AN: Thanks to reallyseaweed, who asked about Zhou Yu, I did some research and discovered her name's actually Zhong Yu. I guess that's what happens when you have an American trying to write fanfiction about Chinese characters. I've since corrected those errors and posted the edited version. To the reviewer who asked about Mo'er's place in the family, I hope this clarifies things a bit. That same reviewer asked about Xiao Ce's son; to clarify, I'm not using anything from the book in my story. For me, canon is what we got onscreen and nothing else. Xiao Ce's still enjoying his unmarried lifestyle and is likely to continue doing so for awhile.

Yuwen Yue walked through the back door of his rooms with the intention of heading out to his practice area, but he'd only taken a few steps when he caught sight of a huddled, darkly-dressed figure out of the corner of his eye. His gaze softened as he recognized the figure of his adopted son, who had obviously fallen asleep in the night while guarding his parents' rooms.

Recognizing the small crossbow clutched loosely in the boy's hands, Yuwen Yue's lips quirked slightly. He strode soundlessly over to his son and deftly removed the crossbow, not wanting to startle him into triggering it by accident.

Yuwen Yue tucked the crossbow into his robes and bent down with the intention of picking up his son so that he could take him back to his own room. Before he could lift the boy up, however, his eyes were drawn to a small dip in the ground where his son had, apparently, scooped up what would've been a large handful of dirt for one so young. His eyes then tracked to an area near the hole where some dirt—a decent bit less than what would've been in his son's hand—lay sprinkled around in a rough sort of semi-circle.

From those clues, he deduced that his son had, at some point in the night, scooped a big handful of dirt from the earth and placed it on, presumably, a small animal of some sort. Mo'er had to have put dirt on something alive since whatever it was wasn't here anymore. Immediately, he zeroed in on a small set of familiar tracks in the dirt that trailed along the outside of the building and twisted in the direction of the back wall before abruptly disappearing.

Yuwen Yue's relaxed demeanor also disappeared as he realized that more than youthful hijinks might've happened last night. Besides, his son wasn't the "playing in the dirt" type, so the odds of him shirking his self-appointed guard duty in order to mess around were slim.

Working on a hunch, Yuwen Yue turned back towards the window immediately behind where Mo'er had been standing guard all night and looked at the corners. As he suspected, the corner that his son would've had to pull to open the window from the outside had less dust on it than the other corners. So his parrot had sensed his son standing outside the window, had somehow asked to be let outside without he himself hearing it, had been let out, and had, what? Let his son put dirt on him? For what purpose?

Well, why was Mo'er dressed in black? Why would you be? Or Xing'er?

Dark, painful images from long ago of his confrontation with Xing'er at the top of the Red Hills tower pounced on Yuwen Yue without warning, but he was able to banish them from his mind with the memory of watching Xing'er feed their son just a few minutes previously. He focused instead on the conclusion that his parrot had allowed the dirt to be put on him in order to camouflage his bright red and white feathers that would've been highly visible in the light of last night's full moon.

While the bulk of his observational powers during his "training exercise" had been focused on his wife and newborn son, Yuwen Yue had still managed to detect two scents that had been slightly stronger than they should've been even though they were ordinary, everyday smells: fresh dirt, and water tinged with earth. Both of these odors, he remembered, had been strongest around his parrot, who had looked more deeply asleep than Yuwen Yue had ever seen him. The presence of those smells hadn't even registered at a conscious level because they were so common, but they loomed large in his mind now.

First things first, Yuwen Yue thought to himself as he bent down and picked up his son, being careful not to disturb any of the evidence around him.

He strode quickly and confidently through Green Hills, arriving at Mo'er's room in short order. Careful not to wake the boy, he gently set his son down on his bed and pulled the covers over him. While his mind was itching for him to take a walk out to the wall and solve this latest mystery, he still took a moment to watch his boy as he slept.

In his heart of hearts, Yuwen Yue had recently begun to consider the possibility that, regardless of any children that he and Xing'er might have together, the inheritor of the Eyes of God might end up being the sleeping boy in front of him. He knew that his grandfather would have a fit over the concept of the adopted son of a Yanbei traitor assuming control over the Eyes of God, but considering Xing'er's own rebellious history...hopefully he would outlive his grandfather anyway, making the choice his alone.

Mo'er already had the makings of an excellent spy. He was observant, quiet, conscientious, cautious, and brave. He was willing to do what was necessary to get the job done even if he had to work hard to accomplish his objective. The small amount of combat and weapons tactics that he and Xing'er had taught their son had been soaked up readily and demonstrated back to them competently.

And yet, Yuwen Yue couldn't help but hesitate to take the boy down this road that he himself had been forced to walk. While he had found a woman around whom he could be himself, most other people still saw him as a cold, aloof spymaster without either emotions or a heart. Yuwen Yue knew that much of the persona that had become the natural mask that he presented to the public was the result of years of careful cultivation. Did he really want to do the same thing to his son?

Does my son really want to live that kind of life? Will any of my sons want to live this kind of life?

Yuwen Yue stared pensively into the middle distance as he tried to envision a future in which his adopted son presented the same remote, inaccessible aura to those around him as he himself did. Mo'er was already somewhat of a loner who preferred to spend a lot of time on his own, but he and Xing'er did the best they could to spend time with the boy and to draw his childish side out. But they'd also given him a weapon, taught him how to observe and sneak and spy, and instructed him in the basics of hand-to-hand combat.

We're all going to have to sit down and have a talk soon, he thought as he set the boy's crossbow down on a small table and walked back out into the morning air. I'm not going to make the same mistakes my father made, and I'm not going to force my son—or any of my sons-to walk down this path. Mo'er's young, but he already has the maturity to make some decisions about his future. He's already so much like me that I sometimes find myself forgetting that I didn't help to make him.

Yuwen Yue's musings stayed with him as he walked towards the wall in the general direction that his parrot's tracks had indicated he'd flown last night. As he neared a stand of trees that separated the main complex from the wall, his nose began to detect a variety of smells that were out of place. He smelled his parrot and freshly-disturbed dirt, but he also smelled...people.

All sentimental thoughts left Yuwen Yue's mind as he once again became the spymaster. He carefully made his way through the trees and looked at the ground in front of what he knew to be a somewhat vulnerable part of the wall that was always guarded closely whenever trouble was in the air. There were scuff marks and footprints all around, arrayed in a pattern that suggested that two top-notch fighters had gone toe to toe.

In fact…

A shock traveled through him as he realized that both footwork patterns were familiar to him. He began to piece together what had happened in his mind. He could envision one princess vaulting over the wall while the other...what? Bushwhacked her?

Yuwen Yue crept up to a bunch of bushes that he knew his wife had scoped out for such a purpose should she ever have to defend that stretch of wall herself and saw the familiar bootprints that confirmed his suspicions. So she, what? Attacked with her sword? Or maybe…

He envisioned his one-time follower throwing a handful of darts at Xiao Yu's height and carefully walked across the battlefield, not wanting to disturb any of the footprints. Near the base of the wall, he found what he was looking for and picked up several small, poison-tipped darts. He sniffed them and confirmed his suspicions about the identity of their wielder.

Yuwen Yue wasn't surprised that the princess had been able to dodge them; after all, he knew her combat capabilities quite well. He pieced the fight together step by step, finally making his way to the foot of the tree and grimly staring at the scuff marks and blood stains on its trunk and base.

So what happened? How did Meng Feng escape?

A brownish-red feather lying on the ground caught his eye, and Yuwen Yue was glad that nobody was around to witness the look of absolute shock that crossed his face.

Surely not. There's no way my parrot was flying around here last night beating up and rescuing princesses. If I told Xing'er that theory, she'd never let me hear the end of it.

And yet, something had obviously made the princess stagger back from the base of the tree. He'd have a talk with his bird later and see if he could get any information out of him.

Preferably when Xing'er's not around; she'd have way too much fun during the "interrogation."

A smell was still bothering him, however, and he realized with a jolt that he smelled a third person who wasn't supposed to be there. A woman's scent was coming from…

Yuwen Yue looked up into the stand of trees and found the one with the best angle of the wall. It coincided with the large imprint of a fallen body and the deeply-sunken footsteps that indicated someone had lifted the body onto its back and carried it away. He paced a bit beyond this area and found several more darts that were different in style from the others he'd found but coated with identical poison. While he couldn't be absolutely certain, he was reasonably sure that he had more than one woman who currently lived in Yanbei to thank for protecting his home last night.

After looking around the area a bit more, Yuwen Yue went back towards his rooms lost in thought. The evidence painted an ominous picture, and he realized how close he'd come to disaster and loss last night. He knew he'd have to tell Xing'er; he didn't keep secrets from her anymore. She had the almost uncanny knack for discovering his secrets at the worst possible times and in the worst possible ways that tended to lead to personal and national disasters, so he figured that telling her everything upfront was better for all of them in the long run.

"Everything" included the whole pen friend mess with the princess; he'd sat down and told her about the whole affair not long after she'd agreed to marry him. He'd expected her to be jealous, and she had been a little bit, but she'd mostly expressed bewilderment at the absurdity of the entire situation. She'd also done the best she could to comfort him since she knew how much such a revelation must have hurt him. The solicitous attention he'd received from his bride-to-be had almost made the situation worthwhile.

That the princess held a grudge didn't surprise him, but the lack of intelligence he'd received from his contacts dismayed the spymaster. Nobody had breathed a word of her presence to him or his people, so he had to admit that she'd almost made her way into Green Hills Courtyard again. Just like before, however, those he loved had stepped up and protected him and his family. His love and respect for Mo'er went up a few more notches, and he smiled with pride in the role that his son had played in the protection of his family last night.

I may not have had a hand in making him, but both Xing'er and I will do our best to form him, Yuwen Yue vowed to himself as he went in search of his wife.