"You're doing well, are you? I must note that neither of the women that you were with when I met you have decided to join us. Was that a choice on their part? How do you feel about that?"

"They are not always the nicest to me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Her soft white robes shifted in the wind, as she closed the second story window. By some miracle, the tea brokers had left me enough furnishings that I had exactly what I needed. One comfy chair and one lounge couch. I motioned for her to sit or lay down.

I wasn't thinking that there was some mean girls thing going on there, just some miscommunication. But perhaps if I dug deep, I would be able to strike moon gold.

"And how does that make you feel?"

I didn't want to prime her. Anchoring her here by saying something like 'do you feel inferior?' would probably lead her in a direction. I would feel a lot better if she would take the lead in her own process.

"I feel isolated. We came up together. We're sisters, for Daorus' sake. I just... ever since I went to that damn tea shop, they've treated me differently."

I nodded, playing the best stoic dad. I might be slightly younger than her, but I could talk with the best of them.

"You don't always need to be the bigger person. Boundaries are more important first. You need to hold those," I said to her, "You want to be a people pleaser. That has meaning to you. It's not a good or bad thing, or just a trauma response, but it looks to me like that is how you feel. Is that correct?"

"That is accurate."

I let her sit in the silence, much as she had the day before. Call it a professional courtesy, call it whatever it is, but sometimes clients just had to take a long second to get up to speed.

"And one little indiscretion,"-I had problems with calling someone going to a tea shop an indiscretion, but it wasn't my culture-"shouldn't cause them to be so cold. It's ... well I know that they're both married to Tea brokers, but I just wanted to try the new thing on my own for once and not be criticized for it."

"You knew how important the bulk sale of tea was to your sisters. But did they know how important this was to you?"

She gasped, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I... I never told them that I wanted to do this. Thank you. I should have asked permission before."

I sighed loudly.

"It's not about you asking for permission. This doesn't concern them. You're not betraying the Moon clan by going to a random shop in Western Jewel," I said.

She looked like she was buffering for a second.

"Do you have any children?"

"This one isn't married," she said quietly. I noted that she has skirted around the answer.

I don't know what happened to the calm confident woman who had been heckling me all day. The woman that was so sure of herself in the martial training session.

"I have two daughters," I said.

She sobbed. She was getting somewhere. I didn't know where but, she was finding that confidence.

"I have never told anyone this. I don't really want to have children."

Moon Lee sat forward on the couch. It's what we in the business call a 'pro-gamer move'.

I would have told her to lean back and try to relax, but we all know how that goes. I wanted to, but the fact that she was probably a realm ahead of me and pouring her heart out meant that my little tic about her not leaning back would be okay in the long run. If power was the absolute highest thing here, then well I accepted that. But I wasn't going to change anything in my approach to the people that had shown me kindness. My daughters would not have let me forget it.

"It's okay to not want children. The family life isn't for everyone. Some people just want to be free of that large expectation. It's true that some people make it out to not be a burden, and they only show the good parts to others, but really they are in the pocket of big baby."

"Big baby?" She said, he eyes puffed up.

"The baby industrial complex? Every woman that says that having a child is a life changing event that they would never take back? It's a stark difference between that and the reality that when you have a kid, they're with you for a long time. You can't just send them back," I said.

"This big baby, is like some sort of criminal enterprise?"

"It's a bit more nefarious than that, but yes. Similar to the tea brokers union, but you don't have to pay dues," I said.

The number of parents who had been encouraging me to be a better dad, or just to be a dad had been strange until I realized that they all were going through some kind of hell. They just wanted company there. I'm not saying that raising a child is hellish, but you tend to feel like you've been through it.

"You're funny," she said, smiling widely, "There can't be such a large organization just trying to make couples have children."

I gave her a slightest bit of side eye at that.

"I literally formed a group to fight against being harassed to join a cultist Sect. I mean, I asked Moon Xiru to, but you all decided to stick around."

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"This is true,"she said, smoothing her skirts, "And it's also true that I have work to do."

"Before you..."

"Yes?" She looked at me expectantly, as if I was the Cabana boy bringing her more than just drinks.

I'd noticed her power and I wanted to ask her a bit more about it.

"No, never mind. We'll have a little discussion in a bit. You're sticking around for this?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

---

The brewing tea settled as the last of my co conspirators arrived.

One had brought a friend.

Around the circle of the formation sealed safe room sat Egiya, Bluey, Xiru and I. Moon Fei arrived with Jin Xueyie in her finest silks. I stood to greet her. She bowed, and I returned the bow.

"This one was insistent, Cultivator Pidge," he said, looking between the two of us.

"I was. Whatever this is, if it's against the Red Fang, I am in. I may not speak for my clan, but if I need to swear an oath, I will do it," Xueyie said, her voice as solid as I've ever heard it.

"Very well. Are we all okay with this? Moon Lee? Egiya?"

Both nodded their acceptance. Moon Xiru stroked his grey hair as if he wanted to say something but was holding back.

"Alright, well in that case, let's talk about what we did today. Who wants to go first?"

"This one will, if it pleases the group," Moon Xiru said, keeping his eyes on the newest addition, "This morning I reached out to my network to determine who we could bring into the fold on their operations. Two names stood out to me as potential candidates. Both unfortunately are not in the Moon clan, but one I know from his route to the Velvet Peaks sect. Given some time, this one can collect more information about these two from a Mahjong buddy."

"We can call that our first lead. Jin, I see that you've been read into this by Moon Fei. You understand that this is completely voluntary, and that we're going to get the Red Fang?"

She flourished a fan and nodded. It was of course, in her blue and pink colors. It would not have been out of place in a room full of props for how large it was in comparison to her small frame. Her fan looked official, as if made for a special event though she moved it too fast for me to make sense of it.

"The Taoists have an interest in striking at their first rival. Though I cannot carry the official stamp and seal of the Sect itself, know that we will be supportive in smaller ways, such as my joining this group."

"Unofficially, of course?" I said, trying not to be too forward.

"Officially unofficial. And may I congratulate you on reaching the second realm," she bowed once again.

It was getting a little old. I bowed back. If the cultural norm was to bow and scrape a lot, then it would take a long time to change the culture. If I wanted to culture of this group to be different, then I would have to cultivate that.

"Are the Taoists asking anything in particular from this enterprise?" Moon Lee said, standing to address Xueyie, "We're not going to become backup dancers and perform in the Ming Theater."

I heard a contemplative but positive sounding 'Hmm' from Moon Xiru, but as the lowest on the power threshold, he probably would not interject anytime soon.

Moon Fei took up his classic pose, leaning against the wall and sticking crossed arms inside of his robe. He looked pained and tender as he leaned back. His day of recovery appeared helpful, at the very least.

"The Ming dynasty stands heads and shoulders above the rest," Lee said, in what had to be her stage voice,"but what will they ask of the Moon clan, the Tea brokers union and their unholy merger here?"

Moon Lee looked around, her blue qipao holding court with her curves. She held her arms up, looking for support. We all nodded. I didn't have any goals of doing improv, much less dance theater.

As anyone who grows up near Los Angeles knows, there's only so many improv shows that a person can watch in their lifetime before it becomes a clinical problem. This problem does not tend to affect people bitten by the acting bug, just their friends and family. To add the layer of dance? Yeah I wasn't sure, but my LD50 of improv was not that high.

"So to summarize, silent partners at best for now?" I said, scanning the group.

"Perhaps there will be more," Xueyie said, her face an impassive mask.

"Very good. It might be strange to ask this, but have you ever seen them take this sort of deal before? I would like to know what to expect," I gave her the dad look.

I know that pitting someone against their family-even if they hated their family- was a terrible idea, but we all had to start somewhere.

"I explained your radical desire to take your own path unfettered by a Sect. They are apprehensive, but you can do something to reassure them, I presume?" She said, her lips slight upturn the only hint of an emotion.

"I can. Xueyie, you can stay back after the meeting then?"

Moon Lee and Egiya both looked at me oddly after that statement. Oh well, better to get it out into the open eventually. They were all my patients in a way. It just so happened that in my small criminal adjacent enterprise that we had great mental health coverage. I tended to not let people know that other people were on therapy.

I even went so far as to not give any identifying details to Rachel or Courtney so when we would run into people that were on treatment, the girls would just know. They knew not to ask about why they were in treatment, but you couldn't stop them from speculating. And oh they were good at that.

"I shall."

"Moon Xiru, you'll be playing Mah jong. Jin, you mentioned something about wanting to be a healer. Do you have any techniques on that path? Because we could use your help to get Moon Fei up to speed. His network overlaps with Moon Xirus, but it would be most effective to have both of them going at once."

"I...I can try," she said meekly.

"This one has several medical path texts in her library, a few are even on me at the moment," Egiya said, pulling two tomes out from somewhere.

The girl had a knack for storage. She probably had a tiny library's worth of books under her billowing sleeves. That or prodigious pockets. Rachel loved pockets so much that she would 'borrow' anything of Courtney's that had good pockets often without asking. I never had to yell at her, but my 'I'm not mad I'm disappointed face' probably got locked in there.

"Moon Fei, you can mind the shop and if Cultivator Xueyie wants to study there, she will be beyond the reach of her parents. Moon Lee, you can give her pointers?" I asked.

She nodded in agreement.

"This one is pleased to watch the shop, but wishes to take a more active role," Fei said.

"The Cultivator learning healing next to you might hasten that," Lee interjected.

"Honored cultivator, this one is not worthy. Please instruct this one, that I may advance," Fei said, kowtowing to Xueyie.

"And as for me..."

"I hope that you don't think that we will be able to teach you how to hide your qi in two days. You're going to have to put in work," the eldest woman in the group said.

"And when I'm not training with you, I'm training with Jin Xueyie and Kang Egiya. So an afternoon session, then?"

They smiled. And for the first time I got worried that they would start plotting against me.

---