先入為主
xiān rù wéi zhǔ
The first impression takes priority.
First impressions are strongest.

She sat on the bed beside him. "Take off your shirt, little wolf," she ordered. He did as his mistress bid him.

The scars covered his back. Like bent blades of grass, they zigzagged and overlapped. They were white, as though frost had fallen upon the grass.

He felt one of her thin, delicate fingers trace along his skin, and it was all he could do not to shiver with longing at her touch.

"Lady Four Strings."

Finally her finger traced up his shoulder and along his neck. The soft finger started to follow a particularly long, hard, jagged scar down his chest. His breath came faster.

He caught her hand and stilled it. "Such things are not for your eyes, mistress."

"Why not?" she asked. Her doe-like eyes were wide, but not afraid.

"Lady Four Strings!"

"You should see only beauty. Not such ugliness." Her small hand was warm in his own. He quickly let it go.

She smiled then, and his heart constricted painfully in his chest. "What do you mean? You are beautiful. My beautiful, wild wolf." She leaned toward him—

"AO!"

I finally looked up from my book. Sanli had pulled Little Light alongside Ermi's carriage, and was looking in at me through the open window.

"We're in Lin'jing," the prince said, gesturing. "Look around you! You'll miss the city."

"I've seen Lin'jing," I said, looking back down at the book. I heard Sanli sigh.

Suddenly the book was pulled from beneath my nose. I looked up to see Sanli leaning on the carriage windowsill grinning, the book held open in his hand.

"Give me that!" I dove for the prince, but he kicked Little Light away, and I found myself hanging out the carriage window, grasping at empty air.

Sanli's eyes flicked across the page. "Hmm, let's see what you were reading.... '"Take off your shirt, little wolf," she ordered'.... oh my..."

"Give it back! I finally got to the good part!" I yelled.

"The good part, hmm? I think I'll have to read it first, to make sure it's appropriate for delicate young ladies such as yourself." Still reading the book with one hand, Sanli tugged Little Light's reins with the other and knee'd the horse's side, driving his mount toward where Kageyama rode at the front of our procession.

The churlish prince completely ignored my angry calls for him to return my book.

"Don't worry Ao-jie, I have another copy in my room in the valley," Ermi piped up from where she sat behind me in the carriage.

The princess herself had her nose buried in the second of the accursed books. The Wild Wolf and His Mistress. Ermi had handed the first volume to me as she sat down opposite me in our carriage two days ago when we had left Zhanghai.

To pass the time as we traveled to Lin'jing I had started reading... and found I could not stop.

Disgruntled, I turned and leaned out the window, viewing the capitol as Sanli had insisted.

It was early evening. Before me was the Zhang River, the same river that emptied into the bay of Zhanghai. Waterbirds swam among boats on the river, bird cries mixing with the sound of hawkers selling wares or trading with other traders along the riverbank. Willows lined the river, their long branches trailing in the water, calm and languid amid all the other activity.

The buildings around us were stately, more spaced out than those in Zhanghai. Lin'jing was known for its population of the noble and wealthy, and it showed in the architecture. The buildings were bigger, grander, more ornate. The roads wer wider and planted with trees for no purpose besides to make the city look more pleasurable.

On the hill above the city of Lin'jing, the 'Green City' sat. It was here that the majority of the Green Kingdom's bureaucracy and government offices were housed, giving the city its status as capital.

The buildings of the Green City were made of white stone, but the weather in Lin'jing was so frequently cloudy and misty that, without cleaning, the white stone turned green with moss and mould. Hence the name.

My eyes traced over the many white buildings on the hillside, finding a particularly large domed building. The library of Lin'jing's university.

It always amused me, that the university was right beside the Governmental Offices. I had once remarked to Lu that is was as though the university's sole purpose was to educate paper pushing bureaucrats to fill the walls of the Green City.

Lu had smiled and simply responded, "But of course it is."

I turned my eyes from the hill to the river before me. The breeze off the water felt cool on my face. I took a deep breath. The air was fresher here than in Zhanghai, clear air that circulated off the high misty hills that surrounded the city. At last, the heat of the summer was behind us.

As our procession made it's way through the city, here and there I recognized things. A guild building, older now than when I had last seen it. A statue in a square I had once sat under to eat.

We passed over a bridge and I had a sudden vivid memory of sitting on its rail in autumn and watching the water pass below, carrying hundreds of tiny leaf boats of orange and gold, while Lu sat and talked about something beside me.

But despite a few constants and remembered places, the city had changed. It had been smaller the last time I had been here, and... shorter. It was as though the buildings were growing upwards, like the trees they stood among, and outwards, like a poor man grown plump with wealth.

I had thought it would be hard to come to Lin'jing, without Lu. But the city had changed so much, there was little here to remind me of him.

A voice called out ahead, and our carriage slowed. I looked to see a herd of about ten small deer crossing the road. Their fawn and white spotted coats were quaint in the midst of the busy city and the bright shades that the humans around them wore.

The people and carts around the deer largely ignored them, save to move around the deer. The herd slowly and calmly crossed the street till they reached the river bank, where they began to graze on the grass.

"Did you see the deer, Ao-jie?" Ermi asked after we had passed.

I nodded. Lin'jing was famous for its herds of deer that roamed the hills, the city, the summer palace... wherever they felt like really. Although kirin were technically closer to dragons than deer, the stag had become Lu's symbol. The animals were now considered sacred.

I scented cooking onions and meat on the air, and my stomach twisted in response. I wondered how much longer until we arrived at the summer palace.

The summer palace, or 'The Valley' as Ermi and the others often called it, was located just north of the city of Lin'jing, apart from the city, yet close enough that it was an easy commute.

I had never been to the summer palace, but knew Lu had built it in his favorite forested valley, where he and I had often wandered and drunk together.

And he built it for her.

We passed a black smith, and I saw fiery embers burning deep in the heart of his forge. Then a clothier, silk streaming from the windows like fingers beckoning customers closer.

I drummed my own fingers impatiently on the door of the carriage, enjoying the way they made six beats instead of five. It was a habit I enjoyed, thinking that here I was, the despised sixth god, and yet no one was aware.

But if they listened closely, to my drumming fingers, they would get a clue. It was a strange game I played with myself and those around me.

Suddenly I stopped my drumming, glancing back at Ermi. But her nose was still buried in her book.

The little princess had given me a shock that night, in my room in Zhanghai.

"Ao-jie... are you the Sixth God?"

I worried that the look on my face had given me away, then I remembered in the dark Ermi could not see my expression. "What? Of course not! Whatever gave you that idea?"

I was surprised by the vehemence with which I denied it. I could not admit to my true identity of course. Yan's magic would rob me of words before I could speak. But the magic only kept me from saying anything that would confirm my identity. It did not compel me to deny it.

I did not want Ermi to know who I was. Why?

I could not clearly see the little princess's face, but heard the disappointment in her voice as she answered. "Oh. I see."

"Of course not," I repeated. "Where did you get such an idea?"

"Oh, just... the way brother speaks to you... and the way Uncle Sanli looks at you... but I guess I'm mistaken."

I laughed uneasily. "You've been reading too many novels, Princess," I said.

I glanced once more at Ermi, in her bright colored robes, her brown eyes flicking back and forth like a hungry wolf's as she took in the scandalous story. The little princess would not understand, who I was. How I had come to be. Her mind was too full of romances and fantasies. She could not understand how the world really worked.

Yes, it was better if I just remained her 'Ao-jie'.

At last we left the the bustle of the city behind, our procession passing through Lin'jing's northern gate. Outside the gate was farmland, flooded fields for growing rice. Many of the fields near the wall had been drained to set up tents and makeshift shelters, not unlike those outside the walls of Zhanghai.

The tents were filled with tanned, tired, looking refugees, their eyes wide in their sunken faces.

I thought of what Zhangyu had said, that day in the palace when he had tried to convince me to ally myself with him. "Famine sweeps the Central Regions, and yet no one has seen the Golden Emperor in decades."

I wondered what had distracted our Great Golden Emperor Jinyan, to keep him from assuaging the suffering of his precious subjects.

As our procession emerged from the walls of Lin'jing, faces rose from the tent city, watching with envy.

"It's sad, isn't it, Ao-jie?" Ermi said, coming to lean against the window beside me so I was forced to scoot over. A group of small, skinny youths, probably not much younger than Ermi ran past, playing a ball game with a ball made of rolled paper. Their collar bones were painfully obvious.

"Before, I used to sneak food from the palace," Ermi whispered to me from behind her hand. "But there are so many people these days, it's not enough. And they fight over what I bring."

Ermi sighed, and looked down at her plump hands. "It doesn't seem fair that we eat so well in the valley while people outside it are so hungry."

I could tell that this was an issue that often plagued her. I patted her on the head. "You are very kind, princess," I said.

Our carriage left the stretch of rice fields beside Linjing and entered the forest. I glanced ahead, trying to spot Sanli and his companions, but the road had narrowed, and started to wind, and I could not see the front of the procession through the trees.

The trees grew larger, and larger, as we went further into the forest. They were mainly a type of red barked pine, but a few beeches and aspens stood among their needled companions. The trees ranged from large, with trunks too big for a grown man to wrap his arms around, to giant, too big for even ten men to join hands around.

Springing up at the base of the great trees were ferns, feathered, fronded, circling the great trunks like eager worshipers clustered close. Everywhere old stone lanterns stood among the ferns, weathered, worn, many collapsed onto the ground beside their own base, and all of them covered in moss.

Among the ferns and lanterns deer materialized, and then disappeared just as quietly. The carriage passed by a young buck with just the beginnings of prongs on its head, and it raised its head to indignantly watch us pass.

Deer weren't the only things we met on the road into the valley. A huge number of servants, in a wide array of uniforms and liveries, all passed by our procession, respectfully bowing and keeping to one side of the road as our procession met them.

"How many family members live in the valley?" I asked, wondering about the large number of staff. When I lived in this valley long ago with Lu it had been only he and I and a handful of servants.

"There's eight of us most of the time," replied Ermi, thinking. "My mother and my two brothers. My cousin Xiangwu and his daughter. And my grandmother and Uncle Sanli. And sometimes my Uncle Xiangli and his wife, but usually they live in the Central Regions and only visit on occasion."

"All these people to support only eight," I said, not hiding the awe in my voice. Lu had been wealthy, but not like this. The Lu family's fortunes must have grown since his passing.

I turned my eyes back to the great trees, marveling at how high their branches were above us, until a voice called out ahead.

"Five is a holy number!"

I frowned at the familiar greeting, but leaned out of the carriage to look.

A huge gate, made of bare wood, rose over the dirt road. On either side, snarling kirin had been carved in the wood.

A herald at the front of our party announced Ermi and Sanli, and the giant gate shuddered open, creaking like old branches in a storm.

As we entered I noticed there was no physical wall connected to either side of the gate. It's archway stood alone, in the middle of the forest. Seemingly ornamental and pointless.

"There's a scribed boundary around the whole valley," Ermi explained, seeing me searching for a wall. I looked back and did just see the faint light green shimmer of protective zih on either side. "The barrier zih are carved into trees and stones."

I looked and did see, a little way off, softly glowing green zih scribed into the trunk of a great tree. And beyond that, another, maintaining the barrier.

"My ancestor wanted to protect us," said Ermi. "He worried that we would be hunted, being descended from a kirin."

Kirin were very rare, despite their longevity and skill with magic. This was because they were often hunted by humans and mu'ren alike, as kirin flesh was prized for the strength and vitality it gave.

It was also said to be delicious.

I had never thought Lu smelled particularly edible. I snorted. "You do not smell enticing to me, little princess." Ermi looked at me strangely.

"I mean, you do not seem like a kirin at all. At least, from what I've read about them. In books." Excellent. Very convincing. Good cover, I ridiculed myself.

Thankfully, Ermi was distracted at that moment by another cry from the front of the procession.

The carriage drew up to a set of steps leading up to a magnificent residence all of wood,. The wood had been painted red to stand out amongst the green of the forest around it, giving it a regal, fantastical air.

The residence itself was large, several stories tall, yet it was dwarfed by the huge trees around it. Despite its size and ostentatious color and decor, I was surprised. The building was not nearly large enough to house all the servants and staff that we had seen passing earlier.

"This is just my grandmother's courtyard," Ermi said, alighting from the carriage next to me and seeing my puzzled look. "We all have our own courtyards, and there are many more empty. They're scattered all over the valley."

Ermi pointed a finger and I looked off through the great pillars of trees. A distant structure, similar yet different to the one before us, hunkered there in the shadows under the canopy.

Ah, I see. "It is like a village then, you all have your own courtyards and gardens."

"Some don't have gardens. But yes, we each have our own residence, though grandmother's is probably the grandest. My mother just allowed me to start my own household this year." I could see from the glow in Ermi's cheeks this pleased her immensely.

Sanli and Kageyama had dismounted and handed their horses to servants. The rest of the procession departed, Zakhar with it.

As they left, Zakhar waved and mouthed something to me that was difficult to decipher with his beard. I think it might have been 'good luck'.

"My grandmother is strict, but I think she'll like you," said Ermi to me, as we started up the stairs. Sanli and Kageyama followed us.

I noticed the apprehensive look on Sanli's face, as though he was about to endure something unpleasant.

We passed through the grand gateway to the courtyard below. A row of servants dressed all in green and red met us, and one bowed and gestured.

"Lady Lu is in the western wing," the servant announced, then turned to lead us.

Lady Lu, I thought with a chuckle. How strange to hear that said. To me Lu had only been one person.

We exchanged our shoes for slippers, and padded down polished wooden floors, following the head servant. As we made our way through the ornate hallways, decorated with carved pillars and draperies, I tried to think back to the family tree Sanli had showed me in his room in Chuanfang.

Sanli's father, the last Lord Lu and regent, had passed away near ten years ago and was survived by his wife, who still held the title of 'Lady Lu'. Although the regency had passed to Sanli's older brother, Xiangli, I knew that as the oldest member of the family, this 'Lady Lu' probably held the real power.

Sanli had called the woman 'mother' before, but the woman was not his real mother.

I glanced around, wondering if Sanli's mother was still amongst the staff somewhere, or if she had been given concubine status and a courtyard of her own.

At last we stopped before an arch way filled with dangling glass beads, and the servant announced us.

"Princess Ermi and Prince Sanli to greet you, my lady."

"Show them in," said a voice.

We moved through the curtain, and it chimed and tinkled as our four bodies passed through it. Sanli, Ermi, and Kageyama immediately fell to their knees and lowered their faces to the floor. I followed suit.

"Lu Sanli greeting honorable mother!" said Sanli, with more enthusiasm than I knew he felt.

"Lu Ermi greeting honorable grandmother!" Ermi chimed after her uncle.

I stared at the carpet before me, tracing the pattern with my eyes, wondering how long I had to wait to raise my head.

"Ermi," the voice said. It was rich, and deep for a woman's. "My dear grandchild. Rise and come sit with me." Ermi did as she was told and I risked a glance up.

Before us, on a raised dais crowded with pillows, an old woman of about 80 years sat. Her wrinkles were somewhat mitigated by her rotund nature. She was dressed in rich silks, layered upon layer, despite the season and the relative warmth of the weather. The many layers of fabric turned her already round frame rounder.

Around Lady Lu's thick neck chains of gold and strings of jade beads hung, giving her front the effect of glistening scales like some beached fish. On each of the old woman's weathered hands were rings, even more than what I wore.The jewels on Lady Lu's rings were huge, the metal all of high quality, glistening gold. Unlike the pauper's jewelry I wore.

I felt a small stab of jealousy before I reminded myself that my own rings were not there for show.

In addition to the glamor around her neck and on her hands, the Lu matriarch's dull grey hair was also styled extravagantly, filled with dangling gold and pins of polished wood, though I recognized the twisting braids as a style that had been popular some 50 years ago now.

Humans, always trying to relive the past.

On each of Lady Lu's sides a servant sat, waiting to meet her needs. The servants themselves were dressed so ornately, I mistook them for ladies themselves. Each was dressed in layers of green silks, with red-jade hair ornaments placed in their elegantly done hair.

I turned back to Lady Lu once more, studying her features. Aside from her extravagantly drawn on eyebrows, (which swooped dramatically like phoenixs wings), the old woman's face was ordinary, and could have belonged to any other old woman... were it not for a commanding glint in her eye and the imperious tilt to her chin.

This was a woman accustomed to being obeyed.

Ermi climbed onto the dais, embracing her grandmother and then sitting on a cushion next to her.

I glanced beside me, to where Sanli still knelt, looking at the floor.

"Ermi, my darling, I heard what a terribly frightful experience you had in Zhanghai. Are you quite alright? I knew it was a mistake letting you go. Your brother is so busy these days, and there was no one capable to look after you." The old woman's eyes raked over Sanli with barely hidden disgust.

"It- it wasn't so terrible grandmother. Actually, it was rather exciting. And Uncle Sanli and Kageyama Sensei and Ao-jie quickly rescued me," said Ermi, gesturing to me.

Lady Lu did not even glance my direction. "I heard an account from your brother already. You are fortunate he was able to react so quickly. Otherwise the dragon might have taken you from us."

"Oh. Yes. Where is my brother?" asked Ermi. I wondered as well.

"Zhangyu is leading a patrol along our western border, trying to deal with all these vagrants who keep creeping into our lands to steal from our people. It's bad enough I have to see them whenever I go to Lin'jing. Now some are even demanding food and a place to live! As though this land was theirs."

"Oh, oh no," said Ermi. "Perhaps they just want a home." She glanced uneasily at the three of us, still kneeling.

"Hah. They come to lie and cheat and steal. I'm from the Central Regions, my little darling. Trust me, I know."

I remembered Sanli had mentioned that Lady Lu had come from the capital, from one of the great mu'ren families. I tried to recall which one.

Lady Lu reached out a weathered, heavily jeweled hand to touch Ermi's cheek. "You must be careful Ermi. Bring a double company of guards with you when you go into the city. Thanks to these disgusting refugees, crimes around the city have been on the rise."

"They are hungry," said Sanli, breaking his silence for the first time. "Hungry people commit crimes."

The prince's voice was sharp, and when I glanced over at his still lowered head, I could see his smile was tight, his jaw clenched.

"Were you given permission to speak?" asked Lady Lu sharply, eyes glaring daggers into the top of Sanli's bowed head. Then her smile twisted, "I suppose you would understand their plight rather well. After all, you came to Lin'jing as a beggar yourself."

Sanli's jaw clenched harder, and beside him Kageyama tensed.

Lady Lu turned back to Ermi, who looked unhappy. "Don't worry, darling one, your brother will protect us. He's become quite the fine soldier. Unlike some I don't care to name." Her eyes once more lashed out at Sanli's bowed head.

Sanli smiled determinedly down at the carpet, but I could see the anger in his face.

The old woman turned her attention to Kageyama, where he knelt beside Sanli.

"Kageyama!" she snapped.

Kageyama raised his head cautiously. "My lady?"

"Who is this girl?" Lady Lu asked. Like a bent branch, one gnarled finger pointed at me.

"This is, uh-" Kageyama stuttered, unsure how to introduce me.

"That's Ao-jie— I mean, Lady Yunyou, grandmother," said Ermi quickly. "The one I just told you about. Who helped rescue me from Guang Han. She's come here to stay with us in Lin'jing."

"Hmmm." Lady Lu's sharp black eyes surveyed me. "You may stand," she said.

I did so, gladly taking the weight from my knees.

"Yunyou, is it?" The woman asked, one long finger stroking her chin.

"It is, my lady," I said. The respectful title grated on my tongue.

"I am not familiar with that name. Which noble house are you from?"

"No noble house," I replied.

"Oh. Well surely your family is in business then. Merchants of some kind?"

"I have no family."

"I see. Then I will have a room made up in the servant's courtyard for you," she said with dismissal. I had clearly already exhausted her interest.

I glanced at Sanli, still kneeling. "Thank you, my Lady, but I will be staying with the Third Prince in his courtyard." Sanli looked up at me from the corner of his eye.

"Oh you will, will you?" Lady Lu's tone sharpened.

"Lady Yunyou is in my employment." Sanli clarified, head still bowed to the floor.

"Oh? And what exactly do you employ her to do for you?" Lady Lu asked nastily.

I blinked in surprise. But instead of being angry, I found myself impressed that such an old woman could make such petty insinuations.

"Lady Yunyou is my propriety instructor," Ermi chirped nervously, trying to alleviate the growing tension.

Lady Lu sneered. "No. No she's not. Not anymore. A woman who would rather stay in a courtyard of men than in her own room is no model for propriety." Ermi looked devastated.

"I will get you another tutor, if you so desire, my dear," the old woman cooed at Ermi, before turning to the rest of us. She showed she had finished with us with a wave of her gemmed hand. "You may go."

And with that we were dismissed. Kageyama and Sanli both shakily stood, legs stiff. Bowing once more, the three of us turned to depart.

Ermi also went to stand. "Do stay and talk with me a little longer, Ermi dearest," said her grandmother, turning to her maid to ask for food and tea.

Ermi looked like she was about to cry. I caught the little princess's eye and smiled encouragement. Hesitantly, she smiled back.

We slipped through the glass curtain once more. Out in the hall again Sanli gave a great sigh.

"Phew. I'm glad that's over," he said. Kageyama grunted affirmation.

Sanli turned to me, extending an arm. "Well, if you're staying with me, I guess I better show you to your rooms, Lady Yunyou." He smiled. "Unless you would rather I had a room made up for you in the servant's courtyard?"

I laughed and took the prince's arm, and we left.

*~*~*~*~*~*