Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
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EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
- Location
- France
[X]The cemetery
- Location
- UK
[X] The old shrine
Flipped a coin and it came up
[x] The old shrine.
[x] The old shrine.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] The old shrine
- Location
- United States of America
[X] The old shrine.
Let's see what's here!
Let's see what's here!
Turn 14: Arc 3-4
"We'll find the old shrine," Su Ling said wearily. "Well assuming this place makes sense at all."
"It makes as much sense as you can impose on it," Sixiang said absently. "It's warm here."
"Village was a good ways north and west," Su Ling grunted, stepping toward the ill kempt dirt path.
"What makes it the 'old' shrine?" Ling Qi asked quietly, peering warily at the shadows under the canopy. This place was warm and bright, but there was something in the air here that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She didn't feel watched precisely, but…
It felt like stalking the den of a sleeping beast.
Su Ling scratched absently at her ear, the two real tails curled about her waist twitching and coiling tight. Her brows furrowed as she searched her memory. "I think Gran said… long time ago, the village got wrecked, a big disaster, so it got moved and when it did, some big priests from the city came down to consecrate a new shrine. The old one got exorcized and abandoned."
Su Ling chuckled and it was both fond and sad. "She said the old spirits would take away dumbass nosy children too curious for their own good."
"Did they?" Ling Qi asked, tilting her head.
"Dunno, but most folks stayed away, made it a good hiding spot when I really needed shelter," Su Ling shrugged. "But… guess it is where I met the Ministry of Integrity guy. So maybe Gran wasn't wrong."
Ling Qi shared a mirthless laugh with her friend. If you looked at it that way. "How did that go?"
"He let me think my swinging log trap got him, then appeared behind me with his hands on my shoulders. Dramatic fucker," Su Ling laughed.
Ling Qi smiled wanly, her own finder had been a little less good humored, striding in the space between eye blinks to capture her as she fled from a heist whose point she no longer remembered. Not so different from how she moved at times now that she thought of it. That too was amusing.
In the company of memories the oppressive feeling of this place was a little less.
It was obvious when they were nearing the shrine. She saw the tree at its center from minutes away. It was a massive thing, more than ten meters across at the base, stretching more than a hundred into the sky. An ancient growth that stood out like a sore thumb in the younger growth around it. Ancient and hoary with deep brownish red bark and wide leaves of a bright vibrant green.
"Was it really that big," Ling Qi asked.
"...Yeah," Su Ling said, frowning. "Actually, dunno, mighta been a little smaller, but not too much. It really did loom like that."
Ling Qi just nodded quietly as they approached its base.
There was once a clearing here, an area paved with stones, the contours of a garden, but it was now nothing more than weeds, brush, saplings and broken rocks. Built into the base of the tree was a run down structure. It's tilted roof sagged, shoots of growth rose through the holes. It was clearly a temple once with a high painted archway and hooks for lanterns. It wrapped against the tree, built against it, into it, with narrow walkable paths seemingly carved or grown into the thick trunk, and the tattered remnants of rails.
It's interior lay in an unnatural shadow, so thick and cloying that tendrils of it spilled from the windows and doorway like rivulets of ink.
"You stayed in there?" Sixiang asked Su Ling, tilting their head.
"It's never been like that in reality," Su Ling said, watching the liquid darkness that ran down from the broken shutters of a window. "Like it always felt bad, so I never went into the main building. But there's a shed round the other side I slept in sometimes. Had stuff for me to build with, rope and wood and tools."
Ling Qi saw the image of it shimmering like a mirage, small and overgrown with ivy, crumbling with the passing of days, before it dispersed like mist in the air. "But we're not heading to the shed are we Su Ling?"
"No," Su Ling said, staring hard into the darkness. "Always wondered what was inside."
Ling Qi nodded in acceptance, but gathered her power around herself, frost touching the grass and her shadow growing just as inky and black as that which spilled from the old shrine. That though was less important than her attention to the stuff of dream that made this place. She was ready to tear them free and hurl them back to the gate at a moment's notice.
Sixiang put a hand over hers and she gave a small nod, following her friend toward the ruined shrine.
Despite the darkness, the air only grew warmer as they approached, until it was a musty, humid heat, like the breath pouring out of an open mouth.
Su Ling sighed, nudging the moldy splintered floorboard with her foot, making the ink-like darkness spilled across it ripple.."Man, this is a pretty obvious trap too huh?"
"Maybe a bit," Ling Qi said warily. "But… with what little you've told me about your natural abilities, is that a surprise?"
Su Ling wrinkled her nose, fingers curling into fists. "Traps within traps, labyrinths and illusions… yeah, I s'pose that's fair."
The entrance beckoned, and Su Ling Stepped inside, her sandals touching down on liquid darkness and making a sound like she was treading on wet mud. She passed under the eaves, and stepped past the half broken doors. Ling Qi hurried to follow.
The interior was as dank as any swamp. Mold, slick and wet clung to rotting, sagging walls and liquid of indeterminable origin dripped from the bubbling ceiling. Su ling gave her an amused look as Ling Qi gathered cool wind around herself, isolating her person from the scent and liquid.
"Didn't take you for dainty."
"I'm not," Ling Qi sniffed. "What about you, where did your wariness go?"
"Dunno, I just… don't feel like I'm in danger," Su ling said with a frown.
Ling Qi gave Sixiang a worried look, but the muse shrugged. "Can't see any outside effects. If you're feeling weird its something that was already there."
Su Ling's good humor faded from her face, like a heavy stone sinking into a lake. "...Right. Let's keep going."
They continued through the sagging hall in silence, passing by and through rooms and halls. Living areas for priests and places of gathering and performance. The black tar that ran and dripped from inside the walls remained ubiquitous.
Ling Qi found herself hunching her shoulders as they went. This place felt… unhealthy, like she was wading through an open wound. "You said you knew stories, but is there really nothing clearer than that?"
Su Ling rolled her shoulders showing the same discomfort as they tread the hall toward the paired doors that would lead to the shrine's center, within the trunk of the tree. "I think I heard others say, a sickness or something? Poison in the earth-"
"In ten years return with the cure, we don't wish to cull this garden entirely, pet."
Su Ling and Ling Qi's heads whipped around at the sound of that voice. It was a sickly sweet thing and it did not carry on the wind. It oozed and dripped. It was too distorted to here gender or age in that voice, it was a hideous thing. As if the filthy tar in this place had pooled in her ears and its undulation was sound.
"Why-" Su Ling began sounding disgusted and pained.
Shadows wavered in the hall, like a slick of slime and oil cast across reality. Two people and lumps that might have been bodies once sprawled on the floor. That awful voice came again rising and falling in volume like the chaotic ripples in disturbed water.
"Why pet, these poor creatures must be moved to a new reserve for their own good. Left to their own devices they will rebuild these old barbarian practices when we turn our eyes away. You, their lord must strike down these petty gods, and end these barbaric agreements with your own hands."
Ling Qi shivered, glaring at the space where the shadow was, now gone and vanished like a popping bubble in a puddle of oil. "Su Ling-"
"Beasts you might have been, but we made you better, did we not, pet?"
Su Ling's ears were flat against the side of her head, and her expression was twisted in nausea. "C'mon. I want to see the center of the shrine."
And the bent and battered doors opened.
Beyond was the shrine center, filled with the fallen icons of little gods. Peeling paint, that should have been too faded for detail, nonetheless spoke the old tales of creation and the coming of Tsu in the currents of the liminal energy woven tight still through the walls. There, in place of honor stood the withered flowers of the Bountiful Earth, born of Tsu, patriarch spirit of the Emerald Seas, there the silver disc of the Mother Moon untarnished still, there a icon of a river god in tarnished to black, and a dozen others less recognizable than even that.
At the center where the god of the shrine was to sit, sat a broken figure of gold, its altar painted in the bright colors of dawn, its nine tails drooping, melted, broken.
"When festivals stop, when offerings end, blood and flesh remain," Sixiang said quietly.
Su Ling whirled on them, lips drawn back in a snarl. "Don't you dare try ta excuse this shit 'cause of something a disgusting fuck did forever ago!"
Sixiang raised their hands defensively. "Not giving excuses here. Spirits are spirits though, you know?"
"Not all deals are good ones," Ling Qi said quietly. "But there's consequences even for breaking bad contracts."
Su Ling shot her a hurt look.
"Explanations aren't excuses Su Ling," Ling Qi said steadily.
Her friend grimaced, dragging a hand through her hair. "I fuckin know that. Sorry. That doesn't explain why that bitch isn't dead. Plenty of places broke with the old ways and didn't leave the spirits to do as they liked."
"That's true, Ling Qi agreed. "An unwanted god is just an obstacle after all. Why leave it… or being realistic a descendant of it, still wandering around in one of the strongest counties of the Emerald Seas."
Su ling gave a terse nod as she moved into the room, glaring up at the broken statue in it's center. It stared back with empty eye sockets, the gems that had once filled them long gone.
They both flinched, qi rising against a threat as they heard a crash from behind them, the sound of something falling. A wisp clinging to the back of Ling Qi's gown spotted a bushy haired shadow, darting into a side hall. She shared a look with Su Ling whose sharp ears had surely caught the pattering of feet.
"Do you still want to ignore that?" Ling Qi asked.
"Not all of us get all worked up just because they see a cute kid," Su Ling said dryly."Wouldn't they just be a weird memory figment at best?"
"Could be a little cousin playing around I guess," Sixiang mused. "What do you want to do?"
"I… don't know. Say I accept this, that something way back went wrong, and caused… her? What do I do with that?" Su ling asked.
"It might not help your peace of mind, but figuring out your obstacles will still help your goal," ling Qi said.
Su ling grimaced. "You're right. I shouldn't ignore that. It's just…"
"What did you want to find?" Ling Qi asked quietly.
"Dunno, some conspiracy or cult keeping her around?" Su Ling mused. "Not that she's probably just the shitty result of something unrelated."
Ling Qi thought back to her conversations with Meng Dan and sighed. "You've described most major events in history right there, or so I've been told."
"Izzat so?" Su Ling said, letting out a bark of laughter.
"Well historical events are usually several unrelated fuck ups piling up in one place," Ling Qi said, allowing herself to be just a bit a bit vulgar. She was taking liberties with his words, but it was helping Su Ling, so she could apologize later.
There was a scrape, something fell again. "She's not very good at that," Su Ling grunted. "Not sure if that makes it more or less believable."
Ling Qi hummed. It was just her gut, but she didn't think the child, or thing wearing one's face was a trap, at least not from Su Ling's mother. "If she's going to keep following us maybe we should just meet her now.
"Times probably better spent here," Su Ling said. Maybe… I dunno, maybe I get that sicko's memory talking again, find something more."
They both looked to Sixiang who held up their hands. "Whoa whoa, what am I some kind of tiebreaker?"
"Yes," they both agreed.
Sixiang stuck out their tongue. "Fiiiine, we should-
[ ] Check up on the Kid, if they are up to something, better to know.
[ ] Keep teasing memories from the shrine, there's definitely a deeper something here.
"It makes as much sense as you can impose on it," Sixiang said absently. "It's warm here."
"Village was a good ways north and west," Su Ling grunted, stepping toward the ill kempt dirt path.
"What makes it the 'old' shrine?" Ling Qi asked quietly, peering warily at the shadows under the canopy. This place was warm and bright, but there was something in the air here that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She didn't feel watched precisely, but…
It felt like stalking the den of a sleeping beast.
Su Ling scratched absently at her ear, the two real tails curled about her waist twitching and coiling tight. Her brows furrowed as she searched her memory. "I think Gran said… long time ago, the village got wrecked, a big disaster, so it got moved and when it did, some big priests from the city came down to consecrate a new shrine. The old one got exorcized and abandoned."
Su Ling chuckled and it was both fond and sad. "She said the old spirits would take away dumbass nosy children too curious for their own good."
"Did they?" Ling Qi asked, tilting her head.
"Dunno, but most folks stayed away, made it a good hiding spot when I really needed shelter," Su Ling shrugged. "But… guess it is where I met the Ministry of Integrity guy. So maybe Gran wasn't wrong."
Ling Qi shared a mirthless laugh with her friend. If you looked at it that way. "How did that go?"
"He let me think my swinging log trap got him, then appeared behind me with his hands on my shoulders. Dramatic fucker," Su Ling laughed.
Ling Qi smiled wanly, her own finder had been a little less good humored, striding in the space between eye blinks to capture her as she fled from a heist whose point she no longer remembered. Not so different from how she moved at times now that she thought of it. That too was amusing.
In the company of memories the oppressive feeling of this place was a little less.
It was obvious when they were nearing the shrine. She saw the tree at its center from minutes away. It was a massive thing, more than ten meters across at the base, stretching more than a hundred into the sky. An ancient growth that stood out like a sore thumb in the younger growth around it. Ancient and hoary with deep brownish red bark and wide leaves of a bright vibrant green.
"Was it really that big," Ling Qi asked.
"...Yeah," Su Ling said, frowning. "Actually, dunno, mighta been a little smaller, but not too much. It really did loom like that."
Ling Qi just nodded quietly as they approached its base.
There was once a clearing here, an area paved with stones, the contours of a garden, but it was now nothing more than weeds, brush, saplings and broken rocks. Built into the base of the tree was a run down structure. It's tilted roof sagged, shoots of growth rose through the holes. It was clearly a temple once with a high painted archway and hooks for lanterns. It wrapped against the tree, built against it, into it, with narrow walkable paths seemingly carved or grown into the thick trunk, and the tattered remnants of rails.
It's interior lay in an unnatural shadow, so thick and cloying that tendrils of it spilled from the windows and doorway like rivulets of ink.
"You stayed in there?" Sixiang asked Su Ling, tilting their head.
"It's never been like that in reality," Su Ling said, watching the liquid darkness that ran down from the broken shutters of a window. "Like it always felt bad, so I never went into the main building. But there's a shed round the other side I slept in sometimes. Had stuff for me to build with, rope and wood and tools."
Ling Qi saw the image of it shimmering like a mirage, small and overgrown with ivy, crumbling with the passing of days, before it dispersed like mist in the air. "But we're not heading to the shed are we Su Ling?"
"No," Su Ling said, staring hard into the darkness. "Always wondered what was inside."
Ling Qi nodded in acceptance, but gathered her power around herself, frost touching the grass and her shadow growing just as inky and black as that which spilled from the old shrine. That though was less important than her attention to the stuff of dream that made this place. She was ready to tear them free and hurl them back to the gate at a moment's notice.
Sixiang put a hand over hers and she gave a small nod, following her friend toward the ruined shrine.
Despite the darkness, the air only grew warmer as they approached, until it was a musty, humid heat, like the breath pouring out of an open mouth.
Su Ling sighed, nudging the moldy splintered floorboard with her foot, making the ink-like darkness spilled across it ripple.."Man, this is a pretty obvious trap too huh?"
"Maybe a bit," Ling Qi said warily. "But… with what little you've told me about your natural abilities, is that a surprise?"
Su Ling wrinkled her nose, fingers curling into fists. "Traps within traps, labyrinths and illusions… yeah, I s'pose that's fair."
The entrance beckoned, and Su Ling Stepped inside, her sandals touching down on liquid darkness and making a sound like she was treading on wet mud. She passed under the eaves, and stepped past the half broken doors. Ling Qi hurried to follow.
The interior was as dank as any swamp. Mold, slick and wet clung to rotting, sagging walls and liquid of indeterminable origin dripped from the bubbling ceiling. Su ling gave her an amused look as Ling Qi gathered cool wind around herself, isolating her person from the scent and liquid.
"Didn't take you for dainty."
"I'm not," Ling Qi sniffed. "What about you, where did your wariness go?"
"Dunno, I just… don't feel like I'm in danger," Su ling said with a frown.
Ling Qi gave Sixiang a worried look, but the muse shrugged. "Can't see any outside effects. If you're feeling weird its something that was already there."
Su Ling's good humor faded from her face, like a heavy stone sinking into a lake. "...Right. Let's keep going."
They continued through the sagging hall in silence, passing by and through rooms and halls. Living areas for priests and places of gathering and performance. The black tar that ran and dripped from inside the walls remained ubiquitous.
Ling Qi found herself hunching her shoulders as they went. This place felt… unhealthy, like she was wading through an open wound. "You said you knew stories, but is there really nothing clearer than that?"
Su Ling rolled her shoulders showing the same discomfort as they tread the hall toward the paired doors that would lead to the shrine's center, within the trunk of the tree. "I think I heard others say, a sickness or something? Poison in the earth-"
"In ten years return with the cure, we don't wish to cull this garden entirely, pet."
Su Ling and Ling Qi's heads whipped around at the sound of that voice. It was a sickly sweet thing and it did not carry on the wind. It oozed and dripped. It was too distorted to here gender or age in that voice, it was a hideous thing. As if the filthy tar in this place had pooled in her ears and its undulation was sound.
"Why-" Su Ling began sounding disgusted and pained.
Shadows wavered in the hall, like a slick of slime and oil cast across reality. Two people and lumps that might have been bodies once sprawled on the floor. That awful voice came again rising and falling in volume like the chaotic ripples in disturbed water.
"Why pet, these poor creatures must be moved to a new reserve for their own good. Left to their own devices they will rebuild these old barbarian practices when we turn our eyes away. You, their lord must strike down these petty gods, and end these barbaric agreements with your own hands."
Ling Qi shivered, glaring at the space where the shadow was, now gone and vanished like a popping bubble in a puddle of oil. "Su Ling-"
"Beasts you might have been, but we made you better, did we not, pet?"
Su Ling's ears were flat against the side of her head, and her expression was twisted in nausea. "C'mon. I want to see the center of the shrine."
And the bent and battered doors opened.
Beyond was the shrine center, filled with the fallen icons of little gods. Peeling paint, that should have been too faded for detail, nonetheless spoke the old tales of creation and the coming of Tsu in the currents of the liminal energy woven tight still through the walls. There, in place of honor stood the withered flowers of the Bountiful Earth, born of Tsu, patriarch spirit of the Emerald Seas, there the silver disc of the Mother Moon untarnished still, there a icon of a river god in tarnished to black, and a dozen others less recognizable than even that.
At the center where the god of the shrine was to sit, sat a broken figure of gold, its altar painted in the bright colors of dawn, its nine tails drooping, melted, broken.
"When festivals stop, when offerings end, blood and flesh remain," Sixiang said quietly.
Su Ling whirled on them, lips drawn back in a snarl. "Don't you dare try ta excuse this shit 'cause of something a disgusting fuck did forever ago!"
Sixiang raised their hands defensively. "Not giving excuses here. Spirits are spirits though, you know?"
"Not all deals are good ones," Ling Qi said quietly. "But there's consequences even for breaking bad contracts."
Su Ling shot her a hurt look.
"Explanations aren't excuses Su Ling," Ling Qi said steadily.
Her friend grimaced, dragging a hand through her hair. "I fuckin know that. Sorry. That doesn't explain why that bitch isn't dead. Plenty of places broke with the old ways and didn't leave the spirits to do as they liked."
"That's true, Ling Qi agreed. "An unwanted god is just an obstacle after all. Why leave it… or being realistic a descendant of it, still wandering around in one of the strongest counties of the Emerald Seas."
Su ling gave a terse nod as she moved into the room, glaring up at the broken statue in it's center. It stared back with empty eye sockets, the gems that had once filled them long gone.
They both flinched, qi rising against a threat as they heard a crash from behind them, the sound of something falling. A wisp clinging to the back of Ling Qi's gown spotted a bushy haired shadow, darting into a side hall. She shared a look with Su Ling whose sharp ears had surely caught the pattering of feet.
"Do you still want to ignore that?" Ling Qi asked.
"Not all of us get all worked up just because they see a cute kid," Su Ling said dryly."Wouldn't they just be a weird memory figment at best?"
"Could be a little cousin playing around I guess," Sixiang mused. "What do you want to do?"
"I… don't know. Say I accept this, that something way back went wrong, and caused… her? What do I do with that?" Su ling asked.
"It might not help your peace of mind, but figuring out your obstacles will still help your goal," ling Qi said.
Su ling grimaced. "You're right. I shouldn't ignore that. It's just…"
"What did you want to find?" Ling Qi asked quietly.
"Dunno, some conspiracy or cult keeping her around?" Su Ling mused. "Not that she's probably just the shitty result of something unrelated."
Ling Qi thought back to her conversations with Meng Dan and sighed. "You've described most major events in history right there, or so I've been told."
"Izzat so?" Su Ling said, letting out a bark of laughter.
"Well historical events are usually several unrelated fuck ups piling up in one place," Ling Qi said, allowing herself to be just a bit a bit vulgar. She was taking liberties with his words, but it was helping Su Ling, so she could apologize later.
There was a scrape, something fell again. "She's not very good at that," Su Ling grunted. "Not sure if that makes it more or less believable."
Ling Qi hummed. It was just her gut, but she didn't think the child, or thing wearing one's face was a trap, at least not from Su Ling's mother. "If she's going to keep following us maybe we should just meet her now.
"Times probably better spent here," Su Ling said. Maybe… I dunno, maybe I get that sicko's memory talking again, find something more."
They both looked to Sixiang who held up their hands. "Whoa whoa, what am I some kind of tiebreaker?"
"Yes," they both agreed.
Sixiang stuck out their tongue. "Fiiiine, we should-
[ ] Check up on the Kid, if they are up to something, better to know.
[ ] Keep teasing memories from the shrine, there's definitely a deeper something here.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He
Adopt the child, before it gets away!
- Location
- United States of America, Michigan
Our sister deserves fluffy tails near her age!
I sometimes hate hate @yrsillar for the choices he gives us. The protagonist in me who is Su Ling's trusted friend thinks Su Ling wants to explore the mystery more . So we should oblige and help her. The player in me who wants to see something like Ling Ling happen really wants to meet chibi Su Ling.
But still a really excellent chapter with equal parts interesting and light, just what is expected of a social turn with a friend.
P.s. I really enjoy your story and don't hate you at all @yrsillar
But still a really excellent chapter with equal parts interesting and light, just what is expected of a social turn with a friend.
P.s. I really enjoy your story and don't hate you at all @yrsillar
- Pronouns
- he him
I feel like this is going to have some effect on our goal of developing a more concrete Emerald See culture by leaning on older traditions. This is a stark example of how some of the 'good old ways' and shifting styles of dealing with spirits can have consequences that Ling Qi is not going to find acceptable.