A cool breeze blew through the courtyard, soothing Abrial's skin and blowing hair from her face. She closed her eyes, shivering with delight. Her muscles seemed to relax, her breath deepening. The noise was pleasant in her ears. Trees and plants rustled softly all around.
When the breeze stopped, she opened her eyes. Instructor Wei was watching her, his face calm and unreadable.
She grinned at him. "Instructor Wei — you do magic all the time. And you're really good at it. Do you never use magic outside of this house?"
He blinked at her curiously.
"Why is it that you suddenly ask?"
Abrial studied a single lotus, floating across the pond on a lily. She decided to ask a question that had been bothering her more and more every day now. Instructor Wei was wise, and knowledgeable. If anyone had a good response, it'd be him.
"Instructor Wei...do you think magic should be punishable by death, like His Majesty does?"
Silence for a moment. Then, he answered steadily:
"The Emperor is a human being, as all of us are. It is not his decision to decide the morality of a spiritual tool."
"Ah! So you don't believe magic should be illegal."
Instructor Wei seemed to be studying something somewhere very far off. His dark, gentle eyes were cloudy. "Your question is a complicated one. In truth, everything depends on what one decides to do with magic. Like a blade, it can be used to help, or to harm. I do not think blades are evil smply because some use them to murder."
Abrial wrinkled her nose sourly, trying to understand. "So, basically, you think magic and magicians should be allowed. As long as people don't use magic to hurt other people."
Instructor Wei looked amused. "Perhaps."
Abrial nodded, her expression thoughtful. It quickly transformed into a look of frustration.
"Instructor Wei, if I went out on the street and used magic in front of other people, what exactly would happen?"
Instructor Wei's eyes suddenly laser-focused.
"You are saying, in the case that you ran away from this house."
It wasn't a question. So, Abrial didn't answer.
Instructor Wei shifted his gaze to the branches of the pine tree that was shading them.
"If a person performs magic in public," he said slowly, "witnesses will scream. Guards will arrive quickly. They will beat that person motionless, then slit their throat. If they do not kill them on the spot as an example to others, they will seize that person and drag them away to the nearest prison headquarters. There — " Here, he paused, and his eyes darkened. "There, they will be tortured."
Abrial raised a dark eyebrow. "Tortured?"
"Yes." He didn't elaborate further, but simply continued to gaze at some faraway horizon, his face grim.
Abrial clicked her teeth in frustration. "I just don't get it! For what reason? It doesn't even make sense! Why would you torture someone for healing someone, or making a fire, or getting the wind to blow?"
"...There are many reasons to torture someone. Perhaps for information. Or perhaps…simply out of cruelty. For selfish reasons. Out of hatred."
Abrial huffed, lying back in the waving grass with her hands behind her head. "Well, I don't care what the reason is. I hate the Emperor! He's horrible. Somebody should get rid of that guy."
Instructor Wei raised an eyebrow, studying her.
"Abrial, are you aware that it is against ancient imperial law to refer to the Emperor as anything but 'His Majesty the Emperor'?"
Abrial stuck out her tongue sourly. "Of course. My mother reminds me all the time. She freaks out and gets all furious when I don't. But I don't care. I can say what I want! It's crazy and stupid to punish people for saying different words than you want them to! Hey — if I called him "that guy" on the street instead of "His Majesty", what would happen?"
"You would be beaten. Not killed, if the guards who arrested you were in a good mood."
Abrial raised her eyebrows and nodded. "I could handle a beating. Then—what if I called him "stupid"? Or…dog-fucked?"
Instructor Wei's eyes flickered darkly. "You would end up dead. That would be a careless method of throwing your life away."
Abrial frowned at him, sitting up. "You look so serious, Instructor Wei! I never said I was planning on doing that, heh — I'm just curious."
She vaulted to her feet. Her muscles felt much better now, somewhat rejuvenated with the break of conversation and the breeze Instructor Wei had summoned.
"I'm ready! Let's spar again." She adjusted her scarlet and black arm guards, tightening them roughly. Then she looked up, grinning crookedly. "I'll be much quicker this time. You'll see."
"We will spar only once more. Otherwise, your hands will be severely injured."
Abrial scrunched her nose and made a sour expression. "Whatever you say, Instructor Wei."
Then she lunged at him, and they became a blur once more, a serpentine blue river dancing around black and bright red molten rock.