Sect Year 1 · fourth month · day 3 · Azure Stream Sect, Inner Court north ridge cave
Lin woke on the cot in the cold. For a while he didn’t open his eyes. The blanket was pulled up to his shoulder, the stone of the wall was at his back. The fire bowl at the foot of the bed was full of grey ash, as it had been since the morning of the thirteenth. He hadn’t lit it in three weeks. He had told himself several times that he didn’t need it.
He lifted his left hand and turned the palm toward the light from the cave mouth. It was unmarked. The skin ran smooth across the heel and up toward the first finger, with no cut in it, no seam, no line of stitches. He looked at it for some time, the way he might look at a tool he didn’t remember putting down.
The cold was in the arm as it always was, from the wrist to the elbow, and it stopped there as though it had been told where to stop. He let it be. He reached for the smell of tea instead, and there was nothing to reach for.
