Tantra marks down another transaction as she flips through the ledger. It’s tedious work, but she’s done this plenty, if only as practice given by Farsa. Which is the excuse she used with Dozen about why she wanted to do this. She could practically see the pride radiating through his exhausted features.

  Slowly she’s marking down all transactions done with cultivators in the last year, about the time they arrived in Barakan. Sure she could probably move it up a few months, but Tantra is nothing if not thorough.

  Each deal made with a cultivator there is a contract, and for each contract there is justification.

  It serves two purposes.

  The first reason, the one that matters, is that it provides a detailed record of the dealings with said cultivators. The Jade Sol did not become the economic monster it is today through frivolously wasting their funds. There’s always the chance they used their personal coin, but it doesn’t matter much, her cards are already set.

  Knowing who did it now would just be a convenience.

  That and she needs to maintain an image, the perpetrator will expect her to do this, doing otherwise would only draw unwanted suspicion. So she flips through pages and pages of ledgers, finding each and every relevant deal, writing down the contract number for review later. She’ll have one of her old servants fetch them, once they’re resigned to her. If they're not trustworthy then that’s fine.

  Suddenly the door to her office bursts open, and on the other side stands a furious looking brunette. She has slight dimples across a soft face, with big blue doe eyes. She’s quite short, only slightly taller than Tantra, and she’s got a lean build of practiced athletics.

  “Young lady!” Farsa says with her usual scathing tone, “you finally come home and the first…thing…”

  Farsa trails off as she gets a good look at Tantra’s neck.

  Tantra gives her a sad smile.

  “Bandits,” she provides with her characteristically hoarse voice. It’s gotten better, much better, Qi slowly repairing vocal cords as she digs her roots deeper and deeper, but it’s still more scratchy than it is her natural tones.

  “Hells cherubs,” she curses, “that is…”

  Tantra’s smile grows brittle, “ugly right? You should come see my arm.”

  Farsa walks over and around the desk, letting out a slight gasp as she sees the mess of scar tissue that is Tantra’s left arm. Tantra can see a few tears beading in her eyes.

  “Oh sweetheart,” she says, pulling her head in for a hug, there’s the sweet smell of perfume Tantra’s grown so accustomed to over the years, mingling with the cherry incense of the office, she can hear how Farsa’s heart beats against her ribs. Tantra lets herself sink into her embrace, feeling the tears she’s been holding back for so long threatening to spill.

  “It’s okay Farsa,” Tantra says quietly, “it’s over now, I’m home.”

  Farsa hugs Tantra tighter, “you are”

  -

  The harem’s court is a place of soft pillows and overwhelming incense, meant to both comfort and impress with the sheer amount of finaries decorating the walls, rugs, and cushions. It had been such a long time since she had seen it, such a long time since the sweet peach incense graced her sinuses.

  “I’m gonna catch you!” Tantra says playfully as she chases a toddler who just laughs and giggles as he runs away. Domar’s grown, as is expected, but he’s not so old that she can’t insert herself as his sister like she feared when she first got to the sect. They make a mess of the Harem’s court as they run around, Tantra’s obviously holding back, he’s barely three, what kind of monster would she be if she were to actually try?

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  The Harem just watches on, amused, as their home gets ransacked by two children.

  “She’s grown,” Aumt Temi laments.

  “We always knew she would,” Farsa replies, “we must have the Gods grace to have gotten to see her so early.”

  “We’re going to need to prepare,”Jalia says exuberantly, “This calls for celebration!”

  “Look at the poor thing,” Kiki admonishes, “you think it would be wise to parade her to the nobles with all those scars? She’ll become a laughing stock.”

  Jalia deflates, “we could go to Goruk’s?”

  The rest of her mothers nod.

  “Still we can’t hide her away forever,” Farsa points out.

  Ral rubs at her chin and examines Tantra with a critical eye, “we could commission a sleeve for her left arm.”

  “What about her neck,” Kiki points out.

  Ral shrugs, “the arm is ugly, but the neck adds a certain air of…danger? It would only be fitting if she were a little intimidating after spending so much time at a sect.”

  Aunt Temi claps, “It’s a plan then.”

  Temi cups her hands to her mouth, “Tantra! Come here little jewel.”

  Tantra reluctantly stops the chase and walks over to her mothers as they drape themselves over cushions.

  “I’m not little, Aunt Temi,” Tantra grumbles.

  The woman just chuckles, “even if you were immortal, you’ll always be my little jewel.”

  Tantra blushes and looks down.

  Kiki coughs into her hand, “we were just discussing what to do about the scars.”

  Tantra deflates.

  The rest of her mothers glare at Kiki.

  “What?”

  “Can’t exercise even a little tact Kiki,” Ral admonishes.

  Kiki scrunches her brow at the woman, “I only said the truth.”

  “In the bluntest way possible,” Jalia says.

  Kiki grumbles, and Ral rolls her eyes.

  “Anyway, what this buffoon-” Kiki glares at Ral “-was trying to say was that we have a little idea, we just need your robe for a little while.”

  Tantra raises a brow, “what are you going to do with it?”

  “Send it to the tailor.”

  “Mother, this robe has three array scripts woven into it.”

  She waves her off, “that won’t present an issue, think of it as a gift for the birthdays we’ve missed.”

  Tantra raises her arms at them, “that wasn’t your fault, I could hardly expect you to come to the sect just for my birthday.”

  “Oh stop being stubborn and let us do this for you,” Farsa says.

  Tantra grumbles in acquiescence.

  -

  Tantra checks a kick from Kisrin, blocking the jabs that follow. He throws out a cross and Tantra almost falls for the feint, but she notices the shift in musculature just before he would strike. It’s barely enough time to block the elbow coming for her chin, and in that time Kisrin has tackled her to the ground. He starts to rain down blows on her as she covers her face, then, during one of the openings, she throws a straight at the side of his missing eye, creating just a moment for Tantra to capitalize on.

  Capitalize she does, as she pulls Kisrin down by his hair, she starts to elbow his temple until he goes limp. Tantra huffs, pushes the boy off her and gets up to the cheers of Yorin.

  “Ha! You owe me a gold Etra.” He says with barely concealed joy.

  “How? You’re weak as fuck without…” Etra grumbles as she can’t finish the sentence, the walls have ears after all.

  Tantra barks a laugh, “you should stop underestimating me honourable Etra! I’m no longer your punching bag.”

  Etra scoots off of her seat, “yeah? We’ll see about that.”

  Tantra smiles a wicked smile as she raises her arms and gets ready to fight.

  Through all of this, Jalia is just staring in horror at the unconscious Kisrin, then at Tantra, then back at Kisrin

  -

  What does Tantra plan to do if everything goes according to plan?

  Kill her sibling? A part of her hopes it was someone else, maybe one of the nobles, but that borders on the impossible. Only the Great Houses would have that kind of authority, and none of them give a single shit about Tantra. So, she’s going to kill her sibling.

  Can she do that? She’s killed once, and helped with another, but one was an instance of rage and the other desperation. Neither with a clear head, and neither planned. Yet here she is playing judge, jury, and soon, executioner.

  But they killed Rakan, the embers of rage says, he deserves vengeance.

  He does, but can she do it?