Sect Year 9 · fourth month · day 5, morning · Azure Stream Sect, forge shop at the foot of the mountain
The iron walk had been set for the fifth day of the month. The fifth day came up grey over the terraces, with a fine rain that did not fall so much as wait in the air. Lin went down the mountain path before the lamps on the lower steps had been put out. His knees came down with him. They had complained on the wet stone at the basin and again on the flags, and now they complained at every flight, and he let them. Near the third bend his right hand went to the inside pocket of his coat out of a year’s habit and found only the strip of bark, notched along one edge. The grey cloth was not there. He had set it down on the flat stone beside Shen Mo’s gauge, unturned, and the lightness in that pocket still caught him now and then, like a missed stair.
Pei came down behind him with an empty basket hooked on one arm. She had her hair pinned up for the walk and a Lantern pencil stuck behind one ear. She took the steps as she had taken every hill since girlhood, quickly and without looking at her feet. She was twenty now. Nobody had made a fuss of it, and Lin thought that was probably right.
