Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Their journey took them away from the city outskirts, where the poorest of Tonghou's residents lived. It took them inward, toward the cities inner wall. Not past it of course, that was the realm of the very wealthiest mortals and the nobility. But there destination fell in the shadow of the wall. Nestled amidst theatres, gambling halls and teahouses, her mother's former place of employment sat. Though it was by no means small, the brightly painted building somehow failed to loom the way that it did in her memories.

In the middle of the day, the red painted lanterns hanging from the entrance awning were unlit and traffic was slow. A couple of girls no more than a year or two her senior leaned out over the railing of the second floor balcony, calling out and advertising to passerby, inviting them to step inside. From within, the faint strains of music and laughter could be heard. If she were to consider it only in this moment, without the context of her memory, she might even call it pleasant and inviting.

She did not have that privilege though. Distantly, she felt her fists clench and the air grow cold. People in the streets, oblivious to her presence before shivered and cast glances at the mouth of the alley where she stood, muttering quiet prayers and hurrying on. Just looking at the place turned her stomach, and the pleasant facade only made it worse.

"It does not seem worse than the other establishments, nor the dens which we have left behind," said the Dreaming Moon. The spirit's resplendent gown and ephemeral beauty looked faintly ridiculous with her perched on the rim of an old rain barrel.

"Breath, think, and analyze," the Hidden Moon said somberly, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I will not tell you to let go of your emotions. Instead understand them and place them in context."

"Why did you want to come and see this dump? What were you hoping to gain?" Asked the Grinning Moon, lounging atop the cloth awning of the gambling hall which stood across from the brothel.

Ling Qi let out a breath, tightening her grip on Hanyi's hand. The young spirit glanced up at her questioningly. It was funny, the young spirit seemed completely unbothered, just bored. "I'm not sure if I'm honest," she admitted. Her eyes tingled as she allowed a trickle of qi into them and looked again at the place which had been her first home. It was utterly mundane, and that bothered her somehow. The smiles of the girls on the balcony were fake, true, but no more fake than the enthusiasm of the hawker calling people in to gamble their money away. They were mostly just bored and apathetic. There was some resignation and unhappiness true but…

Where was the misery that she remembered?

"You know by now that memory can be a funny thing," Sixiang said quietly, from their seat on the opposite side of the rain barrel that their grandmother had claimed.

Ling Qi closed her eyes for a moment, it was true if she thought about it objectively, the terrible memories she had could not possibly cover the full span of time which she had spent here. Yet, they had objectively happened. She remembered the bruises on her mothers neck and arms. She remembered some of the vile men she had seen, arrogantly doing whatever they liked without any pushback. She remembered the girl struck by an off duty guardsmen.

"Unprovoked assault on a mortal, charged and fined after report by the establishments owner to the district magistrate," Xin said, and it was Xin, she could tell.

Ling Qi glanced her way. She would trust the spirits word on that but… did it really change anything? Yet, she found herself remembering things that she had forgotten. She remembered her mother and the owner talking, and other girls contributing coppers to a growing pouch. She never had seen that girl again, which she had seemed sinister, but… "Do you know what happened to the girl?"

"She recovered on the back of communal funds," Xin began.

"She purchased an apprenticeship with a seamstress using the restitution paid from the fine," The Dreaming Moon said absently.

"Never got her smile back though," the Grinning Moon said flippantly. "If ya know what I mean."

It didn't make things better, it never really could have. It surprised her all the same. She had become so inured to the idea that the people who went in could do as they liked, the idea that one had suffered even mild punishment surprised her.

Ling Qi frowned, focusing her senses once more. A twinkling light blinked into existence before her eyes and began to drift across the street. She would not, could not make herself step across that threshold, but she didn't need to any longer, now did she? Using memories of the Argent Mirror art, she forced herself to remain dispassionate as she looked inside. What she saw fit the general shape of her memories. On the first floor was the common area, where a tired older woman played competently on a guzheng. Most of the tables and booths were empty, but here and there were customers. Men being served drinks and fawned over by younger girls, smiling empty smiles and laughing empty laughs.

Yet, when she looked at them, looked through them, she saw that they were just as empty. Sad, lonely, exhausted, worn down by one thing or another. Seeking fulfillment in people who had none to give. It was a sickening sort of parody. A few even deluded themselves into thinking that the girls felt something genuine for them.

Something other than a low level of fear anyway. She couldn't, even in her forced dispassion feel real sympathy. In the end, they were the ones who held all the power, and the girls simply had to play to their wants. It wasn't as if her memories lied. Even at this slow time of day, there were some there who could see their own power and reveled in it. She knew without looking, just from the ambient qi that she would find nothing different on the second or third floors, where the workers lived, and which were rented out for more intimate services. Just emptiness and exploitation in different trappings.

It still made her skin crawl, she still hated it, and what happened inside. The special horror it had once held seemed a little washed out now though. It was horrible, but if she compared it to the things she had seen in the streets, could she really say that it was a special kind of horrible? In the end it was just the powerful enforcing their will on the weak, just like everywhere else. The men who got away with hurting were the ones rich or connected enough to make enforcing the rules unprofitable.

It was funny, in a twisted sort of way that the cultivator had been the one who actually got punished. She wasn't sure what to think of that. Leaving that aside however… running away really had been a sideways step, hadn't it. Whether in a fancy brothel or a dark alley, you debased yourself and survived. Virtue and vice were luxuries to be considered when you had a full belly and a warm blanket.

Which she certainly had now. She would not allow herself to feel shame about her Mother, nor the people she had hired any longer, no matter the sneering she got for it. In the end, they were people who had picked the poison they were willing to swallow in the name of survival, just like her. They were people who her mother had considered important. She thought back to what Cai Renxiang had said, when she had made the decision to hire them, she could see the truth in the girl's words, it was a gross, unpleasant job, but there was no inherent shame in it.

"Okay," Ling Qi said. "I'm sorry for side tracking us. I've seen enough."

"Time is hardly an issue," Xin said in amusement.

"This is your journey in the end," the Dreaming Moon said.

"Still, I think this has been enough walking, feeling up for a run?" The Grinning Moon asked, leaping down from the awning where she had been lounging.

Ling Qi raised her eyebrows in consternation, no longer interested in the sad tableau across the street. The memories that clung to this place remained and she could not say that they were behind her, but… the location itself was almost incidental really. "I guess? I know I'm not really physically present, but I go rushing through the streets won't people notice?"

The spirits ever present grin just widened.


Ling Qi smiled despite herself as Hanyi let out a last excited woop from her perch on Ling Qi's back back. She landed then, her legs bending to absorb the impact as she came to a stop on the roof one of the little mansions that lined the quiet avenues of the inner city. With how busy she had been, Ling Qi had forgotten some of the simple joy that could come from just moving. The feeling of burn in her muscles and qi channels as she dashed at full speed, trying her best just to keep the flitting silk shrouded figure of the Grinning Moon in sight as they raced atop rooftops and walls.

Sixiang landed beside her with a thump, pitching face forward onto the roof tiles as they gasped for breath. "...Changed my mind, dun want a body anymore," Sixiang complained, voice muffled by the tiles.

"Ah, what a lax grandchild, how shameful," sighed the Dreaming Moon as she alit on the roofs edge, the parasol which had carried her floating behind them dissolving in her hands.

Ling Qi nudged Sixiang with her foot eliciting a groan. "It wasn't that bad, we were only running for an hour or two," she said. In reality the passage of time seemed strange, the sun had barely moved, but surely her game of tag with the Grinning Moon had taken more than a few minutes.

"I, Zhen am getting tired of being small again," the little serpent grumbled petulently, still tucked under Hanyi's arm.

"Gui agrees for once," said his other half, sounding cross.

"Pfft, even if you were big you'd be too slow," Hanyi scoffed.

"So are you!" they both cried out in affront

"I don't need to be," Hanyi replied smugly. "Since Big Sis can give me rides like this."

Ling Qi glanced back at them and Hanyi smiled angelically. She huffed, that was a conversation for another time.

Xin emerged from her shadow then, rising like a bubble of ink before resolving the details of her body. "Athletics aside, is your head clear now, Ling Qi?"

"I think so,"Ling Qi replied, the tension had flowed out of her during the chase, and she found herself feeling serene and clear headed once more.

"Good thing, because it's time to make choice," said the Grinning Moon, who perched on one foot atop the peak of the roof. "We're going to do something fun, but the nature of the game is up to you."

"We have deliberated amongst each other, and come to an agreement on three games," said the Dreaming Moon.

"And the final choice is yours," Xin finished.

Ling Qi cast them all a wary look. "...You're going to have me choose between a cryptic metaphors for whatever we're actually going to do, aren't you."

"Hazard of the company," Sixiang grumbled, sitting up with a grimace.

"Well now you've gone and taken the fun out of it," The Grinning Moon said, crossing her arms. "Fine, we can be direct too. In my choice, we'll be going to a place where the dullards at the top of this heap would much rather we not go."

"In mine, we will see to the spread of art too long forgotten and suppressed," said the Dreaming Moon, her smile catlike and predatory.

"And in mine, we will see that a certain secret makes its way to the appropriate ears," The Hidden Moon said somberly, speaking once again through Xin.

Ling Qi glanced between them. She sensed a certain crossover in portfolios for these things. Also they were still being annoyingly vague.

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