Book 2 Chapter 43 – A House Fractured

The boat gently rocked over the placid lake, the boats pilot using their spirit to calm the surrounding waters and move the craft forward. When they’d made the trip to that stupid village she’d stared out at the waters for hours, mesmerized by rippling light reflecting off of the lake's surface.

This time she stared at her hands, her mind reeling from the day’s revelations.

Li Xiangyin’s father had been forced to be with her mother. Not even as an arranged marriage or some other agreement that helped achieve the families goals.

A full blown kidnapping.

In retrospect she supposed there’d been signs. The two never truly got along, but she’d been told that’s just how marriage was sometimes. It was part of why she was secretly glad that her betrothal to the Hao heir had fallen through. Though she’d always feigned disappointment whenever she was asked.

The idea of being forced together with someone she couldn’t stand for the rest of her potentially long life was terrifying to her. Yet it was expected of her if it would put her family in a better position.

She was starting to wonder if her family was as great as she’d been told. The Li clan was certainly powerful, and the medicines they provided saved countless lives. However she was now beginning to wonder if the poison they inflicted on the world was greater than the lives they’d healed.

Man Yue sent her yet another burst of peaceful tranquility through their bond, the moon spirit trying to calm her since she’d heard the truth. While she appreciated their efforts it did little to soothe her.

Her mother hadn’t wanted to tell her anything of course, but she’d stomped her feet and screamed enough that she eventually wore her down. She’d be punished later for being a brat, she knew, but it was worth it to get some answers. An extra painful body tempering session perhaps, or maybe she’d suddenly grow “sick” for a week or two.

Being part of a family that was famous for both their medicines and poisons certainly had its drawbacks. Though she hadn’t made the connection of her bouts of sickness with her misbehaving until Li Wanyu had gotten quite furious on her behalf.

It was one of the few times she’d ever seen her brother so angry.

She missed him terribly, though she couldn’t vocalize it to most of her family. No matter how hard she’d tried to make him mad or annoyed with her he’d simply give her that same calm smile. Unlike the rest of their family he actively sought her out just to check on how she was doing. Not as a ploy, or with an ulterior motive.

Just a brother checking on his baby sister.

She used to find him borderline insufferable, viewing his kindness as pity. She’d constantly been compared to his genius and come up short.

Which as the first daughter was unacceptable.

So whenever he’d offered to help in any way he could she’d thought he was simply rubbing her nose in his superiority. It was only thanks to his persistence that she eventually accepted his help and began to improve in her lessons.

Though their mother certainly did not approve of the two of them interacting at all.

Now she better understood why there was so much friction between the two of them, and why their mother didn’t like him talking to her. Her brother was aware of the truth. Instead of the lie she’d grown up on.

Instead of falling in love at a tournament like her mother had told her, she’d seen a beautiful free binder with a powerful moon spirit and forced him to join her family. There were probably some steps in between, but she wasn’t being told the details of the situation when it was clearly a mark of shame for the family as a whole.

Man Yue sent another pulse her way, failing to calm her in any way, instead reminding her of further indignities. The spirit originally belonged to her father and had been taken from her brother despite it being his by right. Yet another lie she’d been told.

She had wondered why he’d been nowhere to be seen when his spirit had been bequeathed to her. It should have been done as a proper handoff between siblings.

Now she suspected her first bound spirit had been forcefully taken.

It was another of those instances where reality began to mismatch with what she had been told

They were better than others. They were owed for their kindness and protection. It was why she had to be perfect and behave in certain ways. A daughter of the Li clan must show her superiority in everything she does.

But if they were supposed to be better then why behave like children squabbling over the shiniest toys? It made no sense to the girl.

She wanted to shout!

To scream and stomp her feet!

She wanted to vent her frustrations on this stupid world!

Li Xiangyin was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice when she’d begun to glow with pale moonlight, her heightened emotions causing some of her moon attuned qi to leak out of her.

Something her mother found unacceptable. “Control yourself, daughter. Or do you wish to make yet another scene?”

Li Xiangyin’s mouth moved of its own accord before her mind could stop it. “Like the scene you made at the teahouse?”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed and the light around them dimmed, Li Xiangyin fought back a smile, she must have really struck a nerve as it was rare for her to lose control like that. “I have already said I will speak no more on that matter. Do you wish for your punishment to be even larger than what I already have planned for you?”

She decided to call her bluff. “You can’t punish me until you’re done parading me around and showing me off. Until then all you can do is train me a bit harder.”

Which was now something she wanted. Before she was somewhat content to live in her brother’s shadow despite the pressure from the rest of her family.

Now she had a goal beyond power for its own sake or for the prestige it offered.

Her mother smirked. “Thanks to that serving girl I was already going to start you on core training, no daughter of mine is going to be shown up by a nameless commoner, but if you’re expecting added difficulty to your normal training I suppose I could prepare a particularly excruciating body tempering session. How does that sound?”

Li Xiangyin knew that she should probably try to plead with her mother to lessen the pain down the line. However her anger at the situation simply made her smile instead.

“That sounds perfect, mother. Thank you.” Which likely made her mother even angrier, but at this point she’d lie in the poisonous bed she’d made.

The harder she trained, the sooner she’d be able to set out in search of her brother to give back Man Yue and seize a spirit of her own. No longer would she merely accept what her family gave her.

She hoped that Li Wanyu was safe, wherever he’d run off to.