Year 45 Month 11 Arc 2-4
"There are arguments for both. If things between the Empire and the White Sky develop how we hope, the river route may become very important, but as things are, with all goods flowing in and against the stream rather than out, it is not….. Urgent. Particularly upriver."
"Yes, best case we are some years from making use of that," Gan Guangli said, rubbing his chin.
"There is also the effect on Snowblossom lake's personality, if she takes those wild rivers into her being," Ling Qi said.
Meng Duyi grunted in approval. Had he left that out to test her?
"Mmm, Gui thinks it would be okay if Miss Snowblossom was more energetic, Sister or Gui could calm her down."
"Her serene elegance is fine as it is, so says, I, Zhen."
They stared each other down in her arms. An actual spark cracked off and landed on Qiyi, earning them each the sharp slap of a sprouting ribbon.
"Rude!" Zhen Declared, glaring at her dress.
"Maybe silk sister is feisty enough for everyone," Gui grumbled.
Bad. No yell. Be good brother.
"It might not be a huge effect, but I think I prefer the curiosity and friendliness at the center of the town, to a colder and more distant regard, let alone, any wildness that may emerge from the river's inclusion." Ling Qi said thoughtfully, resting a hand on Zhengui's back. "And even with our fast rate of expansion. Shenglu will bt the center for a long time. Even when it begins to find its own feet, it will be sending resources to the newer and smaller settlements we build."
"A fair point," Gan Guangli said. "More work later pehaps, but it will be more work with a better foundation behind it."
"Agreed," Cai Renxiang said. "What are our next steps then?"
"Well, if we are to follow the tutelary route, then I would begin things thus…" Meng Duyi replied, passing his hands over the table, some fluttered away, folding or rolling up on their own, and others were tugged free of piles or laid out, without any hands touch.
Ling Qi leaned forward, looking with interest. She was excited to see what would come out of these talks.
And the waters whispered as the small flat bottomed barge Ling Qi stood on slid out from the docks cutting through the clean blue waters with only a slight ripple. The boat was, naturally, qi powered. Pushing forward from the strength her spirit alone.
In the end, they had decided to blend the plans, the temple would be a series of docks, leading into a shrine surrounding an artificial inlet, but for great ceremonies, there were would be shrine ship, a humble flat bottomed barge for now, something more splendid later.
It was fine. She could add decor and elegance on her own, until their craftsmen had time to catch up. Ice bloomed along the sides the barge, patterns like rippling water and darting fish spread across the wood, some painted and carved, others a glittering mix of ice and dream, and behind her, under a a pavillion covering was an altar, on carved from rich qi rich wood, and the other cut from stone. One to remain here, one to be sunk to the lake bottom, a mirror on the surface and at the bed for great ceremonies such as this.
Today there were only two others with her, young graduates of the Gold Autumn school specialized in spiritual affairs, they were only first realms, but they had endured the longest in the cloying pressure of her Mist, and so they were to be the first dedicated priests of the Snowblossom lake. They would be responsible for the day to day duties and upkeep of the shrine, and so they would come with her today, to experience the god they would mediate for in person.
She would have to keep them safe, Snowblossom wouldn't mean to hurt them, but like a child with a porcelain doll, she very easily could.
They were both dressed in robes that took on hues of blue, layered and embroidered to resemble gentle ripples and flowing currents, Plain for now to allow addition or adjustment later. Each bore a treated wooden torch in one hand, held on the side facing the outer edge of the boat. The reagents applied to the burning ends made the torches burn a pale and ghostly blue. Both were young men, which was to say only three or five years her senior. They were putting on brave faces.
Especially as distance began to stretch, as the sight of the swarm of flickering firefly lights began to distort and dance behind them, the shore seeming to grow further away far faster than their boat was moving. The air rippled, and Ling Qi tasted lakewater on her tongue. Her qi flared, and she wrapped their little boat in her own spirit as easily as breathing. Carefully balanced, not to challenge or push against the powerful spirit, a net to filter not a blade to strike or a shield to defy.
And so when the world rippled and they sailed on now through rippling lakewater, through a copse of water weed whose strands stretched far out of sight above and below, her companions did not drown, though the both of them shivered, no doubt tasting cold moisture in the dense and cloying air that was left inside the thin veil she had made. Their boat sailed on, a tiny marble of pale mist in the depths of the lake.
But the torches burned brightly, reflecting off the scales of vast schools of fish that drifted, cloudlike through their surroundings.
"O great lake, daughter of the distant glacier, for whom ice itself blooms. Who has accepted the name Snowblossom, as spoken in mortal tongues." Ling Qi began, drawing on her own qi to draw attention, limning herself in silvery radiance. She gazed up into the dark and serene waters around them, and felt something stirring. "Who has generously slaked our thirst and fed our bellies. We the people of your shore come to you now to speak and to know."
Eyes opened in the vastness of the waters that surrounded them. Humanlike ones, shot through with frozen blue light and formed from cloudy silt churned from the lakebottom, fishlike black ones yawning like voids into the abyss, slitted reptilian pupils, fractal crystals of light…
And even this was only her own minds conception of Snowblossom's attention, her own growth in clarity rending the presence more alien than less as she was able to see a little more of the inhuman vastness of the being before her…
And it was her effort, which wove the terrifying, all surrounding attention into something else for her companions. Because int the end, the rawest form of truth was not always the best. To them, there was a single pair of great eyes in the darkness, formed from pale blue waters shot through with fading sunlight, human in shape, with throngs schools of glittering fish for irises, and glowing flames reflecting their torches for pupils.
And something like the lines of a feminine face in the currents around them. And just as she translated the lakes attention for her companions, so too did her spirit whisper back to Snowblossom as a conduit, of the vision, of what humans found fair or foul, awesome or terrifying.
Countless eyes shifted and flowed, merged and split around her, and the two she translated for their companions sparkled with the curiosity that fell on Ling qi as a prickling, probing weight.
Why come little swimmers fish are plenty, waters cool, mortal whispers pon the shore, winter winter comes, do not little hands need dig burrows, seal larders, prepare to sleep, or fly fly away to warmer winds?
Ling Qi felt her temple's throb, a vein pulsing under her skin as she worked to translate the crush of information down into something so clear. She saw images of men on flying horses flying away, of people digging little holes and building up huts of turf and grass and wandering away to follow herds in later days, of shining fish and rippling waters, temperatures and quantities and countless years swimming by at speeds that made her mind ache.
+2 Clarity XP
"To give our thanks for your benevolence, and to deepen our relationship, to offer you gifts and sovereignty, intertwined with the young prince of the High Garden. We will not come or go, most of us. Your shore our home, through all the passing years."
She was, still a little uncomfortable with that but Zhengui wasn't exactly opposed putting it lightly.
Good humor, amusement, the rates of rainfall and condensation, and observed fertility of the soil for the past six thousand years crammed into her too small mind. It was less than the last deluge of information, and most had to merely be flushed away before she could properly comprehend it, lest she be erased by it.
She snapped her fingers, and the two men behind her stepped forward, the clank of heavy chains breaking the physical silence as the iron chest held between them was lowered to the floor and opened. Its contents were small treasures, the works of the people upon the shore, meticulously gathered from each household in offering, atop of a bed of richer reagents brought in by Cai Renxiang herself, potent qi charged clay and vials of rich waters from the most fertile regions of the empire, representations of every component of the lakes qi.
"For your great generosity so far," Ling Qi said. "We would keep our relationship for you, in perpetuity. To have your blessings as the great lady and goddess of Shenglu and its surroundings."
Seeking? Health, prosperity, fullnesstravelbeautyreagentscultivation
She grimaced, processing down the glut of angles and offers while maintaining her concentration on the technique which kept Snowblossoms curious probing and prodding at them all from bruising flesh and breaking meridians, kept the pressure from crushing lungs flat.
"Your blessings and power are many," Ling Qi said, steadying herself, tendrils of water washed over her feet, and she could feel Qiyi's rapt attention on them as they slithering to grasp at objects, and the chest as a whole, it trattled and bumped, things taken one by one sparkling down into the depths. They had discussed what to ask of the spirit, all of them, and decided that what was most important was…
[ ] Quantity of fishing (Ag. Production increase)
[ ] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
[ ] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)
[ ] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
[ ] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)
[ ] Blessings of Defense (Integrates Snowblossom into city defense arrays, Increased Defense, Expansion more difficult, potency increased while Snowblossom satisfied.)
Each voter should select three options, no plan voting required, the three winners will be your active blessings with potency in order of their number of votes. That is the blessing with the most votes will be primary, the second most secondary, and the third tertiary.
"Yes, best case we are some years from making use of that," Gan Guangli said, rubbing his chin.
"There is also the effect on Snowblossom lake's personality, if she takes those wild rivers into her being," Ling Qi said.
Meng Duyi grunted in approval. Had he left that out to test her?
"Mmm, Gui thinks it would be okay if Miss Snowblossom was more energetic, Sister or Gui could calm her down."
"Her serene elegance is fine as it is, so says, I, Zhen."
They stared each other down in her arms. An actual spark cracked off and landed on Qiyi, earning them each the sharp slap of a sprouting ribbon.
"Rude!" Zhen Declared, glaring at her dress.
"Maybe silk sister is feisty enough for everyone," Gui grumbled.
Bad. No yell. Be good brother.
"It might not be a huge effect, but I think I prefer the curiosity and friendliness at the center of the town, to a colder and more distant regard, let alone, any wildness that may emerge from the river's inclusion." Ling Qi said thoughtfully, resting a hand on Zhengui's back. "And even with our fast rate of expansion. Shenglu will bt the center for a long time. Even when it begins to find its own feet, it will be sending resources to the newer and smaller settlements we build."
"A fair point," Gan Guangli said. "More work later pehaps, but it will be more work with a better foundation behind it."
"Agreed," Cai Renxiang said. "What are our next steps then?"
"Well, if we are to follow the tutelary route, then I would begin things thus…" Meng Duyi replied, passing his hands over the table, some fluttered away, folding or rolling up on their own, and others were tugged free of piles or laid out, without any hands touch.
Ling Qi leaned forward, looking with interest. She was excited to see what would come out of these talks.
***
The lights on the shore of Shenglu glittered in the dusktime mist like a swarm of fireflies, and their reflection danced on the serene surface of the lake. The Mist billowed out from the waterfall and the city center alike, shrouding the shore and etending its fingers out over the lake. The Sun rested on the horizon, dull and red, and the moon hung in the sky, full and heavy, its silvery surface twinned out in the lkes center.And the waters whispered as the small flat bottomed barge Ling Qi stood on slid out from the docks cutting through the clean blue waters with only a slight ripple. The boat was, naturally, qi powered. Pushing forward from the strength her spirit alone.
In the end, they had decided to blend the plans, the temple would be a series of docks, leading into a shrine surrounding an artificial inlet, but for great ceremonies, there were would be shrine ship, a humble flat bottomed barge for now, something more splendid later.
It was fine. She could add decor and elegance on her own, until their craftsmen had time to catch up. Ice bloomed along the sides the barge, patterns like rippling water and darting fish spread across the wood, some painted and carved, others a glittering mix of ice and dream, and behind her, under a a pavillion covering was an altar, on carved from rich qi rich wood, and the other cut from stone. One to remain here, one to be sunk to the lake bottom, a mirror on the surface and at the bed for great ceremonies such as this.
Today there were only two others with her, young graduates of the Gold Autumn school specialized in spiritual affairs, they were only first realms, but they had endured the longest in the cloying pressure of her Mist, and so they were to be the first dedicated priests of the Snowblossom lake. They would be responsible for the day to day duties and upkeep of the shrine, and so they would come with her today, to experience the god they would mediate for in person.
She would have to keep them safe, Snowblossom wouldn't mean to hurt them, but like a child with a porcelain doll, she very easily could.
They were both dressed in robes that took on hues of blue, layered and embroidered to resemble gentle ripples and flowing currents, Plain for now to allow addition or adjustment later. Each bore a treated wooden torch in one hand, held on the side facing the outer edge of the boat. The reagents applied to the burning ends made the torches burn a pale and ghostly blue. Both were young men, which was to say only three or five years her senior. They were putting on brave faces.
Especially as distance began to stretch, as the sight of the swarm of flickering firefly lights began to distort and dance behind them, the shore seeming to grow further away far faster than their boat was moving. The air rippled, and Ling Qi tasted lakewater on her tongue. Her qi flared, and she wrapped their little boat in her own spirit as easily as breathing. Carefully balanced, not to challenge or push against the powerful spirit, a net to filter not a blade to strike or a shield to defy.
And so when the world rippled and they sailed on now through rippling lakewater, through a copse of water weed whose strands stretched far out of sight above and below, her companions did not drown, though the both of them shivered, no doubt tasting cold moisture in the dense and cloying air that was left inside the thin veil she had made. Their boat sailed on, a tiny marble of pale mist in the depths of the lake.
But the torches burned brightly, reflecting off the scales of vast schools of fish that drifted, cloudlike through their surroundings.
"O great lake, daughter of the distant glacier, for whom ice itself blooms. Who has accepted the name Snowblossom, as spoken in mortal tongues." Ling Qi began, drawing on her own qi to draw attention, limning herself in silvery radiance. She gazed up into the dark and serene waters around them, and felt something stirring. "Who has generously slaked our thirst and fed our bellies. We the people of your shore come to you now to speak and to know."
Eyes opened in the vastness of the waters that surrounded them. Humanlike ones, shot through with frozen blue light and formed from cloudy silt churned from the lakebottom, fishlike black ones yawning like voids into the abyss, slitted reptilian pupils, fractal crystals of light…
And even this was only her own minds conception of Snowblossom's attention, her own growth in clarity rending the presence more alien than less as she was able to see a little more of the inhuman vastness of the being before her…
And it was her effort, which wove the terrifying, all surrounding attention into something else for her companions. Because int the end, the rawest form of truth was not always the best. To them, there was a single pair of great eyes in the darkness, formed from pale blue waters shot through with fading sunlight, human in shape, with throngs schools of glittering fish for irises, and glowing flames reflecting their torches for pupils.
And something like the lines of a feminine face in the currents around them. And just as she translated the lakes attention for her companions, so too did her spirit whisper back to Snowblossom as a conduit, of the vision, of what humans found fair or foul, awesome or terrifying.
Countless eyes shifted and flowed, merged and split around her, and the two she translated for their companions sparkled with the curiosity that fell on Ling qi as a prickling, probing weight.
Why come little swimmers fish are plenty, waters cool, mortal whispers pon the shore, winter winter comes, do not little hands need dig burrows, seal larders, prepare to sleep, or fly fly away to warmer winds?
Ling Qi felt her temple's throb, a vein pulsing under her skin as she worked to translate the crush of information down into something so clear. She saw images of men on flying horses flying away, of people digging little holes and building up huts of turf and grass and wandering away to follow herds in later days, of shining fish and rippling waters, temperatures and quantities and countless years swimming by at speeds that made her mind ache.
+2 Clarity XP
"To give our thanks for your benevolence, and to deepen our relationship, to offer you gifts and sovereignty, intertwined with the young prince of the High Garden. We will not come or go, most of us. Your shore our home, through all the passing years."
She was, still a little uncomfortable with that but Zhengui wasn't exactly opposed putting it lightly.
Good humor, amusement, the rates of rainfall and condensation, and observed fertility of the soil for the past six thousand years crammed into her too small mind. It was less than the last deluge of information, and most had to merely be flushed away before she could properly comprehend it, lest she be erased by it.
She snapped her fingers, and the two men behind her stepped forward, the clank of heavy chains breaking the physical silence as the iron chest held between them was lowered to the floor and opened. Its contents were small treasures, the works of the people upon the shore, meticulously gathered from each household in offering, atop of a bed of richer reagents brought in by Cai Renxiang herself, potent qi charged clay and vials of rich waters from the most fertile regions of the empire, representations of every component of the lakes qi.
"For your great generosity so far," Ling Qi said. "We would keep our relationship for you, in perpetuity. To have your blessings as the great lady and goddess of Shenglu and its surroundings."
Seeking? Health, prosperity, fullnesstravelbeautyreagentscultivation
She grimaced, processing down the glut of angles and offers while maintaining her concentration on the technique which kept Snowblossoms curious probing and prodding at them all from bruising flesh and breaking meridians, kept the pressure from crushing lungs flat.
"Your blessings and power are many," Ling Qi said, steadying herself, tendrils of water washed over her feet, and she could feel Qiyi's rapt attention on them as they slithering to grasp at objects, and the chest as a whole, it trattled and bumped, things taken one by one sparkling down into the depths. They had discussed what to ask of the spirit, all of them, and decided that what was most important was…
[ ] Quantity of fishing (Ag. Production increase)
[ ] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
[ ] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)
[ ] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
[ ] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)
[ ] Blessings of Defense (Integrates Snowblossom into city defense arrays, Increased Defense, Expansion more difficult, potency increased while Snowblossom satisfied.)
Each voter should select three options, no plan voting required, the three winners will be your active blessings with potency in order of their number of votes. That is the blessing with the most votes will be primary, the second most secondary, and the third tertiary.
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