The Truth

In the end, it took over two hours for Hua Yan to bathe all the mud off of her and care for her wounds. When she exited the room Youmei had allotted for her and entered the place where they had met with Youmei herself, Daiyu was already waiting for her, eating the very meat skewers Hua Yan had been coveting earlier.

"Yer fwind ish nishe," he said through a mouthful of meat. "She gwave me money to buy vese."

It took a moment for her to translate what Daiyu had meant. "Your manners are appalling. I don't know how you're going to get married."

He glared at her and tried to retort, but choked on the meat and began to pound his chest, coughing. Hua Yan handed him a cup of water, muttering just loud enough for him to hear, "I wish I could let you choke to death."

He swallowed the contents of his mouth and scowled at her through watering eyes. "The feeling is mutual."

Hua Yan raised an eyebrow. "How could it be mutual? I'm not ill-mannered enough to stuff so much food into my mouth that I choke." She sat down across from him and took a delicate bite out of a meat skewer.

Youmei entered the room just as she spoke, witnessing the murderous stare Daiyu was sending her, and gave Hua Yan an amused glance. Hua Yan looked away guiltily, memories of being so hungry as a child that she choked on her food flashing through her mind. Still, at least she no longer did such things. The Fox was an adult and should know better. But perhaps he just didn't care.

It seemed that Daiyu had been too occupied with the meat skewers and subsequent near-death experience to really look at her. He stared for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. "I see you're wearing more...socially acceptable clothes. Trying to blend in?"

Hua Yan glanced down at her feminine, traditional dress with the familiar sleeves that nearly covered her hands and the silken skirt that fastened above the chest. "Considering that only female martial artists wear clothes more commonly worn by males, I would assume that wearing these clothes would perhaps make passersby think that I was either an ordinary mortal or a female cultivator. So the short answer is yes, I am trying to blend in."

She prepared herself tea gracefully, her every movement conveying a sense of nobility, as if she had grown up doing it. Daiyu followed her actions with his eyes, and she noticed that he was unconsciously straightening up and taking smaller bites. It was likely that he was following her lead in beginning to blend in, though she noticed that his gaze lingered on her scarlet hair.

"I'll use dye to cover up the color of my hair before we leave, Huli."

He sniffed. "What does that have to do with me? If you want to go waltzing around with red hair, do whatever you want."

Hua Yan wanted to throw a meat skewer at him, but restrained herself when Youmei began to laugh. The Hong Hua madam leaned against a table elegantly, smiling behind the fan she was fluttering. "Should I call this a match made in heaven, or hell?" Youmei mused.

"Neither," Daiyu snapped, and he and Hua Yan glared daggers at one another. "Don't put us together when it comes to anything at all. We can't stand each other."

"Hmmm," Youmei hummed, her sharp, sly eyes flicking between them. Lowering her fan, she smiled. "Whatever you wish, handsome. Now, I'd love to let you two stay here longer, but I imagine Min Ling will soon find you here. She knows where you might go if you were on the run, and I'd rather not face a blood cultivator. My martial arts may be powerful, but since I've never been able to cultivate, I won't be able to beat her. As such, you should leave before she arrives so I can act as if you told me nothing and only asked for supplies."

Hua Yan frowned, concerned. "If you admit that we came here, Youmei jie jie, Min Ling will probably kill you. She's gone completely and utterly mad. She's no longer the half-drowned little girl that we rescued from the flood seven years ago."

Daiyu snorted a laugh. "Youmei jie jie? *You* are willing to call someone else big sister?"

Hua Yan turned a baleful glare on him, but he just grinned over the rim of his tea cup, his golden eyes crinkling up into half moons. Shaking her head, Hua Yan turned back to her sworn elder sister. The young madam was caressing an object around her neck beneath her clothes, her expression considering.

Suddenly there was an enormous crash from downstairs, and Hua Yan could hear the shrieks and panicked screams of the customers and employees of Hong Hua. Leaping to her feet, Hua Yan snatched the bottle of brown dye she hadn't had the chance to use and tucked it into her clothes. Daiyu threw open the shutters on the window that faced the back of the establishment, and Hua Yan tried to tug Youmei with them.

"Come on, jie jie, we have to go, now. Min Ling and Gao Tai must have already found our trail and caught up with us."

Youmei met Hua Yan's eyes, and the determination and ferocity in them startled her. Youmei gently pulled her sleeve out of Hua Yan's grasp. "I won't be going with you, Little Yan. I can't abandon my people, and you need me to cover your tracks. If I leave with you now, Min Ling and her accomplices will slaughter everyone here. By staying, there's a chance that I can convince them that we know nothing more than that you passed through here."

Hua Yan shook her head again, embarrassed to find tears burning at her eyes. "Jie jie, no! I..."

Youmei shoved her into Daiyu's arms, and he hauled her to the window. Though she could have broken his grasp if she really wanted, Youmei put something into her hand. "I'm sorry I hid this from you for so long, Little Yan. This was around your neck, the first time I met you. I knew what it meant, as young as I was, so I took it from you to hide you from the master we were forced to serve so long ago. Take it, and find your destiny."

Daiyu leapt out the window, dragging Hua Yan with him, and set her on her feet as soon as he landed lightly on the ground below. Hua Yan put her hand and fist together, still clutching whatever Youmei had given her, and bowed to Youmei, who looked down at them from above. "I pray that you will have good luck, Youmei Jie jie. May the Dragon God and his Phoenix Queen be with you."

Youmei's voice trailed after them like a gentle breeze as they melted into the shadows. "And may he be with the two of you as well. Take care of each other. I hope we will meet again."

Hua Yan felt tears streaming down her face and anger burning in her heart. Min Ling and her lover were taking everything she cared about from her, and there was nothing Hua Yan could do about it. This time, it was Hua Yan's own fault that Youmei was going to die. If she hadn't come, Min Ling would not have either.

The two assassins disappeared into the night as if they had never been, the acrid smell of smoke and the more metallic scent of blood following them on their path. The Hong Hua courtesan house burned to the ground in a sea of flames, and the last anyone had heard, its madam was still inside.