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

It was such a heady time to be alive!

Astronomer Wu, strode the through halls of the observatory, with a nearly untoward amount of pep in his step, as he had since the Summit had come to a close and restored his optimism that all of that traitor awfulness was behind them and a new era of astronomical research was at hand.

Here Imperial scholars and foreign ones walked and learned side by side, trading ideas and spreading knowledge. Excellent indeed!

He was very happy that the foreigners wore more civilized outfits than that elderly fellow he'd spoken too though. Honestly the scent of leather and furs had always irritated his nose. One reason among many he'd been eager to leave his clan fief for an education in the capital. The fellows here were mostly smooth faced young men, who might have passed well among the exam schools, if not for the strange shape of their eyes and ghostly complexions.

Well, there were a few very hairy fellows, but he didn't mind that so much.

He passed through the doors of the top telescope room, hissing softly open as they opened releasing the sealed and pressurized air inside.

"Astronomer Syzmon," he greeted, clasping his hands and bowing to his foreign colleague."

"Astronomer Wu," Syzmon returned, bowing before extending his hand. He was one of those hairy fellows, looking a bit like a lion with a wild mane of yellow-brown hair and whiskers atop his broad shoulders… though he was rather short, coming only up to Wu's shoulder in height.

He extended his hand, clasping arms in the foreigners' own greeting. Quite aside from all the arguing in the halls below over etiquette the academics here had swiftly decided to merely perform both greetings.

"I hope your time slot has been fruitful," he offered. "Anything of interest in the phenomena you were studying?"

It was a bit painful to say he'd forgotten what Syzmon was working on. There were several cliques based on sphere's of interest forming, with surprising crossovers between the groups. Ah, he really did need to be better at connecting these things as he was the de facto director here.

"I am fascinated by these layers of 'Upper Heaven'. It is fascinating to see the Gods building their Solar Bulwarks so directly," Syzmon said, chortling. "Hah! I would worry I might be struck down for the blasphemy of observing His secrets if I didn't know better."

"Yes, well if the divine didn't wish us to learn, they'd not have granted us eyes to see and minds to think," Wu replied. He wasn't particularly religious himself.

"Haha, you sound like a crowbrother, Astronomer Wu, but true, true enough. I was able to observe some particularly clear energy reactions between the Outer Bulwark and the inner, forming more of these inner layers of atmospheric protection absent nearer the gate today. Particularly the formation and dissolution of this 'Adamant Filter' along its edges…"

He politely let his colleague continue, slotting him in among the second group of research interests in his thoughts. The first was, perhaps arrogantly, his own. Those interested in studying the southern daemon lights and the emanations of these 'gates'. There were only a few foreigners among them. All rather radical types he gathered.

The second were like Syzmon, southerns fascinated by the more structured and delineated layers of the heavenly sphere in the north, with a few imperial scholars in their number fascinated by the idea of things that may have been taken for granted in the Empire's long established observations of the spheres.

There were other minor camps, mostly overlapping but focused on one particular detail. Like Syzmon and his fascination with the manner in which the Adamant Filter operated, removing the warping impurities of the cosmic energies which radiated through it.

"Oh, yes, it's been observed many times that the Filter is the quickest of the upper heavens to degrade, reacting in mortal perceivable timescales to the impurities and toxins it blocks. The cycles of energy which rebuild it every day, have inspired several construction focused Sovereign Ways over the millenia," Wu replied cheerfully. It wasn;t his focus. "But you say you have discerned the latitude where it physically ends? I've noted where it begins to diffuse, but…"

"Oh yes, some five degrees south of here I would say, you're right that it begins to diffuse further north, but the overall structure does not lose cohesion until that point. It seems that the builders of the heavens can only hold back the daemons here, rather than advancing, though I did observe some wavering too and fro."

"Oh? How much… no I suppose attempting to measure spatial distance that high in the sphere would be futile," Wu said rubbing his chin.

Syzmon nodded melancholically. "It is! I took great pains to quantify the fluctuation but I am afraid I will need more observation time after I've meditated upon my data."

"Well, worry not Astronomer Syzmon," Qu said sympathetically. "With the current staff, your turn will come around again in a month or so."

"There are benefits to a newly established site," he foreign colleague agreed. "But don't let me keep you much longer. Your own slot will start soon! You were working on the…"
Syzmon trailed off, and Wu's smile became a little strained. "The origin and structure of the southern gate emanations. It is fascinating to dissect the observed wave patterns and map their fluctuation."

Syzmon made an odd little sign with his hand and grimaced. "...Well It might be. But take care no good comes from delving too deep into those things. There are useful studies to be done on the fallout and refraction effects of the emanation…"

Some of his colleagues were very cagey about this, and no one would give him any exact data. Even those studying the effects of the interactions like him warned him off delving more deeply into the source.

"Well of course. I suspect there might be some crossover," he rallied regardless. "It seems unlikely to me that the diffusion of the filter and these star-like emanations are unrelated."

"Aha, I suppose that is so. While the lights don't reach so far, I did detect some particulates and motes of that chaotic light among the upper spheres in my study," Syzmon agreed, seeming relieved by the subject change himself. "Though the scale…"

"Far exceeds any recorded effects of stellar qi in our archives," Wu replied excitedly. "Is it the same for you, who have not the benefit of the filter?"

Syzmon grimaced. "The Long Night is… well I do not know if I should speak of it. But outside the cities, outside the warmth of the sun's blood, things do… break apart, nearer the Gates."

Astronomer Wu's eyes flashed with excitement but even he could sense Syzmon did not wish to talk about this anymore. "Interesting! Well, perhaps we might help each other. Studying the interplay of the abnormal stellar energies with the Adamant Filters trailing edge might be quite a project?"

Ah, there was the temptation which drew the imagination of an academic mind! He'd crack through some of these fellows yet.

"I will think about it, friend. Just… be cautious in your observations."

Astronomer Wu chuckled and shook his head as the man left, the doors closing and pressurizing behind him. The formations began to scrub the air of the minor impurities that had flowed in as Wu himself approached the telescope chair. As if he was not doing so. Talisman's activated across his body, further shielding woven into his heavy winter robes settling in with a sigh of displaced air.

And he settled in, to cast his gaze into the depths of the warping colors from beyond the gate, to seek the patterns beyond mortal sight.