Journey to the East 31

“Welcome! Xiulan, my daughter, welcome,” her father said as she approached the table through one of the clear paths left. She was pleased to see not a few double takes and lapses of silence in the wake of her stride, combined with the more normal toasts and cheers for a young officer.

“I am pleased to take my seat at your side, my honored father,” she said, sweeping a bow at the dais. He gestured and she straightened back up., mounting the steps.

“Your seat is open, and well earned, would you not say cousins,” Her Father said.

Murmurs of reply from fathers generals and officers, the men of his own generation as well as the next two or three down. Not all of it enthusiastic, but there was no undercurrent of reproach or disagreement with her father.

“The young Miss has a sharp mind, when the hotheadedness of youth allows.”

She met the dull, flat eyes of her elder cousin, Gu Ke, the command of whom she had first been left under. “And I thank you for your lessons of patience and attentiveness, Major Ke,” she replied haughtily, taking her seat.

“Cousin Ke, it gladdens me that my trust in you was not misplaced,” father said.

“The young rarely appreciate inglorious things, but without those things, a moment’s glory turns to ash. The young miss learned, and so hers did not. She has earned her command.”

She huffed, toying with the cup of wine in her hands. It was true that she had been a little hasty in the beginning… and that the tasks he had given her in supply, requisition and logistics had forced her to temper herself and learn the limits of her mens capability. So, she understood much better now why her father would keep men like Gu Ke within his staff.

The tip of the spear was not the only honorable place to serve, even if it remained her preference.

“”Of course I have,” Gu Xiulan sniffed. “But it is good to see that your eyes are sharp as well, Major.”

He made a dry rasping sound that might have been a laugh on a less dull man, and fell back into conversation with the other officers. Father gave her another warm smile, before turning to greet the next arrival. So it would go on for some time. Until everyone had streamed in. She partook of her drink, the burning flavor of the liquor in her cup adding a fine tingle to her tongue, with the spice of crisp appetizers laid out to occupy them until the full feast began. Only once the time of the feast's beginning came would Father rise to speak and give out merits.

She kept her chin high, looked at the soldiers at the tables below with imperious but approving eyes, and practiced well in her command tent. It didn’t change the niggling feeling of being out of place. She had few words to share with the older men surrounding her Father, traded pleasantries, a few gruff comments, approvals or pointers given over her engagements and tactics.

She had earned this seat. Yet she still felt like a student in a sect lecture hall. With Mother’s lessons fresh in mind she buried any anxiety deep and comported herself perfectly well… But it didn’t change the awkwardness she felt.

“Yoooo Master Gu, thanks for the invite!”

And of course there was Zheng Nan, just barely avoiding being late, withstanding their glowers without a hint of discomfort as he chatted so casually with her lord father before all their eyes. He even dared cast a smirk and a wink her way. She scowled coldly back, which only made him laugh all the more.

But soon, even he was seated, and the doors of the great hall were dragged shut, letting the heat in the room rise still further. The muffled boom as they shut served to silence the chatter and whispers of the soldiers as her Father rose from his seat.

“Men of the Gu! You have fought with valor and endurance. You have bled, you have burned, you have smote again smote the Dead who would drive us from the land of our ancestors, you have once again pushed back, defeated Longshen’s spite, the Twilight curse, as your fathers, and their fathers, and their grandfathers have done, through the millennia since the Cataclysm. Now is the time for joy, for merriment, for honor!”

The roar of their toast shook the bright rafters of the hall.

Father allowed a beat for it to die down, looking down upon his soldiers with an expression of proud approval. “So now, let the presentation of merit begin!”