Sect Year 9 · third month · day 4, dusk · Azure Stream Sect, the spring, then the terraced path down
The light left the basin in stages. It went first from the cliff’s crown. It had held a band of gold all afternoon, then from the rock halfway down, and last from the water, which had been the brightest thing in the spring and was suddenly only dark. Lin watched it go from the mat. He couldn’t have said he was waiting for it. He noticed that he was, and he kept his hands still on his knees.
Su had trimmed the lamp again and set it on the rim, and its small flame made a room of light around the record. The edges of that room were the grey rim of the basin, the grey book on the flat stone, and Pei’s folded hands. Pei had not moved in some time. A witness did not have to move. Below the cliff the Outer Court was lighting its lamps one at a time, and the lights came up through the trees in little pale points, as though someone were counting them.
“Bring the boat in before dark,” Lin said.
