Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Author: Mia Tsai
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Available for Download
- Genre: Romantic Fantasy
- Price: Free
- File Size: 2 MB
- Publish Date: March 14, 2023
First, the ink.
Elle pours a bit of water on her grinding stone, sets the end of her ink
stick in it. She clasps her hands and breathes out slowly, closing her eyes.
When she opens them, her magic rouses, filling the pit of her stomach with
familiar, joyful warmth.
She takes hold of the stick and pushes it in small, clockwise circles, her
thumb pressing against debossed flowers painted in gold. She’s been waiting
half her shift to escape to her workshop, needing the meditation of
calligraphy to decompress. In the stillness of art there are no outstanding
orders or rude customers, no worries over her eldest brother, Tony, no limits
on what she can do.
Elle settles into her rhythm, her meridians waking with magic. It
unspools with her movements, unwinding in tendrils through her chest and
arm, infusing stone and water and stick with whispered potential. Shh, the
grinding stone says, soothing. The comforting scent of incense rises. Shh.
Tony is safe under her protection, and though he no longer has his magic,
he’s happy and healthy. Shh, shh.
The ink thickens, growing deep and black and reflective beneath the
fluorescent overhead lights. She exhales, lays her stick down, and trails her
fingers across the brushes hanging from a rack. Instinct and her century of
experience guide her to the correct brush—bamboo handle, wolf hair, sharp
tip. Elle greets it as she lifts it off its hook and prepares it, then dips it into ink
and acclimates it with a few test strokes. There’s enough ink for one glyph, a
single character on a square of rice paper she’ll end up selling. She holds
down her paper, saturates each hair of the brush with her magic, and murmurs
a prayer to Shénnóng, the Chinese god of medicine, her patron god and direct
ancestor.
There are nine strokes in the character for “fly,” and Elle imbues each
one with the determination to leave the earth, to soar into the sky. Three
strokes create a beating wing, feathers spread and vibrating, straining against
the atmosphere. A second wing takes shape, ensuring speed and swiftness.
The final downward stroke becomes the hard line of the horizon tilting
vertical as the birds bank sharply to the right.
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