When Wu Ling reached into his cosmos sack, he withdrew a long, slender sword in a tooled, white leather sheath. After a moment of looking at the exquisit craftsmanship, reassuring himself that it met his every ask of the craftsman who made it, he presented the weapon to Su Xiang.
"Mother agreed that if you inherit Father's manual, you can also choose to inherit his sword," Wu Ling explained. "But Father was a late-stage Warrior and his sword isn't something that you can wield right now. You'll need to be at least an early-stage Warrior before you can draw his blade, so we had this made for you instead."
Gently, Su Xiang set the precious manual aside and took the long, slender blade from Wu Ling's hands. The sword's hilt was twice the length of the hilt on her current sword and the blade was half again as long as the one she was accustomed to using.
Sliding the long sword out of its sheath, Su Xiang's eyes opened wide as she beheld the rippling scale pattern running down the center of the brightly polished blade. The pommel of the blade had been formed in the shape of a serpent's head and three small sapphires paid homage to her bloodline in a way that couldn't make it more clear who the blade had been crafted for.
"For me?" Su Xiang said, her fingers and voice both trembling as she lightly traced the pattern etched on the blade. If she needed proof that the gift of the manual wasn't just an idle thought but something both members of the Wu family had considered deeply, this kind of custom blade was ample proof of their feelings toward her.
"Why?" Su Xiang asked softly. "This must have cost…"
"A fraction of what we earned auctioning off the remains of the Burning Yang Lunar Bear and the Blood Moon Mist Wolf," Wu Ling said, downplaying the cost significantly. Alchemist Huang had helped to cover the cost but repaying her took nearly all of Wu Ling's share of their earnings. He didn't mind though. Seeing the colors around Su Xiang regaining their brightness made it worth every spirit crystal.
"Besides," Wu Ling said with a smile. "You're family. This is what family does for each other."
"Brother Ling," she cried, setting the sword aside and pouncing on Wu Ling to hug him tightly. Soft sobs shook her body as days of agonizing treatment at her own mother's hands played through her mind. Just hours ago, her parents had hugged her and said 'they'd find a way' but how could that compare to this?
"If it helps you find your way, that's all that matters," Wu Ling whispered, hugging her close and patting her back gently. "If it doesn't, just throw it away and we'll find something else. Whatever it takes."
It took several breaths for Su Xiang to recollect herself before she was willing to let go of Wu Ling and return to their picnic. During that time, Alchemist Huang gave the young sworn siblings space, busying herself with another concoction to help with Su Xiang's recovery.
"Alchemist Huang, I feel like I'm taking advantage of you," Su Xiang said, her ears burning with mild embarrassment as the alchemist worked a rejuvenating cream into her abused flesh. "If you ever need…"
"Stop," Huang Yeyan interrupted. "This is only a small thing for someone I consider a friend," she said firmly. "We may have some distance between us in terms of years and cultivation but I feel like that gap in cultivation is rapidly shrinking. Wu Ling says that you intend to make your breakthrough to the second stage on this trip. If you succeed, the gap between a Soldier and an Independent Alchemist isn't so large that we can't be friends. It's the same with an Understudy," she said, giving Wu Ling a pointed look.
Yesterday, Wu Ling had accompanied Huang Yeyan for most of the Amber Lily Academy's conference leading up to the auction at the end of the night. He'd even lent his calligraphy skills to their banners to help draw even more people passing through the Pilgrim's Ward into the event. The whole time he'd been very proper and maintained the distance appropriate for a young Aesthete in the presence of an Alchemist but it had only served to frustrate the older woman.
Because Wu Ling had to be present as the person he'd been on the expedition, she wasn't able to enjoy the more casual relationship she'd tried to foster when she'd visited his home and now that he was about to depart on an even longer adventure, she was afraid that the distance between them would grow even greater if she didn't say anything.
"Both of you, I would prefer it if you would call me 'Big Sister' instead of 'Alchemist'," she said to the two young people. "It isn't easy, when you're in the lab all the time, to make many friends. I can't go with you this time but please, let me help just because I'm a friend and I want to."
"In that case," Wu Ling said with a teasing grin. "Does Big Sister have any more of those meat buns or were they all for Sister Xiang?"
"Brat! You only care about my buns," Huang Yeyan teased with an exaggerated pout. "They're in the bottom basket, vegetables are in the top basket. I've tossed the vegetables with an oil to ease little sister Xiang's joints but they'll be good for you too with this much time in the carriage," she said warmly.
With laughter and good food, the mood lightened considerably and they were able to enjoy a relaxed meal by the roadside before resuming their journey. With a real meal filling her belly for the first time in days, Su Xiang dropped quickly off to sleep in the carriage, this time cradling her new sword. To Wu Ling's eyes, there was still an uncomfortable amount of gray that stubbornly clung to her heart but it no longer shrouded her entire being. For now, that was enough. They had plenty of time ahead to work the rest away.