Chang-li had been stripped, scrubbed, dressed in a plain linen tunic and leggings, then measured and fitted by a wizened tailor, abandoned to his own devices for a while, given a pot of tea and no food, dragged around to three different officials to recite the same list of facts about himself, and finally stuffed into a brand-new robe, hair oiled and styled, and turned over to Guo Yuan-li. All the while he’d been watched over by stern-eyed city guards who wouldn’t speak to him even if he asked questions. He hadn’t seen Min at all since being escorted out of her presence.

It had been quite a day. Chang-li still hadn’t caught his breath. His new robe was patterned after his Morning Mist garment, the same cut, pattern, and colors, but with a bright strip of scarlet at wrist, neck, and hem.

Now Min’s brother was accompanying him through the halls of the mayoral palace, the ever-present guards trailing behind at a respectful distance. “My guests will be arriving soon. I haven’t much time. I’ll have you and Min presented once the tax ceremony is over. I wanted a brief word.” Yuan-li looked him over, frowning. The windows set in the halls of the palace overlooked a darkening garden. Somehow, he’d spent a whole day here. “At least you clean up well.”

Chang-li wasn’t sure how to take that. He bowed his head. “Thank you, governor-delegate.”

“You and Min. You’ll be returned to the tower by the caravan tomorrow. I suppose you mean to finish the Tower Cull?”

Panic rose in Chang-li. He was going to be in so much trouble when he got back and his lies caught up with him, but better than being executed by Min’s furious brother. “Yes, governor-delegate.”

“Good. Good. After that… perhaps your sect should travel to another province for a year or two. Continue your progression there. That would be the best, I feel.”

“I take your meaning, sir.” Min’s brother wanted them both out of sight.

“I can be very useful to you.” Yuan-li tuned and fixed him with a look. They were standing outside a pair of carved wooden doors; this seemed to be their destination. “Once my position is secure, in a few years, there is much I can do for you and my sister. Such as sign a divorce petition, hmm? But our family must have absolutely no scandal attached to our name during this time. It’s not that I don’t love my sister. Of course I do! But she takes no care for our name, no care at all.” He was scowling as he spoke, his lip protruding in a petulant way.

Chang-li remembered how he’d struck Min, and had to fight the urge to spit in the man’s face. Instead, he bowed his head. “Governor-general, we share one thing in common. Neither of us likes scandal.”

“Good! Then you’ll be fine. Now, go ahead into the chapel.”

Chang-li blinked. “This is the — but you’re not coming?”

Yuan-li waved away his question. “Light, no, I have so much to do. My guests are arriving even now. I have witnesses already arranged, never far. Go on in, Cultivator Wu.”

Like every chapel Chang-li had been in, this one was six-sided, with the great crystal in the front and doors to private contemplation rooms on the walls to either side. The far door was the entrance to the rest of the palace, and the two walls between held shrines where candles could be lit and offerings made to ancestors.

He wasn't much of one for spirituality, visiting shrines for honoring ancestors at the correct festivals and temples and chapels for important ceremonies that required the emperor's blessing, such as when he had been raised to licensed scribe. This was the first time he'd been in one since.

He made his way to the front, standing under the enormous crystal. It was twice as tall as he and cast little rainbow lights on the ground around him.

The door of the right-hand contemplatory room opened, and a wizened old woman in black robes with a pearl diadem, leaning heavily on a cane, crept out. Chang-li recognized another Dowager at once. He folded his hands and bowed. "Honored Pearl.”

This one looked like she was at least a hundred years old, but her eyes were still bright as she fixed on him. Her head barely came up to his shoulder as she approached him. She poked his chest.

"So, you're the cultivator getting married today, hmm? Because of all this commotion, I've been reviewing your application. The governor-delegate seems very eager that you be married off to his sister at once. What'd you do, get her with child?" The old woman cackled and wheezed, slapping her own thigh in amusement. When he only frowned at her, she stopped. "Never mind. Your papers say you're a cultivator, and she's a noble lady, so that makes it a match. I'm supposed to give you a lecture here about doing your duty to emperor and country, but I don't think you need it. Just remember, listen to your wife when she tells you what to do. It's always wise. Doesn't matter if she's the emperor's great-great-great-granddaughter or not, she's your wife. Try not to come to the attention of anyone important for a while. They may not have marked this down in your cultivator's record, but you can believe that rumors are gonna be following you about this. Well?" she said. "Anything to say for yourself? Not gonna ask me to beg off?"

Chang-li, struck dumb, merely shook his head. She took a step back and gazed up at him. Her tone softened. "Do you at least like the girl?"

"Yes," he said. "I very much admire her. Min has a good head on her shoulders, and—"

The woman cut him off with a sharp noise, something between a scoff and a laugh. "Never mind that, but it's more than many cultivators have for their marriage. Remember, you'd be getting someone foisted off on you sooner or later, so don't hold it against her. It's what they're all raised for. Me? I'm glad I didn't give a child to the scheme, not after seeing it in motion for the past eighty years."

Chang-li was shocked at the woman's lack of decorum. "Dowager Pearl, surely—"

"Oh, I know what you're thinking," the woman said, laughing. "You're thinking I'm a mad old woman, and I'm gonna call the wrath of Empire down on myself by saying this sort of heresy. Well, so be it. I was a cultivator myself back in the day, before I got the bright notion to join the Imperial Garden. Actually," she said thoughtfully, "now that I think of it, it may have been my mother's idea. Never mind, it's been a good run, and I don't owe anyone anything, so if you say you want out of this, boy, I'll put a scotch on the whole thing right here and right now, and I don't care who says otherwise."

Chang-li shook his head. "No, no, I'm going to go through with this as long as Min—"

"Don't worry about her," the old woman assured him. "I spoke with her earlier. She'll be here—"Ah!" Her eyes brightened, and she darted away.

Chang-li turned as Min entered the room, accompanied by a handful of attendants. He didn't pay any notice to them, as he was focused on Min.

She wore a solid red robe. It fell from her shoulders like rippling waves, cascading down, the sleeves falling well below her hands, the skirts hiding her feet as she seemed to glide toward him. Her face had been painted white, her eyes outlined in darkest black. She kept her eyes down. Her hair was piled on top of her head, and then studded through with ruby pins, at least a dozen of them, each ruby nearly the size of his finger. She was absolutely stunning. Chang-li's heart was in his throat.

Min came and stood next to him and raised her eyes to his. She looked terrified. Underneath all of the white face paint, he was certain her face was bloodless and pale. She mouthed a word, "Please."

Please? Please what? Please stop this? Please go through with this? Please don't be angry with me?

Chang-li managed to rasp out, "Is this all right?"

She gave one nod of the head as the old woman returned, carrying a golden ribbon about five feet long. It was two inches wide and looked as though it were made of silk. The people who'd come in with Min seated themselves on the nearest row of benches. They looked like functionaries to him, no one of import, and then there was Min's brother. Not the governor delegate, but Jai-lin, who Chang-li had met several times. He looked nearly as pale as his sister, but he was dressed perfectly. His eyes met Chang-li's, and he gave a small nod of approval. Or was that supposed to be a, "If you hurt my sister, I will hunt you down and kill you.”?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Not that Chang-li thought he had much to worry about from Jai-lin. The man wasn't a cultivator. He'd kept his head about him in the tower during the roc attack, but Chang-li hadn't been particularly impressed.

"Hands," the old woman said. "Right hands," she clarified as Chang-li thoughtlessly held out his left. "No, together, you fools."

Chang-li clasped Min's hand. She was shaking, her hand warm. He gave it a little squeeze. She took a shuddering breath. The Dowager Pearl began winding the gold silk ribbon around their hands.

"In the sight of the divine emperor and witnessed by family and friends," she raised her eyes to look at the meager group watching them, "these two have chosen to unite their lives in the service of the empire to support each other along the paths. Guo Min, daughter of the Guo family, seventh-rank noble of the Court of Gems, bloodline descendant of the Divine Emperor himself, you are here to wed Wu Chang-li, former licensed scribe, now cultivator on the Heavenly Path. Are you ready?”

"Yes," Min whispered.

"Cultivator Wu, this woman is your bond to the empire. She will accompany you along the Heavenly Path and allow you to climb it, knowing the Emperor's favor is always upon you. Listen to her advice and warnings, and do not give her cause to fear that you have strayed beyond the bonds of propriety."

"Yes," Chang-li said as the woman's pause grew uncomfortably long.

He'd never seen a wedding like this. Back in his hometown, most of his family who sought to marry just went before the local licensed scribe and had their intentions written down. A ceremony was for nobles and cultivators, not ordinary people.

He wasn't ordinary people anymore. That much was clear.

"Then, with the blessing of the Divine Emperor, you are hereby wed. Heaven looks with favor on you,” the old woman declared before stepping back, leaving their right hands bound together.

Chang-li stared at Min. "Now what?" he mouthed. They couldn't go on with their hands bound like this, not right hand to right hand.

"You're a cultivator. You're supposed to dissolve the ribbon or something," Min whispered back.

Oh. Chang-li cycled his lux. He didn't want to waste time, so he merely summoned a flame of red lux in his hand and let it burn up the ribbon, guiding it with a thought not to touch their skin or clothing. As the ashes fell away, he found himself staring into Min's face.

The watchers rose. Jai-lin approached, and Min turned to her brother. “My congratulations and best wishes on your new life,” he told her, taking her hands. “You look radiant, sister.” Then he turned to Chang-li. “My brother wishes to present you with this, as a gift from our family on this happy occasion.”

He held out a small red leatherbound booklet. Chang-li took it. The leather was supple under his fingers, dyed without any blotches or variances. He turned it over to the front.

The crest of the Morning Mist sect was embossed there in gold. Chang-li’s mouth hung open for a second. He caught himself and opened the booklet.

The first four pages were his cultivator license, folded in half, followed by the document he and Joshi had forged together.

The next page had the seal of the Governor of Riceflower Province on it, followed by Min’s name, her family line going back to the Emperor himself, and the date of their union.

“You had my license bound into a cultivator’s record?” Chang-li couldn’t help asking, even though the answer was in his hand.

“We felt it was the appropriate gift.”

Chang-li knew bookbinding of this quality was expensive. The red leather, like the red on his robe, matched Min’s rank.

It hit hard. His rank, now. He was married to Min and that wasn’t faked. The cultivator record here might be lies and forgeries but this had been real.

It could all be real.

With a noble spouse, with a sect claiming him as their own and the secrets he’d just uncovered, he could actually become the cultivator he’d been claiming to be. Why not? He’d been so worried about being caught, but now that he had, maybe everything would work out.

The feast stretched on interminably. Min and Chang-li were seated together in a group of several local dignitaries who congratulated them on their union and proceeded to get cheerfully drunk, which meant Chang-li didn't have to speak. He nursed a single cup of wine the whole evening, not daring to let himself lose control again.

At last, a servant approached him and asked if they wished to retire. The feast was breaking up now, most of the guests paying their respects to Min's brother. Chang-li nodded and rose. Min got to her feet, looking nervous. They followed the servant to a chamber.

"Your brother instructs us that you shall be returned to your caravan at dawn tomorrow," the servant said. "I shall rouse you in time." He retreated as Chang-li slid the door closed.

The room was larger than the one they'd shared at the inn by a good bit, with an expansive sleeping mat filling most of it. Min knelt near the mat. Her face was down, and her hands, clenched into fists against her knees, were trembling. Chang-li knelt across from her, just out of arm's reach.

"Min," he said softly.

This was horribly awkward. It was the first time they'd been alone since last night. “I’m sorry. I didn't know what else I could do. I felt... I mean... it was my fault. I..."

"Your fault?” she said, her face pale, still under the remains of the makeup. "Your fault! I was the one who insisted on sneaking out of the palace. I was the one who stayed when I shouldn’t.”

“But I…”

“You did nothing that I didn't let you do." Her voice was rising, her eyes narrowed. She seemed angry, which wasn't what Chang-li had been expecting at all. He tried again.

"I just wanted to help."

"Oh, you've helped all right," she said bitterly, shaking her head. "Thank you." She bowed low, her head coming almost to the ground. Chang-li wasn't sure if she was mocking him or herself. "You did. You got me out of trouble the only way you could have, and I am in your debt." Her voice was shaking. Tears ran from her eyes, caking up in the heavy makeup on her face. She wiped at her face with a hand and looked down, seemed to see the smear of white. She rose and went to the far side of the room where a basin of water stood on a stand. She wet a cloth and scrubbed furiously at her face.

"I am in your debt," she repeated. "I shall do my duty as well as I can. It has been brought home to me that I know nothing of being a cultivator spouse, that I have failed to take any of my duties seriously. I am prepared to spend the rest of my life remedying this situation. Never fear."

"Min," he raised his voice.

She turned to look at him. Half her makeup was gone, leaving one side of her face fresh scrubbed and pinkish, the other a smear of white and black.

"I don't know what's going to happen next," he said awkwardly. "I can't be a scribe anymore. They've made me a cultivator for real. As long as nobody scrutinizes my records too much, I suppose I might get away with that. We—" It was all coming down on him hard. "We have to make this real," he realized. "If we don't make Morning Mist into a real sect, then what?"

"Then we go back to my grandfather," Min said, sounding puzzled. "Which is our best plan. We need to get you a few ranks of cultivation. Hopefully, these records we found will have the secrets we need. If you can reach the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, you'll be an asset to the Brotherhood. We'll go back to Vardin City and take up our places there." She nodded. "It might be good to stay out of the way until my brother is confirmed as governor general of the province. He'd appreciate that. The Brotherhood always tries to stay out of official business anyway. We'll get you to the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, and then—"

"I don't want anything to do with the Brotherhood." It slipped out. Min stared at him. He shook his head. "If I'm to be a cultivator, I want to cultivate. I want to progress as far as I can."

"And how far is that?" she challenged. "Without a real sect to back you?”

"I don't know," he snapped. "But I'm going to find out." He took off his robe, exposing his linen tunic and leggings. Min's eyes widened. She turned hurriedly back to the basin and scrubbed her face as he hung the robe on a hook.

There was a pot of tea sitting on a tray by the door. He poured two cups and took her one. She accepted it, holding it in both hands and raising it to her lips. He drank his tea and cleared his throat.

"Listen, I—last night—I mean—" This was his wedding night. The realization hit him hard. Was that what had her trembling? She'd been eager enough last night. Maybe it had been the wine. Maybe she didn't like him. It was clear that they had very different goals and intentions. How could a marriage like this work?

He remembered what her brother had said and took a deep breath. "Your brother. The governor. He said once his position is secured, he could grant a divorce petition if we asked him."

Min set her teacup down so hard some of the remaining tea splashed out. "He said that, did he?"

"Ah, I don't mean to—"

She pulled off her red robe. Underneath, she was wearing the same sort of white linen garments as Chang-li. She stalked over to the mat and sat down, pulling the ruby-tipped pins from her hair. There were a lot of them, more than he had expected. Once she'd removed all the rubies, she kept pulling, and plain-tipped pins that had been invisible in her hair came out. At last, after what seemed a very long time, her dark hair cascaded down over her shoulders. She was just as beautiful as she'd been the night before, but her eyes were hard and angry.

"I will do my duty," she spat, and that drained away any hint of desire Chang-li might have been feeling. He went and extinguished the oil lamp in the corner before feeling his way over to the mat and sitting on the side opposite her.

"You need have no fear of that," he said. "We're to be woken up in a few hours. You'd better try to sleep." He lay down with his back to her and closed his eyes. Presently, he heard Min sobbing, almost too quietly to be heard. Chang-li didn't know what to say or do, so he lay there and pretended to sleep.