Somewhere in Mainland China ..

“What troubles you, Little Sparrow?”
“I am afraid.”
“What of?”
A pause. The nearby sound of bubbling water over rocks and bird song was calming. “Irrelevance.”
“Is your fear inhibiting your relevance? Fear prevents life. But neither can we cling tightly to our outcomes, for they are as the water passing by your feet. As much as we want to control them, it is illusion.”
“I should be able to do more.”
“You have ever looked beyond your sight, Little Sparrow, not at the path before you. Strides are only so long. You know your path. Remain there. Turn not to the left or the right. Do right to those you meet along the way. And have faith you will achieve your destination in time.”
“I am being pursued.”
“I am aware. Choose wisely how to live in that knowledge.”
“I try. I expect nothing. I anticipate everything. Is that not the way to live, Master?”
“Mindfulness is wisdom. Beware of anticipation. It is the mother of desire and anxiety; control is illusion. The world will ever move in ways outside of how we believe it will. Expect everything. Anticipate nothing.”
“My home is gone.”
“I have heard. I am sorry.”
“I have not lived there for a long time, yet I feel loss.”
“Where home is we may touch peace and be nourished, not in the state of the home but to touch that peace and joy that is within you. Go back. Find that peace. Long has your home been here. You know how.”
“Thank you Master Ko.”
“A message was left for you ..”

The next day .. Old Manticore District

The smell of charred timber, oils, seaweed and fish assailed El’s nostrils. She stood on an old metal hulk that had once been a barge. What had been built on it had been burned and she stood among blackened debris floating in some inches of sluggish water. So many similar vessels floated in what once had been Manticore. What had been a floating city of thousands of ships, derelicts and constructs was reduced to a few ailing vessels that soon would succumb to the water.
“They say it was deliberately set.” Meiling, El’s sister balanced on the wide edge of the barge, avoiding the murky water sloshing in the barge said it. El stood in it, uncaring of its cold and ‘ickiness’.
“Why?”
“Some say it was to cleanse the area of an unsightly smear,” Meiling said, her tone bitter. “Others say it was to chase out criminal elements, gangs, guilds, gamblers, the Blood Borne, the Wets, the Changed, others.” She sighed. “Some suggest an accident that spread. Many were killed. Much lost.”
“Home.” El said that in a flat voice, looking at the spot where their home ship was, the old tug.
“Home.”
Gulls cried overhead and both raised their faces to follow them. Were they real? Were they drones? Who could know?
“You won’t find it. That place is lost to us.” Meiling’s voice was flat. Cold. The breeze fluttered her long silk cloak that contrasted with El’s coarse robe.
“I have to try.”
“It’s dangerous. Sharks.”
El shrugged off her robe and handed it to her sister. “Nature is not an adversary. It is our partner in peace. When shark and man are separate there is danger, but when they are one there is no danger. What creature will attack itself?”
“Yeah, well, don’t become a one with lunch, sister.”
A moment later there was a splash as El dove into the cool waters.

• El, Eng