Wu Ling and Su Yao didn't linger at the Wu residence for very long. After providing brief instructions to his junior sisters to send Yao Meifeng's things along to the sect and changing out of feminine attire, Wu Ling rejoined Su Yao in hiring a carriage for the ride to the Su residence in the Lapis Lake Ward.
On the ride over, neither young person said much. Su Yao clutched tightly at her skirt, staring out the window of the carriage without seeing any of the people or buildings the carriage sped past. Her body shivered as she imagined how her parents would react to her decision. Her father had never in her life struck her but the look of disappointment she imagined in his eyes struck her heart like a thousand lashes of a cane.
Worse was the idea that her mother would turn away from her, leaving her cold and alone, staring at her mother's retreating back under the withering gaze of her father. If she hadn't been told about the truth of her bloodline, she would have faced her mother with pride at being accepted into such a prestigious second-rank sect.
Now, however, she felt like she didn't know her mother as well as she thought she had. Would she really still welcome her back with love despite her decision to join the Bamboo Silk House? Or would her mother turn into a stranger as soon as she revealed that she knew the truth?
"It won't be that bad," Wu Ling said, interrupting his junior sister's increasingly bleak thoughts. He didn't know what she was imagining but the shades of fear, guilt, and anxiety he saw in her had become increasingly saturated in dark purples and grays the closer they came to the Su residence.
"If it's overwhelming, think about something else instead," Wu Ling encouraged. "Before you move into the sect, you should give each of your parents a word. Think about which word you'll write for them," he advised.
"You've joined a sect, but you aren't exiling yourself from the family," he added with a light chuckle. "Think about it. What kind of words can you give them to make a joyful parting that anticipates reunion?"
"Was it that easy to know what I was thinking?" Su Yao asked. Her mother always seemed to know what she was feeling and her father had the signature Su family eyes, even if his talents weren't as exaggerated as her cousin Su Xiang. She expected them to see through her, but the way Wu Ling saw into her heart made her wonder if he had some gifts of his own.
"It is when you're that unguarded," Wu Ling said lightly. "You have some studying to do to attune your senses now that you've awakened," he explained, hoping that discussing cultivation would keep her mind off things and break the negative loop she'd caught herself in. Since he was supposed to be her Senior Brother in the sect, he might as well act like it and give his junior a few pointers, especially if it helped to keep her mind off her troubles.
"As Artists, we're sensitive to our own hearts and the hearts of others. We can perceive what others feel as manifestations of our art. My senses are attuned to Painting," he said. "If I focus on someone, I can see them as though the air around them has been smeared with different paints. Each color matches up to different feelings, and the amount of each color and its intensity tell me how deep or strong the feeling is."
"What? That's cheating!" Su Yao exclaimed. "How come no one ever told me that painters were so powerful?" In Silver Sword City, if eight out of ten cultivators weren't on the martial path, then it seemed like seven out of ten of them were! Outside of strong martial cultivation, the only people she'd seen held up with great respect were Scholars like her father. If Artists like Wu Ling who practiced Painting were powerful enough to spy on the feelings others, she felt like she should have heard of more prominent painters!
"It's not just painters. Every kind of artist can do this," Wu Ling explained, sending a ripple through Su Yao's heart. "Musicians can hear feelings like the notes of a zither, Chef's perceive feelings as flavors and as many other permutations as you can think of. Our arts are methods to connect to emotions and the more we understand the relationship between art and feeling, the better our senses become."
"But wouldn't that mean that Artists can't ever be deceived?" Su Yao asked. The Su family knew a great deal about sifting truth from fiction and her cousin Su Xiang was particularly gifted in drawing on the bloodline of the Three-Eyed Sapphire Serpent to do so. If all Artists could do the same, why were people so excited over Su Xiang's gift?
"If we can know the hearts of anyone just by looking at them, wouldn't that make Artists the most powerful and influential cultivators in the city? Every Sect Master or Lord would become an Artist or at least hire one as an advisor," Su Yao said, her anxiety about her parents falling away as she became more focused on the implications of Wu Ling's lesson.
"Yes and no," Wu Ling answered, smiling as he saw the diversion working. "You're right that powerful Artists can be very influential, both because they understand the feelings of others and because they have the ability to shape the feelings of others."
"Imagine something for a moment," he suggested. "Imagine that two powerful Wardens from opposing sects have agreed to a meeting to discuss their problems and find a resolution. Now, imagine someone like my Aunt Hyacinth serving tea during that meeting. What effects do you think an accomplished Tea Master could have on such a meeting?"
"Hmmm. She could use tea to calm them?" Su Yao said hesitantly. "If her tea can keep tempers from flaring, the conversations would be much more productive and more likely to produce a good outcome."
"That would be simple, yes," Wu Ling agreed. "What if she went further? What do you think would happen if she could give each person a cup that represented the feelings of their enemy? If she came as a neutral party, she could actively help build empathy between the two sides, but to do so, she has to understand how each person feels. If she didn't come as a neutral party though," he said, letting his voice trail off with the question hanging in the air between him and Su Yao.
As her Senior, he tried to imitate some of the methods that Yao Meifeng had used on him when he'd been a new student at the Pure Virtue Musician's Hall. She always had a way of drawing him further into the lesson and in the end, he always felt like he'd learned something instead of having just been told something. He only hoped that he could be as capable a senior to Su Yao as Yao Meifeng had been to him.