Yan Qiu did not sleep well.

  He had lain awake for most of the night with the letter running through his head, the words looping back on themselves every time he tried to push them away. Blackroot. Wang Jun. The Wei family. His parents packing up and leaving for his father’s family village because there was nothing left. He had closed his eyes and opened them and closed them again, and at some point the ceiling had gone from dark to grey and then to pale gold as the morning light came through the window.

  The third floor was stirring around him. Blankets shifted and floorboards creaked as the other disciples started their day, and the low murmur of voices drifted up from the second floor. Yan Qiu lay there with his eyes half open, staring at the ceiling. The letter was still in his wooden chest at the foot of the bed, folded and sealed away, but it did not feel sealed away. It felt like it was sitting on his chest.

  Sun Hao was already up, standing by the window with his arms stretched above his head. He turned when he heard Yan Qiu move and looked at him for a moment, and whatever he saw on Yan Qiu’s face made him tilt his head.

  “What happened to you?” he said. “Did someone reject you in your dream?”

  “What?” Yan Qiu said.

  “You look sad, Qiu. And it is barely morning.”

  Yan Qiu sat up and rubbed his face with both hands. He had not realized it was showing. He thought he had kept it off his face. He narrowed his eyes and said, “It was the letter. I will tell you about it some other day.”

  Sun Hao watched him for a second longer, then nodded. He did not push it, which was one of the things Yan Qiu liked about him. He knew when to leave something alone.

  They got ready in silence for a while, and then Yan Qiu changed the subject because he did not want to sit in the heaviness anymore.

  “So,” he said. “Any development between you and Jiang Mei?”

  The effect was immediate. Sun Hao groaned and his whole posture changed, his shoulders dropping and his head tilting back like Yan Qiu had just asked him to carry a boulder up a hill. “Do not even get me started on that girl,” he said. “She is stiffer than a rock. She does not even say anything to me.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the window frame. “Honestly, she only talks to you freely. With me she just stands there and nods or gives one-word answers and then walks away like I said something wrong.”

  Yan Qiu almost laughed. “She was stiff with me too,” he said. “It took a few trials before she started talking.”

  “A few trials?” Sun Hao stared at him like he had just said something unreasonable. “She has not spoken more than ten words to me in a month. Ten words, Qiu. I counted.”

  They both laughed at that, and the tightness in Yan Qiu’s chest loosened a little. It did not go away, but it moved to the side, and that was enough for now.

  Yan Qiu went to see Elder Han after that. The elder had called for him before his seclusion ended, and he had not yet gone to meet him since the letter and everything that came with it had taken up the rest of his evening.

  The training grounds were quiet at this hour. Most of the disciples had not started their morning routines yet, and the stone courtyard was empty except for the rows of practice dummies along the far wall and the weapon racks near the entrance. Elder Han was already there, standing with his hands behind his back the way he always did, like a man who had been waiting for a while and did not mind it.

  He turned when he heard Yan Qiu’s footsteps and looked at him, and his eyes narrowed slightly as he studied him.

  “Hoh,” he said. “Third stage already?” There was something in his voice that was not quite surprise but close to it, like he had expected it to happen eventually but not this soon. “You really missed out on the rewards for my assessment.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “It was my own doing, Elder,” Yan Qiu said.

  “I am glad you are accountable.” Elder Han was quiet for a moment. “But it was not entirely your fault. Those four came after you first, and you defended yourself. The problem was the excess, not the fight.” He looked at Yan Qiu directly. “Leave the past where it is. If something like that happens again, report it to us. You are allowed to duel within the sect’s rules, and there are proper channels for handling disputes. Do not take it into your own hands.”

  Yan Qiu nodded. He had already accepted that during his month in seclusion, but hearing it from Elder Han made it feel more settled, like the matter was truly closed and he could move forward from it.

  “Why did you call me here, Elder?” he asked.

  Elder Han’s expression shifted. It was subtle, just a slight tightening around his jaw, but it told Yan Qiu that whatever came next was not a casual matter.

  “I have a peculiar request for you,” he said. “It will count as a mission.”

  “A mission?”

  “A village in the north has been getting attacked by beasts,” Elder Han said. “It has been happening a lot lately, and the attacks are getting worse. If it is left as it is, the beasts will spread toward the nearby cities, and by then the problem will be much harder to contain. It is necessary to deal with them early.” He paused and looked at Yan Qiu. “You will be joining a team of a few senior outer disciples and two inner disciples. I am asking if you are willing.”

  The words hit Yan Qiu before he had time to prepare for them.

  A village in the north. Attacked by beasts. The same thing his mother had written about in her letter, the monsters coming down from the north and overrunning Blackroot. He did not know if it was the same village. Elder Han had not said the name. But the direction was the same and the situation was the same, and the timing lined up with what his mother had described.

  “I am willing,” he said. His voice came out steady, which surprised him, because his mind was already racing. “But why me, Elder? The top two from your assessment, Lin Suyin and Gao Yichen, would they not be better suited?”

  “I considered giving this opportunity to them,” Elder Han said. “But after seeing what you did a month ago, four opponents at once including a senior, I figured you would be the better choice. This problem only arose a few weeks ago, so the timing works.” He studied Yan Qiu for a moment. “I am sure you would have been among the top two in my assessment had you been allowed to participate. You missed its reward, and if we think about it, that is partly on the circumstances. And you have reached the third stage this early on top of it.” His voice carried a weight that was not there before. “I am sure you can handle this.”

  Yan Qiu felt something warm settle in his chest at those words. Elder Han was not a man who said things he did not mean, and he was not someone who handed out praise to make people feel better. If he said Yan Qiu could handle it, he believed it. That meant something.

  But that was not why he said yes.

  The village in the north. He kept coming back to it. His mother’s letter was still fresh in his mind, every line of it, and the part about Blackroot had carved itself into him overnight. His parents were not there anymore. They had packed up and left for his father’s family village because there was nothing left for them, and the houses were standing empty with nobody in them. But the beasts were still there. The things that had killed Wang Jun, someone who had no business standing between monsters and an old man, and the things that had injured the Wei family so badly that their mother still had not recovered. Those beasts were still roaming the area around Blackroot, and if nobody dealt with them they would spread to other villages and do the same thing to other families.

  He thought about Wang Jun trying to protect his grandfather and dying for it. He thought about the Wei family’s daughter somewhere in this sect, not knowing what had happened to her parents. He thought about his own mother writing that letter and trying to be gentle about it, starting with how proud she was before telling him that his home was gone.

  He wanted those beasts gone. It was not particularly for the mission nor for the reward or because Elder Han believed in him. He wanted them gone because they had taken something from the people he grew up with, and if he could do anything about it, he would.

  “I will do it,” he said.

  “Good.” Elder Han nodded once.

  “What rank will the mission be, Elder?”

  “Around B-rank. The details are still being finalized.” He turned back toward the weapon rack. “Come tomorrow before sunrise. I will brief the full team on the specifics then.”

  Yan Qiu bowed and left the training grounds. The sun had come up while they were talking and the sect was starting to fill with movement, disciples heading to the dining hall and the training yards, but he barely noticed any of it. His mind was on the north, on the village, on the beasts that were still there.

  He walked back toward Stone Sparrow Hall with the morning air cool against his face. The letter was still on his mind and it would be for a while, but the heaviness from the morning had shifted into something else. He had somewhere to go now and something to do about it.

  He was going north.