Not one person dared to move as the last final lens was raised up, and placed with utmost care into the waiting housing. A curved disc of the clearest and purest glass. Made from the dragonbone sands harvested from the lake at the base of Shuilian city, crushed limestone quarried from the base of the Lunatic Crag in the Celestial Peaks, and ash created from shavings of a fallen leaf of Xiangmen. This single piece was worth more than their lives, and Astronomer Wu very much included himself in that.
So it was with utmost care that he wielded his power over space with the care of a mother attending her child. That he triple, no, quadruple checked the equations which guided it into place, and began the process of etching the formations into the casing that would join the lens to the telescope as whole and render it conceptually a single object.
It was things such as this which could make even a fourth realm sweat a little!
But after six hours and seventeen minutes, the process was completed, and the junior formation crafters gathered to form the ritual circle which kept the workspace clear of foreign qi bowed their heads in respect to him. Exhausting work, but invigorating as well. He clapped his hands once, signaling that they could raise their heads.
"Good work everyone," Astronomer Wu said cheerfully. "With this, the primary telescope is ready, and the observatory nearly complete. It has been a pleasure to be assisted by such diligent workers."
It was important to encourage but not spoil subordinates. Such was the correct way. And whatever that prematurely fossilized Fa said, he was no starry eyed radical!
As his juniors and subordinates murmured the correct appreciation and filed out, he turned back to the primary telescope. The upper chamber of the observatory was still incomplete, the frames and supports of the walls in place, but the dome which would make the ceiling was yet absent. The telescope base was set on a circular stepped platform carved from a single large slab of Celestial jade, he could envision how it would look on completion, the elegant lines of brass and silver, the glittering qi powered arrays etched along the metal, the completed dome of the room, sympathetically designed to match the night sky outside.
And it was he who had the first claim! It might not be the great array of Xiangmen, or the Grand Observatory of Mount Tai, but this, this was his! Well, it belonged to the Duchess of course, but he was its primary caretaker. And such expense had been put into it. Truly he was fortunate to live under a ruler so invested in the sciences and arts.
"Astronomer Wu?"
He blinked shaken out of his contemplations by the voice of another man. The young Meng. Wu felt contrite. He'd allowed himself to fantasize like a young scholar on his first visit to the archive.
"Young Sir, my apologies. We had a meeting, didn't we?" He asked, respectfully clasping his hands and lowering his head. Meng Dan was a young fellow, but the prestige of his family demanded respect, even if Wu hadn't felt apologetic for forgetting himself.
"I understand how easy it is to get lost in a project," Meng Dan said lightly, stepping
He was glad that the Meng had set him such an academic contact. A fellow scholar, even one of much bluer blood and a different field than he was much easier to work with. "Nonetheless, I accept fault," he said graciously. "We were going to discuss my findings so far, correct?"
"That we were," Meng Dan said agreeably. "I understand that it's only preliminary, but I must say from what I was able to understand, what you have documented is quite fascinating."
Astronomer Wu smiled, straightening his shoulders. What a dutiful young man. It seemed the nasty rumors about the Meng which swirled around the court were nonsense, as expected. "Isn't it? That even the composition of the heavens themselves would change with enough distance!"
He gestured for the younger man to follow, moving for the exit. He cast one last longing glance at the telescope. Soon!
AN: Vote Post is coming up, until then please enjoy a little more Astronomer Wu
"Yes, it has long been known to us that what lies beyond the uppermost layers of the heavens is something akin to the deep liminal, where human thought does not penetrate. If you are able to add further proof to our ancestors' theories, it will certainly draw good attention your way," Meng Dan said pleasantly. Folding his arms behind his back, the handsome young man followed after him, one polite step behind.
Yet his words worried Astronomer Wu a touch, he cast him a concerned glance, a touch of the power that let him read the heavens so clearly entering his eyes. He read what he could see there, the invisible to the mortal eye expressions which even the best poised of lower realms could not quite hide. He felt some relief at what he saw there. "If my theories prove true, then I shall be most glad to confirm the hypothesis of colleagues in neighboring fields," he said.
Meng Dan gave a little dip of his head, showing that he understood the possible unfortunate implication of his words. A relief. Some of his colleagues were prone to bending their evidence to fit what their sponsors wished to hear. It was not anywhere near the awfulness which some of his seniors spoke of when deep in their cups, of those terrible days under the rule of the Hui, but there were men of low character in every profession sadly.
"The phenomena we see is a result of this additional layer in the heavenly sphere then," Meng Dan asked, politely changing the subject.
"Just so, just so. The Upper heavens seem to lack the third and fourth layers, in exchange for the first being much denser," Astronomer Wu said, they reached his office on the completed lower floor, and he stepped inside, inviting the younger man in.
"That would be the Zenith Fortress, correct?" Meng Dan asked, taking up the offered seat and steepling his fingers."Pierced only by the highest branches of Xiangmen."
"Ah, yes, not your field," Wu said forgetfully, sitting down himself, a flick of his wrist brought his first draft papers out, and parchment fluttered as they began to flit into the air for his perusal. "Yes,that is the common term. The highest heavens, where the Sun's Zenith holds his war court and directs the sun's blood against the stars. Of course, we cannot perceive such phenomena, most of the time, so the Great Spirit's court is only tangentially related."
"And the missing layers would be… the Eleventh Lunar Palace and the Adamant Filter," Meng Dan wondered.
"Just so, just so," Astronomer Wu beamed.The young man had done at least some cursory corroboration at least. "Now it is possible I am wrong, that the increased brightness and density and brightness of the Zenith is obscuring other layers which are merely thinned. But regardless, the most important detail I feel is that the source of the emanations which paint those lights does not come from above."
It had startled him to realize, really. That the highest heavens were not holding something out in that region, but rather, holding something in. The lights scratched and clawed at the solar and lunar qi, seeking escape.
Meng Dan leaned forward, his eyebrows climbing. "Tell me more."
