The morning of the secondary bracket arrived clear and cold over Yuncheng.

Lin Xuan climbed the western stair of the Arena with his Skyedge robe over his shoulders, less ornamented than the ceremonial of yesterday but still formal enough to mark him as a Principal Representative.

The reserved section for Principals sat in the middle ring of the Arena, wide cushioned seats with direct line of sight to the fighting floor. About half full when he arrived. Other delegations and a few of the secondary attendants already settled into their preferred clusters.

Lin Xuan picked the edge of the section. Aisle seat. Three empty cushions to the left. Two empty to the right.

’Mira. Today I have to watch my brother fight. Do I have to pretend it interests me?’

[ Yes, you have to pretend you are paying attention out of etiquette. What you actually feel is your business. ]

’Good to know.’

The first combat of the secondary opened on the floor below. Two minor sect disciples. Stage 4 against Stage 5. The Stage 5 won quickly. Lin Xuan watched without leaning forward.

Ten minutes into the second combat, someone climbed the stairs toward his row.

He did not look up at first. He assumed it was a delegation attendant looking for an empty cushion.

Then a small thread of cold air moved past his shoulder, the kind of involuntary cultivation signature that came with northern ice users when they had not yet learned to suppress it for long stretches.

Su Qingyue sat down on his left.

She did not greet him. She simply lowered herself onto the cushion beside his and arranged her sleeves over her knees with the same quiet economy he had watched her bring to a stranger’s testicles two days earlier.

Lin Xuan registered her presence.

His hand moved.

It was a small motion, half a second long. His right hand left his thigh and settled, briefly, in front of the lower part of his abdomen, in a posture that had no relation to anything happening in his immediate environment.

He pulled it back the moment he became aware of it.

But the moment had existed.

And Su Qingyue, who had sat down at exactly the angle that gave her his profile, had seen it.

She turned her head toward him with the most carefully neutral face he had ever seen on a human being.

"Lin Xuan."

"Su Qingyue."

"Is something the matter?"

"...No. Nothing. I was thinking about the combat."

"You moved your hand to a very specific area when I sat down."

"Reflex. It is not important."

"Reflex of what?"

He considered his options.

Lying was clearly going to fail. The truth required him to confess that he had spied on her in an empty Arena two days earlier.

"...Defensive reflex. Anatomical. Personal. You know how it is..."

She studied him.

The neutral face shifted. It was a small shift, a single grade up the temperature scale. The cool composure of Frostmoon Ridge was still in place, but something underneath it had moved.

"Lin Xuan."

"Su Qingyue."

"Were you in the Arena two days ago."

"...It is possible."

"It is possible, or you were?"

"...I was."

"Behind the lower ring’s western pillar."

"...The second pillar."

"The third pillar. The second does not throw enough shadow to hide a man in a Skyedge robe."

He stopped breathing for a count.

The corner of her mouth had not moved, but her cheekbones had taken on a faint warmth that was not entirely from the ascent up the stairs.

"You have spent two days assuming I did not see myself being watched. That is a calculation error. Frostmoon Ridge does not train its disciples to miss a man hiding behind a thirty-meter pillar."

"...Alright, I will know it from now on."

He let half a beat pass to recover.

"In my defense. I did not see the strike. I saw the result."

"The result was difficult to miss."

"It was... it really was."

"And what is your position on the result."

"I approved at the time. I approve now. The man clearly deserved it."

A small pause. Her shoulders relaxed by a barely visible fraction. The faint warmth on her cheekbones receded.

Then her voice changed angle. A little more conversational. Almost friendly.

"At the ceremony yesterday."

"...Yes."

"You winked at the Young Master of Phoenix Mirror Sect? Or it was at your ex-fiancée?"

He went very still again.

"...You saw?"

"Lin Xuan. I was three meters from you. My entire delegation saw. Greenvein Monastery saw. Iron Cloud Pavilion saw. Probably half of the lower ring of the public saw."

"...Understood."

The faint warmth was no longer on her cheekbones. It had moved somewhere else. The small corner of her mouth, which had been holding very still through all of this, was now allowing one degree of curve upward. The first real expression Lin Xuan had seen on her face since they had met.

"Do you have anything to say about that."

"It was a joke."

"Of course."

"It was a specific joke."

"Of course."

He looked at her sideways.

"...Su Qingyue. Are you doing the hm."

"The what."

"Mira does the hm."

"Who is Mira?"

"...Forget I said that."

The second combat ended below them. Another minor sect disciple knocked off the platform. The crowd produced the obligatory applause of a tournament audience that had thirty more combats ahead of it that day.

Su Qingyue did not appear to be watching the floor. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Lin Xuan. I have an observation."

"Go on."

"Your reflex of anatomical defense was impressively quick. That suggests prior experience."

"Su Qingyue. Are you implying that in my life I have had encounters with women who reacted poorly to something I said."

"I imply nothing. I just observe."

"That sounds like an implication."

"Your interpretation. Not mine."

He let out a small sound that was almost a laugh.

"Su Qingyue. Allow me an observation in return."

"Go on."

"You sat down beside me on a tier with two thousand seats. Thirty of them are empty in this section. You chose the one to my left. That suggests preference."

"Or it suggests I know the person and prefer to sit beside an acquaintance rather than a stranger."

"You know the representative of Iron Cloud Pavilion. She is sitting three rows below us."

"I know the representative of Iron Cloud Pavilion well enough not to want to sit beside her."

"Hmm. Bad relationship?"

"Bad chemistry actually. She talks during the combats. She does not stop. She makes technical observations that are not technical."

"...Understood."

"Whereas you."

"What about me?"

"You are silent. You watch the floor with your head tilted one degree forward and your posture leaned slightly off the backrest. It tells me you are analyzing the combat. That is preferable to the representative of Iron Cloud Pavilion."

A comfortable pause. The third combat was beginning below. Neither of them was watching with any particular attention.

The Master of Ceremonies’s voice carried up through the rings.

"Secondary Bracket. Young Master Lin Kai of Skyedge Sword Sect, against Disciple Han Wei of Iron Cloud Pavilion."

Lin Xuan sat up by a fraction.

Su Qingyue caught the change.

"He is your brother."

"Stepbrother actually. I am adopted."

"That makes no difference, does it? Do you want him to win?"

"Which answer would you like? The ideal one, or the truthful one?"

"Both."

"The ideal is that a win would be good for our sect and for our reputation. The truthful is that I do not particularly care. I am enough on my own for our bracket."

"Oh? Confidence. I hope it is not just words."

"Never. You will see in a few days."

Lin Kai climbed onto the fighting floor below and bowed at the formal angle. The combat opened.

Lin Xuan watched the way a man watches the closing of an account he stopped checking on. Lin Kai opened with the standard Azure Cloud middle-guard, the same opening from the family duel six weeks ago. Han Wei answered with a neutral defensive form. They circled once. Lin Kai pressed. Han Wei retreated. Stage 7 against Stage 5. The realm gap closed the conversation in four exchanges.

Han Wei went down on the third strike and stayed down on the fourth.

Lin Xuan let out a slow breath through his nose.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

"No. I want to see everyone who fights today. There are more than a dozen combats still ahead."

"It seems I will be keeping you company, then."

"May I ask why you came over?"

"I think I answered earlier. Watching others in silence is bad manners. And I found your way of dealing with people interesting."

[ That woman is playing with you. ]

’I know.’

[ You know and you are still sitting beside her. ]

’Mira. If a woman who can hit a man in a very specific place decides to play with me, the only reasonable response is to play back.’

[ Hm. ]

’Mira. Not with the hm.’

[ (◠‿◠) ]

The fourth combat opened below. Lin Xuan and Su Qingyue stayed seated, the conversation between them quieting to short comments on the techniques of the contestants. She identified the school of footwork being used by a Greenvein-trained disciple two combats later. He pointed out that the wrist angle of a Phoenix Mirror inner disciple sat a hair too high for the house style. She agreed.

Sometime around the fifth combat of the morning, Lin Xuan caught himself thinking that he had not been this comfortable beside someone who was not Lian in a long time.

He decided not to chase the thought any further.

[ Xuan. She has probably been analyzing you for the fight. If you win your match, the semifinal is against her. ]

’Oh. So that was the real purpose.’

[ It could be. ]