Guotin Ding-Bang Sying – which is to say, the Strong Leader or Admiral named “Protects-the-Country / Star” – somehow found non-Adamim, not-Humans, easier to deal with face-to-face than “round-eyed barbarians” such as the barley-blond White Tribesman sitting with him in his quarters and drinking ginseng-flavored green tea with him. The very uniform he wore – flight jacket, belt, trousers and boots all in charcoal gray, a white collared shirt, and nothing else – seemed rough and uncouth compared to the silk robes and sash that the Guotin wore. Sying didn’t insist that his visitor take his boots and socks off according to custom, partly because it made no sense under the present circumstances, partly because even as clean as the stranger was, he had muskiness in his natural scent like no Yellow Tribesmen in the Middle Kingdom had. It was much worse after White Tribesmen exercised, although not as bad as the aftermath of exercise by Black Tribesmen. Sying had enough experience with mercenaries of both Tribes of Man, and with Red and Brown Tribesmen too, in pitched battles to know what to expect in that department. The Yellow Tribesman didn’t really want to find out firsthand how his visitor’s feet smelled after being cooped up in the faux-leather straitjackets that both of his guests seemed so fond of wearing.

But that wasn’t the end of the oddities of the stranger. Recessive genes such as caused his blond hair, fair skin and (as Sying erroneously thought, naturally) blue eyes were unknown in the Middle Kingdom, and the shape of his eyes, nose, cheekbones and chin were much different from what most of the Huang Fu would find attractive. Sying had heard that Alain Harper was considered very handsome by his own people, and the rest of his body was as slender and fit as one could ask for, but the Guotin still wouldn’t want his daughter to marry him. Thankfully, Alain had married a princess, an Enoshi no less, and she had the grace to follow Huang Fu custom and bow out while men discussed the business of men.

“Where is your wife, if I may ask?”

“Resting quietly in her guest quarters, as a proper woman should,” Alain replied, trying to keep both irony and amusement out of his voice. In fact Raphael Goldwing, Alain’s Sentry, was in Contact Lens Mode transmitting everything to Amber Bdellium, Ashrey’s Sentry, and the latter was projecting an audio-visual pane that allowed Fiona to monitor everything that was being said and done.