A Tear Frozen in Time

Alliances

The Leaders Meeting went exactly how she knew it would.  Once everyone settled down after her arrival which took a little time seeing as all heads were swivelling in her direction, Ye Hua began to introduce the important issues first in which each one would be followed by discussions.  This interested her because the meeting gave no room for private dealings, it ensured that everyone got their turn to speak while also ensuring their intentions were made very public and she could see that a few were not happy with what was looking to be a change in routine.

Normally issues of importance were outlined and from there the Leaders would discuss among themselves what it was they wanted from the meeting before putting their preferences forward.   This was also a time when Leaders of high rank would use the opportunity to gain greater alliances while remaining under the safety of the Celestials umbrella.  Though many Leaders also saw it as an opportunity to find weaknesses within their ranks and none more so than the Demons who sat completely apart from everyone else which she noticed.

In fact, their Overlord seemed to find something interesting to look at in her general direction and for a brief moment, she allowed herself the pleasure of holding his gaze which surprisingly felt genuinely warm and easy to read, in that there seemed to be no pretenses, his smile felt honest.  He was rather handsome in a rugged kind of way.  HIs hair was long and black and pulled in at the sides like most of them, and being quite youthful looking, the small amount of fuzz around his chin gave the impression he might be a little older, even though she knew he wasnt.

Equally, he wasn't much older than she was, but she felt an immediate attraction to him.  Not in the intimate sense, but she felt that they might have something in common or things to discuss in the way of alliances or even friendship which she was fully open to, which was one reason why she was there.  As yet, Qing Qiu had no friends, or rather political alliances or friendship that she could use, and a meeting like this one saw many of the worlds leaders congregating because of Qing Cang, including the Demons who were no friend of the Ghost Tribe who they blamed for the countless deaths under their old ruler and the way that Overlord was now looking at Li Jing who had yet to take his gaze off her face, suggested he was not liking the attention she was gaining from him either.

 Known as Guotin, he was the oldest of three brothers and two sisters and from what she had learned of him, he was a fair and just man, cared deeply for his people and though he was not in an alliance with the Celestials, he was not an enemy either, so was always invited to the meetings in the hope that their friendship could be strengthened.  But what interested her about this man, was the soft kind face that apparently hid a ruthless leader when put under pressure.  He was no walk over despite the youthful face and nor was he inclined to jump on any alliance without a full and thorough investigation of all the conditions.  In fact, according to her sources, he had very few alliances, because he preferred less company while many of the others relied too heavily on alliances to keep themselves afloat.

However, it was the alliances that he had made that interested her. And one of those alliances was with the Wolf clan, a people who were not present being enemies of the Celestials and therefore a possible ally via the Demons. The Wolves and the Demons had much to offer in the way of wealth, land, marriage alliances, beasts and even army support, but it was their vast army of trained horses that she was interested in, because even though her army was well equipped with their own horses they were really only trained as war mounts rather than an army and as her eyes lingered a little longer on the Demon Overlord and what she might be able to gain from him, her mind suddenly and without effort went back to that one horse that still remained a part of her.  He always would.

It was not long after Daoji was deemed fit to return to the valleys that Si Yin found herself at a cross roads.  For three months, she had worked tirelessly to heal her horse and though he was back to his normal playful self, she realized that he would always have a slight limp having broken his front leg during the attack.