One method of peering into Heaven is to infer what has not yet come to pass from what is already known. This i…
One method of peering into Heaven is to infer what has not yet come to pass from what is already known. This is called Heavenly Reckoning.
Since this art first began, generations of predecessors have poured their wisdom into it, aided time and again by Lone Cloud. Only thus was this calculating array brought into being, to probe the rifts of Heaven and reckon the myriad workings of creation.
In the Kaiyun years, it foretold the collapse of Mount Taibai. More recently, it foretold the great floods that would afflict the realm. In both cases, warnings were sent out, and what little strength we had was put to use.
To fly to Heaven is a work of a thousand years. In this as in all else, the one entrusted with it must be chosen with the utmost care.
I have looked over the promising talents of the younger generation. Wanshi has gifts enough, yet his resolve is not firm. Qizhe is rich in plans and devices, yet his thoughts are burdened by too many ties.
Only Halcyon is steadfast as stone. Though not especially gifted in the finest crafts of mechanism, she shows uncommon insight when it comes to the ordering of pivots and the principles of design.
More than that, when I once spoke with Halcyon of fishing the moon from the water, she answered:
"In all things under Heaven, principle and craft are both indispensable. Principle is like the root of a tree, craft like the leaves in its crown. If the root is not firm, the leaves soon wither. If the leaves do not flourish, the tree too will die.
It was because those who came before held the will to fish for the moon, and handed down the craft of fishing for the moon, that those who came after could inherit that same will, and in time achieve the deed of drawing down the moon."
By the time Halcyon took her leave that day, it was already the third watch. Lowering my head, I saw the bright moon mirrored in the green water. Raising it again, I found the sky clear and open, with the moon hanging at Heaven's edge.
At once my heart grew light. So I bought a jug of rough wine and wrote a letter to Grandmaster Osprey.