Serpent's Eye's 2

“I remain highly displeased that our Bai clan was allowed to be targeted by malcontents,” Her aunt’s voice was a cold blade, cutting through the air, even with the distortion and echo of the speaking scale. The palm sized white talisman rattled slightly in her hand the faint pressure of Bai Suzhen’s power leaking through the connection.

“But the Duchess and her daughter both understand the gravity. Though it is troublesome that you allowed even our light demands to be negotiated down.”

It was a little concerning. Bai Meizhen thought, sitting straight on the seating cushion at the Ambassadors Sect housing. She knew that her friends were a bit squeamish, but her opening offer had been light. Meant to show the face of the renewed Bai clan, who could be reasonable with friends. “The increased material compensation will help… I believe the Emerald Seas is developing a strong preference to punish its own wrongdoers though.”

She had seen the sentiment, sentiments she suspected Ling Qi was stoking. She could only approve of efforts to stand tall beneath the throne. She had shared this with her Aunt already.

“Hm, A good trait, but troublesome. We are fortunate that it was only your retainer, or the demands would have been higher, as it is, most will recognize the… motivation of the complaints,” Bai Suzhen said. 

The buzzing of the scale had eased, and Bai Meizhen let out a breath. The water of the meditation pond rippled with the release of the tension in her aura, the soft sound of water trickling from the bamboo pipes further soothing her nerves. “I apologize for the imposition, my honored Aunt. I believe my judgment in negotiations to have been correct.”

Her Aunt was silent for a time, and Bai Meizhen cycled her qi and breathed quietly taking in the flow of waters as she waited for reply or rebuke.

“It pleases me that you are confident. Your mentor has reported only good things these past months, so I will allow that local eyes may see more clearly. But, you will be returning to Zhengjian, my niece.”

Her eyes cracked open looking at the candlelight reflecting on the softly falling water. “I obey, Aunt Suzhen. What is my purpose? Simply to refamiliarize myself with home?”

She did think she might need that, for all that she had come to fiercely covet her time in the Emerald Seas. Her thoughts had been troubled… divergent of late.

“A return to the nest will be good for you, yes,” Bai Suzhen replied. Her voice surprisingly quiet. “However, no. I require you at my side for formal purpose.”

Bai Meizhen blinked tilting her head down to look at the scale in her hands. Formal purpose? She felt a squirm of dread. Was she to be betrothed? No the ambassador had implied she was free to pursue suite on her own for a time, so…

“You have performed well, risen over the humiliation the throne has placed upon us. Your cultivation and studies have been exemplary. Therefore, it is my intention to take you as my official daughter.”

Her world went still, like it was frozen in glass.

“A-aunt Suzhen?”

Her voice sounded tiny in her own ears, childish and high and awfully feeble.

“I will not force this. Know that it is no slight to my sister’s memory. You have earned this.”

Her Aunt paused, and spoke up. Warmer, a blade wrapped in silks. “I desire this. Do you?”

It was an honor beyond reckoning. Though the Bai measured strength rather than family for the headship, to be made heir of even her aunts private properties and affairs was… and the status… the backing among her kin, who had ever had their own Mothers to rely on in conflicts…

More than that though… ‘I desire this’. Stating her intent so clearly. No politics, no other considerations.

“Of course I do,” she whispered. “Aunt Suzhen is the one who gave me Cui, who encouraged me, who helped a feeble child find her feet. Mother wouldn’t be unhappy.”

“...She would be cross with me for taking so long. Meilin could be reckless. However the arrangement is now bronzeclad, it cannot be challenged,” Bai Suzhen said. Her Aunt sounded happy.

It left Bai Meizhen feeling warm. “Then I will return to Zhengjian soon.”

“This will not be easy. You will be tested and tried. I will not shield you from those on your own level. My daughter must be unyielding.”

“And so I will be,” Bai Meizhen said.

“I do not doubt you,” Bai Suzhen said. “Then, one final matter ‘ere the Talisman fails. Go to the Ambassador, tell her what transpires. I have left a gift-Meilin’s journals- Only blood as close as yours or mine will unlock them. Today, they are yours.”

“Thank you,” Bai Meizhen whispered, doing her best to hide the tremble in her voice.

***

She let the memory fade from her mind. They had left the carriage behind in the stables and walked now through the citadel gardens. The sweet scent of the toxic mist was a soothing tingle in her lungs. To a Bai, a medicinal balm against fatigue and enhancer of focus. To one who was not…

She inhaled deeply, considering. Severe and rapid necrosis in the soft tissues of the nose and sinuses, followed by slower organ failure in the respiratory system. A third realm cultivator would resist but the damage to their breathing would still accumulate. Simple and elegant.

She walked flanked by Xiao Fen and Xiao Anxi down the white marble path through the gardens, toward the citadel proper, Lao Keung trailed behind her, grim faced and stoic, as a python should be. Xia Anxi however, looked like he was about to shed his own skin from stress. He would have to work on that, though she understood she was being harsh, to the less discerning eye, he merely appeared a little high strung.

And most among her clan siblings would expect as much from one of his caste, if they bothered pay him mind at all.

For the first time in two years, Bai Meizhen found herself surrounded by kin, slender and ethereal figures of white, clad in fine robes and gowns, imperious and impenetrable in their dignity.

So they should have been. So the more elder among them were. Among her own cohort and the slightly older… it was less so. She saw under their skins and pretty masks, with the same eyes she had trained to peer under her own, and understand her distresses.

They were tightly wound things, many with vicious eyes and hearts. Some merely brittle and bristling with thorned scales. Not every heart was open to her. Some met her with eyes of implacable bronze, some with faces of mirrored glass, showing her nothing.

But it was nothing like what it was. She was not the outcast, the runt, looking in with envy. She was, for better or worse, a part of the nest, and the eyes of her peers looked at her without pity or disgust, but instead; envy, wariness, narrow eyed respect.

“Sister…”

“Sister…”

“Welcome…”

Sister…

It was such an insincere thing to Bai Meizhen’s ear. It was custom for all White serpents of the same age cohort to refer to each other as siblings, unless another relationship overrode it. Perhaps she had spent far too much time with Ling Qi, who spoke of siblings in a way that left the syllables sounding alien and lifeless, or cruel mockery on her cousins lips.

Yet they were sincere in their way, she could tell. Bai Meizhen mounted the steps which lead to the citadels open gates, to the vast entrance hall, where her kin passed too and fro beneath columns carved and painted before the current imperial dynasty was even a consideration in some courtier’s eye. Even with the discomfiture of her kin and her new perspective, it was fortifying. The weight of history and duty, of the authority which they owed to their ancestors to uphold.

And there at the end of the hall, prepared to receive her was her aunt. She towered over the other white Bai, in height and presence both, a gown of purest white limned with bloody red in the hems and embroidery, metallic hair woven through a headdress like a ring of blades, the heir to the Bai clan looked down over the entrance hall, flanked by her equally tall shadow, and the bowed figure of her husband, all given a wide and respectful berth by the others whose business took them through the entrance hall.

Bai Suzhen said nothing as Bai Meizhen approached, until she sank into the lowest bow, hands outstretched and unhidden, all defenses, physical and spiritual lowered, the greatest respect one could show. “My honored Aunt, I, Bai Meizhen have returned. I present myself for your inspection.”

“Raise your head, child. From this day you will need offer no such obeisance, nor call me Aunt. Today, I declare my intention to take you as my daughter. Come, follow and let us greet one another as family.”

It was gratifying in its way, to see the thoughts of the younger generation grind to a halt.