Smelting 2

As it turned out, Dong Fu was correct. The signs were quite clear. Only a handful of other silver robed youths remained in the wide open entrance hall as she entered, and none of them paid her any more than a passing glance.

The rear wall of the entrance hall was taken up by a massive board of ebony wood. A banner was strung up on the board, clearly delineating directions for new disciples. The spotlessly clean wooden interior of the building was honestly a little unsettling. It was unnatural; the floor was so polished that it was practically a mirror, and she couldn’t see a single scuff or mark anywhere, let alone a speck of dust.

She couldn’t give that too much thought, however, because she was one of the last ones in. As she arrived at the sliding doors marking the entrance to hall one, she could hear the murmur of a large number of people speaking quietly within.

Peering inside, she could see that the large room was built with a series of long desks placed on descending tiers, broken up by shallow steps going down to the pit where the lecturer’s podium stood. The desks were almost completely full, and as she stepped inside, Ling Qi caught more than one curious, dismissive, or assessing look from the crowd of chattering fourteen year olds already present. It made her hackles rise; the feeling of condescending dismissal was an almost physical thing.

Giving herself a shake, she forced herself to ignore it and search for empty seats.

The most obvious and first to draw her eye was a whole section which lay empty centered on a pale girl. The girl had snow white hair that fell freely down to the middle of her back and was everything Ling Qi was not: petite and dainty with almost supernaturally pale skin. She was whispering into the sleeve of her uniform, which had been personalized with a scale-like pattern in the embroidery. She seemed to be paying very little attention to her surroundings, yet she sat alone in an otherwise packed room.

The girl raised her head then, looking toward Ling Qi. Ling Qi felt her blood run cold for as she saw the other girl’s eyes, golden and slit pupiled. A shudder of animalistic fear rippled up her spine. The moment ended when the other girl broke eye contact and returned her attention to a bright green snake which had just poked its head out of her sleeve.

What was that? She had felt like a mouse in front of a serpent, yet the girl’s expression hadn’t even been hostile nor condescending, just indifferent.

Ling Qi quickly turned her attention to the other possible seats. There was another girl who had a seat open next to her. She was leanly muscled with sun-darkened skin and bright red hair woven into a single braid. The splash of color stood out amidst the rest of the room.

Strangely, she was wearing a partial boys uniform: a pair of baggy pants rather than a robe and a silken sleeveless shirt. Ling Qi might have thought her a feminine boy if not for how… stretched the shirt she wore was. Unlike the others, who were seated with meticulous posture, she sat with her feet propped on the desk in front of her and a bored expression on her face. Her gaze briefly flickered Ling Qi’s way before the laid back girl seemed to dismiss her as unimportant.

Further down, there was an open seat adjacent to the steps next to a tall boy, tall enough that she wouldn’t be looking down at him if they stood face to face. He was… well, a little handsome Ling Qi could admit, in the classical way, with noble features and good proportions. But not girlish, the way some nobles and wealthy sorts could get.

Mainly, her attention was drawn by the gold furred tiger cub curled up on top of his head. She stared for a moment, but no one else seemed to think it odd. When he noticed her look, the boy gave her a friendly smile and a slight nod that made the cub on his head growl unhappily.

The last available seat was in the room’s far corner next to a short young man with with shaggy brown hair and a rather nasty burn scar extending across his right cheek, down his neck, and under his shirt. It was quite ugly, and it took a moment to pull her eyes from the scar to look at the rest of him. He was of middling height and compact build. Just from a glance, she would guess him to be one of the few others in this room to be of the same… social class as her. He certainly looked as out of place and uncomfortable as she felt.

When he met her eyes, his gaze was measuring and wary. Her eyes skittered away immediately. He reminded her too much of Tonghou, and wasn’t she going to leave that behind?

Ling Qi glanced between the open seats, but in the end, the choice was obvious. Dong Fu’s advice still echoed in her ears, and… if she was honest with herself, she wanted to follow it.

It came down to loneliness in the end. If there was one thing Ling Qi’s effort to remain unconstrained had failed to give her, it was friends. Given Mother’s occupation, that pool had always been limited to begin with and living as she had for the last four years had not allowed her to spend a long time in anyone’s company.

With that in mind, she chose the option that at least seemed friendly. She began to make her way down the stairs toward the handsome boy with the tiger cub at a sedate pace. Even if his friendliness was a facade, it was better than indifference or hostility.

That seemed to trigger most of those who had been looking at her askance to go back to their own conversations. Now that she had the opportunity to study them, Ling Qi could see that there seemed to be several cliques among those seated here. She was no socialialite, but she could see that there was no room for someone like her there.

As she came to a stop next to the desk where the boy was seated, she did her best to put her doubts and worries aside, but it was a difficult thing.

“D’you mind if I sit here?” The words escaped her before she could really think about it, and she clenched her fists under her sleeves. She had been trying to remember to speak formally, but it wasn’t something that came naturally to her anymore. Now he was going to think she was…

“Sure thing.” His laid back words cut off her internal panic. The boy shifted in his seat, moving over a bit to give her more room. The easy smile he gave her absolutely did not make her heartbeat speed up.

“You were kinda cutting it close though, weren’t you?” He had a slight accent that she couldn’t place, which combined with his laid back attitude, seemed to draw his words out oddly.

Ling Qi hastily seated herself before too much attention could be drawn to her embarrassed flush. Not that most were likely to care, her more reasonable side would point out. She glanced up to find him regarding her with something like amusement.

The tiger cub curled up atop his head seemed to be sleeping again, and she briefly wondered how it hadn’t fallen when he’d turned his head to look at her.

“My carriage only just arrived,” she responded, more defensively than she would have liked. She suddenly remembered that she hadn’t introduced herself yet.

“I am Ling Qi by the way,” she said quickly. “If.. ah, you were wondering, I…” She hated the way her voice trailed off into awkward uncertainty. Let her slip through a busy street dipping her hands into pockets or stand up to a fence trying to swindle her, and she could be confident. Apparently, friendly conversation could make her composure crumble in moments.

Worst of all, her damn hair was working its way loose again. She already had a few unruly strands drifting in front of her eyes.

For his part, the boy gave her an odd look out of the corner of his eye as she hunched her shoulders, feeling stupid.

“Han Jian,” he said after a moment. “Nice to meet you. Can’t say I recognize the name. If your carriage just got here, you must be local so that makes sense. My tutors always complained about me not paying enough attention.” He says the last with a self-deprecating smile.

His easy acceptance eased the tension Ling Qi felt and allowed her to sit up straighter. Doing so made her notice that aside from Han Jian, she just might be the tallest person in the room. So much for standing out less.

Still, the implied question made her feel awkward. Was he only being polite because he thought she might be someone of noble birth like him? He seemed almost too casual to be a noble though.

“My family isn’t very important,” she decided to hedge. “Where are you from? I’m, I mean, I am not familiar with yours either.” She stumbled over the words more than she would have liked, but she felt that it was still a decent deflection.

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He laughed, and Ling Qi felt the corners of her lips quirk up. It was hard to stay tense around him.

“Guess we’re both a couple of slackers then,” he responded, sounding amused. “The Han family is from the Golden Fields province.” He seemed really amused but also… almost relieved?

Golden Fields… the name was vaguely familiar as if she had heard it once a long time ago. It came to her then. Golden Fields was the easternmost province of the empire, and more importantly…

“Oh, the Grave of the Sun. I didn’t think someone would come from so far away.” She trailed off as she noticed that his smile had gone rather stiff.

Did she say something rude? The story of Lu Guanxi and his final stand was famous. He was one of the Empire’s greatest heroes. She couldn’t really think of a reason why mentioning the hero would offend him. Maybe his family had sent him away and he didn’t like being reminded of how far away he was?