The light came in early and still through the slats of the wooden blinds. It fell in plain rectangles on the basin of the sink and onto the floorboards and up the wall with its cream clean wallpaper. For a moment Bi-Han could not believe he had this. Memories from another life crowded into his thoughts. A green plant on the window sill. Wooden spoons in a ceramic pottery jar. A clean chopping board. Washed glasses on the sideboard.
He looked at Kuai. The boy was sitting opposite him at the kitchen table, watching him curiously. Bi-Han smoothed his expressions quickly.
"Ground rules."
"Loyalty to the Grandmaster, loyalty to my clan, keep the clan secret, always kill a target, minimise collateral-"
"Not those. Mine."
Kuai looked at him,
"Yours?"
Bi-Han counted on his fingers as he spoke,
"Do not reveal your identity or mine. Do not use your martial or cryomancy abilities outside of this house," Kuai's face screwed up in objection but Bi-Han ploughed on, "Speak only English,"
"Bi-Han?! I can't even speak it that well – I'm not going to be able to talk to anyone!"
"Hardly anyone speaks Mandarin here anyway, Kuai Liang. Now pay attention. You will attend school every day except weekends."
"What's school?"
"It's like class back home, but you learn only theoretical knowledge, it starts later in the morning, and you come home at the end of the day."
Kuai's frustration melted away and he eyes became bright,
"What… what kind of things do you learn in a school?"
Bi-Han tried to recollect,
"Uh… counting. And where places are. And how things grow. And… stories?"
"Stories! Like history?"
"History, but also made-up stories too."
Kuai clasped his hands together, trying to contain his excitement, but Bi-Han could hear his feet tapping the floor in enthusiasm.
"Are there other people my age there?"
Bi-Han nodded.
"When can I go? Can I go now?"
Bi-Han frowned and Kuai, like a mirror, sobered up as best he could.
"I will need to find a suitable school to enrol you in. I want you to learn in English while you are here. It is a useful language to understand. Many of your victims will use it to converse when you go on missions of your own. Information makes a kill quick and easy. We will need to purchase supplies, and you will need to work on your cover story. We will also need to keep up your training. You will get up at 5 AM each day and I will teach you cryomancy. In the evenings you will train empty hand and weapons training. Understand?"
Kuai nodded.
"Will you come to school too, Bi-Han?"
"No. I will seek out suitable employment. I will have to gradually ingratiate myself into the ranks of my target's associates. That is all you will know of my mission and we will not speak of it again."
Kuai nodded again but his mind was still on his previous question.
"Does that mean… I'll have to go to school on my own?" He had never been anywhere on his own before. He had known everyone in the Temple his entire life, and whenever he did anything new, Bi-Han was always a few paces away from him.
"Yes." Bi-Han was already moving on as if he did not understand how enormous an obstacle this was in Kuai's chest. "Now, did you hear me about martial arts and ice?"
Kuai thought of an entire Lin Kuei Temple's worth of strangers all watching him try to spar with books about counting. A tall angry student who looked suspiciously like Sektor swam into his thoughts. In his mind's eye, not-Sektor was throwing plants and books at him and shouting in a language that Kuai did not understand. He suddenly wasn't as keen on school.
"Kuai Liang!"
Kuai Liang looked up innocently, trying to pretend he had been listening. Bi-Han's expression darkened. Kuai looked down.
"Sorry..." He murmured.
"I said no fighting and no ice."
Kuai looked back up and exclaimed,
"But that's all I can do!"
"Then you will do nothing until you learn something."
"Bi-Han! How will I make friends if I don't know anything!"
"You're not here to make friends. You're here to keep my cover in tact and to learn something useful in the process. Now stop answering me back, you're getting on my nerves."
Kuai sighed and scuffed his feet on the floorboards. He followed with his eyes as Bi-Han got up and opened the refrigerator. He took out three onions and set them on the chopping board. He eyed them suspiciously.
"What kind of civilian work will you do?"
"No questions, remember."
"But, won't I need to tell anyone who asks?"
Bi-Han opened a draw and selected a long knife. He held it up to eye level and ran finger along the length of the blade. He tested the weight in his hands and flicked his wrist to hear it snap through the air. He held it above the onions. A flash of steel shattered the morning light. Kuai blinked and the onions were all in tiny pieces. Bi-Han slammed the knife point down into the wood and scraped all the onion into a pan. Kuai got up and peered into the pan.
"Are the onions meant to have skin on?"
Bi-Han shrugged. He prodded buttons on a gas stove until a ring ignited in a burst of blue flame.
"Nice!" Kuai set his nose near the flames so he could watch the flickering blue light. Bi-Han put a thumb and forefinger into pressure points in Kuai's shoulder and steered him to one side. Kuai winced and grumbled, hissing and rubbing his shoulder as he stood carefully out of the way. The onions were set on the stove and began to sputter and hiss. Kuai watched them avidly from a distance as Bi-Han began to decimate a family of mushrooms with a carving knife. Black sooty whisps snaked up from the wok. "Bi-Han they're sticking! The onions are burning!"
His brother glanced around quickly for something to rectify the situation. He grabbed a bottle of oil and tossed half onto the pan. A three foot orange flame burst from the pan, tongue licking up and smearing black on the cream walls. Bi-Han instinctively shot a blast of ice at the oven. Crystals burst from his hands in a spray of fine white glittering mist. A thick blanket of ice encased the entire appliance. Kuai looked at it. It was a beautiful crystaline shimmer of colours in the morning light.
"Burnt and frozen onions! You are a very special cook, Bi-Han!"
Kuai had a breakfast of raw mushrooms that morning.
Author Note: Just a short chapter, in which Bi-Han fails at basic culinary tasks.
