"SIR LI," RYAN greeted with utmost politeness as they were led into the room. The man was held down with a rope to his chair, kept in the state all throughout their interrogations. After this, Myrina had been informed, he'd be brought back to his cell.

  The baronet said nothing in response to Ryan's greeting, but the Crown Prince didn't seem to be dissuaded as he sat down opposite him. Myrina stood behind him. The guards were all brought out of the room. Myrina was trusted with the task of keeping Ryan safe.

  She wondered where Pandi was. Most likely still in captivity, but hopefully in somewhere more comfortable.

  "Silence will serve you no purpose," Ryan said, smoothing his sleeves. "We have ways to make you talk, you must be familiar with at least some of them."

  The baronet just stared.

  Ryan turned his head slightly to give Myrina a look, and she began to talk. "Your daughter is missing. Do you know where she is?" Sir Li would not start talking about what they want him to. So they'd start with something he'd be more willing to speak about.

  "I care little for that disloyal little girl."

  "Disloyal to what?" Ryan asked humorously, tilting his head. "To you? Yes, I suppose what she's done is not the most xiao, but at least she has not committed treason. Arguably, you are far more disloyal than she has been."

  "Where did she go?"

  That betrayed everything Sir Li had just said immediately. He might care little for Naeva, but she was still his daughter. She was still his only child left. He would not be alright with her out there, somewhere unknown in the world.

  Myrina replied, voice soft, "We don't know. She said she'd left the country. We already searched the docks this morning, couldn't find her."

  "She'd be already gone."

  Myrina nodded. "I think so."

  "Well, I suppose that is better than staying here and being known as the daughter of a traitor." Sir Li let out a scoff. He was in his forties, Myrina recalled, but he looked far older. He'd been that way for a few years, ever since Naeva's older brother had died during the war. She used to feel much pity for him. Naeva's mother had died in childbirth, just like Myrina's own had. His hair was grey, and there were far more wrinkles on his face than he ought to be. He was not very tall when standing, and looked small in his chair.

  "You tried to kill me," Ryan said pleasantly, "multiple times."

  "Twice," Sir Li corrected. "I was given orders."

  "That does not excuse anything," Ryan pointed out.

  Sir Li shrugged. "I was desperate. You're not going to learn anything from me. I'm dead either way."

  "You might as well tell us everything if that is the case," Ryan said with a snort. "Naeva said you were working on behalf of the Meliqueans. Why?"

  "I already told the Emperor and Empress yesterday," Sir Li said, throwing his head back. "I needed money. I don't earn enough from my official salary, and I needed more."

  "What for?"

  "To continue living," Sir Li hissed. "I have to prepare enough money for Naeva's dowry, whenever Admiral Man finally decided to go through with his promise. I need to have enough to maintain Li manor and pay back some of the debts from my father's time. We have been struggling for quite a while, you know this."

  They did know that. But they'd thought the family was managing. Clearly, they'd been wrong.

  "You could have informed us," Ryan pointed out.

  "In which case I'd only have owed you money instead. Ridiculous."

  "Admiral Man could have helped," Myrina said.

  Sir Li shook his head with a bitter laugh. "I would fall on my knees and thank god if he even set a date for the wedding, much less went through with it. He clearly did not want to marry Naeva. He looks down on me and my family. He hides it because of my poor boy, but it's still clear as day. He wants little to do with us."

  "He would still have helped," Ryan told him. "I know Malcolm."

  "We already owe him too much," Sir Li said harshly. "I refuse to ask anymore from him. I have my own pride."

  "So instead, you choose to commit treason." Ryan shook his head. "A poor decision. I would have preferred if you'd decided to become corrupt and accept bribes."

  "And what would people bribe me for?" Sir Li asked, tilting his head. "My position as an official is all but pointless. My grandfather was the one who got the title of baronet, and my father had no advancement within his life. I tried my best and could barely keep my family afloat. Now my wife is gone and my son is dead, and Naeva..."

  "You could have told Naeva," Myrina told him. "She could have found a way."

  "She's one girl, damn it," Sir Li hissed. "It'd be fortunate if she did not cause me any more trouble. What can she do? She is half the reason for our family's humiliation."

  "I'd argue," Ryan spoke quietly, "that Admiral Man is far more at fault at that than Naeva shall ever be."

  Myrina was glad he was aware of that, but it didn't excuse how he did nothing about it, even when they asked him to. Though, at the same time, none of them had ever done anything concrete to help Naeva or get Malcolm to agree to set a proper date either.

  It was all their fault.

  "If she held Admiral Man's heart—"

  "I'd argue, with no disrespect meant to Admiral Man," Myrina interrupted, "that his heart is an impossible thing to properly grab. Especially considering his long list of lovers."

  "He's a man. A man in his twenties with power and money, it matters little. What was important is that in name Naeva was his wife and she couldn't even—"

  "I will not stand for you slandering Naeva like that," Myrina said, raising her hand. "Your daughter is innocent in this. She did her very best. If not for her, you'd have been stripped of your position in court for your incompetence long ago. Let's focus on the matter at hand. You've committed treason, Sir Li, and attempted to assassinate the Crown Prince of Sai twice."

  "So I did. I'm ready to face my fate." He raised his chin, but Myrina could tell that he wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to face the consequences of his actions.

  Pathetic.

  Ryan's silence meant that he was letting her take the lead. So she would. She'd been by Irina's side enough times while she did this to know what to do. You wanted to slowly peel back the layers, slowly goad and taunt the person until they spilled out something they didn't mean to. Once you get that initial hole, you grab onto it and tore it open, more and more and more until all the answers came out at once.

  "When did the Meliqueans reach out to you? Or did you turn to them?"

  "I'm not telling you anything else," the man said stubbornly.

  "Had they been watching you for a while? Or were you so desperate you turned to them for help?"

  "I'm not saying—"

  "What did they offer you? Money? Wealth? Glory? You know they were lying. You know they don't trust you any more than they trust them. If they have a chance now, they'll send someone to kill you."

  "I'm aware," Sir Li spat out between gritted teeth. "I made my choice."

  "Did you really think you wouldn't be caught?" she continued pressing. "Did you really think you could get away with it? Assassinating the Crown Prince?"

  "You didn't notice anything for a year."

  "Six," Myrina corrected. "Six. Our mistake. But you didn't make any moves, did you? Not until last year. You cultivated a group of guards, some loyal, some terrified of you or with things in your hand. The Meliqueans told you to?"

  "How did you..." His eyes widened and then hardened. "Pandi. I knew that bitch couldn't be trusted."

  "You took her in six years ago," Myrina said quietly. "You've been planning this for six years. You were a sleeper agent. Not a Cuckoo, but one of our own. A most impressive plan. You didn't even know what they wanted you to do until last year, did they? Once you got the instructions, once the Meliqueans decided it was time to start the war again, they told you to start a plan to assassinate the Crown Prince. Put someone in the Eastern Palace, so they'd be in close proximity. I checked this morning, carefully. Naeva was the one who vouched for Pandi's character during her admission into the Palace. But I don't think Naeva knew Pandi at all."

  "I forged it," Sir Li admitted. "I'd been keeping an eye on all her correspondence for a while. But she didn't know much."

  "We know better," Myrina told him, "then to put all our plans onto paper anyone could read."

  "Yes, I realised that."

  "You've been patient," Ryan said.

  Sir Li shook his head. "There was little I needed to do. They provided the money. I just had to pick the people and have them trained. And make sure they stayed loyal and secret. It was only last year they started using me."

  "They didn't trust you," Myrina offered. "You went up to them, didn't you?"

  Sir Li did not answer. That was confirmation.

  "I cannot believe you gave birth to a daughter like Naeva," Ryan announced. "It is incredulous to me."

  But it was not that surprising. Naeva was hardly the only one of them with bad blood. Danna's father was a traitor. Io's father was the exiled Prince Jing Huan of the previous dynasty. The apple was always able to fall far from the rotten tree. People made their own choices. It might be difficult, but the choice was always in their hands at the end of the day.

  "I did this for her."

  Ryan shook his head.

  Myrina let out a sigh. "You did this for yourself, Sir Li. Do not try to blame this on anyone else. It is your fault, your selfishness, your cowardness. No one else's fault."

  Sir Li clearly disagreed, but they didn't give him the chance to voice his disagreements  Ryan said, "You will be imprisoned for the rest of your life, very likely. We haven't gotten a scope of the damage you've caused, so an execution will be held back until that is properly confirmed. If, it is properly confirmed. It seems most of the damage you've done is rather invisible."

  "As you said," Sir Li tilted his head, "they didn't trust me."

  "Thank Hongyun for that," Myrina murmured. Sir Li could have wrought much more damage. Not by himself, perhaps, but very easily through Naeva. Naeva was careful, but nowhere as careful as them. They rarely let her handle anything too sensitive, since she was technically not an official personnel or held a proper position, but she still had easy access to it if she decided to start digging.

  They already had a sense of everything. Sir Li had released enough of the little bits for them to piece together the whole picture. They weren't going to bother asking about the Meliquean contacts—they'd be long gone by now. Sir Li's capture hadn't necessarily been made a secret. They'd have already ran off. That was good. They had no interest in dealing with such delicate things before the truce was properly broken. Right now, they could use this to their advantage in any future negotiations: they had evidence that the Meliqueans had made the first move. Anything from them would be self-defence.

  That put them at a diplomatic advantage. But this also signalled that the Meliqueans most likely would not bother pretending for much longer. They'd make the first public move soon, and they better be ready for it.

   That was not precisely under Myrina's jurisdiction, however.

  They stayed for a little longer, trying to squeeze out just a little more stuff from him. It was difficult to tell if the things they learnt were of any particular use.

  They would figure it out, one way or another. They were already looking deeper into any damage Sir Li may have caused them, any security issues. There were many, but most were tiny. Sir Li had not managed to get as much from them as they'd originally feared. It was more what this fiasco heralded that worried them, not as much the situation itself.

  Asteria awaited outside. She took a few steps forward. "Malcolm just stopped by."

  Ryan raised a brow. "What for?"

  Malcolm hadn't been in a good state for the past few days. It was understandable. He was finally understanding the weight of his own actions, and people only missed what they had lost. Malcolm Man had irrevocably lost Naeva Li now, and even though Myrina didn't think he'd ever wanted her, or even truly wanted her now, the idea that she was gone for good was too much for him to comprehend at once.

  "News for Naeva," Asteria replied, shaking her head. "I told him we had nothing."

  They all considered that for a moment.

  "Would he go look for her?" Myrina asked, furrowing her brows. "I think that would be unwise, but it seems something in his character."

  "We'll keep him busy," Ryan promised. "The best thing for both of them is to never meet again. And for us, preferably, to never have to face Naeva again. She's cut Sai off now, she's on her own, and she's better that way."

  Even Ryan saw it, yet Malcolm never had. This had always been the best option for Naeva.

  She was in Gira, undoubtedly. It was the only place she was familiar with outside of Sai and perhaps Asayama, where she'd briefly studied under Lady Kuroki. She'd only been to Gira once, but she knew enough about it. And she had friends there.

  Friends Myrina would not go looking for or asking about. She wanted little to do with that island state anyways. It was a Saian vassal state in name, but it was really independent in all senses of the word. Its ruling families governed them, and Sai rarely interfered.

  Though, perhaps it was a lie to say the ruling families governed them. They shared power with the criminal underbelly of the island state, no matter how unwilling. Naeva had friends on both sides last Myrina was aware. She'd be safe and sound.

  "War's starting soon," Myrina pointed out. "We might not even need to go out of our way to make sure Malcolm remains busy. He'll have enough on his plate he'll move on in no time."

  Still, as she said those words, Myrina doubted herself. Men, people in general, they tended to become stubbornly attached to the things they had never treasured while in their own reach. But once they were lost, they'd begin thinking of it as the most beautiful pearl in the east.

  "This is ridiculous," Asteria mumbled. "Absolutely ridiculous."

  "Agreed," Ryan said earnestly. "But nothing we can do about it. We have to live with this, I'm afraid.

  "I have to take my leave," Myrina murmured. "I have an appointment to keep now. Good day, Ryan, Asteria."

  The two nodded as Myrina turned. Her destination was not far away from where Sir Li was being kept. With the baronet in custody, it was time she spoke with Pandi again. Her brother would be being kept in the same place, since he'd already been found.

  The guards let her in without problem. Myrina gave a nod of thanks before heading into the room. Pandi looked up.

  "Is it done?"

  Myrina nodded.

  There was a boy next to her, quite some years younger. "Zhongguo," Pandi said, nudging him forward, "this is Lady Mai."

  He looked at her, wide-eyed. He was already twelve, most likely.

  "Hello, Zhongguo," Myrina said softly, waving. "Do you mind sitting aside for a bit while I speak to your sister?"

  The boy seemed dumbstruck. He gave a little nod, and Pandi pushed him away to sit on the bed pressed against the wall. "Well, that is good to hear. My brother and I are safe now."

  "What are you going to do now?"

  Pandi raised a brow. "Stay here in this cell, apparently."

  "You attempted to kill the Crown Prince of Sai twice. Almost succeeded both times as well. We cannot just let you go free. Execution will not be on the table for you, I think. You're too young, and you were being pressured and threatened." They were being merciful.

  Pandi tilted her head. "A quizzical plight, then. What will you do with me?"

  "There are a few options," Myrina told her, pulling out a chair and sitting down. "You could be exiled. Do you speak any other languages?"

  Pandi shook her head.

  "That will be troubling, then. I suppose most of the Girans speak Saian."

  Pandi showed nothing on her face regarding how she felt about that.

  "We could send you somewhere far away from Hong Cheng in Sai. Find a family without children. You could grow up like a normal child."

  "I'm already nearly eighteen," Pandi said mildly.

  "Your brother is young yet."

  "What are the other options?" Pandi asked, tilting her head. "Do list them all so I can pick the one that best fits my fancy."

  "The one I personally prefer," Myrina mused, "is that you work for our intelligence department. You are skilled at stealth. And I think your talents are too useful to be wasted."

  Pandi blinked. "Are my loyalties not questionable?"

  "That is why it is only what I prefer. We could find your brother a family in Hong Cheng who will take good care of him."

  Pandi's eyes narrowed. "You're just going to be taking him hostage again. Like what that man did to us before."

  Myrina nodded. "In a way, yes. He'll be used to guarantee your loyalty. But we also promise to give him a proper education and a proper home. Again, it is your choice. You are free to take him with you and leave far away if you wish. The choice is up to you."

  Pandi's fingers were wrapped around the cover of her seat. "And what would I have to do? Working for you?"

  "Since you don't speak any other languages, we'll most likely just keep you here in Sai. Watching for political opponents, possible threats. Stealth work. You will not be assigned missions to kill unless you're alright with it." She'd been given a role similar to what Io did, except on a domestic scale rather than internationally. She was still too risky to be sent abroad. They'd discussed this extensively this morning. The Emperor had been apprehensive about the idea, but since Ryan was alright with it, he couldn't say much either.

  "How long?"

  "You could leave whenever you wish to. If you prove your loyalty within that time, most likely you'd be allowed to stay in Hong Cheng. If not, you'll be sent into exile."

  "Why are you offering me this?" she asked, looking up. "It would be far easier just sending me into exile. Or executing me. Why are you bothering with such a risk?"

  Myrina gave a rueful smile. "We're not executing you because we like you. And we know you were being forced. No child would pick that kind of life, given the chance. It would be far easier to exile you. But I can tell you are proud of your skills. You like the thrill of it, don't you?"

  Pandi gave a quick, wary nod.

  "I think it'd be a waste of talent if we stop you from using them forever. And I don't think you'll be able to. If we exile you, you'll most likely end up becoming a thief or a mercenary one way or another and be a headache for the authorities."

  Pandi wrinkled her nose. "I suppose that is true."

  "Might as well make good use of it." Myrina tilted her head. "Think about it. You have time."

  She'd spent quite a while getting this opportunity for Pandi. She saw herself in this girl. She felt like Irina right now, trying to get Pandi to channel all that talent into a good place. All that untapped potential, all that capacity for greatness.

  "Oh, there is one more thing."

  Pandi glanced up. "Yes?"

  "Would you like to change your name? Nothing attached to it. Even if you choose to leave."

  Pandi's eyes widened, and then she lowered her head and stared down at her hands. "What would I change it to?"

  "It's up to you."

  "I don't know," Pandi protested. "I want to change it, I've always wanted to change it. But I don't know what to."

  "Do you want some suggestions?" Myrina asked gently.

  The girl gave a nod.

  Myrina turned to her little brother, sitting in the corner, looking bored as he flipped through a book. "Your brother is called Zhongguo?"

  "Yes," Pandi replied. "It is funny, isn't it? My parents named him to be loyal to our country, and yet to protect him I had to go against it."

  "Why don't we match that?" Myrina suggested. "Something with a similar meaning."

  Pandi tilted her head with curiosity. "What do you have?"

  "Danxin," Myrina suggested. "It's from one of my favourite poems. 人生自古谁无死？留取丹心照汗青." Is there anyone who does not need to die throughout history? If I could exchange my life for my country and become known throughout history, all will be worth it. Myrina had never been a patriot, but Irina had been. She'd been present for much of Irina's readings, and she often shared the quotes she liked best.

  "Danxin," Pandi said slowly.

  "Give me a brush pen," Myrina said, reaching out with her hand. "I'll show you."

  On the piece of paper, Myrina wrote in her neat script, 丹心.

  "I like it," Pandi said after a slow moment. "Wu Danxin."

  "If you're sure about it, I can help you change your name as soon as possible. You never have to be Pandi again."

  "I'm sure of it," the girl said, a small smile growing on her face. "My parents would hate it."

  "They're long gone," Myrina told her. "And this name was wrong for you from the start anyways. You have a chance now, Danxin, to make something of your life. Don't throw it away."

  "Oh, don't you worry." Danxin raised her chin. "I'll blow you all away."

  "I believe you," Myrina told her.