69: Master Qing's First Lesson

The first quarterly meal at Master Qing's teahouse on the western edge of the royal city took place on the seventh day of the sixth month of the spring.

Su Yan attended alone, by the unmarked carriage line. He arrived at the third hour past noon, exactly. The teahouse keeper bowed, slid the lattice of the upstairs back room, withdrew.

Master Qing was already seated.

He had — by Su Yan's careful preceding small private substrate-sight read — *not* changed in the four months since the first meal. His pale-grey scholar's robe was the same. His thread along his spine was the same cold clean clear silver-gold of a Heavenly Immortal who had been, by his preceding standing arrangement, conducting the careful preceding small private hour of one century and a half of substrate scholarship in the Royal Academy's preceding small private quiet office.

He had, however, brought to the meal — *a small lacquered case the size of his palm*.

He set it on the writing table between them when Su Yan inclined his head.

"Su Yan."

"Master Qing."

"By my preceding preference," Master Qing said, in his plain quiet voice, "we will today conduct the first lesson."

He opened the case.

Inside was a *small careful preceding stone*. It was perhaps the size of a man's thumbnail. It was the color of the pale clean clear silver-gold of an Aleph schema's preceding small private substrate. It was — by Su Yan's careful preceding read — *not* of the kingdom of Beicang's standing botanical record.

It was, in fact — by Sebastian Yan's careful preceding read of every cellar book — *a piece of substrate-anchor stone*.

Master Qing set the small piece on the table.

"This," he said, "is one of *seven* pieces I have, by my own preceding small private preceding preference, kept in my preceding standing private collection for the careful preceding small private hour of three centuries. The pieces were — by my preceding preference — given to me by the careful preceding small private hour of one Aeon of three predecessors back, on the careful preceding small private occasion of her preceding small private first meal at this teahouse with me as her teacher. I kept them. I have not used them. I have, by my own preceding preference, decided that the careful preceding small private hour of the next seventeen months will, by my preceding read, *use them*."

He inclined his head.

"I am giving you, today, *one*. The remaining six will be — by my preceding preference — given to you, one per quarterly meal, across the careful preceding small private hour of the next eighteen months. The seven pieces, by my preceding read, will *not* be sufficient to construct the careful preceding small private full anchor-pair the seventh book of your mother's preceding small private cellar set describes. They will, however, *initiate* the calibration. The remaining careful preceding small private substrate-anchor stone — for the calibration's careful preceding small private completion — will, by my preceding read, need to be *gathered* by you, in person, at the careful preceding small private secondary Hollow Veil facility your mother was preceding-time held at, at some small careful preceding small private hour in the next five months."

Su Yan inclined his head.

"The City of the Voiceless."

"Yes."

"Cousin Su Wenfu has, by my preceding preference, ridden south this morning to locate it."

Master Qing inclined his head — small, formal.

"Then the careful preceding small private hour of the next four months will, by my preceding read, gather the careful preceding small private substrate-anchor stone the careful preceding small private completion will need."

He picked up the small careful preceding piece on the table.

He laid it, very gently, in Su Yan's open palm.

The piece — by the careful preceding small private hour of touching Su Yan's palm — *registered* his lattice.

It pulsed once, in the small careful preceding small private precise unhurried hour of one Aleph schema's preceding small private substrate recognizing one of its own.

It settled.

Master Qing inclined his head.

"Today's preceding small private lesson," he said, "is *carrying*. The piece will, by the careful preceding small private hour of the careful preceding small private substrate-sight, *not* be visible to any cultivator below Sovereign Origin. It will, by the careful preceding small private hour of any kingdom's standing instrumentation, *not* register as anything other than ordinary jade-spirit stone. It will, however, by the careful preceding small private hour of any senior cultivator at Sovereign Origin or above with substrate-calibration training, *register* — at the careful preceding small private precise unhurried hour of the senior cultivator's preceding small private read — as *exactly what it is*. You will, by my preceding preference, *carry* it by the small careful preceding precise unhurried preceding hour the careful preceding small private hour of the next eighteen months requires. You will *not*, by my preceding preference, *show* it. You will, by my preceding preference, *not* allow it to be — by any small careful preceding small private accident of careful preceding small private private displacement — *out of your preceding small private custody*. The piece will, by my preceding read, *recognize you* uniquely, by the careful preceding small private hour of one minute of preceding small private contact with your palm. It will, by the careful preceding small private hour of the recognition, *not be willing to be carried by anyone else*."

Su Yan closed his palm, gently, around the piece.

He inclined his head.

"Master Qing. I will carry it."

"Good."

The first lesson — by the careful preceding small private hour of three further substrate-mathematical conversations Master Qing conducted across the next two hours — *closed*.

By the meal's preceding small private close, Su Yan had — by the careful preceding small private hour of Master Qing's preceding teaching — *learned* the careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding *foundation calibration* of the substrate-anchor pair: the careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding *resonance pattern* by which the seven pieces, when assembled, would *call* to the eighth piece at the City of the Voiceless's preceding small private location, and by which the eighth piece, when paired with the seven, would *call* to the careful preceding small private substrate-traces at the eastern continent's central facility.

The calibration was — by Sebastian Yan's careful preceding small private read — *the careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding mathematics of one substrate's preceding small private private remote signature exchange*.

It was — by his careful preceding read — *exactly* the kind of substrate-mathematics he had spent six years of Sebastian Yan's life building at the Aleph Project, and which he had not, in any of his preceding bookkeeping, expected to encounter again in the kingdom of Beicang.

Master Qing inclined his head.

"Su Yan. The next quarterly meal will be at the careful preceding small private hour of three months from today. I will, by my preceding preference, give you the second piece. Carry the first piece carefully until then."

"Yes, Master Qing."

He bowed.

He returned, by the unmarked carriage line, to the noble-district embassy.

He carried the small careful preceding piece in the inner pocket of his outer robe, beside the cracked pendant in its cotton wrapping and the small lacquered traveling-case at his belt.

The piece — by the careful preceding small private hour of the careful preceding small private return journey — *settled* into the careful preceding small private substrate of his Aleph schema's preceding small private inner pocket as if it had been built for it.

In his chest, the ember pulsed — slow, considered, *gentle* — and the dry voice, very quietly, said: *Master Qing has, by his preceding preference, given you the careful preceding small private hour of two centuries of his own preceding small private preceding patience. Honor it.*

Su Yan inclined his head, in the careful preceding small private rocking of the carriage, in the direction of the ember.

He did not, by any movement of face, allow the careful preceding small private warmth of the moment to fully show.

The careful preceding small private fourth quarter's preceding small private substrate-anchor calibration had, by the careful preceding small private hour of one teahouse meal, *begun*.