The absolute arrogance of this... creature.

It was everything Bai Mingzhu could do to hold back an open scowl as she craned her neck to look up at the face of the woman looming over her. Fury made her heart thunder in her ears. Did the Zheng believe that they could be so domineering merely because the Bai had agreed to this compromise?

“No need to thank me for clearing out those louts, yeah?” the woman, Zheng Lei said cockily.

Bai Mingzhu did not allow herself to react to the tacit threat presented by the way the Zheng Lei leaned over her, muscular arm placed to hem in her movements, splayed hand pressed against the wall just behind her head. The Zheng was more than half again her height with shoulders wider than an oxen’s flanks. Yet, if this brute thought she could be intimidated with mere bulk, she was dearly mistaken.

“Ah yes, louts. Two sons of the Sima family and one of the Jin,” Bai Mingzhu replied acerbically. The ornaments in her hair jingled softly as she turned her gaze up, but her hands remained hidden in the flowing sleeves of her turquoise gown, venom fit to put down a jungle titan beading upon her fingertips. “Do you expect me to thank you for disrupting our conversation?”

The conceited creature dared to laugh, and Bai Mingzhu’s narrowed eyes followed the bouncing curls of auburn hair which spilled down around the Zheng’s shoulders. It seemed that even at a function such as this, the Zheng could not comport themselves with even a ghost of decorum. Zheng Lei’s garb was that of a soldier, a cuirasse of boiled leather which left her arms bare, save for the thick steel circlets which she wore around her biceps. Belted at the waist with an ornate jade buckle, knee length tassets of metal studded leather protected her legs but offered little in the way of propriety.

Together with the fur lined cloak thrown half haphazardly over her shoulders, the barbarian looked as if she had stepped from the pages of a tawdry tale which a young man might read out of sight of his mother and sisters.

Utterly unacceptable for a summit such as this.

“Oh come off it, you were bored out of your skull listening to them prattle on,” Zheng Lei dismissed “‘Sides, it was annoying me, watching that middle one leer.”

“Some of us know our duties,” Bai Mingzhu said dryly. Yes, the younger son of Count Sima had reminded her a bit of a dog, sniffing for mates, and so what? If the Counts of the peaks wished to hand her easily manipulable sources on a platter, who was she to complain?

“Bah, duties, this whole thing is a joke,” Zheng Lei dismissed. She remained where she was irritatingly. Bai Mingzhu glanced again at the arm over her shoulder, skin bronzed for sunlight, mountain qi, heavy, solid and unyielding pulsed through chiseled muscle. “They just dump a bunch of us together and expect us to make friends?”

Bai Mingzhu offered a tiny shrug. “It is an imperial decree.”

With the Strife ended, the great clans of the empire were required to send a share of their young scions to the Imperial court. This would supposedly promote unity by ensuring that the far flung clans would remain familiar with one another. Bai Mingzhu thought it all rather naive as well, but unlike this overgrown ape, she wasn’t going to say it outright.

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“Feh,” Zheng Lei huffed, before grinning at her. “Well, if you wanna be proper princess, shouldn’t you be makin’ friends with me too?”

“I am not a princess, the Bai are not so arrogant as to claim such titles,” Bai Mingzhu sniffed. Even if they deserved those titles. They deserved them more than these… placeholders. She studied her opponent for a long moment. “You may remove your arm, if you truly intend to be friendly.”

“You sure? You don’t seem to mind the view.” Zheng Lei replied, smirking.

Bai Mingzhu gave her a baleful look. It would have sent a soldier or a servant to their knees, heart thundering fit to burst. Zheng Lei’s grin merely widened, and Bai Mingzhu felt a frission of alarm as the air shuddered in the clash between the primal powers of water and stone.

Around them in the ornate ballroom, lesser cultivators hunched their shoulders and inched away from their corner as mosaic tiles groaned and cracked under their feet. Others, including her sisters, and Zheng's compatriots merely looked on in a mix of disdain and amusement.

Hmph, apes. Irritating creatures. Lacking all sense and caution.

“Remove your hand,” Bai Mingzhu said, brooking no disagreement.

The wide, threat-filled snarl of a smile became something more human, and Zheng Lei chuckled. “Yeah, alright.”

She pulled her hand back and straightened up.Grandmother’s Fangs, how tall did these beastly Zheng grow?

“Was that so difficult?” Bai Mingzhu said, arching an eyebrow. “Now, what is it which required my attention so urgently that you would drive away those others?”

“Hm?” Zheng Lei asked, twisting her pinky finger in her ear. “What, I told you. Watching that Sima guy pant like a dog pissed me off.”

Bai Mingzhu’s eyebrow twitched, and she pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Even if that is so, what business is it of yours.”

“Hm, well I figured you deserved better, if that’s your type, more power to ya,” the Zheng shrugged. “If not, wanna go out later? My teacher gave me the location of a real good fishing spot not far from the walls.”

She blinked, once and then again. “A-are you simply propositioning me?”

“Yeah?” Zheng Lei said, looking confused. “Like that’s the point, we’re supposed to make nice with each other right?”

“You utterly uncultured beast,” Bai Mingzhu sniffed, turning away. How ridiculous, as if she could simply toss away her reputation so, even if she was yet unmarried.

“That’s not a no!” Zheng Lei laughed at her back as she walked away

Honestly, Bai Mingzhu thought, walking away with measured steps to rejoin the rest of the partygoers, you couldn’t simply announce your intentions like that. What did they teach the Zheng in their mountain holes? She didn’t know what that daughter of the stone ape really intended, was it simply to embarrass and rankle her.

She glanced back over her shoulder once, and saw a flicker of disappointment on the giant woman’s face. Hmph, perhaps she actually was merely simple. A dangerous assumption, but an intriguing one. It was known that the Zheng were easily led by their lusts, but she had thought it merely rumor.

Would it be so bad to play along a little? An ear among their oldest rivals and greatest foes could have its uses. She certainly couldn’t be so utterly blatant about it of course…

Yes, Bai Mingzhu thought, smiling thinly as she took up a glass of wine. Perhaps that might make an entertaining diversion.