The Unrooted PathCommentsSign in

The Unrooted PathChapter 8: The Wall That Answered

A heavy cell door shuts and Qinghe stands alone in a pale-jade cell cut with gold lines, listening to the silence.Mo Lin slides a bowl and a bamboo slip through the hatch while a guard says no one speaks to the Void-Marked.Qinghe sits on the straw mat holding the slip that says three days, and spots a thin worn gold line near the floor.He kneels at the wall and realises the worn line is not a crack but a joint, and a vision of the river barrier flashes behind him.He reaches toward the broken joint at the foot of the wall and wonders what happens if it answers again.A tiny turquoise spark runs along the gold line under his fingertips and he thinks that it listens.The ringing returns, a drop of blood falls from his nose, and he sits against the wall wondering why one line cost so much pain.He studies how the lines meet, and understands he did not give the wall power, he only gave it a path.Two hand-widths of turquoise light run along the wall as his bandaged wrist reopens and bleeds.He wipes away the blood and hides his hands as a long shadow with a staff stops at the cell door.Examiner Cen Ruo enters, tells him he was not on the roll but now is, and drops a talisman strip with one wrong joint.Qinghe sees the wrong joint, pulls a thread from his sleeve and lays it along the broken stroke.He seals the join with one drop of blood and the talisman glows turquoise while Cen Ruo's eye watches through the hatch.At dawn guards lead Qinghe in rope toward a sealed cart for the Lower Prison while Mo Lin kneels among the clerks.On the sky-bridge the Black Ledger attacks in grey masks, shouts to take the Blank Path, and drops a golden net over Qinghe.Pinned under the net, Qinghe lays his palm on its weak joint, turns its lines turquoise and binds the raiders.Their own net holds them as Qinghe's nose and both hands bleed and he collapses to his knees on the bridge.From the high balcony Cen Ruo and Yan Shuo watch the bridge, and the hidden observer alone lifts the record where the glyph has doubled.

Chapter 8: The Wall That Answered

Sealed in a cell beneath the Great Archive, Qinghe finds a worn joint in the wall and learns that a line can be answered by another line, at a price his body pays. Examiner Cen Ruo tests him with a flawed talisman, then on the sky-bridge to the Lower Prison the Black Ledger strikes, and Qinghe turns their own net back on them in front of everyone.

New to the story? Meet the characters and the world on the The Unrooted Path page.

Comments

Loading comments…