Sect Year 1 · sixth month · day 16 · Azure Stream Sect, Outer Court
He carried the Inner Court’s lacquer tray down the Outer path with both hands. It had a split along one edge, and the Inner stewards watched their trays closely, so he went slowly, and the walk took longer than it needed to.
The Outer Court looked smaller than he remembered. The gate-stones were the same, worn into dips where three years of boots had stood waiting for the gate to open. The woodshed stood where it had always stood, its door shut against the damp. He didn’t look at the post inside it. He knew what was cut into the post, thirty notches in a column, each one a promise made to a morning, and he didn’t need to look to see them. Along the wall the old bench still leaned where the gardeners sat to mend their sandals, and a boy he didn’t know was asleep on it with his mouth open and a sandal in his lap.
The kitchen door stood open. Steam rolled out of it and across the flags, smelling of lard and scorched millet and the sharp green of the river onions the cook kept in a crock by the sink. Somewhere inside a pot lid rattled. Pei stood in the doorway with a grey cloth over one shoulder, and when he came up the step with the tray she didn’t move aside. She waited.
