A thick canopy of multicolored smoke hovered over the Grand Plaza of the Sun, carrying the heavy scent of roasted camphor, dried lotus stems, and burning spirit charcoal into the upper galleries.
Across eighty stone workstations, flames roared in steady rhythm from the subterranean flues, lighting the faces of inner peak apprentices who worked with measured, orthodox precision.
Only Station Thirteen remained a pocket of unnatural stillness, where no flame danced beneath the bronze pot and no charcoal crackled in the grate.
Elder Gu stood at the front edge of the high jade pavilion, his scarlet silk robes fluttering against the carved balustrade as his knuckles turned white against the polished railing.
From this vantage point, he had spent the last twenty minutes waiting for the delaye
