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

The pleasant cool of the manor was a comfort after dealing with the fires. While she could keep herself cool at all times and places with a mere cycling of cold qi, there was something to be said for the brisk, natural cool which the offices of the second floor of the Shenglu's manor offered, and the gentle, soothing sounds of falling water.

Her eyes roamed over the room thoughtfully. This was… her office. She could work wherever she liked, but this place was hers. It had the benefit of a balcony, looking out over the gardens through a curtain and falling icy water, but the interior was nothing special. A few shelves filled with reference books;each one a copy of a copy of a copy, churned out during the education of scribes in the capital. Her desk and furnishing were no different than any of the others though.

Maybe she should consider personalizing things a little. Cooler colors at least. She shook off the thought, and returned her attention to the forms on her desk. The shrine to winters, her tentative 'theater of frost' was nearing its first stage of completion. The bonfire sites had been cleared for congregation, the dirt packed flat and the supporting structures built. They were just waiting on some deliveries and then she would just have to consecrate the central shrine and determine who would be the acting priest when she and Hanyi were not here.

And she would have those chestnuts soon too. She could not believe the import route when through seven different baronies and three viscounties. No wonder the Empire was encouraging the cultivation of civil servants too. Mortal clerks would take ages to untangle that kind of mess.

…She was sure Renxiang would have taken a mere few minutes to arrange everything, but that was not the point, she thought a bit sourly.

But, she supposed it wasn't just getting back at her for maybe, sometimes, phrasing things to exasperate Renxiang on purpose. Her liege and friend did have a point. Just as it did no good to solve everything for their soldiers in an instant, it didn't help their burgeoning civil service is Cai Renxiang was the keystone of everyday operations.

The central granary even now having its newly built storerooms filled with foodstuffs, checked and marked and its distribution requests processed efficiently by their clerks. Cai Renxiang was quite satisfied with the Gold Autumn school by now. She had some plans for expanding their duties now, which might allow them to complete things with a bit less direct oversight.

The room darkened. Cold, oily tendrils of qi crept across her skin, made her throat constrict. Black, empty eyes crept into her sight, as hanging strands of twisting black hair tickled her neck.

She let out a breath, tilting her head up to look at Shu Yue, who stood behind her, leaned overtop her to look down from above.

"You do actually have to do that, don't you?" she griped, taking hold of her heart rate and slowing it down manually with a small fluctuation in her qi.

"Yes." Shu Yue said agreeably. Her office flickered and wavered, growing fuzzy before her eyes as her sometime tutor vanished, reappearing in front of her desk, long fingered pale hands steepled in front of their chest.

"I'm sorry Lin Hai had to go so soon," Ling Qi said. "Did you want me to send for anything?"

"The tides of fate carry us all into different times and places. We will meet again soon enough," Shu Yue said. "And you need not."

"As you like. I hope there's no emergency?"

"No, all is safe enough. I merely wish to speak of the future."

"Is this about my lessons? I understand I wasn't fit to practice."

"You were not. Though you have proven the resilience to keep yourself intact through many more lessons," Shu Yue said, their fingers dryly tapping against one another. They seemed pensive. And the silence between them stretched. Ling Qi could sense that they had more to say.

"You have impressed me. I deeply dislike what I asked of you. In truth I was uncertain if you would survive it."

Ling Qi inhaled deeply. "It was not a light thing to ask. But if I am not willing to put my life on the line for what I cultivate, the path to higher realms will never open, will it?"

Shu Yue's eyes did not contain pity or regret, only a teacher's satisfaction. "Yes. One who values their own existence more than any goal or ideal cannot tread in the realms of Sovereigns."

"That is not an easy thing for most people to do," Ling Qi said quietly.

"It is not a good thing for most people to do," Shu Yue replied gravely. "But your mind is tempered now, you have tasted obliteration, and remain on your Way. I do not doubt you will forge a true Name for yourself soon enough, should you weather this war."

"I'll take the encouragement," Ling Qi said. "My lessons?"

Shu Yue smiled thinly, the corners of their lips curling too far up toward their ears. "I shall have a lesson plan prepared by the time you begin your journey north. Call when you wish for it."

"I see," Ling Qi said. "Can I ask, have you looked into the caverns in the Cathedral of Winds at all? I intend to clear it out with some help soon. Anything you are willing to tell me would be appreciated."
"I am not to stunt your growth by removing trials within your capacity," Shu Yue mused, tilting their head in thought. "But, there is little need for further proving on such minor matters."

Ling Qi leaned forward in her seat.

"The preparations you and your former Sect sister have made are sufficient, if used wisely. The breach into the ith strata is sealable within your means," Shu Yue said thoughtfully. "The east facing branch of the cavern system from the green crystal chamber holds the primary breach."

Ling Qi took a deep breath. She hadn't even seen the caverns yet but that implied they were very extensive. "No more than that?"

"I will not eliminate the fun you wish to have with your friend. You have been looking forward to it, have you not?"

She supposed she had. The journey with Bao Qian had been fun, but she was looking forward to stretching her legs now that there were not any aches.

And… she hadn't really gone on an adventure with Suyin in some time. She wanted that kind of simplicity, at least once before she jumped back into the complexities her life now entailed. "I suppose I really have gotten too wrapped up in work."

"It is common. Your drive will only grow. You are suited to fighting for your diversions though, I think," Shu Yue said, voice pondering. "That niche will not easily be polished out of your way."

Ling Qi certainly hoped so. What she was building of herself… She wondered about it in her meditations now, as she grew toward the peak of the third realm. She could feel it in the way her qi grew now, in the certainty that shaped her channels. What was coming in her cultivation was final, in a way her old breakthroughs had not been. Every event and insight of the last hectic years coming together.

Ling Qi rested her chin on her hand, and Shu Yue was polite enough to remain silent as she gathered her thoughts. "May I ask what you are thinking of for my lessons?"

Shu Yue nodded, and she did her beast to ignore the unsettling crackling of shifting vertebrae. "There is a unique opportunity. You have mastered the maintenance of the self. If the General did not burn you away, only a clash with the most terrible lurkers of the liminal, or a failed invasion of a higher realms mind will break your self."

Tap tap went their fingers, the sound dry and papery.

"Or a moment of carelessness."

Ling Qi lowered her head in acknowledgement. There was always that.
"We focus then, on the outer expressions of the art. The faults and fissures and imperfections of identity. The ways in which it is worn away. The methods by which it is broken," their voice was low and cold. "This is the opportunity. You will walk in the Dream of Xiangmen with me, and together, we will look on what lingers there."

"You intend to take me where I promised not to walk during my last visit then?" Ling Qi asked.

"The roots would be a strong lesson," Shu Yue agreed. "You have seen the surface of it in your own life."

Ling Qi gave a small nod. The streets of Tonghou; privation, desperation, the wear it left on you, the crumbling of your boundaries. "You call it the surface only."

Shu Yue's smile was gone, their thin lips pressed in an unhappy line. "Yes. I would never have warned you away if it were only that. In the depths of the great tree, there were far greater horrors and nightmares. The whims of the liar lords, the dream makers, there in the dark, there was never any pretension that they were not absolute.That reality was not their clay to shape as they would. Even two hundred years and the scouring of Her radiance cannot remove that shadow."

Something about the way Shu Yue spoke sent a shiver up her spine, the whispers it sent clawing at her mind, like the whispering laughter and sobs of countless children, made her heart freeze in her chest more than any encounter with a winter spirit.

"There, you would learn of the tools which abrade a person down to their least selves," Shu Yue said. "You have learned to walk in the mind, in the personal Dream of a cultivator. Here you would learn to hurt, with the deliberation of a surgeon's scalpel."

"It will not be a kind lesson."

She swallowed. "You said it would be a strong lesson. Is it not you're plan?"

The corner's of her tutor's lips curled back up. "It is a choice. There is another lesson. You have seen her. The vortice in the canopy. The Empty Ascension. The Palace of One. She whose dream was never shared, the throne of ideals. You have floated in her orbit. I would take you deeper. To know the terrible, scouring fire that is hope. To know how minds may bend toward a distant and unreachable dream. And how these things may be turned. How they may be broken and twisted, the lesson the descendants took from her. This would be another lesson of sight. But as befitting the coming war, it too is a lesson of hurt, if one lesser than the roots."

"There are no lessons from those days that are not, are there?" Ling Qi asked.

"If there were, My Master, nor I would be what we are," Shu Yue said simply. "Which lesson shall I prepare?"

[ ] The lesson of the roots
[ ] the lesson of the palace

And to let all you thread readers know too, the long publishing gap is coming to a close. Book three of threads of Destiny is now available in E-book and Audiobook for preorder, and will release tomorrow!

Enjoy the better edited and touched up narrative of the perilous journey through the wall and the meeting with the White Sky as well as a touch of new and exclusive content too. Pick it up here!

Threads Volume 3!