Outside, snowflakes twirled softly down on a gentle breeze in the courtyard of the restaurant. Wang Bin sat at the table that he'd picked very carefully - not the higher floor where the real dignitaries all wanted to dwell, but with a good view of the restaurant's side.
All year long the small garden bloomed with all sorts of plants, though to celebrate the upcoming new year several daffodils had been planted to augment those already there. A small painted crane lingered nearby on a wall-hung scroll, a royal garden in miniature.
The snows would have erased the flowers entirely, but Wang Bin had done the owner a favor that cushioned the impact of weather of all kinds on the little terrace, inscribing several arrays that blocked everything from permeating except the sunshine. If no sunshine was forthcoming, he'd even create some of his own - the results of studying a particular technique from the Diancang Sect, loaned to him by another member of his little group, who he was here to meet.
It was the day before the final match of the Winter Solstice Tournament. The entire restaurant was a hive of activity, but another part of the long-standing agreement was that he could have a table set aside to watch the flowers from.
It was a shame he'd have to leave soon, but such was life. Ups and downs, he reminded himself, shrugging his shoulders. Nothing to worry about.
He sat there, unworried, enjoying his tea, until a shape in a brilliant crimson appeared. Wang Bin looked up, pleased to see both the beautifully-tailored darker red trim on the martial robes and the luxurious dragons that decorated it from collar to sleeve, as well as the elegant man who occupied it.
Here, at least, was a man who could appreciate the finer pleasures of life. His fine eyebrows, the dashing set to his jaw, the care that he took of his hair Even the scales around his eyes - the sign of his martial lineage - had been filed down slightly so that they enhanced his handsome face rather than detracted from it.
"You haven't been waiting too long, have you?" Cen Xun of the Kunlun Sect said, just the right touch of pleasantness in his voice. The scales scattered around his face crinkled, as they always did. He was one of the few members of the Kunlun Sect who could actually take a joke; it was one of the reasons they'd first made a connection.
That and an interest in more.... morally complex areas of study.
Wang Bin shook his head.
"So," Cen Xun said, pulling his seat back and sitting down. "I thought you'd said you would take the little one along with you."
"Mm," Wang Bin said. "Something else came up. The more he wins, the more I wonder..."
Cen Xun cocked his head.
"You think he's not the ideal recruit you thought he was?"
"I've been wondering," Wang Bin said. "Ours is the righteous cause. You know I'm as convinced of that as anyone."
He took a sip of his tea. He'd ordered mint tea as a private little joke for himself. It was refreshing, in a way, but the last few months had dulled his taste for it significantly. Too much of a good thing would turn even a beloved taste bitter. He'd have to try out something new soon.
"I'm not convinced he realizes the truth of the world," Wang Bin said. "His mind is like that of most teenagers. He sees his own problems but lacks the ability to extrapolate. And the winning, it's reinforcing the bars of the gilded cage. He's too blinded by the shine."
Cen Xun crossed his arms.
"I said it would be a long shot," he offered. "Have you ordered yet?"
"As always," Wang Bin said.
"The usual?"
"Yes."
Cen Xun smiled. "Very good. You were saying, though."
"I think he needs an additional push," Wang Bin said slowly. "And that additional push will be hard to give him, given everything that's happened today."
"You think he could still win?" Cen Xun said. Waving a hand he flagged down a waiter, who bowed and promised to come back with another pot of fragrant tea.
"If he wins, then our opportunity may largely be lost," Wang Bin said. "Although I do have a few ideas, here and there. But if he loses, I think we might still take the gamble, as it were."
Cen Xun hummed, thinking. "Yes, I see your point. It's rather unfortunate, though. I was hoping to meet him and verify what you've said about him."
"I haven't spoken a single word of a lie," Wang Bin said. "Including when I spoke about the time he -"
"I heard something interesting," Ke Shuang said, dropping into his seat without announcing his presence. His appearance did that for him, as his blond hair shone as if spun from gold, which was always the case after he'd used his techniques. It would revert soon enough to its usual lustreless black, though the streaks of dirty blond would remain.
He was wearing an expensive robe. Wang Bin glanced at it once and could have already given a guess for how much it had cost and where it had been bought, without a doubt in his mind. The city held no more secrets for him.
And, really, Ke Shuang had always been an absolute boor, but this was pushing it. The faint hints of madness - black, creeping in at the edges of his pupils - those made clear what was really happening. Ke Shuang had gorged himself on a demonic art again before coming here.
"I figured you would have," Wang Bin said lightly. "Must we talk shop before dinner's even been served?"
Cen Xun chuckled, but Ke Shuang's eyes narrowed.
"You're the most closely placed to the new Sovereign," Ke Shuang said. "My mentor would like to know how, exactly, this will come to influence our operations."
"It won't," Wang Bin said calmly. "You see, brother Shuang, I'll be leaving the city tonight."
Ke Shuang scoffed. "You think that'll be enough?"
"No," Wang Bin said. "But is that a concern of yours? I've left enough traces that they might attempt to chase me down, but their pursuit will come to nothing. In so doing, I'll take all the blame onto myself. They'll have a crime, a culprit, and even a personal reason to chase me down, since I've been living under their noses the entire time."
He smiled. "The trouble is all deflected onto me. There will no suspicion of everyone else, since it's a perfect case already."
"If you can guarantee no one knows we meet here," Ke Shuang grunted. The trouble with him was that he wasn't a complete idiot, unfortunately.
"I can guarantee it," Wang Bin said dismissively. "First, though, let's not speak of this. Dinner is being served."
A few waiters were bringing lavish dishes of every specialty. Through the blocking shadows of the waiters' arms leaving the dishes on the table, Wang Bin pretended not to notice Ke Shuang's burning gaze.
Instead, Wang Bin savored every moment of the building anticipation. The Immortal's Repose, for its occasional flaws, was still his favorite place in the entire city. It had taken some effort to craft it into that, but he considered the effort worth it. And, as a personal favor from the owner to him, a small jug of osmanthus wine was set in front of him.
"A feast fit for an emperor," Cen Xun murmured next to him, as Wang Bin poured the three of them a cup each. Even Ke Shuang, who would turn up his nose even at most elixirs, had his expression change when he smelled the scent drifting over from his cup.
If he were a less boorish man he might even have said "Good wine!" in praise, but he wasn't. It was a pity these were the sorts of types that were most easily attracted to their mission.
Wang Bin lifted his cup, thought of a poem, and smiled to himself. Ke Shuang had already drunk but Wang Bin ignored that.
"Life is meant to be thoroughly enjoyed," he recited. "Let not golden cups mirror the mooon without wine. I was born with talent, not in vain; a thousand coins well-spent will turn up again."
He did not finish the rest of the quote. It was an old poem, and he didn't feel the need to tip his hand by stating whose work it was.
Cen Xun laughed. "True enough. You might have a career as a poet, Wang Bin."
"It's a little too poor for me," Wang Bin said, feigning humility. "Luxuries such as these would become a rarity, I'm afraid. And if I cannot give myself and my friends good food and wine, what's the point of living? Poetry isn't my calling, no."
"Poetry's for the sages," Ke Shuang said, slamming his empty cup back down on the table. Good wine truly was wasted on the likes of him. "The rest of us don't need it, do we? Hand me that fish."
Yes, Wang Bin thought to himself. Not needing it - that's rather the problem.
As Ke Shuang reached for the food, Wang Bin let the comment pass and dug in. He had cultivated a reputation for enjoying good food and good drink, which was genuinely something he had always honestly enjoyed, no matter his current identity. It was a useful tool for pushing a conversation specific ways, or cutting it off if it would become bothersome.
They ate. The food - even Wang Bin, supposedly a poet, lacked the words to describe it. It was being presented with a map of the entire jianghu, in a way. The chicken marinated in Shaoxing wine from Zhejiang, served cool; the steamed Five-Flavor Fish from the sea-bound provinces, presented whole, with eyes and all, steamed to perfection. As a centerpiece, Peking duck served with pancakes thinner than Wang Bin's finest array paper and glazed with hoisin sauce. Mapo tofu with minced pork, fiery in ways that only Sichuan cuisine could be. Uncut noodles with scallions and mushrooms, also called Longevity Noodles.
There were several jugs of baijiu served alongside the meal, along with pu'er tea. Wang Bin toasted Cen Xun and even toasted Ke Shuang, and while he received toasts in return, it was only with evident reluctance that Ke Shuang toasted him back. Even though they were all supposedly equals beneath the banner they'd chosen, Ke Shuang's "mentor" - his uncle - had a far higher position in the cult, and while they all pretended not to know who his mentor was Ke Shuang still thought he was owed obeisance.
He simply wanted the respect he had thought he'd never gotten elsewhere. It was very easy to see, and it was also pathetic. Wang Bin found it rather funny, though obviously he'd never told Ke Shuang that.
"- and he never even realized I'd switched the scrolls," Cen Xun said, the scales on his face crinkling with his smile.
Wang Bin smiled, and raised his cup. "To brother Cen, then. To many more fruitful adventures."
"So," Ke Shuang said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He had clearly eaten his fill and didn't bother joining in the toast. Wang Bin's smile thinned slightly. "That's it, then?"
"We all have obtained what we need," Wang Bin said softly. "There is no additional need to remain here and risk attention, is there?"
Cen Xun smiled. "Yes. My Crimson Scale Defensive Art has reached its zenith for now. Thank you, Wang Bin, for your contributions to my research. It is a favor that shall not be easily forgotten."
"Excellent," Wang Bin said. "Well, we know how my project went, I suppose. Brother Shuang?"
"I require more still," Ke Shuang grumbled. "I've barely enough to create more than a dagger. I require an entire spear's worth, unless you've forgotten."
Wang Bin didn't sigh, but he wanted to.
"We have discussed this," he said. "The initial plan was simple, brother Shuang. I have exceeded the demands placed on me, as has Cen Xun. I agree that the disruption of the plan came as something of an annoyance, but we've made up for it since."
Cen Xun nodded. "Indeed. Several charnelhouses' worth of specimens went to you, as they did to us, Ke Shuang. And then we delivered a few more. I believe we've depopulated a small village. Should we take another? It draws attention."
"I'm telling you I need more," Ke Shuang hissed. "So give me more. I will pay, if that's what you're hinting at."
"We cannot move without risking that we upset the cart," Wang Bin said. "At that point, things become dangerous, as we've said."
"I don't see how that's my problem," Ke Shuang said. "Regardless of your excuses, I still need -"
"It is your problem," Wang Bin said, interrupting him. "Some of us have rather more to lose than others, don't we. If we were ever... exposed. I can simply flee and take a different name, but perhaps not all of us have that luxury."
Ke Shuang scowled. His hand flew to his spear.
"Are you trying to threaten me?" he asked.
"No," Wang Bin said, not budging an inch. "Never, brother Shuang. I dare not tangle with the man who made it all the way to the second round of this year's second-grade tournament. I was very impressed."
"You're mocking me," Ke Shuang hissed. "You little crippled bastard. I ought to -"
Wang Bin activated the first of the talismans that he'd placed surreptitiously beneath Ke Shuang's chair. His qi reached out and bound the man to his chair, deep shadows lashing him like invisible ropes, so tightly that the blood circulation to his limbs was cut off, but so thin that they were almost impossible to spot.
Ke Shuang's eyes bulged with anger.
"Just a reminder," Wang Bin said calmly. "We are here for a reason. If you have no desire to enjoy yourself, then of course we shall let brother Shuang go and attend to his own tasks."
"I am here for power," Ke Shuang hissed. "And, to me, power is not being leashed like a dog by these cumbersome rules and regulations. Yet now you bind me?"
He strained against the bonds that held him. Wang Bin felt the yang-aligned qi crash against his own yin-aligned qi and snap through the fragile threads of shadow that he'd woven. Ke Shuang straightened, attempting to look imperiously down on Wang Bin. His hair floated in the sudden breeze of heat which surrounded him. Light flickered around him, ready to be gathered into a specific purpose.
"Listen, cripple," Ke Shuang said. "Perhaps it really is as you say. But don't forget who I am. Don't forget what I can have done to you. Else we will see what these pathetic arrays and little plans of yours achieve in the face of true overwhelming power."
"I have no desire to offend your mentor," Wang Bin said, neatly also implying that Ke Shuang's only power rested with his uncle. "Please rest assured, brother Shuang. Has a plan of mine ever failed?"
Ke Shuang snorted, but even he couldn't think of a single time. He simply swished his sleeve, took up his spear, and vanished into a step so bright that it might have permanently seared the eyes of anyone unfortunate enough to look at him.
Only Cen Xun lingered a little longer It was time for something between the two of them, then. Wang Bin activated the array on the table just to make their conversation a touch more private, but he didn't undo the sound recording arrays. He liked Cen Xun, quite a lot actually, but in a world like this there'd be no reason not to take precautions.
"That was a neat touch, with the array," Cen Xun said quietly. "You knew which chair he would pick? You could've made it a little stronger, you realize."
Wang Bin smiled. "For all his faults, he is observant enough to notice me if I try to put something on his chair while he was sitting down. And if it was too strong, he'd have noticed that, as well. I knew that he'd stomp in without checking twice if anything had been done to the chairs, however."
"My," Cen Xun said. "You trapped each of the chairs?"
"I trapped each of the chairs," Wang Bin confirmed.
"Including mine?" Cen Xun's hand rose to his heart, as if attempting to protect himself from the shock. A man who would order the deaths of dozens just to push his own defensive art to a slightly higher level wasn't so fragile as that, though. It was a good pantomime, and that was all.
"Including," Wang Bin said, drinking the last dregs of his tea, "my own. Just in case, you understand."
"How cunning," Cen Xun said.
"Really," Wang Bin said. "It was a question more of when to activate the bindings. It was something of a temptation throughout the meal, including when he snatched that piece of duck from me."
"Or the way he was staring at that waiter," Cen Xun murmured. "The man didn't spill a single grain of rice and yet you'd think by the glare that he'd insulted Ke Shuang's mother for a whore."
She had been a whore, in fact, and all three of them knew that. Ke Shuang was the only one who insisted that she had been something more.
"The important part is, of course, that it got him out of here without asking any further questions," Wang Bin said. He smiled again. "He didn't think to ask about why we wanted him involved in the plan at all."
"He's close to Inversion, you know," Cen Xun said. "The madness is becoming more apparent. That might become a problem, no?"
"Perhaps," Wang Bin allowed. "But I'm sure his uncle will take care of that, no?"
Cen Xun's laugh was like the ringing of a bell.
"That said," Wang Bin said, quietly. "I can't share where I'm going next, brother Cen. If you need me..."
Cen Xun nodded, a faint frown marring his face.
"The same methods as always," he said. "I'll think back to these evenings fondly."
"As will I," Wang Bin said. He rose to his feet. "Business is thereby concluded, I believe."
"Quite," Cen Xun said.
"Do you have time left for a final night on the town, brother Cen?"
The other man smiled at him again. "If you insist, I shall have to oblige, won't I? It'll be my pleasure."
"I believe it will be. Let's paint the town red, shall we?"
And, with that, the Gathering of Young Demons came to an unremarkable end. As Wang Bin left, he flicked his finger and launched a thin bolt of shadowy qi at the flower garden, activating the arrays that he'd hidden there that he hadn't ever told anyone about. The timer began counting down: two days left, to the minute.
Just because he would be absent now didn't mean that he couldn't leave a little surprise for Wu Hao, after all.