Forge of Destiny

Threads 550-Fantasia 13

"Wait, wait, wait! What's this about?" Jinli asked, holding up her hands as if to hold back the tide of the conversation.

"We came here seeking out your grandmother for a boon. We sought to bind a spirit of autumn to join Miss Ling's spirit of winter in performing rites in the southern Emerald Seas."

"Concerts,” Ling Qi clarified, “but they function as rites of seasonal stability and propitiation of land spirits. My junior sister is a singer, and that is enough, but a more complete performance would enhance the rituals."

"Geh. So, that was it. I was wondering what kind of boon Grandmother offered you to take on this quest." Lanchi’s ears flicked irritably. "I was really just bait the whole time, huh?"

"Implying I made you do anything, little one," Madam Autumn chided, setting Hongpao down. "Your hunger and sweet tooth are both your own."

Hongpao smoothed her dress with a huff. "It makes sense! As if winter could do anything on their own. I guess I could assist your junior since she must not be completely useless as a singer with your teaching."

"Yeah, good luck, Hongpao. I'll definitely come by and watch a show," Jinli said dryly.

"Naturally!"

Ling Qi shared a look with Bao Qian. He frowned, looking down from the stage onto the orchestra pit and seats stretching away into the formless distance. "It's not simply about performance. And even if it were, Ms Jinli, by your movements, you're quite a dancer, I would think. Miss Lanchi is more like myself, a manager of people."

"I don't like either of you," Lanchi stated bluntly. "Your eyes are too sharp. You'd both definitely make me work too hard."

Ling Qi snorted, unable to help the inelegant sound. "Fair enough. Besides, you would really be happier here. Maybe your grandmother will even give you another turn with the mirror."

"I will not," Madame Autumn said, amused. "If my cute grandaughter wants to watch mortal dramas, she will need to work on her own divinations or accept duties as a tutelary. There are more than enough lakes and ponds to go around."

"Geh," Lanchi grumbled, face scrunching up cutely.

"Obviously, lazy Lanchi would be no good, but it's not like Jinli is much better. She'd just run off the second she thought she could," Hongpao accused.

"I would not! I take my oaths seriously, you puffed up dork," Jinli bristled. "And it's not like I wanna go…"

Lie, Ling Qi thought immediately. "So where are you going to go, once you've made your elixir?"

Jinli scowled at her, but her eyes flicked back and forth like a trapped animal. Was the madam right? Would she even go through with brewing the elixir, now that it was more than a distant possibility?

"I'm gonna visit Blue Mountain first, and then, I'll go see Xiangmen!"

Two of the most prominent landmarks in the Emerald Seas. Not really a lie, this time.

"Xiangmen is an excellent place to visit, though you might find some trouble with the spirit wards," Bao Qian advised. "I've not been to Blue Mountain myself, but it is on the tour route."

"You're not really thinking of taking her with you, are you? C'mon, I'd be a way better representative of Grandmama's domain!" Hongpao complained.

Hongpao would be, but Ling Qi could hear the arguments with Hanyi now, or even the outright brawls, echoing back to her ears from the future. By Bao Qian's expression, he had the same thought.

"You would be excellent without a doubt, Miss Hongpao. However, the people of the Foundations do not have an easy lot. While you would bring them joy, their bellies would like abundance in harvest better," Bao Qian explained delicately. "That is, if Miss Jinli would consent to joining the troupe."

If the harvest spirit refused, Bao Qian and she would be in a dangerous spot. Hongpao would certainly be resentful of being the second choice.

Hongpao opened her mouth as if to shout, but Madam Autumn’s hand landed on her shoulder, and whatever she might have said was silenced.

"There is quite a lot of travel involved. There are long roads and longer days, but I do not think you mind those. Miss Hanyi is not so bad either, once you're familiar with her."

"I should probably take offense to that," Ling Qi said. "My junior sister can be somewhat difficult if you don't know how to handle her. Still, traveling the road alone is lonely. I think you would enjoy the company."

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Jinli shifted from foot to foot, then glanced at Hongpao. After a pause, she turned her head to look at Lanchi. The blue-haired girl crossed her arms, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"... Okay. Just for a while. It'd be boring to wander around alone and end up lost or something anyway."

"Ugh, you had better not make our Autumn look bad," Hongpao stamped her foot angrily. "I'll come out and kick your ass if you do!"

"Like you could!" Jinli snapped, tilting her chin back.

Before they could bicker further, a softer voice spoke up. "Have fun, Jinli." Lanchi scuffed her bare foot on the stage.

"Of course I will. Don't get yourself all twisted up worrying about stupid stuff, Lanchi. Sorry for leaving you with loudmouth here."

"Who're you calling loudmouth?!"

***

​

"Thank you for accompanying me," Bao Qian said.

The rolling, endless festival town flowed around them, fireworks and feasts on every corner. Hearthfires roared, and the festival games were in full swing. Like the flow of blood through the body, the liminal reflections of the mortal world flowed through their dances and songs in the unending web of streets.

"You're very welcome," Ling Qi said. "I wish we had spent time like this together before. You are surprisingly fun, when you let yourself be."

Jinli had set off apart from them. She had an elixir to brew and would be joining them before they left the bounds of Fantasia.

"And you are amusing company, when you're not jumping at my shadow," Bao Qian joked.

They walked together for a while longer. Sweets and drinks were taken from passing vendors, leaving no need to chat for a time. She could feel Sixiang and Hanyi, not too far from where they were.

"Do we have an answer to that question yet?" Bao Qian ventured.

"I don't think we do," Ling Qi said apologetically. "Before, I might have said we did, but after this adventure, I do not think we are done."

"Nor do I. I still feel terribly behind my peers, but we will see what the future brings," Bao Qian said. "You'll be staying a little longer then?"

"I will," Ling Qi said. "I don't think my cultivation, nor this confrontation with my patron, can wait any longer."

***

​

Cultivation was merely a part of the background of her life, these days. It was in her breath and her speech. It was in the flex of muscles as she walked and performed everyday tasks. It was in the slow churn and circulation of energy as she sat on the balcony under the stars with her mother at night.

It wasn't often that she found herself fully dedicated to drinking in the energy of the world and making it her own. She was not one for sealed chambers or elaborate rituals. A roof under the night sky was all that was required, although the plateau overlooking Lake Snowblossom, where the mist of the waterfall rose, was better. A mountain peak above the clouds was the very best.

At least in the material realm.

Ling Qi sat in meditation under the stars and the shaft of moonlight cast through a gap in the dark of the liminal forest. Her qi was cool and silvery; it slipped easily from her grasp, formless and ephemeral. At its core, though, it was as solid as glacier ice and as unshakeable as the dark of the night sky.

She had been on the edge of a breakthrough for some time now. The third realm was long, but she was nearing its precipice, that point that separated those who merely sought to achieve long life and fulfill expectations from the madmen and madwomen who would not abide by the laws of the world standing in the way of their vision.

[Communication]

Near and far, she could hear voices, if she did not consciously shut them out. It was not nearly the volume nor range of the mindsplitting vision Prime Minister Diao Linqin had shown her at the tournament. Nonetheless, she could hear it. She could hear the world, if she tried.

The world was not one voice. It was countless, millions of voices, even here in the fog of not-quite-real. She could hear the long, slow voices of trees, the whispering of grass, and the bickering of the breeze.

And still, it was only the barest glimpse of all that the word she was forming within herself was. It was still so small and incomplete, in the face of all that was.

A single word was not a Name, even if it lay at the core of it.

"It's been a long time coming, hasn't it?" Sixiang asked. They sat with their back to hers, looking up into the light shining down from the eternal gibbous moon that hung so low in the sky that it felt like they could reach out and touch it.

"It has. This path… It feels like everything up to this point has been the preparation. It is only now that I’m taking the right real steps of my Way, my Truth. It's going to be a long path. I'm thankful that I'll have you with me," Ling Qi mused.

Her qi churned and strained within her dantian, and she felt as if her skin was a size too small. It was a feeling she hadn't felt in some time.

She could even feel a spark of warmth higher in her chest where her second dantian, the seat of Law, lay. She couldn't ignite that stove yet, but her straining qi, cracking through into the sixth stage of the third realm, left her with an awareness of it that she had not felt before.

"Like I'd leave you be. Who knows where you'd get off to without me?" Sixiang teased her fondly. "Are you ready to finish what we started?"

Skittering hooves sounded in the dark, the weight of a viscous cloak was dragged across the ground, and regretful corpses hanging from proudly towering antlers whispered. The shadows writhed with nightmares.

"I am. We won't be relying on someone else to answer his questions this time," Ling Qi vowed.

She inhaled, and the final shackles of the fifth stage fell away. Her dantian roiled with the influx of fresh power. And yet, for all that, power was not going to grant her victory over the Nightmare of the Emerald Seas.