Upon the Huzhao Pass, Lü Bu (呂布) stood this night leaning alone against the stone railing atop the gate. The night wind beyond the gate swept broad across the banner overhead. One end of the banner brushed his cheek. On another night, he would have quietly enjoyed that touch. Tonight it remained as a sharpness upon his skin.

Through twenty-six years of his life, Lü Bu had never turned his reins first before an enemy. From his boyhood upon the plains of Wuyuan (五原), he had learned to turn a horse's head toward the foe, never away from him. In childhood, one village elder had said, "Fengxian, a man in his life must learn, at least once, to turn his horse against his own will." The young Lü Bu had laughed and let the line pass.

This afternoon, upon the plain before the Huzhao Pass, he had for the first time turned the head of Red Hare away from the enemy. The childhood elder's line, after twenty-six years, came down heavy upon the rein at his fingertips. That turning settled a new weight upon his shoulder. The name of that weight Lü Bu could not draw up into his mouth tonight.

Behind him came the footsteps of Li Ru (李儒).

"Fengxian. This afternoon's matter is not the general's fault. To step back first from a seat where three surround one is rather the wise judgment. His Lordship will give you a separate word tomorrow. At the end of that word, if you kneel once more, this afternoon's turning will return as nothing at all."

Lü Bu's hand lingered upon the shaft of the Sky-Piercing Halberd at his waist. He had already read the grain hidden in Li Ru's line. The "separate word" meant another task set to cover this afternoon's turning. Though Lü Bu had not yet heard the name of that task, he knew the weight upon his shoulder would equal the weight of that word.

At that very moment, from below the gate of the Huzhao Pass came the hooves of a messenger. The man climbed the gate panting. "I report. From the alliance side, one company of cavalry has broken away southward. It is said to be the army of Sun Jian (孫堅), grand administrator of Changsha."

Lü Bu's eyebrow rose. Li Ru laughed quietly. "Fengxian. Look. This afternoon's turning is taking place outside the Huzhao Pass as well. The side-by-side of three shafts shook His Lordship's grain; yet the grain of the alliance is shaking this night too. Sun Jian's turning of the reins is the first hairline crack of the alliance."

Lü Bu turned his head toward the southern sky. South of Luoyang, a line of dust rose southward. Sun Jian's hooves were leaving the alliance behind first. The grain of that dust brushed against Lü Bu's cheek again. The direction of the rein he had turned this afternoon before the Huzhao Pass, and the direction of the rein Sun Jian had turned this night outside it, were two strands of the same grain. That grain was the grain of "things turn their eyes from each other" (物反目). Enemies had turned from each other; allies, too, were turning from each other now.

Lü Bu stayed upon the railing until the first paleness of dawn. Through that long standing, two questions rose within him by turn. The first: what was the name of the weight upon his shoulder? The second: how long would the chancellor's "separate word" prove? He could answer neither this night. Yet he knew the answer to both would not come from the plain before the Pass, but from within the capital behind it. He knew, too, that the capital would soon look different than it looked tonight — that on one night ahead, the capital itself would start to burn. The halberd at his waist felt a little heavier than usual; yet the nameless weight upon his shoulder felt heavier than the halberd.

The twenty-fourth night of Book 1 deepened quietly across two seats: the stone railing of the Huzhao Pass and the line of dust south of Luoyang. The three characters Chojeonbi (初轉轡, the first to turn the reins) were planted as a seed: the breath in which a childhood elder's line came down, after twenty-six years, upon the rein at one's fingertips. The side-by-side of Day 23's Samyeonghoe had, this night, separated into two strands — the weight upon Lü Bu's shoulder, and the first hairline crack of the alliance.

—