Sect Year 1 · ninth month · day 20 · Azure Stream Sect, Inner Court
Dawn came into the north-ridge cave as it always did, grey first and then a thin gold along the stone lip of the mouth, and it brought no warmth with it. There was no fire. The fire bowl at the foot of the cot held its old ash, and nobody had lifted its lid since the seventh month. Lin sat on the edge of the cot with his feet on the cold floor and his hands loose between his knees, and he waited for the morning to say something to him.
Su sat on the step outside with the black book open on her knee. She had been awake before him, as she always was, and the leaf under her palm was already cold. She didn’t look up when he came to the mouth of the cave. She read, in the voice she kept for entries she had checked more than once:
“‘The week after the long night. Dawn. He said the girl’s name first, before his own.’” She turned a leaf with one finger. “‘He is here.’”
She looked up then. He held her eyes for the length of a breath and said it back to her, because the line seemed to ask for an answer and he had nothing better. “I’m here.”
