Lian

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It had taken much less time to find Lian and Lily. Kat had advocated for using the drill to get down to the pair, and knowing how much Kat cared for Lily, Kat could make a compelling argument. Lian and Lily worked together to form a strong shield that kept them safe until all the rock had been cleared away. Lily flew up to Kat under her own power, but Lian was still in the hole with Meng. "Do you mind if we have a small chat before you meet back up with Bing and Feng?" asked Meng.

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*Do I mind? Hmm… I… I don’t mean to disagree with the sect matriarch but I kinda DO mind.* "Um… can I just see Bing first? I mean… not that I don’t trust Kat and Lily, and like… obviously you’re right here, so things are all probably true but… I still can’t help but be a bit worried about Bing. So… if I can just… I dunno give her a hug and see that she’s safe?" Lian offered nervously.

Meng of course, was more than happy to accept, "Oh that’s perfectly fine. Very understandable, um… yeah I’ll just… we can just go up out of this hole and you can chat… or something. Then we can have that talk alright?"

*Huh…* Lian gave a nod and in a blink of an eye she was next to Bing. Lian immediately wrapped her arms around the girl. "It’s nice to see you’re ok," whispered Lian.

"Yeah well… things have been interesting for sure. I was never in any real danger though Feng did nearly get his torso shot with an arrow," said Bing with a slightly weak smile.

Clearly that isn’t everything though… what’s wrong with Bing? Her eyes and mouth are saying different things. Should I press? "You don’t seem find Bing… do you want to talk about it?" asked Lian.

Bing winced at being called out, though wasn’t surprised in the slightest that Lian had picked up on things. "I have… realised a few things and I’m sorta trying to deal with them. I… hmm… I don’t know what to tell you Lian. I mean, I trust you with it all… but I don’t know if I want Meng and Feng to overhear my thoughts… but we’re going to be stuck together from now on and I might not EVER get the chance to discuss these things… so… bit awkward," explained Bing.f𝘳𝒆ℯ𝑤𝚎𝚋𝗻𝚘𝘷el. c𝗼m

*That does complicate things. I’m not even sure which way to push her… wait, no I’m being an idiot.* "Can you write it all down while I’m having a chat with Meng?" asked Lian as an alternative.

Bing opened her mouth to protest before closing it, thinking for a few seconds and then letting out a pained groan. "Of course you’d think of that. You keep notes on everything… and you’re right. I should have some spare paper in my ring. Just… yeah I’ll have it all ready for you when you get back," said Bing.

"Cool, so… as long as you’re ok?" said Lian, offer to stick close clearly hovering in the air.

"It’s nothing pressing. It’s… probably better we deal with it sooner rather then later, because it’s going to eat at me until I do… but it’s not going to hurt putting it off for a few hours. Hopefully we can deal with it when we’re on the boat… maybe you can work out a curse that keeps us from being overheard?" said Bing.

"I already know of one," said Lian. "It’s not going to stop anyone that actually wants to listen in… but that’s part of the design I think. Making it too fragile to bypass without having the whole thing shatter,"

"Good… good…" said Bing with a nod, but Lian could see that her friend was still uncomfortable. Despite that… it was best not to keep Meng waiting, and Lian was interested to hear what the older woman was going to say.

Lily had explained things in a more general sense, relaying things that Kat had heard and figured out. So Lian wasn’t clueless about Meng being a spy, but some details hadn’t been mentioned, like Meng’s understanding, or her desire to properly adopt Lian. Sure it was lightly touched on, but not the specifics or the intensity.

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"I’m ready" said Lian as she walked over to Meng. A blink later and Lian was rapidly traveling at speed until they were out of earshot, hopefully. It was unclear just how far Kat and Lily could hear, but Lian was guessing that if they did overhear anything they wouldn’t spread it around at least.

"So…" said Meng.

Lian looked up at Meng and waited for the rest of the statement to come. Thirty of silence later, it was clear that whatever it was Meng wanted to say… was going to need to be coaxed out of her. This is so weird. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Meng so uncertain about anything. "I’m afraid I’m not a mind reading Meng," said Lian.

Meng winced at the reprimand but nodded, "Sorry… I guess I just don’t really know where to start… um… there are things that need to be said, thing that should be said, and things that probably don’t matter but I can’t say I know which of them to start with really. Um… what do you know about everything that’s happening?"

"Lily explained a lot of the general stuff. Well, she did give me a fair bit of detail, but like… she wasn’t relaying whole conversations you had with Kat, just what Kat sent over occasionally… and even then Lily gave me a summary of that summary. So I know that I’m probably going with you three, that you’re really a spy but your name happens to be Meng… and I guess I’d like to her the rest from you," said Lian slowly.

"Ah… yes I see. I suppose that would be best… um… so I’m Meng, adoptive mother to Feng and Bing and… if you’d like I’d love to have you as a daughter as well… but… um… I wouldn’t want to force anything… I mean…" Meng stumbled through the words, failing to string them all together into a proper sentence even with all the interruptions.

So Lian threw herself into Meng’s arms, shutting the cultivator up. "Look Meng… I already thought of you as more of my Mum then my real Mum… so… this isn’t anything weird for me. I just… it’ll take a bit of time to get used to calling you… well ’Mum’ instead of Meng. I don’t mean anything by it… but you’ve been like… my only good female role model since I was fifteen… probably earlier.

"I’m surprised I haven’t tripped up and called you Mum more often over the years. Still, I had to train myself to say Meng and now it will take some time to train myself out of it. That’s… whatever, just please don’t take too much offence if I get things wrong,"

"Of course not dear," said Meng, as she tightened the hug. "I can forgive my daughter such slip-ups, especially when they are just that… mistakes,"

Lian frowned at the venom in the last part of the statement. "Are you alright?" *Like mother like daughter apparently.*

Meng sighed, "I really shouldn’t be burdening you with my problems. I’m supposed to be the adult in this situation,"

"Yeah but if we’re family?" Lian paused, letting Meng look down in confusion, and then nod when she realised Lian was waiting for confirmation, "Then I should be allowed to help you as much as I want. You’re not my teacher, or my babysitter. You’re… well I guess you’re officially my mother. I want to help you if I can so I will…"

"That means a lot at the moment… as to what happened… well I suppose Feng happened. I don’t want to disparage the boy, I did a great job instilling the values of the sect into him. I got him to value, truth, and justice… things that I don’t really believe in myself. Sure I might believe in Karma, but that’s a force that we’ve proved to exist and completely different.

"I can’t be certain… but I think Feng has decided, even after calming down from all the surprises, that he still doesn’t like me. From what I can guess… it’s probably because I’m not and never have been a good person. Perhaps he’s focused more on my crimes in the legal sense, perhaps he’s more concerned with my moral bankruptcy. I can’t be sure without asking him…

"But it does mean that he isn’t pleased to be in my presence. And I can’t be too mad at the poor boy for it. I mean I TAUGHT him that value system. I tried to raise him into the best sect heir I could… which has clearly come to bite me in the ass a bit because I don’t believe in most of the things the sect scriptures seem to espouse. So… on the one hand, I’m proud, it means that Feng listened to me and I raised him well… but only by the standards of a mask I feel increasingly disconnected from," explained Meng.

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