Guan Fa Lian was not happy when she awoke.

This was often the case.

She had, for the longest time, been forced awake by carers and attendants. Pressed into uncomfortable clothing, with itchy makeup on her face. Made to give uncomfortable greetings to dignitaries and stared at by hundreds of slack-jawed sycophants.

Then her mother had died and her father decided that her time was better spent in training.

Each morning had started with a similar routine, except now it was angry old men and women waking her up for training instead of gossipy young ones waking her up for court. She had honestly taken to the training regimens and lifestyle much quicker than even she had expected. She would train herself into oblivion, making herself so tired that sleep was a black, heavy blanket of exhaustion she could fall into each night.

Now, her sleep was so random and often unneeded that she avoided it altogether. As she became stronger and more capable in her mana control, the need for rest was farther and farther away. So, when she opened her eyes and looked around the room, seeing first Ah Dan, then Xiaomei and the tall elf woman, Fa Lian groaned angrily. The groan turned into a full growl, she threw herself to her feet as she saw Po Daiyu behind her allies.

The world swam in Fa Lian’s sight. Her vision went dark and she stumbled. Her body was not as angry as her mind, it seemed, and she was forced to sit back down. Once the headache had subsided and she dared to open her eyes again, she slowly attempted to stand again. Ah Dan stood close by and seemed ready to catch her if she fell. That also bothered her but she ignored it for the larger problem.

“Why is she here?” It wasn’t so much of a question as a challenge. She waited for no answer as the dragonscales leapt from its dropped place on the floor straight into her hand. As the warm scales wrapped around her wrist, they formed a razor sharp rapier. Fa Lian had enjoyed the style of combat she had learned from Shade and his opinion on his family had also rubbed off on her, it seemed. “So that I can execute her?”

“Please!” She stayed her hand only because Po Daiyu had said nothing while the blade shot towards her. The point of the rapier nicked her cousin’s ear but did no more damage than a bad ear piercing. “You should hear what she has to say, at least,” Ah Dan continued once he saw he had the chance, “then decide.”

“And what is it that my murderous, back-stabbing cretin of a cousin could have to say that would stay the execution?” Po Daiyu’s defiant face nearly made Fa Lian strike out again but she had more control than that. Xiaomei and Calliope both looked as though they could care less but she was willing to quiet Ryong Aang’s encouragement in the face of Ah Dan’s plea.

It looked for a moment as though Po Daiyu might spit, or do something equally suicidal, but the twitches of her lip and eyebrow calmed and she began to speak. “I have been deceived for too long, cousin. I am sorry.” If that was all she had said, Fa Lian would have thought the world had truly gone insane, that maybe she hadn’t woken up, but she continued. “The situation at home is dire. More dire than I had imagined because of who is causing the problems. With Grandmother now as useless as her husband, your father has snakes at his back.”

“Snakes your father put there.” Fa Lian interrupted. This time, Po Daiyu did not hide her reaction to the stinging words. Looking as though she had been slapped in the face, Po Daiyu’s eyes filled with emotion. She bit her lip and nodded. Calliope released her at this point and Po Daiyu just sagged in the spot. She made no attempt to escape or fight, that was gone from her.

“I think that my father was corrupted. Maybe for a while but certainly since Shang returned from the capital.” While Po Daiyu spoke, Calliope moved over to Ah Dan and whispered something to him. His reply seemed to be good enough for her because her worried look turned into one of reluctant patience.

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“Okay,” Fa Lian interrupted, having missed the last few increasingly frantic statements, “I understand. You were tricked. Everyone was tricked. Wonderful. How does any of this help? Shouldn’t we be moving?” Her last question, Fa Lian asked loudly in the room.

“We’ll move faster if we wait here for a little while.” Fa Lian got her answer from Calliope. It explained nothing. Looking at Xiaomei only garnered her a shrug and another frustrated face to look at. Seeing the confusion was not helping, Calliope added, unhelpfully, “Ah Dan can get us through the labyrinth.”

Why was he suddenly so special? Why did that always seem to be the case? Ah Dan will fix everything. Ignoring the bitter thought, she looked at him and saw a look of pain, tiredness and exhaustion that was both very common on his face and also far worse than she was used to. Instead of asking her angry questions to him, she directed them at her cousin.

“So, why are you here? To stir chaos with your monster of a brother? He is lost. Completely lost. Just so you know.” Fa Lian wanted her words to hurt. Her own wounds no longer did but she was licking them metaphorically and wanted to throw her own barbs where she could. The fight had gone well until the strangers had arrived.

“I know.” Po Daiyu now looked angry. “Ah Dan told me what happened with my father and I’ve decided that I believe him. You fought a monster, not the man I once knew. The same could be said for my brother but he was always something other. Which is exactly why my father sent him to the capital. He returned with a new friendship in the church of the empty god. He and my father spent nights talking alone before we suddenly attacked the Jiaoduo.”

Fa Lian was still confused on that point. “What was the goal in that?” There had been so many variables that the answer had never been clear.

“You. You and Yo Shen.” Po Daiyu looked ashamed. “If we removed you, your father would have no leverage.”

It was the most obvious answer but hearing it aloud was freeing. “And what is the situation in Guan territory?” It was the one thing she had truly avoided since leaving. Her shackles in that regard had fallen away but she felt them sneaking their way onto her wrists and neck once more. Her home was not her responsibility, it was her father’s. If it was in danger, however…

“The church is poised like a viper to strike as soon as the operation here is complete.”

“So, the church is the enemy. The Shin empire, too?” Po Daiyu nodded. So it was the whole world, then? The demons were always at their neck due to proximity and if her gut feeling, along with Shade’s account of their situation, was correct, they were also a blade ready to drop on the neck of the Guan.

She would do what she could.

“So what is their plan here? How can we stop them?” These final questions brought a barking laugh to Po Daiyu. There was no scorn in the laugh, just an incredulous nature that set Fa Lian’s teeth on edge. The dragonscales shifted into a clawed gauntlet with a subconscious command. Her laughter stopped at the sliding sound of metallic clicks that accompanied the transformation. “What is so funny, cousin?”

The ghost of laughter still in her voice, Po Daiyu held up her hands in a gesture of peace. “I apologise. Things have gone so badly, so quickly, that I had forgotten that the plan was going well.” Her cousin looked her in the eyes now and Fa Lian was struck by the sincerity she saw within. They had been friends once, her cousin and her. “Your brother found a soul relic and we were trying to take it from him.”

Sincere eyes or no, that statement was simple farce. She might as well have said that Yo Shen had married the empty god, found a new labyrinth or something equally ridiculous. While Fa Lian spluttered to get the right word of incredulity out, she looked to the others in the room to share the confusion. That only made it worse, as they seemed to believe her. Xiaomei looked sympathetic to her plight and stepped closer to Fa Lian.

“Ah Dan confirmed it.” She said before shuddering. In fact now that Fa Lian looked at her properly, she saw terror in the girl. “Did you feel the waves of force? The energy that comes off of the soul relics? The pain…” She rubbed her collarbone, an already healed wound?

“I did but…” It still couldn’t be true. The wave of energy had distracted her enough for Steel Fever to break her left arm. Then another blast from the other direction had severed her ability to wield the dragon scales. Oblax and the man who looked like a white shellfish came into the room. The distraction had been enough. She had been defenceless and Steel Fever had taken the opportunity to knock her out. It must have thought she was dead or fled from the other two.

Oblax had left her for dead. The man with him had caused Ryong Aang to roar in rage. Rage and fear, like an apex predator meeting a larger, stronger version of itself. She had sensed it then. Them. Two pieces of something unfathomable, screaming at the dragon inside of her and cowing it.

“Even if I believed you, which I don’t, where are they now?” The answer was obvious, and Fa Lian was choosing not to look into the shadowed, broken part of the labyrinth. Then, as though to taunt her for thinking anything was impossible, the wall next to Ah Dan melted away and revealed another, shadowed tunnel. “How did you-”

She didn’t even bother asking. Ah Dan looked like he would fall unconscious with a flick. She had to stop being surprised when it came to him, it would seem. She decided that she would just move forward, regardless of the developments at this point. It was the best thing she could think of doing.