Part 3, Chapter 18

Why have a plan when you can wander off

Ch 18

Yu’Luo took Xun and Jianyu to the guest room.

Jianyu stood at the window, his back straight and his eyes focused on nothing. Xun sat on the bed, waiting. This was a mood of the Emperor’s she was deeply familiar with. In the past whenever he had been faced with a difficult problem he would stand like this under the peach tree in his courtyard until he had found an answer. When the problem was particularly difficult he would stand day and night, unmoving as he thought through to a solution. Once she had seen him stand there for almost two months when he was considering the treaty with the demons.

Xun sat for a while longer before she got bored. Bouncing off the bed she approached Jianyu cautiously, but he didn’t seem to notice her.

“Leng Zai, I’m going to go exploring in the city for for a while.”

Jianyu made a small sound of agreement, but didn’t shift his focus. She stood up on her tiptoes, kissed him on the cheek and wandered out of the room. 

“Yu’Luo, I’m going out for a bit!” Xun yelled into the shop. There was no response from her cousin, but she hadn’t really expected one. He was most likely going over the books in a back room somewhere. Yu’Luo had a passion for numbers and trade that was matched only by his brother’s love of information and stealth. They really were a perfectly matched set she thought as she strode out into the sunlight..

The streets were busy, but not nearly as packed as she had remembered. Xun wandered the market aimlessly, not really interested in anything on sale, which was good because there wasn’t much available. Merfolk guard patrols were visible everywhere, but they didn’t hassle any of the vendors or customers. She tried to see the rooftop archers and couldn’t. Other than the lack of goods and customers everything in the city seemed relatively normal.

“You’d have thought they would at least have noticed something,” Xun muttered to herself.

Wandering aimlessly she eventually found herself at the south gate of the palace. She looked at the guards in their brilliantly white uniforms blocking the entrance.

It worked once, she thought to herself, calling in her kitchen badge. Holding it in front of her she approached the nearest guard. “Can I go in?” She asked.

Without speaking he stepped aside and allowed her to stroll past.