It was easier than Hiroko had expected to leave the Court of Gems for the afternoon. The Court was being hosted in the Governor's palace complex, up on Vardin City's Crown Ring. Hiroko had yet to meet the actual governor, who was in seclusion recovering from an illness, though the acting governor, who was the brother of one of the other gem nobles, had paid a call socially on the Court. Hiroko had not.

Over the past several weeks during the bridal competition, Hiroko had found herself in the center of a sea of nobles. The five other nobles who had been with her at Golden Moon City's tower had been swallowed up by a vastly expanded court of nearly three dozen eligible young men and women. She was still the highest ranked, but there was a green-ranked nobleman and two blue ladies, along with all of the lesser ranks. The higher-ranked nobles had made themselves the center of attention, and Hiroko was glad to let them do it.

Cultivators moved more freely in and out of the court than they had at Golden Moon, with various hopefuls from the competing sects visiting for afternoon teas or informal morning brunches, as well as the heavily chaperoned evening parties, which occurred nearly every night. Hiroko attended those as was her duty, and for once found her station helpful. Every cultivator here wanted their five minutes of time. It was easy for her to cast off one hopeful suitor in order to pay a few minutes of attention to the next.

Joshi hadn't been to any of the events. She'd watched hopefully for the first week or so, and then realized he wasn’t coming. She couldn't blame him, not after how she had declared she'd marry his rival. Now, though, it was imperative she have a chance to speak with him.

Now Hiroko, bearing a pass with the Dowager Pearl's stamp at the bottom, left the court with a pair of female guardsmen from Vardin City to escort her down to the petal where the Morning Mists sect was headquartered. Hiroko enjoyed her walk. On their trip up the ramps, she and the Dowager Pearl had shared a palanquin, and she'd had little time to observe the city. Now, using her own two good feet to carry her, she absorbed the exciting sights and sounds. She was almost sad when they reached their destination.

"Wait here for me," she told her guards as she approached the Morning Mist house. The two gave her respectful salutes, taking up positions on either side of the doorway as Hiroko knocked. The door opened. A servant stood there, a woman in her forties with neatly braided hair starting to silver. She wore a simple knee-length tunic in gray and had a brooch pinned at her collar depicting a hand clutching an acorn. Her eyes widened as she saw Hiroko. She dropped into a low curtsy. "How might I assist you, my lady?"

"May I enter?"

The woman stood aside. Hiroko looked around. The compound was small but tidy. From the outside, she had noted this main building was two stories. A long hallway ran horizontally through it. Open doors across from her led out onto a sculpted garden. Overhead, she heard rhythmic thumps and muffled shouts. There must be a training room upstairs.

"I'm here to speak with Young Master Joshi if he'll see me."

The woman's eyes widened. She nodded. "Yes, certainly, my lady. Will you come with me?" She ushered Hiroko down the hall to the second door on the right, which led into an elegant parlor with rice paper doors that led out onto the garden beyond.

"I'll be right back," the servant said before vanishing. Hiroko took a moment to practice her own favorite cycling technique, one Joshi had taught her, trying to get her breathing and pulse under control.

What should she tell him? First, she'd need to make sure he understood why she'd said he would marry Feng. Then she'd frame her problem, making him understand it had been her only choice. Yes, she'd appeal to his protective nature and the friendship they had shared. She could do this. She...

"Princess Hiroko."

That was not Joshi's voice, but a woman's. Hiroko turned. Lady Min was standing in the doorway, wearing her gray and white robes with the red border proclaiming her status as cultivator spouse of the Morning Mist sect. Hiroko forced her features into a smile.

"I was hoping to speak with Young Master Joshi."

"Unfortunately, he's not in," Min said.

Hiroko's heart fell. She had specifically asked about the bridal competition schedule and knew that Morning Mists were not in the tower today. “Not in at all, or not in to me?”

Min shook her head. "Not in at all. It's as much a surprise to me as to you, I assure you. Not twenty minutes ago, we were all practicing in the training room, when out of nowhere, Li Jiya, Joshi, and my husband were snatched away. I have never seen anything like it,” Min admitted. "I suppose it must be some competition for these bridal games."

"It's Prism Eri," Hiroko guessed.

Min cocked her head to the side, then entered the room more fully. "Will you sit down?" she invited. "I've sent for tea." Hiroko sat on the low couch Min indicated. Min took her place opposite. "I don't know Prism Eri."

"She arrived yesterday," Hiroko said. "She's here to allow a member of her sect to compete in the bridal games. But of course, with the Prism, they never have only one reason for doing anything, do they?"

"No," Min said, a grim look settling about her features. "So that’s the gossip in the Court of Gems, then?"

"I saw the Prism myself."

"Really?" Min raised an eyebrow. "Word hadn't drifted down here yet.”

“I don't think she's made her appearance known publicly. I was with the Dowager Pearl." Hiroko clasped her hands to her knees. "Then you don't know when Joshi might be back?"

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

Min shook her head. "I'm afraid not." She looked Hiroko up and down. "An indigo princess here at our sect, asking to speak with our young master," she said. Her eyes narrowed as she clearly thought about the possible implications. "Would you like to tell me what's going on, or shall I make a guess, my lady?"

Hiroko was saved by the interruption of the same serving woman who had let her into the house, now bringing a tray of tea. Min, as hostess, poured and offered Hiroko a cup. Hiroko took it, holding it carefully in her hands. A teacup was not much of a shield against unwanted questions, but it was the best she had and so she would use it.

"If you tell me why you are here, I may be able to help us both," Min offered. Hiroko considered the woman Chang-li had married. She had never truly felt comfortable around Min when they had shared the Court of Gems. Min was probably her own age, but seemed older, shrewder, like she always had a scheme going. Her own brother spoke of her with a mixture of awe and fear. He had once said not to let Min get you wrapped up in her schemes, or you'd never find a way out.

Hiroko was absolutely certain that the marriage between Min and Chang-li had been some scheme, perhaps part of a bargain to give the Morning Mist sect more reality. Hiroko had met Joshi and Chang-li before they had claimed to be members of a sect, so she had known all along that it was a ruse. She didn't know how much Chang-li had confided in Min, whether she knew the secret of the trio's time in the first level of the Broken Tower. If she didn't, how would Hiroko explain wanting to make a social call on Joshi?

Min sipped her tea. She sighed and set the cup down. "It's clear you're keeping your hand hidden here. I can appreciate that. I don't like to give away all of my secrets either, but I think perhaps it would be easier if we were honest with each other. You are a princess in the Court of Gems. Joshi is a highly eligible young cultivator, one who, gossip has it, caught your eye at the previous tower. Though why you then declared you would marry Feng is beyond me. Anyone who prefers Feng to Joshi is touched in the head.”

Stung, Hiroko set down her own teacup. "My choice had nothing to do with my preference. I was merely doing my duty to the Emperor. Feng was a dangerous loose end. The tapestry of the Emperor's design cannot permit such loose ends or the whole plan will unravel."

"And so you heroically offered to throw your own body into that breech,” Min said. "I see. And now that has fallen through, you are seeking to move to the next most eligible young master. I shall be sure to tell Joshi of your call here today."

Hiroko flushed. This would never do. Min would take everything she'd said and distort it, poisoning Joshi against her. Hiroko shook her head. "You don't understand."

"I understand much more than you think," Min said quietly. "I know that you and Joshi and my husband spent weeks together cultivating and that you have kept this secret from almost everyone else."

"Chang-li told you?" The words slipped out of Hiroko before she could stop it.

Min merely smiled. "No, you did. You've confirmed my guesses. I knew Joshi and Chang-li had been together in the Tower, and I guessed that you were with them thanks to the way you looked when you showed up at camp. That cloak you were wearing, I gave it to Chang-li."

Hiroko was surprised. She hadn't realized the connection between Min and Chang-li had gone that far back. Why, at the time, Chang-li had been nothing but a scribe, not someone a gem court member should be caught dallying with. Perhaps Min and Chang-li's relationship had more to it than she suspected. Was there a secret passionate love story here, hidden behind the walls of propriety and sect duties? For a moment, the mystery eased her own embarrassment.

"Well, if you know that we're keeping it secret, then you must have a guess why."

"Oh, plenty," Min said. "It would not at all do for an indigo princess to have spent weeks in the company of two unmarried cultivators, would it? Why, I should think they'd have bundled you off and married you to the first comer if they knew that. So, you're here because you wish to marry Joshi. I might put my weight behind that match. It has advantages for our sect."

Hiroko must have let her shock show, because Min gave another smile and continued, "Are you thinking that I'm worried about being supplanted? You would have higher rank in the sect, yes. But to be honest, if we are to grow, we need more than one cultivator spouse. And I don't think that you would want to replace me in my duties. I think we could be allies, if not friends. If we were both spouses in the same sect, then our goals should be the same. To promote the sect would be to promote our husbands, and therefore ourselves. But I don't know that Joshi wishes to marry anyone."

"I'm well aware of that," Hiroko admitted.

"Then tell me, why do you want to force this issue?" Min asked.

Hiroko tried to find the right words. But admitting to this stranger, this calculating woman, that when it had come time to name her spouse, Joshi was the only man she could imagine spending a lifetime beside, that was too much.

"Joshi's another loose end," she blurted out. "I know his past. I know his secrets. I'm fine with everything. But he doesn't fit into the Emperor's grand design. Not yet." That, at least, was true. “With me at his side, taming his harsher impulses, perhaps teaching him that the Emperor is not an unjust tyrant, he could become a pillar of cultivation, one of the hundred thousand arms of the Emperor, to defend ordinary people from the threats and danger that only a cultivator can prevent.”

Min was looking at her as though she were crazy. "For the exact same stupid reason you agreed to marry Feng, you want to marry Joshi?" She sounded incredulous.

"Well, then why did you marry Chang-li?" Hiroko demanded. "A gem noble's duty is to help implement the Emperor's grand design."

"Not all of us were born with such a close-up view of the Emperor's so-called grand design as you are," Min said. "Some of us have concerns closer to home. Yes, the marriage helps my family, but I wouldn't have gone through with it if I wasn't fond of Chang-li." Her eyes and mouth softened slightly as though she were recalling Chang-li's face, and Hiroko felt just a touch more sympathy with the woman. Min might be plotting and scheming, but she really did seem to care about her husband. Still, she hadn’t liked the way Min had talked about the Emperor’s plan. It was the very fabric of their society and to disrespect it was unthinkable.

"Well," Min rose, "if that's the long and short of it, I will certainly be glad to tell Joshi you called."

“Don’t tell him why." Hiroko blurted out. Anything Min said to Joshi would be distorted. She had to find a way to speak to him herself and explain matters.

"Well, since I'm not certain I understand at all, I suppose I can keep quiet about it," Min agreed.

Hiroko rose, too. They stared at each other. Min was a few inches taller than Hiroko, but then who wasn't? There was a strength in her that Hiroko admired, a strength like steel. And yet Hiroko wondered what would happen if Min ever came up against something she couldn't bend to her own designs.

Hiroko had her own sort of strength, one her grandmother had taught her, the sort that a willow has, to be bent and bowed by the wind, but to remain strong, roots tight in the ground no matter what. She drew her strength from those roots, her knowledge that she served the Emperor's grand design, her understanding of her place in it, her willingness to make sacrifices in order to uphold what was right.

"Thank you for the tea," Hiroko told Min. "I'm sure we'll see each other again soon."

"I look forward to it," Min said.

“Good day to you,” Hiroko said, before bowing and turning to leave.