So, I must be some sort of glutton for punishment, because this chapter is a ginormous one indeed, at about 11,350 words of actual story. Why do I do things like this to myself?
This chapter involves me playing very fast and loose with the real-world history of the Manchu peoples in a fantasy setting, an account of an animal being hunted and killed, an occasional moment of Hong being subtly creepy, and a death threat being made against a potential romantic rival.
All in all though, this is mostly a laid-back, sweetly romantic chapter in which Rajata gets to enjoy taking in at least some of her new boyfriend's house for the first time, the two of them have more bonding fluff time, and we learn even more about both Hong's life outside the Dai Li and Ba Sing Se's early history.
Just as before, the carriage trip through the once-forbidden realm of the Upper Ring was a tour of marvels for Rajata. Indeed, as her driver had gently urged his beast on, she'd been granted the privilege of being able to gaze upon the awesome, imposing structure that was the Imperial Palace, the residence and seat of office of his revered Majesty Kuei, the direct descendant of the Earth Goddess herself, for the first time, its looming form rearing all the higher as they drew closer to District 117.
She'd gone back to her family's soon-to-be former home on the tram line after bidding her parents good-bye at the spice market, bathed herself, brushed and oiled her hair, spent a bit of time picking over the nearby waste ground for accessories, and gotten dressed in something more suitable before donning some jewelry. Then she'd hopped on the tram again, taking it though the Lower Ring, Middle Wall, and Middle Ring to the closest depot to the Upper Wall.
She was confident enough when it came to calling for a nearby carriage-she'd done hundreds of times before. When they reached the gate however, Rajata had felt rather uncomfortable as she found herself facing the guards, with their stern, unfriendly expressions. She didn't have her agent boyfriend to back her up this time.
But although they gave her faintly baffled glances, they knew better than to question her Dai Li-endorsed pass when she displayed it. When her driver finally pulled back lightly on the reins of his ostrich-horse, saying "Whoa there, Bigfoot, whoa, easy boy," Rajata thanked him and gave him a palmful of copper pieces as she stepped out onto the flagstones of Shengdahu Avenue.
Right away, she noticed just how amazingly close the Imperial Palace was, close enough that a stroll of just several minutes would put her at its gates. Which is exactly why Hong lives where he does, she figured. If His Majesty ever comes under threat again by a rebellious faction or a team of assassins that the Royal Guards somehow couldn't manage to handle, Hong and the rest of the Dai Li need to be able to rush to his aid without delay.
Just as stated in his invitation, Hong was waiting for her on the pathway to his walled compound's imposing circular front gate, dressed in a semi-formal, hip-length linen changshan coat with strap buttons, dazzling gold in color with the always popular endless knot designs embroidered on it in silver silk thread, and pairs of stylized golden fish. Underneath, he wore a pair of mint green trousers, and a pair of apricot orange slip-on shoes, made from stiff cotton cloth, sheathed his feet instead of stone boots.
He'd been holding his hands behind him in the typical posture of an agent, his tanned features impassive as those of a resting boar-crocodile. But as she drew close in a deliberate, sauntering gait that she knew would quicken his pulse, the jade eyes twinkled, and the long, broad hands, bare of stone, were extended in fond welcome as he said, with a warm, measured smile, "Great to see you. How's my lovely lotus blossom doing today?"
She pressed herself against his broad chest in gladness as she embraced him, while he did the same in return. She spared a few moments to relish the sensation of his sturdy arms around her before backing away, gesturing for him to bend down a bit so she could plant a kiss on his cheek. He responded with a kiss to one of her own, obviously not minding that his sentries were observing.
She backed away a few steps as Hong stood erect again, telling him, "I couldn't be doing any better Hong. My Shiva," she added adoringly with a smooth, playful grin.
He smirked back, evidently quite pleased by the comparison with the formidable god that her people worshiped, revered and renowned for his raw, superhuman masculine strength, his profound wisdom and capacity for insight, his unequaled mastery of sacred dance, his unbridled zeal and the intense, dedicated mindset he had towards his objectives—but also, chillingly, known, for good reason as The Destroyer.
"Me, my parents, my siblings, we're moving up in this city-in more ways than one," she enthused, giving him a grateful look. "We just bought a new house in the Middle Ring yesterday, in fact! Can you believe it?"
"That's wonderful news," he agreed. "I'm very happy for all of you. But we can talk more about that over lunch," he said as he turned away and headed up the entry path to the moon gate, gesturing to her to follow him.
Briefly, Rajata appraised the front portion of the defensive wall which surrounded the compound, stretching about sixty yards from one corner to the other as she fell into step at Hong's right side. A good three times her height, it was constructed of great white limestone blocks. Along its inner edge, spaced a foot and a half apart, were deeply embedded wooden posts a couple feet taller than Hong was-and thickly studded from top to bottom with gleaming, jagged triangles of metal. Any non-bender intruder that somehow managed to vault the wall would be slashed up like a slab of raw steak if they tried to force their way through.
Several paces before the gate proper stood a large, painted metal sign, its characters reading: Notice! This is the residence of Agent Hong Yan, of the Dai Li. Unwelcome intruders will be put to death, no exceptions.
Okay then. That was rather disturbing.
But the heavy wooden moon gate was literally open for her. Through it, she could see a smaller, second circular gate in a freestanding, arched section of green-painted wall, against which stalks of bamboo grew like a screen, just ten paces away and opening onto an inviting brick garden path. The pair of sentries were dressed differently than the Royal Guards, their green hats broader and somewhat bell-shaped, with separate shoulder pieces of thick green leather that protected the ribs on each side. Each held a fearsome-looking spear in one hand, with a sheathed sword on the opposite hip.
For a few moments, Rajata found the very idea that her boyfriend, a member of the dreaded secret police, an elite earthbender who could probably beat the stuffing out of three Imperial Guards at once with only minor difficulty, would have any need for guards of his own so preposterous and bizarre that she actually had to stifle a laugh.
Then she realized that even a Dai Li agent had to sleep sometime, not to mention bathe-situations in which even he would be all too vulnerable to an assassin with luck on their side and the right sort of skills. The sentries lightly bowed to their master and his shorter lady companion underneath their spreading hats as she passed by, one of them politely telling her, "Welcome, and enjoy your visit ma'am."
The other, once Hong had entered a step or two ahead of her thanks to his longer stride-the gate was just broad enough to admit only one person through at a time-shot Rajata a sidelong, admiring look, trying to be discrete as he quickly gave her a visual once-over. It was both flattering and understandable, she supposed. In addition to her natural beauty and figure, she'd chosen to wear a lime green ruqun with a teal green skirt for this occasion, and had come in full makeup. A row of dandelion blossoms ran down her thigh-length braid, the black hair smelling of the almond oil she'd treated it with.
But she steadfastly ignored the young guard. If Hong was her Shiva, she was quite glad to be his faithful Parvati. She wasn't going to strike a seductive pose for the likes of him.
A few swinging steps, and she was at the garden gate alongside her host. There, she hesitated briefly, feeling her stomach muscles clench as she flashed a quick glance behind her at the main gate, its doors already being pushed shut.
Was she walking into a trap? Had she just fallen for some unknown, unsuspected ruse of his? Rajata uneasily, hurriedly gauged her chances for escape if that proved to be true, of making a dash for it and using her bending to either catapult herself over the wicked barrier of poles that crowned the walls, or just smash a gap through the limestone blocks, and then putting enough distance between her and Hong before he could pin her down. They weren't promising.
She was now more or less at the mercy of one of the very men who one of her neighbors, old Naresh, had given a piece of advice to her about as a little girl: "If you ever manage to piss off one of the Dai Li, the only hope you have at that point is to start groveling at his stone boots-and he might decide to let you live."
But she couldn't be seen quailing either, and she was here as Hong's guest, not his prisoner. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she thought as she stepped forth, calmly letting her boyfriend wrap an arm around her shoulders for a few seconds, as if he sensed her need for reassurance. He led the way through, and she boldly followed.
The path was made of yellow bricks, and bisected a garden that was relatively compact in size, yet somehow still managed to seem plenty spacious. On the left side of the yellow brick path, there was a large pond in which the warmly colored, blotched forms of koi frolicked and swam, while on the right side was a smaller one in which lotuses radiantly bloomed. There were clumps of chrysanthemums, daffodils, peonies, roses, hydrangeas, irises. There were yew, azalea, and juniper bushes. There were stands of bamboo, and a few mature trees-such as a golden cypress, an apricot, a pine, and a plum-stood above them all, sturdy living fountains of green.
As she took its beauty in, Hong holding her hand for a while, Rajata began to relax. It was certainly a peaceful enough place, with bees and butterflies flitting from one bloom to the next. Enchantingly, and much to her surprised pleasure, several peafowl were strutting and pecking around the garden, the magnificent, iridescent trains of the peacocks trailing behind them as the plumage of their necks and breasts shone sapphire in the midday sun.
"Wow. This garden of yours is just beautiful Hong," she complimented in awe as she looked about her. "And I had no idea you had mayil just roaming around this estate like chickens either!"
"I'm very proud of it," he lightly smiled as he gave a quick nod of agreement. "Not as big and impressive as one of the private gardens you'd see at the mansion of say, a nobleman or a top general though."
"Well, it's still downright exquisite from my point of view."
"And unimaginably so for a former farm kid like myself," Hong agreed. "As for the peacocks, I sure do. You have to well and truly be a tai-pan to even be legally allowed to own these dazzling birds—although when they start shrieking like cats in heat at the top of their lungs, it doesn't seem like such a grand privilege any longer," he added wryly, causing Rajata to laugh.
"Both my parents and my uncle have told me stories about how their insanely loud screeches were such a familiar part of their lives as children, growing up in their respective villages in Tenjiku," she commented. "They're evidently both the province's official bird, and seen as sacred in our religion, you know, so it's a delight to see them here. Like living fragments of a homeland I've never known," she said with a soft sigh, feeling a brief twinge of generational homesickness.
"Did they ever tell you just why they left their villages to come to Ba Sing Se?" he asked casually, turning his head to better meet her gaze. For an instant, there was an intensely scrutinizing look in those emerald eyes, one that made Rajata internally fidget.
She shrugged. "Mom says that her family bailed because they were basically dirt poor, and the area was in the grip of a terrible drought too-no future for them if they stayed, in other words. As for Dad, and Uncle, they've told me that their part of the province was just being ravaged by bandits, who eventually came and raided their village one dark night. All they could do was flee for their lives."
In some manner that Rajata couldn't quite grasp, Hong seemed strangely appeased by her reply, giving a thin smile as he said, "Well, it's a good thing your father managed to escape, and make it to this serene, secure city to meet your mother."
She nodded, and then directed her attention to the last element of note in the garden, one heard, then smelt, well before it was seen. A large pen of wire mesh came into view, with a roof of netting in which eight cormorant-geese honked, ate grain, restlessly flapped their wings, or swam in the modest pool of water at its center.
"You must have them around for meat, I'm guessing," Rajata commented as she stopped for a better look.
"Roast cormorant-goose isn't half bad," Hong confirmed. "But they also make excellent sentries, in their own way. Each night, one of my servants lets them out to wander around not only this garden, but the entire grounds at will before they settle down to roost. If a trespasser managed to get over these walls, or carefully earthbend through them without any of my human guards noticing, these cormorant-geese and the peacocks still would-and they'd make more of a commotion then twenty watchdogs."
He said nothing about what would then happen to that busted trespasser-but then, that sign had already made the outcome quite clear, Rajata reminded herself.
For them, seeing the interior of an agent's home would prove an experience to die for, she thought, lips quirking with grim humor.
The garden space ended at a second wall of white stone, the yellow brick path veering to a gap in its right side that was crowned by a looming paifang arch, supported on a pair of gold-painted wooden pillars embedded into marble bases and bound together at the top with wooden beams. Looking up as she passed underneath, Rajata saw that it had a three-tiered roof-all of their surfaces naturally covered in yellow tiles-bearing the sculpted forms of badgermoles, phoenixes, and tigers with bared fangs at their corners. A wooden panel just below read "Guardian of Peace and Harmony" in big brass characters.
In a few strides, they were across a narrow, linear space, up a short flight of stairs, and at the southeasterly located main gate to the residence proper, Hong politely sliding one of the green-painted stone doors back with a gesture from a broad hand as he told her, "After you, my lady."
For an instant, Rajata hesitated. But she saw no guile in either his stance or those green, almond-shaped eyes, and stepped inside. Her first action of course, was to slip off her leather and cord chappal sandals in the name of proper etiquette-to say nothing of the reassuring, gratifying sensation it always gave Rajata to have no barriers between her skin and her element. Hong did the same.
"Well, welcome to my humble home," Hong remarked with a smooth, good-humored smile. "You must be hungry. I know I sure am."
"I could gladly eat an entire turkey-duck," she replied.
He bent the door shut behind them, then led her through two walled-off sections of the narrow front courtyard, up another short, centrally positioned flight of broad steps with a plum and persimmon tree on each side, and through a second pair of big, ornate wooden doors into the actual interior halls. The stone flooring was cool against the soles of her bare feet as he led her down a few more halls into the dining room proper, dominated by a great, long wooden table.
As he took his proper seat at its head, she was right behind, pausing briefly before asking him, "Since I've never visited the home of someone who was even close to wealthy before, is there any certain spot I'm supposed to sit in?" she asked.
"Anywhere you like," Hong shrugged. "But preferably as close to me as possible," he grinned, causing her to laugh. "Just not that chair," he hurriedly indicated.
"Any reason why?" she asked, as she uncertainly froze in place.
"Two, actually. First, that was my late first wife's designated chair when she was alive."
"Oh," she said softly. "My condolences, Hong," she added, cautiously reaching out to place a hand on his muscular upper arm. "Truly."
"I appreciate them," he replied quietly, his expression becoming distant for a few moments. "But as for the second reason, it's because we're not married," he then went on, a wry smirk lighting his broad features.
"Not yet," she boldly teased as she took her seat. The sight of Hong actually blushing and awkwardly fidgeting in his seat for a few seconds, clearly at a loss when it came to how to respond to such a brazen remark, amused Rajata hugely, and she gave a chiming giggle.
Once she was comfortable on the cushion of her wooden yoke-backed chair, Hong regained his quietly assertive demeanor, forcefully clapped his hands, and then the servants seemed to materialize with their wooden trays.
First came a pitcher of cool water, and a steaming pot of fresh mint tea. Not as good as her mom's chai, or the brews at Pao's, she decided as she sipped at her cup, but still quite nice. Right after that, they were presented with small dishes-it was a romantic lunch between just two people, after all-of salted roasted peanuts, boiled pork dumplings, sliced tofu salad, and crispy fried buckwheat noodles as appetizers. Fish and mustard leaf soup came next.
Then it was time for the main courses, the servants zipping about Rajata as they brought out one dish after another. Braised pork balls in gravy. Stir-fried cattalo steak with green peppers. Roasted five spice pheasant-pigeon. Rice noodles in spicy red oil. Crayfish lo mein. Steamed white rice, naturally. Spareribs in hoisin sauce.
Once those were on the table before them, Hong asked if she desired any sort of entertainment from his nearby attendants, who were ready to go.
"They all have very nice singing voices," he told her as she used the pair of ornate, colorfully banded serving chopsticks to move a portion of the pheasant-pigeon, glistening red with spice rub, to her plate. "Chu Hua is a wonderful xiao flute player, and Yuxuan has a knack for the erhu."
"That's a nice offer, but right now I'm perfectly happy to have it just be you and me," she assured him with a smile as she raised a strip of cattalo steak to her mouth with her chopsticks. "Maybe some other time."
As they ate, taking portions of food from the serving dishes as needed, Rajata chose to make small talk, asking Hong, "So, when you're not out on the streets or at your headquarters performing your duties as one of the Dai Li, what sort of ways do you spend your free time?"
"Sleeping," he smirked. "A lot." which made her knowingly giggle and nod. "But no, I find time for my share of other pursuits too-although unfortunately, things at said headquarters and work in general have been so hectic for both myself and all my other colleagues that I haven't been able to devote very much time to them of late."
"That's too bad."
"Not your fault. Anyhow, for one thing, as crazy as I know it might seem for a member of the Dai Li, I'm actually not just a skilled, but a published writer-and not just of shift reports," he grinned wryly.
Rajata was impressed. "Wow, I never would've imagined Hong. That's pretty cool indeed," she nodded with a small smile. "Would I recognize any of your works?"
"Ever heard of the play Bliss Among The Lilacs? Or The Valley Chessboard?"
"Yes! The Valley Chessboard, I mean. One of the Lower Ring's theater companies performed it near our home last fall, in fact, although I never got the chance to go see it. You're saying you actually wrote that play Hong?"
"Essentially, although it was actually adapted from my novel of the same title."
"A novel? So that makes you a Dai Li agent that's also a Dai Li author," she commented playfully as she regarded him. "Not bad at all for a former farm kid," she quipped.
He chuckled. "I definitely made use of the improved education the Dai Li provided me with to the fullest," he agreed.
Steamed buns filled with cheese and crayfish meat were served as the second to last course of lunch. Last, but certainly not least, Rajata was presented with wonderful desserts, somehow having enough room in her already well-filled stomach to try some of the sugar-glazed buns filled with layers of peanut butter, and the squares of sachima, a pastry made from strands of fried wheat flour batter, butter, and brown sugar syrup that her boyfriend clearly had a special fondness for.
"This is pretty much comfort food for me," he sighed contentedly as he took a bite and chewed. "One way or the other, my direct ancestors-and by extension, my people, I guess-have called this city home for an astonishing 7,000 years, you know," he proudly informed her with a smile, "and we've been baking and enjoying sachima down though all those generations."
"I can see why it's a tradition well worth maintaining for so long," Rajata replied as she slowly chewed a bite of her own portion of sachima, relishing the rich, sweet taste. "But seven thousand years? Wow. That's an incredible length of time indeed for your ancestors to have lived here, Hong."
"Frankly, I have trouble even starting to grasp such a timespan myself," he agreed.
"Any idea where your family, your people, originally came from, if I may ask? If you know," she added.
"First of all, how much did you learn about Ba Sing Se's founding and early history as a city in the state schools?"
She paused, reaching back in her memory all to those long days spent in stuffy, bare classrooms at stone desks in front of a slate board, idly playing with her hair and trying not to slouch, or using her feet to carefully, secretly sculpt crude figures or geometric patterns out of the floor with her bending-knowing that if the teacher noticed, trouble would soon result.
"I know that it started out as both a settlement and a strategic military outpost that was in large part tunneled out of the bedrock. Then the chambers of glowstone crystals were discovered, and it became a mining boom town."
"That's right. And you probably know that in its early period of growth and expansion, before anyone even thought of erecting the massive walls-an odd thing to even imagine, I know- several foreign armies tried to conquer our young city on numerous occasions?"
She nodded. "In fact, I'm pretty sure even an invading army from Tenjiku itself tried its luck at some point. Hang on, let me try to remember here…" she said thoughtfully. "Oh yes, that was Vajra The Vicious," she recalled at length. "My grandfather told me stories about him, you know, and it's said that he had twelve thousand soldiers under his command during the campaign. But both Ba Sing Se's defenders-and even more importantly, the unpredictable weather and dangerous terrain of the Taihua Mountains-proved to be too much for the warlord in the end."
"Going up into those mountains is evidently about as safe as brushing your teeth with mashed wolfsbane plant," Hong remarked. "There's unstable footing, frequent rockfalls, the threat of avalanches, altitude sickness…and as I'm sure you've seen from a high enough point in the city, the peaks are not only capped with thick snow even during the middle of summer, but blizzards and windstorms can arise at any time. I wouldn't want to get caught in one in one of them. Not that I'd be scared to go up into those mountains, mind you," he quickly added. "I would just be very cautious about it, and certainly wouldn't make a habit of doing so."
"Me neither. No wonder they've stopped all those would-be invading armies in their tracks."
"Except for one," Hong smugly grinned, eyes twinkling.
"Your own ancestors," she guessed.
"That's right. And the ancestors of the majority of this city's population, for that matter-at least until about a hundred and fifty years ago."
"Do you know where they came from?"
"Well, it's been so long that no one knows for certain, but both my family history and the really old archives in the university say that our people originally used to live in the north-central part of the Earth Kingdom, in several massive valleys and areas of flat plains among the mountains there," he told her. "We called ourselves the 'Ma Yen' back then, the ostrich-horse people, since we were this group of loosely organized semi-nomadic tribes at the time. They made their living by growing wheat, millet, and soybeans during the warmer months, raising ostrich-horses and deer-goats for meat, milk, and trade, and fishing, hunting, or gathering edible or medicinal wild plants as they could."
"Naturally, our population grew larger and larger over the centuries, until there was a point where the land could no longer support us, and we needed to expand. But perhaps even more importantly, the rulers of Ba Sing Se wanted to expand their empire too, and were trying to conquer portions of Ma Yen territory during that time. Just like when two masses of rock grind against each other, something had to give."
"Which it did."
He gave a single nod. "Eventually, there arose a great, famous Ma Yen chieftain and general by the name of Niowanggiyan, who was both a powerful earthbender said to be capable of literally bending portions of good-sized mountains, and equally skilled in handheld weapons. Anyhow, when he was a young man, his father and uncle led Ma Yen troops into battle against a regiment of the 14th Earth King's forces, commanded by Colonel Dusha-but although they both fought bravely, they were killed in that battle."
"That made Niowanggiyan more than a little furious, I would guess," Rajata said.
"Oh, you bet it did," Hong replied. "It's said that when he went into battle against Colonel Dusha to avenge his father and uncle, by the time he was done personally settling his score with the other man, there was nothing remaining of the colonel that could still be made out as human in form," his description making Rajata wince.
"But Niowanggiyan didn't stop there," Hong continued. "He unified all the bands of Ma Yen under his leadership as a ruler, and formed them into a powerful military force, dividing them into a system of companies he named 'The Eight Banners.' Then, after many years, he was ready to strike back at a still wall-less Ba Sing Se, and marched southeast."
"How did they manage to deal with those dangerous mountain passes though?" Rajata wondered. "I mean, Vajra The Vicious was said to be every bit as tough and determined as an armadillo-lion, but he still met his match with them."
Hong lightly laughed, but not in a patronizing way. "They were Ma Yen, remember? They knew high mountain country Rajata, had the experience to recognize just when and where to make their journey among the peaks of the Taihuas-and Niowanggiyan had his exceptional bending powers to help clear the path for his armies in more ways than one," he added. "Not as staggering as the feats that Lady Kyoshi could perform, of course, but it was still very impressive."
"Bending out chunks of entire mountains," Rajata marveled. "I would give my left arm to be able to wield that sort of sheer power as an earthbender, really."
Hong grunted in agreement. "I wouldn't mind being able to do that either-which, coming from a Dai Li agent like myself, speaks highly of Niowanggiyan indeed. But to make an already long story short, he and his forces-120,000 strong, it's said!-arrived here with minimal losses from their mountain trek, attacking Ba Sing Se's defenders with every intention not only to win-but to stay."
"And they succeeded at both goals," she surmised.
He nodded. "It goes without saying that Niowanggiyan crowned himself as the 15th Earth King after taking the city. He then proceeded to encourage great numbers of Ma Yen to leave our original homeland for Ba Sing Se during his reign. So did the next several Earth Kings, all of pure Ma Yen ancestry." He smiled before going on. "Our people interbred with the locals, naturally, and right from the moment he began his rule, both King Niowanggiyan and subsequent Earth Kings from his lineage were highly eager to get the people of Ba Sing Se to adopt the culture and customs of the Ma Yen, instead of the other way around."
"More like shoved them down their throats, basically," Rajata said quietly. She couldn't help but think of all the times both she and her parents had been told-whether verbally or non-verbally, politely or aggressively, deliberately or totally innocently by the city's native residents-things that pretty much all boiled down to one painful demand: "Why can't you get with the program, and behave like a real Ba Sing Sean?!" It never failed to hurt.
"I guess you could say that," Hong replied, giving her a slightly surprised, perplexed look. "And for what it's worth, I'm not exactly proud of the fact that my ancestors did this. But it happened, and the bottom line is that even after seven thousand years, there's still quite a lot of Ma Yen culture and heritage that lives on in The Impenetrable City."
"What are some examples?"
"The hairstyles, for one, such as this fetching queue all we men around here have," he grinned, reaching back to exhibit his braid and drape it over his left shoulder. "And the qitou styles women wear their hair in. The high collars on our shirts, robes, jackets. Our passion for wrestling and earthbending 'rumbles.' Horsemanship. A fondness for theatre. Qipao dresses. Brick or stone beds that can be passively heated during the winter. How women here tend to wear three earrings in each ear. Falconry and archery-I'm a pretty good shot with a bow myself, by the way."
"Really? That's pretty cool. But I never would've guessed that you'd ever bother to use conventional weapons Hong, especially since you're an elite earthbender."
"Thanks. I can show you some of the trophies I've taken with said bows later, if you're interested," he offered. "And all members of the Dai Li carry a regulation dagger while on active duty-although I can count the number of times that I've actually needed to use mine on one hand. But to finish this discussion, my distant ancestors also left their mark on the local cuisine, with such items as Ma Yen sausage, pickled napa cabbage with boiled meat, Ma Yen hot pot, pickled vegetables in general-and this tasty, tasty sachima," he grinned. "Makes a balanced diet," he smirked as he helped himself to two more squares of the pastry, taking one in each hand and briefly exhibiting them to her, causing Rajata to laugh at the visual pun as he bit into one of the treats.
After lunch was over, Hong walked over to her chair as she pushed it back and graciously helped her up, giving her a quick kiss on the crown of her head before saying, "I'm sure you're feeling stuffed to the neck after such a big meal, so I don't blame you if you want to just sit and talk for a while first before I show you around."
"I'm definitely feeling rather bloated, sluggish at this moment," Rajata agreed, "but I have no problem with at least going to another room and taking its sights in while my stomach settles."
"The reception chamber should be as good a place as any then," Hong decided. "It's not far away, either."
After a servant brought them a bowl of water and some cotton cloths so that they could both wash their hands, that was just where they went, hand in hand. The room was dominated by a two-part, padded, high-backed wooden couch upon a stone dais, more like a connected pair of thrones than anything else. Behind it loomed a twelve-paneled folding screen, depicting both various symbols of prosperity and stages from Avatar Kyoshi's founding and training of that first. long-ago troop of Dai Li agents.
Beautifully carved and varnished chests, tables of expensive hardwoods like teak and rosewood were arranged around the room. Upon them stood magnificent ceramics-among them a beautiful blue and white pot featuring a salmon-gar leaping from a churning river, and a decorative plate, stood on end, centered around a peacefully sleeping badgermole with her two cubs pressed against her. Masterfully detailed bronze statues were perched atop them as well, including one of a turtle-seal looking over its shoulder, a male slingshot antelope with his distinctive Y-shaped nose horn, and a lion-turtle with a finely detailed village on its shell. All of it was just marvelous.
There were also various hunting trophies on display. Rajata had always found the concept of skinning or decapitating slain animals, and then transforming said remains into either rugs or stuffed heads to be stuck on the wall, forever staring into space, more than a little unnerving and distasteful.
But they also had a sort of silent, frozen elegance, even a weird kind of majesty to them, she decided, and were doubtless sources of great pride and happy memories of the chase alike to her boyfriend. And besides, one simply didn't dare tell one of the Dai Li that you frowned upon a certain action of his-especially when you were currently a guest in his home.
A platypus bear-skin rug. A tiger skin on the wall, with the skull on a wooden stand below. The antlered heads of two nice mule-deer bucks. The triangular, scary-looking head of a huge shark-crocodile that had to have been at least fifteen feet long in life. The shaggy hide of a golden cliff baboon, the skull mounted below with dagger fangs bared. The head of a wild cattalo, long horns gleaming. A full-body mount of a six-legged hexapede antelope, its pelt a gorgeous indigo blue in color with white pinstripes, the four-eyed head crowned by spiraling horns. A shoulder mount of a wildebeest-tapir. The skins of a four-horned jaguar, and a giant hyena-otter. A full body mount of a slingshot antelope. The head of a land-running boar-crocodile.
If nothing else, it certainly couldn't be said that her new boyfriend was lacking in either courage or prowess as a hunter, she'd give him that.
"Did you use your stone gloves to take any of these animals down?" she asked as she looked the skulls and pelts over from her cushioned chair near the dais.
Perched in his master seat on the dais, Hong actually seemed rather offended before shaking his head. "Not a single one was killed with earthbending, believe it or not," he told her in a sincere tone. "I will admit, we agents of the Dai Li aren't exactly honorable fighters," he said with a shrewd smile, "but when it comes to pursuing animal quarry-well, using bending would just be too easy, not sporting. So even we use conventional weapons when hunting-like my bow that I just told you about-which makes it much more of a challenge and fair fight. But that can present some big problems if things really go to schist, of course. That shark-crocodile was the most dramatic case in point," he went on, pointing at the scaly, fang-filled, wedge-shaped head, blue in color with large daubs of white. "I was spearing fish from a raft, alone, in a relatively shallow part of the Possum-Beaver River, in the eastern part of the Agarian Zone on a day off, when it showed up, probably attracted by the blood and the thrashing of the fish I'd already landed."
"I would've been scared out of my mind, seeing that thing coming towards me, with no stone or earth around to distract it or fight back with," she said, unable to keep a shudder from going through her as she regarded the triangular teeth.
"Well, I wasn't," Hong boasted. "Maybe it wasn't the wisest course of action, but I decided to take up my spear in both hands, aimed for the back of its neck as it passed close by, and took a flying leap."
"Wait," Rajata said, holding up a hand as she gaped in disbelief. "Did you just say a leap?! As in, you actually jumped off the raft into the water with it?"
He nodded proudly. "It was a necessary act, in order to drive the spear's point as deep as possible."
The very thought gave her chills, as she stared at him. "Good spirits, Hong. You must've been out of your mind to do such a thing!"
"I was certainly out of my element," he shrugged. "In more ways than one. When I speared that beast, it went totally wild of course, flailing and thrashing all over, and I clutched onto its back for all I was worth, holding my breath and hoping I didn't either get smashed by the tail or sliced up by those teeth."
"How in Vishnu's name did you manage to get out of that alive?" she asked in shock.
"I'm getting to that. After maybe several seconds, the shark-crocodile dove right to the bottom of the river, maybe a good ten, twelve paces below the surface. I'm still hanging on of course, wondering what in Kyoshi's name have I just done, and trying not to drown or get ripped apart by this very angry, wounded beast."
"Well, Hou-Tu must have been watching out for me," he went on, "because the river bottom was covered in rounded stones."
"Which you could bend into rock gloves."
"And that's exactly what I did. While holding on with my legs and elbows, I not only bent some of those cobbles into simple bracelets and gloves, but made sure to give them long, sharp points at the tips that would make a skunk-bear envious. Then I slammed them into both sides of its scaly neck as hard as I could."
"Whoa. It must've gone into a frenzy over that too."
"Did it ever! It shot up right for the surface with me holding fast, hurled itself out of the water to try to knock me off on impact, then darted for shallower water, closer to the bank-and all the while, even as it was heaving, thrashing, ducking me under, I just kept digging the stone spikes tipping my gloves deeper into its neck, knowing that all its violent struggling was only making the damage they were doing even worse."
He shook his head, remembering. "I can't even begin to put into words how strong that creature was, Rajata, powerful as a gemsbok-bull-but I'm plenty strong too. After a few minutes, it began to weaken. I realized I could stand on the bottom, and started backing towards the shore, bending my feet into the riverbed for leverage with every step. At some point, I let go of it, and switched my grip to the tail end, then somehow hauled and tugged it to the bank-even though I was half-drowned by then, and it still had some fight left in its body. Once I had it ashore, I finished it off with a volley of stone tiles through the chest."
"Wait, I thought you said not one of these animals was killed with earthbending…"
"A mere technicality," he smirked. "Lest you forget, I'd already speared it through the neck, which is a fatal wound in itself, in addition to using my sheer physical strength, not my bending, to pierce and tear up its neck with those stone claws I made." She decided to let that go.
"You must've been beyond exhausted after such a struggle."
He nodded. "Once I was certain it was dead, the first thing I did was collapse in the grass beside it and sleep for a couple of hours. Eventually, I got around to gutting it, cut the carcass into sections, and dragged them back here. Turns out, shark-crocodiles not only make impressive trophies, but are excellent eating too."
"How does the meat taste? You'll probably say it tastes like chicken," she wryly added.
Hong chuckled. "It tastes quite similar to pig-chicken actually, but it also has a little bit of a sweet flavor. The tail meat was especially good."
She looked back up at the creature's head and shook her own in dumbfounded amazement.
"I don't know whether to view you as either a badass or totally crazy for doing that, Hong."
"Gyunghui pretty much felt the same way when I returned with my prize catch and told her about how it was done. She was rightly more than a little upset over how she'd come all too close to suddenly finding herself a widow."
"Well, don't you be doing those sorts of things with me either," she said softly. "Please."
"I won't," he assured her. "I'm also old enough to know better now, if that helps," he added wryly.
"Weren't you scared at any point while doing battle with it, Hong? I'm not ashamed to say I sure would've been."
"I'm one of the Dai Li," he replied simply. "I'm never scared."
After relaxing in the reception room for a while, Rajata was ready for Hong to continue on with the tour of his home, the two of them holding hands at times as he led her around.
In spite of his warmth and friendly demeanor though, she was also quite aware that he wasn't only acting the part of her boyfriend and welcoming host, but also as a gently controlling chaperone, only allowing her to see the rooms and halls of his home that he was willing to let her enter for the time being, all of them relatively close to the compound's front.
While Rajata deeply wished it could be otherwise-and even had a strong sense that Hong not only didn't like having to restrict her movements through his home himself, but already would've had no quarrel in practice with her going so far as to stop by his bedroom or sacred altar of worship-there was still a protocol to be followed, customs that every visitor had to abide by.
And even if you were the love of his life, you simply couldn't just wander wherever you pleased when you visited someone's house for the first time. Not until you'd been there enough times that the family, the servants, became comfortable enough with you that it was okay with them at last to let you have access to even more areas of the property.
Then too, Hong was Dai Li, and Rajata thought it was a pretty safe bet that his study, even his master bedroom, housed more than a few reports, scrolls, letters, and books that contained highly sensitive, confidential information. He wasn't going to risk a leak.
The interior of the house in general struck her as rather stark and unfriendly in many ways, with the walls, floors, and even some of the furniture made out of naked stone. She supposed it made sense though, for a master and resident who could literally shift the very form of his dwelling to suit his needs and desires, remodel it with his chi alone.
But she also came across much in those rooms that interested and intrigued her, and further established that there was so much more to Hong as a man than she'd initially thought.
For thousands of years, men of not only Ba Sing Se's, but the Earth Kingdom's upper and middle classes in general, benders and nonbenders alike, had been encouraged to live up to the ideal of the scholarly warrior.
"Civilize the mind and make savage the body." the motto went.
Hong's strengths as both an elite earthbender, and his sheer physical power were of course, no secret to Rajata. (A few times throughout their budding relationship, the unnerving, unwelcome thought had randomly occurred to her as they'd walked or sat together, regarding this man who was twice her mass, that if the mood ever struck him, or she was stupid enough to goad him into a serious, ground-quaking rage, he could break her neck with his bare hands alone in a matter of seconds. But she also knew, with an innate trust and certainty, that in reality, he'd never even consider such a thing.)
As Hong showed her around the first few south-facing rooms of his home, and then a separate hall of north-facing rooms, she was both impressed and surprised to see several atmospheric paintings on the walls.
"They're lovely," she said in admiration, as she regarded one that depicted a glittering red and white dragonfly (the insect), perched on the flowering branch of an apricot tree. "Did you buy them from an artist's stall, or paint these yourself?"
"Each one is an original work of mine," he smiled proudly. "Just like I said before, even the Dai Li have hobbies besides just walking the streets and standing around being menacing," he smirked, making her lightly laugh.
"They're amazing Hong," she praised. "They truly are."
She looked over a total of six paintings that adorned the walls of the rooms Hong chaperoned her through. Besides the one featuring the dragonfly, one depicted a tricolored squirrel holding onto a ribbed stalk of bamboo, head downward, bushy tail cocked, the black, ivory white, and coppery strips of fur running lengthwise down its body boldly standing out against the green background of yet more bamboo.
There were two landscape scenes, one set in the Agarian Zone and prominently featuring what Rajata figured was Hong's childhood home. The other was a starkly beautiful depiction of a forest in winter, the naked, clawing branches mantled in fresh snow, with the small figure of a single, forlorn-looking rabbiroo feeding on a bush. A buck, Rajata decided, calling upon what paltry knowledge she had of wild creatures, for it was wandering alone.
"The variety of colors I used was pretty limited for that one," Hong quipped.
The other two paintings of the bunch focused on objects. One was a close-up view of several apples on a table, their skins bearing various degrees of red and pale green. Beside them sat one of the artist's rock gloves, its fingers curled into a partial fist.
The second was even more splendid, depicting several long, lime green crystals of glowstone in a dark grotto, illuminating the scene with their eerie green light. Flowstone seemed to ooze across the front of the canvas below them, slick with a sheen of groundwater, and a free-tailed bat streaking above the crystals, pin-sharp teeth bared, provided a sense of scale. The luminous prisms being portrayed were roughly the length of her forearm, she decided.
"Incredible," she marveled. "This is maybe the best one of them all, especially with the lighting from the crystals and the texture of the stone. It's like you were actually there in the cave itself."
"Perhaps I was," he smiled.
"Well, you sure captured the scene perfectly then. And you actually painted all of these with no official teaching?"
"Only a small amount. Most of it I learned as I went along."
Seeing how especially captivated she was by the still life of the glow-crystals, Hong generously took it off the wall and offered it to her right then and there as his gift, which she accepted in amazed delight.
Then he led her to the outdoor, north-facing porch on the nearer side of the first courtyard, where Rajata took a seat while he left her for a few minutes, returning with two ceramic mugs and a good-sized jug of what he told her was plum wine.
The afternoon sunlight made the fabric of his changshan glisten as he poured a cup for her and handed it over, Rajata thanking him before taking a careful, assessing sip. It had a pleasant, fruity, both sweet and sour taste to it. A very tasty vintage, she decided.
Rajata, Hong concluded as he regarded the young woman sipping wine across from him, was not only a beautiful and welcome guest in his home, but an appreciative one.
She thanked Hong once again for handing over his glowstone painting to delight her, and for bringing her to that ostrich-horse race that had literally turned her family's fortunes around with its resulting boon. Then she excitedly filled him in on the new house her family had bought with a chunk of said winnings, which street of the Middle Ring it was located on, the greater space it had, that they were already planning to move, and what the interior and property was like while he attentively listened.
At length, Rajata broached the topic of how, while she'd been exploring and assessing the interior of their new residence, seeing if it was to their liking, she'd been struck by an uncanny feeling concerning Hong.
"Maybe it's all just my weird imagination at work," she commented, "but I truly did have a sense that you were in some sort of emotional distress at the time, Hong." She hesitated, the dark eyes meeting his gaze. "Was my hunch correct? Only you can say for sure," she added.
He gave her a surprised, intrigued look, blinking.
"Amazing," he said after a few moments. "But yes, I was rather distraught at around that same time about something."
"I'll be damned," she softly replied in equal astonishment, jaw hanging slightly. "That's just freaky, really." She took a deep breath. "Anyhow, is it okay for you to tell me what that thing was?"
He considered for a moment before saying, "I can tell you the basics. First of all, as you must know, Avatar Aang is currently staying in Ba Sing Se."
She nodded, then shook her head as she glanced down at her wine, a gesture which proclaimed that she still wasn't quite able to believe he was gracing their city-state with his exalted presence. Or for that matter, that he'd even appeared on the scene again, after being absent for over a century doing spirits knew what in some remote corner of the world.
"I don't know about you," she remarked with a small smile, "but I consider it a huge-and unexpected-honor to have had him show up here. In fact, I wouldn't mind getting the chance to meet The Avatar, or at least see him in person," she added wistfully, briefly looking skyward. "Or even just one of his friends. Like that would ever happen though."
"Stranger twists of fortune have happened to you already," Hong responded with a wry, knowing smile. He wasn't going to tell her that privately, not only would he and the rest of the Dai Li have really preferred if the Avatar hadn't shown his face here at all, but the possibility of him or his friends crossing paths with the woman across from him, small as it admittedly was, made him more than a little uneasy.
True, Aang mostly seemed determined to 'educate' the king alone about the war's existence. But if Rajata encountered them on the streets, it could still easily lead to them asking her things, telling her things that could make her suspicious. Which could then result in making her someone, he thought sickly, who needed to be re-educated…
Also, if Aang really lost his temper over something, or felt that either he or one of his friends was seriously endangered, and she had the terrible luck to happen to be close by as he went into the Avatar State…
Reports from both General Fong's fortress and the Si Wong Desert both agreed that he'd been like a tornado of rage and destruction at those times, with other benders present not having a hope in hell of protecting themselves against such power. Just to imagine her getting caught up in that, or strapped in front of a conversion lantern-that was an unwelcome mental image, to put it mildly.
"Unfortunately, Rajata, while I understand that it's exciting and an honor to have the Avatar here after so long, don't forget that he's also a twelve-year-old boy with astonishing powers, who doesn't always think before he uses them."
She nodded. "Like when he released and relocated the zoo animals."
"Precisely. And just like any other Avatar, he's a force of change, an unpredictable link between the mortal and spirit worlds. Cleaning up his messes and trying to gently curb his enthusiasm has been…challenging for us Dai Li, to put it mildly," he deadpanned before taking another slow, welcome gulp of plum wine.
"I can see that. Part of your job-a job I'm very thankful you perform, by the way" she amended with a smile, "-is to help keep this city safe and stable, after all."
He then told her, always careful not to divulge anything that could count as classified, the general outlines of the talk he'd had with his commander-not mentioning, of course, the "benefits" he'd proposed that their relationship would grant for the Dai Li in the long-term by using her as a suitable breeder, in that clever, successful strategy to have his romantic cake and eat it too. It went without saying that Rajata wouldn't be very happy to hear any sort of talk which compared her to a brood hen.
"Strange," she said reflectively, after expressing both her relief and admiration that Hong had been able to get his commanding officer to see things his way. "I'm hardly a soothsayer, so it's pretty odd that I suddenly sensed you were in a state of high emotion when I've never been struck by that sort of impression before. I wonder why?"
He shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. That fabled 'woman's intuition' at work, perhaps?" he half-jokingly proposed.
She gave that charming laugh of hers before saying, "Maybe so. Or maybe," she said with a smooth smile, voice and eyes softening, "we've developed such a bond between us now that we're connected at the level of the spirit, at least in part."
He fondly smiled back, touched. "I like that possibility much better than the first one," he replied, reaching out across the table to take her own proffered hand in his own.
At some point during their conversation, a medium-sized white dog came trotting out into the courtyard and cheerily investigated Rajata, who responded with affectionate words of her own and by stroking the terrier's shaggy coat. Hong introduced the dog as Yun, who calmed down after a few minutes and sprawled on the stone by her master's feet.
Yun more or less remained that way, only standing up now and again to request a few more pets and scratches from one of them, or to pace around a little before flopping back down, as Rajata continued to share the plum wine with her boyfriend and just make small talk with him about their respective childhoods in the Lower Ring. A safe enough topic.
She found herself becoming mildly tipsy from the wine, giggling and chuckling more frequently. Hong's eyes looked a bit glassy themselves as well, and as with a fair number of native Ba Sing Seans she'd shared adult beverages with-but by no means all-his sun bronzed features had taken on a distinctly vermilion tint, almost like he'd been sunburned.
He was giving a hearty snicker at a memory she'd just told him about the time she'd formed an "We Hate Eating Upma Porridge" protest club as a girl with her sisters and friends, when he suddenly looked intently at the ceramic jug and said, "You know, this stuff is pretty good, but I think we've had enough of it for today. I think it's time to cut ourselves off."
"That's probably wise," she agreed, giving several dreamy nods. "Last thing I want is to end up puking all over this fancy outfit, or have my parents see me stumbling out of a carriage and faceplanting into the street."
He bared his teeth in a sympathetic laugh. "Yeah, been there, done that. Or even worse, waking up so hung over that I wouldn't have cared if an earthquake happened at that moment, and then asking myself, 'Hey, where in Hou-Tu's name am I?' Anyway, time to remove the temptation."
He clapped his hands to summon a servant, and the gesture made Rajata bow her head and lightly slap the table as she giggled hysterically.
Hong gave her a long, bemused look. Haoren also gave her a perplexed glance when he arrived, but only for a moment before attentively focusing on his master.
"Is there anything you need, Lao Yan?"
"We've had our share of this plum wine," Hong replied as he bent the stone stopper back into the jug's mouth and handed it to his butler. "Time to quit before we go too far."
"I understand sir," Haoren smirked before taking both it and the cups in hand. "Is there anything else that you and Miss Rajata may need?"
"A couple large glasses of water," Hong replied, his eyebrows lowering in puzzlement once more as he looked back at her.
Haoren nodded, bowed, and then paced away.
"What was that just all about?" he inquired, studying her. "I didn't know that summoning one of my servants was the sort of thing to put you in a spin," he grinned.
"It wasn't that," she said. "The clapping you just did. It was funny because it reminded me of a song I remember fondly from when I was a girl."
Deciding that her boyfriend and host wouldn't have an issue with her nostalgically breaking into song, she began to tap her feet against the stone as she gleefully crooned, "Three-six-nine, the cormorant-goose drank wine-"
Hong's eyes lit up with recognition. "Hah, I remember that song from my boyhood too!" he interjected. "The monkey chewed tobacco on the Earth tram line," he sang in a slightly slurred tone. "The line broke! The monkey got choked!" he continued on, Rajata finding his almost gleeful emphasis on those two violent verbs vaguely disturbing to some degree.
But she put it out of her mind and giggled again as she joined her voice with his, crying, "And they all went to heaven in a little rowboat! Clap clap!" they finished before doing just that in unison, nearly falling out of their chairs with laughter.
It was made even funnier when Chu Hua came rushing over expectantly, and Hong gave her a dismissive wave of a hand, saying "You can go, Chu Hua. Rajata and I only clapped together in fun," before randomly laughing.
"Um, yes, I suppose so sir."
Haoren soon appeared with the pitcher of water, and a pair of cups, filling them both. They gladly accepted. All good things had to come to an end though, and this long, blissful summer afternoon inevitably did just that, the sun sinking lower and the shadows in the courtyard getting ever longer.
Rajata drained one last cup of water as Hong started on a new one.
"Well," she said reluctantly as she put the cup down and leaned back, "it's time for me to think about heading back home. Even though my dad and mom both assured me that it doesn't matter one way or the other, they're moving things to our new house as we speak, and it wouldn't feel right to not pitch in."
"I totally understand," Hong replied. "You never want to shirk filial support and responsibility if you can help it."
"Agreed."
"Anyway, I hope you've had a wonderful afternoon at my humble home," he grinned. "I know I've sure had a wonderful time with you here."
She smiled. "I've enjoyed every minute of it, Hong. Lunch was just fantastic, it was exciting to see some of your rooms, walk some of the halls, learn more about what you're like-and your dog sure is cute!" she added, reaching down and over the side of her chair to give Yun a final rub with her hand, the terrier looking up and affectionately licking said hand in reciprocation.
"You're very welcome."
"Thanks for giving me one of your original paintings too, that I know you must've spent hours working on completing. That's especially generous of you."
"Wouldn't gift it to my beautiful black pearl if she didn't deserve it," he replied with a smile.
She smiled as well as she stood up, legs a bit shaky, and walked around to give Hong a grateful farewell hug. He was already rising to his own feet in anticipation, pushing his chair back before receiving her.
Heedless of whether any of his servants were watching, or what they might think, Rajata used the slightest push with her bending to lightly leap into Hong's arms, wrapping her legs around his waist as he supported her back with his forearms. She was suddenly so aware of his alluring scent, the warmth of his body, the beauty of his sculpted facial features. They stared into each other's eyes briefly, and began to lower their faces towards each other…
But then, they recoiled and broke their impending first kiss off-not out of disgust or fear from either party, but because there was a shared, innate sense that the time, the place…it just wasn't right as yet. For one thing, they were both somewhat sloshed on that plum wine. If they locked lips in that condition, who knew what else that might lead to?
Also, a first, true kiss between lovers was something beautiful and precious, something that Rajata deeply believed should require an intimate, private setting-and she got the impression that Hong was of the same mindset as well.
"Sorry," he said awkwardly, glancing aside, although he still continued to hold her up.
"It's okay," she told him, kissing his forehead, then cheek instead, before relaxing her limbs and gesturing to him to let her down. They briefly hugged again, Rajata closing her eyes in bliss as she felt Hong take in the odor of her hair before placing a kiss on her crown, then her right ear, before they parted.
But he still lightly held her hand as he asked her, "Need me to escort you back to the front gate?"
She shook her head as she pulled away. "I appreciate the offer, but I'll be fine." Hong seemed slightly disappointed, but only nodded. "Again, thanks so much for this painting, the lunch, and everything else," she said, taking the framed artwork up in her right hand.
"My pleasure. Be seeing you then, exquisite young thing," he grinned as he sat back down, taking his final ceramic cup of water in hand once more.
She gave a flattered grin before saying, "Speaking of which, something tells me I'll be visiting your home again sooner rather than later-which I very much want to. Do you think the guards will be okay at that point, now that they've met me, with freely letting me in?"
"No," Hong said simply, shaking his head before sipping at the water. "One visit isn't nearly enough for them to feel comfortable with just casually opening the gate for you. For now, you can still only come here by my special invitation, and only safely approach the gate if I've told them that you're arriving at a certain time. They have those swords and spears for a reason, Rajata."
"Perhaps I might not need your clearance though, to be allowed in next time I feel like a visit," she said, grinning.
"Oh? Why would that be?" he asked, giving her a slightly baffled look, his eyebrows arched.
"You didn't see it, but one of your sentries made it very clear from his expression as I passed by that he was rather taken by my beauty as well."
Hong lightly chuckled. "Well, I guess that's only to be expected. A woman as gorgeous as you can hardly fail to attract the interest of other men as well."
She gave a pleased giggle. "I do look pretty sexy," she agreed. "So, I think it shouldn't be hard for me to charm my way inside here by flirting with him a little, giving him a few long, sleek caresses…maybe even a peck on the cheek or two," she said with a mischievous grin. Her comment was made entirely in jest, and also under the influence of the plum wine.
There was a sudden, brief silence then though, as Hong's massive body straightened in his seat, and he met her gaze with coolly serious eyes. He set his cup of water down carefully enough, but Rajata could still see ripples softly quivering over the surface as he evenly replied, "If you ever seriously try that as a strategy to gain entry, then I hope it won't bother you too much when I take that particular sentry of mine on a one-way trip to the Ba Sing Se Zoo afterwards. I'm sure the boar-crocodiles would be more then glad to have some variety in their diet for once," he reflected.
A deep, primeval chill grasped Rajata's heart, and turned her spine into a quivering rod of ice as she gasped in dismay. "Hong!" she sputtered. "You'd actually-that's inhum-"
Hong's harsh expression fell away in the next moment, to be replaced by a friendly, disarming everything's-all-cool-and-happy smile as he smoothly assured her, "Relax. I was just joking."
"Hah hah. And I was only kidding with that flirting comment myself," Rajata replied with a hesitant smile. "My Shiva," she added by way of appeasement, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice.
For she knew damn well that not only had he fully meant every word of that threat, but that he wouldn't think twice about doing it, either.
She bid Hong goodbye, and made her way back along the same route he'd led her. Once she was back in the more open, relatively peaceful, beauty of the garden did she dare let out her shock at his remark in a slow, shuddering breath.
She kept her strides measured, and walked out of the compound with a relaxed, happy, content demeanor that was in large part sincere-making even more of a point now, to not meet the eyes of either sentry, even though she politely acknowledged their farewells.
But yet, a part of her was also highly relieved now to be out of the estate, to be returning to the relative security of the city streets and the crowds-even as another part of Rajata longingly wished that she didn't have to part from Hong, already wanted to hear his voice and feel his touch again.
It was wonderful to be able to eat as much good, high-quality food as she could stomach, to wear fancy, formal clothing, to be able to go pretty much wherever she wanted now in this city, to turn the tables on people who'd once scorned and excluded her, to have a man in her life that was wealthy, respected, powerful, loved her dearly, who made her feel happy, complete, and safe.
The trouble was, just now she didn't feel all that safe.
*breathes out slowly* I did so much research concerning traditional Beijing-style houses for this chapter that it legit made my eyes glaze over, occupying more than a few hours of my time.
Mayil=Peafowl in Tamil.
Tai-Pan=roughly the equivalent of "important man," or a big shot in Mandarin.
The cattalo is a real hybrid animal, a cross between an American bison and a domestic beef cow. I wouldn't mind eating one.
Names: Dusha="Viper" in Mandarin. Vajra="Thunderbolt" in Hindi.
Speaking of which, to any practitioners of Hinduism that may read this chapter, YES, I am fully aware that Lord Shiva is generally portrayed as a deeply caring, reasonable god who loves his followers and is a devoted "family man," with his title of The Destroyer not meaning in any way that he's some wanton or savage terror, but that he's an eliminator of demons, bad ways of thinking, our lowest impulses, wicked people, things which have had their day in the sun-clearing the path of everything that harms and holds us back as human beings on both an individual and collective level.
But you still can't deny it's a very appropriate, kick-ass, chilling title when applied to a Dai Li agent like Hong Yan. *grins* Besides, it really massages his ego when his girl calls him that.
As I alluded to at the start of this chapter, the account of his people's past with Ba Sing Se that Hong gives to Rajata over dessert is very, very heavily based on real world Manchu history, with only a few minor changes-for example Nurchai's grandfather also died alongside his father in the same battle, not any of his uncles. (In my headcanon, the successful takeover and settlement of a then-exposed Ba Sing Se by the Ma Yen forces played a massive motivating factor in why Earth Kings from that very same ethnic group then turned around and had those gigantic walls erected. They wisely knew that they would do well not to give future armies the same chance to seize it that they'd already exploited...)
In the Avatar-verse, a mule-deer looks just what it sounds like, a cross between a mule and a deer. A shark-crocodile is basically this world's version of a smaller-sized mosasaur. Golden cliff baboons are based on hamadryas baboons, more or less. The hexapede antelope (Yerik, in Na'vi) is of course, a loving tip of the hat to the other gorgeously done animated work of media with the title of Avatar, by a certain James Cameron. (The banshees/ikran are my favorite creatures, btw!) A horned jaguar makes a more in-depth, in person appearance in my early fic The Blind Huntress, if you're interested in a more detailed portrait.
The giant hyena-otter is a modified, double-sized version in my head of an extinct species of otter known as Siamogale, thought to weigh around 110 pounds in life. The slingshot antelope is an Avatar-verse version of the bizarre Synthetoceras from Miocene North America. The boar-crocodiles are basically Kaprosuchus, except I imagine them as also having a pig's external ears, and a sparse coat of bristly hair growing among their scales.
The Clapping Song, for those who may somehow have heard of it, belongs to Shirley Ellis, certainly not me.
Once again, I deeply appreciate reviews! Please?