"Eunuch Hong," prince Yuen greeted as they stepped out of his Laughing Crow pavilion and into the crisp night air.

He'd had no idea where his spiders had planned to take them, and had intentionally not given them specific orders on the matter after they'd been called by Zen to help assist with their escape from Ashong. His father was extremely good at understanding people, and considering how he'd worked at his side as his assassin for so many years, he didn't want to have any say in where they surfaced if he could help it.

It had been a complete surprise to them both when their spider finally surfaced beside the hot spring in the back of his property. Most of his outdoor birds greeted him with sleepy chirps and a few curious squawks, drawing a smile to his lips as he guided Lee Shaan inside his pavilion. They quickly changed into more suitable dark blue robes, then stepped out the front doors... and right into the path of the head eunuch.

The man was no fighter, but he was the emperor's most trusted informant.

He already knows we're on the palace grounds. Perhaps he doesn't know exactly where, though.

At least, not yet. The man before them looked surprised to see them for the briefest moment before he masked his expression and calmly clasped his hands behind his back.

"We need to take care of him, now," Huang said as he blurred down the stairs, unsheathing his sword as he moved.

He didn't hear Lee Shaan following him, but that was fine. They fought differently, and he wouldn't try to tell the man what to do. He was no novice when it came to battles... he'd learned that first hand.

Liall, I need your assistance to form a barrier around the pavilion, please.

His spiritual familiar flared to life within his body seconds before its translucent wings erupted from his back. It was generally much safer to channel a familiar somewhere calm and free of distraction to avoid injury, but he didn't have that luxury at that moment. The bird quickly pulled itself free from its master's bleeding back as Huang's sword clanged loudly with eunuch Hong's blade. It climbed only as high as the surrounding trees, then began to circle as its black color started to fill in.

Huang sparred with the man for several minutes as he waited for a sign that his barrier had worked. It came after exactly four minutes, when eunuch Hong abruptly channeled his spiritual energy into a blinding light directed above his head. Huang leaped up to try and catch it before it would be visible to the others looking for them, but before he could even consider reaching it, a strong arm wrapped around his waist as darkness blurred forward and smothered the light in an instant, then shattered into purple and black particles to be carried away by the wind.

"Always showing off," he muttered as Lee Shaan landed on a patch of soft grass with ease, then set him down with an unabashed smirk.

Lee Shaan opened his mouth to respond, no doubt with something sarcastic, but a loud hooting screech from one of his larger birds drew their attention back to where eunuch Hong had been standing. He was no longer there, but Huang wasn't too worried now.

He kept an outstanding menagerie of birds at his pavilion, and while the more dangerous ones had been moved to his other residence while Qi and Zen had occupied the building, he had made previous arrangements to have them returned as soon as the two had left. Thankfully, his father seemed to have thought nothing of it, and had lacked enough foresight to realize that they could be called upon to be used as weapons should the need arise.

In all honestly, he had not expected the mountain ice owl to make an appearance, though, as it tended to hunt less complicated prey on his property such as the devil's koi, but he definitely appreciated seeing the giant light blue and white bird, and quickly followed it before it alighted on a branch to loom over the startled eunuch that had been trying to escape. Its head swiveled this way and that as it eyed up its next quivering meal.

When Huang stepped out into the clearing the man had run into to try and hide, the bird looked down at him, then gave another loud hoot. Without missing a beat, Huang stepped forward and clasped his arms together in front of him, then bowed to the giant mystical creature.

"I thank you for your assistance, Bing Niao," he said respectfully.

To his surprise, Lee Shaan stepped forward to stand beside him at that moment, then bowed as well. The bird bowed its body the slightest amount, then returned its attention to the man cowering beneath it as it unfurled both pairs of its massive, beautiful wings.

Eunuch Hong scrambled back to his feet after having tripped and hurried through the thick brush as the owl dove from the old tree it had been perched in. It flew silently on the wind as it descended, but missed its first strike by centimeters. Huang watched Lee Shaan begin to follow after the eunuch, but he quickly grabbed his sleeve and shook his head.

"We can follow, but slowly. Mountain ice owls don't appreciate competition, and Bing Niao is a very adept hunter. Do not disrespect him by trying to help," he said as he began walking calmly forward, knowing that the eunuch didn't have very many places they could flee to begin with.

"What if he gets away, though? That bird is massive, and there are a lot of places that man could hide out here," Lee Shaan said as he struggled to keep his stride small enough to match Huang's.

"My familiar has already sealed off the area, and I know for a fact that eunuch Hong doesn't have the ability to break Liall's barrier. As long as he can't get out, his connection with my father can't be used to alert him of our location."

Of course, he knew that his father would be able to sense him nearby, but it would be hard to pinpoint his exact location without some additional help, and the last place he would have tried to enter the palace grounds was his bird pavilion, so he doubted that his father was aware of his location yet.

Huang led Lee Shaan through the tangle of bushes and vines until they came out into another area. A large pond sat at the far side of the partial clearing, surrounded by trees and unkempt underbrush on all sides. He settled the back of his hand against Lee Shaan's chest to stop him from moving forward after a moment, then lifted one of his fingers to his own lips before turning to watch pond.

He could tell that his companion was confused about why they had suddenly stopped to watch the scenery, but after about two minutes, the giant ice owl silently appeared overhead, then dove into a massive thorn bush, caring very little about the fauna's sharp defense mechanisms as its prey screamed and fumbled out from within the greenery.

Eunuch Hong fell to the grass as he tried to regain his footing, but quickly recovered and hurried toward the pond as his body began to faintly glow.

"Is that pond connected to other waterways? Can he get away if he dives?" Lee Shaan asked as he took a step forward, but then stopped abruptly when the massive owl, that easily stood close to his height, screeched at him, then took off again to set up for another dive attack.

"The pond isn't connected to any others, but even it were, he wouldn't be able to get out in such a way," Huang said, making Lee Shaan glance back at him for a split second before he returned his attention to the man who was now running into the shallow waters with a smirk on his face.

The next time the giant owl dove, its attack was easily deflected by a whip of water summoned by the now-laughing man in the pond.

"He's a water master? You let him get into the pond and he's a water master?" Lee Shaan exclaimed as he turned toward Huang, clearly shocked that he'd made such a blunder.

Huang simply gave a quiet chuckle and pointed back toward the pond. When he said nothing after several moments and refused to look back at him, Lee Shaan scowled but turned his attention back to the pond.

"Wait... what is going on?"

The giant owl had just been fended off by another whip of water, but the defense had been sloppy, reinvigorating the raptor's determination to circle around for another strike. It was deflected again, but eunuch Hong stumbled backwards in the process, bringing him deeper into the pond as his water whip broke apart abruptly. He dropped his gaze to the water as he tried to walk out of it, but it seemed like his legs were too heavy to lift all of a sudden.

"What is going on?" Lee Shaan asked, clearly surprised by the turn of events as the man before him tried to walk forward again, but just ended up being forced farther backwards.

Taking a few careful steps closer, since he wanted to see what exactly was going on, Huang watched as the expression on Lee Shaan's face morphed from confused curiosity to abstract horror before the man turned to look back at him.

"You keep devil's koi in such a place!"

The disbelief was audible in his words as Huang finally walked forward, crossing his arms nonchalantly over his chest as he moved.

"Yes, they are quite handy when disposing of bodies," he said with a slight grin that had Lee Shaan shaking his head, then laughing out loud as he abruptly tugged him up against his side.

"You do not disappoint," he said as they watched the owl descend again.

As its talons reached out toward the struggling man, the fish beneath the eunuch must have switched from simply sucking and pulling to actually tearing at his flesh, because before he could manifest his water whip again, he was yanked back abruptly, breaking his concentration and throwing him off-balance, allowing the owl to finally complete its attack. It landed with a loud splash as its talons cut through the man's body like butter. He was dead within moments as he sank partially beneath the reddening water's surface.

It was obvious that the tug-of-war between the fish and the four-winged ice owl wasn't quite over yet, however, because Bing Niao screeched down at the water a few times before flapping its wings and slashing at the surface with the massive talons on its right foot. The fish were persistent, though, and it knew that, since they were its main prey source. The owl tried to fly away a few times, but each time the eunuch's body was lifted partially out of the water, it was no surprise that the owl couldn't take off.

The fish didn't dare try to grab the bird itself, but there were already twenty or so feeding off the dead man it was trying to move... and those fish were not small. Huang noticed something begin to descend from his left and looked up in time to lift his arm for his little scouting bird, Xiao Niao, to land on his finger.

"Hello there, little one."

Huang ignored the giant owl tugging the corpse out of the pond as the devil's koi splashed at the surface of the water. Some of them refused to let go since they could breathe for a certain amount of time out of water, while others even crawled out after their hard-earned meal.

Focusing on the little bird balancing on his fingers, Huang skimmed through its simple mind.

South, many. North, few.

"Have you seen mother recently, little one?" he asked, earning a quick little chirping song from the bird in response.

The sound brought a smile to his face as the little bird flew off to continue scouting.

Mother is well and safe, and my little sister is with her.

It was a relief. He was well aware that the emperor truly did favor his mother and young daughter, and he was glad that he thought of their safety first. They would be settled away from the battle.

Turning his attention back to Lee Shaan, who had been splitting his own attention between the owl, fish, and him, he took hold of his sleeve and tugged slightly.

"Let's be on our way. We should use our ability to go invisible shortly before we get to the end of my familiar's barrier, then head slightly north before heading west toward the palace," Huang said as he began walking.

Lee Shaan quickly fell into step beside him, but spared the giant owl and growing gathering of devil's koi one final glance before refocusing his attention on where they were heading.

"Sounds like a plan," he eventually said, but then added "but when do we kiss passionately before the epic battle? You know, just in case one of us doesn't make it, even though that's not really possible."

Huang let his shoulders sag as he rolled his eyes, making sure that Lee Shaan was able to see the gesture perfectly well. The man at least had the right idea to look a little embarrassed, but he knew that he'd actually meant what he'd said, too.

This man...

Reaching up abruptly as they stepped through a patch of thorny underbrush, Huang grabbed a tight hold of Lee Shaan's hair and pulled him closer as he, himself, leaned forward and up. The thorn bushes they'd just passed through were determined to keep hold of a good bit of his long hair, but he ignored the pulls he felt from them as his mouth met Lee Shaan's.

The man didn't respond at all for the first few moments as his eyes widened in surprise, but it didn't take him too long to reach forward and wrap an arm around Huang's waist, tugging him closer as he carefully freed his tangled hair with his other hand without breaking their kiss.

Huang expected the physical gesture to only last a few moments, so when Lee Shaan moved his hand to grip his chin and tilt it upward after finishing untangling his hair, he was a bit confused. Then he felt the man's tongue gently tap against his lips.

Just feeling the damp pressure there was enough to make him open his mouth, though it hadn't exactly been done as a signal to continue whatever Lee Shaan intended to do. The other man didn't know that, though, and eagerly took the unintentional invitation.

Huang squirmed a bit closer immediately and lowered his hand from Lee Shaan's hair to join his other one that was gripping the man's robe tightly. He felt Lee Shaan's tongue quickly seek out his own, and while he tried to tuck it away a few times, he was eventually forced to relent and focus on his breathing or risk passing out in the man's arms.

I wouldn't mind.

Huang scowled as he nipped Lee Shaan's tongue, forcing the man to finally break the kiss and lean away. Even though he'd just gotten bitten, he seemed more than a little smug as he stared down at him with a smirk that was just begging to be smacked off his face.

Huang also would have cursed the man to hell and back for making that kiss so damned strange, but he couldn't manage to catch his darn breath no matter how hard he tried!

"You look so enticing panting like that with such a dark blush covering your cheeks. It is such a shame that we can't enjoy ourselves right now," Lee Shaan said as he took Huang's hand and gently began guiding him forward again.

I found no part of that enjoyable! Huang yelled back through their connection since he was still struggling to correct his breathing, earning a bit of laughter from the man leading him before Lee Shaan looked over his shoulder at him with a knowing grin.

"It takes some getting used to. Don't worry, I'm more than happy to help you get acclimated once we take care of our current situation."

Lee Shaan's words just made Huang's scowl deepen.