Sect Year 9 · fourth month · night of day 1 · Azure Stream spring
The water had gone the colour of slate before Su thought to light a lamp, and when she did she struck the tinder from the box in her sleeve twice before the wick took. She had slept a little that afternoon on the record-room steps with her head against the door frame, and she still had the marks of the wood on one cheek. She didn’t mention them. She sat on the bench with the second book open on her knee at a leaf near the front, and a strip of red ribbon lay in the gutter to mark the place.
The month had turned while they sat at the spring. Nobody had said it aloud. The Outer Court’s bell had rung for the new month at dawn, while they were still on the stone, and Lin had heard it come up the path and had not counted it. Now the basin was cold, and the terraces below were dark, and the spring ran high and clear over the top notch.
The grey cloth still lay on the flat stone beside Shen Mo’s gauge. The water ran past it on the near side and did not reach it. Lin had not been asked to move it, and he hadn’t offered to. He could see the outline of the rim through the wool when the lamp leaned toward it, and he kept his eyes off it…
