For one moment longer, Ling Qi's gaze lingered on the retreating barbarians, discontent welling in her heart at the inconclusive outcome of their clash. Then, she turned her eyes away, and began to fly, soaring in a curving line out and away from the village.
"Eh, Big Sis where are you going?" Hanyi asked, still clinging tightly to her back. The young spirit was unharmed, her Thousand Rings techniques had been enough to keep her safe from any collateral.
"They're retreating, that's good enough for now," Ling Qi replied. She wasn't sure if she believed it. The wound in her side throbbed, and memories of men-barbarians falling to their deaths flitted around the edge of her thoughts. "Talk later Hanyi." The words came out a little harsher than she had intended.
Hanyi let out an indignant huff, but for once, didn't talk back as she dissolved, returning to Ling Qi's dantian.
"You're doing the right thing," Sixiang whispered in her thoughts.
Ling Qi wasn't so sure, but she appreciated Sixiang's vote of confidence anyway. Her eyes fell on her target, the other scout officer. The landscape blurred beneath her as she flew toward his position, and the last of his pursuers peeled off, wheeling away to follow their fellows in retreat.
It took her a second to recall his name, but they had spoken briefly on the way here. "Ru Nan!" she called, and her voice carried through the mist, echoing on the wind and through the lingering melody of her song. As her mist engulfed him, she wove her qi so that it did not hinder his sight, and the young man's eyes lit up as he saw her outstretched hand.
She swooped low, and he reached up, clasping her forearm as the stag he was riding dissolved mid leap, its qi streaming back into his dantian. "My thanks Lady Ling!" he called, hanging tightly to her arm as she began to make the turn back toward the village.
"Officer is more appropriate right now," Ling Qi replied dryly, though her eyes remained on the village, shimmering silver orbs still watched the retreating shadow of the barbarian storm.
"Perhaps," he grumbled. It was almost comical, seeing him dangling from her arm like a leaf fluttering in the high wind. "I hope you will accept the sentiment regardless. Without your intervention, I do not think my path would have opened. I owe you a debt."
"It is nothing," Ling Qi replied absently, burned and ruined farms flashed by beneath them, and ahead the walls of the village seemed terribly small. "I was only performing my duty."
"All the same, my words remain," he replied stubbornly. She glanced down, really looking at him for the first time. He was an average sort, handsome as most cultivators of the third realm were, but little about him stood out to her. Still, she had just been forcibly reminded that even first realms could be relevant on the field of battle. It seemed foolish to dismiss his gratitude.
"I will accept them then," she had an odd sense of deja vu, as if she had engaged in a similar exchange before, but she shook it off. It was difficult to think about politics though, surrounded by devastation.
By the time she landed in front of Shen Hu, her mist was beginning to fade away, mingling and dispersing with the smoke from burning fields. Shen Hu stood upon a patch of bubbling mud some hundred meters outside of the villages gates, his hands clasped flat together. His hans and forearms gleamed with a shell of black diamond, though the talons created were no longer jagged and beastly. Thrumming through the earth, she could sense his qi as well as that of his spirit beast and it suffused even the clay brick wall which surrounded the village proper, flowed through the soldiers who manned the walls and who were withdrawing in wary packs from the fields.
"You've gotten even more scary," Shen Hu commented absently as she sank down toward the earth in front of him. His half closed eyelids fluttered, like a person in the midst of a dream.
"I will take that as a compliment," Ling Qi said with a touch of fatigue. As they neared the ground Ru Nan released his grip on her arm, dropping the last few meters and landing gingerly on one foot. "...It seems your techniques have evolved as well."
"Decided being a duelist wasn't as important, Tournament's over," he replied. He still sounded distant and distracted. She could see why, three great rings of stones orbited the perimeter of the village. Some the size of a man's heads while others were the size of a fist or even mere pebbles. She could sense the anticipative energy in them quivering with the impulse to react and punish attackers.
"An impressive technique indeed," Ru Nan grimaced, glancing toward the walls. "I feel somewhat inadequate if I must be honest.
"Wouldn't have had time to start evacuating without your warning," Shen Hu replied.
"I would not have been here either," Ling Qi allowed. "Speaking of which… the other village requested aid too. I think I should go and aid them as well."
"Then go, everyone is inside now," Shen Hu replied. For a moment, his slack expression grew dark. "I will not break."
It was that kind of attitude that worried her, Ling Qi thought irritably, she remembered well the outcome of that awful dream. Her stomach churned with worry. Worry that the barbarians would return here. Worry that Zhengui and Xiulan were in mortal danger, worry that she could end up leaving another village to die.
"Do not tarry on our account Officer Ling," Ru Nan said, moving gingerly toward the gates. "You are among the swiftest of us, and I cannot imagine the barbarians could have slipped very much more this far without alerting the Sect as a whole."
Ling Qi felt a moment of indecision, but then nodded sharply. "I will check the northeastern village first then. Please let any messengers know my position."
"We'll do it. Stay safe," Shen Hu replied.
With no more time to spend on pleasantries, Ling Qi flew.
Swiftly, the walls of the village vanished behind her, and the wind shrieked with her passage, though it did not so much as ruffle her hair. Only the knowledge that more fighting likely lay ahead kept her from pouring on more speed through her techniques.
"...Why aren't we going to check on Zhengui?" Hanyi asked, her voice quiet instead of bold for once.
For a second, Ling Qi didn't answer. "Because he is strong enough. I have to trust to him," though she might not care for anyone in this village personally, some small part of her, the part that sat up and listened when Cai Renxiang spoke of duty, would not be satisfied with leaving them to potential death. Perhaps it was arrogant, but she knew Zhengui's strength, she knew Zhengui's strength. She did not know the strength of the disciples stationed here. Even if she did not speak them aloud, she knew Hanyi could feel the direction of her thoughts.
"I don't care about them though," Hanyi sulked.
"Not a whole lot of good options," Sixiang chuckled weakly. "...I hate this though."
Ling Qi dipped her head in acknowledgement of Sixiang's words. The muse was not a creature of violence, of course they would hate this. Even Ling Qi, with her blood no longer pounding in her ears, she just felt tired and disgusted.
She could not afford to be too introspective however. She needed her focus elsewhere. Ling Qi breathed deeply, taking ahold of her qi and diffusing the dense energy. A moment later, the shrieking wind stopped as she dove into dancing shadows of the canopy below.
Minutes later, as she began to approach the village, Ling Qi found her fears and hopes alike unrealized. The village was very much not safe, smoke rose from the fields and homes scattered throughout the valley, and the silhouettes of gliders and horesman circled in the sky raining arrows down upon the defenders. However, the concentration of force was low. She felt only a single third realm here, high in the clouds. She could sense the web of energies resonating between him and his subordinates.
There were so many less though, a little over a score of first realms and a half dozen seconds, scattered around the perimeter of the village, hemming in the soldiers within from aiding the people she could still feel out in the fields, being hounded and harried by barbarian gliders. The soldiers of the sect fought back with discipline, but they were outnumbered, with only two full squads manning the walls and returning fire. She could not feel the qi of her fellow officers anywhere, and that was more than a little worrying.
Hidden in the shadows cast by the dark clouds that churned overhead, drizzling a miserable rain, Ling Qi considered the scene. She could feel the presence of other soldiers and scouts scattered far away. She could imagine her fellow scout officer falling, caught by a sudden concerted attack while on the outskirts, but could the disciple manning the village have really fallen so easily too?
Either way, she needed to even the odds, scatter the barbarians before she could investigate, and she had learned better than to go openly in doing so. Ling Qi darted out of the shadows, invisible and intangible, leaping from tree shade to glider shadow, she spiralled up into the sky, using the barbarians themselves as stepping stones to rise higher and higher still until the clouds themselves could swallow her presence. Even if she had allowed herself a little pride, Ling Qi still remembered where her true skill lay.
Swiftly she closed in on the barbarian warleader, whose mount cantered impatiently beneath him as he observed the battlefield, flanked by two second realm riders, but these were not so prepared as their fellows, not so enhanced by numbers and so as she slipped silently into his shadow, there was no response. There wouldn't be one, if she had anything to say about it. She did not have the time nor the inclination to mercy at the moment.
In her thoughts, Hanyi giggled in anticipation, and Sixiang let out a weary sigh. The masked tribesman, sitting tall on his bloody maned mount, had only a fraction of a second to flinch as she materialized behind him, and already playing the first notes of the Refrain of deepest winter. It was the howl of a blizzard and the crumbling of a glacier wrought into sound, and it struck the three tribesman with titanic force. Unable to react, to throw up a defense, the scream of one of the two second realms died in his throat, and he and his frozen mount fell from the sky seeming for a moment, like a glittering sculpture.
The other clung to the frozen mane of his mount skin blackened and burned by the cold, yet still managed to wheel to face her along with the warleader, just in time to catch the echo of her song, sung by a younger and higher voice. It lacked the raw force of her refrain, yet still they flinched back, drawing up their qi in panic to defend and ward off the chill from worsening the icy qi already creeping into their veins.
A single sharp note parried the rearing hooves the second realms mount, hurling the both of them back with the force as her singing blade emerged from the cloud forcing the warleader to desperately parry with the curved blade he swiftly drew from his saddle. His horse cantered backward, trying to wheel and gain distance, but Ling Qi knew better than to allow that to happen. Against her fellow imperials, distance was her friend, against barbarians it was the opposite.
She charged, and a brief thought had Hanyi laughing with glee as she leaped off of Ling Qi's back on a gust of icy wind and her arms outstretched. Ling Qi had only a moment to see the injured second realm let out a horrified scream as Hanyi embraced him and sang of a warm death in the midst of winter snows. No longer burdened by the spirit, Ling Qi blurred back into shadow just as a bolt of heavenly power lit the clouds, the crackling meter wide bar of actinic light was blinding, but it served only to burn an all too brief gap in the formless shadow that Ling Qi had become mid charge.
For the second time, as she grasped the man's shoulder with her hand, she sang the silence of the End, and watched the watched the man's wild eyes freeze behind his mask. She tried not to wonder at what difference, if any there was from the last time. Letting him fall away, she swooped back, scooping Hanyi from the back of the panicking horse whose rider was no more. She tried very hard not to look at the hollow and mummified features visible behind his half shattered mask as Hanyi dissolved, returning to her dantian. She was not done yet. Ling Qi raised her flute back to her lips and once again began to play. It was no technique, merely a flexing of her power. The clouds tore apart, letting in the afternoon sun, and the sharp threatening notes of her song drew every eye to her, where she flew above the falling remains the tribesman's leader.
If they had not felt the brief battle before, they could certainly see the results. Beneath the churning in her stomach, Ling QI felt a certain cold sense of satisfaction as she heard the ragged cheers of the imperials, and heard the cries of alarm from the tribesman. But she was still not done yet.
With her fur lined cloak billowing in the winter wind, Ling Qi descended to drive the enemy from the field.
***
"What happened here?" Ling Qi asked bluntly as her feet touched the ground in the village square in front of the bowing second realm who wore the marks of a lower officer. "Where are my fellow disciples?"
With her qi ebbing a little low from the use of so many powerful techniques in quick succession and the events of the day churning in her thoughts, Ling Qi's grip on her power was far more frayed than usual, the ground frosted under her boots, and the wind whispered a cold and unfriendly melody.
"My apologies Officer Ling," the second realm officer said without raising his head or unclasping his hands. "We do not know the disposition of Officer Song, but… Officer Deng was found dead just before the attack."
Ling Qi's brows furrowed in worry. "Explain."
"Officer Deng had been taking tea while preparations for the evacuation of the fields were being made," the armored man replied stiffly. "When I entered his rooms to inform him that the attack was nigh, I found him dead. His throat was cut, there was no sign of struggle. I have no excuses."
She watched with a blank expression as the man bowed still lower somehow as if expecting a reprimand. "...You did the best that could have been expected of you," she replied mechanically. It seemed that things were only continuing to grow more alarming. She had certainly heard nothing of the Cloud Tribesman fielding assassins of all things.
As she pondered how to proceed though, she felt something and her head whipped around to the south in time to see a star born in the dark and stormy sky. She felt in her bones a clash of raw power near to the jutting silhouette of Icebreaker peak. A powerful wind hit her next, sending her hair fluttering and unsecured shutters and debris moving. There was a second flash then, and the earth shook, a plume of dust rising from Icebreaker peak, visible even so many kilometers distant.
...She recognized that qi from training sessions and debriefings. Her commander was fighting something, something strong enough to push her. She felt the earth beneath her feet still shaking infinitesimally like a gong being struck again and again in quick succession.
"O-officer Ling?" The man beside her asked, his composure finally cracking.
"...Continue the evacuation and rescue," Ling Qi replied hastily. She did not like this, she did not like any of this. "I will search out Officer Song." And then get directly to her village, she added silently. Things were continuing to spiral beyond what she had expected, events happening far too quickly for her taste. She forced herself to calm, rushing would not help her hear. "Prepare me a basin filled with water," she said her voice stiff and clipped even to her own ears. "I am going to have a look at Officer Deng, has the scene been disturbed?"
"No Ma'am," the soldier replied clapping his fists together and bowing his head. "There was no time, nor was the barracks damaged in the fighting."
"Good," Ling Qi replied, turning on her heel. It was easy enough to sense the direction of the barracks, the shelter was beneath it after all. She could feel the people of the town huddled below the earth, fearful and in pain. Even as she had the thought though, the earth shook, and a gust sent her hair fluttering, a few flyaway strands dancing in the wind.
That certainly wasn't helping, Ling Qi thought darkly.
When she entered the Officer's office in the barracks, Ling Qi did her best to keep on a mask of calm, and also to not gag at the stench. She felt her stomach turn over as she saw the body, even now, she felt a hint of revulsion at it. It reminded her of bad old days in alleys and gutters. She forced her mind off of old memories as she stepped over the threshold, silver light flickering in her eyes. From the folds of her gown flickering wisps of light fluttered out, spreading throughout the room, skimming the ceiling, slipping under and around the furniture, feeding her information on the scene.
The disciple was slumped over his desk. The soldier had if anything undersold the death wound. Only the young man's spine kept his head attached to his shoulders, a ragged gash clove the flesh of his neck in twain, but there was very little blood. The crimson fluid that stained the desk was stained black, and seeped but slowly, heavy and thick with toxic qi. There really was no sign of struggle, a cooling pot of tea still sat undisturbed on the desk and not a single book or scroll on the shelves was out of place. Of the assailant, she could find no sign…
No, Ling Qi thought, narrowing her eyes as she traced the room through multiple viewpoints. There was something familiar. It was faint, even with all of her focus, she could only just barely sense the fading remnants. It could best be described as a film, like the skin that formed on curdled milk, a scent of rot and impurity that she had only caught thanks to her previous experience, and time spent in Li Suyin's workshop.
It gave her a bad feeling indeed. She needed to make sure this was reported to the Sect. She turned swiftly from the scene, marching out. There was nothing more she could do here. Even as she proceeded out to the village headman's house, where the basin had been prepared, she felt time ticking by all to quickly. Trust or no, she wanted to get back to Zhengui and Xiulan.
She swiftly set about her task, weaving her qi into the water as she focused on the face of her fellow Scout Officer, she dearly hoped that he was within range. The water in the basin churned and darkened, shimmering like the night sky, and for once her hope was rewarded. The image was dim and a bit blurry thanks to her unfamiliarity with the young man, but she saw him, huddled among the roots of a massive tree. He was breathing, but shallowly, the corpse of a barbarian lying a few meters away in the mud. The disciple was wounded, but seemingly not too badly, she could only assume he was exhausted, though her qi sense did not extend through the basin. He seemed, at least momentarily, fine.
"Officer Ling, what are your orders?" the soldier who had brought her the basin asked tentatively.
She would have to order messengers sent out, obviously. Ling Qi thought faintly, everyone needed to be warned of the threat she had found here. That was obvious enough. No the question was what she was going to do.
[] Rescue
[Find your fellow officer and return him to the village. If he is exhausted you do not want to leave him for the barbarians if they sneak back. It will hopefully not take long, and by staying nearby you should be able to catch one of the messenger corps to be sure that your own warning spreads quickly. The moment he is back, you can return to your own assignment. Rescues other scout Officer, restores village chain of command. Expends time. May be unneccessary.]
[] Investigate
[There is a trail, faint and fading. You are not Su Ling, but you have some skill at tracking, if only thanks to your perception arts. This 'assassin' needs to be found and put down, it is too dangerous. Very time consuming, uncertain success, puts down major threat if successful]
[] Return
[You have done your duty and more. Get back to your assigned village, your friend and your little brother. Something lethal is prowling the shadows, the barbarians are still lurking in the clouds and things are clearly turning for the worst in the south, you have trusted them, but you have a terrible feeling. Puts you back at a point position against whatever madness is happening at Icebreaker Peak. Defends Xiulan and Zhengui against potential threats. Peace of mind.]
AN: Tl;dr, fecal matter is beginning to move swiftly in a sideways sort of direction. What do?
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