Chapter 5: Sao

Hao Min left Rust Ford before dawn. The sky was the color of a bruise, purple and gray and barely light. He carried a leather pouch half full of rust flakes, a smaller pouch of clean water, a stick for drawing, and the clothes on his back. He had no sword. He had no money. He had a circle that only worked on blood-touched metal.

It was more than he had owned in five years.

The road south was called the Rust Road now, though the maps did not show it. The dirt had turned orange in patches. Trees shed bark that looked like old iron. Hao Min passed a stone bridge where the water running underneath tasted of copper and the moss on the stones was red instead of green.

He walked for two days before the thief found him.

She dropped from a tree branch onto the road ahead of him. She was young, thin, and dressed in clothes that had been stolen from at least three different people. Her hair was cut short. Her hands were empty, which meant the knife was behind her back.

"Stop," she said.

Hao Min stopped.

"Give me your money."

"I have none."

"Give me your food."

"I have flatbread. You are welcome to half."

She blinked. "You are supposed to be afraid."

"I am too tired for fear. Take the bread or move aside."

She took the bread. She ate it standing in the middle of the road, watching him with the suspicious eyes of someone who had learned that kindness usually hid a hook.

"You are blank-born," Hao Min said.

She stopped chewing. "How did you know?"

"You stand like someone who has never been pushed around by qi. Most people step differently when a cultivator passes. They shrink. You do not shrink. You simply stand."

"Blank-born is not a crime."

"No. It is a condition. I used to be the opposite. Now I am closer to you than I am to them."

She finished the bread. "What is in the pouches?"

"Rust."

"Rust."

"And water."

She looked at him for a long moment. Then she laughed. It was a sharp sound, quickly finished.

"You are Rust-Eaten Hao. The soldier who lost his cultivation at the Nameless Hills."

"People know that name?"

"People know the story. The lieutenant who became nothing. Some tell it to scare children into obedience. Some tell it to warn disciples not to be stupid." She tilted her head. "And some tell it to remind themselves that the great sects can lose too."

"And which do you believe?"

"I believe you are walking toward Gao Ling," she said. "And I believe you are looking for Elder Zhen."

Hao Min went still. "How do you know that?"

"Because everyone who loses power eventually goes to ask Zhen how he lives without it. He grows flowers now. Did you know that? A Core Formation elder who grows flowers." She shook her head. "I will take you to him. For a price."

"I have no money."

"Then you will teach me how to use the rust."

"No."

"Then I will follow you and steal it when you are not looking."

Hao Min considered this. She was blank-born. She could not use the circle. But she could carry rust, collect scrap, watch his back while he slept, and probably find things he could not.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Sao."

"You may carry the water, Sao. If you try to steal from me, I will break your fingers."

"That is almost friendly."

"Almost."

She fell into step beside him. They walked south, toward Gao Ling, toward the man who had once been powerful and now chose flowers.

Hao Min did not trust her. But he was learning that trust was less useful than mutual need. And that a person who could not lie about being a thief was easier to work with than a person who pretended to be honest.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Twenty-two. How old are you?"

"Forty-seven."

"You look older."

"I feel older."

"Good. That means you will not waste my time being optimistic."

They walked in silence for a while. The Rust Road widened and narrowed, following some old path that predated the rust. Sao hummed a tune Hao Min did not recognize.

"What will you do," she asked, "after you see the brush man?"

"I do not know."

"You have walked all this way without knowing?"

"I walked because staying still was killing me. The direction mattered less than the movement." Hao Min looked at the orange dirt. "What will you do?"

"Steal from rich people until I am rich. Then stop stealing and become respectable."

"That is a plan."

"It is a dream. Plans require resources." Sao kicked a rust-colored stone. "Blank-born cannot plan. We can only adapt."

"I am not blank-born. But I think I understand."

"No. You had power and lost it. That is different from never having it at all." Sao looked at him. "But it is closer than most people get."

Hao Min almost smiled. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to him as if he were simply a man.

"Tell me about Zhen," Hao Min said.

"He was Azure Peak Core Formation. Fought in the siege. Lost everything. Now he grows red flowers and teaches losers how to fight." Sao shrugged. "Some people say he is wise. Others say he is broken."

"And what do you say?"

"I say he is still alive, which is more than most Core Formation elders can claim after disgrace." Sao looked at Hao Min. "You want to be like him?"

"No. I want to learn what he knows and then stop being like anyone."

"That is ambitious for a man with no money."

"Ambition is free. It is one of the few things the Rust Circle cannot rust."

Sao laughed again. "I am going to enjoy traveling with you, Rust-Eaten Hao."

"The enjoyment may be one-sided."

"Probably. But I have always been good at entertaining myself."