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<Heh, you already getting practice in, huh?> Sixiang laughed.

No reason not to, Ling Qi thought. Qi circulated in the threads of her dress and through the wind, and before her feet could touch the treetops, she was flying.

Her flight took her down into the valley proper again, descending onto the growing web of streets and robes. With the time passed, she should arrive in time for her next stop, introducing Gan Guangli to Luo Jie, the representative from that clan. Gan Guangli himself should have come from finishing his own early meetings and… There.

Gan Guangli stood outside the tangled walls of the Luo compound. They were odd. From above, the layout of the building being constructed was standard imperial design, but the materials were unusual. The walls were a fence of trees, convinced or grown into a tight double row, connected by thick rope like one would see binding the gates of a temple shrine.

Inside, where the garden should have been was instead a kennel full of lounging hounds.

Gan Guangli awaited her a short distance down the path from the gate. His shining white armor stood out heavily among the more natural colors of the valley. He inclined his head as she landed beside him with the sound of rustling cloth.

“Miss Ling, just in time.”

“Am I? I thought I might be a bit late,” Ling Qi admitted.

“My own words with Lady Jia may have run a little long.”

“Good reasons?” Ling Qi asked as they began to walk.

“Positive results, but let us leave that discussion for tonight,” he said as they approached the gate and its guards

Ling Qi nodded once and introduced them at the gate, leaving one of the guards to confirm their appointment. They were soon conveyed inside. The inside of the compound was loud with barks and growls and the pants of beasts. It was surprising how little smell there was. The dogs were all very clean.

Of course, what actually caught her attention was the subtle threads of qi which connected all of them. At first, she thought it was merely a pack connection, but no, all of the threads wound together, reaching into the compound where they were being taken.

She was unsurprised to find that they were swiftly led to the source.

She had met Luo Jie only once at her first year’s tournament when she had offered formal greetings from the Cai. He had not changed much. He was a thin old man with a bald head and drooping gray mustache with many wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. His eyes were the pale amber of a wolf’s, and he was dressed in a belted tunic of gray and green.

He awaited them in the center of the compound out under the sun where he stood with his back to them, running a comb through the fur of an immense hound as large as Zhengui at his biggest. Even lying down and curled up, the beast filled half of the grassy field at the center of the manor. The dog’s fur was a dark slate gray like the clouds before a downpour, and as they entered, one giant eye opened to peer at them.

“Be welcome in my home, transient as it might be,” Luo Jie said shortly, not turning from his task. He pulled the comb back and shook it out, and a young servant waiting nearby with a basket caught the shed hairs drifting down. The basket was already half full.

“Sir Luo, it is good to meet you again,” Ling Qi said. “I am pleased to see you in good health and humor.”

Here, he finally half-turned to look back at them. He dropped the comb into the hand of another servant. “A single year’s cycle may change much. It is easy to forget this with age.”

He turned fully to face them, and Ling Qi remained in her bow as did Gan Guangli behind her. “Much changes. Your advice was helpful, Sir Luo.”

Even if reality were more complicated than he had implied to her all that time ago, she had kept an open mind.

He pressed his lips together in a thin line. “Curious, the roads that simple words may inspire. I certainly cannot call you or your lady rigid. Who is your companion?”

“This is Baron Gan Guangli, my peer in Lady Cai’s service. If it pleases you, he will be your immediate liaison to our team,” Ling Qi said, straightening up at the elderly Luo’s gesture.

“It is my pleasure to meet you, honored sir. Please allow me to express my admiration towards your contributions during the barbarian incursions in the last days of the Hui’s rule,” Gan Guangli said, straightening up himself, though his head remained bowed.

“Old stories, old work. But you show diligence in sniffing them out.” Luo Jie snorted. “This arrangement is acceptable.”

Ling Qi began, “Thank you for your understanding—”

“I will get this out of the way. We will want any words on paper guaranteed,” Leo Jie interrupted bluntly. “I know the power of words, ideas, and dreams. My kin are more worldly.”

“Did you have some particular demand?” Gan Guangli asked cautiously.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The old man crossed his arms. “Not yet. I’ve not seen enough. Traditionally, marriages or hostages or other guarantees of blood or people against treachery. I do not know how this would be shaped here.”

Well, that certainly wouldn’t get the imperial faction up in a dander. Not at all. Perhaps something could be arranged with the foreign quarter idea, but…

Ling Qi glanced at Gan Guangli and took a step back. She couldn’t shoulder everything herself. They could pass around ideas tonight when they were all together. She wouldn’t undermine him here.