part 2

三
Terror gripped the woman as she awoke from unwilling sleep. The sky had turned from black to gray and now the man she had followed into the city was gone. Her clothes still damp from the rain the night before, she rose to her feet. Hearing a sound from the alley behind her she quickly pulled a rag over her head to hide her face. A merchant emerged pulling his cart towards the market road, preparing for the day's business. At this the woman took off, walking quickly away from the gates where the guards would surly now be awake. Into the heart of the vast city she went, searching.

四
“Please you must help me! I'm desperate!” An overweight bureaucrat lay stricken with grief at the feet of Master Chen.

“Mr. Wang, stand up.” Master Chen commanded in a calm voice.

“No Master Chen, I cannot arise until you see that I truly submit, I can pay anything you like! Do anything you require. Please see how desperate I am!”


Master Chen pulled aside the blue Taoist robes he wore to draw the sword from it's sheath at his waist. The free blade sang until it softly touch the wobbling skin at the throat of the sobbing statesman.

Master Chen briefly recalled one of a thousand memories from the battle field. Just one moment when his blade had sliced through another man's flesh.

“Mr. Wang, stand up.” Master Chen spoke just above a whisper

Wang froze.

As pressure was applied to the blade at his neck he stood slowly as Master Chen continued to talk. “Mr. Wang, I have seen many desperate men in my life. Men as big and brave as elephants lying naked and scared in scorched fields. I've seen mothers with no hope cowering in the gutters, selling every piece of their soul for the sake of their starving children. I've held my enemies at the point of my sword and seen fear creep across them like a plague, but I did not show them mercy. Each death at this sword has left its own mark on my soul, a mark I accept each time willingly. So as you come to my school, as you beg and cry. Telling me that you are desperate, as you wear jewels and brocade fabrics that would end the true desperation of hundreds, I wonder why I should show you mercy.”

The moment was calm and still, and in the stillness Master Chen considered how many students he'd taught to hold a sword in this precise room. How many years he'd spent training the warriors that would some day kill, or die in far away lands. The wood was old, and stained dark, so that the wide open training room seemed to close in around the two men now standing face to face at it's center.

Master Chen slowly slide the blade across Wang's sweaty neck fat, coming closer, till their faces were inches apart. “My scars are all internal you see, a thousand gashes on my heart, one more could hardly make a difference could it?”

A drop of blood fell on Wang's robe.

“S-s-s-orry, I-I'm n-n-ot desperate I-I-...”

“Of course you're desperate!” Master Chen cried out. His face turning suddenly from a stoic scowl to broad smile. “I dare say this is the first time in all your life you've been truly desperate! Aren't you glad I've taught you the definition of this new word? I fear you've been using it incorrectly your whole life!” In one swift motion Master Chen returned his sword to it's scabbard at his waist.

“Don't worry Mr. Wang, I'm far too hungry to kill anyone today, buy me dinner, and perhaps we can discuss this matter as civilized people.”

Mr. Wang nodded wordlessly.

�"

Master Chen was still smiling to himself as the two men left the old fencing school and headed in the direction of the tea house. The violent roar of the city was dying down now in the late afternoon as mothers prepared to feed their families, and farmers in the market packed up their vegetables for the day. Strolling along the newly rain washed stone streets Master Chen felt at ease as he noticed everything around him.

“It is marvelous you know, to be trained as a warrior.” His hands clasped behind his back as his legs swung easily. “One sees so much more than the average person. He has to you see, survival on the battle field depends on it. That is why people of my caliber train their whole lives to see everything around them. One missed detail might spell your death.”

“Certainly it must make you very... dangerous and a capable killer Master Chen.” Wang was still shaking slightly from their encounter moments before.

“Oh certainly it does, but on a day like today, Mr. Wang, it simply allows me to notice the beauty of an autumn evening. It is why so many warriors become monks or poets in their old age, if they don't first become drunks.”

“Yes I see.” Wang was clearly distracted.

“No, I'm not entirely sure you do Mr. Wang. In fact I'm fairly certain you've missed almost everything so far. What did you see when we left just now, as I was locking up my school, what did you notice?”

Wang tried to remember, but at the time he'd only been trying to calm his nerves and remember why he'd come to Master Chen in the first place. “Uh.. I'm not sure, there was a vegetable cart I think.”

“Ah yes there was indeed a vegetable cart, Mr. Wang, good job, but those untrained in looking could not possibly have seen the whole story. After all, the cart was out of place there, and quite large wasn't it? And there was a yoke for an animal to pull it, but the yoke was broken. At the same time there was nobody tending the cart was there? Can you imagine any farmer willingly leaving his food to be stolen? Certainly I can't. So what do you think happened?”

“Ah, so the horse escaped?” ventured Mr. Wang.

“Hmm yes, I do believe you're right Mr. Wang, you are proving to be more a warrior than your large stomach and blatant cowardice might otherwise suggest.” Mr. Wang looked as if he were flattered by the comment. “Now of course the horse did not simply escape, did he? The yoke was broken, was it not. That must take a great deal of force.”

“Ah, the horse must have been scared by something,”

“Good thinking Mr. Wang! Now you, as a magistrate of this wonderful city must know the layout of these narrow passageways very well indeed, and know that there are only a very few alleys in these residential quadrants large enough for a horse to fit through, especially a scared horse who is bucking and running at full speed. And since the city is so geometrically conceived, and each road eventually loops back on itself, you must know exactly what that means don't you?”

“Umm, yes I think so...”

As Wang bowed his head and placing a finger under his chin to consider what Master Chen was getting at, there was a loud crash and a huge black horse shot from the nearest alleyway, charging down the narrow corridor directly towards the two men. Wang screamed in horror and jumped to his right, where he met a tall stone wall. Leaping in the opposite direction he found himself colliding with an identical obstacle. He ran again to the first wall as if forgetting entirely that he had just been there before finally collapsing to the ground in a shaking wailing ball.

Master Chen continued walking and as the horse fumed, spitting snot and saliva in its wake he gracefully stepped to the side and let it pass. The steed hopped easily over Mr. Wang and continue on it's rampage down the long corridor.

Moments later a short farmer carrying a riding whip and jogging at a steady pace passed by the two men with a short “Sorry sirs,” uttered between his labored breaths.

Chen leaned easily against the cool stone wall, looking up to the sky as he
pulled an old pipe from his robes. “Yes, the mind of a warrior certainly makes the day more beautiful, doesn't it Mr. Wang?”

* * *

It'd seemed by the time the two men had reached the tea house, that Wang had learned to entirely mistrust Master Chen. He now took to looking in all directions, barely listening to what the old warrior had to say.

“Be careful Mr. Wang, trying to see everything at once inevitably leads to seeing nothing at all,” Master Chen warned loudly just before Wang tripped over a beggar woman laying motionless in the gutter, landing hard on his face and outstretched arms.

“It's just not your lucky day is it Mr. Wang!” Master Chen was laughing as he helped Wang to his feet.

The woman was not dead, but her frame seemed to show little of her spirit still remained. Her face was covered in the same dirty white rags that were wrapped poorly around her malnourished body. Master Chen knelt in front of her, seeing only a glimpse of her disfigured face behind the cloth.

“Mr. Wang, perhaps with our lesson earlier today, you will now recognize true desperation.”

Wang scoffed as he dusted off his formerly regal uniform. “You expect me to hold myself in comparison to this animal?”

Master Chen laughed at the resilience of a fools pride.

“Certainly not Mr. Wang, you could never have survived what this woman has, you are not nearly strong enough. Her desperation in this moment outweighs your entire life's collection of pains. If you could see her eyes as I do, you would see she has strength of will beyond even this city's greatest soldiers, and even with that she has now lost all hope. She has truly suffered beyond measure.”

The woman made no attempt to move away or hide. She lay still against the wall, her eyes staring down at the ground in front of her, focused on nothing.

Master Chen rose quickly as he turned to face Mr. Wang. “I'd like some money now.” He said in a matter of fact tone.

“Excuse me? What?” Mr. Wang was still having trouble with Master Chen's penchant for sudden shifts in tone.

“I've given you lessons today have I not? All my students pay me for the right to learn from me, you are no different are you? So money, now, before we go any further.”

“Y-yes, of course...” Wang fumbled for the large purse tied at his waist, then pulled out a hand full of metal pieces. “I have great respect for you Master Chen. I think you'll find this more than generous.”

“Indeed...” Master Chen poured the bronze pieces from one hand to the other, then turned around kneeling again and placed the entire sum of money into the palm of the young hopeless woman as Mr. Wang looked on in horror.

Curling her fingers around the small fortune, the woman's eyes flitted for the briefest moment up to the old master's face, then back again to the ground.

“Come Mr. Wang, you still owe me that dinner! And we can finally talk of your son joining my school!” Master Chen continued on through the doors of the tea house as Wang stared at the money gripped in the woman's hand for a moment before reluctantly following.

六

The metal pieces, shaped like small spades, had felt so cool when first placed in the scarred woman's hand, but now they had become hot and sweaty. She felt them loosely shift against each other as they settled meaninglessly in her palm.

All day she had walked. Hiding her face from view, as she penetrated crowds of thousands trying to find that one person she needed. As she searched she had come to believe that he was her only chance of survival, but the crowds seemed to grow larger and larger, and the more she explored, the bigger the city felt, until she saw that she would never find her hero.

Having not eaten in days, suffering from the exhaustion, she had laid down to finally die, anonymous and alone. And now, with money in her hand she felt no different. Pieces of metal alone, she thought, have never made a person safe.

A foot stepped to ground at the center of the woman's unfocused field of vision. It sent flurries of dust in all directions as it landed like a bird of prey. The muscles of the leg twitched and rippled as it made to fly away again. The woman followed it up with her eyes, taking in the dirty decrepit clothing that covered a well worn body. A body that, free of armor, she could see now was covered in more scars than she ever would have imagined. The face of her hero looked down at her briefly, scowling as he passed, striding into the tea house.

The woman felt her heart suddenly spring to life from its funeral rhythm. She struggled to her feet, willing her cramped legs to work. She tucked the coins into a fold of her dirty rags and hobbled towards the tea house.

As she arrived at the door the waiter quickly ran towards her. “No! Not here! There is no begging at my restaurant, get away!” He picked up a broom made of lashed together sticks and began prodding her back out the door.

The woman walked around the restaurant until she found a low window. She peered into the tea house filled with men gambling, eating and drinking tea. At the table closest to the window sat the old man who had given her the money, along with a fat companion wearing orange government robes. She could not see the scarred man anywhere.

“So you see Master Chen, I must have my son in your school!” The fat orange man was talking in an urgent whisper over a table laid out with an assortment of expensive dishes. “My youngest and most beautiful wife has insisted that her first born son become a great warrior. I had the emperor's soldiers training him you see, but they were too lenient with him, so that he has gotten fat and does what ever he likes. They are afraid to discipline him because he is the son of a magistrate.”

The generous man in the blue robes, who was listening quietly as he chewed on a roasted duck neck, spoke up. “And I suppose that this young wife of yours has taken to refusing your advances now that her son has followed so closely in his father's foot steps.” He reached out and poked the magistrate's belly with his chopsticks, who looked ashamed as he brushed away the old man's prodding. “Don't worry Mr. Wang, you are not the first man to confuse being sex deprived with desperation.”

At that moment the woman, still searching the room, caught a glimpse of a figure sitting perfectly still in the darkened back corner of the restaurant. She could just make out in silhouette the wild unkempt hair of her protector.

Mr. Wang's voice dropped to a panicked hiss. “It is not only that, Master Chen! And please do not speak so loudly in such a public space! This young wife of mine, she is causing havoc in my household, she has turned the other wives against me, even my servants seem to have lost respect for me. I have had no peace in months!” He leaned back now, speaking a bit louder. “My wife heard of you, that you were the greatest teacher in the country.”

Suddenly a soldier in full uniform stepped through the door of the tea house. He walked directly to the head waiter and began to talk with him, looking in all direction around the room as he did so. At first glace of the royal armor the woman ducked down below the window and pressed herself against the wall, her heart beating so fast it felt like it would climb up through her throat.

“Oh my, it seems there's an investigation going on, Mr. Wang. Usually I am first to be told of any crimes committed in the city. It must be a special case. What do you suppose is going on?” The woman could still hear Master Chen speaking softly with a full mouth.

“I'm sure I don't know,” responded Mr. Wang.

“Oh come now Mr. Wang, surely a man so powerful as yourself must hear all the best gossip from the courts!”

The woman heard nothing for a moment then in an almost inaudible whisper, “Master Chen I tell you this in greatest confidence, you must understand. A prisoner escaped from the dungeons last night!”

“Oh but Mr. Wang I thought it was impossible to escape! I have been to the cells myself. They are the strongest walled dungeons I've ever seen.”

“Yes Master Chen, so far no one has been able to tell how it happened. There were no signs of force, nothing was broken, but when the soldiers came to give the days meal this morning, the prisoner had simply vanished. The guards are talking of magic now, and all are becoming worried.”

“Well I do love a good mystery, Mr. Wang, be sure to keep me posted won't you?”

The sound of the soldier's armor clinking through the front door drew the woman once again to look into the restaurant, seeing the shadowy figure still sitting in the corner, unmoving.

Master Chen laughed “Now Mr. Wang, as far as what you were saying is concerned, you should not believe everything you hear about me. All people want to think that they are the best, and of course that they own the best things. Do you not tell all the visitors of the grandness of your vase collection? Or the legendary beauty of your wives? In the same way the people of this city exaggerate my abilities in the battlefield so that they can lay claim to the best teacher in the country. But I assure you, I am just one among many.” Master Chen raised his cup to drink.

“It is not only that, Master Chen, the stories about you everyone knows, but only a few know that it was you who trained the greatest warrior the world has ever known!”

The tea did not reach the old master's lips. He breathed out softly as he placed his cup back down on the table and stared joylessly at Mr. Wang.

“Tian Yi... was never my student, Mr. Wang.” Though the sound of people eating and talking filled the room, the power in the old master's voice seemed to block out everything else, so that the two men faced each other as in a void.

The silence draped over the two men like tar. Finally Mr. Wang made to protest, opening his mouth to tell of the rumors he had heard from the highest factions of the royal courts, but Master Chen cut him off.

“You are lucky, Mr. Wang,” He wore a sad smile. “For perhaps it is the food, or the tea, or perhaps it is simply my age, but I suddenly feel the urge to tell a story that I have never shared before. Please don't think it is because I respect you though, because I certainly do not. You have simply found me on the right day. I've gotten too old and the story is too heavy to hold any longer, so I find I must drop it here at your feet.”

Mr. Wang leaned back in his chair as the woman outside pressed herself closer to the window, thirsty for the seemingly forbidden tale.

“Your first son was an idiot at his birth was he not, Mr. Wang?” Mr. Wang winced at the sudden mention of that shameful fact. “He was born disfigured, and now lives in your household unable to take care of himself, even as an adult, correct?” Mr. Wang nodded.

“Something happened to your boy, somehow he was born missing some important piece within his mind that the rest of us perhaps take for granted. This made him stupid, and incapable.”

“Why do you bring up such a disgraceful thing Master Chen!” Mr. Wang was getting tired of the insults being hurled at his family.

“You see, Mr. Wang, Tian Yi was born the same way. With something missing. But it wasn't his mind that was missing, or his soul. He was in fact profoundly intelligent, and fiercely passionate. No, what this little baby lacked was something that no other person on earth has ever been without. Tian Yi was born completely without fear...”

Mr. Wang held a stoney expression, in surrender to the old master's now slow, leathery voice.

“ Tian Yi had heard of me just as you have. The wars had all just come to an end. I had been back only a year from the battlefield and had just begun to conceive of starting my own school. I had a reputation as the greatest warrior in the city, which drew Tian Yi to me. He came to me demanding that I teach him to fight, but I refused. After all I was young and full of my own grandeur. He was living on the street, a runaway from some far away country, and I had no interest in teaching anyone who could not pay me. That first day he left. Not like a normal child, he didn't beg, or try to convince me, he simply walked away back into the alleys.

“The next day he returned. This time he did not say a word. He simply launched himself at me with an old blade he'd found somewhere. He was sloppy, with no skill at all, and I easily knocked him to the ground. At first I was worried that I'd hurt him, but he leaped to his feet almost immediately, blood dripping from his leg, and flew at me again. I was surprised. Most children try the same thing over and over, only learning after three or four times to do something different. But this boy, he adjusted in midair perfectly remembering how I'd bested him the first time and very nearly landed a blow against me. I was shocked. I hurt him badly that day as he refused to give up. He'd skinned both his knees and his elbows from falling to the ground, but each attack was as vicious and powerful as the last. He seemed to show no instinct for self preservation at all, never once trying to block my attacks, only trying to overwhelm me with his own ferocity.

“After that he returned every day. The first year he never beat me, and I took his attacks as a game. The second year he began to land a blow every once in a while but I was not worried, they rarely caused much pain or trouble. But by the time he was around ten years old his skill had grown to the point that I would be fearful while walking alone. He would leap from the tops of buildings at me. He would attack me with kitchen knives and sharpened sticks. He was relentless and never once do I remember him ever blocking my attacks. But it didn't matter anymore. He had grown so fast that when he attacked I rarely had an opportunity to retaliate, I was so preoccupied with defending myself I could rarely land a blow. Finally I realized that my life would soon be in real danger, and so I would have to kill the boy. I took to carrying my sword around with me everywhere I went. And when we fought I'd always go for the death blow, but I could never reach him, he'd grown even faster than I had expected.

“Then one day it all just stopped, I didn't see him for months. My body healed. By this time I'd become a better swordsman through those daily assaults than I ever imagined I would be, better than I ever thought anyone could be. I'd gone from a great soldier to a legendary warrior, though this I have never told anyone. But it was short lived and one day he returned. He found me in an empty alley, he must have been thirteen by this time. He was carrying an old rusted sword that looked like it'd been dug up from some ancient grave. He charged at me and we fought. In my state at that time I was prepared to fight to the death. I was strong and fit. I was as fast as I'd ever been, and I found I was landing blow after blow to his young body. But even so I was missing the strikes that mattered. Finally I saw my chance and I struck out at the vein under his arm, but he was too fast and caught me off balance, it was the first time I'd fallen since I was a child, and in moments I was pinned by that jagged piece of metal. He didn't kill me though, as you can see. In that moment he told me that he did not need a teacher anymore. After that he just walked away. I never saw him again.”

The void returned and encompassed the two men sitting at their table. The girl at the window was breathing heavily again. The stillness contrasted so powerfully with the commotion of a busy restaurant that the two men appeared as statues.

Wang whisper softly as if he feared he might spring a trap. “But if he is simply free of fear... why has that made him so angry?”

Master Chen made no attempt to answer for a time, looking deep into his teacup.

“Fear... is a part of us all. It drives you more than any other emotion. It builds our cities, crafts our weapons, forges our armor. We come together because of our fears. Everything that has been a part of the human world has been dictated by fear. But Tian Yi is not a part of that, he likely does not even consider himself human. He does not relate to us, does not empathize with us, does not understand why we do all the silly things we do.”

“So...” Mr. Wang spoke very softly now, as a child interrupting a life altering myth. “He is beyond humanity’s weaknesses?”

“No. While he is without that weakness he has not gone beyond it. Of course there are people who have learned to go past all fear, but do not confuse Tian Yi with an enlightened being. When one struggles through fear and learns to escape it, they are left with incomparable compassion for all life. But Tian Yi has never learned to identify with the pain of others. Every animal in the world knows fear, even a beetle runs from a foot that brushes against its antenna. But Tian Yi, who has never participated in this experience, can hardly even be said to have participated in life. However do not let this convince you Tian Yi is is not human. He is.

“We tend to identify our species by all the ways we react to our fears, the ways in which we protect ourselves with cities, and weapons. But the true mark of humanity is our capacity to love and be loved. Because Tian Yi does not understand fear, and can never relate to those who do, it means he can never participate in that truly human piece of himself. He flails around the world missing a part of his humanity while at the same time not knowing what he is missing. Just as if you were born without an arm, and had never known it, you would still feel that you were not whole.

“That night that Tian Yi left, three soldiers at the city gates were found dead. Tian Yi will not and cannot show mercy. He does not have that capacity. He was never my student and I take no responsibility for him.”

The two picked at their food unenthusiastically for a time in silence until Master Chen spoke “I will train your son, Mr. Wang, and I will show him even less mercy than I have shown you today.” Wang nodded his head somberly and stood to leave. “Mr. Wang I have one last lesson for you, something about your experience with the horse.” Mr. Wang winced involuntarily.

“You know that the horse was frightened, that it was so scared it broke its yoke. You know that it ran through the streets in terror and nearly trampled you. You know that you have yourself been on edge since it occurred, but what does this lead you to?”

“I-I'm not sure”

“Come now, there is a question you need to ask Mr. Wang. Something that set our whole evening in motion.”

Mr. Wang thought for a moment. Then hesitantly asked, “What scared the horse?”

Master Chen nodded his head. “What indeed, Mr. Wang. I don't know for sure, though I have my suspicions... Be careful, the way things are designed around here, everything comes back around eventually. Keep that in mind.”

Mr. Wang dropped some money on the table and left the tea house with his hands clasped tightly against his large stomach looking in all directions.

The day's last light was fading as Master Chen leaned over to the window appearing to catch a glimpse of the sun set as he whispered to the girl now ducked low and out of sight “See you shortly my dear,” before himself leaving the table and walking into the cool night.