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

Chapter 1: Party Animals
Chapter 2: Tea Party
Chapter 3: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Δh Chapter 4: The Slow Blade

Gouwen sat and stared at the wall of her room, correspondence and court documents arrayed around her like a messy nest. Throwing herself into her work for days without sleeping hadn't helped (though it had reduced her backlog tremendously). There was no denying what was happening. What had already happened. Her face was flushed and her hands felt a million miles away as she very carefully sat still and did nothing.

Was this a personal failing? It felt like a failure. She'd been so careful to avoid the ensnaring trappings of personal entanglements. The history of the Bai was very clear on this topic. Getting... overly involved with others was a fast track towards distraction, embarrassment, and failure. Marriages were for political alliances and the creation of new children. It was known that a cultivator might sometimes crave... moments of weakness, but these were temporary failings to be addressed in private.

She had even, in her desperation, sent a missive to Buzai. A sad and desperate screed locked tight with formations, asking for advice in extricating oneself from an unpleasant situation. Buzai's response had arrived the next day, suggesting some of their favourite poisons to make the Zheng's death look like an overambitious party accident. The letter was still crumpled up in the corner where she had thrown it in frustration.

Gouwen's head was spinning and bursting like a child's toy gone mad upon her shoulders, full of as many useful thoughts as a block of wood. Meisui had become familiar, comfortable, someone she felt no threat from, and now Gouwen's mind betrayed her by coupling it with ideas about large, bronzed arms and their capacity for... violence. Decadent, dizzying, directed violence. She had shoved that horrid little Lan boy to his knees with the inevitability of a mountain landslide, and Gouwen was ashamed to admit the thrill and delight she had felt watching it. What else might those arms do for her... or to her?

Was it not the Great Grandmother, first of them all, who had felt... things, for a foreigner? A foreigner who had smote her enemies, proudly displaying their pain and woe for her amusement? While some rowdy, loutish, over-muscled, bare-armed, smoky-voiced... while some Zhengcould never hold a candle to the Fisher himself, Meisui DID fit the traditional requirements.

Oh god, tradition. Because TRADITION was definitely what was happening here. To say nothing of them both being women, but their clans had bit and clawed at each other since before the empire had congealed. Foreign strangers were one thing, but their superiors would never approve of... dalliances with an opposing scion. There would be questions. Pointed inquiry. Aspersions cast. Meaningful looks and snide tones of voice. Her reputation would be ruined. And for what?

Gouwen had to be smarter than that. She had to approach the problem with guile and cunning. What was it Elder Diaobao always said? One cannot always drag prey out of its' nest - sometimes the prey must be drawn to the predator...

---

Meisui was in the fucking doghouse. The Lan had viciously struck back where they could, setting up the Zheng for a bunch of "mistakes" and laughing behind their sleeves - laughing at the stupid monkeys pretending to be people. The old man had given her a hell of a chewing-out for doing damn fool shit when the consequences would be others' to bear, and he'd had her bowing and scraping the whole week, cleaning up messes the Lan had been causing.

That wasn't the worst part, though. Since she'd given Lan Guo a public drubbing, Gouwen had vanished into her apartment. No tea parties, no letters, not even a background appearance when the Zheng had met the snakes face-to-face to hash out some mining deal.

Gouwen's little tea parties had been the only good thing about court, and now she didn't even have the cute snake girl to look forward to after a long day of delivering letters and taking notes and cleaning floors and whatever the fuck else it was she had to do.

Meisui had even hand-written a letter herself - the old man had given her such shit when she'd asked for advice on fancy writing and which pretty ink and paper to use, but helped her anyway when she kept pestering him. She'd put so much thought into each complicated character, and still hadn't heard so much as a peep out of the little snake girl.

Her sole comfort was Lan Guo being cooped up in the Lan apartments - probably where he couldn't piss his pants the next time someone twisted his arm. The way things were going, if she caught wind of him being an asshole again, she'd rip his arm the rest of the way off just to feel better.

---

This was a good plan. It was the perfect response to the situation. Nobody would ever suspect a thing. Her hand in the matter would be obfuscated, unseen, secure. Those idiots from the Hou were wrapped around her finger now, and the catering order had been smoothly intercepted. Already she was weaving yet more threads.

Elder Daibiao would approve. Many of the major undertakings could be used to benefit the Thousand Lakes. He'd think she was finally acclimatising to court, acting like a proper White Snake lady. Gouwen absent-mindedly scratched one arm, and didn't understand why. There would be time to wonder later.

---

Meisui grit her teeth as she slowly ran a formation-finder charm over the wall of the meeting room she was in - her chore for the afternoon. Someone, and she didn't know who, had been playing games with her for the last week. It'd started small - she'd walked into a meeting room she had to clean and almost tripped over two local yellows furiously scrubbing the floor. They wouldn't tell her why they were there, sweating and stammering through excuses, but they'd cleaned the room in time before the old man turned up. Then the day after, the kitchens had delivered a trolley full of spicy steamed dumplings to a party she was throwing and a dozen drunk cultivators had grabbed the platters before the attendants could say "there's been some sort of mistake-".

At first, she'd been happy to let these little accidents make her life easier. It wasn't her fault the world wanted to make her life better - but then it really did begin to feel like a set-up. She'd found a few pages of someone else's notes in her doodling pad one meeting, explaining who the other guys were and pointing out how to exploit them. She hadn't understood a word of it, and the old man had given her a funny look when she'd passed them to him.

The next day, two Meng kids who came to her parties thanked her for giving them some fucked-up river weed she'd never heard of before. They'd backed off when she'd looked at them funny, not sure how to respond.

Finally, last night a small Guo group had lost their tea set when they invited the Zheng over to swap some important stuff, and the old man took the opportunity to dig his heel in and take better footing over the Guo's shitty hosting. They'd had to offer a basket of fruit instead, and some of it had definitely looked pricey. Tasted pricey, too.

Meisui didn't like it. Not one bit. Whoever this was, they were trying to manipulate her, or didn't think she could do her own chores. She was sick and tired of this shit. And then-

Someone knocked on the door of the meeting room.

A middle-aged Yellow in an Imperial Palace uniform was right outside, bowing his head and offering a lacquer box of what smelled like dried orange peel. Her favourite.

"Madam Zheng, I come to humbly convey this gift to you from an admirer who wishes to remain anonymous."

Meisui picked the little man up, his feet leaving the floor. He yelped in surprise, dropping the box, and his stupid mustache bristled indignantly.

"How uncouth! I remind you that I am servant of the Imperial Palace, and you-"

"Who the fuck is this from?"

"Unhand me!"

She shook him, making his head bobble about and his ridiculous little hat fall off.

"I've had it up to here with this shit! I'll pull your fucking arms off!"

"Oh shit-"

"Shaddap! Tell me who told you to do this!"

Cowed by the threat of a dumb brute resorting to violence, he folded in on himself.

"It was her! The doctor woman! From the Thousand Laaaargh-"

Meisui threw the little man away - he skidded along the polished wood hallway until he came to a stop against a pillar. Picking up the box, she stomped off in the other direction towards the diplomatic apartments, where she would no doubt be hiding.

---

Meisui banged one-handed on Gouwen's apartment door with the box, making the whole wooden frame rattle. A few of the other junior cultivators poked their heads out to see what was happening, but quickly closed their doors again when they saw who was involved.

"BAI GOUWEN! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! STOP HIDING LIKE A FUCKING COWARD AND FACE ME!"

The door cracked open very slightly, allowing Meisui to dig her fingers into the gap and fling it the rest of the way to the side. Sitting behind a writing desk, eyes narrowed, was the arrogant little Bai. The whole room was immaculate and well-ordered, reeking of that knife-in-the-nose raw spirits smell that Meisui had come to associate with Gouwen, so she threw the box at the back wall in frustration. It bounced and skidded back towards her, perfuming the air with a hint of orange peel. The door slammed shut behind Meisui as she stomped across the room.

"What is this? What kind of fucking snake game are you playing? Fucking shut yourself away like this and don't respond to, fuck me, a letter I wrote for you, but you send me this shit like it makes it any better? Like I want gifts instead of hanging out with the only person on this fucking mountain who isn't a bore? I guess it was all fake, th-"

Gouwen's face immediately coloured, and her eyes widened from her livid expression. "No!" she barked.

"Then what the fuck is going on? You've got to have a goddam good fucking reason, because I am at the end of my fucking rope!"

Gouwen closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Meisui could almost hear Gouwen cycling her qi. She spoke without opening her eyes.

"I have been attempting to provide recompense to you for your assistance with Lan Guo. Your incon-"

"Inconvenience? I didn't do it for you! I did it because that little shitweasel pissed me off. I want the truth."

Meisui watched Gouwen's mouth narrow into a hard line. Yes, she had done it for her, but right now she would rather rip her own scalp off than dangle from a snake's tail.

"So you bent Lan Guo in half in the middle of the East Hall for no reason other than he pissed you off? Are you that stupid?"

"Yeah! Stupid enough to think you'd want to hang out with me, I guess! What the fuck is your problem? Make up your fucking mind, in or out!"

"I'll make up my goddamn mind, Meisui, when you do too! Or did you honestly have no idea, parading around where you knew I would be able to see?"

"Parading around? So you've been sitting here, plotting and scheming and ignoring me just because I showed off?"

Gouwen stood up from behind her desk, vibrating with indignant wrath. She stalked over from behind her desk to get right up in Meisui's grill.

"You think it's easy? Being in my position? The moment I show weakness, I'm done. The others will pounce on me - my colleagues, foreigners, members of your own delegation. I'll be strung up as compromised, feeble, unable to-"

"Being seen with me is weakness? Are you that ashamed of some idiot monkey?"

Gouwen grit her teeth.

"No. You are not an idiot. The weakness lies with me. With my - with the-"

Meisui squinted at her in confusion.

"What? What the fuck is this? Why aren't you explaining? Why are you giving me the fucking run-around, Gouwen?"

Gouwen's face went red and strained, like the short woman was trying to puke up something bigger than her. Meisui arched one eyebrow, wondering what this was all abou-

---

"BECAUSE I WANT TO COURT YOU, YOU HEAVILY-MUSCLED IDIOT."

Meisui's arm shot out like a viper and thudded against the wall, her open palm snapping open into a heel-strike that made the ancient wooden pillar judder. Gouwen became terribly aware of just how large the other woman was, how her light-brown hair was cascading down into a curtain around her head, darkening her stern expression. Her voice was thick, deep, and rich. She was so tall.

"You can't play a game when the other person doesn't know the rules."

Gouwen felt her eyes become wide like lakes, like the most subtle and insidious poison was wracking her body. Her breathing was shallow, her pulse erratic, and her limbs refused to move. She felt like she was suffocating under the weight of the other woman's sheer presence. Perhaps, thought Gouwen, this was what prey animals felt like in the instant before the kill.

---

Chapter 5: Drop

Ling Qi sighed. She really was stubborn, trying to find a way to stick with her original plan even when it was no longer the best idea. It was just so frustrating to be thwarted by just the length of a fingernail.

"So… I think you are right Gan Guangli. Trying to hang onto the project itself when it has clearly fallen short is arrogant on my part. Maybe I could manage, with more experience, but it's just as likely to make the representatives see me as a stubborn child right now."

"I do not think your idea was poor… I am confident you could have pulled it off," Gan Guangli said.

"It would be a risky ploy, a gamble coming on the tail of another," Cai Renxiang said. "If you truly thought it best…"

"I don't. I merely needed a nudge to adjust my thinking. No, focusing on the success of resolving the working dispute and the cooperative patrols and such, that is a much better idea," Ling Qi said. "So, let me run a few approaches and you can tell me what you think…"


The meeting hall, Ling Qi thought, was at least the best work in the building. The fusion of styles was a little rough in places but largely worked to understanding of aesthetics. Carved wooden pillars lined the great hall rising toward the peaked roof to join the rafters. The columns themselves were carved with draconic imagery rising coils and grasping claws 'wrapped' around each pillar, finished and varnished in yellow and gold. The rafters bore the blocky geometric art of the Polar Nation, aglow with soft light from the formations worked into the wood. The high windows set in the halls walls were open, but filled with colored glass, each one depicting a historical scene alternating between the polities.

Though pointedly the two furthest to the rear had only plain glass. The floor was bare wood polished to a mirror shine. It was furnished with a single long table, heavy and solid, but the seating was split. On their end, individual chairs and seats, on the White Sky's end the long padded benches they seemed to prefer, with an exception for the larger seat at the table head.

A seat now occupied by Jaromila, arrayed in a pale sky blue dress lined with white fur, and a circlet of iron on her brow. Her husband stood behind her to the right, and on her left, one of the old Crow's stood, leaning on his stick. The other Emissaries were arrayed around her, Khadne and Dzintara on one side, Inzha and Rostam on the other. Dzintara was back in more formal robes, heavy furs about her shoulders and a dress that clacked with woven beads. The others had not changed their garb much.

The Imperial Side of things was a bit heavier. She and Gan Guangli flanked Lady Cai at her head seat. Meng Dan and his Uncle, Deming occupied the left side of the table. The older Meng looked like a sage out of a storybook with a wrinkled face, gray hair tied in a topknot and a long silvery beard that fell to his waist. He and Meng Dan wore loose robes in earthen tones. Luo Jie and Wang Lian were seated across from the Meng, and down from them was Cao Chun in his Ministry Black, a white porcelain mask over his face marked only by the painted third eye over his brow, the sign of his rank. Another masked agent stood at his back. The rest of the seats at the table were filled with aides and functionaries from both sides.

Well back from their table was seating for their ducal observers, the Bai and the Sun kept on opposite sides, with Xuan Shi and Zheng Fu in between them.

Cai Renxiang stood. Even this thing these opening words had required furious if brief negotiation. The order of speakers taking argument to settle. Ling Qi was glad she had spoken to Jaromila beforehand, letting them cooperate a little. The Imperial side saw the right to speak first as important, but the White Sky typically decided that by lottery in their 'things' when the point was in contention.

So Jaromila was able to 'concede' without losing face, and Ling Qi was able to 'win' the preliminary debate and satisfy some grumbling at no cost. It meant it was easier to negotiate alternating speakers after that too.

"Welcome, guests of the Empire, guests of the Emerald Seas. Though the way has been drought and turmoil boils on our doorsteps, I thank you all for coming here, staying here, and joining these talks. The clan of Cai looks forward to the success of these negotiations, and the coming peace between our peoples. I cede the floor now to the Baroness Ling, my Emissary."

Both titles, ordered deliberately. Every word was a step in a dance. Gestures, expressions, tone, so many vectors communicating so much information. Ling Qi smiled and stepped forward as Cai Renxiang sat down.

"It has been a pleasure, growing to know the representatives here, short though our time may have been, difficult as arranging things have been. When I first met Emissary Jaromila, the conditions were harsh indeed. One could not have blamed either of us for coming to blows then," Ling Qi said, she briefly lowered her chin toward Jaromila, but did not pause. "And yet, we did not. With chaos all around, with missiles and power flying, instead we spoke, in however halting a manner. Now we are here, having spoken much more, and with greater clarity, I am confident that we can continue this trend,"

Ling Qi let her gaze pan around the table not focusing on any one person but allowing the impression of meeting everyones eyes as she spoke. It was a bit bold for her, given the age and cultivation of many on her side, but her position heading this negotiation allowed it, if barely.

"There have been difficulties, been disagreements, even in our short time together so far. But we have proven that Jaromila and I are not the only ones capable of reconciliation. No dispute has risen above what words can solve. Even when blows were thrown, both peoples have been able to back down and cool our heads. We can do this. Achieve a lasting point of contact between our peoples and continue to resolve our disputes thusly, without the shedding of blood. It is my pleasure and honor to oversee this great undertaking, and to bring all of you here. Let us speak candidly with one another and establish a peace which will see to the prosperity of both of our peoples."

Ling Qi stepped back, and Jaromila rose, the glittering threads of her mantle winking under the light of the runes and characters from above.

"My counterparts words are both true and encouraging. The people of the White Sky have long been a land of crossroads. We finish the work of the harvesters in the west, we engineer the caravan trains which cross the western bogs, and we furnish the runed arms which gird the armies of the south. I do not yet know what we might do for you in the north, or what you may offer us in turn, but I do know that we may only benefit from finding out. Wherever humans gather, we quarrel and bicker, it is true, civilized men and women rise above their baser natures and accomplish much," Jaromila spoke in a firm and strident tone.

A pillar of iron girded in fractal frost, seeking to hold up the sky, an unbreakable face presented to the howling wind. An Iron spike driven into the cold earth, to seal the demons clawing up from beneath away.

The White Sky was difficult for her, there were a half dozen fuzzy images that she could not parse around the face Jaromila presented.

"What has been done thus far shows me there is much potential to be tapped, much to be built on the foundations we will lay here. I and the White Sky look forward to designing that together."

Jaromila curtseyed and retook her seat.

It was Cao Chun who rose next. Faceless, masked. Barely a silhouette in his black robes. Even his voice was a little distorted by the formations in the mask, rendering it unidentifiable and cold.

"This endeavor is ill precedented. It attempts something only managed in far distant isles where league upon league of the sea presents an unsurpassable barrier to ill intentions. The Wall is wide, but not that wide. But the south has ever been in turmoil. It's people cry for peace, freedom from slaving, rapacious tribes of the high peaks. Peace from burning fields and the sad ruin of family homes. Let it not be said that the throne is deaf to these cries. So let us speak then, and see if there is a solution to be found."

Cao Chun was shrouded to her, all but invisible to her senses, and yet…

Horror. A river filled with horrors. Broken bodies, broken minds, broken souls, the uncared for detritus of those who claimed to have a better way, who promised they were different. And yet the river was contained, held in the high banks of the weathered old levy so painstakingly built on its shore.

Well he was hardly hiding that.

He tilted his head in a tiny stiff bow, and took his seat. It was Inzha who rose next, her tall hat swaying and her veils fluttering with her breath.

"All well spoken. We are the caretakers of the land, custodians of the world given unto us by our makers. It seems to me that any blood we may shed between each other, would only see demons and starspawn laugh. Our people are far from one another, yet might not always be so. We must establish the tools of peace here and now, before they are more sorely needed. I have seen the works of our peoples and both have mastered the principles which underlie the world in much different ways. There is much to learn, if we may but find common ground."

Inzha was a cipher to her, a smiling woman speaking stridently for her people and cause and nothing more, only a slight impression of dancing numbers at the edge of her vision. Ling Qi's gaze strayed to her husband, stocky Rostam with his guileless smile and weird furry hat. He was no different from his wife. There was… the faint roll of drums if she listened very close.

Luo Jie stood next, the final speaker for the opening moments.

"The Lady Emissary has the right of it. Some complain say this is unnecessary. That we can ignore one another in splendid isolation," the old man in his wolfskin cloak was hunched, leaning upon his stick. "I say this, it is better to make your preparations in spring and summer and resist the urge to play, than to scramble for solutions when winter is biting at your heels. We are human, there will always be things to squabble over. Let us settle the matter now, and see that the other may keep their deals. The Clan's of the Emerald Seas stand with the south now. If there be a solution to their woes, a real one, then let us pursue it to the very end. If. This one will be pleased to be convinced."

Ancient hunter, canny and scarred, long lamed and slow in body for it. Nightmares killing venom flowing deep. Belief in a distant light, not yet fully faded.

"But words alone are not the solution here. Words are needed, oaths are needed, but it is deed and fulfilled contracts which make a foundation worth building on. If words alone are what comes of this, it will not be enough. So say the Clans of the Emerald Seas."

Ling Qi waited until the old man had completely settled in his seat again before stepping forward again to speak. "I thank everyone for their words. We will now bring the first day of talks to session. The First item on the agenda is the establishment of a court of arbitration which might solve disputes between our peoples. I cede speakership to my Lady Cai now, to put forth our proposals on the matter. We will proceed as we have begun alternating speakers to allow all the full time to express their wishes."

"A matter of grave importance like the foundations of the law that will govern our interactions must be examined from every angle, and every parties concerns must be heard and addressed," Cai Renxiang spoke, leaving Ling Qi to step back. She did not rise now, speaking from her seat. "The framework I would like to propose first is thus…"

Ling Qi kept an ear open, listening to the technical words of her liege. That was Cai Renxiang's battlefield, of paper, ink, advocates and magistrates. Hers was more much more personal. Everyone would take their turns here, but when a break was called for discussions, she had to choose who she would seek to influence.

Arc 1 of 12: Foundations of Law Begins.

Please Choose two groups whose favorability you will focus on for the following arc.

[ ] Emerald Seas Nobility
[ ] Ministry of Integrity
[ ] White Sky Confederation
[ ] Polar Theocracy