Double Triple Agents

Lai Lan was sat behind a desk, brows furrowed as he read a letter in his hands. His sister, Lai Lin, was laying down on a bed beside the desk, legs kicking up. She looked at her brother's face with a curious and worried gaze, wondering why he's had a troubled look ever since he started reading the letter.

"Well? What is it, brother? Who is it from?"

"It says it's from the Imperial Scholars...?" A sense of disbelief in his voice.

"Huh? What would they need to say to us?" Lin propped herself up, interest piqued. She crawled closer to her brother and rested her forearm on his shoulder, her other hand leaning against the table. She was now looking at the letter as well.

"They need talented cultivators to help with an expedition to the Ghost Domain, and I suppose we are on that list?"

She squinted her eyes, quickly and lazily skimming through the message herself, as if she hadn't read the contents of the letter at all, then responded, "Then what's the issue? We need to look into that anyway, don't we?"

Lan held the letter between his index and middle fingers, lifting it towards his sister, "If you read properly, we are to also accompany the crown princess of Jin."

"The princess?! Give me that!" Lin swiped the letter from her brother's hand, not surprised by her sudden outburst, and read it with attention. With her busy reading, her brother grabbed a cup from the desk and took a sip of tea. After finishing the small read, she turned to her brother again, "Well?"

"'Well', what?" He said before he took another sip.

"Surely you're not thinking of ignoring this?"

Lan placed the tea cup back on table, "Why not? You know how the internal state of affairs are between the princess and the Emperor. Why would they invite us, dogs of the Emperor, if it weren't to trap us and get information out of us? Why should we risk our positions?"

"Ugh, such a worrier you are. You're overthinking things as usual."

"Someone needs to do the thinking between the two of- Ow!" Lan yelped as he felt a sharp pain from his sister's fist punching his shoulder.

"Do you really want to keep working with those snakes? You don't really believe they'll accept us, do you? Even if we managed to single-handedly deal with the Devilgod and all those bounties ourselves?"

Lan shut his eyes and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "No. No, I do not. But at least we know what to expect from the Magistrates. We don't have a clue what the princess or the scholars' intentions are."

"They probably know what we're dealing with as outsiders among the Magistrates and are trying to pull us to their side. Besides, I hear the princess has the support of the commoners, seems better than those pretentious, old snakes."

"And Grand Uncle seems like such an honest, peace-loving man. But we both know-"

Just then, Lan's sentence was interrupted by a knock that came from the door. Lin got off her brother's shoulder and Lan stood up from his seat.

"Who is it?" Both asked in unison.

A gruff, coarse voice replied from behind the door, "Magistrate's orders."

Lan walked up to the door, opening it to greet a tall man with a large cone hat covering his face, and body shrouded in a long cloak, obscuring any notable clothing or armor. The mysterious stranger stretched his hand forward with a folded letter held towards Lan, who took it into his own. And as quietly as the stranger came, he left eerily quiet for a man of his stature.

Lan opened the letter and started reading. Lin leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder, and started reading as well.

'You are to focus all your efforts on the Ghost Domain. Travel north and handle the ongoing rumors of the cult in whatever way you deem fit. Failure is unacceptable. You are not to return until the rumors have ceased.

Given the chance, you are still to aid the Hounds with any targets they have.'

Lin looked at her brother with a smug smile on her face, the smugness also tainting her voice as she spoke, "Well, well, well, seems like they really want to be rid of us this time. Although the order is quite the convenient coincidence, don't you think so, brother?"

Lan sighed again, "Fine, we'll go, it would be worth to investigate who is supporting the princess and her true nature anyway. And if we find her side's strength lacking, we can just return to the Magistrate and pretend we were acting as spies."

"Hah, ever the schemer," Lin shrugged and shook her head. "You really are becoming more like Grand Uncle... it's a good thing I'm around, it would be tragic for the world if a villain like you ran amok without me to keep you in check."

"You're not without blame, you know. This villain continues to live thanks to you," he replied in jest.

Lin lightly punched her brother on the same shoulder once again and laughed, "A balanced outcome, then. Jokes aside, where are we supposed to join this expedition?"

Lan walked back to the table and took out a map, spreading it across the table. He pointed to a city on the map, "We are here...", then dragged his finger to their destination, "... and we are to rendezvous here."

"Quite a long ways to go. We should get a move on if we want to make it."

The pair packed up their things and left the inn they were staying, then started their journey to join the expedition to the north.