When the three-foot-thick profound-steel door of the subterranean Black-Ledger Vault finally rolled open on the morning of the sixty-first day, the warm summer sun was shining brightly over the canals of Jade-River City.
Up in the outer marble courtyard of Jade-River Pavilion, the four Half-Step Martial Emperor Inner Shadow Guards, Eunuch Feng, Eunuch Liu, and Commander Jin immediately dropped to one knee as the seven Imperial Consorts and Guildmaster Lin Ruoli ascended the winding white-marble stairs into the daylight, followed quietly by the veiled Lyra and Cassandra, the two maids Kara and Ulriya, and the unassuming gray-robed Steward Alaric.
To the eyes of the four Inner Shadow Guards who had accompanied Consort Mei and Consort Lan from the Imperial Capital two months earlier, their two mistresses looked more regal, powerful, and radiant than ever before.
