IW-ST-3: Another Round

IW-ST-3 Another Round	Invitation to Wine: Tales of Three-Mountains Previous IW-9 (Story)
When the game comes to an end, another is set to begin. If all the realm's a game of weiqi, when will the players ever find a moment of respite?

Characters

Blacknight Dusk Kroos Lee Leizi Ling Mulberry Nian Grand Tutor Innkeeper Zheng Liang Xun Miss Du Miss Ning Pole-Carrier Taihe Zuo Le Voice in the Cup

Backgrounds

1 2 3 4 5

“

The Grand Tutor makes his appearance. He reveals the true nature of the entire incident–a great examination, a game and contest. Each side submitted their own answers, and what they now face is the ice-cold corner of an even greater scheme.

”

<Background 1>
Ling	What of Rhodes Island's plans after this?
Kroos	Uh... er... huh? Did I ever introduce myself?
Ling	What of your plans, even?
Lee	I've been planning to get this all behind me, go back and ask that aloof Mr. Liang... to pay my bills well.
Ling	Mm. Perhaps he was right. You and we are not solely together brought for this. Only...
Kroos	Leizi, how'd you...
Leizi	I happened to learn from fellow disciples about the Mount Hui-ch'i business, and immediately rushed for Shangshu. I might've been a little late, but not too late after all.
Kroos	That's good, then.
Lee	Miss Ling.
Ling	Hm?
Lee	I have a question. How do beings like you determine... er, who's older and younger?
Ling	Ah, establishing the pecking order. Within a sea of chaos, whoever first finds that answer, first exists upon the human realm.
Lee	What answer's that?
Ling	One to a question incredibly simple... ..."Who am I."
<Background 2>
[Ms. Ning enters.]
Miss Ning	Mr. Taihe, Mr. Zuo Le. It's good to meet you.
Zuo Le	Miss Ning. Good to meet you.
Taihe	Assistant Minister Ning, my pleasure.
Liang Xun	......
Miss Ning	'Tis unbecoming of my etiquette that I could not offer you hospitality for your time in Shangshu.
Zuo Le	We came uninvited and troubled you greatly. We should be first to apologize.
Miss Ning	You came on your father's orders, handling the goblet and Mount Hui-ch'i incidents in the Sui Regulator's name. 'Twas swift, fierce action.
Zuo Le	Your insight is as a beacon, Miss Ning. But Mr. Liang's actions, breaking past settled positions, were all the more admirable.
Miss Ning	Were it not for the Sui Regulator's radicality, he may not have needed such drastic action.
Liang Xun	My conscience is clear. I imagine the Department of Discipline and Supervision will pursue their own amends once they learn of this.
Taihe	I've drawn up my report to the Emperor. It's open and fair. No bias allowed for.
Liang Xun	As you say, Mr. Taihe, "garner loyalty and forsake righteousness."
Taihe	Indeed.
Miss Ning	But the Sui Regulator has overstepped its ambit. No matter the Grand Tutor's determining, I will report the reality to the High Minister.
Zuo Le	As one should.
???	No need.
Grand Tutor	Zuo Le.
Zuo Le	Here... here!
Grand Tutor	By your inference and in those circumstances, how long would you need to suppress the situation, should the three's Sui-Xiang roam the human realm to harm Shangshu? And should the bestial Sui have awakened, and Yan readied a city to fight it, what would the price be?
Zuo Le	The former would require three days' effort. The latter would be mutual loss, with the feranmut dead, and three-tenths of the army gone.
Grand Tutor	Liang Xun.
Liang Xun	Here.
Grand Tutor	If I sentenced you to death today, to protect the Ministry of Rites and Sui Regulator, what would you do?
Liang Xun	Submit to the law, as I ought.
Grand Tutor	Then if by unexpected turns, your actions today led Shangshu City to be damaged and the common people harmed, what would you do?
Liang Xun	Should I have sought a way for survival, then better late than never.
<Background 2>
Grand Tutor	The game until now was of equal occupation. The Lungmenite you chose was an unusual, irrational move, yet he seized some hint from it. A suboptimal piece. Given so, how much more is within his reckoning? And how much that he hasn't accounted for will return to benefit him?
Miss Ning	You perceive this matter finely, Grand Tutor.
Grand Tutor	Liang Xun. The one to take your place as magistrate will arrive at Shangshu within a month. Prepare the transition, and leave with me.
Miss Ning	......!
Liang Xun	I... do not know what you mean, Grand Tutor.
Grand Tutor	Follow me to the capital.
Miss Ning	......
Liang Xun	My thanks, Grand Tutor. But I still...
Miss Ning	—I, Ning Ciqiu, congratulate Mr. Liang on his promotion.
Liang Xun	I...
Grand Tutor	Assistant Minister Ning. Yumen's route back to Yan is set. It docked with Lungmen yesterday, to ready and resupply.
Zuo Le	—!
Miss Ning	Was... Yumen City avoiding Catastrophe? Or...
Grand Tutor	It had other purpose. Leave for Yumen ahead of time. When I and Liang Xun finish business in the capital, we will naturally proceed for it too.
Miss Ning	Right...! Understood.
Grand Tutor	Taihe.
Taihe	All is proceeding smoothly.
Grand Tutor	Good.
Zuo Le	Uncle Taihe? So you long since...
Taihe	"Garner loyalty and forsake righteousness." Blame me not, young man.
Grand Tutor	We will withhold investigation into the Sui Regulator's lapse here for now. At present, only determining whither the one hundred and eighty-one black stones are is key.
Zuo Le	Understood.
Miss Ning	Grand Tutor, when will you leave Shangshu?
Grand Tutor	Tomorrow eve.
Miss Ning	So very pressing. Need we not await the Messenger ranks' escort...
Grand Tutor	Unnecessary.
Miss Ning	Tianshi Bai will want to send you off.
Grand Tutor	Unnecessary still.
Zuo Le	Shangshu's mountain ways are rugged. I fear it may be dangerous if you are alone...
Grand Tutor	What, as if wily criminals dare run amok within Shangshu's borders?
Zuo Le	No. I simply mind your advanced years. Be careful on lone outings, please...
Grand Tutor	Within Great Yan's domain under heaven, I only fear if the common people go without peace and national trade is not sufficiently prosperous. What else should I fear? Is anything else worth my fear at all?
<Background fades out and in>
Lee	That's over with.
Liang Xun	Past the fire of danger.
Lee	You certainly didn't feel the heat.
Liang Xun	But the danger weighed on us all.
Lee	So it was all your secret orders from the Sui Regulator, having me bring the cup from Lungmen back to Shangshu. But your status stood in the way, and so did a certain someone by your side, so you had to put a thief's cap on me and get the escorts to act their show. —But you never coordinated that act with me, which I think shows you never wanted to put it on in the first place.
Liang Xun	You know I never liked acting.
Lee	So was this your own idea?
Liang Xun	Yes.
Lee	But the Candleholders were in Shangshu, and they wouldn't give up at the drop of a hat. You never even wanted this to go down in Shangshu, let alone the Sui Regulator usurping you for a while, them and the Ministry of Rites tearing into each other.
Liang Xun	True.
Lee	But if you had your way there, you'd be cast on injustice's side. And so there was someone who probably loved nosing, and probably felt very sorry for you, and he sent a bounty hunter to come steal the cup. Since then it's a weight off your hands. You know who that someone is.
Liang Xun	Maybe I do.
Lee	But nobody foresaw Shang Zhong would come soaring through the sky, out for a life. Things turned for the worse, and off everyone tumbled to Qujiang Peak and the Field of Forgotten Water. Not very smart work from you, no, not smart at all... But for you, for Liang Xun, maybe it was a little too smart at the same time.
Liang Xun	Which is why I entrusted you with it. Someone who could both tell what I was thinking, and would never betray his friends.
Lee	Should I thank you for still considering me a friend? When all's said and done, though, I wasn't out to find who that goblet's owner was.
Liang Xun	What were you looking for?
Lee	You. You're still that same old you, filled with ambition as ever, aren't you.
Liang Xun	Me?
Lee	You've gotten smarter, Liang Xun. But that's just fine. Carry on, you.
Liang Xun	......
Lee	......
Liang Xun	I have a rough idea as to Huai Tianpei's whereabouts.
Lee	You've had a rough idea for ages. You just didn't want me distracted.
Liang Xun	Are you upset at me for not telling you?
Lee	I was more worried I'd need to keep assisting you.
Liang Xun	There's been a rumor going about the world of Yanese kung fu lately.
Lee	Ah, the martial world's rumors.
Liang Xun	When there's kung fu involved, he could hardly be left out of things.
<Background 3>
[The Grand Tutor walks through downtown Shangshu alongside Ling.]
Grand Tutor	...... Hmm. Shangshu's a fine place.
Ling	The plum blossoms bloomed late this year, and I wondered why; so your private visit to this city it was. A rare, rare guest.
Grand Tutor	When did you master this place?
Ling	If wished you did to look into it deeply, I could be considered half of these mountains' master true.
Grand Tutor	The point in question isn't in the persons. It's in you, and your collective. When the day comes, what sides you stand on, what ways you see things, which ways your hearts feel, will all determine what is lost in the battle there and then.
Ling	Yan is a hard foe to defeat.
Grand Tutor	You do have the right to speak on behalf of Yan's army. You and that learned master held the north for a hundred years apiece, it must be recognized. If not for that, the court would hardly remember you so fondly. The Sui Regulator's deeds may be sensed to encroach, but no matter what, you are fondly cherished.
Ling	The years and months tower tall, joys parted with so reluctantly. To this day, in my deepest drunken depths, still my ears prick at horns sounding battalions forth.
Grand Tutor	...Nian.
Nian	Uh-huh.
Grand Tutor	The court wants to make a deal with you.
Nian	Well how about that. I thought I'd be getting my execution date.
Grand Tutor	The Chamber of Heaven's Designs hasn't ceased once in a whole millennium. Countless troops and tianshi lie buried in action in the north, yet evil rises as virtue does. The slaughter of wicked spirits is endless, and we've not been able to close the book on it. The finest of soldiers, the grandest of marshals, the wisest of tianshi, all rush to man the frigid north, year upon year upon year. The court wants you to erect twelve pagodas and five cities outside the Chamber of Heaven's Designs. Three thousand mechanisms, millions of terracottas. You needn't do it immediately. Nor will you be on your own. Yan has begun sorting it out, drafting blueprints, and assigning every great tianshi to the case. I hope you will lend a hand. It'll allow someone to make a return from that tower, at least.
Nian	Who?
Grand Tutor	One who would never fall, but absolutely must never fall.
Nian	You're kidding. I heard some of the rumors from Leizi. Her founder was a super-annoying guy... even if she never met him.
Dusk	Hmph... a special case of a long life warped by dependence on Originium. Such humankind really doesn't agree with me...
Nian	Isn't this just because he gave you all that hassle?
Dusk	Tch.
Ling	Ah... I remember him. Is he still well?
Grand Tutor	He is. He's been stationed at the north for over three hundred and seventy years now. If he can return home, the court would be willing to let him rest at ease, allow him a peaceful retirement... But the man always says he'd hate to be idle.
Nian	Sounds like some major engineering work. What do I get out of it, then?
Grand Tutor	The court will help you with what you want to do. The wild bestial of bloodshot eyes can't be caged forever.
Nian	Hah. It all sounds like a win-win for you. We Yan people sure love to haggle...
Grand Tutor	That's all on that. Think about it.
Ling	I have a matter I'd like to ask of you in turn.
Grand Tutor	Please, go on.
Ling	As of now, is he...
Grand Tutor	His actions surpassed all feranmutologists' predictions. Turning his own flesh into one hundred and eighty-one black stones... scattering them in the human realm... hmm. He wants to set up a game across the entire land.
Ling	Why?
Grand Tutor	In his endgame days, he'll surely appear again. You'd best ask him yourself then.
Ling	It's a game we must win.
Grand Tutor	We cannot lose.
[The Grand Tutor leaves Ling and her "sisters" alone.]
Ling	Did you hear that, you two?
Dusk	Would he lose to this Grand Tutor, playing on nineteen by nineteen?
Ling	Of course he wouldn't.
Dusk	Then how did the Grand Tutor beat him?
Ling	The Grand Tutor did not play go with him.
Dusk	Why?
Ling	Black and white in their millions upon nineteen by nineteen—it has its intrigue, true, but the Grand Tutor speaks that absorbed within a board of pieces, he cannot see man.
Dusk	Man?
Ling	Thus the Grand Tutor played a different game with him. With Yan's domain as the board, with the land's every commoner as the pieces.
Dusk	Who won?
Ling	The Grand Tutor, at that time. Thus he was willingly bound in captivity by Yan, and with every loss, he would stay prisoner sixty years.
Nian	Heh. If Yan always had a genius to beat him, he'd never get a foot out of the capital his whole life, huh?
Ling	Who can profess to know? He's very poor at the chesses, truth be told. Very slow to learn them, too. Centuries ago, in one cycle of sixty years, he lost hundreds upon thousands of games. The following cycle, he lost some less, and after one more, no more than a hundred games, give or take. And so forth, until a point when no one was left who could beat him. Thus on that cycle, he left the capital... and so that incident transpired.
Nian	That's when our third sis...
Ling	Mm. We could all sense that this was no pleasant matter.
Nian	So the Grand Tutor had to kick his ass before he dragged his own tail back to the capital, ready to be punished?
Ling	Perhaps it was a good, long while since last he lost in one fell swoop. Or it may be... that his sights were not set on Yan alone anymore.
<Background 2>
[Blacknight walks to Ms. Ning.]
Blacknight	So you're Ning Ciqiu.
Miss Ning	And you, the bounty hunter of enough bravery to plunder a Tianshi Bureau procession.
Blacknight	I-I didn't know they were good guys yet... Where's that old man anyway? The Bai guy?
Miss Ning	I will take you to meet him. I think, in this turn of events, thanks are due for you.
Blacknight	It's alright. But I still don't get the full picture. Wasn't it just a goblet? If you knew where it was, couldn't you go sneak it off yourself and be done with it?
Miss Ning	He would not want to hand it to me, so I could hardly take it.
Blacknight	So you got me to help? Why?
Miss Ning	Why, I wonder. I simply did not want him drawn into so many vexing matters, without the slightest self-awareness.
Zuo Le	So this bounty hunter really was yours, Assistant Minister Ning.
Blacknight	Hey!
Miss Ning	You need not raise your hackles. They are not enemies. Only...
Zuo Le	It was the Sui Regulator who hastened in its conduct; we won't question her deeply. Er... as long as she entered Yan's borders through legitimate means, of course...
Miss Ning	Of course. Go and meet with Tianshi Bai, Blacknight. He awaits you at the agreed location.
Blacknight	Alright. You take care.
[Blacknight runs off.]
Miss Ning	......
Zuo Le	You'd seen through both the Sui Regulator and Mr. Liang's schemes.
Miss Ning	Not too long ago. But you seem to not have seen through Mr. Liang's plans to mediate from within.
Zuo Le	He may simply have been apprehensive about betraying you, Miss Ning.
Miss Ning	......
Zuo Le	Regardless, the Sui Regulator overstepped their bounds in this. We will later address the matter ourselves with the Ministry of Rites.
Miss Ning	It is no matter. 'Tis all to plan further for Yan. 'Tis cold outside; may you all rest soon. I will go see young Blacknight; 'tis her first time in Yan, and I cannot rest easy.
Zuo Le	Farewell, Miss Ning.
Miss Ning	Be safe.
[Ms. Ning takes her leave.]
Zuo Le	......
Taihe	Lord Zuo.
Zuo Le	I can only hope this pair in love... aren't shaken by big things to come.
Taihe	...... You're young, Lord Zuo. To say such things invites ideas of feigned maturity.
Zuo Le	As a Candleholder, I've none of my own ties of the sort.
Taihe	If I may boldly mention, when you previously passed through that village and dealt with bandits, you did have—
Zuo Le	*cough*, *cough*—I trust that girl was only repaying the favor! How can you muddle this with affairs between the sexes?
Taihe	......
Zuo Le	It was a life saved. If the intent was impure, that would only further serve doubts of advantage being taken. You presume wrong, Uncle Taihe.
Taihe	Hmm. It is as you say, young man.
<Background 4>
Kroos	Not heading back to Lungmen, Mr. Lee?
Lee	No. There's still someone I need to find.
Kroos	Come with? I'm stopping by the branch office with the funnyman anyhow, and then I've got to get back to the Rhodes Island landship...
Lee	It seems we'll be tagging along. But I'd rather not be a nuisance to Rhodes Island again.
Kroos	No need to stand on honor.
Lee	Trust me, it's personal matters. That codename Nothing operator got drawn into all this mess, had his leg hurt for nothing, and he's still in the hospital now. Don't want to give you all any more grief than that.
Kroos	That's good, then.
[Mulberry enters the room.]
Mulberry	K-Kroos!
Kroos	Oh, fancy that! Mulberry! If you're in Shangshu already, I'm guessing Lava got to the branch office a while ago, then?
Mulberry	Y-Yeah... and Lava wanted me to tell you too, it's best you head there quickly. It seems like something else happened...
Kroos	Ahaha... this trip to Yan sure never takes a breather.
Lee	It happens.
Kroos	It used to just be around Lungmen and stuff... oh, right. I've been wanting to ask. You said Mr. Liang and Wei Yenwu are real alike, but alike how?
Lee	Did I say that?
Kroos	You did. After we met him, I was even thinking, wait, they're completely different...
Lee	Mmm... Well, after all... both their sweethearts have them by the ears.
<Background 5>
Ling	......
Voice in the Cup	You're back.
Ling	A hundred and eighty-one black stones. You'll beat Sui to losing your sanity.
Voice in the Cup	While you've already spent all these years in here, in your drunken stupor? No... the years and months mean nothing to you.
Ling	That farce of the Xingyu Escort Association was a move planned out by you.
Voice in the Cup	Not totally.
Ling	They should be clean of responsibility for me... Why swallow them all into this?
Voice in the Cup	Just as a reminder.
Ling	A reminder to me?
Voice in the Cup	Here you dream of all under heaven. Though you know how the universe dwarfs all, the grass in spring still tugs at your heart. From Jiangnan, up to Saibei, then back to this summit atop the clouds, you've changed a lot. It disturbs me, little sister, so I warn you. Warn you that the feelings of man are not so pure as those moralists would have you believe.
Sat on equally pitted sides, the brother is in strife, love and disgust and passion and resentment all taken as pieces to the game. You don't fear them now. Of course you don't. But sooner or later, you will. Nian will, Dusk will. They've become too much like people, so they will come to fear those things. That is all... this little warning is.
Ling	......
Voice in the Cup	Are you angered?
Ling	The cup should only hold wine; wine should not be so wordy.
In that instant, all things halt. Shangshu's Three Mounts and Seventeen Peaks now have one more peak, and countless more trees, with countless more branches, with countless more leaves. Wind blows, but the leaves are still.
<Background fades out>
Shangshu once had a Catastrophe. The devastating storm loose with sparks, shattered Originium crystals descending like fiery rain.
Voice in the Cup	—! —Shangshu—once had a Catastrophe! Someone—offered wine to the heavens, and the black clouds parted, and the people were safe! And yet now, you're going to fling this goblet to the black clouds!
A black goblet. A black piece. In the face of the most terrifying disaster of all the land, all trace is instantly annihilated.
Voice in the Cup	Are you feeling wrathful? Compassionate? Envious? Carve these emotions into you—things are soon to come—
<Background fades in>
Ling	...... Things, soon to come... Certainly, I cannot stay uninvolved... isn't that right. Phew... haah. For now, I shall go purchase wine.
<Background 4>
Pole-Carrier	I'll be leaving Shangshu.
Innkeeper Zheng	I won't stop you. If two people want to kill each other, the feelings aren't too hard to understand. But if two people want to be killed by the other...
Pole-Carrier	Then we should save the effort. We'd just be wallowing.
Innkeeper Zheng	I'm planning to retire now.
Pole-Carrier	Du Yaoye still isn't ready for it. And doesn't the girl seem just a little like she wants her own business?
Innkeeper Zheng	If so, I'll shutter things. Don't you agree?
Pole-Carrier	I'm not one of the escorts.
Innkeeper Zheng	Good.
Pole-Carrier	Zheng Qingyue. Our business is only postponed for a while. We're not shaking hands and making up here.
Innkeeper Zheng	Association custom says you don't talk grudges when you're at the bar. I'll be in Shangshu anyhow, waiting for you.
Pole-Carrier	......
Innkeeper Zheng	......
Pole-Carrier	One last thing. I hear...
[Du runs to Shang and Zheng.]
Miss Du	Dad! Master Shang!
Innkeeper Zheng	What are you charging in here about...?
Miss Du	I've decided! Me and the guys all talked it through! We're going to Yumen!