He made a production of it, Hua thought, warring between amusement, annoyance, and anger. It took great focus not to scowl at the sight waiting for her at the base of the hill, between the outer walls and the arched gate being opened.


    Twelve horses aligned in two neat rows. A full dozen beasts of burden saddled in an arrangement of leather and gleaming gold that was almost too ornamental to be practical. The saddle blankets were embroidered fabric in sky blue that draped down to the horse’s knees. Draped so low, they gave the already broad horses a wider silhouette.


    When all twelve had to be put down from broken ankles after working down devastated roads, she was making Weiji do it, and she would make him eat horsemeat for the next year.


    She glared at her cousin where he was already mounted on his horse, an antsy beast that skittered back when Hua approached. It didn’t calm when she placed her hand on its silken neck, entertained by the way its dark sheen turned matte when displaced.


    “It fits your temperament,” she said as it chuffed in annoyance, kept steady only by Weiji’s steadying hand. “A perfectly nervous disposition to match you.”


    “Don’t scare her,” he complained. “She’s a sweet creature.”


    “I didn’t take you for a horse person. Thought you didn’t like them.”


    “They’re my favourite creatures now that I know your savage is afraid of them.”


    That explained much. Both why so many horses were chosen and why Liu Xin had been sent ahead. Weiji was just petty enough to do this.


    “I doubt he’s afraid of horses. Wanting to get away from someone who has threatened to kill him is a more likely truth. Do you think my horse will like me?”


    “It’ll be too terrified to misbehave. One day I’ll find a cannibalistic horse just for you. Wouldn’t want you to think no animal is right for you.”


    “I hope you enjoy horsemeat because it’s all you’ll get when they break their ankles. I‘m truly bewildered at the numbers you’ve brought out for a simple meeting.”


    “Don’t exaggerate. Politics is never simple.”


    After a bit more needling, a compromise was reached, and they would have only two flagbearers. A true miracle. If Weiji had his way, he’d have half the city line the streets, waving kingfisher banners. The other half would be made to cheer on the pain of death… Hua wasn’t sure whether physical torture would be worse than having to listen to Weiji’s homegrown poetry—he had a good voice for recitation but no mind for rhyme.


    Hua made her way to the horse in the lead whose saddle blanket had a sky-blue kingfisher against a blindingly white field. She greeted the stallion with kind hands and gentle words. When it was settled, she saddled the horse in one smooth motion, her dark mantle settling down around her.


    It was a heavy thing, the mantle, nearly as old as their clan. Rubies and diamonds were sewn in precise patterns. Against deep blue silk, it reminded her of the sky on a clear night, the great constellations watching over them. With the fur of a supposed demon wolf a resplendent white, she matched the horse’s saddle. Today would be the first time the world saw the new Lord Weilong.


    Let it be enough, Hua thought, clutching the jade pendant around her neck. Let me be enough.


    And so, her parade of twelve cavalry, twenty foot soldiers, and only two flagbearers, made their way down the ruined and cold streets of Liaojiangko.


    The roads were in better condition than she expected for only a few days of work. The mortals organised into work groups had been surprisingly productive in their work. It could have been a sudden surge in communal responsibility, the mix of Clan and Imperial soldiers who had set up stockades to whip people, or the long lineups to kitchens that required an approved token of work. Hua assumed it was the latter two and especially approved of the whipping. The system to exchange food for work was the honeyed apple of a reward which she was certain only worked because of the whipping. Otherwise, the mortals would be doing what they always did and rampaging, leaving more buildings to burn down and the remaining corpses to rot in the street.


    Hua slowly panned her gaze as they rode at a slow trot, allowing the peasants to get a good look at her and her horse. For the civilians, this would be one more chance to see the new Lord Liao, even if that name hadn’t been widely announced. If there were spies from Yu or Zhao, and if it was possible, they would send the message back to their clans that the Radiant Lightning Body had a newer heir commanding the clan. If such a passage could be made.


    With winter approaching, many of them would die of exposure or starvation. At least they would glimpse the one who they could curse for their misery. There was nothing—no, she would find a way. Not out of care or interest, but because she needed them breaking their backs to farm wheat and mine silver. Needed the economic outputs of their bodies to fuel her cultivation needs.


    Hua drew her mount closer to Weiji, amused as his horse leaned away from hers. They truly were a matched set.


    “Why send the heralds ahead of us when we were already making the journey with such a huge procession?”


    “Are you used to just barging in wherever you please and never bothering with courtesy? Wait, no of course you are. Why did I expect anything different? Someone should have forced you to go through etiquette lessons like the rest of us. Anyway, the Magistrate would have made you wait if you came unannounced. That couldn’t be allowed. If you were struggling to keep up, being made to wait would demean you.”


    “You’ll struggle to keep up when I cut your legs off,” she warned without heat. “And if the Magistrate tried to make me wait, we would have a new magistrate.”


    “No, we wouldn’t. He’s too useful for you to kill on a whim and you know that.”


    “Do I?”


    His narrowed eyes were considering. “You’d do it just to spite me and then give me more work. I hate you. The twins are my favourite now.”


    “You can’t even tell them apart.”


    “No one can. Even you can’t and don’t lie by saying you can.”


    It was very easy to tell them apart. Just wait for the first one to insult your very existence. That was always Meiling. And the revenge that came from nowhere months after an incident was always Song. Simple ways, really. The knife in the gut at that moment and the knife in the back years from now.


    “Did you choose the soldiers in this convoy?”


    He shook his head. “Just Captain Yao. He came recommended when I asked around. He picked everyone else. I can’t say much to their moral character.”


    Don’t trust them implicitly, Weiji wasn’t saying. Hua thought she recognised the captain from the guard duty at the Entrance Gate, but they cycled through that duty. She wouldn’t put much stock into it. If Weiji thought the warning necessary, Hua would respect it.


    They crested the rise to the Magistrate’s estate. The gates had been damaged by the earth breaking. The left gate’s support wall had both sunk and broken in half. The other hung by one hinge and a set of ropes binding it to some supports. The curving willow trees had survived only to frame the destruction more acutely.


    Hua and her convoy entered the central courtyard after they were announced by Liu Xin who had been waiting for them alongside one of the Magistrate’s servants.


    “The Magistrate awaits you, honoured members of the Liao Clan,” greeted the servant. “This lowly one was informed that only a small party would be attending.”


    “This is a small party,” Weiji sneered. He looked terribly like his grandfather who Hua disliked. “As a concession to avoid straining your Magistrate’s constitution, only three shall attend: my Lord, myself, and another servant. Make certain our soldiers are attended properly.”


    They dismounted, and with that, they went to meet the Magistrate.


    ***


    The Imperial Magistrate of Liaojiangkou, chosen representative to carry an Imperial Mandate signed by the Son of Heaven, met them in a formal receiving room that opened onto one of the inner courtyards of the estate. The Magistrate was a busy enough man to necessitate two desks for his secretaries. Only one was in use by a mousy man who made himself as invisible as possible.


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    He was a heavyset man in his middle years. With not a hair out of place or a single crease in his dark robes of office, one would not have thought he recently awoke from a coma to find his commandery half burnt to the ground and the other half avoiding that fate by virtue of flooding. He managed to look immaculate despite the shock of that news, with only a fresh cut on the side of his thick neck peeking out from his collars.


    From the courtyard, the chill breeze carried the scent of both smoke and chrysanthemum. It was a simple garden, relying on the strength of distinctly jagged rocks carefully arranged around a tall peach tree that would look gorgeous in spring. Anything more complicated than moss, simple grasses, hardy bamboo, and the circle of chrysanthemums would have overtly shown damage. That Hua could only notice a few stems that were torn abruptly and the occasional space where a decorative stone had fallen on its side spoke to the diligence of the gardeners.


    “Your groundskeepers have done excellent work,” Hua said after tea had been served, gesturing at the garden. “This Lord is curious where you found such resilient workers.”


    His hawk-eyed gaze cut past the dignity she wielded as a shield and saw into her.


    It was a mostly hasty thing, her outfit. Her height permitted her to fit into some of Weijiang’s clothes and as the designated heir, they were of the finest silk she had ever touched. A gauze layer extended past the sleeves of the powder blue robes, hiding her hands from view. Over it all, she wore her father’s mantle. She took comfort in the weight of her duty before this sharp-eyed man.


    Most extravagant was the hair crown. Her father’s lesser crown shaped her hair. It was still a beauty as it was paired with a kingfisher hairpin. Not an imitation in jade or glass; the bright blue feathers were plucked from the tiny bird and preserved in a clear resin.


    The only thing that felt like hers was the white sash Grandmother had presented her. A shade of white like freshly fallen snow, embroidered with gold stitching around the outer edges. Her eyes and her hair, symbols of her and of her mourning.


    “This servant of the Dragon Throne thanks you for the compliment. However, he would like an explanation. He was told a Young Mistress Liao was handling the matter of the city on behalf of the Liao Clan. Honourable Imperial soldiers tell this Magistrate that the Young Mistress treated everyone with the same dignity.”


    I showed disdain to every mortal equally. I don’t think that counts as giving anyone dignity.


    Weiji’s scoff was a perfect weapon. “Which official missive from our clan implied such? Please, tell us who speaks in the name of our Lord Liao, so that I might deal with them.”


    “Do not bite off a man’s head for what the birds sing to him. A Young Mistress Liao was involved,” she agreed, smiling as Weijiang would in this situation, bold and wide. Fearless. Certain of his role. “The Young Mistress Liao is better engaged in her duties at home.”


    “The same Young Mistress who wielded the Thunder Palm. I am told she is the greatest of her generation, head and shoulders above all others.”


    Weiji made a wheezing sound beside her. Hua ignored it as she ignored the Magistrate unintentionally insulting her brother. They may have had disagreements, but her brother was a powerful Cultivator.


    “Surely this Lord would be aware if another was greater than he.”


    “It was said her eyes were like pure gold polished to a shine. Very distinctive eyes when your Clan is known for its notably green eyes.”


    “A common misconception. Only some have the green eyes, usually a marriage from the main family. But I did not come to discuss any daughters of my Clan. They are great marriage prospects, but this Lord believes they would be too young for an honourable Magistrate like you.”


    “Ah, yes, the distinctive features inherited by Liao Furen, the Lady Xiao Jiu. They have bred true in every generation after her. One wonders why they did not in you. If silver hair might be dyed.”


    “You dare,” Weiji snarled and, oh, that was his Qi roiling to life, ready to cut down an insult to her. Why he’d developed this overprotective streak, she did not know, but she did appreciate his willingness for violence.


    Before Weiji could do the sort of foolishness he always assumed of Hua, she drew out the force of her Qi and let it spark. There was a weight to her Qi, one even the mortal scribes could sense. It sang like the rumbling of distant thunder as the power of her elemental inclination engulfed her in a blinding storm. The Magistrate winced, blinking heavily. One did not look at a child of lightning so easily.


    “This Lord has already attained the sixth star. He wonders if Lady Xiao Jiu’s lineage is still in question.”


    “I unfortunately missed your last birthday. How old are you again?”


    “This son of lighting is to turn sixteen soon, Lord Magistrate.”


    Fifteen years and she had already surpassed the Magistrate. Fifteen and she stood above the rest of her generation except for her brother.


    The Magistrate reached for his tea with steady hands and took a sip. Watched her in silence over the rim of the cup. She imagined the youth he observed dressed in her father’s cloak and lying through her teeth. The calculation he must be making. She was a scion of a clan that might not hold the influence it once did. But she was also the child of the Radiant Lightning Body who had ensured the primacy of the Liao Clan. At fifteen and at a level of Cultivation that was prodigious, what could she achieve by the time she was twenty?


    Hua knew the projected answer. She was expected to rapidly approach the peak of Qi Gathering, the realm her elders occupied. Another decade and she could break through to the same realm as her father, the Liao Patriarch, whose influence held back both Yu and Zhao. A decade and she could lay down her road to heaven.


    That was before lightning struck her and deepened her meridians so profoundly that it would require exponentially more Qi to unlock her seventh star.


    Finally, he spoke. “What would you suggest we do next, Lord Liao Weilong?”


    The first hurdle was cleared. Acknowledgement from the magistrate. It would go into clan and imperial records for as much as the latter still had meaning. Now, to save her city, her province, her people. She gestured to Liu Xin. Rather rudely, he took up a seat at the free scribe’s desk and retrieved stationary from his leather carrier case. He would take notes for her that would be placed in the clan’s archives.


    “Let us begin this meeting,” Liao Weilong declared.


    “As you wish, Lord Liao.”


    “Has there been any communication from the outlying cities?”


    He sighed heavily. “No messages from Seagate or the cities before it. A few junior guards were sent to check. The roads are devastated, the flooding worse along the plain. By the time they got to one of the minor villages on the outskirts of the city, the message was the same. Flooding, fires, even demons if stories are to be believed.”


    “Demons,” Weiji hissed disbelieving.


    She raised one finger of the hand holding her teacup to silence him. “There aren’t enough blessed by the heavens to handle an outbreak of such myths.”


    “It would be lucky if only the Amber Sea was affected. The Dragon Throne could send support, but I doubt the heavens would be so kind now. The Governor would have sent a messenger by now.”


    The Governor’s Palace had traditionally been housed in the northeastern regions of the province, closer to the borders with the Goryeo Kingdom and the southmost Jurchen Tribes who occupied the steppes. It made sense to have your largest garrison nearest the border. It made even more sense when it was built, when the Yu Clan were undisputed champions of the Amber Sea. Calling the frozen east of the province home, their bladework and divination had seen them through generations of Goryeo incursion.


    It was only in the last two centuries that Hua’s family had risen to be the biggest players in the region. Her grandmother being the first to establish the Foundation and then her father perfecting it with his Radiant Lightning Body technique. It had been enough to firmly shift military power to their side even if the Throne was most closely aligned with Yu.


    Under clear conditions, with no concern for Clan war and no worry for bandits, it might a month for a fast Cultivator to make that journey. Specially trained spirit birds were faster. Which meant they were either all dead along with the Governor or they’d been killed on the journey.


    She said as much.


    “That was the conclusion we came to as well. We can assume that Liao territories are entirely disconnected from Yu and Zhao, at least for a little while.”


    That was an opportunity if Hua had ever heard it. A chance to act without her enemies watching. That couldn’t be ignored. She suppressed her smile before it could spread.


    “Law and order need to be restored across the region. We have created pockets of peace in the city, but it will be strained once winter rolls through and hunger steals the wits of the mortals. With enough examples, those considering banditry might be brought to heel for a few weeks, maybe even months. But once the depth of winter is reached, we can expect violence.”


    She felt more than she saw Weiji straighten up in realisation. “Supplies need to be protected and distributed fairly,” Weiji said carefully. “Which means we’ll need to seize them and build a reserve that we fully control. Even an army of bandits wouldn’t attack the Liao Clan.”


    Good. He reached that conclusion quickly. Hua would be keeping him close in the coming weeks to wrangle the clan and the city. After the difficulty with the mortals in the city, she would make certain to surround herself with competence. And better that he and Liu Xin deal with the mortals than Hua.


    “Stockpiling so many resources would start the very rebellion you mean to avert.”


    “The Liao Clan will not be exempt, but our contribution will be observed by our Cultivators. The rest can be a mix between Liao and your Imperial soldiers.”


    “Truly, the Liao Clan is blessed to produce so many Cultivators.”


    Would that we be so lucky, she thought, leaning back slightly. Most of their cultivators were in the Body Tempering stage and those few that had crossed to Qi Gathering rarely saw beyond the second star. Most who rose above that point became elders or achieved specialist positions like Old Ren or Ming’s mother. It left her with few options. The elders were liable to launch a coup in the future against her. Spiritualists generally weren’t good fighters.


    In truth, the Liao Clan’s position was precarious. Her missing brother cut down their fighting strength significantly and, of those who had established the foundation to heaven, her father was dying, and her grandmother had been old since before Hua was born.


    Hua and Weiji represented the two great Cultivators of the next generation. They would shoulder their legacy or watch millennia of history turn to ash in their hands.


    “Heaven has been kind to us,” she said pleasantly, lying through her teeth. “They will be kind to us all again. But until the kindness of the heavens can reach us again, we must make our own luck and make ready for what comes next.”


    “I can work with my soldiers to seize supplies and create a depot with your clan. That much is within my remit.”


    “Were that alone useful. Governor, can you claim the Imperial assets that remain in the province?”


    “Such a consolidation of power might be considered treason. It would be treason for me to do so. An overreach of my remit to intrude on the jurisdiction of other magistrates. Many a warlord attempted the same.”


    “Mere mortals who desired a station greater than any they deserved. But you, Lord Magistrate, hold a great station and that station comes with a duty to my people. Our people now. I very much doubt the standard three years will see you returned to the capital. Liaojiangkou will be your home until this chaos is resolved.”


    “My peers in other cities will refuse this command.”


    “Even accompanied by Cultivators?”


    “And if they have backing of their own?”


    “Then, Magistrate, you have to pray that my sword is mightier.”