Riding out was a performance more than anything else. Chenzhou and Eirian both new that the power of any seat lay in the population under it and they waved and smiled accordingly as they crossed the Center Bridge, the Parade Grounds, and then the Eastern Bridge.
Yuze kept his head down, but he was in a black hood and cloak, so it was unlikely anyone recognized him anyway. Snake and Fox were dressed similarly behind Finn, Marian, and Anna. Yuze's most experienced agents were also the most familiar with the route they were taking and the three of them and the ten guards under Captain Li made up the rest of the party.
Finn had requested Emmy and Patrick accompany him to help with his duties, since Eirian had assigned him to record the entire trip on top of assisting her. She'd seemed amused, if not a little confused that he needed help, but she'd shrugged and said OKAY and Finn had maybe exaggerated a bit when he'd told Emmy and Patrick they'd been ordered to help him, but he liked them and he didn't really have any friends at the Camelia yet.
They seemed interested in the drama and the lore that always surrounded people like Eirian and Chenzhou. They'd been pretty wide-eyed when Chenzhou and Eirian had ridden out of the stables and past them. So much so that they'd nearly forgotten to join the procession until an exasperated Captain Li had doubled back and reminded them, they were also supposed to be going.
They didn't encounter any issues until they exited the walls of the Camelia and found a small party waiting for them.
Chenzhou reigning in Lord Blue caused an accordion effect in the rest of the party and sent Captain Li and his men ushing forward to see what the issue was.
A squad of soldiers, wearing the same uniform as Li's sat in a neat formation behind three lords it took Eirian a moment to place.
Lord Yin, Lady Yang, and Lord Zhao were dressed to travel, with a large falcon perched on Lord Zhao's shoulder.
The rotund Lord Yin spoke first. "Lord Ye."
"Lord Yin. What are you doing?"
"Accompanying you, naturally."
"I don't recall asking you to."
"No, you would rather ride out alone into enemy territory. I was under the impression that your melancholy had been cured, but clearly not."
"I am hardly alone." Chenzhou snapped. Before, he'd been too tired to rise to the bait, but now he had the energy to be angry.
"Lord Yin, spoke out of turn." Lady Yang intervened, firing a warning look at her fellow lord. "We are merely concerned about you feel the need to journey out so soon after your recovery. With such a small contingent."
Lord Zhao didn't look like he cared about any such thing, stroking the falcon on his shoulder.
"Your concern is noted, but we have adequate protection." Chenzhou was clearly struggling to restrain his temper and Eirian found that more interesting than she probably should have.
It hadn't occurred to her that his personality would change after he was healed, but in made sense in retrospect. He'd been dying for so long, so weak and so often ill, that he'd been a mere shadow of whoever he really was.
Now that he was healed, the real Chenzhou would emerge.
And maybe he wouldn't be the kind of man Eirian wanted as a partner.
That seemed extreme, but anything was possible.
"You have ignored the court for months now, Lord Ye." Lord Yin sounded like a grandfather scolding a favored grandchild, it was hard to tell how much he actually meant it.
Lady Yang sounded much harsher. "Unfortunately, it has come to the point that you deal with us, or you deal with the entire court."
Some of Chenzhou's anger faded. "Management of the Camelia has continued uninterrupted, despite my absence."
Lady Yang sniffed. "No one is saying that it has not. But what is the point of having Lord Ye as the First Blade if someone else is doing the work? You have always been present before, even when you were ill, but you have stepped so far back this time that there are whispers the Ye family no longer leads the Camelia."
Chenzhou stiffened. Under him, Lord Blue stomped an angry hoof. Next to him, Eirian merely looked curious, watching the conversation with a a critical eye.
Lord Zhao finally spoke. "You have not even allowed us to meet your wife."
"I have introduced her to you. To the entire court, or are you forgetting my wedding feast?"
"And yet none of us have actually had a chance to speak to her." Lord Zhao shook his head. He was only a few years older than Chenzhou, but he came across as much older. Eirian hadn't seen him since that meeting when he'd approached her magic. He'd been the only one who'd displayed more wonder than fear, so there was no doubt he remembered it.
He wouldn't even look at her right now. His gaze flitting between Chenzhou and his falcon and determinedly not landing on anything else.
That was rather insulting.
"And this is how you chose to approach him?" Eirian leaned forward in her saddle, arms resting on the pommel.
"He's rather hard to pin down as of late, your grace." Lady Yang wasn't having any of it. "As are you."
"We were unconscious." Eirian pointed out, not about to back down.
"And before that?" Lady Yang asked. "Lord Ye spoke of integrating you into the Camelia, yet aside from your presence at a few meetings, we have hardly seen you."
There wasn't much Eirian could say to that, without reveling everything they'd been investigating.
And Lady Yang wasn't entirely wrong. They had set most things aside in favor of the investigation into the miasma and they still were.
Chenzhou seemed to come to the same conclusion, because he relaxed further. "You're right. My apologies."
"Apologies are pointless, Lord Ye." Lady Yang turned up her nose. "Actions are what matter, and they are overdue. We would accompany you on this mission, if for nothing else to continue this discuss."
When there was nowhere for anyone to run, went without saying.
~ tbc