“I’m here to collect on that favour you owe me.” Mu clarified to the tea shop owner with a slight smirk.

  Madame Park arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “I would assume the matter is quite urgent if you bullied your way past my manager.”

  The wanderer snorted. “Not particularly. I just didn’t want to get the runaround for weeks as you try to avoid me.”

  “Why would I ever avoid you, Master Wanderer?” The way she said Mu’s title felt vaguely mocking even if Willow couldn’t put his finger on how or why. “Any business I have with you I’d want done as quickly as I could. Dragging it out would serve no one.”

  “Funny, I got the opposite impression last time we did ‘business’. Always playin’ at games while I was tryin’ to save lives, ostensibly at your request I might add.” Mu’s qi flared in anger, and Willow wondered just what happened the last time these two interacted.

  Mu took a drag on her pipe, calming herself with the familiar action. “But enough about the past, I’ve taken an apprentice and I’d like you to teach them. If you do it to my satisfaction then I’ll consider the debt between us paid in full.”

  That seemed to genuinely shock the woman, at least according to how her qi shifted. Though she composed herself quite quickly after the fact.

  “I had been wondering who the child with you was. I didn’t think you were the kind who’d answer the higher calling of imparting wisdom to the younger generation.”

  Mu let out a cloud of smoke and the older woman wrinkled her nose slightly. “Willow’s a bit of a special case, but I’ve enjoyed the process of shoving knowledge into their head.”

  Madame Park gave them both considering looks. “Fine then, state your terms.”

  Willow tried to stay focused on what the two adults were talking about as they discussed the finer points of the deal, but they started quibbling over details fairly quickly and he began to lose interest despite the topic of conversation being about him.

  There was also a bit of a mystery that he was currently curious about vying for his attention. He could sense the Madame’s spirit in the room with them, but he had yet to lay eyes on them. They were draped around the stern woman like a shawl, but no matter how hard he stared he couldn’t actually see them.

  “It’s quite rude to stare, child.” Madame Park chided, breaking Willow out of his focus.

  Willow fidgeted. “Sorry, just trying to see your spirit.”

  The older woman stilled. “My spirit is not out right now, child. It’s considered poor manners to have one out in the presence of guests.”

  The boy tilted his head. “Then what am I sensing draped around your shoulders? They feel like steam, so I thought they were yours.”

  Madame Park considered the strange child for several moments with an unreadable expression and Mu began chuckling.

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  “Aren’t they a hoot? Willow has some extraordinary senses on top of a sharp mind. The main thing they seem to be lackin’ is some social awareness, but I’m hopeful that you can at least give a framework for them to work from.”

  “Indeed…” The Madame continued to consider the child before them. Her focus then shifted back to Mu. “Any other peculiarities I should be aware of? It’s difficult to tailor lessons to a student if I don’t know what I’m working with.”

  Mu tapped her pipe in her palm feigning like she was deep in thought. “Now that ya mention it there are a couple things, but they’re technically linked.” She then gestured for Willow to step forward.

  The boy just hoped that his teacher stuck to the story they’d discussed beforehand. He wasn’t super great at improvising.

  “Willow here also has a peculiar constitution, and part of the reason I took them in was to study its effects despite the child having a different element from me and limitin’ what exactly I could teach them.”

  Mu tapped her apprentice on the shoulder, and Willow harmonized with Calypso’s bond.

  His water form was one of the weirder ones to him. He constantly had to fight the urge to shift and move in ways that would normally be unnatural.

  To flow like a river or crash into himself like a wave.

  To soar into the clouds or fall like rain.

  He yearned to be a part of something bigger than himself.

  He wanted to be many parts of a whole rather than the singular child that he was.

  Maintaining his human shape was still easy, but there was a sense that he could lose himself if he wasn’t careful.

  His actual form was simple enough, looking like crystal clear water with vibrant patterns of red all throughout. According to Mu even his eyes were the same sanguine color and it was somewhat unnerving to behold. Especially since the rest of him was so clear it made most of his features quite indistinct.

  Willow sensed the surprise and fear briefly flare up in Madame Park’s qi before it settled into curiosity. Which was fair when they sprung this on the older woman with no warning.

  “Their nature is a bit less defined than most. Whether that’s due to a powerful spirit somewhere in their ancestry or just a quirk of fate is unknown to both of us. But it means they do this when using water qi and have a tendency to swap between boy and girl at seemingly random intervals.”

  Willow stopped the transformation and Madame Park stared at both mentor and student quite intensely.

  Until she began to smile a sharp smile. “Well this will be quite the interesting assignment. You do realize it’ll take quite some time to teach a child with such… peculiarities?”

  Mu smiled back, though Willow sensed that neither of them were particularly happy. “I’m well aware. I’ve informed my sect that I’ll be based out of Yeobaek for the foreseeable future so there shouldn’t be any issues of us disappearin’ on you until you finish up.”

  Madame Park reclined in her seat and steepled her hands. “There’s a part of me that feels you are asking far too much of me for such a paltry favour.”

  Mu tensed up beside him causing the Madame to smirk.

  “However it’s been quite some time since I’ve had to teach such an interesting case. Usually the Seo clan just tosses me one of their mild mannered branch members and it takes little under a month to get them into shape. Rarely I get someone further afield, but even then they’re almost always someone already accustomed to the ways of nobility.”

  The smile disappeared. “Quite frankly, it’s boring. This, however, sounds like a real challenge for a woman of my talents. I’d say I owe you another favour if I didn’t tire of your presence so much already.”

  Mu raised a brow. “So we’re in agreement?”

  The Madame waved her hand in a shooing motion. “Yes, yes. Bring them here tomorrow at dawn and we can begin our lessons.”

  She gave Willow a stern look. “You better be prepared for my lessons, child. Unlike that woman you call your master, I don’t tolerate slackers.”