Moonstones and Madness

Thirty-three

     The next morning Acolyte Dong Chul and Initiate Im Kwan-jo showed up with invitations for Hae-sung and Junseo to return to morning devotions at the Sun Temple.

Chenhui stared angrily at In-Yeon, "You gave them a nudge, don't deny it," he hissed.

In-Yeon shrugged, "Not much of one."

"And your certain it's safe? After what they put you through?" Chenhui continued to frown.

"Our Knight-Master will take precautions," In-Yeon smiled as Song-hee was introduced to the Temple representatives. "See, they are waving you over as well." Chenhui scuffed his feet as he made his way over.

"Did you really dream summon them?" Brother Kuin asked quietly from the edge of the veranda.

"Not exactly. More just read their existing desire back to them," In-Yeon blushed. He knew there was no obvious emergency to justify such an interference.

"I see you understand the ethical implications. I will leave it to the Mistress of the Dawn Temple to discipline you." Brother Kuin walked away leaving In-Yeon to brood on what might be in store at the end of their journey to the southwest. He was still waiting on his parent's approval for the trip so continued to work with the others. The laborious process of mapping the circles of dissonance radiating from the palace walls offered few distractions for a young man regretting his misdeeds. San Jin tried to coax him into a better mood but they were both discouraged by the lack of progress on the mapping.

"It's going to take forever to figure this out," In-Yeon complained.

"Especially since it seems to shift around. Look at the differences over three days." San Jin pointed to the notes spread across the workbench. "It's like it shifts with the wind."

"You might have a point there," Hae-sung said and looked to Junseo who nodded slowly.

"So, trailing around the streets is not going to solve much." Song-hee leaned back and crossed his arms.

Junseo reluctantly pulled out one of his older design books and paged through to the load bearing flyers. Chenhui leaned in but remained puzzled, "I've never seen a clockwork flyer."

"Not clock work. It would be too heavy." Junseo answered absent-mindedly as he gathered materials. Before long they were out in the back field chasing breezes.

Scout Jia and Knight-Master Lei watched with bemusement as the boys tested different models. The winds started to die down before Junseo managed to fully configure the crystal charged version. He did one last test only to find his flyer acting like it hit a wall twenty meters above the ground. "Well that really complicates things," he muttered to himself. The others tried to get him to explain more but he just shook his head.

Junseo knew he needed to come clean about why these designs might be problematic but it took until well after dinner before he had the courage to approach Knight-Master Lei with his flyer designs.

"Don't just hover at the door," the man said when he spotted a clearly worried Junseo. "Is everything alright with the team?"

"Mostly, I mean we still have to work through some things and are going to miss Pange In-Yeon. No, I need you to see these." He handed over his design notes.

"It looked like everyone enjoyed trying out the kites today," the man probed gently paging through the designs. He paused when he recognized the rebel sign on a wing.