“What a silly thing to do when it is so much healthier to only be short a little sleep than a full night’s. No one is doubting your mettle, young master Wei, but I expect you to lie down without a fuss when I come to stand my watch,” said Lao Bingyi, and with a huff, Wei Jintai went to walk the perimeter with her sword cradled in her arms. Chih hadn’t even noticed she had a sword, and they thought again that silk robes like that could hide a great deal.

Chih was fortunate enough to be assigned the last shift before dawn, but their dreams were troubled with visions of the man they had buried, not him as he was dead, but him as he was alive, walking through his life, tending his affairs and all without knowing that there was a white handprint pressed to his chest.

They woke with a start, making Sang who was sleeping at their back grunt in irritation without waking up. Carefully, they disentangled themself from the blankets to go sit with Khanh at the banked fire.

“You can sleep a little longer,” he murmured. “I’m good for a while yet.”

“I don’t think I’m getting any more sleep tonight,” Chih said, settling on one of the stumps with their blanket wrapped around them. “Has it been quiet since you’ve been up?”

“Nothing terrible,” Khanh said peaceably, and Chih smiled at him.

“Not much for talking, are you?”

“Oh, I talk plenty when I think I need to. And you. Do you ever stop working?”

“Why should I, when my work is to hear people’s favorite stories?” asked Chih, feeling some of the chill of their restless dreams shake away.

“Favorite stories, hm,” said Khanh, crossing his arms over his broad chest thoughtfully. “I heard you trading stories with the girls earlier. Thought I heard you mention Wild Pig Yi.”

“Yes. Sang was telling me some ugly woman stories, but she said that she didn’t know that one.”

Khanh shook his head with a trace of disapproval.

“What a rude thing to call them,” he said. “You scholars, you need boxes for every single thing.”

“How else would we carry them?” asked Chih, and Khanh grunted in assent. He reminded them suddenly of Cleric Sun back at the abbey, who spoke little but who would tell you the best stories about their past as a pirate queen if you only asked right.

“Well, you know, they didn’t call her Wild Pig Yi because she was ugly, and you should get that right,” he said. “They called her that because this whole area used to be a hunting preserve for the emperor in the old days. After the empress rose up, she preferred to hunt in the north, white bears and seals, I figure, and no use for the boars that they bred up and released in these forests.”

He paused.