The parties had all gathered—backroom meetings met, deals struck, schemes plotted. Everything was in order, and even if Yoshika were of a mind to procrastinate—and she was not—the assembly of the summit could not be forestalled any longer. It was time.

  There was a certain element of ceremony to it. The grand hall of the Great Spiritual Flowing Purewater sect was their finest room, where feasts, meetings, and audiences were held. It had a high ceiling, wide open space, decadent ornamentation, and an open-air balcony behind the great waterfall that flowed endlessly from the eponymous spring at the summit of the Purewater Peak. The waterfall made little noise so close to the peak, and flowed so smoothly that one could peer past the crystal clear waters and get a magnified view of the village below, the gorgeous landscape of Qin beyond, or even the stars above on certain nights.

  It also had more than a dozen entrances. A calculated bit of construction that allowed guests and visitors to gather in the various antechambers to await being heralded without having to mingle with each other before any grand meetings were ready. It also meant that nobody could be offended about who was being let in before or after them until they’d already been brought in.

  As Yue’s mother might say, everything had a meaning. Or perhaps it was better to say that in the politics of Qin, everything was given a meaning, whether it was intended to or not. If you didn’t consider every detail, then your counterparts would, and it was better to own an unintentional slight than to be seen as ignorant.

  No matter how many times Yoshika experienced it, no matter how much she drilled her etiquette with Yue, she always found it boring and tiresome. An entire nation of empaths whose culture focused on suppressing their own emotions and ignoring others’. However, she was present as a guest, so she could do her best to be polite. Besides—she’d apparently invited someone with even less patience for Qin’s idiosyncrasies than even her.

  The first to arrive within the Grand Hall were, appropriately, the hosts. It could be argued that as it was their demesne, they were there all along to prepare the venue. In practice, Yoshika was the one hosting the summit, but she deferred to the Flowing Purewater’s grandmasters on how to properly organize the function.

  Thus, since the hosts didn’t count—obviously—the first to arrive within the Grand Hall were, appropriately, the royals. The imperial clan of Qin entered silently, as their hosts bowed and allowed them to choose their own seats. Qin Yongliang, the first prince of Qin, heir-apparent to the immortal god-emperor, and prime minister of imperial law sat at the head of the table. His older sisters, the twin princesses and wardens of the imperial harem, Qin Ling and Qin Xiang, sat on either side of him. Elder Qin Zhao, their nephew, part of the third generation which was so numerous that they had no special privileges or titles whatsoever, sat on their left at a small remove.

  It was, by Yoshika’s understanding, a mark of honor that the imperial clan even deigned to acknowledge Qin Zhao as one of their members, but his position made it clear that he did not have the authority of the others.

  The hosts then sat on the right side, in deference to their rights as the rulers of the land, above all but the emperor and his representatives. This too was calculated. The Flowing Purewater on one side, the imperial family—even if it was just a lesser member like Qin Zhao—on the other. Both were meant to be neutral parties, but everyone knew there was no such thing as neutral and it drew a clear line. Jiaguo’s sympathizers on one side, and imperial loyalists on the other. Nevermind the fact that Yoshika was a personal disciple of Qin Zhao—he was there not as himself, but as a symbol.

  Next were the representatives of the great sects, starting with the first among them—the Great Awakening Dragon. And it was here that things started to become interesting—for a given definition of the word. Yan Yue led the Awakening Dragon’s delegates, and pointedly took her seat on the right side of the table, right next to Lin Xiulan. Yan Ren and Yan Hao, sworn brothers of Yan De, and Yue’s ‘uncles’ by virtue of that pact, sat opposed to her. Long Chunhua, her mother, hesitated—performatively—before choosing to sit with her daughter, much to the consternation of Yan Hao. If Ren was perturbed by the choice, he didn’t show any sign of it.

  Sun Quan and Qian Shi entered soon after, and caused another minor upset when the grandmaster of the Great Austere Mountain sect placed himself opposite to the rest who’d marched against Jiaguo. Though nobody said a word about it, Sun Quan’s glare of disapproval was as loud as anything in the politely subdued company.

  It was at this point that the first proverbial wrench jammed itself into the gears of Qin’s well-oiled political machine. Everything up to that point—Qin Zhao forced to sit opposed to his own disciples, Yue leading the Awakening Dragon despite her disputed position, Qian Shi taking the side of the ones he’d led an army against—all of that was within, if not expectations, then at least the unwritten rules of the game they all played.

  Long Xiaofan striding into the room without being heralded, ignoring the servants begging her to wait, giving little more than a faint nod of recognition to the royal clan, then wedging herself between Grandmaster Qian Shi and her descendents—forcing the man to shift over—was not. That they’d even managed to arrange for her to arrive in the planned order was a miracle that Lin Xiulan had only managed after being forewarned of the dragon’s disdain for political maneuvering in advance.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  A small hiccup, but it did not go unnoticed by the gathering of Qin’s people. Long Xiaofan was a dragon, yes—a legendary being of incredible power, the greatest of the fiends. She was also an outsider, and potentially a troublemaker. The prince and princesses knew her, and though Yoshika could not sense anything in Yongliang’s aura that he did not want her to, the princesses were disturbed.

  After all, she was here on the invitation of another outsider. One who was definitely a troublemaker, and the entire reason for this very gathering. Last, but not least, it was Yoshika’s turn to enter.

  “Empress Yoshika of Jiaguo, Queen of Goryeo, Overlord of Yamato, and Unifier of the Southern Frontier.”

  She smiled sardonically as she was announced—apparently Zheng Long’s fanciful introduction was not something he’d made up on the spot, but rather overheard. Yoshika had no idea where it had come from, but apparently it was known to everyone but her. It was a grandiose introduction for someone who was nominally here to surrender, but there wasn’t a single person present who thought it would be so simple.

  Yoshika strode into the room with her head held high. Not as Kaede or Jia, as she had been in all the meetings leading up to the summit, nor even in a projection representing her spirit form. She joined the assembly with her true body, the shapeshifting chimera that represented her in totality—both as the fusion of all her aspects, and as each distinct person that made up her collective. Few, even among her closest friends, had ever seen her true body and even then only rarely outside of her soul realm.

  The first time she’d been here, to petition the great sects of Qin to form a coalition to push back the demonic enclave that had invaded the former academy—now Jiaguo City—and seek out the Sovereign’s Tomb, she’d been alone. Not in the literal sense—her friends had followed her, and she had the support of nations behind her—but she had been little more than a small stone in the river of fate. She’d pushed, and the world moved around her, but it carried on as it ever had afterwards.

  This time, she was the river, and she did not appear before the gathered factions as a small part of one, meekly petitioning those greater for their cooperation. Behind her, Yoshika was joined by an entire faction of her own—representatives of the empire she’d built over the course of a decade.

  Seong Min and Ashikaga Sae joined on her left and right as they took their place at the far end of the table, standing on neither side but instead directly opposite the imperial clan. A relatively small showing to represent each of the subject nations of her empire, along with her own capital city. But that was only what those who stopped at the surface would see, and not a single person at the table—not even Long Xiaofan—was so inept.

  Without a single word spoken at the gathering of the summit, major blows had already been struck. A fierce battle that was much more quiet, yet no less deadly than the war at Kucheon. Indeed, the first casualties had already been suffered.

  Bai Renshu was not present, nor was the Labyrinthine Forest of Unbreakable Threads represented in any way. An incredible snub that could only be seen as a victory for Jiaguo. Their greatest enemies taken from the field before the battle could even be joined.

  She couldn’t take credit for it herself. That had been the work of her advisors—Yan Yue, Seong Min, and Ashikaga Sae, each playing from different angles. In the end, by trying to play every side at once, Bai Renshu had weakened his position enough that with a few concessions to the Austere Mountain—and some rather challenging negotiations that Sae had surprised Yoshika by spearheading—Baishulin Province was recognized as a subsidiary of the Austere Mountain, and thus not important enough to get their own seat at the table.

  The hardest part of that—according to Yue—was convincing the Flowing Purewater to give up their own claims, but their influence had waned, and the territory hadn’t been under their control for a long time. Giving it up secured them a new ally, neutered an enemy, and wasn’t a tangible loss for their allies—even if it did sting their pride.

  That, of course, led a keen observer sitting unobtrusively at Yoshika’s hip and pretending to be little more than a decorative blade—and fooling nobody—to one last inference about the meeting. One thing, more than any other, which truly defined Yoshika, and in Jianmo’s opinion demonstrated a shameful lack of preparation from her so-called opponents.

  To a casual observer, the table was divided into obvious factions. The Heavenly Empire of Qin, the Jiaguo Empire, and the supporters of each between them. To someone paying closer attention, perhaps they saw the subdivisions within each—the Awakening Dragon, the sects that had marched against Jiaguo, the imperial clan itself, and the leadership of Jiaguo.

  Oh, and a dragon. She was a force unto herself, and it would be pure folly to lump her in with any group.

  What Jianmo saw, however, was lines of influence. Connections, friendships, and loyalties clashing across the lines drawn at the negotiating table. And Yoshika? True to her domain as the latent goddess of Unity, she had a connection to each and every single one. Yan Yue was her second, her right hand, and now her betrothed, and she stood at the head of the Awakening Dragon. Lin Xiulan stood with the other grandmasters of the Flowing Purewater, but her home was in Jiaguo, and she’d even fought at Kucheon. Qin Zhao, low-ranking though he may be as a royal, was Yoshika’s mentor. Even among the elders who’d fought against Jiaguo in the war, Qian Shi of the Austere Mountain stood with Yoshika’s allies and sympathizers, and it wasn’t just the concession of Bai’s lands that had moved him over.

  Long Xiaofan, of course, remained a wild card, but she’d granted Yoshika a favor, and dragons took that sort of promise very seriously.

  In short, before the peace talks had even begun, Yoshika had them all right where she wanted them. This was not her petitioning her betters for a truce, nor even a meeting of equals. Empress Yoshika was meeting the powers of Qin as their superior, unless the eponymous emperor himself decided to show up. Until then, they were dancing in the palm of her hand.

  “Your Highnesses, honored elders and grandmasters, friends—thank you all for coming to this summit at such short notice. As I’m sure we’ve all been distressed by the war between Qin and Jiaguo, I’m pleased that we can all join together to seek out an amicable end to the hostilities.”

  And so the first volley of the real battle was loosed. Jianmo just wished they had something to snack on as the drama began to unfold.

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