The first light of dawn was just beginning to bleed into the sky, painting the horizon in hues of bruised purple and grey. It was the hour when the night shift ended and the day shift began, a time usually reserved for yawning, stretching, and the quiet exchange of duties.
Guard Liu was in a spectacular mood.
He strolled down the gravel path toward the heavily fortified annex of the Jin Estate, humming a bawdy tune under his breath. His hand unconsciously patted the hidden pouch at his waist. Inside, thirty low-grade spirit stones clinked softly against each other like a melodious sound, far sweeter than any instrument.
"Old Tooth actually paid up," Liu muttered to himself, a grin splitting his face. "Thought he'd try to stiff me on that jade hairpin. Said it was chipped. Chipped! I told him, 'Old man, that chip adds character! It's an antique!'"
He chuckled, kicking a pebble. "Thirty stones. That's enough for a night at the Red Flower Pavilion and a bottle of Fire-Dew Wine. Maybe I'll even buy that new cultivation manual I saw..."
He glanced up at the lightening sky and winced. "Ah, crap. Five minutes late again. Wang is going to have a stroke."
He picked up his pace, straightening his helmet and rehearsing his excuse as he neared the corner. "Alright, alright, stop glaring at me, Wang! I'm here! I just had to... uh... inspect a suspicious squirrel! Vital security work!"
He rounded the corner, the fake apology ready on his lips. "Look, I know you're going to lecture me about duty, but…"
The words died in his throat.
There was no stoic guard standing by the entrance.
Guard Liu blinked. "Wang? Oi, Wang! What are you doing down there? The Patrol Captain is due in ten minutes!"
He reached the figure sprawled on the stone floor. It was indeed Guard Wang. He was snoring and a line of drool connected his cheek to the cold stone.
"You have got to be kidding me," Liu hissed, looking around frantically to see if anyone was watching. "Sleeping on the job? In front of the Patriarch's Endowment? Are you trying to get us both executed?"
He crouched down and shook Wang's shoulder. "Wake up, you pig!"
Wang snorted, mumbled something about "roasted duck," and rolled over.
"Roasted duck?!" Liu's face turned red. "I'll give you roasted duck!"
He pulled back his hand and delivered a sharp slap across Wang's face.
SMACK!
"Gah!" Wang jerked awake. He tried to draw his sword, but only managed to tangle his legs and flop back down. "Ambush! Enemy attack! I surrender!"
"It's me, you idiot!" Liu grabbed Wang by the collar and hauled him to a sitting position. "Keep your voice down! You were asleep! Drooling on the pavement like a toddler!"
Wang rubbed his stinging cheek. He looked around. "Liu? What... what happened? I wasn't sleeping. I was... there was a wind. And a cat. A demon cat!" He rubbed the top of his head. "Something hit me. It felt like a mountain fell on my head."
"A mountain?" Liu scoffed, kicking the dented iron lantern. "It was a rusty lantern, you fool. It probably fell because you were leaning against the pillar, snoring so hard you shook the foundations."
"I wasn't!" Wang protested, struggling to his feet. "I was vigilant! I was…"
His eyes looked past Liu's shoulder and his jaw dropped. All the color drained from his face, leaving him looking like a reanimated corpse.
"Liu..." he whispered, pointing a trembling finger.
"What now? Another demon cat?" Liu turned around, an insult ready on his lips.
The insult died in his throat.
The spirit-bronze doors that required three separate keys and a blood seal to open were gone.
Literally gone.
There was just a rectangular hole in the wall leading into pitch blackness.
"The doors," Liu squeaked. "Where are the doors?"
"Maybe... maybe the Patriarch took them for maintenance?" Wang suggested.
"Maintenance?!" Liu grabbed Wang's shoulders and shook him. "They are massive bronze doors! You don't take them for maintenance in the middle of the night!"
They both stared into the abyss of the open vault.
"We have to check," Liu whispered. "Maybe... maybe the stuff is still there. Maybe they just stole the doors. Bronze is valuable, right?"
"Right," Wang nodded frantically. "Bronze is valuable. Who steals a door and leaves the treasure? That makes sense."
They crept forward, drawing their swords, though their hands were shaking so hard the blades rattled in their scabbards. Liu produced a glow-stone and held it up.
They stepped through the threshold. The light illuminated the vault.
"Empty," Wang whispered.
"Empty," Liu echoed.
The shelves were bare. The floor was clean. There wasn't a pill, a stone, a weapon, or even a scrap of paper left. It was as if the vault had never held anything at all.
"The Patriarch's personal collection," Liu said, his voice hollow. "TThe strategic reserves. It's all..."
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Suddenly, a deafening peeling of bells erupted from the other side of the estate. It was the Emergency Alarm reserved for invasions, fires, or the death of an Elder.
Both of them jumped, nearly dropping their swords.
"That's coming from the East Sector!" Wang yelled over the noise. "The Logistics Warehouse!"
"They found it too," Liu realized, horror dawning on him. "We aren't the only ones."
He looked at Wang. "Ring it."
"What?"
"Ring our bell! Now!" Liu screamed. "If we don't report this immediately, they'll think we did it! Ring the damn bell!"
Wang scrambled back to the corridor wall and yanked the heavy cord of the alarm bell.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The sound joined the cacophony from the east, a dissonant harmony of panic that woke the entire Jin Estate.
In the servant's quarters, House Manager Mo was already awake, frantically trying to button his robe. He was an anxious man whose job was to ensure the Patriarch's life was a smooth stream of luxury. The sound of the double alarm bells was his worst nightmare.
"Two alarms?" he muttered, hopping on one foot as he tried to put on a shoe. "East and West? Is it an invasion? The Chen Family? The Spirit Cauldron Sect?"
He burst out of his room, running into a chaotic stream of confused servants and sleepy guards.
"Manager Mo!" a junior steward came running up, his face pale. "The Raw Materials Warehouse! The night shift guards... they say it's gone!"
"Gone? What do you mean gone?" Mo barked. "Burned down?"
"No, sir! Empty! The crates, the barrels, the ores... everything! Even the doors are missing on one of them!"
Before Mo could process this absurdity, a captain of the guard came sprinting from the West. "Manager Mo! The Strategic Vault! Guard Liu reports a breach! The bronze doors vanished and the shelves were stripped bare!"
Mo felt his knees go weak. "The Strategic Vault? The gifts for the..." He couldn't even say the name. "The Patriarch's personal collection?"
"Yes, sir! All of it!"
Mo grabbed the captain by the lapels. "Seal the gates! No one leaves! Activate the grand formation! I... I have to wake the Patriarch."
He released the captain and turned toward the main residence, his face the color of old dough. Waking Jin Bolin with the news that half his fortune had evaporated into thin air was potentially fatal.
He ran to the Patriarch's pavilion, ignoring the burning in his lungs. He reached the grand double doors and banged on them with both fists.