AN: Now that we've seen things from XingYue's POVs, we're going to broaden our world a bit this week. I hope y'all enjoy becoming reacquainted with some old friends—and some references to a couple of old scenes from "Lunar Convergence" which make an appearance in our favorite spymaster's mind. I know this should've gone up last week, but I blame the Olympics (and laziness). Maybe I'll be more punctual next week. Maybe I won't. We'll see.
He slipped silently through the darkened passageway, stopping only to slit the throat of another darkly-clad figure with ease. While his black mask was frozen in a permanently-grotesque, toothy grin, his own face made no change in expression. This was just business, after all, and no measure was too strong to take when a woman's life was on the line.
The man moved quickly and soundlessly, disposing of any others he met using the same method he'd used on the previous guards. He lamented the presence of the coffin box on his back not only because it impeded his movements but because he knew that it was highly unfashionable. Eventually the dim corridor gave way to a slightly-less-dark room that would still never be accused of brightness or cheerfulness.
Not that I would expect my darling sister to keep a prisoner in any better conditions, Xiao Ce thought, his eyes narrowing in speculation as he took in the sight that met his eyes.
The young woman he'd come to rescue was slumped over unceremoniously in an iron cage, her rope bindings giving mute testimony to the way that even his sister considered her a threat. Xiao Ce would be the first to admit that he could be arrogant and rash, but he was not so foolish that he would ignore such a wordless warning. When the figure started coming to in response to his footsteps, he didn't hesitate to shoot her with enough darts to knock her out for hours.
The crown prince got to work picking the lock, knowing that he could've simply waltzed in the front door of this facility but not wanting his sister to know the identity of this admittedly-lovely young woman's rescuer. No, Xiao Ce had far better reasons for taking this woman than simply stealing her away to irritate dearest Xiao Yu. If he played his hand right, he knew that he could be rid of at least one dangerous enemy—if not two-in a few days' time.
As the lock clicked in a satisfying manner, Xiao Ce opened the door and hefted the young woman in his arms. He couldn't help but appreciate her beauty; even in her current disheveled state, she was still a sight to behold.
I'm sure she'll be so appreciative of my rescuing her that she'll jump right into my arms, he mused sarcastically as he lumbered towards the front door with his prize in his arms.
A clatter arose outside the doors that he'd almost reached, and he didn't try to stop the grin that wanted to form behind that ridiculously ugly Afterlife Camp mask. As he opened the door with his back and shoved his way outside, the mental vision of his sister's furious face gave him the strength to carry the young woman as if she weighed nothing. Of course, the sight of the black carriage that had pulled right up to the front door made him move quickly as well since he knew that the reinforcements for all of the guards who had met such unfortunate ends should be coming at any moment.
In fact, I'm counting on it, he thought as he handed the young lady off to another masked man who made sure that his outfit was seen by the few people who were present.
As if on cue, masculine shouts rang out as the next shift of guards spotted the dark vehicle that would soon be spiriting away their prized prisoner. Xiao Ce knew these guys were dead men walking since his sister allowed no failure to go unpunished. Of course, he felt that anyone dumb enough to work for his sister would likely have met a bad end anyway, so he was just hastening the process of dying along a bit.
The driver was wearing Afterlife Camp gear as well, and shouts of fear and anger rang out from the sprinting guards as his getup was recognized. Xiao Ce's eyes sparkled with glee as he jumped in the already-moving carriage and left the now-jobless guards and the secret prison behind. Hopefully in a few days, he'd have the good fortune of hearing that his sister had walked into the trap he'd laid for her and that...well…
Whether my sister takes out the Afterlife Camp or they take her out, Miss Chong, you and I are going to have a great time laughing over the results.
Xiao Yu crumpled the letter in her fist, her face a mask of anger and wounded pride as she mentally raged against the Afterlife Camp. How dare they come into her country, break into her prison, and steal her prisoner. An image of her stupid brother's sarcastic smirk intruded her thoughts as she imagined just how he would look when he heard about how a mutual enemy had taken her captive right out from under her nose.
"What's happened, Princess?" Tao Ye asked after the silence grew awkwardly long.
"The Afterlife Camp broke into the secret prison and took Xia Chong," she said, her jawline becoming even sharper in her rage.
Her fellow spy's eyes widened and then filled with anger themselves.
"What are we going to do?" Tao Ye asked. "We can't let them get away with doing something like that, but we can't...I mean...can we?"
"We can't let them get away with such a flagrant taunt," Xiao Yu agreed. "Although the Afterlife Camp is strong, they're not as smart as we are."
"That's true," Tao Ye said, pouring fresh tea for the princess and then herself. "So what's the plan?"
Xiao Yu sipped her tea, lamenting that its quality was nowhere near as good as that which could be had back at her palace in Liang. She mulled the problem over for several moments before making a decision, gratified that, even if Tao Ye wasn't smart enough to come up with a solution on her own, she at least had the sense to stay quiet while Xiao Yu herself thought things through.
"I'll send Yin Xin out with our men to watch the roads," she said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and will be able to recover Xia Chong that way."
"And the Afterlife Camp?"
"Oh, don't worry," Xiao Yu said, grinning unpleasantly. "We'll still make them pay for this brazen insult. Given the importance of the information that Xia Chong has yet to tell me, though, I'd rather get revenge on them with her safely hidden away again instead of having to worry about keeping her alive in the fight."
"So why don't we just attack tonight and be done with it?" Tao Ye asked.
Xiao Yu smiled patiently at her assistant; after all, that wasn't such a bad question.
"First of all, we don't know whether Xia Chong has already been taken to their lair or not," she said, holding up a finger. "Secondly, we don't know enough about this situation to just blindly blunder into a potential trap. Thirdly, I want to know more about their attack on Qing Shan Yuan before we attack them ourselves."
"Our spies should be reporting in soon," Tao Ye said. "Maybe they'll have more to tell us than that there was an attack, some people died, and some people are taking medicine."
"Three people are taking very expensive medicine," Xiao Yu reminded her associate. "Which leads me to believe-"
"-that this would be our best chance to attack the Afterlife Camp when we know for sure that they have lowered numbers—not to mention that Yuwen Yue is likely flat on his back as well. I know."
Xiao Yu gave her associate a small smile and outlined several versions of a plan she'd been crafting for weeks. She could tell from Tao Ye's expression that the spy realized that fact and was beginning to put the pieces together.
"This isn't just about Xia Chong, is it?"
"Of course it's not," Xiao Yu said. "We've lost our fair share of people to the Afterlife Camp, after all, so eliminating them would get rid of an enemy—and competition. They also have...certain things in their lair that I'm going to take from them tomorrow night."
Tao Ye looked at her expectantly.
"Xing'er," she said succinctly, obviously surprising the other woman. "I want to know who she is. I know who Yin Xin thought she was, and I know he said that he was mistaken, but I want to know how a slave girl is able to do the things she does."
"And if any place is going to have a record of someone like Xing'er, it would be the Afterlife Camp."
Xiao Yu nodded and smiled maliciously as she contemplated taking out an irritating enemy, recovering a valuable prisoner that had been stolen from her, and stealing the Afterlife Camp's information repository. She then envisioned herself taking down Yuwen Yue and ridding Liang of the threat of the Eyes of God for good.
The only thing that would make tomorrow any better would be to receive a letter from my pen friend, she mused as Tao Ye poured her a fresh cup of tea. I can't think of a better way to end a long, hard, but victorious day than by reading a letter from Brother Yue.
Yuwen Yue poured out his heart to his pen friend in cryptic verse as his pen shook in his hand, not so much from emotion as from fatigue. The figurative language flowed from his mind and onto the paper as he did his best to convey his troubles and feelings to his boyhood friend without giving his identity away. Even this relatively small amount of exertion was taxing him to his limits, but he felt that the release he gained from writing to his friend was worth the weakness he was currently experiencing.
His eyes were once again drawn to the small, huddled form curled up in his bed. Xing'er had been there since the attack two days before; he hadn't been willing to let her out of his sight and had insisted on giving her the medicine himself. All of yesterday had consisted of nothing but treatment and sleep for both of them. As worried as he'd been about Xing'er's well-being, he hadn't been able to deny the feelings that sleeping next to Xing'er had aroused in him.
Or the feelings that watching her sleep in my bed arouse in me...
He had, of course, chosen to sit facing his bed by chance even though he normally sat facing the door; the fact that Xing'er was peacefully resting in his bed had had nothing to do with the decision. As Yuwen Yue penned a few more lines, he was forced to acknowledge that he was lying to himself yet again.
Just like you lied to yourself about Xing'er's identity after your meeting with Concubine Wei, part of his mind taunted him.
Yuwen Yue's pen hovered forgotten over the paper as he acknowledged the mental hit. Xing'er shifted in his bed again, pulling the covers up tighter under her chin and sighing softly in contentment. She looked so small, so vulnerable, so beautiful...Nothing at all like the daughter of his greatest enemy and the biggest threat to the Eyes of God.
That's because she's neither of those things, his more emotional side told him.
Of course she is, oh, idiotic spymaster, his snide side replied. That doesn't, of course, automatically make her untrustworthy.
"She's not Chu Qiao," he muttered, glad that nobody was in his room to hear him talking to himself.
Although he was ashamed of having spoken aloud, his heart felt the rightness of what he'd said. As he looked at the woman he loved sleeping so soundly beneath his covers, his heart told him in no uncertain terms that her truest self was Xing'er and that she was utterly trustworthy.
Trust, he thought, shaking his head as he hastily finished off his letter. How can I know who to trust? Can I trust my beloved to overcome her past self when she regains her memories? Can I trust that Afterlife Camp assassin to keep her part of our bargain without betraying me? Can I trust anyone but my pen friend?
While part of him still had misgivings about Xing'er's past, his mind was at least in accord about her general trustworthiness. His emotional side, naturally, wanted to trust her because of his love for her, but even his rational side had to admit that Xing'er had demonstrated an immense amount of faith in him by telling him the truth.
Besides, if she'd wanted to kill me, she could've done so numerous times already. She had no reason to tell me the truth about her parentage and history; she gained nothing yet risked everything by revealing the facts to me. Why would she take such a chance on me if she didn't…
Noting that the ink was dry, Yuwen Yue folded his letter and then rolled it up so that it would fit in the container that he would send off straight away. He wondered what Brother Yu would tell him to do, and his mind was instantly filled with sympathetic warnings about being unable to trust anyone and resigned admissions of knowing how being unable to live the life you wanted to live felt. His grandfather's approving face also flashed through his mind; he knew Yuwen Zhuo would agree with those sentiments.
That's not the kind of life I want to live, he realized with sudden clarity.
What other kind of life is there, Yue'er? he could almost hear his grandfather asking.
Yuwen Yue's eyes were drawn irresistibly back to the bed—and, of course, to the figure of his beloved within it. An image came to him of a slightly-older Xing'er sitting up in the bed and feeding his child—their child—with devoted focus. He could see her attention shift from the baby to him, her robe slipping off of her back to pool uselessly on the bed as her eyes met his with that mischievously-innocent look that he'd never been able to resist.
The image faded away, but his determination to make that vision a reality remained with him. In that moment, he accepted that Xing'er had already made her way too far into his heart for him to turn his back on her over a few what-ifs. While he knew that his beloved could regain her memory and become Chu Qiao once again, his intuition told him that Xing'er would be able to hold onto who she truly was when the time came.
"I'm not Chu Qiao!" he could see and hear her yelling.
Another image came to him, this one of him sitting behind Xing'er on the bed as she leaned back against him and fed their son. All three of them had looks of such supreme contentment on their faces that he was glad that nobody else was in the room to see his own look of longing form.
No, you're not Chu Qiao, he acknowledged as he stood up from the table and gave into his body's demands for rest—and contact with his beloved. His parrot awoke with a small squawk as he heard the noise, ducking his head sheepishly as he realized that he'd fallen asleep on the job. The bird had been keeping watch over Xing'er whenever Yuwen Yue was otherwise occupied—or when they were both asleep in his bed, of course.
As he drew closer to his bed, he realized just how pale and drawn Xing'er's face had become in the last few minutes. She gave a small shiver, and any thoughts of sending his pen friend's letter right away left his mind as he pulled back the covers and crawled beneath them. He covered himself with the blankets and rested both his head and his right arm against the pillow, anticipating what he knew would come next with more enthusiasm than he knew was prudent.
After a few minutes had passed, he felt Xing'er start to shift towards him, drawn to him in sleep as she always had been. As she finally snuggled up to his side and rested her head against his chest, he allowed his arm to curl around her in utter satisfaction. The furrows in her brow smoothed out; the shivering stopped; her face reflected quiet peace once again.
He caught his Cangwu bird looking at him, so he gave him a stern stare. The parrot's shoulders jerked to attention and his body faced forward, giving an uncanny impression of Xing'er's guarding position of a few days ago. Yuwen Yue's lips twitched in the smallest of smiles as he closed his eyes, ducked his head, and rested it against his beloved's, breathing deeply.
My Xing'er, he thought drowsily as sleep pulled at him. I'm going to marry you, Xing'er. We're going to rebuild the Eyes of God and the Yuwen legacy together. You're going to regain your memories at some point, but they'll be unable to turn you back into Chu Qiao because you're mine. I promise I'll marry you somehow; I won't let Yuwen Xi, Yuwen Huai, or anyone else stop me. I'm going to marry you, Xing'er, but first I'm going to…
The scent of the woman he loved surrounded him as he drifted off to sleep.
Tao Ye listened as Yin Xin reported their lack of success in locating Xia Chong or those who had taken her. He'd assured the princess that there had been no sign of any Afterlife Camp assassins or black carriages on the roads he and their people had been staking out. Xiao Yu confirmed that they were going to go through with the plan she'd crafted yesterday and would be raiding the Afterlife Camp this night.
"Do you want us to keep guarding the roads, Princess?" he asked.
"No," Xiao Yu said. "Tao Ye and I have already...harvested those assassins that have been keeping tabs on us for all these months. I think they're ready to serve their purpose, don't you?"
"Indeed, Princess," Yin Xin said, bowing slightly. "We'll all dress as you and Miss Ye have."
"Try to match the men with the outfit sizes as closely as possible," Xiao Yu instructed. "After all, we don't want to draw any more attention than necessary when we enter their lair tonight."
"I take it you've already found the entry seal, Princess," Yin Xin said. "Surely we'll have no trouble getting into their lair with that in hand."
Xiao Yu nodded at Yin Xin, and the man left to fulfill his mission. Tao Ye assumed that the princess would have something more productive to do than to stand around waiting for something to happen, so she was surprised when Xiao Yu did just that.
"How can I serve you, Princess?" Tao Ye finally asked. "What should I do to prepare for tonight?"
Suddenly a pigeon flew into view, and Tao Ye was struck at how youthful the princess's face looked when she saw the bird. It landed in its proper place, and Xiao Yu wasted no time in divesting it of its message. She took out the roll of paper and made as if to open it before changing her mind. Instead, she tucked the paper into a pocket in her black robes and patted the space with determination.
"We need to look over that map of the Afterlife Camp that we managed to steal from that old shopkeeper," Xiao Yu finally said, turning back towards the inn in which they were staying. "Be sure to pay special attention to where their records are hidden. As much as I want Xia Chong, I want that repository almost as much."
"Of course, Princess," Tao Ye said, clasping her hands and bowing.
The Afterlife Camp robes she was wearing were disconcerting in their unfamiliarity; she could only imagine how strange wearing the rest of their gear would be. As little as she was looking forward to putting on that creepy, irritating mask, she knew that their victory tonight would make everything worthwhile.
Meng Feng didn't even have to show her token of entry to the guards outside of the initial rocky entrance to the Afterlife Camp's lair before they were scrambling to let her and her party go through. Not that she was surprised; after all, the two recognizable swords she carried in her hands were better than any sort of seal. Of course, her personal appearance likely also had something to do with the swiftness of their admission; the effects of the poison were becoming obvious, and the guards could see her clear distress.
Not that Yuwen Yue looked much better. He was slightly behind her to her right, only a step or so away from the sword that all in their world associated with him. Meng Feng knew that he would draw that sword when the time came; she hoped that she'd be able to hold up her part of the bargain. The spymaster had recovered significantly from the last time she'd seen him, but she could tell that he was still quite weak underneath his Afterlife Camp gear.
Not that that's a bad thing, Meng Feng thought as they wended their way through the narrow stone passage that led to the main entrance of their lair. After all, we're supposed to need to take the antidote to our poison, so a lack of paleness and sweat might be seen as suspicious.
She felt the weight of Yuwen Yue's sword in her right hand and the responsibility it entailed, but she also knew how important the sword in her left hand was—not just to the man beside her, but to the woman he loved. While rumors of their relationship had reached the Afterlife Camp as they likely had many other places throughout the land, Meng Feng had had a hard time believing that a wealthy, powerful man like Yuwen Yue would be willing to stoop to the level of having a serious relationship with someone like Xing'er.
Keeping up appearances, she nodded once at Yuwen Yue, who reached a hand up and pulled the vine that was connected to the bell that would signal the men inside to open the heavy metal doors of the lair. After all, the returning leader of the group that had successfully killed both Yuwen Yue and his pet spy shouldn't have to shift her grip on her trophy swords in order to do something as mundane as ring a little bell.
Meng Feng still had to temporarily grip both swords in one hand anyway, though, as the entrance required a seal to open. The guard took the token from her with enthusiasm and stuck it into the depression in the wall, triggering the mechanism that opened the doors. While she only conveyed the mild distress they'd expect to see in someone in need of a dose of antidote, her insides were a roiling mess of anxiety. She was staking her entire future on a man whom she knew hadn't yet recovered from his illness—and who might turn on her once he had what he wanted, bargain or no.
Strolling confidently into the dimness of their lair, she led Yuwen Yue and the six guards through the gritty labyrinth that she'd called home for much of her life. They blended in with their black Afterlife Camp outfits that they'd stripped from the dead; as she'd wanted and expected, nobody paid them much notice since all of their eyes were on the gleaming swords in her hands.
Her eyes sought and found a small group of men who were huddled in their customary nighttime corner, enjoying one another's company while avoiding the rest of their comrades. They looked at her intently, and she gave them the barest of nods, tipping Yuwen Yue's large sword slightly towards its owner. Their eyes gave nothing away, but she could see the subtle shifts in their bodies that told her that her message had been received. It was almost time, and they would soon get into position.
Meng Feng's heart warmed at the obvious trust these men placed in her, and she was determined to free them from this nightmarish life they'd all been living. On the outside, they all pretended to be dutiful, fanatical Afterlife Camp assassins, but inside...inside, they were all dying, and they were willing to risk everything to be free.
They were also desperate because another Nirvana was coming up soon, and Meng Feng knew that she was likely the only one who was animal enough to survive it. Her friends—brothers, really—would all likely be killed by the brutal, vicious men around them. Of course, they would all probably be killed tonight, too-especially if Yuwen Yue proved to be too weak to defeat the master. Plan or no plan, sick lover or no sick lover, she knew from experience that the body could only do so much sometimes.
At long last, she rounded the final rocky bend of these serpentine catacombs and led the way into the room where the master awaited them, seated in his rolling chair at his zither. His eyes widened as he saw the matching swords she carried in her hands, but he still managed to keep his composure. A smirk crossed his face at her obvious discomfort as and she got down on her knees, prostrating herself before him for what she vowed would be the last time one way or another.
Yuwen Yue did the same, his piercing eyes cast downward but full of a fire that she was glad the master couldn't see. Doubts assailed her again, but the expression he'd made when she'd attacked Xing'er's defenseless form floated through her mind. That look had been the ultimate catalyst for her desperate decision to trust him not only with her own life but with the lives of her closest friends as well.
Well, that and the look that Xing'er gave him when he wasn't looking at her, she admitted to herself as she raised her eyes in entreaty to her master. If Xing'er's anything like what we've been told, a man like Yuwen Yue would have to prove his worth to her in many different ways in order to receive a look like that—especially on a potential death bed.
The master continued to pluck his zither dispassionately, seeming to ignore their presence. Meng Feng could feel herself growing weaker by the minute, and she knew that Yuwen Yue was likely faring no better in this cold, damp place. In spite of the odds arrayed against them, she couldn't help but hope and believe that the man bowing beside her would save them all.
Yuwen Yue had known plenty of men like the master of the Afterlife Camp over the course of his life. He knew that the best way to handle them was often to allow them to think they had the upper hand—at least up to the moment when you neatly and ruthlessly ripped control away from them and worked affairs out to your own satisfaction. While he couldn't boast that he was at his strongest, he knew himself capable of doing whatever was necessary to save the life of the woman he loved.
As he bowed before his supposed master, he took some time to study the woman beside him. Outside of his desperation to cure Xing'er, he couldn't put his finger on what, exactly, had made him feel like he could trust this woman. After all, she was an Afterlife Camp assassin who was good enough at her job to be designated as the one to come after him on her own to kill him. Why should he believe that this wasn't all some elaborate trap she'd set up?
The spymaster mentally shrugged as he acknowledged that he was, as he so often did, simply following his instincts—which told him that this woman was trustworthy and that she sincerely wanted out of her current lifestyle. He was also enough of a man to admit that she was a striking woman; in fact, were he not already passionately in love with Xing'er…
Bringing his mind back around to more productive subjects, he mentally ran through their plan, which was quite simple. Although he wasn't afraid to concoct a complex plan that could take a long time to come together, he'd learned from experience that the best short-term schemes often had the fewest moving parts. He and his men would play straightforward roles in this plan; the bulk of its success rested on the shoulders of the beautiful young woman beside him.
Silence filled the room with sudden abruptness as the petty man before him at last stilled the strings of his zither. Meng Feng once again begged the man to give them the antidote to the poison that was supposedly weakening all of their bodies; he once again stalled for time and unnecessarily dragged out the process. The coffin box Yuwen Yue wore on his back pressed him into the stone floor, and he once again cursed the absurdity of the uniform's design as he felt himself continue to weaken.
Finally the man reached into his robes and pulled out a simple wooden box, which he opened and set upon the table. Meng Feng eyed the contents of the box with hungry desperation, so he did the same, not having to fake his emotions as he envisioned popping one of those round, brown pills into the mouth of his beloved. He added his plea to Meng Feng's, doing his best to alter his voice just in case this man knew him from somewhere.
He tormented them for a few more moments before relenting, even going so far as to laud them for the success of their mission. After a few more nicely-worded phrases that came off more like threats than praises, the master at last handed out the pills to everyone. Meng Feng swallowed hers with gusto, and Yuwen Yue was filled with mixed feelings as he realized that if the woman were going to betray him, now would be the most sensible time for her to do so.
The rest of them only pretended to swallow their pills, doing their best to mimic Meng Feng's desperate relief as they secreted the pills in their robes. Yuwen Yue tucked his pill—Xing'er's pill—in a pocket he'd reinforced with that purpose in mind. Nothing must be allowed to happen to the pill—especially not during the fight that was to come.
Footsteps sounded outside the cavern, and Yuwen Yue stood up from his crouch, preparing to attack the master with Meng Feng and, perhaps, to catch him unawares. He hoped that the people heading towards this cavern were the allies Meng Feng had promised him; if they weren't, he and his men would simply do their best to fight their way out and run home. After all, each one had a pill, so any one of them could save Xing'er if need be.
Meng Feng had angled Po Yue Jian towards him slightly in anticipation, and his hand reached out to grab it as a group of people roughly the same size as his own strode confidently through the door, masks obscuring their faces. He saw Meng Feng's eyes widen in alarm and concluded that these were not her allies. His suspicions were confirmed when the others drew their swords, attacking his own people without delay.
Letting go of their original plan with a mental sigh, Yuwen Yue took his sword from Meng Feng's hand and drew it from his scabbard before engaging the man in front of him. Chaos blossomed all around him as yet another group of black-clad figures joined the fray, clearly trying to make their way to Meng Feng. He gestured at this group, and his men nodded back in understanding.
All of the Afterlife Camp had apparently noticed the fight going on in the master's meeting chamber and were now converging on the small entrance to the room. This, of course, suited Yuwen Yue perfectly since they could easily pick the assassins off one by one when they tried to attack. He was also forced to acknowledge that they could end up pinned down, but he figured that he'd address that problem once they'd solved the more immediate issue of not getting killed in this clash.
He gutted the man he'd been fighting and briefly turned his attention to Meng Feng, who was clearly in a battle for her life with a skilled warrior. As he'd known she would, the mysterious woman held her own, wielding both Can Hong Jian and her own Afterlife Camp sword with the same feline grace she'd displayed in her fight against his beloved. One of his own men went down, so Yuwen Yue stepped neatly into the gap the man had left and engaged the tall, slim figure himself.
There was something familiar about the man, but Yuwen Yue couldn't place him thanks to the presence of the garish mask covering the stranger's features. His keen memory told him that he'd either fought or seen this man fight before, however, so he trusted his instincts to guide him in the battle, blocking and parrying all of the man's efforts to slice him into ribbons.
Meng Feng suddenly went down as the warrior she was fighting got the better of her, so Yuwen Yue kicked the man he was currently battling through the doorway and vaulted over the scrum, reaching her just in time. He thrust Po Yue Jian between the two warriors, blocking the descent of the warrior's blade and deflecting it. Yuwen Yue neatly continued the fight while Meng Feng recovered her wits, eventually telling her to go help her people once she'd done so.
He turned his full attention to his opponent and quickly recognized the eyes glaring back at him. The identity of the man he'd been fighting clicked into place, and the clash took on an even greater air of desperation. Without warning, his opponent whipped a familiar sword from inside of her robes and began battling him with both blades. He knew himself to be in no condition to do so at the moment, so he did the best he could with Po Yue Jian and its scabbard.
"What's your interest in this place?" he asked the head Liang spy, genuinely curious as to what she'd say.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she spat back as she tried to bend her sword inside his guard again.
"Of course I would," he replied blandly as his blade narrowly missed her throat and knocked off her mask instead. "That's why I asked you."
She glared at him as they continued to fight, not deigning to answer his question. Yuwen Yue could feel himself tiring, but he battled on, knowing that Xing'er's survival rested—as it so often did—in his weakening hands. He fought almost by rote, taking more care over dodging the corpses littering the floor than the edges of the Liang spy's blades.
As their fight shifted over towards the table behind which the leader of the Afterlife Camp had sat, both of them seemed to realize at the same time that the man had somehow disappeared in the melee. The Liang spy seemed to be much more distressed by this development than he was; after all, the pill was still tucked away safely in his robes, and he knew that the odds of convincing the man to tell him the location of the secret repository had been slim. Considering the wrathful expression on the face of the woman he was fighting, however, he figured that the man had factored into her plans quite prominently.
"Were you hoping to have a nice little talk with our musical friend?" Yuwen Yue asked.
"I'm sure both of us could've benefited from such a discussion," she retorted, her blade bending around his own.
"I already have everything I want," Yuwen Yue said, his face giving nothing away.
"And what is that?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he asked, giving her the same dryly-mocking look that always made Xing'er glower at him in an immensely attractive fashion.
The Liang spy's expression was nowhere near as captivating as his beloved's, but it was still quite satisfying. As enjoyable as baiting the woman was, the spymaster could feel his strength flagging. Eventually the woman slashed her sword across his chest, missing his flesh but, to his horror, slicing across the pockets that held not only Xing'er's pill but also her wooden bead, which he'd decided to bring along in a moment of foolish sentimentality.
Yuwen Yue sliced at the woman's own robes, managing to buy himself a few moments to clasp the pill to himself with his arm. Time seemed to slow as the wooden bead dropped from his pocket and hit the cave's floor, skittering off unpredictably as was its wont. He had no time to pursue it, however, as he barely had a chance to secure the pill in another area of his robes before she was charging him.
The female spy had to come to a halt herself, though, as a rolled-up piece of paper that had been dislodged due to the fury of her attack fell from the front of her own robes. She seemed as frantic to recover it as Yuwen Yue had acted towards the pill, so he dove for it as well, somehow managing to capture it before she did. Screeching in rage, the woman doubled her efforts to kill him, but seemed to grow more and more frustrated the longer the fight raged on without her accomplishing her goal.
His eyes caught sight of the wooden bead, which had somehow ended up nestled in the hand of a dead Afterlife Camp assassin. Yuwen Yue tried to retrieve it several times, but the Liang spy always managed to block his way. He lunged for the bead yet again, but this time, the spy sliced his outstretched arm and snatched the bead herself as he instinctively retracted his wounded limb. A victorious smile lit up her face, and she pulled a small jar from her robes.
Yuwen Yue's eyes widened, and he had just enough time to warn his people to cover their faces before the Liang spy threw the jar on the ground and ran for the door. As had happened in the shop months before, thick, billowing clouds of smoke quickly filled the small room and provided a convenient means of escape for his enemies.
The Liang spy's diversion forced the fighting to stop, giving Yuwen Yue and his people the opportunity to prevent further bloodshed from occurring. His people and Meng Feng's allies got themselves into proper position and were able to get the attention of the other Afterlife Camp assassins once the smoke had cleared enough for them all to see.
"Stop!" Meng Feng shouted as some of them tried to resume the fight. "Our master has run away, meaning that Yuwen Yue is now in charge. He has agreed to take us over and to free us from the poison that binds us to this life of killing. Nobody else has to die tonight."
The lovely young warrior looked at him meaningfully, so he removed his mask, slowly stepped through the door into the larger cavern beyond, and addressed the black-clad crowd.
"Meng Feng's telling the truth," he said. "I have a pill in my possession, so I know that I'll be able to figure out its ingredients and make enough antidotes for everyone to take. Once you've done so, you're free to go—but only if you understand that I'll kill you myself if I find out that you've been terrorizing the innocent."
A buzz of conversation greeted his words, so he gave them a few moments to talk among themselves before continuing.
"I know that this is the only life that many of you have ever known, so I'll take you into my service if that is what you wish. As with those who choose to leave, however, if I ever catch you harming the innocent, I'll kill you myself."
Some darker mutters arose with this proclamation, but he got no sense that the assassins were going to attack them in the near future, so he decided to let them figure out their own lives while he got busy figuring out the antidote. Not that he anticipated a long and drawn-out process; after all, poisons were a Yuwen family specialty.
Yuwen Yue found himself going through the motions, barely paying attention to what he was doing in his fatigue. Before he knew it, he'd somehow managed to cobble together an antidote that matched the aroma of the pill he'd cut in half and sniffed several times. He had, of course, taken a pill from one of his men; Xing'er's pill was still nestled safely inside of his robes. With his beloved, he was taking no chances.
Blinking again, he found himself standing in front of the group of Afterlife Camp assassins and offering them the antidote pills. Nobody moved at first, but Meng Feng's handful of allies came forward and selected a pill each, swallowing them together in a wordless pact. When nothing untoward happened to them, the others came forward, accepted their pills, and, in some cases, thanked him with varying levels of appreciation.
His fatigue was weighing him down even more than Xing'er's pill seemed to be, but he knew he still had one more bit of business to take care of tonight. Yuwen Yue looked at Meng Feng, and the woman nodded once. He instructed an immensely-reluctant Yue Qi to stay behind and keep the peace before setting off with Meng Feng and a few of her people.
While getting the antidote to Xing'er's poison had been the top priority of their mission, the other thing he wanted to retrieve from here was almost as important. Losing Xing'er's bead—especially to the head Liang spy—irked him, but getting the other item for which he'd come would salve that wound. Besides, this prize was essential to Xing'er's well-being, too—especially if it contained what he thought it did.
Xiao Yu was loathe to admit to her two associates that she was hopelessly lost, but her reluctance to confess the truth didn't negate it in any way. They had bolted out of the head assassin's chamber, running heedlessly from the melee like amateurs. The decision to flee had been a difficult one that had produced no end of teeth-gnashing for her, but she'd been smart enough to realize that nothing would have been gained by continuing a pointless battle.
The leader was gone. Xia Chong was nowhere to be found. Her people were all dead except for Tao Ye and Yin Xin. And, of course, Yuwen Yue had already been in the chamber when she'd walked into it, ruining her plan before it had even come to fruition. How did that man always seem to show up at the worst possible time? How did he keep getting the better of her even when she seemed to get the better of him initially?
What was he doing here? she asked herself again as she absentmindedly turned the wooden bead over in her hand. He told me he already had what he wanted, but I never saw him take anything. Of course, when he lost this bead, the look in his eyes was-
"Looking for me, I presume?" a cultured voice said from the shadows.
Xiao Yu drew her sword and faced the direction from which the voice had come; her companions did the same.
"And who would you be?" Xiao Yu said, lifting her chin in challenge.
A man slowly rolled into the light of a nearby torch, surveying them arrogantly from his wheeled chair. Xiao Yu stared back, unwilling to give the man the satisfaction of repeating the question. She rubbed the bead in her left hand in an attempt to calm her anxiety.
"Come, come, Your Highness," he said, obviously enjoying her shock at being so readily identified. "Let's not waste each other's time with lies and deceptions. I know who you are. You know who I am. All else is just dust and smoke."
"Okay," she agreed begrudgingly, "I'll be straightforward with you if you'll be straightforward with me. So where is she?"
The man looked up at her with what appeared to be genuine confusion.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness," he said smoothly, "but I don't have the pleasure of understanding your question."
"Where is she?" she asked again in frustration.
"If you could tell me of whom you're speaking, perhaps I could be of more assistance."
"Okay, fine," she said, gritting her teeth. "Feel free to keep playing your games. Where. Is. Xia. Chong? Where. Are. You. Keeping. Her? I. Want. Her. Back."
The man's eyes had widened with each sharply-enunciated word until he was looking at her with wry amusement by the end of her questioning.
"I wondered where she'd gone," the man mused. "Believe me, Your Highness. Had I known where she was, I would've retrieved her myself—or, at least, ensured that she couldn't have been of use to anyone else."
"So you're going to keep pretending that you didn't send a handful of men to steal her from the secret prison of Liang in broad daylight?"
The head assassin's eyes filled with mockery as his lips twitched into a barely-there smile.
"I'm sorry that I can't assist you in this matter, Your Highness, but I honestly can't take credit for such an audacious venture. As you might imagine, however, I would very much like to know who's responsible."
Xiao Yu stared at the man hard, but he seemed to show no signs of concern or deceit in spite of being held at sword-point by several irritated spies. Inwardly she slumped, but outwardly she maintained her air of haughty professionalism.
"While I cannot assist you with the matter of one of our mutual friends, I might be able to be of use to you in regards to another," he said, smiling slyly.
"And who would that be?" she asked, not expecting anything honest to come from such a man's lips.
"The owner of that bead," he said, eyes gleaming.
"What do you know about it?" she asked suspiciously. "Yuwen Yue seemed distraught at losing it, but-"
"Yuwen Yue?" the man asked loudly, seeming to lose his composure for the first time during their meeting.
"Yes," she replied. "Yuwen Yue dropped it during our fight—but I suppose you'd already run away by that point."
The man's smile lost some of its sparkle as he looked at her in barely-concealed loathing. His eyes were quickly filled with a mercenary glint, however, as his brain seemed to be working something out. The malicious grin that formed on his face as he reached some sort of conclusion was one of the most unsettling expressions she'd ever seen on another human being.
"I know the man who made that bead better than I'd like to admit," he said, still smiling. "I know the woman he made it for. I also know who should've inherited it after said woman's passing—and maybe she did. And the fact that this ended up in Yuwen Yue's possession and that he seemed to value it..."
Xiao Yu waited impatiently as the man trailed off, seemingly lost in thought. The man's eyes suddenly sharpened again, fixing on her own with unnerving intensity.
"That's the other reason you're here, isn't it?" he asked softly. "Tell me, Your Highness. What do you know about the young woman Yuwen Yue keeps close to his side? Xing'er, I think he calls her."
"You think you know who she is," she stated, her eyes briefly meeting Yin Xin's as she remembered his theory about Xing'er.
"I might," he said evasively. "I might not. If I'm right, however, we'll have to wait for the perfect moment to use the truth about Xing'er's identity so that we can get the maximum advantage from it. As you well know, Your Highness, intelligence such as this is often like a fine wine: It gets more potent and valuable the longer you save it."
Xiao Yu smiled at the man for the first time that night.
"I think we can come to an understanding," she said, sheathing her sword.
And if he betrays me, I can just kill him, she mused, eyeing his useless legs in contempt.
While tonight hadn't ended the way she'd wanted it to, she was glad that she'd at least been able to come away with a small victory. She wouldn't get to curl up with her letter from her pen friend, but the information she was about to learn could be much more gratifying in the long run. The man wheeled his chair down the dusty corridor, speaking of a secret room, excellent wine, and the beginning of a partnership. Xiao Yu followed, eager to see where this latest unexpected path would take her and her companions.
AN: So our Liang spies are now on the board; next week, I think we'll get to meet a certain young prince who just might end up meeting a certain lovely assassin. I can't wait. Also next week: XingYue recovery. Two weeks: XingYue music lessons. Three weeks: Xing'er decides to deal with a little problem. Four weeks: Maybe Yuwen Yue has to talk to Emperor Eyeliner or something? I dunno.
Musical recommendation: "Out of the Darkness" by Erin Willett since that's definitely one of the themes of this chapter. Bonus rec: Voices in Your Head's cover of "Bad Moon Rising" can be dedicated to the poor Afterlife Campers, who have no idea what's about to hit 'em. (And the song sets a nice mood of menacing skull-duggery to match at least some of the chapter.)