The last hour and a half had been the worst of Min's life. Fai-lan City guards, under the command of a man dressed in black robes with the Gem Court icon around his neck, had dragged her and Chang-li from the inn. She'd thought of calling out for help in the common room, but her people stood silent, watching her in horror, and there were more guards standing by.

At least they'd let her pull her robe around herself. Chang-li was hustled out without even being allowed to fasten his robe. They had demanded his papers, and he'd pointed them at his scribe's satchel, which they swept up as Chang-li and Min were hustled from their room.

Then the long march back through the city streets, as the guards glowered at her. She couldn't look up, stumbling forward, following the black-robed man, Chang-li a little ways behind her. How could she have been so foolish? Her brother had warned her. The dowager had warned her. This humiliation was all her fault. She should never have snuck out of the palace, never stayed after Chang-li had urged her to return home.

Then, into the palace, where they were thrust into a room to wait, guarded by the same men who had pulled them from the inn. Chang-li collapsed onto a couch, his face pale. She'd never seen him look so shaken. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's —“

“Silence," the guard cut in, and they lapsed into the most painfully awkward silence Min could ever remember. She sat carefully on another couch opposite Chang-li. It was a well-appointed parlor, not the one she'd spent the previous day in, full of lush wall hangings and a rich carpet on the floor, Min stared at her own feet. The wine had long since burned away, leaving nothing but shame and despair.

It seemed as though they had been waiting all night. Then, at last, the door opened again. The black-robed man appeared, along with her older brother Yuan-li. Yuan-li strode toward her, red-faced. "How dare you!" he said and slapped her face.

Min felt the burning strike as her head whipped to the side. Chang-li was on his feet, starting for them. The guards grabbed him, hauled him back, and forced him down onto the sofa. She looked to him and mouthed the word, "No."

Her brother glared down. "No reply from me, but a word for your lover?"

"We weren't... I... that is..." she mumbled.

The black-robed man stepped forward. "Forgive me, Your Excellency," he said to Yuan-li. "I know this is hard on you. The information given by the clerk at the library was correct.”

"I didn't believe you when you told me," Yuan-li said through gritted teeth. "But it seems I must.” He turned to Min, practically spitting. “The Dowager Pearl accompanying your Court of Gems sent a message along the caravan, telling the local Gem Court representative here that she suspected you of loose morals, that you had several times been caught sneaking out of the Court of Gems for some assignation or tryst. I assumed that it was your other activities, which was bad enough, but then we received word from one of the clerks at the cultivator library that you were there in company with a common scribe! I warned you, Min!" Yuan-li raised his hands and Min flinched, but he was merely passing a broad hand across his own face. “You know what this does to our family!"

She lowered her eyes. She couldn't bring herself to mumble an apology, even though she was deeply, deeply regretful — of getting caught. That realization flooded her with even more shame.

“Guo Min," the Gem Court official said. "I speak with Dowager Pearl's name. You were an accepted member of the Court of Gems at Golden Moon Tower. Is that true?"

"Yes," she mumbled.

"You were, therefore, under the rules and obligations of the Gem Court, the first of which is that you will accept the attentions only of a cultivator in a duly licensed sect. This is part of the duty the Gem Court owes to the Empire. Your station brings with it certain obligations as well, and you have failed yours.”

She hung her head.

“And you have brought wrath down, not just on your own head but your illicit lover. The punishment for someone who's not even a cultivator have carnal relations with a Gem Court noble is to be stripped of their position and placed into debt slavery if they cannot pay the fine. Which I suspect —”

"I am a cultivator," Chang-li said angrily.

She raised her eyes and shook her head a tiny bit. "Don't make this worse," she wanted to tell him.

Caught off his stride, the official paused. "Is that so? Then where is your license book?"

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"They've got my papers," Chang-li said, nodding his head to the guards. One of the guards brought the satchel forward. The official rifled through it and drew out a pair of somewhat dirtied papers.

"You are Wu Chang-li?"

"I am."

"It says you are a cultivator, who has reached the Peak of Bodily Refinement and..." He raised an eyebrow. "You have an endorsement for bravery. You are participating in the Tower Cull at Golden Moon City?"

"I am," Chang-li said.

"And this second page states you are a member of the Morning Mist sect."

Chang-li hesitated. "It does," he said, allowing the lie to stand on its own.

Min's heart was frozen. This wasn't going to help. Just because he was a cultivator didn't make her behavior any more acceptable.

"So, I'm supposed to be somewhat mollified because my sister was sneaking out of the palace grounds to dally with a low-ranked cultivator from a sect I've never heard of?" Yuan-li asked. "Min? Even if he was a suitable candidate, this is not how one conducts oneself."

It wasn't that he was wrong. It was just that he was so damn self-righteous about all this.

“And he’s the lowest rank possible,” Yuan-li said.

Min closed her eyes. What could she say? That she hadn't meant it? That the evening had gotten away from her? They'd been caught red-handed.

The Gem Court official turned to Yuan-li. "Regardless, she will be expelled from the Court of Gems and sent back to your family."

"And I will be sending her into seclusion," Yuan-li turned on Min. "You will be sent to a contemplatory monastery until I have decided a way to rehabilitate our family image, if that's even possible."

Min shook her head, whispering, "No." To be locked away in a monastery, watched over by the contemplatives who lived there? Yuan-li would never let her out. She had embarrassed herself too greatly.

She could get word to Grandfather Jiang — but she'd failed him, too. She'd been sent to do a job, and by trying to overreach herself, had botched it so thoroughly, she'd ruined herself, her family, her future.

Yuan-li was bowing to the Gem Court official. "I shall cooperate with you in every way. You have no fear that I will intervene." Even if he wasn't desperately trying to keep his position, Min doubted that he would have helped anyway. Yuan-li hated gossip and scandal, and she'd made herself the center of both.

"As for you," the Gem Court official said, turning on Chang-li, "I will have a reprimand sent to your sect, and a note added to your license that you are not permitted to court any member of the Court of Gems until you have made penance to the Emperor."

"But why?" Chang-li asked. He paused, as if expecting to be interrupted, then said, "I accept that it was ill-behaved of Min and myself tonight. We were merely carried away."

She'd never heard him use her bare name before, and Yuan-li began puffing himself up angrily. Chang-li continued, "I meant to present myself to the family tomorrow night. Min told me about the banquet for the tax procession."

"You what?" Yuan-li asked.

"It seemed to me that I ought to ask the permission of the closest representative of her family before our betrothal was formally announced."

"Betrothal?" Yuan-li spluttered. "You what? Why?"

A dawning hope and horror grew in Min's chest like twin fires. He couldn't be saying — Chang-li wouldn't sacrifice himself to save her from this.

But he was continuing, "Min, that is, Lady Min and I, formed an attachment at the Court of Gems. As my sect is small and has little to make it worth the notice of a great family like the Guo, I was hoping to prove ourselves at this Tower Cull. My senior, Young Master Joshi, has impressed everyone present at the Tower Cull. He received an endorsement for bravery like mine, and another specifically for saving the life of Indigo Princess Hiroko."

That got the room muttering. "Regardless, Min and I have been secretly betrothed for the last... uh... week."

Min found herself nodding along. The Gem Court official looked suspicious.

"Yes," Min said. "The Dowager's last party. She caught me sneaking back into the compound. Chang-li and I had been bidding each other goodnight following our informal betrothal."

Yuan-li still looked furious. The Gem Court official turned on Chang-li. "You have barely taken a step along the path, and yet you thought yourself worthy to court a member of the Court of Gems?"

"I reached Bodily Refinement," Chang-li said. “Most of the other cultivators at the cull are the same rank as me and they’re acceptable to the Court.”

"Wait." Yuan-li held up a hand. "Wait. Yes. Yes, this could indeed save the family honor. Assuming all of the paperwork is in order…”

The Gem Court official was inspecting Chang-li's license. "This says you transferred from the Order of Licensed Scribes to the Morning Mist Sect. Is that why your license here still lists you as a scribe?"

"That's correct," Chang-li said, straightening up a bit.

"Have the paperwork showing your transfers of affiliation been registered here?"

"No, not yet," Chang-li said. Min could tell he was thinking desperately.

"It's because of the chaos in the camp," Min said. "The scribes have been working themselves to death trying to catch up on paperwork due to the temporary closure of the tower and the Inquisitor's look into the near disaster that occurred there a week and a half ago."

Yuan-li was nodding along, his face transformed. The anger had drained away, leaving him pale-faced but hopeful. "Yes, yes. We can…”

"The Dowager will not allow this one back into the Court of Gems," the court official said, pointing at Min. "She was very explicit that any behavior outside of usual propriety would have her expelled."

"But a cultivator spouse isn't part of the Court of Gems," Min said desperately. "So she doesn't have to allow me around the others."

"Not as long as you are married before you dare return," the official agreed.

Yuan-li clapped his hands. "That settles it. We will see to the arrangements at once. Come.” He pointed at Chang-li. “Have him sent to guest chambers. Keep him under guard. And guards on my sister as well. There’s much work for us to do, I think, if we’re going to settle this…. Can I count on your aid?” he asked the official.

The man bowed his head. “Certainly, Governor-Designate, I am at your disposal.”