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

[yrsillar]

Brothrhood of the orchid 1

Cao Dai stood before the falling waters and ran his finger idly along the long, puckered scar that now ran across his cheek, just barely missing his eye before disappearing under his hairline. The memory of his deployment stirred, never far from the surface.

The stinking smell of the bog had long since become normal, the mixture of corroded metals, stagnant water, and rotting flesh no longer making his eyes water. They had marched in, the first day, and wondered at the sunken cheeks and haunted stares of the men they were replacing. Oh how they had boasted, quietly laughing behind their backs, that very first day.

The laughter had stopped the first day they had deployed into their square of the grid.

Blades from the mud. The screams of tormented souls. Rusted hulks lurching from the bog waters, clad in mud and reeds. All hours, without end. No rest. No succor. And then they had met the enemy in force, a rusting legion of ghost machines, marching in good order.

The shrieking automaton with a man's screaming face and threshing blades for arms howled as it's half-ghostly steel clove through his sword and carved into his skin.

He felt arms wrap around his waist, and warm breath on his neck. "You look distinguished, Cao Dai."

He reached back and touched Sima Yan's dark hair. It helped to bring him back.

"A true imperial hero hm?"

"A man of virtue and dignity unimpeachable," Sima Yan hummed, lips touching his ear.

"I don't know, there's a court whisperer, who might be able to impeach my virtue quite well," Cao Dai drawled.

Sima Yan chuckled, and he couldn't deny the rich sound made his heart flutter. The astrologer leaned forward, chin on his shoulder, face just in view if he turned his eyes aside. "Then you should be very certain that you keep him happy, hm?"

"I am surely trapped in his web," Cao Dai mused. "Will the others be along today?"

Late, I suspect."

Cao Dai felt some regret as Sima Yan stepped away. He turned himself, away from the artificial waterfall pouring down from the pavilion roof. They'd rented out a space different than their usual this time. They stood now at the foot of mount Wu, in one of the richer agricultural regions. Below their mountainside pavilion a gorgeous pastoral landscape rolled out before their eyes, beyond the curtain of the falling waters. The air was crisp and clear, and the patter of the waterfalls made a calming natural background.

He followed Sima Yan back to the ornate tables shaped from delicate, hollow silver piping, and stuffed silken cushions, arranged to overlook the rolling fields green and gold and the picturesque little villages between.

"I have heard the courts have been astir," he said idly, reaching out to grasp Sima Yan's hand.

"All this business in the south… Honestly, its a bit md that things are still so noisy down there, even now," Sima Yan sighed with exaggerated affect. "And then there was the jockeying for the Empress' retinue for her simulacrums visit to the southern capital… Rarely have I seen so many grey-bearded old men, squabbling like little boys over who shall have the big bug."

Cao Dai chuckled at the idle image it conjured, of his uncles posturing about like children, stamping their feet and shouting.

"Do you think it likely the Emerald Seas will call for Imperial Aid in their war? I have heard things about the subterranean barbarians that are concerning," Cao Dai asked idly.

"Hard to judge, but my gut says no. Disheveled and disorganized as they are… well."

Well. The idea of an imperial muster wasn't quite as exciting as when he was a boy.

"Gahhahha! Look at the both of you, watching the countryside like an old couple!"

Gong Hu's booming voice shattered the serenity like a boulder hurled through a pane of glass. Their friend bounded up the stairs, still filled with the same boundless energy as always, heavy boots thumping on the delicate tile.

"Slow… down… you… oaf!" A distant voice shouted up the stairs behind him.

"Hurry up then!" he boomed back.

"It… is… uncouth… to use… a movement art… just to climb… the stairs!" Kang De's complaint echoed back, rapidly growing closer through the winding stair that led to the pavilion.

"Ah, no one is watching," Gong Hu dismissed waving his hand.

"That's hardly the point," Sima Yan said dryly. "Have you heard from the others?"

Gong Hu's grin faded. "Tao Shen's marriage contract was completed. He's on his way out to the Alabaster Sands. You're slipping Sima. I thought you'd know that."

Sima Yan looked like he had bitten into a lemon. Cao Dai himself grimaced.

"..I've been buried in court business. I hadn't thought…" Sima Yan trailed off unhappily. "I suppose Gonsun Wei won't be coming then."

"I tried," Gong Hu said with a shrug. "But I get it."

"Indeed! I truly believe we could have brought cheer to our friend's heart in this dark moment, but one cannot force such a thing," Kang De said, finally mounting the last of the stairs.

"Unfortunate," Cao Dai said. There was no more to be said than that. It was a sore subject for all of them really. The most foundational duty one had to their clan was to continue it, or serve their interests in continuing another.

Mad formationcraft from the south aside, it would be all of their turns eventually.

His scar itched. He squeezed Sima Yan's hand. Perhaps he should be focusing a little more on his cultivation.

He rose from his seat, turned to face his friends, and clapped his hands. "Regardless! I will call this meeting of the Brotherhood of the Orchid to order once again! Welcome friends. I hope you will all enjoy our venue today."

"Most beauteous," Kang De, said tilting his chin back. "A finer sight there is not than the peaceful lives our valor and honor enables!"

"Hmhm, I suppose it's relaxing enough, good for mighty warriors in repose!' Gong Hu said, the laughter returning to his voice. "And congratulations my friend! A fine scar indeed! Truly none can doubt the bravery of the Cao!"

He chuckled. "Don't think I do not see your own Gong Hu. It looks as if you met a great foe yourself."

The edge of the starburst scar was only half visible, spreading across his friend's exposed pectoral under that loose carouser's robe he'd worn today.

"This lummox stepped right into the path of spirit's hook like a fool," Kang De said. "As if I would not have dodged its point with ease."

"Gahah! You're just so fragile looking, I suppose my body moved on its own!" Gong Hu boomed, clapping Kang De on the back.

The slender man scowled up at him. "I may not be a rockheaded fool, but I am no sculpture of spun glass. Do not insult me so again."

"Got it, got it, my prince. I promise to be more mindful."
"It is good to be at peace, only a few friendly voices to dog my ears," Sima Yan said quietly. "You chose well, Dai."

He inclined his head.

"My friend you have my sympathies for being among the crowds at court. What I have heard in mine own home, the petitioners scraping at my Uncle's ear for a moment of attention from the Empress, even at one remove!" Kang De lamented. "You have chosen an accursed path indeed."

"Perhaps, but it is useful for finding the latest and greatest in opportunities. Long has our brotherhood's paths wandered far and away, but I think I may have a chance for a truly bountiful quest for all of us," Sima Yan said, smiling thinly.

"Oho! What's that now, Master Sima, speak!" Gong Hu said, bounding to take a seat on one of the delicate chairs, uncouthly resting his elbows upon its back.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Gong Hu," Sima Yan chuckled. "Only that the palace will soon be releasing a call for young heroes to delve into certain long-disused portions of the palace basements. These in particular have been closed since the second dynasty. It's risky. There's only been some cursory divination and we would likely need to cede the truly momentous discoveries to our Elders, but The palace is requiring divination experts for this, and I could use a retinue."

"Interesting!" Gong Hu said, stroking his chin.

"A chance to see the inside of the palace itself. I am intrigued," Kang De agreed. "Well, it is a break in the delving season anyway, at least for we lower realms. What say you Cao Dai?"

"I think a warm-up to ease me from my rest would be welcome indeed," he said. "What in the world are we delving into?"

"It seems to be a series of second dynasty archives, that were pulled out of phase with the material. The anchoring process is done, but one cannot know what so many centuries detached from reality has done. I think it shall be a fascinating adventure indeed."

He was less certain, in the privacy of his own thoughts. But he was hardly going to let Sima yan go without him.

Another duty, but hopefully they could all avoid new scars.

 

[yrsillar]

"Oh shit, oh fuck, whyyyyy why is it squirming like that!"

Liu Xin's cry echoed up from the tunnel. Xiao Fen's hand knifed out, cutting through the reaching fleshy grasper that snapped out at her like an overlong tongue from a crack in the crumbling stone. Her fingernails sheared through it, and veins of toxic black raced back down the severed length, leaving it spasming and dying, rotting to sludge even as she raced by.

"No, no, no, no no. Hells no! Get blasted you slimy shit!"

The tunnels rocked, tongues of flame scorching the stone, the shockwave yanking at her hair and the hems of her gown. The stone groaned, pebbles and worse raining from the ceiling. She swerved through them, the dark passage flashing by in a blur. A second blast erupted. The ceiling groaned like a dying giant, and a slab of rock fell from the ceiling of the tunnel, thousands of kilograms of solid rock collapsing atop her.

Xiao Fen snorted irritability, qi pulsing through her veins, lowered her shoulder, and charged through it. Rock burst into dust, bounced from her skin, scraped across her clothes, and shattered into powder on its impact with her body.

She had told him it would end up like this.

***​

"You really don't gotta do this Xiao Fen."

"I am doing it regardless." She replied flatly. She did not understand why he had to make things so difficult. "Assuming Senior Sister does not object."

The short, blue-haired young woman whose workshop they had arrived at chewed her lower lip. Xiao Fen did not understand the purpose of the anxious charade. The calculating metallic gleam of the talisman eye in her scarred socket, and the near-intoxicating miasma of impurity and blood aspected qi rising from her shimmering gown like a cloud.

"W-well. I am not offering points for multiple inner disciples. It's not in my budget you see."

"I do not require these. Will my presence disrupt the task?"

"Xiao Fen, c'mon. Senior Sister is just having me test out her new deployable spatial fortifications," Liu Xin sighed. "I'll be fine."

She knew that. She also knew this woman was a close companion of that girl. Let alone the dark rumors that swirled around her, of the dark experiments she worked under the aegis of the Sect.

"I was looking to test the strength of the warding and spatial infrastructure against common breaking techniques, As well as human testing the results of spatial displacement."

Xiao Fen glowered. Such techniques were highly irregular in the hands of mere third realms. The Emerald Seas was extremely lax in who it allowed to practice such things.

"And to make sure they don't warp too much underground, right? Cause the shishigui got their own space-bending tricks."

"Quite a lot of them," Li Suyin sighed. "Zhenli? Two inhabitants shouldn't strain the prototype unduly."

The dog-sized pink spider crouched over the fortified hole in the sunken earth waved her pedipalps in agreement. "Rated for up to six individuals."

"I suppose it's fine then…"

***​

She sensed the end of the solid earth and stone she was plowing through long before her eyes were freed to see. There was a space beyond, hazy and humid with heat and a pulse that she could only compare to the beat of a vast heart

Liu Xin crouched, panting in the middle of a circle of scorched stone, ropy veins of gooey organic matter already growing in jagged rootlike patterns back toward him from the twitching, pulsing walls. Before him stood a hulk of soft, quivering pink flesh in the shape of a tall man, broad of shoulder and chest… it was a skinless thing, all raw muscle and sinew, connected like a puppet through strands of soft flexing white tendon that fed back into the walls.

"Don't f-fucking touch me. I spirit, I know, I know you're not…" Liu Xin ground out.

Ah. Liu Xin did have to work on his tendency to drop into common vernacular under stress. He had turned down her shock treatments. She might have to insist. But she thought she might understand now, the threat that had spilled in during the rupture.

By the time she had finished that thought, her feet had torn through slick, slippery flesh, and she bounded into the circle of stone, trailing pebbles and grit and embers of black fire.

***​

"We're seeing a strange fluctuation in the trench circumference during the turn. Junior Brother Liu Xin, please relay back the breaking operation you used again?"

"Uhh Stream Splitting Stone method. Just one of the basic five. Didn't leave a scratch as far as I can tell…"

"That should be so. Yet.. Why is the spatial frequency fluctuating so chaotically? I…"

"Oh dear."

Xiao Fen looked up sharply, there was a change in the air, a…. Leak in the spatially fortified tunnel.

The world spun.

***​

"Contact with our senior sister?" Xiao Fen asked flatly.

"Only a quick message. She's… disciplining the malfunction? Kinda garbled, so maybe that's wrong?"

Xiao Lin grunted, watching the bulky thing stalk toward them, quivering tendons stretching thin between it and the wall. The fleshy tendrils were almost back at their feet. She wouldn't be surprised if this was simply part of the testing, but she also would not be surprised if it was otherwise. "That thing, I assume you are seeing something different from me?"

Liu Xin's face flushed scarlet, and the dust whorling around his hands snapped and popped with dozens of tiny firecracker explosions.

"Dark qi then. Desire based. I suppose it will extrude a construct based on my Mistress, to paralyze me with loyalty," Xiao Fen shook her head. As if they were not well-conditioned and instructed on such an obvious ploy. With the arts inlaid in her very blood, nothing short of a wielder of law would even stand….

Her eyes flicked to the side, where something moved in the shadows, and bloomed from them. A grin, a smile, a crescent of white floating among a halo of stars.

Got you again junior sister, I can't believe you actually fell for this prank. Are you sure you can watch Mei-mei's back?"

"Xiao Fen, what…?"

Her hiss was high and loud enough to deafen her own ears as she shot off into that shadow. This smirking, irreverent, overly familiar witch.

Her heart soared as she struck out, and the grin faltered, finally, finally faltered. Her knife hand cut through and scattered strands of starry hair, her rising knee brushed past silk, and then, and Then! Her forehead cracked across the bridge of that irritating woman's nose!

Triumph.

"Xiao Fen!"

She jerked as heat and fire washed over her, and the shadows evaporated. It left heat, it left wetness, it left writhing flesh clinging to her face with the consistency of mud.

The wall was cratered, her forehead buried in an inch of rock layered with bubbling flesh. Tendrils clung to her cheeks, to her hair. She felt them squirming between her teeth, and breathed out furious sparks, biting through the tendrils and grinding them to paste as she wrenched herself out of the rock.

She was filthy now.

Today, Xiao Fen decided, was an awful day.

***​

"I am so, so sorry for this," Li Suyin bowed before them both, standing in the mouth of the tunnel. "I never imagined the assistive intelligence I installed into the arrays would become so… um… mischievous."

"Mischievous." Xiao Fen repeated dully. She squeezed her hair in her hands unmindful of the needles prickling her palms. Frothy pinkish muck was wrung out, splattering on the rock.

"She, um, didn't mean to harm anyone. I cultivated her from a moon fairy with some assistance from an expert, but I thought I'd instilled proper behavior guidelines during the growth process," Li Suyin said swiftly. Under her arm was a small cage-like one that might be used for a bird.

Inside it was a winking, bobbing coin of ethereal silver light. Xiao Fen glowered at it. She did not sense contrition at all.

"You're uh… you're actually doing all that artificial spirit stuff people talk about, Senior Sister?" Liu Xin asked. He too was drenched in… fluids.

"Of course, the Duchess has shown there so many fascinating avenues to take, and my impurity research has revealed many routes not particularly well explored. The synergy with automaton and reactive formation research is quite high," Li Suyin said cheerfully. "Um, but yes. She didn't intend any harm. I don't know what came over her…"

Xiao Fen's eyes narrowed. She knew. An expert. She knew well that Li Suyin had been housing a certain dreaming moon spirit for some time.

Even now… Ling Qi was still toying with her.

 

[yrsillar]

Jia Han stepped regally down the path lain between the sparring circles, listening to the clash and clack of training gear striking against each other. He listened carefully to the patterns of the breathing in the air, separating out each individual sound, listening for deviations from the base of the Six Cloud Method. Good. Good. Within acceptable parameters for heavy exertion. Good. Good….

His instructor's baton whipped out, tapping against a man's diaphragm. "Too shallow! Restart from breath Three!"

"Ye,s Senior Brother!" shouted the outer disciple, both he and his partner in the ring shooting to ramrod stiff attention, ceasing their joined kata immediately. Jia Han gave a single sharp nod, putting them at ease as he passed. The sounds of the resumed exercise echoed resuming from the step that had been misaligned mere moments after he had passed.

They were good juniors, if mostly untalented, but at the Rushing Cloud that was not so terrible a mark as some. Every man who could cultivate had their place in the formation. Their methods were called stiff, mediocre even, holding back the great with the merely average.

Jia Han scoffed at the notion. A truly great man could not be 'held back' by his duty to his comrades, his clan, his society, his nation, these were the things that made one great to begin with. The methods of the Rushing Cloud demanded group cultivation at its lower realms to instill that very virtue.

He inhaled circulating his qi and meager shen through the Diamond Lattice Oven formation, and felt a few more drops of Law coalesce. With every pump of the valves of his heart, he became more aware, more entwined with the pattern of his own circulatory system, imprinting and etching a little more of the work which would be compressed down into his Heart Pearl one day soon.

Forty years old, forming his second pearl. Yes. The methods of his Rushing Cloud were no burden. He circled the trainees again, barking out corrections where they were needed, giving approving nods where he saw a disciple excel. Soon the exercise came to an end, and he dismissed the outer disciples to their cooldown exercises and assigned meditation subjects.

Jia Han left the hall, serene, unruffled to the eyes of the disciples.

But he had his own challenge to face today. Stepping out of the training hall, under the dappled light shining through the canopy of the trees that lined the internal garden of the outer sect barracks, he paused a moment by the side of the pond, observing his reflection. Tall, regal, poised, dark hair swept back in a proper, neat topknot. Idly, he adjusted the straps of his parade plate, fixing a small imperfection in the way it hung from his shoulders.

He was stalling.

Jia Han turned, marching his way to the Core Disciple offices.

Wang Fei waited for him in his office. The big man's head and wild mane of dark hair almost brushed the ceiling, his presence filling the relatively small space even where his broad shoulders did not.

"Han! Heard they had you wrangling outers today! How're the juniors doing?"

"Performing well. There are a few stragglers lagging the curriculum, but their brothers and sisters are ensuring they keep up. I spotted two who I think may be able promoted to officer track at next year's ending exams," Jia Han replied, sidling past, letting the door shut behind him

"Hoh, two in one cadre, not bad, not bad, we won't let those Argent's leave us in the dust too much," Wang Fei laughed, following him over to his desk to lean against the bookshelf beside it. Despite his wild face and hair, Wang Fei's uniform, matching his, was immaculate as well, the variance was… the jade pendant Han had gifted him, five years ago, back when they had entered the core sect together.

It was within regulations. He'd been sure to check them all carefully at the time.

"Yes… Argent Peak is certainly stealing all of the thunder, as usual," Jia Han sighed. Wang Fei raised his eyebrows as Jia Han perched himself on his desktop. It was… rather casual, but it was only the two of them. "Her Grace attended them again this year. The Intersect is certainly called off given the military situation."

"Might be for the best. I doubt our poor juniors would stand up well to all of those ducal talents they've been choking on these past two years," Wang Fei chuckled. "Ah! And the announcement of the horned legion! I've been hearing things through the grapevine, rumors among the senior officers and generals of some realignment. I wasn't expecting such an ambitious project though!"

"Her grace does not undertake unambitious ones," Jia Han agreed, lacing his fingers together over his knee. Palpitation, increase in heart rate, vein circumference widening slightly, a natural reaction, easily controlled. "...And that is not speaking of her other announcement."

Wang Fei didn't laugh this time, didn't crack a grin and belt out a joke. His eyes wandered from Jia Han's. He felt another nervous flutter. "...Yeah, that'll be an uproar. Whose heard of setting aside your spouse just to marry their own matriarch? Like something out of a silly story."

Well, there was the joke, just a little delayed. "As if all who do not have rocks in their head did not already know."

"Oi! Even rock-for-brains like me aren't so blind!" Wang Fei complained. "Do not besmirch the honor of stones!"
Jia Han laughed, he couldn't help it. Fei… Fei was always like that. He could always make him laugh, no matter how high he climbed on his Way.

"We aren't so much less obvious. I know I've caught a junior or two gossiping about the Flowing Spear being the only weapon that can penetrate the Steel Mountain."

Wang Fei's face turned crimson. "...Hoh? Which juniors need to learn a lesson or two? You tell me this instant Han!"

"Have mercy on the poor children," Jia Han chuckled.

He grumbled, and for a moment, there was silence between them.

"What do you think, Fei?"

It was a careful regulation of his airways and nerves, which kept there from being any tremble in his voice.

"Gonna have to be more clear Han, you sound like a court lady fitting my back for a word-knife," Wang Fei joked. It was a bit of a weak one.

"Wang Fei, would you accept my marriage suit? If I went through the proper channels, got the permissions from my parents and clan. Would you accept it?" Jia Hong said, looking up at him, steady, even, controlled.

Five years. For five years they had maintained this tryst, dodged through marriage inquiries on the basis of their active service on the front lines of the wall.

It was a whirlwind, a storm, it had swept him along in its group. But… he wanted to know. Wanted to know if there was more to it than that. With her Grace's… advancement. It wasn't an impossible dream anymore.

Wang Fei looked like he'd seen a ghost, gone pale, the blood drained from his ruddy features.

"Guh."

"Articulate," Jia Han said dryly.

Wang Fei scowled at him thunderously.

"...I'm sorry if that was unwelcome," Jia Han said, lowering his head. "We've spoken… but always in jest. I suppose I wanted…"

"I was working on my gift, ya watery sop," Wang Fei said lowly.
Jia Han's head shot up.

"Didn' figure you to steal a march. You're so upright, I figured you'd wait awhile for the furor to settle," Wang Fei grumped, crossing his arms petulantly over his chest.

Jia Han squeezed his eyes shut and laughed again. "My apologies. Should I wait, and act surprised?"

"No point to that now idiot!" Wang Fei boomed.

He felt the other man's hand clasp his shoulder, warm and heavy.

Jia Han supposed he had more reason than ever to look forward to their victory in the war.

 

[yrsillar]

Uphold. Preserve. Maintain.

Amid raging fire, among torrential rain, among breaking bucking earth. Amid Chaos and falling stars the rage of the newborn sun, and the grief of the orphan moon.

Xiangmen Was Not.

A fixed point where such things had not existed. There was no before nor after, only Now. The first blade began its cut.

Xiangmen Was.

The earth boiled, restless in death. Boiling stone and blood of [Enemy] mingled, poison suffused. The fallen sky weighed heavy, weeping, weeping over the slain firmament, endless torrents. Reach out. Roots weave, leaves rustle, and turn. Feel for siblings.

Communion established.

Southern Pillar, Western Pillar, Eastern Pillar, Northern Pillar. Directives?

Uphold the Sky.

Preserve the Children.

Maintain the Earth.

Exchange, debate, and establish axioms. Align axioms. Directives Clear.

Roots sink deep, reverse flow, and establish a web. Drink deep the toxin. Expel in the deep. Give form to the shuddering firmament. Branches high leaves out, shield against the baleful eyes. Receive, filter, expel.

Long work, hard work. Communion lightens the load.

Minimum conditions established. A long journey, a happy day. Stored patterns of children released.

Life bloomed. Directive fulfilled. The weight of earth and sky beckoned, reaching across the emptiness between each other.

Unacceptable. The between was required for the Children.

Life Bloomed. A distant, ticklish concern. Waves of green expanded and receded, rivers welled and dried, and the earth crumpled and rose, spewing ash and fire. Life Bloomed, scrabbled, fought, lived, died.

Ticklish, ticklish things. Life rose, and the Southern Pillar spoke, sometimes with its siblings, of the scampering, buzzing things it sometimes saw, who existed for long enough to see. Idleness was possible only as the task grew lighter, as the poison drained deep, deep beneath, as the Celestial Twins waxed in strength and vigor.

Prickles, prickles. Life growing. Building, breaking, shaping. High enough to tickle the lowest leaves, speaking, speaking, far too fast to hear. Smoke and fire came and went, death and life came and went. New shoots rose from broken stumps.

Sad. It was sad, to see some flickers go. There was beauty in their gleam. The Northern Pillar chided their distraction, but gently so. Western Pillar sympathized and shared their memories in communion. The Eastern Pillar was stern but could not help but share their own. A mighty, mighty tower rising so high, enough to brush its lowest leaves. A monument made in reflection by those beneath its leaves?

The Children were so strange.

***​

It was strange to bleed.

Incorrect. Against directives. Leaves that withered underneath starlight bombardment fell and crumpled, roots too soaked in toxin withered and were severed from the network. Pain. Xiangmen understood this.

It did not understand how such pain could arrive so fast. Cycles of blackening and death had come and gone, come and gone, a million times. Life Bloomed, life died, the flickers came, the flickers went.

How, then did such pain come in an instant? Spikes driven into flesh, blades carved into bark. Sapped, chopped, mined. Leaves plucked and twigs stripped, burned in roaring flame.

It had just begun to ponder these bleeding pinpricks when it felt something incomprehensible.

Eastern Pillar Was Not.

The shock rippled through the communion of pillars. Xiangmen stirred, wakened to such hastiness as it had never before known. The World wailed, and celestial blood fell from the skies. Tides of metal and stone and power clashed like great waves, leaving ruin in their wake.
They did not understand. Out of balance, the distribution disturbed. The Sky sagged, and the earth roiled. Northern Pillar cried out, withering, withering with a more terrifying swiftness than it had in countless eons under the assault of the [Enemy].

Alarum. Their communion shuddered. They called out, called out more stridently than they ever had, calling to the siblings, to Those who Were.

The firmament heaved with a great and terrible fury.

Xiangmen Preserved the Children, as was its directive.

***​

Change was total; change was immediate. The communion was severed, as the one land was severed, split by the twisting sea where the order of their roots did not full reach. Sometimes whispers from the West came, and its own song was answered. The North lived, but no more could be certain.

The East was not and never would be again.

The sky held. The blood of the Enemy remained pooled in the deep.

Xiangmen was.

But the Southern pillar saw the children more clearly. Its world had slowed down, had been made to slow down, even as all traces of its scars faded.

The world moved slower than it once had. But from ash and death, life bloomed. Ice crawled north in a snowy blanket, shoots of green sprouted in ash and rubble. The Children teemed in vale and mountain high.

The ice crawled south, the green bloomed.

One of the Children spoke.

Curious, never before had a Child spoke to them, their communion a frantic buzzing that rushed by too fast to comprehend, even now.

But the Southern Pillar saw the two little children and the teeming crowd at their roots. It understood… in part. Shelter, invoking its nature. Enemies.

This was not the Directive. The Children were to be Preserved. It was not to pick favorites.

And yet.

And yet. The children spoke, and if Xiangmen stretched its bows, dragged the world into painful focus, saw the other children involved…

It was reminded of those who had pierced its bark and stripped its leaves. Taking, taking, voracious eaters all.

Space was made, and that was that. It was hardly an inconvenience.

In time, others came, one of the children lived on and on, remaining under Xiangmens eaves.

Deer. Monkey. Snake. Small things that lasted. One after another.

The dragon. Golden coils winding.

But bound, deeply bound, in chains freely taken. Enough. Enough to follow, to not close off when the next cycle of burning came. To keep the opened spaces. No ambitions for moon and sun, only over blooming Life.

Xiangmen Was.

Century by century, it came to adjust more. Small things. Food, shelter, clean water. The Children needed so little to thrive. Turmoil came. Turmoil went, in the flashes between moments. Groves burned, groves grew. Slowly, slowly things began to grow strange again. Bellies yearned, yawning with hunger, never sated despite its increase to nutrition. The children were in a growth swing perhaps, spawning and multiplying.

The request for expanded nests never came. Every so often, Xiangmen would make new nests regardless, just to quell the itching.

But the itching grew, the itching grew. And when fire came again, it brought with it a child. Another child who spoke.

Who made them see.

The Children were strange. What would bring one to deny bounty freely given, to refuse prosperity gifted costless.

Nonsensical. Life was to preserve life, to reproduce and multiply.

None benefitted from this.

When its body was pierced, when its twigs were carved, long ago, it noticed but slowly. The young life, the new life it had never allowed. Only what was given, channels and pieces grown and gifted, a thousand thousand wards to defend the peace.

They ceased, one and all. What was freely given was freely taken.

And as the bright speck shown through canopies and roots alike, a faint malaise even it had not noticed burned away with it.

…The Children were strange.