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

Well I've been working on this for a month now and finally finished. @yrsillar

@yrsillar Omakke for the Omakke throne !!

Weird Snakes and Blue Mountains I

Mother's mouth was not comfortable. Her tongue kept switching Shetong around. They'd been traveling for almost a month now, and they'd left the marshes in the first week for a forest filled with animals and plants that kept burning themselves on Mother's five-colored venoms.

"Your father's things?" Mother asked. Her voice felt like a burn on the stem of her brain nowadays, and she had only been able to hear it instead of vague impressions after she'd successively bathed in all five of her venoms -diluted in ponds- and - how had she called it? Shed all Sins from herself, a few weeks before they'd started their journey. Since that day, the scales covering her arms and legs had shifted from a dull white to an almost-silvery white that shined like her mother's scales.

"Still with me in the ring, Mother." Shetong answered reassuringly. "I won't let that mistake happen again." She promised. Years ago, she'd dropped the ring while scavenging. In her fury, her Mother had fouled a lake to lethality. They had had to flee the comfortable lair they'd lived in and move to the southern marshes.

"We are almost there." Mother said, barely acknowledging Shetong's reassurances. The girl winced. Images of a mountain, and a great temple atop it, flooded her mind. "He had enough riches on him to pay for those Moondancers and Suncallers my aunt wouldn't stop speaking about to keep you fed and teach you. Keep the sword for yourself, and nothing else. Feed it with venom every day, and it'll serve well. The cursed little eel that your father was destroyed all his precious books before I was done with him." Shetong winced. When Mother got worked up, the burning in her head became even worst, like a thousand blades pricking the inside of her skull - though she knew that wasn't on purpose - Maybe one of your uncles or aunts will give you something. Maybe they'll try to kill you in the temple. Do not shame me by dying too early. I will meet you here in a year, to test you and reward a dutiful daughter." Or punish a slothful one, Shetong completed in her mind. Better her Mother's punishment than the world's. She would survive one, not the other.

Shetong felt her Mother's tongue pushing her out. She slipt from the side of her massive jaws, blinked from the light and the bright, cold, white stuff on the ground reflecting the sunlight to her slit eyes. In front of her, there were no trees at all, only a path of carved stone, more of the white stuff, and, further out, a high mountain. When she turned around, her Mother's enormous body was already melting under the trees.

"You may have these, Daughter of mine. I shed them soon after your birth." For once, her voice felt soft.

Shetong looked down then, and with a small sob, she bowed at the forest and picked up five brilliant and colorful scales at her feet. She clutched them in her fist as she walked up the mountain. In the sunset's light, the few exposed rocks looked blue on the gold-tinted landscape.

---

"So, your name is Shetong -no clan name- and you want to enter the Temple of Sun and Moon as an apprentice."

Shetong sighed and nodded. This was the third person she had explained herself to, and she might have started to try intimidating the black-handed heavyset man by exposing her fangs if she couldn't feel he was far more powerful than her. His lips twitched.

"Lady B-" She glared at him. People kept calling her "Lady Bai", for some reason. "Young miss, I regret to inform you that while you are at the Temple of Sun and Moon, it hasn't accepted applications for potential members of its priesthood for the last four centuries."

She fumed. There were monks around, and they weren't four centuries old, even she could tell.

"The people you see around you are alumni from the Blue Mountain Imperial Great Sect who were invited and chose to follow the honored path of clergy members." The man explained with a smile. He seemed to be having a great deal of fun at someone's expense, and Shetong suspected it might not be her after all. "If you so wish... let's see... I think you may be able to enter the scholastic section of the Sect. The Outer Sect is reserved for the talents the Ministry sends us and children sent to us by their noble parents, I'm afraid. However, you told me that your parentage is unclear?" He asked with a wink and a grin.

Shetong caught on. "I know the name of neither of my parents, sir." Not a lie, that. She had only ever called her Mother simply that, and she couldn't make sense of what other spirit beasts that survived meeting her called her in the strange language of mind they talked.

"You live in the grounds and under the aegis of the Blue Mountain Sect, don't you?"

Well, she certainly couldn't survive in unwarded territory very long without her mother's protection. She'd do better than most her age, used as she was to interact with spirits, but most predators would bite her head off no matter how clever she was with word, sword, or poison. "I currently do, and depend on its protection for my survival."

"I see, this sounds promising! And do you come with prior knowledge in some field of academia? You have the look of someone who spent much time outdoors, you probably picked up a few things about zoology and herbology, haven't you?"

Now this was becoming unnerving. Was the rotund man reading her mind? She nodded.

"Brilliant!" He laughed. "In that case, Considering your cultivation -good job on attaining Yellow and Silver so early, by the way- it'll be easy to convince my colleagues to give you a place in the scholastic program. Fair warning, you may be required to tutor some of the younger Outer disciples interested in your fields of expertise, and you'll have to follow our curriculum. If you wish to enter the Sect proper, you'll have to request authorization to access the trials of the Eight Maidens Pagoda or the Tower of the Five Solar Heroes. I'd wait a bit before doing that," he cautioned. "The survival rate of cultivators who attained Green Soul before trying their luck is much better than those at Yellow Soul."

This was frustrating. The man had met her not ten minutes ago, and he seemed to have planned out her daily life for the foreseeable future. And he kept grinning whenever Shetong had an unkind thought about him!

"Well, what do you think, miss? Want to see if Blue Mountain Sect works out for you?"

She thought seriously about it. The man -probably the head clerk- was irritating, but she supposed he was trying to help her, bending the rules to let her in the Sect for some reason. Her Mother had ordered her to stay here and would be expecting to meet her nearby in six months. She would just have to do it, wouldn't she?

The moment she took her decision, the man took a paper and a monocle from his sleeves. "Well, in that case, there are only two things left to do. I see you have a ring full of beast cores on you, this should do nicely to pay your tuition. Ah, and we do need a family name of some kind to write on our rolls, legally speaking. With how charmingly brilliant your scales are... How about Hao Shetong?"

She really wanted that man to stop grinning at her.

"It is my Lady Cai's opinion that the most respectful method will be to arrange times after primary negotiation is finished for the day that observers and guests may come to the embassy and speak with the foreign representatives who wish to speak. Amenities and security will be present of course, but Lady Cai asks that you limit your interactions to this time."

Speaking with Renxiang, they had hit upon this as the best they could do, formalizing the interaction while not insulting their ducal guests with the implication that they needed minders, while also keeping the setting public enough to avoid giving anyone the chance to do something untoward.

…Admittedly the last was only really a concern about certain parties, but it was best to keep all dealings even.

"Hahh? That's kind of a pain isn't it?" Zheng Fu said, looking disappointed. "Doesn't that mean we gotta wait till things kick off properly?"

"The Cai clan will thank you all for your forbearance," Ling Qi replied.

"Kinda high handed, saying they can tell the rest of us what to do, huh," Sun Liling drawled.

"A captain does not bellow his authority on anothers ship. It is only polite to acquiesce to such requests," Xuan Shi said.

"Naturally," Bai Meizhen sniffed. "The Bai clan will respect our hosts request."

"Huh, never knew snakes could be housebroken."

Ling Qi sucked in a breath as she saw Bai Meizhen's eyes widen, her slit pupils shrinking to barely visible lines. Xiao Fen let out a sharp, keening hiss, and made as if to rise…

Only to stop for Meizhen's raised hand.

"A sharp cut for a blade I have already left broken in the mud," Meizhen said softly.

"Hoh, you wanna try again? I guarantee it won't go how you like," Sun Liling drawled.

Ling Qi clapped her hands, and the rush of wind was a thunderclap.

"Princess Sun," Ling Qi said harshly, trying not to feel her nerves as every eye went to her. "Everyone. Please, reign yourselves in. I do not wish for strife among us, but Lady Cai has been empowered by her grace to expel any guests at this summit, if their conduct should be too disruptive. She would greatly regret doing so."

Sun Liling looked her up and down, at her side, Ji Rong grimaced. "That so? Not a light threat to throw around."

"It is not, and I had hoped not to bring it up. Let us all remain civil, that I do not need to do so again."

Things were silent for a moment. Bai Meizhen's expression was blank and the other two Bai bristled. Sun Liling's smirk never went away. Xuan Shi's shoulders were hunched and he seemed deeply uncomfortable.

Zheng Fu let out a bellowing laugh. "That's the stuff! Hah, it's good for even newbie dukes to stand up for themselves! Gotta know when to cut the shit and lay down your house rules."

His laugh shattered the tension thoroughly.

"Strange words for a scion of the rivers, whose disrespect is legendary," Bai Meizhen said dryly, settling back into her seat.

"You get bad seeds from everywhere, even the land of heroes," Zheng Fu shrugged. "Be less problems if all of you outsiders just said what you meant and treated your kin better too eh?"

"Aren't you lot more of a theater troupe," Sun Liling said. "Can't say I recall a whole lot of heroes named Zheng in the last few thousand years. Maybe I'm just a rural bumpkin though?"

"Hah! You're not totally wrong! We've been sitting around growing moss on our asses for a while huh?" Zheng Fu said, grinning, stretching the fabric of his mask.

Ling Qi relaxed marginally, the tension and edge of violence in the air was defused.

"This one is pleased that Lady Cai is not here, to see the disrespect being displayed at her table," Xuan Shi said, surprising her as he spoke over both.

"Tch, you would be," Sun Liling said. "Course that you're sittin here and not the prettier boat boy shows the way this is leaning."

"If the fine neighbors upon the sand wish to show their disinterest, that is their matter," Xuan Shi said.

Ling Qi almost raised an eyebrow, she knew the Xuan and Jin had a quiet sort of rivalry, but Xuan Shi sounded uncharacteristically disdainful there. She would have to look into that further.

"Feh, you've got bad taste princess, those Jin have been warming their throne as long as we've been gathering moss, and they still act like a bunch of newbies," Zheng Fu scoffed. "The Cai and the Guo are already a league or two ahead on attitude alone."
"Easy talkin' shit about someone who isn't here, huh?" Sun Liling drawled. "Why is that anyway?"

"Jin Tae declined the invitation, citing his role as a Ministry apprentice. He is not here as a member of the Jin," Ling Qi said evenly.

"Hmph, as if anyone can fail to be a member of their clan, no matter their position. How absurd," Bai Meizhen scoffed. "Nonetheless, it is the Jin's choice to not be here, Princess. Now shall we let our host speak or not?"

"Feh, yeah, get on with it," Sun Liling said, waving her hand.

"Thank you," Ling Qi said. She didn't let a single bit of sarcasm enter her voice, no matter how much she wanted too. "So, I have laid out the goals of our negotiation here, to lay out non aggression and the beginnings of exchange. To this end one of the goals is to clearly map the Wall and stake the land claims of both sides so that there can be no confusion."

"Ah so that's why I got invited, despite not being here yet when you were planning," Sun Liling drawled.

"It is my hope that King Sun will be able to provide his own maps and claims, yes," Ling Qi said. The Western Territories 'help' against the Cloud nomads was another complicated factor.

"And I'm guessing you won't accept just splashing our color across the whole range south of the jungle huh?"

"It is my hope that we may stick to realistic claims of what our people can truly hold and govern," Ling Qi said evenly. "You did say you were not planning a settlement."

"I did, but I'm betting you all are being way too far on the timid end of realistic. These mountains are rich after all, even you found a lil trove of spirit stones, didn't ya?" Sun Liling said idly, as if she had not just nearly started a fight minutes ago. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Was Sun Liling simply trying to keep her off balance, riding the edge of disruptiveness without crossing over?

"It is true, but all the same we would appreciate some flexibility from the Sun on this matter," Ling Qi said, meeting the Princess' gaze across the table.

There were no answers in other girls' eyes. Only a faintly predatory and curious gleam. "Yeah alright, I'll have a chat with gramps. I'm sure we can manage."

"How generous of you," Bai Meizhen said dryly.

"Yep!" Sun Liling replied.

Bai Meizhen wrinkled her nose irritably.

"And with that, we should discuss the other aspect at play. As you know this region is still in the contested region, we are at war with the barbarian tribes Twelve Star Confederation, and at least one grouping of underground cities."

"Oho, you think they'll hit here, crash the party?" Zheng Fu asked.

"It cannot be ruled out. We will of course provide the best security to you, our guests and any strike will need to evade General Xia, who has her Grace's full confidence," Ling Qi said. "Though more to the point as everyone is gathered here, the Cai will of course be grateful for any information the storied clans of the Empire might have regarding these foes."

"You'd know better wouldn't you?" Sun Liling drawled. "Since the Duchess conquered one of 'em and all."

"The lands of the Thousand Lakes are not conducive to caverns, and the Dreams of Grandmother Serpent infuse the deep places of our world. We of the Bai can only extend the certainty that no such groups exist beneath us, foes will not emerge from our lands," Bai Meizhen said, as if Liling had not spoken.

"When Zhi broke the skull of the last Dragon God under her club, she drove the cave demons out of Shuilian before the Sage took his first breath. The Reveler fought and shattered their god, a flunky of the Dragon God. Together they claimed the caverns, the mountains and the rivers for the people Zhi freed from the Dragon God of the Underworld's chains. Far as I know, they've never come back. That's what I know personally. Course these pasty blind devils of yours don't quite match the stories," Zheng Fu shrugged. "But I can send a request to the book wranglers if you like?"

Eyes went to Xuan Shi, who gave a small shrug. "Demons may hardly dwell in the bellies of this one's swimming brothers."

"Not for very long anyway," Zheng Fu cackled.

"Yes, please consider this an official request by the Cai to trade for any knowledge in your archives," Ling Qi said. "In regards to the summit, I merely ask that you coordinate your guards with General Xia's troops."

"Sure, that's great," Sun Liling said. "Why don't we talk about these other guests of yours though yeah? I'm sure we're really dyin to hear what you've sussed out about these hairy icicles."

Ling Qi tried hard not to let out a sigh, and largely succeeded. "Of course. Honored guests, I would ask that you keep your peace until I have finished sharing my observations of the people who Call themselves the Polar Nation, and of the province of that Nation which calls itself the White Sky…"

It was incomplete yet, this gathering. No one from the capital, no one from the Golden Fields, the Jin of the Alabaster Sands had declined, but it was a reminder of what laid beyond the horizon. Though this was only a meeting of young scions, this was in a small way a microcosm of the Empire.

She had to wonder how the Emperors and Empresses did it, holding all of this together for centuries uncounted. She doubted the personalities of her guests' seniors and elders clashed any less. No, she thought, her gaze panning from her friend to Sun Liling, thinking back to the glimpse she had gotten of Sun Shao through stories, and the more hands on experience of witnessing Bai Suzhen duel Cai Shenhua, they were absolutely worse. Not for the first time, she wondered at the sheer extremity of what she had decided to seek, the job she had taken up, in being Lady Renxiang's diplomat.

The Way was truly long, wasn't it?

It was the better part of thirty minutes later when she finished. The refreshments on the table were quite depleted, mostly by Zheng Fu, but touched by others. "And that concludes what I can tell you of our guests at the moment. Of course, I would like to thank Sir Xuan for helping me make sense of and organize this."

Xuan Shi tilted his chin down in acknowledgement. He had been helpful to talk too, as the other person who had visited that fragment of their great spirits with her.

"Huh, sounds like there's some interesting ideas there," Zheng Fu said, scratching his chin.

"Baffling ones, I wonder that they can accomplish anything organized as you describe," Bai Meizhen said. "Though it is not as if the Empire has never seen barbarians build things."

"Yeah, they can do pretty sturdy work huh?" Sun Liling smirked. "Course, we can do it better, but its only these southern tribes that wander around doing nothing with themselves."

Bai Meizhen scowled in distaste at Sun Liling.

"I believe Lady Bai merely meant that the Baroness's account is credible and matches physical evidence," Xia Anxi said carefully. "And even the wastrel tribes of the cloud were occasionally known to hold an agreement for time, unlike other blood mad savages."

"Just so. I see no reason to doubt that this endeavor may come to success, if Lady Cai and her retainers continue to put forth such effort," Bai Meizhen said.

"Hm, dunno about all that, but I'd like to see what happens," Zheng Fu shrugged. "And I really wanna chat with that crow again now."

"So much for the pride of ancient clans," Sun Liling said. "But yeah sure, I doubt our soldiers want to freeze their shorthairs off in an icy desert, easier if they bring their goods up and we buy it off for cheap crap, least till the Wall is settled.

"No point picking empty fights," Ji Rong grunted, speaking up for the first time in awhile.

"Going soft on me?" Sun Liling chuckled, tilting her head toward him.

"Ain't no shortage of things that need punched closer to home," he replied.

"Heh, wisdom," Sun Liling said, the corner of her lip curling up.

"Hear-hear," Zheng Fu chuckled.

"Are there any other matters which need settled?" Bai Meizhen cut in.

"No," Ling Qi said. "Unless anyone has any further questions?"

"I might have one," Sun Liling said.

Ling Qi inclined her head.

"I want to hear your own words, what to do you want out of this. DOn't give me any run around about short term. What's the Emerald Seas doing down here long term?"

Ling Qi pressed her lips together. There were any number of ways such words spoken aloud could be used against her, how to phrase this while neither lying or deflecting too much…

[ ] Settling the wall with the aim of ending the raiding that has killed so many of her people since time immemorial. That is the frontmost goal.

[ ] Showing that the Wall could be tamed and that the Emerald Sea could pacify its own borders, and conduct itself as a province of the Empire no less than any other.

[ ] To establish that there were more methods, more tools that could be used to build the Empire out than sword and fire, even as they showed the Emerald Seas was lacking in neither.