“Leng Mingtian,

  32nd Library of East Saffron City,

  1183 Academy St. 32nd Precinct,

  East Saffron, BSS10000,

  Ca Cao

  “Hello! Sorry that it took so long to write this letter, I wasn’t thinking about it for a while what with how busy things are, and everything going on, and classes and… well, so on and so forth, you get the point. I’ve been trying my best to keep on top of everything, but it’s certainly no easy task. In a lot of ways the University is everything I ever could have imagined, and in a lot of other ways, it’s nothing like what I thought it was.

  “It’s been pretty peaceful so far. I expected a lot more arrogant young masters, but while the arrogance is certainly there— remind me to tell you about the Song clan students some time, they’ve seemingly made it their entire life goal to drive everyone up the wall with just how annoying they can be— most everyone’s very focused on their own pursuits. I think everyone really wants to get into the Bloody Saffron Sect, personally. That’s what I’m doing, at least— they’ve all been given the opportunity to, if they just defeat the other students of the year, reach out and grasp the very greatest opportunity anyone in the entire world can have… ha! Soon Avyr and I are going to be in the Bloody Saffron Sect, and then you’ll be able to brag to your friends that you know not one, but two disciples! And, and— of course, I’ll make sure to send back whatever I can about formations. You deserve at least that much.”

  Mingtian resisted the urge to chuckle as he read over Lily’s scribbled calligraphy, the words caught on the crumples and folds in the paper and catching, in turn, off the dim light in his room. There was something decidedly amusing about the entire thing— a first-step novitiate, daring to think that they could provide for an Immortal Sovereign in their own art. Yet, in turn, it was also… touching, in a way. That she would.

  He continued to read.

  “Other than that… oh, I guess I can tell you what’s happened so far! I’m sure you’ve been dying of curiosity—” true, though it was more a matter of holding himself back from watching over them like some overprotective immaterial ghost— “so, hm… well, I guess I can go over everything! When I went to buy the stamps for this letter with my token, they said that the university paid for however much correspondence we wanted, which— isn’t that awesome?

  “Anyways, anyways— lemme get back on track. Avyr is leaning over my shoulder (figuratively, you know he’s not tall enough to—” then, there was a streak of ink where Lily’s brush had clearly been knocked aside, disrupting the flow of the letter for a moment. “Okay, maybe it was a bad idea to write that. He tried to hop up on my shoulders so that I’d be wrong, but he’s actually super heavy (in a typical cat way, not an overweight way!) and that caused a whole mess.

  “So, the whole university is run by an Outer Elder! I’ve only seen him once, at the initiation ceremony, but…” here, for a moment, the flow of her writing was broken, trailing off into something far more contemplative. Far more serious. “I’ve never seen such terrifyingly awe-inspiring power before, Master Mingtian. I always knew that the upper ranks of the cultivators were powerful, but… to feel it, there, was like feeling the whole sky descending on us. He teleported in— real teleportation, I’ve got it confirmed from Qinfu— he’s my liaison by the way— and then gave a speech and gave us drugs and then left. It was like a scene out of a movie!”

  “Other than that… well, I’m a cultivator now! I think that’s pretty cool. It was actually kind of easy to break through. It was just… wasn’t much of a breakthrough really, which I’m pretty sure is because of how high quality the pill must’ve been.” At that, Mingtian well and truly smiled, leaning back with half a laugh but barely stopped at the edge of burbling out. So she’d done it. He’d wondered, what with how they’d waited for the pill in order to make sure her cultivation base aligned more with the East Saffron standard, but— no. It seemed that enlightenment had not been barred to her after all.

  That was good. That was very good.

  “Pretty much most of my attention has been focused on keeping up in my classes, so I haven’t had as much time to experiment with formations as I used to. That’s fine though, because I’ve still been making progress! Hopefully sometime soon I’ll be able to modify the three-dimensional runes, or try out some techniques that’ll help me inscribe three-dimensional runes in their native 3D form, as opposed to transforming them into… well, you get the gist. The classes are interesting! The University’s scheduling sucks, which sucks because it means you can’t really plan anything more than a week in advance, but at least the instructional quality is pretty good. I’ve learnt more about qi these past few weeks than I have my entire life! I never knew that there was so much depth to the feild…” how little she knew. He smiled softly, imagining it— if she thought that this was deep, then the secrets of the Heavenly Realm would be mindblowing. He found himself idly wanting to just give them to her, if only to see her reaction…

  Though, she’d probably not even understand most of them. They were the sort of things that divinities spent eons seeking enlightenment on, so it wasn’t like a mere mortal would ever be able to grasp the true nuance of them.

  “I’m learning the sword, too! I didn’t think it’d be my sort of thing at first— you know how I fight, with all the talismans and formations and such— but now that I’ve had time to practice more, I’ve come around a bit. Probably the most important part of the whole thing is qi efficiency. I only have so much qi to practice with, and it’s pretty clear that just relying on the little bits of ambient qi that the talismans come in contact with isn’t going to be sufficient forever. One day, I’ll have to upgrade, but that brings me straight to the vagaries of higher rank materials as components, and more complicated formations, and… well, Qinfu has been trying pretty hard to convince me that there’s something just as elegant with the simplicity of the blade.

  “It’s really different from formations though! It’s a lot of practicing the same motions over and over again until I’ve got them right, then going to meet my liaison and realizing I’d completely failed to do it right. Kinda like cultivation, actually. It’s more practice than theory, and I think… sometimes, when I do a strike as close to perfect as I can— and not even using qi, because Qinfu hasn’t allowed me to do that yet! I feel… not qi itself, but the flow of qi in my body, and the way it moves so liquid-languidly? Dunno how to describe it, but it feels sharp.”

  Mingtian put down the letter for a moment, struck with a sudden pang of… nostalgia? Almost, more bitter than, still sweet— homesickness, for a home that’d never really existed. Those were the exact sorts of arguments he used to have with Baixue all the time. She’d always say something along the lines of ‘I’m not a backline fighter,’ or ‘I’m not a mage flinging techniques, I’m a swordswoman manipulating reality…’ or whatever else she’d say, and he’d argue back that his needles allowed him to focus on weaving grand formations and were plenty good defense in case anyone ever got close enough, and that flying weapons were not an unacceptable weakness… He chuckled. Neither of them had really ever been right, and both of them had known that. It had just been… their paths, both of them, paths that had taken them to the highest eschalon of existence.

  The sword… he’d not seen Lily as a swordswoman, but it’d fit her. The ability to cut through her problems directly would be something she’d look on rather favorably, now that he thought about it…

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  “We’re both making friends! Or well, acquaintances at least. There’s always this edge of competition, and I think that… no matter how hard we try to overcome it, the students here will put their own success first. They have high expectations to live up to, you know? Still! Even if Avyr and I are the only real friends each other have, we’ve met some interesting people! Qinfu is nice, but he’s old. I've spoken to Aomao a few times, and wouldn’t mind speaking to her a bit more— oh, she’s a monk, apparently, and the disciple of some other monk who’s kind of famous. Plus, Avyr has some cat friends he’s been making, which is probably good for him. I think they’ve been getting along well.

  “Ok, I’ve gotta run, my next class is soon, and Avyr is already pestering me to wrap this up. Dunno if I’ve just spent too much time around him or if he’s gotten used to me, but I can’t imagine I ever found him menacing. He’s too adorable for that—” and the rest was smudged out by what was clearly a hastily pressed paw. A few lines further, all by its lonesome, a single scrawl of text stood—

  “Sincerely, Ever Your Humble Student,

  Lily Ward.”

  He smiled as he folded the letter up and placed it down on his desk.

  Happy for her.

  ………

  Somehow, the second letter was written in even better script, which was impressive because Lily was a budding formations master and Avyr didn’t even have hands.

  “Leng Mingtian,

  32nd Library of East Saffron City,

  1183 Academy St. 32nd Precinct,

  East Saffron, BSS10000,

  Ca Cao

  “I hope this letter finds you in good health. Duly ashamed though I am to admit, I did not even truly think of writing correspondence to you until after Lily had already started hers. However, the idea caught onto me, and it has been the only thing I’ve been able to think of today. It’s strange, almost— how little I realized I missed you until it came upon me with such whelming force. Svvh— that is, one of the fellow cats— teased me about writing a letter to a ‘friend’ (friend, that is, delivered with an appropriately euphemistic mewl) but I can’t imagine he’d be very happy if he learned I was writing to a human, much less a human who’s taught me better than any teacher I’ve ever had. And I do include in that all the many teachers of the University of East Saffron.

  “I have, unfortunately, encountered some significant difficulties that Lily has managed to, by whatever luck or hand of fate, avoid by and large. That is, largely, the fault of my liaison, who is quite clearly the most insufferable type of human. The type whose behavior makes you think that maybe Svvh-type people have a point… were it not for my memory of you, I might have even believed that. And Lily, of course. He has been nothing but a pain to me since the moment of our meeting, demanding that I switch my cultivation to an utterly unsuitable mantra. I refuse—” a harsh, bold writing, a reminder of the nature of the beast behind the pen— “to corrupt the perfect purity of my core for something so petty!

  “For a while I thought this was simply something that I’d have to do— and so, rightly, I feared that this would block my path into the Bloody Saffron Sect. But, no— after reviewing all the various rules and regulations of the Academy, and asking some of the senior functionaries at the Outer Elder’s pagoda, I’ve learnt that I’m not required to listen to any advice from my liaison. The documents spoke of a rather interesting past to that particular guideline, actually— a story of Inner Disciples messing up the cultivation of those who study under Sundering stage cultivators or ancient mantas or… whatever as such could lead to such a situation. The sect, it seems, is not truly as confident in its outer disciples as it likes to portray itself as.

  “But I digress. Things have been difficult in those regards, not even mentioning all the other, far more mundane difficulties I have as a cat in a human’s world. The University is simply not built for my kind. While I’ve been informed that herbology in the sect is a much more traditional affair— which makes sense, as they grow the sort of rare herbs over which only a discerning eye might triumph in their care— the University still teaches the scientific basis of the art, which itself is also understandable. Less understandable, however— or rather, simply annoying— is the delicacy of the practical sections. Let it never be said that the elegance of a cat makes them good in a lab! My paws were not designed for measuring out microliter-tolerance micropropagations! I’m sure that if I had a pipette built for my bodyplan it would be far easier, but as it is, some activities are all but impossible.

  “Some of the instructors are understanding. Some are… not. Though, I will give them that at least most of it does not seem to be intentional. Speciesism in East Saffron has always been lower than, say, Xianghua. The ones that are harder to deal with are the ones who refuse to relax— or at least change— their standards for those who are unable to complete them. It is one thing, I believe, to struggle and overcome, and succeed despite the limitations thrust upon us by the circumstance of our birth, and another thing entirely when standards that were entirely contrived in the first place conspire to force us into failure.

  “Again, I return to the cats of White Rock Refuge. They have been incredibly kind to me, even if we sometimes have our disagreements. If I ever find myself at a loss as to what to do, or blocked by some bit of obstinacy, they are always able to at least provide consoling, if not actual help. For rather obvious reasons, they understand my plight better than perhaps anyone in the entire University— even, Lily, for however much she tries. Excited and a bit crass (and no small bit straightforward) though she can be at times, she is a great solidity against which I can always rely. I cannot wait to be in the sect with her, and beyond all of this.”

  The paper ended there— and unlike Lily, who’d just scrawled over the back of hers regardless of bleedthrough, Avyr had transitioned to a separate page entirely. Again, a soft smile rose to Mingtian’s face. The two of them were silly enough by themselves, yes, but when compared to each other…

  “The University of East Saffron is breathtakingly beautiful. I don’t know entirely how to describe it with the words of this language alone.

  “There is a sense of a vast and gentle thing, the nature abounding around us— a breath of fresh air, almost literally, to the choking acridity of the asphalt roads, and concrete streets, and buildings who seem to claw down the sky and hunt the fleeting clouds. Not so for the University of East Saffron. It wears its age with pride, a garland of ancient pagodas stood for far longer than even the oldest permanent buildings of my old clan— and to think! That these works of stunning architectural elegance are not even part of the sect proper, having been established long after the fall of the ancient Empire of Twelve Constellations.

  “The title of the history course we’re forced to take— and yes, forced is an accurate description, with how startlingly boring the instructor manages to make the topic even to I, an avid student of the histories of our peoples— is called History of the Sixty Eight Generations of the Bloody Saffron Sect. Immortal generations. I struggle every time I hear of that vast gulf of time to even imagine in my mind the enormity of what it must mean. Sixty Eight lifetimes on the timescale of Sundering cultivators, and sometimes even Immortal Ascension cultivators— so many eons past that I fear to think of everything the sect has forgotten. And yet, I still here walk, beneath the tastefully cultivated green-bordered pathways, those stately street-trees reaching out their boughs, upswept to heaven beneath the nature of their kind, and bask in the child of a behemoth, both so much vaster than I.

  “I ramble, but… Lily can understand in some attenuated way, but I think you are the only mortal who ever truly grasped it. I don’t know how you did, but I write this to you because you are the one who told me to ponder these things, these futures of mine, self and soon-to-be self. The beauty of our city is the fruit of a tree, or the shadow of the fruit of a tree, and in that fleeting moment we all live thinking of the solidity of our lives.

  “I wonder…” a long line had been scratched out— the first of such, unlike Lily’s letter which had included plenty of corrections throughout. It was all the more poignant for it.

  “Nevermind. Please don’t use a formation to figure out what I wrote there— I know you can, and that I can’t stop you, but… well.” Frankly, he hadn’t even thought about that, and now he was curious… but despite it, he held himself back. It would be impolite. “We’ve settled into the University well, I think. Only a year and three quarters to go. I eagerly await the future, and think of you every day. May the heavens bless you.” Amusing, that…

  “Love,

  Ai’er Avyr.”