âDid you not stop to think,â says Ningguang, her voice shaking with her barely constrained temper, âthat perhaps you should ask your superior before you sign deals to go on foolâs journeys?â
Beidou stiffens, and, like any proper fighter, leans forward until sheâs hovering just on the edge of Ningguangâs personal space. This close, she can smell the salt in the captainâs hair, sharp and biting like the sea wind.
âOh, youâre properly pissed about this,â she observes, impossibly unperturbed.
âYouâve forgotten who youâre beholden to, Beidou,â Ningguang says. She forces her tone into something cold, something calmer. âDid you think I would just allow my privateer to justâwaltz off the edge of the world? Let herself go mad? And for what? A childâs dream? A contract? A bit of moraâ!â
âEasy there, Tianquan,â says Beidou. âYou almost admitted you value me more than gold.â
Ningguang is not the sort of woman who resorts to physical demonstrations. Sheâs better than that, more elegant than that. Better trained than that. But even those instincts canât stop the way her hand crashes down on Beidouâs desk, scattering papers to the ground and causing the wood to creak ominously. âYouâre irreplaceable,â she says lowly.
Beidou, because she is a foolâa reckless, cocksure foolâlifts Ningguangâs closed fist from her desk and holds it in hers. âYouâre worried.â
âI am not.â
âYou are,â presses Beidou. âYou think Iâll die trying to cross the Dark Sea. Worse, Iâll make it to the other side, confuse up for down, and lose my mind before coming home.â