Sixteen days later, a warm late-spring drizzle fell over the willow-lined canals of Jade-River City, a prosperous fortress-town sitting at the southern river junction of Cloud-Mist Province.
At the center of the city's restricted royal quarter stood the Jade-River Pavilion—a heavily walled, three-story palace compound built of green-veined marble directly over an underground limestone cavern that housed one of Emperor Huang Long's four regional Secret Black-Ledger Vaults.
On the afternoon of the sixteenth day, the heavy bronze gates of the Jade-River Pavilion swung open to admit two converging processions.
Having arrived three days earlier from the Imperial Capital to secure the compound, Consort Mei (Mei Aoxue) and Consort Lan (Lan Caihe) waited inside the grand marble reception hall, surrounded by their four Half-Step Martial Emperor Inner Shadow Guards and twelve Peak Martial King female sword-attendants.
