There were many ways Hua had envisioned seeing the twins Song and Meiling. Her sisters. The youngest of the Liao Patriarch’s living children.


    Puking up blood and impurities from barely avoiding a Qi deviation had never been a consideration. They were so fearless, her sisters, running toward the lightning storm surrounding Hua. It forced her to focus, grab hold of her sludgy-Qi, and gain control over it. In no world would she hurt her sisters.


    With great exertion, she grabbed hold of lightning and shunted it through the ground. The mountain beneath her accepted it eagerly, glutting itself on her Qi in a way that was utterly foreign.


    The twins were on her, shaking her shoulders. Hua would have told them to stop if she wasn’t still spitting out that vile substance, that both tasted and smelled like burnt sludge, ozone, and a rotting corpse.


    “Should we get Old Ren?” Song asked as Meiling said, “Stop getting hurt all the time.”


    “What do you mean Hua got hurt? When?”


    “She got struck by lightning, the big kind,” Meiling answered. “It’s why her eyes are so scary.”


    “I think I like them.”


    Both twins had entirely forgotten what caused them such distress. Hua wished she could be so carefree, but she hadn’t been given that opportunity in her life. She was the eldest daughter and so, the duty of caring for her younger siblings fell to her after her mother died.


    Truth be told, Hua barely remembered her mother. She’d been five when the twins were born and those early years were hazy. Laughter like wind chimes. Affection like the warmth of sunlight, trapped beneath their roof during winter. Father happy for once, reading Hua poetry as they rode across the plains he commanded. Weijiang sneaking her to the city, carrying her on his shoulders.


    Hua should have had another brother but he was with their mother, lost beneath the lake that had drowned the cemetery.


    It was only later, days after the funeral, that Hua came to know the woman who would truly define her life. She hadn’t known a thing about the hardened woman who appeared in a vortex of cutting words and inspired Father’s fury, but also his silence.


    They had become a battleground, she and her siblings. Father claimed Weijiang. Grandmother claimed her.


    And Hua claimed the twins because no one else would.


    “I’m fine,” she said, forcing herself up.


    “No, you aren’t,” they said together. Hua had caught them practising that. They thought it was intimidating.


    She stepped past them, letting them follow along. They wouldn’t realise she had forced them away from the disgusting sludge.


    Meiling hit her on the thing. “Then what happened if you’re so fine?”


    “I just realised something upsetting while I was cultivating. Have you two eaten or did you skip breakfast as usual?” Their silence was answer enough. Hua led them to the estate, gesturing to a servant. “We’ll have breakfast by the water garden.”


    “You know I hate the water garden.”


    “You hate everything. Now if only you could hate yourself then things would be fair.”


    “Song, you’re the worst thing to have ever happened to me and you happened before I was born.”


    Hua let their argument wash over her as they headed down the eastern wing’s covered walkways. Their steps were loud and unashamed of it. They behaved well and kept it to some shoves and light slaps. Hua interjected here and there, but after years of corralling the twins, the best thing to do was to let them get it out of their system. Regulate the amount of violence and possible murder attempts.


    The water garden was built around a pond that had been dug out by mortal hands. On the banks of the pond were more flowers and bushes than Hua could ever name, placed such that something would always be blooming. It was a wide pond, large enough to warrant a bridge. The bridge was curved aggressively and formed a semicircle connected at one point to the wing they had walked through and the other to another garden, that one meant for larger parties, where poetry recitals and singers could entertain the Patriarch and his guests. It had been used only a few times. Neither Hua nor the twins had ever been invited to an event.


    They walked beneath the covered bridge to reach the pavilion. Benches had been carved into six of the eight sides of the pavilion. A set of tables had been brought out with the frequency of Hua’s meals here with the twins.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Meiling sneezed. Then she sneezed two more times and glared at Hua.


    “This is your fault.”


    Blame the circumstances of your birth, she almost said, but bit it back quickly enough. It would be needlessly cruel.


    A healthy and competent Cultivator didn’t sneeze or really fall ill.


    The twins were… calling them mediocre hurt Hua but they took to Cultivation at half the speed anyone expected from the Radiant Lightning Body’s children. They were struggling through Body Tempering. It would be a miracle if they were able to gather any Qi into their Meridians before fifteen or sixteen. The stage of Body Tempering was crucial and determined so much of one’s Cultivation speed in Qi Gathering. The body and soul were separate but conjoined entities. Alter one and you could affect the other. Prepare the physical body well and the spiritual channels would expand, the dantian become sturdy, and the Meridians receptive to permanently awakening.


    She could see the physical failings in the twins. Meiling was skinny, struggling to put on mass, and there was a stiffness to her motions, indicative of her lack of flexibility. Song had strength and flexibility, but she was so slow, her reactions almost comically lagged behind her body, and she had poor eyesight.


    They were still strong enough to provide protection to the prayer room guarded not only by the formations around the Clan grounds but those additional ones Grandmother had added. They could be trusted never to reveal information on her father’s state.


    The servants brought with them trays of food. It was much better than anything she’d eaten in the city, though the company may have played a role. Many mortals would be starving now but of the few things Hua could do, not eating this meal would not make a difference.


    Hua nibbled on the roasted nuts and steamed rice. Song stole her pork cutlets while Meiling enjoyed Hua’s persimmons.


    “They always make yours the best,” Meiling lied today as she always lied. There was no difference between their trays at all. Hua had swapped them out more than once just to test it, and the thievery had remained constant.


    “Liar,” she said by rote. “My little nightmare of a liar.”


    Footsteps across the bridge drew her attention. An attendant. She allowed them to approach with a gesture.


    “Young Mistress, a summons for you has arrived from Elder Shenhou,” one of the servants, the household manager, said with a bow. “It is for twenty minutes from now at the Main Hall.”


    “Is his messenger still here?”


    “Yes. Awaiting a response.”


    Hua leaned back and found a more comfortable position. “Tell him that I will arrive in two hours and no sooner. If the elder has an issue, he can visit me personally.”


    “As you wish, Young Mistress.”


    “Did you tell her about what happened with Shenhou,” Meiling softly hissed at her twin.


    “She said she wouldn’t do something stupid.”


    “You idiot, it’s Hua. She always does something stupid.”


    “Call me an idiot again.”


    A sharp whistle broke the fight before they broke the serving trays. Again.


    “I have something to tell you guys. You’re the first people I’m telling this to. I have taken the name Weilong and it is the name I will use from now on.”


    “Weilong?” Song asked, testing the name hesitantly, squinting in distaste. “I don’t understand. Your name is Hua.”


    “You don’t have to understand, you just have to trust me. Can you do that for me? Use that name whenever we’re around other people. Especially outside the Clan.”


    “No, I want an explanation first.”


    “I will be the next Lord Liao. Grandmother has asked me to do this. We need someone to tell a powerful story about us and we can’t do that with Father the way he is. With Brother gone and the Elders old. Someone must be the next Lord of our clan and Grandmother has chosen me.”


    Meiling shook her head. “If we said we didn’t like it, would you not do it? We’re fine just the way we are. Better than fine.”


    “I’m sorry. I have a duty.”


    “Brother will hate you for this. Father will.”


    “If he ever wakes up,” Meiling added snidely.


    “I know,” Hua said wearily, already imagining the thunder and fury. The house might very well be destroyed before Father was done shouting.


    “So why are you doing it?”


    “Because I need to protect us all. If… the family is weak now, then others will take advantage. We don’t know what’s happened to the other Clans, but Father’s strength was the only thing protecting us. They’ve hated us for centuries and they’ll put us all to the sword if they have a chance. The lucky ones will. The unlucky ones will be sold into slavery and prostitution.”


    The twins nodded, understanding. History was built on the blood of the losers and told by those with the sharpest swords and greatest treasuries. Just as Hua had learnt the parts of history made up of violence, so too had she taught the twins.


    “Elder Qiang could do it instead. Any of the Elders.”


    “Don’t be dumb. Compared to Sister, the elders are weak.”


    Her eyes widened as she nearly choked. “Don’t say that. They’re not—”


    “They are,” Song interjected sharply. “That’s what everyone says. You and Weijiang are stronger. Will be in a few years. Ask anyone and they know you’re the next one to establish the Foundation. Cousin Weiji has better chances than any of the Shens.”


    “You’re listening to too many rumours. Who has been telling you this?”


    “Aunty Qiang.”


    From Xiao came Shen. After Shen came Qi, the parents of the Wei Generation. Generation names were given based on the generation one would come of age. It was why her brother Weijiang was of the same generation as her Cousin Weiji despite Hua’s father being of the Xiao generation and Weiji’s dead father being of the Qi Generation.


    “You know, Grandmother could do it,” Hua joked.


    The twins shared a look.


    “What?”


    Meiling proved herself the braver. “You know that no one likes her, right?”


    “I like her. She’s my favourite person after you two.”


    “I love you, I really, truly love you, but you are not a people person at all.”


    Maybe they were right. Even after the many reveals, she still cared for the dragon who raised her.


    “I’m a good at killing people person,” Hua said because if she were to be a dragon, she would not hide it. “And the elders can learn to wait on their new Lord if they don’t want to learn just how good I am at that.”