While Emperor Ling Yao looked for Lady Liu Zhang with Lieutenant Gao trailing behind, Princess Mei Chang looked for the Elric Brothers. The half siblings ran into each other in the midst of their respective searches.

"Have you seen Alphonse? Or Edward?" Mei asked.

Xiao-Mei darted from one of Mei's shoulders to the other, turning her little head this way and that, and sniffing at the air. If anyone thought Princess Mei wouldn't bring the panda to a high profile event such as this they were sorely mistaken.

"Not lately. Have you seen Lan Fan?" Ling inquired.

"Oh I saw her all right," Mei replied.

"Where?" Ling demanded.

"First you tell me why she's dressed like a Cretan socialite," the Princess negotiated.

The emperor wasn't in the mood to play games with his haughty little sister.

"I'll find her myself," Ling replied.

He brushed passed the princess.

"Wrong way," Mei caught him by the arm.

Ling shot her a look and she let go. Luckily, Lieutenant Gao knew of the emperor's fondness for his little sister. If Mei was anyone else she would've lost that hand.

"Last I saw her she was at the bar," Mei said.

Ling Yao nodded and changed direction.

"You're welcome!"


By the time Ling located Lan Fan at the bar his Lady Bodyguard had finished her first hard liquor beverage of the night. The bartender set a clean napkin in front of her, salted it, and placed a Bourbon Rickey on top. Ling took the empty seat next to her. Instead of acknowledging him she took a drink.

"So you're ignoring me now?"

Ling glanced toward the stage. While Madeleine Rousseau took a temporary reprieve the pianist played a waltz. Numerous nobles danced in three quarter time. Ling wondered if Lan Fan knew how to waltz. Present company excluded his guests seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"I'm following your command," Lan Fan answered.

"What?" Ling looked at her for clarification.

Lan Fan lifted the rocks glass in a mockery of a toast.

"I'm having a little fun," Lan Fan reiterated.

He sighed her given name.

"Isn't this what you wanted?"

Ling never heard her sound so miserable.

He responded, "I wanted to make up for the dinner party I ruined."

"Did you ever think to ask what I want?"

Lan Fan's scorn tried his patience.

"Why don't you tell me then?" Ling snarked.

"I want you to stop undermining me."

"Undermining." Ling sputtered, "What do you mean undermining?"

"Reassigning my watch without so much as consulting me; Sending your guards on errands better suited for servants; Kissing me in front of my brother, who now thinks I'm your strumpet by the way," Lan Fan hissed.

Aghast, he asked, "Xiang called you that?"

"He didn't have to," Lan Fan finished her drink, set it down hard enough to rattle the remaining ice. She hailed the bartender for another drink. "It was written all over his face."

"I think you've had enough," he declared.

Lady Liu Zhang did not take kindly to His Majesty's suggestion.

"I think I need some air," Lan Fan rose from her seat. "That is if I have your leave, Your Eminence."

The emperor dismissed her with a wave of his hand; The bodyguard took her leave of him; The bartender brought her third drink.

Ling Yao drowned himself in it.


Silence reigned on the car ride home.

In the back seat Xiang sat as far away from his mother as he could manage. He leaned his hot head against the cool window and simmered. The moment their driver pulled to a stop in front of their home he was out of the car. He slammed the door shut behind him and marched through the gate and up the walk to the front door. He heard the click of his mother's heels on the path behind him.

"Xiang," Suyin warned.

Xiang ignored her and stormed into the house. He didn't bother to remove his shoes in the foyer.

"Young man come back this instant and take off your shoes!"

Pressing a hand against the wall for balance Xiang yanked off his botched brogues and lobbed them over his shoulder.

Suyin snapped, "Xiang!"

His sleeping robe clad father appeared at the end of the hall. Liwei Zhang's face was flushed with fever. He coughed into his fist.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Liwei.

Xiang looked to his father and pointed at his mother.

"She doesn't listen!" he shouted.

"Lower your voice," Lord Zhang commanded. "There are people sleeping in this house."

"Tell your father where you were yesterday," Lady Suyin instructed.

"I had an accident on my bike-" the young lord began.

"He ran into someone with the bicycle," Suyin interrupted.

Xiang curled his short nails into his palms.

"No I didn't!"

Liwei held up his hand to silence his wife, "Let him speak."

Suyin conceded with a scowl.

"I almost ran into Edward Elric with my bike, but I didn't because I braked in time. I did hurt my wrist though. Edward didn't know his way to the palace. He took me there to get it fixed and I showed him the way."

His father frowned in a show of disapproval and cleared his throat.

"You should've told us about this," Liwei admonished.

"That isn't the half of it," Suyin interjected.

Xiang took a conscious breath.

"Lan Fan came to check on me; the emperor was with her. After Alphonse healed my wrist, I told His Majesty I wanted to become a guard. I asked to prove my worth. He said it was up to Lan Fan."

"And she let him," Suyin sneered.

"No she didn't," Xiang denied.

That gave his mother pause.

"What?" Lady Suyin asked.

"Lan Fan said no. Twice. Sister only agreed after the emperor said he wanted to see us fight. I went over her head," Xiang confessed.

And his mother went white as snow.

"Go to bed, Xiang," Liwei ordered. "We will talk about this more tomorrow. I advise you think about your actions. Make no mistake there will be consequences."

Xiang didn't need to be told twice. He brushed passed his father and turned down the hallway to his room. Xiang wanted to slam his bedroom door shut.

He closed it carefully behind him.


Everything is falling into place , Xue thought, as she stepped backwards out of the guest room, and pulled the door to. One of the Commander Liu's clandestine soldiers awaited her in the corridor. The guard commander took the Dowager Empress's safety as seriously as that of the Emperor. In the company of her assigned protector Lady Xue navigated her way back to the Hall of Serenity.

Master Fu's granddaughter was by far the best investment Xue Yao had ever made. Indeed, Lan Fan surpassed Xue's expectations by leaps and bounds. Instead of a shrinking violet Ling had picked a rose with thorns. Xue couldn't arrange a better match for her son if she tried.

The Dowager Empress hadn't any inclination to try. Lan Fan proved her unflinching loyalty time and again. Furthermore, Lady Lan Fan Liu Zhang made the perfect weapon to bring about the demise of the concubine system. By the death of the tradition Xue Yao would at long last be revenged.

Lady Xue flicked open her ever present silk fan and smiled.


Lan Fan descended the front steps to the Hall of Serenity alone. The temperature had plummeted since last she ventured outside. Too cold to stand about and catch her breath. The bodyguard in the bespoke evening gown decided to take a walk.

If Shu hadn't muddied the waters of their friendship with his feelings for her, Lan Fan would've headed to his workshop. Wei would be far too busy in the kitchen to brook her presence. Shivering she headed for the stables, certain she would find Jin there tending to the horses.

He didn't like to leave them on the nights he knew there'd be fireworks. The gunpowder spectacle spooked the livestock. Lan Fan had the impression Jin preferred animals to most people. Not that she blamed him.

Lan Fan hitched up her skirt and took a shortcut between buildings. The sunny day had melted the snow there, the cold snap had transformed it to ice, and no one had salted the infrequently used path. This time no one was there to catch her fall. She slipped on a paving stone, cracked her head on another, and went out like a light.


Margot Fontaine pulled a bobby pin from her updo and fixed Prince Junjie's fringe out of his face. She helped him to sit up on the edge of her bed before fetching a bandage and roll of gauze from her bag. Thanks to her meticulous suturing skills and proper surgical technique the laceration was unlikely to scar.

The automail surgeon gingerly placed the bandage over her handiwork. Holding the square of sterile cotton in place she looped the end of the gauze, winding the roll around his head with one hand.

"Elric said you fell," Margot stated.

"I suppose I must've," Prince Junjie remarked.

"You don't remember?" She removed her fingertips from the bandage, as she wrapped a second layer of gauze around his head.

"I'm afraid I don't recall," he replied.

The redheaded woman added a third and fourth layer of gauze. From the bedside table, she grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the excess length.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Margot asked as she tied off the bandage with a square knot.

The Ninth Prince removed a pill bottle from the right-hand pocket of his suit jacket.

"Taking four of these."

She accepted the bottle and read the label.

"Aspirin?" Margot arched an eyebrow at him.

"I had a headache," said Junjie.

Margot narrowed her eyes at him she processed this new information.

"A headache or a migraine?"

Prince Junjie looked mildly surprised.

"A migraine."

"I thought so," Margot handed back the bottle.

"How did you know?" He inquired.

"It explains the aphasia," Margot informed him.

"Ah. I see."

"Unless, of course, you have a history of seizures."

Fear flashed across the prince's pale face. If Margot hadn't been looking right at him she would've missed his reaction to her offhanded comment.

"I'll be damned," Margot muttered.

Prince Junjie knuckles went white as he tightened his fingers around the bottle of aspirin.

"You had a seizure."

"If you tell anyone-" the Prince of the Zhang Clan threatened.

"Let me stop you right there," she snapped. "I couldn't care less about your little secret, but you threaten me you're gonna have a lot worse than a concussion. If you think I'm kidding..."

The surgeon snatched the scissors off the nightstand and pressed the point against his neck, right over his carotid artery.

"Try me."