He told Suyin he was leaving.
She received this information with the expression of someone who has been expecting a thing long enough that the arrival feels more like a confirmation than a loss — and then with the expression of someone for whom the confirmation, however expected, is still a loss.
"The Ascending Cloud Academy," she said. He had given her the practical details first, because she was the type who needed the practical details to have somewhere to put the rest of it.
"Elder Shou's recommendation," he said. "And Grand Formless has offered a sect endorsement."
"When."
"End of summer."
She was quiet. She had the ink case in her hands without having opened it, which meant she was holding it for comfort rather than function.
"The inquiry," he said. "Elder Sorrow. The review outcome. All of it is documented and in the regional record now. It doesn't need me here to continue moving."
"I know," she said.
"You're going to be fine," he said.
"I know that too," she said, with the gentle asperity of someone who finds reassurance slightly irritating when they've already done the calculation themselves. "I'm not worried about me." She looked at him. "I'm worried about you. Ascending Cloud Academy is a context where you stop being an anomaly and start being — whatever comes after anomaly. Whatever you are when the suppression continues to fail and the things under the floor come through."
"I'll be careful."
"You will not be careful," she said. "You're incapable of careful when it conflicts with the deeper thing. I've watched you for four years." She paused. "What I'm saying is — tell me what happens. Whatever happens, write to me. Even if it's strange and large and I won't fully understand it. Write to me."
"I will," he said.
She stood up and put her arms around him in the exact way that Suyin, who was not demonstrative as a baseline, hugged people when she had decided it was necessary — with precision and completeness and no ambiguity about its meaning.
He held on.
When they pulled apart she had the ink case open and was writing something down, because she was Suyin and this was how she processed, and he watched her write with the specific tenderness of someone watching a person be entirely themselves.
He did not say what was on the shelf. She would have found it redundant.