“Are you aware of any wrongdoing that the Icy Heart Pavilion may have committed that would cause the Spectral Assassins to attack you?” Hong Xin asked, carefully wording her question. She would probe further based on how evasive the answer was.
“I am unaware of any such things,” Mistress Mi said, much more clearly than expected. “I have neither participated in such acts, nor have I ever done business with the Spirit Temple. I have never broken a law, though I may have bent some less important rules. I have never slaughtered innocents.”
“All of these things are true,” Hong Xin said. She looked to Bai Ling. “What do you think?”
Bai Ling shrugged. “I say we take her in. If she’s telling the truth, and Spectral Assassins are after her, she won’t last a night on her own.”
“I am willing to swear your oaths of obedience,” Mistress Mi said, bowing her head. She shivered visibly.
Both Ji Bingxue and Bai Ling looked to Hong Xin, awaiting her answer. Mistress Huang simply averted her eyes. She always followed Hong Xin’s lead regardless of the situation.
Hong Xin took a deep breath. Perhaps Bai Ling was right. Perhaps she was judging these women too harshly. They just had tools, but that didn’t mean they had to use them to inflict suffering on others. The original mistresses they’d captured in their old school had deserved their fate, and the others had been captured out of necessity. But was there a need to do so here? Wouldn’t that make her no better than the headmistress before her?
“That won’t be necessary,” Hong Xin said finally. “I can taste the truth of your words. Though be warned—we will perform a full background check to verify your claims.”
Mistress Mi relaxed visibly at these words. “Thank you,” she said, bowing deeply.”
Hong Xin accepted the bow awkwardly, though she could swear she saw a hint of a smile on Bai Ling’s face.
“Mistress Huang, Ji Bingxue, why don’t you go see that Mistress Mi is settled in and aware of our rules and regulations?” Hong Xin asked.
The two women nodded and escorted the blue-robed woman out of the room, leaving Hong Xin and Bai Ling alone.
“I thought all those women were cold psychopaths who needed to be locked up?” Bai Ling said. “What changed?”
Hong Xin shook her head. “I don’t know. Let’s not have this conversation. Not here and now.”
“Fair enough,” Bai Ling said. She looked distracted, the way she often did when she played Angels and Devils. There was also a lot less bite to her than Hong Xin normally saw.
“Well?” Hong Xin asked. “Out with it.”
“I’m concerned about this business with Spectral Assassins,” Bai Ling said. “It’s worth looking into. I’ve heard whispers lately about such things, but not related to the Icy Heart Pavilion.”
“Then I’ll be counting on you to look into it,” Hong Xin said. “If there’s more to the Icy Heart Pavilion than meets the eye, we need to know.”
“Yes,” Bai Ling said. “I’ll do just that.”
Hong Xin frowned. “Are you sure there’s nothing else that’s wrong?”
Bai Ling shook her head and stood up. She walked over to the door, then hesitated and turned back to face Hong Xin. “Tell me you had nothing to do with this,” Bai Ling said abruptly.
“Wait, what?” Hong Xin asked. Where was this coming from? “Of course not. How could this have anything to do with me?”
Bai Ling looked at her for a moment that seemed to stretch on endlessly. Then, seeing nothing, she looked away. “I’ll be letting Ji Bingxue take care of some of my duties,” Bai Ling said. “She needs to pull more of her weight while I’m looking into this. I’d suggest you make better use of her time as well and teach her a few things.”
“All right…” Hong Xin said. “I’ll teach her more, but you need to tell me what’s going on.”
“In time,” Bai Ling said. “I need more information for now. When I get it, we’ll sit down and talk about it. For now, it’s only speculation.” She walked out of the room, leaving Hong Xin alone.
Just what is going on? Hong Xin thought. First Ji Bingxue. Then the trainee’s fright. And now this? She shook her head and pushed it all to the back of her mind. She’d let Bai Ling worry about that. There was a ton of work on her desk waiting to be done. Maybe she could ask Ji Bingxue to help out, she thought as she walked back to her chambers.
Yes, a little bit of help would go a long way.
“Young master?” Elder Bai said, walking up beside Wang Jun as he stared out the window. “Is everything all right?” The white-haired old man seemed especially weary today; the bags beneath his eyes were a deeper color than normal, and his wrinkles more pronounced than usual. His clothes were also slightly wrinkled, something the prim and proper man would never have allowed in the past.
Wang Jun took in a breath of fresh air and breathed out slowly. “Everything is fine,” he lied. They’d been having a meeting, and Wang Jun had felt a twinge of panic. He’d jumped to the window, looking out toward the city with suspicion. He still didn’t know what had gotten into him.
These days, he saw things in the shadows he’d never known existed. The more abilities he learned, however, the more he grew suspicious. Were others doing what he was doing as well? Could other people manipulate as he did? And if they could, were they sabotaging him without his knowledge? These days, it certainly seemed that way.
There was a soft knock on the door. Wang Jun closed his eyes and didn’t look toward it. “Come in, Patriarch,” he said.
The door opened, revealing the green-robed Wang Wuling. No one else accompanied him. “Please continue your meeting elsewhere. It seems the Patriarch would like to have a word
