人非圣贤，孰能无过
Rén fēi shèngxián, shú néng wú guò
Men are not sages, how can they be free from fault.
To err is human.

Riding through the forest at night Kageyama's senses came alive.

Every creak of a branch, every rustle of the leaves above... Kageyama heard it all. His hearing was so sharp, he could pick out the individual leaves as they scurried across the path in front of him, driven by the faint night wind.

The wind brought the promise of winter, just on the horizon. Kageyama pulled his coat up at the collar.

He kicked Makabe's sides, and the stallion broke from trot to canter, the animal's hooves beating out a statattco on the soft dirt of the road like some heartbeat of the forest. The rhythm thundered in his own chest, setting his heart racing faster.

Kageyama wanted to reach Memorial Temple by end of the rat hour, well before dawn.

Makabe threaded his way through the forest, around trunks and branches fallen in the storm, picking his path carefully over the gnarled roots that would cause another horse to lose its footing or even turn a hoof.

The stallion really was a rare horse. Kageyama would regret when it came time to replace him.

Makabe was so sure footed, it required little of Kageyama's attention to steer him along the narrow path to the temple. And, this was the second time in less than a week that the horse had found his way in the dark to the memorial temple. The first time, Makabe had had two riders.

Kageyama began to think back, to six days earlier, and what had occurred in the Great Hall.

Sanli caught Ao as she fell backwards, and swiftly carried her across the great hall to Kageyama.

"Take her to Memorial Temple. Don't let anyone stop you," whispered Sanli, passing Ao's limp form into Kageyama's arms. "Keep her safe. That's an order."

At Sanli's words, Kageyama's seal burned, as though flames were held to his stomach. Flames that would burn stronger should he fail to obey the order.

Sanli turned away to face those behind him in the great hall. Kageyama lifted Ao higher in his arms and left, just as wild protests and accusations erupted from Sanli's family.

Glancing back briefly, Kageyama saw Sanli standing like a barricade, between those in the hall and the door.

Kageyama hurried through the corridors of Lady Lu's manor. He had wondered how Sanli was able to walk so quickly across the great hall carrying Ao, but now he understood. She seemed to weigh hardly anything. Even with her silk robes and heavy wooden shoes, she still felt too light.

A woman as ostentatious and brash as Ao should surely be heavier.

Kageyama glanced down at the face of the woman in his arms. She was too pale. The red gouges on either cheek stood out against her white skin, like red petals of carnage on snow.

Kageyama leaned closer, and put an ear to her mouth. Ao's breath was there, but slowed, and faint. The girl's loss of consciousness did not make sense considering the injury. He suspected the Dahu's golden claws were coated with some kind of sedative drug.

"If she can survive a Dazhe's poison, she'll survive a Dahu's claws," Kageyama muttered to himself, as he strode across the empty courtyard to the stables.

Kageyama lay Ao down on a pile of hay to quickly saddle Makabe. Already from the house came the commotion of servants rushing about in search.

Picking up Ao and holding her against his chest with one arm, Kageyama swung into Makabe's saddle with the other. Settling the unconscious woman before him, he kicked Makabe to a canter, then a gallop, riding out the elaborate arch of Lady Lu's courtyard and into the forest.

Kageyama rode up the valley straight to the temple, not stopping to rest. As he rode, the sun set dark red in the west. The same color as the blood that ran down Ao's face.

Kageyama had arrived at the temple at midnight, and asked the Head Priest to help care for 'a dear friend' of the Third Prince. As Sanli had just recently secured bountiful supplies for the temple and the refugees it sheltered, the Head Priest had been happy to oblige Sanli's request, and discreetly too.

Ao had still been unconscious when Kageyama left, so he had not had a chance to lecture her on the recklessness of her actions.

The kitsune had returned to the Valley immediately, worried for Sanli. But despite the chaos Ao's confrontation with the Dahu had caused, little came of it besides a host of unwelcome visitors to Wo You Nai.

"I want that ungrateful whore of yours gone, do you hear me!" Lady Lu demanded from her carriage before the gates of Wo You Nai, where she had stopped and called Sanli out to meet her. As though simply entering Sanli's courtyard would taint her.

"She has already left," Sanli replied, not untruthfully.

Xiangli had also come to lecture Sanli on how his lack of decorum had almost cost the family a strategic alliance.

Zhangyu had of course come several times, always to inquire after Ao's health. Sanli had refused to speak to him.

Ermi was a constant visitor, and had been so distraught that Kageyama had taken her aside and told her the truth.

"She's all right?" Ermi said, through tears. "Ao-jie's alive?"

Kageyama confirmed that yes, the girl was alive, and was recovering somewhere safe.

"Thank you, thank you for taking care of her. And for telling me," said Ermi, tearfully throwing herself into Kageyama's arms. "I was so worried!"

Awkwardly, Kageyama patted Ermi's back.

Out of all the visits and lectures that resulted from Ao's affront of the Dahu princess, there was one person who remained notably absent.

Erli had been silent on the subject.

Kageyama sighed and ducked to avoid a low hanging branch. That did not bode well.

The tigress herself had quickly left after the incident, which had confused Kageyama. He had expected her to rip the valley up by the roots until she found Ao.

If that girl had just left the valley when she should have, none of this would have happened, Kageyama thought. Or if she had not followed them to Zhanghai.

Or, if they had not met her in Nan'ye that night to begin with.

A particularly loud gust of wind blew through the forest, moaning in the trees. Branches squeaked and swayed, leaves swirled across the path in eddying tornados, and even the surefooted and fearless Makabe shied.

Yes, that would have been the best option. If Ao had never come into their lives.

But even as he thought this, suddenly, Kageyama remembered Ao as she had appeared in the great hall. He remembered her small form stepping up to the Dahu, unbowed, unafraid.

A strange burning stirred in his stomach. A feeling not unlike admiration.

It is Lu's seal that burns, Kageyama decided. There was no way he could give Ao's impulsive, thoughtless actions any sort of merit.

Kageyama knew Ao's rebuff of the tiger would lead to trouble. The tigress had left suddenly. Who knew to what end? Perhaps she had left only to return again with greater strength, and revenge on her mind.

"Foolish woman," sighed Kageyama to the night forest. "What trouble will you bring us now?"

*~*~*~*~*~*

When Kageyama reached the outer gate of the temple grounds, he was greeted by the familiar call.

"Five is a holy number!" The monk on guard duty called out to the darkness.

"Five is a holy number," Kageyama repeated back. The man, recognizing Kageyama, hurriedly bowed him through the gates.

Kageyama rode Makabe through the temple grounds, up narrow lanes that twisted uphill, surrounded with mossy trees and rocks. He reached the courtyard where Ming Lang's rooms were located, Makabe's hooves clattering on the stones.

Just as he was dismounting, Ming Lang emerged, locking the door behind her.

"Kageyama Sensei! Thank goodness you're here!" she said hurrying forward.

"What?" asked Kageyama, throwing Makabe's reins over a post. "What has happened?"

"Lady Yunyou, she's—"

"She's what? Has she still not woken?"

"Not woken?" asked Ming Lang puzzled. "Oh no. She's woken. She's just fine. In fact, her injuries are all but healed! I've never seen anything like it. Are you sure she's not mu'ren?"

Kageyama sighed. "No, not mu'ren. If the girl is healed, what are you so worried over?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you Kageyama Sensei! She's been healed for days. She keeps complaining about her 'confinement' and threatening to ride down the valley. But you told me not to let her leave. I wasn't sure what to do."

Kageyama had to grab his mouth to hide his smile.

"I told the others she was my cousin, come to recover from a terrible illness, but the other monks and nuns are starting to suspect something now that she's recovered in just days! She harasses them constantly when they come to bring food to her."

Kageyama could not hide the smile any longer.

Ming Lang looked tired. She shook her head. "I have night duty at the temple. I must go. Will you take her back with you? If not, what should I do to keep her here?"

Kageyama chuckled, patting his old student lightly on the shoulder. "Thank you Ming Lang. You've done so much. Do not worry about this anymore. I'll take care of it from here."

Ming Lang nodded, then hurried off to her nightly duties.

Kageyama remounted Makabe, and rode to where he knew Ao was being cared for.

Kageyama turned Makabe up a narrow path leading away from the main complex, where the forest foliage pressed in from all sides. Here there was no light from the sky, and so even the sure footed Makabe was reliant on his rider to guide him. Kageyama's sharp eyes, almost as good at night as in the day time, picked out fallen logs and other items on the path that might hinder Makabe, steering the horse carefully around or over them.

Horse and rider made their way through the dark forest till they emerged in a small clearing overlooking the temple complex below. Light from the main temple poured out into the night like a sword of gold, and Kageyama could smell incense and hear faint chanting rising from the temple hall.

High above the sky was clear, and filled with sharp autumn stars.

Kageyama turned back to the dark clearing before him. In the clearing stood a single cottage, plain and abandoned looking, with ferns growing from the thatch of its roof. In the past the cottage had been used by members of the royal family when they came to the temple for retreat and reflection, but these days no one wasted time on such things, and so the cottage had fallen into disuse.

Kageyama left Makabe to graze and pushed the peeling door to the cottage open.

"Girl?" He asked the darkened room. Receiving no answer, "Ao?"

No one responded. The kitsune's sharp eyes darted around the darkened room, finding a fire pit cold in one corner, a low table scattered with plates and books, and an unmade bed roll and blankets spread across the floor. But no Ao.

Kageyama stepped back outside and shut the door.

As he was doing so movement caught his eye. He turned to see a young man, little more than a boy, dressed in the dark green robes of an initiate in training. The initiate was trying to silently cross the clearing. The boy's guilty look and sneak like pose suggested he had not wanted to be seen.

"Where is the woman who is staying here?" asked Kageyama, gesturing to the cottage.

Without speaking, the boy pointed up another narrow path that led further into the forest.

Kageyama nodded his thanks and started up the path on foot, and the boy hurried away.

Strange, thought Kageyama. Was he afraid of me?

When Kageyama reached the end of the path, he understood the reason for the nervous look the boy had worn.

Lantern light flickered over trees, causing leaf shadows like grabbing hands to reach across everything. Steam rose in a cloud from a small stone pool of creamy yellow water. A smell, like boiling eggs, rose from the water, caused by the minerals that leached into it as it heated in the earth's depths before bubbling its way up to the surface.

A hot spring.

Above and around the hot spring bronze lanterns hung from the branches of overhanging trees. The glass of the lanterns were misted over with steam. The light from within the lamps was pink and blue and vibrant orange and green. Kageyama guessed from the strange color that inside each lantern was not a conventional candle, but a magic seal that was scribed to flicker like many colored fire.

In the hot spring Ao sat, arms spread like she was leaning back against a lush sofa. Her long white legs stretched out in the creamy water in front of her, and occasionally a toe would peak above the water's surface as she hummed and kicked her legs back and forth.

Ao's back was to him, long black hair pulled into a knot over one shoulder, so Kageyama could not see her face.

Before the bathing woman could take his attention however, he found it taken by two green-robed boys, not quite men, who were crouching behind a mossy rock watching Ao as she hummed and washed herself in the hot spring.

One of the boys put a hand to his mouth and held back a snicker. The other had his hands lost in the folds of his robes... Kageyama suspected he knew where.

Kageyama silently crept up behind them.

"I wonder what the head priest would think of his future initiates spying on a vulnerable woman while she bathes?" Kageyama said in a low voice, just behind the boys.

The young men both whirled, eyes wide as banquet plates, and froze.

"Disappear," hissed Kageyama.

The boys hurried to obey, tripping over their long robes.

Ao's voice rangout, from the spring. "Let them have their fun. After all, the poor things have a life of celibacy ahead of them."

Kageyama stood from behind the rock, to see Ao looking up at him. Her arms were folded on the edge of the spring, her head pillowed on top of them.

Her wounds were healed, the deep gouges on her face gone as if they had never been.

Kageyama sighed. A sense of relief filled him.

Immediately, he checked himself. What do I care, if the girl is scarred? Perhaps it would do Ao good, give her some humility. Keep her from using her beautiful face to manipulate those around her.

Ao smiled up at him. "Oh my, Lord Kageyama. Spying on me again?"

"I wasn't the one—" said Kageyama hurriedly. "-you know that's not what I was doing."

"Once could be forgiven, but a second time? I really can't let this go. How shall I punish you?" She smirked up at him, and put a long finger to her lips as if thinking.

"I can see you're back in full health," said Kageyama dryly. "Get out of there and come back to your room. I've somethings to talk to you about."

"Hmmm... get out, you say? Yes, that will do nicely."

With a push of her arms Ao rose from the spring, water sluicing off the curves of her body, steam rising from her skin—

"Seven hells woman! Have some modesty!" yelled Kageyama, throwing an arm over his eyes as he turned his back to her. Ao laughed loudly at his reaction.

"Dress and come back, and be quick about it," Kageyama snapped over his shoulder as he hurried away.

His words were harsh, but his traitorous lips kept trying to creep up at the corners, spurred by Ao's continuing cackles, that echoed around him through the forest as he left.

*~*~*~*~*~*