Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

Dàilán looked around from her position among the cushions of a luxurious reclining couch atop a small raised and canopied dais, at the crowd of various bejewelled,bangled and elaborately coiffed young heirs, heiresses, younger cultivators and scholars swirling in chattering and laughing groups a few paces away around the pavilion and the lotus flower lake in the middle of the Gi Compund's expansively landscaped gardens.

Various individuals were participating in the poetry tournament that Gi Clan was hosting; while others were there just to watch the fuss. A cheer rose up from the cl.u.s.ter gathered around the small centre pavilion where two young men - a Cultivator and a Scholar judging by their robes - were exchanging poetic couplets, evidently someone had scored with a particularly deft turn of phrase.

Gi Clan servants carried trays full of small dumplings or other snacks and drinks through the small crowd or stood by small tables dotted the gardens. To provide additional shade from the bright late-morning sunlight, various coloured, silk canopies were scattered around in the open areas, while long, bright ribbons, wind chimes and banners fluttered from the larger trees in the morning breeze, providing a colourful and cheerful background to the crowd of richly dressed young people.

Ostensibly the gathering was being held in Ming's honour as part of the Gi Heir's courting Dàilán's Eldest Cousin - although no one was so gauche as to come out and say so openly - but primarily it provided a reasonable reason for all five Heirs to be in the same locale again - while everyone else used it as an excuse to show off - or make connections, for those with more sense.

"This is much better than all those picnics they keep going on…" Dàilán rolled her eyes at the overheard snippet of discussion between two of Second Cousin's maid entourage behind Yue's own couch to her left.

The youngest Heiress was more than a little irritated at the training time lost in all the work they had to put into keeping certain parties from getting suspicious. She bit savagely down on a small dumpling she picked from the tray beside her couch, grimacing at the mediocre zither playing nearby that was meant to provide a soothing backdrop.

"Cheer up, Third, you are supposed to be all agog at the handsome men and witty wordplay, not looking like you are s.u.c.k.i.n.g sourfruit," snarked Ming from alongside her, stiffly ensconced on her own couch of overstuffed pillows to the right of hers, "Dearest's assertion that he prefers a strong partner he can trust to hold the Clan, while he goes and does manly things, gave us some leeway when it comes to being a little more open with our training - like yesterday, but we have to do normal noble couple stuff too - which means we need you to be a good little chaperone."

"I know, First, but these thick heads, dandies and silkpants can not write or recite decent poetry to save their lives - could your partner have chosen a more stultifying cover, or did he have to work at it?" Dàilán riposted in return.

"It is not that bad, Sister Dàilán," came a smooth male voice from behind her reclining couch and Chian walked around her couch to sit elegantly on the floor, leaning his back against Ming's couch, "I will admit most of the recitals would not be given the time of day in the Imperial Capital, but the speakers are not entirely decorative - given that Hujian is barely a third rank city, one cannot expect too much."

"Just -mostly- decorative. All flash and no substance. If I hear one more reference to Orchids," muttered the youngest heiress, "I shall not be held responsible for my actions."

Chian laughed and inclined his head, "I will admit that is slightly bad taste, given they should be complimenting my winter Rose." He brushed his arm briefly across Ming's dress that fell decorously over her legs which lay along the length of the couch, causing Ming to blush as her body relaxed slightly at the contact. Dàilán narrowed her eyes at him playfully and Chian twitched in mock fright, making a show of carefully removing his arm from contact with her Cousin's dress.

"Well, it is to be expected now that we are courting," pointed out Yue from her own couch on Dàilán's other side, "you will be of age next year." Yue looked perfectly at ease as her own Entourage fluttered around her couch like colourful, twittering birds, clearly in high spirits.

"Please do not remind me," grumbled Dàilán, "as if any of these empty headed boys are worth considering. You and Ming have clearly managed to pick up the only two Heirs of worth in this place. I still say anything would have been a better activity than this." She nodded gratefully at Biyu who offered her a small cup of sweetberry juice from the larger table set behind them, taking the cup as her maid bowed.

"Maybe," came the jovial voice of Yue's intended as he rolled cheerfully out of the crowd, "but the food is decent. You put on a good spread, brother." He cheekily stuck his tongue out at Dàilán, then tilted forward to give Yue a brief kiss on her proffered hand.

Chian raised the goblet of wine he had taken from his intended's side-table at Heir Ji's compliment, "with you around, I could scarcely dare less, brother," then he inclined a sardonic glance at Dàilán, "I do agree with your sentiments, Sister - fortunately it will be acceptable for us to go and eat lunch somewhere more privately in a shi or so. In the meantime," he stood, "the politicking is never done, spare a thought for those of us that have to be engaged in direct converse."

Dàilán lifted her own drink in salute, "Perish the thought that women could ever converse meaningfully as heirs in their own right," she muttered to herself as the two male Heirs bowed and made their way back into the bright sunlight and into the crowd of young males.

"'Ware bitches," warned Yue from the side of her mouth sotto voce, "time for our own politicking," as the female half of the garden started to gather and approach the three of them in a flock of rustling silks amid a cloud of perfumes, scents and various fans,"Careful what you wish for, Cousin."

Dàilán returned an innocent look to Yue, "I am just the chaperone today - I will leave the nasty sniping to you two."

"Thanks so ever much, Cousin," returned Ming drily as the two older women swung their legs over to sit upright on the couches, their maids re-positioning cushions for support, "watch our backs, would you?"

---

As the five of them gathered in a modest, private pavilion at the other end of the gardens with the Golden Crow around highest flight, they exchanged relieved glances and sighed.

"That was remarkably tiresome," Ming spoke flatly, "I am reminded why I much prefer working with Formations instead of people."

"You get used to it," Heir Ji grunted, "although I will admit, that even for someone used to making connections and deals, those were some of the least useful people I have had to make nice with for a while. Do find a better activity to disguise our discussions next time, Heir Gi."

"A couple of the Cultivators and one or two of the minor heirs were interesting to speak with," demurred Yue, "a few of the musicians were worth listening to."

"We need to stop meeting so often, in that case," directed Chian, "otherwise we are going to be forced into more formal gatherings like this, more often, not less."

"Well, we can take a few steps back after this meeting and focus on our own training," responded Dàilán, "but I did want to discuss the possibility of planning a Jianghu trip with the five of us - possibly with a few Knives as escorts, no doubt - because our respective Clans are unlikely to let us go by ourselves."

"Ah, this has to do with this mysterious peddler and those rumours that were floating around in the market during our trip the other day, no doubt," Chian spoke inquisitively, leaning forward from his bench, "Fatty bro mentioned that interesting transaction he witnessed the last time you were in the market, Sister."

"The formation in that preservation pouch this 'peddler' gave you was equally intriguing," added Ming and Chian nodded enthusiastic agreement.

"That last might be less of a mystery than you think," replied Dàilán with a laugh, "Chenli is positive the peddler is a roving Enforcer from the Knife Sect, not an everyday Cultivator - likely he recognised us… so he provided extra service and information."

"I have been involved in managing the Guan Clan Essence Garden for several years now - I am skilled enough to tell those Essence herbs you bought were definitely old and wild, not Sect cultivated," pointed out Yue excitedly, "so he got them from somewhere. Our Clan Defensive Formations have never been stronger - those Essence Plants are not normal. There has to be a Treasure Land or Secret Plane that has opened somewhere - or maybe an Expert Cultivator has come out of seclusion that is skilled in raising Essence plants."

The youngest heiress looked worriedly at Yue. Correctly interpreting her concern, Ming patted her youngest cousin's arm, "Once I realised the difference, I added specific obscuring and shielding formations around the new anchors. That is in addition to the ones over the whole area as our Clan's defensive core. There are no outwardly noticeable clues anything has changed."

"We will not covet your good fortune," assured Heir Ji, "anything that strengthens Guan is advantageous for our Clans too now that we are allies - and skinny bro's Clan already has stronger defensive Formations than Guan anyway."

"However, I am still very interested in a new source of untapped or rare Cultivation Resources," pointed out the Gi Heir, "you will not begrudge me competing against you with the peddler for any new useful ingredients, I hope."

"Well, I was hoping to find a way to get to the source - if we could control that…"

Dàilán's comment was jumped on by Heir Ji, "An excellent idea! If we could harvest such herbs we could grow our respective power to elevate our families into much higher ranks."

Dàilán frowned, "I was thinking of establishing our own powerbase as a fallback against the constant attacks the… Hujian has been dealing with. I would not wish to let the Clans become aware of this, before Second Elder and Grass is dealt with - and anyone else in their pockets."

The others nodded solemnly, the Gi Heir looking especially grim at the mention of Grass - the Gi Clan had taken the Cult's manoeuvrings as a personal affront as the city's highest ranking Clan.

After a moment, he waved his hands, "we can speak of this after eating, the entourages are arriving with the food - and anyway when the peddler returns, we will be in a better position to plan with whatever news he brings back. It might even have been a once off occurrence."

"Then we shall have a group shopping trip in…" Yue paused and looked inquisitively at Dàilán who winced, "three days," she replied in a resigned fashion at her Cousin's excitement.

Yue clapped her hands delightedly, then continued speaking "...three days and make sure we are on Market Street when the peddler arrives!" Yue exclaimed enthusiastically, "We should go clothes shopping - neither of you two training and formation fanatics have enough fashionable dresses or jewellery. You will need them if we are to attend more of these activities."

"Tell me about it," chortled Fatty Ji, "Gi Bro hates clothes shopping - he would just wear anything comfortable as long as he has his brush and ink! All his best outfits, I picked up for him - as my own sartorial splendour," he patted his expansive c.h.e.s.t, "is never in doubt."

"Not all my outfits," objected Chian mildly and the three young women laughed as the two men started trading clever barbs over the table at each other as the rest of their servants and maids entered with the group's lunch.

---

After the poetry recital - an event which left all of the upper classes in Hujian buzzing excitedly - the three Heiresses returned to a more normal routine. As the official chaperone Dàilán had made a politely worded request that Heir Gi and Ji decrease the frequency of their courting visits, something which was met with general approval from some of the more conservative members of the various involved Clans.

She was not sure what her Cousins had done in the last two days, but she had taken the opportunity to reestablish a more regular schedule; training again with Chenli, Ai and the other two maids which was slowly helping her bodyguard work back up to full fitness, working on her reports for her father and handling basic household management tasks - provisions, meals, construction, repairs, wages, hiring and dismissal, promotion of servants and so on - that had been put to one side with all the recent crisis' and changes. Although mostly those things were handled by the Third House Matron on a day to day basis, she had been forced to reschedule the Heir's quarterly meeting with the Matron several times over the past few weeks.

It was satisfying to note Third household was running at a small surplus at the moment, despite the added pressure of supporting their new 'guard'; the Matron reported that some basic staples had dropped in price recently as well as a number of less common items, while the House's own small production of higher end Essence Spices and and tamed Essence Beasts raised for meat had seen a small but significant uptick.

They had discussed the evidence of Second House's chicanery with the finances briefly; the Matron sorted and asserted that it was well known among the non-Cultivators that the Clan exchanges were untrustworthy - she made a point of dealing directly with external suppliers as Third House rather than Clan Guan and thus Third House - and by extension, Dàilán and her Father - had a much more reasonable reputation among Hujian's merchants, than the Guan Clan as a whole.

She also spent some time Cultivating. Oddly enough it seemed that the method she had developed of following her own natural Essence flow worked better for her than any of the Cultivation Techniques she had access to - especially if she focused on it while practising tàijíquán or playing her bāwū.

Since the Sect Head Healer's observations, she had started paying close attention to the pattern the Essence in her body followed as the Essence was drawn in from her environment and moved around her meridians - noting the changes to her body and Cultivation down in her personal Cultivation Journal.

She also finally had a chance to look at the Cultivation techniques that the Head Healer had said her mother used - the Senior Enforcer had passed them to her shortly after her arrival. Neither of them caused her pain like the Rising Mountain Cultivation Technique that the Guan Clan traditionally used did, but they also felt wrong in different ways - even though the Water and Air techniques both complemented the Mountain Techniques. She half suspected that if she cultivated the water and air techniques to the same rank as she had the Guan's Rising Mountain Cultivation, she would have similar issues. Still, she took note of the parts that felt 'right' for her and added the information to her Journal. The lightning techniques did not suit her at all, but she was expecting that.

In between all of that, she had managed to spend some time observing, learning and talking with Monitor Leng as he worked to repair and update the specialised defensive, protective and offensive Soul Formations that her mother had laid down throughout the Third House segment of the Guan Compound - and especially in her suite and that of her parents.

She had interacted with him the least of all the Knife Sect members that had taken up Residence - he had spent more time with her first Cousin and Gi Chian, training, teaching and exchanging pointers on Formations with them as part of his duties.

This was somewhat frustrating to Dàilán - as due to the time dilation effect he had experienced inside the Heart of the Sect, he had spent a great deal more time with her Mother than she had. Unfortunately, the young man was reticent about the experience and generally acted very formally with her unless he was teaching her something.

The last two nights, she had also resumed dinners with Chenli and her Father; she watched with interest her Father's solicitous behaviour towards her friend on the first night, until Chenli told him firmly it was unnecessary.

Last night, her father did express concern that Dàilán did not seem to be consuming her normal share of Cultivation resources of late; she assured him that this was merely because her Cultivation had been progressing smoothly without bottlenecks - and she offered a general outline of what the Sect's Head Healer had told her about having a very stable breakthrough - as evidence she was not finding any need for external resources at the moment.

That topic led nicely into discussing the idea of going on Jianghu and her Father had agreed to look at their proposed trip once they had gathered enough information - which shifted the conversation inevitably into the real reasons behind Second Cousin's invite to this morning's group shopping - 'assault' according to Chenli - leaving all of them laughing.

Her Father was of the opinion that spending time with her two cousins as allies was to be encouraged - and agreed that Dàilán could stand to indulge in her feminine side more often. He did suggest that they bring an extra escort. Chenli suggested the Senior Enforcer - which made him choke on his food, then laugh in enthusiastic agreement.

This morning, as Dàilán left the Third House section of the Guan Compound to meet with her cousins with her full Entourage - Chenli, Ai, Biyu and Cheng - and the BloodWitch in her young woman appearance as additional escort, he had handed the young Heiress a pouch full of gold taels, with strict instructions to make sure she win back the favour of those merchants that might have felt irritated by Clan Guan's recent high-handedness.

The younger maids appeared overwhelmed by this if their excited expressions and repeated bows to the Third Elder meant anything. Ai kept her excitement controlled to a single bow, but clearly expressed her thanks, very politely, for the Third Elder's contribution; it was definitely time for the Youngest Mistress to update her wardrobe. Dàilán paled, but her Father's grin was reaching disturbing proportions and he waved merrily to the group as they more or less hauled Dàilán out of the Third House courtyard to meet the others.

"I would request the Young Mistress purchase better cosmetics as well," more or less demanded Ai - unfairly in Dàilán's opinion. "You are no longer a girl and need a more sophisticated palette. I may be an artist, but I need the tools with which to do my work."

"Perfumes!" piped up Cheng sweetly, her eyes flashing in excitement, "and jewellery," added Biyu, equally energetic.

"No, wait…" Dàilán began to object but, Yue's voice overlapped, "all excellent ideas! I do approve of your expanded entourage Cousin, it will make things so much easier."

The group bowed to the Second Cousin as appropriate to their station, even as Ming spoke up from beside her, "Clothes-horse here was just complaining about not being able to risk trusting any of her fashion crazed entourage to bring them along." Her delivery was deadpan even as the edges of a smile twitched her lips upward.

"You will not order my friends and entourage around as beasts of burden," retorted Dàilán firmly, "everyone knows how carried away on these shopping trips of yours as the group proceeded out the gate of the Main Compound, with Yue almost physically trying to rush them along faster.

"Nonsense, that is what the men are for," responded her elaborately dressed Cousin, her various silk shawls and bangles fluttering excitedly with her movements. She indicated the Essence carriage that waited just outside the gate, both Heir Ji and Heir Gi standing beside it, "this is going to be so much fun!"

Dàilán exchanged dismayed expressions with Ming and Chenli, noting with a sinking heart that the Bloodwitch seemed to show every sign of agreeing with the other women as they darted ahead as a group with Yue.

"Your peddler better be worth this, Third," remarked Ming with a distinct irritation leaking into her tone.

"You are not wrong," agreed Dàilán and Chenli snorted.

"Move it, you three tomboys," ordered Yue waving them over imperiously next to the carriage, "Stop dragging your feet. You are wasting Crow-light!"