Chapter 42
The servants of the household were quick to put up the wedding decorations. The wedding itself was held in the courtyard. Rain threatened, but Tan flew up into the sky and told the rainclouds to go somewhere else. When he returned, he found himself dressing in his fine clothes, the yellow and blue clothing with the stupid hat.
He was then put in charge of wrangling his sister, who’d been quiet after her healing until she’d learned that there was to be a wedding, after which she’d gotten very excited. While the adults dealt with the adult things, Tan babysat his sister, helping her into the flower-girl dress and ensuring that she didn’t get too dirty afterwards.
Tan remained distracted by his encounter with the spirit of his grandfather, but he was confident in the talismans that his parents had given him and his sister to keep the spirit of Hao Shen away. Or Haoatonian Shenlong, Tan thought, swallowing. He was still getting accustomed to the idea that he was part of the imperial family.
He had so many questions for his father. For both of his parents. And for Uncle Renton too. But he’d been trained to think as carefully about the questions he wanted to ask as the answers themselves, and so he’d wait a day or more before confronting the adults to make them explain themselves.
His parents hadn’t asked him to keep the family secret secret from his sister, but he didn’t need to be asked. Until he understood exactly why it was a secret, he wasn’t going to go blabbing it to anyone. Especially since he half disbelieved it himself.
Safron, for her part, was having a very good day. The itchiness was all gone, and her Qi was flowing better than it ever had before and before long she was going to be as strong as her big brother. Burning away the itchiness had hurt, but tanks to her grandfather she’d had the strength to get through it. Now she got to spend all day in a fancy dress and take part in a wedding and spend the day with her big brother and she never had to worry about the itchiness again.
When it was time for the wedding, she danced about throwing out flower petals everywhere. Her brother helped by summoning a wind to make the flower petals she threw flutter all around and it was very beautiful. Once her dance finished, the boring part of listening to the grownups vow to love and cherish each other forever and ever happened, and Safron fidgeted through that, although her big brother helped distract her so that was good too.
After the wedding, the grownups went to make babies and Safron kept playing with her big brother and having a really good day. She deserved a good day after the bad day that had happened yesterday, and so she refused to not have a good day today. Her brother was being funny though, like something was bugging him. So she kept on bugging him to distract it from whatever it was that wasn’t as important as her.
Tan smiled at his sister’s antics after the wedding. Eventually, night fell, and he was sent to an estate in the north to deliver a message to the merchant who’s compound they were squatting on. Tan flew there and found it quickly enough, landing and knocking on the door without ceremony. The door was answered by a woman whom he thought was a servant, but was in fact the merchant’s daughter.
“Hello. Is your master home?” he asked.
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The daughter bristled at the mistake, but she had just witnessed the boy flying and didn’t want to offend such a powerful cultivator, so she took the insult without rising a fuss. “ My father is in the study. If your message isn’t vitally important I could deliver it for you.”
“Oh, thanks. Sorry, I’m a bad judge at fashion so I thought your clothes were that of a servants,” Tan said, scratching his head and blushing, unaware that he’d just given her another casual insult. “If you’d please let your father know that we have finished the healing ritual and will be vacating his compound tomorrow, I’d appreciate it. Also, I was supposed to give him this as payment.”
Tan handed over a placard. The merchant’s daughter stared at it, wide eyed, as the boy turned and flew away without further comment.
The placard was an induction into the imperial merchant’s guild. As the daughter of a wealthy merchant, the young woman knew exactly how valuable such an item was; it allowed the bearer to trade in precious materials and trade goods that could only be sold to those who had relations with imperial government. These official monopolies were hundreds of times more lucrative than common materials.
This boy who had insulted her had just changed her family’s fate with a casual message, she realized.
“Father! Father!” she called out, running into the country estate to share the good news.
The merchant was unaware that, at that moment, a newly wed couple was lying in his bed, enjoying each other’s company in the afterglow of their wedding, and other activities. Swenshion was still reeling from the realization that this was real , he was a husband and soon to be a father. He was still processing the news emotionally, although his wife was doing her best to distract him.
“What do you think of our new charges?” she asked him as they lie in bed together.
“I think that you’ll have your hands full with the little one,” Swenshion said to her. “But Tan seems like a fine lad. A doting big brother. We’ll have to see how smart he is, but considering that he’s literally royalty I’m not concerned with such things. The Shenlong family is literally blessed by the spirits and the ancestors.”
“And yet the girl was born with a defect in her meridians,” Lokari reminded him. “Do you not find that odd?”
Swenshion considered the problem for a moment, then nodded. “There could be any number of causes for it. I’m certain that the royal family has already investigated if the matter was some sort of attack or curse upon them. I’ll make a polite inquiry with Lord Shen to ensure that the matter was considered, but otherwise it’s truly none of our business.”
“No, leave it to me. I’ll discuss the matter with Lady Wensho as we discuss my pregnancy. It will be more natural that way,” Lokari told him.
“As you wish. I shall leave the matter in your capable hands,” Swenshion said.
Then they kissed, and lost themselves in each others embrace once more.