Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- At the end of the world
Moon spirits, Dream spirits, Spiders, Dragons, even Living Rocks. Lack of understanding never stopped Ling Qi earlier, and that was before she got Sincere Negotiator and leveled MoSS. Now she didn't even need to speak, her mediums are music and spirit sense. And both Glacier and Wind and White produce sounds, that's more than enough. She can negotiate with any of them.
White is just the only one we know complications of. Including:
1. murderous tendencies that is her nature as spirit of Endings
2. loneliness and desire to eat things that she likes
3. territorialism, Zheqing killed almost every person trespassing her territory before being changed
Knowing all this I'm not sure what would be worse - her trying to End us from the start, or her finding us interesting.
Now Glacier is slow and might try to ignore us, but compared to literal moving mountains Ling Qi has experience with making giant rocks (doesn't metter stoune or ice) speak to her.
Wind is a more of unknown but I somewhat doubt it could be worse than White. It's a pretty high plank after all.
Obviously Forgeverse is its own place with its own rules but, in the real world the danger to travelers would go:
3. The Smothering White: lots of extremely cold snow is mostly an annoyance. If you screw up you can get into some serious trouble very quickly but as long as you know what you are doing you and have the right equipment you are basically safe.
2. The Glacier: this is actually dangerous to the prepared. While most people will make it across safely, some won't even with all the right preparations.
1. The Wailing Wind: this is a serious danger. Travelers generally try to avoid this entirely or, failing that, wait it out. Unfortunately high winds can be unpredictable enough to catch people out and potentially strong enough to destroy what shelter they try to rely on.
We actually see the "snow is fairly safe unless you screw up" with Zeqing and Hanyi, as they both have powers based around tempting you away from safety as well as deceiving you regarding how much danger you are in. Someone they attack is going to think they are okay, even as the heat is leached from their body.
That said we are definitely not properly prepared. We aren't idiots showing up in t-shirts or whatever (it's good that we found out that we needed winter clothing...) but we fundamentally don't know how to deal with actual snow, especially far from civilization. As such it makes sense to try to propitiate the Smothering White and try to cover for our relative lack of preparation or knowledge by being extra respectful. In the real world this would be like driving really slowly because you don't have snow tires, chains, or four wheel drive: the situation is bad but, if you respect the snow enough, you'll hopefully be fine.
3. The Smothering White: lots of extremely cold snow is mostly an annoyance. If you screw up you can get into some serious trouble very quickly but as long as you know what you are doing you and have the right equipment you are basically safe.
2. The Glacier: this is actually dangerous to the prepared. While most people will make it across safely, some won't even with all the right preparations.
1. The Wailing Wind: this is a serious danger. Travelers generally try to avoid this entirely or, failing that, wait it out. Unfortunately high winds can be unpredictable enough to catch people out and potentially strong enough to destroy what shelter they try to rely on.
We actually see the "snow is fairly safe unless you screw up" with Zeqing and Hanyi, as they both have powers based around tempting you away from safety as well as deceiving you regarding how much danger you are in. Someone they attack is going to think they are okay, even as the heat is leached from their body.
That said we are definitely not properly prepared. We aren't idiots showing up in t-shirts or whatever (it's good that we found out that we needed winter clothing...) but we fundamentally don't know how to deal with actual snow, especially far from civilization. As such it makes sense to try to propitiate the Smothering White and try to cover for our relative lack of preparation or knowledge by being extra respectful. In the real world this would be like driving really slowly because you don't have snow tires, chains, or four wheel drive: the situation is bad but, if you respect the snow enough, you'll hopefully be fine.
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Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Examples you stated prove my point though. Ling Qi knew how dragons think therefore she knew that challenging him is a viable long-term strategy. Ling Qi knew what were the problems when trying to negotiate with a Living Rock, which allowed her to try an unorthodox approach. Ling Qi knew what Dream Spirits wanted from her, allowing her to keep her sanity. There are other examples of such knowledge that allowed her to negotiate with spirits as well: knowing to target the vanity of a river spirit or correct words to appease a water spirit. Knowing how spirits think is important.
Do you really believe Ling Qi can overpower a Cyan spirit in the same way she did the Living Rock? Or anyone out of their group can do so without starting a fight?
- Location
- Finland
It is not in the hills nature to move, so stopping one is lot easier than glacier, which nature is not only to move, but to grind into the ground anything that tries to stop it.
Even ignoring pure power difference, hill diplomacy and glacier diplomacy need to be very different things.
Even ignoring pure power difference, hill diplomacy and glacier diplomacy need to be very different things.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
It does seem entirely plausible that a glacier spirit would sooner be destroyed destroyed than halt its movement. That's kind of how real glaciers work, after all; carving scars into the land that last millennia, and always moving until they melt or hit the sea.
Turn 11: Arc 5-3
"What is to be our plan of action?" Cai Renxiang asked.
It had been several hours, and now it was nearly morning. With Meng Dan, Ling Qi had exhaustively gone over their surroundings again and again, and the results lay on the table before them, a highly detailed topographical map, with only a few blanks where their combined senses had failed to penetrate.
"I believe the best route is this one," Ling Qi said, tracing her finger along the more weathered mountains on the east side of the gorge. "There is a narrow path here, letting us avoid directly traversing the glacier, and low enough to avoid the worst of the winds."
"Although it is broken, the gaps should be little obstacle to travelers of our caliber, given the climbing gear we have been provided," Meng Dan said confidently.
"It would be unwise to let our feet leave the ground too often, given the fury of the wind spirits outside," Xia Lin agreed, examining the map. "You have already worked the delay into our schedule?"
"I have," Ling Qi said, dipping her head. "But the path is not wholly safe, there are three spirits in this gorge, and there is no way to bypass them all."
"You are more confident in negotiating with the one which presides over the lower mountainside then?" Gan Guangli asked, looming over the table. "Why so?"
Ling Qi was silent for a moment. Within her dantian, she felt Hanyi's mixed emotions, so closely mirroring her own. "The spirit of the snow seems to be most human-like. I'm not sure I could even get the glaciers attention, and the spirit of the winds seems less likely to stick to any deals, even if it might be easy to distract. I feel that the snow spirit is the one I may be able to successfully negotiate with."
She wasn't fool enough to think that potential similarity to her mentor would make it easy, not when she knew, in her bones, what had lay beneath Zeqing's 'civilized' facade. It was a human trait certainly, that endless desire, but that did not make it any less deadly.
"I will trust that your judgement of the matter is sound." Cai Renxiang said simply, cutting through her thoughts. "Gan Guangli, you will join me in warding our party from harm during the climb. Xia Lin, you will take point just ahead of Ling Qi and watch for other dangers while Ling Qi focuses her attention of the spirit. Meng Dan, simply remain close and observe as well as you can."
They all nodded as the heiress spoke, none of them had any objections. Shortly, they began to break down the camp, digging the pavilion free and packing up. The storm had lightened briefly, so it would be good to get started now.
Ling Qi just hoped that her judgement was sound.
The trip was slow going. The others were wrapped in heavy cloaks and coats lined with the warm fur of fire aspected beasts to ward against the extreme chill and the cutting wind without constantly expending qi. The path was a narrow thing, barely more than a meter wide at its greatest extent, only the constant shrieking wind keeping the snow from piling it to impassability.
They made progress though, slowly creeping along the mountains, avoiding traipsing across the treacherous glacier below. They had to pause often when the wind picked up, even Ling Qi needing to hold tight to the high quality climbing cord strung between them while Gan sank his feet into the mountain stone and anchored them.
It had been so long since Ling Qi had thought to worry about the wind and cold, but out here, the very air was suffused with dense and potent qi bringing back the bite of the wind. Although she needed no coat for the cold, she transformed her mantle into a thick scarf and head wrapping to contain her hair and shield her eyes. She wary of even trying to exercise any command of the wind here if she didn't have too.
She almost felt as if she had crossed back over into Dream as they progressed and the storm picked up. The dense white snowfall erased everything beyond arms reach, with only the radiant glow of Xia Lin's halberd ahead and Cai Renxiang's glow behind.
All the while she hummed under her breath, not the Frozen Soul Serenade, but one of the idle melodies she had heard her mentor singing in moments of idleness, letting her qi flow freely into the snow all around.
Even so, the hike was exhausting, the cold laid heavily upon them and as they progressed further, the snow only fell more heavily. Wet and clinging, even Ling Qi had to pause and shake it from her shoulders now and then. It wasn't only physical weight, but a mental one, making it a struggle to not just sit down and close her eyes. But they persevered, and Ling Qi felt warm qi spreading in her chest, even as the hems and folds of her gown lit with colorless light, bolstering her against the wind and the unnatural exhaustion.
She saved her qi for her song, broadcasting supplication, friendliness, the desire to speak. She began to notice now and then a shadow in the corner of her vision. A tall figure appearing between snowflakes. Once crouched on a ledge above, again in the sky off to their left, and last standing upon the ledge in front of them, just before the stone had collapsed under Xia Lin's feet, nearly carrying the girl down the mountainside along with several tons of ice and snow, unnatural weight hampering the normally nimble girl's reflexes.
As they regrouped in the aftermath of that, Ling Qi gritted her teeth behind her scarf as she gazed up into the white out sky. Just passively calling out for the spirit to contact them wasn't working.
"She's hungry and curious, I don't think many things come through here," Hanyi whispered in her thoughts.
"Everyone, we should stop for now," Ling Qi called, her mastery of music carrying her words even over the screaming wind. "I'm going to need to actually call the spirit if I want to talk to her."
Cai Renxiang, her face all but hidden in the fur lining of her coats hood, made a single sharp gesture, indicating that she should proceed. Xia Lin and Gan Guangli gathered beside her watching the snowfall warily, and Meng Dan stood just behind, huddled in his thick coat.
Ling Qi pursed her lips as she turned back to the storm. The cloying feeling in the air was only growing worse, they couldn't just keep pressing through without the spirit's permission. That didn't mean the decision to outright call the spirits attention weighed any less heavily.
She raised her voice regardless, letting power flow through her meridians as she sang into the storm. Focusing on the flows of qi that rippled through the falling sheets of snow, she could see further into the nature of the spirit. In many ways it was simpler than Zeqing, not less powerful, but simply less complex. This spirit would not, she thought, really have the capacity to question her own nature.
But, that nature was fundamentally the same, emptiness, desire for heat and warmth and companionship. If they really had gone on, deeper into its power, they would have each found themselves drawn off, lost one by one to the freezing snow. But the spirit had noticed her. She could be certain of that.
So there was an edge of demand in her song, a tugging on the bond of kinship, however tenuous, resonating with the vibrations of the iron sliver she had palmed, which now grew so cold in her palm that it seemed to wrap around to heat.
The wind picked up, and the veil of snow thickened. Beneath the shriek of the storm, Ling Qi could feel the notes of a song. She saw the figure, standing out in the snowy sky.
Her robe was black and unadorned, it's hems drifting away in ragged threads that merged with the snowy shadows. The spirits shoulders were hunched, empty sleeves hanging down in front of her body. Her hair billowed across the sky, and there was no point where Ling Qi could say for certain that the snow ended and the crystalline strands began. That same hair, wild and untamed blew ceaselessly, cloaking the spirit's visage, save for a single glimpse of a cold black pit in the shape of an eye with a single white spark of light at its core.
Ling Qi couldn't feel the stone under her feet anymore, it felt as if she were standing in the air.
"We're still where we started, no crossover yet, but things are a little thin," Sixiang whispered nervously."
"It feels like home," Hanyi muttered.
"Of course, Hanyi never left," Zhengui grumbled.
Ling Qi brought her hands together, and very carefully bowed, letting the song flowing from lips ring with supplication and the desire to speak.
'Lost one tresspasses.' the spirit didn't really speak, so much as meaning impressed itself directly into her thoughts carried on the ethereal melody underlying the storm. 'Such riches you have. Joining?'
Ling Qi grimaced at the coldly envious song, so full of dark yearning to embrace and consume. "I cannot," she replied carefully. "I belong to another. We only want to pass through. Can we arrange passage?" Jealous, possessive, the spirit was, but it recognized kinship, there was some thread of humanity too it, she could read it in the spirit's qi, threads going south.
There was a rumble, like the start of an avalanche as the spirits head twitched to the side, at an angle that would have broken a human's neck. Ling Qi saw the flash of fangs of clear ice beneath billowing hair.
The spirit was beside her, close enough to feel the tickle of crystal hair through the too thin fabric of her scarf. 'Compact of iron, Compact of blood,' the wind whistled a song of chains older than mountains. 'Lost one carries iron, is not of the blood. Why should Black Skies Yearning deal with pretenders?"
"You take that back! Big Sister is not a pretender! I know you can feel Momma's mark!" Hanyi shouted, peeking out from behind her skirts. It startled Ling Qi when had she…
"Wibbliness is increasing by the second here," Sixiang said warily, and Ling Qi could not be sure if she had spoken aloud or in her mind.
Ling Qi felt the hiss of a cold breath as the spirit turned it's black gaze on Hanyi. "Broken thing speaks of lost Warm Breath's Ending, slain by its hand? Claims new blood?"
Ling Qi felt Hanyi flinch and stepped in front of her, meeting the spirit's deadly gaze. "I am sorry that you perceive things so. Deny my connection if you will, but not hers."
Ling Qi felt cold pressing down, but she remained upright and unflinching. Even as the spirit reached out, a sharp digit of frozen bone protruding from her sleeve to press against Ling Qi's cheek. Ling Qi took in a sharp breath as she flared her own ice qi.
For just an instant the howl of the wind ceased, and clear ice wrapped around bone turned black.
'New blood,' the spirit sang grudgingly, withdrawing, drifting back to a more comfortable distance. 'Compact holds, Lost one and the Broken may pass.'
Ling Qi felt a moment of relief, only for it to end as the spirit sang again. "Offerings stay."
Ling Qi spun around, only now realizing that she hadn't even noticed a reaction from her companions. They stood where she had left them, though the ground had vanished, but all four stood frozen, eyes staring blankly into the snow. Their qi was still, not dead but quiescent, with only one exception.
Beneath Cai Renxiang's coat, radiance gleamed and hungry threads seethed, stirring to wakefulness.
"That is not acceptable," Ling Qi said. "An offering can be arranged, but not my companions."
"Yeah don't be greedy!" Hanyi said with false confidence. "Besides, you don't want to mess with Boss Lady's dress!"
The spirit, now looming tall over them, paused again, head tilting at an unnatural angle. Hanyi's words were ignored as she traced a bony finger along Gan Guangli's jaw. "Lost one has no claim, no blood nor mark on these. They are not yours. So they are mine."
Ling Qi's thoughts spun as she tried to think of how to convince the spirit otherwise. "I would contest that," eyeing Cai Renxiang with alarm. She could feel Liming doing something, power rising independent of her liege. Somehow the spirit didn't seem to notice that. Considering the dress' source it was nearly as alarming as the snow spirit.
<Sixiang, am I right in thinking she has them trapped in some kind of dream effect,> Ling Qi thought.
"Kinda like what happened to you back on the mountain yeah," Sixiang whispered.
"They wish to stay in desirous dreams," the spirit crooned, and already Ling Qi could feel heat being drawn from her companions. "My claim is stronger."
"Then you would not object to my trying to convince them otherwise," Ling Qi shot back. "I ask only for a fair chance."
Her words seemed to amuse the spirit, whose lolling head shifted the other way. "You think yourself more convincing than desire lost one? Even the Hollow Child has enough darkness to fall," the spirit mused, peering at Cai Renxiang.
"I do," Ling Qi replied evenly. This was the spirit's weakness, it was a simple, primal thing. Ling Qi knew that people could break from their most fundamental urges. "Will you give me the chance?"
Black Skys Yearning mulled her words. If nothing else Ling Qi would by time until Liming did… whatever it was going to do. "A bargain, convince one and I will take but a small tithe from you all. Fail, and I shall have you too, Lost one, and the Broken can wander on."
Ling Qi swallowed, putting her hand on Hanyi's head. "Deal."
"Then choose," whispered the spirit.
[] Cai Renxiang
[] Gan Guangli
[] Meng Dan
[] Xia Lin
It had been several hours, and now it was nearly morning. With Meng Dan, Ling Qi had exhaustively gone over their surroundings again and again, and the results lay on the table before them, a highly detailed topographical map, with only a few blanks where their combined senses had failed to penetrate.
"I believe the best route is this one," Ling Qi said, tracing her finger along the more weathered mountains on the east side of the gorge. "There is a narrow path here, letting us avoid directly traversing the glacier, and low enough to avoid the worst of the winds."
"Although it is broken, the gaps should be little obstacle to travelers of our caliber, given the climbing gear we have been provided," Meng Dan said confidently.
"It would be unwise to let our feet leave the ground too often, given the fury of the wind spirits outside," Xia Lin agreed, examining the map. "You have already worked the delay into our schedule?"
"I have," Ling Qi said, dipping her head. "But the path is not wholly safe, there are three spirits in this gorge, and there is no way to bypass them all."
"You are more confident in negotiating with the one which presides over the lower mountainside then?" Gan Guangli asked, looming over the table. "Why so?"
Ling Qi was silent for a moment. Within her dantian, she felt Hanyi's mixed emotions, so closely mirroring her own. "The spirit of the snow seems to be most human-like. I'm not sure I could even get the glaciers attention, and the spirit of the winds seems less likely to stick to any deals, even if it might be easy to distract. I feel that the snow spirit is the one I may be able to successfully negotiate with."
She wasn't fool enough to think that potential similarity to her mentor would make it easy, not when she knew, in her bones, what had lay beneath Zeqing's 'civilized' facade. It was a human trait certainly, that endless desire, but that did not make it any less deadly.
"I will trust that your judgement of the matter is sound." Cai Renxiang said simply, cutting through her thoughts. "Gan Guangli, you will join me in warding our party from harm during the climb. Xia Lin, you will take point just ahead of Ling Qi and watch for other dangers while Ling Qi focuses her attention of the spirit. Meng Dan, simply remain close and observe as well as you can."
They all nodded as the heiress spoke, none of them had any objections. Shortly, they began to break down the camp, digging the pavilion free and packing up. The storm had lightened briefly, so it would be good to get started now.
Ling Qi just hoped that her judgement was sound.
***
The trip was slow going. The others were wrapped in heavy cloaks and coats lined with the warm fur of fire aspected beasts to ward against the extreme chill and the cutting wind without constantly expending qi. The path was a narrow thing, barely more than a meter wide at its greatest extent, only the constant shrieking wind keeping the snow from piling it to impassability.
They made progress though, slowly creeping along the mountains, avoiding traipsing across the treacherous glacier below. They had to pause often when the wind picked up, even Ling Qi needing to hold tight to the high quality climbing cord strung between them while Gan sank his feet into the mountain stone and anchored them.
It had been so long since Ling Qi had thought to worry about the wind and cold, but out here, the very air was suffused with dense and potent qi bringing back the bite of the wind. Although she needed no coat for the cold, she transformed her mantle into a thick scarf and head wrapping to contain her hair and shield her eyes. She wary of even trying to exercise any command of the wind here if she didn't have too.
She almost felt as if she had crossed back over into Dream as they progressed and the storm picked up. The dense white snowfall erased everything beyond arms reach, with only the radiant glow of Xia Lin's halberd ahead and Cai Renxiang's glow behind.
All the while she hummed under her breath, not the Frozen Soul Serenade, but one of the idle melodies she had heard her mentor singing in moments of idleness, letting her qi flow freely into the snow all around.
Even so, the hike was exhausting, the cold laid heavily upon them and as they progressed further, the snow only fell more heavily. Wet and clinging, even Ling Qi had to pause and shake it from her shoulders now and then. It wasn't only physical weight, but a mental one, making it a struggle to not just sit down and close her eyes. But they persevered, and Ling Qi felt warm qi spreading in her chest, even as the hems and folds of her gown lit with colorless light, bolstering her against the wind and the unnatural exhaustion.
She saved her qi for her song, broadcasting supplication, friendliness, the desire to speak. She began to notice now and then a shadow in the corner of her vision. A tall figure appearing between snowflakes. Once crouched on a ledge above, again in the sky off to their left, and last standing upon the ledge in front of them, just before the stone had collapsed under Xia Lin's feet, nearly carrying the girl down the mountainside along with several tons of ice and snow, unnatural weight hampering the normally nimble girl's reflexes.
As they regrouped in the aftermath of that, Ling Qi gritted her teeth behind her scarf as she gazed up into the white out sky. Just passively calling out for the spirit to contact them wasn't working.
"She's hungry and curious, I don't think many things come through here," Hanyi whispered in her thoughts.
"Everyone, we should stop for now," Ling Qi called, her mastery of music carrying her words even over the screaming wind. "I'm going to need to actually call the spirit if I want to talk to her."
Cai Renxiang, her face all but hidden in the fur lining of her coats hood, made a single sharp gesture, indicating that she should proceed. Xia Lin and Gan Guangli gathered beside her watching the snowfall warily, and Meng Dan stood just behind, huddled in his thick coat.
Ling Qi pursed her lips as she turned back to the storm. The cloying feeling in the air was only growing worse, they couldn't just keep pressing through without the spirit's permission. That didn't mean the decision to outright call the spirits attention weighed any less heavily.
She raised her voice regardless, letting power flow through her meridians as she sang into the storm. Focusing on the flows of qi that rippled through the falling sheets of snow, she could see further into the nature of the spirit. In many ways it was simpler than Zeqing, not less powerful, but simply less complex. This spirit would not, she thought, really have the capacity to question her own nature.
But, that nature was fundamentally the same, emptiness, desire for heat and warmth and companionship. If they really had gone on, deeper into its power, they would have each found themselves drawn off, lost one by one to the freezing snow. But the spirit had noticed her. She could be certain of that.
So there was an edge of demand in her song, a tugging on the bond of kinship, however tenuous, resonating with the vibrations of the iron sliver she had palmed, which now grew so cold in her palm that it seemed to wrap around to heat.
The wind picked up, and the veil of snow thickened. Beneath the shriek of the storm, Ling Qi could feel the notes of a song. She saw the figure, standing out in the snowy sky.
Her robe was black and unadorned, it's hems drifting away in ragged threads that merged with the snowy shadows. The spirits shoulders were hunched, empty sleeves hanging down in front of her body. Her hair billowed across the sky, and there was no point where Ling Qi could say for certain that the snow ended and the crystalline strands began. That same hair, wild and untamed blew ceaselessly, cloaking the spirit's visage, save for a single glimpse of a cold black pit in the shape of an eye with a single white spark of light at its core.
Ling Qi couldn't feel the stone under her feet anymore, it felt as if she were standing in the air.
"We're still where we started, no crossover yet, but things are a little thin," Sixiang whispered nervously."
"It feels like home," Hanyi muttered.
"Of course, Hanyi never left," Zhengui grumbled.
Ling Qi brought her hands together, and very carefully bowed, letting the song flowing from lips ring with supplication and the desire to speak.
'Lost one tresspasses.' the spirit didn't really speak, so much as meaning impressed itself directly into her thoughts carried on the ethereal melody underlying the storm. 'Such riches you have. Joining?'
Ling Qi grimaced at the coldly envious song, so full of dark yearning to embrace and consume. "I cannot," she replied carefully. "I belong to another. We only want to pass through. Can we arrange passage?" Jealous, possessive, the spirit was, but it recognized kinship, there was some thread of humanity too it, she could read it in the spirit's qi, threads going south.
There was a rumble, like the start of an avalanche as the spirits head twitched to the side, at an angle that would have broken a human's neck. Ling Qi saw the flash of fangs of clear ice beneath billowing hair.
The spirit was beside her, close enough to feel the tickle of crystal hair through the too thin fabric of her scarf. 'Compact of iron, Compact of blood,' the wind whistled a song of chains older than mountains. 'Lost one carries iron, is not of the blood. Why should Black Skies Yearning deal with pretenders?"
"You take that back! Big Sister is not a pretender! I know you can feel Momma's mark!" Hanyi shouted, peeking out from behind her skirts. It startled Ling Qi when had she…
"Wibbliness is increasing by the second here," Sixiang said warily, and Ling Qi could not be sure if she had spoken aloud or in her mind.
Ling Qi felt the hiss of a cold breath as the spirit turned it's black gaze on Hanyi. "Broken thing speaks of lost Warm Breath's Ending, slain by its hand? Claims new blood?"
Ling Qi felt Hanyi flinch and stepped in front of her, meeting the spirit's deadly gaze. "I am sorry that you perceive things so. Deny my connection if you will, but not hers."
Ling Qi felt cold pressing down, but she remained upright and unflinching. Even as the spirit reached out, a sharp digit of frozen bone protruding from her sleeve to press against Ling Qi's cheek. Ling Qi took in a sharp breath as she flared her own ice qi.
For just an instant the howl of the wind ceased, and clear ice wrapped around bone turned black.
'New blood,' the spirit sang grudgingly, withdrawing, drifting back to a more comfortable distance. 'Compact holds, Lost one and the Broken may pass.'
Ling Qi felt a moment of relief, only for it to end as the spirit sang again. "Offerings stay."
Ling Qi spun around, only now realizing that she hadn't even noticed a reaction from her companions. They stood where she had left them, though the ground had vanished, but all four stood frozen, eyes staring blankly into the snow. Their qi was still, not dead but quiescent, with only one exception.
Beneath Cai Renxiang's coat, radiance gleamed and hungry threads seethed, stirring to wakefulness.
"That is not acceptable," Ling Qi said. "An offering can be arranged, but not my companions."
"Yeah don't be greedy!" Hanyi said with false confidence. "Besides, you don't want to mess with Boss Lady's dress!"
The spirit, now looming tall over them, paused again, head tilting at an unnatural angle. Hanyi's words were ignored as she traced a bony finger along Gan Guangli's jaw. "Lost one has no claim, no blood nor mark on these. They are not yours. So they are mine."
Ling Qi's thoughts spun as she tried to think of how to convince the spirit otherwise. "I would contest that," eyeing Cai Renxiang with alarm. She could feel Liming doing something, power rising independent of her liege. Somehow the spirit didn't seem to notice that. Considering the dress' source it was nearly as alarming as the snow spirit.
<Sixiang, am I right in thinking she has them trapped in some kind of dream effect,> Ling Qi thought.
"Kinda like what happened to you back on the mountain yeah," Sixiang whispered.
"They wish to stay in desirous dreams," the spirit crooned, and already Ling Qi could feel heat being drawn from her companions. "My claim is stronger."
"Then you would not object to my trying to convince them otherwise," Ling Qi shot back. "I ask only for a fair chance."
Her words seemed to amuse the spirit, whose lolling head shifted the other way. "You think yourself more convincing than desire lost one? Even the Hollow Child has enough darkness to fall," the spirit mused, peering at Cai Renxiang.
"I do," Ling Qi replied evenly. This was the spirit's weakness, it was a simple, primal thing. Ling Qi knew that people could break from their most fundamental urges. "Will you give me the chance?"
Black Skys Yearning mulled her words. If nothing else Ling Qi would by time until Liming did… whatever it was going to do. "A bargain, convince one and I will take but a small tithe from you all. Fail, and I shall have you too, Lost one, and the Broken can wander on."
Ling Qi swallowed, putting her hand on Hanyi's head. "Deal."
"Then choose," whispered the spirit.
[] Cai Renxiang
[] Gan Guangli
[] Meng Dan
[] Xia Lin
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think I want to see what RenRen's dream looks like. Presuming we end up entering it in order to convince her.
E: It might also be influenced by Liming, given how close the two are bound and we haven't had much screen time with Liming herself before.
E: It might also be influenced by Liming, given how close the two are bound and we haven't had much screen time with Liming herself before.
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I want to do Renxiang just to see what Liming does tbh.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
We get our dream adventures earlier than expected. How fun!
NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Cai Renxiang
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I smell Social Bond 4
Gan or Cai, I think.
Black Noise
Curious
- Location
- About 1AU from Sol
... Yes. This. This is exactly what I wanted from this.
(also obviously Cai is the way to go here, just don't have enough of a bond to the other three to know their motivation deeply enough to contest a spirit of desire)
(also obviously Cai is the way to go here, just don't have enough of a bond to the other three to know their motivation deeply enough to contest a spirit of desire)
Which person to try to save from their dream. If we win, we all leave. If not, well, bad stuff.
- Location
- Spain
Very nice update!
I believe Cai Renxiang is our priority. One, our bond with her is strong, sohe will listen to us much better. Two, we do not want to leave her alone to whatever Liming is going to do. I feel like if we do not pick her, Liming will do something, and we will not like it.
I believe Cai Renxiang is our priority. One, our bond with her is strong, sohe will listen to us much better. Two, we do not want to leave her alone to whatever Liming is going to do. I feel like if we do not pick her, Liming will do something, and we will not like it.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Our teammates are stuck in a dream. If we convince one of them to leave the dream then everyone gets to go. So this vote is about which of our teammates we are going to try and convince to leave their perfect dream.
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- Location
- Florida
We save one person we save all, if we don't they all will fall.
I'm now imagining a dream where Meng has his own library and we barge in, inform this is all a dream... And Meng goes berserk and considers the library now contaminated.