To her embarrassment, the clan leader did not stop at her door as she had expected. He knocked upon it and is immediately greeted by Wei Wuxian, whose grin nearly reaches his hairline.
"How is our Lady Shen?" he says positively, beaming with malicious teasing intent, causing Mimi to glare at him as she passes.
"As soon as I'm back on my feet, Master Wei," Mimi gently punches her hand.
"Why would future sister-in-law threaten me?" he whines, running to Lan Zhan, who is sitting with the children, helping them put a puzzle together.
Lan Zhan looks up briefly at their approach before continuing to sift through the pieces.
"Mimi, what happened?" Chen gets to her feet and touches the tips of her eldest sister's hands, as she is not quite tall enough to reach her sister's nose.
"You could say I fell on a sword," Mimi says as the clan leader finally sets her down on a cushion.
Disregarding the clan leader entirely, her sisters immediately swarm her, Dumplin throwing herself at her sister's lap and nuzzling her nose. Mimi returns the gesture and does the same with Chen. The men in the room watching curiously.
"Sorry to worry you," Mimi hugs her little sisters close as the clan leader sits on the floor beside them.
"Thanks for bringing our sister back, clan leader," Chen says.
"Thank you, clan leader," Dumplin chimes in.
"I could have walked back," Mimi gripes softly, looking over at the clan leader and winking when his eyebrows furled together.
"Were you two having fun with Master Wei and HanGuang Jun?" Mimi asks, looking down at her siblings.
"Pretty sure Master Wei ate everything in the cupboards," Chen pouts at the same time Dumplin said rather adorably, "Second master lan combed and braided our hair and let us do a puzzle!"
Trying not to think of what a possible plague of Master Wei could consume, Mimi settles for responding to the second unthinkable thing, "Did he?" Mimi and the clan leader look over at Lan Zhan as he continues to inspect the color-coded piles of puzzle pieces.
"Piece," he says, attaching a side piece with delicate fingers.
"I helped with the hair," Master Wei put his hands on his hips as Chen and Dumplin move off their sister to Lan Zhan and inspect the piece.
When they deem it a suitable fit, they repeat "piece" simultaneously and high five each other. Mimi watches in amusement as Chen and Dumplin stare at the elegant cultivator expectantly until he slowly raises his hand for them each to high five.
"What have your sisters done to Wanji?" the clan leader whispers in her ear, and Mimi has no answer for him as the pattern is repeated with every solved piece.
Without proper back support, Mimi soon realizes what the clan leader is doing by sitting so unexpectedly close to her. After several minutes of trying to keep her back straight with her wounded leg and general tiredness, she finally leans her back on his proffered shoulder.
"You would have to agree to be able to optimize this promotion," he says to her quietly, and Mimi wonders precisely when he had begun channeling a terrible salesman.
"I don't believe you should practice medicine with that type of licentious behavior," Mimi quips teasingly. He makes a show out of scowling, but he does not move away; Mimi feels herself slowly relax.
"Piece," Master Wei proclaims proudly to the room, pounding said piece into the puzzle with his fist.
"That doesn't fit," Chen scowls.
"Your cheating," Dumplin points a figure at him accusingly.
"Play by the rules or don't play at all, Master Wei," the clan leader says calmly as Mimi plays with a bit of his hair distractedly.
Lan Zhan plucks the offending piece out of the puzzle and puts it on the correct color-coded pile. This doesn't stop the black-cloaked cultivator from holding up his hand to Lan Zhan and saying, "High five?"
The man stares at him serenely before raising his hand and entwining their figures before tucking them beneath his large sleeves.
"You know," Mimi whispers to the clan leader, who lowers his head down to her conspiratorially, "your brother and Master Wei are adorable together."
"This does not trouble you?" he asks with concern.
Mimi wants to laugh but realizes the clan leader is quite serious, "No, it does not trouble me at all."
His face relaxes, and he whispers, "Good. For I've been saying that consistently for years."
After the cultivators and her sisters finish the puzzle, they politely take their leave before six-thirty to attend dinner, which Mimi pleads off due to her injuries. The clan leader promptly agrees and promises to send them food. He also removes a large jar of the salve and a small mountain of extra bandage from his sleeves.
Regally turning to her little sisters, the clan leader says, "I want you both to look after your sister. Make sure that she does not do anything to hurt herself."
They nod very solemnly, and Mimi suddenly gets the unsettling feeling of being outnumbered.
"I will see you all tomorrow," the clan leader smiles and exits the room.
After a time, Mameki soon appears and begins fretting over Mimi, "Mameki say he trick. Give leader note. He run very fast. Eat not yummy lunch with cubs."
As if the food's taste still disgusted him, he begins to pull out pans and dishes. Clucking nonsensically to himself as he begins preparing them dinner with Chen and Dumplin at his feet.
Curious in the way that most people become after they have had invasive surgery, Mimi decides to inspect her leg. She pulls up her skirts and finally allows her foxtails to drag out on the floor, having been curled up tightly next to her butt for the events today.
"Should cub be doing that?" Mameki waves a ladle at her as he begins to chop vegetables.
"Probably not," Mimi mutters as she begins unwinding the bandages as the salve started wearing off.
Chen and Dumplin stumble over to her to take a good look at their sister's injuries. Their eyes widen as they take in the multiple stitches that were slowly being revealed.
"Chen, do you want to get me a towel, please?"
Mameki hands Chen a towel as he happily watches over the trio. Seemingly recovered from the events of the day.
"Believe it or not, HanGuang Jun and Master Wei helped put me back together," Mimi takes the towel and stares at her leg for the first time, wincing at the sheer length of it.
She certainly would have a good scar, Mimi thinks as she carefully pats at it. But she certainly didn't think it would be that big.
"You said you fell on a sword?" Dumplin asks her, eyes wide as she looks over the wound.
"Yep. Which is why you should be incredibly careful with your daggers and other pointy objects. Someone could get hurt. Take a good look at my leg cubs, be careful with sharp things."
Feeling quite satisfied that she had sufficiently scarred Chen and Dumplin from doing impractical things with sharp objects, she points at the salve, "Could either of you be a dear and hand me that please?"
Waiting until both children were asleep, Mimi awkwardly hobbles tiptoes to the door. Dragging her leg like a wounded dog, Mimi creeps to the nearest tree and inscribes a message. Panting a little, Mimi once again pulls her body to the barrier to wait. Needless to say, she does not have to wait long until an immense white frothingly angry fox spirit appears next to the barrier.
Qiaolian shifts shape as Mimi scoots her butt across the barrier and stares at her eldest sister beseechingly in what she hoped is something similar that the cubs used on her.
"I've only had you properly in my life for a few days, and you manage to cut your leg open?" Qiaolian snarls at her.
Thankfully Daiyu descends from the trees on a large skein of silk and softly hits the forest floor.
"She is just worried," Daiyu shoots a skein of thread at the eldest fox spirit, effectively silencing her before Qiaolian burns the silk with her foxfire.
"Of course, I am worried. I get a message at eleven o'clock at night from my sister, who claims she cut her leg open. I am very concerned!"
Mimi displays her heavily bandaged hands and hikes up her skirt to display the bandages.
Qiaolian casts a temporary barrier over them and stares at the bandages with loathing before growling, "Who hurt you?"
"I completed another task today," Mimi unwinds the bandage on her leg to show her the wound.
Both the fox spirit and the jorogumo sucks in a breath at the sight of the wound.
"Is this really worth Mimi's life to weaken your father?" Daiyu asks as both fox spirits say, "Yes," at the same time.
"I mean," Qiaolian runs a hand through her long white hair, "I certainly don't want you to die. Well, maybe I do right now because I am angry and want to strangle you for your obvious stupidity. But I wish you had come to us earlier. We could have helped so you wouldn't have to go through this!"
"I know, and I wish I had decided to do just that," Mimi says, as Daiyu begins gently unbandaging Mimi's hands, "But I was scared and bleeding out onto the floor behind the border. I disguised Mameki enough to look like me to tell the clan leader. I was able to shadow travel to the infirmary, and he found me there really quick."
"Thank goodness for that," Daiyu says and elbows Qiaolian in the side, who makes a grumbling sound that sounds remarkably like, "damn cultivators."
"What caused the injury to your leg?" Daiyu asks, looking back and forth between the injuries.
"Lord Shen's magic sheathed the sword in my leg," Mimi watches Qiaolian summon her foxfire angrily.
"That sick bastard," Qiaolian puts her glowing claws on Mimi's and heals them.
"I don't suppose you can cast an illusion on my leg to make it look like it hasn't healed as much and keep the stitches in?" Mimi asks Qiaolian, who rolls her eyes but nods, bending her hands to Mimi's leg, instantly healing it.
"What I don't understand," Daiyu says, once more winding the bandages around Mimi's leg with her spidery hands, "Is that Lord Shen should be happy that you are taking this burden from him. He does not have to sustain the magic anymore. Shouldn't he make the tasks as easy as possible?"
"That's my fault and his," Qiaolian confesses as she watches her mate put the bandages back on Mimi's hands.
"I wanted The Reverent to not fall into the wrong hands and made him swear on his magic to keep it safe from those unworthy. But it's his magic that is sustaining it. Robbing him of his magic, it's his mind that is creating these sick manifestations. He knew you were wearing my claws and knew their limitations, and his magic created this sick situation."
Mimi sets her head on her knees tiredly as Qiaolian inspects her for more wounds the clan leader had perhaps not seen. But the clan leader had been very thorough.
"What did you tell the clan leader when he saw your condition?" Daiyu asks curiously, and Qiaolian stares at her besotted for asking the wise questions.
"His brother said to perform the spell Empathy. It's a cultivation trick," Mimi explains.
Both Daiyu and Qiaolian go rigid, staring at her as if she had lost her mind.
"Please tell me you didn't," Qiaolian holds her by the shoulders and shakes her gently, "Please tell me you didn't do something this stupid."
"I let the clan leader do it, but I didn't show him any tails. Or you or Daiyu. Just what I went through at Shen Manor with the cubs and the tasks. I promise that is all. I was careful, and he never left my side."
"You told of him of the tasks?" Daiyu puts her hand on Qiaolian's shoulder.
"I wanted to tell him the truth without, you know," Mimi awkwardly points at Qiaolian's tails, who were shifting between flailing about in rage and shifting eerily from side to side.
"He believed you?" Qiaolian says in amazement.
"Yes," Mimi said, and Daiyu grins widely at Qiaolian, who puts a small sack of coins in her hand.
"Your dear clan leader just won me sixty gold coins," the jorogumo chitters as she tucks the pouch down the front of her tunic.
"What were you betting on?" Mimi deliberates if she should be scandalized, angry, or amused.
"The caring nature of your clan leader," Daiyu grins happily, "I knew he would be understanding. I bet he even promised his help for future tasks?"
Mimi slowly nods, immediately suspicious, and Qiaolian curses, handing another sack of coins to her mate.
"I can always count on my mongrel's disgust of cultivators when I require funds," Daiyu clicks her mandibles and claps her spidery hands together.
"You know you could always ask for money," Qiaolian grumbles before finally pulling Mimi into a bone-crushing hug.
"Where is the challenge in that? It is satisfying tricking the trickster," Daiyu chatters, pulling Mimi into an unexpected hug when Qiaolian is done with her.
After confirming their meeting for Sunday, Mimi, feeling much better, limps to her bedroom and falls into a dead slumber.