Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
[X] Coordination, making the disparate cacophony into a cohesive melody
Two Days Later
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Two Days Later
***
Two days had passed since the last tremor had rocked the bunker, since the dying scream of the sky had been heard. Children huddled close to their parents, their crying having petered out over the long hours. Now all anyone could do was wait. Wait for the sect forces to give the all clear and for the doors to be opened. And what better way to wait was there but to talk.
"How bad do you think it will be, Li Tang?" Shen Gan asked, his hands rubbing together with nervous energy.
It was the fifth time that the large man, wider and taller than a door, had asked him, but Li Tang didn't hold it against his friend. For the five years that they had been neighbors and friends Li Tang had known that the other man preferred being outdoors. Preferred the wide open spaces of the fields and farms. Being trapped underground in a space not built for a man of his size must be a special kind of hell.
"Bad." Li Tang said, just had he had the other four times. "But not too bad. From what I saw before heading down here the spirit beasts were panicking. That only happens when a big raid is on the way, but the good news about a big raid is that small villages like ours are just targets of opportunity, never the focus of the attack."
"That's good." Shen Gan said. "Avoiding attention is good."
Li Tang patted the other man's shoulder in commiseration.
Just then the doors shuddered and the lights which indicated the workings of the immortals flickered before fading away. As one everyone took a breath. They knew it would be the sect opening the doors and letting them out, but somewhere in the back of their mind the idea that it was the barbarians wouldn't rest.
So when the doors did open and a stream of sect soldiers poured in. Conversations, once held in whispers for politeness sakes, erupted in volume. Children hid behind their parents and babbled excitedly to each other while soldiers swept through the bunker looking for anything wrong. There was chaos and confusion as people stumbled upright and tried to grab what they came with.
But something was wrong.
Twice before had Li Tang entered the village's bunkers, and something was different this time. Before the soldiers would smile at them, laughing with each other at some joke told outside the doors of the bunker. Some of course would be sullen and withdrawn, or some would be stern and commanding. Yet each one would have a fire in their eyes, a sign of victory.
There were no fires in the eyes of these soldiers.
They moved quickly and efficiently, each one exemplifying the sects military. But their eyes were long and hard, ash was smeared across their faces, and their postures were taunt, like clothes being wrung dry.
Nothing about this made Li Tang calm. Something big had happened, but what?
By virtue of being closest to the door Li Tang was allowed to leave the bunker first. The sky as he started to leave the bunker made his stomach drop further.
Clouds, cold and gray, roiled across the sky. Undulating and writhing like some great serpent or dragon. It wasn't raining, at least not yet, but Li Tang knew, just from looking at the sky, that when it did rain it would not be a warm summer's rain, but a hard and driving rain. A rain that hurt.
A poor omen for the coming months.
When he saw the village however, all thoughts of the future fled his mind. Gone was the village he had helped spend the last five years building. Gone, like someone had picked up a great broom and swept it away.
Elder Tieli's hut, where he had gone too three years ago when he couldn't keep any food down, gone. The small shrine, where the Bountiful Earth was venerated during the harvest festival, gone. His house, which was a touch too cold in winter but just right in summer, gone.
Everything was gone.
Li Tang felt his knees hit the ground even as he heard the cries of surprise and distress from the others leaving. They could recover from this. The sect would make sure about that. Anything less would be a loss of face. But the village would have to start over. Would they have to sleep in the bunker tonight just to get out of the elements?
He didn't know how long he knelt there, staring out at the ruined village. People passed by him, walking in a daze, but Li Tang couldn't remember who or how many. The only thought in his brain was a question running in a loop: what's next? Li Tang could come up with an answer.
Eventually, hours or minutes later he didn't really know, a heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Looking up, Li Tang saw Shen Gan. Tears cut through the dirt on his face and his hands were dirty.
"Up and at them." Shen Gan said, voice quiet like never before. "The Elders want us to go up that hill," he jerked his head south with the words, "and see just how far the damage spreads."
Li Tang followed Shen Gan's motion. It was obvious which hill was intended just by looking at it. Before a small sect camp had sat on the hill, able to observe with ease the surrounding farms. A wall now sprouted from the hill, a shield hammered into the very earth. Perhaps it was the only structure still standing.
"Did we get permission?" Li Tang said. The last thing he wanted right now was to get into trouble with the sect.
"The soldiers said it was fine." Shen Gan said. "More pressing matters for them to worry about I suppose."
"I suppose." Li Tang agreed dully.
The walk up the side of the hill was a short one, it wasn't a very big hill afterall, but about halfway up Shen Gan broke the silence that had fallen between them.
"Supposed to check on the farms, see if any can be recovered."
"I doubt it." Li Tang said with a sigh. "Something big happened, and if the sect couldn't save our village I doubt they would go to the trouble of saving our fields. At least the sect won't let us starve."
"The soldiers said it is going to be war." Shen Gan said as they walked around the sect's camp and towards the wall. "That armies are going to come to the wall because of what happened."
"I suppose we will just have to tighten our belts then." Li Tang said, mostly because he didn't know what else to say.
His village was gone, his life reduced to dust and charred wood, and now there would be war. Stories about war, about the horrors, nightmares, and hungers it brought, were tales shared to children. There hadn't been a war since the Hui were overthrown, and that had been before his parents, his grandparents, even his great grandparents time.
Now one more tragedy was being added to his life and Li Tang had nothing more he could feel.
"Look at this." Shen Gan said as he ran his hand over the wall. "It looks like roots and vines woven together."
Li Tang peered closer. It did. Like some crude basket made by a child, except on a scale beyond imagination.
"Were these grown?" Shen Gan muttered as he peered closer at the wall. "Or just created?"
"It's immortal nonsense." Li Tang said as his foot bounced right off the root he tried to kick. "Doesn't really matter."
"Oh, sure." Shen Gan agreed as he started climbing up the wall. "But if it was grown, maybe whoever did this could help us save the harvest."
"With a war coming I doubt they will have time, but more importantly what are you doing?"
"I want to get a better vantage point, so I'm getting to the top of the wall." Shen Gan said as he felt around for a place to haul himself further up.
"Sure," Li Tang said, "but there are stairs right over there."
A slight pause filled the space between the two of them. Then Shen Gan chuckled, pushed himself away from the wall and landed back on the ground. Together they shared a laugh and used the stairs, a moment of respite from the crushing uncertainty facing them.
A moment stolen away as they reached the top.
"By the spirits." Li Tang said, blood draining from his face.
Shen Gan only nodded in response.
Beyond the wall was death. Death laid out in horrific detail. Insects, some the size of large dogs, coated the ground. They clogged the irrigation ditches, carpeted the fields, piled high at the foot of the wall. Many were burnt, reduced to blackened husks, just as many were torn apart as if set upon by feral dogs.
It looked like a solid carpet stretching outwards towards the ruined forest. Any gaps in the bodies were filled with ash. Yet the carpet of death was not the only sign of how hard the sect had fought here.
Two centipedes, wider than a man and long enough to easily encircle a barn, were left as macabre war banners, their forms impaled by dozens of wooden spikes and hoisted above the charnel. Black liquid oozed down the spikes forming retched pools and bile rose in Li Tang's throat as he watched one of the legs of the closer centipede twitch.
If this… disaster had reached the village would the bunker have survived? How many other villages out there hadn't been as lucky as them? What were the cloud nomads going to do next if they were able to unleash such plagues at the Empire?
"Li Tang, Li Tang, look!"
Shen Gan's voice dragged him away from the questions now swirling in his mind. He followed Shen Gan's gaze towards the river and saw a miracle.
There, where the carpet of insects grew thin, green rice shoots were sprouting. They emerged from the gaps between the insects' bodies, young and uncertain, but they were there. Between the field of death that stretched for miles and the leveled village life was blooming.
Li Tang stumbled down the stairs, running to tell the elders of the village with Shen Gan right behind him. It would take a lot of work. Mountains of dead insects would have to be moved and new irrigation ditches would have to be dug. Still, if the village managed to pull together even a small harvest, this winter would be so much less miserable. Perhaps, Li Tang thought as he hurriedly explained the situation to the astonished elders, he wouldn't need to tighten his belt too much this year after all.
***
Omake for @yrsillar
Credit where credit is due, I got this idea after Veekie talked about an omake idea set place after the first attack that fled his mind. His general idea inspired me to make this omake. I hope you enjoy it!
***
Two days had passed since the last tremor had rocked the bunker, since the dying scream of the sky had been heard. Children huddled close to their parents, their crying having petered out over the long hours. Now all anyone could do was wait. Wait for the sect forces to give the all clear and for the doors to be opened. And what better way to wait was there but to talk.
"How bad do you think it will be, Li Tang?" Shen Gan asked, his hands rubbing together with nervous energy.
It was the fifth time that the large man, wider and taller than a door, had asked him, but Li Tang didn't hold it against his friend. For the five years that they had been neighbors and friends Li Tang had known that the other man preferred being outdoors. Preferred the wide open spaces of the fields and farms. Being trapped underground in a space not built for a man of his size must be a special kind of hell.
"Bad." Li Tang said, just had he had the other four times. "But not too bad. From what I saw before heading down here the spirit beasts were panicking. That only happens when a big raid is on the way, but the good news about a big raid is that small villages like ours are just targets of opportunity, never the focus of the attack."
"That's good." Shen Gan said. "Avoiding attention is good."
Li Tang patted the other man's shoulder in commiseration.
Just then the doors shuddered and the lights which indicated the workings of the immortals flickered before fading away. As one everyone took a breath. They knew it would be the sect opening the doors and letting them out, but somewhere in the back of their mind the idea that it was the barbarians wouldn't rest.
So when the doors did open and a stream of sect soldiers poured in. Conversations, once held in whispers for politeness sakes, erupted in volume. Children hid behind their parents and babbled excitedly to each other while soldiers swept through the bunker looking for anything wrong. There was chaos and confusion as people stumbled upright and tried to grab what they came with.
But something was wrong.
Twice before had Li Tang entered the village's bunkers, and something was different this time. Before the soldiers would smile at them, laughing with each other at some joke told outside the doors of the bunker. Some of course would be sullen and withdrawn, or some would be stern and commanding. Yet each one would have a fire in their eyes, a sign of victory.
There were no fires in the eyes of these soldiers.
They moved quickly and efficiently, each one exemplifying the sects military. But their eyes were long and hard, ash was smeared across their faces, and their postures were taunt, like clothes being wrung dry.
Nothing about this made Li Tang calm. Something big had happened, but what?
By virtue of being closest to the door Li Tang was allowed to leave the bunker first. The sky as he started to leave the bunker made his stomach drop further.
Clouds, cold and gray, roiled across the sky. Undulating and writhing like some great serpent or dragon. It wasn't raining, at least not yet, but Li Tang knew, just from looking at the sky, that when it did rain it would not be a warm summer's rain, but a hard and driving rain. A rain that hurt.
A poor omen for the coming months.
When he saw the village however, all thoughts of the future fled his mind. Gone was the village he had helped spend the last five years building. Gone, like someone had picked up a great broom and swept it away.
Elder Tieli's hut, where he had gone too three years ago when he couldn't keep any food down, gone. The small shrine, where the Bountiful Earth was venerated during the harvest festival, gone. His house, which was a touch too cold in winter but just right in summer, gone.
Everything was gone.
Li Tang felt his knees hit the ground even as he heard the cries of surprise and distress from the others leaving. They could recover from this. The sect would make sure about that. Anything less would be a loss of face. But the village would have to start over. Would they have to sleep in the bunker tonight just to get out of the elements?
He didn't know how long he knelt there, staring out at the ruined village. People passed by him, walking in a daze, but Li Tang couldn't remember who or how many. The only thought in his brain was a question running in a loop: what's next? Li Tang could come up with an answer.
Eventually, hours or minutes later he didn't really know, a heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Looking up, Li Tang saw Shen Gan. Tears cut through the dirt on his face and his hands were dirty.
"Up and at them." Shen Gan said, voice quiet like never before. "The Elders want us to go up that hill," he jerked his head south with the words, "and see just how far the damage spreads."
Li Tang followed Shen Gan's motion. It was obvious which hill was intended just by looking at it. Before a small sect camp had sat on the hill, able to observe with ease the surrounding farms. A wall now sprouted from the hill, a shield hammered into the very earth. Perhaps it was the only structure still standing.
"Did we get permission?" Li Tang said. The last thing he wanted right now was to get into trouble with the sect.
"The soldiers said it was fine." Shen Gan said. "More pressing matters for them to worry about I suppose."
"I suppose." Li Tang agreed dully.
The walk up the side of the hill was a short one, it wasn't a very big hill afterall, but about halfway up Shen Gan broke the silence that had fallen between them.
"Supposed to check on the farms, see if any can be recovered."
"I doubt it." Li Tang said with a sigh. "Something big happened, and if the sect couldn't save our village I doubt they would go to the trouble of saving our fields. At least the sect won't let us starve."
"The soldiers said it is going to be war." Shen Gan said as they walked around the sect's camp and towards the wall. "That armies are going to come to the wall because of what happened."
"I suppose we will just have to tighten our belts then." Li Tang said, mostly because he didn't know what else to say.
His village was gone, his life reduced to dust and charred wood, and now there would be war. Stories about war, about the horrors, nightmares, and hungers it brought, were tales shared to children. There hadn't been a war since the Hui were overthrown, and that had been before his parents, his grandparents, even his great grandparents time.
Now one more tragedy was being added to his life and Li Tang had nothing more he could feel.
"Look at this." Shen Gan said as he ran his hand over the wall. "It looks like roots and vines woven together."
Li Tang peered closer. It did. Like some crude basket made by a child, except on a scale beyond imagination.
"Were these grown?" Shen Gan muttered as he peered closer at the wall. "Or just created?"
"It's immortal nonsense." Li Tang said as his foot bounced right off the root he tried to kick. "Doesn't really matter."
"Oh, sure." Shen Gan agreed as he started climbing up the wall. "But if it was grown, maybe whoever did this could help us save the harvest."
"With a war coming I doubt they will have time, but more importantly what are you doing?"
"I want to get a better vantage point, so I'm getting to the top of the wall." Shen Gan said as he felt around for a place to haul himself further up.
"Sure," Li Tang said, "but there are stairs right over there."
A slight pause filled the space between the two of them. Then Shen Gan chuckled, pushed himself away from the wall and landed back on the ground. Together they shared a laugh and used the stairs, a moment of respite from the crushing uncertainty facing them.
A moment stolen away as they reached the top.
"By the spirits." Li Tang said, blood draining from his face.
Shen Gan only nodded in response.
Beyond the wall was death. Death laid out in horrific detail. Insects, some the size of large dogs, coated the ground. They clogged the irrigation ditches, carpeted the fields, piled high at the foot of the wall. Many were burnt, reduced to blackened husks, just as many were torn apart as if set upon by feral dogs.
It looked like a solid carpet stretching outwards towards the ruined forest. Any gaps in the bodies were filled with ash. Yet the carpet of death was not the only sign of how hard the sect had fought here.
Two centipedes, wider than a man and long enough to easily encircle a barn, were left as macabre war banners, their forms impaled by dozens of wooden spikes and hoisted above the charnel. Black liquid oozed down the spikes forming retched pools and bile rose in Li Tang's throat as he watched one of the legs of the closer centipede twitch.
If this… disaster had reached the village would the bunker have survived? How many other villages out there hadn't been as lucky as them? What were the cloud nomads going to do next if they were able to unleash such plagues at the Empire?
"Li Tang, Li Tang, look!"
Shen Gan's voice dragged him away from the questions now swirling in his mind. He followed Shen Gan's gaze towards the river and saw a miracle.
There, where the carpet of insects grew thin, green rice shoots were sprouting. They emerged from the gaps between the insects' bodies, young and uncertain, but they were there. Between the field of death that stretched for miles and the leveled village life was blooming.
Li Tang stumbled down the stairs, running to tell the elders of the village with Shen Gan right behind him. It would take a lot of work. Mountains of dead insects would have to be moved and new irrigation ditches would have to be dug. Still, if the village managed to pull together even a small harvest, this winter would be so much less miserable. Perhaps, Li Tang thought as he hurriedly explained the situation to the astonished elders, he wouldn't need to tighten his belt too much this year after all.
***
Omake for @yrsillar
Credit where credit is due, I got this idea after Veekie talked about an omake idea set place after the first attack that fled his mind. His general idea inspired me to make this omake. I hope you enjoy it!
Black Noise
Curious
- Location
- About 1AU from Sol
[X] Complexity, weaving a smoother song from simpler measures
Like this one more.(more thematic of the quest to go for complicated things while failing to coordinate a herd of cats)
Like this one more.
- Location
- US
[X] Coordination, making the disparate cacophony into a cohesive melody
[X] Complexity, weaving a smoother song from simpler measures
I'm sympathetic to this view, but it's unlikely Coordination actually delivers relief from the underlying issue. It doesn't cut down on the number of arts we actually have, and it actually likely makes digesting those arts harder, because we're "losing" potential screen space in conflicts to the unified blending instead of being able to use those opportunities to advance and streamline the narratives of our individual arts. It's arguably papering over the problem, and making it worse. We'll still have to come back to focus on individual arts during training arcs, but we'll have a lot less context for them because we have even fewer examples of the arts identifiably being used in the field. It's likely to increase confusion quite a bit.
Another issue is the trait, or at least the portion of it that we're voting on right now, applies most strongly only to the largest and most complicated confrontations where we're the most likely to break out our full art suite. This is a problem for two reasons. The first is those occasions are particularly rare, giving the trait barely any opportunities to shine. The second is that those scenes are the most likely to have significant narratives, objectives, and time constraints of their own that would be come into direct competition for on-screen focus with the trait. We don't really want that, because it's bad for both sides of the equation.
Coordination runs serious risk of only being able to shine in the types of scenes where there's the least narrative space for it to do so, for the sake of streamlining our art suite cohesion in a way that impedes real progress towards that goal.
[X] Complexity, weaving a smoother song from simpler measures
[X] Complexity, weaving a smoother song from simpler measures
- Pronouns
- he him
[X] Coordination, making the disparate cacophony into a cohesive melody
- Location
- Not Telling
[X] Complexity, weaving a smoother song from simpler measures
- Location
- Germany
[X] Complexity, weaving a smoother song from simpler measures
[X] Coordination, making the disparate cacophony into a cohesive melody
I'm hoping by taking this route, the band consisting of the musician we know can be realized, but maybe that's just my wishful thinking.
I'm hoping by taking this route, the band consisting of the musician we know can be realized, but maybe that's just my wishful thinking.
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