Shards of Awakening

[] "Sure," she lowers her voice to match his earlier conspiratorial tone, "I'm hiding from Mei Mei, she's being grumpy about something." (go with Meng Chao, learn more about his philosophy, increases social link +1)

Quan Jia bites into the exterior of a piece of eggplant fried in corn flour and drizzled with a spicy-sweet sauce. "Oh wow, this is almost good enough to make up for watching Meng Chao be Meng Chao."

"My apologies then for allowing my guest to succumb to boredom," Meng Chao shifts slightly, relaxing just a touch on his corner of her Comfy Blanket.

"It was weird, a good kind of weird though," she drags another piece through sauce and chomps down. "But why those three places?"

"A blacksmith, an apothecary, and a textile manufactory?" He glances off into a horizon framed by fluffy clouds and really tall trees. "I suppose I could elaborate, but perhaps Quan Jia would be willing to indulge me just a bit further and first offer her assumptions on why?"

"Sure," she agrees easily, "but you might have to go back and get seconds for me."

"For her support, and the generosity of her time," he pauses, "I will offer in return a secret: minor to me, but, I believe, important to Quan Jia."

"Well, how can I say no to that?" she grins, "eggplant is nice, but secrets are cool…"

"They are, perhaps the most singular currency of relationships," whatever that meant...

"So, the blacksmith seems easy," Quan Jia more or less begins to think out loud, "like the rice. It's it's part of everything… nails in houses, plows for farms, weapons, needles to sew clothes… it seems like everything is made with or using something metal. Am I close?"

"Bread and iron," he nods in agreement. "Those two are the foundational pieces of civilization. Without the first, we would still wander as the barbarians do, searching for plentitude. Without the second we would still hide behind mud packed walls, cowering from the beasts of the night."

"So you go and look at ore and finished materials?" she sighs slightly. The last piece of eggplant was gone.

At least there was some tea…

"The... aegis of cultivation does not, for reasons both rational and poor, extend enough to cover all of mortal existence," Meng Chao frowns slightly into a spring breeze as it ruffles both blonde and dark hair. "Thus, iron... worked metal, must become the shield with which they defend themselves, both metaphorically and, unfortunately, literally."

"We're supposed to be caretakers… shepherds, right?" Quan Jia muses, "but it sounds like it's more to you?"

"It is," he agrees simply, "perhaps the next two places will illuminate the why or the how."

"Next was an apothecary…," she pauses, not anywhere near as sure as the first answer, "they heal things… and that's important?"

"Indeed," Meng Chao grins faintly, "and in fairness, the connections of the last two are much less explicit than the first. If I were to say the word education, would it provide any clarity?"

"Education is important," she trails off doubtfully, " at least that's what pops' always says… it seems more like an excuse for being really, really, boring."

"It is a failing of many tutors, to abstract theory from practice," he agrees, "but to expound on the matter at hand: the practice of medicine is a through-line of civilization, a connection from its earliest days to now. From the first shamanic ritual invoking the aid of those unseen did the field grow into experimentations on the natural world, and with that evolution did discovery lead to codification, lead to uniformity."

"How does looking at an apothecary's goods help though?" it felt like there was a step missing. "It's not like you can see history, can you?"

"Unfortunately, temporal connections remain largely beyond my abilities," he shakes his head, a touch rueful, "what I look for is the tradition followed, as evidenced by the shape and constituency of the supplies on offer. And in my inspections, I have identified seven distinct medicinal traditions that exist in the province."

"But what are you going to do with that?" It still felt like there was something she just wasn't seeing. "Making sure good food and metal are available makes sense, and I guess medicines are important to, but that's not what this is, is it?"

"Partially it's about medicinal quality but rather than the individual apothecary it's more in ensuring the synthesis of those disparate traditions into a homologous whole." he replies, and upon seeing her somewhat blank stare continues, "or to put more simply: it is with health and longevity do the traditions of mortality flourish, and if one can easily pluck a few weeds to ensure that flourishing...."

"That's… that's a lot though, isn't it?" she occasionally felt overwhelmed just trying to help her friends.

How could you even begin to help a city, a province… all mortality…

"Perhaps it is," he shrugs, once again staring off into the horizon, "and perhaps I will fail… or perhaps I will find like minded souls… a task shared is a burden reduced, after all."

"I guess," she replies, trying to keep the doubtfulness from her voice. It seemed like an impossible dream.

After a moment of silence, Quan Jia moves on to the third one, "well, the last place we went was that factory, so…" it wasn't as simple as just having nice clothes, but what could it be? "Nice clothes aren't it, are they? It's probably not the looms either, though they were kind of cool? It was a bit weird to see all those people working in one place though, wasn't it?"

"Indeed, and it seems Quan Jia has a better sense for these things than she thinks." Meng Chao's smile looks completely different from that weird one he'd made when she'd first accosted him. "A factory is, or at least can be, an edifice in the… democratization of wealth. Absent it, a mortal has few choices in life: pursue the occupation of their parents, till soil for barely enough food to eat, or take up sword and shield in defense of land and wealth."

"What then for those that inherit the washing of clothes, or those whose soil is rocky and barren, or those whose arms or soul cannot bear the weight of such weaponry?" for the first time, there's a touch of something intense in Meng Chao's face. "For those unfortunate mortals, a place in a factory can supply them with wealth enough to offer a completely different option."

"Those workers didn't seem…" she struggled to find the right way to describe the pall that shrouded the factory, "happy though… they all looked kind of dispirited, or something."

"Yes, and words will be had, and changes will be made," he responds with a fierceness that slowly fades as he continues to explain, "the details of the concept are still somewhat beyond me, but in simple: the more often money is exchanged, the better a society is. When currency accrues amongst a few wealthy individuals, that society stagnates, when it flows from a thousand pockets in the purchase of a thousand daily goods, society grows."

"So is it…" she trails off, trying to think of a not mean way to ask, fails, and asks anyways, "the connections of exchange or the health of a society that is more important to Meng Chao?"

"A fair question," fortunately her, maybe, new friend doesn't seem offended, "and difficult to disentangle indeed, or perhaps unnecessary to. A cultivator may live alone on a mountain, pondering the Dao until Ascension or death; a beast may spend its days in solitude, following whim and instinct; but mortals must ever seek another."

"Isn't it cool when our resonance matches with what we want to do in the first place," Quan Jia grins.

After this, it's nap time…

"I have at times wondered how much is a cultivator seeking the Dao and how much it is the Dao seeking us. But yes, it is truly wonderful." Meng Chao grins his nice grin again, "That is, perhaps, a matter for another conversation. After all, I did promise Quan Jia a secret, yes?"

"I do like secrets. Do we need to go somewhere more..." she gestures at the open field they'd eaten lunch in. "private?"

"It is not so big a secret as to require that, I think." Meng Chao shrugs slightly and continues, "and it is one that I think Quan Jia would have uncovered in time. But, will or no, the secret is this: two weeks prior, Liu Lifen came to me with an offer to join a faction she was creating. I believe you already know the cause of this faction…"

"That pig needs to leave my friend alone," Quan Jia scowls and then asks, "so did you join?"

"In the interest of the connection we had previously established, I had asked for some time to consider." he replies, and then while his face turns slightly pink, his voice doesn't waver as he continues, "to be regrettably and rudely blunt, I believe that I would like to hear if you have an offer as well. If so, I will select the most appropriate, if not..."

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