CW: Shock, death, grief.

  EY 3138, present day:

  The blazing summer sun was as relentless as the Ruby Dragon when the group of Xia arrived at Wallstown, but the town in front of him couldn't have been more alien from his forge if it tried.

  Xiong had to wonder why it was even called Wallstown given it had no walls to speak of. The northern half was perfectly manicured, the noble compounds distinct but designed to capture the allure of the landscape. What forest remained was neat and confined to a crescent moon around the north side of the town where the hills were too steep to be desirable property. It was also easy to see where the money started to run out, the buildings growing gradually denser and notably less fancy the further south a visitor went.

  “Ah, Wallstown. Would you believe it began as a mining camp to get the stone needed for the Great Wall?” Sheng asked, interrupting the song he was humming as they walked past a row of shops advertising all sorts of good times. The shops got rapidly more reputable on their way to the brightly painted bridge through the gardens at the centre of the town.

  Xiong looked at the tawdry buildings with their bright paint over heavily notched and grimy stone, “No Grandfather, it looks far too…” Xiong struggled to find an appropriately polite word. "Fake."

  “Indeed, yet for all the refinement you see, the artificial lake over there the gardens were built around? That was the main quarry, the side lakes were made later.”

  Both Flowing Silk and Xiong looked with renewed interest at the beautiful gardens before Sheng continued, “But now that the Wall is built and the miners have moved out, the rich and powerful have made it a popular vacation spot away from the bustle of the Imperial City. Such wealth has attracted the inevitable hangers-on, who mix with the remaining miners and you end up with a town divided into high and low class like oil and water.”

  Xiong pulled a distasteful expression, “I don’t like it. People shouldn’t be separated like that.”

  Flowing Silk's eyes lit with recognition, “I knew I recognised it! It’s like the entertainment district in the Imperial City.”

  “But with added rustic flair and cleaner air.” Sheng agreed, “Though I am surprised a member of the Pure Flame knows it so well given your school forbids intoxicants.”

  “Everyone loses people they love, even the lowest." Flowing Silk said sadly before he let the sombre priest mask crack in a cheeky smile, "... And one of my best friends is a Child of the Monkey King.”

  Sheng laughed and gave a nod of acceptance, returning to humming as they passed over the bridge.

  A messenger bearing the Zhou house mon rushed past them, scroll in hand, then turned back in surprise. He got out a piece of paper, looked at it, looked back at Xiong, then approached.

  At the sight of the mon Flowing Silk quietly moved to the other side of the blacksmith. Well, wasn't that interesting? It seemed the priest knew the Zhou as well, and possibly in a none too friendly way if he was trying to hide. It could just be the Zhou's ruthless reputation, but he'd recognised the mon and colours too fast. Wonderful. At least he wasn't the only one in the group that knew the Zhou were trouble.

  The messenger bowed, "Do I address Shenmi Xiong?”

  Xiong's heart fell, “Yes…?”

  The messenger bowed again and held out a scroll with the seal face-up, “A message for you, sir.”

  Xiong felt his dark skin going grey, “F… for me?”

  The messenger turned it over to show the characters 'Shenmi Xiong'. Oh no. He knew that calligraphy, and anything Mei was attempting to send to Xiong would be trouble.

  For a moment he wondered if he could just… not take it, pretend the messenger had never reached him, avoid the snarl of chaos that always accompanied her. However this wasn't a common messenger he could pay off or 'lose' the message from. This was one in house colours who would report back, and he was subtly waving the scroll in his direction.

  Xiong sighed. No, it would not be honourable to refuse or ignore this. What if little Yi genuinely needed him? More to the point, what would his parents (may they reincarnate swiftly) think if they knew he had been so openly rude? They could be watching him from the Heavenly Gardens even now.

  Not to mention that his Grandfather was standing beside him eagerly anticipating the drama.

  Xiong sighed again and held out his hand to receive it.

  As soon as the message was handed over the messenger dashed away. Xiong 's finger lingered over the seal for a moment, before he slid a thumb under it and opened the scroll to read.

  'I give you my most sincere greetings and hope that the Twelve Immortals have blessed your path since we last met.'

  Oh no. This was bad. She was never that polite unless she wanted something big.

  'I was intending on heading back to our estate near the Golden Apple Valley, but it seems that I will instead be resident at the Branch Family's estate in Wallstown for the foreseeable future. As such I would like to cordially invite you to visit the Zhou compound there at your convenience.'

  In other words, as soon as possible. He didn't even bother to read the signoff as his stomach fell further. “Oh. Well.”

  Flowing Silk tilted his head slightly as Sheng raised an eyebrow, “Bad news?”

  “I've been 'cordially invited’ to the Zhou household. Of course it's not bad news…” he said bitterly.

  The priest winced in perfect understanding. Oh yes, Flowing Silk had definitely gotten tangled with the Zhou before.

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  “And here I am without my best robe…” Sheng mused.

  “Is your best robe wise under the circumstances, honoured elder?” Xiong said sceptically, “It could cause… complications.”

  Flowing Silk couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm out of his voice, “It's fine, I am sure that they won't snub us too badly for turning up in robes covered in dust.”

  Xiong sighed in resignation and led the group towards the Zhou family compound.

  —

  As soon as they reached the street the compound was on, the group were stopped again by a magistrate in crimson robes clasped with the Imperial seal.

  “You three - you are travelling Xia, correct?”

  Now that they were still the group could hear faint female sobbing from the other side of the wall. Near the gate a giant of a man loomed, even larger than Xiong. That alone would have put the blacksmith's hackles up if they weren't already raised from having to come here.

  “It would seem so.” Sheng replied, neatly intercepting the man.

  “We find ourselves in need of some impartial witnesses; would you be so kind?” The magistrate indicated the gate. The big man glared at them.

  Sheng gave a polite smile, “How fortunate, I have much experience as a witness, and we can certainly make an attempt at impartiality.”

  Xiong managed not to snort.

  “... Close enough.” The magistrate turned, almost bumping into the man at the gate. The big man looked at him, then slowly moved aside.

  When the magistrate led the group through the gate a girl in servant's robes rushed over to them, face streaked with tears, “I didn't do it, I swear! You have to help!” Her hands were tinged with blood, and both she and the magistrate kept looking toward the bathhouse.

  There were two more in servant's clothing, an older woman who was clearly a cook and a man in a nice, formal, but somewhat plain outfit, hair slicked back with water as they stepped forward to pull the crying girl away from the Xia.

  Stood in the main courtyard were clearly four members of the Zhou, an unfortunately familiar young woman wearing weights on her arms and legs, a young man dressed even more richly than the others, an adult man with a cane and dusty brown hair who had to be the patriarch of the branch family and a girl with the same dusty brown hair hiding behind her father reading a book. Mei's eyes narrowed as she saw Xiong and the young man next to her did the same thing when he saw Flowing Silk.

  Flowing Silk’s carefully controlled expression didn’t shift. His eyes flicked from the maidservant to the bathhouse. Then he frowned slightly as he looked over the family, words soft enough that only Sheng and Xiong would hear them, “Oh joy. Blaming the servants already, Wan?”

  Sheng, on the other hand, seemed surprised to see the father, clearly recognising him and swiftly lowering his hat a little to conceal his eyes.

  Xiong recognised the small motions of his Grandfather analysing the area and sighed softly under his breath. How had their lives had got so interesting that all three of them had ties to the people here?

  The richly dressed young man who must have been Wan, given he was clearly from the main family, rolled his eyes, “They could have at least found a better quality of street-scraping than these peasants.” Mei slapped him on the shoulder (Xiong hid a wince, he knew how much those weighted hands could hurt) and Wan jerked round to look at her, “Ow! What was - Oh, that hulking ogre is - Ow!”

  Xiong approached and made an obeisance with his hands, bowing to the young woman first and then the others in the Zhou family. “Lady Mei, it is my pleasure to reply to your summons and assist your House.”

  The patriarch nodded in approval, “Well met. You must be Xiong? I am Zhou Tai, behind me is my daughter Hua and I wish I could welcome you to my house, but…”

  “But his son's just been murdered.” Mei supplied, “Of course, Xiong will find the killer, won't you?”

  Xiong was about to open his mouth to reply when Wan interrupted, “I hardly think we need to bring in outsiders for this, do we? It's an open and shut case.”

  Flowing Silk went dead white. “Ren?”

  Tai’s eyes locked onto him, taking in the outfit and his features.

  “Ren’s been murdered?” Flowing Silk appeared to be stuck, eyes wide and staring as the news sunk in.

  —

  Flowing Silk could feel the blood draining from his face, his head, even his hands, leaving only a creeping numbness.

  Ren?

  The boy who had been so kind to him when he discovered Wan's bullying of a Temple Orphan?

  His friend who'd been so much happier when he ditched the symbol of his family. Who had seen through Flowing Silk's anxiety just as Flowing Silk had seen through his noble mask.

  The young man who had flirted with him over chopsticks and whose arms had wrapped around his waist, desperately seeking Flowing Silk's warmth to counteract the cold emptiness of the Zhou.

  Ren's dead?

  The world didn't even have the decency to stop after this revelation. No matter how slow and endless those first few moments had seemed, no matter how dull and distant the words were, they kept coming.

  Tai nodded. Zhou Tai, Ren's father. The one who Ren rarely saw because his Uncle insisted on raising him and giving him an education in the Imperial City. “Yes. I…”

  “So did you want to see the body?” Mei asked Xiong, the sudden new voice and abrupt shift in the direction of conversation jarring. Flowing Silk's voice died in his throat, pushed to the side once more as the cold settled in.

  “It's quite clearly the maid.” Wan continued, as if the Xia didn’t exist. Not that that was new, Wan had always done that, “We found her there with the dagger in her hand, for Huáng's sake.”

  Xiong suddenly lurched backward as another young girl climbed up his back. Sheng moved politely out of the way, which conveniently put him close enough to Flowing Silk to put a supportive hand on his arm while keeping an eye on Xiong and Mei.

  With the warmth of Sheng's hand Flowing Silk finally managed to move from his frozen state, tucking his hands inside his sleeves to try and make the shaking less noticeable. Flowing Silk spoke carefully, thankful for the training that kept his voice level. “Have you tried communicating with his spirit?”

  “No, we haven't.” Tai replied, “The body was only discovered an hour ago.”

  Flowing Silk bowed, though it was far too stiff, “I... can perform that service for you, if you wish.”

  Tai glared at Flowing Silk for a moment, started to shake his head, then changed his mind. “Go on. Please forgive me if I do not wish to attend, though.”

  Flowing Silk bowed again, still stiff. It was a good thing that he didn't need to speak.

  Tai looked to the other two, “You may consider my study at your disposal if you wish to speak to people relating to this. Wan has already volunteered his services as the prosecution for this case.”

  Xiong inclined his head gratefully. Flowing Silk felt his temper flare, the first emotion - and a very uncharacteristic one - to break through the numbness. Why am I not surprised. Wan, I will gut you for this if you had any hand in Ren's death!

  “I think that would be a good idea.” Sheng replied, “If there are no volunteers for the defence I will take the role.”

  Flowing Silk had mostly trained as an Investigative Magistrate. Technically he had never passed the full exam, but he knew all the material. He had also learned some of what it took to be a Defence Advocate and a significant amount for that of the Judge. He could, but suddenly he didn't have the heart in him to try and argue with Wan, his anger and energy vanishing as quickly as it had come.

  Tai gave a nod of approval, “Very kind, Master - ?”

  Sheng raised his hat slightly to meet Tai's gaze and the elder Zhou’s eyes widened before looking at Xiong. “I don't suppose you're Sun Wukong in disguise? I don't think my heart can take any more shocks today.”

  Flowing Silk blinked. Wait… Sheng knew Ren's father? How strange, that all of them had ties here, that everyone who knew each other was gathered at once.

  And Ren, dead, in the centre of them.

  Xiong had been looking over his shoulder and grinning at the young girl, then turned back at Tai's voice, “I am but a humble blacksmith, travelling with my grandfather. I am sorry for your loss. I know what it is like to lose family.”

  Flowing Silk bowed again to excuse himself from the conversation and walked toward the bathhouse, hand going to the door before he hesitated.

  I am a priest of the Golden Phoenix, it is my duty as priest and friend to do this properly. Professionally. He breathed out. I will grieve later.

  He pushed open the door to the bathhouse and vanished inside.

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