The Poppy War

Winter arrives suddenly with the first snowfall. This leads most students to stop waiting in the garden for Jiang to show up and teach them Lore; the master hasn’t attended any classes. Rin keeps going because the garden is a private place to practice martial arts. To practice her balance, she takes the book’s suggestion to practice her footwork standing on a tree branch. Just as Master Jiang enters the garden, Rin slips and ends up hanging from the tree by her caught ankle. Without emotion, he observes that she’s stuck. Rin extricates herself and studies the master; she can’t tell how old he is, though he has white hair. He calls her Irjah’s “pet pupil,” and when he learns what text she’s studying, he calls her stupid for trying to learn something so difficult without instruction.

Rin shares that Jun expelled her and why, which seems to impress Jiang. She realizes he’s laughing at her for trying to learn the moves in her book—he insists she could injure herself or die. But when Rin demonstrates one of the forms, he stops laughing. Jiang compliments her footwork, but he says everything else she’s doing is wrong and dangerous. But tomorrow in class, he’ll start teaching her and help her develop some muscle, mostly because he hates Jun. He tells her to meet by the gate tomorrow morning. When Rin tells Raban at lunch, Raban insists Jiang must like her—he’s mean to everyone else. Raban also shares that there’s a rumor Jiang was Cike. The Cike is the military’s division of assassins, and they have a horrible reputation.

Raban continues, explaining how nobody knows who Jiang is because nobody pledges Lore and gets to know him. The subject is a joke; nobody knows what it actually is, though it’s relatively new. Two students pledged Lore a few years ago, but they dropped out. And Altan wanted to pledge Lore, but Jiang withdrew his offer. Rin asks more questions about Altan, who Raban suggests is quiet and friendless despite his popularity. Rin resumes asking about Jiang that evening. Kureel and Arda warn her that Jiang is a fraud, though Rin knows that at least on paper, he’s a real master.

To Rin’s shock, Jiang is waiting for her at the gates the next day. As he begins to lead her off campus, Jun and his apprentices approach and insist that Jiang can’t take Rin off campus without permission from Jima. Jiang barely acknowledges Jun’s insults and leads Rin away. As they walk, Jiang explains that he might’ve killed Jun’s men during the Poppy War; he isn’t sure. He asks Rin about her classmates and says that Sinegard “likes to collect the Warlords’ broods,” in the hope that they can indoctrinate the students and create a new ruling class that will work together and obey the Empress. Jiang turns into the meatpacking district and knocks on a door. A woman, Widow Maung, appears and introduces herself as Jiang’s drug dealer.

Widow Maung rolls her eyes but plays along as Jiang explains that to help Widow Maung, Rin must carry a piglet named Sunzi up the mountain to drink from a special stream at the top every morning. It’s a two-hour trip, so it’s a good thing she no longer has Combat class. Rin scowls and spends the next four months running up the mountain every morning with Sunzi. She’s often late to her next class. Jiang shows up for class every day and begins teaching Rin the Frolics of the Five Animals, one of the original martial arts forms that initially had nothing to do with fighting. He suggests that Jun trains students efficiently, to make good soldiers, but he claims that he can “teach [Rin] the key to the universe.” Jiang’s teaching methods and lessons are random, and he never answers clarifying questions. He barely seems human.

One afternoon, Jiang takes Rin to the Academy’s top tier, to what used to be a temple. The pagoda is many stories high, with a spiral staircase winding around it. As they climb the stairs, Jiang explains how a warrior brought martial arts to Nikan. The warrior impressed some monks by meditating for nine years, and when they finally invited him in, the warrior developed a system of “weaponless self-defense” to help them gain strength. The movements were then adapted to military use when armies from the northern Hinterlands invaded and forbade the Nikara from having weapons. People would pretend to be monks and study martial arts at monasteries. Modern martial arts, Jiang explains, was then condensed into a system aspiring soldiers could learn in five years. Rin’s classmates are learning that system—and Rin is learning “how to beat it.”

Jiang teaches Rin fundamentals, and then they begin sparring daily for hours at a time. Rin learns quickly how to fight and eventually, she sends Jiang flying across the garden. Finally, Rin carries Sunzi up the mountain for the last time. Sunzi is huge now, and when Rin returns him to the Widow Maung, the woman says that Sunzi will be butchered tonight. When Rin lets Jiang know, he seems surprised. But he asks how her arms feel and then hits her. Rin can barely get in the defensive stance before he makes contact, and the force of his blow causes the stone Rin is standing on to split. Jiang laughs and calls Rin “brilliant,” and she hugs him.

Soon after, Jiang and Rin sit under a tree, and he tells Rin to rest today—and pledge Lore. She’s very talented, even more talented than Altan was. Rin struggles to tell Jiang that she just needed to learn to fight so she can study Strategy with Irjah. But Jiang waves his hand, suggesting that anyone can learn Strategy if they read Sunzi’s work enough. He, though, can teach Rin about the gods and “make [her] a shaman.” He implores her to learn Lore so the subject doesn’t disappear entirely. Rin is fascinated, but she’s more interested in getting a good job as an officer. She tells Jiang she wants to be a “good soldier.”