World's End Gate was as forbidding a door as Reyn had ever seen. The spellwrought stone edifice was at least twenty paces high and nine thick, covered in carved script in the calligraphic characters of the Tongue of Jade, and lit by glowing red torches that appeared to be neither gaslight or etherlight.

Just reaching the gateway had required traveling a league over an ancient highway carved into the slope of the Li Lung Mountains, then by torchlight through a broad passage tunneling at a downward grade through the stone. The gate itself sat at the tunnel's far end, near to where the sunlight from the other side became visible.

Riding in near complete darkness through the tunnel, Reyn had almost felt as if she were descending into Hell rather than a foreign empire. Seeing natural light ahead helped push those irrational fears aside.

High atop the gateway, from a gatehouse roofed in clay tiles, soldiers in pale brown coats and billed caps called down to the Espallans in the Tongue of Jade. Reyn could see little of them in the red torchlight, but she believed the men were unarmored. Strange for guardsmen. Additionally, they carried weapons that must have been a sort of spear. The hafts were irregularly shaped, and there were iron fixtures along the weapons' length that Reyn couldn't identify a purpose for.

Once Ku Ji Min made herself known to the guards, they wasted no time to calling down to others below. Within moments, the massive doorway of World's End Gate swung outward to allow entry into the Jade Empire.

Ji Min dismounted from her camel and went immediately to Hagen, who leapt from his mount to receive her. The executor clasped a fist in her other hand and bowed over it to him, then after a moment's hesitation, launched herself forward to wrap her arms around Hagen's neck.

What Espallese Reyn picked up over the journey wasn't equal to translating the words they exchanged. She could only understand one out of ten words said, but the final ones were clear if just from the manner in which they were spoken.

"Goodbye, Hagen."

"Sun's blessings follow you, imé. Until we meet again."

Ji Min then accepted the farewells of the other three hallah'ha. That which she gave to Lita of the Harkh'alash was, if anything, more tearful and heartfelt than the one she'd given Hagen. The embrace they shared lingered a little longer than one between mere colleagues. Reyn raised an eyebrow at that and had no further question as to why Lita and Ji Min were rarely seen without the other present.

"Guess they're not coming in with us," Josy observed from Reyn's side.

Reyn nodded. "From what I gather, the Espallans consider themselves unworthy of passing through the gate and refuse all invitations to enter."

Josy pursed her lips and got off her camel. "That means we're walking from here on in."

"I suppose so," Reyn agreed. She called for the Aleesh delegation to follow suit. Once supplies and belongings were transferred from saddlebags to packs, a few of the armsmen saw to returning the camels to the Espallans.

Reyn bade Lazza farewell, and the camel was reluctant to be pulled away. Sighing, Reyn stroked the dratted slobber monster's face. "I think we have tormented one another quite long enough, do you not agree?"

Lazza crooned one of her guttural noises. It had a mournful quality.

Reyn smiled and giggled. "Gods, but I cannot stay angry at that face. Farewell, my lady. Provide your masters with as many calves as you are able."

A sniff behind Reyn drew her attention. She turned from petting Lazza one last time and found Mistress Hana standing at her back. The formidable steward managed to wear her Espallan attire as if she were more comfortable in it than she'd ever been in livery.

"I imagine this is where our paths diverge," Reyn said, offering a slight dip of a curtsy.

Hana inclined her head and smiled. "Indeed. Her Majesty was kind enough to offer a generous pension when she accepted my resignation. I believe I will be quite comfortable in my twilight years, and I must say I'm grateful that I may spend them in the land I loved so much as a young woman."

In Reyn's estimates, Hana was fortunate to have escaped hearing charges invoked against her. To her knowledge, Enfri never raised the possibility. The empress was a little miffed over the whole situation, but Reyn guessed that Enfri also understood from where Hana was coming with the choices she'd made.

Hana had a home and a people she'd chosen. Enfri wasn't the sort to hold love against a person.

"You will return to the Amak'talan, then?" Reyn asked.

"My dear husband should already be awaiting us in the holdfast," Hana reported. "I assure you, he left the estate staff with a list of candidates to replace him as groundskeeper."

"The gesture is appreciated, Mistress Hana. I am certain the empress hopes that this will not be the last we see of you."

Hana chuckled. "You needn't lie for my benefit, First Minister. Empress Enfri is a sweet young woman, a dear soul this world could use more of, but I've no delusions that she lived in anything but fear of my meddling. A girl like her, self-sufficient and accustomed to taking care of herself, simply had no need of someone like me."

"I disagree," Reyn said. "Not used to having someone like you, perhaps, but desperately in need of others to help shoulder the burdens she takes on."

"Which is why I'm glad she has you, First Minister," Hana said kindly. "But, who will help you shoulder yours?"

Reyn blinked and didn't have an answer for her.

Hana took Lazza's reins. "Farewell, Minister Reyn. I hope you know, I consider you among the finest handmaidens I've ever had the pleasure of serving with, and I've served with the best."

"Farewell, Mistress Hana. Please ease my mind and wear sun balm outside."

Reyn looked on as Hana laughed and led Lazza away. She then turned to face the road still ahead. On the other side of World's End Gate, rows of imperial soldiers formed ranks along either side of the tunnel. As Ji Min walked through the gate and passed between the soldiers, they all fell to both knees and lowered their faces to press against the ground.

The weight of the moment fell upon Reyn with its full gravity. She looked to either side of the gates, took in a bracing breath, and stepped through into a new land. The rest of the delegation followed as the Espallans rode back towards the desert. Counting Ji Min, their party now numbered seventeen. Seventeen plus one miserable wretch of a prisoner.

"Fell place," Garret hissed under his breath. He was pushed along by two House Yora armsmen who kept tight grips on his arms. His eyes were wild as they darted to and fro about the shadows of the eerily lit tunnel, and his hair was unkempt and greasy from a lack of bathing.

Reyn wondered if she should have ordered him tossed into the lake she'd made that morning if just to clean him up a little and make him less an embarrassment.

Josy's attention was on the prostrated soldiers they passed, particularly on their odd spears. "Oh, that's just weird," she murmured.

"What is?" Reyn asked in a hushed tone.

"A group of soldiers this size, you'd expect to see one or two arcanists. Far as my ethersight says, they're all daanmen. Even the officers."

"Interesting," Reyn whispered. "The People of Jade must have an equivalent to the blood runners, in that case. I wonder if the surrendering of ether is voluntary or compulsory for serving in their legions."

"Couldn't say. Far as I know, the People of Jade don't have legions. Civic guards, but no standing military. Back when Althandor still had an embassy here, the People of Jade were said to be fanatically pacifistic."

"That was over a hundred years ago," Reyn pointed out. "Things may have changed."

"Maybe," Josy allowed, "but I had to study those old treaties when I was getting tutored. Didn't seem like the sort of culture that can change easily. They're all about tradition here. Tradition and an absolute reverence of their emperor. He's something like a god to them."

Reyn gave a small nod. "That is in line with what we have observed thus far. The executor has on multiple occasions referred to the Glorious Emperor's word as infallible."

"All mortals are fallible," Josy growled. "That just means they think her father isn't human."

"More than human," Reyn corrected.

Josy had a bitter twist in her lip. "She doesn't think much of us, does she?" she asked, nodding in indication towards Ji Min's back.

Reyn shook her head. Certainly, the executor was exceedingly polite each time they'd spoken throughout the journey. Yet, there was an underlying tone of condescension to those exchanges. Ji Min explained basic concepts as if she were informing a child, as if she assumed those from the east to be uneducated.

"It is clear she believes we have no concept of their god emperor," Reyn said. "I believe that much can be excused. Althandor does not exactly have a pristine record where knowledge of history is concerned, so it is understandable if she thinks easterners to be ignorant of past dealings with her empire. However, I cannot abide being talked down to over arcane matters by a witch of her... limited... capability."

Josy chuckled. "That gets under your skin, eh?"

"Like a woodland tick," Reyn agreed.

Ahead, a group of workers readied a small procession of horse-drawn carriages. The men wore long brown robes cinched at the waist by broad sashes. Their heads were shaved bald, and they wore no manner of head covering. Both they and the soldiers were of middling height and build. Those with hair wore it short, and it was black. Eyes were tilted and narrow, predominantly dark in color, with an epicanthic fold.

Their general appearance lent credence to the claim that the People of Jade and the Althandi shared a common heritage not so far in the distant past.

Reyn looked over them all twice to be certain, but she noticed a detail that caused her to furrow her brow. Less something she saw as what she didn't see. There were no women among the soldiers, which Reyn found a little strange. In most groups of soldiers she'd seen in her time, it was common to find at least one woman for every five men, and the Altieri often had one for every three. Of course, demographics changed from one company to the next, but it strained credibility that a posting the size of World's End Gate would have no female soldiers whatsoever.

Reyn looked ahead and put the question out of her mind. It was likely just the way the cards fell. She had more immediate concerns, such as the carriages awaiting them ahead. As the delegation neared, Reyn saw that the lead carriage had no horses. It was steam powered.

Josy grunted in surprise. "Hold on, that's an Althandi boiler."

Ahead of them, Ji Min turned her veiled head to face them. "Yes. Eastern technology is a curiosity to the People of Jade. Often, our artificers utilize that which we confiscate from trespassers taken by Our Most Revered Defenders."

"Do you not have your own?" Reyn asked.

Ji Min shook her head. "I am afraid the Jade Empire lags behind the far east in terms of powered locomotion. We have artificers, and they work tirelessly to replicate eastern steam engines, but their attempts have historically proven inadequate. Fortunately for Our Glorious Emperor's ambitions, there is seldom a lack of trespassers to be divested of their conveyances."

"Such as Lord Darian," Reyn surmised.

"He and others," Ji Min said. "On average, I believe approximately twenty-seven trespassers are apprehended within the Espalla Dunes each year. Many come with steam carriages."

Reyn frowned. The executor's Althandi had improved by leaps and bounds over the journey. When asked, she claimed to have found that Althandi shared common words and grammar with Espallese, which she had grown proficient in over her tenure as the eastern executor. If that was true, Reyn hadn't noticed it.

Other than a thick accent that tended to stumble over compound consonants and L's in particular, Ji Min had no issue with making herself understood. Her vocabulary was impressive, also. Reyn's own efforts into learning new languages had so far proven unequal to Ji Min's.

I've been trying to learn two, Reyn told herself. I should have focused on just the Tongue of Jade.

As they approached the carriages, Lord Vash Tryson of Temradel came to walk beside Reyn and offered her the notes he'd accumulated thus far for the diplomatic codex he was developing. Reyn pulled her spectacles from a vest pocket and set them over her eyes as she looked over the pages and listened to Lord Vash's latest suppositions on Tongue of Jade grammar.

Vash was exceedingly tall, nearing seven feet, and in his mid to late thirties. His face was narrow and angular with a pointed chin, as Dellish a face as Reyn had ever seen. Vash had a fighter's build and walked as if the sword on his hip was a part of him. Since Vash was a wizard with commendable acumen, Reyn predicted it wouldn't be long before he entered Pacifica's command as a Diamond Knight.

Other than Vash, the noble delegates included Lord Haldi Drunov, a distant cousin of Ecclesia's queen, who had a background in mediation; Ymira Shrajevska, a song knight from a young Altieri house and in direct command of the armsmen; and finally, Lady Huunaa Thaan, Dragon Lord Thaan's daughter-in-law and an expert in ley line cartography and translocational theory.

Ten of House Yora's armsmen provided security for the nobles. The soldiers were all either Altieri or Protectorites and none the worse for wear after the long trek through the Espalla Dunes. Regardless, Reyn imagined they were all grateful to finally be out of the sun. Two Amethyst aviators were in charge of Garret, and the rest were from Pacifica and Adar's crew who survived the Battle of Moran Valley. Reyn had flown with them on several occasions and felt familiar enough with them to be comfortable.

The bald workers bowed as the Aleesh delegation was directed into the carriages. Ji Min was guided towards the single steam carriage by the bald men, and they offered obsequious bows as they conducted her along. Interpreting the way they made sweeping gestures towards Reyn, she assumed they wanted her to board the same carriage as the executor.

"I'll stay with the scumbag, Legs," Josy said. Her eyes darted about her. "And... am I the only one getting an off feeling here? They're not looking at us, but I still feel the itch on my back like there's eyes on me."

"Their attention, surely," Lord Vash offered. "We have it from the magocracy's old records, my lady, that the People of Jade are exceedingly mindful of whose eyes they allow themselves to meet."

Reyn gave Josy a warning look. "That means no stare downs, my lady."

Josy snorted and rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. Just remember, I'm not an Algara unless they ask."

As Josy went to the carriage used by Garret and his guards, Lord Vash bent to speak softly in Reyn's ear. His eyes narrowed as he watched Josy go. "Was it wise for the empress to send the duchess?"

Reyn was tempted to give voice to her own concerns, but she remembered her place in the delegation. As the first minister, she was the voice of the Dragon Empress, and it was her duty to carry out her wishes. "Duchess Josenthorne has a vested interest in preventing Master Deveaux's escape, and it is preferable to have her away from where the Highest King's eyes may find her."

"Respectfully, First Minister, that isn't what concerns me. I worry more about her... rambunctiousness."

In that, Lord Vash had Reyn's wholehearted agreement. She could only hope that Josy wouldn't make herself a liability in the Glorious Emperor's court.

"Furthermore, her attire." Vash shook his head. "If we are to judge from the executor's garb, they skew heavily towards the conservative here in matters of clothing."

"I trust she will behave," Reyn said. "Now, we must not keep the emperor waiting."

"As you say, Minister." Vash bowed his head to her and joined Lady Huunaa in a carriage.

Reyn allowed the bald attendants to usher her towards the steam carriage. She climbed in and raised an eyebrow at how none of the men offered her a hand to assist.

The carriage interior was more opulent than expected. It was rich enough to make a Nadian blush. The dark wood fixtures were embossed in delicate design inlaid with gold, and gemstones glittered within platinum settings. Among the finery, one thing stood out to Reyn, and that was how the upholstery was done in white silk, finer and smoother than any she'd ever seen.

"I was told the Jade Empire does not have megarachs," Reyn said as she settled into her seat.

Across from her, Ji Min held a hand to her breast as if the mere memory of megarachs got her heart racing. "You are correct, First Minister."

"From where then do you get silk?"

"From worms," she said as if it were obvious.

Reyn hoped that was said in error. Worms? The Jade Empire had giant worms, and she was afraid of megarachs? Cultural differences, indeed.

As the steam carriage started forward, Reyn was disappointed at the lack of windows. The only glimpse of outside came through a small opening with a sliding cover, and that was no more than two fingers wide. Barely a peephole. Reyn would have liked a better view as the line of carriages exited the tunnel.

She looked to Ji Min, who gestured to the sorry excuse for a window. Reyn took it as leave and slid the cover aside to peer out.

Remarkable. Reyn had almost forgotten what plants looked like. Thick, leafy bushes lined the highway they drove over, and beyond those were great fields of tall grass. Reyn could hear the roar of a nearby waterfall pouring down the side of the mountain, and the horizon was dotted by thin curls of white smoke rising from distant villages. So many, in fact, that Reyn was momentarily stunned by the number of people those signs of civilization would account for.

"If I may ask, how many people live within the Jade Empire?"

Ji Min took in a breath as she thought it over. "I am afraid I have not learned the word for this number. One hundred multiplied by one hundred three times."

Reyn blinked. "One hundred million?"

"Yes, this is the number. Forgive me. One hundred million multiplied by four decimal seven. By the previous census."

Returning to the opening to hide her poleaxed expression, Reyn searched out a glimpse of these villages. A population of four hundred and seventy million... It defied comprehension. That was more than three times the population of all the Five Kingdoms put together. She'd seen the old maps of the Jade Empire, and it didn't have much more land than Gaulatia. To house a host of that size, the People of Jade must have been packed into their sheltered land like sardines.

Reyn did the calculations in her head. Perhaps it wasn't quite so dire, but even so, it was difficult to get her head around there being so many of them. How in the world did they feed themselves and have enough left over to give to the Espallans?

Before she knew it, the carriage was hit by a deluge of voices. Between one moment and the next, separated by the light darkening as the carriage passed through a wooden gate, they left the fields and entered into a bustling town.

Reyn knew she was gaping like a fool, but she couldn't be bothered to care.

As expected, the packed dirt streets of the town were crowded with people. Reyn thought it a marvel that the carriage didn't have to slow its pace as it barreled through. Without exception, the voices she'd heard a moment before all fell silent at their passing, and everyone she saw fell to their knees on the side of the road and pressed their foreheads into the dirt.

"It is unnecessary for them to do so," Ji Min said, not having to look to know what Reyn was witnessing. "They believe Our Glorious Emperor to be within this carriage. The same glory is not due to his executor."

Reyn nodded absently. She tried to pick out details as best she could through the small opening.

People wore loose garments. Strange, long shirts that opened in the front like robes and were tied with sashes, calf-length trousers, and wooden sandals appeared most common. Men kept their heads uncovered for the most part, though many wore conical hats with tassels or veils hanging from the wide brims. There were far less women in evidence, and they were easily spotted in their long and colorful robes. Women kept their heads and faces covered with veiled headdresses, and they moved stiffly as if someone had forged their spines out of tentpoles.

Looking past the people to the structures, they were uniformly made of whitewashed wooden planks. The roofs had broad and sweeping eaves similar to Altieri architecture, though they were tiled with light clay rather than dark slate. Each structure was built upon a raised foundation of packed earth with stone steps up to sliding doorways like the ones found in rural Althandor.

Reyn couldn't help but furrow her brow at it all. It was like she'd arrived in an earlier point in history. There were no iron lampposts, gaslight or otherwise. It seemed the town would be lit by wood-burning braziers hanging from the eaves come nightfall. The road was bare dirt rather than cobblestone. What distressed Reyn most was the smell. A thick cloud of spices hung in the air to mask what smelled like an open sewer.

Gods, but after seeing World's End Gate, Reyn had begun to expect a land of wonders on the other side, not a place that was as dirty and dated as it was crowded. It appeared she'd overestimated the Jade Empire. They were at least a century behind the Five Kingdoms in terms of infrastructure for the goodfolk. Reyn could only imagine the health concerns if they just tossed waste into the gutter. Even the most remote village in the Altieri hinterlands would maintain a serviceable sewer system.

Reyn was considering how to pose her next question without giving offense when the carriage passed through a second gate, and she was forced to eat her foot. The change was jarring and more than a little disturbing.

Firstly, there was far less of a crowd, though it was still a great many more people than Reyn was used to seeing in one place. In this inner section of the town, men were more finely and more colorfully dressed, though curiously, the women were little changed. In fact, if not for every man wearing those conical hats, it'd be difficult to tell the difference between one gender or another.

The road also improved and became cobblestones set with great care and precision. The buildings were now of masoned stone and beautifully decorated with motifs of strange flying insects with large, spherical eyes and elongated abdomens. The same sort of insect was predominant in the sculptures that appeared on nearly every street corner, often depicted alongside blooming lotus flowers. Lighting fixtures were still hung from eaves, but these were iron and glowed with the same eery light as those from the tunnel.

I recognize those now, Reyn thought in amazement. Electrical lighting! Nataan wrote to Ham about his artificer contact experimenting with electric lights, but she couldn't get them to function for longer than a few minutes.

The people here did not prostrate themselves as they had in the last area, though they stopped what they were doing to give deep bows to the passing carriage. Even the people wading through what looked like— of all things— a garden submerged under half a foot of water.

Reyn tilted her head to look at the oddity as they passed. The best she could tell, they were growing positively enormous flowers. Those flowers had bright orange petals that were about the size of a man's torso, and Reyn started laying down plans to bring a specimen of the plant back to Enfri. If Reyn didn't miss her guess, the empress would faint if she saw something like that.

Then Reyn nearly feinted herself. She blinked three times to make certain she wasn't imagining it. Striding down the lane, with a young man as a handler, was a creature out of myth. It outwardly looked somewhat like a horse, equine face and graceful legs, but it had a neck so long that it could graze from the boughs of a tree. Its dappled hide was something like a leopard's spots, and it had two little knobs for horns on the crown of its head.

"Spirits take me," Reyn whispered. "A kirin?"

"Ah," Ji Min said, sounding delighted, "you share the same word for them as we do. I assumed eastern kirin breeders would use a different one."

Reyn didn't have the heart to tell her that anyone claiming to breed such a creature in the Five Kingdoms would be declared a halfwit or a madman. Gods, but Reyn had just seen one, and she still had trouble believing they were real.

I'm going to pet one, she promised herself. Though, she had a niggling worry that she was setting herself up for disappointment as she'd done with camels.

Her surprise had yet to fade when she caught a glimpse of something else and far more bizarre. The moment in which it passed in and out of her sight again was brief, but Reyn could have sworn she'd seen a massive gray beast with enormous ears, long tusks, and a face that looked like it kept a hose for a snout. Whatever the thing was, Reyn tried to forget that such monsters existed in the world and sat back down in her seat.

"We must be passing the menagerie," Ji Min said once she heard the hose-face's trumpeting cry. "We are not far from the palace."

Settling her nerves, Reyn did her best to keep apprehension out of her words. "What must I expect?"

"This first meeting between yourself and Our Glorious Emperor will be but a formality of acquainting. A proper distance must be maintained between the sexes, so there will be no physical contact."

Reyn blinked. She assumed Ji Min meant that to mean no handshakes or the like, but it sounded an awfully lot like Ji Min thought Reyn would try ravishing the emperor in front of his court if no one stopped her. "Mere introduction, then?"

"Yes. It is my understanding that your armed men are commanded by a woman. Is this so?"

"Lady Ymira of House Shrajevska, yes."

Reyn could almost see Ji Min's mouth working behind her veil, fighting valiantly to attempt forming itself around the consonants of Ymira's surname. The battle was abandoned as she continued. "Unorthodox, yet convenient for matters of protocol. The room will be divided for the segregation of the sexes. I will humbly act as your interpreter for this first meeting, your... commander of armed men... may accompany you."

Reyn's eyes narrowed slightly. "I would prefer to be accompanied by the whole of my delegation. They were chosen specifically for the task."

Ji Min sat straighter. "I am afraid that is impossible," she said. "However... I believe some allowances may be made. Perhaps one more?"

Reyn nodded in thanks. She supposed she should take wins where she could, but she wasn't happy about arbitrary limits being imposed upon her. "Lord Vash Tryson is my primary consultant in..."

The gasp coming out of Ji Min was almost comical. "You would make your introduction while standing beside a... a man?"

"Yes," Reyn said slowly. She resisted the urge to blow out her cheeks. "My lady, I understand there is some... hesitance... within the Jade Empire where it applies to gender relations. However, such matters are seldom considered within Shan Alee. We find little correlation between an individual's ability to perform their duty and which pronouns we use to identify them."

"This is understood, Minister," Ji Min said. "Unfortunately, allowing for your culture's idiosyncrasies is the sole reason Our Glorious Emperor has considered meeting with you at all."

Reyn sat back into her seat at Ji Min's bluntness. "Are you saying... we are handicapped from the onset because the empress sent a woman in her stead."

"It would have been more convenient had she sent a man with only men to accompany. As would be proper."

That could've stood to be mentioned in Vash's records, Reyn thought sourly. She supposed the detail might've been overlooked in Althandor's previous relations with the People of Jade. The Althandi had a tendency to exclude women from high-level dealings.

Suppressing a sigh, Reyn faced the executor. "If that is the case, perhaps Lady Huunaa Thaan, then?"

Ji Min bowed her head in acceptance.

Maddening. This pointless pageantry was absolutely maddening. Reyn didn't see much use in bringing an arcanologist to an introduction, but she'd take any extra pair of eyes and ears she'd be allowed. It was pure, rotten luck that the two diplomats she'd brought with her were both male.

How in the embrace of hellfire did Pacifica stand this silliness? The only consolation Reyn had was that Pacifica would be facing the same difficulties if she'd been chosen as ambassador.

Then again, not all the same difficulties. Reyn cast a furtive look towards Ji Min. "One other matter, my lady."

"Yes?"

"Has the Glorious Emperor been made aware of... me? What I am?"

Ji Min tensed. "He has not."

"Am I to assume it should remain that way?"

At the very least, Ji Min had the decency to look ashamed with the way she bowed her head. Then again, any shame she felt was likely more for hiding information from her father. Rather, her Glorious Emperor. It was clear which aspect of the man Ji Min cared more about.

Well, Reyn supposed she should've forced herself to take more enjoyment from Darian's geocryst while she had the opportunity. It was going to be a long time before she received another.

I was the wrong person to send, Reyn thought.

Nonetheless, the idea that Enfri would've sent her anyway, even had these added complications been known, was hard to dismiss. It was just as inconvenient to have her in the east as in the west. Wherever she went, Reyn would always be a shifter among humans.

I don't belong here.

The carriage rattled to a halt. They could claim to have appropriated steam engines all they wished, but the Jade Empire was clearly inept at operating them with grace. Petty as the notion might've been, Reyn let herself believe it.

Ji Min was the first to exit the carriage. There were more of the bald-headed attendants waiting for them outside, and Reyn was only marginally certain they weren't the same ones as in the tunnel. As before, the attendants scraped about with lowered faces and refused to meet Reyn or Ji Min's eyes. They still offered nothing in the way of polite assistance out of the carriage, though now it was painfully clear to Reyn that it was because men here lived in terror of being polluted by women and vice versa.

Stepping outside, Reyn got her first look at the Glorious Emperor's palace. The sight of it ignited an ember of rage inside her heart.

Massive, was the word. Absolute, even. A testament to everything Reyn had been raised to despise about the Algaras was on full display. The gigantic structure was as opulent as it was vulgar. Gold, alabaster, silver, and marble. It followed similar architectural styles as the fine buildings within the inner city below, but it was built on such a far grander scale that it could never be placed within the same category.

The courtyard was surrounded by yet another gated wall, this one far larger than even World's End Gate. It was a forbidding barrier to the people outside, a clear separation between the world of the emperor and those he ruled over.

Ji Min spoke in the Tongue of Jade without looking at any of the attendants. The bald men dipped their bows deeper, nearly smacking their foreheads against the ground.

Aside from the attendants, the huge courtyard Ji Min and Reyn were deposited in was deserted. After the claustrophobic crowds before, it was such a stark contrast that it nearly made Reyn dizzy.

The People of Jade lived in poverty and squalor, pressed into a space that had no business holding a third of the people it did. A chosen few were allowed to live in grandeur. But this, a palace the size of an entire city reserved for a single, thrice-damned man, was... It was profane. Such disparity between those on top and those below was anathema to every sense of justice Reyn held to be true.

Reyn realized something in that moment. The only reason she'd hated the Algaras all her life was because she hadn't yet known of the Glorious Emperor.

I was, in every way, the wrong choice for this mission, Reyn thought angrily.

Her anger only grew when she saw that just two carriages had followed hers into the empty courtyard, and the attendants emphatically gestured that only Lady Ymira and Lady Huunaa disembark. It appeared that Ji Min had communicated the plan to the bald men.

The executor started walking, and Reyn felt she had little choice but to follow. Ymira and Huunaa fell quickly into step alongside her. Both looked to Reyn in question, but she didn't feel like she had the capacity to give them the answers they wanted at the moment. Her anger was too new for her to properly deal with it.

The small army of bald men, eyes on the ground, trailed behind them.

As Reyn walked, she heard a man's loud and clear voice echo over the courtyard from an unseen source. His volume didn't seem to be due to spellcraft but from the peerless acoustics of the empty expanse of paved ground.

"What is he saying?" Reyn asked, and she did her utmost to keep her personal feelings from coloring her tone.

Ji Min slowed her pace. Hesitation, and... confusion? It was difficult to say for certain with her body language concealed behind her wraith-like robes and veil, but if anything, Ji Min gave off a sense that she'd just been blindsided.

"I..." she began, "I am being welcomed home, and it is being announced that I bring with me..."

Reyn frowned. A stab of fear struck her in the gut. "What do they say of me?"

"By Our Glorious Emperor's infallible word, I bring him his bride, the Dragon Empress."

Reyn stopped short. She looked to Ymira, then to Huunaa. Neither seemed to comprehend this any better than Reyn did. She slowly turned her head to stare at Ji Min's back.

"Excuse me, what?"