, to be sure; at the amalgamation ceremony he remembered seeing the green one (Selara?) step forward to be the first to offer her sword for the change.  Looking at her polished silver iris, he assumed it was a safe bet that she had followed up on that plan.  She looked respectfully at the wizard and bowed her head slightly as he approached, but definitely with a degree of restraint.  He really should take a look at that eye…

Beside Selara was the girl Yao Ye.  She had fire-red skin and burgundy hair… well, not really hair, more like swept back petals where hair might once have been.  That was another obvious amalgamation.  She was practically bouncing from foot to foot and glowing with excitement at the sight of Rivers, clasping her hands in front of her chest nervously.  Wing was sure she must have been the youngest to be amalgamated; barely old enough to hold a spear and now she was hunting demons?

The short man beside her was Shu Zhuang, a tree stump of a man. He hardly seemed to react at all to his surroundings.  In fact, Wing was almost certain that he was sleeping.  It was hard to tell; his face was a craggy brown mass of wrinkles, like the bark of a great fir tree.

Last of all was the tall Toruna.  He could tell that she wasn't Murakan; even after the change had lengthened her limbs and turned her hair into shards of obsidian it was easy to see the features of the deep south.  With hands folded in front of her, she looked down with what could only be tolerant amusement at the boy-godling.

Rivers Between Us walked up and spoke, fumbling across his sentences as usual.  "So.  You're going East… and you should be pretty ok over there, except for maybe some beastmen and lunar exalted, which could pretty much tear you to pieces, or me for that matter, so, well, there's nothing to do about that.  Yeah.  Toruna is in charge.  Report back once a month.  Don't get killed."

Zhou Wing cocked his head to one side and said, "Wait, what are we supposed to do out there?"

Rivers looked surprised for a moment, then laughed and said, "Right, right.  Good.  You're to do Good.  Okay?"

The five amalgams looked stunned for a moment.  Rivers looked them over, nodded his head, then pointed to Toruna.  "Can I speak to you for a second?"

He took the stony woman aside beneath a plum tree and talked while the rest waited.  Wing found himself watching the sorcerer's hands, the way he moved, the way he acted… he forced himself with an act of will to look away.  It was high summer in the manse; the sky was cornflower blue, and the air was as warm and thick as gruel, but the atmosphere had been frosty there over the last few days.  Some thought it might be because of the incident at the Gatehouse, but he had only heard vague rumors of a skirmish between Lookshy rangers and one of the chosen.  Rivers seemed particularly bothered by something.  Zhou Wing wished that he would confide in him, just tell him what was wrong so that he could help in some way…

They had finished talking.  The sorcerer waved to them and shouted, "I'll see you in a month!  There's this… ah… person… business I have to… I'm needed elsewhere, on the double.  Remember, do Good!  You're our ambassadors!  If you need any equipment, let me know, unless its a warstrider or skyship.  We’re still short on those!"

With that, he took his warbird from a folding servant, collapsed the servant and tossed it in a saddle bag, and then took to the sky, shouting down to them, "And don't die!  I'd feel really bad if I found out…"

And he was gone, carried by a great metal owl beyond the plum trees, out into the East.

Yao Ye suddenly snapped out of the spell that seemed to have overcome her.  "Oh no, he's gone!  And I just stood here like a dunce and never said a word!"  With that, the girl sank to her knees and began wailing.  Even Selara took a step after him, as though to say a parting word. Wing lifted his hand to his eyes to try to catch one last glimpse.

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