"Another thing foreigners often view as an oddity is how the Al-Shan people greatly respect their teachers. Such a degree of respect is unheard of in most other cultures, often approaching the respect one showed one's parents." - Zhang Guan-Zhu, Al-Shan Scholar.

"Layla? What are you doing in Paradise?" Cal asked with some surprise and worry in her tone. "Don't tell me something bad happened to Xain."

"Everything's fine back home, Cal," Layla assured as she came forward and embraced Cal warmly, an embrace Cal returned. "But we do need to speak for a bit… Can we speak privately?"

"Sure, I guess?" Replied Cal with some confusion in her voice. By now her students - as well as Fheeri and Fyodor - had crossed the gate as well and gathered behind her. "Wait a bit." She added to Layla.

"Aideen," she called, to which the unliving woman walked over. "Can you do me a favor and show the kids around? This one is Fheeri. Met her in the goblin lands.".

"Sure thing, leave them to me," Aideen said as she walked past Cal and towards the students. Right as she passed by, she whispered in a voice so low only Cal could hear her. "Talk properly with Layla, but don't be angry with her or the boy. What happened was not their fault. Or yours for that matter."

Cal pondered what Aideen meant, but kept it in the back of her mind for the time being. She followed Layla out of the gate building, and into a small mansion she recognized as Shi-Huang's residence. It was easily recognizable since it was one of the few Al-Shan styled buildings in Paradise.

A noise Cal was intimately familiar with, one made by a clash of metal on metal, greeted them as they crossed the gates. She saw the unliving blood mage in his yard, as he sparred with a young girl probably twelve or thirteen years of age.

The old blood mage's spear clashed with the young girl's square sky halberd. When the girl tried to catch the spear's shaft with the gap between the crescent blades and the spearhead, Shi-Huang just expertly retracted his weapon and weaved around the girl's defense and struck her hard on the chest.

It had not escaped Cal's notice that Shi-Huang used a training weapon of wood with a padded tip while the girl used a real weapon. The girl got up quickly from her fall and had wanted to continue, but Shi-Huang hinted at Cal and Layla's presence with his eyes and she turned to them instead.

"This servant greets her imperial majesty!" Said the girl as she saluted at Layla, her small body ramrod straight as she stood.

"At ease, Ying Xiao," Layla said kindly. "You can continue your spar, we will call for you when needed."

"This servant thanks her majesty."

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Cal kept silent while they entered the mansion and went to the living room, where the lady of the house - Shi-Huang's wife, a half-therian woman - greeted them cheerfully, and went to brew some tea for them. Both of them allowed the silence to stretch until the lady of the house returned, poured them tea, set a plate of snacks, and left them so they had their privacy.

"So, what is the matter?" Cal asked somberly as she sipped her tea. It was strong tea made from her favored dried hartbloom petals, only slightly sweetened by a hint of honey.

"You saw Ying Xiao outside," Layla said. It was more a statement than a question, and Cal saw a hint of guilt on her expression as she spoke. "She is a blood mage we recently discovered."

"I suspected as much, otherwise she wouldn't be sparring with Shi-Huang of all people," replied Cal, as she pondered what Layla could have felt guilty for. "There's something else to the story, isn't there."

"Yes, there is," Layla admitted as she sipped her tea and calmed herself. "Xain and I had went on a trip around the empire shortly after you left. In disguise."

"Go on," Cal said as she listened, certain there was more to the story.

"Most of the trip went fine. We saw how the people lived, how they rebuilt from the devastation of the war… happy faces had greeted us and we thought all was good now…" Layla told Cal as she clearly struggled to contain her emotions. "But then in Shan-Hu, at Ren-Guang, the northernmost city… we found her."

By now Cal had a very good inkling where the story headed to. Layla and Xain, for all their studies, were practically naive youngsters, protected and raised with care all their lives. Little different from flowers grown within a glass house, safe from the depredations of the elements.

On the other hand, Cal was not just far older, but also far more familiar with the uglier side of people. A side she would not deny she was likely a part of herself. Especially after the purge that followed the civil war, where she had slain men, women, and children, all for the sake of a safer, and hopefully better future.

She just nodded and bid Leila continue her story.

"We had her liberated from a brothel, Cal. An underground establishment made for quenching the fetishes of depraved people! That girl had been under their mercies for years before we saved her!" Layla said with visible emotion. "She was made to undergo all sorts of torment and humiliation for the perverse pleasure of people better off drowned at birth! How come this still happens in our times!?"

Cal embraced the empress warmly as a form of reply, and rubbed her back as Layla broke down and sobbed on her chest. She waited and allowed the girl to work out her emotions first, before she drew back and looked Layla straight in the face.

"We are not gods, Layla," Cal said as she held the empress at arm's length by the shoulders. "We are just mortals, and no nation is perfect. What we could do, is to do our best to prevent such incidents from repeating themselves, one way or another."

"I know, but…" Layla said dejectedly, her eyes still glistened from the tears she shed. "I just wished we could do more for her. Instead, she chose a life of hardship and violence for herself…"

"Hardship for some, might be salvation for others," Cal retorted. "I assume you would like me to guide her then? Otherwise you wouldn't be waiting for me here."

"If it's not too much to ask, please," said Layla as she bowed to Cal. She might be empress now, but to the young girl, Cal was someone who watched her grow up from infancy, and also as close as a mother Xain had growing up. "If she wished to go down the martial path, then at least we wished for her to receive the best guidance to walk that path."

"Understood," Cal said as she took another sip of her tea. She drained her cup this time and carefully placed the fragile porcelain teacup back on its saucer. "Consider it done."

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When they went back to the yard, they saw that Ying Xiao had went straight back to her spar, and Shi-Huang skillfully fought the girl, while at the same time pointing out where she made mistakes, or left openings. They waited until the two finished a bout before they walked forward and made their presence known.

"No need for formality, Ying Xiao. Come over here," Layla said to the girl before she could salute her. "Let the lady examine your mana."

Ying Xiao walked over, and raised one of her arms. Cal placed her right hand on the girl's wrist, with her thumb right over the large artery in her arm, and carefully projected her mana to the girl. What she felt from the girl was a feeling similar to her own mana, one that had been tempered repeatedly by pain and suffering, and a potential that had not fallen shy either.

She nodded and gave the girl a smile, before she turned to address Layla.

"She definitely has the potential, and is very tempered for one her age," Cal said plainly, as her right hand absentmindedly ruffled the girl's hair. Ying Xiao looked like she wanted to protest but stayed silent. "Yes, I will teach her as well as I can. You can assure Xain of that."

"Thank you, again," Layla said to Cal, while Ying Xiao grew wide eyed at someone addressing the emperor so informally.

"Ying Xiao," Layla said with a more commanding voice. "This is Sàng Jiāngjún Celeysria Ambervale. Better known as the Blood Demon."

The young girl gaped with her eyes wide as she looked at Cal in surprise and a hint of idolatry in her eyes.

"From today onwards, she will personally train you in the arts martial, and on blood magic. Please strive to do your best. We trust you shall not disappoint us," Layla added with a melancholic smile on her lips.