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

"...continue refining your voice and your song composition," Ling Qi thoughtfully. "There were moments when your tone wavered, and where the arrangement became a little rough. Your presence is good, but in that you mostly need to coordinate your supports better."

"Oh, I guess I'll have to work those girls harder," Hanyi said rubbing her chin.

Ling Qi flicked her across the forehead. Hanyi yelped, covering her head with her hands and looking up in betrayal.

"Practice is coordination is important, but only bad leaders put all the blame on their subordinates for group shortcomings," Ling Qi scolded gently.

"Ooookay," Hanyi huffed.

"I will keep an eye and giving management advice," Bao Qian said, leaning against the wall with a chuckle. "If lady Ling allows."

"I do. Please keep the young miss on task, Sir Bao," she said primly. She had to hide her grin at Hanyi's comically crestfallen expression.

In her arms, Biyu reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "Its okay! You're good!"

"Of course I am," Hanyi sniffed.

"Your performance was excellent. That you still choose to ask advice even with your skill is worthy," mother said quietly. She still lurked near the back of the room by the door. Ling Qi knew her mother still found Hanyi a little unsettling.

"I don't need to be babied," she pouted. "I asked for advice, didn't I? I get it big Sis, a boss will get lazy if they can just push everything off on the ones below them. I won't be like that!. I'll whip us all into shape!"

"I have great faith in the young miss," bao Qian chuckled.

She squinted up at him and jabbed a finger out. "You better!"

"Thank you Bao Qian," Ling agreed, straightening up, maneuvering Biyu to rest in the crook of her arm as the little girl yawned.

"You are welcome," he said. "Also, if it pleases you, I think I have found a good location for the expedition we discussed."

"The spirit recruiting?" Ling Qi asked?

"I don't need a group," Hanyi huffed. "But I guess you need some girls to hold things up in the boring seasons."

Ling Qi chuckled indulgently.

"Yes. It's on the edge of the western wilderness zone, Fantasia, as the locals call it," Bao Qian said, stroking his chin. "But there is a potent court of seasonal spirits there… it's a bit wild, but I don't think you would mind that."

She'd heard of Fantasia, the zone within the Meng lands fully under the sway of the dreaming moon, her patron uninhabited by humans. So something near to that might be quite beneficial to her too, given she'd not communed much since the nightmare. "Certainly. If you have the permissions, I'll accompany you."

"Good, good. I've arranged something for the end of the tour… First spring, around the seventeenth day?"

First spring… the second month of the year. She'd be done with her business in Xiangmen by then even if it ran long. "I'll see you there. Until then, do keep my junior sister on task."

"Big Siiiiis…"

It was a good night, and a good morning. Time spent in the company of her family, steeled her spirit for what was to come. The interplay of provincial politics, the dizzying spectacle of Xiangmen at its most extravagant… the raw pressure of being near the Duchess. All of these things lay ahead of her, but still far away as her private Cai provided carriage rolled away from the Shan viscounty and her sister and mother split off to the south.

The ride alone was much less enjoyable, though it was good to restrict her senses and sink deeply into cultivation while the first day went by. She would be back with her liege, Xia Lin, Gan Guangli, and Sixiang in the afternoon of the second day

The driver had been well compensated to keep up the pace full through the night, so that she would be in place at the right time. Which was why she found herself stirring in surprise as she felt the carriage decelerate and roll to a stop.

She cracked an eye open and extended her senses. Soldiers outside. Clattering metal, men and women on frantic patrol, a checkpoint on the road in hastily arranged defensive formations.

And distantly, the oily qi of old blood and rot.

"Lady Ling, you are requested outside," her driver called out, voice filled with concern.

She understood, even if the soldiers themselves didn't worry her… much. Old fears didn't disappear easily. They wore Diao regalia as they'd crossed back into the central valley some hours ago.

"I will be out in a moment," she called back, unfolding her legs and standing up. The air was… foggy here, hard to see and sense. The mass of voices still whispered, but it was muted and filled with a… static to her senses.

She understood as she stepped outside, and got proper sight on her surroundings. The air in the north was filled with streamers of oily black smoke and the smell of burning impurity. It came from beyond the road, beyond the low walls of the settlement here, off the main thoroughfare.

"Noble Lady, this humble soldier apologizes deeply for obstructing your path."

The man who spoke, stepping out from the hastily raised wall of cultivator sculpted stone and woven live root gates was an old man, with more gray than black in his short beard. She noted the marks of rank on his armor, the pale rose colored plume on his helm and the strips of green jade set in the metal.

He was third realm himself, her superior even, the deep well of his qi solid and set at the peak of the realm. Yet, still he bowed as if she were his better, fists clasped before his chest

"I will never chide a man for doing his rightful duty," Ling Qi said. "What tragedy has struck so deep in the central valley?"

"This one must unfortunately ask that the Lady provide her credentials before he speaks further."

Now that was interesting… and quite rude by normal standards. Theoretically she could very easily bring a complaint to the Diao for being disrespected by a common soldier like this, no matter how veteran. And she saw the way the tension rose with his men as he spoke those words.

But she could also see he would be totally unwavering in this. She gestured to her driver, he climbed down from his seat, sweat on his brow as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. He handed her the bundle of papers from his bag which indicated their travel plans… a formality under most circumstances, just a way of providing records for the toll gates on the roads between fiefdoms.

But she did observe the soldier's shoulders loosen a fraction as he scanned the seal of the Ministry of Commerce, and then waved the wooden confirmation talisman over the formation mark on the form and received a positive pulse from the device.

It was, she admitted, a little gratifying that when he looked up there was recognition in his eyes now.

"Lady Ling, thank you for your kind cooperation in these troubled times."

"It is nothing," Ling Qi replied, taking her papers back, and passing them to her driver. "But what trouble could cause this? I see the taint of ith weapons in the air, but what brings this blockade?"

"Lady Ling's eyes are sharp. Yesterday there were over a score of attacks in the lands of the Diao, smaller in scale than what you foiled, the corpse eaters wield the most vile of miasma and poisons. We have had to quarantine this village until a physician of higher realm can be dispatched to ensure no plague spreads from here. Hence all main roads through the Diao lands have been placed under observation."

"I see," Ling Qi said woodenly. She couldn't help it. Her gaze flicked toward the village, seeming so ominous in its quiet darkness now.

She knew she really shouldn't have looked closer, but she did anyway.

Pain choked the streets of the village, painted on the walls, floating free in the air. It was like a miasma itself, uncertainty and anxiety and the pain of constricting throats and heaving lungs, the feeling of choking on your own swollen tongue.

The voices she had felt from with its walls were more soldiers themself, encased in sealing formations etched into their armor that lit them aflame, tongues of pale yellow purifying fire cooking the air outside of their armor.

The pit for bodies was far on the other side of the settlement. Only the manor house was still lively, the remaining people of the village sequestered there.

…and even then many of those were breathing fitfully and poorly tended by only a handful of exhausted medical apprentices and alchemists.

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath, pulling her senses back from the quarantined town.

"But that isn't enough reason to close down the road to passerby fully, and I notice you have not waved me through," Ling Qi said, with a calm she did not quite feel. She scanned her gaze over all of them. The hands tight grip on weapons, the anxiety which wafted off the oldest men and infected the younger.

"You believe the attacks were delivered through saboteurs on the surface?"

The old soldier standing before her straightened up, and nodded once tersely. "That is what the divinations indicate. The sewers and mines have been well watched. Our enemies came through on the surface, which means…"

"Disguise and infiltration techniques," Ling Qi said. "I'm being scanned right now, aren't I?'

The tingle was incredibly subtle. She could barely hear the grumbling voice of the talisman array, back behind the checkpoint.

"The Diao clan has implemented Hui hunting protocols. I will have to ask that Miss Ling wait thirty minutes for the Shadow Shredding Oracle formation to complete its scan. I apologize for the inconvenience," the man said, bowing again. "I will be able to mark you as allowed to travel then."

"I understand," Ling Qi said. "Will I be expected to wait in my carriage, or remain under your eyes?"

"You may wait in your carriage if you like, Lady Ling," he said, and there was something stiff and bitter in his voice.

His eyes hadn't caught the one who had done this after all. His eyes weren't keen enough. This was his home.

Feeling those roots stretching into the earth, it was no wonder that this man was like this.

She lowered her head and clapped her hands before her chest. "Of course, my sympathies for this awful attack. Is there anything I may do, Sir…"

"Captain Huo Gen, Lady Ling," he replied. "I cannot accept any aid or disturbance of the site before the formation has finished its work."

She nodded. "...If I have any words which I can share from my carriage, after the scan is complete?"

"The advice of the young hero of the south would be welcome, and this one would pass it along to his superiors," Huo Gen said. "Though I must insist against any active use of qi."

"Of course," Ling Qi said. "Should I find anything useful to you in my cultivation I will pass it along. NowWill you instruct my driver on where to shift the carriage?"

He nodded, turning to the man as she turned and mounted the steps back up inside of her carriage.

Honestly, she didn't know exactly what she could do that would be helpful, as she folded her legs upon the bench and closed her eyes,m immersing herself once again in the voices of the world around her.

She could…

[ ] Listen for the ultimate source of the pain in the world nearby, try to find the whispers left in the environment by what began all of this.

[ ] She would listen for disruptions beyond the walls, beyond the people, discerning if there might be a trail for one stained with malice escaping the pain they had made.