Notes: One more chapter and then an epilogue left to go! Thank you everyone who has stuck around, and I hope you enjoy! :)

Over the next few days, the celebrations throughout the Imperial City simmered, though the only difference Kia Min saw was a decrease in lanterns and men and women drinking during daylight hours. She continued to dodge stray folk as she made her way through the streets, and the street performers and beggars continued to ask her for silver, and her staff continued to be in an easy reach in case some street urchin dared to pick her pockets again or a drunken idiot dared to make a pass at her.

The Imperial City was something else, that was for certain.

Darting Lynx had been one of the street performers begging for silver during the celebrations, but once everyone settled back into their daily routines, Darting Lynx packed up her belongings, set some silver on Dr. An's desk, and left the city. Kia Min had caught her on her way out, and Darting Lynx simply shrugged and said, "City folk are as stingy and less impressed as I remembered. It's time to move on."

They stared at each other for a few moments, and Kia Min could not decide if the hesitation was on Darting Lynx's part or her own. Finally, they nodded to each other, and Darting Lynx disappeared through the doorway.

With Dr. An at the arena, Kia Min took to wandering the streets of the Imperial City. During the celebrations, Kia Min had not explored the city, deciding instead to keep to herself either in Dr. An's home or near Darting Lynx's performance space. The streets had limited movement, and fighting past people just to go to other areas of the city that Dr. An had suggested she see appealed to Kia Min little. Now that Kia Min had some semblance of mobility again, she decided that now was as good a time as any to see some of the sights that Wen had once fondly spoken of.

Wen...

Kia Min stopped in front of the entrance to the Black Leopard School. The gates were visible from Dr. An's apartment and Kia Min often caught herself blankly staring towards the school. She had forced herself away from the windows during those times and settled into her meditations to calm and soothe and regain her focus. Now she stood before the gates, and she knew not what to think or how to feel. All she knew was that she wanted to visit the school.

She climbed the white marble stairs up to the school, counting with each step. Twenty one flight, twenty the next. The large wooden gates were wide open, and within Kia Min saw men in blue robes and yellow sashes sparring with one another, and one large building as tall as the Imperial Arena in the center. To the left was a small, modest stone garden where more students kneeled or posed in meditation. The Black Leopard School was truly much, much different than the relaxed and friendly Two Rivers School, though the focus and the intensity differed none.

So this was the school Wen had left for Two Rivers. Despite everything, Kia Min could not help but feel that Wen's mother had made the right decision.

Oh, his mother! Someone had to tell her what happened. She deserved to know. Lin's family had all but disowned her, and Jing Woo had been an orphan, but Wen had family. He had loved ones he left behind much like Kia Min had, and the last thing Kia Min knew her mother would have wanted was to find out about her daughter's death through traveling bards regaling the tale of the hero of the Jade Empire. Wen's mother deserved the same.

Now Kia Min knew why she was here. She needed to find out where Wen's family lived and deliver the news before the people of the Jade Empire discovered Wu the Lotus Blossom's origins.

"Excuse me, miss, but can I help you?"

Kia Min turned to see a man-young, but no less than five or ten years her senior-beside her, wearing robes different than the others in the school. Earthly tones, and extravagantly simple. The master? Or one of them, perhaps. She thought she remembered something about the Black Leopard School having two masters. She just always pegged them as being much, much older.

"Uh, yes," said Kia Min. "I was just wondering... perhaps you would remember a student who used to attend here? Maybe a year or so ago, I don't really know, but... he was here, and then his mother sent him to another school?"

The man sighed, but smiled. "That's sadly the story of a few of our students from the past couple of years. Not enough to have tarnished the reputation of this school, but enough to cause alarm to those of us who cared to notice. Luckily, the circumstances that caused those transfers have been taken care of."

Kia Min hoped she wasn't reaching a dead end. "But perhaps you know this one. His name was Wen, and his mother sent him to a school far away from the Imperial City, out on the borderlands-"

A look of recognition crossed the man's face, and his face brightened. "Two Rivers?"

Kia Min tried not to sound too surprised when she said, "Yes."

"Yes, Wen, I remember him," said the man. "Do you know him?"

Kia Min nodded and found her fingers drumming her bamboo staff nervously. "Yes. I... I went to school with him in Two Rivers."

"How is he?"

She hesitated, and then said slowly, "He's... dead." The man's smile quickly vanished, and his eyes widened and his jaw fell. "I'm here to find out where his mother lives, so I can tell her, instead of having her find out by... other ways."

"Dead?" he asked. "Dead... how?"

Kia Min closed her eyes, sighed, and opened her eyes again. "Two Rivers was attacked by Lotus Assassins. Only a small handful of us survived. Wen wasn't among them. I'm really sorry."

"Dead," he said again as he turned from her. "Dead. He was... he was one of our most promising students. Master Radiant was thoroughly disappointed when his mother pulled him out of the school. It was for his own good, what with some of the turmoil between the two masters at the time, but you just hate to see that kind of talent walk away from you."

Kia Min offered a small, consoling grin. "He did catch on to our master's style pretty quickly." It was no lie; Wen had paled in comparison to Wu and Dawn Star and Gao, but if he had another year or two at the school, he could have rivaled Lin or even Jing Woo.

"So he would have," said the man, and then he turned back to her. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. I... I saw Wen as a younger brother the short time he was here. Master Radiant had even asked me to mentor the lad. My name is Kai, and I'm the new master of the Black Leopard School with the deaths of Master Radiant and Master Smiling Hawk. While Wen was here, I was known as First Brother Kai."

The name rang familiar. "Wen mentioned you," said Kia Min, though she was unsure if he did. "He spoke of you fondly." She felt as though she needed to comfort the man somehow, even if through lies.

Kai smiled. "Thank you," he said. "I know where his mother lives, yes, if you would like to know. She should hear it from you, rather than from a returned letter with the messenger telling her the news third or fourth hand. You know how the truth gets muddied if passed down through too many mouths."

"Thank you."

He nodded, and he motioned for her to follow him as he headed for the building in the center of the school. "Now tell me something. I get the feeling you didn't come all the way to the Imperial City to deliver this message. What brings you to the heart of the Empire?"

Kia Min cringed. "I... honestly don't know. I thought I knew, but I don't anymore."

"Well then, why did you think you came to the Imperial City, if you don't mind my asking."

"I..." Kia Min started. To follow Wu to help her pursue her great destiny that she already accomplished? That sounded foolish. So did anything else that popped into her head. Finally, she settled on, "I guess I'm here to figure out what to do next with my future. I never really thought about it before, but... I don't have much of anything else right now. I could return home to One Stone, but I'd feel like I'm leaving behind too much unfinished business. The problem is, I don't know what unfinished business I'd be leaving behind."

That was dreadfully more open and honest than Kia Min wanted to be to a man she barely knew.

"I see," said Kai, as though he was curious to learn more but felt he already imposed too much. They had entered a room on the first level, extravagantly simple, just like Kai. Kia Min decided this must be his room. "I guess the Imperial City is as good a place as any to figure it out, I suppose. Do you have any idea what you want to do in the meantime?"

She shook her head as Kai rummaged through some scrolls on the bookshelf. "I haven't given that much thought, either. I just knew I had to come to the Imperial City, and once I got here, well, the empress became the empress and the Imperial City was... well..."

"Chaotic?" Kai offered with a smile. He opened up a scroll and carefully scanned through it.

Kia Min offered a polite laugh. "Yes."

"That's understandable. I had a hard time keeping the students here in line throughout those ceremonies. A few of them even got into some trouble at the arena. It's not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately, especially after Master Smiling Hawk's brief reign, but it was more severe and more students at once than the school is used to seeing. And here it is. Wen's mother lives in the Golden Way, near the Scholars' Garden. And please, offer her my condolences."

Kia Min nodded and bowed. "I will. And again, I'm sorry."

"There was nothing you could have done," said Kai. "The Lotus Assassins were formidable opponents. The fact that you survived... either you have miraculous luck or amazing skill. Either way..." He trailed off, tilted his head in curious contemplation, and then shook his head. "Well, I suppose if you wanted something to do, I'd like to see your skill in combat someday. If you don't mind."

"My fighting days may be over," said Kia Min softly. She saw no more purpose in fighting, unless she joined the ranks of the arena fighters. She was unsure if that was something she wanted to do; that had been Jing Woo's goal, not hers.

"Nonetheless, I do want to see Two Rivers' style. You may be the only chance I have to see it."

Kia Min shrugged. "Well, if Wu the Lotus Blossom ever comes around, you could ask her. She is one of the survivors."

"Wu?" Kai sounded surprised and pleased. "The hero of the Jade Empire, the champion of the arena? She had come around the Black Leopard School earlier this month. That was the style? Most impressive!"

"She's better at it than me," said Kia Min. "She was the top student. I'd only ever broken one of her records once, briefly."

"But you did break it. You must be as good as her."

"I wish I were. She survived Two Rivers by skill. More and more, I'm convinced I survived by luck."

Kai smiled. "Now that you tell me about Wu, I doubt that you survived by luck. There's something to that style... and for you to have outmatched her once is enough to tell me. I would like to see you back at the school again. Please tell me you'll be back."

"I'll... try," said Kia Min, and somehow, she knew she would be, and soon.