Sect Year 9 · third month · day 5, dawn · Azure Stream Sect, the spring
Lin woke in the lodging above the Outer Court before the light had reached the window. His left hand was under his cheek. He didn’t remember putting it there, and when he tried to lift it he found the arm slow to answer, the cold running down from the shoulder into the fingers like water finding a crack. He left the hand where it was for a while. Below him the court was still dark. A door opened and shut in the lane, and somebody’s boots crossed the flags. Then there was only his own breath and the window going slowly from black to the grey of old paper. The question had come to him again in the night, at the edge of sleep, and he had answered it as he always did. He didn’t need to remember the words of the answer. He had given the same one every night since the Silent Life, and it had been true every night, and he lay still and let the morning arrive without asking it for anything.
He dressed with his right hand and let the left arm follow. The coat hung on its peg. He lifted it down and felt through the inner pocket for the cloth-wrapped weight, found it where it had been all week, and left it there. Then he went down the stair and out into the lane. The cold was…
