Ling Qi grimaced, glancing briefly at the thing they were discussing. She thought of the past, and the things she had seen on the streets and in her Mother's home. Leering faces and her mothers limping steps and bruised limbs rose all too clear in her memory. She recalled well those less cunning and lucky than her, who had fallen into servitude, legal and otherwise in the slums.
If she met those people now, could she say that she would be inclined to treat them any better? For a moment, she brought herself to imagine that long ago night, the last one she had spent in her mothers home. She remembered the stink of alcohol on rich robes, and the feeling of a fat sweaty hand on her shoulder, before mother had distracted him and shooed her off to her room. She imagined that hated face paling in terror as ice crept up his robes, and his choked scream as winter stole the breath from his lungs.
It was one of the most satisfying things she could remember imagining, made all the more so by the simple fact that if she truly wanted too, she had no doubt that she could make it reality. She had left old grudges behind these days, too busy to waste time contemplating them, but in her heart, some still simmered, she knew that. She was a practical person, but she was not forgiving. Yet, the thought of taking that man, and binding his frozen soul to her like a spirit was repugnant. To keep a source of hate and pain chained to herself, she couldn't imagine the satisfaction lasting long at all. It was pointless and wasteful. Though she knew it was not the same, she couldn't see stretching out the punishment so as a good thing.
Sixiang laughed weakly in her thoughts. "I guess I see why my aunt wanted to show you that dream, don't forget now."
Ling Qi paused. Could she square that, the satisfaction at personal retribution and the horror at the slaughter of that civil war. Was it a contradiction in terms? She didn't think so, but then she doubted that those two long dead Weilu leaders thought any different. She opened her eyes then, to find her mentor still staring at her, despite Ling Qi's minutes long silence. The fire was gone, the image of Hanyi and her… Father was gone. There was only Ling Qi and Zeqing facing one another in the endless dark. "You should end him Master Zeqing," she said quietly, meeting her mentors empty white gaze. "Things shouldn't persist past their endings."
"Of course you would have me give up what is mine," Zeqing said softly, tendrils of hungry darkness writhing out through the crack in her visage. "That is what you are here for is it not, my dear student."
"...I am," Ling Qi admitted. "Master Zeqing, you taught me to keep what I love close, but if I break those things in doing so, is there really any meaning?"
"There is," the spirit replied. "Even broken shards can be held close, to warm you in the night. Once a thing has ended, once it has left you, it is gone."
"I don't agree," Ling Qi replied with determination. "I abandoned my mother long ago, but we're together again. She's still my mother, even if things are different now. Our relationship didn't end."
"Can you truly say that?" Zeqing asked, a cold wind beginning to blow through the darkness. "When I have seen and felt the way that you regard her? It hurts my heart to imagine my Hanyi seeing me in such a pitable light."
Ling Qi winced, shivering as the icy breeze cut through her gown and flesh alike, chilling her to the core. Yet she could only look down. It was true that she didn't tell her mother many things. She held her separate from most of her life, but for good reason. She knew well how far below consideration mortals were for most cultivators. "And yet I love my mother still, even if she cannot do anything for me. That…" she hesitated, unsure of how to articulate her thoughts.
Zeqing slowly rose, her empty gown shifting as she seemed to stand. The frozen spirit seemed so terribly tall in the dark. "A Mother protects her children. She keeps them safe, she teaches and nurtures. If a child leaves her, how is she to do these things?"
Ling Qi looked up at the looming figure of her mentor, her pale face seeming to almost glow in the absolute darkness. "Childhood has to end, sometimes sooner than it should," she replied quietly. "I have finished my lessons, Hanyi is growing up, even if you stop that end from coming...would it satisfy you?"
For the first time since they had begun speaking Zeqing's mask like visage twisted into an expression. She flinched, and the wind stopped dead as her features twisted in pain, like a woman who had been stabbed. Ling Qi startled as a sharp report, like a tree shattering from the winters cold echoed through the void. A new crack now spiderwebbed across her mentors face, stark and jagged. It cut through her nose and right eye, disappearing under her hairline.
"Master Zeqing?" Ling Qi asked, her resolve shaking as she felt the deathly cold beginning to creep up through the soles of her shoes, stabbing into her feet like a forest of pins and needles.
"Go to my daughter Ling Qi," her mentor replied dully. "Your final lesson is upon you. As your teacher… all I may do is ensure that your success is possible." The spirit turned away, dress billowing the howling wind that was beginning to build. "Take her and leave the mountain."
To her side, pale ghost lights arose, marking out a hall that no doubt lead to Hanyi's room, but Ling Qi hesitated moving to step forward and follow Zeqing as she drifted into darkness, only to be driven back by shrieking winds and blowing ice that left shallow cuts across her face and hands.
"I think you should listen to her. You knew what you were kicking off, didn't you?" Sixiang asked, their normally joyful voice somber.
"...I did," Ling Qi replied, straightening her shoulders as she turned on her heel to march down the hall. The time for hesitation was long past. She swiftly reached the end of the hall, flitting from shadow to shadow as she raced for the door that lay at its end. The handle turned easily under her hand, and the door flew open, leaving her face to face with a confused looking Hanyi.
"Ling Qi? What's wrong?" the little spirit asked, her face screwed up in concern. "Papa said that Mama needed to talk to him. Mama never talks to Papa," she babbled, her words coming out in a rush. "And… and the house is shaking and Mama is angry and hurting, it's like the whole past month but way worse and…"
Ling Qi crouched and rested her hands on Hanyi's shoulders. She tried her best to keep her voice calm, but she couldn't help the note of urgency that crept into her voice. "Hanyi, your mom is just...having some problems right now. She's not angry at you or me, I promise," Ling Qi tried to reassure her.
"But, why then…" Hanyi asked, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "Why has she been so…"
Ling Qi winced as the room shook violently and an icy wind ripped through the doorway sending their hair and gowns fluttering. "She's just very stressed. Your Mama just… needs a break. That's why she asked me to take you for awhile," Ling Qi replied, knowing she needed to hurry. "Zhengui will be waking up soon, I'm sure. Won't it be fun to visit him?"
Hanyi eyed her suspiciously and sniffed, still keeping her tears back. "I wanna, but Mama…"
GO HANYI
Ling Qi flinched as the entire room shuddered under the force of Zeqing's voice reverberating through the house, and the sharp crack that followed the pronouncement. Hanyi jumped as well, her eyes wide with alarm.
"...Your sure she's not mad?" Hanyi asked in a trembling voice.
"Not at us," Ling Qi assured her, holding out a hand as she stood up. "Come on, lets go Hanyi."
"Okay," the young spirit mumbled, taking her hand. "Are… are Mama and Papa fighting? Did I mess up?"
...That was one way to put it, Ling Qi thought, given the conflict in Zeqings nature that she had seen. "You didn't do anything wrong Hanyi," she assured her absently as they reached the end of the hall, the wind blowing against them growing stronger by the moment.
"Do you know how to get to the door?" She asked as they reached the end of the hall, worry creeping into her thoughts as Sixiang offered the mental equivalent of an apologetic shrug, there was nothing for her wind to trace the layout of.
Hanyi peered out into the empty darkness. "...Kinda, I can't control the house like Mama but… the door is really far away right now," still sounding like she was holding back tears.
Ling Qi restrained a grimace. Her instincts were screaming at her to get moving as quickly as she could, but she also couldn't afford to panic Hanyi. They needed to move quickly though….
[] Let Hanyi ride on your back and give directions, though Ling Qi remembered the ice child's weight well, they would still move faster this way… probably. You'll have to waste precious seconds convincing her without alarming her though.
[] Just keep her hand and get her walking as quickly as you can. It would be better not to alarm her further and she doubted she could rely on Zeqing to give further direction to her daughter
Two hour moratorium
Where did that information come from?
