Whatever game the Hall Master was playing, and whoever her enemies were, Wu Ling knew far too little to make any decisions about it. As much as he hated being reduced to a chess piece on her board, he had to admit that there was too much he didn't know and couldn't influence to pretend he was anything else.
"That's not for you to know until you become an Understudy and help me clean up the rest," the Hall Master said, waving his question about who his mother killed for her aside as irrelevant.
"My point is that while there are many things for which your mother owes me a debt, the reverse is also true," she said, stating it as a matter of obvious fact. "After trading so many favors back and forth, we can be considered friends even if we haven't become as close as your mother and your Aunt Hyacinth. To make a few moves for my friend's child, I can do at least this much."
