Su Yi

A Drifter once let you in on a little secret: if you keep showering Su Yi with praise, she goes through three distinct stages.

Stage One: her chin lifts proudly, and she nods. "Mm-hm~ Exactly."

Stage Two: the tips of her ears begin to redden, and her voice catches. "Well... I'm not that amazing..."

Stage Three: she looks away, her voice rising a notch. "All right, that's enough! Stop it already!"

"That's when you ask for what you want," the Drifter says, raising one finger and wagging it smugly. "So long as it's nothing outrageous, she will usually say yes."

So yes, Su Yi's most obvious weakness is how easily praise flusters her.

Outer Peaks is the Drifters' hidden stronghold, said to lie deep among the mist-shrouded mountains. Over the years, people have spun all manner of outlandish tales about it.

Some say the Drifters who dwell there have stepped beyond not only the strictures of the Nine Chapters of Dafeng, but even the Five Paths of Rebirth. According to these stories, they live on wind and dew, feeding on the spiritual essence of the universe instead of grain. The most formidable among them, it is said, can soar to the heavens and delve into the earth, even trading blows as equals with the Magistrates of Yingtian.

Others say the Drifters spend their days in pursuit of the martial path. Each keeps to a height of their own, sitting in silent meditation, breath stilled and mind focused. Then, at times, a sharp light flashes in their eyes; they spring up in an instant, draw their swords, and challenge whoever sits highest of all. Their clashes send rock crashing from the cliffs into the valley below, where it gathers in mounds like small hills.

If those storytellers ever learnt that the "great heroes" of their tales still had to worry about their next meal like anyone else, they would probably just shake their heads and walk away. And if anyone were to say that everything at Outer Peaks, food, clothing, lodging, and even the purse strings, was managed by a teenage girl, they would likely bristle and argue with them on the spot.

Unless they saw it with their own eyes, few would believe that these supposedly free-spirited, battle-hardened Drifters would willingly answer to their quartermaster, Su Yi, a black-haired girl in viridian with twin ponytails.

"Absolutely not!"

At Outer Peaks, the morning often begins with a full-throated shout. Any Drifter trying to sneak some good wine or cured meat out of the storeroom would usually end up with both hands raised and a sheepish grin, currying favour and begging mercy from their "young matriarch". Su Yi stands in the storeroom doorway, hands on hips and cheeks faintly flushed with indignation, yet somehow radiating an authority no one would dare challenge.

The Drifters' wholehearted respect for Su Yi stems not only from her standing in the lineage, but also from the meticulous care with which she sees to every matter, keeping Outer Peaks in impeccable order. The Drifters' movements often depend on intelligence, and no one has a firmer grasp of every stir within Haojing than Su Yi. The mech-kites she builds slip silently through the skies above the city, serving as her eyes and ears and carrying back every scrap of intelligence, however small. With her extraordinary memory, she pieces together every clue and fragment of information. Since Su Yi came to Outer Peaks, casualties among the Drifters have fallen dramatically.

This, she firmly believes, is how she can protect Outer Peaks, the place her aunt Su Muzhe once loved and called home.

Su Muzhe left many things behind: worldly possessions, and knowledge of inestimable value. Su Yi has carefully preserved her aunt's research notes, poring over them time and again.

But to Su Yi, the most precious keepsake of all is her name.

"Your name is Su Yi?"

At the entrance to Outer Peaks, Su Yi was introducing herself to the other Drifters when Yan Shanting heard the unfamiliar name and gave her a surprised look.

"Yes. Su Yi. Yi, as in the Yi-Bird."

From that day on, she would no longer be the successor of the Heavenly Artisans clan. At Outer Peaks, she would simply be Su Yi.

Dawn was only just beginning to break, and Su Yi was still awake. She gave up on sleep altogether and got out of bed.

It had been just over a month since she arrived at Outer Peaks. By now she had adjusted to most things here, but she still could not sleep well in an unfamiliar bed.

It was still early, and all of Outer Peaks lay quiet, wrapped in an air of freedom and ease. Many disciples of the Jishu Sect kept late hours, for if an idea was not seized the moment it struck, it might be lost for good.

"Every one of them is a night owl," Su Muzhe had written in one of her letters.

Su Yi had never set foot in Outer Peaks before, yet she knew it as well as if she had been there countless times already. After much pleading, her aunt had managed to send her several letters in secret, and Su Yi knew every word of them by heart. During the days she spent apart from her aunt, it was the Outer Peaks she imagined that kept her going.

Now that imagination had finally become reality, her aunt was no longer by her side. Holding a map, Su Yi walked slowly, treading as lightly as possible so as not to wake the others. She had drawn the map bit by bit from her aunt's descriptions. Those versed in the workings of Jishu often possessed a keen sense of space, and from the fragments Su Muzhe had left behind, Su Yi had managed to piece together a map that was already fairly close to the real layout.

As she walked, she kept marking up the old map, correcting it little by little. Each time she came upon a sight that matched what had been described in those letters, she would pause for a while. It was as if an unseen figure were leading her by the hand, showing her every blade of grass and every tree, her voice warm with a smile.

"Outer Peaks is full of steep, narrow passes. If roads are to be built here, the work can only fall to the artisans of the Jishu Sect. The question is how the nails should be driven so they'll hold under the weight..."

Su Yi lifted her head. Before her stretched a long, narrow path, winding into the distance until it disappeared into the mountain mist. It seemed the road here had already been built.

"There's nothing here but stone! We might as well use stone for mechapuppet parts at this rate. Isn't there any stone with a bit more give to it?"

She reached out and pressed a hand to the cliff face. Hard. Rough. Could this really be used as material for a mechapuppet?

Then Su Yi noticed moss growing in the cracks of the rock, with a thin blade of grass forcing its way out beside it. She touched the soft moss, then blew gently on the blade of grass. Better leave it be, she thought. It's had a hard enough time growing here as it is.

Su Yi continued on until she reached the entrance to Outer Peaks.

"Just inside the entrance, there's a clearing. Whenever I can't sleep, I come here to watch the sunrise."

Su Yi sat down cross-legged and leaned back on her hands, gazing up at the sky. She had arrived just in time. The sun was rising between the mountains, its light still soft behind a veil of haze.

Su Yi gazed at the same morning sun her aunt had once watched, until its light swelled and stung her eyes. Only then did the unbidden tears come, spilling from her eyes without a sound. At last, she turned away.

Su Yi carries a folding toolbox of her own design wherever she goes. Small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, it is packed with the tools and spare parts she needs for repairs. It lets her tend to the facilities around Outer Peaks whenever needed, and start tinkering on the spot whenever inspiration strikes.

Small as it is, it is still surprisingly heavy. To solve that, Su Yi fitted it with a levitation module, redesigned the casing, and even gave it a weapons system... The result was the Yinxiao Patrol Nexus.

Outer Peaks is dotted with Su Yi's work. They range from the size of the Kuiniu Type Ⅰ used for farming to something as small as a timekeeping bird, and no two are ever quite the same. Her devices all bear a tiny Yi-Bird stamp in the lower right corner, so people can recognise her inventions at a glance.

But practical devices are not all she makes. Su Yi has also built a number of small decorative mechapuppets, the sort she dismisses as "not much use" simply to brighten Outer Peaks. Add a tiny recording module to those little black bead eyes, however, and they can also serve as sentinels for Outer Peaks, sending information back to the hub whenever needed, a neat way to make one design serve several purposes. Most of these creations are finished with lifelike fur and feathers, each one painstakingly shaped by Su Yi's deft hands. Scattered across the hills, whether in flight or at rest, they lend Outer Peaks an even greater air of freedom and ease.

"I love those Jishu birds that Sister Yi made. They're so beautiful. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could fly as well."

"Then why did you shoot them down with a slingshot?"

"I, I didn't mean to... I already said I was sorry. I thought it was a real bird..."

"You can't go shooting real birds with a slingshot either!"

When Su Yi still lived at home, she never had to concern herself with the practical side of life. Her parents saw to everything. All she had to do was stay in her warm, comfortable room, keep away from forbidden places, avoid doing anything they would disapprove of, and leave everything else to them.

Only after leaving home did she realise how much there was to figure out about living on her own. She did not want anyone to take her for some pampered girl who had never had to fend for herself, so she usually ended up learning the hard way. When she cooked, burnt fingers and meals that never quite tasted right were common enough. When she washed and hung out her clothes, they always came back crumpled and creased. Even changing the sheets or braiding her hair properly took time to learn.

Su Yi gritted her teeth, asked no one for help, and tried to figure things out on her own.

She learnt by trial and error, slowly piecing things together. At first it was exhausting, often leaving her drained, but it was worth it. She had finally stepped beyond that little courtyard and claimed her life for herself. She was free.

Su Yi's first meeting alone with Su Muzhe was far from a proper one. Back then, she was not yet called Su Yi, but Su Keyi, a name that in Huaxu suggested propriety, restraint, and careful self-discipline. It was the name her parents had chosen in the earnest hope that she would grow into exactly that sort of person. But from the day she was born, she was already destined to turn away from those hopes.

At the age of three, the talent she showed for making mechapuppets terrified her mother. At a time when Jishu was in decline, talent like that could one day threaten the authority of the Nine Chapters of Dafeng. In an age like that, talent like hers was almost a sin from birth. Young Su Yi could not understand why her mother insisted on taking away the little parts she found so fascinating. She fussed and demanded them back, only to be sharply scolded and left in tears.

That was when Su Muzhe pushed open the door. The fourteen-year-old girl stood awkwardly in the doorway, not knowing whether to go in or back away. The last thing she had meant to do was intrude on another family's private affairs; she had simply arrived at the wrong moment.

At the sound of the door, Su Yi glanced over despite herself. She had seen this striking older girl a few times before, though only across the dinner table during New Year and festival gatherings. They had never really spoken. The pretty young woman was Su Muzhe, her father's youngest sister, her aunt.

In front of Su Yi's mother, her aunt said, "Mechapuppets are nothing but trouble. They can harm others, and they can harm you. If you're going to study anything, it ought to be orthodox Jishu. Learn that properly, and one day you might earn a post at the Ministry of Works."

Su Yi pouted and turned away, refusing to look at this awful aunt who had so clearly taken her mother's side.

But the moment her mother left for work and the door shut behind her, the serious, self-possessed girl of a moment ago vanished completely. Su Muzhe's lips curled into a grin. She bent down and lowered her voice.

"Hey there, little one. Want to make a mechapuppet of your own?"

Su Yi's eyes widened. "But, Auntie, you just said..."

Su Muzhe laughed. "You little goody-goody. I only said that because your mother was here. Now that she's gone, we can speak properly."

Su Yi scrunched up her little face in indignation. "But Mum said lying is bad!"

"I'm going to tell Mum right now!"

She spun round and made for the door. But Su Muzhe was already leaning against it, blocking the way completely. There was no getting out. With Su Muzhe leaning against the door and the handle hidden behind her back, Su Yi could not even reach it.

"Now think about it," Su Muzhe said lightly. "Do you really want to give up all those interesting toys for good? You liked putting them together, didn't you? And when you finished one, you felt proud of yourself, didn't you? I know the feeling. I was exactly the same when I was little."

"I had to figure all this out the hard way, so the least I can do is make it easier for you. When I was learning to make mechapuppets, I had to hide under the covers with a lamp and study in secret. You won't have to do any of that."

Su Yi's eyes widened. Su Muzhe's words seemed to open up an entirely new world. Her heart was pounding, and she was torn. She knew she ought to refuse her aunt and be the good girl who listened to her mother, but she could not bring herself to turn it down.

A child's way of thinking is simple. What she needed was simply a companion: someone on her side, someone who shared the same secret and loved the same thing she did.

Su Muzhe saw her wavering and pressed on at once. "I can tell you've got talent. You're even better with your hands than I was at your age. If I teach you, you'll save yourself a lot of trial and error. After all, no one in Haojing is better at making mechapuppets than I am. Are you sure you don't want to learn from me?"

"And besides, I've plenty of time these days. I could come and play with you often. Don't you want that?"

Though she felt guilty, Su Yi was tempted all the same. Her little face solemn, she made the first major decision of her life.

"All right! I'll learn from you."

The mech-kite is a classic Jishu design, passed down through the sect for generations. For any Jishu apprentice drawn to the dream of flight, studying the mech-kite is a rite of passage. It is where they first begin to grapple with the question of how mechanical wings might defy gravity and take to the open sky.

When she was younger, Su Yi once modified the mech-kite so that it could travel over long distances and carry messages. It was the first gift she had ever given her aunt...

You notice that Su Yi, usually bright-eyed and full of chatter whenever Jishu comes up, has gone unusually quiet.

Su Jianyin was a colleague of Su Muzhe's. She was not one of the Heavenly Artisans; they merely happened to share a surname, and had exchanged a few words because of it.

To Su Jianyin, Su Muzhe was an imposing figure. Timid by nature, Su Jianyin had occasionally found herself in need of Su Muzhe's help.

The Ministry of Works might have been a place where down-to-earth craftsmen gathered, but it was still, in the end, part of officialdom. People with agreeable temperaments and a knack for dealing with others found it far easier to thrive there. For someone like Su Jianyin, who was poor at speaking up for herself, even genuine ability could easily go unnoticed. And she was no prodigy to begin with, having come this far through hard work alone.

Near the end of one workday, a few colleagues were laughing and joking about going to the Academy of Reflections to watch a debate. They asked her to finish the rest of the paperwork for them. By then, she was used to picking up other people's work. It was then that she first heard Su Muzhe's voice: calm, pleasant, and quietly assertive.

"You lot, do your own work."

Su Muzhe had got her out of an awkward spot. Of course, those people would never have dared say anything to Su Muzhe. But once she was gone, they would only take it out on Su Jianyin all the more viciously. At the time, Su Jianyin had even resented her. Why help me? Had you thought about what I would have to face afterwards? Your pity would only make things harder for me.

And yet, after Su Muzhe left, she was astonished to discover that the matter had already been settled. Su Muzhe had arranged for her transfer to a department devoted to research. In terms of rank, she was now under Su Muzhe's authority, and never again had to deal with those overbearing colleagues.

...And now she served under Su Muzhe, who had become Deputy Commissioner of Works at the age of nineteen.

Why would someone like that give up such a bright future, enter into secret dealings with the Drifters, and chase after an ideal that could never be realised? Su Jianyin did not understand. Perhaps that was the difference between her and a genius: Su Muzhe would always reach for what lay beyond her grasp, while she could only look up at her from a distance.

On the day news of Su Muzhe's secret collusion with the Drifters reached Haojing, Su Jianyin was drawing up plans. Noise erupted all around her, loud and chaotic. Someone had stormed into the Ministry of Works. Crashes rang out on all sides, and it was clear they were tearing the place apart in search of something.

Su Jianyin turned her head and saw an unfinished drawing on a nearby desk.

"Jianyin, if something needed to stay in the air for a long time, what sort of structure do you think would work best?"

Su Muzhe was sitting astride a chair, a pen caught between her teeth. Her cheek rested against the chair back, and she looked faintly troubled.

You're the genius, she thought. Why are you asking me? Even so, she answered perfunctorily: "Probably... the lighter, the better."

"Hm... so it comes down to the materials, then." Su Muzhe seemed to realise something and bent back over her drawing.

Su Muzhe had not taken that drawing with her. It was still on the desk, bearing the rough outline of a bird. It was already after hours, and Jianyin was the only one left.

She knew that bird. Of course she knew that bird. Su Muzhe was a genius; everything she worked on proved useful in the end. This mech-kite held enormous technical promise, and no true craftsman could have resisted studying it. It simply had not yet been perfected, and that was why the Hall of Adjudication managed to intercept it in flight, exposing Su Muzhe as a Drifter spy.

Damn it. Why hadn't she taken it with her? What if they decided she was mixed up with Su Muzhe, with the Drifters as well?

The people who had been tearing the place apart burst in. "This used to be Su Muzhe's office, right? Hand over everything she left behind."

"...Just those books," Su Jianyin murmured, lowering her head. Hidden in her palm, she clutched a crumpled sheet of paper.

Three days later, an unmarked envelope was left outside the gates of the Su residence. Inside was a design sketch.

Su Muzhe once made a pinky promise with Su Yi that the two of them would restore the Su clan of Heavenly Artisans to its former glory. It was a secret between them.

What they wanted to bring back was the true Su clan of Heavenly Artisans, not what it had become, hemmed in on all sides and afraid even to make mechapuppets. They wanted to make things that would truly improve ordinary people's lives. That meant everything from great works that could reshape the land itself to humble devices for everyday use, from telling the time to marking the hours of the day, not the Hall of Craft's gaudy toys, all show and no substance.

Su Muzhe's words left Su Yi exhilarated, almost light-headed with excitement. She wanted, that very instant, to follow her aunt out into the world and make those ambitions real. But Su Muzhe had gone and broken her promise. She went off alone to pursue that dream, leaving Su Yi behind like a mechapuppet with its core torn out, abandoned inside Haojing, that great sealed box.

When Su Yi was just old enough to remember things, a major incident shook Haojing.

Yan Shanting, an incense warden, drew water from the River of Resentment, snuffing out the century-old censer and bringing the Grand Incense Rite to an abrupt end. He vaulted onto the roof, tossed down a single remark..."This place is beneath me now" and left without once looking back.

Yan Shanting came from a distinguished family and was long famed for being able to drink a thousand cups without falling. For years he had served in the Hall of Incense, presiding over rites great and small without a single mishap. Under the Nine Chapters of Dafeng, everyone revered Lord Argent. No one had imagined that a man like him would dare such open defiance. The incident came without warning. Even after the Hall of Adjudication hastily deployed the Sentinels of Juntian, they failed to take him. In the end, they could do no more than issue wanted notices in impotent fury.

Only much later did people in Haojing learn that Yan Shanting had become one of the Drifters. That was only to be expected. Once Haojing had cast him out, it was hardly surprising that he ended up in Outer Peaks, among that notorious band of outlaws. By then, years had passed, and no one could say whether quenching the censer with the river had been his plan all along, or whether he had acted on impulse. Yan Shanting ruined his own future and disgraced the Hall of Incense as well. After that, his name went unspoken. With the authorities coming down hard, even those who had once called him a friend quietly kept their heads down and slipped out of sight.

Su Muzhe, however, was different. She and Yan Shanting had once shared a deep bond of trust, yet she remained in Haojing, and whenever Yan Shanting's name was mentioned, hers inevitably followed.

As a child, Su Yi was not especially close to Yan Shanting. She had only met him twice, and most of what she knew about him came from her aunt. "Unreliable", "headstrong", "reckless" that was how Su Muzhe described him. There was no reverence for an older brother in the way she spoke of him. Despite the years between them, her tone held the easy familiarity of an equal, a true kindred spirit. From those scattered remarks, how he was forever letting his mind wander during incense rites, hated tight collars, and always did exactly what he said he would, for better or worse, Su Yi pieced together an image of him: complicated, yet oddly familiar.

Even though she had met him only a handful of times, Yan Shanting still left a deep impression on her.

Having watched Su Muzhe grow up, he seemed to know her better than she knew herself. More often than not, before Su Muzhe had even realised what she wanted, Yan Shanting had already seen to it, leaving Su Yi no chance to fuss over her aunt. If Su Muzhe reached for a book, for instance, Yan Shanting would pluck it down first with his long reach. By the time Su Yi had dragged over a stool and risen onto tiptoe, her hands closed on nothing. That infuriating grown-up was always one step ahead of her, swooping in before she could take care of Auntie herself. Robbed of yet another chance, Su Yi would widen her eyes in a fierce little glare and shoot him a warning: "Just you wait. When I grow up, the place beside Auntie will be mine alone."

That made Yan Shanting laugh out loud. He reached out and gave them both a playful pat on the head.

"Look at our little Su, not even grown up yet and already trying to edge me out. Your aunt has two sides, doesn't she? We can take one each. What do you say?"

"...Since when did I need two bodyguards?"

Su Muzhe could not help rolling her eyes. No matter how old Yan Shanting got, he never quite lost that boyish streak. Ever since Su Muzhe was little, he had been teasing her like this, and now that she was grown, he still had not changed a bit. He could still join a crowd of children generations younger than him, laughing and roughhousing as if he were one of them.

Whenever Yan Shanting was around, Su Muzhe seemed especially at ease, and that only made Su Yi all the more eager to grow up. Every day she measured her height, hoping she would grow up quickly and become someone her aunt could rely on too.

But before Su Yi had the chance to grow up and challenge Yan Shanting for that place at her aunt's side, he had already left Haojing and become, in her parents' eyes, a man beyond redemption.

During that time, Su Muzhe was plainly out of sorts. When she was teaching Su Yi about Jishu, she would often stop mid-sentence and drift off, her mind clearly elsewhere. Whenever that happened, Su Yi would read on by herself, note down any characters she did not recognise, then take them to her aunt and ask what they meant. She just needed time; Su Yi understood that. At the time, there was little Su Yi could do except try, in her own clumsy way, to cheer her up and hope the gloom would pass.

Then one day, when her aunt came by again, she was plainly in far better spirits. Whatever had been weighing on her seemed to have eased; even her step was lighter.

"Keyi," Su Muzhe said, her eyes bright with excitement. "Tell me... what do you think would happen if one day the Nine Chapters of Dafeng were no longer the way they are now?"

If her parents had heard her say something so outrageous, they would certainly have been furious. Su Yi drew herself up as sternly as her little round face would allow and clasped her hands behind her back. She was still so small she had to tip her head right back just to deliver the warning in her gravest voice. "Auntie, you can say things like that to me, but you mustn't say them to anyone else."

"You love Auntie best, don't you? You wouldn't tell anyone. We already share so many little secrets, one more won't hurt."

"...Auntie, don't do anything reckless!"

"Answer my question first. If the Nine Chapters changed one day, would that make you happy?"

Su Yi thought about it seriously. "I think... I would. If it changed, we wouldn't have to stay shut up in the house all the time any more."

Her voice grew quieter, and she never noticed the resolve settling over Su Muzhe's face. "Mother says the art of mechapuppets is dangerous, and under the laws of the Nine Chapters, I'm not allowed to study it. That's why they keep me at home all the time, to protect me." Her fingers picked at her sleeve as she lowered her head. "I... don't want to give up the things I love, but I also don't want to make Mother sad."

"If the Nine Chapters changed... then maybe I could have both. Father wouldn't have to keep sighing every time he spoke of our family's past."

"So you want to be happy yourself, and you want your parents to be happy too?"

"I..."

"I want to use Jishu to make everyone in Huaxu happy."

That same year, work began on the Miemeng waterworks project. Against fierce opposition, Su Muzhe used a giant mechapuppet to bring the floods under control. When the project was complete, the Miemeng Giant Bird came to rest upon the River of Resentment, its wings rising and falling like something out of legend. Using a specialised pumping system, it diverted the floodwaters into nearby channels that had not yet burst their banks. At last, the River of Resentment, which had flooded year after year, was brought under control.

People on both banks could not praise her enough. For a time, every storyteller in Haojing seemed to have set aside the old tales in favour of new ones about Su Muzhe, "the River-Taming Swallow". Before long, those achievements had earned her an exceptional promotion: at nineteen, she was made Deputy Commissioner of Works, second only to the Commissioner himself.

But the good times did not last.

After that visit, Su Yi could not shake the feeling that perhaps her aunt, too, would soon leave.

Su Muzhe did indeed leave. That year, Su Yi was nine, and Su Muzhe was twenty.

After her aunt left, Su Yi kept turning one question over in her mind: how could the Nine Chapters of Dafeng be changed?

She resolved to find Su Muzhe, stand before her in person, and keep asking until she got a clear answer.

You walk past the site of Miemeng's crash. Now the rice seedlings stand in neat green rows, and the ridges between the fields lie in perfect order. Only the great scars left in the earth remain, marking what happened here.

The River of Resentment still rushes on, carrying away the wreckage of Miemeng and the last traces of a brilliant artificer lost too soon.

Many in Outer Peaks believed the reports, that Miemeng had destroyed farmland and injured people, were a trap, carefully laid to lure a certain person out into the open. It was not flood season, and Miemeng was Su Muzhe's proudest work, built from some of the finest materials in all Haojing. Before leaving, she had topped up its energy core and given it one last thorough inspection, checking for any possible faults. Under normal conditions, it should have kept running for at least fifty years. As soon as the reports spread, an uproar broke out over Su Muzhe and Jishu, and the blame was laid squarely at the Drifters' door. The whole thing had clearly been orchestrated. But Su Muzhe insisted that, whatever the truth of it, the damage Miemeng had caused was already done. Even if there was only the faintest chance that her help was truly needed, she had to go back and see what could still be done. The waters of the River of Resentment ran wild, and the flood damage could worsen by the hour. If she got back even a day earlier, that might spare people a little more suffering. She insisted, again and again, that she could get back out safely. No one knew Haojing's terrain better than she did. She would go no farther than the outskirts of Haojing and check on Miemeng from there. To everyone's surprise, Yan Shanting, usually the easiest of them to talk round, was the one most firmly opposed to her going back. No one ever learned exactly what happened that night, though some said they heard the two of them arguing. The next morning, Su Muzhe left Outer Peaks much as she had arrived: with little more than the clothes on her back.

Had she died as Su Muzhe, the River-Taming Swallow, her death might have been mourned. But as the one blamed for the Miemeng disaster, her death drew only applause, and still more fervent praise for the righteousness of Lord Argent's judgement.

"A Jishu contraption running wild? She must have done it on purpose! She was trying to spit in the face of the Nine Chapters of Dafeng, that's what it was. We can't let the likes of her walk all over us!"

"If she hadn't been so headstrong on forcing through something this dangerous, would so many people have died?"

"A clean death was too good for her! Lord Bi'an was merciful to let her off so easily. How could a single wretched life ever pay for what she'd done?"

"Those vicious Drifters again..."

"Damn you, Su Muzhe..."

The few voices raised in her defence were drowned out by the tide of condemnation. For a time, Su Muzhe's name was spat out with contempt wherever it was spoken. With every curse and every gob of spit, her name was ground deeper into the mud.

On the night Su Muzhe died, Su Yi cried into her pillow for a long time. Her sobs, raw and hoarse, were smothered by the pillow until not a sound escaped.

She gave herself only one night.

For tonight alone, she would allow herself to be weak, to falter, to grieve for Su Muzhe.

Once the sun rose and her sleeves had dried, she would allow herself no more grief. She would keep going, following in her aunt's footsteps and carrying that road on to the places Su Muzhe had never reached. Where her aunt's footsteps ended, Su Yi's would take up the road and carry it on. From that day on, wherever Su Yi went, she would carry Su Muzhe's will with her.

After Su Muzhe left, Su Yi never gave up searching for any sign of her. She was determined to find Su Muzhe on her own, stand before her in person, and make her see that she had been wrong to underestimate her. All Su Yi could do was stay at home, endure her parents' expectations, and secretly send her mech-kites far beyond the city to continue the search in her stead. Su Muzhe left Haojing when Su Yi was nine. Relying on the fragments Su Muzhe had left behind and the rumours that drifted through Haojing, she spent five full years piecing things together, until somehow she truly found her way to the outer fringes of Outer Peaks.

Su Yi had imagined their reunion in all sorts of ways, and all sorts of reactions from Su Muzhe when it came. Su Muzhe had left when she was only nine. Now she was fourteen, at that age when a child can change almost beyond recognition in the span of a few years. Surely Auntie would be surprised. What would she say? Would she praise her for finally catching up, or take her by the hand and introduce her to her companions with that sly, proud smile?

...She had never imagined their reunion would be like this.

Su Yi had also heard the rumours spreading through the capital about Miemeng. Through her mother, Yun Fangshui, who held a post in the Ministry of Rites, she obtained reliable information: it had been a trap all along. No one was ever going to let Su Muzhe get anywhere near the construct she had poured her heart into making. The moment she left Outer Peaks, the Bi'an on her trail would descend on her and bring down heavenly punishment.

Panic set in, and she became desperate to get word to them. With no way to reach the Drifters directly, she could only send her mech-kites circling the outskirts of Outer Peaks, hoping to find a way in, or else to have one of them spotted by some sharp-eyed Drifter. In the end, Yuming intercepted one of them, and the message got through... but it was still a step too late.

Only one thought kept turning over in Su Yi's mind: I came too late. If only I had arrived a little sooner...

But there was nothing more useless than an "if only".

By the time Su Yi arrived with Yan Shanting, Yuming, and the other Drifters, the Bi'an had already carried out the punishment, and there was no undoing what had happened.

The Nine Chapters of Dafeng had left her body crystallised in death, yet she still stood. This proud bird, defiant to the very end, had long since breathed her last, and still she would neither kneel nor sit, let alone fall. She could no longer raise a hand. Otherwise, she would surely have patted Su Yi's rigid shoulder, then gathered her favourite niece into her arms and held her close. Yan Shanting stood before Su Muzhe in silence, head bowed, all expression drained from his face.

Among Miemeng's remains, the Drifters found a message box containing Su Muzhe's final words. In the last moments of her life, Su Muzhe laid out three final matters with her usual brisk decisiveness.

First, she told them where to find the Su clan texts she had uncovered in the library, along with her own craft notes.

Second, she said that with all of them there to witness it, the day was auspicious enough. If death was about to part them anyway, then she saw no reason to leave regrets behind. Let Heaven and Earth bear witness: whether Yan Shanting acknowledged their betrothal or not, she meant to marry him that very day, by force if she had to.

Third, she entrusted Su Yi to the Drifters, asking Yan Shanting to keep her reckless niece in check and not let her throw her life away trying to avenge her.

Auntie was gone. Su Yi sank to the ground, and a dreadful silence fell over the crowd.

She did not know how she got home in that daze, or how long she shut herself away in her room afterwards. She would not come out, no matter who called for her.

Several months later, she made up her mind: she would go to Outer Peaks, where Su Muzhe had once been. Before leaving, she had a fierce argument with her mother, but still refused to back down. The road away from home felt endlessly long, and yet all too short. At the end of the alley, Su Yi turned back one last time and looked back at her home in the distance.

Dawn was just beginning to break. Alone, Su Yi stepped onto the long mountain road leading to Outer Peaks. Step by step, she climbed on without haste. The mountain wind came howling down, as though it meant to drive her back, but not once did she waver.

From that day on, she left her old life behind for good. She was no longer Su Keyi, but Su Yi.

Only when that long mountain road came to an end did her real journey begin.

After the battle in Haojing, the threat hanging over the Drifters was finally lifted. The craftsmen of the Jishu Sect were no longer held back, and could finally devote themselves fully to their craft.

The Ministry of Works wanted to win over the branch of the Jishu Sect that had broken away to Outer Peaks. Notice after notice was issued, each offering a larger reward than the last, yet still few answered the call. Most were unwilling to leave. They had grown used to this place, and deep down already thought of it as home.

The turmoil in Haojing had come to an end. Huaxu seemed to have changed completely, and yet somehow not changed at all. The warrants against those of Outer Peaks were lifted outright, yet people still feared crossing paths with a Drifter. Even with fear and unease still hanging in the air, people began speaking among themselves about the girl who had stepped forward that day.

"Maybe the Drifters aren't as bad after all..."

"She's the one who saved my little girl!"

"She made me realise that anyone can stand up and fight for what matters to them, if they've got the courage."

The change was slight and slow, and it would not come overnight. But it had already begun.

Su Yi carries a grand ambition she has never spoken aloud: she wants her creations to benefit more than just the people of Huaxu.

She has heard that beyond her homeland, countless people still live in hardship. Whether they are horned, called Loongscion in Huaxu and Charon elsewhere, or hornless Earthborn and Solarian alike, all should have the right to step outside and look up at the sky. The sky belongs to everyone. Freedom should be within everyone's reach, not a luxury reserved for the few. Perhaps she cannot change the whole world at once. But even if all she has is the faintest spark, she will still do everything she can to pass it on.

Drawn by the same ideals, newcomers followed in the footsteps of those before them and gave their lives for the same cause. At Outer Peaks, one generation of Drifters gave way to the next, again and again. So many had given their lives without asking anything in return, and at last the long resistance was over.

Su Yi stood at the cliff's edge and looked back. The mountain was unchanged, and at its foot lay so many who had given their lives to keep the fire alive.

Had those stubborn souls returned at last? If not, where else could they go?

Her gaze drifted into the distance, and her thoughts drifted with it.

The mountain was still the same. Mist curled around its slopes and stretched on and on, trailing like lengths of silk in the wind.

Below, a thin sheen of water lay over the stone steps. It had just rained, yet the steps had been mended so neatly that mud no longer pooled there. Many new houses had been built, along with a school for children and a training yard. There were many new faces now: some had come to settle there, while others were drawn by what Outer Peaks stood for and wanted to see that spirit for themselves...

This day had come too late. The people who had waited and paid for it were no longer here to see it. And yet it had also come too soon, as though the cost of it had barely settled before the world had already begun to move on. There was something unreal about it, like a dream one might wake from at any moment.

Su Yi closed her eyes and felt the roughness of the rock, the softness of the moss, and the chill of the air. These things were real. There was no mistaking them. The wind moved through the mountains with a low, mournful sound, like someone letting out a sigh.

It was as if she could see them there in the cloud and mist, their figures wavering like something out of a dream. Her eyes were still closed, yet the years between them seemed to fall away, and each face came back to her clear and vivid, as if it had never left.

At the front stood her aunt, Su Muzhe, leaning against the nearest stone, wearing that same sly, proud look, and tipping her chin up at her in greeting.

A little farther off stood Yan Shanting, still and straight as a pine.

And there was Buxia too, and so many other Drifters whose faces had blurred with time, though the brightness in their eyes had never dimmed.

"Auntie... Uncle Yan... Buxia..."

"Zheng Xihe... Tian Shuo... Zhou Sui..."

"So much has happened lately. Outer Peaks has changed a great deal."

"The truth behind the Battle of Shuli has finally come out. The injustice done to the Jishu Sect has finally been set right. And Jishu is no longer treated as forbidden."

"I'm grown up now, you know. There's so much I can take on."

"Auntie... I can stand on my own now."

"Uncle Yan, Buxia... the Nine Chapters of Dafeng have finally changed. What we hoped for has finally come true."

"Oh, and those two had a terrible row, but they finally made up."

Su Yi went on talking, following her thoughts wherever they led. Around her, only the drifting mist seemed to listen. Whenever her voice lifted with excitement, a gust of wind would send the thick fog rolling towards her in waves. Watching the mountain mist swirl and thin before her, Su Yi smiled softly.

A thought came to her then: what if the dead did not truly vanish? What if they had only changed form and remained in this world, in the mountains and rivers, in every stone, in every stretch of earth? If so, then surely the Drifters who had died were still here. Outer Peaks had been their first home, and their final resting place. Surely they would all return here. When the wind rose, it was as if they were cheering her on. When it fell quiet again, it was as if they were listening. In that way, she could almost believe they were still with her.

"Auntie..."

"I have more good news."

"My parents finally understand me now. They support what I'm doing."

"It took five years. I suppose that isn't so long."

"You once said that when I finally built the mechapuppet from your plans, you'd come back and take me with you."

"...Will you ever come back and keep that promise?"

She looked towards the place where the wind was gathering. A sudden gust rose there and came sweeping straight towards her, scattering the thick mist in its wake. It brushed the loose hair at her temples like gentle hands. The moment it touched her, the gust softened into countless light currents that gathered round her like an embrace.