"I have to wonder, even if they're busy, isn't hiring someone like you to do work like this pretty expensive?" Ling Qi asked idly. It was a nice day out, only a little cloudy. The wind was brisk and cold, blowing past her as the wagon trundled down the well kept gravel road.
"You are correct, although I have been discounting my services quite a bit," Bao Qian replied cheerfully. He sat at the other end of the drivers bench, a warm red fur cloak wrapped around his shoulders.The reigns hung loose in his hands, the horses pulling the wagon needing little guidance.
"Why would you do that?" Gui piped up. Her little brother as their 'chaperone', sat on the bench between them.
"More shiny rocks are better, yes?" hissed Zhen. Right now Zhengui was only the size of a large dog, so their voices had regained some of that cute squeaky quality that Ling Qi sometimes missed.
"If I had to guess its probably a long term ploy in a way," Ling Qi said absently, she glanced back into the shadow of the wagon, wear Hanyi had decided to take a nap, bored by the trip.
"Miss Ling is insightful," Bao Qian chuckled, leaning back on the padded bench. "I have said that I have many advantages and this is one of them. With the wealth of my clan stipend at my back I can easily cut my rates so much that no competitor can compete while I build relationships with my clients. Most troubleshooters of this type are second and third children of small barons after all, who need to amass their own fortunes."
"And you're fine with that?" Sixiang drawled, appearing as a phantom face peering over Ling Qi's shoulder. "Didn't you say you wanted to build something on your own?"
"Indeed I did, but this is not my business, it is merely networking," Bao Qing replied cheerfully. A short tug on the reigns brought them around a turn, trundling into the forested hills that abutted the Wall in this region. "That said, there are other reasons why the local Baron is not handling this 'in house'."
"What are those?" Ling Qi asked idly.
"Mainly the value of priests capable of proper last rites. It is not a popular profession and one way or another, it seems likely their services will be in high demand in the future," Bao Qian said. "That is why we are going to demolish the building in the end, and let wild spirits reclaim it. It is considered more economical than a true exorcism."
Ling Qi frowned. So far things had been contained, but they couldn't expect that to stay true. She supposed bao Qian was right, those priests would be getting a lot of work. Silence fell over them as the conversation petered out, leaving only the sound of horses hooves, the south wind and the wagon wheels.
Eventually, Bao Qian coughed into his hand. "I do hope my sudden request didn't give you any trouble with your Mother, you mentioned informing her."
Ling Qi nodded, she was working to be better at keeping her Mother informed. She'd been worried of course. "Zhengui is a very dependable chaperone, aren't you little brother."
"Yes! We will keep an eye out for Grandmother," they both chirped.
Ling Qi rolled her eyes a little, Bao Qian chuckled.
"To be serious, no, my Mother trusts me with the matter," Ling Qi said.
"That is good. I would not have minded meeting her to make my case though," Bao Qian said idly.
Ling Qi glanced his way. That would feel like taking a step she wasn't ready for yet. "I don't think that's necessary."
"Maybe after the tourney. Your Mom is putting a lot of work into making things presentable," Sixiang said.
Internally, she sent a nasty look Sixiang's way. The muse whistled innocently in her head. "I suppose if we're talking about that kind of thing, what about your parents?"
"Ah, that is probably a long way off. We would probably need to come to an actual agreement first," Bao Qian replied carefully.
Ling Qi caught what she thought was his meaning though, and wrinkled her nose."I suppose there is that much difference in status huh?"
"That was not my intention," Bao Qian deflected. "They are just very busy individuals. Even I do not see them often. Their business is such that it can only be set aside for major events and festivals."
"My apologies then," Ling Qi replied, feeling a bit sorry. She should probably try to take less things personally. "What do they do?"
"My father is the overall administrator of the clans business in the eastern half of our county, serving under the clan head himself," Bao Qian replied. Watching his face, she thought she saw some genuine pride there. "Mother is one of the most renowned jewelers in the Empire, and spends much of her time in her homeland of Celestial Peaks. Several princes and princesses are among her clients."
"I suppose they wouldn't have much time then," Ling Qi said. "Do you have any siblings?"
"Only two, I have a brother and a sister some decades my elder," Bao Qian replied. "Apprenticing under my parents at the moment."
Ling Qi nodded as Bao Qian in turn, began to ask a few careful questions about her own situation. It wasn't an unpleasant way to while away the remaining hour of their trip.
***
The old manor lay deeper in the forested hills, whatever ground which may have once surrounded it long reclaimed by nature. Her first glimpse of the building itself had come through one of the winking wisps which she had sent out to surveil as they entered the woods.Through it she had spotted a crumbling stone wall at the top of the ridge.
They had left the wagon behind at the point where the road failed entirely overgrown with new trees, and followed the patchy grave lpath up toward the manor. Given its age and abandonment it was in surprisingly good condition. The garden wall still stood mostly intact, and inside the grounds had been overgrown by leaves and vines, the building itself formed an arch shape,with two wings built out from the central structure, one of those wings had wholly collapsed under the weight of a massive fallen trees, but the rest was still recognizable.
Burnt, sagging and rotted, but recognizable.
Ling Qi grimaced as she peered down into the scum covered poolthat had once been the garden pond. Zhengui, still shrunken, stood at her side, peering around in curiosity. She took his lack of agitation as a good sign. There probably wasn't anything truly nasty here.
"Ugh, what a dump," Hanyi said, kicking a stone into the goopy pond.
"But it's a dump that might have some treasure," Sixiang said cheerfully.
"Hm, I guess so," Hanyi said dubiously.
"We do have the right of salvage, but I wouldn't expect too much," Bao Qian chuckled, bustling through the crumbling gates to stand beside them. On his back was a bundle of wood stakes, roughly the size of fence posts carved with identical formation arrays.
They would have to place those at the right points in and around the property to contain any spiritual pollution from the demolition leaking out. Ling Qi shaded her eyes as she looked up squinting into the shadows that lay beyond the second floor window. The fact that she couldn't immediately see through them told her the darkness was unnatural.
"I'm a little surprised the barbarians left the place standing at all," she mused.
"The fragmentary tribal alliances left in the Great Khan's wake did not have the might to raze all in their path to the ground," Bao Qian said, starting down the path toward the front doors. "They were dangerous and deadly, but not so overwhelming that they could act with impunity."
Nudging Zhengui with her foot, Ling Qi took Hanyi's hand and began to follow after him. Wissps carrying her vision darted out among the weeds, spooking the muddy crawling things that lurked there. "I'm still surprised that things remained so bad. Even really neglectful rulers should have been woken up by Ogodei, shouldn't they?"
"Hm, I can only speculate," Bao Qian replied, testing his weight on the sagging wooden steps. Ling Qi mounted them without a single squeak or groan. "But, the destruction of the southern counts left the region unadminastrated, and the Sect's aside, the Hui refused to parcel out the land they had gained to the remaining counts."
Ling Qi crinkled her nose as the scent of mildew and wood rot reached it, a wave of her hand kicked up a breeze pushing the scent away as she peered through the broken doors. Insects and other scuttling things scattered before her searching eyes. "I suppose if they had time to absorb it that much land would give them an advantage over the counts who were left."
"Just so, those old villains feared and despised their own vassals more than any foreigner," Bao agreed. "I can put myself in the mind to understand it, but all the same, I find them a contemptible lot."
Ling Qi considered Hui Peng, and considered his overweening arrogance, maintained even when nearly all else had rotted away. She doubted every Hui had been the same, but if he had been of an average sort…
"I suppose so," Ling Qi mused as they stepped inside. Haunting noises echoed in her ears, soft sobs, the crackle of flames, the clash of flesh and metal. At her size, Zhen hissed and snapped forward to devour a squirming worm spirit that had been caught between bent floorboards and Hanyi peered around toward the direction of the ghostly sounds, looking vaguely hungry.
"I suppose a little hauntings not really much of a spook for us huh," Sixiang drawled.
It wasn't Ling Qi mused.
"If you would, Miss Ling, the ritual song I provided?" Bao Qian said, shifting the weight of the stakes on his back. "We'd best start in the basements I think."
Ling Qi nodded absently, and gestured, materializing her flute from storage.Bao Qian had given her a simple piece to memorize, it was meant to pacify the unquiet dead until their remains could be dealt with. For a ruin this old such spirits could no longer simply be put to rest though, this would keep them from interfering with their work.
Soon the melancholy strains of the funeral song echoed through the halls and they set off.
"Sad though it is, I do like this song," Bao Qian said. "There is a polished elegance to works so old."
Ling Qi nodded faintly, not needing to actually physically play for something so simple, she glanced his way.
[] Follow up regarding the Hui, you're a little curious to hear Bao Qian's thoughts on the recent history of the Emerald Seas.
[] Ask him about the song. It is beautiful, even in its simplicity. You're curious about the musical traditions of the Emerald Seas.
