The clan leader meditates at the front of the dining hall, his face the very picture of serenity. None but his brother and Lord Qiren could tell that his patience is running short. His request to host the next trine had not been accepted yet. He felt hosting the archery tournament would undoubtedly decrease the number of nag attacks in recent months. He had written to all the clans inviting them to Cloud Recesses for a hunt, but none replied. Perhaps he should try again. Lost in his thoughts, he does not immediately hear the children's noises. He slowly opens his eyes to see the Lady Shen to his left, adjusting her sister Chen's skirts. The child, the sisters, called Dumplin, is already sleeping on her eldest sister's lap. His worries temporarily fade as he finds himself examining the little family.
Sensing eyes on her, Mimi turns to see the clan leader slowly coming out of his meditation.
"I hope we didn't disturb you, clan leader," Mimi smiles, but it does not fully reach her eyes.
"Of course not. You and your kindred could never cause a disturbance," Lan Xichen is about to ask her about her visit when Master Wei glides into the room.
"Lan Zhan, I am merely saying that perhaps if I didn't eat roots at every meal, I would be far more muscular than I am," Master Wei complains as his cultivation partner stares straight ahead.
"Don't they remind you of Qiaolian and Daiyu?" Chen whispers to Mimi.
"Actually, I was thinking along the same lines," Mimi smirks as they high five over the table.
Once everyone takes their spots, dinner is served. It is deathly quiet within the hall. Lan Xichen has never felt uncomfortable in the silence. Meals were always served with the purpose of serving contemplation. He surreptitiously watches his brother quickly consume Master Wei's soup in nearly a flash of light. Undoubtedly intending to serve him food from the village in the evening. The young cultivators were tapping on their hands in what Lan Xichen had realized a long time ago as a sort of coded language. Peeking out of his peripheral vision. He watches the sisters, apart from the smallest one, slowly eat. His thoughts of late. Were slowly but surely being overturned by the presence of the woman and her sisters sitting to his left. Dinner had never taken so long before. When the plates have been cleared, Mimi finally nudges her sister, who had practically been vibrating with anticipation.
"Go on," Mimi says, cradling her sleeping sister.
Nervously getting to her feet, Chen approaches the clan leader, "Clan leader?"
Lan Xichen smiles immediately at the child and turns around to fully face her, "Yes, second Lady Shen?"
"My sister and I received practice bows from our eldest sister," Chen looks at Mimi for aid, suddenly feeling awkward with all the faces turned to her.
"You would like to practice on the cultivation fields?" Lan Xichen answers, trying to put the child at ease.
"Yes, please, clan leader."
"I don't see why not; we can begin tomorrow. May I see the bow?"
Lan Zhan and Master Wei peer over the clan leader's shoulders as Chen offers the bow with no resistance. Watching the duo hovering over the clan leader's shoulders, Mimi is reminded of shoulder angels and devils.
Lan Xichen marvels a little at the bow. The runes carved into the length of the bow were unfamiliar to him. He bends the wood a little to test its flexibility.
"Your eldest sister gave this to you?" Lan Xichen asks, puzzling over the runes. He hands it over to his brother's waiting hands for inspection.
"She carves them herself," Chen reports, "she said she has a lot of time on her hands and crafts different kinds of bows. She told me these runes were primarily aimed for students."
"En," Lan Zhan holds the bow so everyone could see it as he pointed to the symbols, "Safety, protection, and lost arrow renewal."
"That is clever," Master Wei leans over, putting his hands on Lan Zhan's shoulders to get a closer look, "We used to practice this at Lotus Pier for young students to prevent other students from getting hurt. Is your eldest sister a fine marksman, Eldest Lady Shen?"
Mimi smiles; the Golden Phoenix was indeed a fine marksman, the best.
"Yes, but I have not had the pleasure of my sister's company since this afternoon," Mimi strokes Dumplin's hair, "I do not know if she has kept it up."
"You will have to ask her to do a demonstration. Did she agree to come down?" Lan Xichen asks, still curious to meet this rouge eldest sister.
"She is discussing it with her cultivation partner. They are reclusive and only talk to family members," Mimi figures this is reasonably true in considering what the reality is.
"Which is why we have never seen them before despite them living here for many years," Lan Xichen adds with a bit of confusion.
His uncle had not recognized the Feng name when he had asked, and neither did his brother, who had often wandered the mountains during his years of confinement.
"But Zewu-Jun will be fam . . ." Master Wei's voice is cut off by Lan Zhan covering his mouth with his hand before guiding him away.
Trying to keep herself from laughing at the clan leader's look of mortification, Mimi stands with Dumplin in her arms.
"I need to get this cub to bed," Mimi says ruefully, "But perhaps once I return, I can provide a demonstration of what I promised earlier?"
"Are you still going to teach me?" Chen asks hopefully as Lan Xichen returns her bow, his eyes hopeful as well.
"Of course. Would you still like to watch, clan leader?" Mimi asks with amusement as the clan leader nods with the same level of enthusiasm as Chen.
The clan leader holds the door for her and Chen. Impatient, Chen walks ahead of them in the direction of the residence.
"How was your visit?" he asks when Chen is out of earshot.
"A little awkward," Mimi confesses, "but I think it will be good for the cubs to have more family around. My sister and her cultivation partner are very supportive of them."
"I would like to meet them," Lan Xichen looks down on the sleeping child's face and smiles.
"They are intrigued by you as well," Mimi feels herself blush a little remembering the conversation she had with Daiyu earlier.
"They know of why you are here?" he asks quietly, not wanting to wake the child.
"They do," Mimi searches his face trying to figure out what he is after.
"And what is their opinion of a possible . . . marriage?" he cannot help asking.
"My eldest sister is wary of cultivators," Mimi answers honestly, "but her cultivation partner approves of the match."
A weight that Lan Xichen had not realized was on his shoulder slowly diminishes, but the way she had phrased that sentence bothers him.
"She is wary of other cultivators beside her cultivation partner?" he asks, trying to make sure he understood right.
"Yes. I don't know what the particular situation was," Mimi wonders what his reaction would be if she told him her sister is probably close to six hundred years old and a fox.
They walk in comfortable silence for a while, Mimi keeping an eye on her sister.
"I am glad."
Turning her head to look at him, Mimi decides to wait for him to say more, and he does not disappoint.
Looking her in the eyes, he murmurs, "I am glad your family supports this."
Mimi tucks Dumplin into bed and casts a ball of tinkling fox fire above her head as she always did. This accomplished, Mimi finds the clan leader examining the artwork that she had recently put up. He is examining the portrait of himself.
"It is not a bad likeness," Mimi says, coming up behind to look.
"I suppose I sometimes forget how tall I am," Lan Xichen chuckles, the perspective obviously done by a children's gaze.
Mimi leans her head to the side and realizes he is right. Dumplin had drawn the clan leader as she sees him. From her diminutive height, she drew him as tall and imposing.
"Your smiling, though," Mimi observes. Her cub had also captured the clan leader's unwavering kindness, whether she realized it or not.
He stares contemplatively at the portrait before following Mimi back out the door to where Chen is dutifully stretching and warming up.
"Alright," Mimi sits down on the ground and beckons the clan leader to sit with her before continuing, "so to form a vehicle, you must first be able to summon multiple globes of fire. This is imperative. I have found it useful in the past," Mimi holds out her hand, summoning a ball of foxfire, "to imagine cutting the ball into two pieces."
"Since I have more experience with this than you do at the moment, you will simply see multiple globes of fire appear out of midair in quick succession. It will appear that I am simply using a summoning intent," Mimi glances over at the clan leader beside her and realizes he is paying close attention.
"And sometimes I am," Mimi concedes, looking back at Chen, "but this drains your strength faster. You have to keep each individual sphere in your mind by doing multiple summonings, telling it where it can and can't go. I don't recommend giving up on summoning. Summoning fire on its own is excellent practice. Seeing how many you can produce at once or one at a time builds stamina. But for now, let's slow it down."
Mimi holds out the ball of foxfire and slowly bounces it from hand to hand. As they watch, the single foxfire is slowly torn in two and reformed.
"Fire is always fire no matter the origin," Mimi says, "as long as you have enough air and energy around you, you can split it up as much as you want."
"So why don't you practice summoning one and then summoning another first, just to get an idea of how much energy you are using," Mimi instructs.
As Chen summons foxfire after foxfire, the beads of sweat start appearing on her forehead. She can only make about five before the spheres dissolve.
"How did that feel, cub?" Mimi asks, waiting for her sister to catch her breath.
Chen lets out a ragged breath, "I felt like I was losing a portion of my energy with everything I summoned."
"Let's take a quick break. Why don't you go inside and get some water? Then we'll continue when you return."
Chen did as she is bid and quickly disappears into the residence.
"What do you mean, splitting up the fire?" Lan Xichen asks.
"Exactly what I said," Mimi chuckles, once more summoning a ball of foxfire to her hand.
"Cup your hands," Mimi instructs, and the clan leader smiles a little impishly before doing as she suggests.
She carefully drops the foxfire into his hands and maintains its form, "What do you feel?"
The clan leader closes his eyes and meditates on the globe of fire, "It is warm and," he tilts his head as if listening, "I can feel a heartbeat."
Chuckling, Mimi says, "Yes, that is mine. I am still controlling it from harming you.:
Chen scurries out of the house and grins at the clan leader. She puts her head on her sister's shoulder and looks down at his hands.
"Are you trying to teach him to summon fire, Mimi?" Chen asks as her sister wraps her arm around her affectionately.
"More like showing him how our fire works," Mimi says, "now pay attention, cub."
Taking the globe of fire from the clan leader and holding it between them so they could both see, Mimi slowly splits the fire in two with her hand.
"You can do it this way or use intent magic. Think of it as like parting water," Mimi explains, gently pushing her up, "Why don't you try?"
The clan leader tilts his head closer to Mimi's to whisper, "Intent drives a great deal of elemental magic, it seems."
Chen summons a ball of foxfire and uses her hand to strike the middle of the foxfire like a Kung Fu champion driving her fist through a pile of cement blocks. The foxfire disperses.
"Try again, cub, but a bit more gently, remember it's a partnership between you and the element. Not you forcing it to do what you want," Mimi reminds patiently before turning to the clan leader, "Intent drives most magic, wouldn't you say? Usually, one uses magic because they want something."
Once again, Chen summons her foxfire, but this time she stares at it forcefully until the foxfire trembles lightly before slowly dividing.
"Very good, cub!" Mimi claps, and the clan leader joins in.
"How did that feel?" Mimi asks, watching the foxfire wavering lightly as Chen held her concentration.
"Better," Chen purses her lips and focuses until there are three balls of fox fires.
The fire dissolves, and Chen pants a little at the use of her magic, "That's hard."
Patting the clan leader's arm affectionately, Mimi stands to hug her sister, "But you did very well. You just need to keep practicing. But," Mimi quickly puts together a smaller version of the foxfire vehicle and lowers it so Chen could get on.
With a squeal of delight, Chen jumps on, and with a smile, Mimi gently moves it around the grounds. Slowly building up speed. Mimi resumes her seat next to the clan leader but does not allow her eyes to leave the child.
"You are not strict with your sisters," the clan leader teases fondly as he watches in fascination the otherworldly glow of Lady Shen's emerald eyes as she tracks her sister's progress.
"You can still be strict with kindness," Mimi refutes, "Chen will be immensely powerful one day, stronger than me. I can only give her the tools she needs and show her how to use them properly. But, she also deserves to be a child," Mimi smiles at the sound of her sister delighted cries.
"Aren't you worried by teaching her how to fly, she will leave you and go off on her own?"
"I don't like to think about it," Mimi says honestly, watching her sister awkwardly veer about, "But if I have taught her something worthwhile and acted as a shelter for her. Why wouldn't she come back?"