“I have. There are not many, but he stands with Lightning Zhou and the Wu Siblings as some of the greatest martial arts masters of their age.”

“Hm. Yes. I am glad that I told you this story. It wouldn’t be right to have Gravewraith Chen without Wild Pig Yi and Beautiful Nie, I think. They’re my favorites.”

He shook his head.

“I’m off to cuddle my wife before she wakes up and tells me I am foolish,” Khanh said cheerfully. “Call if you need anything.”

Chih kept the final watch until dawn, huddled under their blanket with Almost Brilliant dozing on their shoulder. It was a lonely kind of duty, and when they felt themself start to nod, more from boredom than from weariness, they stood to walk around the camp and sometimes to stand outside the shelter and listen to the breathing of the people within.

Welcome to the riverlands, the waitress had said, and strangely enough, they did feel welcome. They could have grown up with Sang and Wei Jintai at the abbey, and Chih doubted there was a single community in the world that didn’t have people who took charge like Lao Bingyi and people who went along peaceably like Khanh.

When Almost Brilliant awoke to find herself some grubs to eat, Chih stopped her before she flew off.

“I didn’t know you knew so many riverlands stories,” they said softly, “or that you liked them so well.”

Almost Brilliant hooted disdainfully.

“I have many interests and many areas of expertise,” she said. “My grandfather came from Tsu, you know.”

Singing Hills’ sister abbey in Tsu sent a neixin once every few years, and took one back with them when they returned home. It was insurance of a sort, to make sure that the knowledge gathered was replicated in another place. Almost Brilliant was heir to the histories of two continents, and Chih smiled.

“Will you tell me some of the riverlands stories?” asked Chih. “I’m not as well educated as you are.”

Almost Brilliant perched on her dignity for another moment, but then she gave a little excited hop.

“I can tell you all about the Wu Siblings. They were three, two brothers and a sister, and though they were imprisoned for a hundred years under the house of their greatest enemy—”

Chih walked the perimeter of the campground until the sun was up, and as they did so, Almost Brilliant, her breakfast forgotten or simply foregone in favor of her favorite stories, told them about the fighters and fools and freaks of the riverlands, who may have lived in truth but certainly lived in fiction.

Lao Bingyi and Khanh roused first, and, letting Sang and Wei Jintai sleep a little longer, they set out a cold breakfast of glutinous rice and dried pork, shredded so fine that it looked like wood shavings.