> …The Ha clan are a curious beast in the current generation: where other ancient noble clans almost exclusively focus their efforts upon securing their position from one generation to the next upon the grand stage of the central continent, the Ha clan has long divided its efforts in acquiring and controlling assets beyond these scepter’d shores. To many, this is seen as anathema of what the nobility of this world stands for.

>

> The nobility of the world are, by that view, the favoured sons and daughters of heaven. To seek to control mere towns and cities in those lesser lands is the act of the mercantile, and the common person… Such influences should be beholden to them, yes, but who would stoop to relying on such paltry and ephemeral influences and moneys to support their position directly? Such a thing would be a disgrace to their ancestors.

>

> However, another view can also be espoused: in taking this path, the Ha clan is largely without competition and has, through the millennia, quietly become the back channel by which many lesser influences seeking to rise into that highest rank find resources to set up their own footholds on the Imperial continent. Which is the correct path is hard to say but, in all my own dealings with the Ha clan, I have always found them to be circumspect and much more approachable than their peers… if with a certain edge.

Excerpt – The Great Clans of the Imperial Continent

  By Seng Mo.

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~ DUN LIAN JING – BLUE WATER CITY ~

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“O High Queen of Heaven, hear our bright song!”

“None other is aught, but the Queen of Seven Stars…”

Dressed in an opulent turquoise robe, kneeling in the centre of the grand shrine of the Queen Mother of the West, on the highest point of the rocky outcrops overlooking the choppy waters of the Eastern Imperial Ocean, Dun Lian Jing let the sonorous words of the two hundred women chosen by lot from the city to sing the praises of the Queen Mother wash over her.

“Be thou as my mother, and I thy bright daughter…”

Her own murmured song filled the great space, picking up the thread of her own part in the ritual, bowing until her veiled forehead touched the floor to the statue of Empress Dun Huang Mei before her.

“May thou hear my words, and I carry thy will…”

Her next verse and bow was for the statues of the Seven Stars of the Queen Mother arranged on a higher platform behind the Empress.

“Your will is our shelter, that we might be raised up by your virtue.”

The final verse and bow was for the veiled figure representing the Queen Mother herself, seated on a raised platform beneath a celestial peach tree which was surrounded by a broad semicircle of ancient white marble columns that had been incorporated into the presumably much later shrine buildings that had grown up around the sanctuary.

*Duuuuuuuwooong*

With her part complete, the resonating tone of the temple’s great bell chimed as she straightened up, keeping her veiled gaze fixed on the floor, trying to ignore that she was wet through to the skin from the rain that was pouring down from the dark, pre-dawn sky.

“Oh High Queen of Heaven, hear our bright song!”

“Be thou the true guardian, of every possession and every life…”

“Let all our mortal desires pass away, as if dead, at the mere sight of thee…”

The choir of young women – mostly, it had to be said, the influential daughters and disciples of the various sects and clans currently in the city – took up their part again, their pure, bright voices layering the single verse half a dozen times to form a waterfall of harmonies.

They were not sitting in the open court at the heart of the shrine, but beneath the broad, high eaves of the shrine hall, which opened into the courtyard directly.

Behind them, standing in the main hall itself, flanked by the statues of the Queen Mother’s thirty-three celestial guardians, the various dignitaries important enough to be allowed into the main shrine to witness the ritual in person all echoed the final verse as the choir started again on the first phrase.

*Duuuuuuuwooong*

The bell pealed again, as if she didn’t know full well that she had to take up the refrain again.

“O Sovereign Queen of the Seven Heavens, grant us thy boon.”

Her words filled the shrine, making the drapes on the side halls rustle, even as the last echoes of the choir’s chorus chant faded away.

“Be thou, this land’s shelter, by day and by night…”

“Be thou this land’s hope, its prosperity, its light!”

“Be thou this land’s guidance, and we heirs of your will…”

“Oh High Queen of Heaven, in thy vision… be this land first above all!”

“As a kingdom of your heavens, beneath the brightness of the sun.”

*Duuuuuuuwooong*

With the peal of the bell… she completed her bow to the statue beneath the peach tree, roughly timed to coincide with the moment of sunrise.

“Oh High Queen of Heaven, hear now our bright song!”

“Be here our land’s shelter, thy wisdom our true light…”

“That you might raise us up heavenward, to the lands of thy power…”

“…”

She had to fight hard not to look up, because as the final chorus of the great ritual of praise for the Queen Mother faded, on her most auspicious hour, the moment of the sun rising into a world… the rain lessened and within the space of ten breaths basically stopped. Clearly she wasn’t the only one surprised by this, because quite a few of those behind her were breaking with the protocols of the ceremony and looking up. Among the audience behind, there were even a few audible exclamations of praise.

“At the dawn, we give thanks to the Empress, our Imperial Mother, Protector of Virtue and Morals among the people…”

Her spoken declaration, as she bowed three times to the statue of the Empress, was loud enough to cut through the chatter, allowing her to take some small delight in the flinching of a few of the louder speakers.

“Praise the Empress, Mother of the World!”

The song of the chorus echoed again throughout the shrine and beyond as they quickly recovered from their surprise to complete the ritual.

“At the dawn, we hold the Seven Stars in our heart, that their virtues and wisdom might enlighten us, body and soul…”

As she continued to sing her own part, she now bowed six times in succession to the seven statues seated below the raised platform and its peach tree.

“Praise to the Seven Stars of Virtue, Daughters of Heaven!”

The chorus and the dignitaries, picking up the refrain as she completed her verse, exclaimed, before they all joined their voices together, following her lead for the final part.

“At the dawn, we raise up our voices, that the Holy Mother of Highest Heavens,

“Queen Mother who observes life, light and hope… in heaven, beneath heaven, in the three worlds, and in the ten directions,

“The Lady of the Supreme Primordial, that we, her supplicants, might remain in her eyes, protected by her wisdom and mercy.”

With each line of the closing words of the grand ritual, she bowed three times to the veiled, turquoise-robed statue beneath the peach tree.

Usually, the person performing this ritual was the Empress herself, so she only had to bow six times, on account of her elevated position; however, as a proper supplicant, she had to bow the full nine times – as did everyone else. As a ritual, it actually overwrote some elements of the Blue Morality Scripture as laid down by the founder of the Dun Dynasty, governing the ‘way the world should be’; notably the bit that said no man had to supplicate himself fully to any woman before the eyes of heaven. The exception was rituals like this… where those taking part were, irrespective of their status elsewhere, always junior to whoever was officiating.

That the Imperial Duke and all the watching elders would have to bow ten times, because she had bowed nine, was her own personal revenge for being made to spend a full day, from one dawn to the next, officiating the ritual.

*Duwwwwwwwong*

“Praise be unto she, Queen Mother of the West!”

Her final verse, repeated by the chorus a moment later, echoed through the shrine before then being picked up by those outside.

She remained bowed for the entire thirty-three seconds that formality required, while the chorus and onlookers continued to repeat the refrain until they had done so thirty-three times, then straightened up, stood and bowed from the waist to the three tiers of statues.

Off to the side, the seven shrine priestesses stood as well and walked over, bowing to her.

“Thank you for the ritual,” the senior priestess, Renfei, declared formally, on behalf of all those present.

Accepting the older woman’s bow, she let the seven, most of whom were barely half her age, escort her out of the courtyard at a measured pace, stopping only to bow a final time to the peach tree before exiting.

“I have to say, that is the first time it has actually stopped raining because someone asked,” the younger priestess with silver-blonde hair, Lianwen, remarked drily.

“Let’s hope it was not some prat preparing for a tribulation,” Senior Priestess Renfei muttered. “If it was, I may petition her ladyship personally to have them killed for perjuring the ritual.”

“Perjuring?” she asked warily, as they made their way as a small procession through into another courtyard with what would surely have been a spectacular view out over the city, were it not still covered in mist.

“Don’t worry, if that happens it won’t come back to reflect on you,” the senior priestess replied as she led the way around the sheltered edge of the court, where two acolytes opened a pair of doors for them. “It’s a quirk of the rains that come from the east that if you interfere with them, they usually return twofold. It happened yesterday, though not with any great severity.”

“The… torrential downpour in the evening,” she remarked, recalling that quite clearly, having had the misfortune to be outside when it happened.

“Yes…” another of the priestesses, Changxing, agreed as the door to the hall was closed behind them. “Idiot.”

“Do they know who that was?” Priestess Qingyue, one of the pair carrying the train of her robe, asked as they escorted her over to the centre of the room.

“Yes, it was a youth from the Four Peacocks Court though…” Priestess Changxing answered, as she bade her stand still so they could start to unfasten the formal robes she had been wearing. “My cousin Mengli, who has a position in the palace, told me that Duke Cao has demanded he be punished; however, the elder from the Court basically told him to shove it and said the Duke should blame the weather for daring to interfere with their disciple’s tribulation.”

-Oh great… I wonder who that would be? she groaned, suddenly struck with a rather inauspicious feeling that that dispute might find its way back to her sooner rather than later. An Earthly Jade says they are from the Huang Hong or Huang Shi, rather than the Huang Wuli.

“—Have you performed the ritual before?” the other junior priestess carrying her robe, Qingyue’s compatriot in that task, Priestess Yingfa, asked her, drawing her attention back from that.

“Why… did I do anything improper?” she asked, quickly running back through what she had done over the course of the previous day but seeing nothing amiss while the priestesses helping to disrobe her finished that task.

“Oh… sorry, I did not mean to imply that, Highness,” Yingfa replied with small bow of apology. “You performed it flawlessly.”

-Of course I did, she grumbled to herself. I have probably observed it more times than half of you as well.

“Ah… I have taken part in it before,” she answered somewhat more diplomatically after a moment’s thought. “The Empress leads all the princesses and a number of other supplicants chosen from among those within the Imperial Court in observing it every year.”

“Oh, of course,” Priestess Zhenli, who had started unpinning the veil and also removing the various bits of symbolic jewellery attached to her gown, murmured.

“Usually, the princesses and supplicants perform the chorus, so I have seen it… some fifty-odd times at this point,” she added drily, shrugging off the first of her inner robes and passing it to one of the others to fold.

“I am sure it is far grander than our little temple,” Priestess Qingyue sighed as she started hanging the over-robe, with its train that she had been carrying, up on a life-sized mannequin statue.

“…”

In a way, she wanted to agree, but the fact that the Grand Shrine here had an actual celestial blossom peach tree, which even the Imperial Court’s Great Shrine did not… kind of complicated matters.

“Your peach tree certainly provides a remarkable setting,” she said in the end.

“Ah yes… it is actually older than the shrine… which was itself here long before Blue Water City was founded,” Senior Priestess Renfei murmured, looking a little proud. “Several efforts have been made by unscrupulous parties to steal it away, but they have never succeeded. Rumour has it that a villainous Dao Ascendant was struck dead by lightning once, for daring to seize a sprig of blossom.”

“No cuttings have been given?” she asked, surprised in all honesty. “Or trees grown from seeds?”

“Peaches are granted occasionally, when it bears fruit, but they are now only dispensed to honour old agreements, or to those the tree itself deems worthy. The last time one was given away for gain… was some eight thousand years ago I believe. It was purchased at great expense for the fiancée of that Shu Bao, to be given as a wedding gift for her marriage to Lord Shu… Given what occurred after with the Demoness, no others have been given out since,” Senior Priestess Renfei explained.

“…”

“I see,” she replied in the end, rather diplomatically.

She just about knew what the woman was referring to – a political mess from the early days of the current ‘generational span’. Unlike Huang JiLao or Lu Seong, however, she had little interest in such ancient history. It was really only interesting in any case because it was mixed up in the rise of Cang Di to the apex of their current generation, it being persistently rumoured that the reason the Shu Pavilion’s Ancestral Elders kept him there was to spit in the eye of all those who had derided the Pavilion over that matter – especially the Din clan.

“It is old history anyway,” the senior priestess added with a wry smile.

“And when you say ‘worthy’?” she asked, curious.

“You have to pluck them from the tree yourself. If you are worthy, you can. If not… you cannot,” Priestess Lianwen added with a bright smile.

“That makes me wonder about the peach trees in the auction,” she remarked, curious as to whether those were somehow related.

-Did the shrine here put them out for some reason?

“Oh… those… They probably come from the Orchid Pavilion,” another of the priestesses, Jingmei, who had taken the ceremonial crown off her at this point and was placing it on the head of the life-sized statue, interjected.

-Orchid Pavilion? She frowned, trying to recall who that might be and largely failing.

“They will not have had much to do with your visit, publicly,” Senior Priestess Renfei added, again somehow managing to read her expression rather well.

“…”

“The Pavilion Mistress Fan Mei was the woman in the green and white gown during the ceremony,” Priestess Lianwen murmured.

-Oh…

Focusing back on who had been there, she did have some impression of an ethereal woman with golden hair, dressed in a green gown, embroidered with white orchids, her face obscured by a veil. She had been standing towards the front, largely ignored by those around Envoy Qiao.

“For all that they are the second-oldest sect this side of the Great Mount, they mostly keep to themselves, politically,” Senior Priestess Renfei observed.

“After the Blue Gate School?” she asked.

“Ahaha—” Priestess Changxing, who she was fairly sure was the second most senior among the group after Renfei, actually laughed, then caught herself and shook her head.

“I can see why you might arrive at that misconception, given how that Qiao likes to present things ‘just so’,” Senior Priestess Renfei remarked, rather dismissively she had to acknowledge. “No. After the Cherry Wine Pagoda.”

“—The Orchid Pavilion has been in these lands since the early Dun Dynasty – during the later years of Azure Tyrant’s august reign,” another priestess clarified helpfully.

“…”

She stared blankly at the other woman, fighting back the instinct to retort ‘These words, do you know what they mean?’

-That is hundreds of thousands of years ago. Wasn’t the whole province here abandoned after the wars with the Easten warlords, prior to the Blue Water Sage returning?

-And anyway… Cherry Wine Pagoda? What is with that sect name?

“—In comparison, the Blue Gate School – in fact, all three surviving schools – are young in years,” Senior Priestess Renfei added, cutting off her train of thought.

“The Lin School was the oldest of them by far, before it got torn down by…” Priestess Qingyue, who had picked up the thread of conversation again, trailed off, looking at her for a long moment.

-By my Imperial Brother Fanshu’s greed… she reflected with a soft sigh, being somewhat familiar with that local tale now. Truly, his talent is causing others problems…

“Well, the Lin School had an inauspicious fate at the end, a sad tale… but just as things rise, so must they also fall,” the senior priestess remarked with a soft sigh of her own.

“This is the will of heaven,” the other six priestesses murmured.

“…”

“Well, that is you unrobed,” Senior Priestess Renfei remarked, rather more brightly, as the two youngest-looking priestesses, Zhenli and Qingyue, took the last of the under-robes away, leaving her largely naked in the small hall. “If you will follow me, we will purify you in the sacred pool, then Your Imperial Highness has completed her part.”

Sighing, she bowed to the spirit wood statue, now garbed as she had been, and the altar before it, on which were laid out most of the pieces of symbolic jewellery, then followed Renfei as she exited the hall through a side door and led her down a flight of stairs to another, rock-cut hall.

Here, Renfei paused to bow to a carving of a woman on the wall then led her through a second short corridor and then down a winding staircase that took her, by her estimation, back underneath the central plaza, until they exited into a broad, vaulted hall deep in the heart of the outcropping on which the shrine was built.

The hall itself… was impressive, she had to admit. It ran east to west, with a broad opening, covered by gently drifting drapes, that looked out over the notably brighter ocean.

The walls were clad in the same white stone as the pillars around the peach tree above, the carvings between the pillars depicting various scenes of worship at altars and statues, women dancing… and even a battle. The dominant feature, though, was easily the crystal-clear, octagonal pool, wreathed with a faint sheen of mist, accessible by steps down into it on all eight sides.

Renfei bowed to the rear of the room, where she found there was another statue, this one hidden by a diaphanous curtain embroidered with a golden luan with thirty-three tails, with an altar before it that held a bowl of peaches and several other oddities.

“Please take off your remaining garments and enter the pool, Princess Lian,” Renfei murmured, leading her forward to the nearest steps.

“…”

She looked at the other woman for a moment, then nodded, following her instruction and removing her light under-garment, which Renfei took and folded expertly.

Not quite sure what to expect, she stepped carefully onto the water…

To her surprise her qi just fell straight through the water, unable to gain any purchase on it at all, and was immediately devoured by the pool.

“You cannot walk on it,” Renfei said politely from nearby, where she was also now disrobing. “This room has some very strange properties, especially regarding qi and the senses…”

Curious, she sent a thread of qi out and found that the rock itself repelled it gently, and that her soul sense… was also restricted from leaving her body. It wasn’t suppression exactly, not in a forceful sense, but she could imagine that it was very difficult to steal anything out of here.

“So I see,” she mused, finally starting down the steps into the pool, which rose to just about her midriff by the time she was standing on the bottom.

The water, or at least she had to assume it was water… was pleasantly warm… and reinvigorating. As she stood in it, she found a small portion of the tiredness and stress of the previous day fading away.

Scooping up a handful, she found that Renfei had also disrobed and was now standing in the pool with her, holding a broad ceramic bowl painted with stars and dancing figures. The other six priestesses had also entered the room: Changxing and Lianwen were standing by the door, Qingyue was doing something at the altar at the rear of the hall while Zhenli and Jingmei stood nearby watching. Yingfa, for her part, had disrobed as well and entered the pool after them.

“I will purify you now,” Renfei stated formally.

Bowing her head, she let the senior priestess pour water from the bowl over her, murmuring a different prayer softly under her breath for several moments.

“May the Great Mother, Mother to the Sovereigns, watch over you,” Renfei proclaimed at last, passing the bowl to Yingfa.

Taking her by the shoulders, Renfei gently bade her lie back so she was floating, looking at the ceiling, which unlike the walls was painted like the night sky, holding a ring of twelve glittering constellations picked out in precious materials.

“May she be your constant guardian, through every possession and every life…”

She let the senior priestess submerge her, watching as the constellations shifted with the change in perspective. For a brief moment, the seven constellations across the graded azure to purple ceiling connected to form a great mountain; the most supreme, the Star of Guidance, becoming the gate at its peak – a shadow beyond heaven, beyond the extremity of the chronogram itself where a pair of moons, one silver and one gold, hung in the sky like eyes, looking down over tall buildings amid lofty, misty peaks whose pine forests reverberated with the echoes of celestial song…

The whole transformation was almost like…

She found herself looking at her own reflection in the water as the moment passed—

“Just remember what I said… and keep our heart…”

The words drifted into her mind, spoken by her reflection, which was not her, but her older self just as she had seen in the strange mirror!

With a gasp of shock, she tried to find her footing and flailed slightly before doing so, guided by the hands of the priestess.

“Easy… it’s a bit disorientating…” Renfei murmured, helping her stand.

“W-what just…?” she gasped out loud, hoping it wasn’t a problem.

“The Queen Mother bestows a blessing upon all those who present themselves to her,” the senior priestess said simply. “It is not for me, or anyone else, to know what the Star of Guidance has shown you. It is a truth for you alone, on this most auspicious day.”

“…”

She stared at the other woman, but she just looked impassive, so all she could do was exhale and collect herself.

“It takes everyone differently,” the woman remarked.

“Everyone… sees something?” she asked at last.

“What is seen, is for each person alone. I will reiterate: do not speak of it – to anyone, not even me,” Senior Priestess Renfei said softly, even as she led her by the hand out of the pool.

“…”

Standing on the floor again, she stared up at the ceiling again, but it was as it had been.

“—Here,” Priestess Zhenli murmured, interrupting her reverie to pass her a towel. “You will need to dry yourself off the mortal way.”

In silence, she took the towel and did as instructed, wiping off the water and wringing the worst of it out of her long black hair.

“You can dress yourself again,” Senior Priestess Renfei added with a half-smile.

“…”

She had a moment of irrational annoyance, as she wondered if the older woman was deliberately messing with her, but she quashed it quickly and nodded in thanks… then realised she had not been allowed to bring any storage devices with her.

“Your ring, talismans and other effects are over there,” the senior priestess remarked helpfully, gesturing to a table by the wall, where they were both sitting on a jade tray.

Wringing the last of the water out of her hair, she nodded politely and walked over to them, quickly took out some simple garments – undergarments, a light-weight blue-green gown, slippers and a head veil to hide her damp hair – and put them on.

Once she was done, the senior priestess bowed to her, then gestured for Priestess Qingyue to escort her back upstairs. As she left, however, she fancied she caught Renfei staring at the pool with a faint frown marring her beautiful face.

They walked in silence back up the stairs to the hall she had gotten changed in, where an acolyte was placing a tray of tea and food on the table for them.

“Would you like some refreshment?” Priestess Qingyue asked, waving for her to help herself.

“…”

“Thank you,” she murmured, walking over and accepting a cup from the acolyte.

Sipping it, it had a cool, refreshing taste somewhat at odds with it being ‘hot’ tea.

“It is made from the petals of the peach tree,” the priestess added, accepting a cup of her own.

“Princess,” the other acolyte murmured, “there is a messenger here from Envoy Qiao?”

“We will receive him shortly,” the priestess said, sitting down and helping herself to some of the rice and lotus leaf rolls stuffed with raw fish that she was coming to recognise as the ‘staple’ snack of the province at this point. “Do you know what his message is?”

“Um… the messenger is a woman… Priestess Qingyue,” the acolyte remarked. “They did not relay their message… saying it was for the Princess and priestesses.”

“…”

“Oh, well that makes it all better then,” Priestess Qingyue replied with a beatific smile that was somehow thoroughly terrifying. “Show her in…”

“Uh…” the acolyte actually took a step backwards then scurried out again.

“You could have just sent her away?” she said at last, pouring herself another cup of the tea.

“Probably, but we are not exactly new to the games of your Imperial Envoy,” Priestess Qingyue chuckled, although she caught hints of disdain underneath the good cheer.

-I wonder what that is about? she mused.

“—Indeed,” the senior priestess, who had just entered the room, murmured, cutting off her opportunity to ask. “Envoy Qiao is really excelling of late…”

The senior priestess trailed off as the acolyte returned.

“Princess, Priestesses, Lady Huang Shi Yuimei,” the acolyte announced, bowing deeply to the room.

“Imperial Princess,” Shi Yuimei, who had entered just after the acolyte, said, bowing formally to her. “The Imperial Envoy hopes you will join the banquet, and extend your invitation to the honoured priestesses, that everyone might offer them a salute of thanks.”

-Oh come on… she grumbled to herself, seeing immediately where this was going. Do they just plan to have me mired up in these tedious events all week?

“…”

“I must regretfully decline,” she replied, affecting to look a bit drained. “I have been busied with a number of matters as of late and now devotedly performed the great ritual for a whole day on behalf of others, so I ask that Envoy Qiao be understanding.” The tone of her reply, however, wasn’t a request.

“There will be many disappointed people,” Shi Yuimei murmured, giving her a slightly judging look. “Many good folk and important benefactors are in attendance…”

“It would not be appropriate,” the senior priestess replied. “We, who venerate the Queen Mother of the West, cannot be seen to hold secular affection, no matter how worthy. This is a precedent that cannot be set. Envoy Qiao understands this. If others do not, they can be reminded of it.”

“I… see,” Huang Shi Yuimei murmured. “In any case, the Imperial Court asks that the Princess officiate—”

“The formal representative of the Court in the province is Duke Qiao,” she pointed out. “Unless he wishes to resign his post and allow me to appoint a new Duke in his stead, he can officiate over this just fine.”

Shi Yuimei stared at her dully for a moment, then opened her mouth to reply—

“—Huang JiLao is more than sufficient,” she added, cutting the other woman off before she could speak again. “Unless they wish to make this into a formal ritual as well, in which case, I am very willing to issue a declaration on behalf of the Empress that all people of Blue Water City acknowledge the Imperial Seal and attend a banquet… for as long as that ritual takes?”

“Uh…” Shi Yuimei stared at her slightly wide-eyed now, which brought a warm fuzzy feeling to her heart.

-Yes, we can do that as well. I do have an Imperial Seal on my person, she sneered.

“Perhaps a week of religious banquets, funded by the Imperial Envoy’s estate, honouring our August Imperial Mother’s contribution to the prosperity of Eastern Azure? With gifts presented on her behalf by all eminent persons?” she added, just to twist the knife a bit deeper. “In this season, spirit fruit of superlative quality are acknowledged to be appropriate. I understand that several remarkable trees were just recently presented to our person by Envoy Qiao, and I can think of no more fitting offering to our Imperial Mother. She would certainly acknowledge Blue Water Province personally for such a generous gift.”

Huang Shi Yuimei stared at her dully.

“Please relay that to Envoy Qiao,” she said sweetly, withdrawing the aforementioned seal from her talisman and holding it up for a moment. Huang Shi Yuimei, to her amusement, refused to look at it.

“Oh…” the senior priestess murmured. “You can also relay to the Imperial Envoy that if Prince Dun Fanshu wishes to come and pluck a peach from the tree, we will not stop him. If he is worthy, he is more than welcome to try.”

“…”

Huang Shi Yuimei stared at the priestess even more dully than she had at her, then bowed and retreated, unable to hide the slightly haunted look shadowing her face.

“Dun Fanshu wants one of the peaches?” she asked, only slightly shocked, given she was well acquainted with the Third Crown Prince’s ego.

“Worse, they want us to give him a peach,” Senior Priestess Renfei clarified with a wry laugh.

“—which is not the same as coming and plucking it yourself,” she noted.

“Indeed,” Priestess Qingyue agreed. “It is not.”

“What happens if he fails?” she asked.

“Then he was not worthy,” Senior Priestess Renfei deadpanned, before taking a sip of her tea.

“As amusing as it would be,” she mused, -for a proud asshole like Dun Fanshu, that would be worse than actually trying to kill him, “that is not exactly a game without consequences.”

“Indeed,” the senior priestess murmured, her tone suggesting that the consequences would not be for the Grand Shrine.

-I wonder where her confidence there comes from? she mused to herself. Fanshu is the Empress’s son. It is not like he does not have the qualifications… and the Wuli branch of the Huang clan, from which the Empress hails, has actual links to the Turquoise Pond, who might as well be the physical manifestation of the Queen Mother’s will…

-Unless that is the point?

“That is why we have always stayed aloof from the local politics,” Renfei added blandly. “Something Envoy Qiao is usually more circumspect regarding.”

-Is that why you are quite happy to tell me? she pondered. Or am I reading too much into it?

“Will what you said actually work?” Priestess Qingyue added, looking at her with some amusement.

“Unless they want to give me the entire crop from all the spirit trees at the Golden Dragon Auction, yes,” she remarked, sipping her tea. “Do not underestimate the lack of desire of a bunch of proud old men to have to give toasts and expensive gifts, and kowtow formally, to young women, while receiving nothing but platitudes in return.”

Indeed, she only had to wait about five minutes before an acolyte returned, informing her that Envoy Qiao would lead the banquet, and that there would be a toast on her behalf, as gratitude for her performing the ritual. No mention was made of anything grander, much as she had expected. Nor was any mention made regarding Dun Fanshu, which, again, she had expected.

That latter revelation was an interesting hot gourd in any case, because she was fairly sure, turning it over in her mind as they sipped tea and made further polite conversation with Renfei, Qingyue and then, when she also came to join them, Zhenli, that that was some kind of little test. It was information that could be easily traced back to probably a very small number of sources… and leaking it, while potentially amusing, would, if it found its way back to her, cause a lot of headaches, which might, she considered, also be the reason she had been told.

Finally, after her third cup of tea, and after the plate of tasty rice and raw fish rolls had been replenished a second time, she considered that she could probably not hide here all day.

“Is there a way out of the shrine that doesn’t lead me right through a banquet full of elders who are vexed that their plotting got disrupted?” she asked Qingyue.

“Oh, yes,” Qingyue nodded. “The Grand Shrine adjoins the Blue Water Gardens. The personal shrines for the Star of Wonder and the Star of Beauty are down there.”

“I can escort you down if you want,” Priestess Zhenli added, after swallowing down a roll and coughing lightly.

“—Perhaps best leave that to an acolyte,” Senior Priestess Renfei murmured, from where she was now sitting reading a book on the other side of the room.

“Eh… it’s fine,” Zhenli replied. “Anyway, the princess is our shrine’s guest. What hosts would we be if we just pointed her in the direction of the exit and told her not to get lost!”

“…”

Renfei eyed the younger woman, then nodded.

Looking between them all, she was again struck by how the apparently clear hierarchy of the different priestesses was… not as clear-cut as it seemed. Renfei, as the Priestess of Guidance, might have been expected to be the most senior, but Zhenli, who was Priestess of Might, frequently just ignored what she said, or only gave token thought to it.

“Not that we are trying to kick you out,” Qingyue, who was Priestess of Beauty, added with a polite cough of her own.

Zhenli pouted and nodded, before adding apologetically to her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, although I don’t think you have had a proper tour of the Grand Shrine, have you?”

“I… have not,” she conceded, accepting the apology.

“You and that pretty young lord from the Huang clan have been asking all sorts of questions about old ruins, yet you didn’t come visit one of the actual old ruins?” Zhenli added.

“Actual?” she blinked.

“Did you think this shrine got built here because the view was good?”

“Actually, I am pretty sure they did build it here because the view was good,” Renfei pointed out. “The only place with a better view is the peak of the massif on Little Harbour, and that has also been occupied for as long as there have been people in and around Yin Eclipse, or so it seems.”

“Oh?” she frowned, recalling that she had been offered a tour of the Kun estate up there… yet never actually got it in the end, thanks to the various demands on her time.

“There are various old estates up there, like the Kun clan’s?”

“Oh yes,” Renfei nodded.

“The Kun one is among the most spectacular as well,” Qingyue mused. “The Blue Jade Courtyard in particular is a source of much angst to the Imperial Envoy, who would rather love to claim he has the biggest collection of the stuff this side of the Teng Strait…”

“—but for that pesky estate,” Zhengli added impishly.

“I am sure as a princess, you see many marvels,” Renfei added. “But much like the peach tree here, the Blue Water Pagoda in the grand gardens below… and the Ling Gate, the Blue Jade Courtyard is one of the few sights you will not see elsewhere.”

They talked for a while longer about that, before Zhenli and Qingyue did escort her to see the ‘ruins’, or at least, those she had not already seen, because the chamber below the tree was apparently part of it, pool and all. She wasn’t sure what to expect really, but a glittering arborundum gazebo some twenty feet wide, set into the cliff below the shrine and covered in possibly millions of intricate carvings of flowers and the like… was not it.

In the middle of the semicircular space, there was a statue of a woman reclining on a kind of stone chair carved with images of the rising sun. Her flesh was all purest white marble, her hair deep golden amber, her eyes picked out with almost life-like vividness. Most notable though, was that she was half naked, her lower body covered by a flowing robe of blue jade, again engraved with a sun picked out in threads of silver and gold. Her left hand rested on a lantern, shaped from the same golden stone as her hair, within which she could see a phenomenally lifelike representation of a flame in the shape of a ram.

In her right arm rested a tablet onto which was inscribed four moon runes: ‘Balance’, ‘Stratagem’, ‘Yin’ and most bizarrely ‘Sun’.

It was only on the second look, thinking that this statue was remarkably similar, stylistically, to the ‘rainbow woman’ from the auction, that she noticed the symbol on her forehead.

Staring at that was even stranger in a way, because it didn’t really translate itself as the one on the other statue had done. Instead, it gave her a subtle sense of ‘scheming’ or ‘manipulation’, but also a feeling of oppressive ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’, almost a ‘regal’ aura in fact, worthy of the haughtiest of princesses in the Imperial Court, while hinting at something subversively beautiful connecting ‘scheme’ and ‘royal’.

“Beautiful Schemer?” she muttered at last, arriving at a translation that was rather odd, honestly, as a name.

It was undeniably disconcerting, and made her wonder if it wasn’t somehow her own preconceptions or status in some way that was affecting how it interpreted itself to her. That the woman’s casual nudity and vaguely enticing figure led her to feel… inadequate to a mere statue was also…

“The most common reading is actually ‘Distinguished Strategist’,” Qingyue remarked with some amusement.

“—but how it is read changes on whether it is a man or a woman observing it,” Zhenli added. “Most women see a negative-sounding name – schemer, vixen, deceiver, subversive woman… like you just did, while men are enamoured of her and see… ‘Royal Beauty’, or ‘Distinguished Strategist’ or ‘Beautiful’ or ‘Guiding Light’ or the like.”

“Oh… I see,” she nodded, shivering slightly, thinking back to the small statue in the auction. If anything, that effect had been even more pronounced than this was, but somehow… this felt more… personal?

“I think it is the nudity, and the posture,” she muttered at last.

“Yes… it is exceptionally enticing,” Qingyue grinned, pointing at the woman’s right hand, which rested in her lap, and was pulling the edge of her robe away from her right thigh, exposing it almost to her waist she realised. “Almost deliberately so… It is quite remarkable really how it goes out of its way to toy with you.”

“If you squint, you can see the symbol actually extends into the carvings on her skin,” Zhenli added, pointing at the woman’s pale leg. “They are… the greatest allure and puzzle associated with this strange relic of a bygone era.”

Narrowing her eyes, she had to move her head a little, but soon saw what the priestess meant. The woman’s white skin held the faintest ghostly lines of blue-green and purple iridescence, swirling across her body in ways that drew the eye very prominently to her thighs, hips… breasts…

-Fates, how is a statue actually making me feel inadequate? she complained, giving herself a shake as her heart rate inexplicably quickened.

The patterns themselves were reminiscent of those on a peacock’s tails as well, and, as she traced one, she found that each ‘feather’ finished at the forehead, their ‘eyes’ merging with the symbol there.

“What is so special about them?” she asked at last. “Beyond their ability to make you feel profoundly uncomfortable?”

Zhenli just giggled, making her wonder if the pair had come to show her this just to see what she would make of it, although it was… interesting.

“Well… if you take those designs and paint them on your body, they enhance a person’s ability to use Heart Force,” Qingyue remarked, so offhandedly she nearly thought she imagined it.

“…”

“And you just have this sitting out here, like this?” she asked dully. And tell me?

“It won’t do you any good,” Zhenli murmured, looking at the statue with some amusement. “Whoever made this intended for it to be seen and very strange things have happened historically when others tried to take it away or covet it.”

“Oh… of course,” she nodded, recalling the strange effects the elders had talked about during the tour of the items found in the various ruins around the province.

“Similarly, every person who has copied those patterns received a slightly different benefit, be they man or woman,” Zhenli murmured. “Though to get the benefits each person has to comprehend the markings themselves and paint them—”

“So you cannot copy what someone else has comprehended,” she mused.

“Indeed, and once you attain comprehensions from this statue, it is very hard to use any other Heart Force method,” Zhenli agreed.

“—And the methods occasionally gained, where others have spoken of them, are said to be as challenging to advance as physical cultivation,” Qingyue added.

“I see,” she nodded, understanding now. “No wonder it is not more popular.”

“The priestess who founded our shrine here believed that this statue, the ruins within the cliff with the pond, and the peach tree above were all related, especially the statue, given the possible names have associations with all Seven Stars—” Qingyue elaborated.

“So they do…” she murmured, staring at the symbol again. “Thus, the conclusion was that she had to be someone important to the Queen Mother?”

“Yes,” Qingyue agreed. “So we keep this place tended and people come and study her, or venerate her, and occasionally they have some small achievement where they might have had no other opportunity to do so, bringing them that little bit closer to the Queen Mother, and perhaps that is enough.”

“—Ah… the rain is picking up again,” Zhenli added, pulling out a colourful umbrella and looking skywards with a faint scowl.

Even as the priestess said it, a few fat drops of ‘wet’ rain passed straight through her qi armour and splashed off her face.

“Just because the rains from the east have mostly passed, doesn’t make the water falling from the sky any less wet,” Qingyue remarked, adjusting her own umbrella.

Curious, she swept her soul sense out again and found it foundered within the distance it took her to send it to the far side of the small courtyard carved out of the cliff face.

“I see soul sense is also still restricted,” she mused, withdrawing an umbrella from her storage ring.

“That comes and goes. The rain has lasted over a week, so the residual qi from the mountains will affect everything for days yet,” Zhenli clarified, echoing what she recalled Kun Juni and Ling Yu saying at the dinner they had had… only a few days ago, although it felt like far longer.

“Well, let us head on down,” Qingyue said. “Queen Mother willing, it will pass in a few minutes.”

It didn’t take them that long to reach the bottom of the cliff, where a sprawling complex of shrine buildings and temples threaded their way out into the broad swathe of now rain-obscured greenery that was the grand gardens of Blue Water City. The Blue Water Pavilion, the closest thing that Blue Water City had to a legitimate tourist attraction, was just about visible in the middle still, as she followed the two priestesses along paved paths between groves of spirit vegetation and walled temples until they finally reached an ornate gate guarded by two rather bored and very wet female shrine guardians in their now familiar turquoise armour.

“We will have to leave you here,” Qingyue said, giving her a polite salute as they stopped in the shelter of a broad-roofed pagoda by the gate.

“Indeed, Senior Sister Renfei will complain if we wander off today… especially given our excuse for not going to that dinner was that it was ‘secular’,” Zhenli agreed, mirroring the salute.

“If you want to come back and stare at that statue, just ask for us,” Qingyue added. “It is open to everyone, because this is the Queen Mother’s will, that all those who seek her may do so free and unfettered, to find their prosperity as life takes them, but it is also kind of in a strange part of the complex these days.”

“I see,” she nodded, reflecting that JiLao would certainly find it interesting, given the Huang clan’s links to the Queen Mother. “In that case, thank you for guiding me around.”

“Not at all,” Qingyue murmured. “Enjoy the rest of your day…”

They saluted her a second time, then, as she watched, both turned and set off back through the rain, in the direction of the nearest shrine complex.

Returning their salute, she looked around then set off in rather aimless fashion down the paths into the gardens, rather relieved that the rain, while it did not vanish entirely, did lessen again after a few minutes, to return to a light, misty drizzle. She could see why the locals liked them: they showed off the region's heritage in spiritual plants admirably, and had clearly been the inspiration for the layout used by the Golden Dragon Teahouse in the auction.

-So much for them hoping the rain was gone, she reflected wryly, noting quite a few bedraggled cultivators sheltering in pagodas or under trees as she walked.

It was hard to say, in the end, how long she wandered through the gardens for. In the intermittent rain and the hiss of the greenery, moved by the slightly cooler sea breeze, it was easy to lose yourself, especially in her case, when her thoughts were rather unsettled anyway.

The question of why they were here had been slowly percolating in her mind even before they arrived on Yin Eclipse. However, with the procession of obstacles, big and small, that seemed to be cropping up in their path… especially her path, of late, that slow gestation had turned into something rather more malicious.

It had started, she had to admit, with the orchid in the Blue Gate School which had promoted the very real worry that she could not rely on her ‘imperial guards’. That had morphed into the various machinations of the Imperial Envoy, her other imperial siblings and whatever the Din clan were up to…

Those guards were still with her, she was sure. They had not come to the shrine, at least openly, or been visible around the Golden Dragon, but since she started walking she had had, through a talisman for the imperial guards that she held on her person, the awareness that two other holders were nearby.

Even that would be ‘just another week of imperial politics’, though, were it not for the plot on the auction, which so very many people were determined to hold up as anti-Imperial sentiment, or agitation from the Azure Astral Authority, pushing back at her presence. Her own hunch there was that it was indeed ‘anti-Imperial’… but, more precisely, also ‘anti-Lian Jing’.

Now… she was stuck doing high profile ‘hand waving’, which was in fact a princess’s usual task, but not often to the degree which Envoy Qiao and others were finding for her to do.

If she didn’t know JiLao quite as well as she did, she would have honestly suspected that much of this trip was designed to deliberately drive a wedge between him and her. He had been off doing all sorts of things, chasing leads down… and she, who was ostensibly the senior partner in this trip… had been stuck… with all the difficulties.

When she put it all together in her head, wandering down paved paths between carefully curated beds of spirit vegetation, it was hard for her not to arrive at the conclusion that there were those out there that knew more about what was going on with whatever her Imperial Uncle, Dun Jian, had sent them here to achieve than she or Huang JiLao did, and they did not want to see them make progress…

It was in that strange state of mind, wandering along, turning her personal message talisman over in her hands, that she wandered into a broad plaza… and found Lingsheng, standing there, watching a group of what appeared to be twenty monkeys, all practicing martial arts…

She had to stop for a moment and shake her head, such was the oddity of the scene, as twenty monkeys all holding rather gnarly staffs spun them in unison and gave a roughly coordinated shriek as they executed the basic martial form.

-Do I even want to know? she mused, watching as Lingsheng walked over to one and bonked them on the head with her own stick, pointing at their feet, which when she replayed the scene in her head, had been the wrong way around.

“—You seem lost?” a voice behind her spoke.

She turned in surprise, narrowly avoiding dropping the message talisman into the grass.

The person asking wasn’t someone she could ‘see’with her soul sense, which made her panic for a split second until she realised the woman was sitting a few metres to her right side and that in the rain, she had reflexively turned the wrong way.

-How embarrassing, she grimaced.

Looking at the speaker, she saw a woman, a flawless beauty actually, with deep blue eyes and platinum-gold hair, plaited loosely with a few strange white flowers in it that she couldn't identify, sitting on a rock beneath a large kobbin tree. The blue-grey robe the woman wore was somewhat eccentric, in a style vaguely reminiscent of the western continent’s fashion, but more flowing and lighter. It bore the repeating motif of a moon and three stars, rising above a wavy ocean.

Most disconcertingly, there was no aura about the seated woman at all that she could discern; it was as if she was both there… and somehow just there, entirely without presence, yet also evoking a sort of odd ‘reality’ that was rather disconcerting. She tried to grasp for someone to compare it to, but no other senior, not even those reclusive experts in the Imperial Court, had that kind of presence that she could recall.

“Sorry, I misspoke. You just seemed… lost,” the woman said, apologising to her, though the way she stressed ‘lost’ left her a little off-kilter.

“No… not at all,” she said after a moment of collecting her thoughts, “I was just taking in the morning and the gardens.”

“It is a beautiful day,” the woman agreed, looking around at the misty gardens in the light rain. “I find this place to be curiously at odds with its first impressions.”

“It is?” she frowned, because ‘beautiful day’ was not how she would have chosen to describe today, or even any day since she had arrived here.

-I don’t think I have even seen sunshine for more than a few seconds since we got off the dragonship, she complained to herself.

“They made this place, these gardens, to mirror the beauty of the mountains. Yet they accidentally made it mirror so much more than that,” the woman mused. “I have come here a lot of… over the years. The pagoda is like the one in my hometown.”

-Where is this going? she wondered.

“Yes, it is… interesting,” she agreed, trying to get some purchase on the conversation.

“Haha…” the woman laughed, a bright, gentle sound that immediately drew her to think of her mother, for some slightly odd reason. “You kids are all the same. You see but you do not see. One day you will, heavens willing.”

“I don’t believe I know Senior’s name?” she asked, trying not to let any annoyance creep in.

“…”

The woman smiled faintly, but remained silent for long enough that she was starting to suspect that she might have somehow annoyed her…

“A name… hmm…” she mused at last. “Some have called me Dao Mother Bright Dream—”

She flinched and nearly took a step back.

-Shit, she actually is some big senior! she cursed in her heart.

Nobody would dare claim to be a 'Dao Mother' or 'Dao Father' without meaning it. That kind of reputation got tested and frauds got disgraced or died fast. Usually it signified a peak Dao Ascendant, or even a suppressed World Venerate…

“Junior showed Ancestor disrespect,” she bowed, wincing inwardly and deciding to play it safe.

Even her status as an imperial princess wouldn’t help her if she annoyed a Dao Ascension Fairy Ancestor. She schooled her thoughts to not say ‘Old Monster’ just in time. Female Dao Ascension experts were all notoriously touchy about their age, and the most terrifying Dao Ascension Old Ancestors in their world at the moment were all female. Fairy Meng, Demoness Mo, Lady Xiao, Lady Kai and Lady Shan. It was, now that she listed them, sort of embarrassing that there were none from the Dun on that list.

There had been no mention of anyone of this calibre on the continent.

Unbidden, her eyes flickered over to Lingsheng, who was still instructing the monkeys, ignoring them completely.

-Her mother is… Fairy Sovereign Sky Song. Is this woman some reclusive elder from Zhi Zhi Mountain?

“Is Senior affiliated with an influence here?” she asked, as politely as she could.

“I see the doubt in your eyes,” the beautiful woman chuckled. “I do not need your respect, Princess; I merely thought you looked a bit lost and wondered if you would like to chat… but I see now is not the time.”

“—Ah… Jing!” a familiar male voice echoed through the trees nearby.

Turning, she saw Huang JiLao of all people hurrying over.

“Apologies, Fairy Bright Dream… my friend—”

She was about to say ‘was rude’, but the woman caught her bow and stopped her. Her hand was warm like the summer sun. She could feel it through her sleeve even.

“You dropped this,” Bright Dream said, passing her the talisman, which she realised had fallen from her hand into the grass. “I will leave you to your friend,” she added, her voice carrying a faint echo of amusement. “Time with friends is precious after all…”

“I…”

The woman was gone even as she started to speak again, as if she had never been there. Up in the tree, a squirrel chittered, birds called, the garden hummed again… the two guards standing nearby were clearly visible.

She had to quiet her suddenly racing heart.

She hadn’t realised it before, but there had been no birdsong or insects, or anything, noticeable when she was talking to the woman. Not Lingsheng, not the monkeys… not even the rain…

-Was I caught inside her ‘moment’ the whole time? she wondered, not sure if she should feel scared at not realising it, or angry that she had left as soon as Huang JiLao appeared.

-And the shadows 'noticed' nothing…

“What is it?” she asked JiLao, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

“Nothing, I just came…” Huang JiLao trailed off, spotting Lingsheng and the monkeys, who were all watching them with piercing dark eyes now.

“Oh… Princess, JiLao!” Lingsheng also turned, spotting her and giving them both a wave with her stick.

“I…” JiLao trailed off, staring hard at her hand…

She paused. The talisman was in her hand. She had had it out, yes… and dropped it.

She stared at the talisman. On the surface, it looked perfectly normal and she had not really looked at it closely when she was just playing with it in her hands while she walked, thinking things over, but the enchantments on it now were totally dispersed and the messages in it were all gone.

As a talisman, it was nothing that special, just an item given to her by her Imperial Uncle when he had first taken her under his wing… when she was maybe eight or nine, to begin instruction.

-When did that happen? she gawked. Was it her…?

She had dropped it, and Fairy Bright Dream had picked the talisman back up and touched her sleeve. However, even the soul binding on the talisman was gone… and she had not sensed anything at all, which realistically should have been impossible.

She tried to store it in her storage ring, and found that it wouldn’t…

Thinking quickly, she shoved it into the pocket of her robe, before JiLao, or anyone else, could see it properly and ask questions she didn’t necessarily want to answer, even if she could.

“Something happened to it. I guess it had a defect. I’ll have to trouble you to get a new one tomorrow,” she told him, turning to take in the garden and replaying the woman’s words in her mind. They had seemed innocuous, but why did she suddenly have a sense of foreboding?

“A defect?” JiLao frowned. “Wasn’t it a gift from your Imperial Uncle?”

“…”

“It was… I guess,” she murmured, glad of the rain suddenly and the fact that she was not really looking at him, or in the direction of Lingsheng, because surely her expression was a bit off.

“Anyway, why are you here?” she asked, turning the topic away from the inexplicable talisman, which found itself added to the end of a rapidly growing list of circumstances she was coming to think of as ‘anti-Lian Jing’.

“Oh… your Imperial Uncle Jian tried to reach you… and couldn’t,” Huang JiLao grimaced. “Apparently the weather here interfered with his ability to act more directly… and you are the given point of contact by more immediate means…”

While JiLao didn’t quite look at her in a judging manner, his expression was somewhat put out, she had to admit.

“He… did?” she frowned, moving on from that point. “What about?”

“The message sent didn’t say, but we have another problem… of sorts, or maybe it is what your Imperial Uncle wanted to speak to us about,” Huang Jilao scowled. “Some of those he was collaborating with in the Huang clan have sent ‘helpers’ of their own… and, well, some of them are here already; that is why the Envoy wanted you to come to the banquet. The first group, from the White Storm Sect, arrived yesterday evening and are now guests of honour there, courtesy of Huang Ryuun.”

“Tan Fang?” she asked, grasping for the name of the disciple from that sect who had hung out with Huang JiLao some years prior.

“He is coming,” Huang JiLao answered with a nod. “Though only because I asked him to – personally. The ones sent officially will be trouble, I suspect.”

“…”

The White Storm Sect was not a true top tier ‘influence’, not like the Jade Gate Court, Pill Sovereign Sect… or Shu Pavilion; however, they made up for that by being thoroughly controlled by a Heavenly Clan, the Huang in this case. The problem, though, in this instance was that her Imperial Uncle was only influential with one sub-sect of the Huang clan, and the White Storm Sect was an influence of the Huang Heavenly Clan’s core, not a particular branch… and thus marched very much to its own internal tune.

“Who are they sending?” she asked, given Huang JiLao really was… unusually agitated.

“The sect’s Supreme Elder has sent Yan Ju, one of their more promising Mortal World Ascenders, with strong links to the Myriad Herb Association… along with a dozen others to ‘support your Imperial Uncle’s endeavour’,” Huang JiLao elaborated with an ever-deepening scowl.

“—The one who killed Huang Jurong in the last Dragon Pillar trial?”

She almost flinched as Lingsheng, with a small white and black monkey perched on her head, appeared like a ghost beside them.

“Erm… yes, that Yan Ju, Dao Daughter,” Huang JiLao muttered, stepping away from Lingsheng slightly.

-Ah, that will be why he is angry, she mused, recalling that Huang Jurong and Huang JiLao had been… if not friends, certainly long-standing acquaintances.

“My uncle has to know that Yan Ju is not someone who has a good relationship with the Wuli branch…” she murmured, giving him a pat on the shoulder in sympathy.

“Certainly,” Huang JiLao remarked rather resignedly. “However, I rather suspect he has little, if anything, to do with this. This has its roots in Huang clan politics outside his control. The Supreme Elder himself is from the core clan, but both his daughters are close to young masters from the Hong branch.”

“Fates preserve us from clan politics,” she groaned. Of course Dun and Din clan politics were not enough for whatever this is. Now we have Huang clan politics messing with it as well?

The disturbing spectre emerging in the back of her mind in that regard was her Imperial Brother Fanshu, whose name was appearing far too much for her liking of late and who was up to his wretched neck in the political games of both his mother’s and father’s clans.

“Quite,” Lingsheng, who was now feeding the monkey a spirit fruit, agreed.

----------------------------------------

~ KUN JUNI – WEST FLOWER PICKING TOWN ~

----------------------------------------

“It is time for you to depart for the Patriarch’s banquet…”

Standing in front of the full-length mirror in her apartments within the Kun estates in West Flower Picking Town, Kun Juni fought back a sigh and nodded to the maid who had just entered her room, ignoring the fact that the woman had used no honorific.

Usually, someone of her position would be afforded at least a ‘Senior Miss’ or ‘Clan Daughter’, but the Supreme Elder, her half-uncle Kun Xuanhai, had ruled some time ago that servants were to address her as just another ‘young woman’ of the Kun clan… so only those of her immediate household or well-disposed to her father usually bothered with a proper honorific. It was petty and mean-spirited… but it was also the Supreme Elder’s decree, so even her father could not overrule it without the support of the other elders… which he would not get.

“I am aware, thank you,” she replied, when the maid made no move to leave.

The woman bowed slightly and retreated out of the room, leaving her to stare at her reflection in the mirror again.

She had intended to just use the gown she had worn when meeting Princess Lian, as she had for the reception the previous evening, but instead her half-uncle had asked his wife Xing Lifen for assistance. Xingjuan’s mother had ‘graciously’ picked out the gown she was now stuck wearing from those within the family vault and made it widely known, even before she had seen it, that the clan was loaning her a ‘treasured’ spirit gown, for the great occasion.

It was a nice dress, one that had been gifted to her grandmother Kun Liang. Far superior to any spirit gown she had, it was patterned in vibrant blue and silver spirit silks with the embroidered Kun dancing up its hems to transform into a great roc, the wings of which swept across the majority of the upper part of the dress, picked out in shimmering gold and copper threads. It was a dress designed to make a statement…

The problem was that it showed far too much bosom for what she was usually happy with and the skirts were split almost halfway up her thigh, which meant she really had to watch how she walked.

-This is absolutely a dress picked out by some lecherous old men for a young woman to wear in their presence, she grumbled, turning this way and that, looking at it.

Adjusting the veil, she pulled the skirt down a bit lower, so it hid most of the exposed flesh, and sighed deeply, re-affixing the platinum-gold, winged crown that accompanied the dress so that it properly secured the veil, which it usually did not, then replaced the various ornate jewelled hair pins that held it all in place.

Her aunt had even picked out her hairstyle, with tasteful bangs of her long dark-brown hair framing her face and the majority plaited and held up at the back of her head… exposing, again, the fact that the upper portion of the gown was also backless.

“Yep… absolutely a gown selected by old men,” she muttered, before using her fingers to massage her expression into a pretty smile which never reached her eyes. That, or my aunt is trying to get me noticed by some thirsty-eyed young noble attending this, just so I can be married off to secure Xingjuan’s place in the younger generation.

It was hard to decide in her mind which theory was worse, given both were probably true on some level.

Finally, she took the ‘Clan Lady’ talisman, which was actually her mother’s… who was in Blue Water City right now along with her father, having apparently agreed to come out of seclusion to attend the ritual for the ‘prosperity of the province’ being undertaken by Princess Lian, and placed it at the front of the crown where it was clearly visible.

Spinning on the spot, she watched the gown shimmer as the skirts fanned out a final time, then stalked out of her rooms, pushing the doors open hard enough that the maid standing outside was forced to step back smartly.

“Watch it,” she snapped, her usual good humour gone for the moment. “If you ruin my gown I’ll tell grandmother.”

“…”

The maid stared at her dubiously, but did bow in apology.

The threat was fairly idle, truth be told. Her ‘grandmother’, Kun Liang, had largely been in cultivation retreat for as long as she could recall, rarely bothering to communicate with the clan as a whole, except to demand some rare spirit herb or ask about some event. From her own experiences attending her, probably her grandmother would care next to nothing for the gown, which had likely been donated to the clan treasury because it was diplomatically awkward for her to be seen to dislike it, and just tell her to grow a pair.

-Not that anyone is in any doubt I have those, wearing this, she reflected sourly as two other maids hurried to catch up and pick up the hem of the dress.

“Young Lady Kun,” the ceremonial guard escort waiting for her saluted smartly at least, though even their gaze lingered a little too long on her figure.

“…”

-What are the odds this robe has some enchantment in it to actually accent how people look at you? she wondered, burying another sigh as they fell in behind her. And would they have told me, even if I asked?

That latter point she doubted, given the whole purpose of this, in her uncle’s and the various clan elders eyes, was both to really showcase the most glamorous aspects of the Kun clan to others… and also to humiliate her in all sorts of subtle little ways in the process. Dressed as she was, she would immediately be the most glamorous young woman – unmarried young woman – in the entire banquet, unless someone from out of town came, at which point her situation was going to turn…

-Please don’t let that happen, she prayed to the fates. The last thing I want is someone trying to set up a fight or some rivalry with some visiting young lady over who is the prettiest person there…

“At least it has stopped raining,” one of the guards remarked behind her as they finally made it to the central courtyard of the Kun estate where the carriages – which she noted were still being prepared for use – were waiting.

“Praise to the Ha…” another guard added somewhat sarcastically, which got a few chuckles.

“So… just ready to go?” she asked the maid behind her, who didn’t meet her eyes.

“YOUNG LADY KUN JUNI!” the guards behind her proclaimed, a bit hastily, as she didn’t bother to pause for more than those few moments, before stepping out into the courtyard.

The words echoed through the courtyard, forcing everyone to stop what they were doing and salute her respectfully. Thanks to the rank talisman, even the few elders standing around had to bow formally… although with the salutes came more than their share of lingering eyes.

-Have you never seen a beautiful woman before? she thought sourly, surveying the group as they remained bowing.

“I believe it is customary for clan members to salute the seal?” she murmured at last, using some Martial Intent to project her voice.

“…”

“I understand that you are all very informal, when it comes to dealing with my cousin…” she said, loud enough to be heard in every corner. “However, this kind of mistake makes our Kun clan seem small in the eyes of others?”

“Ahem…” the leader of her ceremonial guard detail nodded and a few of those standing nearby flinched, realising their mistake.

“CLAN DAUGHTER!”

“CLAN DAUGHTER!”

“CLAN DAUGHTER!”

The three salutes echoed across the courtyard, not really bringing her any sense of catharsis… though it was amusing to watch the gloomy expressions of the elders as they did so.

“As you were,” she remarked blandly, before turning to the nearest elder.

“Elder Gufan, I was under the impression that we would be ready to depart. On behalf of my father, I am deeply disappointed.”

“Young Miss…” the elder began.

“…” she stared impassively at him.

“Young Lady is very forthright today,” Elder Gufan murmured, correcting himself belatedly.

“Young Lady has been sent to be the Young Lady of the Kun clan,” she pointed out. “If Sir Elder cannot fulfil his role, perhaps someone else should?”

“Young Lady jests…” Elder Gufan muttered.

“…”

“Young Lady does not,” she said with as much disdain as she could muster. “If we are late, I will ensure you all face a penalty.”

Elder Gufan stared at her, then bowed and stalked over to the carriages.

Looking around again, she sighed softly to herself. It was pathetic, really… All too easy to slip back into the mentality she had had fifteen or twenty years ago. Commanding respect worked, but it was just so… tiring, and it wasn’t true respect in any case. Her reputation with most of the clan elders was so poor anyway that she could probably spit in their tea and it would not decrease their opinion of her, courtesy of her father’s younger brother and his long-seated ambition to become clan leader that their grandfather had thwarted.

Most of the others in the courtyard were formally dressed as well. The young women all had blue, silver and gold dresses with a riot of wonderful embroidery, while the male disciples selected to attend all wore garb akin to that of martial scholars, with knee-length robes and an over-tunic emblazoned with the clan crest.

“—I heard from my cousin Jinmei that it was because of the ritual,” the snippet of conversation drifted into her ears from nearby as she took in those who were there.

“Indeed, a blessing sent by the Queen Mother,” another of the young women from the clan accompanying her agreed.

“My cousin was there. Apparently it was a wonderful ritual. Young Lady Xingjuan was invited to be part of the chorus…” a third girl, Kun Shenmei, who was a ‘friend’ of Xingjuan’s, added, casting her a sideways look.

-Yeah, you only say that because you haven’t had to kneel there in the rain singing from dawn until dawn, she thought sourly, recalling that the last time she had participated there had also been an occurrence of ‘rains from the east’… and it hadn’t stopped for the ritual.

“I am sure she sang wonderfully,” Shenmei’s friend agreed.

“Truly, she is the pride of our Kun clan… even catching the attention of the princess herself…” Shenmei sighed.

“…”

The guards beside her glanced at her, one giving an apologetic grimace.

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“It’s fine,” she replied, staring up at the blue sky with its threads of grey cloud for a long moment, wondering how long the brief let-up in the weather would actually last.

-I’d happily take that stress over this, she reflected sourly.

“Clan Daughter Juni also dined with the princess…” one of the youths nearby, Kun Caobei, a friend of her cousin Xian’s if she recalled right, added somewhat defensively on her behalf.

“…”

“Yes, but it was Xingjuan who has gotten all the plaudits…” Kun Shenmei retorted.

“—and who personally escorted her Imperial Highness around the Kun estates…” one of Kun Shenmei’s companions added haughtily.

“What can a bossy, talentless old woman like her do to appeal to the princess?” another of Xingjuan’s friends whispered, just loud enough for her to hear…

“…”

“Well, she is certainly enticing…” another girl sneered.

“Anyone would look enticing in that gown…”

“Lady—”

-Indeed, you cannot command true respect, she reflected, heading over to the carriage and leaving the chattering youths, half her age for the most part, behind.

“Are you finished with the preparations?” she asked the other minor clan elder standing with Elder Gufan. “We are only driving them down the street, not to Blue Water City…”

“Ah… yes,” Elder Gufan replied. “We were just finished.”

“Good… then tell them all to get in,” she added, getting into the first carriage and sitting down at the front.

“Of… course…” the junior elder murmured.

“Is something the matter?” the most senior of her guards asked, sitting down opposite her.

“Oh… I just need to get out my ill humour before I spend the whole day smiling for old men,” she retorted as the maids got in after her.

“Ah… you look radiant, Fairy Juni!”

She glanced up to find that Bai Jiang, Ying Ji, and Feng Jinhai were making their way into the carriage.

“You decided to come after all?” she asked, because she had rather suspected they would not bother, given it was a rather formal occasion and nothing much to do with them.

“You did extend the invitation, and we are here as guests of your Estate so please allow us to follow your lead,” Feng Jinhai remarked drily, mostly managing to avoid staring for more than a few seconds. “And can I just say that your attire… puts many fairy immortals to shame?”

“—Indeed, we would be remiss to turn down the kind gesture of a beauty, especially you, who has been so hospitable to us,” Bai Jiang added with a grin, settling himself in another of the seats at the side of the carriage.

“…”

“You look every bit the epitome of a daughter of our Kun clan,” Ying Ji added, though she noticed he was carefully staring at the wall just behind her ear. “Like a bright luan amid common birds…”

-Sometimes, having good observational skills is a real curse, she lamented, noting with some amusement that they were somewhat… amateurish when it came to offering platitudes.

-Though perhaps that is why I have not found their company to be so onerous, she reflected.

“Thank you for your kind words,” she replied. “I hope the day will not be too tiresome. I am sure you would have a more enjoyable time being shown the sights of this town by Miss Jun and Miss Lin.”

“There is always tomorrow,” Feng Jinhai remarked with slight smile. “And this is indeed a grand event as does not happen very often!”

“Indeed,” Ying Ji agreed. “Apparently there is talk of a tournament, and a pill competition organized as well, in the Patriarch’s honour? Both will surely be a sight.”

“—And this way, you get to say you personally invited someone from the core influence of the Bai clan,” Bai Jiang added with a mischievous grin, drawing her attention to the silver dragons embroidered on his navy blue robe.

-That… is a surprisingly good point, she conceded to herself.

“At least the weather has settled,” Ying Ji went on, as the carriage started to move out of the courtyard.

“For now,” she agreed. “I expect it will start raining again overnight though, the usual pattern is a few days of solid rain, then a brief gap like this… then more.”

“In any case, they certainly picked an auspicious day for this banquet—”

She blinked, realising Kun Caobei had also gotten into her carriage.

-Have half the men in this group all come with me? she wondered, replaying who else would have been milling around and realising, with some sense of depression, that that was the case.

“…”

Sighing softly, she turned and watched out the window of the carriage as they travelled down the main thoroughfare between the Kun District and the Market District, leaving the others to their conversation. With the passing of the rain, there was a renewed bustle about West Flower Picking Town, as folk made the best of the unseasonable break in the weather to either spend time outdoors, or do shopping and errands without having to duck between shelters and carry an umbrella everywhere.

Unlike the reception she had had to return to attend the previous evening, the Patriarch’s birthday banquet wasn’t being held in the Governor’s Palace, but rather in the town’s most prestigious teahouse, the Celestial Blossoms Teahouse in the Market District, which was in effect a Ha clan social influence anyway, given it had been owned and operated by the Ha clan for as long as the town existed.

The choice of venue meant that there was a plaza outside where there could be a ‘public’ banquet for the townsfolk, giving the largely exclusive event something of an egalitarian veneer at the very least.

Eventually, she pulled out a jade tablet, which her father had left her by way of apology and some forewarning for the onerous task, and started to skim through the various overseas dignitaries associated with the Kun clan, who her half-uncle had convinced to make the trip from Blue Water City to bolster the prestige of the clan.

The biggest headaches were potentially Kun Baotan… and Kun Zhuge Fei and, laterally, Jiang Dan Guang.

Baotan was a distant cousin, somewhat older than her, from the branch in Nine Moons Province, who she did have some distant recollection of meeting when she visited Pill Sovereign City with her father, all those years ago. In a sense, he should be the least troublesome because her father was well regarded in that branch and they had many long-standing trade links to Pill Sovereign City. On the other hand, those connections had long been a target of those looking to unrest her father from the Clan Lord’s seat…

Kun Zhuge Fei, by comparison, was a scion of one of the more influential and ambitious families of the clan branch across the Tang Strait on the Northern Tang continent. Their manner was overbearing, and they had family links to her half-uncle, through his own mother, her paternal grandfather’s second wife.

-Now there is a marriage treaty made entirely for strategic reasons that has caused nothing but grief for our side of the clan ever since, she reflected sourly, skimming what information her older brother had supplied for her there.

Apparently Kun Zhuge Fei was ‘visiting’ the province at the leisure of the Supreme Elder’s political allies in the clan and had been in Jade Willow Village of all places, staying at the Kun estate there.

-And yet again, it all comes back to Jade Willow Village. Did they get cursed by some old ancestor?

Dan Guang was the most obviously difficult though. The obviously Jiang-controlled Jiang Town across the Tang Straits in Golden Jade Province and the greater Jiang Region were wealthy enough to be considered a small province within its own right. They had trade and marriage links to both the Kun and the Ha, and frequently played both clans off against each other for personal benefit.

“How is Kun Baotan?” she asked Bai Jiang at last, as the carriage turned through the main market square.

“He is a well-connected disciple in the Pill Sovereign Sect?” Bai Jiang replied. “He likes to throw his name around and has important friends who like his family’s…”

“—Wealth?” she finished, giving Bai Jiang a wry smile.

“You can say it,” Bai Jiang murmured. “You would be better asking Brother Ying or Brother Feng.”

“Mmm,” she nodded, about expecting that reply.

“Senior Brother Baotan?” Ying Ji interjected, turning away from whatever he was discussing with Kun Caobei. “Why do you ask?”

“He will likely be here,” she mused, “as an invited guest of the Kun clan.”

“Ah…” Ying Ji grunted. “He is pushy, and likes to throw his name about, though he usually puts the clan first—”

“Except for beauties,” Feng Jinhai remarked drily. “He has an eye for those.”

“…”

Burying a sigh, she nodded in thanks as they relayed a few tales about Kun Baotan that painted a picture of a cultivator who knew he had some power and status and was quite happy to use it to get what he wanted… or liked; be they friends, beauties or problems.

They were just telling her about how he had duelled three cultivators from the Ji clan over a broken wine jar in a teahouse, when the leader of her escort finally spoke up, telling everyone they would arrive soon.

Sure enough, the carriage slowed a few moments later and they pulled into the square before the Celestial Blossoms Teahouse, which had been set up with a duelling stage in the middle and a lot of tables under coverings ringing it, with various Ha clan sponsored market stalls and shops open to sell goods for those interested.

The carriage pulled up in the open area between the teahouse and the stage, drawing the immediate attention of the several thousand cultivators already gathering for the day’s festivities.

The door was opened a moment later by one of the guards who had ridden outside the carriage.

“Oh well, let’s get this over with,” she murmured under her breath, standing up and walking down the steps.

“Oh… Lady Kun…”

“A beauty…”

“Was there someone like that in the Kun clan?”

“Kun!”

Various exclamations and cheers echoed around as she walked across the paved square, followed by the guards and the maids holding the small train of the dress. The other guests in her carriage followed out after her, even as the second and third carriages started to unload their groups.

Ignoring them, she looked around for a moment, then just made her way inside, immediately forcing all the others to hurry after her, sorting themselves into the appropriate order of importance of their own accord.

“Lady Kun!” the guards at the doors of the teahouse saluted her politely as she swept past them and into the main foyer, where she was immediately met by the Supreme Elder, her brother Talshin and a tall youth with chiselled features she recognised as Kun Baotan.

“You are here,” her uncle remarked blandly, “and dressed appropriately.”

“I am certainly attired as was commanded,” she responded coolly, giving her half-uncle a polite bow.

“So you are…” her brother murmured, his tone echoing her own mood.

“You must be Kun Juni,” Kun Baotan said, stepping forward and saluting her… his gaze never leaving her face. “It has been many years since we met. You have certainly blossomed into a beauty.”

“You flatter me,” she replied blandly, accepting his bow. “I am sure you would find my cousin much more attentive… It is a pity she also cannot be here.”

“Inheritance Daughter Xingjuan is fulfilling her role admirably,” Elder Kun Erlang, who was standing behind her half-uncle, said superciliously. “You, on the other hand, have caused some ruction of late.”

“This is not the place, or time, to be airing questions about who was letting bandits run amok,” she retorted with a pointed look, rather annoyed still at the Kun clan’s own part in the sordid little mess that was the local politics of Jade Willow Village and how it had nearly killed one of her few genuine friends.

“Some words…” Kun Erlang huffed, but did fall silent at a wave from the Supreme Elder as the other guests came up behind her.

“…”

“Young Lady Kun!

“Senior Brother Baotan!

“Young Lord Kun, Supreme Elder Kun, Honoured Elders…”

Feng Jinhan and Ying Ji saluted Kun Baotan, who was still looking at her with clear interest, then her brother, followed by the other elders.

She had to roll her eyes under her veil at that order, because while it was indeed correct, it was also largely redundant, given that the male inheritor of the Kun clan in this generation was her younger cousin Xian, not her brother.

“Might I introduce Young Lord Bai Jiang, of the Bai clan,” she added, having decided that Bai Jiang was ‘her guest’ of the three, at least for now.

“Supreme Elder,” Bai Jiang said with a formal bow to her half-uncle, then her brother and the others.

“Young Lord Bai…” Kun Baotan muttered, saluting Bai Jiang as a rather begrudging equal, interestingly enough.

-Was he actually downplaying his status? she wondered, feeling that that kind of modesty made a rather pleasant change. Or is that the point…?

“…”

Burying her haunted second thoughts, she instead surveyed the expressions of the other elders standing nearby; they were all carefully neutral, but she knew enough of the old fogies to recognise that they were somewhat irked that she had managed to snare another high profile guest.

-I wonder what face they would make if Ling Yu had agreed to show up, she mused.

Then again, Sir Baisheng had been right: Ling Yu was far too important a person to attend here. The Ling clan would never give the Ha that much face. Her younger brother could attend, because he was basically a child along to see the sights, and probably sent expressly to bully others in the tournament. Ling Luo was much more fitting a junior to carry that flag, as a talented daughter of a younger brother to the Ling clan leader, who like her had actual responsibility beyond drinking in teahouses and costing the ‘clan’ spirit stones.

“Ahhh, Supreme Elder Xuanhai, a pleasure, a pleasure…”

“…”

Glad she was wearing a veil to hide her scowl, she turned to find Ha Weng Aoji, who was also the source of much personal suffering for her over the years, had appeared out of the scattered groups. A tall, muscular man who appeared to be in his late fifties, with a martial demeanour and a well-trimmed beard, he was accompanied by his wife, Ha Yingli a tall, voluptuous, brown-haired young woman dressed in a glamorous red gown embroidered with foxes and flames. Following after the pair was a muscular if sharp-faced youth with traces of Ha Aoji in his features that she recognised as his youngest child and only son, by his previous wife.

“Senior Official Weng, you look well,” her half-uncle remarked. “A return to marriage evidently suits you…”

“As you say, a man’s wife is his joy,” Weng Aoji replied, stroking his chin and nodding, his eyes roving to her.

“…”

“You look ravishing, Young Lady Kun,” he murmured, actually bowing politely to her. “A sight for any man’s eyes… Your dear mother must be so proud that you have blossomed into a fine young woman who can shoulder such responsibility for your clan.”

His wife, Ha Yingli, who was a distant relative of Patriarch Ha Dongfei, looked her over with a mildly judging expression as her husband spewed flattery.

The worst part was that, objectively, Ha Weng Aoji did not live up to the outward appearance of an old man lusting after beauties one tenth his age. Had he been some lecherous old toad with drooping eyebrows and clawed hands, his attentions would have been far easier for her to dismiss around others. Instead, he was an official widely respected throughout the town, whose late wife, Lian, had died in the Three Schools Conflict, leaving him with two daughters and a young son.

“You know my son, Wengtai, by my late, dearest, Lian,” Ha Weng Aoji added, introducing the youth beside him, who saluted her half-uncle politely in turn, then turned to her and saluted her as well.

“Lady Kun, you look absolutely delightful today,” Ha Wengtai, who was a few years younger than her, remarked, somehow managing to totally block out her brother’s gloomy expression as he looked her over surreptitiously from head to foot as well.

-I suppose I should be grateful he is not drooling, she complained in her heart, accepting the youth’s bow, because it was expected.

To refuse it would be seen as a slight against the Ha Patriarch’s hospitality, opening her up to potential plotting by the elders. That the easiest way to get through days like this was just to go with the flow… was depressing really, especially since her only real protection was the shield of her personal status.

“Thank you for your kind words,” she replied after a suitable pause.

-At least I don’t have to bow back.

It was hard not to feel for Ha Yingli, who was basically the same age as Lin Ling, and who in other circumstances would probably be mistaken for Wengtai’s younger sister rather than his step-mother. That the girl was similar to her in height, build and hair colour… did not help either of them, though it was not the sort of conversation you could easily broach in any circumstance.

“I am lead to understand that Young Lord Jiang is here?” Ha Weng Aoji added to her half-uncle with a faint smile.

“He is,” the Supreme Elder replied blandly. “He is being shown around by my distant nephew, Kun Zhuge Fei.”

-Yep, I want to stay well clear of that, she nodded to herself.

By now, the other Kun scions and accompanying elders had all filtered in and offered salutes in passing to the Supreme Elder and other important elders, so actually, she really didn’t need to stand here like a pretty doll; however, until her uncle and the elders returned her own bow, she couldn’t actually leave, not without appearing rude in the eyes of every other onlooker.

Not for the first time, she had to reflect that the game of ‘respect’ that was played out at these gatherings was thoroughly cursed when it came to people like her.

“I understand you attended a private dinner with the Princess?” Kun Baotan asked, picking up his conversation with her again.

“I did,” she acknowledged. “We were all invited by Young Lady Ling Yu, of the Ling clan, the Provincial Governor’s daughter, to a meal in the Myriad Blossoms Teahouse.”

She said that loudly enough to be heard by basically everyone else nearby, including all the Kun clan dignitaries, mostly as a dig at the idea that those supporting her cousin had something to do with arranging it. It was enough that she had given them that face, rather serendipitously; that they had decided to make more of it than there was… was their problem, not hers.

“Princess Lian was very charming, and Young Lord Huang JiLao was most interested in our province and the links the Kun clan have forged between this area and Nine Moons Province,” she added.

“I see,” Kun Baotan nodded. “I wonder what kind of tales would be fit for a princess and a young lord of the Huang clan… I am sure they would be most interesting…”

“Mostly they wanted to know about pottery,” she deadpanned straight back.

“Pottery?” he replied dully.

“The princess wanted to ask about pottery?” Ha Wengtai, who had also positioned himself on the sidelines of the conversation while the elders talked away, reiterated, looking at her disbelievingly.

“Really?” Even Ha Yingli, who had disentangled herself from her husband’s arm at this point, looked at her askance.

“Yes, in regards to the auction at the Golden Dragon Teahouse. I wonder if you attended, it was a very grand affair… despite the drama,” she clarified, for the group at large.

“Ah. I did,” Kun Baotan replied, glancing sideways at Wengtai, then rather more admiringly at Ha Yingli.

“It was indeed grand,” Bai Jiang agreed, coughing slightly. “Senior Quan was the man of the hour in the end…”

“Indeed, his knowledge regarding blood ling trees was most fortuitous,” she agreed.

She was deeply thankful she had not had to take any overt part in untangling that mess. She and a few others had been roped in by Ling Yu’s aunt, Ling Tao, at the end, but mostly the plaudits had all fallen on the esteemed alchemist, Quan Dingxiang.

What concerned her was the hidden links back to what Arai had stumbled across, something she was determined to talk to her father about at the earliest opportunity, and Elder Lianmei when she returned from Blue Water City, though probably Kun Lianmei had already made those links herself in any case.

“Ah yes, that plot…” Wengtai remarked with renewed interest. “You know, our Ha clan was somewhat instrumental in foiling an element of it, as it turns out.”

“They were?” she asked, wondering what strange and twisted tale the Ha clan and Jade Willow Village had managed to wrangle for the outside world.

“Really?” Bai Jiang frowned. “As I recall, it was certainly Senior Quan who took the lead…”

“Ah… not in that,” Wengtai clarified quickly, which was somewhat amusing in a way. “Rather, several of our peers had the misfortune to be captured by bandits on the edge of the forbidden zone. Just recently they managed to effect a daring escape, alerting our clan’s experts who were able to exterminate the villain’s lair. In the process, they discovered various mutated spirit herbs that had been cultivated by heretical methods, championed by indigenous rebels.”

“Indeed, I heard that the rebels killed a great many people,” Ha Yingli murmured. “And the Bureau treated their poor relatives so disgracefully as well…”

“—The source of the corrupted spirit herbs was this ‘Red Pit’ that Alchemist Quan spoke of?” Kun Baotan asked, before she could pick up on that.

“The very same. Their lair was but a stone’s throw from that dreadful place,” Wengtai agreed.

“…”

“The Patriarch apparently plans to personally salute them for their endeavour today at the feast,” Wengtai added after a moment, while she was still trying to work out what to say in reply. “Their actions helped foil that attempt on the endeavour of the Imperial Princess, so they have brought a lot of goodwill towards the clan as a whole.”

“Truly it is dreadful to think that there could be rebellious elements who would dare to strike at a princess directly,” Kun Baotan declared, shaking his head.

“Indeed,” Ha Yingli agreed with a shiver.

Various others who had been sort of orbiting the edge of the conversation at this point, but not taking part, nodded in agreement at his comment, she noticed.

“It was actually Kun clan scouts who reported the bandits in the first instance,” Kun Caobei, of all people, who was standing off to one side, pointed out.

-How does he…? she wondered for a moment, before recalling that Talshin had mentioned her cousin Xian had been there… and he loved to talk about interesting things.

“Indeed, it was our Kun clan that first uncovered this…” the speaker was another youth, standing with Kun Caobei, who it took her a moment to place as Kun Shi, a local scion…

-Ah, he was also in Jade Willow Village? she mused.

“Ah, Young Master Talshin,” Kun Shi added, saluting her brother, who had also moved over at this point to stand nearby.

“I must admit I am surprised to see you here,” Talshin remarked, accepting Kun Shi’s greeting.

“Well, Elder Erlang felt someone from Jade Willow Village should compete for the Kun clan in the tournament,” Kun Shi grimaced. “I am the only one eligible.”

“Don’t be like that!” Caobei remarked, giving Kun Shi a pat on the back. “Most of these Ha disciples are spiritual cultivators, not martial ones!”

“That is true,” Talshin agreed, casting a sideways look at the now scowling Wengtai, who was one of said ‘spiritual cultivators’. “If you have grasped some intent you will be able to get through a few rounds at least!”

“Thank you for the encouragement!” Kun Shi replied, more positively, saluting her brother.

“We will go find a table,” Kun Caobei added, also saluting them both.

She returned the gesture and watched the group of half a dozen accompanying Kun Caobei and Kun Shi depart for a moment before taking in the entrance hall again, which was rapidly filling up, with a flitting grimace. It was very tempting to just slip away, but far too many eyes were on her, and her fates-accursed half-uncle had still not actually returned her bow.

“…”

It took her far too long, she had to admit, to realise that the solution was staring her in the face.

-I can just stay here and haunt the elders like a ghost?

Taking in those in the hall, she was drawing looks from several groups wearing robes of sects from across the ocean, and while dragging around the trio from Nine Moons Province would be some help, it was not a flawless solution. On the other hand, if she stuck with her half-uncle and something did happen in front of him, or the other elders, there would be no room for any deniability on their part.

-Indeed, she reflected sadly, it is much better to be ogled by seniors than targeted by juniors in this place.

With that thought, she turned back to Kun Baotan, who, along with Bai Jiang, in that moment became the final pieces of the stratagem in her mind’s eye.

“Baotan,” she said brightly, dropping his clan honorifics in favour of familiarity.

“Uh… yes?” Kun Baotan blinked, slightly surprised at her slight change in demeanour.

-Oh well, nothing is perfect, she mused, stepping forward and standing close enough to him that he could not obviously stare at her cleavage while she talked to him, given their similar heights.

“Jiang and his good friend here were telling me about Haijing City. I hear it is delightful this time of year. I wondered if you had been? I have only been to Pill Sovereign City, as you recalled before.”

“Oh… um… I have been to Haijing City,” Kun Baotan replied uncertainly. “What do you want to know?”

“If I knew that, would I be asking?” she replied with a half-smile, before casting Bai Jiang, who was looking slightly nonplussed as well, a sideways look.

-Didn’t you say he liked to be around beauties? she complained to herself. Or is it just that he is no good when he isn’t taking the lead?

“…”

“Well, there are certainly some interesting sights…” Kun Baotan said after a moment’s awkward pause as he collected himself. “On Feijing Boulevard, there is a stage—”

“Oh, you mean the Feijing Alchemy Stage?” Bai Jiang remarked.

“Yes, that is the one,” Kun Baotan nodded. “Well, there is a competition for cooking spirit food there every year, but this last competition…”

As she listened, the story, rather as she had expected really, turned out not to be so much about Haijing City, but Kun Baotan’s exploits in Haijing City. The story itself was, it had to be said, interesting enough though, once he got into the flow of it. At its essence, it was about an escalating situation of stupid duels over a pill recipe posted on the aforementioned ‘stage’ which had eventually been resolved by Kun Baotan, who concluded the ten-minute-long tale by narrating how he eventually won the recipe for a visiting disciple from the Nine Auspicious Moons, who needed it to help her senior sister in some ill-defined way.

After that, Bai Jiang, reading what she was actually doing, picked up with another story that also allowed Kun Baotan to talk about another escapade he had been involved in. While the pair traded versions of that story back and forth, she quietly positioned them adjacent to her half-uncle, Ha Weng and a few others who were talking away and occasionally greeting seniors who arrived.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was still better than being cast adrift, and it allowed her to control the circumstances while not obviously being seen to ‘disrespect’ her clan elders, who had still not actually completed their greeting ritual.

Ha Wengtai and Ha Yingli also rejoined them mid-way through that tale, with it transpiring that Ha Weng’s young wife had spent several wet seasons on the coast of Nine Moons Province, including time in Pill Sovereign and Haijing Cities.

Kun Baotan had just started into a third story, one involving some cultivators Ha Yingli actually knew, when several ceremonial guards in Ha clan attire entered and took up stations by the door.

“It seems this is about to get started,” Talshin remarked to her, as echoes of ‘Seeing Patriarch Ha’ travelled in from outside.

As they looked on, the groups thronging the entrance hall of the teahouse were moved back by the guards, who cleared a space for several dozen experts in Ha clan robes to come forward and stand in ranks beside the door, sorted mostly by general importance and status.

At the front she spotted the familiar faces among the local leadership of the Ha clan: Ha Feirong, the Town Governor and leader of the local Ha clan, was there, standing with his wife, Ha Chang Mei, and their youngest son, Ha Yun, who was currently training as a five-star ranked Hunter in the local Pavilion. Beside them, arms behind his back, stood Ha Feiyuan, the Supreme Elder of the local Ha clan, flanked by Ha Mofan, Ha Erlang Tang and Ha Cao Leyung, who were all influential elders or local officials in the town, and Ha Chang Shaofan, who was both the younger brother of Ha Chang Mei and the regional envoy for the Blue Gate School.

At the end, in the least senior positions, were Ha Weng Aoji, as the envoy to the Hunter Bureau and a senior town official, and the Ha clan’s two ‘Associate Officials’ within the Hunter Bureau: Ha Baotan and Ha Gongfan.

The only other juniors besides Ha Yun in the front row were Ha Changming, who had very recently formed a high grade Golden Core, and Ha Cao Qingluo, the equally talented daughter of Elder Cao Leyung, who had successfully become a Dao Seeking cultivator at the age of twenty-five the previous day.

The rows behind were more elders, along with a smattering of juniors talented or well-connected enough in the clan to be put front and centre. Ha Erlang Leng, another five-star ranked Hunter and son of Elder Erlang Tang, was there, as were a bunch of other friends of Ha Yun’s. She also recognised Ha Gen Weng and Ha Erlang Zhan as the estate owners from Jade Willow Village among the others.

“PATRIARCH HA DONGFEI!” the guards yelled as one, turning to salute the open door as the last of the Ha group were shuffling into good order.

“SEEING PATRIARCH HA!” every member of the Ha clan in the hall yelled, saluting as one.

“SEEING PATRIARCH HA!” she, along with everyone else, echoed, bowing to the door with varying degrees of formality.

As the daughter of the Kun Clan Lord, technically only a few steps below the Patriarch in personal status, she did not have to bow particularly deeply, so got a fairly clear view of the group as they swept up the steps and into the teahouse.

The Ha Clan Patriarch, Ha Dongfei, was a scholarly man, visually in middle years, dressed in a purple and red robe embroidered with celestial constellations that formed serpentine dragons of shadowy purple and dark gold and carrying himself with a stern, authoritative demeanour. With him came a faint sense of pressure, a subtle suggestion that it was appropriate to bow that touched her even with the protections afforded by her mother’s talisman.

“GREETINGS TO PATRIARCH HA, ON BEHALF OF WEST FLOWER PICKING TOWN!” most of those outside the Ha, Kun, Deng and other more influential clans added, the cheer being taken up around the upper story as the Patriarch entered the hall alone, leaving the rest of those with him outside the door.

Ha Dongfei stood there in silence for a few moments, then politely raised a hand, waving everyone to silence.

Straightening up with the others, she watched as the Patriarch crossed over to Ha Feirong and the others who all bowed deeply a second time.

“It is our honour to welcome esteemed Patriarch Ha Dongfei back to Yin Eclipse on this most auspicious day, which is also his birthday!” Ha Feiyuan’s voice, while not particularly loud, easily carried throughout the whole teahouse and beyond.

“This old man is honoured to be back in this town,” Ha Dongfei replied, looking the ranks of Ha clan members over with a steely eye. “It has only grown in stature through the years thanks to the custodianship of our Ha clan.”

“Patriarch’s Praise is Forthright and Generous!” the elders and officials behind Ha Feirong all echoed.

“Please allow us to escort you,” Ha Feiyuan said, gesturing for the Patriarch to walk beside him.

“First, please allow me to welcome those who have come with me,” Patriarch Dongfei replied.

“Of course,” Ha Feiyuan agreed, bowing again, along with Ha Feirong.

As she looked on, the group by the door now entered, led by several other elders, in rich purple robes marked with ornate ‘Ha’ symbols, who she didn’t recognise.

“They are elders from the Ha clan on the central continent,” her brother murmured very quietly beside her.

She nodded slightly in thanks, her gaze shifting to those who came after, who she supposed were scions from the Ha clan accompanying those elders. Somewhat more surprising was a group in deep green robes edged with copper and black leaves, all with ‘Jade’ embroidered on their robes.

They were led by a tall, muscular youth with loosely plaited golden hair and a well-trimmed beard, his green robe patterned with autumnal reds. He was accompanied by a thin, black-haired man with a sharp, martial bearing wearing a jade green robe patterned with bright red and gold leaves, and a youthful-looking, bearded scholar wearing an azure gown with a rainbow trim. Several younger cultivators in less ornate green robes followed after them, escorted by four robed figures wearing white masks with ‘Golden’ on them.

“The Jade Gate Court?” she murmured, noting that she was not the only one casting raised eyebrows at them.

“So it seems,” her brother agreed. “The two youths at the side are the ones who were with Ha Caolun there, near Jade Willow Village.”

She followed Talshin’s subtle gesture and spotted the two her brother picked out, who were scanning the crowd with some disdain. Almost at the same time she noticed them, several of those disciples also noticed her, casting her rather interested looks. Her mother’s talisman chilled against her head for a moment and she saw one of them, a thick-set youth with shorter hair, frown at her.

“…”

Talshin looked sideways at her and she signed, “They just swept us with soul sense.”

“I know,” her brother’s voice echoed back in her head.

“Overbearing,” Kun Baotan muttered from behind her.

“Might I introduce the ambassador for the Din clan, Din Huan,” Patriarch Dongfei said to Ha Feirong and the others, indicating the blonde haired man.

“Our humble town is honoured to receive you, Sir Huan,” Ha Feirong replied, saluting the blonde-haired man.

“And with him are Elder Feng Shinhai, of the Jade Gate Court, and Elder Chang Jimao of the Imperial School,” Patriarch Dongfei added, gesturing to the thin-faced martial expert and the scholar respectively.

“Again, it is our honour to receive you, esteemed elders,” Ha Feirong replied, saluting both.

“A pleasure, Clan Lord Ha,” Chang Jimao replied.

“Well, this just got interesting,” one of the elders behind her half-uncle murmured.

“…”

Her half-uncle Xuanhai cast a sideways look at that elder before nodding in resigned agreement.

“Please,” Patriarch Dongfei said, drawing her attention back to the Ha group as he gestured for Ha Feirong and Ha Feiyuan.

The first group Ha Feirong led the Patriarch over to was, entirely predictably, the Ling clan, who were just along from the Ha clan. As the governing power of the province’s only city, they were easily the most important local group there. The Patriarch exchanged some pleasantries with Ling Luo, who dressed in a fabulous azure gown embroidered with dark blue dragons and silver clouds, looked remarkably like her aunt, Ling Tao, and then with Ling Fei Weng who looked much more like a civil official than he usually did, for a few minutes.

After that though, Ha Feirong led the Patriarch over to their side of the hall, directly to their Kun clan group, in fact.

“Might I introduce the Supreme Elder of the Blue Water Kun clan?” Ha Feirong said politely.

“An honour, Patriarch Dongfei,” her half-uncle said, saluting politely.

“It has been some time since we met,” Patriarch Dongfei replied, accepting the salute and looking at the rest of them… and then fixating directly on her, his gaze taking in the dress, the crown and her mother’s talisman in an instant.

“—and Lady Liang… What a pleasant surprise…”

“…”

She stared dully at the Patriarch, who came over to her in two steps and actually saluted her politely.

“You look as radiant as ever, and you have even worn the gift I sent you, for your engagement to Kun Mingzhu. I was most sorry to hear about his passing…”

“…”

She continued to stare dully at the Patriarch, attempting to filter out the slightly strangled sounds from the elders behind her, realising immediately where the misconception had formed.

-This gown was his gift to my grandmother? For her engagement to my grandfather? Or does he mean the crown? she wondered, her thoughts racing rapidly—

Before he could complete the bow, making matters even more embarrassingly awkward, she politely stopped him.

“Apologies, Esteemed Patriarch, I am not Kun Liang. She is my grandmother,” she murmured politely.

“Oh… Ahaha…” the Patriarch stopped his bow and burst out laughing, much to her relief.

“This old man must say, you carry that dress very well. You are the very picture of her when she was younger! I was quite fooled for a moment,” he declared, giving her a polite wink before turning to her half-uncle. “I must assume that this is your daughter, Xingjuan, then?”

“…”

-The fates have eyes, she declared in mild shock and awe in her head, because the iron bricks were just lining up to be dropped on her half-uncle’s ego at this point.

Her half-uncle stared at the Patriarch and she could almost see the wheels spinning in his mind for a moment before he spoke.

“Young Lady Kun is indeed a talent of our clan. Just as her grandmother is.”

“…”

It was a very formal way of basically saying yes while not answering the question, which a part of her found utterly hilarious… and also utterly infuriating.

-Don’t tell me he wants me to pretend to be Xingjuan? That is just ridiculous, she complained.

“Alas, the Young Lady Kun Juni is the daughter of my half-brother, Kun Jiao, the Clan Lord, who was commanded to take part in the great ritual in Blue Water City. She is here on behalf of her father.”

“Ah, of course,” the Patriarch nodded, as she mentally exhaled in relief.

One misplaced greeting to her would have thrown that whole deception wide open in any case and just made the situation embarrassing.

“You are the very image of beauty, my dear,” the Patriarch added to her. “For Lady Liang to give you that dress, are you her disciple?”

“I… was taught by her,” she conceded, aware that far too many eyes were focused on her now.

It was not a lie, not really; she had been sent to attend her grandmother a few times while she was in her cultivation seclusion, but mostly that had involved her doing very little. Her grandmother had taught her the flute, divination and some basic martial archery techniques and such during those months, but that was about it.

“Lady Liang is a formidable martial expert,” Patriarch Dongfei mused, his eyes growing a bit distant. “Also, an enchanting musician. Perhaps you might play us some of her compositions later, at the banquet?”

“…”

“I would be honoured, Patriarch,” she murmured, because refusal at this point was not really an option, having been singled out in this manner. “I am but a slight student, compared with my grandmother, but I shall endeavour to do her justice.”

“Wonderful,” Patriarch Dongfei said with a happy smile, before turning back to her half-uncle. “Really, your Kun clan is blessed with beauties; she is the image of Kun Liang from all those years ago. It was always a wonderful privilege to listen to her play.”

Her half-uncle and the others all saluted the Patriarch politely as he took in the others there, still looking wistful.

“And Young Lord Bai… we meet again,” the Patriarch added jovially, greeting Bai Jiang who was standing politely behind her.

“I am honoured Esteemed Patriarch remembers me,” Bai Jiang murmured.

“You took the grand prize at my alchemy competition a few years back, just like that lad Quan Dingxiang did…” Patriarch Dongfei remarked. “I expect great things from you in the future!”

“You honour me,” Bai Jiang replied, bowing more deeply.

“Good seedlings everywhere,” the Patriarch nodded, casting his eye over Kun Baotan as well, who also saluted deeply.

She looked on, a little dazed as the Patriarch exchanged a few more greetings with others nearby, then moved on to be introduced to the various dignitaries from the Deng clan, who were looking more than a bit put out to have been approached second, after her Kun clan.

“I hope you can actually play the fate-thrashed flute,” her half-uncle muttered after the group had passed out of immediate earshot.

“Oh, don’t worry. I am enough that grandmother was happy to listen to it,” she retorted softly.

“…”

Talshin, standing next to her, had the look of someone who wanted to say a lot more, and probably would, rather justifiably, so she just poked him unobtrusively and half shook her head.

“I know… but can’t a brother be angry on his sister’s behalf?” his voice echoed in her head via their communication talisman.

She didn’t need to reply to that, so she just gave his arm a squeeze.

In any case, almost everyone else nearby, junior and senior, was looking at her rather oddly. It was one thing to be mistaken for your grandmother, though she found that more flattering than insulting in the first instance, but to then be mistaken for Xingjuan, and by someone so eminent, was…

-There will certainly be fallout from this later, she reflected, watching Ha Feirong and Ha Feiyuan continue to introduce Patriarch Dongfei to various other eminent persons from West Flower Picking Town.

Half of Xingjuan’s clique within the Kun clan juniors were staring daggers into her back. Ha Cao Qingluo on the far side was glaring at her, perhaps feeling that she had somehow stolen some element of her own opportunity to impress the Patriarch. That both were a lot younger than her and higher realm did not help.

Even Deng Xiaomei, the daughter of the Deng clan’s local leader, who was another ‘talented junior’ much like Ha Yun and her own cousin Xingjuan, was looking at her with an expression flickering between amusement, mild pity and outrage.

-It is not like I can even vanish off somewhere and practice, she grumbled, then bit back a grimace, noting that her uncle was about to leave with the other elders.

“Uncle Xuanhai…” she said, stepping forward.

“What?” he frowned, stopping and looking back at her, “I have—”

She coughed lightly and gave him her best ‘I am not an idiot’ look through the veil.

“…”

He stared at her for a moment, then finally returned her bow of greeting, as did the two elders behind him, before walking off in the direction of the inner courtyard of the teahouse.

“It seems you have become even more popular,” Talshin murmured, drawing her attention to the group who had come in with the Ha Patriarch, where two other young women in Ha clan robes were also glaring absolute daggers at her.

“Wonderful,” she remarked sourly.

-And here I am standing around with Kun Baotan… Bai Jiang is clearly more important than he let on…

She was about to muster their small group to follow her half-uncle, on the grounds that loitering near the clan elders was doubly convenient now, when her brother nudged her.

Turning, she found that two youths from the Jade Gate Court group, the ones her brother had pointed out earlier, were making their way over to her with a certain degree of purpose.

“…”

-Well they wasted no time, she observed with a depressed sigh. Truly it is the fate of pretty flowers to be admired and potted up by others, for the benefit of all but the flowers themselves…

“Fairy Kun…” the lead youth said brightly, offering her a small salute of greeting. “I, Din Kongfei, find myself compelled to make your acquaintance.”

“Really… I am flattered, Disciple Din,” she replied with as neutral a tone as possible.

“Indeed, we had no idea this town had such beautiful flowers,” his companion murmured, giving her a very warm smile. “I am Din Jian Fuhao.”

“…”

Kun Baotan and Bai Jiang both frowned at the pair, who appeared to have mastered the talent of ignoring dark looks cast by others.

“Yin Eclipse is indeed a land with beauty,” she conceded, “and also, a lot of thorns, or so the scholars perpetually tell us.”

“Haha…” Din Jian Fuhao laughed. “Indeed, we have seen some of those thorns already. That tetrid queen that you slew was certainly impressive, was it not, Brother Kongfei—?”

“Hmmm, yes,” Talshin nodded. “As I recall, it was half dead from qi exhaustion and a long-running battle with bandits before you finished it off…”

“…”

The Din pair turned and looked at him, then frowned.

“You are…?” Jian Fuhao asked, sounding a bit put out.

“Kun Talshin,” her brother replied with a smile that never reached his eyes. “Young Lady Kun’s older brother.”

“Ah… I had no idea you were nobility last we met,” Din Kongfei replied with aplomb. “I was discourteous then, please forgive me.”

“…”

“I had heard that some disciples from the Din clan aided the Ha in exploring a bandit nest,” she murmured.

“We would certainly be happy to provide a first-hand account,” Din Jian Fuhao replied, stepping around slightly to stand between her and Kun Baotan and Bai Jiang, as if to exclude them subtly from the group.

“Perhaps later,” she replied politely, having no interest really in talking to either, if only because it just kept adding to the attention she was under.

-This fates-accursed dress! she complained, glancing around and finding that her half-uncle was now talking to an elder from the Ha clan over by the entrance to the inner courtyard.

“If you will excuse me, I must accompany them,” she murmured, offering a salute of apology to the pair, gesturing towards the Supreme Elder.

“…”

“Ah, of course, you must see to clan duties,” Din Kongfei nodded sympathetically. “We will cross paths again, I am sure. Certainly we will listen to your performance.”

“Indeed,” Din Jian Fuhao agreed, offering her a polite salute. “I am sure it will be delightful—”

“—LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” the voice of Ha Feiyuan, the Ha clan Supreme Elder, echoed through the hall, attracting there attention.

“THE BANQUET WILL BEGIN SHORTLY…. BUT BEFORE THAT, WE HAVE A SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE!”

The hall largely fell silent as the words echoed through it and probably out into the square outside as well.

“As I am sure you all know by now, there was a terrible incident in Blue Water City. The Imperial Princess Lian was the target of unscrupulous rebels, those self-same forces who have long plagued our province since those dark days over a century ago,” Ha Feiyuan started.

“They used heretical means, denounced by all righteous sects, to subvert what should have been a grand display of the riches of our province, and in doing so endangered many lives and, while nobody died, caused countless thousands of spirit stones’ worth of damage!

“In light of this, I am pleased to announce that it was through the brave endeavour of some of our Ha clan’s own disciples that an element of this dreadful plot was serendipitously foiled!”

At Ha Feiyuan’s words the room erupted into polite applause and quite a bit of murmured conversation before he waved for quiet again.

“Those disciples had the grave misfortune to be targeted by these rebels, and were captured, but, showing great resourcefulness, were able to escape, causing enough distraction as they did so that our clan elites, with the help of several visiting experts from the Din clan, who are here with us today, were able to eliminate these villains…”

Again, there was applause… She glanced over at Din Kongfei and Din Jian Fuhao, who were both looking very pleased.

“—Patriarch Dongfei, Young Lord Qiao?” Ha Feiyuan added, drawing attention back to the Patriarch, who was standing with Qiao Cheng, the nephew of Imperial Envoy Qiao Honghui of all people.

“Thank you,” Qiao Cheng said, raising his voice. “On behalf of the Princess Lian, the Imperial Envoy’s Palace asks that Din Kongfei, Din Jian Fuhao, Ha Caolun, Ha Mu Fangxian, Ha Mu Jingfei and Ha Luo Teng… Ha Erlang Leng… Ha Yuanfei, Ha Tang Lee, Ha Quan, Ha Li Wei, Ha Jiao, and Ha Mun come forward!”

Taking advantage of the parting of the crowd, she followed after the Din pair, who were now drawing as many looks as she had earlier, arriving at the open area before the entrance to the inner court of the teahouse, where the various dignitaries were standing. Taking Kun Baotan, Bai Jiang and her brother with her, she quickly pushed through to where the Kun elders were standing at the side, so she could get a decent look.

Din Kongfei, Din Jian Fuhao and Ha Caolun, Ha Erlang Leng and three others, presumably associates of Ha Caolun, were all standing before Qiao Cheng, who, dressed in a dragon robe of deep azure and gold and crown of rank, looked every bit the part of a ducal scion and was reading from a golden scroll marked with an imperial seal.

Beside them were four other youths in Ha clan robes, all carrying some kind of injury to their cultivation near as she could tell, and a slightly older man in a scholar’s robe in the colours of the Blue Gate School who looked rather drained.

From the descriptions in Arai’s very badly filed search request she quickly picked out Yuanfei and Tang Lee, if only because she had had such a long back and forth with Official Xianji and Ha Weng Aoji over that matter. The older man from the Blue Gate School was likely Ha Li Wei from what she now knew, which meant that the others were those who had gone missing with him and the youth Arai had sworn was dead.

-No Ha Fenfang or Ha Shimo though.

She glanced at her brother, who had an expression she could only call ‘very neutral’.

She almost sent a transmission to him through the talisman; however, before she could do so, he brushed some dust off his robe, using the opportunity to sign: “Don’t.”

“…”

“On behalf of Princess Lian, I officially acknowledge the service you have all rendered our Imperial Seat!” Qiao Cheng declared grandly. “This meritorious service will not be forgotten. Also, on behalf of the Imperial Princess, every family who lost a loved one to these bandits will be provided a talisman acknowledging their service to the Imperial Seat and a compensation of ten Spirit Jade each.”

As she looked on, Qiao Cheng passed a talisman in the shape of the Blue Morality Imperial Seal, carved out of azure jade, to each of the eight, who accepted them with a deep bow.

“Additionally!” Patriarch Dongfei, who was standing with his hands behind his back added, casting his gaze across the group, “I will grant each of you an art of your choosing from my personal collection that is appropriate to your realm and instruction in its use—”

“PATRIARCH IS GENEROUS!” all twelve exclaimed, saluting him.

Patriarch Dongfei nodded, accepting their salute, then cast his gaze out over the hall before continuing: “—and the Ha clan will also pay compensation to all those who lost their lives to these bandits.”

That was met with various cheers and quite a bit of applause from around the hall.

-Well… monkeyshit, was all she could say to that, really.

“—and no mention of the role our Kun clan played,” one of the elders nearby muttered.

“Indeed,” Elder Kun Erlang muttered, casting her a sour look.

“…”

“I take it you know more of this?” Xuanhai asked her with a faint frown.

She just nodded, but said nothing outwardly, agreeing with Talshin now that in the context of what she had just witnessed, saying too much was eminently dangerous, not so much for her, but certainly for Arai and maybe Han Shu as well.

-Is ‘this’ why they had Han Shu run around doing what he did? she mused. Because it undermines the bureau, gives the impression of impropriety and also causes a problem for the Han clan? And now the Ha clan gets to make political hay out of it at everyone else’s expense?

Standing there, turning that over in her mind, it was somewhat compelling. It was also petty and quite shameless, but that was usually what got you ahead in these kind of games, she had long since realised.

-Not that that explains why it felt like Hunters from the bureau have been targeted unduly. Lin Ling, Han Shu, Arai… all of them have run afoul of some bit of regional politics or another in the last week or two? Not to mention this whole scheme with the herbs and that auction stinks like ten day old fish.

“You are not enthused for their success?” Kun Baotan remarked drily from beside her.

“It is not the Kun clan’s success,” she pointed out.

“Indeed, this is undeniably a coup for the Ha clan,” Bai Jiang agreed.

-Though more concerning is that both Ha and Deng appear to be aligning themselves with influential backers in the Imperial Court, she mused, thinking back on how persistent the Deng had been in courting the patronage of the Imperial Princess from what she had observed.

“NOW, ESTEEMED LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” Ha Feiyuan exclaimed, attracting everyone’s attention back to the front of the hall. “On behalf of Patriarch Dongfei, please come through and take your seats, the banquet will soon begin!”

“Shall we go find a table?” her brother suggested.

“Yes… let’s,” she agreed.

-Ideally before I get ‘invited’ to sit with someone like Ha Weng Aoji, or those two from the Din clan.

Her brother gave her a long look then nodded, setting off for the inner courtyard, waving for Kun Baotan, Bai Jiang and the other guests she’d brought to follow along with them.

----------------------------------------

~ JUN SANA – WEST FLOWER PICKING TOWN, JUN ESTATE ~

----------------------------------------

“—Neither Elder Lianmei nor Old Elder Ling are there,” Lin Ling declared, sounding rather jaded as she plopped down on the bench where she was waiting, watching the river and its boats flow by, nibbling on some fried spirit-fruit she had purchased from a stall.

“Where are they?” she grumbled, uncrossing her legs and slipping off the bench to stretch a bit as Lin Ling made herself comfortable and helped herself to some of the spirit fruit.

“You ask me, Sana, but who do I ask…” Lin Ling replied with a rather theatrical sigh, staring out at the boats which were full of people celebrating the New Year.

“…”

Her judging expression must have been a bit too on point, because Lin Ling raised an eyebrow.

“You go ask then…” Lin Ling lightly replied, as they both watched the leaves scatter in the light breeze.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” she apologised. “It is just…”

“Frustrating?” Lin Ling supplied.

“Very,” she agreed.

“It would be much easier if we used the talismans,” Lin Ling pointed out.

“It would, but Arai was fairly clear about her worries there,” she muttered.

“I subboze,” Lin Ling agreed, around a mouthful of spirit fruit. “It really does feel like there is something brewing…” she added, after swallowing the fruit. “What happened to me, what happened to Han Shu, what happened to your sister… You know, I heard while I was waiting around in there that Duan Mu and Mu Feijin and Mu Shi all had difficulties as well.”

“Mu and Feijin?” she frowned, mulling that over.

They were also eight-star ranked Herb Hunters, all a few years older than her – of an age with Han Shu really.

“What difficulties did they have?” she asked.

“Oh, the usual by the sounds of it,” Lin Ling frowned. “Duan Mu had some trouble with Shimei Village—”

“—A soulless rock would have difficulties with Shimei Village,” she pointed out. “Anyway, I thought he was out injured? I had to take his place on that request to gather snapdragons just before I was called off to help Little Blue.”

“Indeed, that is why I said ‘the usual’,” Lin Ling pouted. “It was a courier request or something. The Deng clan in Shimei Village decided to make it into a big deal. Now will you let me explain?”

“Sorry,” she murmured, sitting down again and helping herself to another piece of the deep-fried fruit.

“Anyway,” Lin Ling said, picking up the thread again, “Mu Feijin got a request much like Han Shu’s, shadow-balsam, but in Kanpan Village, not Green Veil. Mu Shi was meant to do a teaching request like mine in Blue Water City, and, while she did complete it, the quality of her lessons were protested by several attendees.”

“Odd, she is fairly knowledgeable about that kind of stuff,” she mused. “She taught both of us…”

“Exactly…” Lin Ling nodded. “Taken individually, it’s a bad day… but put together…”

“That’s quite a few of the high-ranking Hunters in our Pavilion having problems that could have seen them demoted, put on some kind of shit list… or killed,” she murmured, staring out at the river.

“…”

“Yeah,” Lin Ling agreed, slumping back.

“What about Fan Huangfu?” she added.

“I heard someone say he got a cushy mission to arrange a garden for his cousin in the Orchid Pavilion…” Lin Ling muttered, then apparently remembered she had had a mission like that and coughed awkwardly.

*Ahem*

She glanced up and found that Mu Shi of all people was standing behind them, holding some food from a stall.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude,” the slightly older, dark-haired woman said with a smile. “But I saw you earlier Lin and didn’t get a chance to say hi…”

“Oh, sorry,” Lin Ling replied. “I was somewhat distracted and looking for Old Elder Ling.”

“He went to Blue Water City with Elder Lianmei, something about a ritual for the prosperity of the province?” Mu Shi replied, sitting down on the other end of the bench with a soft sigh. “Kalis is still there as well.”

“Oh, that,” she mused, proffering the fried fruit to her. “My sister did say they were transmitting it live yesterday at the Queen Mother’s Shrine.”

“Yes, apparently the rain stopped basically at dawn… and it’s being heralded as an omen that the Queen Mother has blessed this year,” Mu Shi nodded, taking a battered slice and squeezing it over the top of her own rolls of rice and fish.

“Right… was that claimed by someone unfamiliar with the weather patterns of our illustrious province?” Lin Ling snickered.

“I believe it was the Imperial Envoy who said so, so maybe,” Mu Shi agreed, rolling her eyes. “So, I heard you also got to meet the Myriad Herb Association?”

“Bleugh,” Lin Ling made a face. “I did. A youth from the Huang clan got invited to ‘offer a counterpoint’ to my classes.”

Mu Shi shuddered in sympathy.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“Mostly the same kind of thing,” Mu Shi replied, grimacing. “I was meant to talk about feng shui and the way the valleys work… and provide some practical guidance in the Blue Gate School’s herb ravines, but it turned into a bunch of Myriad Herb Association disciples being invited to provide an ‘alternative perspective’. I was allowed to complete it, but a bunch of those who were injured because they were incompetent complained, so probably there will be some back and forth about it…”

“Because they held you responsible as the ‘main’ teacher?” she guessed.

“Indeed,” Mu Shi, grimaced nibbling on a rice and fish roll. “It is what it is, though. Thankfully Kalis was also there, and so things didn’t get too out of hand.”

“So… that leaves Ren Kalis and Ha Cao Jian… and I guess Ha Feijiang?” Lin Ling murmured, ticking them off on her hands.

“—And Ha Mu Feng is a total flake who gets as many cushy missions as Ha Yun and Ha Erlang Leng combined,” she added, recalling the other Ha clan ‘elite Hunter’ who had managed to advance past five stars… by doing so in a different province entirely.

“So… what are we talking about?” Mu Shi asked, curious.

“How badly everyone’s clearance requests have been going and how it is a blessing from the Queen Mother that we are not all demoted back to five-star menials,” Lin Ling said. “It sounds like almost everyone other than the Ha and Deng affiliated Hunters had some issues though.”

“Well, Kalis’s alchemy thing went off okay,” Mu Shi frowned. “Ha Feijiang… I think he went with Han Shu to Green Veil. No idea how that went; he isn’t back though… Ha Cao Jian was injured though.”

“He was?” she asked.

“Oh… yeah,” Mu Shi smirked, reminding her that the other woman did not get on with either Ha Cao Jian or Ha Feijiang. “That was so funny. He was sent to get some thunder walnuts from up near East Fury’s Fujin Peak for his sister’s Dao Seeking tribulation… and one of the hangers-on from the Ha clan, here for the Patriarch’s thing, who went with him to see the sights, messed up to the extent that they were all struck by spiritual lightning—”

“I have to assume nobody died, or it would have been all over town,” she interjected.

“No, but there were a few qi deviations and they got attacked by monkeys on the way back as well,” Mu Shi giggled.

“They were saying in the Pavilion that she passed that, incidentally,” Lin Ling grumbled, before adding with a scowl, “with purple earthly lightning.”

“You mean you are not overjoyed for your peer’s success on their path to surmount the Heavenly Dao?” Mu Shi remarked drily.

“…”

Lin Ling just rolled her eyes.

“It’s not as compelling a picture as it first appeared,” she murmured a bit sadly, watching a pair of youths, who had been arguing on the back of a river boat, start a duel while others looked on, cheering.

-It would be too easy to think it was just someone targeting those on the Kun side of the Pavilion…

“Yeah, it’s just one of those years,” Mu Shi nodded. “There was one like this a year or two before you joined. There get to be enough silly requests that are stacked up that everyone gets shit ones and all sorts of people with agendas get involved. Last year’s, by comparison…”

“Yeah… they were not this bad,” she agreed, leaning back with a weary sigh and staring up at the clouds scudding by overhead.

“Oh yeah… I heard a really weird rumour in Blue Water City,” Mu Shi said after they sat in silence for a moment. “Were you actually at a dinner with the Imperial Princess?”

“…”

“Where did you hear that?” she asked.

“A friend of Kalis’s thought they saw you in the Myriad Blossom Teahouse,” Mu Shi explained.

“There was a meal that Ling Yu hosted, which Princess Lian also attended,” she replied. “I was there on a request for the Ling clan, so I got an invite, and Lin Ling here was with Kun Juni at the time, sorting out her own mission woes…”

“So I also went,” Lin Ling nodded.

“Huh…” Mu Shi shook her head. “That must have been something.”

“It was… less weird than you would think,” she mused.

In the end, they spent about thirty minutes eating lunch with Mu Shi, talking mostly about the spectacle of ‘high society’ existence in Blue Water City. Mu Shi had apparently had to come back to West Flower Picking Town almost immediately after her request, so had missed the auction and its drama, much to her annoyance, so they also got to talking about that, until Arai showed up, looking a bit jaded, and sat down on the edge of the flowerbed beside their bench.

“Hey Mu Shi,” her sister murmured by way of greeting. “How’re things?”

“I seem to have shared an experience with Lin here,” Mu Shi replied, rolling her eyes. “I understand you have managed to annoy both the Ha clan and the Kun clan?”

“I… have?” Arai asked, frowning.

“Oh, there was an elder in the Pavilion earlier talking about you. Apparently you got them involved in some spat between the Deng and the Ha clan?”

Her sister grabbed a rock out of the flowerbed and hurled it hard enough that it bounced twice on the river surface before clattering off a pleasure barge’s hull and sinking.

“I take it that is very much a political take, then?” Mu Shi grimaced.

“Very much so,” Arai grumbled, sitting down again. “I had a stupid teaching request that was mired up in village politics…”

She noted that her sister did not say that it was in Jade Willow Village.

“Did you get what you needed?” she asked, to change the topic.

“Yeah, some of it. I have to go back to Grandmaster Li’s later. Apparently he is a guest of honour at the Patriarch’s banquet,” Arai said. “I take it you had no luck?”

“We did not,” Lin Ling replied with a grimace. “Old Ling and Elder Lianmei are both in Blue Water City.”

“Oh well,” Arai murmured, sighing deeply.

“—I think I will head back,” Mu Shi interjected, standing up and giving them a farewell salute. “Thanks for the lunch and the conversation!”

“No problem,” she replied, also standing and returning the bow.

“See you later,” Lin Ling added, giving Mu Shi a wave.

“See you,” her sister echoed.

She watched Mu Shi head back towards the Pavilion for a moment and then looked back at the river with a sigh.

“Where is Han Shu?” she asked, because he had been with her sister in the morning.

“Celestial Blossom Teahouse, at the Patriarch’s banquet,” Arai replied. “We split on the way back here. He did say that we could come later if we liked.”

“I suppose we could always go to that,” she suggested. “It’s a free lunch if nothing else?”

“Doesn’t that require an invite?” Lin Ling noted.

“Han Shu said that wouldn’t be a problem,” her sister shrugged. “And Ling Yu gave you both spirit gowns, didn’t she?”

“…”

“She did,” she nodded, recalling the ‘gift’ Ling Yu had given each of them.

“How come he ended up going anyway?” Lin Ling asked as they started back along the river boulevard towards the Western District.

“He didn’t say,” her sister said. “Though he did look a bit put out.”

“I am sure we will find out anyway,” she mused.

“So, what was Mu Shi talking about?” Arai asked after they had walked on for a bit beneath the shade of the kobbin trees lining the raised embankment above the Blue River.

“Oh, she had the same kind of trouble I did in Blue Water City,” Lin Ling answered, before she could. “More to the point…”

They spent the rest of the trip back to their house talking about the various bits of gossip that Lin Ling had picked up while she was looking for Old Ling and Elder Lianmei in the Pavilion. It didn’t take long to change into the spirit gowns that Ling Yu had given all three of them, though it did take longer to ‘adjust’ them.

“I have to say,” Arai mused, spinning on the spot in the flowing dark-blue and silver gown, “you cannot fault Ling Yu on her taste.”

“And they aren’t ones from her cupboards either,” she remarked drily, not that Ling Yu would have given those as a New Year’s gift, so that was a bit unfair really.

“With this you actually look like a proper ‘young lady’,” her sister added, doing a second spin and then smoothing the skirts out.

“You can change the colours as well,” Lin Ling added, running her hand down the sleeve of her own gown and shifting the silver waves to gold ones.

“They even have ward talismans built in,” Arai added, skimming the handwritten document that Ling Yu had enclosed with each one. “These must have cost…”

“Probably best not to ask that question,” she murmured.

“If I don’t, I might change into one of Ling Yu’s kind,” Arai giggled.

“…”

-That’s the first time she has properly laughed since I got back, she thought, hiding that somewhat complex thought with her own mantra.

“Indeed,” Lin Ling nodded, looking at the note with hers. “They stop others gauging your cultivation in passing and inure you to soul sense… apparently good all the way to Immortal and the qi link will tell you if anyone tried, even give a vague direction.”

“I rather suspect it will not save you if an Immortal cultivator does punch you,” she remarked, giving Lin Ling a small shove for effect—

Lin Ling spun away, tried to shove her back and found she had already planted a palm between her breasts with a wry smile.

“Booo,” Lin Ling pouted.

“Ouch!” she grunted as the younger girl kicked her lightly on the shin, hopping a bit for comedic effect.

“So, only protection for your ego,” Arai chuckled.

“At least like this we don’t stand out unduly,” she mused, considering the veil and jewellery that came with the robe in the form of several hairpins and a hairpiece that could be used either on its own or to affix the veil.

Hers was shaped like a wreath of leaves that she could weave in and out of her hair, while Lin Ling’s was a simple coronet of spirit gemstones and Arai’s was flowers, mostly plum blossoms preserved by the exquisite art of the craftsman. All of them had minor formations on them that linked to the ward on the robe and enhanced its effectiveness.

What was really impressive was that the hair comb was also a storage device, although not a particularly big one, being only about half a metre cubed at most. It was, however, accessible to whoever was wearing the gown, irrespective of their cultivation.

Frowning, she used her qi to plait her hair around the wreath, making it look like she had braided burnished green-gold spirit vegetation through her hair, then put the veil on and affixed it and the rest of her hair with the hairpins and comb. Looking at herself in the mirror, it was hard not to feel like she was twelve again, wearing the gown her mother had bought for her, which she wore in the portrait in the shrine.

“You can store things in the hair comb,” she remarked, taking it back out of her hair for a moment and turning it over in her hands.

“So I see,” Arai said, tapping her storage talisman and materializing a few jars and other oddments one after another until they stopped storing.

“It only has about half a metre cubed of transformable volume though, and the limitations are basically spirit stones, talismans and probably a weapon or two,” Lin Ling mused.

“Still, it means you can carry some spirit stones and stuff around and we don’t need to use our bureau talismans,” she pointed out. “So this way we don’t stand out.”

“I think ‘stand out’ is a matter of debate,” Lin Ling remarked facetiously, pushing up her bosom and sighing softly. “Certainly I will not stand out if I walk next to you two…”

“Then make the dress red or something!” Arai giggled, “or adjust it so it shows your shoulders.”

“Pass, thanks,” Lin Ling said, crossing her arms like she was a small child.

Shaking her head, she checked a final time and then stored two cubes of spirit stones in the hair-comb, along with her talismans and the pair of short blades she rarely ever used except for cutting vines or dissecting the odd qi beast and finally an umbrella which just about fit, because you never could be too sure at this time of year.

“Shall we get going?” she said at last, watching Lin Ling continue to fritter away.

“I suppose,” the younger woman shrugged. “Lead on, Senior Sister Ling.”

“Yes,” her sister smirked, before adding, in a creditable impression of Ling Yu: “Lead on, Junior Sister, take us to our people.”

“Shut up,” she pouted, stalking out the door of her rooms.

The trip back across town to the Celestial Blossom Teahouse was, she had to admit, distinctly odd. She was used to just being somewhat invisible in a crowd, it was a trick that came from spending long periods of time in Yin Eclipse. You got used to keeping your presence very much under control. However, wearing a fancy spirit gown and walking with two other people also wearing similar-looking ones resulted in a different kind of invisibility.

It wasn’t that people didn’t see you; it was that they respectfully didn’t get in your way. Several times she had people almost get out of her way without even really seeming to notice her, and once she was even saluted by a cultivator, just as a matter of passing. It likely helped that the gowns hid her cultivation so long as she didn’t actually use a lot of qi, but even so, it promoted a sort of view of her surroundings which was somewhat… alien, even when she was wandering around with Ling Yu in Blue Water City.

“It is… odd,” Arai remarked at last, as they made their way through the crowd in the square outside the teahouse, who were watching two youths trade arts on the stage in the middle.

“Yep…” she agreed.

“You two are terrible,” Lin Ling murmured, shaking her head.

“Excuse me, young ladies,” the guard on the entrance to the teahouse respectfully stopped them as they walked through. “Are you here with someone or as guests yourselves?”

“We are here with Han Shu, from the Han clan?” Arai said with a degree of polite confidence that mimicked both Ling Yu and Juni.

“Okay,” the guard said after a moment, giving them a polite salute. “Enjoy the banquet, young ladies.”

“We shall,” Arai murmured, sweeping on past.

She followed after her sister, not quite sure why she felt as nervous as she did… because nobody gave them so much as a second glance really as they walked through the teahouse hall, taking it in.

Most of those standing around talking were from the various noble clans of the town and region around it, though there were also a fair number of influential crafts folk, merchants and various other experts like talisman makers, alchemists and such among them. In the background, she could hear the haunting melody of a flute, accompanying a zither, playing a tune that was actually somewhat familiar…

“Isn’t that what Juni plays occasionally?” she mused to Lin Ling and Arai as they made their way on, looking for anyone they recognised.

“It is,” Arai agreed. “I think it is one of the pieces a lot of the young women in the Kun clan learn to play.”

“Oh… there is Ying Ji,” Lin Ling remarked suddenly, poking her and pointing through the doors to the main courtyard of the teahouse where she did indeed see Ying Ji, who had come back with Juni from Blue Water City, talking to two other youths in Kun clan robes.

“Huh…” Arai frowned, then nodded and turned to walk over in that direction.

-Did she also recognise someone? she wondered.

“We seem to meet in strange places,” her sister remarked drily as they arrived beside the trio of Ying Ji, a martial-looking teenager with long brown hair tied back rather casually and a somewhat scholarly youth with darker hair.

“…”

The youth talking to Ying Ji turned, looking at first a bit nonplussed and then very nonplussed to find three beauties standing beside him.

“Erm… you have me at a disadvantage…”

Arai sighed and stored away the veil, making all three blink in surprise.

“Miss Sana, I did not know you were acquainted with Brother Shi here,” Ying Ji remarked, saluting her warmly.

“…”

“Sana?” Kun Shi blinked a third time, as did the other taller youth.

With a soft sigh of her own, she put her own veil away, as did Lin Ling, because really they were not in any disguise, so it was just novelty that kept her wearing it.

“Jun Arai,” Arai said blandly.

“…”

Ying Ji stared from her, to her sister, then shook his head drily and saluted her as well, then Lin Ling.

“Miss Sana, Miss Ling, what a welcome surprise,” Ying Ji said.

“Sorry for the confusion,” she murmured, returning his bow as the three of them integrated into the circle of conversation somewhat.

“Not at all, I was simply caught out. You did say you had a sister, but to think she would be every bit your match…”

“…”

Arai shot him a sideways look that made him cough slightly.

“Kun Ying Ji,” Ying Ji said by way of introduction to Arai. “A guest of Young Lady Kun Juni’s. I became acquainted with your sister in Blue Water City.”

“A pleasure,” Arai replied, glancing at the third member of that group.

“We meet again, Miss Jun,” the athletic teenager said with an impish grin. “You look odd in that dress.”

“As do you in that robe,” Arai replied.

“Kun Xian,” the teenager said with a salute.

“You are Juni’s cousin?” she asked, trying not to sound dubious, because that was the only Kun Xian she could think off offhand, and he was not someone she had ever met.

“I am he,” Kun Xian grinned.

“Jun Sana, Young Lord Kun,” she replied, saluting him formally.

“Just Kun Xian is fine,” he replied.

-Well that makes a change. Clearly all the ‘bad attitude’ in Juni’s cousins is focused on Xingjuan, she mused.

“I am surprised you are here; you were not that interested yesterday,” Ying Ji said to her politely as Arai started to talk with Kun Xian.

“I got this and the reception yesterday evening mixed up I guess,” she replied with a polite shrug. “Another friend of ours, Han Shu, invited us, but we haven’t seen him anywhere yet.”

“He may be seated in the courtyard,” Ying Ji said, waving his hand towards the central area of the teahouse which was set up in a square of tables focused around two women playing music, accompanied by a drummer and a second harp player who occasionally just plucked a string to accent the others.

A quick scan of the tables did indeed pick out Han Shu, dressed in a smarter robe than usual and looking somewhat bored, talking away to two others she didn’t recognise.

“Indeed he is,” she nodded.

“—Ah, here you are!” she turned to find Bai Jiang and another youth with chiselled features in Kun clan robes had come over.

“Brother Bai, Senior Baotan,” Ying Ji murmured.

“Ah, Miss Sana, Miss Ling, what a pleasant surprise,” Bai Jiang said, greeting them both, then glancing at Arai with a slightly quizzical look.

“Jun Arai,” Arai replied, bowing politely to them both.

“Bai Jiang,” Bai Jiang said with a broad smile.

“Kun Baotan,” the tall youth next to him mused, looking her and then Arai over with a much more… appreciating eye.

“…”

Behind them, the playing stopped and was greeted by enthusiastic applause from all the tables.

“Oh, here you all are!” she turned to see Feng Jinhai coming over, looking… damp.

“It started raining?” Bai Jiang noted.

“Yes,” Feng Jinhai replied, grimacing as he tugged as his wet robe. “I signed up, but they are going to postpone the tournament and have a calligraphy or painting competition instead it seems.”

“Bleugh,” Kun Baotan grunted, shaking his head, clearly not enthused with that, which she found rather amusing, given how father, Old Fang and everyone else who had taught her martial forms always stressed the importance of both painting and feng shui.

“A wonderful melody, Young Ladies Kun and Ha,” a formidable middle-aged man seated in the position of honour at the far side of the courtyard declared, standing and applauding the two players.

“Young Lady Kun?” Lin Ling asked beside her.

“Isn’t that Ha Cao Qingluo?” her sister remarked.

“It is. Both Young Lady Kun Juni and Young Miss Ha Qingluo have been showing off their musical talents,” Ying Ji replied.

“Cousin Juni is a lot better. She is having to hold back so Ha Qingluo doesn’t look bad,” Kun Xian muttered.

“Marvellous talents,” another youth just across from them in red robes declared.

“I bet they sing beautifully too,” his compatriot, dressed in rather gaudy purple and green, mused.

“Oh yes, I am sure both would be delightful company…” the red-robed youth agreed.

Shaking her head, she tuned them out and focused again on Juni, who had stood and was saluting the Patriarch and the other guests.

The dress she was wearing was… not one she had ever seen Juni wear before. It left very little doubt in the minds of any onlooker just how beautiful she was, that was certain, and there was a sort of allure to it, coupled with Juni’s natural elegance that was born of decades of martial arts practice, that made her even more striking somehow…

“Would you both amaze us with another piece?” a golden-haired youth with a beard beside the Patriarch, who had put down his wine cup, remarked.

“Indeed,” the Patriarch nodded. “That was superlative.”

“Of course,” Ha Qingluo declared immediately, saluting the Patriarch and the others at the high table.

Juni also saluted and sat down again. A moment later, Ha Qingluo picked out a chord on the zither and then quickly skittered down a scale she recognised as ‘Joyous Tears’, a fairly famous zither composition her own mother had once tried to teach her and Arai to play… before concluding very wisely that their talents lay elsewhere.

Juni picked up the thread of the chord a moment later, the sound of her flute quickly melding into the zither’s scattering melodies to evoke the light patter of rain singing through forest vegetation.

“They are both exceptional,” Bai Jiang mused.

“Juni was taught by Great Aunt Liang,” Kun Xian added. “If she was not exceptional, Great Aunt Liang would not have taught her melodies.”

“Have you eaten?” Ying Ji asked her.

“Just something light, earlier,” she replied.

“In that case, shall we get a table?” Ying Ji said, casting about. “Before they all fill up again?”

“An excellent idea,” Kun Baotan agreed. “That one over there?”

She followed where his gaze was pointing, to a table which was currently unoccupied across from where Han Shu was sitting. It was a bit closer to the ‘high’ end of the roofed courtyard than she might have personally liked, but the others were already nodding and heading over there somewhat briskly.

They sat down, listening to Juni and Ha Qingluo continue to play their interwoven melody and soon several servants came and put food on their table. They were just about to start eating after having made their toasts, when she caught Arai staring at the series of tables at the end of the hall, a faint frown on her face.

“What is it?” she asked, following her sister’s gaze.

Most of the high table was officials of various stripes or important representatives of the various clans, interspersed with a few clusters of juniors at either end. Among those she did recognize was Ling Fei Weng, usually Ling Yu's bodyguard, now wearing the robes of an elder of the Ling clan, talking to a scholar in a pale azure robe with a rainbow trim, while beside him Ling Luo was making polite conversation with a youth from the Ha clan.

“I’ll… tell you later,” Arai murmured, before asking Kun Xian, who was sitting beside her, “Who are the bunch at the table to the right of the Patriarch?”

Kun Xian looked sideways at her sister for a moment, then back at the table, then sighed.

“Them?” Kun Baotan, who was beside Kun Xian, grunted. “A bunch from the Ha clan have been acknowledged by the Imperial Princess for their inadvertent—”

“—and certainly very overblown,” Kun Xian interjected sourly, pouring Arai a cup of wine.

“—as you say,” Kun Baotan nodded. “Their overblown role in tracking down the perpetrators who attempted to sabotage the great exhibition of your province’s treasures put on for Princess Lian. They apparently uncovered a nest of bandits up near a small place called Jade Willow, who had been working with indigenous rebels to smuggle corrupted herbs.”

“I see,” Arai murmured, her sister’s tone remaining pleasantly engaged to the point where she was sure she was using her mantra quite aggressively.

“It is, of course, all the Ha clan,” Kun Xian added, sounding disgusted. “No mention of others, like the Kun clan, who actually found the bandits and brought the bodies out. It’s all the great achievement of a bunch of weaklings who killed one tetrid stalker already badly crippled—”

“—You sure have a big mouth,” a young woman’s voice from the next table sneered, making her look over to find several youths from the Ha clan were now looking at them… though mainly Kun Xian. “Brother Caolun was personally acknowledged by the Princess, as was Brother Yuanfei.”

“Sister Lianmei…” one of the other Ha clan youths coughed, looking concerned and pulling on the sleeve of the sandy-haired young woman who was speaking, “please be a little polite.”

“Why, Brother Yung? Our Ha clan has made a great achievement and this gulping fish is daring to say we are taking praise from others. Surely the Imperial Envoy investigated properly… If their Kun clan did not get mentioned, it was because their contribution was only that much!”

“I am a ‘gulping fish’?” Kun Xian remarked drily.

“…”

“Yes!” Ha Lianmei retorted.

“Fine, then you tuneless mon—”

Arai, who had just drunk from her cup, coughed and put it back down, cutting Kun Xian off before he could complete his insult.

“Are you okay?” Bai Jiang asked her sister, who was shaking her head, with concern.

“Sprit wine… icy…” Arai rasped apologetically. “Not expected!”

“…”

Ha Lianmei opened and shut her mouth, but the youth beside her, Ha Yung, had already got up and was moving around to sit between her and them, trying to placate the other angry youths at that table.

-He is… surprisingly good at reading the mood, she acknowledged.

“Miss Ha Lianmei was one of those who accompanied Young Lady Juni and Miss Ha Qingluo earlier,” Kun Baotan elaborated for her, before she could even ask.

“Oh… I see,” she nodded, quickly passed her sister a bowl of the not particularly spicy soup on the table, which she drank down quickly, eliciting amused looks from some others nearby.

“Look, Ha Caofat… just…”

“No! HOW DARE YOU, you… you… bald monkey!” another of the youths opposite Lianmei had stood up now, looking about as drunk as he was outraged and pointing at Kun Xian, ignoring his more sensible compatriot, Ha Yung, entirely.

“Shut up, Caofat!” Ha Yung hissed to both Ha Lianmei, the youth who had just stood up – Ha Caofat – and another youth who was now also standing. “This is not a smart idea!”

“Boisterous…”

The words drifted through the air, settling over the Ha table. The speaker, near as she could tell, was Ha Feiyuan, the Supreme Elder of the Ha clan, who was frowning over at them.

“This—”

“Apologies, Seniors,” Ha Yung said very quickly, bowing to those at the high table, who were looking on now with either amusement or frowns. “Just a minor disagreement, we will take it outside—!”

“NO! I will have you retract that and kowtow to me as your father!” Ha Caofat snapped, pushing Ha Yung away and facing down Kun Xian, who, after a quick look around, narrowed his eyes.

-Ah shit, she groaned, sensing that the kind of scene that was hard not to make fun of – except when you were right in the middle of it – was about to occur.

“You dare to interrupt Cousin Juni’s performance?” Kun Xian retorted, standing up. “We showed respect for Fairy Qingluo and her wonderful playing… yet you cannot contain yourself?”

“…”

Looking on, she had to admit that this play was… quite remarkably executed by Kun Xian. Arai and Lin Ling were also sipping their wine, watching with some amusement.

“Your… cousin?” Ha Caofat blinked.

“Shit… I tried to tell you, you moron,” Ha Yung groaned, sitting up.

“My horizons are broadened! I, Kun Xian, must stand up for righteousness!” Kun Xian snapped, standing up and turning to the high table and saluting the various people there. “Patriarch, Honoured Seniors, I wish to challenge Ha Caofat to a friendly bout!”

“Oh for fates’ sakes!” another Ha youth at that table groaned.

Even Ha Lianmei looked slightly surprised.

“Hmm…” the Patriarch eyed Ha Caofat and Kun Xian.

“Lord Patriarch! This lout slandered our Ha clan’s contribution, that Young Lord Qiao personally invested!” Ha Caofat replied, looking a bit less sure of himself now, she noticed.

“I merely remarked that the Ha clan was not alone in that matter,” Kun Xian replied very politely. “Ha Caofat here seems to take exception to the idea that others, whose surnames are not ‘Ha’, can make contributions.”

That got quite a few murmurs around the hall, both for and against.

Both Kun Juni and Ha Qingluo had stopped playing at this point. Juni looked fairly sanguine as she sat there, but Ha Qingluo was glaring at Ha Caofat like he was a dog that had just shit in front of her.

“Fine!” Ha Lianmei said, also standing up, saluting the elders and pointing at Kun Xian. “He called me… he insulted me! All because he was trying to impress that girl!”

Arai actually flinched as Ha Lianmei, entirely randomly, rounded on her sister and pointed her out to the whole room.

“That is why Senior Brother Caofat is in this mess! He tried to intercede!”

“I… see,” the Patriarch just looked amused, really, which was a relief, but only a very very small one.

-Shit… how do we get out of this? she groaned, glancing at Lin Ling, who was also looking… worried now.

“An argument over beauties at a dinner… how nostalgic,” another elder at the high table remarked with a wry chuckle.

“How about this…” a Ha clan elder beside the Patriarch spoke up. “A fight between young heroes would surely be a spectacle, but how about we resolve this a different way?”

“What do you suggest, Sir Leyung?” the Patriarch mused.

“Ha Caofat was clearly standing up for Miss Lianmei… and Kun Xian here was trying to impress this young lady… so it seems to me that the dispute should be resolved between the young ladies. Miss Lianmei is a gifted talisman painter, is she not? A rising star in the Blue Gate School?”

“Go on…” the Patriarch said.

She shot a sideways look at Juni, who was still playing softly, but now looking in their direction with the narrowed eyes of someone quite put out by how matters were developing. Ha Cao Qingluo was just about matching her with the zither, but the softness of the flute was requiring her to really focus on what she was playing.

“Perhaps we should settle this by having them compete in scroll painting, given our discussion before? Paint an accompanying piece to the wonderful music that my own Qingluo and Young Lady Kun were playing, before they were so rudely interrupted.”

“You suggest they compete in painting?” the Patriarch frowned.

“…”

Arai, still seated, was now frozen on the spot, as, honestly, was she.

-How in the fates did this get to this point? she wailed silently.

“It is true enough that the weather has turned a bit inclement again, so the proposed tournament is a little trickier,” the Patriarch said, with a rather wry chuckle that echoed through the hall. “Clearly there are those who are undeterred, but in the meantime, I am sure many of you have been inspired by that beautiful music! So much so that a few are unable to keep their mood in check.”

“This—” Kun Xian was silenced for a moment by someone, then a jade talisman on his belt chimed and his voice returned. “—Miss Jun had nothing to do with this!” he declared loudly, clearly trying to make amends, for all the good it was probably going to do. “I am happy to compete with Miss Lianmei or Ha Caofat here in whatever manner they chose!”

“Now you try and cast her aside,” Ha Lianmei smirked. “My horizons have been broadened!”

“If I might?” another elder at the high table interjected.

“Sir Qingfao?” Elder Cao Leyung said, turning to the new speaker.

“Sir Leyung’s suggestion is quite insightful! This other young woman is the daughter of Jun Ruliu, who was a famed talisman painter before her unfortunate demise, so, given that fighting indoors would not be auspicious, a competition between the two young ladies in talisman painting would be a delightful and quite engaging way to start that competition? Much more so than two youths trying to stab each other with swords!”

“This is very true, Sir Qingfao,” another elder agreed. “Much more amenable to the occasion…”

“Young miss… do you have any words?” the Ha Patriarch asked her sister politely.

“Honoured Patriarch, Elders,” her sister said, also standing and bowing to the high table. “Young Lord Kun is quite correct in his assertion just now. I was simply sitting beside Young Lord Kun, who was hospitable enough to make some polite conversation with me. Nothing untrue was said.”

“I see…” the Patriarch mused, staring into space for a moment. “You recommend a head-to-head demonstration of talents by two juniors of the province in scroll painting… before we open the competition to others?”

“Indeed, Patriarch,” Sir Qingfao nodded.

“Very well!” the Patriarch nodded. “Miss Jun and Miss Ha will both paint a picture, to a theme evoked by the music of Young Lady Kun and Miss Ha Qingluo. The winner will accept the apology of the loser and then others may compete to see if they can do better…”

“…”

“GAH!” Kun Xian squeaked suddenly, as an old man appeared beside him and poked him hard in the back of the head.

“Brat, you make trouble every time I turn my back.”

“I… sorry, Grandfather.”

“It is not me you should be sorry to!” the old man scowled, glancing at her sister, his displeased expression softening for a moment.

“Old Xian,” Arai murmured, her face neutral enough that she was sure her sister was using her mantra now.

“It is Miss Jun, who you have put in an unenviable position for your foolishness,” Old Xian chastised. "Xian, reflect on this! When you seek trouble, it is not necessarily you who will get it. Sometimes it is those around you, who did nothing to deserve it.”

“Can you actually do this?” she asked Arai.

“That monkey-brained little shit,” her sister signed to her. “I should stab him in the unmentionables for getting me caught up in this,” before adding out loud: “Probably, though I have half a mind to lose…”

Kun Xian winced. “I… am sorry. I truly didn’t expect them to pick on you.”

Old Xian shot Kun Xian a glare and then turned back to Arai, actually bowing. “My grandson has caused you a big problem. I can only lower my head, especially after you instructed him so well before.”

“Please,” Arai shook her head, stopping him from bowing. “I… Juni is my friend as well.”

“Humph!” Ha Lianmei sneered and walked out into the courtyard, where she noticed that two easels had now been placed.

“If this old man might make a suggestion,” Old Xian said, appearing beside the high table in a single step.

“Uh…”

The various elders stared at him, looking quite askance. A few of the Kun elders actually bowed.

“You look well, Ha Dongfei,” Old Xian said with a polite nod.

“As do you, Kun Xianfang,” Patriarch Ha Dongfei murmured, returning it. “You said you had a suggestion?”

“I feel this should not be judged just by a few friendly faces,” Kun Xianfang said drily.

“Who would you suggest?” Ha Feiyuan said, a bit archly she thought.

“I am happy to…” a striking woman in a green dress leaning against the rear wall, drinking wine directly from a jar, remarked drily.

“Blade Fairy Seong,” Patriarch Dongfei murmured, saluting the woman who she recognised as the leader of the Green Fang Pagoda.

The woman gave both Old Xian and the Patriarch a salute with her wine jar.

“I am also happy to provide expertise,” a scholarly man with piercing amber eyes and dark hair tied back in a ponytail remarked from where he was seated across the far side.

“And Grandmaster Li…” Ha Feiyuan nodded.

“Likewise…” She glanced over to see Old Oudeng, Grandmaster Oudeng, was standing over at the side. “Sadly, Grandmaster Mang is in Blue Water City…”

“That certainly provides some expertise,” Patriarch Ha nodded, glancing at her sister who had not yet walked out.

“Here,” Bai Jiang passed her sister a box.

“Thank you,” Arai replied, opening it and considering what was inside for a moment, before sighing softly and walking out to her easel.

“If you would?” Patriarch Dongmei said, turning back to Juni and Ha Qingluo.

Ha Qingluo ran her fingers down the zither, sending ripples of sound through the room. Juni, without missing a beat, immediately shifted her chords on the flute, transforming the quiet tune into something almost melancholic, like the soft hiss of wind before it fell away at dusk.

Lianmei had already started, she noted, taking her brush and sketching out a figure on the paper before her with fluid strokes. She considered the woman, who was younger than her, getting a feel for her abilities—

“How good is your sister?” Kun Baotan asked her, cutting through her contemplation.

“…”

She wasn’t sure she knew how to answer that so she just stayed silent, standing there with folded arms, watching as Arai considered the paper before her for a moment before she put the box down on the table beside the easel and opened it, took the brush out and then just stood there, staring into nothing.

“Good,” Lin Ling said flatly, giving the shamefaced Kun Xian a dark look. “Very good.”

“Better than Juni,” she said at last, as her sister took her brush and put the first strokes to the paper, lightly drawing out lines that merged to become a bridge.

“Better than…?” Kun Xian blinked.

“Just watch,” murmured Old Xian, who had appeared back with them, entirely unmarked.

As the music washed over them, the flute seemed to carry with it faint hints of the sorrows of the world, while the zither was almost aggressively upbeat in comparison, the two melding together to evoke a sense of birdsong in rain.

Ha Lianmei, she could see, was painting a woman dressed in regal turquoise robes, her golden hair falling down around her face. Arai, by comparison, was still painting the slightly ethereal landscape and a bridge across a river with lotus blossoms, only a few ghostly figures taking shape.

Even at this point, though, the contrast was plain. Ha Lianmei’s picture had a commanding presence. The intent being poured into it made you look at it, to admire both the beauty of the woman and the command in her stature. Her sister’s, however, just drew you in, subtly.

“What is she painting?” Bai Jiang frowned, staring at the painting.

“I wonder…” Old Xian mused.

“It just feels… normal,” Feng Jinhai murmured, but the look on his face was confused, likely by the auspicious feng shui her sister had incorporated into the composition.

“—Compared to Ha Lianmei’s anyway,” Kun Baotan muttered.

She shook her head and just kept watching, fairly sure she knew now what Arai was depicting, which in the current company was a fairly blunt statement to make, no matter how you pitched it.

The first figure was a young woman with dark hair, the second a boy helping his friend pick up flowers while a third girl passed a flower, a white chrysanthemum, to another girl. Figure after figure was filled in, fluidly and gently by her sister’s brush, singly or in pairs, on the bridge or before it. Each had a face and an identity and a wholeness within the picture that drew you on, further in. Soon she started colouring them in, bit by bit, layer by layer, from the back, with the night sky, working out past the water, the bridge, the lanterns lighting it and then the people themselves before returning to the sky and painting in the shadows and the stars, of which there were forty-nine in total, each with its own distinct sense of presence.

The final figures were older, adults dressed in turquoise. Not powerful, like the woman in Lianmei’s, but rather subtle, welcoming, strengthening and warm. There were seven in total, walking among the forty-nine men, women and children as they crossed a version of the Queen Mother’s Bridge in the town. They spoke to the children, laughed with the adults, consoled some and helped others, with the final one, representing the Star of Guidance, leading two young girls across to a final, ethereal figure that was as much part of the whole painting as any single part of it.

In comparison, Ha Lianmei’s picture, the ‘Star of Beauty’, was basically done well before her sister had even really started on the illusionary aspects of the Queen Mother herself.

“Do you see the difference?” Old Xian said simply, when Arai finally put her own brush down and contemplated the night scene in silence while Juni and Ha Qingluo kept playing.

“That…” Bai Jiang and the others were looking between the two scenes, as in fact were quite a few others.

She could see immediately that many people would be drawn to Ha Lianmei’s painting. It was beautiful, flawless, and evocative of an ideal, as much as someone of her realm could espouse it, that beauty was a thing that ‘commanded’ and ‘ruled’. In comparison, Arai’s painting was just… there. It was painterly, almost dreamlike in its composition, and no single bit stood out, but once you looked at it it was hard to look away until you reached a kind of conclusion within the painting itself.

“There are fifty, not forty-nine,” Kun Xian murmured.

“…”

She scanned the picture and saw that there was indeed a fiftieth figure, a bright-faced youth with dark hair, dressed in a Ha clan robe, buying a flower from a flower seller.

“I am done,” Arai said simply, stepping away from the painting and bowing slightly to it.

Ha Lianmei stared at it, frowning, her previous confidence perhaps a bit dented.

The Patriarch waved a hand and both drifted off the easels and into the air, which shimmered and then reflected the images flawlessly at several times the size.

“Well, that’s fairly conclusive,” Blade Fairy Seong said simply.

“Indeed,” Old Oudeng nodded. “Fairy Ruliu’s daughter is indeed a special talent.”

She fed her emotions to the mantra in her mind’s eye, because the effect, inadvertently, was not what those looking on had likely anticipated. Ha Lianmei’s portrait was still striking and a wonderful painting… but her sister’s was not a painting; it was a moment in time, painted with a sense of conviction that was subtly lacking in the other.

“This is…” Patriarch Dongfei had also come to stand before them.

“It is indeed a difference in perspective,” a youthful-looking, bearded scholar wearing an azure gown with a rainbow trim agreed. “However, I feel the portrait of the Star of Beauty is more at peace with itself.”

“Indeed, they show very different comprehensions,” the Supreme Elder from the Kun clan mused.

“Only one of these I would hang in my living room though,” Ha Feiyuan murmured.

“Thoughts?” Patriarch Dongfei asked.

“Miss Jun’s,” Fairy Seong said simply.

“Indeed,” Oudeng agreed.

“I concur,” Ling Fei Weng nodded.

“I feel that Miss Ha’s is more within itself,” one of the other elders mused.

“Yes, it has a better awareness of what it shows… There is such a thing as being too… ambitious.”

“I do feel this,” another of the old experts at the high table agreed. “Both show remarkable talent for their ages, but I must also just give this to Miss Ha.”

“I don’t get it,” Kun Xian muttered. “Miss Jun’s painting is far more evocative… and also technically superior…”

“Indeed,” Old Xian nodded. “It is also very difficult to look at, for a certain kind of person, because there is an understanding to it that is too cruel.”

“Sir Huan?” one of the other Ha elders asked.

“Hmmm… I must concur that Fairy Ha’s is quite exceptional; however, Miss Jun’s is very evocative. I must say I cannot pick,” the blonde-haired man in the dark green and red robe mused.

“I pick Miss Jun’s,” the only female elder in the Ha clan at the top table said simply.

“Lady Shi…” Ha Feiyuan frowned.

“If you are willing, Miss Jun, I will purchase this drawing from you, for whatever price you ask,” the young-looking woman said simply.

“…”

Arai stared at the woman, then at the Patriarch, who coughed.

“Let us leave those questions for later… In terms of a winner?”

“I must advocate for Miss Jun,” Grandmaster Li added. “While it is true that there is a sense of ambition in both, Miss Jun has a much clearer grasp of the perspective of the self within it.”

“I do believe it is tied,” Old Xian said drily to the Patriarch. “This old fellow feels a sense of hope in Miss Jun’s that gives a peace of mind.”

“Indeed,” Lady Shi said, a bit flatly she thought.

-Is it the fiftieth figure?

The understanding suddenly clicked, somewhat intuitively.

-Ha Shimo... A relative of hers? And there has been no mention of him, his role or his death, in all of this.

“…”

“I do believe you are right,” Patriarch Dongfei remarked pensively. “Yes, Miss Jun’s painting is challenging, in many ways.”

Ha Caofat, over to the side, perked up considerably, she noticed to her disgust.

“Indeed, I must give this to Miss Jun…” Patriarch Dongfei sighed. “Would that I had her eye at her age… perhaps I would have less regrets now…”

“…”

“You are lucky, young boy from the Kun clan, that your friend is such a talent,” the Patriarch added, casting Kun Xian a steely look.

“He is indeed,” Old Xian scowled.

“…”

Kun Xian stared at his grandfather, then at Patriarch Dongfei, then stepped forward to Arai and bowed deeply.

“Due to my action, you were troubled. I, Kun Xian, can only apologise!”

“Very good, very good!” the Patriarch nodded, glancing at Ha Lianmei and Ha Caofat, who both winced.

“Congratulations,” Ha Lianmei murmured, bowing to her sister then a hint deeper to Kun Xian.

Ha Caofat stared around like a person haunted by demons then bowed rather rigidly to Kun Xian.

“I did try to warn you,” Ha Yung muttered from where he was seated.

“Indeed,” a second familiar voice, that of Ha Yun, the son of Ha Feirong, the Town Governor, echoed.

“Ha Yun,” she said politely as he came to stand at the front of that table.

“Jun Sana,” Ha Yun replied, bowing slightly to her.

“See, we go out to watch the fighting and we miss the actual drama!” another youth behind Ha Yun, Ha Mao, grumbled.

“I didn’t know you liked painting,” another of Ha Yun’s friends, Ha Ding, joked.

“I like beauties…” Ha Mao retorted.

“…”

His comment, which thoroughly smashed the rather odd mood, got him all sorts of looks from others nearby, which he just ignored, rather bullishly. “What? It’s true. You are all here admiring them! Don’t judge me!”

Ha Yun gave his friend a long look and shook his head.

“And you wonder why we were so unenthused about this before,” she remarked a bit sourly to Bai Jiang.

“Drama does tend to come with these gatherings, especially when opinions get heated,” Bai Jiang agreed. “However, your sister has certainly acquitted herself well.”

“Indeed,” she agreed blandly. “Somewhat in spite of the circumstances arraigned against her as well.”

“—LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” Supreme Elder Feiyuan stood up. “Please show your appreciation for Miss Ha and Young Lady Kun, whose delightful music provided the inspiration for these pieces!”

“Like that… for instance,” Ying Ji remarked drily.

“Uhuh,” she nodded, not having missed the fact that Ha Cao Qingluo had just been mentioned ahead of Juni.

There was a round of applause from those looking on, during which the Patriarch snagged the Supreme Elder by the arm and muttered something to him, to which he nodded, then turned back to the courtyard.

“Well, with that, shall we get this competition underway?” Ha Feiyuan exclaimed, raising his voice slightly as servants brought other easels in and started setting them up for competitors.

There was some awkward shuffling among those around the hall, but somewhat amusingly nobody stood.

“Any junior is free to enter,” the Patriarch added with some amusement, “and the prize, as adjudicated by several experts among us, shall be an opportunity to study a scroll painting from my personal collection!”

With a flourish, he plucked a painting out of nowhere and unfurled it, revealing a painting of a fairy maiden dancing on a pond, the sky above slowly shifting around a bright moon. The maiden seemed somewhat melancholic, while the sky and the moon was both alluring and imperious at the same time.

Almost immediately, half a dozen people around the courtyard stood.

“Hmm… not bad, I wonder where he got that from,” Old Xian muttered.

“You recognise it, esteemed senior?” Ying Ji asked Old Xian politely.

“Old Xian,” Old Xian corrected him absently. “When you say senior my shoulders hurt. It is a work by Lu Fu Tao, one of a set of nine he created during the early years of the foundation of Blue Water City.”

“Is that not far too precious for a prize in a competition like this?” she gawked.

“Not really,” Old Xian clarified. “They were originally hung in the Blue Star Hall in Blue Water City, intended for juniors to view and comprehend. They were lost among many other treasures like them when the city was briefly breached during the Huang-Mo Wars. Even so, they are a thing that old sage created to allow juniors to perceive a bit of the path he uncovered, so it is certainly a remarkable treasure for any junior to be afforded the opportunity to study.”

Almost thirty juniors from various influences both near and far were already assembled in the plaza, she noted, with more hurrying in every second.

“How enthusiastic,” the Patriarch remarked drily from nearby. “When you have finished your scroll painting, please leave the space for others…” he added pleasantly.

She watched as the first batch started drawing, but at this distance there was little worth observing unless they painted on a wall, so after a few moments she went back to the food and chatting with Bai Jiang and Ying Ji, with occasional interjections from Kun Baotan, Kun Xian and Lin Ling.

Arai walked over a moment later, looking rather drained, followed by Juni, who seemed to have escaped her position as a musician at last.

“…”

Juni looked at Old Xian, who just gave her a slight smile and waved for her to sit, even as most of the others at the table all stood and bowed politely to her.

“It seems Xuanhai and that lot have done something stupid and you are picking up the pieces,” Old Xian said, passing Juni a cup of wine which she drank down in a single gulp.

“It could be worse,” Juni shrugged, even that slight action coming across as oddly alluring for some reason.

Giving herself a shake, she moved up as Arai sat down beside her.

“Days like today make me hate my hobbies as much as my job,” her sister muttered.

“That I will toast!” Juni agreed, holding out her wine cup.

“Indeed,” she agreed, pouring her own cup of wine and joining them.

Thankfully, there was no further drama after that, at least not any which concerned them. The Ha clan elder who had wanted to buy Arai’s painting came over and talked to her sister for a few minutes, then left looking somewhat pleased. The presence of a senior and Kun Juni at the table actually kept away those interested in coming and bothering either her friend or her sister, so they were able to eat in peace, just chatting away about very normal things, until the painting competition finished.

In the end, both Lianmei and her sister’s paintings were dethroned as the ‘best’, which went to a young woman from the Pill Sovereign Sect who painted a beautiful scene of the banquet itself, with the various events going on in it, and even dedicated it to the Patriarch once it was judged the winner. In a way, she was a bit disappointed on her sister’s behalf, but Arai just laughed it off.

The alchemy competition that came after was in many ways more interesting. They provided a dozen herbs from Yin Eclipse and asked the participants to make the most interesting pill they could out of them. It was won, in the end, by Bai Jiang, who made a pill puppet out of five-elements snapdragons that could transform into a little dragon that did basic tasks.

By the time that was over though, it was pushing towards late evening. The rain outside had stopped as well, so they ended up migrating outside to a table near the duelling arena to watch that and play card games, largely on the theory that it was much harder to be tied into that.

“Well, that was not something I ever intend to repeat,” Arai declared at last after they had sat in silence for a while at a table near the duelling platform, watching Kun Xian, who had been on a winning streak when they came out, beat up a disciple from the Ha clan very convincingly.

“This is what happens when you spend time near Ling Yu’s ‘people’,” she half-joked, half complained, staring at her own cup of wine.

“I know I should feel offended at that,” Feng Jinhai, who along with Kun Shi and Kun Baotan was sitting at the same table as them, muttered, putting down his Gu Takes All cards, “but actually, I sort of see your point.”

Kun Baotan, who was also undefeated in the arena in his matches, just shook his head at her comment and put his own cards down in disgust.

“One spirit stone says Kun Xian draws this out for another five moves,” Lin Ling interjected as Juni’s cousin continued to prevent his opponent from actually throwing himself out of the ring to admit defeat.

“Nope,” Kun Shi grumbled. “You won the last three, and now this Gu Takes All game… I have no more spirit stones I can give you.”

“How are you so good at that game?” Bai Jiang agreed, putting his own cards down.

“It was invented here,” Lin Ling smirked.

She was about to comment when a hand dropped onto her head, almost making her squeak in shock before realising who it belonged to: their father, Jun Han.

“Here you two are!”

She turned to find him, tall, rugged and bearded, dressed in a somewhat formal grey and purple robe, standing behind her, carrying an umbrella in his other hand.

“Father!” she exclaimed, standing up and giving him a hug.

Arai, who had also turned from watching the fight, stood and skipped around to also hug him.

“Sir Jun,” Lin Ling stood politely and saluted him.

“I have to admit, I nearly didn’t recognise you in those gowns,” their father remarked with a grin.

“—They were a New Year’s present from Ling Yu,” she said. “Ling got one as well.”

“Senior Han,” the others at the table all politely saluted him as well.

“Hmmm…” their father eyed the group critically and accepted their greetings, then pulled up a seat and, without any comment, took out a jar of wine and poured some out into a cup.

“In any case, I am glad to see you are all having fun,” Jun Han added, looking at her and then Arai.

“That… is very relative,” she conceded, with a glance at her sister.

“Your daughter made quite a statement with her scroll painting, Sir Jun,” Ying Ji remarked politely.

“Did you?” Jun Han glanced at Arai, who looked a bit conflicted. “I am sure you did wonderfully.”

“Bai Jiang,” Bai Jiang said by way of introduction, before adding, “Well, Miss Arai was first for quite some time, before Young Lady Lu Meimei took the top spot in the end, but that is to be expected, given her talents.”

It was hard not to feel a bit odd sitting there and having others explain how your day had gone... and making it sound like you had actually done something great, she had to reflect, not quite looking at Arai, who had taken her seat again next to their father and was back to looking slightly jaded.

“I see,” Jun Han murmured, giving Arai a warm smile. “In that case, I look forward to hearing all about it. However, first I have to ask… do they actually serve food here, or are we expected to fight for it on that stage?”

“Hah!” she found herself laughing at that, and somewhat unable to stop for a few moments. “I’ll go get something, Father,” she said eventually.

“Okay,” Jun Han nodded to her before turning back to the others. “Now, I don’t believe I know any of you fine gentlemen hanging out here with my lovely daughters. Why don’t we get to know each other a little better?”

“…”

Shaking her head, she hurried off in the direction of the nearest food stall, humming under her breath, because for the first time in what felt like far too long… everyone was home.