Sect Year 9 · third month · day 30, afternoon · Azure Stream spring
The water had stood at the top notch for twenty-six days. Lin had never set the count down anywhere, but it sat in him each time he came up the terraced path and saw the spring lying high and clear against the rock. The highest cut on Shen Mo’s gauge was level with the water now. The notches below it had gone under and stayed under. The spring was so clear that he could see the grain of the stone through it, down to a cut where some hand had once stopped and gone back to start again.
The afternoon was warm for the season. The light came over the cliff in a long slant and lay across the basin up to the flat stone, where Jiang sat with the grey book open on her knee. Her cloak was folded over the stone beside her. Su sat on the bench at the water’s edge with the record open in her lap and the pen capped in her hand. Pei stood on the rock at the far side of the basin, and the Glass Shelf lamp lay beside her, unlit, its glass dull in the sun. Lin sat on the mat with his back to the cliff and his left hand on his knee, closed about halfway.
