Jia tried not to fidget too much as Yue helped her get ready for the banquet.

“Lee Jia, I swear to the emperor—I’ve seen you meditate for days on end without so much as a twitch. How can you not stay still long enough to apply makeup?!”

Jia groaned in frustration—apparently she was failing.

“I hate makeup. It makes me feel like there’s dirt on my face and I always want to wipe it off. Besides, I like my face—why should I have to cover it up?”

“Tsk, it’s not covering anything, Jia. The purpose of makeup is to enhance. You have incredibly stunning eyes, so why not make them even more noticeable?”

“Because it’s uncomfortable, and I hate it.”

Yue sighed.

“Look, nobody is forcing you to do this. If you really feel that strongly about it, we can forget the makeup.”

Next to them, Narae looked over excitedly from where Eui was giving her the same treatment, only for Eui to grab her by the nubby horns and roughly force her head back into place. Narae barely seemed to notice the rough treatment.

“Does that mean I can skip this too?!”

Eui shook her head.

“No. I am forcing you to do this. You don’t have a choice.”

“Aww...”

Jia giggled at the display and shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, fine. I guess I can put up with it out of sisterly solidarity. You just promise to be good, okay?”

Narae nodded resolutely, earning herself a forehead flick from Eui which she dutifully ignored.

“Yes, Big Sis!”

Yue smiled.

“Well, aren’t you a sweetheart? Now stay still, Jia—and keep your eyes open!”

Jia submitted herself to Yue’s ministrations, giving her best friend free reign over Jia’s style. They were planning to wear the same dresses that they’d used for the audience with Queen Seong, which Yue strongly approved of.

“Where did you even get these? They are amazing. Slightly subpar stitching, but it’s hidden well and the designs are beyond top quality.”

Eui grinned proudly.

“They were custom made by my mom. She’s a seamstress.”

Yue scoffed.

“No she’s not—she’s a designer. I’d be impressed if this were mortal work, but even a first stage cultivator should be able to manage much better precision with mortal materials. No, it’s the design that stands out to me. I’ve met girls who would kill for a dress like these.”

Jia pursed her lips. Yue was almost certainly being literal, there.

“An Chunhei is mortal. Eui’s family made their fortune selling top quality designs to mages and nobles back home.”

Yue’s hands stopped for a moment, and she looked incredulously at Eui.

“Are you serious? By the emperor, you need to rectify that as soon as possible! Talent like this is wasted on mere mortality.”

Eui grimaced.

“I don’t think my parents are interested in becoming mages—besides, they’re too old. It’s not as drastic as with qi cultivation, but it does get harder to awaken in the other disciplines with age.”

“I’m sure you, of all people, could find ways around that little hurdle.”

Eui grunted noncommittally.

“Maybe, but I also don’t like the implication that ‘mere mortals’ are lesser beings unworthy of consideration. My parents manage just fine without being immortal.”

“Of course. I’m sorry if I insinuated otherwise—I only meant to say that your mother’s talent is one that deserves to be preserved.”

They fell into silence for a while as Jia and Narae got the finishing touches on their makeup done. Yue leaned back and nodded in satisfaction.

“There we are—all done! You look beautiful, Jia—and slightly less like a teenager.”

Jia scowled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Jia, I love you, but you are the scrawniest woman I have ever met or probably ever will meet. At least Eui carries her diminutive size with grace—speaking of which, how do you plan on handling your brand? The magical signature will still be obvious, but we could conceal it if you...”

Yue trailed off as Eui’s face twisted into a deeper and deeper scowl. She glanced back and forth between Jia and Eui, hesitating.

“Did I...say something I shouldn’t have?”

Eui turned away.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Jia almost scratched her face before catching herself and grimacing at the offending hand as if it had betrayed her.

“Uh, no—it’s fine. Lin Xiulan dug up some unpleasant thoughts about it while she was inspecting our soul. I think Eui would rather not conceal it, but we’re not up to displaying it prominently, either.”

Eui nodded curtly in agreement, and Yue bit her thumbnail as she considered it.

“Something subdued, then—keeping the brand beneath her hair without hiding her face as much as usual...I think I can do that.”

With a plan in place, the girls got back to work perfecting their looks for the party.

Getting ready ended up taking almost the entire day—Jia understood why Lin Xiulan had been occupied so early in the morning. Nobody was spared. Narae wore a proper dress and had her hair pinned back to accentuate her little goat horns, Heian had been coaxed into giving herself a more orderly appearance—though she insisted on having her hair manually brushed—and even Jung had spent her entire half-hour of wakefulness getting fitted with robes and a hairstyle that wouldn’t get mussed up too badly once she fell back asleep.

The greatest shock to Jia came from Master Ienaga Yumi. Though she still didn’t wear any makeup, her ponytail was tied by a more decorative ornament than usual, and she had a cherry blossom in her hair. She was dressed in a long-sleeved red and pink yukata decorated with imagery of flowering trees.

It was the first time Jia had ever seen Ienaga without her armor or sword.

Li Meili, Pan Jiaying, and Luo Mingyu were dressed up as well, though they’d mostly just made do with dress robes provided by the sect. They ambled awkwardly at the back of the group, trying to stay out of sight.

“Are you sure it’s wise for us to attend? What if our names are traced back to the incident in Lushan?”

Jia looked askance at Luo Mingyu and shrugged.

“It’ll probably be fine. We’re among allies here.”

“I’d like better assurances than that.”

Yue turned to regard the man critically.

“You’re the one who treated Lee Jung, right? Your presence is mandatory. As for the other two...”

She approached Li Meili and frowned down at her with a complicated expression.

“I’m not sure what to make of you. But let me make something perfectly clear—whether you are Yoshika or not, you are my friend as much as she is. Don’t you dare make a stranger of yourself, understood?”

Li Meili bowed.

“Thank you, Yue. That means a lot to me.”

“Good. Now, for all intents and purposes, you two are both Yoshika’s disciples. We may be among allies, but that’s no excuse to go dumping every secret we have.”

The two of them bowed in acknowledgement and fell into step as Yue guided the group up to the main temple at the mountain’s peak.

They met Eunae’s group along the way and walked together to the banquet. Eunae had somehow managed to put together an outfit that made her veil look like a conscious fashion choice, while Rika went with a more traditional yukata in a similar style to Ienaga’s.

Jia almost didn’t recognize Ja Yun, who’d replaced her typical military uniform with fitted dress robes that must have been provided by the sect. Someone had gone through great pains to tame her wild mane, and even found some success—turning her ginger curls into something that at least gave the impression of an intentional style.

Muddy waved a pseudopod from atop Ja Yun’s shoulder while she desperately tried to hide behind Rika.

Once they arrived at the temple, they were ushered inside by temple guardians and led to the grand hall, where Jia was impressed all over again by the aesthetics of the Spiritual Flowing Purewater Sect.

The hall was huge—easily large enough to accommodate over a hundred people. A grand table took up the center of the hall, with every surface covered by steaming dishes. At the head of the table, their hosts awaited them.

Lin Xiulan sat demurely at the left side of a rough looking man with a stout build and wild facial hair, who was laughing uproariously at something. On the man’s right was a man who would have looked perfectly average if not for his stern expression and the way he regarded Jia’s group coldly as they entered—apparently uninterested in whatever had amused the one next to him.

Across from them was what had truly caught Jia’s attention. The entire back wall of the grand hall was opened up to reveal a terrace behind a giant waterfall. The very same one that Jia had seen from town. From here, the flowing water was so clear that she could see through to the other side, and the setting sun cast a dancing pattern of refracted light throughout the entire hall.

Despite being so close to the falls, they didn’t make any sound, and Jia wondered if there was some sort of formation in place to control it. She would have checked, but everyone except the boisterous man at the head of the table had their domains subdued as much as possible—including Seong Misun, who’d arrived before them. Jia wasn’t about to rudely start probing around.

The boisterous man noticed their arrival and grinned widely.

“Ah! Our guests have arrived! Please, come in and make yourselves comfortable!”

If not for Yue’s prompting ahead of time, Jia wouldn’t have known where to sit. Seong Misun was already near the head of the table on Xiulan’s side, and Master Ienaga took the next nearest seat on the same side without hesitation. Across from them, Xin Wei and Guan Yi were already seated, and Yue took her place alongside them.

In theory, it was just a dinner. They could sit anywhere and nobody would make a comment. But in practice, they had already begun important diplomatic negotiations, and this was where the battle lines were being drawn.

Eunae, Rika, and Ja Yun took seats on the left with Misun and Ienaga, while Li Meili, Pan Jiaying, and Luo Mingyu sat on the right with the others from Qin.

Of course, Meili’s position was mostly performative, but the message was clear enough—the Goryeo-Yamato alliance was represented on the left, and the interests of the Qin Empire on the right. Jung had been transferred from her palanquin to a smaller—but no less ornate—litter that kept her partially upright, and placed at the end of the table. Narae sat next to her mother—strictly neutral, uninvolved.

That left Jia and Eui. They held no illusions—they had significant influence here, even if they weren’t the most major players involved. Anything they said or did here had the potential to shape the future of the entire continent—a mind boggling notion—and it started with how they declared their allegiances.

There were three options. The most obvious would be to sit with their friends from the alliance. After all, they were ambassadors and it was ostensibly their job to represent Yamato and Goryeo equally.

Another option would be to sit with Yue, and firmly declare themselves as friends of the empire. It would be a strong statement—a wordless promise that they genuinely felt that their interests aligned with that of Qin, or at the very least their hosts.

Lastly, they could sit with their family, taking a strictly neutral approach. A weak position, but it meant no risk of offending anyone by declaring favorites.

The man on the right glared at them, his eyes challenging them to pick anything at all. Yoshika returned his glare with a pair of soft smiles. She approached the table, standing at the foot next to her sisters, bowed deeply, then split up.

Jia took her seat next to Yan Yue, while Eui boldly wedged herself right between Master Ienaga and Eunae.

The stern man’s expression didn’t change, but he regarded each of them for a long moment before the man in the center erupted into laughter.

“Very good, very good! It’s my greatest honor to host all of you here in the heart of the most beautiful place in the world! I am Xin Hai, Grandmaster of the Great Spiritual Flowing Purewater Sect. To my right is my blood brother Guan Yu, Grandmaster of the Earth Rending Sword Sect. And finally, to my left is my beautiful wife, Lin Xiulan, Grandmistress of the Cult of Harmonious Stars!”

The three of them bowed together.

“Welcome, friends! I’m sure we have much to discuss, and I look forward to getting to know each of you—I’ve heard so much! But first...let’s eat!”