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

"That sounds fine," Ling Qi agreed. "Although, wouldn't you have better odds of a willing binding if you met them on their terms? Thunder is ambitious and proud after all."

"Maybe, but we can't all have priceless talismans of flight," Yu Nuan replied irritably, peering up at the dark clouds overhead. "It's the best I can do."

Ling Qi gave her a sidelong look. "...It's not like your that heavy you know. I could just carry you."

The other girl shot her a suspicious look. "...What?"

"I can just carry you," Ling Qi replied simply, crossing her arms. She didn't care for such close physical contact, but it really was the best solution. Although she could admit at least that it helped that Yu Nuan was a girl, and had not shown no sign of alternative inclinations. "It might be a little awkward to manage and leave your hands free to play, but it's not hard either."

Yu Nuan stared blankly at her, as if Ling Qi had just suggested something absurd. "And you would be fine with that?" She asked dubiously.

"I would not have suggested it otherwise," Ling Qi replied archly.

Yu Nuan studied her expression, but then finally shrugged. "Alright, how do you want to do this?"

Working out the carry was more awkward than she would have liked, even if she was taller than Yu Nuan, having the other girl sit on her back was awkward, and lacking Hanyi's bond and nature, she tended to fall through whenever Ling Qi sped up, maneuvered sharply or crossed distances without moving. Since her hands had to be free, she couldn't keep a hold on Ling Qi's shoulders either. Still, they eventually came to a solution.

"Gods, just make sure you don't slip," Yu Nuan muttered as they soared up toward the belly of the clouds, her legs dangling freely toward the ground so far below. Ling Qi had her arms looped under the other girls. It was an awkward position, and she was sure it would have left her with sore muscles a few months ago, but things should be fine. Her vision was blocked by the other girls head and hair, but that was what her mirror motes were for.

"It'll be fine," Ling Qi grimaced, pulling her head back a little to avoid getting the other girls hair in her mouth, a tiny gust buffeted the longer strands out of her face. "Just tell me where we need to go. You studied their habits, right?"

"Yeah," Yu Nuan replied nervously. Well, since we can… go up, right above the clouds, I'll be able to see the storms channels better from above."

Ling Qi restrained the urge to shrug, if the other girl could handle the altitude that was fine. Still, without her techniques, the flight was painfully slow, especially since she had to remain cautious and careful of her own solidity. "What were things like, back here on the mountain anyway?" Ling Qi asked idly.

Yu Nuan strummed a few basic chords on her lute, more out of nervous habit than anything else, if Ling Qi had her guess. "...The tribes didn't get this far, but things still came outta the earth, a whole lot of them," she replied. "We… it was pretty chaotic on the first mountain, but a pair of core disciples came down and put a stop to the squabbling."

Ling Qi's eyebrows rose, but she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. "How did you fare?" She asked idly as they entered the cloud layer.

Yu Nuan grimaced at the sudden damp. "Nothing heroic like you," she said, and Ling Qi could not tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "I got rounded up to support the lower nine hundreds, and we drove off the bugs that tried to swarm up the mountain. They were going for the vent's I think. Wasn't glamorous, but I did my job, didn't…" Ling Qi sensed a twinge of bitterness from the other girl. "Didn't let anyone in my group die."

"That's not an accomplishment to spit on," Ling Qi replied absently as they soared up and up through the rain bloated belly of the storm clouds, the light from above growing brighter as they neared the surface.

Yu Nuan grunted something noncommittal, but didn't reply.
"Anyway," Ling Qi began as they broke through into the blue morning sky above. "Which way d'you think…"

She trailed off as she looked south over the slow moving field of dark clouds, and saw a vast golden arch rising from them, then beyond it, another and another. They were vast, tens of meters across and hundreds long, and for a moment, Ling Qi mistook them for some kind of structure, but she had never seen such a thing above Argent peak, the core of the Sect. Then it dawned on her, the glittering golden scales, the weblike ridges waving lazily from the back of the arches, and there, the contours of a titanic leg…

She knew, clinically speaking that there was a reason that their Sect Head Yuan he was so well respected, and their Sect so prestigious. However, it was a different thing entirely to see his spirit companion, the Celestial Dragon King of the South in the flesh. She had not felt his presence, but the great beast was not concealing it. No, looking south, seeing the source with her own eyes, she understood. She had felt the dragons qi, because it was the storm. It seemed Sect Head Yuan was not restraining himself.

"Not that way," Yu Nuan said thickly.

"Not that way," Ling Qi agreed, veering north and west. There was plenty of storm, no need to pester their Elders.

Keeping their backs to the unsettling sight, they flew in silence as Yu Nuan searched.


The storm rolling out from the Wall spread over a vast distance, and dense knots of thunder, lightning and water qi were prevalent. One by one Ling Qi dove down into the Clouds as Yu Nuan's direction and began to wrangle the Thunder Beasts they found. Thunder beasts appeared as great canines the size of horses made from dark cloud rather than flesh, lightning crackled beneath their cloud flesh like veins and bones, giving them shape, and their barks were the boom of thunder.

They were quick beasts, and bounded away her approach, but she was by faster, even with her diminished condition. With her hands occupied, ling Qi instead channeled the mercurial qi of the moon as she dove in among the masses of little spirits of wind, water and thunder that the beasts circled. Phantasmal dancers and musicians burst forth from her frame, already laughing and singing as they enveloped and disoriented the Thunder Beasts.
Once she had entrapped a pack, with flex of her qi she lowered the cacophony of the revel and allowed Yu Nuan to take center stage with her own composition. Her melody was strident and loud, with a strong beat and quick metre, like a storm in miniature itself. It was a little amusing to watch the wild beasts stop tearing around through her revel trying to escape and instead come loping in to circle them and howl in time with the melody, adding their voices to the song. Yet, time and time again, they darted away when she made to approach. She could have caught them of course, whirled them back to the core of the revel with laughing phantasms, but Yu Nuan wanted to try for a willing binding first.

So they went for much of the morning, hopping between the most concentrated parts of the storm, one after another, a trail of curious Thunder beasts following along in their wake. Frankly, Ling Qi wished that if they were so interested, they would just engage properly and let Yu Nuan bind them.

As she swept into the largest concentration of Thunder beasts yet, scattering the little spirits of the storm like a school of fish around a thrown stone, and began to move to capture the crackling Thunder Beasts in her revel, she found herself interrupted. Darting forward, she had only a split second to see a pale blue palm, shaped like a man's but too large before a gust of wind and boom of thunder through her tumbling back. In her arms Yu Nuan let out a shout of alarm, nearly fumbling her lute as Ling Qi seized the winds to right herself and found them unresponsive and reluctant to follow her command.

"Hoh! That will be enough of distracting my herding dogs," The voice was male, and boomed with the rumble of a storm. A flickering mote of silver turned in the folds of her dress, and she got a good look at her assailant. Three meters tall, the spirit had the outline of a man, but little more. The red eyes like a crow, set in a human-like face stared back at her from above a sharp and pointed beak, and wings like a bat beat against the air. The spirits chest was that a well muscled man, and was bare to the waist. In one hand he held a silver mallet, more like a drummers tool than a weapon. He wore a rough loincloth of animal hides and his legs ended in the talons of a bird.

Leigong, the thought came to her immediately, little gods, shepherds of storms, highly ranked among the spirits of air and heaven. For a second, memories of childhood stories and common legend mixed with memories of study in the archives. Even as she righted her body, she tried to right her thoughts. The Spirit was fourth realm after all, she couldn't afford to give offense.

"My apologies, great one. We did not mean to disturb your work," Ling Qi replied hurriedly, dipping her head.

"Yes, absolutely not," Yu Nuan was quick to agree, holding very still in her arms. " We only meant to tame a wild beast."

"My deepest regrets for our error," Ling Qi added. "It is my fault entire, so if amends must be made, allow me to do so." She wasn't going to repay Yu Nuan's courtesy by letting her take blame for this. The other girl shot Ling Qi an incredulous look over her shoulder. Leigong were supposed to be honorable sorts anyway.

The fourth realm spirit looked down upon them, his inhuman face unreadable. "Nay, I am not much bothered by your game, and your music is pleasing to mine ears. Few mortals so well capture the clash and clamor of my realm," the spirit rumbled. "However, now is not the time. The King's ire threatens to drown the land and my court must keep order. Now is not the time for revels."

They both dipped their heads, Ling Qi in chagrined apology and Yu Nuan still mostly in fear. "Let us cease distracting you then, Lord of Storms," Ling Qi said as eloquently as she was able.

"I thank you for your kind words and forgiveness," Yu Nuan added in a tight voice

She began to withdraw only to stop dead as the spirit threw out his empty hand. "Nay, children, I will not end your quest in failure. The drums of war beat in mountain and glen, in the sky and below the earth. Thou desirest a hound, and so thou wilt have one, little storm singer, in the hope that you mightest live and play in happier days."

Ling Qi stared, her eyes wide as the spirit let out a shrill whistle, despite lacking the anatomy for it and a great shaggy Thunder Beast bounded out of the churning clouds, and padded up to them with a booming bark. She only blinked when the spirit beast licked Yu Nuan's face with a tongue of crackling lightning, making the girls hair frizz outwards with static.

She spluttered, not harmed by the electricity but just as stunned as Ling Qi. "I… uh, just like that?" she asked incredulously.

"Hoho, call it an old man's whim," the spirit chuckled. When the King no longer hangs in the sky seek out the Thunder Palace, too long has it been since new talent warmed my hall."

Then he was gone, taking the pack and the herd of lesser spirits with him in a single flash of lightning and they were left floating in the clouds, kept company only by the massive Thunder Beast. It let out a cheerful wuff that sounded like a gale wind and regarded them with panting dog-like grin.

"...That's what people mean when they talk about your luck huh," Yu Nuan said dully.

"Yes," Ling Qi admitted uncomfortably.

"Well I guess I can't complain," the older girl huffed, reaching out tentatively to scratch the panting beast under the chin. "...Thanks."
"Any time, Do you want to do the binding here, or down on the ground?" Ling Qi asked.

"Best get it done now, before the world decides to make sense again," Yu Nuan laughed.

Ling Qi nodded as Yu Nuan began the binding ritual. She thought the girl was being a bit over dramatic, but she was glad to see someone else having a bit of good fortune. Still, with her obligations clear, she really should start checking up on everyone.

Yu Nuan Bond Established. Rank 1

Ling Qi will meet all of her major social links in this arc, but the order of scenes will affect their content and the combination of characters.

[] Requisitions (Bai Meizhen, Bao Qingling, Li Suyin)
[] Reunions(Ling Qingge & Biyu, Su Ling, Xiao Fen)