Hiroko ignored the rap on her doorframe. She huddled on herself, sitting in a corner of her darkened room, the shutters pulled against the late afternoon sun, her arms wrapped around her knees.

She hadn't moved from this spot all day, not since her attendants had forced her to rise, rolling away her mat and dressing her. They had left her a breakfast tray, which she hadn't touched until they replaced it with lunch, which she also refused. Her mind was a dark roiling pool.

Li Jen's death was her fault. She had forgotten her place. She was not a cultivator. She was a spouse in training. She was not supposed to be trying to progress on her own, but she had gotten caught up in the excitement, just as when she, Joshi, and Chang Li had faced the beasts on the first floor of the tower together. Li Jen had been trying to help her grow, trying to protect her, and he had died for it. The dowager might say it wasn't her fault, but Hiroko knew the truth.

Her door slid open. Hiroko didn't bother to look up. No doubt the servants were here with her dinner tray. Soft footsteps echoed on her floorboard. A pair of black slippers filled the space in front of her, the edge of a black-hemmed robe intruding on her awareness. Hiroko looked up into the cold, stern face of the Dowager Pearl.

"Rise," the dowager commanded.

Hiroko got to her feet, her head hanging in shame at being caught sulking by the dowager.

"We leave the compound in twenty minutes," the dowager informed her. "I have brought my attendants to prepare you."

"To go where?" Hiroko’s heart skipped a beat. "Not the tower."

"Not today," the dowager agreed. "Though you will be back in the tower very soon, I assure you."

Hiroko shook her head. "No, it's not my place, I realize now."

"You contradict me?" the dowager asked, raising an eyebrow. "I said you should progress. I said you must continue. Am I wrong?"

"No, my lady," Hiroko said. “But —”

The dowager sighed. She snapped her fingers, and a pair of middle-aged female attendants entered the room. They opened the window to let the light in and led Hiroko by the hand to the dressing table, seating her in front of it. One set to work on her hair, the other began applying paint to her face. They had identical pursed lips and sour expressions. Hiroko was fairly certain they were sisters, but she didn’t remember their names.

"You have a high rank," the dowager said, "the highest of any noble here by long ways. That means you have a higher duty than any of them as well."

"I know my duty," Hiroko said bitterly. "I am to marry a cultivator, not to be a cultivator myself. I indulged my own whims, Revered Pearl, and it resulted in the death of a good man."

"A weak man," the dowager corrected ruthlessly. She frowned at Hiroko as the attendant behind her pulled a comb through her dark hair. "Li Jen was my grandnephew, and I was very fond of the boy, but he was foolish and weak. There is no room in cultivation for mistakes. He was trying to push himself farther than he could, and he has paid the price for it."

Tears welled in Hiroko's eyes.

"Don't cry, my lady," the servant doing her makeup urged her. "You'll smear the paint."

Hiroko fought to calm herself. She cycled the Purification of Mind and Soul technique, and her emotions ebbed away.

"You see," the dowager said approvingly. "There. Now I am here to speak of your duty. We, the whole Court of Gems, go tonight to pay a visit to the sect of Morning Mist."

Hiroko's heart fluttered again. "Morning Mist? Why?"

"In honor of a cultivator's marriage."

Hiroko's heart froze. A cultivator marriage? Joshi had taken a bride? She hadn't realized he'd made any connections. Certainly she hadn’t seen him favor any of the other noble women. She must have overlooked something. Hiroko felt her stomach twist at the idea of Joshi in the arms of some ambitious… She stifled the thought and forced calm as she bowed her head. "I see. May I ask which noble has Young Master Joshi chosen?"

The Dowager Pearl laughed. "Not Young Master Joshi. Their sect scribe has taken a bride. As he is a cultivator in his own right, he was permitted to marry into the lowest rank of the Sevenfold Court."

"Their scribe?" Hiroko asked doubtfully. She still didn't understand how Joshi had a sect at all. It had to have been some clever scheme to hide the truth of who he was from the other cultivators here. But certainly he didn’t have a scribe, did he?

"I think you'll know him. The young scribe who came to our aid in the tower facing the roc. I believe his name was Wu."

Chang-li? Hiroko clamped down quickly on an exclamation. She controlled her emotions, overcome by both surprise that Chang-li had declared himself part of the Morning Mist sect and had married, and also a sudden flare of delight that it wasn't Joshi who was married. "Scribe Wu is part of their sect now?"

"It appears so. I suspect some collusion. You recall Lady Min. Her actions are… questionable. I have warned the other low-ranking girls against following her example."

Hiroko had indeed been present for that lecture. The dowager had not addressed her, but the other red and orange-ranked cultivators had been subjected to a half-hour-long discussion over breakfast three days ago about propriety and the appearance thereof, with Min featuring as a negative example. Hiroko hadn't had much to do with Lady Min. The girl had seemed pleasant enough in their few interactions, but for her to be married to Chang-li? What had happened?

"As I said, the court will be paying the appropriate congratulatory visit as soon as you, my lady, are ready," the dowager said. She smiled predator-style. Hiroko was getting a little better at reading the dowager; Min had managed to offend her greatly. This might not be a pleasant evening.

Hiroko submitted to her hair and makeup and then joined the dowager and the other nobles at the front of the house. Min's brother, Lord Wei-lin, was looking nervous about the affair.

The other women were gossiping amongst themselves. They shied away from Hiroko, as they always did, wary of her status. Out of curiosity, she pulled lux and tried her special technique, the one she'd learned as her tower boon.

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Lines appeared, connecting the nobles with each other, showing the strength of their connections. Hiroko was fascinated to see that the bond between herself and the dowager looked very different from the connection to all the other nobles. While the bond connecting the dowager and the other nobles was a tight black cord that made her think of the reins' harness on a horse, the connection to Hiroko was a pale blue thread delicate, almost lacy.

The other noble girls all had light bonds with each other, pale pink. A sort of friendship, Hiroko thought, but not with her. Her technique had used much of her lux reserves. She dismissed it.

The nobles passed quickly down through the camp as evening fell. Soldiers, servants, and cultivation disciples scurried out of their way until they reached the house of the Sect of Morning Mist. The door was flung open. Servants received them, ushering them inside.

The dowager entered, followed by Hiroko and then the rest of the nobles. There were at least a dozen grey-clad servants in the entry room of the house, all offering drinks and trays of festive food: sliced fruits, tiny bites of cheese, rice wrapped in seaweed and filled with a variety of fillings, sized to be eaten in a single bite. The entry room was large, with a parlor off to one side, which had been decked out in white, grey, and red hangings.

There was a door on the other side leading off to the kitchens. Servants kept coming in and out, carrying trays. Already, the room was full of cultivators from the other sects. Their different robes were a garish clash with the stark colors of the Morning Mist. Hiroko admired the decorations. Li Jiya and her grandfather were just passing out of this assembly room into the courtyard beyond.

The dowager turned to the nobles. "All of you circulate and greet the cultivators. Be sure to pay your respects to Cultivator Scribe Wu and his bride. Hiroko, with me." She swept through the room. All of the furniture had been pushed back against the walls to leave plenty of room for the party guests.

On the far wall were large sliding paper doors which had been pushed open to reveal a porch and the courtyard beyond, decked out in bunting and hangings of the same colors with lanterns hanging all along the edge of the porch. Li Jiya plowed through across the porch and down into the courtyard, the Dowager and Hiroko followed.

The courtyard wasn't particularly large, perhaps 30 feet on a side with a few trees around the edges but mostly left open for cultivators to practice and train. It was festive tonight though, with decorations hanging from the surrounding walls and overhead. Festive lanterns bobbed from lines running overhead.

At the far end of the courtyard was a wooden pavilion, freshly erected. Hiroko could still smell the sawdust. Under the pavilion stood Chang-li and Lady Min. They looked stressed. Chang-li wore robes in the Morning Mist pattern, the same as Joshi had, but his were banded with red, showing his bride's rank. Min wore a solid red robe that clung to her curves as it fell to the floor, probably her wedding dress. As the lady of a sect, she would have robes to match Chang-li's, but tonight she looked regal.

Chang-li's gaze swept across the courtyard, taking in his approaching guests. His eyes fell on Hiroko and widened briefly. The dowager approached, and Chang-li and Min both bowed.

"Revered Pearl, we greet you," Min said.

"My regards on your marriage," the dowager told them.

"Congratulations," Hiroko told the couple.

Min looked embarrassed. Was she blushing underneath her white paint? Chang-li cleared his throat. "Thank you, Princess."

"You have done well enough tonight,” the dowager said. Looking around, she seemed to begrudge the words that came out of her mouth. "Perhaps you will be a credit to your new sect, Lady Min." She sighed. "You will receive an invitation to the ceremony marking the opening of the fourth floor in four days' time."

"Four days?" Chang-li said, his eyes widening. "That soon?"

"The cultivators have done excellent work. It is time to move on." A smile played across the dowager's lips, not, perhaps, a pleasant one. "I do not expect the remainder of this tower cull to take more than another month. I hope that your sect manages to get everything you can out of this before the end."

Chang-li choked. He quickly schooled his features. "Thank you, Revered Pearl."

The dowager moved away. Hiroko ventured forward as Chang-li almost seemed to sag. Min was looking worried, too.

"Is everything all right?" she asked. She wanted to say more, but though Chang-li was surely a friend, she didn't know Min at all, and she couldn't properly explain to anyone why she and Chang-li were on such good terms, so she didn't really dare ask much.

Min, however, didn't seem to mind. "The dowager was merely reminding us of our sect's debts," she said, "to be cleared up by the end of the tower cull, naturally."

"Oh." Hiroko felt her eyes widen. "Are you in a great deal of debt, then?" How were they a sect at all? She knew very well that there was no such sect as Morning Mist. She'd heard Chang-li speak of them. They were the long-lost cultivators who had written the journal that had set him off on his first foray into the tower.

Of course they had debt. Chang-li and Joshi didn't have the money to pay for this house or this party or the disciples she saw flitting about wearing Morning Mist robes. They were up to something, for sure, and she didn't know what.

“It is of no concern,” Min said, the strain in her voice apparent. “Thank you for your well-wishes, Princess.”

"I wish you the very best.” Hiroko slipped away through the crowd, looking for Joshi. He was standing off in a corner, scowling. His face usually looked like that, unless he was busy fighting and he was too busy to frown. Or sometimes, on rare occasions, mostly when cultivating, she'd seen him actually smiling. She wished he'd smile now, but supposed it didn't matter.

He straightened up as she approached, pushing away from the wall where he'd been leaning. His little lux creature was hovering over his shoulder. It pulsed at her, and she felt as though it was glad to see her.

"Princess, thank you for visiting our reception."

"The dowager gave me no choice," Hiroko said honestly. "I don't understand what's going on here. Lady Min and Chang-li?"

Joshi dropped his voice. "Lady Min was helping us with certain sect affairs," he said.

Hiroko nodded to show she understood. She didn't really, but clearly Min had been involved in helping Joshi establish this sect.

"She and Chang-li became close.” Joshi shut his mouth, clearly unwilling to say more. “I hope that their union will be a worthy one."

That was probably all she was going to get from him. She knew his words fit the bounds of propriety but it stung Hiroko to be kept at arm’s length. They had been so close in the tower… how long ago had it been? To be this far out of his confidence bothered her in a way she couldn’t identify.

She reached for something to fill the awkward silence. "The dowager has said the fourth floor opens in four days."

"I heard that rumor," Joshi said calmly.

She couldn't read him at all, didn't understand what he was thinking. He was so different from Feng, who wore his emotions on his sleeve. Even now she could hear Feng speaking loudly to other cultivators across the courtyard. She didn't stay here for long. She'd attract unwanted attention. "Will you be competing for the tower boon?"

"I will compete," Joshi said. "Whether I can win?" He shrugged. "That is another matter."

"The dowager said your sect is in debt."

"Yes."

"How much?"

"That's an internal sect matter."

Hiroko took a step closer and hissed, "I want to help you. Let me help you."

"You owe us nothing."

"This isn't about debt and owing. This is about you being my friend. Or I thought we were."

His expression changed. He looked briefly astonished, then uncomfortable. He bowed his head. "Forgive me, Princess. I... you are correct."

"Then let me help you."

"Do you have a very large purse?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't. But I do have influence with the dowager. If you owe a debt, she might be able to have it transferred over to the next tower climb that she runs. She is to supervise the climb in Vardin City after this one is completed, where the Emperor's next bride will be chosen. It's a prestigious tower cull. If she permits, even with a debt, your sect could be allowed to participate."

Joshi nodded. "I did not know that. Thank you, Princess.”

“But you'd have to win her approval. You already have it, I think. She was impressed by your actions before, and with the way you helped Li Jen.” Hiroko's voice caught. "If you perform well enough here, and I lend my voice in your support, I believe the dowager might ask Magistrate Bao to hold your debt in abeyance."

"If it comes to that, I suppose I must hope that is enough," Joshi said stiffly. "Thank you, Princess Hiroko." And with that, he strode off, not looking back at her.

The abruptness of his departure stung but she forced herself to rejoin the party. Joshi wasn’t being rude, she told herself. He just didn’t think they should be seen too much together. It was very correct of him. They didn't need Feng to become any more jealous than he already was.