Eirian had to fight to hold back a laugh at their panicked expressions. They looked like two schoolboys caught cutting class.
She had her blade with her now, sitting on her hip, and Ardain immediately stirred, calling out when she felt the presence of Huaban and Qiang Ye. Chenzhou and Yuze both jerked back in surprise.
All three swords started to sing, a cacophony of conflicting notes that only the three of them could hear.
Like magic, blooding blades could only be heard by people other than their bearers when they were at the height of their power, in the heat of battle, or freshly bathed in blood.
The realization that all three of them had blooding blades had all three of them eyeing one another all over again.
"How did a princess get a blooding blade?" Yuze's hand fell to rest on his own.
"How did a poor boy?" Eirian returned, and they stared one another down while Chenzhou looked awkwardly between them.
"Eir- Lady Ye, this is Rong Yuze, Chief Eyes for the Camelia."
"And your best friend since childhood, right?"
Chenzhou flashed Marian a look of warning. "Right." Marian looked back, unrepentant.
Eirian huffed and joined them at the wall. "Eirian is fine."
She studied them for a moment while Chenzhou worried and Yuze fidgeted.
"So what's the big secret?"
They shared a sideways glance.
Eirian sighed, "Come on. Spit it out. I know something's going on here."
Yuze's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How?"
Eirian rolled her eyes. "Please. You might not be able to see it, but I can."
Chenzhou took a deep breath. "The Camelia has been in decline for decades now."
Eirian shook her head. "It's not in decline. It's being poisoned."
"How- how is that possible?" Chenzhou looked stunned.
"Magic," Eirian explained. "Someone used magic; it's a miasma. It's hanging over everything like a poisonous fog."
Chenzhou and Yuze looked around.
"It's strange that you can't see it, with how strong it is," Eirian said, watching them.
"Could that be on purpose?" Chenhzou wondered. "If it's magic?"
"Maybe. I guess it's possible." Eirian admitted she hadn't actually considered that someone would try to hide it. "It's a hell of a thing to hide. Almost seems…out of character."
"Don't you need to know who's responsible to know if it's out of character?" Yuze pointed out.
"If you were killing a prominent estate like the Camelia, the gem of the Empire, who would you hide it?" Eirian countered. "Wouldn't it be the ultimate show of power?"
"It can't just be about taking down the Camelia, though." Chenzhou interrupted, and they both turned to him. "Taking down an estate this size would cripple the Empire. That's, this is…"
This is what?
He didn't know what it was.
Yuze frowned. "You think someone is trying to use the Camelia to bring down the Empire? You haven't even been here a full day."
"I doubt that was the plan," Eirian scoffed. "It wouldn't work for one thing. But there's also no way to guarantee when it would happen. What if whoever it was did it as part of some convoluted plan to take the throne, and then the collapse happens after they get it? Or it hangs on for a decade longer than they planned? It's too uncontrollable."
"But why would they do it in the first place?" Chenzhou wondered, more emotional than he'd felt in years. Why would someone try so desperately to destroy the Camelia?
He turned to Eirian and froze, her icy gaze pinning him in place.
"I don't know, husband. Why would someone want to destroy your family?"
Confused, Chenzhou glanced at Yuze, who shrugged. "Why would someone target my family?"
"Why would someone target the Camelia?" Eirian returned. "It could be as simple as a personal grudge. Maybe you demoted someone? Killed someone's family member."
Chenzhou blinked, a long list of bodies fallen to his sword suddenly swimming in front of his eyes.
"Could be a rival?" Eirian suggested. "Or, I guess, a rival of one of your ancestors."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, this level of miasma doesn't just show up. It takes decades."
Chenzhou laughed. He couldn't help it. "So it's not even about me. It's not something I did. All this suffering."
"Wait," Yuze put a comforting hand on Chenzhou's shoulder. "If it's that old, that means the plan, whoever it was, didn't work. Right?"
Chenzhou's chest twinged, a weight he couldn't see pressing down on everything. "Unless the plan was just to destroy us. The Ye's, my family, we used to be so big. All of the branch lines are gone now. It used to be common to have six or seven children, but my parents could barely have me, and my grandparents could barely have my father."
"The Camelia is bleeding," Yuze muttered. Eirian looked confused. "It's a saying. The Camelia is bleeding. It's been going around for the last decade or so. Ever since Cehnzhou's parents died, the decline became more obvious."
"Where did it start?"
Yuze frowned. "I'll find out."
Chenzhou pressed a hand to his chest, trying to feel his heartbeat, but it was so faint he couldn't feel it through his robes.
But it had to be beating since he was up and talking.
Right?
Eirian gave him a funny look. "What's wrong with you?"
Chenzhou dropped his hand. "Nothing. The miasma. Is there a way to stop it?"
"Have to find out how it started. Who started it? There are lots of ways to trigger something similar. The magic that was used will be the best way."
Chenzhou studied her. This stranger he'd summoned from the capital. A woman he'd already been pinning his hopes for the future on. Before he'd even realized how big they were.
When he'd started his search for a wife, he'd been worried about the weight of it all. Of everything, the Camelia required when it was healthy and how much more it required now that it wasn't. A single life could be an insurmountable weight at times, but a few hundred thousand…
Finding someone strong enough to lift it had kept him up at night. Drafting arguments and pleas to explain that his people were worth it, that these stones were worth it. That it wasn't yet their time to crumble and fall into the ravines they were built over, scattering families that had lived here for generations to the six winds.
And yet somehow, the woman he'd found, this sorceress with hair like moonfire and a blade drenched in blood on her hip, with eyes that gleamed like stars…
Somehow, he'd found someone who wasn't afraid of it.
~ tbc