You mean Mangsut’s ship is here in Amigawa? Yipachai asked Pingou. When did it arrive?

  Annoyance flickered through the Lan Kuanghi bond. Whether this…ship…belongs to the Sentient you seek, I do not know. But there are Sentients on it that look like you, rather than the Sentients I am accustomed to seeing. It arrived around midday.

  Yipachai ground his teeth as he walked. Beside him, Mamoru wouldn’t have had a clue about what Yipachai had just learned. Neither would Naoko, who was nearing their practice clearing up ahead.

  Silently, Yipachai kicked himself for brushing off Pingou’s earlier attempt to get his attention.

  “We might need to reschedule your Lan Kuanghi lesson,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Mamoru asked. “I thought that was where we were going.”

  “We were, but I think we need to change our plans.”

  Mamoru gave him a disbelieving look.

  “The bandit ship is back in Amigawa,” Yipachai said, keeping his voice low.

  “And? We still don’t have the money to get that writ of passage to be able to get out onto the docks and inspect it.”

  Yipachai glanced at Naoko, who didn’t seem to have heard their conversation. “But if we go now, we might be able to find the bandit that kidnapped me.”

  Mamoru sighed. “And then what? Are you going to kill him with your practice sword?”

  Yipachai looked down to the weapon tucked into his belt. Hardly more than a bundle of reeds. Solid enough, but not much help in real combat.

  Especially against a man with a Lan Banti wand.

  “Are you two coming?” Naoko called. “Mamoru, there’s someone you need to meet.”

  Yipachai and Mamoru locked eyes.

  “It’s a bad idea, Yipachai,” Mamoru said, his voice grave. “Let’s just practice this evening, shall we?”

  Yipachai’s temper curdled, but he restrained himself from making a retort. “If I teach you how to bond with a beast, will you come with me afterwards?”

  Mamoru’s brows drew down tight. “Yipachai…”

  “We could at least see if we hear anything about him. Anything that tells us where he goes and when, or what he does in the city.” Yipachai swallowed. “Please?”

  “Oh, alright,” Mamoru said with a disbelieving shake of his head. “But only after you teach me Lan Kuanghi.”

  “This,” Naoko said, her voice swollen with pride, “is Suiwei.”

  Mamoru gaped at the massive bear, who had lumbered over to Naoko and sat on her haunches, huffing contentedly as Naoko scratched around her neck.

  “This is how you were able to hit me so hard,” Mamoru said, sounding both amazed and relieved at the same time.

  Yipachai had nearly forgotten his own shock at meeting Suiwei for the first time. He’d been practicing with Naoko long enough now that the bear’s presence no longer seemed out of the ordinary.

  “Yes, yes, Suiwei’s strength is the reason Naoko can break most of us in half,” Yipachai said. “But do you have any idea what kind of beast you want to bond with?”

  Mamoru gave him a flat look.

  “Right to it today, aren’t we?” Naoko said.

  “No—I mean, I only wanted to know what kind of work we have cut out for us,” Yipachai said.

  Naoko merely shrugged and went back to scratching Suiwei, who had rolled over onto her side.

  “Well, where’s your bird?” Mamoru asked. “I don’t think I’ve met him.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Pingou is out…hunting, I think.”

  “So he won’t be joining us?”

  “No,” Yipachai said. He crossed his arms. “So did you have any ideas?”

  “Is something the matter with you?” Naoko asked. Suiwei pawed at her hand, which had momentarily stopped its scratching.

  Mamoru looked back to Yipachai, the hint of a smile on his face. He was enjoying this far too much. Mangsut was in Amigawa, and they were still sitting around here. Doing nothing about it.

  “I’m fine,” Yipachai said through his teeth. “Merely excited to get started, that’s all.”

  Mamoru shook his head, then ran a hand over his bearded chin. “Well, I haven’t thought much about it yet. Perhaps I should try to bond with a bird as well. There should be plenty of those around.”

  This time, it was Yipachai’s turn to shake his head. “You might be able to learn to bond with a bird soon enough, but I don’t think we’d have the time to teach you how to fly before the masters choose the dueling team.”

  “And,” Naoko said, “if you end up on our team, you two would both be flying all the time, leaving me on the ground to fend for myself against three opponents.”

  “That’s a fair point,” Mamoru said. “You two are the masters, though. What do you think I should bond with?”

  Naoko shrugged. “I wouldn’t call myself a master; I’m as Banqilun as you are. I only have experience bonding with Suiwei, and it took me forever to manage it from any amount of distance.”

  That was the other difficulty. Banqilun tended to struggle with learning the Three Arts outside of Lan Banti. Something about the way they were made, or so the legends said—that there was more Banti in them than anything else, so that’s why you tended to see them with a wand or a staff in hand.

  Yipachai rubbed his hands together as he thought. “Perhaps we should start with learning to find a beast to bond with? Then we’ll see what’s available.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Mamoru said. “How do I do that?”

  Yipachai hesitated. He’d never taught Lan Kuanghi before. It wasn’t so much a skill to be learned as it was an instinct—a part of all Sentients that was capable of bonding with the beasts around them. At least, that was how he’d always thought of it.

  But perhaps Yipachai’s time in the monastery would be of help here. Casting out with one’s mind to search for beasts wasn’t all that different from meditation.

  “Start by taking a seat,” Yipachai said, lowering himself and demonstrating the posture. “You’ll want to be comfortable, but not so relaxed that you fall asleep.”

  “Is that the trouble you have during meditation sessions?” Naoko asked, a sly grin on her face.

  “Shh, our student needs a quiet environment in order to learn.”

  Naoko rolled her eyes.

  Mamoru, however, followed Yipachai’s lead and found a dry spot to sit on the ground. Even when they were seated, the Banqilun seemed to tower over Yipachai.

  “Now, close your eyes and focus on your breathing, the same way we do when we meditate with Master Unjo.”

  Yipachai closed his own eyes, and soon heard the sound of Mamoru’s rhythmic breathing. Fortunately, it seemed like Naoko and Suiwei had stilled themselves as well.

  “Look inside yourself,” Yipachai said, his voice light. “Find the core of Kuanghi that lies within you.”

  A pause.

  “Erm…what exactly does that look like?” Mamoru asked.

  This was where teaching the art grew tricky. No one really knew how Lan Kuanghi worked, or even how the Three Sources interacted with Sentient minds and bodies. It wasn’t as if you could cut a Sentient open and find the Banti, Kuanghi, and Mhong inside them. Similarly, there was no Lan Kuanghi organ. “The elders always said that Kuanghi is the Source of Wild Freedom—the will. It’s the piece of your being that drives you, that pushes you forward along your path.”

  Another pause.

  “I’m still not feeling anything.”

  Yipachai opened his eyes. He’d hoped Mamoru’s instincts would take over for this part at least, but they must’ve been even less developed than he’d initially thought.

  He took another deep breath and said a silent prayer to the mhonglun that Mamoru wouldn’t grow frustrated. If he did, this whole process would take much longer—time that they did not have to waste if they hoped to catch Mangsut before he left Amigawa.

  “Imagine this, then. Think of your mind like a sphere that sits inside your head. Then, imagine that sphere growing, growing until it encompasses your whole head, then your whole body and the space around it, then this entire clearing.”

  “Alright, then…” Mamoru said. He sounded hesitant.

  “Do you sense anything?”

  Mamoru’s brow furrowed as he concentrated. “No…not yet…wait…I think…is that something?”

  Yipachai reached out with his own mind. It was somewhat difficult, since his bond with Pingou already stretched some distance, but here within the confines of the clearing, he could manage. There were a few beasts about. Mostly sparrows and other small birds, but there, nestled into a hollow up in the branches of a broad-leafed tree, was…

  “A squirrel?” Mamoru’s voice had a hint of awe in it that forced Yipachai to stifle a laugh.

  “Yes! There’s one up in that tree over there. Can you speak to it?”

  The act of opening a soft bond was another matter of intuition—one Mamoru would have to figure out for himself.

  “Erm…her name is Ling.”

  “Good! If she’s willing, try to create a bond with her. Let the flow of Kuanghi between your mind and hers widen.”

  “I…can’t,” Mamoru said, his jaw clenched.

  “It’s not like invoking Banti,” Naoko said softly. Yipachai hadn’t noticed her stand, but now she crossed quietly over to crouch next to Mamoru, who still had his eyes shut tight. “You can’t command it to be what you want. You have to request it. Then allow it to happen.”

  “I’m trying…”

  Yipachai wracked his mind for any other advice he could give Mamoru. Naoko’s had likely been helpful for a fellow Banqilun, but beyond that, Yipachai was out of ideas. If Mamoru couldn’t manage to bond a beast soon, the likelihood of him learning to do so and being able to fight while bonded in time to sway the masters’ decisions was slim.

  Come on, Mamoru…

  “There! I did it!” Mamoru’s eyes popped open as he turned to look up at the tree where the squirrel had made her nest.

  “Really?” Yipachai asked, dashing over and kneeling beside Mamoru and Naoko. “What’s it like?”

  “It’s…amazing.”

  The Rising Blade is set in the wider world of The Mhong Chronicles, only about a hundred years before the events of the main series.

  The Emperor's Dream, is out now! And you can . More on that below.

  have to read that series in order to continue on The Rising Blade—this story stands on its own.