The Elder's Debt of Gratitude
The sun had tipped westward, and the hunt was winding down. One by one, the hunters were returning through the trees, hauling in the day's take.
Kushinu greeted them with a contented smile.
"Well done, all of you."
"Thank you, Elder."
The harvest this year had been reasonably bountiful—though it fell far short of the days when Kushinu himself had been in his prime.
He stole a glance at the Great Chieftain. It felt like only yesterday that he and Onyan Isiha had ranged across Jianzhou together, chasing down game side by side.
Back in my day, let me tell you...
Kushinu wanted to say it so badly, but he swallowed the words. The era of Onyan Isiha and Asi Kushinu had already passed; the rest belonged to the young now.
And yet, deep down, a quiet longing itched in him—one last chance to cut loose, to spend himself in a final blaze of youthful fire rather than wither away in bed. To burn out as he once burned, not merely fade.
An old man rambling like a fool!
Kushinu gave a wry smile and turned his attention instead to counting the returning hunters.
"Wait—no..."
He began hurrying about in alarm, but there was no mistaking it. My lady Wolyeong and Un-yeong were nowhere to be seen.
Unease gnawing at him, he grabbed the excited hunters—who were still buzzing over the day's success—and started pressing them for answers.
"Did none of you see my lady?"
"No, Elder, we didn't..."
Kushinu's heart ached with worry. That was when one figure caught his eye.
"Here—Keshine... Keshine!"
"Yes, Elder?"
Keshine recognized him at once and bowed respectfully.
"Have you seen Tung Jugang?"
"I have. He set off separately with Lady Wolyeong not long ago."
"Is that so?"
Kushinu relaxed a little at that. With Tung Jugang at her side, she could not be in too much danger.
"Yes—and Lord Temusi-i went with them as well."
"Temusi-i went along too?"
That settled it. If those two were together, there was nothing to fear.
"I'm certain of it, Elder."
"Well then, my mind is much eased... My thanks."
But as the light began to fade, the anxiety crept back. I'll have no choice but to report this to the Great Chieftain...
He glanced back at Onyan Isiha, who seemed more somber today than he had in a long while. That Elder Ichigeo must have been at his tongue again. Kushinu shot Ichigeo a sharp look. Having served at Onyan Isiha's side for decades, he could read that much without a word being spoken.
Now he would have to deliver worse news on top of it—that Wolyeong had not returned. His heart felt leaden. But there was no helping it; before darkness fell, he had to send men out to search for her party.
He was just steeling himself to approach Onyan Isiha when a murmur rippled through the crowd.
"Good heavens..."
Had Wolyeong's party come back at last? Hoping against hope, Kushinu pushed toward the commotion.
"What in the world—what is this?"
"What's going on over there?"
He shoved his way forward through the crowd of wide-eyed men, and then his own footsteps froze where they stood.
"No... it can't be."
The hunters stood speechless before two great heaps.
Kushinu rubbed his eyes. A wild boar and a bear. Even alone, the boar was a monstrous beast—but the bear sprawled beside it was something else entirely, a colossal mountain of muscle and fur.
"Elder Kushinu! Forgive us for being late."
Kushinu turned slowly. Tung Jugang was grinning at him, and beside him stood Temusi-i, Wolyeong, and Un-yeong, all safe and sound. Relief flooded through the old man.
"What on earth is the meaning of this?"
He looked back and forth between the four of them and the two carcasses, scarcely believing his eyes.
"You took these down?"
"As you can see, Elder."
"How...?"
He simply could not fathom it. Just then the crowd parted, and Onyan Isiha emerged. Wolyeong rushed to him.
"Father!"
"Why are you back so late?"
Onyan Isiha asked, stroking her hair. Tung Jugang spoke up.
"That is a long story."
"Is it, now..."
Onyan Isiha fixed the boar and the bear with a keen gaze.
"Then I shall hear it in full, and at leisure. In any case, you have all worked hard."
Wolyeong withdrew, and the crowd, their eyes still riveted on the two beasts, waited on the Great Chieftain's words.
"Truly, game of this caliber has not been seen in years. Such a feat deserves to be sung about—someone should compose a song for it."
"We are honored."
"But who felled them?"
At that, Hong-wi and Tung Jugang looked at each other.
"It was Lord Tung Jugang's kill."
"It was Temusi-i's."
The two men spoke at the same instant. A brief silence followed—and then they both burst out laughing.
"Why, you—"
"That's my line!"
Onyan Isiha, Kushinu, and all the rest watched them with quiet amusement. At last Tung Jugang wiped the grin from his face and spoke plainly.
"Both beasts—I severed their throats. But more than that, it was Temusi-i who saved Wolyeong."
A gasp went through the crowd. Hong-wi shook his head.
"The mortal wounds were Tung Jugang's work. I merely finished the job."
"Now that's not true, friend."
Tung Jugang shook his head in turn.
"Enough, both of you."
Onyan Isiha's voice cut through, and the crowd fell silent at once.
"To bring down such game on a single day is unprecedented in itself—but men arguing to hand the credit to each other rather than claim it, that I have never once witnessed. What a rare and delightful thing it is."
He regarded Hong-wi and Tung Jugang with warm, fatherly affection.
"In my judgment, today's foremost hunter should not be named as one man. Both of them should stand as the finest. What say the rest of you?"
"The Elder speaks truly!"
The crowd roared its assent as one. Onyan Isiha turned to Kushinu.
"And your thoughts?"
"I think the same, my lord."
Kushinu nodded, a smile at the corners of his mouth.
"Good. Then let us return to the village and hold a feast! Let every warrior who labored today eat and drink to his heart's content!"
The men scattered with whoops of excitement, several of them setting about hauling the boar and the bear back to the village. Watching them go, Onyan Isiha turned to Hong-wi's party.
"Wolyeong, go on ahead with Un-yeong."
"Yes, Father."
Once Wolyeong's party had set out toward Anchunbugu, Onyan Isiha turned to Tung Jugang and Hong-wi.
"You said earlier there was something you wished to discuss. What happened out there?"
"Yes. There is."
Tung Jugang glanced around, then continued in a lower voice, casting a sidelong look at Ichigeo.
"It is a matter we would deliver to the Great Chieftain alone, and quietly."
"I see..."
Onyan Isiha studied the two men for a long moment, then looked to Kushinu.
"Kushinu here is a man of few loose words, and he has shared my every hardship and joy for decades. There is nothing he and I hide from one another. Will that do?"
"It will."
Tung Jugang nodded, and Hong-wi nodded with him.
The four of them—Tung Jugang and Hong-wi, Onyan Isiha and Kushinu—quietly slipped away from the crowd. Ichigeo spotted them leaving and seemed about to call out, but Onyan Isiha spoke first.
"There is a lesson I wish to impress upon these young men today. Their courage is admirable, but did they not court danger a little too recklessly?"
"That is so."
Ichigeo nodded as though satisfied, then shot a glance at Tung Jugang and Hong-wi.
"Courage is a virtue worth praising, but it must be spent with an eye to time and place."
"We shall take that to heart."
Tung Jugang answered, meeting Ichigeo's eyes squarely. Ichigeo turned his head away, visibly displeased.
The four walked until they found a spot reasonably free of prying eyes.
"Now then—let us hear it."
The two young men laid out the whole story before Onyan Isiha, from beginning to end. When they had finished, the Great Chieftain's brow was deeply furrowed, and Kushinu's face had gone hard as stone.
"So that is what befell."
Onyan Isiha let out a long sigh. Kushinu too stood in silence, his face shadowed. It was a long while before he broke the quiet.
"Thank heaven the lady is unharmed. Lee Go-nap-hap is a reckless fool who never thinks two steps ahead—there is no telling what he might have done."
"That may well be."
Onyan Isiha conceded with a grimace. Among the Jurchens, one of the oldest customs was marriage by capture. If Lee Go-nap-hap had yielded to impulse and carried Wolyeong off, such a union would have been held as perfectly legitimate.
Of course, the Onyan clan would never have stood for it—but the true problem was Lee Man-ju standing behind Lee Go-nap-hap. If Lee Man-ju dug in his heels and brandished custom as his weapon, there would be no clean way to undo it. The mere thought was dreadful.
"This old man owes you both a great debt. Thank you."
"No, Great Chieftain, please—"
Onyan Isiha bowed his head low before Tung Jugang and Hong-wi. Seeing the Great Chieftain show them such deep courtesy, the two men were thrown into flustered confusion.
"You must not. You protected my daughter—I hardly know how to repay such a kindness. And yet, I fear what comes next."
"We cannot simply let this matter pass. It is an insult and a challenge to you, Elder!"
Kushinu burst out.
"What if you convene an Izara to denounce Kunaha's outrage?"
"Hmm."
Onyan Isiha closed his eyes.
"An Izara would be a heavy burden to bear."
The word izara meant simply "assembly" in the Jurchen tongue. But the Izara Onyan Isiha spoke of was no ordinary meeting—it meant a grand council of every tribe in Jianzhou.
The last such Izara, gathering all the chieftains and clan heads of Jianzhou, had been convened some twenty years earlier, and it was there that the reconciliation of the Tung clan and the framework of the Jianzhou Three Guards had been settled. It was a council of that magnitude and authority—one never summoned lightly, nor on a whim.
"And yet the honor of the Onyan clan hangs upon this. We cannot let it pass—doing so would send Kunaha precisely the wrong signal. If he comes to believe that no matter how wildly he rages, nothing will ever be done... what then, my lord?"
To Kushinu's words, Onyan Isiha said nothing.
"If I may be so bold—might I offer my thoughts?"
Hong-wi spoke up, and Onyan Isiha nodded.
"Making this a public matter would be unwise, for three reasons."
"Three reasons? Let us hear them, then."
"First, I doubt a public reckoning would produce anything but ill. The only thing it would accomplish is provoking Lee Man-ju."
"That is fair."
"Second, by letting the matter rest quietly, we place a kind of debt upon Lee Go-nap-hap."
"...That wretch is hardly one to know the meaning of a favor."
"Perhaps not. But it will rankle. He will at least think twice before running wild again."
"That may be so. And the third reason?"
"Yes—and in truth, this is the greatest of them. If this became a matter of public debate, the humiliation Wolyeong suffered would be laid bare before all the world. It would stain her honor, and yours as well. That is not something I am willing to allow."
Onyan Isiha nodded slowly, again and again. To speak honestly, as a father he had no wish to see his daughter's shame and humiliation paraded before anyone's eyes. Kushinu and Tung Jugang both nodded in agreement.
"I knew already that Lord Temusi-i was a man of deep thought... but I am grateful you would be so considerate of us. Alone, I would gladly shoulder any humiliation—but not my daughter. Thank you for thinking of her honor."
"Think nothing of it, Elder."
"And yet Kushinu is right as well. If we simply bury this, there is no telling how Kunaha will take it."
"Which is why—it may not be the cause for worry that you fear."
"What do you mean?"
Onyan Isiha tilted his head, and Hong-wi drew a folded paper from inside his breast.
"I obtained this from Kunaha."
Onyan Isiha and Kushinu unfolded the paper Hong-wi handed over. As their eyes traveled down the writing, they went wide with astonishment.
"Brilliant. However did you think to secure this?"
"It seemed necessary. Only this way can he never deny it later."
"Truly, this is a masterstroke!"
Onyan Isiha nodded repeatedly.
"So long as this exists, Kunaha cannot lay a hand on the lady. It shields her honor and prepares for the future, both at once. Keep this in your keeping, Elder."
"Thank you."
Onyan Isiha drew a long breath and let it out.
"I am old now. Old and withered. But Wolyeong is a flower only just coming into bloom—and I wonder whether I have days enough left to see that flower bear its fruit."
"Elder, please—do not speak so."
Onyan Isiha raised a hand to stop him.
"Tung Jugang, I have long regarded you as no different from a son of my own blood. Look after Wolyeong, I beg you, now and always."
In answer, Tung Jugang struck his fist against his own chest. Onyan Isiha nodded, then turned to Hong-wi.
"Temusi-i. You are a man from a foreign land, and yet you are more noble, and more worthy of trust, than any man I know. Meeting you has been my great fortune."
Something stirred deep in Hong-wi's chest. He had known this Jurchen chieftain for barely a month, and yet Onyan Isiha had left a profound impression upon him—a man of resolute judgment and lofty character, of quiet dignity, possessed of an unyielding will to bear every burden himself and rise beneath their weight.
"It is an honor to be of service to you, Elder."
"No—it is I who am honored, to have come to know a man of your worth."
Onyan Isiha bowed his head.
And in that moment, a flicker of doubt took root in a corner of Hong-wi's mind. For an instant, he wondered—had this wise old chieftain seen through to his true identity?
"Forgive me for drawing a stranger into our affairs. And as a father, know that I will never, so long as I live, forget the debt of today—my daughter's rescue."
"Please, say no more. I only did what any man ought to do."
"Thank you. Come—let us return to the village and lay our hearts at ease over the feast."