Keys of the Mandate and the Estates

The Mandate fortified the valley and built a road through it to their encampment. The valley gate, the outer gate, the training grounds, and Moji's residence all sit along that line; further off are the side gate on the hill behind the Mirage Estate, the Blowfire Tower, and the storeroom on Soulrend Mountain.

Eight of the nine are door keys. The last is an opera ticket — it locks nothing, yet it keeps most people outside.

• Mandate Valley Gate Key: The Mandate built fortifications in the valley and cut a route through it to their encampment.
• Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Key: A roughly forged iron spare, its design plain and rigid as though made in haste. It opens the outer gate on the mountain road to the encampment.
• Training Grounds Key: A key hanging from a yellow jade ring, opening the main gate of the Training Grounds.
• Moji's House Key: A slender, flat key with a round opening at one end for hooking onto the locking bar. While Moji was present his door was usually left unlocked, and all who came to seek instruction, pay a visit, or test their blades were received with courtesy. After his disappearance his disciples kept it locked to protect his legacy from Huangxing's followers.
• Red-Cloth Door Key: A key with a faded strip of red cloth tied to it. Weddings, success in the examinations, a reunion with an old friend far from home — every banquet wants a touch of festive red.
• Opera Ticket: Tickets to the Mirage Estate have always been hard to come by, and the scramble has only grown fiercer; the Thread-Binders spill blood for one. Only with a ticket may one enter the Opera Theater.
• Rear Hill Key: The key to the side gate on the hill behind the Mirage Estate, its handle engraved with landscape motifs and set with a piece of red jade.
• Blowfire Tower Key: Coated in a layer of white ash, like a charred bone.
• Soulrend Storeroom Key: A standard lock key carried by Mandate ranks. The wind and snow of Soulrend Mountain have cracked it, yet the groove along its teeth still gleams like new.

Valley, encampment, training grounds, a scholar's house, an opera theater, a back hill, a tower, a storeroom — nine objects, each matched to a door. Most simply open; the ticket is the exception, sorting people rather than locks.