Wang Ben was practicing in a courtyard near the side gate when he sensed someone enter.
Dawn had not yet come. He had been trying to hold his attention on one part of what his spiritual sense revealed and let the rest recede. The arrival broke his concentration. He opened his eyes and rose, easing himself upright as his ribs pulled.
An older guard was walking toward the patriarch's residence, a travel pack on his shoulder and a sword at his hip. Ben remembered seeing him at yesterday's rally. He followed along the path and reached the courtyard as Grandmother Chen brought the guard indoors.
She withdrew, leaving the door partly open. Ben stopped in the courtyard, close enough to hear the men inside.
"Patriarch."
"Sit, Lin Tieshan."
Through the doorway, Ben saw his grandfather pour tea. He knew that name. Old Lin had fought with the vanguard when they breached the Xue Clan's compound. During the beast tide before that, he had brought wounded clansmen out of the fighting when no one else could reach them.
Lin took the seat across from Tiexin and drank a little tea before speaking.
"I went to the Prince's camp after the rally yesterday. Thought these old bones might still be of some use in the war. I've signed up."
His grandfather waited, the teapot still beside his hand.
"At first they put me with the other recruits," Lin continued. "An old man at half-step foundation establishment was nothing to trouble themselves over. Then they learned I was a Wang guard. They took me into a tent with the Prince's people and wrote down my name there."
"What did they want?" Tiexin asked.
"To hear about the clan, mostly. That was what struck me as strange. Which formation arrays we knew, and what grades. What Wang Tian could refine, and the quality of his pills."
Lin lowered his cup.
"They asked about Wang Ben's fight with Xue Feng and the other demonic cultivators too. They didn't use his name, but there was no mistaking who they meant."
Ben leaned a little nearer the open door. His grandfather set his own cup down and reached for the pot.
"I told them we are a righteous clan," Lin said. "We've defended Redstone for as long as I can remember. Whatever else they wanted to know, I made sure they heard that."
Tiexin refilled Lin's cup, then his own.
"The clan is in your debt, Tieshan."
"It owes me nothing." Lin put his hand around the fresh cup without lifting it. "This has been my home all my life. I won't forget that because I've gone to serve elsewhere."
He rose, shifting the pack on his shoulder.
"I'll be back when the war is over. An old goat like me is hard to kill. When my service is done, I'll serve here again, if you'll have me."
Tiexin stood as Lin began to bow. He caught the old guard by the shoulder and kept him upright.
"You've told me about your service," he said. "What of your own hopes?"
Lin looked at him but did not answer.
"I know how long you've been held at this bottleneck," Tiexin said. "The pills helped you get this far. They won't take you past it."
His grandfather's hand remained on Lin's shoulder.
"The treasure you need is beyond our means. The kingdom may be able to provide it. I won't stand in your way, Tieshan. I only wish we could have given you what you needed after all these years."
Lin's mouth moved, but he said nothing. Tiexin let his hand fall.
"When you break through, come home. There will be a place for you."
Lin cupped his fist. He lingered a moment, sadness plain on his face, then turned toward the door. Ben stepped aside to let him pass, and the old guard went out with his pack and sword.
"Come in, Ben."
Ben entered. Lin's refilled cup remained on the table. He had not touched the tea.
"You heard?" his grandfather asked.
"All of it." Ben looked back toward the courtyard. "I hadn't thought he would leave."
"He has his own path to follow."
"I know."
Tiexin watched him for a moment, then drew him closer with a hand on his shoulder.
"Going elsewhere doesn't undo his years with us. When he needs our help, we will give it. When we need his, he will come."
Ben nodded. Beyond the open door, Lin had gone from sight.
Tiexin took his hand from Ben's shoulder and led him across the inner courtyard to the audience hall. Wang Tian and Wang Feng had been summoned and were already waiting.
The four sat down. Ben listened while his grandfather passed on Lin's account, from his reception at the camp to the questions that had followed.
When Tiexin finished, Wang Feng folded his arms. "They came for more than recruits."
"The war is real," Tiexin said. "So is the Prince's interest in the clan."
"What does he want?" Tian asked.
"Our formations for his fortresses, perhaps," Tiexin said. "Or your pills for his soldiers. A righteous clan with both professions, proven against demonic cultivators, would be worth his attention."
"Which of the two?" Feng asked.
"I cannot say yet. Nor whether he wants more than that." Tiexin looked toward Tian.
His father leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
"Others will want to follow him. We ought to speak to them before they go. A kingdom's war is crueler than a clan war, and far more deadly. They should understand what they are entering."
"Tell them plainly," Tiexin said. "Then leave the choice to them."
Feng uncrossed his arms. "That still leaves us short of guards. The walls need men, and so do our patrols in the Blackwood."
"We could approach the Silent Path," Tian said.
His grandfather turned back to him.
"They have led expeditions through the Blackwood for years," Tian continued. "We could offer to hire them for the clan's share of the patrols. That would leave our own guards free for the walls."
Tiexin considered the suggestion before nodding.
"Look into it. Bring me their terms."
...
Late that night, Cai Hongwen received his expected hooded visitor at his estate in the capital.
He had chosen the side parlor, where a brazier kept out the autumn chill. The white room was for men who reported to him. Here he offered his guest a seat across the low table and took the other himself.
The man lowered his hood. He was lean, dressed in plain traveling robes, and his cultivation seemed modest to Cai's spiritual sense. Cai doubted that he was sensing all of it. He let the matter pass while a servant poured their tea. At his gesture, she withdrew and shut the door.
The visitor lifted his cup. Frost spread beneath his fingers and around the rim. The steam ceased, and a thin layer of ice formed across the tea. Cold reached Cai's face despite the brazier behind him.
The man's fingers tightened. He drew the escaping qi back, and the frost along the rim thinned. His face remained composed as he held the cup.
A recent advance, Cai thought, and a substantial one, if that much had escaped him.
"You will want to hear how matters stand."
"I want to hear that they stand as you promised."
Cai inclined his head.
"Redstone will come into my hands. But it must be done quietly. Force would bring Tie Wushan's attention down on us. He has a war to concern himself with. I intend to leave him occupied with it."
Tie Wushan was a powerful cultivator. Cai had less regard for his skill at managing the ambitions of others, particularly while the western front demanded so much of him.
The king had distrusted Cai and given the domain to a man bound to the royal house by marriage. Cai still resented the choice. He had accepted it at court; he meant to make the king regret it.
"The Xue Clan failed me," he said. "That has delayed matters. It has not ended them. Other moves against the Wang Clan are already underway."
He rested his hand beside his own cup without taking it. Across the table, the visitor still held his frozen tea.
"There is a prince in Redstone."
"Passing through," Cai said. "He has been gathering support for the western war throughout the kingdom. His journey is nearly over. He will be on his way west before my work is finished."
The visitor watched him.
"Once Redstone is in my hands, your people may use it for their search in the Blackwood," Cai said. "That has not changed."
The man set his cup down. He had not drunk from it.
"See that you give this your full attention. The main branch will be unhappy if we delay any longer."
He rose, and Cai rose with him. They exchanged farewells with the courtesy of equals before the visitor left the parlor.
The cold receded with him. Cai felt the brazier's warmth again as he looked at the cup across the table. Ice still covered the untouched tea.
He left it there a moment longer, then called for it to be taken away.