Once more, Your Executor reflects upon the name Our Glorious Emperor bestowed upon the passage in lives past. World's End Gate suggests a dearth of existence beyond its spellwrought iron. Any so honored by a meeting with Our Most Revered Defenders well knows the untruth that lies beneath this assumption. Beyond the passage, Your Executor finds that the world has only begun. It becomes Your Executor's supposition that Our Glorious Emperor's intent does not coincide with a belief that the world extends only so far as the barrier mountains that shelter the Jade Empire, but instead, a belief that should the gate be closed and sealed, thereby separating The People of Jade from Our Most Revered Defenders, our world built through centuries of unity, brotherhood, and peaceful coexistence would truly meet its end.

Ji Min leaned back from her desk and read over the entry. Her careful eye swept over the lines made by her ink brush, seeking out errant spots of black ink. She smiled when she found that she had made no mistakes. Ji Min's tutors in the palace had often praised her for her calligraphy, and she took pride in the glory her skill bestowed on her.

Proud though she may have been of her penmanship, the words themselves were more important. One must never contradict the emperor, either current or his past incarnations, so an official document needed to walk a delicate line. Reinterpret, rather than refute. The emperor could never make a decision that would one day become obsolete, or worse, irrelevant. It fell to his executors to illuminate the hidden wisdom that surely drove the decisions of his past incarnations.

The desk she was using was not the best suited for calligraphy. Ji Min sat in the lotus position upon the floor of her silk tent. Her desk was broad and flat, no more than two hands off the ground, and served as both her writing surface and dinner table. She carried few of her possessions with her from the Jade Empire. When Ku Ji Min crossed through the passage into the arid east, she did so alone and unburdened with the comforts of her affluent upbringing.

This was the tradition for the eastern executor, and tradition was almost as binding as the emperor's will.

Setting her ink and brush aside, Ji Min retrieved a glass bottle with a rubber bellows. With great care, she squeezed the bellows and puffed little sprays of lacquer over the final page in her journal. Once it dried, the intricate characters would be safe from smudges, the paper itself protected, and she could at last send this volume back home along with the caravan. Ji Min was quite proud of the end result. She only wished that she could have the honor and pleasure of reading it for the emperor all to herself.

All she had done and seen was written down for the emperor, and she hoped that her words were of some use to him. The past year had been among the most glorious in Ji Min's recollection. Ever since passing through World's End Gate under the Li Lung Mountains, every experience had been a joy. Ji Min loved this land, but even more so, she loved the people who dwelled here.

A shadow passed in front of the flap of her tent, followed by a soft voice asking leave to enter. Ji Min gave permission in the local language, which still felt awkward to her tongue. She grabbed for her veil and set it in place over her eyes.

The veil fastened to her headdress, a cumbersome affair with a white silk drape that hung down her back. Veiled and dressed in pure white robes, Ji Min became a formless figure, every inch of her obscured and hidden away. Once she rolled down her sleeves, there was little to give evidence that she was at all a woman and not a white wraith.

"Sun's blessings, amah," Yanla said as she entered. She carried an earthenware tray piled with flatbread and steaming barley. By the scent, the barley had a good amount of smoked goat sausage mixed in. There were also sun-dried vegetables and one of Ibi's little palm-sized pies.

Ji Min smiled despite Yanla not being able to see it through her veil. She had grown fond of Espallan food since her arrival in the holdfast. Before then, she had never tasted meat, but her appetite had skewed towards carnivorous since the introduction. The food was simple and humble, yet overflowing with strong flavors. And the pies... Ji Min adored Ibi's date and walnut pies.

Taking a moment to order her thoughts into a foreign language, Ji Min spoke as best she could. "Thanking, I am. You are kind too much."

Yanla bobbed her head and beamed as she set the tray down on the edge of Ji Min's table. She knelt down and set the smaller dishes from the tray in front of Ji Min and poured water into her cup from a clay jug.

They were near to the same age, no longer twenty but not yet thirty. Despite baring her face to the sun and harsh weather, Yanla's dark brown skin had nothing in the way of wrinkles or blemishes. When inside a tent or the stone structures of the holdfast, she'd remove her shawl and let her raven black hair tumble around her shoulders. She was lovely, Ji Min thought. Energetic and kind, and her silver eyes always shone with warmth.

Among the Espallans, Yanla was a woman of some importance. She was a douser, or water seeker, which was a vocation of no small renown in the desert. In addition, Yanla was a wife to Hagen, the tribe's halah'ha, or first warrior. That was to say, she was one of his wives. Ji Min still had some difficulty coming to terms with Espallan marital relationships. Not only did Hagen have his four wives, but Yanla had three husbands. Ibi, another of the first warrior's wives, had six spouses, and more than half of them were women.

Ji Min assumed Ibi's popularity was due to her pies.

In the Jade Empire, lineages and families were likened to a tree. Previous generations branched outwards from the roots of the current one. In Espalla, families bore closer resemblance to the tangled web of a maniacal spider. And yet, it all made perfect sense to them, and they believed the People of Jade's way, a monogamous marriage between two individuals, to be utterly bizarre.

Did the Espallans not get jealous? If not, Ji Min was quite certain that a number of the plays back home would be incomprehensible to them.

Yanla chatted to Ji Min as she set her table. She spoke slow and deliberate to help Ji Min get used to the words and the order they were supposed to go in. Even so, Ji Min only caught every fourth word. Their two languages were as different as their cultures, and many words and phrases in both had no equivalent in the other. Excepting two.

In the thousands of words of each language, two were the same in both tongues. The People of Jade and the Espallans of the eastern dunes had this in common from the beginning of their long history together. Nishai and cennah. Respectively, these meant "be welcome here" and "I will help you".

Ji Min found that small commonality to be beautiful.

Of course, the pronunciations differed ever so slightly. The People of Jade didn't emphasize syllables quite so strongly, nor did the Espallans shy away from mashing their consonants together or speaking from their throats. Nonetheless, their first meetings during the twilight of Shan Alee must have been all the kinder for those shared words.

Once Ji Min's meal was set out, Yanla switched effortlessly to the Jade Empire's language. "Once you are finished, the hallah'ha wondered if you would go find him. He wants to update you on the wagons, amah, and asks your help in overseeing the unloading before the caravan returns to World's End Gate."

Ji Min's fingers fidgeted inside her sleeves. She was grateful for the change of language, but she felt a measure of shame that she was unable to extend the same courtesy. "Certainly, Yanla. I will try to be fast. I would not want him left waiting on my account."

"Not too fast, amah," Yanla scolded playfully. "When I come back for the dishes, they better be empty."

Ji Min promised she would eat her fill. Once Yanla left the tent, Ji Min removed her veil, rolled up her sleeves, and tucked into the barley with a ravenous passion. She really did enjoy Ibi's cooking.

In her first month in Espalla, Ibi's brother— a boy of thirteen— had brought the meals. Once Yanla noticed how flustered it made Ji Min, she made a point of bringing the food herself. Even after a year, Ji Min had difficulties keeping her fidgeting under control when confronted by the tribe's casual integration of the sexes. They all just lived together.

Back home, she had gone weeks without seeing a man outside of her immediate family. Even then, there were protocols to follow. Her own father would never just... pop in. No, definitely not. He would give a letter to an intermediary to request a meeting, followed by her reply, then a proper venue would be prepared in which the sexes could interact with all due decorum.

Ji Min was beginning to think the Espallans had the better way, in this matter at least. She loved her father, for his encouraging words and doting smile, and she had so few chances to speak with him anymore now that he was incarnated as the emperor. Even less once she was appointed as his executor among the Espallans.

Having eaten her fill, Ji Min stacked her dishes for Yanla to retrieve later. She redid her veil and struggled to her feet. The gentle pain and soft popping in her knees reminded her that she was fast growing out of her youth. Pushing aside the flap of her tent, Ji Min stepped outside.

A gust of wind greeted Ji Min, tossing grains of sand against her silks. The robe billowed behind her as she walked, lending to her wraith-like appearance. The ground beneath her shoes was firm, and the sun was easier to withstand when viewed through a veil. The holdfast was more pleasant than the barren emptiness outside its enclosure, but still, the enveloping heat threatened to broil her. Without the white silk for protection, Ji Min imagined her pale, white skin would soon burst into flames. She knew from experience that she only needed to expose her skin for a few minutes before getting a painful sunburn.

At first glance, the holdfast appeared as little more than a collection of caves hewn into the surrounding rock formations. That belied the cozy and comfortable interiors, furnished and decorated. Here, sheltered from the worst of the wind and with wellsprings close at hand, the tribesmen could rest and restock their water before moving on. There were remarkably few permanent settlements in Espalla, and those were all further north.

The tribe hosting Ji Min was called the Amak'talan. Often, she felt that the three hundred or so tribesmen kept their distance from her. Not for wariness or distrust, of course, but out of respect. They seldom met one of the People of Jade— let alone an imperial executor— and Ji Min noticed early on that she was being given a distressing amount of reverence.

It was not right. As Ji Min walked among their tents, she saw how the Espallans bowed and quickly removed themselves from her path. Very few would even look to her face. It simply was not right.

Did they not realize? Did they not know? How could they give her such honor when the debt her people owed theirs was so great? Espallan kindness, Espallan nobility, without those, the People of Jade would have vanished from the world long ago. Her hosts should not be bowing to her, serving her meals, or giving her welcome among their tents. Her purpose for being among them was nothing more than to try, in some small part, to repay what was due.

Our Most Revered Defenders, they were called in the Jade Empire. Only words, for the true esteem the People of Jade had for the Espallans could not be measured. From the landless to the emperor himself, the tribesman of the east were known as the vigilant guardians and the beloved saviors of the Jade Empire.

"Sun's blessings, amah," an older man said as he approached from the left. He fell into step alongside her and kept a respectful distance between them. Akar, one of Yanla's husbands, even went so far as to remove his wide-brimmed hat and the scarf wrapped over his mouth and nose.

"Sun's blessings, Akar," Ji Min replied. "I look to Hagen?"

Akar blinked twice as he sorted through Ji Min's broken Espallese. He then spoke slowly, enunciating each syllable with care. "Lah'hra hen asha, amenne'sh cennah."

Ji Min understood nothing of that sentence except for the last word. "I will help you."

She was grateful for Akar acting as her guide. She found it so easy to get turned around while walking among the tents. They were all so identical and set up in orderly rows that it was often a trial to keep her bearings.

As they walked, Ji Min did her best to ignore the fact that she was casually speaking with a man, and she attempted to make conversation with middling success. Her command of the local language was little better than that of a toddler, but Akar listened and responded without complaint. He was even kind enough to correct her when she mispronounced certain words. Throughout, Akar never sighed or otherwise acted as if her lack of communication skills was a bother. In truth, he looked delighted to be of service.

They arrived at the pinnacle before Ji Min made Akar's ears bleed with her horrible diction. A high rise of rock on the northern boundary of the holdfast, the pinnacle was where the Espallans stationed a scout to watch for strangers and sandstorms. Hagen seldom stood watch himself, as the hallah'ha had far more demanding duties. Ji Min wondered if he was expecting someone.

Hagen was Ji Min's elder by perhaps five years. A solid man, tall of stature and with traces of blond in his otherwise black hair. His Aleesh blood was more obvious when he removed his scarf and gave Ji Min a better look at his silvery green eyes.

Aleesh heritage was as uncommon in Espalla as it was back home. Rare, but not unheard of. Nearly every Espallan tribe and village of Jade had a golden head or three among them, but they were fewer and further between as the centuries passed. Hagen himself was gha'shir, or old-blooded. His forebears hadn't come as fugitives from the far east, but as survivors of the fall. Hagen liked to claim that his ancestor had been an arcanist knight that turned on her masters before the death curse. Ji Min was dubious of the story. By the emperor's infallible word, any mortal bonded to a dragon was infected with the same madness that consumed the Dragon Emperors of old. Regardless, she did not begrudge Hagen his tall tales.

"Much thanks for coming, imé," Hagen said with a broad smile. "Lita of the Harkh'alash came riding in with her wagons an hour ago, and she says the Sha'shara and Hohk'ita are a league behind her."

He spoke Ji Min's native tongue with a thick accent and used an irreverent dialect of the landless. Nonetheless, he was easy to understand.

Ji Min grinned behind her veil. She loved how Hagen called her imé. The word was a diminutive reserved for little girls, and it carried a wealth of connotations. It could sometimes be seen as a thinly veiled insult when given to a grown woman, but the way Hagen used it for Ji Min was as a protective older brother. It was a more familiar form of address than amah, which was an honorific used for esteemed women of child-bearing age.

Hagen conferred briefly with Akar then provided the translation. "Akar's wanting you to know the provisioners we unloaded this morning are thinking to head out at first light. They send along their regards, imé."

Ji Min clasped her fist and bowed to Akar. "I hope that my people have sent enough to provide for all the tribes."

Hagen actually blushed as he translated, then he and Akar bowed even lower than she had. "Eighty wagons, imé. Grain, water, lumber, medicines, and iron. The seventh such caravan in as many months, and you promise that more are coming. The People of Jade are more than generous. You give us life itself."

"I have learned by now not to say that it is but a fraction of what you are due, Hallah'ha."

Hagen glanced up at her and winked. "And you still say it, imé. We could argue until the sun turns cold about which of us has debts." He gestured down at the tents. Most were owned by the Amak'talan, but at least a third were from other tribes. Each tribe sent men and women to claim their portion of the supplies provided by the Jade Empire. "Down there you see ish'ri from all of Espalla, or near enough. They'll take your gifts with them to their homes, feed the hungry, cure the ill, and arm the warriors. They won't know poverty, and we have never known it, thanks to your emperor and his executor. Please, imé, never think that you owe us anything."

Ji Min wrung her fingers inside her sleeves. "The hundreds of thousands of my people have never known war. Since Shan Alee fell, we have been protected by more than the Li Lung Mountains. You have turned back the predators that would take all we have. You shield us from the cruelties of the far east. How could we do anything less for those who bleed so we have not the need to?"

Hagen translated her words for Akar. The older man barked a laugh and spoke a reply.

"Akar says you might as well make gifts to the sun for shining on your face if you give them to Espallans for fighting Althandi." Hagen chuckled and clapped his co-husband on the shoulder. "Day may come when the steam men figure out they're not welcome out on the dunes anymore, but they keep trying to make a go of it."

Ji Min looked down at her feet in shame. "They only attack you because they want to reach us."

Hagen waved her concerns away. "They'd find a reason. The steam men always attack. It's what they do."

He was right, Ji Min believed. The Highest Kings had attempted to cross the Espalla Dunes to reach the Jade Empire thirteen times in the last hundred years alone. Each incursion was thwarted by the Espallan tribes and the desert itself.

We have never known war, Ji Min thought. There will come a time when the People of Jade will need to. We will lay the citadels of the far east low, and our debt will finally be repaid. The last gift we can give, an era of peace for us all.

It was certain. The emperor had proclaimed it so.

But that was the future. For now, Ji Min was only required to make certain that the Espallans received all that they needed. She followed Hagen and Akar down to the wagons. Many supplies still needed to be unloaded and portioned out for the visitors from other tribes. Her worries about the future would wait.

For how much longer was not for her to say.