54: The Academy Letter
A letter from the Royal Academy of Eastern Yan reached the Su clan compound on the morning of the third day of the third month of the spring.
It bore the Academy's seal — a small careful unhurried golden phoenix above three small mountains — pressed in red wax. It was carried by an Academy courier, who came alone, in the formal pale-blue robes of the Academy's outer messenger corps.
The patriarch's chief steward delivered the letter to the eastern wing's writing table at the second hour past noon.
Su Yan opened it in private.
It was — by the careful unhurried small private read of his eyes — *not* the recruitment letter he had been expecting. It was, instead, *something subtler*.
The letter was signed by *Master Qing*, named only by that simple title, in the careful flowing hand of a senior cultivator who had been writing in this hand for at least two centuries. The letter was addressed *to the young master of substrate calibration in the eastern wing of the Su clan compound*.
It read:
> *Young master. I have, by the small careful unhurried preceding observation of three quiet correspondents whose names I will not, by my preceding preference, write on this page, become aware that the kingdom of Beicang has — in this generation — *produced a young substrate-cultivator* whose careful unhurried preceding work has, by the careful read of three different small private intelligence-lines, *advanced the substrate scholarship of two sects* in the past three months by at least *fifteen years* of small careful unhurried trial-and-error.* > > *I am writing to you not as a representative of the Royal Academy of Eastern Yan, although the Academy will, by its standing arrangement, eventually extend its formal recruitment courtesy to you as the kingdom's standing arrangement permits. I am writing as a *senior cultivator* who has, by my own preceding bookkeeping for two centuries, kept a small private file on the careful unhurried emergence, once or twice in a generation, of substrate-cultivators of the *Aleph-line bookkeeping* in the kingdoms below the Lower Immortal Realm.* > > *I knew your mother. I did not, in the four years I knew her in this kingdom, ever address her by her given name. I addressed her, by her own preceding preference, by the small careful unhurried title of *Verdant Year*. She was, by my preceding read at our two meetings, the careful unhurried small private bearer of the title of her generation. She has, by my preceding read of the kingdom of Beicang's standing botanical bookkeeping over the past nine months, *passed* the title.* > > *I would, by my own preceding preference, like to extend to you the small careful unhurried courtesy of *one meal*, taken in private, at a small careful unhurried teahouse on the western edge of the royal city, on any afternoon in the next two months that suits your preceding bookkeeping. The meal will, by my own preference, be — *not* a recruitment instrument; *not* an Academy-frame interview; *not* any of the small careful unhurried preceding diplomatic instruments the kingdom of Eastern Yan's standing arrangement would, by its own bookkeeping, expect.* > > *It will be, by my preceding preference, the small careful unhurried courtesy of *one senior cultivator who knew your mother* extending, at the small careful unhurried hour his standing schedule permits, *the careful preceding regards he has been carrying for ten years to the careful unhurried successor of the title*.* > > *I will accept any small careful unhurried polite refusal you choose to send. I will not press. I will, by my preceding preference, also accept any small careful unhurried request for further information about the meal's circumstances before you decide.* > > *— Master Qing, the careful unhurried preceding observer of the Royal Academy's substrate scholarship office.*
Su Yan read the letter three times.
He sat with it for a long count.
He understood, by the careful read of every line, what *Master Qing* was. The signature was a *cover-name* — the senior cultivator had, by his own preceding preference, written under a title rather than a personal name. The kingdom of Beicang's intelligence on Eastern Yan's senior cultivators included a *Master Qing* who had been, for two centuries, the Royal Academy's quiet senior advisor on prodigy identification. The man's actual cultivation — by the kingdom's preceding read — was *Heavenly Immortal*. He was, by every careful preceding bookkeeping, the *most senior cultivator the kingdom of Eastern Yan would, by its standing arrangement, send to any external negotiation*.
He had been, by Cousin Su Lin's notebook's careful unhurried entries, *also* the man Su Yan's outline had expected to encounter at the Royal Academy in some careful unhurried later year — *after* the Tournament, *after* the Bureau's preceding work, *after* the Academy's standing recruitment cycle had calibrated him for entry.
Master Qing had, by the careful unhurried small private courtesy of the letter, *moved up* the schedule.
He had — by the careful unhurried preceding offer of one private meal at a small careful unhurried teahouse — *bypassed* both the Academy and the kingdom of Eastern Yan's standing diplomatic frame.
He had — by the careful unhurried small precise mention of *Verdant Year* — *also* signaled that he had, by his own preceding bookkeeping, known Su Yan's mother in a small careful unhurried capacity that the kingdom of Beicang's standing record had not, in ten years, registered.
Su Yan inclined his head, in the lantern-light of the writing room, at the letter.
He inked the brush.
He wrote, on a clean half-sheet of plain rice paper, in his careful unhurried small private hand:
> *Master Qing.* > > *I accept the courtesy. I will, by my own preceding preference, attend the meal at the teahouse on the western edge of the royal city on the afternoon of the seventh day of the fourth month of the spring, two days before the Tournament's preceding diplomatic gathering. I will, by my preference, attend without any of my household's standing escort, by an unmarked courier-line carriage Cousin Su Lin will, by her preceding work, arrange.* > > *I look forward to the meal.* > > *— Su Yan, branch family Su, eighth district, Cloud Sky City, Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year by the careful unhurried preceding inheritance of one mother to one son.*
He folded it. He sealed it with no seal. He sent it through the unmarked courier line.
In his chest, the ember pulsed — slow, considered, *gentle* — and the dry voice, very quietly, said: *Master Qing was, in his careful preceding small private bookkeeping, the small careful unhurried friend of three of your mother's predecessors. He has, by the kingdom's standing record, kept his preceding careful preceding regards for nine generations of the title's bearers. He will, by my read, *not* betray. He will, by your preceding read at the meal, become, in some careful unhurried later year, *the senior cultivator who teaches you the careful unhurried small precise calibration that the careful unhurried foundation books your mother left you do not, by her own preceding preference, contain*. Trust him.*
Su Yan inclined his head, in the lantern-light of the writing room, in the direction of the ember.
He filed the meeting.
The careful unhurried preceding bookkeeping of the next two months — by the small precise unhurried hour of one Academy letter — had *gained another major external piece*.
The Tournament was, by the careful unhurried preceding calibration of the kingdom's standing schedule, *fifty-seven days* away.