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

"You know, there's one thing I picked up from Meng Dan that I think is right," Ling Qi said, thinking back to the tapestry and its disappointing revelations. "The past isn't the most important thing, but if you don't understand it, you won't really understand the present either."

Sixiang followed her gaze down into the dim mist far below, and the teetering piled cities upon the platforms and low branches. "I'd probably have disagreed with you a year ago," Sixiang said. "The present is what matters, and maybe the future… But yeah, I guess those nerdy cousins of mine have a point. Every dream comes from a memory."

Ling QI studied the shadowed silhouettes below, and willed herself to rise from the ground, only to blink as she failed to move at all. She glanced down at her gown, and the silky cloth seemed to almost shrink away in frustrated contriteness.

"Don't think you're going to be able to rely on that one. What they usually manipulate isn't here," Sixiang said as they stepped off the cliff, they fell for a moment and then bobbed back up like someone floating in the water. The air around their feet distorted.

"And she isn't developed enough to manipulate the dream," Ling Qi said, brushing her hand over her sleeve.

"Not without losing bits," Sixiang said, offering their hand. "Speaking of, Ling Qi, be seriously careful. No matter what happens, you gotta hold on to who you are. I'd be awful if something snuck into your skin."

Ling Qi nodded faintly, taking Sixiang's hand as she focused firmly on her desire to descend. Was that the faint feeling of pressure on her mind? Was it the feeling of countless consciousnesses pressing down, threatening to bleed into her and change who she was? She'd thought, from her study, that it would be more overt.

"Why would it be,this is the place where all barriers fade, is it usually noisy when one cupful of water flows into another?" Sixiang said as a sloping trail of starlight bloomed and they began to slide swiftly downward along its curving trail, the wind tugging at their sleeves and hair.

"I'll be careful not to spill," Ling Qi murmured. It would be a challenge, she was so used to dispersing when she wanted to hide, that holding herself together was a more novel challenge.

The two of them lapsed into silence as they rushed downward, new stars and beams of moonlight spinning into existence as they descended. Ling Qi's eyes darted from one shadowed edifice to another seeking anything of interest. In her free hand the crystal compass continued to spin wildly and without direction. Her eyes feel on a structure within one of the haphazard stack cities, it looked like the great hall at the central plaza of the outer sect, but… smaller and humbler.

It was as good a place to start as any.
They landed without a sound on the crumbling courtyard in front of it, and Ling Qi found her eyes wandering to the withered trees and gardens. There was a deep melancholy here, beyond the association of bare branches and dead flowers. Yet, in the corner of her eye she could catch the shimmer of dreams, reflecting of soapbubble skeins, of people and life,in what she knew instinctively to be the modern sect. This was no abandoned ruin, like she had went to with Bao Qian.

It was an echo and a reflection.

Somehow she understood that it was on the edge of fading, and that one day soon, a new layer would appear atop it, and no longer would it rest upon the top of the tottering heap of human construction.

Without a word, she entered the dusty hall, Sixiang tagging along behind. In the smaller, humbler entranceway, she pushed through skeins of shadow and mist in the shape of people, letting the whispering thoughts that held them together brush off of her mind. She came to stand before the Sect Work board at the rear of the hall, looking at curled and yellow paper still clinging here and there.

She brushed her fingers across one uncurling it and revealing the crumbling wax seal of the Argent Sect.

It was good to be away from the clan. Away from relatives who looked on with disdain, and cousins who sneered for his lack of ambition.

Ling Qi shook her head, the scent of ink filling her nose.

Home, this was home, not the cold and stifling manor house. Here in the library she could study and research, without concern for status among her sisters, and dull men that she despised.

She pressed a hand to her temple, grimacing as whispers beat against her concentration.

It was good to be irrelevant. To not matter in the games of count and duke. Here children could be children for a time, not mere weapons and tools in the sharpening.

He raged at the blank walls of the hovel they called his home, incensed that his family would banish him to this backwater. What use was there in these sleepy scholars and decadent philosophizing. A man wielded the sword against the foes of the empire!

Ling Qi let out a sharp hiss, banishing the whispers. Around her, the shades who had begun to gather scattered, like dust before a gust of wind.

"Yeah, you've got it," Sixiang chuckled. "But there are a lot more where those came from."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ling Qi said quietly. She knew from studying basic history that the Argent Sect had been a minor institution once, a place for Arts and Formation research like so many minor Sects still were.

"A place to dump people who can't or won't get with the rat race," Sixiang said mirthlessly, pacing around the room and peering at the faded paint upon its walls.

Ling Qi knew that, but she supposed she hadn't really considered what it meant. She remembered that elaborate 'temple' Xuan Shi had taken her too. Not even an artificial tribulation but just a game for 'couples'. It had seemed so absurd and frivolous that she had simply put it out of her mind.

She wondered what it must feel like for the handful of Elder's who remembered, for their home to be transformed so completely. It was sad that the world didn't allow kind things to exist for long. You had to be strong to be safe, and to be strong you couldn't afford such leisure.

"Well, not everyone has to be powerful," Sixiang said. "I don't think things would be better if they were."

Ling Qi nodded silently, turning away from the job board. "That's what Renxiang wants, I think. Maybe the foreigners have the best idea of it. The strongest going off to be spirits and protectors and leave everyone else to their own devices.."

"Of course, it'd be rough to convince anyone of that if they're not already doing it," Sixiang mused.

"I suppose so," Ling Qi said. "Let's keep going."

At the back of the hall, the floor crumbled away into a twisting maze of broken foundation stones, supporting beams and pieces of roofing. For the first time in many months, Ling Qi found herself physically picking her way along narrow paths and unstable footing. She couldn't move here as she could outside.

There wasn't any actual darkness here, no matter how her eyes interpreted things.

Descending didn't change the pressure of whispers on her mind, but they were less clear here and also less forceful. Soon she found her way out onto a wooden spar, sticking out of the mazelike pile like a loose rib poking out of an unmarked grave. It gave her a greater view of the ruins that spread out below, built or carved into the side of the titanic tree.

It was a chaotic sprawl, uncounted layers of buildings piled impossibly atop each other. Rooves merging into foundations. It hung like a dry and dead bush over the great platform of wood that supported it and in the distance she could hear the thunderous crumbling of material collapsing and falling endlessly into the mist below.

"What are you looking for?" Sixiang asked, standing beside her and looking out over the twisting labyrinth of castle, village, city and more. Below, in the jumble, the streets thronged with both shades and faeries, who lit the mad streets with their silver glow.

"I'm… not really sure," Ling Qi admitted. "I want to see what I can learn from the past, but I don't quite know where to begin."

Maybe she was thinking too hard about this, if there was any place to simply follow your impulses it was here.

She trailed off as she felt a warmth in her hand, and glanced down to see the compass,it's face lit from within, the crystal shard inside had stoppedsp[inning and instead vibrated in place, pointing out towards a mountain of jumbled palaces and rickety tree platforms. The whole city shook, and she saw a wide boulevard below split apart, spilling junk and ruins to either side as something sinuous and scaly surfaced, it's back was iridescent green and shimmered with psychedelic color. She saw a reptilian head surface far in the distance before plunging back into the ruin. It was burrowing in the same direction the crystal was pointing in.

And so, Ling Qi…

[] Descended to follow in the cleared wake of its burrow, hidden from attention (Grinning Feat 30 XP. 75% Chance of Success. Advance Motion Concept by one on success)

[] Jumped down to land upon it's back, and find where the dream-beast was going. (Grinning Feat 50 XP. 60% Chance of Success. Advance Freedom Concept by one on success)

[] Waited, patient and quiet before descending to cross jumbled rooftops and follow her compass, after the beast had passed. (100% chance of Success. Lost opportunity)