The envoy did not arrive with trumpets or the clatter of decoration. He came as he always came: a quiet shape at the edge of the courtyard, a hooded presence that made even the wind slow its step. The morning was thin and bright, the kind of light that showed dust motes and the exact edge of a leaf. Li Wei found him waiting beneath the eastern eave, hands folded, the blue of the envoy's talisman barely visible under his sleeve.
"You asked to speak with me," the envoy said without preface. His voice was a blade wrapped in linen—precise, practiced. "Walk with me."
They moved through the practice path where trainees bent bamboo and the scent of oil rose from the smithy. Li Wei felt the Obsidian Heart warm against his ribs as if it were nervous for him. Behind his calm he carried the ledger, the signed pledges, the rota sheets—all the things that had become the architecture of his life in the sect. He thought, briefly, of how fragile those pages might appear to an inner eye.
They turned into the garden where a small pool reflected the sky like a black mirror. The envoy stopped and looked out over the water. "You have built structures quickly," he said. "Rotas, pledges, witness lists. That pleases me. The sect likes order."
Li Wei inclined his head. "We needed structures after the raid and the inquiry. It keeps people safe."
The envoy's hood tilted in something that might have been half-approval. "Protection is a wise aim. But protection can be used as a lamp to find what is useful beneath another's skin." He met Li Wei's eyes. "The Inner Circle will ask a question soon: can you be trusted to steward methods that magnify desire into power? They will not simply examine your ledger. They will test the ways you make consent durable, the ways you repair hurt, the ways you prevent advantage from becoming predation."
The words landed like cold water. Li Wei felt the blue rectangle flash at the corner of his vision, the system's neutral tone suddenly heavy with implication.
[ALERT]
Host: Li Wei
Event: Envoy's Counsel — Inner Inquiry Anticipated.
Effect: Inner Attention: High. Advisory: Prepare ethical demonstrations and robust grievance mechanisms. Reward: +100 Qi on envoy-rated compliance.
He let the notification pass and met the envoy honestly. "What form will their test take?" he asked. "How do I prepare beyond what we've already done?"
The envoy smiled in a way that carried no warmth. "You cannot prepare for every question beforehand. That would be pretense. You prepare the sinews—your procedures, your witnesses, your willingness to be corrected—and the rest you let the sect ask you to answer. But there is one thing you must clarify for them yourself: to whom do you owe your primary duty? The sect? Your circle? The individuals who trust you? Answer those as if your life depends on it, because their questions will require that clarity."
Li Wei felt the truth of the question like a pressure on his chest. He had thought of the ledger as protection, of governance as armor. The envoy's phrasing turned it into a moral fulcrum: duty as a vector with direction, not merely weight.
"Duty to the person," he said finally. The words came from an honest place. "I owe care first to the people who trust me. The sect's rules provide the framework; my circle's consent is the living part of it."
The envoy watched him for a long beat. "Then be prepared to act on that belief in ways that might cost you standing," he said. "If you choose the ledger over people, you will find that paper cannot heal what your choices break. If you choose people and fail to structure protection, the sect will punish you for recklessness. The test is not about technique. It is about how you choose between competing goods."
He turned and left the pool, motion quiet as a shadow. Li Wei stood for a long time, the envoy's words ringing like an unfamiliar bell.
When he found Hua Lin, she listened to the story in the way of someone who cataloged risks and then measured their mitigation. "Then we double the human checks," she said. "Independent mediators, rotating neutral witnesses from different wings, a complaint escalation that bypasses your stewardship when necessary. And most importantly—training on withdrawal and mediation for everyone in the circle. Make the grievance channel not symbolic but procedural: timebound responses, mandatory interviews, and restorative steps."
Master Han's response, when Li Wei briefed him, was quieter but shaped by similar hard logic. "You will be observed," he said. "Make observation useful. Invite questions, admit what you do not know, and do not hide the ledger when criticism is technical. Ethics require exposure to critique."
They set to work. The ledger expanded—not only with signatures but with procedural detail: who would serve as neutral mediators (two names on rotation, one inner, one outer), the timeframe for complaint review (three days for triage, fourteen days for resolution), guaranteed emotional support sessions for any partner who reported distress, and a binding clause that allowed the elders to pause any scheduled practice if evidence of harm surfaced. Hua Lin drafted scripts—ways to speak when someone left a session feeling uneasy that would make a record and offer immediate care. Ruo Yan added a clause for documentation standards that would make disputed accounts clearer.
The system chirped appreciatively as each measure was filed.
[NOTIFICATION]
Action: Enhanced Ethical Protocols Filed. Reward Granted: +80 Qi. Envoy Favor: Noted. Inner Attention: Heightened.
Preparations were not only paperwork. Li Wei ran drills—mock grievance interviews where Mei Ling and Yun Shuang played complainants; witness rehearsals where neutral acolytes practiced how to write non-leading notes; mediation sessions where Hua Lin taught him how to ask the right questions without defense. The exercises felt uncomfortable—like moving through a winter chill you knew would sharpen the blood. He welcomed the discomfort.
Word of the step-up in governance leaked up the inner veranda—Lan Yue's brows tightened once, then eased. The inner disciple who had invited him to the library sent a brief note requesting attendance at the coming review. "Come with your ledger and be prepared to demonstrate both practice and repair," it read.
Li Wei answered with a steady, inked line. He would arrive with the ledger, with witnesses, and with the people who had been most affected by his methods—not as props but as participants in the demonstration of care.
That night, as lanterns blinked and the pines sighed, Li Wei sat with Mei Ling and reviewed the clauses they had drafted for the grievance channel. She traced a finger over the words and then looked up. "If they push you," she said, quiet and certain, "remember whose face you picture first in any answer."
He nodded because he already knew—Mei Ling, Yun Shuang, Lianxi, Ruo Yan—names he had inked into his life as commitments, not merely as bonuses. Duty as vector. He would answer for them.
The envoy's question had not been a simple warning. It was a mandate and a compass. The Inner Circle would test him, not for his ability to charm or to cultivate, but for his willingness to let governance bend like a reed before the storm and not break. Li Wei folded the ledger closed, felt the Obsidian Heart's faint warmth, and, for the first time in a long while, welcomed scrutiny—not as a threat but as an instrument to sharpen the house he had built.
End of chapter 28