“Little enough, he has a message for my father from his clan’s…leadership. Other than that I only know what all know,” Gu Xiulan replied carefully. Of course that was the trouble with the Zheng and why few dealt with them officially. Their leadership was a liquid thing, even their duke was a temporary, serving for a handful of decades, perhaps a century before growing bored and tossing the scepter of authority to whichever peer accepted it.

The fickleness of the Zheng was legendary. As legendary as the unassailable, bottomless power that slept in their mountain halls.Together with the Bai, they were the two clans which had joined the Empire by agreement rather tan the force of the Sage Emperor’s armies. And unlike the Bai, that strength had not been gutted in the creation of a new province. Two eighth realm cultivators, two score or more of seventh’s. And then there was their Ancestor, the Stone Ape, the Reveler, the Sage Equal unto Heaven. It was well and good to hear stories of an ancient beast involving himself in petty low realm brawls with a lesson and a wink, of a laughing grandfather who sang and drank and danced with his kin still, in however reduced a form, it was a folktale and jape.

But the wise wondered at what that meant, the sheer unthinkable control and puissance of a creature like unto a great spirit able to operate so normally and consistently in the material world.

“Mm, just so. I have heard my own kin receiving such messages. It is almost consistent,” Guo Sho said lightly, picking at his plate. “That can be a little worrying.”

“The Zheng clan has not looked outward since the second dynasty,” Xiulan frowned.

“And yet now they do. I have heard things,” Guo Sho said, spinning a chop stick between his fingers. “Of fights less friendly than the usual. Of red and black headscarves, and a great deal of shouting. It’s all very interesting. Should you hear anything of it, this Guo Sho would be most pleased to correspond with you, Lady Gu.”

GU Xiulan searched his cheerful face and found nothing there but what he wished her to see. Of course, he was Guo, a son of grandfather Fortress. She cast her eyes down at her empty plate. “You honor me sir Guo. I would of course be happy to correspond with you on any subject you like.”

“I will be happy to discuss what I see on my patrols too of course,” Guo Sho said, his fingers flicked and there was a quiet thwip and thunk as the chopstick he had been toying with embedded in the tabletop, still thrumming. “But I think I have kept you long enough for the night, lady Gu. I wish you fair travels in the morning.”

“My thanks, you as well, Lord Guo,” she said. Wistfully, she turned her thoughts back to the beginning of her journey. How foolish it seemed to think she was leaving all the excitement behind.

***

“Well don’t you look refreshed,” Gu Xiulan said, her tone waspish as she climbed back into the shadow of the carriage. The sun was high and hot again, the scalding desert heat a comfortable balm on her skin. Alas propriety demanded she remain in her carriage.

“And how could it not be!” Zheng Nan said brightly. He was far too cheerful at this early hour. “Journeys and adventures are grand, but so is a good night of carousing. These jade oases of yours are quite a wonder.”

“I am afraid the Gu can claim little credit. It was the Grandmaster of the Imperial hammer Sect, and the tiger tribes who founded the Han which carved and built them.”

“It is interesting!” Zheng nan said loudly, trotting along as the soldiers fanned out in a wedge on the road and the carriage began to roll. “When one thinks of artificial geomancy, one thinks of the peaks, but these do not make my back itch near as much.”

“We did not have the privilege of force which the masters of the Peaks work,”Gu Xiulan said absently, leaning back against the cool wall of the carriage. Outside glittering blue stretched out past her vision. Clean water and greenery in the death poisoned sand and ash, a great work indeed. The other provinces could say as they liked. The people of the Golden Fields had sweated and bled and died for their prosperity, invented and adapted where others would die. That was the pride of the Golden Fields.

She caught Zheng Nan observing her thoughtfully out of the corner of her eye. “Well architecture and geomancy go above my head, I just know the rush of qi through the channels of the earth is as refreshing as any natural river, and just as wild,” he laughed, the thoughtful look vanishing.

“It is a sublime work,” Gu Xiulan agreed. “But I am sure that your clan must have many like it.

He hummed, bouncing his staff on his shoulder as he began to jog, keeping up with the horses. “I wonder about that. The great water curtain cave maybe, the dams and redoubts of the Crownbreaker, but, we didn’t build those, we’ve never been good at building things. We just protect the folks that do, keep the cruel world out, where it can’t break their things and their lives. ‘S What we’re supposed to do. ‘S what heroes do.”

She saw him reach up to scratch at his neck, a thoughtful tic, and for the first time, she noticed something, spurred by the previous nights conversation. There around his neck was a ragged thing, worn and threadbare, more gray than black, was a scarf tied around his neck. She’d never really taken notice before, seeing nothing to differentiate it from his vagabonds garb.

“You should take better care of your things,” Gu Xiulan said absently. I’m surprised your robe hasn’t given up its life yet.”

He grinned.”Bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you fancy lady.”

She rolled her eyes. “You think to highly of yourself.”

“Nah,” he grinned. “So where to next?”

“To journey’s end,” Gu Xiulan replied. “Phoenixhome is only a few days away.”