The formal session convened at midmorning, in a hall arranged to teach a lesson before a word was spoken.
The Wang Clan sat among the lower seats, near enough to be acknowledged and far enough to be reminded of their place. The Dao Clan had been seated beside them. The City Lord's household had been arranged behind the delegation, which told the room precisely whose authority the morning belonged to. Wang Ben had read the seating on the walk in, and found nothing in it that he liked.
Wang Tiexin sat with the stillness of centuries, Wang Tian at his right, Wang Ben at his left. Three generations side by side, the only argument the clan could make without speaking.
Senior Investigator Qin Hualing rose, and her mortal shedding presence pressed the hall quiet.
"This session will hear the formal grievances of the Crimson Bastion," she said. "All present will answer truthfully when questioned. To evade is to defy the domain's authority."
There were three grievances. Five delegates of the domain dead on the road from Redstone after the auction, named one by one. Two thousand four hundred mid-grade spirit stones sent into the Xue Clan through the capital's own hands, lost when it fell. And outsiders who had acted without the Domain Lord's permission.
Then the demands.
"First. Surrender those responsible for the deaths of the delegates, for trial under domain law."
Impossible, and Qin Hualing knew it was impossible. Wang Ben knew why. The death of those delegates had been the work of a nascent soul powerhouse, past the reach of domain law and past anyone's power to hand over, a name the Bastion did not have and he did. The demand was not made to be met. It was made to be failed.
"Second. Compensation of fifteen thousand mid-grade spirit stones."
A sharp breath went through the crowd. Fifteen thousand would ruin half the clans of Redstone put together.
"Third. A Crimson Bastion delegate will be stationed in Redstone to hold the Blackwood Forest for twenty years. The Wang Clan's patrols and stores are his to spend on it as he wills, and no cultivator of the clan sets foot in the Blackwood without his permission."
The Blackwood was the city's livelihood, and the Wang Clan had patrolled it for years. The third demand did not stop at the clan. It set a Bastion delegate over the forest for a generation, and put every hunter in Redstone under his hand.
"Fourth. The Wang Clan, as the one that gained most from the Xue Clan's fall, will serve the Crimson Bastion and those allied to it. Its formation masters given to them each year, its newest arrays taken, and its labor for whatever the Bastion requires."
Wang Ben's eyes narrowed.
The grievance was five dead delegates and two thousand four hundred lost stones. He had no wish to make light of the dead. But fifteen thousand stones did not answer a loss of two thousand four hundred. Twenty years of a forest did not answer five graves. And formation work, yearly and binding and reaching into the clan's every new design, did not answer the death of anyone at all.
He did not have the name of the hand. He had, now, the certainty that the hand existed, and that it wanted not justice but the Wang Clan's treasury, and the Blackwood, and the clan's labor for a generation, which was to say it wanted the clan itself, dismantled and carried off in pieces under a lawful-sounding word.
When the fourth demand was spoken, Wang Ben was watching the delegation, and he saw a flicker cross Commander Wei Zhennan's face. The clan's formation work was nothing to a commander, nothing he had any reason to feel one way or another about. And Wei Zhennan, for the length of a breath as it landed, was satisfied. Then it was gone, and his face was still again.
Wang Ben noted it. He did not understand it yet. He understood that it did not belong.
He looked then at Qin Hualing, and found something he understood better. She had not enjoyed the fourth demand. The first three she had spoken as an investigator does, level and certain. The fourth she had spoken a little too carefully, the way an honest official reads out an order she does not agree with. An investigator could carry punishment for dead delegates. It was punishment for nothing.
"The parties have three days to consider and respond," Qin Hualing said. "A final session will then determine the outcome. The first three demands require no discussion. The fourth requires its terms made clear. The Wang Clan patriarch may come forward."
Wang Tiexin crossed to the front of the hall in an unhurried manner, and heard the terms in detail. Sixty days a year of the clan's formation masters, given to the Bastion and its allies. The clan's new designs taken, and its hands set to whatever work the domain chose.
"The terms are extensive," the patriarch said.
"The alternatives are more extensive still."
He inclined his head, conceding nothing, and was turning back to his seat when a new voice rang out.
"If I may address the delegation."
Prince Huo Zhanlong rose from among the spectators, the royal insignia at his shoulder glinting, and in the delegation, Commander Wei Zhennan's face hardened.
"Your Highness," Qin Hualing said.
"The grievances of the Crimson Bastion are legitimate, and must be answered." The Prince walked to where he could face both the delegation and the clans. "But the Domain Lord is not the only one with a stake in this. The kingdom is at war. Azure Dragon Fortress has been hard-pressed of late, and the help it needs most is formation masters from this domain. The Wang Clan is a formation clan, and no work suits them better than holding that fortress. If the Wang Clan's formation work is to be claimed by anyone, the kingdom claims it first, for the kingdom's defense, and not for the convenience of the domain."
When the Prince finished, Wang Ben watched Qin Hualing, and saw the agreement she did not try to hide. She had come to Redstone to look into the deaths and claim a fair price for them, not to bind a clan into service. The fourth demand had never sounded to her like the Domain Lord's doing. A clan sent to defend the kingdom was a thing she could believe in. She drew breath to say so.
"The terms were approved by Domain Lord Tie Wushan, Your Highness." Commander Wei Zhennan cut in before she could. Qin Hualing closed her mouth and gave him a cold look.
The Prince gave a knowing smile. "I know quite well what Domain Lord Tie would approve of here. Which is why I do not doubt he would be in full support of the recommendation I have set before you."
To the Prince as much as to the Bastion, the Wang Clan was a small frontier clan with one mortal-shedding cultivator behind it, weak enough to bend to their will.
It was City Lord Huo Zhenyang who broke the silence the Prince had left. "Perhaps the arrangement might serve both domain and kingdom," he offered.
The offer hung in the air, and every eye in the hall turned to the Wang Clan.
Wang Tiexin rose. "Your Highness honors the Wang Clan with your interest, and our formation work with your regard," he said. "An offer of this weight is not one my clan can answer in a single sitting. If Your Highness would allow us a few days to consider it, the Wang Clan would count your patience a generosity."
It was deftly done. His grandfather had not answered the Bastion at all. He had thanked the Prince and asked him for time, and left the four demands neither accepted nor refused, as though the morning's true business had only ever been the Prince's offer.
Commander Wei Zhennan opened his mouth to object. The Prince spoke before he could.
"The Wang Clan will have the time it needs," the Prince said. "I would rather have it willing than forced."
Wei Zhennan tried once more to speak, and Qin Hualing stopped him with a look. She brought the session to a close.
Wang Tiexin gathered his son and grandson with a glance, and the three of them left the hall side by side, the way they had come in.