The trip took a bit longer than usual since Sen had to keep his speed down a little to let Falling Leaf keep pace for the entire distance. It was late morning by the time they arrived at the wall. While the guards knew to let Sen pass, they eyed Falling Leaf as if they expected her to burst into violence at a moment’s notice. She just stared back at them with a bored, mildly impatient expression. The guards traded a look, seemed to realize that there was exactly nothing they could do to stop her if she decided to come in, and just let them pass. Sen was glad the men hadn’t made a fuss about it. The ghost panther did get a few nervous, sidelong glances from some of the people in town, but everyone restrained themselves from making comments. It wasn’t clear if they did that because Sen was with her, or if they feared to anger Falling Leaf. Maybe they just don’t want to start anything because Ai is with us, thought Sen.

Once the fast part of the ride was over, the little girl had decided that she’d been carried enough. So, Ai kept a firm grip on Sen’s hand, well, it was her hand firmly wrapped around two of his fingers. They moved along at the little girl’s pace, which wasn’t fast at all. Every once in a while, she would release Sen’s hand to run over and look at something. He only stopped her a few times, like when she’d made to go inside the smithy. Sen had only ever peeked in on a blacksmith’s shop before, but that quick look told him that it was no place for a child. Especially one that nobody would realize was there until something bad happened. She’d made a few sad faces but accepted his word that she might get hurt. It was basically the same reason he’d given her for why she couldn’t go inside the storage ring.

Falling Leaf had been to the town a few times before, so she wasn’t seeing anything new. Instead, she mostly stuck near to Sen. Occasionally, she’d ask him about something that someone was doing that she didn’t quite understand. She’d seen two men sitting on either side of a barrel, their elbows up on top, and their hands locked together. That whole thing had mystified her until he explained that it was a test of strength. She’d perked right up at that and wanted to try it.

“You do realize that you’re almost certainly far stronger than every man in the village, right?” asked Sen in a bid to avert disaster before it arrived.

Falling Leaf’s face fell at that.

“I forgot,” she admitted.

“Well, maybe we’ll go to a town a bit closer to one of the big cities and find you some sect members. You can make them feel bad about themselves.”

That suggestion seemed to cheer her up. However, Sen suspected that the sect members of the world would be less enthusiastic if they knew about the plan. After a particularly slow walk across the town, they finally arrived at the home of Li Hua. Ai was very excited to show off the spot where she drew orchids to Falling Leaf. Sen left the ghost panther to her confusion while he knocked on the door. When no one answered after a respectable amount of time, Sen knocked again. When the knock went unanswered a second time, Sen gave Ai an apologetic look.

“I don’t think Zhi is here right now,” he told her.

Ai looked at the house like it was telling lies before she turned sad eyes on Sen.

“Where is she?” asked the little girl.

“I don’t know,” said Sen. “But we’ll watch for her. Plus, we can always come back later. She might be home by then.”

Placated by those words if not exactly happy, the trio set out again. Ai seemingly decided that Falling Leaf’s hand needed to be held because she grabbed several of the ghost panther’s fingers. Sen saw Falling Leaf make herself relax at the unexpected touch. It was a small step, but if any living human being was going to win the ghost panther over, it would be Ai. There was simply no malice in the child that Sen could see. He wasn’t sure if all children were born with that kind of temperament or if she was just sweet by nature. After a few minutes, her good humor returned. She started to point out all of the things she found interesting. Some of the things she found interesting were baffling to Sen. He understood it when she was excited by a bright red bird that flew by. He did not understand it when she was just as excited about a weed growing between some stones outside of someone’s house. Whether he could see why she thought something was amazing or not, he was determined not to deprive her of wonder. Sen, of all people, knew full well just how good the world was at ripping that right out of people. It didn’t need his help to accomplish that particular feat. So, he would dutifully attend whenever she wanted him to look at some new discovery. As they passed through the far gate, Falling Leaf gave him a curious look.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“We’re going to go and see how people are doing with the spears,” he said. “I might even teach them something if anyone is around.”

When it became clear that they were going to enter the forest again, Ai immediately ran over to Sen and held her arms out. It wasn’t something he’d told her to do. Somewhere along the line, she had just decided that going through the forest meant that he held her. Since that suited his inclination to make sure she was safe, he didn’t intend to discourage it any time soon. He scooped her up, and she looked around like she was a queen surveying her kingdom. Queen Ai and the Kingdom of Forest, thought Sen. It sounds like a legend just waiting to be told. It didn’t take long before the structure Sen had erected came into view. Ai gasped and pointed, while even Falling Leaf looked a little startled at the sheer size of it.

“Yeah,” said Sen, “I was a little out of sorts when I made it. It’s a bit bigger than it needs to be.”

They could hear voices and the sounds of people doing exercises of some kind coming from inside the structure. Sen took that as a good sign. When they came through the opening in the wall, though, he came to an abrupt stop at the sight that greeted him. There were indeed some people practicing with the spear under the eye of Dai Bao. It seemed that all of those people were working very hard to ignore the confrontation that was happening between a big man Sen only vaguely recognized from the day they’d all fought the spirit beasts and Li Hua. The big man was crowding Li Hua and talking in a menacing tone, but the seamstress wasn’t backing down an inch. He also saw that Zhi was cowering behind her mother, the confrontation obviously terrifying the little girl. Sen did his best to put on a bright smile when he spoke to Ai.

“I want you to stay with Falling Leaf for a little while, okay?”

Ai was staring at the argument with scared eyes, but she nodded. Sen gently passed her to the ghost panther, who held the little girl protectively while never letting her eyes move from the fight that was looking increasingly likely to turn violent. Sen strode over and heard the man speaking clearly for the first time.

“You don’t belong here. Go home, seamstress”

“Who says she doesn’t belong here?” asked Sen in a neutral tone.

“I do!” snapped the big man without even looking. “She’s a woman.”

“I noticed that,” agreed Sen. “I expect anyone with eyes notices that. But what in the thousand hells does that have to do with whether or not she belongs here? Are you under the mistaken impression that you’re in charge?”

“I don’t know what game you’re playing at. But women have no place—” started the man as he turned around.

The words simply stopped as the big man saw Sen standing there with death in his eyes.

“Go on,” said Sen. “Explain to me why women have no place here.”

“It’s… It’s just… Everyone knows that women don’t fight.”

“Really?” asked Sen. “Everyone knows that? Everyone in the whole world?”

The big man seemed to realize that line of argument wasn’t going anywhere as his eyes fell on Falling Leaf, who had casually beaten a dozen men half-to-death by herself.

“It’s unnatural. I won’t tolerate it,” said the big man.

“Then, leave,” said Sen in a voice so cold that the big man shivered. “And thank the gods that there were children here to keep me from instructing you in exactly what I think of your opinions.”

The big man’s face turned bright red and then a shade of purple that looked profoundly unhealthy to Sen. The man went to storm past Sen, who stopped him with a look.

“Before you convince yourself that you’ll deal with this later,” said Sen in a lethally casual tone, “know that I consider her and her daughter my friends.”

From the way the blood drained out of the big man’s face, he’d understood precisely what kind of murderous rage would come crashing down on him if anything even remotely untoward befell the seamstress or her daughter. It was equally clear that Sen had predicted the man’s intentions with stunning accuracy. The big man did his best to gather up his pride and walked toward the opening in the wall that would let him escape the gaze of Judgment’s Gale. It was Falling Leaf who made the man simply run away. She turned the most vicious, hungry, predatory gaze that Sen had seen on her in a long time toward the big man. He had to focus to hear what she whispered to him.

“It will be me.”

There was a look of animal panic on the man’s face, and the fear broke him. He turned and fled as fast as his legs could carry him away. Sen wiped the Judgment’s Gale from his expression and turned a kind smile toward Li Hua, who was staring at him with an expression that Sen couldn’t quite figure out.

“It’s nice to see you again, Li Hua. It’s also nice to see you, Li Zhi. You are, of course, both welcome here.”

Li Zhi slowly peeked her head out from behind her mother. When it was clear that the source of her terror was gone, the little girl hugged her mother’s leg and began sobbing. Recognizing that he could only get in the way, he turned a glower on Dai Bao. The grizzled man at least had the good grace to look ashamed of himself.

“Dai Bao,” said Sen. “Join me, please. I would have words with you.”