As Kia Min left the Black Leopard School, she thought about the other students at Two Rivers School. She knew Jing Woo, and Wen, and Lin, and of course Wu and Dawn Star and Gao. But there were many others. Si Pat, who had just started at the school, where was he from? What family did he have, who may never know the fate of their son, or who would find out in worse ways than Wen's family was about to? The empress had not revealed the hometown of the Jade Empire's hero, but bards would find out quickly enough. Would it be through song that Si Pat's family will learn about his death?
The people of Two Rivers died alongside their families in the attack, but most of the students were not native to Two Rivers, and not all of them were orphaned or disowned. Many of them left parents and siblings behind. How would they find out, if they ever did? Did any of them already know?
Kia Min sighed as she made her way down the crowded streets of the Market District. This conversation had been hard enough when she told of her own survival to her brother and father. To tell of a son's death to his mother? How and why Kia Min survived and he did not?
And, oh, the farmers! Surely they had been forced away from loved ones as well. Kia Min did not know where those farmers had been from.
This was the state of the Jade Empire, she realized. So many tragedies had occurred, and perhaps were still occurring, and the empress surely could not be privy to it all. Yes, the Lotus Assassins were disbanded, but did that necessarily mean that slaves were freed? Did that necessarily mean that slavers were also disbanded?
Kia Min felt a bump on her shoulder and scowled. The Imperial City was too crowded for her tastes. One Stone was a much happier medium between this and a sleepy town like Two Rivers had been. She glanced over her shoulder to see a man in blue retreat from her, and an odd feeling sunk into her gut.
Her hand flew to her side, and she found that her coin purse was absent from her belt. She rolled her eyes. That man could not possibly be serious.
With her bamboo staff in hand, she pushed through the crowd after the man, keeping her eyes glued to his retreating back. He glanced over his shoulder back at her, grinned, and maneuvered around the crowd smoother and faster. Kia Min picked up her pace; only children pulled this kind of tactic to get some silver. Grown men had a tendency to be stealthier and more deceitful. They would not use a child's method to outsmart an armed woman.
She shoved some people off to the side, and some called angrily after her, and others moved out of the way as they saw her coming. One benefit, she knew, to a large city was that she was unlikely to see any of these people again; she felt less guilty for her lack of remorse for her rudeness.
That silver was hard earned and hers.
The man took a sharp turn into an alleyway, and Kia Min knew she had him. She leaped over a crate and slid into the dimmed backstreet, and she swung her staff at the man's feet. He jumped and rolled away from her, and she thrust the staff as he hung mid-air. The man fell to the ground, and she pointed the tip of her staff at his throat and narrowed her eyes.
"Give it back," she said.
The man smirked. "What's it to you?" he challenged.
Impetuous like a child. What game was he playing? "I've killed men in this exact position before," she said. "Don't think I won't do it again."
"So why won't you, now?"
Kia Min snarled, "You want me to kill you?"
"No," said the man. "But I also know that you won't anyway. You don't seem the type to kill over petty things like a poor pickpocket."
She snorted. "True. I've seen children do this better. But I'm not letting you up until you've given me back my coin purse. And I'm not patient enough to stand here all day. Give it back, or you will pay."
"I doubt it," said the man with a laugh. He tossed her the small bag, and she caught it with one hand, leaving her other on her staff and at his throat. "But I do like how you're not willing to trust me so easily."
"Trust? You have to be joking. Since when did trust become an issue here?"
"Tell me something. If I had been a slaver who had taken away something more precious than a coin purse, what would you have done?"
Kia Min froze. This man did look familiar to her, but she doubted that he had been in Hehua. He could not possibly have been from Hehua. What did he want from her?
She clasped her coin purse back onto her belt, and she gripped her staff with two hands and pressed the tip harder against his throat. "What are you suggesting?" she growled.
His mischievous grin did not fade. This irritated Kia Min. "Would you have killed me?"
"Do you know me?"
The man shrugged. "I've seen you once or twice before, yes. Your skill against those drunks in the tavern a few days ago was impressive. You prefer your staff, I noticed, but you fought them easily with your fists. You would obviously fare well in the Imperial Arena if you so wanted to."
The tavern? Drunks? The last image she had of the Heart of the Empire Tavern came back to her. As Darting Lynx dragged her away, there had been a man offering to buy everyone a drink. A man who had given her a strange look as she left, who, now that she remembered Empress Sun Lian's address, had been among the few upon the stage who honored Wu the Lotus Blossom.
Kia Min removed her staff from his throat and her foot from his chest. As he climbed to his feet, she asked, "What do you want?"
"What I want... well, I'm interested in you. Where you're from, what you're doing in the Imperial City. You're skilled, but you didn't join the Lotus Assassins, when they could have-should have-recruited you for your talents. They were fools not to, really. And you're obviously not from the Imperial City. You're... different than the city folk. I'm curious."
Kia Min narrowed her eyes. "Why do you want to know all of this?"
The man smiled. "There's no pulling one over you, is there? All the better. I guess the other stuff is unimportant. You're a very talented warrior drunk, you're clever, and nothing gets past you. I'm curious about where your morals are, but I can tell you're a good person. That's enough."
He was not getting to the point; Kia Min's patience was running thin. "What do you want?" she asked again.
"My name is Sky," he said. "And I've taken up an interesting opportunity that would benefit the Jade Empire. Have you ever heard of the Guild?"
"The Guild?"
"A crime syndicate. Their leader, Gao the Greater, was killed some time ago. New leadership is needed, and I've taken that role. But the Guild needs revamping. They've done some horrible things under Gao, and I'm taking over to rectify these wrongs. The best thing about the Guild and its reputation: I can do this my way, and not the way that Silk-the empress would prefer."
Gao's father ran the Guild? That was where he acquired his undeserved riches! No wonder Gao the Lesser was so wretched. "Who killed him?" asked Kia Min, though she had a feeling she already knew.
"Wu did," said Sky, his voice suddenly affectionate. "Though I wish I'd beaten her there-she did. She had her own score to settle, and Gao the Greater was only the first step."
So Wu had been on a journey towards revenge after all. Still, the way Sky's voice changed as he spoke of the senior student-no, the hero of the Jade Empire, now-caught Kia Min by surprise. Nonetheless...
"And he was in charge of the Guild," said Kia Min. "What did the Guild do?"
"They worked for the Lotus Assassins," said Sky, his voice morphing into bitter spite, "and they sold them slaves. Innocent people were kidnapped for their homes, and many of them died. Yes, the empress disbanded the Lotus Assassins, but that's not going to stop slavers-or the Guild-from continuing to enslave others. The Guild consisted of criminals. And I thoroughly believe that the troubles are just beginning."
Understanding dawned on Kia Min, and everything she had encountered the past few weeks fell into place. "So you're going to use the Guild to end slavers?"
Sky nodded. "It's the most effective way. If we waited for the Imperial Army, well, we can't wait for the Imperial Army. By the time they got to the far reaches of the empire... it's too long. By taking control of the Guild, we can end slavers, and we can save lives much faster, and before anymore lives can be ruined. But it's not going to be easy. And this is where you come in.
"You're talented and cunning, and you seem like a good person. I need people like you to help me restructure the Guild so we can weed out the undesirables. And I don't even care how ruthless you are. I will be hard-pressed not to kill slavers on the spot myself."
Yao Hong. The customer. Little Qing and Wayfarer Wei... the farmers in the flyer... the long journey to the Imperial City...
This was too convenient.
"You're asking me to become some sort of vigilante, aren't you?" asked Kia Min slowly. "That's why you tricked me into the alleyway, that's why you're asking me here, isn't it?"
Sky nodded. "We will not be bogged down by bureaucracy or laws or Imperial orders. We will do things our way. A lot of what we do may be illegal, but the ends justify the means. The people of the Jade Empire will no longer have to fear slavers. And those who are enslaved will go home, where they belong."
"And... what about Wu?" asked Kia Min. "You know her?"
Sky seemed taken aback by the question, but he smiled. "She has her reputation to protect now. Not for herself, but for the better of the whole of the Jade Empire. Saving the empire and becoming a criminal? That's not her. That can't be her. All the same, I cannot risk my identity and my involvement with the Guild to be known. I'm too closely associated-she cannot risk it."
"So why do it?"
"Because it's the right thing to do. She's found her peace, and it's time for me to find mine. I guess you can say that it's personal for me, and it's not so much for her, though she protests my decision not to include her."
Kia Min smiled. Wu would. Now Kia Min understood Sky a little more, and now she understood Wu the Lotus Blossom a little more. Wu came to terms with her past; there was no need for Kia Min to show up in her life again. Kia Min had a new opportunity in front of her, and she knew what she had to do.
"If I join you," said Kia Min, "if I join the Guild, you cannot tell Wu about me."
Sky frowned. "You speak of her with great familiarity."
Kia Min closed her eyes and sighed. "I do know her. And that is why you cannot tell her about me, and that is why my identity and role in the Guild must also be kept a secret. We were not especially close, but my association with her... the people of the Jade Empire cannot know, and so, she cannot know about me."
"Why?"
"I..." She took a deep breath. "I am a survivor of Two Rivers. The only other one besides Wu and Dawn Star. I went to school with them."
Sky was silent for a moment. "She should know about you."
"If you tell her, I cannot join you. I will not join you. She doesn't need to know about me."
"I can't keep this from her."
"Then I won't join you."
"But why? This would bring her much needed joy and happiness. Her and Dawn Star both."
"Would it? Look, Sky, please understand, the way I see it, I can either return to Wu's life and remind her of the life that was ripped away from her, or I can join you and help you do some good for the Jade Empire. From the way you describe the Guild, it's better that she thinks I'm dead, don't you think?"
Sky frowned, and Kia Min sighed and continued. "Sky, let me tell you my story. Then I'll let you decide if I truly am a good candidate to join the Guild."