奇裝異服
qízhuāng-yìfú
Strange dress unusual clothes
Exotic costume; bizarre dress; outlandish clothes.

I debated all night whether or not to tell the prince that it was his nephew who had hired the Dashe to spy on him. In the end, I decided against it. Knowledge is power, but only so long as you keep it to yourself. Kageyama had clearly recognized the snake, and would tell Sanli anyway. I decided to feign ignorance.

I confess, the thought that the snake knew where I was, and that I was alive, unnerved me. Every creak of Chuanfang that night became a soft footfall of the Dashe coming to finish what he had begun. I slept with my knife, the one I used for gutting fish and peeling fruit, under my pillow, knowing all the while it would be little use against a trained assassin.

I confess, I was afraid.

Admitting to my fear made me angry and ashamed. Me, afraid? Even as a human, I was more than a match for the snake. I had been drugged and bound the last time I had faced Zhen. What happened in the cave would not happen again, and once I determined the means and method, I would make the snake pay twice over the pain he had caused me.

But still, I felt uncertainty, and more than the fear that bothered me.

After finally drifting off, I woke to the sun lighting my windows. I had chosen a room on the eastern side of Chuanfang specifically for this purpose. I rose from my bed, the floorboards cold beneath my feet despite the season, and went to the window.

Unlike many of the rooms at Chuanfang, my room had no balcony, but one of my windows had a sill large enough that could serve as one, as well as a rail to lean upon. I slid open my window and perched upon the sill, leaning my arm upon the rail, and my chin upon that.

It was just after sunrise. The morning sun sat low and orange on the eastern horizon. Like a stripe of gold, the reflection of the sun highlighted a glowing road across the water directly toward me, ruffled here and there by distant waves. From the height of Chuanfang, the waves looked only like small wrinkles stretching across the ocean's fabric, but I knew they were much larger. I could hear their crashing as they cast themselves against the rocks of Chuanfang below.

On such a morning, the sea truly was magnificent. I closed my eyes, remembering the feel of the water. In my true form, the ocean's coldness had simply felt cool, the deeps not dangerous, but quiet havens I dove to when I wanted to be alone. Far below the surface, the crash of waves went from a roar to a gentle murmur that kept one company, like the comfortable talk of a well known friend.

A breeze blew off the ocean, chilly this early in the morning, and I drew my night dress closer around me.

It was then that I noticed Kageyama, leaning with his arms crossed on the balustrade of a veranda some floors below. He was looking up up at me, a scowl on his face, his eyes shadowed in the early morning light.

I smirked to show I had seen him, and withdrew from the window.

After dressing I went to the kitchen for my breakfast. The kitchen staff were already used to my constant appetite and had prepared a basket of fresh sweet breads for me, as well as some apples. I took the food on a tray and went in search of my Prince.

I found him in his rooms, practicing calligraphy on the floor. The paper was weighted with stones at each corner to prevent it from blowing away in the wind from the windows that were opened to let in the morning sun.

"Good morning," he said, without pausing his brush.

"Good morning," I replied, sitting beside him on the floor. He was still dressed in what I assumed were his night clothes, the long silken robe and pants beneath it wrinkled from the night.

Sanli nodded to a nearby sofa. "Get a cushion, the floor is cold."

I grabbed a large cushion covered with peach silk and tucked it beneath me. I watched the prince as he wrote, munching on an apple.

"I was intending to take you and Ermi to the dressmaker today, and have gowns made in preparation for the Midsummer Banquet," Sanli said, eyes on his paper.

"I already have gowns a plenty," I replied. After I had reached the capital and used forgery to force my way into my position as Ermi's 'propriety' instructor, I had spent the remainder of the money I had received from Kageyama to buy an appropriate wardrobe that would befit a royal tutor.

Sanli shook his head. "You'll be accompanying a Prince of the Green Throne. Your outfit must be the best." He took his brush and dipped it into the shallow well of his ink stone, where the opaque liquid had collected.

"Did you forget I won't be accompanying YOU," I reminded him grinning.

Sanli smiled wryly. "True. You'll be attending Zhangyu." Brush saturated with ink, he brought the loaded tip carefully back to his place on the paper and began writing again. "But you'll be wearing the dress I gave you."

I laughed. Men were so predictable. "Fine, I will wear your dress. In exchange, I want some rings made."

"Asking for jems already?" Sanli said, raising an eyebrow in mock severity. I ignored him, taking a spare bit of paper and a stick of charcoal from among the writing utensils spread out on the floor around him.

I scribbled something and placed it beside Sanli's practice paper, so he could read what was written there while he wrote. "I want two rings, one for each thumb, with these seals inscribed on them."

"Hmmmm," said Sanli, glancing over my paper, "Protection against poison and paralysis." I was impressed he had deciphered the overly poetic language of the seals so quickly.

"You can make them, can you not?"

"They're high level spells," said Sanli.

"You have the Green King's yinzhang. No spell is off limits for you."

"I am no scribe though. I have no skill with carving, and there is no scribe at Chuanfang. I'll have to send a request to the palace. It may take several days."

I thought of my sleepless night. "Fine. Do it soon."

"I'll do it today." Finishing his current paper, Sanli put it to one side and weighted it with a single stone, then prepared another sheet. He hesitated, then- "I am sorry, for what happened to you, in that cave."

I waved his apology aside and instead asked a question that had been bothering me for a while. "Why are you not the Second Prince?"

According to the rules of succession, bastard or no, Sanli should hold the title of Second Prince, and as such second in line for the position of regent and ruler of the Green Kingdom.

Sanli sighed and put down his brush. "When my.... father died, my elder brother, who had been First Prince, replaced him as regent. My elder brother's son, Xiangwu, naturally took on the role of First Prince after his father."

Realizing his explanation was getting complicated, Sanli picked up his brush once more and reached for a scrap of paper. He drew out his family tree as he talked. "I, being the Third Prince, should have stepped into the role of Second Prince. But Zhangyu, who had been the Fourth Prince, instead started calling himself by the title."

Sanli shrugged. "I let him. It did not matter that much to me. And as you know, I am 'third plum tree'," as he spoke Sanli quickly wrote out the characters of his name, 'three' and 'plum tree', on the bottom corner of the paper. He grinned at me. "So I stayed the Third Prince. Perhaps three just suits me."

I studied him, puzzled. "Perhaps."

I frowned down at the quickly drawn family tree. Sanli's words did not match with my estimation of his motives at all. Where was his ambition, his hunger for the throne?

"Would you like to try?"

I looked up at Sanli. He was holding out his brush to me, gesturing to the paper.

Although many did the act for relaxation, generally, the purpose for practicing calligraphy was to perfect one's zih in preparation for writing a seal, a magic spell. Unlike a letter or any other ordinary document, seals required their component zih to be written to an extract shape and order. Deviating from the specified regulations would result in the seal not working, or worse, working in strange and unusual ways.

Since magic was inaccessible to mu'ren, practicing calligraphy for the purpose of writing seals was generally something only humans did. I, having been mu'ren for most of my life, and unable to work magic still after being made human, had never placed much priority on learning the symbols besides for the purpose of reading and writing.

I was, understandably, very clumsy at it.

My first few attempts were embarrassing. I attempted to copy the line of poetry Sanli had already written at the top of the paper. My zih were unbalanced, strokes too thick in places and nonexistent in places where ink should be. The zih were uneven in size and did not stand neatly in a straight line like Sanli's, but zig-zagged across the paper like a drunk on his way home.

It looked like a child had written them. A child who had never held a brush before.

Seeing my building frustration, Sanli gently took the brush from me and said "Here, let's write your name."

I waited patiently, expecting to see the character for 'Ao' I had shown him in the forest outside Nan'ye, drawn in the ash of the fire pit as we had drunk tea and I had recovered from the 'shock' of the saw pig.

But instead of writing the character I had shown him, Sanli wrote the characters for 'fine' and 'rain' together.

Xiyu.

This prince.

"There. Now you try," said Sanli, a smile playing about his lips. He leaned around me, using his hand to guide my own. "Speed is important. To slow, and you leave too much ink, too fast and you don't leave anything." His hand was warm, as was his breath on my cheek. "You have to make the strokes with confidence." Sanli leaned closer, on the pretense of holding the paper, and I felt the warmth of his whole body at my back.

I smiled and kept writing terribly. 10,000 years too early, Little Prince, I thought to myself. But I was enjoying his efforts all the same.

The door to Sanli's room slid open and Sanli leaned back from me, the space where he had been filling with cool air.

Without putting down the brush or looking away from the paper I knew it was Kageyama who stood in the doorway. I could feel his dislike crawl across the room toward me like giant spiders.

"San, get dressed, we're going to the palace," the man said, abrupt as always.

"Why, do they need me to report as well?"

"It wouldn't hurt for you to do some of you duties once in a while, instead of flittering your time away." The fox's dark eyes flicked to me as he said this. "Get dressed, we leave in an hour."

Sanli rose and went to the far side of his room, where he pulled open a drawer and started pulling out silks and linens. Sanli started to strip off his shirt and Kageyama cleared his throat, glaring at me.

I put down the brush and rose from the floor gracefully, smiling. "I will excuse myself here. It is time for Ermi's lesson anyway." At the mention of Ermi's name Kageyama's lips shrank back over his teeth in a very feral way.

As I went to brush past him in the doorway, my long sleeve caught on something. At first I thought it was the wood of the doorframe, then I looked down to see the corner of my sleeve pinched between Kageyama's thumb and forefinger.

"I know who he thinks you are, and unfortunately it seems you do too," he said to me in a low voice so Sanli, on the other side of the room, could not hear. Kageyama's eyes traced the characters on the practice page I had done earlier, before flicking to me, burning. "If you try and take advantage of him, and play him false, by pretending to be what you are not-"

"More false threats, Lord Kageyama?" I interrupted. "Did you forget the threat you made me in the herbalists house? And before, in the forest? Forgive me then, if I think your words empty."

I pulled my sleeve from his fingers and brushed by him. As I walked off down the hall, I said over one shoulder. "And besides, how do you know I am not who he thinks I am?"

*~*~*~*~*~*

"That was terrible. Again," I said.

"He's too tall, Ao-jie!" Ermi protested.

"If you think every attacker is going to offer you a step stool so you can reach them, you are very much mistaken."

I sat on a canvas chair I had ordered the servants to bring out into the courtyard for me. Above the morning sky was a brilliant blue, small whips of white clouds blowing by overhead like ships sailing toward the harbor.

I reached for my glass of freshly squeezed juice and took a sip. Before me stood Ermi, dressed in one of her plainest, shortest dresses to allow for ease of movement, her hair done up in two buns either side of her head.

Before Ermi stood the poor stable boy I had dragged from his duties and instructed to serve as Ermi's practice partner. He was younger than Ermi in age, and yet huge, the size of a grown man. If I hadn't known that half-human half-mu'ren children were impossible, I would have thought the boy part ox.

The boy was good natured, sheepishly bending down so Ermi could practice cupping her hands and bringing them quickly over his ears.

"Like this, Ao-jie?"

"Faster," I said. "The idea is to force the air into their ears, causing the hearing drum to break." The stable boy looked nervously at Ermi's cupped hand. "It's extremely painful, particularly to mu'ren with sharp hearing. It will allow you some time to try and escape, if you are ever attacked."

Ermi did as I had instructed her again, faster, causing the stable boy to wince. "Better," I said.

Horse hooves sounded from the gate and I turned to see Zakhar ride in on Dunya. He glanced furtively around him, as though looking for someone.

Ermi noticed him, pausing in her practice. "Zakhar Dage, welcome back!" She yelled, jumping up and down and waving. Zakhar approached and dismounted. The stable boy, seeing a chance to escape, hurried forward to take Dunya away.

"Ermi! I didn't recognize you, in those clothes," Zakhar said. He glanced around once more. His eyes landed on me briefly, but did not pause their search. He clearly didn't recognize me either, in my silk dress with my hair brushed long.

"I'm practicing. Lady Yunyou is teaching me to defend myself," said Ermi proudly.

"Is that so?" said Zakhar absently, then, "Ermi, where's Liangyi?" He continued scanning the courtyard, tugging at his beard uneasily. His eyes were shadowed and it looked like he had indulged in a night of drinking, amongst other pleasures. Even amongst the dark whirls of his tattoos, I was able to pick out love bites on his neck and shoulders.

"Hmmm, I think she's at the palace. She's been helping brother with something these days. I haven't seen her recently," said Ermi, thoughtfully.

Zakhar sighed, visibly relaxing. He reached out a hand and ruffled Ermi's hair and she giggled. "How have you been, little one?"

"Well. Better now, that you and Uncle and Sho Sensei are here. And Lady Yunyou."

"Hello Zakhar," I said.

He recognized my voice instantly, eyes snapping to me. "Ao? Holy shi- what are you doing here?"

I motioned with my eyes to Ermi. "Did you forget? Lord Sanli sent me ahead of you to serve as tutor to Princess Ermi."

"Hah?" Zakhar said, dumbfounded.

"Why didn't you return with Lord Sanli and Lord Kageyama yesterday?" I asked innocently. Zakhar's hands hurried to tug his collar up about his neck, trying to hide the evidence of last night's activities.

"Just, visiting a friend," he said, blushing furiously. I grinned at his discomfort.

"We're going dress shopping soon," said Ermi happily. "Do you want to come with us, Zakhar Dage?"

"Uhhhhh," said Zakhar, looking extremely uncomfortable as he tried to tighten his collar. I took pity on him, and was about to refuse for him when Kageyama's voice rang out.

"He's going with you. I have to go to the palace with Sanli, and there's no way you all are going alone." He strode into the stable, snapping at the stable boy to saddle Little Light. A few moments later he emerged leading Makabe. I noticed Kageyama was wearing a soldier's uniform, but just like Zhen, he had omitted the green cape.

"Watch them," Kageyama said to Zakhar, gesturing to Ermi and I, before swinging up onto Makabe. "And where the bloody hell is Liangyi?!" He said, riding for the entrance. Makabe's hooves were sharp on the stones as if they expressed his rider's anger.

Sanli appeared in the courtyard as well, dressed in plain black silks like I had seen him in yesterday, with the simple addition of a green sash, dark as pine, about his waist. Hidden beneath the sash I caught a glimpse of his usual belt, with Tenzetsuto sheathed to the back.

He took Little Light from the stable boy and also mounted, then turned back to talk to Zakhar. "Take Serendipity and go to the North City, there's a shop there by the river called 'The Golden Thread'. They have the best fabric in the East. Have them send the bill to the accounting house here at Chuanfang, not to the palace."

He smiled at Ermi, and then me, and then said "It looks I'll have to wait till the Midsummer Banquet to see you ladies in all your finery." He bowed extravagantly, causing Ermi to laugh, and then turned and kicked Little Light into a trot to catch up with Kageyama.

*~*~*~*~*~*

❤️ Fanart by Dimzzu !