"Where in the world did all of this come from?" Ling Qi asked quietly as she strode along behind Cai Renxiang and beside Gan Guangli.
The empty fields to the north of the tournament grounds had transformed since she had last seen them. During her brief stint as a cleaner, she hadn't given them much mind, besides thinking it odd that so much cleared land wasn't being put to use. Now though, they were crowded with structures and people.
Brightly colored pavilions and waving pennants, bearing symbols and characters declaring allegiance to dozens of clans stood side by side with palatial structures which seemed to have sprung up overnight.
"The tournament and the surrounding events will consume an entire week, it is only natural that the nobility coming to observe display their wealth and status in their lodgings," Cai Renxiang replied without turning around.
"I was not really referring to that," Ling Qi replied with a frown, peering up at a towering structure, more castle than palace, bearing the colors of the Xuan, visible over the roofs of the other buildings. "Is it really so easy to build such things, so quickly? From what you have given me to study, isn't establishing settlements supposed to be difficult?"
"You are correct Miss Ling," Gan Guangli said, even his booming voice vanishing into the noise of the visitors field and the hundreds of servants hustling about on the orders of their masters. "Beautiful and wondrous as such things might be, such things are not meant to last, and are unsuitable for permanent settlement."
Ling Qi nodded in understanding as they made their way through, Cai Renxiang's presence keeping the path clear for them. Reading between the lines, 'instant' buildings were basically an expensive luxury for showing off, rather than something which had a lot of practical use. Probably a very expensive one, given that the vast majority of the clans present were content with huge elaborate cloth pavilions.
"Nothing like a little dominance display to keep a gathering colorful," Sixiang mused in her thoughts. She could feel the spirit observing everything with interest through her eyes.
"I don't like this Big Sister," Zhengui said, she felt as if he were squirming in discomfort. "There are too many Big Spirits here."
Her little brother had the right of it. The clashing presence of many, many powerful auras overlapped and pressed down on her from every direction. Human, beast and spirit, the least of them were her match, and the rest were far overhead. Only the harried servants and common guards stood below her here. "They aren't enemies Zhengui," she thought soothingly. She had a feeling that he could feel her nerves though.
Because they weren't wandering without purpose. Cai Renxiang was going to be presenting herself to her Mother, here, before the start of the tournament. As the heiress' retainers Guangli and her would naturally be expected to be present.
How could she not be nervous in the face of that?
Busy with her thoughts, it didn't take long for the three of them to reach the edge of the field, where a large space had been left studiously empty, it's borders marked by white plumed guards standing ramrod straight at it's corners.
Ling QI let out a soft breath as they came to a stop. "Ah… how will the Duchess be arriving anyway?" She asked quietly to Guangli as Cai Renxiang spoke to one of the guards, and the man began to wave in some nearby servants to begin unrolling a carpet for them, so that when the time came they would not be kneeling in the dirt and grass.
"Her grace will arrive in her carriage, I believe," Guangli said, his wide arms crossed over his shining breastplate. "It is primarily used for her bidecennial tours of the provinces major holdings and settlements, but it is also a symbol of power and prestige. I cannot imagine that our honored Duchess would arrive here in anything less," he replied enthusiastically.
"Guangli is correct, and the Duchess will be here shortly," Cai Renxiang said simply as she returned to them, and gestured for them to take their places on the newly spread carpet. "Keep your eyes on the sky, and enter supplication when the shadow reaches the landing area," she continued stiffly. Ling Qi was certain that in this instance at least, the slight nerves that the heiress was showing were not affected.
Ling Qi nervously fingered the flower ornament woven into her hair as she took her place at Cai Renxiang's left. Xiulan had helped her put up her glittering hair into an actual style, with pins and braids giving order to the usual chaos of her tresses, but it was hard not to feel underprepared.
The three of them waited in silence for perhaps ten minutes when Ling Qi felt it. A prickling sensation on the back of her neck, and then a pressure on her thoughts. She felt Sixiang sink away into the depths of her mind, curling up and making themselves small like a frightened child, and the low sensation fo alarm rising from Zhengui.
It began as a bright dot in the north, like a star somehow shining in the day, but rapidly, it resolved itself into something more clear. She had seen the sealed carriages of nobility in Tonghou, leaving through the gates and given a wide berth by everyone sane. Even leaving aside it's flight, this thing made them seem like the lowest peasants rickety wagon.
It was the size of a small house, its frame and shutters carved from gleaming white wood. It's tiled roof was brilliant green jade, from which hung strings of living flowers. It's two wide wheels were shod with some actinic blue metal that shone with an internal light, and rolled forward on crackling storm clouds that seemed to billow out from it's spokes. The creatures galloping through the sky, drawing it toward them were no spirit horses, but rather their gleaming silver scales, and long, curved horns which crackled with heavenly power showed them to be dragon horses, those rare and reclusive beasts that inhabited the more lonely stretches of the Wall.
It took only moments for the carriage to go from barely visible, to passing overhead. The moment it did, she followed Cai Renxiang's lead and dropped smoothly to her knees, in a supplicants pose. All around her, guards took the knee as well, and servants scurried away, knowing that this wasn't the time to remain present.
Ling Qi kept her head down but her eyes as the thunder of sparking hooves pounding against the air approached, growing louder by the moment. The shadow ahead circled, growing larger with each pass, until finally the dragon horses hooves and the spinning wheels of the carriage struck the earth, charring the grass as the storm clouds began to dissipate from beneath it.
As the carriage rolled to a stop, the great scaled beasts, fifth, or perhaps even sixth grade by feel, which had been drawing it tossing their heads impatiently, lightning dancing along the stiff 'beards' which grew from their jaws.
Then, the door of the carriage swung smoothly open, and all thought of the spirit beasts left her mind. Power, thick and cloying beat down on her back, like the weight of a mountain, and if she were not already kneeling, with her head down, she doubted that she would have been able to stay standing. It was a fight simply to keep her breathing even as she saw a set of shimmering stairs form, composed wholly of light, bridging the gap between the floor of the carriage and the earth below. It was nearly invisible, given the radiance that had erupted from within the carriage at the opening of the door.
A dusky skinned woman in a gown the color of pale rose petals stepped out first, but Ling Qi could not have described her further if asked at swordpoint. The presence which emanated from the carriage was simply that overwhelming. The first woman did turn though, offering a hand to aid the woman who emerged.
It struck Ling Qi as absurd, the idea that the Duchess could need such a thing.
She was tall, taller than Guangli in his base state, taller than even Elder Zhou. Needless to say, she did not have the doll-like proportions of a traditional beauty, but instead a generous and statuesque figure well displayed by the scandalous garment she wore. The pure white fabric clung to her like a second skin, traced with lines of the palest blue, and the butterflies embroidered across the lower half moved as if alive, fluttering across rippling silk and even the knee high slit in the right side of the gown as she descended the steps.
Although she could not see the Duchess' face at this angle, the tightness of her gown did make one other detail abundantly clear. Her stomach held a slight but distinct curve, which given that Ling Qi had not seen a single cultivator put on a single kilogram of unintentional weight, really only meant one thing.
"Renxiang, you may raise your head," the Duchess' voice was smoky and almost casual in tone, though the light and power beating down on her back precluded any notion of relaxation from forming. "It has been some time since last we spoke, my daughter."
"It honors me immensely that you would choose to come here for this humble daughter," Cai Renxiang said submissively. Ling Qi saw the heiress rise smoothly from full supplication to kneeling attention, her long hair swaying with the motion. "Please allow me to offer you welcome to the Argent Sect. I hope it's hospitality will meet your needs."
"Minister Linqin?" The Duchess voice spoke, with the touch of a question.
The woman in a far more normal gown, now standing a step behind the Duchess, spoke in an easy, professional tone, apparently untroubled by the terrible power churning in the air. "It will be sufficient for your needs my Lady."
"Very good," Cai Shenhua replied. "Renxiang, ask the question that burns on your tongue."
"...While I would not dream of demanding information from you, honored Mother...Why have I previously been informed of your condition?" Ling Qi's liege asked promptly. Even Ling Qi could see the tension in the girls shoulders, she was as off balance as Ling Qi had ever seen her.
"Do not feel slighted, my daughter," the Duchess replied easily, though the pulse of the light radiating from her turned even that casual statement into a command. "I have deemed the situation stable, and will thus be making the knowledge public, as if this day. Rejoice Renxiang, you shall soon have a younger sister."
"This is truly joyous occasion," Renxiang replied, almost mechanically. "I will look forward to greeting her."
"I expect so," Cai Shenhua replied, and Ling Qi saw her take a languid step forward, carrying her closer to the three of them. "Now, I have reviewed reports of your progress, and found them satisfactory, but for some things a letter simply does not do. Cai Renxiang, introduce these two that you have deemed worthy of working in our name."
"I present to you, Gan Guangli and Ling Qi, who I believe to be two of our provinces most promising formerly unattached young talents," Cai Renxiang replied promptly, visibly regaining control of herself and her voice. "Gan Guangli has shown great talent as an officer, and forged the undisciplined outer disciples into passable military order under great limitation in both time and resources, and has been an able second in matters of combat when my presence as required elsewhere. He has achieved the third realm in only three years of cultivation."
"The soldier boy you picked up during your provincial tour…. He has grown, hasn't he," the Duchess said, sounding amused.
Cai Renxiang paused for a beat, giving her Mother time to speak further if she wished. "Ling Qi's talents have few competitors, through her personal efforts, an entire enemy power block was broken in a single night, and her aid in gathering intelligence against the Sun Princess was invaluable," she was laying it on a bit thick, but Ling Qi wasn't going to complain. "She has achieved her current cultivation in only a single year, having arrived at the Sect as a mortal."
"Hoh? How nostalgic," Ling Qi felt her skin crawl as the Duchess' attention fell on her like a lead weight. "Both of you, raise your heads. I would see the faces of my daughters first retainers."
Ling Qi carefully did so, copying Cai Renxiang's posture though she angled her head a bit lower. Given her status, it would be rude to look the Duchess directly in the eye without a direct command, which 'raise your head' was not. Because nobles loved to make things confusing, she supposed.
Cai Shenhua's gown was even more scandalous than she had first realized, baring her shoulders entirely, and though gauzy lace prevented more than a hint of cleavage from being visible. Her hair was black as midnight, just like her daughters, but it was cut to her shoulders, and spread in strange way like a fan behind her head. She could see the tiniest hint of the fine netting which held it in that shape. What she could see of her features was sharp and severe, much like Cai Renxiang.
Keeping her eyes down, Ling Qi watched as the woman so casually putting out such a domineering aura paced over, to stand in front of the kneeling Guangli, towering over him with her arms crossed loosely over her rounded stomach. "I see...Young man, why do you follow my daughter?"
"Lady Cai Renxiang is the woman who will bring about the world I aspire too," Gan Guangli's booming voice was somber and serious for once, all bombastic affectation gone. "For that goal, I will fight for her until my body and spirit lie broken," well, maybe not all of it.
The Duchess was silent for a moment, and Gan Guangli remained silent, his gaze steadfastly fixed on a point somewhere behind the power standing before him, but eventually, the Duchess gave a shallow nod of acknowledgement. "I see, do try not break too quickly then," she replied almost flippantly.
Then she was standing before Ling Qi, and her breath hitched at the returned force of her attention, which only grew worse a moment later, when the woman spoke. "Look at me," she commanded, and Ling Qi could do naught but obey raising her eyes to meet those of Cai Renxiang's Mother.
Over the last few minutes, listening to the powerful woman's casual speech, and watching her movements, Ling Qi had begun to believe that perhaps Renxiang's fears were overblown, that rumor had painted a skewed picture of this woman. Those thoughts vanished like the morning mist when she met Cai Shenhua's eyes.
There was no pupil or iris there, only pits of burning colorless light, in the shape of human eyes. Portals through which something vast and terrible peered from behind a shell of human skin. She could feel her eyes watering, as if she was staring into the sun as a mortal, yet she knew that she could stare forever until the light scoured her mind clean.
"This one, on the other hand… I approve, Renxiang. It seems you have inherited my aesthetic tastes," Some distant part of Ling Qi's mind that wasn't screaming danger warning at her was confused, until the Duchess' gaze flicked away, drawing hers with it, to the other woman present.
Minister Linqin, with her dark skin, neatly combed but clearly wavy dark brown hair, looked back, unamused. "My Lady, perhaps now is not the time for jests," she reminded gently, somehow unphased at the Duchess' attention.
The woman-monster hummed, but gestured for her to lower her head, allowing Ling Qi to quickly fix her eyes back on the carpet.
She caught Cai Renxiang shooting her a look of genuine apology on the way back to staring at the carpet though. As she gathered her wits, the Duchess spoke once again. "If not among family, then when," the elder Cai mused, a sarcastic twist on her lips. Ling Qi had no idea if it was genuine, or if the woman before her was even capable of humor. It made her recall Sixiang's comments regarding the younger Cai. Was this what she was crafted in the image of? "Allow me to put the same question to you young lady, why do you follow my daughter?
Under that burning gaze, Ling Qi found the pressure to speak her mind increasing by the moment… and yet, what answer could she give? She had a dozen little reasons and rationalizations, but was there really one coherent reason? Sixiang was silent and absent, and Zhengui was doing the spiritual equivalent of hiding in his shell, though she could feel his shame at doing so. She could only rely on herself for an answer here.
[] Write in.
You thought the prelims was just beating up scrubs, but with so many important personages about, there are other challenges to be had.
That said, experimenting ith loosening up on the reigns a little, going forward. No more than three sentences and I reserve the right to reject a vote if it's pushing that limit with clauses and whatnot, or too out of character.
That said, going put a three hour moratorium for discussion
