Chapter 9- The Difficulties of a Golden Fish

“You are an easy man to find, Censor Henshen.” Liren loomed over the pale man. The Censor was slim, and dressed in a floor length dark blue silk robe. The hems were white, with green circles and stars, decorating them. His bun, Tian noticed, was hidden inside the most useless hat imaginable- it only covered his bun, and appeared to be made out of some manner of black mesh.

The bureaucrat didn’t know how to respond to Hong. Tian sympathized. She could be very strange sometimes.

“Would you say that you are good at your job, Censor Henshen?” Tian asked, smiling. People seemed more at ease when you smiled. Though for some reason, Censor Henshen looked even more tense.

“I would not, Immortal.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“My supervisor examines my performance and he determines if I am good at my job. His evaluation is, naturally, also supervised by the Ministry of Personnel, and they, too, decide if I am good at my job. I really have no say in the matter.”

Tian nodded. “That’s fair.”

Liren rolled her eyes. “The Magistrate and Prefect for Leaping Arrowena Town on the Pebble River both fled their posts on the day when the Liu Clan Village was exterminated. Why?”

“A village was exterminated?!” Censor Henshan’s voice shot up, and he already had a pretty high pitched voice.

“Yes. And not for the first time recently. In addition, quite a large number of children have been kidnapped and killed. You can understand why we immediately came to find you. Who knows what’s going on better than the Censor?” Tian kept his voice as even as he could. Liren could be scary. It helped to have a calm person around for people to talk to.

“A village was exterminated?!”

“Hush, Little Treasure. The Immortals are investigating. Though… Ping. Quickly. Report to my Lord Husband.”

“At once, Madame!” A soldier cupped his hands, bowed, and ran off.

Part of the reason for Censor Hashan’s massive discomfort was that the two investigating Immortals were accompanied by the Heir to the County, The Countess, several maids and an even score of elite guards. Nominally, the Censor was untouchable. Practically, the Emperor was far away, and the Count was right here.

The story, depressing as it was, quickly emerged. The censor was unaware of any villages being destroyed. He was aware of several local prefects and magistrates fleeing their posts. He had filed several reports on the subject, and was in the process of drafting another. He did not know where the Magistrate or the Prefect were. All the other fleeing officials had made their way towards the capital, but none had reached it yet.

“And the children?” Liren asked.

“Repsectfully, Immortal, if it’s not related to the census or the registry of households or taxation, or military levies or corvee labor or some other official state function, why would we pay attention to the number of children in a household? It is quite normal for children to die. In some regions, they don’t even get names until they are a hundred days old.” Censor Hanshen spread his hands helplessly. “It’s not like each birth or death is registered with the Kingdom. Just the tax paying household.”

“Burning kids in iron cages to make ink to write petitions impeaching the Emperor doesn’t rate Imperial attention?” Liren’s voice was pointed. Downright threatening, in Tian’s opinion.

“Wait. Petitions impeaching the Emperor?” The censor went from alarmed but controlling it, to alarmed and highly focused immediately. “Are you absolutely certain about that?”

“Yes.” Tian showed the recovered evidence from the bandit camp.

The Censor’s eyes flickered back and forth. He looked around his office for a moment. Tian followed his eyes. It was quite luxurious. Rich, polished woods, lacquered tables and trays, a tasteful carved jade screen of a fisherman on a rushing river rested on top of a full bookshelf, some vases that practically screamed antique- very nice indeed, if a little small. Not bad for someone who looked roughly as old as Brother Wang, or maybe a little older.

“In the course of a long life, one must expect to abandon one’s luggage several times.” Censor Hanshen quickly stepped over to a safe and pulled out a heavy canvas sack. He had to pick it up with a grunt. Tian could hear muffled clinking from inside of it. Comparatively, the waxed parcel holding papers looked much lighter. Tian was rather surprised to see the censor depositing it in an iron bowl, lighting a corner of the package, and carefully ensuring the whole thing burned.

Once these matters were taken care of, Censor Hanshen turned back to the utterly confused Tian and Hong. He pulled out a golden fish-shaped token. On one side were the words “Imperial Censorate.” On the other were stamped “Immortal Beseeching Token.”

The letters were filled with a brilliant, sparkling inlay. Tian could feel the faint whiff of pure qi coming off them. At a guess, someone powdered a spirit crystal and used it to make the token.

“By the Laws of the Broad Sky Kingdom, in conformance with the command of the Golden Palace and bearing the imprimatur of the Immortal Sect Ancient Crane Monastery, I, Censor Sixth Grade Lower Division Hanshen Mu beseech the Immortals to assist in defending the Kingdom against an immediate and fundamental threat. I ask that you convey this Official to the Capital with all reasonable haste, and allow him to present the evidence you have recovered of the heretical impeachment.”

The Censor hesitated, then pressed on. “And the attack on Bluestone City, if it might be relevant. But the impeachment is the important thing. Please.” The Censor bowed and held the fish token out in front of him with both hands.

Tian’s face twitched. He was trying to figure things out at speed, but his mind remained stubbornly blank.

“Sister Liren?”

“Never heard of it before. It’s not in your history books?”

“They seem to make a point of avoiding mentioning immortals. Which, now that I think about it, is almost certainly a programme overseen by the Censorate.”

The Censor didn’t move, remaining bowed at ninety degrees, fish token extended.

Tian leaned close to Hong. “This sounds like a massive pain and more mortal crap than I want to deal with. Do we want to just slip away? Maybe pass it off to someone at the local temple?”

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Liren shook her head. “No. Because I want to get to the bottom of this. You said it doesn’t have to be our problem, but I want to make it our problem. Kids burned to death in cages, Brother Zihao! Burned to death in damned iron cages! And then a city-scale attack, pillar families, vanishing imperial officials? This is something very big. And I want to get to the bottom of it, and kill everyone responsible.”

Tian controlled the urge to rub his forehead. The Censor was still bowed. He didn’t look like he was straining to hold the position either. Skinny guy, but he must be stronger than he looked.

“West Town is… not exactly on the way to the Capital, but not too much of a detour, right?” Tian tried to remember the map of the kingdom he had sneaked a look at. It was surprisingly hard to get a hold of. Maps were tightly controlled military information. Roads had direction and distance markers. What else did travelers need to know?

“A few days out of the way if we move fast. A week at our normal speed. Not bad.”