Others say we live in the gutter, that we are the trash discarded by our betters. Do not believe them. Each one of you is as beautiful as a rose and as deadly as a dagger. In our trade, you will learn when to show your beauty, and when to show your thorns. Once you master this, nobility will tremble before you and the world will open up at your word. -Takura Teruya of the Blood Thorn Assassins

  “I’m honored by your attentions, Sect Leader Iza,” I began, bowing my head slightly in respect.

  “And I’m trying not to be too heartbroken that you’ve been playing with shades and oni instead of coming to see me,” she mused. “I heard all sorts of juicy rumors from the Forgotten House about a grand plan to stabilize the economic and social condition here in the Fourteenth, yet no one in Blushing Rose has heard a peep from you.”

  “As I said, an oversight. However, I would be keen on making it up to you, if you’d let me.”

  Sect Leader Iza’s eyes turned up in a coy smirk behind her fan. “Well, then in that case, please come with me. There is much I’d like to discuss, and I prefer a more relaxed environment for such discussions.” I stood just as she did. It was at that moment that Xinya brought out the tea, ready to serve in her capacity as my disciple.

  The Sect Leader’s fan dropped slightly, revealing a thoughtful look as she watched Xinya. The little girl recognized the attention on her and bowed politely.

  “Ma’am. This one is Lang Xinya, Uncle Yoru’s niece and disciple.” Her introduction was polite, possibly the most polite I’d ever seen the young cultivator, which I found curious. Yet, she hadn’t been in the room when the Sect Leader had introduced herself, so I was unsure of what it was that drove my niece to such behavior. What did she want from Sect Leader Iza?

  “Master Tsuyuki, if I’m not mistaken, you’re unmarried, correct?”

  “That’s a rather personal question.” I narrowed my eyes, unsure of what that had to do with the business she wished to discuss.

  “Your disciple is a young girl, one without a feminine influence to teach her how to be a woman,” Sect Leader Iza pointed out, her gaze meeting mine.

  “I fail to see the-”

  Before I could move, the Sect Leader’s form warped before my very eyes. Suddenly, she was the spitting image of my sister, Aya. Dressed in the same silks as the Sect Leader, she looked stunning, just like how I always imagined she looked at the height of her career as a courtesan before her health had begun to deteriorate.

  Sect Leader Iza stepped forward, latching onto my arm. “Surely, you don’t wish to deprive your disciple of the tools at her disposal, no? She will soon become a woman, and when she does, she will need to know how to deal with men. Do you think you can teach her that?”

  I swore internally. Sect leader Iza was an obake, an insidious classification of shapeshifter yokai that included a wide variety of species. Though I didn’t know the specifics behind which variant she classified as, the fact that she worked in the brothels of the Black City told me exactly what she was trying to do, and it made my skin crawl.

  “Could you please take a different form to hold this conversation,” I asked politely.

  “What’s wrong with this one? I plucked the image of the woman you find most beautiful straight from your head. Did you have a bad break up or something?”

  “No, you picked my deceased sister.”

  Sect Leader Iza backed off a step, eyeing me carefully. “Hm. The most beautiful woman in your life is your sister?” she flicked her fan open and gave me a coy look over the top. “I wonder what that says about you.”

  “Nothing that isn’t already common knowledge to those who know me,” I growled back. The presumptuous shapeshifter was starting to cross the border from an annoyance to being outright rude.

  “I see. Then, you have my apologies.” She returned to her previous form. “Somehow, I don’t think my current attire would suit the person you truly hold most attractive in your mind’s eye.”

  My ears and cheeks flashed hot, and I looked away. “Did you have a point in all of this?”

  “Just making notes, is all,” Sect Leader Iza snapped her fan closed. “I’ll return to those notes after taking measure of you. Shall we be off?”

  I nodded curtly and grabbed my bow from the door once more. Though I was still thoroughly exhausted from the expedition to Half-Moon Manor, this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Lin could safely stow the ward flags and deliver Chouko’s fertilizer to Ishida without me.

  Sect Leader Iza followed me, and I thought I caught a whisper from Xinya as we left. The little girl was in awe of the obake’s sparkling attire and glittering jewels. For all the female cultivators that Xinya had encountered, Iza was unlike any of the others. She’d met Pollen, who was the perfect image of a graceful fairy with the proud demeanor of an empress. She’d met Kansi Ren, a fierce hurricane who was less concerned with appearances than the righteousness of her actions. Most recently, Xinya had met Ishida Sumiko, whose quiet politeness hid a devious mind and wicked intellect.

  Yet, Iza was none of those things. Sure, she was exceptionally graceful, and I had no doubt she was both powerful and incredibly smart, but she sported a far different brand of femininity that I wasn’t sure Xinya had ever encountered before: the temptress. Though my niece was still too young to truly know what Iza’s talents were truly used for, the beautiful clothes and perfect flowers were enough to dazzle her.

  “You’ve quite the interesting disciple,” Iza mused as she laced her fingers around my arm, matching my pace as if we were a couple out for a pleasant stroll.

  “She’s eleven.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Eleven is not far from becoming a woman when we live on the scale of centuries,” she continued. “I wonder if you’ll be ready when you turn around and find her all grown up.”

  “It is my privilege to raise her,” I answered. “I should like to see the woman she will become. I only hope it is a version that her real father would approve of.”

  “I assume he’s dead,” she asked as we rounded a corner. The first of the red lanterns came into view.

  “He is.”

  “And if she’s with you, then she has no other family to go to. It’s not an uncommon story for those in the district.” There was no judgement in her words, nor did I sense any intent beyond simple conversation. Then again, I wasn’t sure if I would. The Sect Leader made her entire life around people. She was an expert in manipulation and conversation.

  “I doubt that you sought me out just to speak of my niece,” I said.

  “Yes, I believe you were offering to make it up to me that you didn’t come visit sooner.”

  The main street of Blushing Rose territory was lined with lanterns, casting a red haze over the street. The evening crowds were just beginning to draw out the courtesans who worked the street. They waved from balconies, calling out to potential clients. A few waved at Iza and called greetings to the Sect Leader.

  “Sect Leader! Who’s this oni eye-candy with you this evening?”

  I blushed and smiled politely. This was Iza’s territory, and thus, her place to respond.

  “Like him? He’s a business partner, but tell your matron that if she’s interested, she should get the boys out here when we return this way.”

  That…wasn’t the response I had in mind, I thought, my eye twitching slightly. Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to resent either the workers or the Sect Leader too much. I remembered well the days when Chouko and I had worked as guards on a street just like this. Yokai loved their brothels, both as patrons and workers. Just like anywhere, this place had its good and bad sorts.

  We walked down the street, and I felt myself slipping into old habits. My eyes swept across the streets, observing the patrons. There were all types, here. Spirit beasts with barely humanoid forms mingled with more dedicated yokai species like kappa and oni. All around, beautifully dolled up men and women alike in every species I could think of walked the streets, catching patrons and guiding them back to their dens. A woman with an incredibly long neck and one eye in the middle of her face took a shade by his arm, while her companion, a graceful kitsune with three tails trailed behind, still searching for her mark. Without even thinking, I profiled the patrons. Few were the particularly aggressive sort. Two oni in Chikara colors were nearby, trying to woo a pair of courtesans who looked like twinned mirror yokai, but they were behaving respectfully enough that I let it go with only a small note made.

  “You have a practiced look,” Iza said. “You watch the quiet corners and dark alleys just as much as the street itself. What do you see?”

  “Mostly fair patrons. A few I’d keep an eye on, but nothing that is immediately concerning,” I admitted. “You keep a tight district, yet I don’t see even half the guards I’d expect for a street this size.”

  “Good guards are hard to come by, and the Blushing Rose Sect is spread thin, as it is,” she explained. “Most of my sect is focused in the north to diffuse any issues with the Shattered Moon Sect before they get out of hand. I walk the southern sections on my own to make up for it.”

  “Are Shattered Moon disciples abusive customers?” I asked, trying to keep the growl in the back of my throat from being too present in my voice.

  Iza nodded. “If I could ban them, I would. As it is, we can only keep the relative peace, which is why I was most keen to hear rumors of your efforts to remove their grip on the district.”

  “They are a disgrace to everything I stand for.”

  “They stand for the Darkened Moon and his insanity.”

  “No, they don’t,” I said with a shake of my head. “Trust me. I’m intimately familiar with the Darkened Moon, and I assure you that even he wouldn’t summon moon reavers in the streets.”

  “Is that so?” Iza looked at me over the top of her fan with such scrutiny that my ears began to heat up again. It seems I might have underestimated the woman.

  “It is. Now, if you’ll excuse me just a moment.” Out of the corner of my eye, trouble was brewing, and old habits and my soft heart wouldn’t stand for it.

  Hidden just inside the shadows of an alleyway, a hulking oni with one eye was facing down a much smaller, much more terrified looking man with dog-like ears atop his head and a fluffy tail tucked around his legs.

  “I-I-I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean to run into you,” the spirit wolf stammered, keeping his gaze lowered.

  “Well, your apologies just aren’t good enough, little dog.” The oni reached out, ready to grab the courtesan by the shoulder, but I caught his wrist first. He turned in surprise. “Who the heck are you?”

  “Someone disgusted with the grunts you make, and who has the cultivation to silence them permanently,” I growled, letting some of the void seep through my skin to burn his wrist. “Now, get lost before I decide it’s worth my time to dissolve every bone in your body while you’re still breathing.”

  The oni paled, seeing my horns and fine features, and assuming that I was of the same race. Even though I was no oni, myself, the comparison still inspired fear in those who didn’t know a spirit when they saw one, which was perfectly fine by me.

  “I…s-sorry, sir! I’ll…just…just be going.”

  “If I find you here again, I won’t hesitate to make good on my promise,” I growled, releasing his wrist. He fled without another word, and I watched him all the way to the end of the street before turning to the spirit wolf he’d pinned. “Are you alright?”

  “Y-yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” he answered, his head bowed in submission.

  “Keep your chin up, Lunis,” Iza said, coming up behind me to straighten one of the wolf’s sleeves. “The night is still young. Take a moment to gather yourself, and you’ll be just fine.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Thank you, Sect Leader Iza.”

  He spoke with an accent that sounded strange to my ear. Coupling that with his unusual name, I gathered that he was a foreigner. After a somewhat clumsy bow to Iza and I, the spirit wolf walked several buildings down and turned into what was probably the brothel he belonged to.

  “Poor kid. He came here from the Summoned Isle, but between the language and the customs, he has such a hard time,” she mused before turning to me. “Thank you for standing up for him. You were just a hair faster than I would have been. You really do have sharp eyes.”

  “I used to work as a guard on a street like this. That sister you changed into earlier was a courtesan there for a time.”

  Sect Leader Iza nodded. “You understand our position, then. I’d like to be able to protect every inch of these streets, give the workers the treatment they deserve, but I can’t do that until the Shattered Moon Sect is out of the picture. I may not be able to offer much, but I would like the Blushing Rose Sect to be included in this plan you have for the district. I will personally contribute my services as a cultivator if that is what it takes.”

  Her posture was tense, and her knuckles were white as they gripped her fan. Whatever her background, whether she was a courtesan or not before becoming Sect Leader, she was dedicated completely to her mission. I admired that.

  “I intend to remove the Shattered Moon’s dominion over this district. If you could help by removing their people quietly when they visit your territory, that would be more than enough.” I crossed my arms. “But, if you ever have a hand or two to spare, I wouldn’t say no to an extra guard or two on our project. The fields could always use an eye as keen as yours.”

  “Fields?”

  “More like rice paddies.”

  A grin crept onto Iza’s face, but she covered it with her fan before she could be accused of anything inappropriate, not that I would have said anything.

  “Very well. Consider it done, my void spirit friend.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Oh, and one other thing, as a personal favor for stepping in for Lunis,” Iza’s eyes grew wicked. “If you ever want to cut your sleeves for any of the boys here in the district, I’d be more than happy to pay for their services for you.”

  I scowled at her. “Hilarious.”

  Iza winked over her fan. “I know I am.”