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‘The forge is undamaged. Gather the forge staff and put them to work. I want them replacing weapons as soon as possible.’
    Gold nodded and scribbled some more. ‘My Lord.’
    ‘Also, go shopping for me. Hunt around the Earthly suppliers. I don’t want anything too poor in quality, it would be a waste of time teaching with rubbish. See what you can turn up.’
    ‘My Lord, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll go to Japan, they have always made quality blades. Don’t expect too much though. The art of crafting a fine weapon that isn’t a firearm is becoming lost.’
    ‘I know. Search out the antique weapons markets as well; there are some excellent old blades that could serve us well. We may even be able to pick up some more Masamunes—anything from that school would be worth having. Don’t worry about the expense, the cost is worth it. If you’re not certain about authenticity, let me see the blade. How is work proceeding in Hennessy Road?’
    ‘Very quickly. The demons work day and night. Only noise restrictions are holding us back.’
    ‘This really is working out very well.’
    Four weeks later we met in the new conference room on the ninth floor of Hennessy Road.
    ‘Happy Valley,’ Gold said without any preliminary meeting nonsense. ‘The residents are complaining about the noise of the renovations. They are cancelling their leases and moving out.’
    ‘Good,’ I said. ‘Offer the remaining residents a reward to leave.’
    ‘I already did,’ Gold said. ‘The building should be ours by September.’
    ‘That fits perfectly,’ I said.
    ‘We need to employ people to look after the units,’ Gold said. ‘Cook, clean, things like that. I thought at first the Disciples could do it themselves—’
    ‘Of course they can’t,’ John said. ‘They’re exhausted at the end of the day. And some of them are studying as well. We can’t expect them to cook and clean for themselves on top of that.’
    ‘The Dark Lord is quite correct,’ Gold said. ‘So we need to hire people to help out.’
    ‘You can’t employ domestic helpers,’ I said. ‘It wouldn’t work.’
    ‘Why not?’ John said.
    ‘Have you seen those women on a Sunday in Central? They all meet there. There must be thousands of them—’
    ‘About eighty thousand, last time I counted,’ Gold said.
    ‘You were there on a quiet day,’ John said.
    I continued, ignoring them. ‘And they’re all discussing their employers. They’d find out in no time flat—’
    ‘About the unusual nature of the residents of Turtle’s Folly,’ John said. ‘And how everybody seems able to speak Tagalog, regardless of where they’re from, because of the language charm Gold put in.’
    Gold and I stared at him, speechless.
    Eventually I found my voice. ‘How the hell did you know I call it that?’
    John took his glasses off and leaned over the table to glare at me. ‘I know everything that happens on my Mountain.’ He leaned back. ‘I think it’s a good name for Bright Mansions. Very bad move, buying it at the top of the market like that. I’m doing a nice piece of calligraphy. Took me a long time to find a correct translation for the word “folly”.’
    ‘You’re not.’
    ‘I am. I’ll have it done in brass and put it over the door.’
    ‘You’re joking,’ I said.
    ‘Deadly serious. I’ll buy a couple of stone tortoises and put them on either side of the entrance as well, just to make the point.’
    Gold’s mouth flopped open.
    ‘The Chinese Disciples will refuse to live there,’ I said.
    ‘They won’t have a choice.’
    ‘Xuan Wu Xuan Tian Shang Di,’ I said very severely, ‘Celestial Highness, Dark Emperor of the Northern Heavens, if you do this stupid thing your shell is in very serious trouble.’ I glared at him. ‘Simone will have to go in there sometimes, and I do not want to have to explain this to her, particularly about how it relates to your true nature.’
    ‘My true nature as the egg of a turtle, or my true nature