Po Village was in the heart of Phoenix Territory, where Phoenix Clan lived in what had once been Hunan Province, China. Po Village was the one stationary haven, the head base, for all of Phoenix Clan, who for the most part wandered the land of China like gypsies. Phoenix Clan's head officials, and Family Leaders all met there twice yearly to exchange news, decide laws, announce new marriages, births and betrothals. Because of the nomadic nature of most of the rest of Phoenix Clan (the Po Family being the noted exception) Po Village had a large transient population. The Po Family stayed behind to tend their Village and buildings (and the warrior training ground within it) during the time when all of the other Clans went out on their trade routes.

There were twelve main Clans in China, Dragon Clan having been the one of ancient warriors who kept up many of the fighting traditions until their move to outer space. Dragon Clan had grown too powerful for the peace of mind of the other Twelve Clans, so they had been asked to set up residence in a colony in outer space. That much Po Sai-Li remembered from what her sensei had told her. The Twelve Clans were protected by a spirit or entity of each element or that lived in two elements. For example, Dragon Clan was protected by the dragon, and the dragon's element was Earth. In the diagram that outlined the placements of each elemental in relation to its Clan, the phoenix was the Spirit of Fire and Air, so Phoenix Clan was halfway between Air and Fire.

Young Po Sai-Li, her name before she'd changed it to Sally (in order to fit in better in her new life), had never quite "fit in" in Po Village. For one thing there was her looks. She had honey-blonde hair and cloudy blue eyes, pale skin and she was unusually tall for a woman. Sally was an awkward and gawky 5'6 towering over all of her other sisters. All of the other women in her Clan and family were dark-haired, dark-eyed and dark-complexioned, and very femininely petite. Her sisters were all perfect model examples of good Chinese women… dainty, feminine, perfect. Every time she saw one of them Sally suffered a small fit of jealousy. She was too big, too un-dainty, too un-feminine. She couldn't help the looks category, it was her fathers fault after all. If he had not had a child by an outsider woman, Sally would not have looked the way she did. And it just figured that most of Phoenix Clan were the provincial, backward-thinking individuals who somehow placed the sin of being a bastard on the child and not on the parent where it belonged.

To say that Sally and her father had difficulties getting along would be an understatement. Po-Tzu was the most patriarchal, parochial, dominating dictator that Sally had ever met! At least Wufei had a sensitive and kind reason for never wanting Sally to do anything, Po-Tzu's only reason for his suppression of the opposite gender was because it was against tradition for women to be seen as anything but meek, subservient housewives and daughters. Sally held no truck with that kind of thought.

Every time she returned home for a visit they got into a disagreement about Sally's choice of lifestyle, living alone away from family and without a husband. Not only that but Sally's blunt refusal to have anything to do with getting a husband. Po-Tzu had tried on several occasions to marry her off as second or third wife to those Clans that practiced polygamy (no one of her…unique bloodline was ever considered good enough to be first wife) with disastrous results. On his first attempt her father had secured a Marriage-Alliance treaty with the head of the Hou Family of Rooster Clan (Metal) and had offered his peregrinating daughter Sai-Li as the bride. He'd called her home for a visit to tell her the good news…he'd found a husband for his daughter. Sally had been, to put it very mildly, less than pleased. The morning of the ceremony the household had woken to find the "blushing bride" fled, with all of the guests and family's modes of transportation professionally sabotaged so they couldn't come after her very quickly. It had been a tremendous embarrassment for Clan and Family.

Despite that, Po-Tzu refused to just disown his wayward daughter (as she was sure they both would have preferred). He still kept trying to change her, to bring her back into the familial fold and get her to recant of her erroneous ways and see the light. Sally, for her part, stopped listening the moment the word "husband" was mentioned in her presence. Sally Po was an independent woman and damned proud of her hard won independence. She simply would not tolerate any threat to that. And in her book marriage was definitely a threat to her independence. She did not need to be chained to some overbearing, patriarch of a slave-driver to do endless rounds of housework and never be allowed a free thought in her head. Never to voice her opinions in public for fear that someone might overhear and think that she might actually be **gasp!** an intelligent being. No, life as a wife among the Clans was definitely not for her. She was happy just as she was...a little lonely sometimes, but Sally had told herself long ago to expect that. What she hadn't been expecting was to fall in love with her partner.

Aside of her looks, another reason Sai-Li had never fit in with her dear beloved family, was a clash of interests and veiws. Right from the start Sai-Li had been a fighter. Unfortunately for her, aside of the dainty fan, or the shirai, or the eku, learning weapons was reserved for the boys of the Clans. There had not been a female warrior in Phoenix Clan since…well it had been a long time. It was all but forbidden to her. But did Sai-Li let a little thing like a social taboo, stop her? Of course not! Fortunately for her, one of the Eldest and highest ranking teachers there had taken to the young girl and took her on as a student…when he saw her innate talent, a protégé. And later on, a friend. Since the old man was well respected in the Clan, he was allowed his peculiarities. If he wished to take a worthless halfblood girl as a student, then that was his right, to the thinking of the rest of the Clan.

When Sai-Li had come of an age to be married, her father had demanded that she give up "that martial arts non-sense" and settle down into the marriage-alliance he'd arranged for her. After the first two attempts to bring her to heel, (which had ended in massive destruction of property or massive embarrassment or the occasional bloody nose) she got fed up with trying to pretend to go along with it. Young Sai-Li, true to form, had openly defied her father by challenging her fourth would-be future husband to a duel in hand-to-hand combat. At first, the elders had not been willing to allow such a travesty to proceed. A woman being allowed to decide her own future? Fah! But Sai-Li had done her research in preparation for that day, and there was indeed a law written in one of the oldest records-scrolls of her Clan stating that a woman did indeed have the right to challenge a man of another Clan to avoid being married to him. Such a thing had not been done for many many generations, not within anyone's lifetime could such a thing be recalled. Knowledge of that particular clause had been suppressed but Sai-Li and her sensei had managed to dig it up. She had challenged, and won, winning in the process the right to seek her destiny elsewhere outside the Clans.

Sai-Li had changed her own name and embarked out on what for her was a grand adventure, the world beyond the isolated little village that was all she had known for her entire life. She'd wound up in the Alliance Academy after winning a scholarship at a tourney. Sally had been curious about everything, but also had an interest in keeping food in her mouth and a roof over her head, so she'd chosen a field that was likely to be in demand no matter where she went…medicine. From there she'd applied to the Alliance to comlete her medical training on the field returning home once every year until her nineteenth year to fight for her freedom.

Sally Po kept up very little contact with her family, one or two of her sisters with whom she had been particularly close, and of course, her sensei. Other than that Sally only went back to Po Village once every year to keep her independence by trouncing every would-be suitor that her father had found for her. Right after she had left her father had proclaimed that on the very next summer solstice she would be married to another suitor that he had found for her. Sai-Li had returned, challenged that one and won again. So her father brought out another suitor. After she beat him in combat, she declared that she would allow no suior to marry her unless he first defeated her in combat. Her father had taken her at her word and declared that any man of the Clans who could defeat his daughter and turn her from her wild ways would win her for a wife and a fine dowry as well. Sensei had stepped in at that point and laid down some ground rules (else Sally might well have been forced to fight every available man between fourteen and forty in all of the Twelve clans). One rule was that she would only have to fight on the four days of the solstice festival, and another was that if, after five years of fighting Sally had remained undefeated she would have won hr independence. So, since the age of fourteen, Sally had returned to Po Village once every year on the week of the summer solstice to fight. And in her nineteenth year, she won her freedom.

She hadn't really been back there much since, but from what she'd heard everything was going great for Clan and family.

She set the note on her desk. She had best leave right away; only a fool kept the Grand High Council waiting. She should tell Lady Une that she had to leave for her vacation early because she suddenly had some urgent family business pop up that she had to see to immediately.

Yeah, like that one hasn't been used before, she thought wryly. Just in case she took the note off from her desk and brought it with her as proof.

She also wanted to say good bye to Wufei. She knew already that she wouldn't be telling him where she was going or why. He probably wouldn't understand Clan business anyway (forgetting that Wufei was from one of the Clans as well). She had been looking forward to spending her leave time hanging out with him and cajoling him into being relatively sociable. Oh well, there was always next leave. She walked out her door and down the hall until she reached the office of head of the Preventors, given the simple title Preventor One (which was also a lighthearted pun on Une's own name which also, ironically enough, meant one). She was let in at her knock and her business was concluded quickly. Une knew that whatever Sally had to take care of it was probably a genuine concern to her and not merely an attempt to get off work early. Sally wasn't a frivolous person so Une felt she could trush her at her word. Next came her partner.

*knock knock knock*

"Come in Sally," said Wufei, knowing the exact sound and tone of Sally's knock on his office door.

"Hey Wufei," she said, standing in his doorway. "I have to take off early, my half of the report's out on my desk when you need it. I should be back in a week or so I think."

"Where are you going?" he asked, curiously. Was it her imagination, or did he sound disappointed?

"I have to go home, to China. Some urgent business just came up and they need me back there."

"Oh, alright," he said. "Go do what you have to Sally. And good luck to you. I hope it's not too serious."

"Thank you Wufei," she said. "I hope so too. I'll see you in a week or two."

"See you then," he said. Sally walked out of his office and then down the hall towards the exit. She had to pack so she could catch the next available plane to Shang-Hai in time. She walked out the back entrance to the employee parking lot and climbed into her jeep. Best to hurry.

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