August 2019: Share My Horizon

[marcicatverse]

Title: Share my horizon
Author: marcicat

Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Rating: T

Summary: AU -- with a few tweaks to the timeline, Shen Wei could have been a vigilante instead of a professor.



PROLOGUE

Here’s how it could have happened. When the Haixing Ministry suddenly found itself in possession of four ancient artifacts that their scientists said might be immeasurably powerful, but were also definitely the exact artifacts the Dijun Palace had asked them to look for, they made a deal. Of course Dixing should have its historical artifacts returned, but perhaps — a trade? After all, they were allies.

And the Regent, who knew an opportunity when he saw one, offered up an equally powerful item in exchange. Of course Haixing deserved a reward for returning Dixing’s rightful property. And he knew just what to give them. He would secure the Hallows and rid Dixing of its greatest threat in one easy swap.

Here’s how it could have gone after that. Shen Wei would awake to a Dixing that was — perhaps not thriving, but carrying on under the watchful eye of a Regent far from eager to entertain any threats to his power. And everyone knew the Black Cloaked Envoy had died to end the war 10,000 years ago. For someone to claim to be him — to impersonate the Hero of Dixing in front of the very Dijun himself! A criminal offense, surely.

It was in the cells beneath the palace that he heard the stories. Dixingren living in peace on the surface, only to be hunted down by the SID and turned over to the Department of Supervision. The lucky ones wound up in Palace cells. The unlucky ones simply disappeared, and were never heard from again.

“It depends on your power,” the prisoners told him. “That’s what everyone says. They lock you up and study you in their labs if you have a power they want.”

When he escaped, he took the prisoners with him.

“Say, what’s your name?” one of them asked.

He hesitated, but finally said, “They call me the Black Cloaked Envoy.”

Another prisoner whistled. “Like the guy from the war? Hey, do you think I should use a code name too?”

He didn’t bother correcting them.

*******
STILL THE PAST, BUT A LITTLE CLOSER
*******

Eventually, Shen Wei wound up in Haixing. It was easier to disappear there, in the crowds. Everyone told him the same thing — avoid the SID, avoid the Department of Supervision. No one knows what happens to the ones who disappear.

He had very little to lose when he broke into the Department of Supervision labs. Kunlun was gone. His brother was gone. Everyone he’d known ten thousand years ago was long dead, and the peace he’d fought so hard for had become nothing but a pretty lie. His people lived in darkness, whether it was below ground in Dixing or in hiding on the surface.

If he’d expected a challenge, he would have been disappointed. Cameras and biometric locks were creative innovations, but they hardly compared to the alien technology that had been suffused throughout allied headquarters during the war. Besides, there were few things that could withstand the sheer determination of the Black Cloaked Envoy when he was angry, and the deeper into the labs he got, the more angry he became.

It was in the deepest level, furthest from the sunlight, that he found something that stopped him in his tracks.

“Didi?”

“Gege!” Ye Zun beamed at him. “I thought I felt you wake up! I didn’t hear anything, though, so I couldn’t be sure.”

It was a trick. It had to be. But what its purpose might be, he had no idea. Surely he wasn’t important enough to anyone to set up a trap merely to see him suffer. “You’re — alive?” he said tentatively.

Ye Zun waved it aside. “Of course. Didn’t you get the official briefing? Or the unofficial briefing? Both, ideally? Did Zhang Shi send you? I admit I would have expected you to visit earlier, but I’m sure you’ve been busy. I assume you’re here to talk strategy.”

He stared.

Ye Zun frowned. “It’s fine to talk here; there’s no surveillance in this room. Gege?”

“You’re alive,” he repeated, like saying it again would make it more real. “You’re here. And you — don’t want to kill me?” He thought if the answer was no, he might let him, this time. The anger that had gotten him this far seemed to have deserted him, leaving only confused exhaustion in its wake.

“You didn’t get any briefing, did you,” Ye Zun said suddenly. “What happened, when you woke up?”

He answered without thinking. “I was brought before the Regent, and jailed for impersonating a war hero.”

Ye Zun narrowed his eyes. “But you are a war hero — so they realized their mistake and let you go?”

“No, I escaped.” He realized he was confessing a crime to late to stop the words, but Ye Zun just laughed.

“Of course you did. And you made your way here. Not by chance, surely?”

He shook his head. “The other prisoners warned me about the Department of Supervision. Rumor says they keep powerful Dixingren as prisoners and experiment on them until they die.” He had seen nothing to convince him that the rumor was false in his journey through the labs. Nothing until his brother, smiling and apparently healthy, at the heart of it all.

“You never could let an injustice go unanswered, could you?” Ye Zun looked at him carefully. "Are you all right?"

He hadn't been all right for ten thousand years. He wasn't even sure what that would look like, anymore. "I'm --" He tried to make himself say 'fine,' and couldn't get the lie to come out. "Tired," he said finally.

"I bet. You can't stay here, though. Do you have somewhere safe to go?"

He frowned. Nowhere was safe. "I'm not leaving here without you," he said.

"And you have no idea how much I appreciate the sentiment, but yes, you are." Ye Zun held up a hand to cut off his objection. "Short version: Haixing got me as a prisoner in exchange for the Hallows a while back. In the time it took me to work around the power-suppressing cuffs, Zhang Shi found me, told me the truth about what happened when we were children, and I agreed to help him rescue the Dixingren prisoners from the labs. We worked out a system. I've convinced their scientists that I'm helping, and I make sure they never find anything useful."

His mind was stuck on 'what happened when we were children.' "Who's Zhang Shi?"

"He's a Dixing symbiote living in one of the junior ministers, Guo Ying. He was also Ma Gui's apprentice, after the war."

The information did nothing to clarify the situation. "That doesn't help," he said.

Ye Zun took a cautious step closer, and he forced himself to stay still. He was torn between backing up and moving in, and he couldn't tell whether Ye Zun's caution was of him or for him. "I trust him," Ye Zun said. "And I trust you." He took another step.

They reached out at the same time. He clung to his brother, and found some strength in the fact that Ye Zun was gripping back just as hard. The words "I missed you" seemed horribly inadequate. He said them anyway. "I didn't know what to do, without you."

He wasn't sure how long they stood there, but eventually there was a quiet beeping from the corner. "That's the morning alert," Ye Zun said quietly. "You have to go. Come back tonight?"

“Of course."

*******
PRESENT DAY
*******

“The Black Cloaked Envoy must be stopped!”

Zhao Yunlan tried not to sigh. Minister Gao had been repeating the same refrain for their entire meeting. It was, as far as he could tell, the only item on the agenda. “Minister Gao,” he said, as calmly as he could. “The Black Cloaked Envoy is a historical figure. A general who fought in the war 10,000 years ago is not secretly running around Haixing in the present day."

Rumors about the Black Cloaked Envoy had been around for years. He was a ghost -- everyone swore they knew someone who'd heard of someone who once saw him, but no one seemed to have any proof.

Officially, the SID’s position was that the Black Cloaked Envoy was a code name used by one or more Dixingian vigilantes to conceal their identities. Until an hour ago, he’d thought that was the Department of Supervision’s position as well.

But one of those vigilantes had uncovered a scandal — and now one of the wealthiest businessmen in the city was reeling under accusations of kidnapping and child endangerment. It didn’t matter that the child had grown up into an angry — and still at large — teenager; the only pictures circulating in the news were baby photos and a single snapshot of a bright-eyed toddler wearing inflatable water wings. He couldn't fault their PR strategy; if they were trying to create sympathy for Dixingren, they couldn't have picked a better approach.

Unfortunately for the SID, when rich business-people had problems, they tended to make them other people’s problems. Which led him to Minister Gao’s office, telling him information they both already knew. "Anyone can put on a black mask and robe, but we know every Dixing person has only one special power. There’s no way all of these reports are the same person.”

“One power,” Minister Gao said, giving him a searching look. “What if I were to tell you that’s not entirely true?”

“Excuse me?”

Minister Gao leaned forward. "Zhao Yunlan. We've known each other for a long time. Since your father was killed, I've always tried to support you as he would have done. I fought for you to lead the SID when others questioned your age and -- experience."

Impossible to say which insult was meant to be implied by 'experience.' There were so many to choose from, really. He kept his expression fixed in a polite smile. "Minister Gao, let's speak plainly."

Minister Gao nodded. "Come with me."

He was led to the lab wing. "As you know, part of our agreement with Dixing is that prisoners are held by the Department of Supervision while they await transport," Minister Gao said. "Our scientists are extremely interested in learning more about how Dixing powers work. What you may not know is that they have the assistance of a -- former Dixing resident, who has been invaluable to their research."

He was starting to get a very bad feeling about the situation. He covered it with a wide smile and hooked his thumbs in his pockets. "Really?"

Another nod. "His power is -- quite unique. He has the ability to mimic the powers of others -- a weaker expression, of course."

They turned a final corner, and he was suddenly looking through a large observation window at a lab bustling with people. He couldn't see anyone's faces, and they were all in white lab coats, but only one of them wore it like a king's robe. That would be the Dixingian, then. He glanced at Minister Gao. "You think your lab assistant is the Black Cloaked Envoy?"

Minister Gao looked startled. "Of course not; he can't leave the building."

He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Not a lab assistant, then, but a prisoner. The treaty strictly forbid experimentation as a means of punishment, but this wasn't the first time he'd suspected they'd found some way around it. Minister Gao continued on, "But you know Dixing abilities tend to run in families. If one person has this -- mimicry ability, others might as well. Naturally, we've kept this out of public knowledge, in order to avoid any unnecessary panic."

Naturally. "What's his name?"

"What?"

He offered his blandest, most innocent smile. "His name. Whether the Black Cloaked Envoy is one person or many, surely they have an actual name. If this person has a shared ability, a family name could help us narrow our search."

"Ah, of course, always the investigator. He goes by Ye Zun." Minister Gao turned to lead him away from the lab. He didn't look back.

******
THE PAST AGAIN
*******

He went back, because he would walk into a trap every day of his life if there was a chance he would walk back out with his brother.

Ye Zun smiled just as brightly as he had the night before. "Oh good, you brought food."

The story Ye Zun told was fantastical, ranging from time travel to politics and back again -- as unbelievable, he supposed, as sleeping through ten thousand years of history and waking unchanged in an unfamiliar world. "All right," he said.

“You believe me?" Ye Zun looked surprised.

“Should I not?"

"No, you should; it's just people usually don't, at first."

The 'at first' made him smile -- it reminded him of a much younger Ye Zun, convinced he could talk the birds out of the trees, given enough time. He was rarely wrong. "How many people have you told?"

"Well, there was Guo Ying, but Zhang Shi did most of the talking. And Lin Jing; he works in the lab. He's very efficient at losing paperwork. And the Chu twins; they're our eyes and ears at the SID. And now you."

Six people. You could win a war with six people. But he wasn't sure what they were fighting for, anymore. To win the peace, he thought, it would take more than six. "Didi," he said. "What did you think would happen, when I woke up?"

His brother looked away. He waited. Finally, Ye Zun sighed. "I thought you'd be welcomed as the Black Cloaked Envoy, take your place as one of the leaders of Dixing, and sweep in and fix everything."

His heart clenched along with his fists. "I'm sorry."

Ye Zun grabbed his hand. "Don't apologize," he said fiercely. "This isn't your fault."

He counted his breaths while they sat in silence. Eventually, he said, "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in a revolution?"

He flinched. He'd thought about it. More than once, since he'd woken up. "When I led before, it was because our people asked me to. Now -- so much has changed. Replacing a leader who deliberately ignores their needs with one who is simply ignorant of them seems a poor trade. Unless you --?"

Ye Zun hesitated, then shook his head. "No. I think we both know that's not a good idea.“

“I would stand with you,” he said, because he would, and it seemed worth saying.

Ye Zun smiled. “I know. But I wouldn’t let you. And what I’m doing here — it might be small, but it’s good.”

He couldn’t be upset that his brother had found something to believe in. But he wasn’t used to being the one who was unsure. “What am I supposed to do?” he said.

Ye Zun leaned into him like he knew what he was thinking. “You do what you’re best at. Go help people. Fight injustice. And bring more dumplings next time.”

*******
PRESENT DAY
*******

"Well, they're definitely lying." Da Qing flung himself onto the sofa and draped himself over Zhao Yunlan's shoulder.

He rolled his eyes. "You think I need you to tell me that?" Chu Shuzhi was a terrible liar; his brother only slightly better. Luckily they focused on field work and surveillance, and usually stuck to being stoic and silent whenever the DOS was around.

Asking them if they knew the name Ye Zun had gotten him hastily covered surprise and sudden urgent recollections of business elsewhere. He tapped his free hand on the arm of the sofa. "What I want to know is, are they lying because they know him, or do they just know of him?”

Da Qing laughed. "What I want to know is how quickly they're going to tell the Black Cloaked Envoy, and what he's going to do about it."

Da Qing was the SID’s resident conspiracy theorist, and loudest supporter of the 'the Black Cloaked Envoy has eyes everywhere' rumor. It was hard to say whether his support made people more likely to believe it, or less. Zhao Yunlan was convinced he wanted it that way, and declined to know any more under the guise of plausible deniability.

"You think there's going to be a jailbreak?" That would be inconvenient for his credibility with the DOS, but he hadn't specifically been told to keep Ye Zun a secret. And it would be a small price to pay, regardless.

"Nah." Da Qing shook his head. "Information leaks out of the Supervisory Department like a sieve. If he wanted to be rescued, he'd be gone. I meant they're going to tell the Black Cloaked Envoy about you."

He swatted at Da Qing in mock offense. "Are you saying I'm not interesting enough to have rated a report before?"

"Ha!” Da Qing leaned back out of range. “Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

Despite the joking, he didn’t actually expect anything to come of it. The SID — officially tasked with apprehending Dixing criminals, including any vigilante(s) acting under the name Black Cloaked Envoy — had a long and quiet history of unofficial non-interference. The Black Cloaked Envoy avoided the SID; they returned the favor.

There was no reason to think he’d draw any sort of attention at all. And yet. He’d gone to bed in his apartment, and woken up in what looked like a warehouse. Dim lighting, open shipping containers, damp cement floor — “Abandoned warehouse, really?” he muttered quietly. At least it didn’t feel like he was injured, or drugged.

“You don’t like it?”

The voice that emerged from the shadows held the hint of a laugh. He sat up carefully -- he wasn't restrained, which probably meant whoever had grabbed him wasn't worried about him getting away. He wished he thought that was a good sign. He made a show of looking around anyway. "You couldn't tidy up a bit when you knew a guest was coming? My mother would be ashamed."

A figure stepped forward. Black cloak, black mask, dark energy swirling around both hands. The Black Cloaked Envoy, he presumed. Da Qing was going to be so smug. "Has your mother ever seen your apartment? I would have thought this would be an improvement."

He was shorter than Zhao Yunlan would have expected. "What did you do to my cat?" he said.

"Da Qing?" The voice sounded surprised. That Zhao Yunlan would ask about him? Or that he would think the Black Cloaked Envoy might hurt him? "He's fine. I left a note."

He could feel his eyebrows shooting up. “A ransom note? I’m honored, to be the Black Cloaked Envoy’s first kidnapping. Or am I a hostage?”

“What? No, of course not.” It was hard to tell, between the mask and the poor lighting, but he sounded genuinely flustered. ”It was an — explanatory note. So he wouldn't worry."

“Ah, of course!” He rubbed the back of his neck. No one had ever reported that the Black Cloaked Envoy was unhinged.

There was a long silence, although he was relatively certain the gap between them was closing in increments every time he blinked. He still wasn’t restrained; no demands had been made; and Da Qing — the damned cat — had an explanatory note from the Black Cloaked Envoy in his paws and was either laughing himself sick or marshaling the entire SID to stage a rescue.

Finally, he asked, “Am I free to go?”

The Black Cloaked Envoy sighed, like he was disappointed by the question. “I can take you back. I just — it’s good to see you.”

He blinked, taken aback. Then he laughed, and spread his hands out to the sides. “I hope you understand if I don't return the compliment."

They were close enough that he could hear the hitch in the Black Cloaked Envoy’s breathing. “Of course,” he said finally. Then, more briskly. “This way. I’ll take you back.”

It was exactly what he wanted. And yet.

“Wait,” he said, calling himself a fool even as he did it. Sure, tell the unstable vigilante that your bosses were keeping a super-powered Dixing prisoner that might be related to him; that was definitely going to go well. He did it anyway. “There’s a prisoner. They said his name is Ye Zun.”

The Black Cloaked Envoy didn’t look surprised. “And?”

He rocked back on his heels, surprised. “And I thought you should know? So you could help him? How should I know, you’re the vigilante here, not me.”

It got him an almost-laugh, quickly cut off. “You fight for justice your way; I fight for it in mine. You stay within the law, until the law fails. And then — here we are.” He waved a hand. “I’ll let Ye Zun know he made an impression.”

It was probably the closest he was going to get to an admission that Da Qing was right — again — and Ye Zun was no more bound by locks and doors than the Black Cloaked Envoy himself. He told himself it shouldn’t be reassuring, but he found himself breathing a little easier anyway.

*******
ZHAO YUNLAN’S PAST
*******

"I just -- walk in." He gestured at the door. "And walk back out again?"

The Regent nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes. Chief Zhao is very gracious, to accept our invitation."

It wasn't exactly an invitation. The Special Investigations Division was a joint task force authorized by both Haixing and Dixing to enforce the treaty. Haixing could appoint a Division Chief, but to be recognized equally by Dixing, they were required to make an official visit to Dixing and "meet the Hallows."

It had been considered a trivial formality for years, until one appointee failed to return, and his successor refused to participate at all. Zhao Yulan still wasn't sure whether his own selection had been a promotion, or if someone in the Department of Supervision was hoping he would disappear.

He looked at the door. "What's in there?"

The Hallows, of course!" The Regent seemed very nervous. Or he was very good at pretending to be nervous. "Truly, this is a great honor; viewing the Hallows is a privilege that few ever experience."

He took a deep breath. He stepped through the door.

He fell out of the sky.

And on what was already one of the most disconcerting days of his life, he made a split-second decision to intervene in a fight he knew nothing about, met an adorable version of Da Qing who didn't recognize him, and learned he'd somehow wound up 10,000 years in the past. In the middle of a war.

“So, time travel!"

Ma Gui and Fu You had explained what little they knew, and he'd agreed to go along with their deception and take Kunlun's place for as long as he was there. Ma Gui seemed fascinated by the entire situation. "In your time, do your people not know that the Hallows could be used for such a thing?"

Popular media seemed united in the idea that time travelers should keep their knowledge of the future a secret. Then again, how would they know? "I have no idea," he said. "The Hallows are closely guarded by Dixing."

Fu You nodded. "Yes, of course. But they work? They fused properly to create an energy source?"

He leaned back in his chair and spread his hands apart. "Ah, I'm not sure, actually." He'd gotten a glimpse of -- something, when the door opened, but whether or not it was a Hallows-powered energy source was beyond him. "Is that what they're supposed to do?"

Ma Gui frowned. "We think so. Their effects seem to be -- unpredictable."

They were interrupted by the arrival of the Black Cloaked Envoy, who looked even younger up close than he had on the battlefield. Younger, and somehow familiar, like Da Qing, even though he'd swear they'd never met. Ma Gui and Fu You sent them off with smiles and waves, and he tried not to feel like they'd been kicked out so the grown-ups could talk.

It was -- surprisingly easy, after that, to fall into the routine of life at the Alliance headquarters. Long days, late nights, training and planning; it wasn’t that different from the Academy, really. He couldn’t even say the food was worse.

And of course, there was Shen Wei. Shen Wei, the Black Cloaked Envoy, who took off his mask and smiled and turned Zhao Yunlan’s world upside down.

“I could happily stay here forever, as long as you keep doing that.”

Shen Wei laughed, and tugged gently on the strands of hair he was braiding. “You’re supposed to be learning how to do this yourself. Are you even paying attention?”

He leaned his head back against Shen Wei’s knees. “But Xiao Wei, if I could braid my hair myself, what excuse would I use to ask you to help me?”

Shen Wei blushed. “You know you don’t need an excuse.” He hesitated, and then added, “You never join in, when the others talk about what they want to do. When the war is over.”

Zhao Yunlan smiled to cover his sigh. Sometimes he felt impossibly old, an imposter in a sea of bright-eyed youths who believed their troubles would end with the war. Even though he suspected Shen Wei was considerably older than he looked, it couldn’t compare to knowing that ten thousand years later, they’d still be struggling with all the same choices.

“This war will be over,” he said carefully. “But there will always be conflict. I would rather live as I choose now, and not put it off. Who can truly guess what the future will bring?”

He’d spoken with the engineers who had worked most closely with the Hallows, and they all said the same thing -- maybe the Hallows would return him to his original time, and maybe they wouldn’t. Over some truly terrible wine, he’d admitted to Ma Gui that he hoped they didn’t. It was hard to miss Da Qing when he was right there. His mother would mourn, but she’d always said police work would kill him, and she would at least appreciate the chance to be proven right about him one last time. Other than that, who was there?

He reached a hand up so he could tangle Shen Wei’s fingers with his own. “Ah, Shen Wei. I would never leave you on purpose. Whatever happens, my greatest wish is that it will happen with me at your side, for as long as you’ll have me.”

The smile was audible in Shen Wei’s voice. “Forever, then? You might get bored.”

He laughed. “Never.”

It was a war. It was the happiest he’d ever been. And then the Hallows re-surfaced, and he left his heart lying on the ground while they ripped him back to a future he no longer thought of as home.

*******
PRESENT DAY
*******

Da Qing, as it turned out, had slept through the entire kidnapping. Which was probably good, since the note literally said, 'I need to speak with Chief Zhao. Don't worry.’ He burned it, and put the whole thing out of his mind.

Or tried to, at least. Suddenly it seemed like crime had dropped to zero -- and not all crime, just anything that would fall under the purview of the SID. The Department of Supervision even called them off the Huang Chaoyang case. It gave him too much time to think.

After a week, Chu Shuzhi and Chu Nianzhi announced they were taking the new recruit for off-site training, and Lin Jing stopped even pretending to do anything but work on his personal projects all day.

"You should be happy," Da Qing said. "No Dixingians are committing crimes! What's bad about that?"

He leaned back in his chair, and put his feet up on the desk. "Two things. One, it's suspicious. Suddenly all Dixingren have committed themselves to lives of peaceful good works? Why? Two, I'm bored." He gestured at the pile of papers by his feet. "I've even caught up on my reports. Do you know how many times that's happened since I got this job?"

"Never?"

"Exactly! Never!" He pointed at Da Qing. "If we don't have a case soon, the Department of Supervision is going to start expecting this kind of diligence all the time."

Da Qing looked appropriately concerned at that possibility. "What are you going to do? It's not like you can just go take a case from someone else."

It was true, but it was still better than any of his other ideas. "Why not? In fact, let's start now."

As it turned out, the head of the local security station was only too happy to meet with him for a long lunch. And if the conversation happened to turn to unsolved cases, that was only to be expected. "There's this one," she told him. "It's just pickpocketing, petty theft, that sort of thing. But he's fast. Very fast."

He pointed at the floor. "Fast, as in, down there sort of fast?"

"The Department of Supervision says no." She gave him a significant look. "And who are we to question our superiors?"

"Ah, of course."

She nodded. "Of course. Although, purely in the spirit of interdepartmental cooperation, if there were to be, say, a joint training exercise? In a specific area that happened to be known for a high volume of theft complaints?"

He gave a wide smile in return. "In the spirit of interdepartmental cooperation, I volunteer my team to assist."

Luckily, Zhu Hong was as bored as he was, and she dragged Lin Jing along with her. The pickpocket wasn't expecting a Yashou, and he definitely wasn't expecting power-suppressing handcuffs. It wasn't until he was in an interrogation room that things started going sideways.

"He clearly has Dixing powers!"

"Well, he also has an ID card that says he's a Haixing citizen, and it checks out in every system. If it's fake, it's a very good fake."

Zhao Yunlan watched the suspect -- Zhu Jiu, according to his ID -- slouch in his chair. "I want to talk to him."

"Go ahead."

As soon as he stepped into the room, the suspect held up his cuffed hands. "It's a violation of the treaty for local departments to use power-suppressing cuffs on a suspect," he said.

"That's very true!" Zhao Yunlan took a seat across from him and wiggled his fingers in a wave. "However, by some coincidence, you happened to encounter a training exercise with the Special Investigations Department, who -- as it turns out, are allowed to use them." He gestured at himself. "Chief Zhao Yunlan. SID."

The suspect looked nervous for the first time. "Did you say Chief Zhao Yunlan?" He nodded. The suspect turned pale. "No. No -- the SID doesn't investigate petty theft!"

He made a show of thinking about it, and then turned both his palms up. "And yet, here we are."

"I didn't know," the suspect said in a rush. "Tell him I didn't know. Tell him I never touched you. You weren't supposed to be here."

Zhao Yunlan sat back in his chair and frowned. "Ah, tell who?"

The air in the room turned cold, and the lights went out. They flickered back to life before he could even react. The suspect was gone. A second later, the handcuffs re-appeared, dropping onto the table with a clatter.

Da Qing burst into the room. "Lao Zhao! Are you all right? Was that --?""

The station head was right behind him. "What was that? Did the suspect just vanish?"

They all looked at each other. Finally, he said, "What are your thoughts on the Black Cloaked Envoy?"

The station head crossed her arms. "I am not writing a report saying the Black Cloaked Envoy stole my suspect. I might as well say the spirit of Fu You turned him into a bird and he flew away!"

"I don't think she could do that," Da Qing said, and then dodged out of the way of Zhao Yunlan’s swat. “What?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around the room, like maybe some explanation would appear. He was less worried about the disappearing suspect than he was about the implication that the Black Cloaked Envoy was — what, threatening people in his name?

“I take it this doesn’t usually happen?” he said, just in case. He got a pair of disbelieving looks in return, and sighed. “No, I didn’t think so.”

*******
BACK TO ZHAO YUNLAN’S PAST
*******

Asking about Shen Wei wasn’t the first thing he did when he fell back through the wormhole. No, the first thing he did was yell at the Hallows to take him back, and when they refused to do anything but sit silently in their places, he stormed out of the room -- and ran directly into the Regent.

“You’ve returned!” The Regent bowed. “Lord Guardian.”

He froze. Surely the position had been given to someone else long ago. “What?”

The Regent bowed again. “We’ve already sent a messenger to Haixing with the news.”

He started to turn, and Zhao Yunlan held out a hand to stop him. He felt like his brain hadn’t quite caught up with the rest of him. “Wait. How long was I gone?”

“Two days, Lord Guardian. Of course we were carefully monitoring the situation.”

It was only shock that kept him from ruining diplomatic relations between Haixing and Dixing with an ill-timed curse. If they’d been monitoring anything, it certainly hadn’t been him. “Two days,” he repeated.

The Regent laughed nervously. “The Lord Guardian is surprised?” He leaned closer. “What happened, when you saw the Hallows?”

Some spark of common sense made him hesitate, and he spread his hands apart with as innocent a smile as he could manage. “It felt like no time at all!” he lied. “I thought I must have done something wrong, but you did say to simply walk in and walk out again. Two days have passed, you say? Extraordinary!”

Asking about the Black Cloaked Envoy came next, since the title of Lord Guardian gave him a perfectly legitimate reason to be researching the history of Dixing. Everywhere he looked, he got the same answer -- the Black Cloaked Envoy died to end the war. His memory was honored in the treaty, and Dixing took possession of the Hallows in his name.

Asking about Shen Wei came later. He’d held out hope that Da Qing would have answers, but ten thousand years of memories was a lot to keep track of. The Damn Cat could remember entire conversations he’d had with Kunlun word for word, but couldn’t dredge up anything at all about the final days of the war. At least he believed him, which helped more than he wanted to admit.

“Maybe it’s a mis-translation, and the Black Cloaked Envoy just retired after the war. He could have lived a long and happy life without you!”

He considered throwing something, but the only thing nearby was his phone, and there was no way the SID budget would cover another new phone for him. He dropped his head back on the sofa and waved his hand instead. “Thank you, that’s very comforting.”

“Pssh. You humans. You always get so attached to each other. What needs comforting about life and death? They happen; get over it.”

“Says the immortal cat who’s still wearing the bells I gave him ten thousand years ago.”

Da Qing hissed. “That’s different,” he said.

“Mm-hmm.”

The thing was, Da Qing was right -- which he also didn’t want to admit. He’d met the great love of his life, and they’d been happy, which was more than a lot of people could say. Any amount of time would have been too short. And now Shen Wei was gone, and all he could do was go forward.

He knew the team gossiped about him. It would be impossible not to know, with Da Qing gleefully joining in and then reporting back the most interesting rumors. They generally cycled through the same three topics: his contentious relationship with the Department of Supervision, his contentious relationship with his mother, and of course, his lack of romantic prospects.

The most popular theories were all boring, but sometimes they’d come up with a good one. His current favorite was that he was secretly engaged to a Dixingian that his mother didn’t approve of. “Which is ridiculous -- my mother would have loved Shen Wei.”

Da Qing gave him a skeptical look. “Have you been drinking again?”

“Ha!” He shook his finger in Da Qing’s direction. “No, but I haven’t slept yet.” He waved at the pile of folders in front of him. “I’ve been reading the vigilante Black Cloaked Envoy reports.”

“Which ones?”

“All of them.”

He’d tried to let it go. Objectively, using the Black Cloaked Envoy as a cover identity was an effective strategy; it had certainly worked well enough to keep whoever it was from being identified for years. And even though the official reports had a distinct anti-vigilante bias, it was obvious the Black Cloaked Envoy mainly showed up to protect Dixingians in trouble. He wasn’t just sowing chaos or randomly committing crimes.

But he’d never been able to be objective about Shen Wei, and so his main reaction to the vigilante was anger. The Black Cloaked Envoy wasn’t a costume to hide behind. He was a real person who’d lived and loved and he deserved to be remembered as that.

He leaned forward. “And do you know what the worst thing is? The absolute worst?”

Da Qing sighed. “His cloak isn’t even historically accurate.”

“His cloak isn’t even historically accurate!”

“Yes. You’ve only mentioned it about a hundred times.” Da Qing tugged the reports out of his hands and pushed him back on the couch. “Come on, take a nap. The reports will still be there when you wake up.”

*******
PRESENT DAY
*******

After the pickpocket incident, he was called back to Minister Gao's office. To 'discuss the situation,' which was a diplomatic way of saying he would be accused of withholding information regarding the Black Cloaked Envoy's identity, location, and relationship with the SID.

It was a good thing he was used to lying to the Department of Supervision. "We've never met," he repeated easily. He spread his hands wide. "Maybe the vigilante has been inspired to uphold the law!"

Minister Gao scoffed. Much more interesting was Deputy Minister Guo, who gave him a quelling look and said, "Minister Gao, is it possible this is a campaign by the Black Cloaked Envoy to create discord and confusion?"

"To what purpose?" Minister Gao looked concerned.

"What greater goal than to undermine the trust between the Department of Supervision and the SID? If we are questioning each other, how can we bring our utmost focus to the tasks at hand?” Zhao Yunlan nodded encouragingly as Deputy Minister Guo spoke. It was an impressive bit of circular logic, but he would happily go along with it if it got his team out of the spotlight.

And by some stroke of luck, it actually worked. He promised himself he would spend at least ten percent less time silently berating the Deputy Minister for giving them Guo Changcheng.

He called Da Qing from the car. "Please tell me we have a case."

"How did you know?"

"I didn't. That's why I said 'tell me we have a case' and not 'tell me about the case we have.'"

"If you say so. Anyway, Xiao Guo was attacked while he was doing a tracking exercise. Chu Shuzhi is taking him to the hospital.”

“What?"

"He's fine. The Black Cloaked Envoy saved him."

He stared at the phone like somehow a visual would cause the explanation to start making sense. “What?”

"That’s as much as I know.” Da Qing sounded distracted. “Look, just meet us at the hospital. Apparently he’s still there.”

“I’m on my way.” His mind was racing. Something wasn’t adding up.

The thoughts flew out of his head when someone appeared in the road ahead of him. Literally appeared, and familiar-looking. The pickpocket? He leaned on the brakes at the same time something slammed into him from behind, and everything went dark.

He woke up blindfolded, tied to a chair, and wished he didn’t recognize the feeling.

“He’s awake.”

“There’s no way he’s awake yet.”

“Which one of us is the Master of Nightmares? I know when someone is awake.”

That sounded -- not good.

“Are you sure this is safe? What if he has a concussion?”

“You want to back out now? This was your idea!”

“I didn’t know you were going to hit him so hard!”

He wished they would argue more quietly. His head was pounding.

“You’re the one who wants to know why the Black Cloaked Envoy is so focused on him. Did you think I was just going to walk up and ask him?”

“Fine. Just -- do whatever it is you’re going to do, quickly. He won’t stay distracted for long.”

Zhao Yunlan had really been hoping they’d talk more about their plans. Quietly. He heard footsteps getting closer, and then the blindfold was yanked off. He squinted against the sudden glare.

And then he was looking at a familiar cliff, and a starry sky, but his hair was wrong, he was dreaming -- he jerked awake still tied to the chair, and one of his captors made a surprised noise. “How did you do that?”

He looked towards the source of the question automatically, and then he was on his sofa, and Da Qing was there, and a stack of folders in front of them, but the lights were wrong, they should be on, he was dreaming -- he jerked awake again, and sucked in a breath. It had to be some sort of Dixing power.

“What is he doing?”

“I don’t know, it’s not working!”

He laughed, but kept his eyes closed. “You’re trying to get information from me? About the Black Cloaked Envoy?” He shrugged as much as he could, with the chair in the way. “I don’t have any! I do have trouble sleeping sometimes; a power like yours must be very handy for that.”

“The Black Cloaked Envoy just disappeared from the hospital. We have to go, now!” That one sounded like the pickpocket, but he was still trying to decide if it was worth opening his eyes when someone hit him again.

When he woke up -- again -- he wasn’t tied to a chair. He also wasn’t blindfolded. Two things that would have been much more reassuring if he’d recognized the bed he was lying on. On the positive side, his head didn’t hurt. On the negative side, he couldn’t figure out how that could be true, and it made him wary.

He could hear voices coming from somewhere nearby, but it was too dark to see anything. A quick check showed his phone was gone, and he wasn’t about to start searching for a lightswitch without more information. Maybe his new kidnappers would be more useful conversationalists.

“I still can’t believe you brought him here.”

“Where else could I take him?”

“His apartment? SID headquarters? The hospital? So many options, really.”

“He might be hurt.”

“And who protects you from getting hurt?”

“It’s my fault they went after him. He’ll be safe here.”

“He would have been safe inside the SID shield.”

“Besides, he likes you.”

“Please tell me you’re not jealous. He’s soft-hearted, and he thinks I’m a prisoner. He doesn’t remember you.”

“You don’t know that.”

Whatever was said next was too quiet for him to hear, or possibly he wasn’t as awake as he thought he was. The next time he woke up, the lights were on. The room was smaller than it had felt in the dark. And standing in the doorway, arms crossed and looking distinctly irritated, was Shen Wei.

*******

But not -- the closer he looked, the more sure he was that it wasn’t Shen Wei in front of him. It didn’t feel like the altered memory dreams from before. He was awake, at least as far as he could tell. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure what that left. Concussion? Hallucination? Some kind of trick?

Well, either way. “Hello,” he said. And just in case, he added, “I’m not telling you anything about the Black Cloaked Envoy.”

The Shen Wei imposter laughed. “I doubt there’s anything you could tell me I don’t already know.”

He spread his hands apart. “You could tell me something, then. I’m all ears!”

All it got him was a frown. “You’re not charming, and I don’t like you.” Then the imposter sighed. “How do you feel.”

That was an easy question, at least. “I feel hurt that you don’t like me.”

The imposter rolled his eyes. “Physically, how do you feel.”

“Ah, of course! Much better than I should.” He pointed at the imposter. “Which is very suspicious!”

“The Black Cloaked Envoy healed you.”

It had been a long day even before the first kidnapping, and he was absolutely blaming that for the fact that his response was to snap, “He’s not the Black Cloaked Envoy.”

“What?”

The imposter looked genuinely confused, and it only made him more irritated. “He’s not the Black Cloaked Envoy,” he repeated. “Do they not teach history in schools anymore? His cloak isn’t even historically accurate.”

There was a pause, and then the imposter said, “If you do remember, and you’re toying with him, or rejecting him because of what he’s done, I’ll kill you.”

Da Qing told him he should always pay attention to death threats, so he ran the sentence back and forth a few times in case that made it make sense. It didn’t. Finally he just said, “What?”

“What?”

They stared at each other for a few seconds. “Tell me how you know that, about the cloak,” the imposter said.

He leaned back against the wall. “No.”

“Why not?”

He held up two fingers. “One, my feelings are still hurt. Two, I was recently kidnapped and hit on the head, and I’m still not convinced this isn’t a hallucination.”

“Your --” The imposter cut himself off. “Fine. What would convince you?”

“Send me home.”

The imposter shook his head. “I can’t. I promised Shen Wei I would watch you.”

Zhao Yunlan froze. “How do you know that name?”

The imposter threw up his hands. “Are you like this on purpose? He told me he spoke to you!” He visibly took a deep breath. “All right. This isn’t helping. Wait here.” He disappeared.

He tried the door first -- locked. He was snooping through the drawers when his ears popped, and the imposter re-appeared. Along with Deputy Minister Guo, in pajamas, looking not at all surprised to see him. “Chief Zhao! It’s good to see you’re all right.”

He looked at the imposter. “This is supposed to convince me I’m not hallucinating?”

“You think your brain could come up with this?”

It wasn’t the worst argument. He shrugged. Minister Guo cleared his throat. “I can vouch for him. This may seem -- difficult to believe, but we, along with others, are committed to working together for the benefit of all three races: Haixingren, Dixingren, and Yashou. We have reason to think that at some point soon, you, Chief Zhao, will be transported 10,000 years into the past, where you will meet the leaders of the Alliance and fight by their side in the war.”

He had no idea what his face was doing. “Transported into the past,” he said carefully. “You don’t say. You’re not Minister Guo, are you?”

The Minister’s eyes flashed yellow. “Yes and no. My name is Zhang Shi. I’m a symbiote, born in Dixing long ago. I was also Ma Gui’s apprentice, after the war. He spoke of you often.”

“Did he. Why are you telling me this now?”

He wasn’t expecting them to come right out and say ‘we’re trying to get you to reveal your secrets,’ but he also wasn’t expecting the imposter to say, “You’ve seen at least three stranger things than this at the SID. Yet you still don’t believe us. Why?”

Part of his brain wondered which three things specifically the imposter considered weirder than the current situation. The rest of him was just -- done. He threw his hands in the air. “Because of you! You mock me with the face of a dead man, and then ask me why I don’t believe you? How could I?”

“You’ve already traveled in time,” Zhang Shi said suddenly. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Then he shook his head. “No, don’t answer that.”

The imposter stared at him. Then he pulled out his phone and started typing. “He didn’t take his mask off. Of course he didn’t; why would he do the one thing that would have made this easy? So it’s not that you don’t remember; you’re just both massive idiots.”

The phone rang, and he answered it without looking taking his eyes off Zhao Yunlan. “He’s fine. Get back here right now. It can’t wait.”

There was already a portal opening by the time he hung up. “Maybe we should give them some privacy,” Zhang Shi said.

“Oh no -- he already had that chance. This time he’s doing it properly supervised. Take off your mask.”

The Black Cloaked Envoy came to an abrupt halt as the portal vanished again. “Didi…”

“Trust me.”

It felt like time slowed down. He wasn’t sure he was still breathing. Because the mask came off, and standing in front of him was Shen Wei. He stood frozen -- it couldn’t be, and yet. There was a wisp of hope starting to rise.

Like a magnet, he was drawn towards Shen Wei, who was still standing where the portal left him. Close enough to touch. Closer. His hand gripped the sleeve of his robe. “Shen Wei.”

Shen Wei clasped his shoulder, and just like that they were surrounded by a shield of dark energy. “Is it true?”

He wasn’t entirely sure what the question was, but he nodded anyway. “I was born Zhao Yunlan, in this time. Six months ago, I was taken to the Hallows as part of the appointment to the SID. They dropped me into the past. Ma Gui and Fu You knew I was coming; I don’t know how. When the Hallows pulled me back, everything I could find said you had died. I thought the Black Cloaked Envoy had stolen your name.”

“He was angry that your cloak isn’t historically accurate.”

“Didi!”

The imposter -- not an imposter? -- was leaning through the shield. “What? I’m just making sure you don’t mess it up again.” He looked at Zhao Yunlan. “He pines. I was ready to steal the Hallows myself, but clearly that won’t be necessary. Remember what I said before.”

He ducked back out of the shield.

“You pined?”

Shen Wei blushed. “I -- missed you.”

He swallowed hard. “I missed you too.” He slid his hand down so he could wrap their fingers together. “What I said then -- it’s still true, for me. Whatever happened -- whatever happens -- my greatest wish is that it will happen with me at your side, for as long as you’ll have me.”

Shen Wei smiled. “Forever, then? You might get bored.”

“Never.”

*******

Of course, they were still in a very small room with two other people -- three, he supposed, with Zhang Shi. As much as he’d like to never take his eyes off Shen Wei again, they really needed to have an actual conversation, and he would very much like for that not to happen in front of Minister Guo.

He didn’t let go of Shen Wei’s hand, but he nodded, and the shield disappeared.

“Welcome back.” Minister Guo smiled widely at both of them, which was possibly one of the most disconcerting things he’d seen all day.

He looked at Shen Wei’s twin instead. “You’re his brother.”

“Yes.” He bowed with a deliberate flourish. “Ye Zun. Brother to the Black Cloaked Envoy. Former leader of the Dixing rebels; current guest of the Haixing Supervisory Department.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You tried to kill him.”

“It was -- a misunderstanding. And we’re not dead! Obviously. After the Hallows pulled you into the wormhole, the cliffside crumbled, and we were buried. Stasis, magic, time travel -- whatever it was, we woke up. A while ago, actually, but I can see you’re not paying any attention to me anymore, so we’ll come back to that.”

He’d gotten distracted by Shen Wei. In his defense, Shen Wei pulling a phone out of the folds of his cloak and tapping at it one-handed was extremely distracting. “What are you doing?”

“Telling Chu Shuzhi that you’re safe, and that he should prevent the SID from reporting your disappearance.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “And how many of my team actually report to you?”

“To Ye Zun,” Shen Wei corrected absently. “Three.”

He looked at Ye Zun, who shrugged. “I’m not going to apologize. I met them first.”

“No, no -- of course not.” He really should have put it all together earlier. “Chu Shuzhi, Chu Nianzhi, and Lin Jing? What about Guo Changcheng?” He waved at Minister Guo. “He reports to you? Is that earnest eagerness an act? I was completely taken in; he’s very good.”

Minister Guo sighed. “It’s not an act. Changcheng genuinely believes in the mission and principles of the SID. He doesn’t know about any of this, unless Chu Shuzhi told him.”

Ye Zun was watching him carefully. “You’re not mad,” he said, far more cautiously than he would have expected from someone who had cheerfully threatened to kill him earlier.

“I’m not mad,” he confirmed. “Why would I be mad? This explains so much! We should really work on our communication, though. I don’t suppose anyone has my phone?”

“It was left in your vehicle when you were taken,” Shen Wei said.

“Good; it’s tracked. I need to use one of yours.”

Shen Wei offered his up immediately, and he took the opportunity to lean closer. “Ah, Shen Wei -- you’re so good to me. How did I manage without you?”

He caught the tail end of Ye Zun rolling his eyes. “By pining, if you’re anything like him. Who are you calling?”

“Da Qing. Who else?” He held the phone up so everyone could hear. “Damn Cat, it’s me.”

“Lao Zhao? Where are you? What happened?”

He laughed. “I’m fine. It’s a long story. Ah -- as long as your age, almost.”

”As long as my -- what? Really?”

“Whoever you have looking for me, call them off. Better they don’t draw attention if they can help it. I’ll be back by morning.” He assumed it was still night time, given the pajamas.

”Your morning, or actual morning?”

“Why are you asking me all these questions? I’ll be there when I get there. Text me back at this number if there’s an emergency.”

He hung up and handed the phone back to Shen Wei. It was Ye Zun who asked, “Who would be looking for you that’s not part of the SID?”

“Ah, right.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Remember when I said we needed to work on our communication? Clearly we’re all aware of the -- shortcomings, of the current situation. You’ve been working with each other. We’ve been working with the Yashou.”

“The Yashou? The neutral, peace-loving, ‘we don’t interfere in the affairs of Haixing and Dixing’ Yashou?” Ye Zun said skeptically.

Clearly Ye Zun had never met Fu You. “The Yashou weren’t neutral 10,000 years ago -- and we’ve hardly held up our end of the bargain when it comes to non-interference. The Yashou love peace, yes, but they also love people. They know we’re more alike than we are different, and that we’re stronger together than alone.” He waved his free hand. “They also happen to be outside SID jurisdiction. Coincidentally.”

“Zheng Yi,” Shen Wei said suddenly. “The Dixing child with sonar powers. Was that you?”

He put on his most innocent expression. “Dixingian? Surely you mean Yashou. Bat Tribe, I believe.”

“There is no such thing as Bat Tribe,” Ye Zun said.

He raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t there? Four Yashou leaders say differently.”

He looked at Minister Guo, who put both hands up. “You won’t find an argument here. It’s been thousands of years of intermingling. Who’s to say any of us don’t have some amount of Yashou DNA?”

“Is she all right?” Shen Wei asked.

In an ideal world, she would be safe living proudly as a Dixingian and learning how to use her powers with her peers. But that was a work in progress. “She’s safe. She’s with Flower Tribe for now; they’re immune to her power.”

Shen Wei and Ye Zun exchanged a long look. Finally, Shen Wei nodded. “Thank you.”

He beamed. “Imagine what we’ll be able to accomplish when we’re working together!” Just in case Shen Wei was thinking he might not be dealing with a Zhao Yunlan-shaped barnacle for the foreseeable future.

Minister Guo cleared his throat. “Which you should probably talk about at another time, when I’m not present.”

“Of course.” Ye Zun waved a hand towards the door, despite the fact that none of them had used it. “I’ll take you back.” He pointed at Zhao Yunlan. “Talk to him about his civilian identity.”

*******

Shen Wei, it turned out, didn’t have a civilian identity. Luckily, Ye Zun had two.

“What? Eventually, you were going to want one. Besides, it was the easiest way to get you a phone plan.”

And maybe he never actually got around to sleeping, but he’d been unconscious for at least a few hours the day before, and he figured that was close enough. He could always nap at work. But first, he had certain team members he needed to have a conversation with.

Instant communication, he was convinced, was the best part of being 10,000 years in the future. Well. One of the best parts. It meant he could be sitting on the sofa at the SID, and still ask Shen Wei how his day was going.

“Chief Zhao? Who are you texting?”

He pointed without looking. “Excellent question, Xiao Guo! I’m texting the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. The one who lights up my life and fills my heart with joy. The one who made me breakfast this morning and wants to know if I’ll be home for dinner.”

Da Qing snorted. Guo Changcheng just looked confused. “What?”

“My wife, Xiao Guo. I’m texting my wife.” He looked up at the sudden silence. “You all lost the bet, by the way. My mother loves him.” The fact that they’d squeezed in an introduction first thing in the morning wasn’t just so he’d be able to say that, but he couldn’t deny it had been a factor.

“It’s true,” Da Qing said, with an exaggerated sigh. “I thought she was going to disown you so she could adopt him instead.”

He pushed the cat off the sofa, and Da Qing laughed. He jumped up on the table instead, radiating smugness.

Lin Jing looked shocked. “You’re married?”

“Surprised?” He spread his hands wide. “Isn’t it amazing when we can learn new things about each other? For instance, I heard the most interesting story last night.”

Lin Jing frowned. “You did?”

“About you!”

Chu Nianzhi, who had been reaching to cover Guo Changcheng’s ears, froze. “Any story about Lin Jing can’t be that interesting,” he said.

“Hey!” Lin Jing exclaimed, then nodded enthusiastically. “I mean yes, that’s true! We should definitely focus on our cases instead.”

He stretched his feet out on the sofa. “Wang Zheng, do we have any open cases right now?”

Wang Zheng blinked innocently at Lin Jing, and then handed a bowl of popcorn to Zhu Hong. “No, Chief Zhao.”

“No cases,” he said. “I wonder why that is.” He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “Xiao Guo, make sure you write this down. If you’re going to lie to people, make sure everyone is telling the same story.”

“Chief Zhao,” Lin Jing started.

“Like us!” he interrupted. “Zhu Hong, do I or do I not keep our team aligned with which lies we’re telling to who?”

Zhu Hong rolled her eyes. “You don’t, no.”

He laughed. “Fair. Does Wang Zheng not keep our team aligned with which lies we’re telling to who?”

Wang Zheng smiled serenely, and Zhu Hong nodded. “She does.”

“See? Intra-team communication is the key to a successful deception. For example! If three people are going to lie and say they have no idea who Ye Zun is, they really should make sure to communicate that lie to Ye Zun’s brother, so that he doesn’t tell those peoples’ boss all about their secret alliance.”

There was a long moment of silence.

Guo Changcheng broke it first. “Who?”

Chu Shuzhi crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. Immediately going on the offensive -- smart, and presumably intended to distract from Chu Nianzhi sending an emergency message to Ye Zun, which Ye Zun then sent on to him and Shen Wei, with the addition of, ‘tears of laughter wish I was there’ Possibly it was unfair to hold Lin Jing and the others accountable for their lack of consistent cover story.

Chu Shuzhi said, “You’ve been lying too. You know we can tell when someone is from Dixing and not Yashou, right? The sonar powers?”

Lin Jing’s eyes went wide. “I knew there was no such thing as Bat Tribe! But my detector didn’t pick up any traces of dark energy.”

“I broke it,” Zhu Hong said. “Sorry.” She took another handful of popcorn. She definitely didn’t look sorry.

Lin Jing spun around in his chair. “Have you been breaking it every time?”

“Of course not.” Zhu Hong took another handful of popcorn. “Sometimes we need it.”

“Sometimes I break it instead,” Wang Zheng offered.

He waved in their direction. “Teamwork! Which brings me back to my point. It’s not a problem that you’ve been helping Dixingren avoid the Department of Supervision.”

“Obviously,” Da Qing muttered.

“Obviously, yes.” He put both hands over his chest. “And while it hurts my heart that you didn’t tell me, I understand your reasons.”

“So -- does this mean we’re not fired?” Lin Jing asked.

“You’re not fired,” he agreed. “But if you do as poorly keeping this next set of secrets as you have with the ones you’ve kept so far? You’ll wish you had been.” He smiled. “Understood?”

He didn’t bother waiting for answers, because it wasn’t what they said that would matter, in the long run. “Now that we have that settled,” he said, and Zhu Hong cleared her throat. “Yes, the floor is yours.”

He let Zhu Hong and Wang Zheng explain what the SID had actually been doing since he’d taken over. They were better at it than he was, and it was a good opportunity to watch the others.

He wasn’t worried about Chu Shuzhi and Chu Nianzhi -- they were definitely more loyal to Ye Zun than the SID, but as long as those interests aligned, they wouldn’t cause trouble. Lin Jing would pretend to go along with it no matter what, but he kept his true feelings close.

Guo Changcheng, as ever, was the biggest question mark. ‘Genuinely believes in the mission and principles of the SID’ -- what did that even mean? They’d have to watch him closely, see if his uncle could get any better sense of him.

“Xiao Guo,” Zhu Hong said. “What do you think?”

Or they could just ask. He could practically feel Da Qing laughing at him. He wasn’t used to dealing with people who were so -- honest.

“Um. I think -- the SID is supposed to help people, isn’t it? And that’s what you’re doing. So it must be the right thing to do.” Xiao Guo gained enthusiasm as he spoke, and Zhu Hong nodded.

*******

Finally, they got to the part he’d been waiting for. He stood up and clapped his hands. “Everyone’s clear now? Yes, good. In that case, it is my great honor and pleasure to introduce the SID’s newest consultant and partner.”

He heard someone gasp as the portal opened, and he smiled. “Brother Black. Perfect timing.”

Shen Wei had been surprisingly amenable to the idea of revealing his identity to the rest of the team. “Half of them already know my face,” he’d said. “You trust them,” he’d said. “I trust you.”

Ten thousand years and so many lies built up around them, and he could still say things like, “I trust you,” and make Zhao Yunlan want to turn the world upside down to be worthy of that trust.

But amenable to revealing his identity and enjoying being the center of attention were two very different things. He didn’t bother with introductions, just ushered Shen Wei to Da Qing’s desk and waved his hands between him and the team.

“He’s here because as much as I was delighted to find out about this --” He gestured at Lin Jing, who wouldn’t glare at him as much as the others. “--situation, it does create a problem. Which is that now we have even more options to investigate to figure out why we were attacked yesterday. Was it your secret activities? Our secret activities? The SID’s non-secret activities? Random chance?”

“Paranoia, maybe,” Chu Nianzhi said. “We heard from our contacts in Dixing this morning. The Regent is convinced that Haixing is plotting against him.”

Da Qing scoffed. “This is news? When is the Regent not convinced that Haixing is plotting against him?”

“This time he’s been overheard talking about some war general who he thinks has -- come back to life? He has all the palace researchers working on it. Apparently he thinks this person is ‘actively inciting rebellion amongst the youth of Dixing.’ Rumor has it he’s promised clemency and some kind of reward to anyone who can bring him proof.”

He nodded, and very carefully didn’t look at Da Qing or Shen Wei. “Ah. And someone thought this -- alleged person might be Xiao Guo?”

Chu Shuzhi sighed. “The Dixingian who attacked us was Ding Dun. He has the ability to touch an object and see the memories of the last person who touched it.”

“It’s likely the information-gathering was secondary to his role as a distraction, so that the attack on you would be successful, Chief Zhao.” He raised his eyebrows at the title, and Chu Nianzhi shrugged. It was probably as close to an apology as he would get, and honestly more than he’d expected.

“But you said your attackers only asked questions about the Black Cloaked Envoy,” Lin Jing said. “And he’s obviously not -- what?” He broke off when Zhao Yunlan started laughing.

“You didn’t tell them?”

“It never came up,” Shen Wei said, as if his past as a leader of Dixing was a small thing, hardly worth mentioning. “You did?”

“I -- summarized. Hallows, time travel, Alliance. I may have left a few things out.”

“A few?” Da Qing muttered. He threw a pen at him, and Da Qing made a face when it missed. “Good thing the Alliance can’t see your aim now!”

He laughed again, because it really was a ridiculous situation. “I never thought the Regent would think someone from the war had come back to life and our biggest problem would be narrowing down the options!”

Shen Wei was giving him a considering look. “It seems obvious who the Regent is referring to,” he said calmly.

“Oh?”

“The Regent has been aware of my existence for years, and Ye Zun’s as well. Da Qing’s past has never been a secret, whether or not it’s widely believed.” Shen Wei smiled slightly. “And none of us were referred to as generals.”

“Top of the food chain,” Da Qing agreed. “Cats don’t do management.”

“Chief Zhao!” Guo Changcheng said, sounding shocked. “Are you doing -- what Chu-ge said?”

“Actively inciting rebellion amongst the youth of Dixing?” Chu Nianzhi offered, and Guo Changcheng nodded.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well. I wouldn’t call it active, exactly. More of a side project.” It was possible he had forgotten to mention it to Shen Wei.

“You?” Chu Shuzhi’s expression was even harder to read than usual.

He shrugged. “It’s hardly inciting rebellion. I’ve just -- helped a few of the kids get into schools over here. If they happen to be using that opportunity to study political science and public administration, who am I to stand in the way of education?”

“And?” Da Qing prompted.

He looked around for another pen to throw, but apparently Da Qing only kept one on his desk. He would probably use its disappearance as an excuse to stop doing his paperwork. “Sometimes they have questions. We talk.”

“And?”

He sighed. Damn Cat. “And sometimes they need a place to stay, and they use the apartment across the hall.” It was hardly a big deal. The neighbors loved Dan Dan.

Lin Jing whistled. “Chief Zhao!”

“Really?” Shen Wei asked quietly.

“You always talked about how important education was,” he replied, just as quietly. “How much you wished you and your brother had gotten that choice. It was -- something I could do.” ‘To remember you’ was left unsaid, but Shen Wei smiled like he heard it anyway.

“Thank you,” he said.

“It’s not much.” Not enough, he meant.

Shen Wei reached out and put a hand on his arm. “It is. Could I meet them?”

He beamed. “I’m sure they’d be honored. Although I’m warning you now, only one of them is polite.”

Shen Wei somehow managed to give the impression of rolling his eyes without actually doing it. “You’ve met Ye Zun, right?”

*******

“You realize you never actually told them who you were married to, right?” Da Qing waved his hand between them.

Zhao Yunlan shrugged. “It was implied.” He pulled a dish towards him and dodged out of the way of Da Qing’s swipe. They were doing their part to help with dinner by making sure there were no leftovers that needed to be put away.

“Surely they understood the situation,” Shen Wei said, but he didn’t look entirely confident.

He leaned forward. “I will happily volunteer to do whatever you’d like to make it more obvious.”

Da Qing rolled his eyes. “Of course you will.”

Shen Wei’s expression was a familiar blend of exasperated and indulgent, and he reached out to tug him closer. “Matching shirts?” he suggested. “Matching braids -- I could grow my hair out again!”

It got him an actual smile, and Shen Wei ran a hand through his hair. “I like it this way,” he said.

They all startled at the sound of a ringtone, and Shen Wei materialized his phone in his hand. “It’s Cong Bo.”

“Your documents person?” He leaned closer so he could see the screen, and then raised his eyebrows. “You memorize people’s phone numbers?”

“Of course. Doesn’t everyone?”

He was almost sure Shen Wei was joking, but he debated too long between confirming and asking how he got the phone to ring out loud while it was incorporeal, and Shen Wei connected the call. Even without the cloak and mask, it was very clear they were now in the presence of the Black Cloaked Envoy. “Hello?”

The voice on the other end was loud enough that they could all hear it. ”It’s an emergency. Dr. Cheng asked if you could come right away.”

“You’re at the usual place?”

”No. At home.”

Shen Wei frowned. “I’m on my way.” He disappeared the phone again.

He stomped down his instinct to say, ‘I’m coming with you.’ Just because he’d gotten away with assigning himself to all of Shen Wei’s missions in the past didn’t mean it would work in the present. “Can I come with you?” he asked instead.

“Your phone is tracked,” Shen Wei said.

He slid his phone down the counter to Da Qing, who swapped it for his own. “Technically Da Qing’s is tracked too, but the signal disappears every time he’s in his cat form, so mostly they don’t bother. Can you--?” He wiggled his fingers. Shen Wei nodded, and the phone disappeared.

“I’m getting that back, right?” Da Qing asked.

“Yes. Are you ready?”

He waved his arm towards the door. “After you.”

Shen Wei waved his own arm and a portal appeared. “After you.”

He doubted he’d get a second invitation. And really, which one of them was an expert in portals? Not him. He strode forward, waited out the half-second of stomach-dropping disorientation, and found himself somewhere else.

Of course, Shen Wei had managed to arrive first -- and in uniform, even. “That’s very impressive,” he said. “I’m impressed!”

The man in front of them didn’t look impressed. “Who are you?”

He hooked his thumb at Shen Wei. “I’m his plus one.”

Shen Wei ducked his head to hide a smile, but all he said was, “Where’s Dr. Cheng?”

“In the kitchen!” someone called, and he’d always thought the bathroom was the room of choice for patching up fugitives, but he supposed the kitchen did offer the benefit of being more spacious. Five people was still a tight fit, though, and it took a few seconds for him to get a good look at the patient.

“Zhu Jiu?” He would have thought it was a trap if Zhu Jiu wasn’t in such bad shape. “What happened?”

Shen Wei was already doing -- something -- with dark energy, and it was Cong Bo who answered. “He was hurt by another Dixingian. They were here looking for information.”

Zhu Jiu groaned. “I told you not to call him.”

Dr. Cheng shook her head. “You were almost dead five minutes ago. You didn’t get a vote.”

“I told you to leave the city,” Shen Wei said.

“I did,” Zhu Jiu answered. “Then I came back.”

“Why?”

Zhu Jiu stared at the ceiling. Finally, he muttered, “I heard Zhao Yunlan was in danger. I thought -- if I could protect him, you’d let me help you. But they found me first.”

“Was this before or after you kidnapped me?”

“He said he was just going to ask questions. I didn’t know he was going to hit you that hard,” Zhu Jiu said.

Before, then. He looked at Shen Wei, who nodded. He was telling the truth. “So someone is looking for information, and when they couldn’t get it from the SID, they came here.” He turned to Cong Bo. “Why?”

“They’re trying to prove you’re some hero from the war 10,000 years ago,” Cong Bo said. “I -- might run a conspiracy theories website.”

“And I’m on it?”

“Maybe?” Cong Bo edged further away, then seemed to realize that was just putting him closer to the Black Cloaked Envoy. “All right, yes. But I’ll take it down! I didn’t think anyone believed it! I never expected anyone to -- to come to my house and beat someone up in front of me!”

So Zhu Jiu had been the expendable one. Which meant the others must have teamed up with someone else for their travel needs. He waved his hand. “No, it’s true.” He politely pretended he couldn’t see Cong Bo having a breakdown, and focused on Zhu Jiu. “What does it matter, though?” He didn’t believe for a second it was because the Regent was worried about a little civil unrest.

“I don’t know.” Zhu Jiu hissed in pain as Shen Wei prodded his arm.

Dr. Cheng said, “They seemed more focused on the, ah, the time travel aspect, than on you in particular. If that helps.”

“The Hallows.” Shen Wei frowned. “The Regent must think you know how to harness their powers for time travel.”

“They do that?” Cong Bo’s eyes were wide.

“Yes. And no.” He pointed at Dr. Cheng. “It does, thank you.” Then he turned to Shen Wei. “I don’t. If I did --”

“I know,” Shen Wei said. “But if they think you do, you’re in danger.”

“Which, I should remind you, is not uncommon!” They were all in danger, but they were still safer together than alone. He looked at Zhu Jiu. “You said you want to help. Start talking.”

*******

“If I ask a personal question, how likely is it that you’ll kick me out?”

Ye Zun stared at him with a carefully neutral expression, and Zhao Yunlan smiled innocently back.

Given that he was lounging on Ye Zun’s bed when he asked, it was entirely likely Ye Zun was trying to decide what he would consider personal enough to warrant a warning. “If I say ‘very,’ will that keep you from asking?”

He smiled wider. “No. But! I would wait until Shen Wei got back, so that neither of us would get in trouble when you did it.”

Ding Dun and his associates, had been making their presence known all over the city. They hadn’t attacked directly the SID directly again, but they were keeping up a steady stream of property damage and Dixing-powered crime. Enough to keep everyone on edge, and for him to recommend that no one go out alone.

Shen Wei, to his shock, had agreed -- but only if Zhao Yunlan followed the recommendation as well. And as much as he’d love to be the one at Shen Wei’s side at all times, occasionally he needed to sleep. Which is why Da Qing was out visiting a potential ally with the Black Cloaked Envoy, and Zhao Yunlan was having a sleepover with Ye Zun.

“I promise I won’t kick you out,” Ye Zun said finally. “But I don’t promise to answer.”

He wasn’t going to get a clearer invitation than that. “How are you doing it?” he asked. “Staying here, for years.” He understood atonement, and it was obvious that Ye Zun would never leave Shen Wei, but he already felt like the walls were closing in, and it had only been a few hours. He was mostly dealing with it by trying not to think about it, but that was hardly a long-term strategy.

Ye Zun surprised him by laughing. “Years, yes. Staying? Not exactly.” He leaned forward. “How much do you know about Chu Nianzhi’s power?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Officially, or unofficially?”

“Unofficially, of course.”

“I know he can swap consciousnesses with his brother, if that’s what you’re asking.” It hit him suddenly, and then he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it before. “So you saying --”

Ye Zun smiled. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Huh.” He crossed his ankles, and put his hands behind his head. As harmlessly relaxed as he could make himself look. “Often?”

“No. Not often.” Ye Zun looked away. “Technically, I’m on call all the time. You may have noticed, Shen Wei doesn’t respond well to people telling him what to do.”

“And you do?” He found that -- exceptionally difficult to believe.

Ye Zun laughed again, and put his feet up on the desk. “Are we really at the point of exchanging tragic backstories? Should we talk about your parents next?”

It was possibly more of an answer than Ye Zun intended. Or maybe not; he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Ye Zun say anything truly spontaneous. “You want to talk about me?” he said, all innocent surprise. “I’m flattered! I thought I wasn’t charming and you didn’t like me.”

“I lie a lot,” Ye Zun said easily. “It’s because of my difficult childhood.”

“And because it’s fun?” he guessed.

Ye Zun shrugged. “Why not? Haixing offers so many opportunities for it. The internet alone!”

“You have a computer?” He hadn’t seen one, but that was hardly conclusive evidence.

“Officially, or unofficially?” Ye Zun suddenly looked up, and dropped his feet off the desk. “Something’s wrong.”

The air rippled. A portal started to tear open, then sputtered out. It reappeared a heartbeat later, stretched barely wide enough for Da Qing -- in cat form -- to dive through, then disappeared in a shower of sparks that made them all flinch.

“Shen Wei’s in trouble,” Da Qing said. He didn’t shift, just jumped onto the bed and burrowed into Zhao Yunlan’s side. Whatever happened, it had shaken him badly.

He rested his hand on Da Qing’s back. “What can you tell us?”

“We were in Dixing. Wu Xiaojun never showed up. The Palace Guard did, along with Ding Dun. He had a hostage; a Crow Tribe kid. They took us to the palace.” Da Qing hesitated, and then said, “Minister Gao was there, with the Regent.”

“Willingly?” Ye Zun asked, which, yes, good question.

Da Qing tilted his head to the side; the cat version of a shrug. “He wasn’t under guard and he looked calm. But the dream Dixingian was there too.”

So he could have been confused, or being manipulated. He didn’t know which would be worse -- that Minister Guo was actively working with the Regent against the SID, or that the Regent had kidnapped him and no one had noticed. “What about the Minister’s guards? Were they there?”

“Not that I saw,” Da Qing said. “But we didn’t exactly get a tour.”

“What happened?” Even with a hostage involved, escaping the palace should have been well within Shen Wei’s abilities.

“The Regent did something to the treaty -- it messed up Shen Wei’s powers. I don’t know what; he always talks in riddles.”

Ye Zun leaned forward. “The Regent doesn’t have the authority to make any changes to the treaty,” he said. “Only the Dijun can do that.”

Da Qing leaned harder into his side. “The Dijun is dead. The Regent speaks for Dixing in his place.”

Ye Zun looked ready to storm Dixing by himself. He took a deep breath. “How did Shen Wei get you out?”

“The Regent told him to send me back, with a message. For Lao Zhao.”

“Well?”

Da Qing lashed his tail. “He said if you show him how to use the Hallows to go back in time, he’ll reverse it all.”

He could feel the power building up around Ye Zun. His ears were ringing, and the floor was starting to vibrate. As much as he wanted to snap at him to lock it down, he didn’t feel like getting vaporized.

He focused on Da Qing instead. “How long before he expects me to show up?”

“You know the Regent -- everything is now, immediately, as soon as possible. He has guards waiting at the main portal, in the park.”

*******

The power surrounding Ye Zun disappeared suddenly, and he looked at Zhao Yunlan. “I assume your plan leaves Dixing standing?”

“And Haixing; yes.” Hopefully.

Ye Zun took a deep breath. “Shen Wei would -- prefer that. Fine. Your plan first.”

Da Qing shifted to his human form. “Does that mean you’re helping?”

Ye Zun nodded. “For now.”

That would have to be enough. “Contact Deputy Minister Guo; he needs to be ready to take over the Department of Supervision. We need the lab shut down too. Da Qing, get in touch with the Yashou leaders, Ya Qing first. She should know one of her people has been taken.”

“What are you doing?” Da Qing asked.

He waved his phone. “I’m telling Wang Zheng what’s going on. She’ll coordinate everyone else. Fire and his people can retake the portal on this side once I’ve gone through; the rest of you can use the entrance on Snake Tribe lands.”

“You can’t go alone,” Ye Zun said. “I want to come with you.”

He looked up from his phone and frowned. “I thought you’d want to go with the team rescuing Shen Wei.”

Ye Zun’s expression clearly said he didn’t believe Zhao Yunlan had half the plan he claimed he did (true) and that he doubted Zhao Yunlan’s ability to make things up as he went (rude). “I don’t trust you to stay out of trouble,” he said.

“It’s like he knows you,” Da Qing muttered.

“Fine. I won’t be alone, though. One of the Crow Yashou will be with me.” He wasn’t going to ask if Ye Zun could get through the portal and around Dixing undetected. “Da Qing -- without Ye Zun, find out if An Bai will go with you.”

“Who’s An Bai?” Ye Zun asked.

He waved his hand at Da Qing, who answered, “Next door neighbor. If he’s met someone, he can find them -- if Shen Wei has been moved from the palace, we’ll need him.”

Ye Zun frowned. “My plan was much simpler.”

“This plan is simple.” He held up three fingers. “One, I give myself up and stall for time with the Regent. Two, Da Qing finds Shen Wei and the hostage. Three, we negotiate for a peaceful solution. Simple.”

Ye Zun held up one finger. “Four: negotiations fail. Then what?”

He spread his hands apart. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.”

It wasn’t his worst plan. It was possibly his third-worst plan. When the Regent’s guards shoved him through the portal and the disorientation hit, he upgraded it to second-worst. He didn’t have to fake a stumble, and he dropped to one knee before the guards could grab him. It gave his passenger a chance to escape without notice, so at least one of them was thinking clearly.

“Let’s go.” He was hauled to his feet still blinking stars out of his vision. He definitely didn’t remember that being part of the Dixing travel experience the last time.

Luckily, the palace wasn’t far. The streets seemed unusually deserted, but that was compared to Haixing. Maybe Dixing was always eerily quiet at -- whatever time of day it was. “Hey,” he said. “Is it always this quiet? That could be a real selling point for tourism; have you considered that? Eco-tourists, they like quiet.”

The guards ignored him. He felt a tingle of dark energy shiver over the back of his neck, and when it disappeared it took his dizziness with it. Ye Zun had to be close by.

He wiggled his fingers in what could have been a wave. “Very nice architecture, too. I should be thanking you! How many people can say they’ve had a chance to visit Dixing and see the sights?”

“Save it for the Regent,” one of the guards said, and then they were at the palace steps, and sure -- he’d much rather antagonize the Regent than his guards anyway.

“Chief Zhao of the SID!” The Regent swept towards him. It was, of course, an insult to not be addressed by his Dixing title of Lord Guardian. He smiled anyway. “How gracious of you to accept our invitation,” the Regent said.

“You’ve said that before,” he replied. “And I see the Hallows are here this time as well!” All four of them were laid out on a low table near the front of the room. Minister Gao was nowhere in sight. “Not looking very energetic now, are they? Tsk tsk, Lord Regent. Has someone been neglecting their polishing duties?”

The guards who’d been flanking him edged away as the Regent spun around. “You did this!” he accused, pointing at Zhao Yunlan. “And you’re going to fix it!”

He was startled into blurting out the first thing that popped into his head. “Me?”

“You did this,” the Regent repeated. “You used the Hallows to travel in time, and disrupted their power. They cannot support Dixing in this state.”

They certainly didn’t look like an all-powerful energy source at the moment. But it seemed much more likely that their state was related to the recent loss of the Dijun than his own -- completely unintentional -- time travel. “The Lord Regent gives me too much credit,” he said carefully. “The Hallows’ secrets are not mine to know.”

The Regent waved his hand, and another person stepped out of the shadows. He was holding a birdcage, with a single crow inside. “Perhaps Chief Zhao would like to reconsider?” the Regent offered.

“Ah -- the Lord Regent makes a compelling argument. What is it that you’re looking for me to do, exactly?”

“Tell me how to activate the Hallows,” the Regent said quickly. “We will prevent your interference and restore the heart of Dixing.”

He nodded, and tried to make himself look like someone who knew how to activate ancient artifacts. “Of course, of course. And when I do this, you’ll -- release the hostage?” He wondered if they really thought he was stupid enough to believe that.

The Regent smiled. “Oh, but we won’t need to. As soon as the timeline has been corrected, none of these -- unhappy events, will have happened. For the best, don’t you think, Chief Zhao? So if you would just--” He gestured at the Hallows.

*******

“The key, of course, isn’t the leaving, it’s the coming back. For that, you need to be accurate down to the smallest detail!” He pointed at the Regent. “Do you understand?”

The Regent looked around, as if the correct answer might appear in the air next to him. “Yes?”

“Good! The next point is also extremely important. The historical context must be considered; it can’t be underestimated. The Hallows were created using a very specific combination of materials, including meteor fragments.”

The man holding the cage sighed loudly. “Is this relevant?”

He spread his hands apart and took a step back. “Have you used the Hallows? Have you spoken with their creators? Does the Lord Regent have a new professor volunteering to instruct him on their use?”

The man grumbled, but waved for him to continue. He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, the historical context of the Hallows’ creation is essential to understanding--”

He stopped when a guard ran into the room and announced, “Lord Regent, the prisoners have escaped! All of them!”

It caused enough of a commotion that he drifted towards the edge of the room without drawing more than a suspicious glance. He couldn’t see Ye Zun, but he heard his voice like he was standing right next to him. ”Was any of that actually true?”

“Sure.” All the best lies were the truth.

“They found Shen Wei; he’ll be fine.”

Implying that he wasn’t fine at the moment. He frowned. “Where is he?”

”Releasing the prisoners, it sounds like. Don’t worry; I’m sure they’ll be headed here next.”

If a guard hadn’t chosen that moment to push him back towards the center of the room, he would have asked if that was meant to be reassuring. Mostly he was watching the Regent -- he didn’t look worried, which was suspicious.

It still made him smile to see Shen Wei appear at the top of the stairs, followed by Zhu Jiu and a group of unarmed but enthusiastic-looking Dixingren. The rest of the SID came from inside the palace itself, covering the opposite side of the room. He stepped away from the guard and spread his hands apart. “Perhaps the Lord Regent would consider renegotiating our agreement?”

The Regent gestured to the man holding the birdcage, but in a flash of feathers the crow disappeared -- to be replaced by an irritated-looking Ya Qing, who knocked out the would-be captor without a second glance. The Regent sputtered. “What? But that was --”

“Was it?” Ya Qing said. “Whether in Haixing or Dixing, the Yashou stand together. If you attack one of us, you attack all of us.” She held up her hand and the sound of wings filled the air. Groups of Yashou swooped into the room, transforming to reveal a mix of Crow, Snake, and Flower Tribe members. Zheng Yi stood hand in hand with Ying Chun. Even Da Ji was there, and she waved sunnily at Da Qing like the entire thing was one big adventure.

Shen Wei took a step forward. “The loss of the Dijun is a blow to all of Dixing. There is no need to compound that loss by attempting to manipulate forces we are not meant to control.”

For the first time, the Regent looked nervous. He hesitated. And then the floor shook and the dream Dixingian appeared, along with Minister Gao and two people he didn’t recognize. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it,” the dream Dixingian said. He looked at Shen Wei. “Bring him.”

Ye Zun was suddenly standing next to him, and grabbed his arm. “Don’t freak out,” he said.

Because it wasn’t Shen Wei he’d been looking at after all. It was Zhu Jiu, and he teleported himself and Shen Wei into the dream Dixingian’s reach before anyone could react. “Even with your powers restricted, you’re immune to my dreams. Which is why my good friend here provided me with this.”

Zhao Yunlan froze. The dark energy gun had supposedly been destroyed when his father died -- and yet there it was, pointed at Shen Wei. “You knew about this?” he hissed as quietly as he could manage.

Ye Zun shook his head. “Not the gun,” he said tightly. “Only Zhu Jiu. He confessed as soon as they found Shen Wei.”

“What is it that you want?” Shen Wei asked, the picture of calm. “Time travel? It’s not actually possible to control, regardless of what the Lord Guardian may have said.”

The dream Dixingian scoffed. “Why would I want to go back in time when everything has worked out just the way I wanted? No, you’re here because you’re the one they’ll all listen to -- you and your brother, and he’d do anything to save you, wouldn’t he? I might as well have a gun to both of you right now.”

He jabbed the gun into Shen Wei’s side, and Zhao Yunlan felt Ye Zun flinch. The dream Dixingian smiled. “All you have to do is tell everyone to stand down and go home. I’ll take my place as the new ruler, and the Hallows -- and Dixing -- will be mine.”

“No. They won’t.” The voice carried easily through the room, and all eyes were drawn to the throne. A throne that was no longer empty, although as soon as he had everyone’s attention, An Bai stood up, supported by An Song on his right and Dan Dan on his left. He hardly looked regal in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, but all three of them had a presence about them he’d never seen before.

“The heart of Dixing speaks through the Dijun,” An Bai said. He stepped around the screen separating the throne from the rest of the room, and made his way down the steps, with the others mirroring him. “It will speak through me until a replacement is chosen by the people.”

“How --” The Regent looked shocked. “The throne -- it’s not possible.”

Even Ye Zun seemed surprised. “Whoever sits on the throne is linked directly to the heart of Dixing,” he said quietly. “The Dijun was honored not just for his leadership, but his sacrifice. It was said to be -- all-encompassing.”

An Bai raised his head. He didn’t look overwhelmed, but An Song and Dan Dan hadn’t stopped touching him, either. “Changing times call for changing strategies,” he said, in a voice that echoed with power. “We are stronger together than alone.”

*******

“He’s a fraud!” the dream Dixingian said. “This -- child, does not speak for Dixing!” He looked away from Shen Wei as he spoke, and the gun dipped.

Zhu Jiu leapt at the weapon. The dream Dixingian shouted. A gunshot. Zhu Jiu closed his hands around the gun and disappeared. Shen Wei was still standing. It wasn’t until Zhu Jiu reappeared on the ground next to Ye Zun, coughing and hunched over, that he realized the shot hadn’t missed.

Ye Zun immediately dropped to his knees and started searching for the injury. “Did it work?” Zhu Jiu asked. “Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Everyone’s fine except you; hold still.”

It was true -- Chu Shuzhi and Chu Nianzhi had taken advantage of the distraction to break the stalemate. They had the dream Dixingian between them, blindfolded and immobile. The others -- including Minister Gao -- were firmly in the grip of several Snake Yashou.

There was a part of his brain that was still paying attention to the room at large -- An Bai’s trio had joined up with a group by the table with the Hallows on it for some kind of discussion, and he really hoped the person Guo Changcheng was talking to on the phone to was his uncle. Someone was going to need to handle the Department of Supervision, and if there was any chance for it not to be him, he’d take it.

There was more -- but Shen Wei had joined Ye Zun, and they were talking about energy, and healing, and there was dark energy seeping between Ye Zun’s fingers where he had them clamped around Zhu Jiu’s arm, and all he could think was that it could so easily have been Shen Wei on the ground between them.

“I can’t --” Shen Wei was staring at his own hands.

“I know; it’s the treaty. I can do this.” Ye Zun’s voice was strained -- he’d seen them both heal people before, always with the same ease they seemed to do everything else with dark energy. But Ye Zun looked like he was fighting for every breath.

“How much is the treaty affecting you?” he asked, and Ye Zun spared a second to look at him before focusing back on Zhu Jiu.

“Some,” he said. “Not directly.”

“It’s blocking your connection to Dixing,” Shen Wei countered. “You need more power.”

“Can we help?” A small group had gathered around them. “Hi, I’m Sha Ya -- you probably don’t remember me.”

“Of course I remember you,” Ye Zun said, and he was definitely lying.

Shen Wei cleared his throat. “We remember you, Sha Ya,” he said smoothly, probably not lying. “Hua Yuzhu, Gu Ban -- it’s good to see you again, under better circumstances.”

“You can take people’s energy, right? Can you take ours to heal him?”

“It’s too dangerous.”

Sha Ya rolled her eyes. Zhao Yunlan liked her already. “You getting us out of the Department of Supervision cells was dangerous. This is helping a friend. We trust you.”

“You’ve been the buffer many times,” Shen Wei said. “This is no different.”

Ye Zun glared at him. “Never while my powers were being suppressed! Never with more than one person!”

Shen Wei’s hands clenched into fists. “And the alternative is you draining your own energy to save him! You think I can’t see your hands shaking?”

“I can do this!” Ye Zun insisted.

“You don’t have to do it alone.”

“Fine.” Ye Zun agreed testily, like there had ever been a different choice. Shen Wei smiled, and Ye Zun reached out with his free hand to poke him. “Stop smiling. Zhao Yunlan, be useful -- watch my brother’s back while he does this very stupid thing. We could just burn the treaty, you know.”

“That would be inconvenient,” Shen Wei said. “Sha Ya?” He held out his hand, and Sha Ya took it without hesitation. They were all linked together, he realized -- some with white knuckle grips, but all determined to provide what help they could. Shen Wei reached out his free hand and laid it on Ye Zun’s shoulder.

Zhao Yunlan couldn’t help feeling superfluous, guarding Shen Wei and Ye Zun in a room full of allies, but he did it anyway. It meant that he was in prime position to keep Shen Wei from falling over when Zhu Jiu suddenly gasped and opened his eyes, and Ye Zun said tightly, “Everyone should let go now.”

His voice didn’t give anything away, but his shoulders dropped in what could have either been relief or exhaustion when everyone took a step back. There didn’t seem to be any point to trying to keep Shen Wei standing up, so he lowered him to the ground where he could sit propped up between them. One of the Dixingians who’d lent their energy knelt down to help Zhu Jiu, and then they were all sitting, like that was a totally normal way to participate in what was looking more and more like a complete governmental overhaul.

“Are you okay?” He reached over Shen Wei’s shoulder to nudge Ye Zun. “Both of you?”

Ye Zun leaned back so they could see each other. “I gave you a perfectly good excuse to put your hands all over my brother, and now you want to talk about me?”

“You know me,” he said lightly, and Shen Wei let out a breath that could have been a laugh. “That’s a yes, then?”

“Yes, fine. We’re both okay. Pay attention.”

“The Hallows were never meant to be separated,” An Bai was saying. “If they’re united, they can and will serve as a bridge between the heart of Dixing and the Dijun. That’s how it was for thousands of years.”

“And I suppose the throne just happened to tell you this?” It was the Dixingian Ya Qing had knocked out earlier.

“Advisor to the Regent,” Shen Wei murmured, an answer to his unspoken question. “And archivist of the palace records.”

An Bai rolled his eyes, and Zhao Yunlan winced. It was possible he hadn’t been the best role model. “No. History books told us that. Books all Dixingren should have access to.”

The advisor gestured at the table. “Yes, well -- the Hallows aren’t separated now. They’re right there. I don’t see any mystical unification happening, do you?”

“Because they’re not activated,” An Song said. Zhao Yunlan narrowed his eyes. That was unusually polite for An Song. Then he added, “I would have thought even you would be able to see that.” Yes, that was more like it.

“And I suppose only you know how to activate them. How convenient.”

Dan Dan stepped forward. “No. Everyone knows. The Guardian Lantern must be lit.”

*******
THE FUTURE
*******

Here’s how it could go after that. With the Hallows united and actively supporting Dixing, relations between Dixing and Haixing would find a more equal footing. The need for vigilantes and secret escape plans would decrease, and the need for law enforcement that actually enforced the law would rise. The Black Cloaked Envoy would become less a rumor, and more someone you hoped would show up to meetings on time. Or not show up at all, in some cases.

“I have good news, and bad news.”

Ye Zun didn’t bother to sit up. He’d spent a week complaining about the SID’s windows to anyone who would listen, until Da Qing introduced him to the roof. If it was a sunny day, chances were good he’d be up there. “If it’s about another meeting, it’s Shen Wei’s turn. I did the last one.”

That was a blatant lie, but he didn’t even pretend to understand their meeting exchange system anymore, so he ignored it. “It’s about you.” He sprawled out on the blanket next to Ye Zun and leaned back on his hands.

“What’s the good news?”

He squinted at the sky. “You don’t have to pay taxes.”

Ye Zun gave him an incredulous look. “That’s the good news? I’m not sure I want to know the bad news, in that case.”

He said it anyway. “They’re refusing to pay you for the time you spent in the lab. Officially, all the paperwork lists it as an unpaid internship.”

“Ah.” Ye Zun shifted around so he could lay his head in Zhao Yunlan’s lap. Most likely so that he could have the best possible view of his expression when he asked, “And what did Shen Wei think of that?”

Shen Wei had been furious. The meeting had almost come to blows. “He had to be escorted out of the building. He came back with Li Qian and the head of the Biological Sciences division of Dragon City University.”

He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and dropped it on Ye Zun’s chest. “They converted your ‘internship’ to classroom equivalencies and awarded your diplomas retroactively. Congratulations, you’re a doctor now.”

Ye Zun held up the envelope and regarded it warily. “How come this wasn’t the good news?”

Zhao Yunlan gave a dramatic sigh. “Shen Wei wants to catch up. With two scholars in the family, my mother will disown me for sure.”

Ye Zun laughed. “Surely she’ll be impressed by the company you keep. What is it you’re always telling the new recruits? There must be something special about you, or you wouldn’t be in the Special Investigations Department.”

He lay down, so that he could look at the sky and pretend he wasn’t having this conversation. “Is there?

“Do you doubt it?”

Did he ever do anything except doubt it? “Yes.”

For once it seemed he’d surprised Ye Zun, who rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows to stare. “Really?”

He could backtrack, and Ye Zun would let him. But too many things left unspoken had only ever brought them trouble. “The best things in my life have come from pretending to be something I’m not. Pretending to be Kunlun, pretending to be a dutiful chief of the SID -- deception and doubt go hand in hand, yes?”

“Well, first, that’s very poetic, I’m impressed. Second, no one actually believed you were Kunlun, so I’m not sure that counts.”

“What?”

“What? Obviously the rebels knew you weren’t Kunlun; they were the ones who killed him. The Alliance went along with it because it was the best option they had, and they knew it. But if it was supposed to be a secret, someone should have told Da Qing.”

It wasn’t impossible to believe, except -- “Shen Wei never said anything.”

“You think the Black Cloaked Envoy didn’t understand the importance of occasionally using an alternate name? Really?” Ye Zun’s voice turned serious. “Your actions were true to your heart. They still are. Do you really think the name you use, or the titles you have, are what matter to any of us?”

It was his turn to be surprised. “I -- no?”

“That’s right. If Shen Wei were here, he’d say the same thing.”

“What would I say?” Shen Wei stepped onto the roof and looked down at them curiously. He settled onto the suddenly expanded blanket next to Zhao Yunlan. “Have you eaten?”

“Did you bring food?” Ye Zun asked.

“Did you know I wasn’t the real Kunlun?”

Shen Wei frowned. “You were Kunlun to us. He was planning to help the Alliance; you took his place and did so instead. I always thought he would have been pleased to have you carry on his name and legacy.”

“That’s --” He had no idea what to say. Shen Wei frowned more intently.

“He’s fine,” Ye Zun said. “Food?”

“Lin Jing and Guo Changcheng are bringing it. Are you sure you’re all right?”

He nodded. He was rearranging his entire understanding of his time in the past, but he was fine. Better than fine! “Thank you,” he said, patting Ye Zun’s hand so he’d know it was for both of them. “And you’re feeding us? The news gets better and better!”

“Boss!” Lin Jing led the way onto the roof, hands full of containers. “Where do you want these?”

Da Qing shooed Guo Changcheng ahead of him and darted for the blanket. “Just bring them here,” he said. “If they wanted a table they’d be sitting in chairs.”

The blanket had expanded again when he wasn’t looking. “Now there’s room for everyone,” Shen Wei said.

“I hope there’s enough food for everyone,” Lin Jing said, and Chu Shuzhi glared at him. “What?”

“Kids these days,” Chu Nianzhi said, shaking his head with an exaggerated finger wag at Lin Jing. “No manners.”

“If there’s not we’ll just send Lao Zhao to get more,” Da Qing said, his mouth already full.

Damn cat. He considered throwing something, but it’d be a food fight in seconds, and that seemed like a waste of a good meal. Besides -- the sun was shining, he was surrounded by his favorite people -- “Fine,” he said, not even trying to hide his smile. “For you. Why not?”

Da Qing beamed. “That’s right.”

*******
PRESENT DAY
*******

Lighting the Guardian Lantern required a sacrifice, because of course it did. Nothing about the Hallows could ever just be simple. An Bai didn’t hesitate as he explained what he knew of the Hallows. Ye Zun waved his hand and a screen appeared behind him.

“Your Majesty,” he said, somehow managing to make his nod look respectfully regal even from the floor. “All of Dixing deserves to know what happens here today.”

An Bai nodded back, and his voice was clear as it carried throughout the room and beyond. “The Guardian Lantern must be lit, for all of us. The future of Dixing will be in the light.” He took a deep breath. “I volunteer.”

“I volunteer in your place,” An Song said immediately.

Dan Dan leaned around An Bai to glare at him. “I volunteer in both your places.”

And then Guo Changcheng stepped forward. “All of you are already doing something. The responsibility of the SID is to help people. I volunteer to light the Lantern.”

Chu Shuzhi and Chu Nianzhi exchanged a look. “We volunteer in his place,” Chu Nianzhi said.

He was going to have to stand up again, wasn’t he? He patted Ye Zun’s shoulder, and then Shen Wei’s, and then he stepped away from them. It hurt; he knew it would, but this -- he could do this, for all of them.

“As Lord Guardian, it is my right and responsibility to safeguard the peaceful relations between our people.” He pointed at Chu Shuzhi. “Also I’m still your boss, so I overrule your volunteering. I will light the Guardian Lantern.”

“No!” Shen Wei pushed himself upright. “As the Black Cloaked Envoy, the Hallows are my responsibility. I--”

“I volunteer in your place,” Ye Zun interrupted, before Shen Wei could even say the words. He stood up and gripped Shen Wei’s arm. “Don’t make us live without you again,” he said quietly. They faced each other, and it was like the entire room held its breath.

It was Hua Yuzhu who stepped forward next -- not quite between them, but close enough to get their attention. “You’ve both done so much already,” she said. “You gave us freedom. You gave us hope. It’s our turn now.”

She faced An Bai and said clearly, “Not every Dixingian has a special power, and not every power is impressive. But any Dixingian can do this, for our people, and our future. I volunteer to light the Lantern.”

“Hua Yuzhu,” Shen Wei said. “Please sit down.”

“No,” she said. She raised her chin and met his eyes.

“I won’t let you make this sacrifice in my place.”

Hua Yuzhu’s friends moved to stand next to her. “Then let us make it with you,” Sha Ya said. “We’re stronger together, right? One person alone may bear a burden, but many people together can carry it with ease.”

Ye Zun nodded to her. “Wise words, little sister.” He raised his voice. “We have faced the dark together. We will bring the light the same way. Dixing stands united.”

As rallying cries went, it wasn’t the most creative, but it was effective. “Dixing stands united,” Sha Ya repeated, and it echoed back from a crowd that seemed much larger than before.

One enterprising Dixingian produced a megaphone from somewhere. “Dixing stands united! Light the Lantern!”

It grew into a chant, and he joined his voice with the others. And then he tried not to look surprised when the Hallows started to glow. They rose off the table and spun around each other, picking up speed as the Guardian Lantern flickered to life.

The flame got brighter. He squinted against the glare -- the Hallows kept rising, and he spared a thought to wonder if they should be worried about the roof. Or their eyes. But the Hallows flashed and passed through it in an entirely impossible manner that he resolved not to question, and that’s when the cheering started.

He only realized his eyes were shut when he opened them. It was as bright as a Haixing day, and Shen Wei and Ye Zun were hugging. Almost everyone was hugging someone, actually.

Da Qing popped up next to him. “Did you just -- light the Guardian Lantern and fuse the Hallows to create Dixing’s very own sun, by using a chant and the power of positive thinking?”

“Did we? It looks like we did.” He slung an arm around Da Qing’s shoulders. “I told you this was a good plan!”

“Ha! This was nothing like your plan,” Da Qing said.

Which was true. But Ye Zun and Shen Wei separated long enough to give them both glowing smiles, and anything he might have replied disappeared like smoke from a candle. Anyone would be speechless in the face of such happiness. He could have stared for hours. But Guo Chancheng was waving for his attention, and An Bai was sending increasingly hopeful glances at Shen Wei. They all had responsibilities beyond their promises to each other.

It wasn’t until much later that he found himself staring at the sunset, with Shen Wei on one side and Ye Zun on the other. Ye Zun’s expression was unusually smug, and he leaned closer and bumped their shoulders together. “Did you know that would happen? With the --” He pointed up, even though it was perfectly obvious what he was referring to.

Ye Zun looked up anyway. “No,” he said. “I -- had considered it, but I wasn’t sure. The Alliance was notoriously soft-hearted, though. Powering the Hallows with a person’s life doesn’t really seem like their style, does it?”

He stared. “That’s what you were basing your guess on?”

Ye Zun must have heard something in his tone, because his answering, “Yes?” was wary. “Partly, at least. The Alliance kept everything a secret, but -- it made sense? Why are you looking at me like that?”

He dropped his head on Ye Zun’s shoulder. “It wasn’t kept a secret. The Alliance didn’t know how the Hallows worked,” he said.

“Oh.” There was a long pause. The celebration was still going on around them, but no one disturbed their little slice of quiet. Finally Ye Zun said, “Lucky that Dixing was able to figure it out, then.”

Shen Wei leaned in closer and squeezed his hand. He squeezed back It could have gone much differently, but it hadn’t. It had worked. They’d all made it out the other side. They would carry on, because that’s what they had always done, and they’d do it together, because that’s what they did now.

*******
THE FUTURE AGAIN, BUT A LITTLE FURTHER
*******

Things would change after that -- or continue changing, because nothing ever really stayed the same. And maybe that change wasn’t as fast or as smooth as they might have wanted -- it might jump and creep and backtrack, but it did happen, and sometimes two steps back led to five steps forward.

“Are you brooding about politics again? We’re going to be late!”

Either he was getting predictable, or Da Qing really did have a seventh sense like he kept claiming. “We’re not going to be late, Damn Cat. Not unless you never finish getting ready.”

Da Qing gave an irritated hiss from the other room. “Cat Tribe doesn’t wear flower crowns.”

“It’s a Flower Tribe Festival, flower crowns are not an optional part of the invitation.” He stuck his head out of the bathroom to see Da Qing glaring at the crown like he’d just found out it had eaten the last fish. “What’s wrong with it?”

Da Qing poked at it with one finger. “It itches.”

“It itches,” he repeated.

Da Qing looked away. “And it’s the wrong color.”

Right. “And you couldn’t have said something about this before now?”

“It didn’t matter until now. Yours is wrong too.”

Well, that was Cat logic at its finest. He studied the crown carefully. “Wrong like we should submit a formal complaint that your position is being disrespected, or wrong like you don’t like it?” Ying Chun was an ally, but Ying Chun wasn’t the one who’d delivered their flower crowns, and there was always a certain amount of competition between the tribes at these things.

A formal complaint might make them look petty, but he’d been accused of worse. Da Qing was poking the flowers again. “It’s a festival,” he said, which wasn’t an answer.

They had to show up with flower crowns, but beyond that -- “How much are we allowed to customize these?” he asked.

Ye Zun swept into the room. “As much as you like.” His own crown was literally glowing. He waved Zhao Yunlan away. “Go braid my brother’s hair,” he said. “We’ll sort these out.”

He definitely wasn’t going to turn down an invitation like that. Da Qing looked pleased, and Ye Zun looked amused. If they decided to do something that scandalized the festival attendees, at least it would be on purpose.

Shen Wei’s hair was already half-done when Zhao Yunlan reached the bedroom, but he settled behind him anyway -- the second side was always harder than the first. “Your brother is plotting with Da Qing,” he said. “May I?”

“Please.” Shen Wei leaned back, and he ran his fingers through his hair. They had time. They weren’t actually required to be at the festival until sunset, but all the fun parts were during the day.

He let his hands move through the familiar patterns in silence for a few minutes. “You asked me once, what I wanted to do when the war was over,” he said finally.

“And you said you would rather live as you choose in the present.” He could hear Shen Wei smiling. “A fair answer for a time traveler.”

He laughed. “And true! But I have a confession to make.”

Shen Wei looked over his shoulder. “Oh?”

“Yes.” He tugged on Shen Wei’s hair to get him to turn around again, even though he thought everything he wanted to say was already right there on his face. “When I gave you that answer, I lacked imagination. I never imagined this -- never thought I could find such happiness.”

“Zhao Yunlan.” Shen Wei’s voice was unmistakably soft. He could put more feeling into a name than poets could fit into entire books.

“Shen Wei.” He cleared his throat. “I just thought you should know.”

Shen Wei reached up and tangled their fingers together. “I know,” he said. “We know.” His expression turned lighter. “Why do you think Da Qing is making such a point about the festival crowns? It’s less common now, but in the past, they were traditionally -- declarative, as well as decorative.”

He raised his eyebrows. That sounded much more interesting than anything he’d read in the official ‘you’ve been invited to a Flower Tribe festival’ packet. “How did I not know about this until now?”

Shen Wei looked away, but it didn’t quite hide his smile. “The crown can represent your allegiances. Your family. The team wanted to surprise you.”

Translation: the team thought it would be funny to spring it on him at the last minute. The joke was on them, though; he loved surprises. Especially if ‘declarative’ meant what he thought it did. He finished the last braid and tucked Shen Wei’s hair behind his ear. “Ah, Shen Wei, you know I’ll declare anything you like. Does this mean we’re going to match?”

“I’ve agreed to wear whatever Ye Zun comes up with,” Shen Wei carefully non-answered.

Ye Zun chose that exact moment to re-enter the room. Da Qing was draped across his shoulders in his cat form, a glowing crown tucked between his ears. He looked exceedingly pleased with himself.

“Luckily for you, I have impeccable taste,” Ye Zun said. Shen Wei rolled his eyes, but didn’t disagree.

“True!” Zhao Yunlan said, taking the opportunity to pull Shen Wei to his feet. He didn’t need the help, but he did occasionally embrace accepting it anyway. “So?”

Ye Zun produced two more flower crowns from wherever he’d been hiding them. Both were glowing. He handed the first one to Shen Wei, who immediately turned toward Zhao Yunlan.

“May I?” Shen Wei said. The question felt weighted with significance, and he took half a second to celebrate that Shen Wei didn’t look at all uncertain of his answer. He bent his head, and Shen Wei placed the crown gently, smoothing the hair under it until his hand came to rest on the back of Zhao Yunlan’s neck. He leaned forward and touched their foreheads together. “Thank you,” he murmured.

He snuck a kiss to Shen Wei’s cheek before he drew back, and turned with him to look at the others. Ye Zun stepped forward and set the final crown on Shen Wei’s head, then pulled him in for a hug.

Da Qing bumped his head against Ye Zun’s chin. “Yes, you’ve made your point. Are we ready now?”

Zhao Yunlan poked Shen Wei’s crown back into place, and laughed when Ye Zun did the same to his. “Yes,” he said. “We’re ready.”