Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

Dàilán woke, blinking in the dimness, to a quiet knock on the door of her bedroom. Recognising the knock, she grimaced and rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Chen'er? What is it?"

"It is past your usual rising time, Young Mistress," her friend and bodyguard answered softly from the door as she opened the double leaves slightly to slip through and bustle over to the closed curtains, opening them slightly to reveal the light of the Golden Crow shining brightly.

"Ugh… I went to bed late, last night," she yawned, covering it politely with a hand. "Between the apology to House Ji, and then the discussions with Father at dinner… I am still tired…" she sighed.

"That is why I let you sleep an extra shi. You will have to skip your usual morning tàijíquán practice," Chenli said, throwing open the curtains the rest of the way and moving over to the wardrobe.

Dàilán threw an arm over her eyes to block out the bright sunlight, groaning. "Really? Can we just skip sparring today? I will do just my tàijíquán instead."

Her friend smirked "I was actually planning on that, but unfortunately, the enemy does not always attack when it is convenient."

Dàilán growled. "Chenli, if this is one of your 'master teaching student moments', it is ill timed."

"As much as I would like to take credit for being an iron lady, this is not my idea," admitted the other girl, pausing as she pressed her hand onto an innocuous section of carving on the wardrobe.

Chenli causally took out the Heiress' practice uniform and laid it on the bed, but Dàilán felt the prickle of Essence as the privacy formations in the bedroom strengthened. "Dagger and Moon got in touch with me after they could not get a hold of you - specifically asking for sparring practice - you three Heiress against us four maids. Ai, Chang and Biyu are already preparing."

Dàilán's mouth dropped open, dropping the arm away from her face. "Moon and… but she has got to be as tired as me!"

Chenli shook her head, pointing to the bathroom, "Get up and wash your face mistress, we have only a little time. As for Moon," Chenli pursed her lips, "according to Dagger, she is practically jumping out of her skin - Dagger sounds as grumpy as you - not a morning person that one. Moon on the other hand sounds… obnoxiously cheerful."

Dàilán sighed and rolled out of bed, groaning at a familiar stab of pain in her abdomen as her feet touched the carpet. "She would, considering what happened yesterday. Chen'er, I need the monthly potion." She grunted, noting that the pain was not as bad as usual, but still nothing to be laughed at.

"I have it here," Chen'er passed her a small red vial from inside her sleeve as the Heiress stumbled into the bathroom, "You always get sleepier when your blessing comes, so that does not help on top of last night. Do not forget to add your blessing blood to the potion."

Dàilán made a face as she took the vial. "Yes, mother. Gods, I wish I had been born a man sometimes - can the alchemists not make a better remedy than drinking my own blood… what blessing?"

Her grumbling faded as she vanished into the bathroom and Chenli ignored the familiar complaints as she moved to make the bed, nodding as she heard the sound of water and splashing.

A fēn later, the young Heiress reappeared, looking much more alert, with a disgusted expression on her face as she handed the empty vial back to her friend. "I have said it before and I will say it again - if I ever find out the man who decided the best way to get rid of blessing pains is that damn potion… why have you made the bed?"

Chenli rolled her eyes, "Would you rather you could not afford the blessing potion? And I have made the bed because Dagger wants to examine the privacy formations in your quarters after the sparring - worried about secrets spilling I suppose. I assured her it was not necessary, but she said something about Third House not having a Master to maintain them - so Moon suggested we have lunch here afterwards. She seemed quite excited about the idea…"

Dàilán made another face as she picked up the training outfit off the bed and began changing out of her nightdress. "Remind me again why I thought having sisters would be fun? They are being awfully open about our contact all of a sudden."

Chenli stood back, observing her mistress' dressing for errors that could lead to accidents in training, before going back to the wardrobe, taking out her own training robes and starting to strip herself as she spoke.

"Something to do with everyone being preoccupied with yesterday's big events and having their attention focused elsewhere. Do not worry, Third House servants are controlling the routes First and Second are taking to get here - Ai is escorting them. The other two maids are informing the kitchen about your little lunch after. Apparently they seem quite certain that the Head Matron will want to show that Third House has a great deal of face."

Dàilán rubbed her forehead. "Life was simpler when those two were empty vases… I hope Matron can keep her face, she has never approved of First and Second either."

"Not as much fun though. You have to admit, things have gotten a lot more interesting lately," laughed the bodyguard as she tied on the last bits of the training clothing and pulled on the soft training slippers with the Essence grip material, "As for the Matron, I think that is the point."

"Ugh…. I hate politics," chanted Dàilán as she pulled on her own slippers, "Gods, I am stiff." She tried a few slow tàijíquán movements as stretches, grumbling at the discomfort. "I am making Moon pay for pulling this garbage."

"En, remember you are on - their - team this morning, mistress," Chenli reminded her cheekily.

The Heiress smirked back. "There are always traitors," she shot back half jokingly as they exited her quarters and started out towards the meditation gardens.

Chenli blinked and nodded thoughtfully, "That is actually a good idea - though they would be probably half expecting it, under the circ.u.mstances."

The two of them walked briskly in silence for a moment, not meeting anyone, then Chenli spoke her voice slightly sharp. "Speaking of interesting, what the hells happened yesterday? I leave for a day and by the time I get back everyone in Hujian is talking about Clan's Guan's 'Grand Gesture'." The bodyguard made the appropriate quotation marks with her fingers.

Dàilán sighed. "Long story. We will likely be discussing it at lunch - so can you wait until then? It is all politics anyway."

Chenli looked around discreetly and nodded, then grinned, "I will just beat it out of you during the spar."

"Hells - no - I am - not - wearing that blasted limiter. I will be hampered enough with two teammates I have never worked with before and barely know their skills," growled the Heiress as they turned into the main passage that ran the length of Third House Quarter.

"Point," agreed the other young woman. "Fair enough, but we are using the lightning sparring weapons."

"That… heh, nice. Should be interesting to watch Dagger and Moon get zapped. I will accept the price of getting hit myself to see that… though you might not be able to get me without the limiter," agreed Dàilán with a bloodthirsty smile.

"We will warn them, of course," said Chenli piously, "but they would not lose face by declining. As for not knowing your teammates - training together is the best way to learn."

"Speaking of your being gone all day," the Heiress switched topics as they turned into the walkway that led out to the Meditation Garden, "if you had come back near your usual time, you would have been included in the excitement. What happened?"

Her friend paled slightly. "Another subject for lunch, oddly enough - it involves all three of you Heiress'"

Dàilán blinked at her friend's reaction. "You were not punished for relaying my message, I trust?" Her tone made it clear she found that unacceptable.

"Actually, no. To my astonishment, Master agreed with you and hopes to show sincerity in the coming days. That is part of what I need to talk to everyone about," Chenli answered quietly, "I was actually commended for my loyalty."

Dàilán nodded regally. "As it should be." The sounds of voices up ahead heralded their arrival to the Sand Garden and the pair of them quickened their pace. "It sounds like the others are already there," the Heiress observed, "this should be 'fun'."

---

Dàilán huddled in one corner of the sand garden with her two female cousins. Ming and Ying were looking a little pale, despite the warm light of the Golden Crow, glancing nervously at the group of maids on the opposite side of the garden in their own corner. Ming kept fiddling with her Formation scriber - or brush, Dàilán's mind kept insisting - and Ying kept winding a length of ribbon around one of her hands.

"We have about half a kè to decide on a strategy," Dàilán murmured to the other two girls, pretending she did not see their nervous behaviour. "I assume you are both familiar with each other's abilities and have a preferred strategy you are used to using together?"

Ming nodded, her face set, speaking quickly and quietly. "I draw formations that act as defence and attack from a fixed point. Multiple points, if I get enough time."

Ying smiled, although it looked a little forced. "I can dance around enemies and attack them with cloth and veils - trip, bind, strangle, lacerate… if I had plants I could do more, but Ming asked me not to damage the Formations on your garden."

Ming glared at her Cousin. "I just spent another hour upgrading them. I will thank you not to ruin my efforts." The Eldest Cousin turned to Dàilán, her expression smug - nervousness forgotten as she focused on her passion. "Your garden is now as secure as I can make it - which given my recent reading in that book you gave to me, is a good deal more secure than most might expect. There are some very unusual and powerful Formation concepts in that book. Did you know…"

Ying interrupted, again looking nervously over at the other group. "Not the time, Dagger. Knife looks ready to kill something."

Dàilán nodded, pretending she did not see her Eldest Cousins widening eyes. "About that." She pulled out her wooden sparring daggers and handed them to Ming. "Tell me what you make of the Formations on these."

Ming frowned, her eyes tracing the patterns. "Force… and Lightning?" Her eyebrows shot up.

Dàilán took the daggers back. "Yuh. Chenli got them from her sect. She says it is considered standard training equipment. You get touched by one of these when someone is channelling Essence through them, you are flopping like a beached fish and smelling of smoke for most of a kè. It hurts. You develop an intense d.e.s.i.r.e never to be touched again. Kind of the point, actually. They," she jerked her head in the other group's direction "all have weapons like that."

Both cousins paled bone white and Ying looked wobbly, which Dàilán thought somewhat ridiculous, considering this whole affair had been her idea. "This is a spar!" hissed Ying in outrage.

The youngest Heiress blinked. "And your point? No permanent damage and you instinctively learn to not let weapons touch you. If you always spar with blunted weapons and padded armour, you get in the habit of taking strikes to hit your opponent - and you do not even realise you are doing it. I learnt that the hard way once Chen'er brought these out. It took me about three days of getting zapped to break the habit - what do you think would have happened if it had been real weapons?"

Dàilán sighed. "Anyway, my preferred style - I move. Hard, fast, quick. My Cultivation is above par for my age so I hit harder than a woman my age or size usually does, but I'm still small and agile so I can get in and out to hit targets before they have a chance to strike back. If I get hit hard enough by someone stronger, even with my Cultivation I usually get floored. I can take a bigger hit than you would expect - again, Cultivation, but it is really a big mistake on my part to try go toe to toe. Again, something I learnt after Chen'er had me train wearing a limiter."

Ming snorted, colour coming back into her face. "A limiter? Who the hells trains with something stopping them from using techniques?"

"I needed to practice against opponents who were out of my weight class. We did not have any - so we did the next best thing and simulated fighting someone stronger, by limiting my techniques. Not wearing the limiter today though - you two are judged enough of a handicap for me today." Dàilán grinned wickedly in the direction of the other group. "Payback time."

She frowned. "Look for now, you guys to stick to what you do best. Ming - pick a spot, bunker down. Ying, you defend the location. I will try to go after targets while Chen'er focuses on you two."

Ying gasped, her face flushing in panic. "But she is the strongest and you are used to fighting her…"

Ming interrupted her cousin, her jaw set determinedly, "But she is - not - used to fighting us, so she will have to adjust. If Third fights her it will be a draw at best and we will have to deal with three opponents - not one."

Dàilán grimaced and admitted, "It might be two. Ai is almost as good as Chen'er; I cannot let myself get bogged down fighting either of them from the start. I will go after Biyu and Chang as hard as possible and hopefully come after the other two after taking them down."

"How do - they - fight," asked Ming, intent, her nerves gone as she focused. Ying leaned in closer as well, her own features sharpening with determination

"Chen'er fights like me," answered the youngest heiress, "makes sense, she trained me. Hit, in, out, fast. Ai… she is slippery, she hits hard but always obliquely - like a snake. Older and strongest out of us, so she can take hits as well as give them. Not as strong as an equivalent male Cultivator, but - if she gets close - dodge or die."

Ying smiled. "Dodging I can do and - my cloth can out-wind any snake."

Ming grunted. "If I keep the Formations shifting, Knife will not get close enough to hit. I can bog her down long enough for you two to save me. If they come at us the other way - Ying, move like hells, do not let Chen'er hit you. I can trap a snake if I have to." She looked at Dàilán, "If I can, I will try to shift the ground in our favour - slips, slides, holes… I will not go all out, since it is a spar, but…"

"Do not pull punches," warned Dàilán, "Chen'er will not. We are all wearing armour with Essence shielding Formations in them, it would take a Sky level hit to be wounded. We will just be zapped."

"Do not get hit - hit them. Nice and simple," quipped Ying, he complexion returning to normal as she focused.

"You do this every day Third?" joked Ming, shaking her head, "You are crazier than I thought."

"I have a strong d.e.s.i.r.e not to get dead," Dàilán pointed out acerbically, "with the mess the Clan is turning into, I worry we will be fighting like this for real soon enough - and they will be full grown Cultivators out for more than blood. I only worry I am not training hard enough."

Míng Jiàn and Ying Yue looked at her and grimaced together. "Good point, Third. Let us hope we have the time to learn enough to live," apologised the eldest cousin.

"Here they come," warned Ying, looking over at the suddenly charging group of maids.