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

yrsillar said:

"I'd have gotten away if it came down to it. I'd rather be around to watch your back," he glanced at Ling Qi in worry. "You ... tend to start fights when you come back from these."

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Wisdom Is Still Granted in the Outer Sect: A Tale In Three Acts

Act 1: A Fateful Roadside Encounter

*Two ARGENT SECT DESCIPLES of the OUTER SECT walk down a road to the town at the base of the mountain. As they turn a corner, they see XIAO FEN exit the woods onto the path and turn to walk past them.*

The two red souls freeze, previous encounters flashing through their minds and their nerves clusters begin to throb in memory. They stand aside and incline their heads and greet her. "Good afternoon, Sect Sister Xiao Fen."

Xiao Fen says nothing, gliding past them, her footfalls making no sound.

As sweat begins to gather on their brows, they breath a sigh of relief.

"It seems the courtesy of the outer provinces remains as poor as ever," Xiao Fen is standing in front of them, her eyes glacial and murderous.

Their eyes dart to each other, panic seizing them. To their horror, they see one of their head's had inclined a scant half inch less then his partners.

"It falls to me to administer a lesson then!"

Despair rang across the mountainside that day.

Act 2: Friendship Transcends The Spoken Word

LIU XIN walks down a path on a sunny, cold day. Life is strange at the ARGENT SECT, so much different than the roots of the capital. One of the origins of the most oddities is on the road in front of him. XIAO FEN is fighting two other first year disciples. Fighting is a generous word for what is occurring.

"BROTHER LIU! THANK THE NAMELESS MOTHER SAVE US! SAVE US BROTHER LIU!" they cry

Liu Xin looks at the two lumps of bruises that used to be boys. He looks at Xiao Fen, the two friends locking gazes. Time stops and the future unspools before Liu Xin, every detail in perfect clarity. Liu Xin looks back at his brother disciples.

"No."

He then disappears in a puff of ash.

Xiao Fen hefts both boys by their collars and brings them close to her face. "Back to your lessons."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Act 3: The Importance of Scheduling

*GAN GUANGLI stands impassive as his subordinates discuss the latest insult given by the treacherous LU FENG. GUN JUN, who serves as GAN'S SPEAR, finally turns to his liege*

Gun Jun: We are certain Lu Feng's flunkies will be at this field today to harvest the Banded River Violet petals for their elixers. We won't have time to intercept them before they reach the river bed but we can hit them while they are there. Should we go or wait to contact Xiao Fen for the strike?"

Gan Guangli considers this a moment before answering. "What day is it?"

"Uh, the fifth? I think?" is Gun Jun's quizzical response.

"No. We will wait until they are finished before making our assault. She'll have visited Miss Ling by then."

"Why would that matter?" a younger first year disciple asked.

"You have never trained with Lady Ling," Ma Jun horror stricken whisper wafted from the end of the table.

All the rest of the older disciples could do was grimly nod.

Arrrrgghhhh, this one really fought me tooth and nail. Especially the freaking horse. Welp here's another art.

Here's my second attempt on drawing a Cloud barbarian, this time with an added spirit animal.


@yrsillar here's some more art. Hopefully I got it right this time (well, the Qilin aside anyways, butchered that one big time)

If she were to be honest with herself, Ling Qi was dreading this. Even if Luo Zhong had invited her in good faith, which she was not completely sure of, she was still going out to spend the afternoon with a bunch of people who were contemptuous of her at best. Frankly she got enough of that at Cai Renxiang's regular gatherings.

"You're going in with a bad attitude again," Sixiang warned. "I know I didn't exactly help with that last year, but I got better. Have you?"

Ling Qi breathed out, Sixiang was right, she was working herself up before things even got started. Even if she was right, approaching the hunting party in such a negative frame of mind would only hurt her. No, she needed to approach this as if it really was a friendly invitation. She needed to act as if she was not forcing herself to be there, and in doing give insult to her host. Attending to things like this was the most basic of the duties she had accepted. If she could handle going ahead alone to fight an army of bandits and a renegade noble, then by comparison, this should be simple.

"Good pep talk, do you actually believe it?" Sixiang asked impishly.

"I thought you were trying to help?" Ling Qi snapped irritably. Thankfully there were no other disciples on the path.

"Just quit winding yourself up you big goof," Sixiang said with a sigh. "So what if they don't like you? None of them know you, they dislike the idea of you. Just be yourself and if they still wanna be assholes then you can start plotting their downfall or whatever."

"That's a little too flippant," Ling Qi muttered under her breath. Still, Sixiang had a point, she took a moment to adjust her breathing and bring herself to calm. Serenity was the name of the game. She was a noblewoman, she was unruffled by petty rumors and jibes, she did not have the jitters over joining a gathering of peers more intimate than Cai's impersonal parties.

"That's the spirit," Sixiang chirped.

It was time to stop dawdling on the path. Ling Qi definitely did not want to show up late and make this even more awkward. Ling Qi steeled her nerves and resumed her descent into the mountain foothills.

When she arrived at the meeting point, she found a colorful pavilion. It was nothing like the massive and elaborate constructions that had sprung up at last years tournament, just a mundane structure of wooden poles and brightly colored cloth, under which a number of disciples had gathered. Luo Zhong was the one who immediately drew her eye of course. As a formation stage cultivator, he was by far the most formidable presence. He was at the center of the group, leaning against the fluffy side of a massive hound.

Luo Zhong's spirit companion was a stoutly built creature, with a short blunt snout and extremely thick fur, particularly around the neck. His fur was black, fading to a lighter grey at the paws and snout. The hound's head rose to Luo Zhong's shoulder, even laying down as it was, and he was not a short man. Between the hound and the man, their presence overwhelmed most everyone else present.

There were only about a dozen disciples present, most of which were only at the early stages of the third realm. A few were at the second stage, but of the other disciples present, only two drew her attention even as half as strongly as Luo Zhong himself. One stood at the edges of the group, fussing over the half dozen odd other spirit beasts present, a mixture of stags and horses of varying breeds. She stood out from the other disciples by her scandalous garb. She wore a white sleeveless and backless garment and dark grey pants, and a thick cloak of white fur hung from her neck, covering her shoulders and back. She had short brown hair and skin of a similar tone to Ling Qi. Two red tattoos, shaped like fangs marked her cheeks.

The other was a young man deep in conversation with a few other disciples. He was clearly trying to look like the picture of clean imperial nobility, with black hair bound in a tight topknot but his features did not quite match. He was square jawed and tanned, with a hint of stubble along his jawline and slightly wild eyebrows that gave him a permanently angry look. He wore light armor lacquered forest green over padded cloth of a darker shade.

Conversation between the disciples did not die down as she approached at a polite pace, but the shifts in body language and the flows of qi told her that she had been noticed. At last, as she approached the perimeter of the pavillion, Luo Zhong rose from his position lounging against the side of his spirit beast. He clapped his hands, silencing conversation around him. "Miss Ling, I see that you have accepted my invitation! This gladdens my heart," he said.

"I would not wish to trample on your generosity sir Luo," she replied carefully, clasping her hands and giving an appropriate bow for a social peer or slight superior. His was a higher ranking clan, but she was, technically at least, a clan head, while he was simply a lay member of his clan. The balance between respect and submission was tenuous there.

"I am surprised that you found the time," the rough faced young man said sauntering up beside Luo Zhong, trailed by a few of the others. "I would have thought you had not a free moment to find." The way he stood by Luo Zhong told her that they were familiar and probably not so distant in status.

"It is true that I am very busy due to the expectations that Duchess Cai has laid upon my shoulders," Ling Qi replied evenly. "However, I can make time when an invitation is extended."

Luo Zhong merely laughed, a not unpleasant sound. "I am glad that you were able to find a free moment Miss Ling, but excuse my rudeness. It seems I have not introduced you to the other guests," he gestured to the young man at his side. "This is my friend Wu Jing, of the eastern Wu clan, viscounts of the Russet Valley region."

The boy gave a short bow, just within the bounds of respect. Ling Qi matched him with an even smile. If she remembered her studies the Wu were a horse breeding clan, a remnant of one of the larger southern clans destroyed in Ogodei's invasion. She continued to nod and smile as Luo Zhong introduced the other young men and women, most were the children of established barons, with a one or two individuals like her, who had presumably signed up to take lands in Luo territory.

As the introductions began to putter out, Ling Qi found a hand thrust out toward her. If she had not recently spent time studying old cultures of the Emerald Seas in the Moon dream she probably would have been confused. Instead, she clasped the offered forearm, and held in the wince as the girl she had spied caring for the beasts squeezed back with excessive strength.

"...And this is Alingge of the Daigiya," Luo Zhong introduced, looking faintly amused, as if he could sense her discomfort.

"You are the one who humiliated the Chu, yes?" the girl asked bluntly, giving her an appraising look.

Ling Qi blinked, but restrained the urge to break eye contact. "I do not know if I would use the word humiliated," Ling Qi demurred.

"Mocked her aspirations and crushed her without taking a blow in return," the girl sniffed. "If this is not humiliation, I fear your definition."

"Your words were somewhat excessive, whatever your personal grudges," Wu Jing commented idly. "One should have more decorum in a public duel."

The girl, Alingge shot him an unimpressed look. "We speak of the Chu. No indignity is too great to be heaped upon them. The Daigiya will spit upon them for ten generations for their cowardice. Have the survivors of Wu forgotten the grave of Patriarch Ce?"

"...No," Wu Jing admitted. "It is perhaps a poor hill to stake my flag upon. I apologize Miss Ling. I meant only to warn you against making foes too easily."

"I take no offense," Ling Qi replied carefully, eyeing the young man and the other disciples watching. "I can admit that in the past, my manners have lacked. I am learning however, and I am not averse to instruction." She was a little lost, she focused her studies on current events. The events of Ogodei's invasion was not a subject she was well read upon. However she remembered being called 'Lady Chu' in Elder Jiao's trial, rescuing civilians escaping from a city falling to Ogodei. It seemed that the Chu were still disliked in the east of the province.

"And that is sufficient," Luo Zhong cut in smoothly. "Now, while we wait for our last few stragglers, might you tell us a tale of your excursion with Lady Cai? The rumors have gotten wild."

Ling Qi dipped her head in acknowledgement, surreptitiously eyeing the disciples around them as she began to speak and they began to chat. Most of them still regarded her with suspicion or well concealed envy. She saw it whenever she spoke in a way that implied closeness or familiarity with Cai Renxiang. Luo himself though… she thought he was sincere.He was giving her a chance to make her case to the disciples aligned to him.

"Even that Wu guy seems to be hedging his bets more than anything," Sixiang hummed.

So Ling Qi told her story, and watched her listeners. She embellished very little, and the only outright lie was the official one, that the Bai they had encountered was merely a renegade from a local baronial house, seeking to abscond with the treasure trove arts in the shipment. She did not know how the Duchess and the Bai were enforcing that lie, but she was going to stick to it.

Finishing the tale, she accepted Luo Zhong's invitation to sit down with him. There was a tense moment when his hound got up to loom over her, leaning in to sniff her face suspiciously. However, she faced the hound without blinking and after a moment the beast let out a satisfied whuff and laid back down without a word.

She sat down one of the camp chairs set up nearby, next to Alingge and across from Luo Zhong himself. "Excuse Ta, Miss Ling. My old friend is a wary sort," The Luo scion said as he sat down, on the reclining beasts back, practically sinking into the fur.

"I would expect nothing less," Ling Qi replied easily. She had been worried that the dog might decide to slobber on her, when he had let his dark purple tongue loll out, but thankfully it did not come to that. "I am sure he means only to protect you."

"As any cultivators spirit should," Alingge said, to some muttered agreement. "Will your Xuanwu be joining us?"

"I am afraid not," Ling Qi replied.

"Any troubles?" Wu Jing asked idly. "The incident with you and that Yu girl caused some talk."

"Looks like not everyone's buying the story," Sixiang murmured.

"Yu Nuan was very helpful, allowing my spirit to challenge her and gain experience," Ling Qi replied lightly. "But no, Zhengui is too young for more sedate events like this. I am afraid he would probably disrupt things too much with his youthful enthusiasm and bulk," if he could get the hang of shrinking back down to a mere few meters, perhaps they could talk.

"This is unfortunate," Alingge said with a frown. "I had wished to see a legendary beast in person."

"Perhaps next time?" Ling Qi hedged, glancing to Luo Zhong, who inclined his head very slightly. "What are the plans for today's activities anyway?"

"There is some dispute," Luo Zhong admitted. "On whether we should spend the day on a little light competition, hunting lesser beasts, or set ourselves a more ambitious goal and stalk something a little more difficult together."

"A little polite competition is good for watering one's ambitions," Wu Jing said, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair. "Besides, a beast powerful enough to be a danger to all of us? Unlikely."

"Even the spirits of this tame land deserve respect. I would prefer to stalk more worthy prey," Alingge. "Power is not everything, let us seek out a cunning foe."

Ling Qi listened as the others voiced their opinions, and found somewhat unsurprisingly that they were fairly evenly divided.

Luo Zhong spread his hands and chuckled. "You see Miss Ling? What is your opinion on the matter?"

[] A competitive hunt. No one will be using arts of course, as it would be unsporting. More opportunity to build bonds, but competition may breed resentment…
[] A cooperative hunt against a more cunning beast. Increased difficulty means less chance to play the social game, but impressive skills may bring admiration...