Time traveling bad guy. WR?
Targets - Chapter 1 - ao3
Nie Mingjue knew that spies were a necessity of life, even if he wished they weren’t.
Life, he often thought, would be much easier if you could just trust other people to be direct with you and they in turn trusted you to be direct with them, if you could resolve minor disputes with a spar to get out the energy and then some good conversation over some wine. Sadly, life just wasn’t like that.
So, like any good sect leader, Nie Mingjue had spies.
Usually, they sent reports through underground channels – there were many of them, enough to give him a headache trying to recall them all – but his spymaster had told him that in times of great need, one of the spies might decide that the news they had was so important that they would risk destroying their own cover and come in person. In such cases, Nie Mingjue knew that he had to let them in at once, no matter what else might be going on.
He did not know the spy currently in front of him except in portraiture, as the man had been put in place by Nie Mingjue’s father, but Nie Mingjue knew the signs of someone who had flown on a sword all night at top speed. He excused himself from all other obligations and took the man into the office with him at once, assuming the news was important.
It was.
“Are you certain about this?” Nie Mingjue asked, staring at the piece of paper he was doing his utmost best not to crumple in his fist.
The spy nodded.
“Thank you,” Nie Mingjue said. “Go get the doctors to look at you, some food, then rest. You won’t be returning to Qishan.”
The spy saluted with a deep bow, and then left.
Nie Mingjue took a deep breath, held it for a few heartbeats, and then exhaled. Then he summoned his war council and told them that Wen Ruohan was starting a war.
“He’s not ready yet,” one of his sect elders objected. “It may just be a ruse to get our guard up –”
“It is not,” Nie Mingjue said firmly. “It is happening. If it were just aimed at us, it would be one thing, but this move affects all the Great Sects. I want all the precautions we put in place activated at once: everyone inside the walls, the shields raised, and a purge conducted of all those we know or suspect to be spies.”
They seemed ready to argue, just as they’d always argued against all of his preparations, all of his precautions, against his desire for revenge against the man who had murdered his father, so he added, ”I have called you in here to inform you of my decision, not seek consultation. It is not up for debate.”
Hearing the determination in his voice, his sect elders did not argue. They bowed.
“In connection with alerting the other sects, I’ll go myself to Yunmeng,” Nie Mingjue said, shelving any feelings of relief that they had not opposed him and moving on to practicalities. “Jiang Fengmian is cautious and conservative; he won’t take anything other than a personal visit seriously enough.” He hesitated briefly, then firmed up his resolve. “I’m taking Huaisang with me.”
They all looked at the piece of paper laying innocently on his desk.
The list of names.
Of targets.
The list held the names of all their younger generation, the heirs of the Great Sects and a few other names – Wen Ruohan had given orders that they all be captured and brought to the Nightless City. If the capture were rendered impossible, his instructions were that they be killed rather than allowed to escape.
Killed. The heirs of the Great Sects!
“Yunmeng?” Nie Zonghui said, not opposing but merely seeking to confirm. “Not Gusu?”
The Gusu Lan were better allies of theirs than Yunmeng Jiang, but that was exactly why Nie Mingjue shook his head in denial. “I’ll give you my personal seal,” he told Nie Zonghui. “Lan Qiren was a friend of my father’s, and trusts me personally; moreover, he is very protective of his nephews. He will agree to our request even without my personal guarantee.”
Nods all around.
“What about Lanling?” one of the other elders asked. “Jin Guangshan is a closer ally to Qishan Wen than he is to us. His son is on the list, and yet…whether he will believe us…”
“The reports say that the Wen sect is dragging their feet on fulfilling their orders, confusing and dangerous as they are,” Nie Mingjue said. “That’s why I believe I can make it to Yunmeng in time. From Yunmeng, I’ll go in person to Lanling, making only one diversion to get this – Meng Yao person that’s ranked so highly on the list, though as a precaution we should send a disciple ahead to locate and hold him. As for Lanling…”
He bit his lower lip. He usually tried not to, especially not when he was pretending to be even half the sect leader his father had been – he was only three years into the role, only eighteen years old even if he was pretending to be twenty-one, and these elders had seen him grow up. The last thing he wanted was to project immaturity as he was making what was either best or worst decision of his life.
Still, a list like this..? He was sure the information was good, even if he had no idea what it was that had driven Wen Ruohan from his slow, cautious plans for domination that they could not stop even as they knew what he was doing, to change from that into this – this recklessness.
The only way to counter a move like this was with recklessness of their own.
“Send someone to Lanling City,” he finally said. “Someone not formally affiliated with our sect. If the Wen sect drags their feet, that leaves a window open for someone else to make the attempt. A failed kidnapping attempt will make them raise their guard just in time to block any real attempt, and make my argument, when I arrive to present it, significantly more persuasive.”
They were silent for a moment. Finally, an elder said, “If Jin Guangshan ever finds out that we took this action, it would be catastrophic. Even if it ultimately turns out the list is correct.”
“I know,” Nie Mingjue said. “Nevertheless, that is my decision. Go.”
They bowed again, and went.
Nie Mingjue went to find Nie Huaisang.
“We’re going on a trip now,” he said, bundling his brother into a winter coat despite the warm fall weather – his brother was ten and nowhere near having the golden core he would need to develop to keep himself warm at the high altitudes they would be flying at. “It’ll be fun.”
It would not be fun.
He would have to fly at top speed, putting all his spiritual energy and concentration on that – there would be no sight-seeing, no playing around, only the cold and bitter air blowing into their faces.
But he didn’t dare leave his brother here, either. Not when Nie Huaisang’s name was on the list.
Not before they’d cleaned house.
They weren’t the only ones to use spies, after all.
“Where are we going?” Nie Huaisang said, eyes brightening at once. “Is there shopping there?”
“Amazing amounts of shopping,” Nie Mingjue said, thinking of the Lotus Pier’s busy dockyards and Lanling City’s shopping district. “I don’t know how much time we’ll have to actually go shopping, though.”
Nie Huaisang waved a hand like the spoiled young master he was. “It’s fine, da-ge,” he said loftily. “I can just keep track of where I want to visit later on.”
As long as there was a later on, Nie Mingjue would take Nie Huaisang anywhere he damn well liked, and let him empty half the treasury to boot.
“Deal,” he said, and drew Baxia.
Nie Huaisang’s eyes widened. “Wait, when you said we’re leaving now, you mean – now? Don’t we need to wait for whatever attendants are coming with us?”
“Get on the saber, Huaisang.”
Nie Huaisang got on the saber.
Nie Mingjue departed the Unclean Realm with no attendants but for his younger brother for the first time in his time as sect leader, and as he left he could feel the oppressive weight of the Nie sect’s magical shield come crashing down behind him, its prohibition even stricter than Gusu Lan’s with its required entrance tokens. Just as he’d arranged over a year ago now, the most trusted of his people would be calling in everyone for a review – all the Nie sect disciples, all the staff and servants, even their usual suppliers, anyone with access to the Unclean Realm. Everyone deemed even remotely suspicious would be temporarily removed from their post and placed under guard; once cleared, Nie sect disciples would be stationed among the common people to root out any leaks that might come from that direction.
The Unclean Realm would be cleansed of the taint of Qishan Wen, and all before the Nightless City would hear of it, cutting them off before they could break off their rash course of action in kidnapping the heirs.
As for the heirs themselves…
Nie Mingjue could only hope that he would make it in time.
