Lotusbone River

Young Jiuchuan, apprentice to an old lacquer craftsman who coughs blood, keeps to the ancient rule between the wind's blunt blade and the trees' breathing: "Take only three parts, leave seven." Measuring by her heartbeat, she harvests lacquer to seal the trees, believing that only when the trees live can people live. Until the old man presses a faintly glowing lotus crystal seed into her palm, its light dimming, and leaves her with his final instructions: "Take it north. Don't return to Chang'an."

The journey north is a path of inheritance, and a path of sacrifice. When the last warmth goes out in the kiln, Jiuchuan severs her finger with a bronze sickle and uses her hot blood as ink to write the seven-character "Ode to the Rebellious Soul" on the stone bed. This is the bitterest funeral rite of the northern lands: offering the warmth of one's own body to ease the dead's chill, and trading one's own memories for the dead's peace.