[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4y69RxS.png?1[/img][/center][right][hr][color=gray][b]Guixiang, City of Living Rubies[/b]
Present Day[/color][hr][/right]
[indent][i][color=C4484C]What was that? Some fragment of a memory?[/color][/i]

Shuozhen broke from her dumfounded gaze towards the man who had grabbed the sword. It was the first time she had such a thing happen to her since her exaltation, though she supposed that was a good thing. It meant she was [i]supposed[/i] to be in Guixiang. Though she wasn’t sure how the conversation with her estranged sister who most probably believed she had vanished off the face of all creation – or worse – was going to go once their entire “group” had gathered all of their bearings. Shuozhen wasn’t even sure how she would respond to Karilis’ soon-to-be interrogation. If she told her the truth the outcome could be so much worse than if she selectively picked what truths she wanted to reveal. Whatever approach she took when it happened would have to be decided sooner rather than later, however. Shuozhen hated not being prepared and this whole meeting had thrown not one, but two things at her that she had not been prepared for.

She looked over to her sister for a brief moment before returning her eyes to the woman who had gathered them all in the first place.

[color=C4484C]“I do have one question before I personally accept the task. Why would you choose a group of strangers to parley with such a man? You have the tools to do it yourself or with a group you are far more intimate with yet you guide a group of unknowns. Why?”[/color][/indent]