The wind started by Master Fhungusu in Sheng Monastery brought the salty tang sea air to my nose and goosebumps to my bare legs, arms, and midriff from where my Imperial armor had been removed. The redolent odor of dead fish suddenly assaulted my nose, letting me know I wasn't in Sheng Village any longer. Suddenly, the physical and psychic wind Master Fhungusu had created subsided and my muscles that had locked at his nerve touch released their control of my body.

I opened my eyes. I was in a small village on the ocean, with buildings that looked weather-tight, but unfinished and not yet silvered with age. Sheds had completed roofs, but no walls or doors yet, and paths had not yet been laid from building to building. In front of me was a woman in peasant clothing: boots, trousers, and a homespun shirt.

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She smiled deceptively, but there was steel in her tone, "Welcome to Dellerjuba. You have probably never been to our village, though we live only a few paces from the gates of Tanvu, our former city."

I started, and looked over my shoulder at the bay behind me. Sure enough, we were on the end of the northern peninsula protecting Tanvu's harbor from the worst of the winter storms. I had approached Tanvu from the east when I'd been sent here as an officer in the Imperial Army, and there's so little land in this direction that I'd never wandered this direction from the city in the time that I'd been posted here.

"Many of us lived in Tanvu before the Emperor decided to..." she paused in an uncomfortable silence, "take up residence in our small town."

I instinctively started to bristle at the implied slight of our ruler, and she noticed my hackles starting to go up. "Do not be alarmed though, Master Kanjaro has been expecting you. Please find him in the center of town at our shrine to Jin."

Remembering Master Fhungusu's words, I forced myself to relax, thanked the woman, and set off up the hill in the direction she had indicated. Just out of sight behind one of the new houses was a simple shrine. The large brass temple bell hung from the rafters behind a simple alter consisting of a pair of benches, several candles, a pair of rattan mats, and stone disks suspended from the ceiling in minimalist iron hangers. In front of the alter, sitting on a woven reed mat, was old man Kanjaro. Pulling the shreds of my dignity together despite being in my underthings, I knelt on the mat in front of him, unconsciously falling into the posture I'd learned in the Shrine of my youth.

He studied me, and I felt like I was measured minutely. Finally he spoke, "Your blood-stained armor and weapons have been washed clean, but you still reek a foul stench. I fear the tarnishes of death may have seeped through your armor, tainting something much more difficult to cleanse." He shook his head in disgust. "But perhaps you will prove me wrong."

"You have no weapons and no armor," the old man said with a chuckle. "How long has it been without the Emporer's hand to guide you? How long since you have made a decision for yourself? I can put you on a path to redemption, but you must choose to walk it."

His gaze turned more intense and I squirmed under his glare, reminded intensely of times when I had overstepped the bounds set by the monks at the orphanage where I grew up. "Many villagers here are lost – displaced because of the Emperor. They need your help. Help as many villagers as you can here, and then return to me." He lapsed into silence, and I took that for a dismissal.

I stood up as the sea breeze again brought goosebumps to my arms and legs, a reminder of what I had lost, or had taken from me, or from which I had been liberated. I wasn't sure which. As I turned to go, he spoke again. "It's now time to rely on your own strength, intellect, and wisdom; not the Emperor's."

"There are a few individuals hidden in this village with gifts not unlike your own. However, they have spent many years honing and refining their abilities under careful tutelage. For instance, a woman by the name Aniji often sits on the docks of Dellerjuba. Her skills at harnessing the power of Jin are a sight to see. There is much you can learn from her."

"Oh, and ask her about an old weapon I once gave her. I doubt she has much need of it anymore."

I bowed to the old Master, and went down the hill to the docks at the mouth of the channel leading to Tanvu's harbor. As the old man had predicted, there was a woman on the dock, staring out to sea. I introduced myself, and said that Master Kanjaro had suggested that I talk to her. She at my attire, or lack thereof, and smiled before looking out to sea again. "Master Kanjaro says there is much to see out there. Perhaps someday I will experience it."

She turned back to me. "I assume he has sent you to retrieve his training weapon?" So saying, she took me to a small hut just above the dock, and reached up into the rafters. Pulling down a yanyue dao, she presented it to me. "It appears you might have more need of it than I."

I bowed to thank her, and she politely showed me the door. Exiting behind me, she indicated a woman in grey homespun a little further north up the grass covered dune along the beach. "Dalani Ferong could probably use your assistance, now that you have a weapon. I am heading back to my contemplation of the sea and sky."

So, keeping in mind Master Kanjaro's instructions, I went to speak with Ferong.

"With the Imperial Army crawling all over Tanvu, meat is scare there. The poor are starving and dying. We are doing what we can in Dallerjuba Village to help those people. My plan is to gather meat and send it off to Tanvu. The best and most nutritious fare near the village is also the most difficult to slaughter, boar meat. Elk meat is far easier to get, but it will almost certainly make the people of Tanvu sick, so leave those animals be."

I asked how much boar meat she would want, and she indicated that six animals worth of meat is probably all that could be smuggled into the city right now, without spoilage happening. I found boars on the dunes above the town, and field dressed the creatures before bringing them to Ferong. She took the meat gratefully, and said she would be able to get it salted in order to have it travel better down the estuary before being delivered to the poor in and around Tanvu.

After leaving her, I wandered for a bit up and down the beach, when the sound of quiet tears caught my hearing above the low buzz that seemed to fill the air in this town. I found another young woman, crying quietly in one of the unfinished sheds. Quietly, I knelt beside her, and studiously watched the birds in the nearby tree.

"When the Ulvari came, I lost everything," she quietly sobbed. "Dallerjuba is my home now, but I have not always lived here. I am a refugee from an island the Ulvari destroyed. My entire family was killed in the attack. I am the only one left." Still apparently concentrating on the birds, I let my hand reach out to find hers. "The ship I arrived on, Maiden's Voyage, wrecked in the shallows just west of the village. My only possession, a small statue given to me by my father, sunk with the vessel. I was all that I have left from a home that is lost to me forever."

Standing, I leaned the yanyue dao against the beams of the shed, and smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "I will do what I might," I told her and headed resolutely westward. I know how to swim, and the clothes I have on are little more than I would normally swim with. So I went into the cool ocean water, and searched for the boat she mentioned. Finally I saw it in the distance, paused on the surface above it for a deep breath, and then plunged down toward the wreck. Looking around as long as I dared, I marked several likely places and surfaced for air. It took three more dives, but finally I found the crate that had a small statue packed within it. Free it, I returned to the surface, before one more dive down to grab the statuette. Swimming with a several pound stone is challenging, if you've never tried it, but I managed to get it to shore. The breeze quickly dried me off, and I returned to Arisa.

"I found your statue, here it is," I called as I came back up the dune with the thin grass waving against my legs in the off-shore breeze.

"Thank you," she wept with joy. "I have never been so overjoyed. You kindness knows no bounds Meiyen. I would have spent the rest of my life wondering if my precious statue was at the bottom of the shallows had you not come along." Seeing me shiver, she looked around and handed me some bracers. "These aren't much, but they are all the spare clothing I have. Please, take them so you aren't so cold."

I tried to demur, but she pressed them upon me. So I tried to accept them as gracefully as I could, though the gift left me feeling more than a bit embarrassed.

I wandered though town some more, and found a small shrine with carved stones at the top of the highest dune in the area. A man probably in his 40's was there, and he looked up as I approached, with a look of annoyance on his face. "I spend my days meditating in this shrine, seeking nothing, meditating on the nature of Jin. Lately, the number of dracoflies has grown, and the noise from their wings disturbs the shrines' peace."

He went on to tell me that he'd consulted with Alchemist Whell, who had suggested poisoning them. While that plan would work, it would put the entire village in danger. So he asked me to kill only as many dracoflies as needed to quiet the area. So I went and did battle with the large dragonflies between the shrine and the western beaches, and then returned to the caretaker. After the warmth of combat, the hilltop shrine was chilly, and he noticed. He offered me his gloves, saying that I could keep them as long as needed, and then went to talk to the healer who had joined us in among the carved stones.

Down near the docks again, I found Faron Daor, a very poor fisherman. Poor as in finances, and poor as in not very skilled. His catches are becoming smaller and smaller, so that soon he won't even be able to feed his family. He told me that I could attempt to nab the fish swimming in the water, or I could go talk to Seht who is a much better fisherman and has recently caught more fish than he knows what to do with. Not wanting to go swimming again, I went to see the other fisherman.

It was true, Seht was so good a fisherman that he was heartily tired of eating fish. Instead, he desired some snapping crab claw meat. So he and I made a deal. I went and came back with five of the large crabs in exchange for ten fish. These I took back to Daor, who was so grateful he had to turn away to hide a tear of joy. They will eat well tonight, and for several more nights, by which time Faron's luck may change.

I also found another resident of the village with food concerns. Although ground turtle shells don't sound like a good meal, they have enough nutrients to keep you healthy. Aranji wanted to make a big pot of the bland but filling food to share with the entire village. She knows how to cook them, but isn't very good at finding them, so she asked me to gather some. She mentioned that Injal makes jewelry out of the most pristine shells, but I saw plenty on the beaches and went there to hunt to gather fresh shells, so perhaps the soup could have some meat in it as well. Aranji was very pleased with the addition, and invited me to attend the dinner even though I am just a visitor to the town.

After completing these tasks, I returned to Master Kanjaro at the shrine in the center of the town. Kneeling before him on the woven mats, I waited while he again laid my intentions bare with his glance.

"It must feel better to help people instead of hurt them, no?" he asked rhetorically. I am impressed. You have allowed your warrior instincts to guide you, but not control you. We shall consider this the first step, of many, in the right direction."

He fell silent for a moment, and then continued, "Fortunately, Jin does not demand that you walk this path alone." He motioned to another, who sat meditating nearby. I saw a young woman about my age, a bit taller than I. Her auburn hair was pulled up in an complicated braided bun. Green eyes in a pretty face blinked at me. "This is Velea, who like yourself is in search of Lao'Jin, and is more attuned to the healing abilities of Jin though she has received the same type of martial training you did in your youth." He turned to the young woman, "Velea, this is Meiyen, who had dedicated herself to martial arts and is well practiced in combat." He then shifted slightly so his conversation took in both of us. "I require that the two of you learn to act as a team. Velea, you need to learn to let Jin guide your actions as unconciously as Meiyen does. Meiyen, you need to learn to think about your actions make moral decisions, and I believe Velea has the experience necessary to help you with that. The two of you have fortuitously arrived here at nearly the same time, and through the same means. I will let you compare stories later, for now I have another task for the two of you on your path from Ra'Jin to Lao'Jin."

"I'd like you both to find another young student of Jin, not unlike yourselves. I would like you to speak with Oki, who can be found on the beach just east of our village. His hut overlooks Tanvu. Oki is by no means a master of Jin, but I do not believe his experience and insight will prove to you as you choose your path."