“Explain this failure now.”

Her Lady’s voice was a whipcrack, as cold as the depths of Lake Hei, and it filled Xiao Yan with shame and the taste of bile in the back of her throat.

“I was outmaneuvered, Mistress, there are no excuses.”

She had pride enough for that, to give petty ‘explanations’ that were but the cringing excuses of cowards who did not know their duty.

Even if Lady Mingxia’s plan to strike at her cousin had been impossible to begin with. Xiao Yan had achieved the fourth realm, it was true that she was of similar cultivation to the other viper on guard, but they had century’s experience on her. Even if the target was only Bai Luxi’s pet blue caste formations engineer and not the Serpent himself, the eccentric who delved so deeply into the arts of the lesser castes. The defenses on that workshop had been fiendish in their cruel complexity.

No, these pathetic excuses were beneath her, she crushed the whisper in the back of her mind, knowing it was a sign of her unworthiness that she had even thought them.

“It displeases me to see your devotion is so shallow Xiao Yan, you bear not even a scratch,” Bai Mingxia observed. There was no light in this study, save for the fireflies that flitted about over the waters and garden terraces outside, and the pale glow of the moon. Her Mistress’ study was neat, her walls hung with scrolls containing passages of the classics, her shelves filled with the writing of the ancestors.

Her Mistress was much the same as she had been when they had met near a hundred years ago now. Her youthful beauty had taken on a harsh and ageless quality, and her hair was no longer kept loose and free, but arranged into elaborate looping braids through bladed combs and ornaments, in the style popular in the court of Zhengjian. Her cosmetics were understated, save for the dark lining which so enhanced the intensity of her gaze.

“I judged that ensuring that there could be no evidence of my presence more valuable than attempting to press on in unfavorable conditions,” Xiao Yan said, lowering her head still further, until her forehead was pressed to the floor in full kowtow. “I accept all consequences.”

The fan in her Mistress grip snapped shut, and it took all of Xiao Yan’s discipline not to flinch. She felt the pressure on her back ratcheting up, as if she were sinking deeper and deeper beneath the surface of the ocean, to the places where mortals and low cultivators alike would be crushed to paste.

“And so the insult against me stands. The humiliation of having my proposals for waterway infrastructure ridiculed before the whole court. Cast down in favor the words of a mere Blue Cobra, and his barely socialized master. Bad enough that I must navigate these infuriating rulings on proper procedure by the new Head. My ambitions for the governorship of Lujian have been set back decades, Xiao Yan. It must be punished.”

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Each word made self loathing well up in Xiao Yan’s heart, that she could do nothing to alleviate her Mistress’ suffering.

“If you had shown Luxi too weak to protect his toy this may have changed. Now though… There is nothing. Nothing but retreat and replanning my path. If…”

Xia Yan kept her head pressed against the floor, knowing she had earned every word of rebuke.

***

Bai Mingxia looked down at her servant, fury, relief, and self loathing alike mingling in her heart. It was a potent toxic stew, the match for any of her toxins. Before an hour had passed, she had regretted her impulsive order. Before an hour had passed, she had nearly shredded the hems of her gown plucking at them, because the necessities of stealth and deception meant she could not contact Xiao Yan.

Her rage at her humiliation was real. She had spent years arranging herself the correct contacts, collecting information and research on the spirits of lake and river, and when the day had come to present them to the Governess of the North… some… some lab living wretch had wandered out and shamed her by tearing apart her presentation and giving his own proposals. The fact that Bai Luxi had not even had malice for her. He was just that obsessed with civic formations.

He had even admitted that most of the plan had come from a lowly Ministry of works clerk, only the polish and higher knowledge coming from himself.

And the Governess, newly installed by The head in all but name Bai Suzhen, had agreed that it had more merit.

She sucked in a breath. Looking down at Xiao Yan. Her faithful Viper. She had changed since they had met all those decades ago, her figure filling out with muscle, her hair kept in coiled tightly wound braids wrapped close to her scalp. She was littered with scars, from so so many successful actions.

Each scar was a mark of clumsiness, a reminder to be better, and so she had instructed Xiao Yan to keep them. To remind her to be better, to command more ably.

She had still almost thrown that away in a fit of temper.

“If you were anyone, anyone but my Viper, I would strike you down for this failure,” she whispered.

And for making her heart hurt so much. She should be better than this, a Viper was a most valued tool, but they were only meant to be that. The thought of losing her was not meant to hurt like this.

Especially when she had done nothing wrong. Xiao Yan should have been better. How could she lose to that fool’s servant like this? How could she have sent her into a situation, with so little intelligence?

She was so glad there were no new scars.

“Rise. I am tired of staring at your back.”

Xiao Yan slowly pushed herself up from the floor, her eyes still downcast, her broad shoulders set with tension. As she rose to her knees, Bai Mingxia allowed the torrent of emotion within her some release.

She seized the front of the taller woman’s gown and dragged her lips up against her own. Harshly, she kissed her servant, fangs piercing her lip in rebuke, their venom no more than a minor sting to one of the true Bai blood.

“Do better, next time. There are limits, even for you,” she said softly. It was soft of her, to do this, to be so kind, but she just couldn’t…

“I understand. Mistress. I will not err so badly again,” Xiao Yan said, looking up at her. Those eyes, that made her feel so very…. Soft glinting in the dark.

“See that you do not,” she replied, and then their lips met again, and there was no more need for words.