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
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Emotionally? Yes. This projection of her own situation or onto others is where she gets her drive from.
Mechanically? I don't think so. There's not really anything in our insights for seeing the isolation of others, and most of our issues around empathy have been about how it is acceptable to restrict it so it doesn't drown us.
So I feel like saying 'Ling Qi surely wouldn't be like this' is pretending that we can keep everything we have now as we climb higher.
So, under the assumption that a lot of what makes Ling Qi herself will have to be sacrificed for power, what are the consequences of the path we are taking, once most of the humanity is stripped from it?
Or would you prefer not to ascend?
I don't think this is true. There's too much historical evidence that art can make lies into truth. And it's too valuable a tool to lose.
Or, to put it another way, I think that for someone enslaved, the first step to freedom is believing in the lie that they are free, until they can make themselves so. Aspirational art pretty much just is making up a lie in the hopes that it will become true in the future.
I see the ability of art to make a lie into reality as the core of it's ability to challenge existing power.
Well mechanically we do have our isolation concept which talks about needing to reach out and unmake the cold lonely streets we come from.
So unless the isolated individual refuses Qi reaching out I doubt that that would be a blind spot to her. Concepts are engraved into cultivation afterall.
There will definitely be things we have to give up, but they will probably have to be outside the scope of our main concepts like how Shenhua doesn't feel regret since that is not a part of progress or revolution.
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- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
It's less about Ling not being able to reach out to them, it's more about her never realizing they exist in the first place. If we are going to be about communication then we are naturally going to lose sight of things that aren't communicated. There's a lot of internal thoughts, feelings, dreams, and art that people do not want to share- so with a communication focused Ling, will that stuff be invisible, or will her way force it to be communicated? Pretty sure we are going to end up at some sort of extreme, so trying to get a sense of what the extreme may be.
I'd note that Ling Qi's current isolation insight does imply a hard cap on the number of people that any one person can reach out to as well, as she knows that she can't be the whole community, just a part. (Two hands.)
So what other possible constraints could come up as we get closer to white? I really don't think a 'we'll remain an empathetic good person' is something that can at all be assumed.
I'd note that Ling Qi's current isolation insight does imply a hard cap on the number of people that any one person can reach out to as well, as she knows that she can't be the whole community, just a part. (Two hands.)
So what other possible constraints could come up as we get closer to white? I really don't think a 'we'll remain an empathetic good person' is something that can at all be assumed.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't think communication will really be the problem here.
There is this saying, "One cannot not communicate". Granted cultivation messes this up a bit,
but I think for someone to truly not communicate they would need to be someone like Shu Yue and chose to not exist in the same World as others.
There is this saying, "One cannot not communicate". Granted cultivation messes this up a bit,
but I think for someone to truly not communicate they would need to be someone like Shu Yue and chose to not exist in the same World as others.
That's where choice comes in.
Qi will not force them to communicate she understands that people hold things back and is ok with it. It was addressed in the tribulation where she could have forced Sixiang to divulge everything but chose to trust them instead. If anything our limits would be something like being unable to do what shenhua did and force people to do things like divulge their secrets. Qi knows that people aren't puppets and that will probably be expanded upon when choice is unlocked.
An actual blind spot she could have is someone like Yan Renshu who sees themselves as superior and refuses to communicate while wearing isolation like a badge of honor. Or even people who use community as an cloak to hide vile acts. If your community agrees that this is the right thing to do it could be hard for Qi to override their choice.
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- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
That's optimistic- the result of that tribulation is no communication with six at all. I don't think you can both insist on communication between people and on their own choice to communicate: at some point one is going to take precedence over the other. Because the choice to communicate or not already exists, so any time we see a failure to communicate right now it is because someone made that choice.
So either we don't change the status quo, or we do.
It's not optimistic, it's supported by the text.
The tribulation definitely covered not forcing communication of things they don't want to share.
You can't get much clearer than "Choice, that vital thing, was at the heart of her resolution. Her Communication. Mutuality was needed for the sharing of secrets."
Qi believes that ignorance can be corrected by communication but that it is a two way street and they have to want to communicate, she understands the possibility that they do not want to and knows she cannot force it.
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- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Which is the status quo. Which means that continuing on that path will not change the world, which makes it unsuitable as a path to ascension.
What change is she going to make in the world when she ascends? It's going to be a stripped down version of what she currently is, but the fact is that part of what she is now will need to be sacrificed if she wants to change the world.
Ascensions can contribute to already existing stuff. Like Unity of Blades reinforcing Us vs. Them (the Xi were unimaginative twerps).
A change that increases the ease of communication doesn't mean that communication needs to be forced. If people can understand one another better then that will cease a lot of conflict and allow empathy to flourish more even among high realms. That is a change worth fighting for even if not everyone will be forced to communicate and people can still shut themselves out.
She's not gonna give up something that she so clearly defined as "her communication". The sacrifices will come from parts of her that doesn't fit her worldview, not from things she's already decided upon. As the Elder said, you must sacrifice but you choose what to sacrifice.
She's not gonna give up something that she so clearly defined as "her communication". The sacrifices will come from parts of her that doesn't fit her worldview, not from things she's already decided upon. As the Elder said, you must sacrifice but you choose what to sacrifice.
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kfrar
Aspiring Encyclopedia
I'm still holding out for ascending into Palace of One to establish a GS of Unity Through Communication.
Sure, LQ can't personally hold onto everything she currently values as she cultivates, but her cultivation is antithetical to the idea that somebody can achieve perfection without the help of others as is. There's nothing wrong with relying on others to fill in the gaps.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
So what gets cut in this hypothetical unity of words?
Family? That's not really communication or choice, but it's still core, so probably gets lost close to the top. Music? Expression rather than communication is a big chunck of it, so we could probably lose that without touching communication and choice. Loyalty? That's never really been a core thing, almost definitely going to be ditched somewhere. Cold? Again, core part of Ling Qi, not a core part of a choice/communication path.
Edit: my point here, because I realized this is mostly just incitement, is that we shouldn't plan a future way yet. There's a lot of important things that might take precedence.
On a different note, I'm curious to see where the intersection of communication and power goes. Do one-way communications like orders and proclamations count for Qi's way? How does power function through the lense of who is allowed to communicate to whom? How does power control the content of communications, and why does it restrict those choices?
Family? That's not really communication or choice, but it's still core, so probably gets lost close to the top. Music? Expression rather than communication is a big chunck of it, so we could probably lose that without touching communication and choice. Loyalty? That's never really been a core thing, almost definitely going to be ditched somewhere. Cold? Again, core part of Ling Qi, not a core part of a choice/communication path.
Edit: my point here, because I realized this is mostly just incitement, is that we shouldn't plan a future way yet. There's a lot of important things that might take precedence.
On a different note, I'm curious to see where the intersection of communication and power goes. Do one-way communications like orders and proclamations count for Qi's way? How does power function through the lense of who is allowed to communicate to whom? How does power control the content of communications, and why does it restrict those choices?
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I mean a lot of what you are saying could be cut is aesthetics at that point in the cultivator. It's like saying light should be cut when shenhua cultivates because it's not related to revolution but obviously that's not the case. Music is how Qi expresses herself and cold is how she sees isolation. Those are gonna make it all the way to white just like crafting and light made it all the way to white with shenhua. Qi actually has insights about family so that's not going to be cut, the things that get cut when you cultivate are the things that you don't focus on. All of those are being focused on. When you become white you become your way filtered through your experiences and those are a part of Ling Qi's way. White level cultivators have one core word and multiple other ones, just like Shenhua is revolution, but also Progress, Truth, Creation and Renewal.
Yeah power is something that Qi needs to explore so this conversation will be interesting.
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Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm not pretending that things won't change. I'm using the information we have now. And making such a prediction at this stage feels preemptive, IMO. And I hope LQ doesn't sacrifice anything for Power. If I can help it, we won't cut off anything but rather merge all our concepts together, even if waste time finding the right approach for the merge. We literally have WOG that it's the best thing to do.
Unless, off-course, some of them are absolutely mandatory, like removing the FVM meridians to form our domain weapon.
And I disagree with what I said (about truth). But that's what Ling Qi currently believes, which is why there's an issue with her Truth concept.
That's my guess too. Either that or the foundational GS for a new Moon phase
. Yes you can. That's literally one of the most difficult things about conflict resolution. When people have an argument, you can bring people together and give them all the opportunities they need to communicate, but they can refuse to discuss things.
Aliya
Someone I might become
- Location
- Kazakhstan
- Pronouns
- They/She/It
Was just mentioning potential paths to Ling Qi's ascension that came to mind first. Ascending into Palace of One is also a pretty likely path. Specifying what kind of dream, precisely, should be uniting ES.
Another spirit we could ascend to would be the Moon. Then small bits and pieces of us will get to interact with our descendants!
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Plus like, imagine the reputation that'll give our clan if it's founder literally created a new Moon after how many centuries.
(GG should ascend into a new Sun too for the symbolism)
(GG should ascend into a new Sun too for the symbolism)
Turn 17: Arc 5-8
"Someone told that power was the ability to affect change," Ling Qi began. "That all who seek Sovereignty desire dominion, to rule and command. In some way or another. That power is without meaning and morality, and..."
Xin walked beside her as she spoke, a silver candle flame had bloomed in her upraised palm, casting light through the deep wells of darkness in Elder Jiao's manor. It felt strange to see shadows that her sight could not pierce. Xin did not speak allowing her to finish formulating her thoughts.
"I don't think this is wrong, but at the same time… I'm not sure I want this to be right. Or at least, I need to find a way which I can complete it to my own satisfaction."
Xin remained silent a moment longer. Her footfalls, like Ling Qi's were soundless, even the rustle of their gowns was absent. The Moon spirit was not breathing. Ling Qi barely bothered, letting the circulation of her qi do the majority of the work. Neither of them was making any pretense of normality.The absolute silence was almost meditative.
It almost let her ignore the stomach cramp inducing color of the walls.
"Hm, I cannot say it is wrong either," Xin began thoughtfully. "I have told you that the idea of fate, that there is some grand plan for the world, is false. Utter nonsense which serves only to give certain types of mind comfort and belief in their own command of their world."
Ling Qi nodded, remembering the conversation with Xin after Zeqing's death. She had been upset, confused. A part of her was suspicious of Xin for orchestrating this, for using her like a game piece.
But in the end, she had to let that go. XIn had only helped her, given her opportunities. She was the one who had chosen to take them.
And in the end, even the seventh realm spirit had not gotten her way, not really. After all, Ling Qi had decided to follow Cai Renxiang, rather than becoming an Elder's apprentice.
"So to speak of absolute truths… most can only be absolute in the minds of humans. But there is one such truth embedded in those words. Sovereign. To rule. That is the fundamental nature of high cultivation. To achieve the highest realms, one must be absolutely certain in their own rightness. That there is some aspect of the world which must change. That they have the right to be the ones who change it," Xin said softly, striding ahead of her in a swirl of gowns, the midnight blue and dark reds seeming to blend and swirl in the unnatural darkness.
"If there is even the smallest doubt in your heart when you reach for those realms, you will shatter your body and soul in seeking to grasp that power."
"But I have seen regret, bitterness at the past, even something like self loathing in sovereign cultivators," Ling Qi said, thinking of the Elder's she had met, of Diao Linqin, and the almost contemptuous way she had referred to what seemed to be her own power of absolute empathy.
"No doubt. Doubt can creep in after, regret can set in, settling in cracks yet to be smoothed over," Xin said. "This is why those you have observed will never reach the final realm, let alone ascend. Only when one steps into the Eighth Realm do the last shreds of what one might call sanity flee. White light contains all colors, yet it contains none. This world of doubts and regrets and choices ceases to be theirs. They make themselves visitors here, lingering on the doorstep of a different kind of existence. And even then, most have some speck of impurity which keeps them here, with us, until remorseless time reaps them too."
"...Then those words are right," Ling Qi said. There were things she wished were different. She didn't know that she believed she could change the world though. That still felt arrogant here in the calm and silence.
"It is difficult to argue with, but if the insight of a high realm was not, their Way would be precarious indeed,"Xin said lightly. She led Ling Qi through a room of overstuffed chairs, scattered at odd angles throughout the room. The plush carpet sank under her feet, despite her lack of physical weight. All around the rooms were paintings, most of Xin, some elegant and formal, others more… risque.
Ling Qi averted her eyes. There were other subjects too, landscapes. A black crag stretching into the starry sky seeming to wear the thin sliver of light cast by the new moon like a crown. There was a manor on the side of the mountain with a vast and terraced garden. One was a painting of two handsome young noblemen she didn't recognize, grinning with their arms around each other's shoulders. That one was very small, and the paint chipped and worn.
Each painting was also tilted, just slightly, each one at a unique and visually bothersome angle. It made a little knot of pain throb in her temple.
"What do you believe power is then?" Ling Qi asked as they passed through the dark sitting room, through a set of three sliding paper screens that opened on their own. Each screen was painted with patterns of scattered eyes in different shades.
"Power..." Xin mused. "Is a vague concept. But if asked to define it… I would say that it is born from causality, Power lives in the interplay of action and reaction, the exhaust of the countless lives all being lived at once, so often in competition or strife. Power is overcoming or resisting, the ability to define and maintain one's own existence in the face of opposition."
"That seems very similar," Ling Qi said. Though not the same. Xin's definition… it was more reactive, she thought.
"Hair splitting is inevitable when reaching personal definitions of such expansive concepts," Xin said to her, turning to face her as they arrived outside of a sturdy metal door. Well, she called it a door, but it looked more like the entrance to a vault, or the gate of a fortress. "But, I think you will find that which hair you choose matters a great deal."
Ling Qi frowned as Xin ran her hand along the surface of the door. "I think… Power is the ability to make your choices extend beyond your own self. To make them matter to the world outside your mind."
She didn't think it was complete, this idea she was nursing, but it felt more cohesive, like some of her thoughts were starting to come together.
"A good place to begin," Xin said, holding her palm flat against the metal. "Goodness, thirty seven spacial labyrinths between the front door and here, and now this, a soul dispersion equation. Jiao, this is just excessive."
Ling Qi blinked, and looked up. That was extremely concerning!
The door blew away like so much mist.
"It is not excessive at all, considering you and the girl have still come here," groused a familiar voice.
The room beyond was cavernous, full of tables and furnaces and devices which Ling Qi could not identify. Half constructed hulks of metal and stone and wood hung from the ceiling, burning forges that worked themselves shone like dull red stars in the distance. On the walls hung talisman blades, arms and armaments, gleaming and not, emanating such potency even at rest that Ling Qi suspected that any individual piece would beggar some clans.
And in the center, in a well cleared space was something odd. She'd seen it in a historical text once, illuminated on the page. A war chariot, of the sort not fielded by the empire since shortly after the first dynasty and the Strife of Twin Emperors. It was immaculate though with no sign of wear or damage. Smooth jet black, chased with silver and white gems, it's wheels were gleaming white metal. Elder Sima Jiao sat facing away from them in a chair set beside it.
…He looked strange. After the manor, she had expected to find him wearing something truly outrageous. But here the blad, gray skinned Elder sat in a mere black sleeping robe, belted around his waist with a white sash. Somehow, it made him look thin and wasted. He had a long silver pipe in one hand, a faint trail of inky black smoke rising from the bowl.
"Did you do all of that, and really not bother getting dressed, husband?" Xin asked, looking faintly exasperated as she stepped over the threshold of the workshop.
"Pfah, Why bother. I was merely going to tinker with the suspension array today," he said, leaning his head back to look over her shoulder. "Only someone had to drag a stray in."
"Jiao, you have been playing with that array for half a century," Xin said dryly. "And you have never once even ridden in that thing. We don't even own horses."
"And it can still be improved," he sniffed. "I can acquire horses whenever I like."
Ling Qi remained silent, gingerly entering the space behind Xin, a step behind, she almost felt like a child hiding behind her Mother's skirts. It didn't stop Elder Jiao from fixing her in place with his irritated gaze.
"And you. What in the world were you even hoping for? I thought it was quite clear you'd chosen to hare off with that foolish Cai girl."
Ling Qi took a deep breath and stepped out from behind Xin. She clasped her hands in respect, and bowed at the waist, as low as she could manage. "This Disciple thanks the Elder for his aid and lessons. It is most regretful that this one was never able to learn from you properly."
He stared at her hard. She remained where she was, unmoving. Xin smiled faintly. She took another breath and raised her head.
"And though you were a prickly, irascible old man. I do sincerely thank you for your words at the tournament. They were all true. This path of mine can make me want to tear my hair out sometimes. It sometimes feels as if I am all that lies between my liege and self-destruction."
She stopped breathing, cutting off the last sound save for the working of the automated tools in the background. Xin covered her mouth, her eyes crinkling.
Sima Jiao let out a snort, and every light in the workshop flickered, narrowed eyes opening by the dozen in the long shadows. "Hmph, you have spine, even if its only because you know I wouldn't fight with my wife in order to slap you, you ridiculous child."
"Knowing when one can afford speak bluntly is an important skill," Ling Qi said. Straitening up, she glanced to Xin. "Truly I wished to thank you…"
"And pick my brain for advice on dealing with old subordinates no doubt," Sima Jiao harrumphed.
Ling Qi winced. "Any advice the Elder would give would be welcome, but I have no right to demand anything."
"Tch, don't start doing court circles now," Sima Jiao said. He finally turned to face them, not bothering to stand from the bench, his silhouette merely shimmered and he was now looking at her head on, his pipe held at the corner of his lips, his robe hung partly open, revealing his grey and sunken chest. Linen bandages so densely inscribed with formation characters as to appear nearly black wrapped around his ribs. "There is nothing between us. As oblique as I had to be, you refused my offer. If you'd done it for any less a position. It would have been a terrible insult."
Ling Qi nodded. Back in the Outer Sect, Elder Jiao had implied through Xin, that he was considering her for apprenticeship in the Inner Sect. In the end, she had chosen Renxiang. She didn't regret that, though… she wished it was possible to grasp both opportunities.
As if sensing her thoughts, Elder Jiao snorted. "Gotten yourself into exactly what I warned you of. Between that woman and these foreigners, you've filled your plate to overflowing, that's leaving aside your Lady's pretty domestic ambition."
Ling Qi pursed her lips, searching his expression. How much did the Elder know of the Duchess, of what had passed between them. She knew once he had been the Minister of Integrity, leader and founder of that organization. The eyes and black hand of the previous Emperor.
… In truth, sometimes, when she was alone meditating on the future, she wanted to scream at the thought of the mountain she had set herself to climb.
Elder Jiao tapped the bowl of his pipe against his palm, glancing to his wife, who merely smiled mysteriously.
"You are plotting," he accused, jabbing his pipe at Xin.
"Ah, to be accused by my lord husband so cruelly," Xin sighed, resting her cheek on her hand. "I could weep."
Ling Qi shivered, the press of their wills as they clashed, the two seventh realm's eyes meeting over her head, was nearly as bad as being back in the court of Xiangmen.
She…
[ ] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
[ ] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
Xin walked beside her as she spoke, a silver candle flame had bloomed in her upraised palm, casting light through the deep wells of darkness in Elder Jiao's manor. It felt strange to see shadows that her sight could not pierce. Xin did not speak allowing her to finish formulating her thoughts.
"I don't think this is wrong, but at the same time… I'm not sure I want this to be right. Or at least, I need to find a way which I can complete it to my own satisfaction."
Xin remained silent a moment longer. Her footfalls, like Ling Qi's were soundless, even the rustle of their gowns was absent. The Moon spirit was not breathing. Ling Qi barely bothered, letting the circulation of her qi do the majority of the work. Neither of them was making any pretense of normality.The absolute silence was almost meditative.
It almost let her ignore the stomach cramp inducing color of the walls.
"Hm, I cannot say it is wrong either," Xin began thoughtfully. "I have told you that the idea of fate, that there is some grand plan for the world, is false. Utter nonsense which serves only to give certain types of mind comfort and belief in their own command of their world."
Ling Qi nodded, remembering the conversation with Xin after Zeqing's death. She had been upset, confused. A part of her was suspicious of Xin for orchestrating this, for using her like a game piece.
But in the end, she had to let that go. XIn had only helped her, given her opportunities. She was the one who had chosen to take them.
And in the end, even the seventh realm spirit had not gotten her way, not really. After all, Ling Qi had decided to follow Cai Renxiang, rather than becoming an Elder's apprentice.
"So to speak of absolute truths… most can only be absolute in the minds of humans. But there is one such truth embedded in those words. Sovereign. To rule. That is the fundamental nature of high cultivation. To achieve the highest realms, one must be absolutely certain in their own rightness. That there is some aspect of the world which must change. That they have the right to be the ones who change it," Xin said softly, striding ahead of her in a swirl of gowns, the midnight blue and dark reds seeming to blend and swirl in the unnatural darkness.
"If there is even the smallest doubt in your heart when you reach for those realms, you will shatter your body and soul in seeking to grasp that power."
"But I have seen regret, bitterness at the past, even something like self loathing in sovereign cultivators," Ling Qi said, thinking of the Elder's she had met, of Diao Linqin, and the almost contemptuous way she had referred to what seemed to be her own power of absolute empathy.
"No doubt. Doubt can creep in after, regret can set in, settling in cracks yet to be smoothed over," Xin said. "This is why those you have observed will never reach the final realm, let alone ascend. Only when one steps into the Eighth Realm do the last shreds of what one might call sanity flee. White light contains all colors, yet it contains none. This world of doubts and regrets and choices ceases to be theirs. They make themselves visitors here, lingering on the doorstep of a different kind of existence. And even then, most have some speck of impurity which keeps them here, with us, until remorseless time reaps them too."
"...Then those words are right," Ling Qi said. There were things she wished were different. She didn't know that she believed she could change the world though. That still felt arrogant here in the calm and silence.
"It is difficult to argue with, but if the insight of a high realm was not, their Way would be precarious indeed,"Xin said lightly. She led Ling Qi through a room of overstuffed chairs, scattered at odd angles throughout the room. The plush carpet sank under her feet, despite her lack of physical weight. All around the rooms were paintings, most of Xin, some elegant and formal, others more… risque.
Ling Qi averted her eyes. There were other subjects too, landscapes. A black crag stretching into the starry sky seeming to wear the thin sliver of light cast by the new moon like a crown. There was a manor on the side of the mountain with a vast and terraced garden. One was a painting of two handsome young noblemen she didn't recognize, grinning with their arms around each other's shoulders. That one was very small, and the paint chipped and worn.
Each painting was also tilted, just slightly, each one at a unique and visually bothersome angle. It made a little knot of pain throb in her temple.
"What do you believe power is then?" Ling Qi asked as they passed through the dark sitting room, through a set of three sliding paper screens that opened on their own. Each screen was painted with patterns of scattered eyes in different shades.
"Power..." Xin mused. "Is a vague concept. But if asked to define it… I would say that it is born from causality, Power lives in the interplay of action and reaction, the exhaust of the countless lives all being lived at once, so often in competition or strife. Power is overcoming or resisting, the ability to define and maintain one's own existence in the face of opposition."
"That seems very similar," Ling Qi said. Though not the same. Xin's definition… it was more reactive, she thought.
"Hair splitting is inevitable when reaching personal definitions of such expansive concepts," Xin said to her, turning to face her as they arrived outside of a sturdy metal door. Well, she called it a door, but it looked more like the entrance to a vault, or the gate of a fortress. "But, I think you will find that which hair you choose matters a great deal."
+3 Power XP
Power Advances to IV (2/8)
Power Advances to IV (2/8)
Ling Qi frowned as Xin ran her hand along the surface of the door. "I think… Power is the ability to make your choices extend beyond your own self. To make them matter to the world outside your mind."
She didn't think it was complete, this idea she was nursing, but it felt more cohesive, like some of her thoughts were starting to come together.
"A good place to begin," Xin said, holding her palm flat against the metal. "Goodness, thirty seven spacial labyrinths between the front door and here, and now this, a soul dispersion equation. Jiao, this is just excessive."
Ling Qi blinked, and looked up. That was extremely concerning!
The door blew away like so much mist.
"It is not excessive at all, considering you and the girl have still come here," groused a familiar voice.
The room beyond was cavernous, full of tables and furnaces and devices which Ling Qi could not identify. Half constructed hulks of metal and stone and wood hung from the ceiling, burning forges that worked themselves shone like dull red stars in the distance. On the walls hung talisman blades, arms and armaments, gleaming and not, emanating such potency even at rest that Ling Qi suspected that any individual piece would beggar some clans.
And in the center, in a well cleared space was something odd. She'd seen it in a historical text once, illuminated on the page. A war chariot, of the sort not fielded by the empire since shortly after the first dynasty and the Strife of Twin Emperors. It was immaculate though with no sign of wear or damage. Smooth jet black, chased with silver and white gems, it's wheels were gleaming white metal. Elder Sima Jiao sat facing away from them in a chair set beside it.
…He looked strange. After the manor, she had expected to find him wearing something truly outrageous. But here the blad, gray skinned Elder sat in a mere black sleeping robe, belted around his waist with a white sash. Somehow, it made him look thin and wasted. He had a long silver pipe in one hand, a faint trail of inky black smoke rising from the bowl.
"Did you do all of that, and really not bother getting dressed, husband?" Xin asked, looking faintly exasperated as she stepped over the threshold of the workshop.
"Pfah, Why bother. I was merely going to tinker with the suspension array today," he said, leaning his head back to look over her shoulder. "Only someone had to drag a stray in."
"Jiao, you have been playing with that array for half a century," Xin said dryly. "And you have never once even ridden in that thing. We don't even own horses."
"And it can still be improved," he sniffed. "I can acquire horses whenever I like."
Ling Qi remained silent, gingerly entering the space behind Xin, a step behind, she almost felt like a child hiding behind her Mother's skirts. It didn't stop Elder Jiao from fixing her in place with his irritated gaze.
"And you. What in the world were you even hoping for? I thought it was quite clear you'd chosen to hare off with that foolish Cai girl."
Ling Qi took a deep breath and stepped out from behind Xin. She clasped her hands in respect, and bowed at the waist, as low as she could manage. "This Disciple thanks the Elder for his aid and lessons. It is most regretful that this one was never able to learn from you properly."
He stared at her hard. She remained where she was, unmoving. Xin smiled faintly. She took another breath and raised her head.
"And though you were a prickly, irascible old man. I do sincerely thank you for your words at the tournament. They were all true. This path of mine can make me want to tear my hair out sometimes. It sometimes feels as if I am all that lies between my liege and self-destruction."
She stopped breathing, cutting off the last sound save for the working of the automated tools in the background. Xin covered her mouth, her eyes crinkling.
Sima Jiao let out a snort, and every light in the workshop flickered, narrowed eyes opening by the dozen in the long shadows. "Hmph, you have spine, even if its only because you know I wouldn't fight with my wife in order to slap you, you ridiculous child."
"Knowing when one can afford speak bluntly is an important skill," Ling Qi said. Straitening up, she glanced to Xin. "Truly I wished to thank you…"
"And pick my brain for advice on dealing with old subordinates no doubt," Sima Jiao harrumphed.
Ling Qi winced. "Any advice the Elder would give would be welcome, but I have no right to demand anything."
"Tch, don't start doing court circles now," Sima Jiao said. He finally turned to face them, not bothering to stand from the bench, his silhouette merely shimmered and he was now looking at her head on, his pipe held at the corner of his lips, his robe hung partly open, revealing his grey and sunken chest. Linen bandages so densely inscribed with formation characters as to appear nearly black wrapped around his ribs. "There is nothing between us. As oblique as I had to be, you refused my offer. If you'd done it for any less a position. It would have been a terrible insult."
Ling Qi nodded. Back in the Outer Sect, Elder Jiao had implied through Xin, that he was considering her for apprenticeship in the Inner Sect. In the end, she had chosen Renxiang. She didn't regret that, though… she wished it was possible to grasp both opportunities.
As if sensing her thoughts, Elder Jiao snorted. "Gotten yourself into exactly what I warned you of. Between that woman and these foreigners, you've filled your plate to overflowing, that's leaving aside your Lady's pretty domestic ambition."
Ling Qi pursed her lips, searching his expression. How much did the Elder know of the Duchess, of what had passed between them. She knew once he had been the Minister of Integrity, leader and founder of that organization. The eyes and black hand of the previous Emperor.
… In truth, sometimes, when she was alone meditating on the future, she wanted to scream at the thought of the mountain she had set herself to climb.
Elder Jiao tapped the bowl of his pipe against his palm, glancing to his wife, who merely smiled mysteriously.
"You are plotting," he accused, jabbing his pipe at Xin.
"Ah, to be accused by my lord husband so cruelly," Xin sighed, resting her cheek on her hand. "I could weep."
Ling Qi shivered, the press of their wills as they clashed, the two seventh realm's eyes meeting over her head, was nearly as bad as being back in the court of Xiangmen.
She…
[ ] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
[ ] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hey boss, Eye of Grudges put us at 4/5, so a total of +3 XP means we're at Power IV (2/8).
What Jiao said to Ling Qi, at the end of Forge.
I'm very much inclined to take the second option here.
The young follow in the footsteps of the old. To An, Sima Jiao. To Renxiang, Ling Qi.
We'll make a kinder world than the one he stepped away from.
[ ] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
someone else would have gotten it wrong
someone else would have gotten it wrong