Master Jiang found him in the throng as they were filing out of the palace. "You look like you need a drink, Xi."

He opened his mouth to object, but the historian waved a pudgy hand through the air. "Tea for you, wine for me, I know, I know..."

The house looked emptier without Zijun, Xi thought at first, before he noticed familiar things missing.

"I am packing the things away, my boy," Jiang explained, "I doubt the new Emperor would be as indecisive about my retirement as Zha Yao was. The life of a recluse is finally within my grasp. Nothing but solitude, contemplation and honest work on the land..."

Xi gave a suspicious glance to Jiang's girth, but didn't argue. As the years passed, the man grew more and more long-winded and he suspected that there was a reason other than a tearful farewell for their meeting. They drunk in silence.

"Chen Guang is a clever woman," Jiang finally started, "ruthless, but clever. You see, the Prince's own mother fell victim to a strange affliction, the one that made her blood run purple, and every vein in her body come up to her skin. It was terrible to see even before she clawed her own artery apart. Demons, Chen Guang screamed, hoping to scare the boy away from the truth, demons are closer than we think... she scared him too well. His fright turned into hatred of anything more complicated than a strike of an axe. Or anything unmanly."

Xi sipped his tea, smelling jasmine. Yes, he was curious why hsin magic came under suspicion along with the women and demons, but the night was growing long and he preferred to ask pertinent questions. "What truth was worth it, Master Jiang?"

"I am a historian, so I am used to seeing outcomes, and a thousand guesses about the causes." Jiang shrugged. "If you want a truth, how about this: Human ambition is as frightening as the demons' hunger."

Xi shook his head - the hatred he had seen in Tarkan was more focused than the fickle human will, not tempered by any notion of mercy.

The historian noticed his gesture and did not insist. "I only fought one demon and would have lost. You know better. What I wanted to tell you, Xi, is that I bought a farm near your mother's charitable clinic, and intend to call on her at my earliest convenience. I would not want to flaunt our acquaintance too much, but do you wish to send a word?"

Xi's first impulse was to wrap his arms around Jiang, but he settled for a bow out of respect for the old man. Also, his hsin was too rattled to add the poet's emotions to it."Only that we all should be grateful to have loyal friends."

"There, there, it's not your grandmother's first banquet." Jiang then did press him to his belly in a prolonged hug, and Xi's eyes itched with an unfamiliar sensation. He rubbed his face on Jiang's shoulder. After all, it was the poet's fault he was crying.

"If I know anything about mages, you should be meditating now," Jiang said patting his back. "Unless I miss my guess, you won't be the only one meditating until the sun rises."

"The old rogue called it," Xi muttered when he spotted a twinkling light in Rustam's window. He lit his old lamp to find his way to the old apprentice's cell. There, watching the light, he went through the old routines to purge his thoughts of danger, Sayewa, his mother, demons, Minh, fenghuangs and dragons.

Pure understanding descended on him by the time the slanted beams of sunshine forced their way into his cell. At peace and in harmony with the world, Xi used magic to snuff out the lights and climbed under the blanket. He wanted to pull it over his head but exhaustion took its toll, and he fell asleep before he did.

***

When the messenger arrived from the palace to summon the mages for an afternoon audience with the Emperor, Rustam had to zap him with a lightning bolt to get him moving. Xi took one look at the senior mage's drawn face and did not question the jolt. He shuffled along next to Rustam, his mind cycling through the verses about the ruthless Empress Mei. Not the best choice, all thing considered, but he was still groggy.

Some of the lines must have escaped to his lips, because Rustam placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Empress Mei was indeed formidable. So is her removed descendent. Bloodlines mix, the talent sleeps for centuries, but then it outs again. It is a strange thing."

Perhaps Rustam intended it as a comfort, but Xi did not know what to think, except that this must be his day for talking to cryptic, wistful men.

Chen Guang's, and therefore Xi's own relation to Empress Mei was reflected in the scrolls of lineage. The papers had been burned in Wo Jia's repressions. Giang might have restored them, but why? The line will dead-end on him, possibly before this day was out. He wished he had enough savvy to keep his jaw from tightening at the thought of it, his mind - from recalling Jiang's histories where the Emperors ordered the slaughter of courtiers for fermenting plots. Mages had never stood as an accused faction, but Hsuanji so far rejected the precedents...

When Xi forced himself back to reality, he found himself in the company of all of his new peers once more. "A mage is never unarmed," he muttered another mantra, this one Rustam's, not his mother's.

His old master nodded and said, "We cannot be cut down like that, or set on fire in a locked building. The Son of Heavens—-"

'...knows it,' Xi had to finish in his mind, because the Serene Mothers filed in, including Sayewa, then the five sworn Knights - the Wu Twins must have set out for Sutao while he was still visible in the sky - and the Ageless Empress. The new group of the dignitaries all pressed their faces to the floor waiting on the Emperor to assume his seat at the top of the chamber, facing the sun.

"I am told there is a way to defeat the demons," the Emperor said excitedly over their bent heads. Excitedly? Xi took it for a good sign and dared to look up.

The Son of Heavens chopped the air with his hand.

Xi's heart thumped against his ribcage, anticipating Sayewa's voice the same way he anticipated her appearance in the hall earlier. The importance of the occasion prevented him from reciting the logical constructs so he breathed in normally, breathed out long while listening.

He could not tolerate his heart switching to a different rhythm every time the faery went near him. There must be something I could do about it. At least Minh did not accompany the Twins from Luitong... a mere probability of seeing Minh again sent his stubborn internal organs, all of them, into a nose-dive. That, at least, made it easier to ignore Sayewa's glamour.

Meanwhile, the historic meeting was unfolding, something he should remember word for word, possibly even record for posterity...

"Son of Heavens, with my two companions I had travelled down the Sunset Road collecting the knowledge in every land we had passed," Sayewa started her tale in a singsong voice.

In the court of the Raja in the Echoing Mountains, in the land called Taittiriya, I saw jewel-coloured eggs that did not hatch. I was shown the shells from the ones that did. The sages at the court told me that those were dragons that did not hatch, while their sisters fenghuangs did.

The reason was unknown to them.

Within Your Empire's own borders, O Son of Heavens, the fenghuangs' prophetic songs can still be heard from the high. It had been a score of scores of years since a dragon charted his course across the Heavenly sphere where once they were so numerous.

So they were in the Echoing Mountains once.

The sages showed me a terrace with the benches and the railings of pure gold, the metal that they love in that land. Form that terrace, the Raja's great-grandfather, and his father before him, and every other bull among men watched the dragons soar in the skies.

In those years, they told me, the demons were few, as the dragons do not tolerate their foulness.

From Taittiriya and the Echoing Mountains we travelled down the great river Asikini, itself but a tributary to even greater river Ushspala.

There we visited the lands of the demon kings. Humans live among them, neither subjects nor forage, but beloved pets, like a lord's stable of prized horses, rather than a nomad's sustenance herd.

We saw half-demonic children there, called the Youngest, even more cherished than their human favourites, a race not unlike the healer Yu who served your father and accompanied me in my travels.

In that land, they believe the fenghuangs and the dragons to be a traveller's myth.

For many days, O Son of Heavens, I dwelled into the ancient texts in five and fifty scripts and canons that I had learned on our trek.

Sages in many lands write that when the Celestials created the Guardian for the humans, at first it was Fenghuang. But Fenghuang needed male seed to bear offspring, so they created Dragon. They were to fight for humans. Lastly, they created my race more akin in appearance to humans, and needing nothing but an effort of will to continue. We were to nurture the humans.

The Celestials' works are harmonious, and only in the presence of all five races all may thrive.

With the dragons gone from the world, You Illumined Majesty, the imbalance threatens your Empire.

The Emperor leaned forward on his throne, his chin propped on his fist, devouring Sayewa with eager eyes. Golden flowers crowded every other colour out of her tresses - a bewitching sight - but were there more to it? Maybe he impacted by her glamour as Xi himself was. Xi shifted uncomfortably wondering if his eyes misted over just like that too, if the amused smiles on Minh's lips were because of that.

Was I truly afraid of this boy? Xi thought incredulously, then the Emperor shifted setting the gems of the crown into motion. Any man would be a damned fool not to be wary...

Sayewa pressed her palms to her core, one over the other. "With your leave, O Son of Heavens, I will use the secret knowledge bestowed upon me. I will enter the Heavenly Realm to beg for Celestials's aid in restoring the dragons to the Empire."

By the sound of it, Xi was not the only one to suppress a gasp, though his might have been a touch louder than the most.

The Ageless Empress gave the unspoken doubts her voice. "Your Illumined Majesty, the Celestials issued the Final Interdict when leaving Tiandi five millennia ago. This faery is too insignificant to challenge their decision."

The Emperor scoffed, "The Serene Mother's piety is beyond reproach, so stove away your cowardly fears, old woman."

He wiped his head back to Saywea with a nearly breathless question. "You know how to get to the Celestial Realm, don't you?"

"I do, Your Illumined Majesty." For someone on her knees, Sayewa sounded suspiciously in charge. "And I will depart on my journey as soon as I and my companion are ready."

The neutral word 'companion' punctured Xi's already perturbed heart.

"Mage Chong Xi had been instrumental in translations before, and I rely on his magic should we encounter challenges on our journey."

Xi gulped, thinking he had finally gone mad. But, no, this was not a fantasy. In front of the illustrious gathering, Sayewa, incredibly, indicated him to the Emperor. Unless it also was a part of a feverish dream.

The Emperor gave Xi an envious stare. To his chagrin, Xi did not regain the full control of his facial expression in time, so he presented a slack jaw and widened eyes to the Son of Heavens.

The young Emperor squinted judgmentally at the sight. "This mite, Serene Mother? Would not you be better served by a warrior of renown? Lady Zhenshi, for one?"

It took a moment for Deserving Du to recognize that she was referred to by her husband's name. She stepped forward with a scowl. The expression would have caused anyone else to fall out of grace but was forgiven to her.

Sayewa smiled brightly. "Deserving Du's halberd is legendary, O Son of Heavens, but the mage's ability compliments my talents perfectly. Chong Xi and I will bring back the secret of the dragons most speedily."

If he was not the Son of Heavens, Hsuanji could have been described as sulking. Master Shan Jiang would turn it into 'brooding' or 'gravely thoughtful' in the History of Hsuanji's Reign.

"You have my permission, Serene Mother," said the Emperor at the long last.

The faery looked like a delighted little girl ready to clap her hands. "I am grateful for your wise ruling on the matter, Illustrious Majesty. My associate and I shall inform the court prior to our departure and report in upon our return."

Both unsettled and riled, Xi tried to meet at least one of Sayewa's eyes, but he had failed.