Ferenike 23 - Paradiso
Ferenike hummed happily as her quill scratched over a ledger detailing the amount of water remaining in Tank 39. Of no serious consequence since their other tanks were anywhere from three quarters to completely full, this one had been taken down for maintenance before the siege and was now being refilled. Beside her were a stack of papers detailing the successful delivery of the final bits of the Foundation Building loot Rina had sorted out and sent her way. That stuff had been helpful in ways the other girl might not have immediately realized, as quite a few were healing treasures of a sort which had helped Eirene, Peta and Wajo, and Achille, and had been a big load off her medical supply issue for the first week there.
She hadn't been able to interact much with the Thirteen since the battle beyond talking to Eirene, as busy and focused as she was, as they all were, but that was fine with her. She had confidence they'd be able to speak again in the future and that was enough.
With a final swish of her quill she finished and then leaned back to stretch for a long moment, rolling her neck as she took a brief break from her meditative breathing. Paperwork was a good meditative aid she'd found. With a happy sigh she spent a moment pondering the time. Right. Getting up she walked over to her door, stuck her head out and hollered. "HEY! All you juniors, shift's over, go have fun and be back in the morning!"
There was a great clatter as newbie juniors jumped in surprise, others setting down their work, and a general sigh of relief and happy chatter as they grouped up into their little social circles and filtered out with a good number of "Goodbye Centurion" farewells. Tisamenos was the last one to say goodbye as he carefully wrapped up his own writing project. Out of all of her staff he'd been the one to get used to her schedule the fastest. And there were a lot more juniors now, a month after Pleuron. Recruitment had skyrocketed apparently, at least around here and caused her staff to expand as she snapped up some of the promising candidates.
She walked out herself and snapped her fingers as she exited, shutting off the lights. Unlike the others though, instead of heading for home or any of the nightlife spots, she turned to head to the library. She had a lot of research to get through and one of the side benefits of a Pure Body was a much reduced need to sleep, which she was exploiting to its limits.
The streets of Pleuron were a lot quieter now after the celebrations wound down as well, but there was a happy air to the place as people hung colorful tapestries advertising services and goods from their windows and goods began to flow with their usual vigor again and many mortals were also moving to the city to set up shop. The coming of a Legate and the Foundation Experts had also resolved a lot of their remaining supply issues.
It meant there weren't as heavy crowds which made getting to the library easy enough. The tall building, multiple domes peeking up from its roof, was near the center of the city and the multi floored edifice was blessedly well ventilated via clever arrays. She walked in, received a nod from the receptionist. "Ferenike."
"Jin. Nothing interesting happen recently?" She asked.
The bald woman, glasses perched on her nose and garbed in a simple Clan archivist robe leaned back in her chair, reading a news pamphlet. "Nope." She said pleasantly. Ferenike threw a glance at the three new and dejected looking teenagers who were currently sweeping the reception area. Well they looked like they were regretting whatever trouble they had gotten into. Business as usual then.
Ferenike raised her legion identification array and ran it past the array on the archive door and entered the stacks. Instead of going into the maze of towering scroll and book shelves, she instead turned left down an aisle until she found a descending spiral stair and went down. And down and down, more than a
li underground. Buried deep in the sandstone, there were stacks of more dangerous scrolls and books, open to her due to having enough cultivation to survive one if it got aggressive and to cow them without damaging them too badly.
It was dark down here, even darker than the stacks above, as some book spirits drank light to fuel themselves. And some were agitated by sound. Keep it dark, keep it quiet, those were the rules you had to follow in this library. So she walked in utter silence, taking tiny whispers of breath and her eyes saw the path through the stacks via the incredibly weak spirit lights high above on the ceiling. All around her were books and scrolls lying quietly, locked behind barred gates of spirit bronze. Down here was a maze of tunnels carved out of the sandstone, a labyrinth of knowledge with an equally byzantine organizational system.
After about fifteen minutes of walking through the confusing tunnels, she returned to the hall which held her work station and several other study and research rooms, a long line of doors. She stepped up to her door and a flash of her qi into the lock, keyed to her personal aura, caused the door to pop open and she stepped into the room. It was a room about the size of a large cottage, with a small number of containment shelves against the wall opposite the door, a number of large slates she could draw diagrams on spread about the space and a desk with a single small magic light. Paper and quills and ink were present in the desk drawers for any of her notes, and there was already a stack of them on the right corner of the desk.
Giving it a once over she satisfied herself no one had entered it since she had been in here last night. Pulling the door closed behind her, the room became a little pocket of faint light in seeming endless dark. Qi outside the room was muted to prevent incidental distractions, though attacks and real trouble would be still perceivable, as was sound and light. Just a little box all to herself.
Stepping across the room she reached her containment shelves and reaching out to the lock undid it. There was a bubbling of malevolence from the books held within as she opened the door. Hissing and the flickering of shadows at the edge of her vision occurred as she pulled out one volume,
Magnificent Liao Tzu's Meditations Upon Demon Plants, but a sharp look and slap of qi made the book shut up. It was a large thing, about fifteen centimeters thick and it was big enough to be used as a small shield. She was strong enough to manhandle it with a single hand and carried it over to her current diagram work mapping her hypothesis for Xiao Yi's meridians. There wasn't much there unfortunately, as the structure of the grove was incredibly obfuscating to her senses.
She began to read.
For as almost malevolently dry as the words were, as well as self-aggrandizing, there was some useful tidbits found within the many,
many pages. Incidentally the book's incredibly detailed descriptions of the feeding habits and methods of Demon Plants had given her insight into how Xiao Yi could still be alive at this point. Drinking in the qi of his enemies at first, to sustain his own body after the blow that had cut him in two, but now he would be fed by the sun and the qi of the sands which Liao Tzu detailed came from two places; the qi of the Spirit Stones buried beneath it which bubbled up through it and which fed the dragonlines, and the qi from wind which blew across the desert and then settled upon the sand.
She herself had experienced the interaction of the qi of the sands and the qi shining down from the sun driving the winds as they spiraled against each other. In many ways thus, the wind drove itself. A useful insight for her Oasis as well, the work for which was taking up another entire board off to her right. She was splitting her time between helping her friend and working on that, and in a curious happenstance had found them to have many related parts. At least for the current approach she was taking of trying to return Xiao Yi to a human shape, by finding a way to induce his qi to flow and shape itself into such a form in a stable fashion without unduly harming him.
Long into the night as the moon rose high above the desert she worked in the dimness, the tiny click of chalk on slate and her breaths the only sounds.
It had been six months since the events of the siege and Ferenike now stood on a muster yard in the eastern quarter of the city. All around it were short walls five meters high and a few squat rectangular barracks to one side arranged in a circle around a central tower which contained several defensive emplacements and arrays. A little fortress tucked away in the city.
Before her were thirty two volunteers in the first and second heavenstages, all in their fifties and unlikely to go much further, but furnished with a respectable amount of experience working with Formations. They had served under her in the siege, though it'd still taken some haggling about work hours and duty assignments with the other commanders to get her hands on them. That was how it worked in Pleuron. The same amount of work needed to get done, so if you took someone from somewhere, you'd best have an alternative or replacement which could do the job or some means to get it done with less people but just as good. To a degree such arrangements also persisted in the wider clan, as they were often useful for finding people with the proper skills.
Like she had done with these volunteers, who were sat in meditative positions, spread out in a loose gathering without ranks or much ordering. She walked amongst them and noted the qi flows between them, their breaths in a natural rhythm. She did not link herself to the flow of qi, as this needed to be able to function without her presence in the flow or her direction. She gave thanks to Xiao Yi for reminding her of that particular pitfall.
The swish of her robes against the smooth stone of the courtyard and the clack of her boots underscored her voice as she lectured on her memories of her insights. "...water is the energy and life of the Oasis, it bubbles up from the rivers below and condenses as dew on the leaves of orchards in the heat of the sun. They persist for longer than our lifetimes, before suddenly vanishing without warning..."
In her mind she watched and modeled these people and what they did as they shared Qi, the dozens of different methods and means they had, idiosyncratic and novel. She wished to see for herself how others manipulated Qi when they wished to work together with others. The wider the base she had, the stronger the foundation and the better the final product would be. The more constitutions she had experience with, the more methods she witnessed, the easier it would be when she went to develop the Qi circulation patterns that would initiate the formation as those needed to be generalized in an easily used and widely understandable manner.
And, seeing what they were already doing was giving her ideas as to the steps after that, as a murky streams and waves of golden energy flowed between her thirty two volunteers. Within her inner mind and soul she shaped her inner models, placing tiny chunks of red glass and altering the grander mosaic which shaped her vision of the Oasis.
In red glass, it was an image of wave like dunes blending into a swirling pool of water, and in its heart stars from the night sky above were reflected. A sense of oneness permeated the image, every piece reflecting a little part of the whole. But for now, it was static, unfinished.
She finished her round and walked to stand in front of her gathering, then clapped her hands. They all opened their eyes and stopped their meditations. "Good work. You'll be duly compensated by tomorrow, just talk to Anton in my office. Same offer will be open day after tomorrow."
They all saluted. "Yes Centurion!" They all said and then began to filter out. A few lingered, talking with each other and her. One in particular, a man named Eli with long greenish hair was griping about a merchant named Ji.
"Yeah, so this jackass Ji tries to sell me junk Spirit Silver for three stones by feeding me a line about it being from a Thousand Year Mine. I called him on his bullshit and he has the gall to try and demonstrate his 'enlightened wisdom' to a 'junior'. Anyway, don't go to his shop if you want honest prices." Eli grumbled to a lady friend of his. The woman was rolling her eyes and nodding in commiseration.
"Yeah I had a similar experience with some Spirit Herbs from that guy." The woman, Irida, responded.
Ferenike stepped up beside them, causing them to both pause. She leaned closer. "So, where might I happen to find this 'Ji' fellow?" Her smile was a thing of sharp teeth and a deep well of viciousness.
Irida and Eli, after a moment's surprise, also started to smile. They told her, in detail.
Chen Ji of the Sorrowful Blacksmiths was happily organizing some of his stock in his back room when he heard the door of his shop open with a jingle of a bell and the hint of a smell of cinnamon blew in on the air. A customer! He spoke up on reflex, "I'm in the back dear customer, one moment please!"
There was no response from the person outside, but that didn't put him off, they were probably just looking at stock on the shelves in his shop. He ran a hand over his hair, making sure his appearance was proper for a businessman of his station and then he stepped through the curtains in the back of his shop and out behind the counter. Standing on the other side of the counter, resting her hand on it, he saw a tall woman of the Golden Devils. Her skin seemed to be entirely metal, one of the more extreme versions of the demonic blood he'd seen, though she was unusual in that her nails seemed to be red glass and a spark of red lingered in her pupils.
She had only a presence in the first heavenstage, wavering and weak. She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed. "Senior, this one has heard of your wares." She said politely. He couldn't fault the Golden Devils on their politeness, he gave them that.
He put on his best businessman smile, bolstered a bit by his third heavenstage Qi. "That is good ma'am. I carry several things, such as these excellent Heart Gold Topazes, mined directly from the foot of Turtlebone Mountain I assure you." He entered into his practiced spiel as he pulled out a bag from under his counter and emptied half of it onto the counter, to reveal thumbnail sized yellow gems. Just some Carp Yellow Gems, not of incredible worth, though they were pulled from rivers that flowed from Turtlebone Mountain so that part was kind of true. "Might I have your name?"
"Nike." She said simply, and he still couldn't get over how their names sounded, harder and strange in this sweltering land. She pierced him with a stare. A part of him paused at the intensity in that look, but the rest barreled on as she said the magic words. "I'm interested in your Spirit Silver" Another fish on the hook. These desert savages were so easily hooked with mention of the mountains' metals.
He turned to one of the shelves behind the counter, made out of a good mahogany and pulled down a small cherry wood box. It clanked and clattered as he carefully set it on the counter, sweeping up the Carp Yellow Gems and instinctively counting them as he put most of them back in the pouch and stored it away, leaving a few to glint on the counter and highlight the box. "This is my Spirit Silver, from a Thousand Year Mine deep in the Sorrowful Blacksmith lands, carved from the highest peaks where it is said the Serpent Princess of Resplendent Snow makes her den." He opened the box and revealed a cache of thumb sized nuggets of a shiny and silvery metal. They were mostly Spirit Sand, mixed with some Spirit Silver and then forged into these refined 'nuggets' and given a hint of Qi to make them seem interesting. They might be useful as toys, but hardly worth what he was asking. Not that they'd know, these desert savages.
"For only four spirit stones these powerful pieces can be yours. I'll even throw in a few of the gems." He said cheerily. His brain tingled as he saw the red in her eyes flash, some instinct which was ignored by his eyes fixed on the money. Then his instincts started screaming as his customer's face twisted horrifically, glass swallowing it and forming a frightening fanged devilish maw and terrifying eyes, all pits to a hellish flame.
"Truly, it is impressive that you would try to sell
sand to a Clan of desert dwellers whose blood sings with alloyed metals." A terrible cracking voice like an inferno rattled his eardrums as a suffocating presence swallowed his shop, carried on a wave of cinnamon scent. He froze.
And then he choked as a glass covered hand snapped to his throat and lifted him up. T-tenth Heavenstage, she was Tenth Heavenstage, oh god he was
dead. Dead dead, so fucking dead those were flames
dancing on her tongue sweet dragons!
The devil woman pulled him over the counter, banging his shins painfully and knocking his wares to the ground with a crash. Holding him before her he was forced to look into her eyes as he frantically tore at her searing hot grip on his neck, the pits of her eyes burning into his mind and setting his thoughts afire with fear. Smoke blasted from the open pits of her nose in a snort. "Chen Ji of the Sorrowful Blacksmiths, I am Centurion Ferenike of the Golden Devils."
The bottom dropped out of his stomach and his heart dropped with it.
Shiiiiiiiit. Even a frog in a well knew that name, especially
here in godsforsaken
Pleuron. "P-p-please please I swear, I swear I didn't know my, my supplier must have tricked me!" He babbled, working his mouth for all he was worth.
There was a dreadful crackling laugh. "What sweet lies. Come with me charlatan." And then he was jerked bodily forward and impacted her with a painful
whumpf of air. Her sharp shoulder dug into his gut as she slung him over her shoulder and walked out of his shop. He had a brief moment of thought of pleading for his life from the townspeople, but he realized that would be very stupid for two reasons. One, this was one of those dreadful Thirteen demons, and the townspeople loved them and two, he was now realizing that his practices had caused some hmm, trouble. Yes, that is what you called it when you were slung over the shoulder of a demon woman and about to quite possibly
bloody die!
He was never coming back to Pleuron.
Chen Ji's mind worked frantically all the way through their trip to the gate and the out of the city towards the... grove. Oh no. He started screaming then in sheer terror and flailing like mad. His clenched fists did nothing as they bounced off this woman's glass armored metal body, but he did not want to be plant food! Fuck!
They approached the slowly writhing grove, its black-green vines slowly slipping against each other. Ji had not braved the innards of this place, he wasn't suicidal and he knew the stories of it
eating fifty Foundation experts in the Trials. And they were getting closer to it! His screams turned into a high pitched keening.
And then they stopped about ten meters from it and he
flew through the air, his screams reaching a fever pitch as he twisted and then landied with a thud face first in the sand. He heard the grove shake and slither ahead of him and he looked up and saw it reaching slowly towards him, runners and vines slithering in the sands like snakes. He frantically tried to scramble away on four limbs before a heavy foot landed on his back, pinning him with absurd strength. The vines, mercifully, paused.
"I am angry Chen Ji. Your practices give merchants a bad name and you are not Clan. If you had come a year earlier I might well have killed you." The devil woman standing on top of him said pleasantly. Her fiery voice continued. "But I am trying to be more merciful after the siege. So I have a bargain for you."
"A
bargain?" He asked, half-disbelieving, half-hopeful. Was he...?
"Yes. You sell us proper wares at the proper prices in Pleuron and you receive great wealth, for we are honest dealers. Or I feed you to my friend Xiao Yi." She said, her voice digging into his brain and stoking the flames of fear even higher.
"Yes yes! YES! I swear, I swear on my Dao-heart I'll give you the proper prices! Please don't kill me!" He begged, clawing and kicking weakly at the sand. Like
hell he was going to ignore this bargain! He was a merchant and his life was the most valuable thing he owned!
"Good. Return to the city." She said and stepped off him. He edged away in a frantic skitter and then crab crawled on his butt away from the glass armored monster standing before him. She was not looking at him but he could still feel a mass of her attention focused on him.
He breathed, choked and coughed out some sand and then he turned and
ran. Back towards the city, back towards his home, burdened with a terrible lesson. Throwing a glance back he saw her disappear into the grove, entirely fearless and unharmed by the writhing tendrils. Oh gods. He looked straight ahead and rushed back through the gates, and straight to the nearest bar to drown his fear and shaking hands.
Another year, more disappointing progress. It'd been nearly four years now since the siege and progress on helping Xiao Yi and refining the Oasis was slow going. Her contact Wei Fuxi in the Tactika Bureau, a Foundation Building expert she was trading letters with as she researched the publishing process was interested but still. Time. Always more time was needed for the incremental progress she was making. Her eightieth birthday had passed not to long ago. She'd spent it meditating in Xiao Yi's grove.
As strange as it might be, it was in its own way an oasis she had come to find, and she'd actually noticed some improvement as she went there over the years. The grove had almost calmed, slightly, becoming safe enough for mortals to enter a few months after the siege if they were watched carefully. Their prayers to her friend were strange on her ears, she found the concept of worshiping her friend very weird since she'd seen the dumbass drunk off his ass before and not very godly, but she kept an eye on them all the same. There'd been a few ominous and almost amused rustles before but now it was simply dark and brooding.
Strange bedfellow with peace honestly. But now, she was here and talking to him. Or at least in his direction.
"...and that is why I think there might be some parts of my future path that will take me from these lands. I can feel it now, bubbling up from within, a sense that my horizons lay beyond the Mountain Wall for now. I hear they have cherry trees and other amazing things out there. I only seen them as illustrations in books." She said as she sat kneeling in the grove, Qing Yun sleeping beside her, her fingers tangled with small vines on wriggling in the sand. Her tone was contemplative and slow. "I'll visit Qiguai after I publish my work and there seek lore that might improve it. I'm not sure how long it will take to find a way to help you but the Century Oasis I can finish in the next five or six years I think. I think you'll like to see it."
The vines rustled and there was a groan of shifting plant matter. She nodded. She knew he was aware, in some fashion, but she wasn't sure if he could still understand speech. And so she did what she always did when she visited, a ritual of sorts now. She pulled a wine bottle from her storage and uncorking it poured it into the roots below the trunk-like mass Xiao Yi was fused with and once it was empty began to meditate on the Oasis.
She breathed and she imagined its motions. A roiling, rotating thing, almost like a sandstorm or a thunderstorm. Pieces of qi being passed around in constant motion which would become self sustaining once there was enough being passed around and they connected into the energies of the desert itself. Warmth spread through out the dark grove as she meditated.
Her troubles now was that the energy she sought to touch was so diffuse. Grasping the trick to it was incredibly difficult and she'd only inconsistently managed it, and once that hurdle was passed would come the further hurdle of teaching how to do it to others, such that they had an easier time of it. She had chosen to do all of this however, and so it would be done.
She stood again on the muster ground as a bunch of wet behind the ears newbies flailed about like kittens through their katas of Legion Standard. Her pipe smoked pleasantly as she stood easily before them and watched them work.
Her gaze slid to one pair, a lean and whip fast boy facing off against a spry and gangly girl. Dimitri and Shamo Liegou. Liegou pulled a trick with her feet as she slammed her palm into Dimitri's chin, getting in his guard and knocking him off balance to land him flat on his back. He fell with a choked scream and a thud. Ferenike watched Liegou blink, surprised and then look down at the boy holding his chin and rolling on the ground groaning. The poor girl froze.
Ferenike raised her hand, gesturing at them and shouted towards them. "Up! Liegou, get him up!"
"Ah. Ah! Yes ma'am!" She shouted in a half-panic as she knelt beside him and helped him sit up and then stand. With a shake of his head he nodded and waved his hand at the girl.
"Lets go again Liegou!" He said, slightly slurred. His jaw must be killing him. They were all mortals still, barely onto their first steps to Qi Condensation.
Flicking a quick glance at the others as the two stood and walked back to their starting positions, Ferenike found the other trainees performing acceptably. Her red glimmering gaze rotated back to watch these two. She felt something, rumbling just out of hearing.
They entered their First Stance, a straightforward thing with the left or right foot forward dependent on handedness, the torso turned to the side and the leading arm's forearm raised to swat or deflect blows with the other arm held slightly out. It wasn't too different from the stance used to hold a shield and spear.
Dimitri initiated and as his foot slid Liegou reacted perfectly, rotating slightly out of his path and towards the space between his arms. Then her arm
snapped out and slammed a fist into his solar plexus before he could defend with either arm or twist away. Then the girl blinked and seemed to focus again. She let out a little
eek as the boy went flying, knocked off balance and then tripping on his own feet, landing on his back again, holding his chest and groaning.
This time though the gangly girl reached out for the fallen boy, a trembling smile on her face. "Are you okay?"
The boy nodded and reached out and took her hand. Ferenike's eyes zeroed in on that grasping of hands and the smiles on their faces.
Huh, that was it wasn't it? That light, airy feeling which pulled your lips into a smile that lay close to the heart of friendship and comradery. That was what she was trying to set as the core of the Oasis. She gave a happy puff of her pipe, sparks and smoke bubbling up. Well then!
"Good job you two! Liegou, when this is over come talk to me." Ferenike bellowed. They both turned and saluted.
"Yes ma'am!" The shouted and then commendably, got right back to it before she told them too.
She'd have to get that girl a good tutor, because that had been impressive use of
action. It reminded her of Katerina Salviati, the little hellion. Her expression smoothed out as her regret bubbled up a little at the thought.
She was regretful Agha and Katerina, those two girls she had trained could not be a part of her own squad. But the situation required that they be distributed where they could help most and truthfully speaking she was quite happy for them. They'd go on to have their own adventures and probably train their own crop of newbies at some point.
Much like the Thirteen, her hat maker whose son and daughter were now making them, and her trainees she was trying to keep an eye out for news about them. She hoped they lived well every day, though the world wasn't always that kind. Unfortunately.
But that is why she was making this little slice of paradise.
She was back in the library underground again, in her little workroom. This time there were no books on the shelves and her writing slates were pushed up against one of the walls so that she had space in the middle of the floor to sit cross-legged and meditate. The spirit light was off and her mind was cast out to the Qi that existed all around her, permeating the stone, rising up and up until it breached the sand and flowed into the air and up into the vault of the sky.
In her core she shaped her mosaic of red glass shards into a mirror of the night sky and the sands swirling around the city, each shard carved with tiny channels through which Qi could run. Step by step she placed the pieces where they must go, each a part of the greater work but reflecting it almost like a fractal. Into these pieces she put her memories; of staying in Grandfather Laosha's oasis and its reflection of the night's stars, she thought of Xiao Yi's grove, dozens of qi concentration arrays, her own home in the dunes with Ales and her servants, the wagon she had been born in and remembered as fond feelings of warmth and comfort. Then beyond those things, the desert itself, a sanctuary and retreat of sorts in a harsh world.
At the end of the path she placed that light and airy feeling, that little budding offshoot of friendship, and in it was invested the feeling of Clan. With a
tug she pulled on the entire mental construct and felt it reach up and down and
out, sweeping through the stone and air above to catch upon the qi of the desert and the dragonlines to draw it in a twinned funnel.
After a year of work she'd finally done it. She reveled in the faint feeling of qi she had entering her system, a smile breaking out on her face, red teeth glinting in the faint golden and red light which surrounded her. She'd done it! Now, now she could work on figuring out how to teach it to others.
It was a good nine years after the siege now and another group of trainees stood before her and now she was at the final step, testing the Oasis with them. Once this was complete she could publish! It hadn't been too difficult to get authorization to move to this step with a few spirit stones here and there.
And in other good news the Ninth Prince had reawakened a few days ago, and after roping her into a very pleasant drinking contest had hared off to go do bombastic snake-man things somewhere. She hadn't heard any screams of terror and booming laughter recently so he
probably wasn't in Pleuron right now, but you never knew with that rascal. She had a feeling he popped up extremely unexpectedly at times, to unpleasant results for his enemies.
Now however, she was working with thirty two trainees arranged in four ranks of eight, walking around them with her eyes shut and her esoteric senses trained on them. They were moving through a slow, undemanding kata from Legion Standard, meant to stretch the muscles in the arms and lower legs.
"Think of every drink of water you've ever taken, shape the qi to rotate anti-clockwise, think of the wind driven to blow between sand and sun." Her voice surrounded them all as she spoke, almost chanting, watching them as they shaped qi along the paths she had laid out.
"The Formation is one of where you must pass along the qi constantly, never ceasing, ever cycling. It draws from the sand beneath your feet," she had ordered the training field filled with sand for this express purpose. "And the sky above your head from the heat of the sun. Draw that energy up and connect with the others around you, share your vitality and endurance, fuel them with the qi of the desert you are drawing in." She kept speaking, watching them get closer and closer to finishing the network.
One person started pulling harder, as if to create the Hoplite and she stepped closer.
"Easy easy, its like a hug. There you go!" She said brightly, rotating her hand slightly as she watched their qi flow. Her group of trainees was so close!
And then with a rush of air that set her robes flapping it clicked into place with a
thrum. A pool of Qi pulled from the desert sands and the air and sun far above and supplemented by the users. Already she could see what fatigue they had fading away and their auras were surging in her qi senses.
She opened her eyes and looked upon her creation. The Century Oasis Formation manifested as a reflective pool of energy hanging in the air and spread between the people supporting the formation, as if they were deep underwater. And the phantasmal images of trees and other plants appeared in golden hues.
"You have it! Maintain it for an hour and we'll take a break, then go again!" She said to her trainees as she clapped her hands.
"Yes Centurion!" They shouted in unison.
She'd finally done it after more than forty years of work. A week later, long after the sun had set she settled down to her desk and wrote up her findings and a cover letter for the Tactika Bureau.
Enclosed within one will find the necessary insights to enact a new Formation invented by myself, Ferenike of the Ninth Legion.
The purpose of this Century Oasis Formation is to share the users vitality, speed of healing, and endurance to enhance logistical capabilities and the use of Spirit Stones for armies on the march. This formation draws on the power of the desert sands, air, the sun and the moon, tapping into the dragonlines which flow through the desert towards the mountains and it concentrates this power amongst the members of the formation. The shared vitality of the users of this formation is thus further amplified by the concentrated amount of desert Qi and this concentrated Qi is what enables a more efficient logistical tail, increased army endurance and wounded recovery time, and advantage in matters of attrition. Thusly, cohorts using this formation will find themselves expending fewer Spirit Stones to heal and march through the desert, and improving the effect of Spirit Stones they do expend.
Ideologically it draws on some design principles of the Twin-Eagle Formation. That formation is for use in quick mobilization to and retreat from a theatre of operation, and my own experiences at Guo Wu and during the Trials has demonstrated to me its success as a tool for rapid movement. The Century Oasis is therefore a counter part to it, meant to be used when one reaches your destination and wishes to recover from a battle.
In the attached documentation I have given my insights and directions for forming the Formation with groups of multiple sizes ranging from two individuals all the way up to one hundred and fifty six. At this time the formation is best used by Qi Condensation individuals, but true to its name my work on it shall continue, with the eventual goal of elevating it to the same rarified heights of the Kataphractoi and Twin-Eagle Formation.
Blessings upon you Seniors.
Attached to the letter was a thick binder of her findings and insights which should hopefully help clarify the matter. With a happy stretch she set off for bed. She'd visit Xiao Yi in the morning and give him some of that Golden Grass Wine she had found recently.
Okay
@occipitallobe here's my next omake for Turn 6! I am now asking for my Century Oasis Formation bonus, which I am giving to the clan. For convenience I'll also detail it again here so you don't have to dig through the entire omake, and as a neat format to match the other Formations on the clan sheet:
Century Oasis Formation. This formation draws on the power of the desert sands, air, the sun and the moon, tapping into the dragonlines which flow through it and it concentrates this power amongst the members of the formation. The users of this formation share vitality, speed of healing, and endurance which is further amplified by the concentrated amount of desert Qi. Thusly, cohorts using this formation find themselves expending fewer Spirit Stones to heal and march through the desert or improving the effect of Spirit Stones they do expend, thus enhancing our advantages in our home.
Thank you to
@Liliet and
@Quest and
@Alectai for mentioning me in your omakes as well. Thanks as well to
@Kaboomatic for that collab.
Also writing what is basically a Xianxia Scientific Abstract is hilarious fun.