The candles had burned halfway down their stems, leaving the room cloaked in a soft golden hush. Outside the wind shifted, carrying the faint sounds of music from another courtyard—plucked strings, delicate laughter, the clink of wine cups. It was easy to forget we were at war.
But we were... and it wasn't a war that I was comfortable fighting.
I was facing an army of women, each wearing powder like armor and wielding smiles like blades, and each one trained since birth to dominate the inner courtyard. I was completely out of my depth. I felt like since I had arrived in the Capital a few month ago, I have just been reacting, not knowing when the next strike was coming.
And now, I was tired of it.
Shi Yaozu closed the door behind him and set a stack of scrolls on the low table. "Fifteen more names," he said. "All confirmed. The rest are either too new to place or too smart to be obvious."
I didn't look up from the list in front of me. "How many in total now?"
