Taishin City was a prison of tall walls and straight lines. Joshi had, by now, spent several years in and around cities. He was used to the ways of their inhabitants, how people scurried along the streets, keeping their eyes fixed on the ground rather than watching the horizon for threats; how they shrank in on themselves, trying to keep below the notice of everyone around them; how the walls and tight houses imprisoned the soul and kept one's dreams from soaring on the winds like a bird.

  Even without the directions that had been included with his summons, it would have been impossible for him to miss his destination. All he had to do was follow the main thoroughfare through the city, then out the northwest side, where the great bluff rose up to tower above the city and the river bank on which it was built. The bluff was a good 500 feet tall and cast a shadow over the city, depending on the season and time of day.

  The road led straight to a small cluster of buildings at the foot of the bluff, surrounding an enormous track that stretched from the base of the Bluff up to its top. As Joshi approached, a huge square wooden vessel with windows cut into it was sliding down the track from the top. It stopped at the bottom of the cliff and dispersed its two dozen passengers, who disembarked and passed through the gate toward the city without a glance at Joshi.

  Joshi presented himself at the guard post at the foot of the steps leading up to the platform where the transport stood waiting. A bored official, wearing one of the interminable badges of the Imperial household, looked him over as Joshi presented his summons.

  “Oh yes, you're down for the nine o'clock car.” He pointed toward the box. “Go ahead and get aboard. Once you've reached the top, you'll need to show this to my counterpart there, and she will tell you where to go. Here.”

  The functionary slid a small wooden badge on a cord across to Joshi. It had two emblems on it: on the right half, the symbol of the Imperial household, and on the left, a bright green “Visitor” character.

  Joshi, resigned to the humiliation, put it around his neck, then climbed up to the platform and entered the large wooden vehicle. Rows of benches filled the interior of the car, enough seating for perhaps forty people. Joshi took a spot in the back corner where he could see out the window.

  Others began filling in, taking seats far away from him. Between his clearly foreign appearance and the cultivator robes he wore, he probably didn't look like good company. That was fine with him. He and Magen waited and considered.

  Back at the Morning Mist sect headquarters in the hidden valley, he and Hiroko had spent weeks together nearly every moment of the night and day. Cycled together, eaten together. They had talked for hours, filling in a hundred little holes in their knowledge of each other. Now that he had vowed himself to her and she to him, it was easy to be honest and open. They had walked together under the moonlight, swam in the lake surrounding the sect headquarters, stolen hours for themselves. Everything had been perfect.

  Then they came here, and Hiroko had gone to the Gem Court and not returned. She'd sent him messages telling him there were matters here to attend and that they would be together again as soon as the wedding ceremony was complete.

  She truly believed this separation was necessary. It seemed utterly irrelevant to Joshi. They had come to an understanding. He had taken her hand from her father's in front of all their friends and sect members. What more was there? Why did these Gem Court harridans have any say in it?

  And worse, it sounded to him like these idiocies were going to take up a great deal of his time in the next few weeks.

  The car began to slide backward and upward, Joshi unconsciously gripping the bench beside him before forcing himself to relax. A cultivator was not concerned with such matters. This was a mere application of lux technology he had not seen before, but its purpose was clear. He had watched the car traveling up and down the cliff twice on his journey from the Morning Mist headquarters to the city. Everyone else aboard seemed to take it in stride, so he would as well.

  As the car rose, the city stretched out beneath him. Now it was more clear how it was laid out now, with half a dozen bridges arching across the Green River, which cut through the city northwest to southeast. The Green was joined up with the Aimita, a smaller river that flowed in from the east. Barges slid along the river, bringing food from far away into the enormous sprawling city. Farms surrounded the capital, not nearly what it would take to feed the sheer quantity of people who lived in all those houses. He was still amazed so many people could live in one place at a time.

  At least considering the city took his mind off of Hiroko. He would go to this meeting to which he had been summoned, and he would demand she explain what was causing her hesitation. The car ground to a halt at the top of the cliff. Joshi waited for the other passengers to disembark before he emerged onto another world.

  He was surrounded by dense, lush green. The lux here was slightly higher than usual, a sign that a tower somewhere nearby was giving off lux. He had heard the Emperor had a private tower, and it must be up here in the Imperial grounds.

  At a quiet word, Mogen shot skyward, and a moment later, Joshi looked through his eyes to get a sense of the vast scope of this garden. The grounds were perhaps three quarters of a mile wide at their widest, but they stretched a good eight miles to the east and west of where he now stood. Little streams ran between manicured ponds. He could see gardeners attending them now, feeding fish and clearing away weeds. Trees of every sort bent and twisted around each other to form a civilized, artificial wood. Many of the trees were in flower and fruit at the same time, an impossibility, especially considering the season was now past harvest, but with enough lux, anything was possible.

  He could sense the artificially constructed channels of lux running all through the garden, carrying lux from the tower, which was easy to spot from here. It was round and squat and looked as though it had been built from clay-baked bricks. It appeared to be about three stories tall, with gaping dark openings showing on all sides. The bricks had script carved into them, dark and impossible to make out from here.

  He didn't want Mogen getting too close to the tower. The Emperor, it was, undoubtedly had protection over his garden, and he did not want to arouse ire. He recalled Mogen and followed the path away from the car toward the security post, where the passengers were undergoing screening.

  Waiting his turn, he presented his summons to the woman there. She was no dowager but wore the plain grey of the Imperial household, with a token at her neck indicating her particular branch of the service. It showed a shovel. He didn’t know what that meant.

  The woman looked it over. “The Gem Court awaits you,” she recited, sounding bored as she handed it back to him. “Take the second path to the right and follow it for a mile. Then follow the signpost. Do not stray from the path without escort.”

  Joshi accepted the token wordlessly, and he strode off down the path. He could feel himself being watched and guessed that there were lux scripts everywhere. His token resonated in his hand, apparently allowing him to pass along without alarming the watchers. He tried to make out details in the scripts, but that was not his talent. Chang-li probably could have.

  The path was broad, made of carefully fitted stones, set together so tightly no grass or lichen grew up in between them. Other paths paralleled this one, and every now and then he saw small groups of women passing along beneath the trees. Only women. No men. This was the Imperial harem, of course. The only men permitted here were guests, such as himself, or the Emperor's own sons and grandsons.

  He reached the Gem Court headquarters, a collection of small white buildings with rounded domes topped with gleaming golden spires. Around the doors and windows were ribbons of rainbow stripes set into the white stone. None of the buildings were more than two stories tall, except for the central pagoda, which towered seven full stories, each with its requisite multicolored, different colored roof. The place felt both old and impressive.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Joshi approached the open building and entered. A trio of women converged on him. One was a dowager, but unlike every other dowager he had met, her robes and the pearl on her brow were both shining white.

  The woman smiled to him. The other two women with her were clearly servants, the same bland robes with token as the one who had greeted him. “Welcome, cultivator. Prince Joshi. I am Dowager Mari, and I am assigned your case.”

  He stiffened at the term "Prince," but let it pass. These people did not understand how matters worked for the Darwur. The fact that his father had been a Khan, his brother was a Khan, meant nothing for Joshi himself. Still, it didn’t hurt to receive more respect. “Is Princess Hiroko here?”

  “She will meet us,” the dowager said, and turned, walking away and clearly expecting him to follow.

  The two servant women were both in their sixties. One leaned in toward Joshi. “You don’t want to be difficult, handsome,” she said, and smiled at him, showing several gaps in her teeth. Joshi was reminded of his great-aunts and how they had delighted in sticking their nose into everyone's business. He felt oddly comforted at the familiarity. “You just come along and do what you’re instructed.”

  They exited the building and approached another. Beyond, Joshi heard the laughter of children. He stiffened. The woman who had spoken to him smiled at that. “Some of the young princes and princesses are at play. You will not be permitted to meet them, of course. This is their home.”

  He had nothing to say as they led him to a secluded garden spot. There, at last, was Hiroko. She sat on a bench beneath a tree whose branches bent over her. Little white flower petals fell like snow, landing on her head and the bench as she sat.

  She looked up as he approached, and her smile made all of this worth it. She rose. He hurried past his escort, taking her hand in his and bending to meet her lips.

  The dowager cleared her throat. “Princess Hiroko, kindly remind your betrothed that we have a great deal of work to do here.”

  She pulled away, still clutching his hand with both of hers. “I’m so glad to see you,” she whispered. “Please just put up with this for as long as it takes. It can’t take too long. Then we can be together.”

  Her plea warmed his heart, and his objections faded away. This mattered to Hiroko, so he would endure.

  At a gesture from the dowager, he sat beside Hiroko on the bench; the dowager took up a seat on another bench next across from him, the two women flanking her like guards. She raised one hand and began to tick items off on her lacquer-tipped fingers.

  “Princess Hiroko, Prince Joshi, we understand that you are both impatient to conclude your nuptials. Rest assured, the Gem Court handles dozens of Imperial weddings every year. We have a process for this, and if you will listen to us and be guided by our process, we will see you through this with as little headache as possible.”

  Now Joshi had to have his word in. “What’s so complicated?” he demanded. “My sectmate Chang-li married his wife with scant four hours’ notice. Why is this so much more complicated?”

  The Dowager raised a hand to her mouth and laughed, little pearly sounds coming out. Joshi hated her. Not just because she was standing between him and Hiroko, but because suddenly she had made herself a symbol of the entire Imperial system, which he despised.

  The feel of the slave collar momentarily choked him, and he remembered his sworn oath not to be bound. He wasn’t being bound. He was choosing this because he wanted Hiroko to be his wife, because he wanted to be part of Morning Mist, and this marriage would help them. It had nothing to do with the Empire, everything to do with himself.

  He could abide this. He cycled Purification of Mind and Soul and waited as the dowager answered him.

  “The unions of Violet and Indigo Nobles to high-ranked cultivators is the heart of the Emperor’s grand design,” she said, as though delivering a lecture. From the way Hiroko was nodding, he suspected it was one common here in the Imperial grounds. “While the lower ranks of the Gem Court play an essential role, they are not nearly as … vital. You, Prince Joshi, are a cultivator at the rank of Lux Endowment, or so your fiancée says. One of our prerequsites to your wedding, of course, is to verify that rating.”

  Joshi tensed. They weren’t really questioning his word, he knew. It was just more of their procedures. But still, their subtle suggestion that only their own testing could confirm his rank rankled.

  “The friend of yours, his spouse is perhaps a Yellow-ranked noble?”

  “Red,” Joshi said, not that it mattered to him. Min had shown as much aptitude for cultivation as any of the Morning Mist, and that was all that truly mattered.

  “Yes, well, indeed,” the Dowager Mari said, as though that proved everything. She smoothed out her skirts. “We will need to confirm your rank and receive a full record of all of your tower culls, qualifications, and endorsements. We will have a servant sent around to your sect to collect those… let’s see, the day after tomorrow.”

  Joshi nodded and hoped Chang-li would be able to help him get all of that in order. “Is that all?”

  The dowager laughed again. He noted it didn’t touch her eyes at all. “My lord Joshi, that does not even begin the list of requirements. There will be the Gem Court reception for your sect, at which you and Princess Hiroko will be formally presented as a couple. Then multiple sets of tests and interviews. The Ritual Bathing, the Fitting of the Robes, the Blessing of the Honored Dowager. We will need an eight-generation genealogy to place on file for you.”

  “A what?” Joshi demanded. He blinked. He could recite the names of his father's back that far, yes. And, as it happened, he knew his mother’s genealogy as well, thanks to the excellent records kept at the Monastery of Harupa. “What are you looking for?”

  The dowager waved a hand. “It’s unlikely to be important. We will merely update the records for our own archives. After those minor events, there will be the demonstration of strength and leadership, as well as a handful of other ceremonies, which I shall have written up and sent to your sect when we retrieve your records. The time frame for this should be no more than four weeks. I have already scheduled the wedding ceremony itself, for the twenty-fifth of next month."

  Joshi's jaw dropped. "Four weeks of ceremonies and rituals? That’s preposterous." He wasn’t even sure if Morning Mist was going to be here for four weeks.

  Hiroko interrupted him. "Please, Your Radiance. Might my betrothed and I have a few moments to ourselves? It’s been some time since we were able to speak."

  The Dowager folded her hands and nodded. "You may, but you must remain within the Gem Court grounds. He is not cleared for any other portion of the Imperial Gardens."

  Hiroko rose to her feet, tugging at Joshi's hand. He followed her. They slipped behind some of the buildings into a small grove of peach trees that gave off a fragrance that reminded Joshi of the last tower they had visited together. He smiled a bit at that memory. Hiroko returned his smile with a radiant one of her own. "I didn’t know it would be quite so complicated," she said quietly. "I’m sorry for that. Can you please endure?"

  "I don’t understand why all of this is necessary," Joshi said. "They were practically throwing you at Young Master Feng. Would all of these details have been necessary then?"

  She shook her head. "You don’t understand. Being married here in the Imperial Grounds, it raises the stature of both me and Morning Mist. I was sent out to the hinterlands to take up a…” She frowned. “Shall we say, a second-rate marriage? I’m becoming aware of just how political matters were." She left it at that. "The point is, this is an opportunity for Morning Mist, if you can endure it."

  "I can endure anything," he told her. “If there’s a purpose, I can endure. But what is the purpose of this nonsense?"

  "To demonstrate and record just how impressive this union is," she whispered. "When my mother and father married, they were both already at the Lux Endowment stage. That’s incredibly rare for an Imperial marriage. I’ve been recorded to have reached the Peak of Spiritual Refinement." A delighted smile passed across her face, and she shook her head. "You don’t know how impossible that sounds to me. And you’re at Lux Endowment yourself. The point is, that will go into our sect records. Every time Morning Mist submits a request to join a tower cull, that’s part of what the officials will be looking at to make the tower determination for if we are worthy. Between how fast you and Chang-Li climbed the tiers, and the Imperial acclamations we have earned, this won’t hurt. All of these ceremonies that are binding us now will grant us freedom once they’re done."

  Joshi took a deep breath. Meeting her eyes, he spoke clearly. "Hiroko, I would outrace a hawk, wrestle hungry lions, and capture a wild stallion with my bare hands, if that’s what it took to win you. I don’t understand what all of these ceremonies are for, but I will do my best to fulfill each of them, if that’s what you say you want."

  Her eyes glistened as she looked up at him. "I do want it," she said softly. "Joshi, once we’re married I’ll be part of Morning Mist. My duty will be wholly to the sect and to you. And I can’t wait for that. But this, I truly believe, is where my first duty begins. I can, we can, help ourselves with this."

  Joshi nodded. "Then I’ll ask Chang-Li and Noren to help me." He forced himself to smile. "And what’s another four weeks, after all? It’ll probably take Chang-Li that long to get all of our records in order."

  And as soon as this wedding was over, and their sect records were resolved, he swore to himself to find a tower cull hundreds of miles away and plunge back into the proper business of cultivation.

  "You just tell me where to show up and what to wear," he told her recklessly, "and I’ll be there."

  Hiroko raised up on her toes, leaned in, and kissed him. That was enough to remove the last of the nagging doubts.