The apothecary office was silent, save for Han's quiet hisses and Bai Lin's hums that rhymed with the wind.
She controlled everything in the room with just the wind.
Seated on the tatami mat by the bed, with her legs crossed, she swayed her hands slowly as if she were dancing, while the wind followed.
The balls of wind mixed the crushed herbs with water and poured it into a bowl as a dark green paste.
She carefully lowered the bowl to the ground and paused the movements of the wind, leaving them as floating balls holding up one thing or another.
It felt like there were hands made of air doing all the work; holding things, moving tools, clearing space.
She used a cloth to clean his wounds, then gently applied the paste to his side. The pain faded slowly as the medicine cooled his skin. Han looked at the paste, then at her.
"You're not just a normal medical cadet, are you?"
Bai Lin didn't answer. She just focused on her work.
"I never got to understand...why did you let them pick me as an apprentice for you?"
Bai Lin didn't look up. "Most of the applicants wanted to impress someone by being able to heal and cure sicknesses."
She glanced at him. "I picked the lanky depressed kid because he passed the exams and had no care about what others thought."
Han's eyes narrowed. "Is that a joke?"
Bai Lin nodded and scooped another batch of paste into her hand.
"I picked you because you are a Northernized Eastern who passed and was depressed."
"Out of pity then?"
She shook her head slowly. "I don't feel pity, Han. You seemed to need the peace here, so I told Rengold to bring the depressed kid to Zhongyu to handle him."
Han frowned and shifted away slightly. "You made me his personal guard! I don't even have the qualifications for that."
"Exactly," she said. "The emperor has had issues with other guards raised and brought up here. He had me guard him."
He rolled his eyes and let out a breath. "Why didn't you do it then?"
"He doesn't need guarding. I need guards to keep me from him."
A chuckle escaped Han's lips, followed by a hiss when she pressed too hard on his wound.
"You have thirty more seconds to finish this conversation."
"I see," he mumbled. She never talked much, so he forgot she was going out of her way to. He raised his gaze. "Are you one?"
"Hm?"
"Are you an Aven?"
Bai Lin scoffed. "I'd be... what's that word the Northerners use..." She paused to think. "I'd be damned if I was ever anything like them."
"So what are you then?"
She hesitated for a moment and replied, "I don't know, but I was raised there."
Han rolled his eyes.
Her hesitation to speak about herself was annoying.
Now that he knew she was actually more than a medical cadet was one thing, but getting to know she deliberately handled his posting was shocking.
A red screen flashed suddenly before him.
『Reader Judgemental System』
Healing Progress: 12%
Healing Status: Stagnant
Unlock Skill: Rapid Mend – Locked
Condition: Kill 1 reader target to unlock quick heal.
Primary Target: Ryan_d34i – Status: Pending
His vision blurred for a second as the screen vanished.
"Does it hurt deeper?" Bai Lin asked, pulling his attention back to her. "Any pain near your lungs or liver?"
Han blinked. "No, the doctors said it didn't reach any organs."
She nodded and used the wind to lift fresh bandages and wrap his side.
He could see it clearly now, the wind moved like fingers. It held jars open, folded bandages, even brought her tea while she worked.
"Change the bandage at midnight," she said. "Don't spar tomorrow. Just observe and rest."
Han looked at her. "If Kai tries again? Or we have a mission?"
Bai Lin shrugged. "Then put a stick between your lips and fight through the pain, unless you want to be moved to the imperial palace home to rest."
Her words stayed with him long after she turned away.
Flight, wind cultivation, healing... and a system that wouldn't let him recover until he killed his target.
Han exhaled and lay back slowly, letting the cool wind carry away the pain for now.
The environment grew silent once again, except for the slow, painful breathing from Han and the faint hum of scented wind moving in the air.
Bai Lin rinsed the last traces of green paste from her palms, then flicked her fingers. The wind obeyed and formed a ball around her hands to dry them.
Then the sound of something moving fast into the air caught her attention.
As she raised her eyes to the roof, a black crow glided through the half-open skylight, landed on the desk, and tilted its head when they made eye contact.
Its feathers shone the same deep shade as Bai Lin's eyes whenever the light touched them, and it had a white star right above its brows.
"Good work, Mel," she murmured.
The bird held out one leg, showing a thin bamboo tube rested in its claw. .
She removed the tube, unrolled the paper inside, and scanned through what was written.
All mounts returned from basic drills and checkups. Hui awaits handler, as well as personal belongings.
But the other horses have been returned to their owners, leaving just the Black and Gray.
― Captain Sang-Jin
"Strange," she uttered. The horses weren't supposed to be returned until a week after the cadets' arrival.
If she remembered correctly, the First Prince had emphasized that the horses needed to undergo serious training, due to the nature of the missions the cadets would handle.
Not only that, the mages were supposed to seal talismans on them, for quick healing, speed, and other enhancements.
Bai Lin's gaze drifted past the door, beyond the garden wall.
There, she spotted a black flag being waved outside the gate, with the Shanlu emblem printed on it.
She turned back to her desk and picked up a piece of paper and a brush. Dipping the brush in ink, she scribbled a short reply, sealed it, and fastened the tube to Mel again.
"West tower. Midnight," she whispered. The crow lifted on an updraft of her Qi and left the same way it came in.
Minutes later, the sound of hooves echoed from the gate. Two stablehands led the horses in, Hui, Han's dark-grey mount, and beside him, a tall black mare with a white star on her brow.
Bai Lin tapped the bedframe. "Wake up."
Han shifted, stirred, frowned, and forced himself upright. His eyes immediately moved to the doorway and slowly went wide.
"They finally brought Hui."
His relief lasted only a heartbeat before he noticed the black one.
Not just any black, the kind that could blend into the dark. And it was shiny.
He scanned it for a while, narrowed his eyes, and turned to her.
"A black horse.....Why do you have that?"