80: The Seven Days

The seven days passed by the small precise unhurried hour of the careful preceding small private bookkeeping Cousin Su Lin and Hua Lin and Linglong and Su Yan had — by the careful preceding small private hour of the past three months — *prepared*.

Day one. Cousin Su Lin issued the formal written notice to the patriarch's chief steward, by the King's standing arrangement of the closing ceremony's preceding small private grant: *The young master will, by the careful preceding small private hour of the next eight days, conduct a small careful preceding private operation outside the kingdom of Beicang's preceding standing presence. The household will, by my preceding standing arrangement, treat the careful preceding small private hour as my preceding small private private absence. The household will, by my preceding preference, *not* expect contact. The household will, by my preceding preference, *not* dispatch any inquiry. The household will, by Cousin Su Lin's standing arrangement, conduct its preceding small private internal affairs in my absence by my preceding small private standing instructions.*

The patriarch's chief steward returned the notice with a single small folded slip in the patriarch's hand: *Acknowledged. Return safely.*

Su Yan filed the slip.

Day two. Hua Lin assembled the careful preceding small private fifteen-operative extraction party at a small careful preceding training compound the Voiceless Inheritance had — by Cousin Su Wenfu's preceding small private preceding work — quietly established four months ago in the foothills two days' ride south-east of Cloud Sky City. The compound was, by every careful preceding read, *not* registered in the kingdom's standing intelligence-line. The fifteen ran the careful preceding small private final drill of the extraction operation's preceding small private interior corridor work — by the careful preceding small private hour of mock-up corridor diagrams Cousin Su Lin had painted on the compound's training-yard, with substrate-trace markers Linglong had calibrated to mimic the central facility's preceding small private real substrate signatures — three times.

Three rounds. By the careful preceding small private hour of the third round, Hua Lin's careful read of the operation's preceding small private rhythm registered *full readiness*.

Day three. Cousin Su Wenfu, by his preceding small private preceding standing arrangement, completed the careful preceding small private *southern logistics line* — eight safe-houses along the route from the City of the Voiceless to Cloud Sky City, each provisioned, each staffed, each ready to receive the extraction party at any hour of the next ten days. The line was — by Cousin Su Wenfu's careful read — *invisible to any preceding small private external intelligence*. It was, by his read, *adequate*.

Day four. Linglong conducted, by her preceding preference, a small careful preceding *farewell* visit to the household's senior matriarchs. By the careful preceding small private cover-story Cousin Su Lin had arranged — *the young clan guest's preceding small private autumn visit to a southern relation* — the matriarchs received the visit politely. Linglong, by her own preceding preference, *did not* visit Lady Yu Lin. Lady Yu Lin had, by Cousin Su Lin's preceding read, *retired further* in the past four months. The careful preceding small private retirement was, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, *permanent*.

Day five. Su Yan visited his father.

He visited him at the careful preceding small private hour of the second hour past dusk, in his father's pavilion, alone. Su Hong opened the lattice. Su Yan inclined his head. The two of them sat at Su Hong's small writing-table for the count of perhaps an hour.

They did not, in the hour, speak much.

Su Yan said, at the careful preceding small private hour of the close: "Father. I am — by my own preceding preference — going to the careful preceding small private place where Mother is. I will, by my preceding preference, bring her home. I will, by my preceding preference, return by the careful preceding small private hour of eight to ten days from this evening. I would prefer that you, by your own preceding preference, *not worry*."

Su Hong inclined his head — small, formal.

He did not, by his own preceding preference, allow his face to register what the careful preceding small private hour was. He had — by the careful preceding small private hour of nine months of sitting in his chair — *learned*. He held his face the way the patriarch held his.

"Yes, my son."

"Father."

"Su Yan."

Su Hong, in the careful preceding small private hour of the close, laid his hand briefly on his son's right shoulder — the same careful preceding small private hand of one father to one son in the careful preceding small private hour of one mutual courtesy that had been preceding-time earned — and inclined his head once.

"Bring her home."

"Yes, Father."

Su Yan rose. He inclined his head. He left.

Day six. Su Yan visited Princess Cang Xueyi by the unmarked carriage line. The eighth meal at her writing room was — by both their preceding mutual preferences — *short*. They drank one cup. They spoke, by Cang Xueyi's preceding preference, of the small careful preceding small private weather. At the close — by her preceding preference — she stepped, very small, against him at the door of her writing room, and laid her face against the small clean pale-blue cotton of his outer robe at the careful preceding small private hour of one breath, and stepped back.

She did not, by her preceding preference, kiss him.

She did not, by her preceding preference, *say* anything.

She inclined her head — small, formal — and did not look at him as he left.

He returned to the embassy.

He did not, by his preceding preference, allow his face to move on the unmarked carriage's return.

Day seven. The morning of the extraction.

The fifteen-operative extraction party assembled at the careful preceding small private training compound at the second hour past dawn. Hua Lin reported readiness. Master Mu — by his own preceding preference, in his plain gray robe — was at the compound's eastern gate. He had, by his preceding preference, *come* to the compound for the careful preceding small private hour of the extraction, *not* to participate, *not* to escort, *but* — by the careful preceding small private hour of his own preceding preference — *to wait*. He would, by his preceding preference, sit at the eastern gate for the careful preceding small private eight to ten days, and would, by his preceding preference, *be there* at the gate for the careful preceding small private hour of Su Yan's preceding small private return.

Linglong attended, in her plain pale-green clansman-daughter's robe, with a small careful preceding small private bag of clean folded blankets she had packed the night before.

Aluan, Cousin Su Lin, and Old Hu had — by Su Yan's preceding preference — remained in Cloud Sky City. The eastern wing's preceding standing operation would, by Aluan's standing arrangement, run by the small precise unhurried preceding hour through the careful preceding small private extraction's preceding small private completion.

Cousin Su Wenfu had, by his preceding preference, ridden south to the City of the Voiceless ahead — to receive the extraction party on its preceding small private return.

The compound's training-yard was *quiet*.

Su Yan stood at the careful preceding small private center.

Linglong stood at his right.

Hua Lin and the fifteen operatives stood in three precise unhurried preceding lines of five.

Master Mu sat on a small careful preceding stool at the eastern gate.

Su Yan inclined his head — small, formal.

He drew, from the careful preceding small private inner pocket of his outer robe, the small lacquered traveling-case. He opened it. He laid the seven substrate-anchor stones in the small careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding *anchor pattern* Master Qing's preceding small private final teaching had calibrated for, on the small clean stone of the training-yard's preceding small private central platform.

He laid Master Qing's folded sheet of mathematical formulation beside them.

He inhaled.

He let the silver-gold lattice in his chest *open*, very gently, into the seven stones' preceding small private resonance pattern.

The seven stones — by the careful preceding small private hour of the substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private final calibration ritual, by Master Qing's preceding small private final teaching, by Sebastian Yan's preceding small private substrate-mathematics, and by Lin Wanyue's preceding small private cellar books — *responded*.

They glowed.

They glowed in the small careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding *teleport pattern* — eight equations, three diagrams, the small careful preceding small private resonance pattern of one substrate-anchor pair at the careful preceding small private hour of seventy-five percent calibration completion *opening* the careful preceding small private hour of a small precise unhurried preceding *teleport corridor* between the careful preceding small private training-yard of the foothills two days' ride south-east of Cloud Sky City and the careful preceding small private central facility's preceding small private interior, in the careful preceding small private south-east corridor of the third level, exactly twenty paces from the careful preceding small private dorm three's preceding small private door.

The corridor *opened*.

Su Yan stepped — at his unhurried pace — into the corridor.

Linglong stepped behind him.

Hua Lin and the fifteen operatives stepped, by the careful preceding small private precise unhurried preceding hour of three precise lines of five, in the small careful preceding small private *extraction formation* the past three months of training had, by the small careful preceding small private hour of careful preceding small private daily drills, *prepared* them for.

The corridor — by the careful preceding small private hour of one substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private opening — *deposited* the seventeen, in the small precise unhurried preceding hour of perhaps half a breath, in the careful preceding small private south-east corridor of the third level of the eastern continent's central facility of Madam Hollow's preceding small private chain of the Hollow Veil.

The corridor *closed* behind them.

The careful preceding small private hour of the extraction — by the careful preceding small private hour of one substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private successful opening — *began*.