Hua Yan jerked awake, cold sweat beading on her skin. It took her a moment to reorient herself and bring her mind out of the fog of her dream. Sitting up and wiping her face with her sleeve, she threw back the coverlet and leaned her arms on her knees. She recalled pieces of the vivid dream slowly, remembering racing through the forest away from pursuers, wounded and inflicted with qi-sealing poison, along with a man whose identity was....was....hm. It had slipped away, her bad habit of forgetting dreams surfacing once more. Perhaps she would recall it later, though it did seem to be an inauspicious dream, full of death and fear, with no assurance of survival. But that was nothing new for her.
She finally brushed away the last cobwebs of sleep and pulled herself out of the arhat bed, brushing aside the sheer silk drapes. "Dreams are dreams, and though they may contain omens, it is wise not to dwell on them unless you practice a seer's cultivation technique," Hua Yan murmured aloud.
Leaning over, she pulled on a tasseled rope, and her sensitive hearing picked up on the tinkling of a bell in the distance. While she waited for a servant to come, Hua Yan picked up the cup on the table nearby and poured herself some water. She had drained half of it when a soft tap on the door preceded the female maidservant entering the room. "You've woken, my lady," the young woman murmured, her eyes on the floor.
"Yes. Help me prepare for the day. Male clothing this time."
"Yes, my lady. Shall I prepare a bath as well?"
Hua Yan nodded, then realized the maid would not see it since she still had her eyes lowered. It was one of the downsides to having to conceal her features from even her own allies though she was their master. She had long ago tired of wearing a mask and using her gift at all times, and had simply ordered her servants to keep their eyes away from her face lest they receive harsh punishment. And they knew that she would know if they looked, even accidentally, since she had been cultivating and fighting for more than two decades, her senses honed by battle and her qi.
Letting out a silent sigh, she verbalized her assent, and spent the time waiting for the maid to prepare the bath looking out the window of her chambers at the courtyard below.
A couple of hours later, she had bathed and was dressed in the clothing she had customized for herself. As an assassin, Hua Yan was among the few females of the dynasty who wore male clothing. After all, in the clothing of females, it was very difficult to carry out the rigors of her responsibilities. That said, unless she needed to pass herself off as a male during a mission, she did not bother to conceal her feminine body, and so her clothing was much more delicate and feminine looking even though it was made in the male style.
She shooed the maid out, and went over to her wall of weapons now that she was alone. It took several minutes for her to conceal many different weapons and items around her body. The only weapons she wore openly were her two unique jian swords, one on either side of her waist. Jian swords were much easier for a woman to use rather than the larger and heavier dao swords, though Hua Yan had been forced to become proficient with a dao sword in her twenty-six years. One never knew when they would have to rely on an unfamiliar weapon during a mission, and unfamiliarity could easily get one killed. That said, she very much preferred to use her powerful and unique double swords, forged more than three thousand years before by a famous cultivator in the immortal body-forming realm. She had gone through a life and death struggle to get them, and thus was never without them.
Hua Yan glanced at the water clock on the table and sat down on the arhat bed for a moment. Closing her eyes and crossing her legs in a meditation position, she took a few deep breaths, and within seconds, the cool, tingling feeling that preceded her innate gift being used rose to the surface. When she opened her eyes and glanced in the mirror, her silky scarlet hair had turned a shimmering black color. Peering closer, she gave a cursory check to her eyes, ascertaining whether their unusual and eerie blood-red color had been turned to a dark black before she tied her black and gold mask around her head, concealing the upper half of her face.
Fully disguised and prepared for the day, Hua Yan fluidly rose to her feet. She started to head for the door, but changed her mind and made for the window instead. It would take too long for her to make her way through her mansion, and she was already running late since she had lingered in the bath. "It's all the fault of that ominous dream," she mumbled, before she swung lightly out the window.
Air whooshed by as she fell three stories and alighted on the ground below without a sound. An elderly servant nearby straightened up from tending the roses and let out a startled noise that sounded like a bear had tried to imitate a pig. "Master!" He gasped, clutching his heart.
Hua Yan lifted a hand. "My apologies, Bao. I was in a hurry so I took a faster route."
Bao sent a slightly nervous glance at the window she had come from, but he smiled at her. "Of course, Master. Today is a big day after all!"
She smiled at him, nodded, and continued on her way, heading for the front entrance with her hands behind her back. Once she was far enough away from the servant, she allowed her inward grumpiness to show on her face. "A big day, maybe, but an unwelcome one. Can't believe I have to meet that annoying mission stealer face to face again."
"Of course you do, Master! How else will you convey your displeasure to him?"
Hua Yan turned at the familiar voice, seeing her right hand and constant thorn in her side. "Min Ling," she sighed. "Don't say such things in front of *him*, or I'll kick you. We're trying to make an alliance with him after all."
The petite, rabbit like woman next to her, dressed in clothes similar to Hua Yan's, pretended to shiver in fear. "Oh no, not a kick! I'm never able to dodge them no matter how quickly I move! Fine, I'll be quiet now! Let's go, master! Everyone is waiting!"
Min Ling's voice was almost painfully bright and cheerful. When they had first met, almost seven years ago, Hua Yan had come within inches of killing her in her sleep because there was just. No. End. To the cheerfulness, no matter the situation. She had grown used to it over the years, and no longer fantasized about making the girl shut up, but Hua Yan still wondered how exactly she could be that sunny constantly.
She followed her subordinate's excited hops and skips, her own strides measured and patient. Today was definitely an important day, and she could not afford any mistakes, especially not in front of *him*. They desperately needed the cooperation of the other group, though she would never admit that to them, and their informants had assured her that the other group need their cooperation just as much. After all, Hua Yan thought grimly, their positions were particularly precarious after recent events.
Half an hour later, she stood with Min Ling and the rest of her closest subordinates at the front gate. "Right," she said, resting her hands on her sword belt, "let's go. We need to make it to the meeting place in the Yueliang forest by dawn tomorrow."
Min Ling's twin brother, who was as apathetic as Min Ling was energetic, leaned his elbows on his sister's shoulders from behind, yawning. "Yes, leader," he mumbled, his sleepy eyes following a butterfly that was flitting past.
Hua Yan rolled her eyes and flicked him in the forehead. "You had better wake up soon, Huizhong. We need to move quickly and quietly, and not being alert leads to mistakes at inopportune times."
Huizhong frowned slightly, as if trying to remember why he needed to maintain vigilance, and Hua Yan shook her head and gave up, knowing that even if he seemed sleepy and quiet, he would be able to sense danger just as quickly as her. "Move out!" she barked, and instantly, her surroundings blurred slightly as she tapped into her cultivation and movement techniques. Behind her, she could sense rather than hear the footsteps of her companions.
Min Ling and Huizhong were just behind her, as her right and left hand men, and behind them was a small string of Hua Yan's other subordinates, such as Lan Mei, a curvaceous and talented woman who had been with Hua Yan for several years and become one of her inner circle, and Zixin, her strategist. He, too, had been with her nearly as long as Min Ling and Huizhong.
She extended her senses further out once they had flitted past the boundaries of Hua Yan's hidden village and entered the forest that covered the mountain. There were a few villagers in the martial warrior realm sparring, collecting firewood, or tending to animals, but there appeared to be no one around that Hua Yan did not know.
Smiling, satisfied, Hua Yan raised her hand in a signal, and led the way in leaping up into a tree. From now until they reached the meeting place, they would travel across the treetops wherever possible.