Part 3, Chapter 29

Reunions and revelations

Ch 29

Xun sat in the Emperor’s rooms, surrounded by objects that were truly imprisoned High Gods. 

Shun and Xiaomin were attending to their chores, attempting to appear as normal as possible, while Xun sat in the shielded courtyard and brooded. The three girls working together had attempted to free the God of Medicine multiple times to no effect. There was something slippery in the spell that they couldn’t seem to figure out.

“Now what?” She asked the empty room, turning a dagger that held a minor general over and over in her hands. 

“You could greet your husband,” an unexpected voice said from near the door.

Xun turned and leaning against the wall in a city guard uniform was Jianyu, a smug look on his face. “Jianyu!” She exclaimed, leaping off the bed and throwing herself at him. He staggered slightly, caught off balance by her violent embrace. “I missed you!”

He held her, returning her kisses for a moment before his gaze turned stern. “What were you thinking coming into the Palace like this, do you have any idea how panicked your cousins were?”

“Yu’Luo was upset, I’m sure,” she replied, looking contrite. “But honestly I didn’t actually expect it to work.”

Jianyu gaped at her. “You didn’t have a plan?”

“Not really,” she stammered. “I just wanted to see if they had changed the badge design.”

Jianyu tucked her head against his chest so she couldn’t see his extremely worried, slightly murderous expression. She tolerated it only a moment before she wiggled free. 

“But look, we found all the High Gods! Zao Shen drugged them and the King of the Merfolk bound them into objects. We haven’t figured out the trick of the spell yet though.”

Jianyu picked up a blue bottle that seemed to be filled with shifting smoke, 

“Goddess of Mists,” Xun said helpfully. 

Jianyu concentrated, focusing his power on unraveling the spell, but he couldn’t seem to find an opening, just as Xun had said. “It’s not a matter of using more power,” he said absently to her. Putting down the bottle he began to wander around the room picking up and putting down various objects. 

“That’s not a god,” Xun said as he stared at a little globe with a tiny dragon flying endlessly through it. “I just liked it, so I brought it back.”

“Stealing is a terrible habit,” he said, placing it back on the table.

Xun shrugged. “I really, really wanted it and they weren’t using it.”

Jianyu refrained from comment. Finally he picked up a very small statue of a rabbit, sat on a pillow in the open courtyard, and began to meditate. Xun went and sat on the bed, letting him work in private. She had almost fallen asleep when her uncle Xidi came rushing in.

“Xun’er, its time to go,” he said. “The King of the Merfolk has just left the palace and everything is in disarray. If we go now I can get you to your cousins and they can smuggle you and the Emperor out of the city.” In his anxiety to get her moving he grabbed her arm and pulled her off the bed.

“Don’t touch my wife,” the Emperor, in all his fury, growled. The air around him crackled with menace. 

“Leng Zai,” Xun said placatingly, using his kitchen name to avoid giving away his true identity. Although with the presence emanating off him it seemed rather futile. She moved to stand between her uncle and her husband. 

“I want to know what the second prince of the Merfolk is doing in my shielded rooms,” Jianyu said, pulling Xun behind him. 

Xun gaped at him. “He’s not Merfolk.”

Xidi, his eyes like ice, replied before Jianyu could speak, “Actually I am, sweetling. Your father and your Uncle rescued me from a suicide mission my father sent me on when I was still very young and stupid. I owe them my life. After they had gone I worked with your cousins in their supply business. You didn’t think they conjured that Western Sea water from thin air did you?”

“I never asked,” she murmured. 

Xidi smiled at her, his expression thawing as he looked from the Emperor to her, “I’m still your uncle Xidi, Xun’er. I would never put you in harms way. That’s why I’m trying to get you and the Emperor here out of the city now.”

Jianyu slowly tossed the statue up and down in one hand, then tossed it at Xidi, who caught it by reflex. “What do you make of this?”

Xidi looked at it, “Goddess of Small Prey, isn’t it? Nasty spell my father used. Infinite loop on the ends.”

Interest sparked in the Emperor’s eyes and he picked up the Goddess of Mists bottle again from where it sat on the table next to him. He held it for only a moment before smiling. “I see,” he said, “He’s tied the two spells together just here. What a clever madman the King of the Merfolk is.” He focused, made two oddly jerk gestures, and suddenly a very svelte, slightly damp figure in silvery grey robes was standing in the middle of their little group. 

“Where am I?” The dazed woman asked, laying a too familiar hand on the Emperor’s arm as she gazed up at him through long lashes, her expression half dazed half adoring. 

Xun quickly grabbed her arm and guided her over to the bed, whispering comforting words and shooting glares at her husband. The Emperor gave her a slightly cocky grin, more fitting for Leng Zai than Jianyu, before turning his attention back to Xidi.