"Was there something there, in the ashes?" Dawn Star asked.
"Nothing. I was just...remembering."
Dawn Star smiled. "You have dirt on your face."
Wu rubbed her face with her hand, and her friend laughed. "You've made it worse. Here, let me."
She had stuck her sleeve in pooled water and was washing Wu's face before she could protest. "That's cold," Wu sputtered.
Dawn Star gave her face one more good scrub. "There. All clean."
Wu dried her face with her shirt. "I don't know if I should thank you for that."
"I most definitely deserve thanks. If we're going to face something horrendous, you can't do it looking like you're some city urchin. What would Mas - what would the Empress think? She can't have the Empire's Champion looking dirty when fighting for justice."
Wu laughed and ignored how Dawn Star had almost said his name. "You're right. I have to be presentable now. What would I do without you?"
So in the dark cavern, she linked arms with her friend and they continued on to the final chamber where she had met the Water Dragon.
And a part of Wu wondered if the past would always find a way to sneak into their daily lives; a darkness ruining whatever light they could gather around them.
The crowd cheered and screamed as Wu took her bows. She could really get used to this feeling.
"Hey, scab. Give the rest of us some stage," one of the actors hissed. Wu took that as her cue to leave - and collect her fee - and slipped off to the side.
She'd seen Assassins in the crowd, but underneath her make-up there was no way they could recognize her. She imagined they were there to hear the treasonous lines from the play - too bad that she'd gone back to the original script. She hadn't done it out of altruism though; she'd just thought the play had sounded better the original way.
She found Phong and received her payment. He seemed happy that she'd changed the lines back and gave her a bonus for it. "But you shouldn't be in your costume in the street. It's just really not actor etiquette."
Wu ignored him and bowed in thanks. With what she had now and what she would collect from Incisive Chorus, this would be a profitable afternoon.
She craned her neck, looking for Hou and Dawn Star. They'd said they would come and watch her debut. Instead, she found someone she had not expected, waiting for her at the bottom of the steps of the pagoda.
Zu greeted her with his usual enthuasiam. "You are wasting our time with ridiculous distractions."
"How ridiculous is five thousand silver?" she asked. It lay heavy against her hip underneath her clothes.
That elicited a half-smile.; whether it was at her joke or the money she'd earned, she didn't know. "That kind of silver is only a little ridiculous."
"I know. And I didn't have to fight, kill, or sell anyone into slavery to get it," she said pointedly. "Where's Hou and Dawn Star?"
"I didn't see them."
As soon as he said that, Wu was on guard. "There were Assassins here."
"I was watching them. And if they were here for Hou and Dawn Star, they would have found you as well. They would have stopped the play to arrest you."
She was still worried about her friends, but it sounded right. Hou and Dawn Star would show up when they would. "I still have money to collect from the playwright. Let's find him."
Incisive Chorus was more than happy to pay her for her performance. He praised her enthusiastically and gave her more silver.
Zu was less effusive with his praise. "That man is an idiot. Anyone who knows history could tell that you didn't know who Lady Fourteen Flowers was."
She shrugged. "It didn't stop me from getting her lines right."
"It might have made your performance more believable."
"The crowd seemed to enjoy it." She paused, then asked, "Wait, you watched the performance?"
He shrugged. "I have not seen a play for a very long time. And those skits your village did at the yearly festival did not count."
She smiled. She was in a good mood and she was used to his sarcasm now. "Yes, of course. And how was this play?"
"I've seen better."
"Is that so? And where would that be - if not Two Rivers?" she teased.
"At the palace. They had visiting players come for the Empress. There were always guards to watch the players, and there were always Monks to watch the guards."
"Monks?" she asked carefully. He had never spoken so casually about his time in the palace before.
"The Lotus Assassins were the Order of the Lotus before Death's Hand came to power." He seemed to remember where he was and added, "Those players that I saw in the palace - they were better than your troop."
She waited for more, but realized that he was done speaking about his past.
"I would hope they would be better, if they were entertaining royalty," she finally said. "Zu, I'm starving and since Hou's not here, I think I have to live on street fare today."
They walked farther away and found a noodle vendor who had set up seats and tables near the river. The man looked twice at her make-up and then asked her to pay up front for her food. She laughed, glad she was not a professional actor if they were considered that poor.
They took seats closest to the bridge. She pointed at the lights beyond, floating in the river. "It's all wrong. The lights, that is. Do you see? Look at them. Lotuses don't grow in running water. It looks all wrong."
"And how many lotuses did you see in Two Rivers?" Zu asked.
"None. The rivers were too fast, too clear. In fact, the first ones I saw were in the Scholar's Garden - and those didn't seem right either."
"And yet your master named you after them," Zu said.
Her good mood ebbed away. She took a sip of her tea then said, "I assume so."
Zu raised an eyebrow. "You assume?"
"At times, his secrecy was frustrating," she said shortly. "But I will not be the one to question the man who raised me."
"That kind of filial piety is admirable," Zu said. "Especially to one who is not your father."
She laughed; it was forced. "Not my father? Yes, that's true. He only raised me from a baby. He only taught me and trained me. He's not my father, but he's a good man. And even if he wasn't, I think I ..." Her fists curled. "I would still follow him. I have no choice. I owe him my life and I must do anything for his."
"Anything?"
"Anything. Even if I become something I hate and I have to lose everything that makes me myself. It would be the very least I could." She gazed at the water. "For Master Li, it would not begin to be enough."
"I understand."
Wu had not expected an answer from him and certainly not the one he had given her. Again, he fell silent.
They ate without speaking, Wu reflecting on Master Li and Zu thinking - she did not know. But questions came to her and each day it seemed like there was less time... So she asked.
"Is there any meaning behind the name the Assassins have? The lotus? He - " her voice dropped. "Death's Hand kept it in his own way. Why did he do that?"
"I don't understand how that one thinks," Zu said. "I can only tell you why they had it before. We were that the lotus opens and closes at the whim of the sun; as we were to look only to the Emperor."
"As do many flowers," she said.
"I am not done," he retorted.
He looked at the rushing water below them and spoke as if he were reciting something long forgotten. "The lotus is the perfection of the four orders of the natural world: the roots ground it in the earth, it grows in and by means of water, its leaves are nourished by air, and it blooms through the power of the sun's fire."
"The original monks, the ones who served Sagacious Tien, were dedicated to not only combat, but to scholarly, spiritual, and artistic pursuits. They were meant to cultivate the perfection of the natural world in the Emperor himself."
She couldn't help interrupting. "Perhaps Death's Hand missed that history lesson."
He fixed his eyes on her. "He is the master of one lesson, though. He knows that the lotus floats above the mud on calm waters. And when he goes to kill you, you won't be able to use his anger or his triumph against him. His power comes from a dark and still place - and that is why he will walk away with your blood on his blade."
Wu kept her hand away from the amulet that was freezing her skin. "Then I will have to learn the same lesson - quickly."
"Wu!" Dawn Star walked out of the crowd, waving. "Hou and I were waiting for you near the pagoda. When you didn't show up, we were so worried."
She waved back at her friends and they sat down. Soon they were talking about the play and its good and bad points. Wu pushed lotuses and muddy waters out of her mind; they were dark topics for such a good day.