[b]10 pm, Shanghai, China
Ivory Palace Resort, July 2019[/b]

For the first time in many years, Chien Na Wei did not feel in control. In fact it was safe to say her world was falling apart around her at a downright stunning pace. The breakneck speed of events was in a twisted way a saving grace, because the situation was so catastrophic her mind refused to fully acknowledge it. This and her nerve, that of a hardened outlaw and skilled martial artist, let her handle herself with admirable calm. Her, China White, head of a powerful Triad now bearing her name, was being forced into a candle-lit dinner in the presidential suite of her own resort, by a man she thought she had killed long ago.

This was how Sir Desmond Dorrance announced his return. With a smile in the dark, the moon over Shanghai to his back and expensive wine in his hands, poured with such precision she could hardly believe that his eyes were blank. But he now held her life in his grasp as her empire came apart at the seams, destroyed from within by traitors on every level, her trustworthy lieutenants murdered one after the other. Seeking safety she had retreated to her stronghold, the Ivory Palace resort that she had built on lands she had taken from Dorrance, protected by the last man she thought she could trust. And her bodyguard Snakepit had delivered her to the trap.

Snakes in her midst. The hidden warning, so obvious now, mocked her. Snakepit had only arrived around two years ago, and how convenient had it been that he was there to protect her when others failed. She had come to rely on the superhuman behemoth too much and was now paying the price. Before she could further ruminate on her mistakes, however, the clinking of the glasses interrupted her train of thought. She hadn't even realized she was holding the drink the man had given her and fought an urge to toss it straight at his face. [color=#9ACD32]"Please don't look so shocked, Lady Chien. I assure you I am no apparition"[/color], Sir Desmond Dorrance began.

[color=#9ACD32]"How I am here is of little consequence. Suffice to say that I am not dead, and I have come to reclaim what is rightfully mine"[/color]. A hundred replies crossed Chien Na Wei's mind. Chinese land did not rightfully belong to any white man, the country did not belong to any foreigner in any way. What he sought was hers by right, she was her father's daughter and heir to the Triad, he was but an associate, an upstart parasite that she had squashed to secure her position in the underworld. She bit her tongue and bided her time, and Sir Dorrance knew this. [color=#9ACD32]"That you are unharmed is a matter of courtesy and proper form, which I suggest you mind"[/color].

The bastard took a long, slow sip of wine and let her simmer, seemingly gauging her reactions. She wanted to kill him herself and she was not without skill. But he knew she would not strike yet, not even at a blind target, while Snakepit might knock the killing blow off course and ruin her attempts at taking him with her. She would only have one chance at best, one she might find if he kept talking. [color=#9ACD32]"Whatever feeble resistance you might think to muster, it is meaningless. I control the streets, my men are everywhere, no one can help you. Drug traffic, prostitution, gambling, protection, fences, counterfeiting, everything you own will be mine once more by dawn"[/color].

He was gloating to his former tormentor, yes, but this was no empty bluster, no meaningless threats. China White knew enough to realize that he spoke the plain and honest truth. This was checkmate. She swore to herself she would accept any hell that any god saw fit to consign her to, if only she could drag the smug snake down with her. [color=#9ACD32]"I know you would rather die than face undignified exile unscathed, but your departed father was good to me and my ties to him stay my hand. You will still, however, serve as a warning to others"[/color]. And then, to her great surprise, the arrogant bastard himself gave her the opportunity she'd been waiting for.

With but a gesture, the blind idiot sent his bodyguard away. Did he not know she was a master of the Leopard Fist? Did he not realize his life was now forfeit? As soon as Snakepit left the room, the very second she heard the door close, China White cast her wine-filled glass at her enemy. It smashed against the window behind him, but she did not see this. She was already bursting from her seat with practiced skill and grace, propelling herself over the table in a fierce kick that struck at Sir Dorrance's neck with deadly certainty. It was a killing stroke. Or it would have been, had the blind man still been at his seat.

Instead, Chien Na Wei's heel brought low an empty chair. Without pause she rolled through her momentum and leapt up in her guard, scanning the dark room for her target. Her sudden attack had put out one of the candles, it was hard to see at all. And there he was at but two steps of distance, standing tall and proud, holding the last source of light in the room in his hand. She would not be denied by some accursed western cripple. She had brought him low before, she would finish the job. And Sir Desmond Dorrance could feel, nay he could see her frustration, her anger welling up. As he blew out the last candle, he knew he'd treasure these moments.

The snake's laughter, cold and mocking, rang out in the moonlit dark as China White crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, her hand seeking to crush his windpipe and hitting nothing but air. She couldn't see. She heard him laugh behind her and with a shriek swung through in a furious backhand, and she knew she had measured the distance right even as she spun clean and made no contact, and then the laughter seemed to come from elsewhere in the room that now seemed so much larger, so much emptier and she couldn't pinpoint his location. She couldn't see. Where was he, how could he move so fast, where were the lights?

Silently Sir Dorrance slithered unseen, and yet he could see everything with startling clarity, his every sense supplanting the eyes she had cost him. China White's every breath, every step, every heartbeat, her cold sweat, the very waves of the air as she advanced in her guard and swung at nothing, he could feel all of this, he could feel her anger, her confusion, the fear forming deep within her. Yes, good. The lesson was right on track. From the shadows he emerged, time and time again, mocking the feared triad boss' every move, not even bothering to counterattack, barely even forced to block or parry the majority of her efforts.

Every step, every spin, every failed attack left her lost once more. She had to stop and find the window and the moon to place herself in the suite and pray that clouds would not take away this mercy from her. Unknowingly, instinctively, she no longer even sought the death of her foe. Just to preserve her own life, and every passing moment she lashed out more and more wildly, every passing moment her form and grace and skill were replaced by a mounting panic. She couldn't see, and somehow he could. Yes, Sir Dorrance could see her breaking down. How he had waited for this moment. The dark, true dark, was terrifying. He had learned thanks to her.

[color=#9ACD32]"I see the fabled skills of China White were nothing but exagerated hearsay after all"[/color], his voice rang out in the dark once more as Chien Na Wei stopped to gather her increasingly ragged breath. These would be the finishing touches. [color=#9ACD32]"I understand now why your father did not wish for you to inherit his position"[/color]. Another shriek, equally pained and furious, and the white haired mob boss lashed out in the direction of the voice for her last stand. But he denied her even this. Every attempt at an attack was stopped before it was made, met by a gentle nudge at a vital target. Eyes, throat, nose, temples, ears, solar plexus, liver, even her kidneys.

The message was clear. He could have taken her life at any given time. Every time he marked her body her attacks lessened and she retreated further and further back, until finally she cowered miserably at a wall, awaiting a death that would never come. Instead, a candle lit itself to free her from the dark and she saw her tormentor as not a man but a snake, coiled and ready to bite and tear and poison her, mocking her misfortune and weakness. [color=#9ACD32]"Go now. Where I do not care, so long as you stay away from China. Stay away from Asia. Run and tell all the others: The King Snake is coming"[/color]. Defeated, ashamed, left with nothing, China White fled and King Snake sat triumphant. Word would spread of these events across the underworld, yes, it would be the dawn of a new day soon.