- Location
- United States of America
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
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.
- Location
- Staring into the void
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
- Location
- THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
The other option is valid and probably the one I'd pick, but preserving choice is just as valid, less obvious, and more fitting for Ling Qi. Also, examining the nature of Choice is necessary if we ever want to use it as a Concept again.
The other option is valid and probably the one I'd pick, but preserving choice is just as valid, less obvious, and more fitting for Ling Qi. Also, examining the nature of Choice is necessary if we ever want to use it as a Concept again.
- Pronouns
- He
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
A Tale of Two Families
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
A Tale of Two Families
***
Traveling through the plains of the eastern Luo required trust and patience. Trust because one had to trust that they were moving at all given how featureless the landscape was, and patience because the plains were wide and long. Even for a cultivator of the third realm it was a trip better measured in days rather than hours.
Still Ling Jian mused as he watched a lone tree, the only landmark under the blue sky, pass by them, they were making good time. It helped that though Zhihuigui wasn't fast he was steady.
"Steady wins the fruit." The deep bass voice of his cousin echoed through his mind.
"That it does, that it does." Ling Jian murmured back as he rubbed a mossy piece of shell. "I'll be happy though once this part of the trip is over and we are somewhere interesting."
Zhihuigui hummed in response, the deep vibrations causing the cherry trees planted on his back to sway.
"You disagree?" Ling Jian said, sitting up somewhat straighter.
"Only so far as that this place isn't interesting," Zhihuigui said. "Like a cup that's been broken and remade, this land still bears the scars of its shattering, those scars tell a story as interesting as any sung by icy wind or mountain stone."
Ling Jian nodded and withdrew paper, brush, and ink from his storage ring. While Zhihuigui wasn't a pure blood scion of the King of the High Gardens he still had some natural ability in geomancy, and Zhihuigui had devoted himself to its study with a greater passion than any of his clutch.
"What stories are told here then, among the grass and sky?" Ling Jian asked as he readied his brush. "I would be happy to listen."
"It would pass the time, wouldn't it?" Zhihuigui said. "But first visitors."
"Visitors?" Ling Jian said as he stood up. "Ashwalkers?"
"No. Humans. North-west by west."
Ling Jian clambered over Zhihuigui's bulk, moving from the east of the hillock sized turtle to the small house built on the top. It was a small thing of stone, plaster, and red roof titles, but it was his and it was home. Leaping to the peak of the home like sailors leap atop their sails Ling Jian studied the horizon.
There off in the distance were several specks and a cloud of dust. With a frown Ling Jian triggered his arts. Many of the arts the Ling clan practiced disdained the very idea of distance, and the observational arts that Ling Jian studied were no different. In a blink of an eye he was no longer watching featureless specks, but was now among them, like a sparrow sitting on their horses' nose.
They were definitely people, not ashwalkers. Clad in leathers as rough as their skin, Ling Jian almost worried that they were bandits, but uniform gear and the clear discipline of the group put that worry to rest. As he watched, the lead rider returned a well crafted hand-held telescope to his saddle bag, motioned towards the rest of the group, and together they took off at a steady pace towards Ling Jian and Zhihuigui.
"Looks like a scouting party for a local lord." Ling Jian said as he stepped off the roof and landed back down on Zhiguigui's shell. "How close are we to a village?"
"There is a small village nearby," Zhihuigui said as an image of a map popped into Ling Jian's head, "I routed around it, no need to scare mortals after all, but I hadn't routed far enough around it to avoid patrols."
"Well, nothing for it I guess," Ling Jian said as he walked into his house, "let's go to this meet and greet, I'm sure I have the flag of the Empire somewhere in here."
A short time later Zhihuigui slowed to a stop and fell to the ground in a cloud of dust as the horses of the scouting party neighed and skittered at the sudden arrival of a hillock to this part of the world. Ling Jian hopped off his cousin's shell and landed in front of the leader of the scouting party.
"Hail strangers!" He said as he gave a short but respectful bow. "I apologize for any consternation that my travels have brought you or your lord."
"It is no trouble lord," the leader of the group, a cultivator of the yellow realm, said as he bowed deeply and with respect, "but it is not everyday that a new terrain feature is spotted in these lands."
Ling Jian laughed and patted Zhihuigui's nose. "He is a big one isn't he." All he got for his troubles was a breath of hot air messing with his hair.
The leader looked a bit more relaxed after that. "I am glad it is not a wild beast, certainly." He said. "Still I must ask you for your name and your purpose in the lands of my lord, Baron Gong."
"Of course, of course," Ling Jian said, "my name is Ling Jian, and this is my cousin Zhihuigui. We are traveling to the Golden Fields for a learning opportunity."
It had been a surprise to be sure that his flippant words about learning some geomancy from the Han had reached the ears of his Matriarch. Apparently she had some connections to the Han and after some horse trading got him a spot under a Han geomancer for a year and a half. From the letters though, it seemed what the Han were really interested in was seeing what impact a spirit beast of Zhihuigui's pedigree would have on their projects. Everyone remembered what the King of the High Gardens had done in the short time he was in the Golden Fields after all.
"I see," the leader said, "well then, we won't take up anymore of your time, Lord Ling. Safe journeys."
It was then that Zhihuigui nudged Ling Jian's hand, still resting on his nose.
"Ask them if they have any fresh fruit in their town." He said.
"What?" Ling Jian said turning around and facing Zhihuigui to the confusion of the patrol team.
"Ask them if they have any fresh fruit in their town."
"I have fresh fruit in my storage ring."
"Month old fruit isn't fresh."
"It's been in stasis, the fruit hasn't changed since the moment I put it in."
"I can taste the difference."
"You hoped that this would happen, didn't you?"
"That's a strong possibility."
"Fine, fine," Ling Jian said before turning around to the confused patrol. "You guys wouldn't happen to have any fresh fruit in your village, would you?"
"We did receive a shipment of fruit yesterday," the leader said, "if your… cousin would like some I am sure that it can be sold for a reasonable price."
Ling Jian sighed. "Very well then," he said, "it seems like my cousin is feeling the itch for fresh fruit, so if you would be so kind as to lead the way we can get out of your hair quickly enough."
As the patrol reformed to guide the two of them to the local village, Ling Jian leaped back up on Zhihuigui.
"I'm going to be quite upset if this Baron Gong invites me to a dinner or some such thing, you know that right?" He said to Zhihuigui.
"Love you."
***
Ling Jian hated this town, hated these nobles, but most of all hated his cousin.
"So there I was," Lord Gong said, words as energetic as his hands as he shared a story about slaying armies of Ashwalkers, "in the middle of it all, and let me tell you even I was worried by the sheer number of the bastards."
Ling Jian kept his smile plastered on his face as he took another sip of the tea. In the back of his mind he sent daggers of hate towards his cousin, but what he got in return was the simple joys of eating fresh fruit. The glutton was eating a whole wagon of fruit, wooden boards and all.
"Is your tea to your liking?" Gong An, daughter of the baron, said, not paying attention at all to the story her father was telling. "We had so little time to prepare, but I hope the tea we keep in stock is appealing enough."
This was not the first act of discourse within the Gong family that Ling Jian had seen so far. When Lord Gong had invited him to dine with him, Ling Jian thought that the glares leveled at the patriarch by the women of the family would draw blood. There was some serious dysfunction in this family, and Ling Jian would be a happier man once he was out of the blast zone.
"The tea is very enjoyable." Ling Jian said as he turned slightly towards Gong An. It was quite impolite to simply ignore the storyteller, but then again the story being told was poorly constructed, unbelievable, and didn't look like it would be ending anytime soon. Plus he doubted the baron would notice, not with the workings of the qi hanging above the table, subtly maintained by the wife and daughter.
"I'm glad," Gong An said with a sigh, "and I do apologize for my father's rudeness. Ever since my great grandfather's shaming we have struggled to gain some prestige back. Your arrival, as unexpected as it was, was not something father could let go of."
"Something it seems, Ling Jian said, "that you don't approve of."
Gong An viciously stabbed her chopsticks at the minced lamb, spearing through a chunk like she held a spear instead of eating utensils. "Worse than not playing the games of politics," she said, "is playing them poorly. Something my father and brothers refuse to understand."
Ling Jian decided not to mention how poorly she was playing the game, if her animosity towards her father was this clear to read. It wouldn't be very helpful to the situation.
There was a beat of silence between the two of them as off at the head of the table Baron Gong continued his story, oblivious to the other conversations at the table.
"If I may be so bold," Gong An said, continuing on as if her flash of anger hadn't happened at all, "I would like to ask for some advice."
"Oh?" Ling Jian said, his senses expanding ever so slightly. At the early yellow realm Gong An seemed to be closely following in her father's footsteps with arts of steel and wind, there was lake in her qi as well, but that likely came from her mother.
"As someone from the Ling, how does a clan become stronger?" Gong An asked, eyes borrowing straight into his.
Ling Jian pondered the question for a moment, fingers tapping on the wooden table. There was forwardness, he thought, and then there was whatever this was. Still he did feel somewhat bad for the girl. It was clear she had ambition, but with few resources and a family splitting apart at the seams there was a good chance that ambition would only become poison.
"There is not much I can tell you," Ling Jian said, "but what I will say is that the wider a clan's foundations the higher it can reach.
Gong An blinked at the words.
"My matriarch worked unbelievably hard and was very lucky to get the foundation for our clan that she did." Ling Jian continued. "She had leverage though, leverage that you simply don't. However, that doesn't mean that your clan lacks any leverage. My advice is this, go to one of the ministries and ask to listen to their stories. Listen, watch. For a clan to become stronger it needs more than one path for its scions to follow, and the best way to start a new path is to study one already traveled."
There was something in Gong An's eyes, something prideful, but it was cut down and smothered before it could fully bloom.
"Thank you for your words," she said.
Ling Jian shrugged his shoulders and turned back to Baron Gong, who was still prattling on. In the end it didn't matter to him if the girl followed the advice or not, but at least it gave the poor girl a direction forward.
It was several hours later before Ling Jian was able to beg off, he did have an appointment he needed to keep, and finally leave the tender clutches of Baron Gong. Soon enough Zhihuigui's plodding footsteps took them out of sight of the village.
"Cousin," Zhihuigui said, "I saved you some fruit as a thank you."
"Oh?" Ling Jian said as he watched the burning colors of sunset spread across the sky and clouds.
"Two peaches, they are on the table."
Peaches, Ling Jian's favorite fruit since childhood. "Thank you." He said. "I've also been thinking."
"About what?"
"That it might be time to wash you down."
"Cousin?!" Zhihuigui said, voice rumbling in alarm.
"Well, we really should look our best when we talk to the Han."
"You just want to get revenge for what I did, don't you?" Zhihuigui accused.
"That's a strong possibility," Ling Jian admitted.
They bickered late into the night like family should, with love and a dash of pettiness in their hearts.
A.N
It's been a while hasn't it? Omake for the Omake throne @yrsillar
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
***
Traveling through the plains of the eastern Luo required trust and patience. Trust because one had to trust that they were moving at all given how featureless the landscape was, and patience because the plains were wide and long. Even for a cultivator of the third realm it was a trip better measured in days rather than hours.
Still Ling Jian mused as he watched a lone tree, the only landmark under the blue sky, pass by them, they were making good time. It helped that though Zhihuigui wasn't fast he was steady.
"Steady wins the fruit." The deep bass voice of his cousin echoed through his mind.
"That it does, that it does." Ling Jian murmured back as he rubbed a mossy piece of shell. "I'll be happy though once this part of the trip is over and we are somewhere interesting."
Zhihuigui hummed in response, the deep vibrations causing the cherry trees planted on his back to sway.
"You disagree?" Ling Jian said, sitting up somewhat straighter.
"Only so far as that this place isn't interesting," Zhihuigui said. "Like a cup that's been broken and remade, this land still bears the scars of its shattering, those scars tell a story as interesting as any sung by icy wind or mountain stone."
Ling Jian nodded and withdrew paper, brush, and ink from his storage ring. While Zhihuigui wasn't a pure blood scion of the King of the High Gardens he still had some natural ability in geomancy, and Zhihuigui had devoted himself to its study with a greater passion than any of his clutch.
"What stories are told here then, among the grass and sky?" Ling Jian asked as he readied his brush. "I would be happy to listen."
"It would pass the time, wouldn't it?" Zhihuigui said. "But first visitors."
"Visitors?" Ling Jian said as he stood up. "Ashwalkers?"
"No. Humans. North-west by west."
Ling Jian clambered over Zhihuigui's bulk, moving from the east of the hillock sized turtle to the small house built on the top. It was a small thing of stone, plaster, and red roof titles, but it was his and it was home. Leaping to the peak of the home like sailors leap atop their sails Ling Jian studied the horizon.
There off in the distance were several specks and a cloud of dust. With a frown Ling Jian triggered his arts. Many of the arts the Ling clan practiced disdained the very idea of distance, and the observational arts that Ling Jian studied were no different. In a blink of an eye he was no longer watching featureless specks, but was now among them, like a sparrow sitting on their horses' nose.
They were definitely people, not ashwalkers. Clad in leathers as rough as their skin, Ling Jian almost worried that they were bandits, but uniform gear and the clear discipline of the group put that worry to rest. As he watched, the lead rider returned a well crafted hand-held telescope to his saddle bag, motioned towards the rest of the group, and together they took off at a steady pace towards Ling Jian and Zhihuigui.
"Looks like a scouting party for a local lord." Ling Jian said as he stepped off the roof and landed back down on Zhiguigui's shell. "How close are we to a village?"
"There is a small village nearby," Zhihuigui said as an image of a map popped into Ling Jian's head, "I routed around it, no need to scare mortals after all, but I hadn't routed far enough around it to avoid patrols."
"Well, nothing for it I guess," Ling Jian said as he walked into his house, "let's go to this meet and greet, I'm sure I have the flag of the Empire somewhere in here."
A short time later Zhihuigui slowed to a stop and fell to the ground in a cloud of dust as the horses of the scouting party neighed and skittered at the sudden arrival of a hillock to this part of the world. Ling Jian hopped off his cousin's shell and landed in front of the leader of the scouting party.
"Hail strangers!" He said as he gave a short but respectful bow. "I apologize for any consternation that my travels have brought you or your lord."
"It is no trouble lord," the leader of the group, a cultivator of the yellow realm, said as he bowed deeply and with respect, "but it is not everyday that a new terrain feature is spotted in these lands."
Ling Jian laughed and patted Zhihuigui's nose. "He is a big one isn't he." All he got for his troubles was a breath of hot air messing with his hair.
The leader looked a bit more relaxed after that. "I am glad it is not a wild beast, certainly." He said. "Still I must ask you for your name and your purpose in the lands of my lord, Baron Gong."
"Of course, of course," Ling Jian said, "my name is Ling Jian, and this is my cousin Zhihuigui. We are traveling to the Golden Fields for a learning opportunity."
It had been a surprise to be sure that his flippant words about learning some geomancy from the Han had reached the ears of his Matriarch. Apparently she had some connections to the Han and after some horse trading got him a spot under a Han geomancer for a year and a half. From the letters though, it seemed what the Han were really interested in was seeing what impact a spirit beast of Zhihuigui's pedigree would have on their projects. Everyone remembered what the King of the High Gardens had done in the short time he was in the Golden Fields after all.
"I see," the leader said, "well then, we won't take up anymore of your time, Lord Ling. Safe journeys."
It was then that Zhihuigui nudged Ling Jian's hand, still resting on his nose.
"Ask them if they have any fresh fruit in their town." He said.
"What?" Ling Jian said turning around and facing Zhihuigui to the confusion of the patrol team.
"Ask them if they have any fresh fruit in their town."
"I have fresh fruit in my storage ring."
"Month old fruit isn't fresh."
"It's been in stasis, the fruit hasn't changed since the moment I put it in."
"I can taste the difference."
"You hoped that this would happen, didn't you?"
"That's a strong possibility."
"Fine, fine," Ling Jian said before turning around to the confused patrol. "You guys wouldn't happen to have any fresh fruit in your village, would you?"
"We did receive a shipment of fruit yesterday," the leader said, "if your… cousin would like some I am sure that it can be sold for a reasonable price."
Ling Jian sighed. "Very well then," he said, "it seems like my cousin is feeling the itch for fresh fruit, so if you would be so kind as to lead the way we can get out of your hair quickly enough."
As the patrol reformed to guide the two of them to the local village, Ling Jian leaped back up on Zhihuigui.
"I'm going to be quite upset if this Baron Gong invites me to a dinner or some such thing, you know that right?" He said to Zhihuigui.
"Love you."
***
Ling Jian hated this town, hated these nobles, but most of all hated his cousin.
"So there I was," Lord Gong said, words as energetic as his hands as he shared a story about slaying armies of Ashwalkers, "in the middle of it all, and let me tell you even I was worried by the sheer number of the bastards."
Ling Jian kept his smile plastered on his face as he took another sip of the tea. In the back of his mind he sent daggers of hate towards his cousin, but what he got in return was the simple joys of eating fresh fruit. The glutton was eating a whole wagon of fruit, wooden boards and all.
"Is your tea to your liking?" Gong An, daughter of the baron, said, not paying attention at all to the story her father was telling. "We had so little time to prepare, but I hope the tea we keep in stock is appealing enough."
This was not the first act of discourse within the Gong family that Ling Jian had seen so far. When Lord Gong had invited him to dine with him, Ling Jian thought that the glares leveled at the patriarch by the women of the family would draw blood. There was some serious dysfunction in this family, and Ling Jian would be a happier man once he was out of the blast zone.
"The tea is very enjoyable." Ling Jian said as he turned slightly towards Gong An. It was quite impolite to simply ignore the storyteller, but then again the story being told was poorly constructed, unbelievable, and didn't look like it would be ending anytime soon. Plus he doubted the baron would notice, not with the workings of the qi hanging above the table, subtly maintained by the wife and daughter.
"I'm glad," Gong An said with a sigh, "and I do apologize for my father's rudeness. Ever since my great grandfather's shaming we have struggled to gain some prestige back. Your arrival, as unexpected as it was, was not something father could let go of."
"Something it seems, Ling Jian said, "that you don't approve of."
Gong An viciously stabbed her chopsticks at the minced lamb, spearing through a chunk like she held a spear instead of eating utensils. "Worse than not playing the games of politics," she said, "is playing them poorly. Something my father and brothers refuse to understand."
Ling Jian decided not to mention how poorly she was playing the game, if her animosity towards her father was this clear to read. It wouldn't be very helpful to the situation.
There was a beat of silence between the two of them as off at the head of the table Baron Gong continued his story, oblivious to the other conversations at the table.
"If I may be so bold," Gong An said, continuing on as if her flash of anger hadn't happened at all, "I would like to ask for some advice."
"Oh?" Ling Jian said, his senses expanding ever so slightly. At the early yellow realm Gong An seemed to be closely following in her father's footsteps with arts of steel and wind, there was lake in her qi as well, but that likely came from her mother.
"As someone from the Ling, how does a clan become stronger?" Gong An asked, eyes borrowing straight into his.
Ling Jian pondered the question for a moment, fingers tapping on the wooden table. There was forwardness, he thought, and then there was whatever this was. Still he did feel somewhat bad for the girl. It was clear she had ambition, but with few resources and a family splitting apart at the seams there was a good chance that ambition would only become poison.
"There is not much I can tell you," Ling Jian said, "but what I will say is that the wider a clan's foundations the higher it can reach.
Gong An blinked at the words.
"My matriarch worked unbelievably hard and was very lucky to get the foundation for our clan that she did." Ling Jian continued. "She had leverage though, leverage that you simply don't. However, that doesn't mean that your clan lacks any leverage. My advice is this, go to one of the ministries and ask to listen to their stories. Listen, watch. For a clan to become stronger it needs more than one path for its scions to follow, and the best way to start a new path is to study one already traveled."
There was something in Gong An's eyes, something prideful, but it was cut down and smothered before it could fully bloom.
"Thank you for your words," she said.
Ling Jian shrugged his shoulders and turned back to Baron Gong, who was still prattling on. In the end it didn't matter to him if the girl followed the advice or not, but at least it gave the poor girl a direction forward.
It was several hours later before Ling Jian was able to beg off, he did have an appointment he needed to keep, and finally leave the tender clutches of Baron Gong. Soon enough Zhihuigui's plodding footsteps took them out of sight of the village.
"Cousin," Zhihuigui said, "I saved you some fruit as a thank you."
"Oh?" Ling Jian said as he watched the burning colors of sunset spread across the sky and clouds.
"Two peaches, they are on the table."
Peaches, Ling Jian's favorite fruit since childhood. "Thank you." He said. "I've also been thinking."
"About what?"
"That it might be time to wash you down."
"Cousin?!" Zhihuigui said, voice rumbling in alarm.
"Well, we really should look our best when we talk to the Han."
"You just want to get revenge for what I did, don't you?" Zhihuigui accused.
"That's a strong possibility," Ling Jian admitted.
They bickered late into the night like family should, with love and a dash of pettiness in their hearts.
A.N
It's been a while hasn't it? Omake for the Omake throne @yrsillar
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
- Location
- Philippines
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
Gift Quote
Gift Quote
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
While I don't have strong feelings about the specific options, I like tying things in with our new Concept.
While I don't have strong feelings about the specific options, I like tying things in with our new Concept.
- Location
- Russia
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
[x] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
- Location
- Colorado
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
This is still about others as well as us, but stays closer to the ability to choose who is included. Linqin's advice of not including literally everything is still very much in mind when thinking about this for me.
This is still about others as well as us, but stays closer to the ability to choose who is included. Linqin's advice of not including literally everything is still very much in mind when thinking about this for me.
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
- Location
- Israel
Wow, yall are terrible friends, we visited literally everyone except for one of our closest friends in the sect. It would be different if we had only hit up some people, but we literally talked to everyone we met or hung out with still at the sect except her, the singling out is very much noticeable, I figured it was a possibility we would neglect someone for a shiny, did not expect it would be one of our closest friends.
