Free Song of the Spring Moon Waning by E. E. Ottoman Page A

headed for the writing table. Everything was as he'd left it, save for the fact that the table had been moved back inside over by the window.
    "I wonder if we should just move it out to the courtyard to begin with and save us the trouble of having to do it later." Liu Yi came over to stand by him.
    "That's a good idea." Wen Yu gathered the books and papers off the table, then took one end of the desk while Liu Yi took the other.
    The guards watched them with a mixture of confusion and interest as they moved the desk and set it back up with papers, ink, and brushes. Wen Yu knelt in front of it and opened the books, watching as the words appeared on the pages. Liu Yi watched him for a minute until he turned and walking back towards his rooms. Reviewing his notes, Wen Yu sank back into the space where the words of the poems on the page were the only things that mattered.
    The moon slowly moved across the sky, and at the gate, the guard was changed, but Wen Yu barely noticed. In fact, he only rose from his intellectual haze when Liu Yi set a cup of tea down on the desk next to him.
    "How is it going?"
    "Well." Wen Yu handed Liu Yi his notes, picking up the cup of tea. "I think I understand the sentence structure now, and some of the words. See, these characters must represent actions." He pointed to a character on the page.
    "You've gotten so far." Liu Yi knelt next to him on the mat, reading over Wen Yu's notes, while Wen Yu stretched and drank his tea.
    "Not far enough to actually have any sort of idea of what they say." Wen Yu set his cup aside. "But I hope to get further before the moon sets." He took the notes back from Liu Yi and turned his attention to the poems once more.
    He expected Liu Yi to leave him as Liu Yi always had once Wen Yu started working. Instead, he scooted around on the mat so that he was sitting with his back braced against Wen Yu's.
    "Thank you," he said after a long moment of silence, and Wen Yu looked up.
    "What for?"
    "For doing this, for working so hard on this. For taking it so seriously."
    Wen Yu just shrugged.
    "I've been sick my whole life," Liu Yi said, and Wen Yu blinked at the sudden change of topic. "I've seen dozens of doctors. In fact, one of the reasons my parents brought me here and paid for the operation for me to become a eunuch was so I could see the best doctors. None of them have been able to tell me what is wrong; there are medicines I can take which ease the symptoms, but nothing cures me. It occurred to me some time ago that my illness follows the cycle of the moon. When the moon is full, I am at my strongest. As it wanes, my health becomes progressively worse, and during the times when the moon is absent from the sky altogether, I am most often not able to leave my bed."
    Wen Yu turned to look over his shoulder, watching Liu Yi. Liu Yi gazed up at the sky where the moon hung, slowly waning, although it would be a while yet before it went dark.
    "When I was given these poems, I thought there must be a connection. It can be no other way; they are of the moon, and my illness is connected to the moon, so one must hold the key to the other. If they were translated, I might learn what it is that afflicts me and how to cure it."
    Wen Yu sat and reflected on this as Liu Yi leaned back against him and watched the moon. "And what if it doesn't?" he asked finally. "What if they're just poems?"
    "Then at least I'll know."
    "Would you keep on searching?"
    Liu Yi rolled to the side to face Wen Yu. "Of course," he said. "Even if the poems are not the answer to what this illness is, I will continue to look for one." Liu Yi stood, brushing off his robes. "I'll leave you to work, but know that I am thankful." Bending gracefully at the waist, Liu Yi kissed Wen Yu on the lips, a gentle, chaste kiss, before straightening and heading for his rooms.
    Wen Yu watched him go until he'd disappeared back into the building, then turned back to his desk.
    By the time the sky had begun to gray, Wen Yu could