Chương 33: Chapter 32

"This way." The hall she chose was unsealed only recently. Under shadowy rafters and among laquered furniture, a knot of palace maids and male servants were busy with the cultivation equivalent of spring cleaning. Rats carved from shadow and black jade were being methodically stomped with brooms and, well, maces.

They kept emerging from the shadows that flowed like water in one half of the chamber, but that didn't discourage the staff, who kept at it with the same gusto one would imagine sieging a fortress wall would take. Even the small, darkly glowing rat sitting on the ornate seat on the dais looked faintly concerned. Rank 5, Wu Zetian mused, striding through the hall, with advanced Shadow-Call abilities. The girl and young men dropped everything at her gesture.

Without even asking why, they retreated and closed the doors behind them. As the smooth doors slammed shut, Fan Yu stiffened a little, and Sun Mei jumped. Pleasingly, they kept their peace.

"You've likely wondered about the reason for your presence," Wu Zetian began, moving toward the back of the hall. The rat stood up, fur standing on end. Liquid darkness pooled around the creature, and bigger replicas emerged from it, shaking off inky blackness. Wu Zetian's finger twitched. Gently, tendrils of rich shadows wove themselves through the clones, picking them apart without a sound.

The rat's darkness split down the middle by a corridor of deeper emptiness; it disappeared, revealing training mats and antique furniture. Torches set in sconces blazed with cold flame. Shadows danced on the floor and over elegant scrolls and paintings of fighting and training. Wu Zetian picked the rat up by the scruff, watching it curiously. The creature trembled, not daring to as much as make a twitch. She took the seat, laying it on her lap.

"Am I wrong?" She asked the two Disciples. As always, they made for a disconcertedly maladjusted pair. Fan Yu, tall and statuesque and dripping with confidence, watched the rat with undisguised hunger, and her with the mixed hope of a starving dog waiting for a treat. Sun Mei, small and pretty, all but hid in her ample robes, doing her best to disappear.

"Go on," she chided gently.

"We stand among friends here."

"Yes!" Fan Yu hollered, tearing her attention away from her would-be meal. On her lap, Wu Zetian felt the rat shiver. She calmed it with a pat.

"Y-yes…" Sun Mei echoed with a squeak.

"Reasonable," she commented. She watched them for a long moment, letting the tension build. Honestly, that whole situation brought her back. She remembered, as if it were yesterday, the interviews with prospective junior managers. From cute, clear-eyed beginners not yet corrupted by the ruthless corporate world, to arrogant MBA came "to change the world with their innovative ideas", she had seen them all, and developed quite the eye for what went through their heads. In this case, it wasn't so different. Fan Yu.

Attentive, eager, sneaking looks when she thought she didn't notice. It was clear the girl had her ulterior motives, and was hoping to form a judgment on her character. From her tribe's notion of honor, from what Wu Zetian understood from her information sweeps. She was driven, but too taken with herself. Sun Mei. Terrified, uncertain, only here because she must and hoping to please and not to do damage. Quite the mess in her own way, but far easier to mould than the other.

And Wu Zetian didn't miss the kernel of attentive awareness elbowing for space among the fear. The girl was far more aware than she let on. Wu Zetian sighed. Not tools and not toys. People. Children. Try not to forget it.

"It's simple, really," she resumed.

"With my awakening, I have found in myself a desire to see the Sect not only recuperate, but grow as well. To that end, I'd like to see new bonds formed between your two Sects and the Godless Night. An alliance, and, from it, a community." She nodded pleasantly toward Fan Yu.

"The Devouring Horde may receive lands for their hunts, far richer than the ones they inhabited before. In exchange for their strength, their traditions may be respected, their members taught the Shadow Arts." She watched as a complicated mix of emotions passed on Fan Yu's face. Did she think she was being subtle, Wu Zetian wondered. Likely. She couldn't imagine those fur-wearing barbarians to be much skilled in the ways of intrigue. But that was endearing in its own way.

Wu Zetian leaned forward, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"That would mean autonomy for the tribes, and a land to feed upon, more dangerous, or, as you would put it, worthier than the one you left." That settled it. A wide grin spread over Fan Yu's lips. She nodded eagerly. Wu Zetian flicked a glance toward Sun Mei. The girl eeped and hid behind her sleeves. Cute.

"For the Delightful Retreat, it'd mean a place in my city. Mansions, safety, time and space to practice their arts without risks, without having to compromise and deal with the endless greed of demonic cultivators." Pale eyes peeked from behind the sleeves, attentive and definitely interested, almost desperately eager for what was promised. Yes, far more aware than she let on. Wu Zetian leaned back, stroking the rat's fur.

"Why, I cannot imagine why the cultivation styles of your Sects couldn't be integrated into the Night's Shadow Arts." She smiled.

"To improve them, and maybe be improved in turn. An agreement that would benefit everyone, wouldn't you agree?" The girls nodded, gears turning, a bit distraught, but clearly endeared to the idea. Wu Zetian tilted her head.

"And that brings us to you, too. You're an experiment, in a way. A trial attempt to see how that integration would go, or, indeed, if it's possible at all." She watched them critically.

"I have reviewed the secret scrolls of both your Sects, and I have to say, there are paths of mutual improvement. Of course, theory may not equate with reality. But I am hopeful. Together, we'll find a way." She smiled. The carrot. Sun Mei smiled tentatively. Fan Yu wasn't so easily taken.

"And what if it's not… if it doesn't work?" She gesticulated, unsure how to use the fancy words. Wu Zetian didn't answer right away. She traced the rat's spin with the tip of her forefinger, a faint smile gracing her lips.

"Then, your Sects will be dismembered and their members shall be incorporated in the Godless Night." She shrugged.

"Their tradition and style shall cease to exist as a unified Sect and may survive in whatever small groups they are allowed to remain as. They'll likely disappear in a couple of generations." Silence. Sun Mei had a sleeve over her mouth, the girl's face having turned the color of a white sheet. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Fan Yu opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. She, too, had gone pale, but then red crept over her neck.

"You can't…!" The words died on her throat. Wu Zetian had tilted her head, watching her quizzically. She let her Qi sing. Once, briefly. Just enough to give both a glance at the depths. They both crashed to their knees.

"I… can't…?" Wu Zetian said slowly. The rat, enthralled by the Night Qi dripping over him, seemed to swell and twist.

"True. There are many things I can't do. But this… this I can. Very easily. I want for this to be very clear: do not mistake this for friendship, my little friends. Friendship is to be built. Autonomous life in my Sect is to be earned. This is an opportunity you're being given, one you'd do well to use with regard. Your lives, the lives of your families, of your Sects, of everything you've ever known… they are mine.

And I am offering you the chance to redeem them, and to redeem yourself for the outrage of invading my home. So, you see. Much of it depends from your performance here. Work well, mh?" The stick. Watching gasp and try to catch their breath, Wu Zetian would have liked to say she felt bad. In reality, this was nothing. Or almost so. Terrorizing children… it wouldn't have touched me at all before. I have grown soft. Or maybe I am becoming better. Who can tell?

Back to his original shape, the rat chittered in pleasure under her finger. The creature had jumped to Rank 6 from that drop of True Night Qi she had fed it with. Fan Yu was the first to regain her feet.

"Yes, Founder," she panted, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her eyes blazed with a mix of hatred, determination and grudging admiration.

"Yes, F-founder," Sun Mei whimpered, lying on the ground in a puddle of silk and sweat. Wu Zetian hummed. The two girls had time to tense when she stood up, but not to move when she appeared between them in a blood of shadows. Her hands found their shoulders, and they held their breaths as restoring Qi entered their meridians, filling their dantians.

"Call me Teacher," Wu Zetian said softly.

"Nobody else does. Cherish it." Sun Mei quickly bowed her head, her posture perfect. Fan Yu burped, a touch too much Qi filling her body.

"That is fine too," Wu Zetian chuckled, while Sun Mei, far be damned, blushed for her erstwhile companion. She stepped away, returning to her seat. She didn't speak, giving them time to regain themselves. Not like she didn't have means to entertain herself: the little rat made happy little squeaks in her hands, requiring attentive pets. Why, the Sun-Eating Serpent, sensing that some pets may be in the process of being robbed, took that moment to emerge from her sleeve. They nosed her fingers, claiming their share.

Smiling, Wu Zetian obliged dutifully.

"What happens now?" Fan Yu asked eventually. The girl still looked a bit rattled, but hid it well. More than anything, a newfound determination burned from her. Even Sun Mei had taken a grip of herself. The pale eyes peeking from behind the sleeves she held up had an attentive gleam to them. Good. Exactly what Wu Zetian hoped. Giving them determination and putting their focus in a framework of her choosing. Like that, you had control. She glanced at the tall girl, arching an eyebrow.

"Teacher," Fan Yu quickly amended. Wu Zetian nodded, pleased.

"Now, we begin," she said.

"I shall teach you the Shadow Arts, and you shall show me if my attention is well-spent." She watched them.

"You're both talented. I expect you'll do well. Come. Sit and listen." Once they had obeyed, sitting at her feet, she started.

"For all purposes, you're initiates, so we shall start from the beginning. First of all, you must be aware that the Shadow Arts are my creation. I codified the style based on the manipulation types I found for my own Qi, that of Night." She paused. With her knees gathered to her chest and her wide-eyed expression, Fan Yu looked just like a puppy happy to hear. She only missed the wagging tail. On the opposite, Sun Mei sat prim and proper, her soft features styled to a polite interest.

"Of course, it has been a long and complicated process. Before I finished codifying the styles that are taught today in the Sect, I worked long and hard. Some styles I have incorporated, others I have taken some parts of and adapted. The result, as so often happens in all things made by men, was something new and yet old, an inheritance that bore my touch and that of the many before me. Now, I pass it to you." She watched them, impressing the importance of what she was saying.

Fan Yu opened her mouth, then closed it, not knowing what to say. More used to solemn occasions, Sun Mei nodded respectfully.

"Good." Wu Zetian smiled.

"Now, some theory first. What every initiate is first taught is the Three Basic Forms. These are the aspects Night Qi can take in its easiest manipulation layer. The Path of Blades teaches how to materialize your Night Qi to attack and defend. For its versatility and for being the basics of any martial art tied to the Sect, it's also called the Foundament. The Path of Sight shows how to move in darkness, how to extend your senses through your Night Qi and how to swathe yourself from others.

Some schools of thought in the Sect call it the Unique, for it lends the Sect its skilled assassins. Lastly, the Path of Distance guides the practitioner into the forging of paths through darkness and shadow, how distances may be shortened or lengthened and how the world may be influenced." She paused to make sure they were following. Fan Yu looked entranced, mouth open without any shame. Sun Mei…

the difference between the keen-eyed, calculating young woman who seemed to be devouring everything avidly and the scaredy cat of earlier was quite noteworthy.

"This is a first, general division," Wu Zetian resumed.

"Of course, the three Paths include hundreds of techniques each, which in turn open advanced Paths. An Elder may go centuries trying and failing to master them. Some may even decide they're enough for their path to power. In any case, we'll start from them. Now, a question," she clapped her hands, making them start.

"How do we go to it?" The girls blinked slowly, then watched each other.

"Uhm…" Wu Zetian nodded indulgently.

"Fair enough, but you can do it. The answer is: by summoning our Night Qi. See, the Paths may lead us deeper into the Night, but we cannot step into it, not one make one, if we cannot summon Night Qi. That is the foundation of the Night Arts, without which it's moot to even try." She gestured, sleeve fluttering.

"Fan Yu, your cultivation path refines the body by assimilating spiritbeasts. In a way, your Qi system works as a factory united with a construction building: it takes unrefined materials, refines them, then adds the best of them to its framework." Fan Yu looked startled. She had never thought of her cultivation path in those terms.

"Sun Mei, your cultivation path works by integrating emotional surges and connections. Deeply metaphysical, where Fan Yu's is starkly materialistic." The girl blushed. Wu Zetian kept to herself how inferior the two sects' methods were. They just lacked the refined complexity of the Shadow Arts, and that was why their practitioners, barring glaring exceptions, just couldn't compete. But joined…

"Night Qi is an exclusivity," Wu Zetian explained patiently.

"It has been nurtured in the people of Qinghai by generations of exposure to the Shadow Dragon Vein. None outside of its population may wield it." She saw the startled question in their expressions.

"That's your question. And that's your answer." With a gesture, she summoned two small bowls. The girls' breath caught when they felt what they contained: two drops of blood, impossibly black and dense, standing in the center of laquered porcelain like gems. More than anything, they felt the Qi that they contained.

"The Shadow Dragon Vein isn't the only thing that created Night Qi," Wu Zetian murmured, eyes fixed on their startled expressions.

"The influence that made it is a combination of my own Qi and that of the Vein. This is just that. Refined, concentrated. True Night that can be ingested. And it's for you." She set the bowls down, one in front of each. They watched them, almost entranced.

"It won't hurt," Wu Zetian whispered.

"But it will change you. The limitations of your cultivation paths are that they are too event-dependent. A successful hunt. A successful connection. The Night Qi will unlock those limitations, making it possible for you both to cultivate like any other Night Iniziate. By breathing the Night." She fell silent, watching them, one hand gently stroking the rat's fur. There was no need for words. No need to press or explain what the trial brought before them was. Only a single, silent question.

Fan Yu's eyes snapped to her. Lip curled, she snatched the bowl and downed the content, all without ever breaking eye contact. Fierce. Untamed. Challenging. Wu Zetian approved with a slight nod. Sun Mei cupped the bowl with trembling hands. She hesitated for a moment, but then something deep inside seemed to stir, and she drank. She dropped the bowl with a gasp, watching her through half-lidded eyes that nonetheless burned.

"Very good." The two girls started to grin. Started, didn't manage. They went down like marionettes whose strings had been cut.

"Obviously," Wu Zetian murmured.

"My blood is far too powerful for you." She watched them for a long moment, something that may have been pride stirring in the depths of her chest. Good girls. Good girls indeed.

"What do you think?" She asked, scratching the rat's chin. The tiny creature squeaked, earning a noseblow from the Serpent, who was looking for more attention himself. Wu Zetian chuckled.

"He Yuan." The majordomo emerged from the shadows. He cut an impeccable, ramrod figure.

"Are the cells prepared?"

"Yes, Founder, all is ready." Wu Zetian gestured. Owl Assassins appeared, gathering the girls and preparing them for the body tempering that would happen in dark cells deep in the Plateau. He Yuan sniffed, the gesture making his mustaches twitch.

"It has been quite some time since outsiders were made to undergo this trial." The Majordomo plucked at his whiskers with clear satisfaction.

"Quite pleasing to see, if I can be allowed the liberty, Founder." Wu Zetian hummed, sharing her attention between rat and serpent. In all honesty, her old wicked woman side was already moving on to the rest of the day's business. But this deserved some more lingering, didn't it?

"You're quite right," she agreed pleasantly.

"Make sure they're taken care of, would you? They are brave girls." The majordomo bowed deeply, a fist on his chest.

"Naturally. We accept outsiders with the proper grace of the Night." Wu Zetian chuckled.