Chapter 7- Just a Stick with Some Holes and the Dao in it

Tian was usually quiet, respectful and proper. Just how Brother Fu raised him. Usually.

Dawnlight Lark stared at Tian for a long moment, then the most shatteringly musical laugh he had ever heard filled the room. It hammered on his awareness, filled his eyes and ears, seeped into the pores of his skin. The Lark had loosened her grip on her power just a sliver, and it was enough to shake him like a dog getting dry.

“So many! So many idiots! Ahahaha!” The lark laughed, a merry sound. “I don’t even eat them! I’d hate to have the stupid touch any part of me. I turn them into compost instead, and use them to fertilize my gardens. Do you see the little divot on the tile in front of you? It’s where the idiots genuflect and bang their heads on the floor, screaming out that I am their master, that they will loyally serve me for eternity.”

Tian was struggling to see much clearly, at the moment. Everything was still a chaos of colors and lights.

“Yes, it’s crude. It also works so, so often. Brilliant in one regard, good character in one regard, is far from a guarantee of brilliance and good character in others. But it wasn’t just the obvious trap that made you say no. You didn’t think or hesitate. Why?”

Tian bowed apologetically. “I don’t actually want a master. I came because Burning Heaven wanted to bring me, and I am… very ready to not be in the Earthly Realm any longer.”

The lark stared at him for a long moment. “Are you… no, you have no idea whatsoever who I am or who the Grandmaster is. None.”

Tian bowed again, even more apologetically.

“Because there was no reason for you to know, so nobody ever told you. I can see that sparks a lot of feelings. It’s not a bad rule, most of the time. Child, I’m at the extreme peak of the realm that comes after the Heavenly Realm. It works a little differently for birds, but it’s similar. The Grandmaster has… achieved a considerably higher realm. He is polite to your Sect Master because of certain ancient arrangements, not because of your Sect Master’s strength. What we term “realms” are merely small divisions of the same realm to the Grandmaster. You can think of me as someone nearing the completion of her novitiate, in the greater scheme of things.”

She hopped over to a railing, and nodded out at the stunning vista below. “This cultivation land? It isn’t anything special. It does have better cultivation conditions than anywhere your sect controls, but really, it’s nothing special. I liked the view, and over a few thousand years, I made it special just by being here. Do you at least begin to comprehend?”

Well that was terrifying. It seems he was right. The Monastery were guests on the mountain, and always had been. Benefitting from the benevolent indifference of higher beings.

“Yes, that’s right. Much like you wouldn’t rob a mortal peasant. Even if you took all their stuff, it wouldn’t benefit you at all. On the other hand, even if their work doesn’t benefit you, they are probably doing good things. All that peasanty stuff. So why not leave them be?” The Lark asked.

Tian found himself nodding, before he controlled it.

“But you still don’t want a master, even knowing all that. Why? Speak through your thoughts.”

“I… do not wish to serve a single person. I never did, I think. I am happy being of service to my brothers and sisters. I take a great deal of satisfaction in it. But pledging to obey someone simply because they are older or stronger? Even if it was the Sect Master, I think I would leave the Monastery and become a loose cultivator first. And, forgive me Your Eminence, but I only know a little of your power, and less of you.”

The lark’s beady eyes drilled in. “Ah. To learn what the leader is like, study the organization. That is smart. It seems my little sparrow made a rather poor impression. She is a cruel thing, in truth. It’s why she pledged herself to me. She needed someone strong enough to keep her in check, and weak enough to value her service.”

Tian found himself nodding again.

The lark laughed a little. “Yes, you and I really aren’t suited to be master and disciple. I will permit you to cultivate here until I send you back down the mountain, or up to the Grandmaster, if one of you impresses me. Still, you have pleased me a little. I will answer a single question about cultivation or the dao. Think carefully before you ask. Such opportunities… are more than rare.”

That might be literally true, but surely the problem was that Tian was too ignorant to have good questions. He had questions– What is the realm above the Heavenly Realm, or the Realm above that? How do you read minds? How do you protect your mind from being read? What, exactly should one do with a money calling toad, and how did he teach the people he forgave to forgive themselves? Should he even try? Was there a single universally applicable moral truth? Could there be such a thing as a truly daoist government, or was the concept of daoist government self defeating? What is more important, cultivating virtue or the way? What does the Dao want? Why, exactly, did the Dao insist on farts smelling the way they did, and what was their mysterious relationship to boiled eggs?

The questions raced through his head. He had been around enough birds to recognise the Lark was starting to look a bit boggled. In desperation, his eyes raked over the room and landed on the qin. A question crystalized in a flash.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Could you help me with a matter of the music dao? I am working on a song, but I cannot find the two right notes to complete it.”