Xia Lin's dress was very pretty, but unfortunately, she wore it with the same air as a cat stuffed into a costume. Ling Qi felt for the other girl, and was very glad that her own gown was also her armor.
"It's good to see you again," Ling Qi offered, walking with her from the entrance of the auction houses yard.
The Golden Orchid was a sprawling building some three stories tall, filling a whole block in the trunkward part of the city. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden and the front of the building was taken up by a roofed porch that was otherwise open to the air, leaving a comfortable space for guests to wait and talk before the actual auction took place, behind the ostentatious central building were the warehouses for the goods that would be auctioned, whose potent security formations Ling Qi could sense from here.
Although the ones she could sense so clearly were probably there to distract, and show off, with other more subtle defenses beneath really. It was what she would do.
"Yes, I do not think Xiangmen agrees with me," Xia Lin said, looking harried.
"It's a little overwhelming, but I thought you would be more used to it," Ling Qi said, glancing at Xia Lin. "Don't the White Plumes train here?"
"Our training camp and prime staging facilities lie in the outer boroughs, not the city proper. Everything is too packed and chaotic inside," Xia Lin said, smoothing the trailing white and gold sleeves of her dress for the seventh time since Ling Qi had met her at the gate.
"I wonder, if this girl got to unwind, would she leap into the air like an unmoored spring?" Sixiang chuckled.
"There's something to be said for spontaneity. I've enjoyed touring the city, maybe I could show you a few places after the auction?" Ling Qi offered.
"I-" Xia Lin frowned uncertainly as they mounted the steps of the porch, giving her an odd, measuring look. "-If you like, Lady Ling."
"Ling Qi please, I think we're past that," she said dryly.
"I suppose that kind of distance is inappropriate, after smiting a corpse immortal together," Xia Lin said absently, turning an assessing gaze over the other guests. She looked like she was assessing danger in the wilderness instead of measuring a gala full of civilians even now.
"It is," Ling Qi said, nodding wisely as they moved through the loose crowd of attendees. Since they were the the one's selling on the days first lot of auction items, they were invited within to check everything and observe from a raised box for the duration. The man at the door bowed and let them pass.
"Are you intending to participate in the other auctions of the day?" Xia Lin asked.
"I may," Ling Qi said. "Though I'm not certain what I would be looking for."
"I am similar. I have little need for externally supplied equipment," Xia Lin said. "...But I suppose if I am accompanying you and Lady Cai after this, I will need some kind of household?"
"Well I hope the White Plumes will let you stay in their barracks awhile longer. It will be some time before there's anything but temporary construction," Ling Qi said. "Still it will be good to have you, There are quite a few dangerous places in the land Lady Cai has claimed?"
"Oh? Tell me more," Xia Lin said, turning a curious eye to her.
They spent some time chatting about the discoveries made as they entered the back area of the auction house, guided by guards and attendants to make a final review of their lot. While Ling Qi trusted the appraisers Cai Renxiang had hired about the starting prices, it made her feel better to see that everything she had cataloged with Meng Dan was there.
With the inspection complete they were free to rejoin the other attendees now trickling in.
"You've been here longer, what can you tell me about who is planning to attend?" Ling Qi asked absently as they exited the storage areas, strolling along the richly paneled hall.
"Why would you ask me about such things?" Xia Lin asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because you won't go into a battlefield without reconnaissance," Ling Qi said.
Xia Lin wrinkled her nose irritably. "This is not my favored terrain."
"I'm sure you didn't let that stop you."
"...The court clans of Xiangmen are out in force. I have been dodging luncheons and other fripperies since I arrived," Xia Lin finally said, looking sour. "But the remaining ones have been scrabbling for importance since the Duchess reorganized Xiangmen."
"What exactly do the court clans do, and how do they work anyway?" Ling Qi asked. "I've not found the time to ask Lady Cai, and I feel like this is another of those things everyone is simply expected to know, and forgets that a common girl from a little city does not."
Xia Lin shot her a curious look. "Lately, little enough. Court clans occur mostly in Xiangmen, the Imperial City, and the Peaks, and to some degree in the Alabaster Sands, where there is enough wealth in cities to support a clan even if they own little land, and the ruling dukes are not numerous enough to fill those roles themselves."
"I understand that part well enough," Ling Qi said. "But what do they do?"
Xia Lin pursed her lips. "Mercantile and bureaucratic work mostly. They staff the ministries, move goods and such. In Xiangmen it used to be that each Provincial Ministry and such things as the Xiangmen guard were the fiefdoms of individual clans in function. The Duchess eliminated this practice, and now those that remain jockey for new ways of making wealth."
Ling Qi gave a sidelong look to Xia Lin. "Eliminated huh?"
"The Dai, who once made up over seventy percent of Xiangmen's guard officers, no longer exist as a legal entity, though the few adults found innocent of any crimes were absorbed into other clans or positions. There is a Dai among the White Plumes," Xia Lin acknowledged. "Three others suffered the same, several others were badly mauled but remain extant, but stripped of their special privileges. Those who remain are… a strange mix of caution and ambition."
Ling Qi hummed, she'd look into it more closely on her own at some point. "Where would you place the court clans against more normal clans in influence?"
Xia Lin considered that carefully as they approached the end of the hall. "Comparable to viscounts, for the most part? It is hard to say, their methods and bases of power are too different.
Passing through the doorway, they entered the waiting room together, where the attendees were beginning to gather. "Well enough on that for now, other important attendees?" Ling Qi said lowly, activating her own screening techniques to keep their conversation private.
"As you would expect, the Meng and Luo are the most interested, the Bao have a representative as do the Diao, neither the Wang nor the Jia have any open attendees," Xia Lin said quietly, scanning the room alertly.
"Hm, I have my own channels for meeting the Meng" Ling Qi said thoughtfully.
"Yes, Meng Dan does seem fond of you," Xia Lin agreed.
"I've had some success negotiating with his grandmother too. I don't feel that position needs shored up," Ling Qi agreed. While she didn't have any great rapport with the Meng clan as a whole she had her foothold and she didn't think she could expand that further here. "I do have some contact with the Luo, but it's much more neutral."
"It may not be a poor idea to establish more contacts in the capital," Xia Lin offered. "A great deal happens in Xiangmen, and I know the Duchess is loathe to give Lady Cai unearned resources."
"It isn't a bad idea. The nascent network she was working on did have contacts in Xiangmen maybe…
"Yeah, there's a lady from on of the court clans on your mailing list, ah I think I saw her in the sign in book too. You want me to look for her?"
Ling Qi nodded. Glancing to Xia Lin, she smiled. "Sorry agreeing with something my spirit said."
"I noticed the signs, sadly this is even less my halberd's venue than it is mine," Xia Lin said.
"Anyway, any out of province guests of note that you've noticed?" Ling Qi said.
"A number of nobles from the southern Celestial Peaks are present, the Luo are hosting some Golden Fields emissaries," Xia Lin said crisply. "I believe there is a diplomat from the Western Territories as well, and I heard rumor about a Zheng wandering around the district."
"Really?" Ling Qi asked.
"It's only a rumor," Xia Lin said, shrugging uncomfortably, looking back at her expectantly.
Ling Qi blinked slowly as she came to realize something. Xia Lin was looking to her for marching orders. In this pairing, she was the more expert at social business.
Stop laughing, Sixiang, she thought sourly.
What was the best approach here?
[ ] Your eyes in the city itself are still woefully undeveloped, find your new 'friend' among the Court clans to have a conversation and perhaps receive a few more introductions. It can't hurt to build up an important contact more.
[ ] It's important to keep up with the biggest players. Make your way to the Luo attendee and chat a bit about history and current events, perhaps speaking to the Golden Fields as well about their own problems in the south.
[ ] You are in the rare position of being the center of this whole gathering, being the sellers of this auctions lots, perhaps it is better to only lightly mingle and instead see who comes to you. It may be more revealing than making advances yourself
