"Sister Wu Ling, what kind of place is this?" Su Yao asked, looking around the illusory view with wide eyes and a slack jaw. "I know it's an illusion, I saw it activate, but it feels real. I can even feel a breeze blowing!"
"The breeze is real, look at the steam from the teapot," Wu Ling said with a smile as he began adjusting the blend of tea leaves with the dried peels of Five Flavor Fruit. "There's a charm in the corner to take care of that. Normally, this room should cost twenty-five spirit crystals an hour to use, or fifty sect contribution points, but Mother Cang is being generous with us since I haven't visited in so long, and because she wants to help make a good impression on two potential new disciples," Wu Ling explained.
"So the sect profits even off its own members?" Yao Meifeng asked with a frown. That sounded like an exploitive trap and she'd seen too many of those from the shady businessmen running the establishments she'd been performing in since running away from home.
"No, there's no profit in that fee," Wu Ling explained. "We're using spirit crystals now to power the formations and the illusions," he said, gesturing lightly at the glowing crystals scattered around the room. "If the sect didn't charge for the upkeep of the room then the room would always be occupied because it's very popular. The fee both handles the upkeep and keeps people from overindulging. You'll find that all over the sect."
"You still didn't answer my question," Su Yao pouted. "This place feels like somewhere you go to say things the world shouldn't hear about. Like you've taken us somewhere to plot a murder. It's pretty," she added because it truly was, "but it's underground and I can feel formations everywhere even if I don't know what they do."
"No one is plotting a murder here right now," Wu Ling said with a light laugh as he passed out teacups. "Maybe after we leave, but not right now," he teased.
"You're joking, aren't you?" Yao Meifeng said, hesitating to drink the cup of tea she'd just been passed. "Do people really plot murder here?"
"Assassination," Wu Ling corrected, sitting back on the plush cushions and inhaling the familiar fragrance of Mother Cong's well-preserved tea leaves. "When you do it for hire, it's called assassination, not murder. You both wondered why everyone was afraid of me," he continued gently.
"What you're seeing is the part of the Bamboo Silk House that most people don't know exists. This is where I grew up," Wu Ling explained slowly. "My mother's title inside the sect is 'Elder Phantom', she was known as the Phantom Blade Dancer before she took up her position as an Elder and took charge of the Hall of Red Shadows. In this branch of the sect, all of the sect's assassins answer to her," he explained, watching both women carefully for their reactions.
Unsurprisingly, both women had become a bit pale. Su Yao felt like she'd been painted a pale purple-blue of shock while Yao Meifeng's aura had taken on a disturbing shade of yellow fear. While Wu Ling felt that there were more gentle ways to explain the truth of the Bamboo Silk House, ultimately, he thought that putting the most disturbing elements up front would allow him to calm them down afterward as opposed to facing a surprising revelation at the end.
"I mentioned my Aunt Hyacinth several times," he said gently, resuming his explanation between sips of the fragrant tea. "While she's moved to the Inner City in recent years, when I was growing up here she was still one of the five elders of this branch. As far as Mother and I know, she still is since the Hall Master hasn't been able to find a replacement Poison Master to take over her duties here."
"Junior Sister, wait," Yao Meifeng said, holding up her hands and putting the cup of tea down without taking a sip. "You're saying that your mother is the sect elder in charge of assassins and your aunt is a poison master. She's the one who taught you to make tea, isn't she? The one you were talking about taking tea leaves from with the woman you called Mother Cang?" Yao Meifeng said, her hands trembling and her eyes wide with fear, looking at Wu Ling as though he'd become a deadly viper.
When Wu Ling stepped back into her life, she'd felt like she rediscovered an important friend. As they played music together and slowly built their duet, each day felt like confirmation that the woman who had been her best friend in school could be the man of her dreams. Yet now, she sat again with her junior sister, her best friend from school, and listened to her talk about assassination and poisoning in the same light tone of voice that they'd once used when sharing gossip. It was like he'd taken off yet another mask that she never knew he'd been wearing and this one was much more shocking than the last.
"There are five elders in each of the four main Outer Sect branches," Wu Ling explained calmly, watching their reactions carefully as he spoke. "My mother leads the assassins, although one of her deputies has held much of the day-to-day responsibilities for years now. My aunt is the elder in charge of alchemy and poison, and much like my mother, she has dedicated much of her responsibility to an Independent Alchemist who's been training under her for some time."
"Besides them," he continued. "There is Elder Snow, who manages the public-facing business of the sect, Elder Glimmerwing who tends to the thieves in the sect, and Elder Hush who manages spies and the network of informants. Properly, the sisters caring for my mother should fall under Elder Glimmerwing," Wu Ling added. "But Aunt Hyacinth caught them planning to rob us the night I found Senior Sister Yao playing with an injured wrist. Aunt Hyacinth called them away to become my mother's attendants to keep them out of trouble."
"Your own sect sisters were plotting against you?" Su Yao asked in shock.
"Only because they didn't know about my identity," Wu Ling said lightly, waving off the concern as something trivial. "Of the five Elders," he continued, "only Elder Snow is considered a member of the Light Half of the sect. The rest, my aunt and mother included, are considered part of the Dark Half of the sect. Since I awakened, Hall Master claimed me for the Dark Half as well."
"How? How could you be a part of a place like this?" Su Yao said, almost as shaken as Yao Meifeng was. There was something deeply disturbing about the way Wu Ling described this den of spies, thieves, and assassins like… like it was any normal family business. He sounded just as casual as Su Yao herself sounded when she brought friends to her aunt's clothing shop or her father's workplace, but Wu Ling was talking about… her mind ground to a halt, unable to follow the thought any further as another, even more alarming thought occurred to her.
"Does my cousin know?"