The ice encased the bodies and most of the room, hard and clear.
Rat tested its strength with his sword, impressed when the steel didn't even leave a mark. "How long will it last?"
"I don't know," Mingzhe admitted. He felt terribly empty now. Not how he'd felt when he'd used up everything he had on the river. A different kind of empty.
Like it was gone forever. The empty space in his chest wasn't big, but it was noticeable.
Would Eirian survive if she lost hers? Probably not.
It was strange, like seeing his limbs on someone else's body. Or just separated from his own body.
He touched the ice with a finger and shivered from the cold it produced. "I think it will last a while." The cold stayed when he stood and stepped back. The magical chill that lingered long after a normal chill would have faded.
Rat nodded, thoughtful. "This might give us the advantage we need."
His head snapped around suddenly. "Someone's coming."
"Go," Mingzhe said, stepping back into the hallway. Rat hidden among the Yang's people was far more valuable than Mingzhe now, and he needed to be protected as much as possible.
Rat disappeared into the shadows as Mingzhe pulled the door shut, trusting that the spy could get out safely without worry about Mingzhe. He pushed the lock into place, hearing it click, and then he heard the footsteps.
Measured, confident.
He wasn't surprised when he turned around and found Lady Yang watching him.
For a moment, they stared at one another.
Mingzhe's resolve hardened. The bit of confidence from his magic, knowing it was there, and the animal instinct that told him it would stay, gave him courage. "Lady Yang."
"Lord Zhao. I didn't realize you had so little restraint in other people's homes."
Mingzhe's lips curled. "Given the circumstances, I didn't feel like I needed to have any."
Her expression darkened, but she didn't take the bait. Her eyes darted to the door behind him before returning. "And have you found anything that changed your mind?"
"No." The answer is easy, immediate. Mingzhe well sick of playing the simpering fool to try to figure out how to stop them. It feels good to tell her no.
Even more so when her eyes narrowed, and she couldn't quite hide the twitch of annoyance. "Most people listen to those instincts that try to keep them alive."
"I did, and yet somehow I find myself on trial." Mingzhe hadn't actually talked to Lady Yang since before the trial. Since their last confrontation in her office. He'd seen a few of her other children, but it was mostly Hikari. Anytime he showed up at the manor, it only took a few seconds before Hikari found him. He'd been possessive of their friendship when they were young, and though he'd grown out of it, it seemed to have come back a bit in the recent circumstances. Hikari's siblings had never seemed bothered by Mingzhe's presence. He assumed they shared their mother's belief that it meant nothing significant for their cause.
He stepped toward her. Lady Yang didn't move and continued past her, as if that was his intention. He wasn't surprised she hadn't flinched.
Lady Yang didn't flinch in the face of anything.
A spark of rage burst in his chest. Lady Yang feared nothing, but she'd certainly given the rest of them something to fear.
How was that fair? Mingzhe walked past her and kept going. Life wasn't fair, he reminded himself. Life didn't care about something so arbitrary and effeminate. Fairness was a concept created and obsessed over by humans; animals didn't waste their time with it.
He walked back to the stairway door and heard Lady Yang's footsteps following him. Even if she didn't check that room now, she would eventually. The ice was still an advantage, unless she found some way to get rid of it. Mingzhe didn't know too much about magic, just what Eirian had taught him, but he thought she'd need magic to get rid of it. So she'd have to find someone, pay them, sneak them into the Camelia, which wouldn't be easy since Captain Li refused to relax the guard, and they were still checking everyone who came and went.
There were two guards waiting at the door, and they were taken aback when they saw Mingzhe, looking at Lady Yang with wide eyes.
Mingzhe ignored them as he started up the stairs.
There was a way to use this to stop them, Mingzhe knew. He just needed to figure out what it was, as quickly as possible.
~ tbc