Editing Storm's Eye Hill (section)

==Singular Geomancy==
The weeks that followed were filled with the heady scent of ink and the steady stroke of the draughtsman's brush.  Though [[Inam Niu]] and [[Hatsu Shi]] had gone, along with the rest of [[The Xuan Wu Academy]], to repair [[Scattered Hoofbeats Sound|an earthquake's damage]] to the southern [[The Marukan Alliance|Marukan]], they kept one project closer to their hearts than any other.  After they had laid the day's foundations, re-built the day's fences, patched the day's walls, the pair bent their heads over a broad sheet of silk and began the day's true work.  They decided, right away, that they had to rebuild the hill.  "Exactly as it was," said Hatsu Shi.

"That won't be enough," Inam Niu replied.  "Not with the dragon lines broken.  But if we can get jade pylons, blue jade, running parallel with the lay of the old lines..."

"Yes!  And three concentric jade rings, yards in diameter, buried under the hill to trap the air Essence beneath..."

They went on like that, late into every night, plotting with exacting detail.  They calculated the position and shape of limestone columns; they leapt to the challenge of burying, whole, impossibly huge panes of glass; and, in one giddy moment they bumped heads and realized that three lightning boxes, placed just so, could draw away the fire Essence coming in from the south.  After two weeks of planning, Inam Niu paced the floors of the room while Hatsu Shi moved his brush across a sheet of paper, finishing his calculations.  

When he looked up, Inam Niu stopped.  "Well?" she said.

"If we can get five windslave disks?"  Hatsu Shi smiled.  "Six motes an hour." 

"You mean...?"

He nodded.  "A third rank demense."

"Shi!"  Inam Niu all but dove for her colleague, knocking him prone and spilling his ink across the tatami-carpeted floor.  "It's going to be stronger?"

Hatsu Shi struggled to sit up, and to keep his face from turning red.  "Just a little.  And with the disks to support the architecture, you should be able to design a much more open south face for the manse than before.  It was a genius idea, Niu."

"Oh, I can see it now!"  The Stone Maiden clasped her hands to her chest and rocked back on her ankles.  "Four little pavilions at the base of the hill and the fox statues hiding in the tall grass.  We'll make the building entirely of shifting screens and polished glass - we'll be able to open or close the whole thing and slide the glass into place as a magnifier.  See out, but never in!" 

She blinked.  "Wait.  Did you said '''you'' should be able to design?'"

Hatsu Shi hung looked away.  "I'm sorry, Niu.  [[Mite Xu]] told me yesterday.  You and the rest are headed back by week's end, but I'm staying here."

"I don't know if I can do it on my own."  The girl bit her lip.

"Come on, Niu.  You handled it just fine the first time; this won't be any different."

"It won't feel the same, without you there.  These past few weeks..."  

"Niu, don't."  Hatsu Shi stood.  "It's not that I'm not...  Not that I don't..."  He shook his head.  At last, he said, "I won't be down here forever.  Just until the roads are done."  And with that, he made for the door.

"One of the pavilions," Inam Niu said to his back.  "One of the pavilions will be for you."


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[[Heaven's Mandate]]