36.3 Heart and Spirit

General Summary

Day 540

As we set up camp for the evening I ask about the burning herbs and ritual that Qing Chen undertook after harvesting plants from the garden.   In his faith there are two components to a person: The spirit which belongs to the heavens and the heart which belongs to the earth. They believe the Exalted Ones have transcended an earthly existence and moved into a purer, more spiritual realm. When a person dies their spirit is supposed to rise to reach the heavens but in some cases (remnants and ghosts) the spirit is tied to the heart and cannot fully ascend.   He says that the herbs are meant to comfort the spirits who have not been able to ascend.   It sounds...strange. The words he chooses sound like words written by someone else, not that I know this person particularly well but something doesn't fit. Seemingly he feels the same -  

If we were meant to leave these matters of the heart behind why would we have been born to the earth at all?

  I'm curious how popular this opinion is amongst his fellows (and the Zephyr?). The seeming disdain for the early heart tracks with everything Magdalena has told me of the Zephyr and certainly makes me less enthused about developing a friendly relationship with them. The paths I've been following have been distinctly heart-based.   Over dinner he tells me more about how his brotherhood is organized, from the Flowering Feather sect to which he belongs to the sects which believe they must eradicate all of their enemies in order to reach enlightenment.   As we discuss the possibility of travelling together in the future and learning more I show him an image of Void, who he describes as a walking calamity. I think I have absolutely no obligation to tell Void anything, nor do I trust his judgement when it comes to solving complex social problems. This strange opportunity I've found is something I'll have to handle by myself (and the advice of my family, of course). Kaide has also noticed that Qing Chen seems genuine and is likely not aware of the slumbering magic within him. It would be good for us to travel together and learn from one another. While Qing Chen and I work on suppressing whatever it was about him that triggered her dragon spirit, Kaide will return to the village to help Trillium shield herself.  

Day 541

In the morning Qing Chen wakes before me and begins brewing tea, which unfortunately is a hardly wakeful white tea which I quickly substitute for a strong black tea from my pack.   Before we begin working on our magic, I have to warn him that I have reason to believe Trillium is being actively hunted by members of his brotherhood and that he may have to take sides sooner than he expects if he chooses to travel with us. He accepts this gamely, saying that this would be recent news and so any hunters are likely still very far East and we have plenty of time.   And the rest of the day passes with him teaching me about his people and what he thinks Trillium is reacting to. His people ("demons" he says, though this is a name that was given to them and has been reclaimed) bear the legacy of the Exalted Ones in a way that lets them defy the natural order and mix bloodlines in a way that isn't 'natural'. YHe describes this as erasing a racial barrier, making people compatible when they otherwise would not be.    

Love doesn't have to be restricted.

    It sounds like this legacy began with their Exalted Ones wanting particular servants but I do not pry at this thought. I am far too interested in whether this legacy is shared by the humans who have had children with elves, and how Trillium had a child with a dragon. Qing Chen tells me that his father is a dark spirit demon while his mother is a flowing river demon. He has inherited his mother's ears and his father's eyes but other parts of him are completely new, such as his height. His siblings are varying mixes of their parents as well.   For the entire day we work on a way to suppress this upheaval of the natural order around him and produce a medication of a kind that suppresses the feeling. As we test it I can feel the slumbering magic inside him slip deeper down. To me this seems a sure sign that I shouldn't pry at that either.