Turn 13: Arc 2-4
Ling Qi knew instinctively that an offering of something trivial would not be enough. Here, ensconced in the river spirit's power she could feel along the channels that defined him. With the High Priestess words in her mind, the pulsing lines of earth and metal made that clear. He loved mortal craft, but it was for the effort which went into its make and the value of the craftsmen's effort. A trinket she had no part in the making wouldn't do.
No it would have to be an item of power and she had few enough of those and none she wished to give up. She considered offering her effort, to perform a task, but so many responsibilities loomed ahead. The diplomatic summit, the war, establishing herself and her family's name. She didn't have the time.
All that remained was to offer some of her own power, the energy she had cultivated to empower herself, and something in her balked at that. To surrendur even a sliver of her hard earned power made the darkness in her veins twist and pulse.
But it was the right choice. If she satisfied the spirit, Hanyi would be able to continue her performances and grow her reputation. Ling Qi could look at the region's nobles and smile, saying that there was no problem not easily resolved.
Cultivation was key, without it, you were nothing in the eyes of the Empire, but it was not the only power. It wasn't enough on its own, not unless she wished to live alone.
"Spirit of misty hills and cold waters, for your forbearance, I offer you a gift of my power, as the melting snows feed your headwaters," Ling Qi said stiffly. Her words echoed with deeper meaning, a defining of the amount offered for which the human tongue offered no sufficient words. "A gift, once and done, not to be repeated. And with this gift, I offer the bonus of knowledge that I will seek the one which inflicted this embarrassment upon the both of us."
Even if it was the reasonable thing to do, that did not cool the coal of anger burning in her chest. She had not been prepared for unseen enemies to interfere already. Not in something as separated as her Junior Sister's performances.
The inky black pupils at the center of the river spirits' luminous eyes expanded and contracted unsettlingly as the river spirit stared her down. Ling Qi did not allow herself to blink or shift her posture by even a millimeter, confidence was key, whether dealing with humans or spirits. She was not here as supplicant, or tyrant, but a peer.
"Vengeance promised in darkness of old winter satisfies, waters run cold and shallow with freezing, a slaking of thirst Seven Hills Stream does accept, from nameless scion of Mists" the river spirits garbled voice echoed in the mist. There was still a note of dissatisfaction in his voice, but she could sense that the rivers temper was cooled for now. No surge of power flowed through his channels which would bring flood and ruin.
Ling Qi let out a breath she had forgotten she was holding, and reached out a hand. The rivers avatar rippled and a sparkling tendril of water shot out, curling about her wrist. Pain shot through her arm, like hungry teeth digging into her flesh and a surge of numbness followed as qi flowed out like draining blood. Ling Qi grit her teeth and held her pose, pulling back on her qi to control the flow.
Ling Qi could not say how long the transaction took, here in the realm of dreams, but she felt the moment that she had fulfilled her bargain, and flared her qi pulling back against the spirit's thirst. Ice crackled across the surface of the river spirits avatar.
She held its gaze for only a moment before the watery tendril slid away.
They stood there for a moment, Ling Qi and the spirit as the faint strains of music echoed through the dream. She gave a terse nod. The spirit's liquid avatar spasmed in a way resembling a bow. With a flex of her leg's Ling Qi shot back into the sky, catching a current of wind to drift her way toward a spinning leaf as they drifted from the hills and cliffs of Seven Stream's domain.
Sixiang materialized behind her, a hand on her shoulder. "You did good there, probably the least messy way it could have gone."
Ling Qi breathed out, balancing atop the drifting red leaf. "A few weeks, maybe a month," she said tersely.
Sixiang grimaced. "That's what you gave up huh?"
"It's not much really," Ling Qi said. "Not when I have so much time ahead of me. Keeping up my reputation so Renxiang and I's project succeeds is much more valuable. Hanyi's performances are probably going to be more important than I thought."
"The temple priests are gonna give you trouble on that I think, the fact you succeeded is just gonna prick their pride more even leaving aside other stuff," Sixiang said.
"Some will, but I'm not going to assume how that many people will be. If the ones who don't like me are holding all the tiles, then I just have to find the right friends to give a boost too," Ling Qi said. She wasn't quite as confident as she felt, but she hadn't chosen an easy path. That was just how it was.
"Hm, well I won't say I mind you being a bit more aggressive," Sixiang hummed, leaning on her shoulder.
Ling Qi let out a huff of laughter. "Let's get back and see if I can catch the end of the show."
They weren't able to catch more than the final procession through the temple gardens in the end. She supposed the transfer of power must have taken longer than she had subjectively perceived. At least she had been able to slip in among the crowd to add her applause to the end as Hanyi took her bows. It seemed as far as the audience had been concerned it was a splendid festival performance.
She spent some time among them, mingling with her fellow nobles. After her negotiation with the river spirit, it was almost relaxing to field questions about the 'unique twists' to the ritual and deflect with smile and some words about changing conditions.
There was some legitimate unease, but between her confidence and the silence of the clergy it was no more than that. It seemed that, whatever their opinion on her, the priests had no interest in showing weakness either. Eventually, as the guests were called to the holiday feast set for after the ritual, Ling Qi was able to make her way back into the staging area, and finally meet Bao Qian again.
"Of course I knew that there were ten rivers," Bao Qian seeming a bit offended at her question. "I was assured in our correspondence that the priests were planning a special individual ceremony for the Seven Hills Stream, since it's source was in the snowmelts and might view this as an intrusion."
"I hope that you kept every piece of the correspondence then," Ling Qi said stiffly, her temper had cooled, but she still felt very irritated by all this.
"As do I, since I wrote of no such thing," An older woman's voice reached them, and Ling Qi frowned as she peered through the door to their destination. It was a rest room, filled with tables and benches for the ritual performers to relax in. Right now it held only the older woman and Hanyi. Her junior sister was looking a bit smug, and the two of them seemed to be studiously ignoring each other.
"High Priestess," Ling Qi greeted, entering the room with a bow. "I was able to prevent any immediate issues."
She didn't let her voice waver toward pride too much.
Chao Yanlin narrowed her eyes. "Yes, though we shall see what a river spirit drunk on Darkness might do in the coming year. How did you achieve your negotiations so quickly, baroness?"
"I must keep my methods to myself," Ling Qi replied. "As you see here it is sometimes necessary to have some secrets."
The older woman's nostrils flared in irritation.
"Lady Ling's privacy is not up for debate, but I do apologize for any trouble. You can be sure the temple will receive a donation to aid in covering any lingering trouble," Bao Qian said diplomatically, stepping in behind her. "Lady Chao, might you want to share the other issue which came up during the procession."
Chao yanlin shook out her sleeve, the tiny bells woven into the fabric ringing, and an iron cage appeared on the table between her and Hanyi, in it were a variety of pulsing lights bobbing and bouncing crazily in the confines. They were dark blue black and shimmering white, winter faeries, if Ling Qi had her guess. "There was further sabotage. An attempt to disrupt the ritual using a bound mortal servant."
"Luckily, my own arts were able to detect something wrong with the man carrying the spirit cages, since Lady Ling informed me that high alert was necessary. Unfortunately there was little to be gained from the poor mortal."
"Sloppy," Ling Qi said, squinting at the cage. The faeries shrank back under her gaze, huddling at the bottom of the cage. "What would releasing these have accomplished?"
"Important rituals interact with the flow of the world's energies, the regions meridians, if you must compare it to human cultivation. Introducing foreign qi into the midst of a ritual unplanned would confuse and anger the spirits of the land, and may even cause them to lash out at the performers, perceiving an insult," Chao Yanlin said sourly.
"Why isn't there more security then?" Ling Qi asked with a frown.
"Because open sabotage like this is not done," the woman shot back. "Not since her grace's reforms to the Ministry."
"It seems really sloppy to me," Hanyi said absently, watching the fairies dart around their cage. "The Duchess is really scary, you'd have to be pretty dumb to break her rules like that."
There was a shared moment of silence among the three of them. Truth from the mouths of children indeed.
"It does seem very hasty and ill advised," Bao Qian said. "But before we get too far, the letters?"
Ling Qi was silent as the two of them spread letters across the table. It did seem sloppy.
"Might be someone panicked when you ran off. If you were supposed to be here, maybe these little fellas were meant for something else?" Sixiang mused.
She watched as Bao Qian and the priestess spread out their letters, stabbing their fingers down at the suspicious ones and politely bickering over their origin. Someone had altered the mail as well, that was clear. Most importantly it was becoming clear that this was more than idle sabotage. Someone was looking to seriously undermine her and her sister.
"Whoever did this was quite a forger," Bao Qian said sourly. There was no trace of his joviality. "Although, I do believe they made a mistake."
"Oh, and what is that?" asked Chao Yanlin, looking as if she had bitten into something sour herself. "By my measure, you were bamboozled completely."
Ling Qi bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that the priestess had been tricked as well. It wasn't helpful.
Bao Qian rubbed a finger across the text of one of the offending letters. "I had no reason to find it suspect before, but the ink used in the altered letters is different. "The soot in it comes from a specific grove of valley pines."
"How do you know that?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"Family trade secrets," Bao Qian said.
"How convenient," Chao Yanlin said.
"Hey, none of you are going to eat those, right?" Hanyi asked, interrupting them to point at the cage of fairies.
"Hanyi," Ling Qi sighed.
"Hey, its not just cause I'm hungry. I bet you I can tell you where they came from if you let me eat a few," Hanyi said defensively. When Momma went wandering with her second soul to visit other ice spirits she'd bring me treats like this from all over the place."
Ling Qi paused, so did Chao Yanlin and Bao Qian.
"...If neither of you object?" Ling Qi asked.
Chao Yanlin pursed her lips. "A more trustworthy method I suppose. Spirits do not lie half as well as men."
"By all means," Bao Qian chuckled.
Ling Qi gestured, and Hanyi's hand shot out kicking up sparks as it slipped between the bars of the spirit cage to snatch a pale blue fairie. The little thing let out a distressed shriek, it's delicate wings fluttering furiously as Hanyi popped it into her mouth and brought her teeth together with a sharp crunch, like a sugar candy being chewed.
Like a candy, Hanyi spent a few long moments chewing and rolling it around in her mouth before swallowing. She grinned and the rest of the faeries cowered. "Oh this one's easy. It's from the Green Stone Gleaming, its tangy."
Ling Qi frowned in confusion.
"Mount Tong," Chao Yanlin said. "That would be…"
"In the same viscounty as the pine groves. It is the great quantities of copper in the soil which lends the pine soot its properties after all," Bao Qian said triumphantly. "Our letters would have passed through the Ministry of Communication office in Ganjian, would they not?
"Yes," frowned the Priestess.
"Then it seems we have a lead," Ling Qi said calmly.
"This is a matter for the ministries to pursue," Chao Yanlin replied. "Whatever my opinion, this is clearly a crime. Leave this matter to those who know their task.
[] You will naturally cooperate with the Ministry of law and any others, but you cannot just leave this matter be (Begin Idol Days Political Quest)
[] You may not like the priestess much, but she is not wrong here. Working within the Ministries bounds is important (Begin Laws Long Hand Political Quest)
No it would have to be an item of power and she had few enough of those and none she wished to give up. She considered offering her effort, to perform a task, but so many responsibilities loomed ahead. The diplomatic summit, the war, establishing herself and her family's name. She didn't have the time.
All that remained was to offer some of her own power, the energy she had cultivated to empower herself, and something in her balked at that. To surrendur even a sliver of her hard earned power made the darkness in her veins twist and pulse.
But it was the right choice. If she satisfied the spirit, Hanyi would be able to continue her performances and grow her reputation. Ling Qi could look at the region's nobles and smile, saying that there was no problem not easily resolved.
Cultivation was key, without it, you were nothing in the eyes of the Empire, but it was not the only power. It wasn't enough on its own, not unless she wished to live alone.
"Spirit of misty hills and cold waters, for your forbearance, I offer you a gift of my power, as the melting snows feed your headwaters," Ling Qi said stiffly. Her words echoed with deeper meaning, a defining of the amount offered for which the human tongue offered no sufficient words. "A gift, once and done, not to be repeated. And with this gift, I offer the bonus of knowledge that I will seek the one which inflicted this embarrassment upon the both of us."
Even if it was the reasonable thing to do, that did not cool the coal of anger burning in her chest. She had not been prepared for unseen enemies to interfere already. Not in something as separated as her Junior Sister's performances.
The inky black pupils at the center of the river spirits' luminous eyes expanded and contracted unsettlingly as the river spirit stared her down. Ling Qi did not allow herself to blink or shift her posture by even a millimeter, confidence was key, whether dealing with humans or spirits. She was not here as supplicant, or tyrant, but a peer.
"Vengeance promised in darkness of old winter satisfies, waters run cold and shallow with freezing, a slaking of thirst Seven Hills Stream does accept, from nameless scion of Mists" the river spirits garbled voice echoed in the mist. There was still a note of dissatisfaction in his voice, but she could sense that the rivers temper was cooled for now. No surge of power flowed through his channels which would bring flood and ruin.
Ling Qi let out a breath she had forgotten she was holding, and reached out a hand. The rivers avatar rippled and a sparkling tendril of water shot out, curling about her wrist. Pain shot through her arm, like hungry teeth digging into her flesh and a surge of numbness followed as qi flowed out like draining blood. Ling Qi grit her teeth and held her pose, pulling back on her qi to control the flow.
Ling Qi could not say how long the transaction took, here in the realm of dreams, but she felt the moment that she had fulfilled her bargain, and flared her qi pulling back against the spirit's thirst. Ice crackled across the surface of the river spirits avatar.
She held its gaze for only a moment before the watery tendril slid away.
They stood there for a moment, Ling Qi and the spirit as the faint strains of music echoed through the dream. She gave a terse nod. The spirit's liquid avatar spasmed in a way resembling a bow. With a flex of her leg's Ling Qi shot back into the sky, catching a current of wind to drift her way toward a spinning leaf as they drifted from the hills and cliffs of Seven Stream's domain.
Sixiang materialized behind her, a hand on her shoulder. "You did good there, probably the least messy way it could have gone."
Ling Qi breathed out, balancing atop the drifting red leaf. "A few weeks, maybe a month," she said tersely.
Sixiang grimaced. "That's what you gave up huh?"
"It's not much really," Ling Qi said. "Not when I have so much time ahead of me. Keeping up my reputation so Renxiang and I's project succeeds is much more valuable. Hanyi's performances are probably going to be more important than I thought."
"The temple priests are gonna give you trouble on that I think, the fact you succeeded is just gonna prick their pride more even leaving aside other stuff," Sixiang said.
"Some will, but I'm not going to assume how that many people will be. If the ones who don't like me are holding all the tiles, then I just have to find the right friends to give a boost too," Ling Qi said. She wasn't quite as confident as she felt, but she hadn't chosen an easy path. That was just how it was.
"Hm, well I won't say I mind you being a bit more aggressive," Sixiang hummed, leaning on her shoulder.
Ling Qi let out a huff of laughter. "Let's get back and see if I can catch the end of the show."
***
They weren't able to catch more than the final procession through the temple gardens in the end. She supposed the transfer of power must have taken longer than she had subjectively perceived. At least she had been able to slip in among the crowd to add her applause to the end as Hanyi took her bows. It seemed as far as the audience had been concerned it was a splendid festival performance.
She spent some time among them, mingling with her fellow nobles. After her negotiation with the river spirit, it was almost relaxing to field questions about the 'unique twists' to the ritual and deflect with smile and some words about changing conditions.
Hidden Smile rises to 4
Hidden Smile(G): 4
Even under duress,you maintain your composure in difficult social situations, hiding what needs to be hidden and showing what needs to be shown. In turn, you have some skill at detecting the cracks in your peers' facades.
Hidden Smile(G): 4
Even under duress,you maintain your composure in difficult social situations, hiding what needs to be hidden and showing what needs to be shown. In turn, you have some skill at detecting the cracks in your peers' facades.
There was some legitimate unease, but between her confidence and the silence of the clergy it was no more than that. It seemed that, whatever their opinion on her, the priests had no interest in showing weakness either. Eventually, as the guests were called to the holiday feast set for after the ritual, Ling Qi was able to make her way back into the staging area, and finally meet Bao Qian again.
"Of course I knew that there were ten rivers," Bao Qian seeming a bit offended at her question. "I was assured in our correspondence that the priests were planning a special individual ceremony for the Seven Hills Stream, since it's source was in the snowmelts and might view this as an intrusion."
"I hope that you kept every piece of the correspondence then," Ling Qi said stiffly, her temper had cooled, but she still felt very irritated by all this.
"As do I, since I wrote of no such thing," An older woman's voice reached them, and Ling Qi frowned as she peered through the door to their destination. It was a rest room, filled with tables and benches for the ritual performers to relax in. Right now it held only the older woman and Hanyi. Her junior sister was looking a bit smug, and the two of them seemed to be studiously ignoring each other.
"High Priestess," Ling Qi greeted, entering the room with a bow. "I was able to prevent any immediate issues."
She didn't let her voice waver toward pride too much.
Chao Yanlin narrowed her eyes. "Yes, though we shall see what a river spirit drunk on Darkness might do in the coming year. How did you achieve your negotiations so quickly, baroness?"
"I must keep my methods to myself," Ling Qi replied. "As you see here it is sometimes necessary to have some secrets."
The older woman's nostrils flared in irritation.
"Lady Ling's privacy is not up for debate, but I do apologize for any trouble. You can be sure the temple will receive a donation to aid in covering any lingering trouble," Bao Qian said diplomatically, stepping in behind her. "Lady Chao, might you want to share the other issue which came up during the procession."
Chao yanlin shook out her sleeve, the tiny bells woven into the fabric ringing, and an iron cage appeared on the table between her and Hanyi, in it were a variety of pulsing lights bobbing and bouncing crazily in the confines. They were dark blue black and shimmering white, winter faeries, if Ling Qi had her guess. "There was further sabotage. An attempt to disrupt the ritual using a bound mortal servant."
"Luckily, my own arts were able to detect something wrong with the man carrying the spirit cages, since Lady Ling informed me that high alert was necessary. Unfortunately there was little to be gained from the poor mortal."
"Sloppy," Ling Qi said, squinting at the cage. The faeries shrank back under her gaze, huddling at the bottom of the cage. "What would releasing these have accomplished?"
"Important rituals interact with the flow of the world's energies, the regions meridians, if you must compare it to human cultivation. Introducing foreign qi into the midst of a ritual unplanned would confuse and anger the spirits of the land, and may even cause them to lash out at the performers, perceiving an insult," Chao Yanlin said sourly.
"Why isn't there more security then?" Ling Qi asked with a frown.
"Because open sabotage like this is not done," the woman shot back. "Not since her grace's reforms to the Ministry."
"It seems really sloppy to me," Hanyi said absently, watching the fairies dart around their cage. "The Duchess is really scary, you'd have to be pretty dumb to break her rules like that."
There was a shared moment of silence among the three of them. Truth from the mouths of children indeed.
"It does seem very hasty and ill advised," Bao Qian said. "But before we get too far, the letters?"
Ling Qi was silent as the two of them spread letters across the table. It did seem sloppy.
"Might be someone panicked when you ran off. If you were supposed to be here, maybe these little fellas were meant for something else?" Sixiang mused.
She watched as Bao Qian and the priestess spread out their letters, stabbing their fingers down at the suspicious ones and politely bickering over their origin. Someone had altered the mail as well, that was clear. Most importantly it was becoming clear that this was more than idle sabotage. Someone was looking to seriously undermine her and her sister.
"Whoever did this was quite a forger," Bao Qian said sourly. There was no trace of his joviality. "Although, I do believe they made a mistake."
"Oh, and what is that?" asked Chao Yanlin, looking as if she had bitten into something sour herself. "By my measure, you were bamboozled completely."
Ling Qi bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that the priestess had been tricked as well. It wasn't helpful.
Bao Qian rubbed a finger across the text of one of the offending letters. "I had no reason to find it suspect before, but the ink used in the altered letters is different. "The soot in it comes from a specific grove of valley pines."
"How do you know that?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"Family trade secrets," Bao Qian said.
"How convenient," Chao Yanlin said.
"Hey, none of you are going to eat those, right?" Hanyi asked, interrupting them to point at the cage of fairies.
"Hanyi," Ling Qi sighed.
"Hey, its not just cause I'm hungry. I bet you I can tell you where they came from if you let me eat a few," Hanyi said defensively. When Momma went wandering with her second soul to visit other ice spirits she'd bring me treats like this from all over the place."
Ling Qi paused, so did Chao Yanlin and Bao Qian.
"...If neither of you object?" Ling Qi asked.
Chao Yanlin pursed her lips. "A more trustworthy method I suppose. Spirits do not lie half as well as men."
"By all means," Bao Qian chuckled.
Ling Qi gestured, and Hanyi's hand shot out kicking up sparks as it slipped between the bars of the spirit cage to snatch a pale blue fairie. The little thing let out a distressed shriek, it's delicate wings fluttering furiously as Hanyi popped it into her mouth and brought her teeth together with a sharp crunch, like a sugar candy being chewed.
Like a candy, Hanyi spent a few long moments chewing and rolling it around in her mouth before swallowing. She grinned and the rest of the faeries cowered. "Oh this one's easy. It's from the Green Stone Gleaming, its tangy."
Ling Qi frowned in confusion.
"Mount Tong," Chao Yanlin said. "That would be…"
"In the same viscounty as the pine groves. It is the great quantities of copper in the soil which lends the pine soot its properties after all," Bao Qian said triumphantly. "Our letters would have passed through the Ministry of Communication office in Ganjian, would they not?
"Yes," frowned the Priestess.
"Then it seems we have a lead," Ling Qi said calmly.
"This is a matter for the ministries to pursue," Chao Yanlin replied. "Whatever my opinion, this is clearly a crime. Leave this matter to those who know their task.
[] You will naturally cooperate with the Ministry of law and any others, but you cannot just leave this matter be (Begin Idol Days Political Quest)
[] You may not like the priestess much, but she is not wrong here. Working within the Ministries bounds is important (Begin Laws Long Hand Political Quest)
