Chapter 31: Brothers in Arms (Angharad)

(~***~)

Repeat note for those only following this story: I know this chapter and the previous one are bit a longer than I usually drop in one week, but there was a lot I wanted to keep/not cut and they are covering an unusually long period of time for a single chapter pair. Thanks for your forbearance.

Brother Fahai made Angharad nervous. He and his companions had found the children different clothes (and hats again) when they'd learned of the need to conceal them from the Emperor's army. Then they'd brought them to a local temple, where the Brothers had intended to spend the night. They Brothers had been in the region to deal with some local demon problems, then stayed to offer aid to those affected by the political strife. But winter would be coming along before they knew it, so it was time to make the trek home, doing a recruiting round along the way.

The temple was simple and clean. It gave the elf a good feeling at first. Fahai's assistant, Neng Ren, was a nice man, although he seemed a little simple to Ginnar. He scrounged up some leftovers for the children, even though the Brothers did not eat in the evening. [1]

As soon as everyone was settled, Fahai had made himself at home in the tiny room Ginnar and Angharad had been placed in (after a few discussions about the matter of gender – but it had been decided they should be treated as siblings.) He questioned the children about their journey to date, taking notes with an inscrutable expression on his face. Neng Ren sat in on it all, responding to the details of the children's story with rather more sympathy than Fahai.

Once it had been revealed that they had been in the Imperial menagerie, Fahai had asked many questions about each child's people. He was satisfied on the matter of dwarfs fairly quickly, and seemed unbothered about Ginnar.

But on the subject of elves, Fahai became insistent. He questioned Angharad about their culture, life spans, and everything she could tell him about their instructions to stay in Valinor. He looked skeptical when she told him about the accident that brought her to Middle Earth. (He was accustomed to demons lying.)

Despite a meek protest from Neng Ren, Fahai asked Angharad to touch the pommel of a spirit knife as an experiment. She was wary, based on Xiaoqing's warnings, but did as she was asked. They were supposed to be able to trust the Brothers. But when she touched it, her whole arm went numb and she felt something akin to the rash one might get from stinging nettles in her fёa.

"Ouch!" she protested, looking at Fahai in disbelief. Was this yet another adult who she should not trust? She rubbed her arm.

Neng Ren's heart ached at the hurt look in the little girl's eyes. How Fahai could be so compassionate with human people, and so blind when it came to individual spirits and demons, the junior monk could not understand.

Fahai nodded knowingly and put the spirit knife away. He was decided. He moved on to asking about the snake demon without apologizing. Ginnar and Angharad agreed without having to discuss it that they would not reveal what they knew about Xiaoqing. They admitted to having seen her in the menagerie, as Fahai had revealed he knew she had been there. Other than that, they feigned cluelessness.

Fahai was finally satisfied that he understood the situation and left the children to get some rest, locking the door of their room behind him. Angharad could hear the two monks speaking as they walked down the hallway; what she heard was not encouraging.

"She's only a child, Abbot," Neng Ren said pleadingly. "She's said herself, she wants to go home to the spirit realm, she just has to wait for her parents to come and bring her there. Don't we always give demons and spirits a warning to leave voluntarily before we capture them? Amitabha's teachings call for mercy and compassion for all beings, don't they?"

"She can wait for them in Lei Fang Tower with the other spirits," Fahai replied. "We don't have to put her on the same floor as the violent demons. She doesn't belong here. She certainly doesn't belong at Temple Mountain. Who do you suppose would be responsible for seeing to it that she doesn't cause havoc for everyone there? I won't risk it."

"Let me try," Neng Ren pleaded on her behalf. "I'll be responsible for her. And if she proves troublesome, we can bring her to Lei Fang Tower then. She's just a little girl, Abbot."

Fahai let out a noise of indecision before they moved outside her hearing range. Ginnar had already fallen into exhausted sleep on the pallet beside her. Angharad curled up into a ball and cried into her numb arm until she drifted into reverie.

As her mind wandered that night, she thought about where they'd been. Many thoughts and feelings washed over the young elf. She felt grateful for the assistance they'd received from some. Sadness for the mortals she'd met who suffered from hunger or oppression.

The betrayals and cruelties they'd all suffered caused her great hurt. And then anger. She was up with the first light of predawn, pacing back and forth with restless energy. She could feel her arm again, and the pain in her fёa had subsided, but she was burning a different way now.

She was supposed to trust these Brothers. And now they were considering imprisoning her in some jail for spirits and demons until her parents arrived? These were the same men who had denied Jade Fox teaching because she was a girl and tricked her into being their servant. Angry tears started pooling in her eyes.

Finally, Angharad resorted to what she'd been relying on for many months now. She began to move. She started with the long warm up they'd used sometimes in training. Jade Fox had called it Qi Gong. If you did it right, it concentrated the life energy that flowed through every person, animal, and plant, increasing one's personal power. It always made Angharad feel more calm and collected. By the time Fahai and Neng Ren opened the door, Angharad was so engrossed in her routine that she did not notice their arrival.

Fahai was, as all abbots must be, a lineage master in the Tradition. As he watched the spirit girl complete a full and advanced Qi Gong routine, he could tell she had talent. She moved very well indeed. But she also had rage. He could see it in her movements – they were harsh and sharp. But as she progressed through the steps, she began to level out. Fahai's eyebrows pressed together in thought.

"You have studied our Tradition," he said as much as asked when she finished.

Angharad startled back into reality. "Yes, with the rebel trainers," she admitted. She thought maybe she would avoid mentioning Jade Fox – she knew they had bad blood.

"Jade Fox teaches Li Zicheng's rebel army, although she is forbidden from doing so," Fahai noted. "She stayed with us once."

Angharad looked away guiltily.

"Do you know why we didn't want to teach Jade Fox, before she stole one of the core teaching scrolls?" Fahai asked the elf.

"Because she was a girl," the young spirit said resentfully. "So she was only fit to be a servant." (One of the scrolls? She thought to herself.)

Fahai was a little surprised by that. He hadn't told the young Jade (she added the 'Fox' to her own name later,) it was because of her gender. Although, it had quietly been a factor. That hadn't been why they'd offered to let her stay as a worker, though. He'd truly thought it would be a benefit to the young orphan.

"Jade had some potential, but she was unbalanced," Fahai said. "Her anger over what happened to her family consumed her. The Tradition can make people dangerous in the wrong hands. We do not train people who might make themselves harmful to others."

Angharad looked uncomfortable. Ginnar was awake by now. He'd been watching this exchange carefully.

"Jade taught Anhe as a private student for a while, but she tricked her into doing something risky and foolish and then let Anhe take the blame," Ginnar told Fahai.

Unlike Angharad, who still had mixed feelings, the dwarf did not like Jade Fox at all. Angharad looked at the floor unhappily, starting to jiggle one of her legs in renewed restlessness.

"Sometimes," Angharad blurted out, then bit her lip.

"Go on," Neng Ren encouraged her.

"Sometimes studying the Tradition helps me feel more balanced," Angharad said truthfully. "But Jade taught me that the power of anger can be useful, too."

"You want to keep studying?" Fahai asked. Angharad nodded. She didn't know what she'd do with herself in a temple during a long wait if she couldn't move all this energy around.

"Come with me," Fahai said.

Neng Ren had been pleading with him all night and through the morning rituals to be flexible for once and let the girl at least try to get along at Temple Mountain while she waited for her parents. Neng Ren was not the smartest man. But Fahai kept him close for a reason. In one trait, his assistant was the most superior monk in their community. Neng Ren was, (everyone but himself knew,) the best example of compassion embodied among them. The man's heart was unfailingly in the right place.

He thought it was foolish of Neng Ren to ignore the risks it would pose to their community to have a young, angry spirit with them. It had been years since the flood the white snake demon caused, and they were still doing restoration to ancient buildings and shrines. Good Brothers had drowned. These beings were powerful. They could do immense damage to the fragile mortals around them. In many ways, a child was more concerning, not less. Did she have any control?

But Fahai knew he sometimes got overly attached to rules or worries – it was feedback he had been receiving from skilled teachers for years. He kept Neng Ren around like a canary in a coal mine. The fact that his assistant was insisting on a reprieve for the spirit girl forced Fahai to pay attention.

The abbot led them into a courtyard, where a few families had gathered with their sons. The families brought food to share with the monks – this was offered to Angharad and Ginnar as well. Angharad dutifully took only what she precisely needed, explaining to Fahai that her people ate less food than mortals did. This thoughtfulness pushed the sliver of doubt further under Fahai's skin.

"These boys are here to test for entry into our training program for fighting monks," Fahai told her when they were done eating. "I want you to test with them."

Angharad perked up hopefully. A real training program! And what were the 'other scrolls'? She agreed to the test readily. Neng Ren beamed.

As Angharad lined up with the boys and began moving through the test sequences, Fahai watched. He sat down next to the dwarf child.

"Do your people know about these 'elves'?" Fahai asked the boy quietly. "Are they like demons? They are long-lived. Are they true immortals?"

"We have tales about the elves, yes. They've been gone for a long time now," Ginnar replied, a little surprised. He had a sense that he could help his friend now if he said the right things, although he wasn't sure what that would be.

"They are a race apart. They've accomplished feats none of us ever could," Ginnar explained.

(Ginnar had in mind a family story passed down through the centuries about Legolas killing a war oliphaunt and the entire squadron that rode it singlehandedly. Ginnar had always found it patently unbelievable. A clear fabrication, or at least wildly exaggerated. Now he was not so sure. Give Angharad another century of training and fighting experience and he wouldn't put it past her.)

"Our stories say their bodies could be killed. There are even stories of elves dying from despair. But their spirits just fly home to their 'heaven' as you call it. Their bodies get remade there somehow, and then they just keep going as if nothing happened. They have to live through the whole of the world, and some of them get tired," Ginnar recited, thinking very hard on what he'd learned back in Aglarond.

Fahai sat back and watched the girl. He saw her get fidgety and frustrated repeatedly. She did not have good self-discipline. But from what the Abbot knew about Jade Fox he wasn't surprised by that.

He could see the girl wished to please the trainers. He saw her self-correct several times to pay attention to the other students and not overwhelm them as they did simple sparring. Between these moments, if he looked carefully, he noticed a subtle expression that kept flickering over her face. He tried to name it for himself.

It was sadness, he thought finally, or hurt. There are stories of elves dying of despair. And suddenly he understood Neng Ren's compassion. He ceased to see her for all the damage other spirits and demons had caused in their lands for years. Instead, he saw a child who was fighting for her life.

As he mulled it over, he supposed it was their responsibility to correct Jade's incomplete teachings, too. They should have been more careful about who had access to the records room. That had been an important lesson in complacency.

The girl was going to the heaven she called Valinor one day, when her parents came for her. She would never take vows of dedication like the other children they accepted into their program. She would be the only girl in nearly a century, although as he watched he realized she was too young for it to matter. She would even be good at their Tradition, once they helped her even herself out.

Fahai gestured for Neng Ren to come over.

"I'll let her try and learn with the young fighting monks," the Abbot told his assistant. "We'll have to share responsibility for her. If she proves dangerous, we will have no choice but to send her to Lei Fang to wait. But even then, we'd find a way to keep her comfortable. Everyone else has to be safe too, though."

"Of course," said Neng Ren, beaming. Fahai had been getting a bit better in recent years, he thought. His instincts were still to be as rigid as a board, but he was starting to catch himself out when it mattered.

Ginnar watched the exchange between the two men, unsure of what to think. The simple man was the one to watch, he decided. The fact that he was happy had to be a good thing. He did start to wonder what he'd do at Temple Mountain, but for Angharad, he was happy. He thought she needed this.

When the test was over, the instructor had a discussion with Fahai about which boys to bring back to Temple Mountain with them. And Fahai told the instructor his decision about the spirit girl.

To his surprise, the trainer was enthusiastic about it. He thought she had done very well. As a teacher to the youngest trainees, the things she struggled with seemed normal to him. She would be far from the first student who arrived needing some lessons in self-control. He was confident they could teach her the way they'd taught countless students in the past. She'd paid attention to his corrections.

Angharad was giddy when they told her their decision. No demon prison. Real training, in the real Tradition. She was a bit annoyed when she'd been told she'd have to begin at the beginning like everyone else, but she secretly decided she'd convince them otherwise by excelling. It was a fun little challenge.

Fahai couldn't help but smile as he saw her bounce off, practically wiggling in excitement as she went to talk to her friend. As was often the case when he dug his heels in, Neng Ren had been in the right. She really was a little girl still, when she could be.

(~***~)

The Brothers made their way to Temple Mountain over the course of a few weeks, stopping in various towns and considering new students. The instructors that traveled with them started with those who had been selected along the way, beginning with some basic routines every evening before bed. Angharad thought they were very easy.

To her surprise, her trainer was more insistent on her doing what seemed an unrelated task. The Brothers travelled with a sweet little mule they (for some reason) called Cabbage. Angharad was assigned the task of putting his packs away, brushing him down, and giving him water and food at the end of each day, and putting everything together again in the morning. Her trainer would check her work.

If she forgot, she had to miss training to do it. If she was sloppy, she had to do it all over again. If she dragged her feet in the morning, the whole group had to wait for her to finish and the other children would complain at her for delaying breakfast. Angharad found it incredibly annoying, but she caught on and started getting it done, and done correctly, without making a fuss.

"She got it quickly enough when it gets her something she wants," her instructor commented to Fahai. "It's a good first step. She's not so different from the students I've taught before that we don't know how to teach her."

Fahai found this encouraging. As he'd watched her on their journey, he had to agree with that assessment. She was a bit energetic, but she was a lot like many of the students he'd traveled with before on this recruiting route over the decades. He was starting to feel confident that they could figure out the spirit child, and even do her some real good.

He hoped the adult spirits would agree when they arrived. It was a worry. She had assured him they would not find a daughter training in the fighting arts offensive. He hoped she was correct. He didn't want to do all this work with her and then have to use a spirit knife on her parents if they got too angry.

Fahai started spending time with Ginnar while Angharad was in the evening training, asking the young dwarf about his family, his interests, and his time in the rebel camp. It didn't seem like the boy was interested in joining the serious fighting school, although he said he'd like the basic teachings they'd had in the mornings at the camp. As Fahai caught on to the dwarfs' proclivity towards crafting and tinkering, he finally had an idea for what to do with the boy with the difficult name, who seemed resigned to being called "Rock".

When they finally arrived at Temple Mountain, Fahai wasted no time in giving their new residents a tour. When they reached the ongoing renovation of the historic shrine that had been wrecked in the flood, he smiled to himself as the boy started poking around all the ongoing work, asking about everything with increasing enthusiasm.

There were some beautiful ancient statues of Guan Yin (when they described her, Angharad realized they were talking about Nienna!) that were being meticulously restored by a master craftsman who'd been brought to the mountain just for that purpose.

"Master Gongshu, Rock is one of our newest residents. He will be here for some time until people from his own lands come to bring him home. He has a great passion is for craftsmanship. Perhaps you would be willing to show him what you are working on?" Fahai suggested politely. He was rather hopeful this would work.

"Hmmmm," Master Gongshu mumbled, focused on a tricky gem setting. "Don't have time. Too hard to explain. You've only paid me for three years' work. Tough to finish all this by then," he commented gruffly.

Master Gongshu wasn't a particularly warm man, nor much of a talker. He spent much of his life in silence, focused on skilled tasks. He didn't need to be a people person.

Angharad had been wandering around the renovation site, getting bored, when she'd heard Fahai introduce Ginnar to the artisan. She smiled to herself as she realized what he was trying to do. She saw an opportunity to support her friend and grabbed it.

"Master Gongshu, your work is very fine indeed. As fine as the some of the best dwarfish workmanship I've ever seen," she bluffed. She hadn't seen much.

"Did you know the dwarves were created by Aulё himself to be the finest craftsmen on the earth? My friend here is a credit to their race. In the short time we've been together, he has already learned jade carving and was the best person in our camp at fixing – well, pretty much anything that breaks. If you need to finish your task in a rush, you could have no better assistant," she boasted shamelessly.

Ginnar was turning red under his beard and making grumpy noises, but he was very flattered. Angharad had noticed he needed something to do here and seemed to be conspiring with Abbot Fahai to gain him an apprenticeship under this man, whose work appeared to be some of the finest the young dwarf had ever seen produced by humans.

The artisan put down both the paintbrush and magnifying glass he'd been holding up to the detailed statue he'd been working on. He looked the tiny, bearded boy up and down.

"Show me your hands," Master Gongshu demanded.

Ginnar scowled and shoved his hands under the man's face. Convincing early calluses. Very small – that could be quite useful for some of the things that needed tending. The two stared at each other with matching frowns.

"I'll try it for a fortnight and if he's a help and not a hindrance he can stay on," Master Gongshu finally conceded.

"Fine," said Ginnar.

"Fine," said Master Gongshu.

Angharad suppressed a cackle. They were perfect for each other. Fahai and Neng Ren smiled politely and thanked the Master.

(~***~)

A few more weeks and the children were settled into Temple Mountain. After some discussion it was decided Ginnar and Angharad should have a small room together. The fighting trainers wanted Angharad to stay with the other trainees in the bunk room, but Fahai was not comfortable with such an arrangement. Neng Ren thought he was being stubborn, but it wasn't worth fighting over.

So they saw each other in the morning and in the evening, but during the day they went their separate ways. Angharad joined the fighting school with enthusiasm. She could not believe how intense these human children were! But if they wanted to include her in standing on their heads or punching iron bars, she was all in. [2]

They asked her to do many things she found irritating, but she began to adjust. One of the morning sessions included drills where they insisted she match her peers: it was more important to be synchronized than for her to push herself.

"Jump only as high as the others, Anhe. Move at the same speed as everyone else, Anhe."

She hated the seated meditation exercises, eventually letting herself doze through it to stay still, as required. Until the teachers caught on that elves could sleep sitting up with their eyes open and started randomly throwing cloth balls at her from all angles in the middle of sessions. Eventually, they didn't need to anymore.

In the afternoons, where students' strengths were reinforced and their weaknesses shored up in more personal practices, she was asked to make herself available to help the youngest children as they learned to do flips and somersaults. She barely noticed as over time, she stopped feeling annoyed about it and just did it. And then, eventually, she started to enjoy helping them.

Ginnar noticed the difference, though. She wasn't coming back from training sessions fuming and edgy anymore. When they were together at the end of the day, it felt like she was in the room with him, not a thousand miles away.

She asked him about his work with the artisan, which he had become extremely enthusiastic about. Ginnar had fallen in love with the arts involved in restoring historic works. Once they'd realized how teachable he was, the handful of craftsman working on the temple were all happy to involve him in their projects. He got to see everything. She even started to come to look on free days without him having to hint.

When Ginnar spent time with Angharad and the other children in the fighting school on rest days, he was surprised to find that she was very friendly with them. Unlike in the rebel village, these children liked 'Anhe'. It appeared these Brothers had a carefully cultivated expectation that students should only compete against themselves, not each other. This culture permeated the group, so when Angharad performed amazing feats, or was unable to complete certain tasks (the spirit knife training was impossible for her,) her peers only asked her: how can you do better? She learned to ask the same of them.

A year passed. One day Angharad reported to Abbot Fahai, respectfully requesting his attention.

"My parents will be here soon, sir," she told the monk. "I can feel them getting close."

"Can you tell when?" Fahai asked her.

"I might know a day or two before," Angharad told him. Their growing presence in her soul sense had been so gradual, and she had so fully immersed herself in learning. She had woken that morning momentarily disoriented, thinking she was at home in Valinor – and she knew. They were almost here.

"Tell me if you do. I'll make sure someone is waiting to greet them," Fahai told her.

He smiled as the spirit girl bowed and quietly left the room. Her energy was so much more contained. Neng Ren had been correct, she was not a danger. And Fahai believed that her time here had truly done her some good.

But the world was arranged in a certain way on purpose. And it was also good that she should leave the human world. It was time for the elf to go home.

(~***~)

Footnotes:

[1] Fahai is from the actual Legend of the White Snake, with his character partially influenced by his depiction in The Sorceror and the White Snake (film, 2011). Neng Ren is exclusively from the movie, and I've expanded on his character a tad.

[2] The Kung Fu training for kids who do it in residential programs is out of this world. They are so impressive, so young.

These are fun Youtube videos on their training:

watch?v=c4PQfgq2NsQ&list=WL

watch?v=J60g0pMtcwY&list=WL&index=4

watch?v=Dwj8fSFxyVk&list=WL&index=5