Shuli Go Stories Vol. 3: The Stories They Tell

Part 2

           

The next day was already upon the three women when they stumbled out of the Screaming Goat, so their trip to Zu was delayed until the afternoon, after Yaling had completed her requisite beauty sleep and Lian had dipped into the cash reserves she swore she didn't have to buy each of them a late lunch.

Zu's estate was palatial, at least three dozen rooms on three floors, with a courtyard fifty yards by fifty yards landscaped to perfection: a fountain and waterfall pouring into a pool filled with gold and blue fish – each one bigger than a human head and with voracious appetites. Nestled in the fashionable Freehold district of Liangyong next to the Ancient Castle, it was almost indistinguishable from the dozens of other estates in that slightly terraced piece of the city. Almost.

The instant Lian walked past the gate, she knew she was in a home fundamentally different than any other in the city. But it wasn't the threat of a professional gangster's violence that differentiated it – all the houses, whether owned by nobles, merchants, or successful bureaucrats, had ample armed guards to keep out riffraff and thieves – it was the relaxed nature of that threat. Zu had bodyguards every twenty feet, but they barely paid attention to the three women as they explained their business and walked in. One or two gave Lian an appreciative look as a Shuli Go, but even with her two swords she wasn't really considered a threat. Not that she couldn't kill a few of them, but they were so numerous and so well trained – and paid – that her eventual defeat would be certain. But not her death. Unlike the other palaces that reached three stories high, Zu's also reportedly reached three stories below the ground, at the bottom of which was a torture chamber so overstocked, so over soundproofed, and so zealously overstaffed that death was not what assassins or thieves feared, it was continued life. Lian had heard Zu had kept one man alive for two whole months, although to call him anything resembling a human after the first two weeks was to denigrate the poorest conditions of human existence.

Despite An being the invited guest, Yaling naturally took the lead, her intricately woven dress dragging two inches of material along the ground behind her, the eyes of every mercenary, servant girl, and visiting noble on her as she led their group to Zu's office on the second floor of the estate. The doors were shut and a beautiful woman who introduced herself as Zu's assistant politely asked them to wait until Zu was finished his other business. The trio were directed to a set of reclined chairs, where servants brought them fruit tea and sweets.

"This is the life we could have if this pans out," An dreamed, relaxing and stretching out on the chair.

"My island would have servants with fewer clothes," Yaling said, tilting her eyebrows suggestively at one of the serving girls and eliciting an excited giggle. "Those slave islands are so far north, it'd be too hot for clothes."

Lian shook her head. "And who would admire your performance? Or would you perform any more? You wouldn't need to..."

"And deprive the world of my talent? No no, I'd still perform. Except instead of travelling all over the world to find my audiences, they would come from all over the world to see me. Me in my custom built auditorium. Stone risers, well designed acoustics. The way I'm meant to be heard..." Yaling drifted off into her perfectly formed future.

"Forever and ever, right?" Lian asked, keeping the jest in her voice despite the serious implication in her mind.

"Well, I imagine I'd outlive the risers and the audiences. When the Gods come back though, they'll be very happy to see someone as gifted as myself ready to perform for them."

Lian and An both snorted derisively. "I doubt even someone as conceded as you could keep from going crazy with immortality," Lian sighed.  Yaling paid no attention and sipped her tea, daydreaming.