So far Shen Yao had been at the army camp for about week now and without ignoring his training he still practice drills every morning and today was no different he stepped out of the tent with his sword in hand and momentarily paused at the entrance glancing around camp finding it already in motion
This is how it had been for the last few days since he came here. He glanced at the open space where soldiers moving in practiced formations under Old Lei's direction, the old commander's limp doing nothing to diminish the quality of authority he carried as he directed the soldiers during their drills the footsteps and chants created a kind of tranquility that settled over the training ground.
As he moved around his gaze happened to land on the Su twins— Su Yu and Su Tan, identical twins in their middle-age also battalion leaders in the army according to what he knows the two and their company weren't in the camp a few days ago during the challenge and so they hadn't witnessed anything but then again word travels fast in a place with like the camp where entertainment is a luxury and so by the end of the day they were well informed of the happenings of the camp.
The Su twins glanced at Shen Yao as he walked away with a sort of eagerness and admiration. Shen Yao didn't know he was a prodigy in the eyes of everyone else after all the original Shen Yao in the army was seen but nothing but a waste of genes.
watching Shen Yao walk further away they didn't notice Xi Shu had at some point walked towards them and stood right next to them before tapping their shoulders lightly his angelic smile oh, so he thought it was sent chills down their spines.
"Vice commander "they stood straight on attention their expressions stiffening
then before Xi Shu could say anything to them, they fled. Xi Shu was confused he had come looking for them so they could answer his question, but they fled meanwhile the twins finally breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Xi Shu hadn't followed them after all it wasn't a secret that Yue Fan's training had been doubled twice these days and honestly they weren't willing to share this big pie with Yue Fan it wasn't as if they were both getting and younger
Shen Yao on the other side received the attention without acknowledging it — moving to his own space in the courtyard and beginning his forms with the focused calm of someone who had decided the audience was not important. After a moment the training ground returned to its own business, interest satisfied for now.
Not yet, he thought, moving through his sword forms one after another he remembered that a day before Pei Shu suddenly left without a word riding back to the capital, he wondered what the reason was, but he quickly learned not to dwell on it and focusing on his swings.
Two more days passed quickly,
Shen Yao worked through the remaining preparations methodically. The administrative inheritance of a military command was a bit messy and took him time to quickly adjust to it but by then a lot of time had passed.
I've noticed, he thought, making his own arrangements leaving the soldier's management and training under the control of the camp of Old Lei.
The army's unwanted guests — the entitled arrivals sent by ministers and minor royals who had apparently taken advantage of his absence from gambling to wasting camp reserves and corrupt unit leaders — were a separate problem he personally dealt with directly and without prolonged negotiation They were tamed for now. He intended them to stay that way to serve as a warning to their backers who had let them run rampart.
Yue Fan watched all of this from a distance that started at carefully maintained and gradually became something less deliberate. He didn't approach. He didn't apologize. But his eyes, when they tracked Shen Yao across the training ground, had lost the specific quality of hostility and replaced it with something that he couldn't quite name.
That's enough for now, Shen Yao seated on the main tent having finished drafting a new training draft for the soldiers in the camp.
Old Lei said nothing directly. But once, passing Shen Yao in the corridor between tents, he paused and looked at him with the particular expression of a man comparing what he sees to what he expected and finding the comparison interesting.
He didn't say what he was thinking and Shen Yao didn't plan to ask.
There's time, he thought.
Days passed quickly as they stayed at the camp.it wasn't until I letter came in that they had to return to the capital and after making the last preparations they left for the capital two days later.
Under the insistence of Old Lei, Shen Yao and Xi Shu took Su Yu and Su Tan riding alongside them on their return for safety's sake. The camp diminished behind them with Old Lei watching from the gate — standing very still, hands behind his back, the posture of a man seeing someone off and thinking about something he hadn't said.
Shen Yao didn't look back.
He knew that among all the soldiers the most difficult opinion was going to be Old Lei since he had met the original a couple of times but since he was brought into this world the thing he lacked least was time he would wait.
The first day offered nothing remarkable.
The road north of the capital moved through terrain that was open enough for visibility and varied enough to be useful for someone who was paying attention to the landscape for reasons beyond aesthetics. Shen Yao paid attention. Old habits.
In the afternoon he hunted.
Not because the supplies were insufficient — they weren't — he just wanted to test his own strength because just training wasn't enough.
The answer, as it turned out, was reasonably good instincts and significantly better patience better than he expected he sat under the camp fire feasting over the deer he had hunted down and roasted.
Xi Shu watched him return with the results of the hunt but couldn't say anything he knew his young master wasn't one who liked being treated opposed especially after he made a decision, so he kept his mouth shut and focused on the roasted meat he had munching on in delight
Su Yu and Su Tan exchanged a glance.
The evening camp was warm and well fed and quieter than the army camp had been — the particular quality of a small group of people who were comfortable enough with each other not to require conversation to fill the silence just listening to buzzing life of the creatures in the night.
Shen Yao sat by the fire after the meal and looked at it with the focused non-attention of someone whose mind was somewhere else entirely.
The letters, he thought. The hidden letters. Ambush.
My parents were the best military minds this kingdom had, and they were caught in an ambush. Either they were betrayed — someone who knew their movements — or the enemy had intelligence they shouldn't have had.
Either possibility leads somewhere interesting.
Either possibility leads somewhere dangerous.
He fed a piece of wood to the fire and watched the flames adjust.
his eyes reflecting the fierce fire as it bounced off his eyes
The second day brought rain.
It arrived in the morning just a little down pour at first through it turned into a full-on drenching by the afternoon — the kind of rain that had opinions about everything and intended to share all of them at once. The road, which had been entirely adequate in dry conditions became muddy and slippery delaying their movements by a bit
but after all they were martial artists with stronger endurance and enhanced vision and so they rode through it with the resigned efficiency of people who had encountered worse and intended to reach their destination regardless.
The capital appeared through the curtain of rain with the particular relief of something familiar at the end of a long day — its walls dark with water, its gates still open, the guards at the entrance maintaining their posts with the stoic dedication of people who had endured the situation beforehand got too used to it to care.
They rode in and once they reached the rain started clearing out.
The Shen household received them with the organized concern of a well-run establishment that had been tracking the weather since morning and had made appropriate preparations for their arrival.
Shen Miao was at the front hall entrance.
She was supposed to be in her courtyard. She was in the front hall anyway, standing with Bai Yue and Bai Yin in the particular configuration of someone who had told themselves they were just passing through and had been just passing through for approximately two hours.
She looked at her brother — soaked, road-tired, altogether intact — and the relief that crossed her face lasted exactly as long as it took her to remember she was supposed to be composed and handed him the cloth prepared beforehand.
"You're back," she said.
"We're back," Shen Yao confirmed with a nod taking the cloth and wiping himself down.
Xi Shu was already directing the servants with the focused energy of a man who had been maintaining a running mental list of everything that needed doing upon arrival and was finally in a position to do it.
Su Yu and Su Tan accepted dry robes immediately leaving to go take a birth and change they didn't want to get sick.
Shen Yao under the preparations of Xi Shu went and took a bath before changing. Ate what was brought. Sat for a moment in the quiet of his study with the day still moving through his thoughts.
A spy in the army, the thought rolled in his mind. Ministers placing their people in his army Hidden letters. An ambush that killed two of the kingdom's greatest generals.
His eyes narrowed a picture was building.
It wasn't finished yet.
He put out the candle walked out of the study and with Xi Shu following behind headed to his courtyard got ready and went to bed deciding to sleep on it
but in the middle of the night his mind spiraled his senses tensing waking up to the sound of movement.
Not the typical sounds he was used to maids can't be Xi Shu not possible. The wrong kind of movement — too careful, too deliberate, the specific quality of someone trying not to make noise but had not entirely succeeded.
He didn't sit up immediately he waited like crouched tiger waiting for its prey to make a move first and when he felt another breathe draw closer to hi step by step, he moved grabbing the teapot that was left he got thirsty by the table and moved first.
The training had done its work. His body responded fast — rolling, creating some distance, putting the desk between himself and the figure that had materialized in the dark of his study. He caught the glint of a blade in the dim light coming through the window with quick movement he jumped to the side grabbing his own blade that had been put away.
So, he thought, with the cold clarity of someone whose mind had cleared completely in the space between sleeping and standing. someone wants me dead.
The figure moved.
Shen Yao moved faster — not fast enough entirely, the blade catching his wrist in passing which he used to deflect the blade headed for his neck, a shallow cut appeared with a sharp line of heat blood rushing out. He quickly glanced at the injury and set it aside. Not deep that was good enough
Fine.
He blocked the next strike with his forearm and used the momentum of it to redirect — the attacker's own force working against them, the technique from weeks of early morning forms paying off using his strength to trap the opponent before they can react
The courtyard erupted.
Voices. Footsteps. Light appearing in windows as the household woke to the commotion — the particular organized chaos of guards moving around searching for an intruder
The figure gritted his teeth after hearing the outside movements he couldn't finish the task. he turned around he had to flee before he got caught, he ran but didn't make it far.
Xi Shu, who had apparently been sleeping very lightly or not at all, appeared at the courtyard entrance with two guards and the expression of a man who had been anticipating this very scene. The spy was caught before they reached the wall — his arms restrained his legs broken to prevent him from escaping and his jaw was dislocated before they removed a small pill hidden under his tongue to prevent him from poisoning himself, they still needed answers.
Back in his courtyard, Shen Yao stood in his courtyard in the dark holding his wrist.
The cut was shallow. It was bleeding slowly with no end in sight.
He glanced at the figure brought in as he sat in the outer room Physician Li having been woken up long ago was now bandaging Shen Yao's wrist as Shen Yao glanced at the man held between Xi Shu's guards — face hidden, breathing hard, giving nothing yet but still alive good he'll be useful
Xi Shu appeared at his side with a cloth before he'd asked for one — his eyes taking in the wrist with a controlled expression that communicated significantly more than it showed.
"Young master—"
"I'm fine." Shen Yao accepted the cloth wiping the blood that had spread across his cheek from the fight earlier. Applied pressure. Looked at the spy. "Lock them up."
Xi Shu hesitated for exactly one second.
"Yes, young master."
The courtyard settled into the organized aftermath of a crisis contained — servants retreating, guards repositioning, everyone heading back to their posts Shen Yao apologized to Physician Li for waking him at this time who in turn said it was his duty
Shen Yao stood in the quiet that followed and looked at the door through which the spy had been taken then headed back into his room after everyone left.
He glanced at his wrist. The cloth around his wrist was working well he thought though his mind alternated to one question after all this was weird
why tonight specifically.
He went back inside to his room to rest.