Emperor Valerian
First Post
Xianlung
Nayu gave a wince, but tried not to show his grimace. He looked back, and saw Chou was even less diplomatic... the soldier had both of his covering his ears. Liu, to Nayu’s chagrin, was riding blithely along, as if there was nothing wrong. Silently, Nayu wished for that kind of patience and concentration as his eyes looked to his right, at the source of their discomfort.
Unperturbed, Felonca continued to sing beyond her vocal range, a radiant smile beaming from her face as they cantered along the main road to Xianlung. Nayu held back another wince as her improvisation song and rhyme continued.
“I’m happy I’m alive,
Its such a great vibe,
Better than the ride
That hurts my backside,
But it hurts ‘cause I’m alive!”
“Make it stop,” Chou groaned.
“She’s happy. Let her be,” Nayu replied. I’d be giddy and singing if I’d cheated death like that too!
“But she’s been like this for two entire days!” Chou moaned, as another refrain began to assault the air. Felonca was still singing happily, oblivious to the comment.
“She’ll stop once we reach Xianlung,” Nayu assured, wincing as she hit a very high, very flat C. If not, someone alongside the street will comment loud enough she will hear, and then we’ll have a mess... “If you don’t want to hear it anymore, you can scout the road out ahead, give us some heads up on anything.”
“Gladly,” Chou grumbled, spurring his horse ahead.
Singing grew old by the time Chou galloped into view a few hours later as the sun was starting to set. Silently, Nayu thanked his ancestors as the singing changed to humming, and the gave a growl as he saw Chou’s frightened looking face.
“The bridge is out ahead! The prefect has people fixing it right now, but for the time being, we’re going to have to cross two days further south!”
Two days... that’s not that bad. I wonder why...
Oh.
Nayu remembered Chou had been one pushing for the group to just plunge ahead to Xianlung when Felonca was hurt, even after they’d figured out pushing that quickly would be cutting close. If they’d pushed on ahead, only to find the bridge washed out...
Nayu shook his head, and smiled when Felonca gave a happy sigh and launched into another refrain.
“The setting sun is red,
Soon it will be time for bed,
I’m happy, it can be said,
After all, I’m not dead!”
Some three days later, the party spied over a hillock the walls and pagoda towers of Xianlung. Smoke from hundreds of chimneys rose lazily into the air, as the noises of the bustle of a large city echoed faintly in their ears.
“So... um... Xianlung is quite big,” Felonca said breathlessly. That’s the biggest city I’ve ever seen! She looked over at Nayu, who had a smile of memories on his face.
“There’s maybe 40,000 people in the city,” he said, before his eyes clouded a bit and his smile died suddenly. “That’s what my father always said.”
The look lasted only a few seconds, before Nayu suddenly shook his head.
“When we get inside, I’m going to the local scholar academy... they’ll likely be interested in many of the items we’ve... procured. Like the claws from that undead creature we killed.”
“What use would those be, other than stinking up the place?” Chou grumbled. They were packed on his horse, something the warrior had also complained frequently about.
“I have no doubt Nayu can get them to buy them. After all, he’ll be trying to prove to us all how excellent a trader he is!” Felonca chuckled. Scholars are always after weird things, which should make things easier for him... and maybe that’ll get his mind off of his parents...
The city proved as impressive in Felonca’s mind as it initially looked. Its streets were broad and smooth, and on all sides markets bustled and merchants hawked their wares. Felonca’s wide eyes caught sight of strange colorful birds, monkeys, rare spices, gems, even a real tiger. Just as they passed a fountain, its four dragons spitting water to the four winds, she heard a laugh from beside her.
“If you think this place is big... Mingzhong, the provincial capital is bigger,” Nayu grinned, reining up his horse. “We’re here.”
Felonca’s eyes then looked to where Nayu gestured, and saw a massive, long building, easily taller than all those around it. Its entrance was set thirty steps above the street, surrounded by gardens and trees. From atop the structure hung several pennants: one displayed the character for “knowledge.” Another, “wisdom.” The third displayed a character she recognized as a sound, but not a word. “Hu.”
“Is Hu the surname of the governors of Langya?” Felonca asked, dismounting in awe.
“Yes,” Liu replied. “Governor Hu Yuan, Prince of Langya. He has been governor here for many years... he was governor when my father was born even. A wise and virtuous man.”
“Well,” Nayu smiled, eyes gleaming from the potential to make a deal, “let’s hope his scholars are little less wise!”
“This... is most interesting, young man,” a silk clad elderly man said a little while later. One hand carefully held a claw from the undead beast, while the other carefully stroked his long, snow white beard. As he bowed his head to inspect the sharpness of the claw’s edge, his tall, thin head-dress flopped forward slightly. After a few seconds, his head snapped up in decision. “I think we might offer eight hundred taels of gold for this... artifact.”
Nayu’s frown became palpable.
“Eight hundred? Most wise sage, there are mere street hawkers outside who offered me fifteen hundred!” Nayu lied. It wasn’t something he did often, but when he had to, he did it with panache.
“No street vendor would have the same resources as our,” the scholar waved his arm towards the roof of the chamber they were in, “esteemed, and most virtuous students of Master Kong-Shi.” The boast was followed by a polite bow, but the scholar’s eyes watched Nayu the entire time.
And Nayu gave a sigh.
“Well, I would like to sincerely apologize for wasting your time,” Nayu gathered up the claws and other items. “And mine as well. I can see that for all your wisdom, you do not appreciate what these items are, or how much they would be worth. I think that T’sao Yun the trader would understand their value more...”
“Wait.” The words were forced, and when Nayu turned around, suppressing a grin, it was clearly evident that that scholar did not want to pay the price. He was backed into a corner, however, and Nayu grinned as he watched a surrender.
“You’re really good!” Felonca laughed twenty minutes later, as she and Nayu left the Scholar’s Academy, several thousand gold taels richer. “Remind me never to buy anything from you!”
“Ah... your a friend, you’d get a discount,” Nayu waved off her statement, before grinning again. “Now, let’s sell the rest of this. I don’t think the scholar’s would have let us leave if they knew we had twelve of these claws instead of nine!”
“You really expect that there’ll be some traders here that will buy them?”
“Maybe,” Nayu mounted his horse, and after a moment, the two were heading towards another market in the city. “T’sao Yun might be interested... My hopes aren’t high, but I think he still has an item that might help me some...well, two actually.”
“Like what?”
“Well, one, the last time my father took me here, he had a small choker, very beautiful, inlaid with diamonds and gold. More than looking pretty, however, it also has a little magic in it to help me be more persuasive.”
“You? More persuasive? Why do you need to be more persuasive? The way you verbally manhandled that scholar, the paragon of knowledge and wisdom these days, I’m guessing you could talk the Emperor himself into running through the streets naked!” Felonca laughed.
“I’d rather that than accidentally run into my verbal match with no backup plans,” Nayu grunted, as Felonca laughed even more.
“A verbal match? Ha! I don’t think such a person exists!” She laughed more, before calming down enough to ask what the other thing T’sao Yun had that interested Nayu.
“Well... he also knows people that can put magic into weapons, for far cheaper than asking the prefect or one of the schol...”
“HE DOES?!?” Felonca asked, mouth agape. Her eyes flashed down, and suddenly her two warfans were in her hands, and she waved them about excitedly. “He can put some magic in these?”
It was Nayu’s turn to laugh. “Yes... almost whatever you want, so long as you have the taels. Whether you want your faces to be coated in ice to keep you cold on a hot summers day, or to give off a fresh smell ever time they’re waved...”
“Great! Let’s go!” Felonca spurred her horse to a gallop in the crowded street, scaring pedestrians. Nayu gave a low grunt of, “Oh no... here we go,” before spurring himself after her.
“Now, let me do the talking,” Nayu cautioned a few minutes later, as the two stood outside a rather large tent in the midst of the main bazaar. “Master T’sao can be an old curmudgeon, but he’s fair.”
Felonca gave a sigh. I really want to help out! I want to get some magic in my warfans! Impatiently, she stood outside the tent, listening to murmurs, grunts, and muffled complaints by Nayu and another deep voice.
“...I cannot pay more than nine hundred for each of these...”
Hmmm... what’s in these other tents? Felonca thought, looking at the other tents around the bazaar. Gingerly, she wandered over to the one next to T’saos, and poked her head inside. Before her eyes was a tent full of claws and bones, an old man on the far side hawking the benefits of ground tiger teeth as an aphrodisiac, and powdered beaver skull as an elixir to cure headaches.
There’s at least another person who’d like some bones, I bet! Let’s see if there are any more...
Quickly she went from tent to nearby tent, looking in, and saw a great many of them had bones of various kinds... and an idea started to grow in her head.
“...the scholars paid fifteen hundred! If you want, I can just go back to them...” she heard Nayu complain, his voice now loud and possibly angry.
“...just go on. They won’t have a choker like mine, and they’ll overcharge on the weapons...” another voice replied matter-of-factly, but also with an edge of anger.
“No they won’t!” Nayu growled, anger now flashing in his eyes. Anger at T’sao for being an unmovable, stubborn man, and anger at himself for not being able to move the old man from his position. “They’re good, honest folk, that’ll pay fair price!”
“Young whelp,” the old man smiled, with the same damningly calm, toothy smile he’d kept for the past half hour, “they’re in the same business as me. Get their stuff as cheaply as possible, and I perfectly well think you’re lying. They didn’t pay you no fifteen hundred gold for each claw. You know it, and I...”
The monologue stopped suddenly, as both T’sao and Nayu heard a voice outside, high pitched, hawking.
“Undead beast claws! Right here! Rare, from the woods north of here, from a beast thrice the size of a horse! Right here! Asking price, two thousand gold per claw! Who knows what wonders they might contain, what ailments they might cure! Stankh claws, right here!”
Oh gods and ancestors, please tell me she’s not... Nayu started to complain, until he and T’sao peered outside the tent.
Felonca sat on her horse, Nayu’s steed at her side. Around them was clustered a large mass of people, many of them traders from the surrounding tents, yelling, shouting offering gold and in a few cases, platinum taels. Felonca momentarily caught Nayu’s gaze, and gingerly she moved the horses closer to Nayu.
“Hey Felonca!” Nayu called cheerily, his own mind realizing what she’d done. “How goes it, what’s the asking price now?”
“Well, there’s a plump old woman here named Urihu that wants to give twelve hundred gold per claw!” Felonca pointed.
“I’ll pay eighteen!” T’sao suddenly jumped in, his eyes glaring at the woman Felonca pointed out. Immediately, the woman spat back she’d pay nineteen hundred, just to make sure that T’sao didn’t get his hands on them.
“Two thousand!” T’sao shouted at Urihu, “and I’ll give you two the choker for free!”
“Well, now that that chaos is over, where to now?” Felonca asked a few hours later, running her hands over her warfans. The air around the two weapons seemed different, almost as if it were pulsing. “Oh, and the choker looks very nice on you... be careful, someone engaged in my field will try to liberate it from you I bet!”
“Eh, if they try, they’ll get a morningstar filled with my spells to urge them to leave!” Nayu laughed, before his face became serious again. “As for our course... we should press to Mingzhong. The governor is there, and at the least, he must know of what is going on to the north. And...”
“...he might know where your family is,” Felonca finished. “I’ll go fetch Chou and Liu.”
Nayu gave a wince, but tried not to show his grimace. He looked back, and saw Chou was even less diplomatic... the soldier had both of his covering his ears. Liu, to Nayu’s chagrin, was riding blithely along, as if there was nothing wrong. Silently, Nayu wished for that kind of patience and concentration as his eyes looked to his right, at the source of their discomfort.
Unperturbed, Felonca continued to sing beyond her vocal range, a radiant smile beaming from her face as they cantered along the main road to Xianlung. Nayu held back another wince as her improvisation song and rhyme continued.
“I’m happy I’m alive,
Its such a great vibe,
Better than the ride
That hurts my backside,
But it hurts ‘cause I’m alive!”
“Make it stop,” Chou groaned.
“She’s happy. Let her be,” Nayu replied. I’d be giddy and singing if I’d cheated death like that too!
“But she’s been like this for two entire days!” Chou moaned, as another refrain began to assault the air. Felonca was still singing happily, oblivious to the comment.
“She’ll stop once we reach Xianlung,” Nayu assured, wincing as she hit a very high, very flat C. If not, someone alongside the street will comment loud enough she will hear, and then we’ll have a mess... “If you don’t want to hear it anymore, you can scout the road out ahead, give us some heads up on anything.”
“Gladly,” Chou grumbled, spurring his horse ahead.
Singing grew old by the time Chou galloped into view a few hours later as the sun was starting to set. Silently, Nayu thanked his ancestors as the singing changed to humming, and the gave a growl as he saw Chou’s frightened looking face.
“The bridge is out ahead! The prefect has people fixing it right now, but for the time being, we’re going to have to cross two days further south!”
Two days... that’s not that bad. I wonder why...
Oh.
Nayu remembered Chou had been one pushing for the group to just plunge ahead to Xianlung when Felonca was hurt, even after they’d figured out pushing that quickly would be cutting close. If they’d pushed on ahead, only to find the bridge washed out...
Nayu shook his head, and smiled when Felonca gave a happy sigh and launched into another refrain.
“The setting sun is red,
Soon it will be time for bed,
I’m happy, it can be said,
After all, I’m not dead!”
Some three days later, the party spied over a hillock the walls and pagoda towers of Xianlung. Smoke from hundreds of chimneys rose lazily into the air, as the noises of the bustle of a large city echoed faintly in their ears.
“So... um... Xianlung is quite big,” Felonca said breathlessly. That’s the biggest city I’ve ever seen! She looked over at Nayu, who had a smile of memories on his face.
“There’s maybe 40,000 people in the city,” he said, before his eyes clouded a bit and his smile died suddenly. “That’s what my father always said.”
The look lasted only a few seconds, before Nayu suddenly shook his head.
“When we get inside, I’m going to the local scholar academy... they’ll likely be interested in many of the items we’ve... procured. Like the claws from that undead creature we killed.”
“What use would those be, other than stinking up the place?” Chou grumbled. They were packed on his horse, something the warrior had also complained frequently about.
“I have no doubt Nayu can get them to buy them. After all, he’ll be trying to prove to us all how excellent a trader he is!” Felonca chuckled. Scholars are always after weird things, which should make things easier for him... and maybe that’ll get his mind off of his parents...
The city proved as impressive in Felonca’s mind as it initially looked. Its streets were broad and smooth, and on all sides markets bustled and merchants hawked their wares. Felonca’s wide eyes caught sight of strange colorful birds, monkeys, rare spices, gems, even a real tiger. Just as they passed a fountain, its four dragons spitting water to the four winds, she heard a laugh from beside her.
“If you think this place is big... Mingzhong, the provincial capital is bigger,” Nayu grinned, reining up his horse. “We’re here.”
Felonca’s eyes then looked to where Nayu gestured, and saw a massive, long building, easily taller than all those around it. Its entrance was set thirty steps above the street, surrounded by gardens and trees. From atop the structure hung several pennants: one displayed the character for “knowledge.” Another, “wisdom.” The third displayed a character she recognized as a sound, but not a word. “Hu.”
“Is Hu the surname of the governors of Langya?” Felonca asked, dismounting in awe.
“Yes,” Liu replied. “Governor Hu Yuan, Prince of Langya. He has been governor here for many years... he was governor when my father was born even. A wise and virtuous man.”
“Well,” Nayu smiled, eyes gleaming from the potential to make a deal, “let’s hope his scholars are little less wise!”
“This... is most interesting, young man,” a silk clad elderly man said a little while later. One hand carefully held a claw from the undead beast, while the other carefully stroked his long, snow white beard. As he bowed his head to inspect the sharpness of the claw’s edge, his tall, thin head-dress flopped forward slightly. After a few seconds, his head snapped up in decision. “I think we might offer eight hundred taels of gold for this... artifact.”
Nayu’s frown became palpable.
“Eight hundred? Most wise sage, there are mere street hawkers outside who offered me fifteen hundred!” Nayu lied. It wasn’t something he did often, but when he had to, he did it with panache.
“No street vendor would have the same resources as our,” the scholar waved his arm towards the roof of the chamber they were in, “esteemed, and most virtuous students of Master Kong-Shi.” The boast was followed by a polite bow, but the scholar’s eyes watched Nayu the entire time.
And Nayu gave a sigh.
“Well, I would like to sincerely apologize for wasting your time,” Nayu gathered up the claws and other items. “And mine as well. I can see that for all your wisdom, you do not appreciate what these items are, or how much they would be worth. I think that T’sao Yun the trader would understand their value more...”
“Wait.” The words were forced, and when Nayu turned around, suppressing a grin, it was clearly evident that that scholar did not want to pay the price. He was backed into a corner, however, and Nayu grinned as he watched a surrender.
“You’re really good!” Felonca laughed twenty minutes later, as she and Nayu left the Scholar’s Academy, several thousand gold taels richer. “Remind me never to buy anything from you!”
“Ah... your a friend, you’d get a discount,” Nayu waved off her statement, before grinning again. “Now, let’s sell the rest of this. I don’t think the scholar’s would have let us leave if they knew we had twelve of these claws instead of nine!”
“You really expect that there’ll be some traders here that will buy them?”
“Maybe,” Nayu mounted his horse, and after a moment, the two were heading towards another market in the city. “T’sao Yun might be interested... My hopes aren’t high, but I think he still has an item that might help me some...well, two actually.”
“Like what?”
“Well, one, the last time my father took me here, he had a small choker, very beautiful, inlaid with diamonds and gold. More than looking pretty, however, it also has a little magic in it to help me be more persuasive.”
“You? More persuasive? Why do you need to be more persuasive? The way you verbally manhandled that scholar, the paragon of knowledge and wisdom these days, I’m guessing you could talk the Emperor himself into running through the streets naked!” Felonca laughed.
“I’d rather that than accidentally run into my verbal match with no backup plans,” Nayu grunted, as Felonca laughed even more.
“A verbal match? Ha! I don’t think such a person exists!” She laughed more, before calming down enough to ask what the other thing T’sao Yun had that interested Nayu.
“Well... he also knows people that can put magic into weapons, for far cheaper than asking the prefect or one of the schol...”
“HE DOES?!?” Felonca asked, mouth agape. Her eyes flashed down, and suddenly her two warfans were in her hands, and she waved them about excitedly. “He can put some magic in these?”
It was Nayu’s turn to laugh. “Yes... almost whatever you want, so long as you have the taels. Whether you want your faces to be coated in ice to keep you cold on a hot summers day, or to give off a fresh smell ever time they’re waved...”
“Great! Let’s go!” Felonca spurred her horse to a gallop in the crowded street, scaring pedestrians. Nayu gave a low grunt of, “Oh no... here we go,” before spurring himself after her.
“Now, let me do the talking,” Nayu cautioned a few minutes later, as the two stood outside a rather large tent in the midst of the main bazaar. “Master T’sao can be an old curmudgeon, but he’s fair.”
Felonca gave a sigh. I really want to help out! I want to get some magic in my warfans! Impatiently, she stood outside the tent, listening to murmurs, grunts, and muffled complaints by Nayu and another deep voice.
“...I cannot pay more than nine hundred for each of these...”
Hmmm... what’s in these other tents? Felonca thought, looking at the other tents around the bazaar. Gingerly, she wandered over to the one next to T’saos, and poked her head inside. Before her eyes was a tent full of claws and bones, an old man on the far side hawking the benefits of ground tiger teeth as an aphrodisiac, and powdered beaver skull as an elixir to cure headaches.
There’s at least another person who’d like some bones, I bet! Let’s see if there are any more...
Quickly she went from tent to nearby tent, looking in, and saw a great many of them had bones of various kinds... and an idea started to grow in her head.
“...the scholars paid fifteen hundred! If you want, I can just go back to them...” she heard Nayu complain, his voice now loud and possibly angry.
“...just go on. They won’t have a choker like mine, and they’ll overcharge on the weapons...” another voice replied matter-of-factly, but also with an edge of anger.
“No they won’t!” Nayu growled, anger now flashing in his eyes. Anger at T’sao for being an unmovable, stubborn man, and anger at himself for not being able to move the old man from his position. “They’re good, honest folk, that’ll pay fair price!”
“Young whelp,” the old man smiled, with the same damningly calm, toothy smile he’d kept for the past half hour, “they’re in the same business as me. Get their stuff as cheaply as possible, and I perfectly well think you’re lying. They didn’t pay you no fifteen hundred gold for each claw. You know it, and I...”
The monologue stopped suddenly, as both T’sao and Nayu heard a voice outside, high pitched, hawking.
“Undead beast claws! Right here! Rare, from the woods north of here, from a beast thrice the size of a horse! Right here! Asking price, two thousand gold per claw! Who knows what wonders they might contain, what ailments they might cure! Stankh claws, right here!”
Oh gods and ancestors, please tell me she’s not... Nayu started to complain, until he and T’sao peered outside the tent.
Felonca sat on her horse, Nayu’s steed at her side. Around them was clustered a large mass of people, many of them traders from the surrounding tents, yelling, shouting offering gold and in a few cases, platinum taels. Felonca momentarily caught Nayu’s gaze, and gingerly she moved the horses closer to Nayu.
“Hey Felonca!” Nayu called cheerily, his own mind realizing what she’d done. “How goes it, what’s the asking price now?”
“Well, there’s a plump old woman here named Urihu that wants to give twelve hundred gold per claw!” Felonca pointed.
“I’ll pay eighteen!” T’sao suddenly jumped in, his eyes glaring at the woman Felonca pointed out. Immediately, the woman spat back she’d pay nineteen hundred, just to make sure that T’sao didn’t get his hands on them.
“Two thousand!” T’sao shouted at Urihu, “and I’ll give you two the choker for free!”
“Well, now that that chaos is over, where to now?” Felonca asked a few hours later, running her hands over her warfans. The air around the two weapons seemed different, almost as if it were pulsing. “Oh, and the choker looks very nice on you... be careful, someone engaged in my field will try to liberate it from you I bet!”
“Eh, if they try, they’ll get a morningstar filled with my spells to urge them to leave!” Nayu laughed, before his face became serious again. “As for our course... we should press to Mingzhong. The governor is there, and at the least, he must know of what is going on to the north. And...”
“...he might know where your family is,” Felonca finished. “I’ll go fetch Chou and Liu.”
