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
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
Aren't the antlers like. A few hundred feet in span?
Hmmm okay. It seems there's a decent chance Ice will be in there, potentially even Wind. Not sure what the odds are on Moon, Darkness, or Music though.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Skill issue.
Wasn't sure if it's been mentioned already, but could we finagle a shenhua wedding invite for jaromila?
Mostly just want to see her see xiangmen. Dzintara too preferably trolo.
Mostly just want to see her see xiangmen. Dzintara too preferably trolo.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Sure, but there's evidence that she's been hiding her power level, and a near-certainty that she's high-end compared to other Cyan beasts. So I don't think we can take her.
Mr.Error
The Clock-Hand that Tampers with Time
- Location
- The Cosmos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ohhh this could be fun!! We have been to one of their bases, but iirc they haven't seen much of ours other than Xin'an. And what better to show them than the capital itself?
Tfw your new allies show off their massive tree capitol stretching endlessly into the sky and you're told that they're one of the poorest and weakest of the Empire's provinces.
Mr.Error
The Clock-Hand that Tampers with Time
- Location
- The Cosmos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
^^That's just a plus lmao. Show off the carrot and the stick
I'm excited for the wedding a) for all the reactions to us from various high level reps with the Summit under our belt and b) weddings are a great chance to meet potential suitors lol.
Especially since we didn't go the sect route this may be a chance to see a lot more faces from other provinces/sects!
Especially since we didn't go the sect route this may be a chance to see a lot more faces from other provinces/sects!
Q&A stuff:
Imperial concerns about Shenhua being able to replicate her speed run and spam Cai Whites:
What the conflict boost is that enabled the Wang and Jia's Violets to climb that high is:
How much conceptual advantage matters against a higher realm enemy:
Imperial concerns about Shenhua being able to replicate her speed run and spam Cai Whites:
Meizhen's mom's execution for supposedly assassinating an Imperial Prince:
How river spirits work:
The tribe of the apprentice whose revenge plot Ling Qi interrupted:
Argent Peak military confirmed baby killers. I know Cloud raiders do similar shit, but two wrongs don't make a right. Fuck 'em. Good riddance to Elder Zhou.
What the conflict boost is that enabled the Wang and Jia's Violets to climb that high is:
What Jungle Titans in the Western Territories are:
Why the people of the Red Sun were the toughest foes the Sage Emperor encountered in his conquests:
How much conceptual advantage matters against a higher realm enemy:
Why mortals aren't allowed at the sect tournament:
How common marrying for love is:
Why none of the Hui's Whites after their first one ascended:
Zheng cultural influence in the Ebon Rivers:
Lowest stage a spirit or beast can make someone spirit-blooded via adoption:
Why you can't make a pile of OP gear from a giant spirit beast like a Prism dragon:
A nugget about Zhi:
Last edited:
- Location
- FR
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Probably, Yrsillar made no announcement to the contrary here or on discord.Will we have a chapter tomorrow ?
TimEd
Meteor maker
broken vote, by the by. It's still winning, but it's the principle of the thing.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Year 45 Month 10 Arc 1-1 Song of Snows
Where cold wind blows
On the travelers road
Where falling snows
All warmth erode
We sing of light, through winter long
'Till the floods, ring spring's gong
The last verse of the amusing little folk song drifted out through the open slats in the workshop wagon, stirring the lightly falling snow outside into swirling flurries. It was a simple piece, the simplest of pieces, the sort of thing even a child could sing.
But Hanyi's voice, the piping of her flute, and the rattle of the wind tugging at the shutters made something homely of it, even out here bumping over stones and dirt and roots.
Hanyi hands came together in a clap, punctuating the final word as she grinned. "See! I told you I learned some fun songs while I was away!"
"You did," Ling Qi replied, smiling. "These folk songs have a fun rhythm to them, perfect for a long trip."
"It does certainly make the path roll on faster," Bao Qian agreed. He rode up front, the wide brimmed hat shading him from the lightly falling snow. "But we are here I think, if you want to speak with the spirits of lowland snows, having their frolic."
"Probably the best place to start," Ling Qi agreed, accepting Hanyi's hand to help her up. She had at last left her trusty chair behind in the newly christened hamlet of Shenglu. She still swayed, but she could at least walk as a mortal did, without tiring too quickly these days.
Carefully, she rubbed her fingers together, no more talisman wraps, at least on her limbs, it was good to be able to feel things properly again. Embers still smoldered down in her dantian, and in the ashen impurity clogging many of her meridians, but a little proper exercise was just the thing to kickstart this stage of her recovery.
"Let's show these rowdy fairies whose boss," Hanyi sniffed. "Mister Bao, you make sure the camp is comfy, so Big Sis can come back and rest, okay!"
"Such a grave task, I am honored to be given it," Bao Qian said dryly. "Do try not to stay out too late ladies. I recall Lady Cai instructed me that you did still require medications."
"I would never be so reckless," Ling Qireplied, half smiling as she carefully descended from the back of the wagon. "We'll be back by the midnight hour."
"Like it'll even take that long," Hanyi sniffed, trotted out ahead of Ling Qi over the sparse, coarse grass that clung to the gravely dirt of the foothills. "C'moooon Big Sis, I'm so tired of sitting around."
"I'm coming, junior sister," Ling Qi huffed, standing straight, she rolled her shoulders feeling the faint burn in her legs as qi circulated through atrophied tissues, cycling and restoring the lingering damage that remained under her careful watch, bolstered now by the strain and activity.
Yes, a good long hike and perhaps a game of tag was just what she needed.
And all around them, the light crisp wind blew, sending the drifting flakes swirling. Ling Qi inhaled deeply atop the hill, the snow crusted her hair, settled lightly on her gown. It did not melt, but simply accumulated a little more with each passing moment.
Her winter, her cold was only a smaller piece of a greater whole.
This she had found to be the truth, in the closing days of the Summit, her time there had not left as much time for contemplation as she might have liked. There was simply no time among the bustle and agreements for more personal debates.
But, it was true. It was something that had been brewing in her mind for a while, since her conversation with Elder Jiao and Xin at least. She had told him that he and the former Emperor had been too ambitious, and she thought she was right. Two men, even men at the height of cultivation, could only change the world so much.
But she understood that this was too simple, he had been right to scoff at her. Because there weren't only two men, Cao Chun was proof of that. The Ministry ticked on. If she could speak to him again…. She might say that his mistake was thinking he would see the end of it.
"My Mother intends me to overthrow her."
Even Cai Shenhua, she suspected, understood that. Even an ascension was only a single step on a greater Way, if a greatly impactful one.
That was... Daunting. She could understand why contemplating that could crush the soul and snuff ambition like an errant ember. To cultivate was to have a grand ambition, a will to overturn some element of the world's order, or write a new law into the cosmos.
To confront your smallness was not something trivially done.
Xia Ren ceded the thought on where her future was going to Cai Shenhua, the legend and ideal.
Ling Qi could not cede that to Cai Renxiang, who was only another part in their orchestra, the conductor of it maybe, but not its animating force. She supposed her friend would liken it more to the gears in a wound up clock, where ones turning meant nothing without its neighbors.
But she could not have any illusions that their work would ever be done, that they could truly inarguably 'fix' things, for whatever value one assigned that.
There was a whole world which had a say. That, she thought, was where Huisheng's path of multitude lived. And there lay a seed of what she was missing still, in developing her own song.
"So, Hanyi, what was that about just needing to give the snow fairies a talking too," she said mildly.
High pitched laughter filtered down from a half dozen directions in the cloudy sky, the wind whipping at her snow crusted hair and gown. The snows danced all around, she could almost see the outlines of faces in it, twisted up in childish mockery.
"I wanted to be generous," Hanyi said haughtily. Her arms were crossed, and she'd drawn herself up to her full height, every inch the affronted aristocrat if not for the pouty tilt of her lips.
…Her Junior Sister was up to Ling Qi's shoulder now, wasn't she? Master Zeqing had been very tall.
"It is good to do your best to solve things with words first," Ling Qi said mildly. A loosely packed snowball burst into fragments a few inches from her face, the puff of wet snow swiftly carried away in the wind. "So, what comes next?"
Hanyi gave her an uncertain look. "I mean, Big Sis is the expert and this is her valley, so…"
"They can't hurt us, so I'd like to know what you think," Ling Qi replied.
A frozen gust roared, whipping at Hanyi's braided hair, and making her eye twitch. "...I wanna beat them up."
"Will you beat them up?" Ling Qi asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"A little," Hanyi huffed, her qi flared and the wind roared, snow engulfing them both in a whirlwind of white, making the circling fairies shriek and scatter. "...But thats not enough to make yourself their boss. They'll just break up into snowflakes and be back again later."
"So it's not just you," Ling Qi chuckled.
"That's a technique!" Hanyi whined. "You know what I mean."
She did. Minor weather spirits weren't really discrete individuals, they were just manifestations of the patterns wrought by the greater spirits. You could influence them though and with enough effort influence the greater spirit.
"You have to give them something," Hanyi said. "You beat them up a little till they stay still, but then you have to give them something."
"A plan, a future, a role," Ling Qi said, a half dozen balls of snow and a single craggy chunk of ice whipped through Hanyi's settling whirlwind, this time Ling Qi merely bent the wind and sent them flying off around them, tugging at her hair.
"I was gonna say a job, but yeah, Big Sis is right. But to make it stick, there needs to be a piece of you too, or there's not enough of them to last," Hanyi said. "....That's why things are so messed up where I go on tour. The big big spirits are just doing what they've always done, following patterns…. But all the sorta big spirits like me are gone, so the little spirits just run wild except where the priest guys make them bounce off with temporary stuff. They can't make contracts with them 'cause they're too dumb to remember what they agreed to season to season."
"Is it the same here?" Ling Qi wondered.
"Kinda but not totally. I think there's at least some other sorta big spirits around. We'll have to make them…" Hanyi paused. "I mean, make friends with them."
"I'm sure, Ling Qi replied.
She considered the snowstorm around them. The clouds stretched for many kilometers out over the hills, but there was no guiding mind behind it. No mighty spirit embodied in the clouds except in the most distant way.
"Then show me, Hanyi, show me what you've been doing all those months," she said mildly.
"Hm… There's no stage though, no audience but these dumb fairies, I dunno…" Hanyi said, uncertain.
"I'm here," Ling Qi said. "Today, I'll follow your instructions, but remember, I'm still going to be a little slow.
"Okay," Hanyi said, furrowing her brow. "Well I guess um…. Will you lend me your authority a little Big Sis?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," Ling Qi replied, frowning.
"I mean, Boss Lady is the one in charge at the top, and she goes right up to the Duchess. Um ... the temple priests kinda do this on tour, that's why we work right with them, cause they can make me…. Legitimate?"
Hanyi explained slowly, she clearly wasn't fully used to thinking this way, but Ling Qi saw what she meant. This wasn't imperial land, not properly yet, going by the disorganized ecosystem, it hadn't been properly anyone's land in a long time. Fought over back and forth for centuries.
"I see, I think I can work that out," Ling Qi said thoughtfully. That was how imperial spiritualism worked. Even the old Weilu methods were like that to an extent, forming contracts with amenable spirits who would in turn pressure and alter their ecosystem, and bring human voices to the Great Spirits above.
Yes, she could do that.
The wind shifted, the clouds parted for a moment, and Ling Qi's shadow stretched long, over the hills and streams behind them, over the distant flatlands lost in the flurries of snow. It stretched backward, and radiances coursed through it like glittering stars running back up to her feet. She breathed out, and the flurries of snow around her thickened and clumped, falling heavier and faster.
Without any conscious thought to it, the snow crusting her gown and hair flowed and limned the hems of her gown like an lace trim, and she felt cool ice forming across her forehead, in it was sealed a mote of colorless radiance, drawn from very far away, but even that small fragment gleamed like a gemstone on her brow.
It wasn't a technique precisely, it was a song, woven through the art of the Spirit Seeker. It was an announcement of her authority expressed into the world
"You speak for me, Sister. Go ahead and make your stage."
Hanyi puffed out her chest and stepped forward. The fairies' laughter was edged, not with fear, for things that did not understand death had none, but uncertainty.
Hanyi spread her hands, and began to sing.
AN: Alright folks welcome to the longest arc since the summit, not that this means much, but expect this one to go on a bit even as I have to split certain updates without a vote. Lotta stuff thats been compressed needs to be unpacked here.
On the travelers road
Where falling snows
All warmth erode
We sing of light, through winter long
'Till the floods, ring spring's gong
The last verse of the amusing little folk song drifted out through the open slats in the workshop wagon, stirring the lightly falling snow outside into swirling flurries. It was a simple piece, the simplest of pieces, the sort of thing even a child could sing.
But Hanyi's voice, the piping of her flute, and the rattle of the wind tugging at the shutters made something homely of it, even out here bumping over stones and dirt and roots.
Hanyi hands came together in a clap, punctuating the final word as she grinned. "See! I told you I learned some fun songs while I was away!"
"You did," Ling Qi replied, smiling. "These folk songs have a fun rhythm to them, perfect for a long trip."
"It does certainly make the path roll on faster," Bao Qian agreed. He rode up front, the wide brimmed hat shading him from the lightly falling snow. "But we are here I think, if you want to speak with the spirits of lowland snows, having their frolic."
"Probably the best place to start," Ling Qi agreed, accepting Hanyi's hand to help her up. She had at last left her trusty chair behind in the newly christened hamlet of Shenglu. She still swayed, but she could at least walk as a mortal did, without tiring too quickly these days.
Crucible Charred: (G) 4
The after effect of carrying the Sovereign of Steel and Flame into the dream to do battle. The mortal functions of your body are returned within your tolerances for pain, cultivation returns slower, but returns all the same, sluggish and charred meridians slowly being cleansed of flame, your dantian beginning to cycle your own qi through damaged channels.
The after effect of carrying the Sovereign of Steel and Flame into the dream to do battle. The mortal functions of your body are returned within your tolerances for pain, cultivation returns slower, but returns all the same, sluggish and charred meridians slowly being cleansed of flame, your dantian beginning to cycle your own qi through damaged channels.
Carefully, she rubbed her fingers together, no more talisman wraps, at least on her limbs, it was good to be able to feel things properly again. Embers still smoldered down in her dantian, and in the ashen impurity clogging many of her meridians, but a little proper exercise was just the thing to kickstart this stage of her recovery.
"Let's show these rowdy fairies whose boss," Hanyi sniffed. "Mister Bao, you make sure the camp is comfy, so Big Sis can come back and rest, okay!"
"Such a grave task, I am honored to be given it," Bao Qian said dryly. "Do try not to stay out too late ladies. I recall Lady Cai instructed me that you did still require medications."
"I would never be so reckless," Ling Qireplied, half smiling as she carefully descended from the back of the wagon. "We'll be back by the midnight hour."
"Like it'll even take that long," Hanyi sniffed, trotted out ahead of Ling Qi over the sparse, coarse grass that clung to the gravely dirt of the foothills. "C'moooon Big Sis, I'm so tired of sitting around."
"I'm coming, junior sister," Ling Qi huffed, standing straight, she rolled her shoulders feeling the faint burn in her legs as qi circulated through atrophied tissues, cycling and restoring the lingering damage that remained under her careful watch, bolstered now by the strain and activity.
Yes, a good long hike and perhaps a game of tag was just what she needed.
***
These hills were truly beautiful, with the mountains rising to their north a gray rampart reaching up to a clear blue sky, the rolling brown and green landscape growing ever more dusted with snow, small streams running down from the peaks to burble through the gullies and run in broad shallow streams through the limited flat land between.And all around them, the light crisp wind blew, sending the drifting flakes swirling. Ling Qi inhaled deeply atop the hill, the snow crusted her hair, settled lightly on her gown. It did not melt, but simply accumulated a little more with each passing moment.
Her winter, her cold was only a smaller piece of a greater whole.
This she had found to be the truth, in the closing days of the Summit, her time there had not left as much time for contemplation as she might have liked. There was simply no time among the bustle and agreements for more personal debates.
But, it was true. It was something that had been brewing in her mind for a while, since her conversation with Elder Jiao and Xin at least. She had told him that he and the former Emperor had been too ambitious, and she thought she was right. Two men, even men at the height of cultivation, could only change the world so much.
But she understood that this was too simple, he had been right to scoff at her. Because there weren't only two men, Cao Chun was proof of that. The Ministry ticked on. If she could speak to him again…. She might say that his mistake was thinking he would see the end of it.
"My Mother intends me to overthrow her."
Even Cai Shenhua, she suspected, understood that. Even an ascension was only a single step on a greater Way, if a greatly impactful one.
That was... Daunting. She could understand why contemplating that could crush the soul and snuff ambition like an errant ember. To cultivate was to have a grand ambition, a will to overturn some element of the world's order, or write a new law into the cosmos.
To confront your smallness was not something trivially done.
Xia Ren ceded the thought on where her future was going to Cai Shenhua, the legend and ideal.
Ling Qi could not cede that to Cai Renxiang, who was only another part in their orchestra, the conductor of it maybe, but not its animating force. She supposed her friend would liken it more to the gears in a wound up clock, where ones turning meant nothing without its neighbors.
But she could not have any illusions that their work would ever be done, that they could truly inarguably 'fix' things, for whatever value one assigned that.
There was a whole world which had a say. That, she thought, was where Huisheng's path of multitude lived. And there lay a seed of what she was missing still, in developing her own song.
"So, Hanyi, what was that about just needing to give the snow fairies a talking too," she said mildly.
High pitched laughter filtered down from a half dozen directions in the cloudy sky, the wind whipping at her snow crusted hair and gown. The snows danced all around, she could almost see the outlines of faces in it, twisted up in childish mockery.
"I wanted to be generous," Hanyi said haughtily. Her arms were crossed, and she'd drawn herself up to her full height, every inch the affronted aristocrat if not for the pouty tilt of her lips.
…Her Junior Sister was up to Ling Qi's shoulder now, wasn't she? Master Zeqing had been very tall.
"It is good to do your best to solve things with words first," Ling Qi said mildly. A loosely packed snowball burst into fragments a few inches from her face, the puff of wet snow swiftly carried away in the wind. "So, what comes next?"
Hanyi gave her an uncertain look. "I mean, Big Sis is the expert and this is her valley, so…"
"They can't hurt us, so I'd like to know what you think," Ling Qi replied.
A frozen gust roared, whipping at Hanyi's braided hair, and making her eye twitch. "...I wanna beat them up."
"Will you beat them up?" Ling Qi asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"A little," Hanyi huffed, her qi flared and the wind roared, snow engulfing them both in a whirlwind of white, making the circling fairies shriek and scatter. "...But thats not enough to make yourself their boss. They'll just break up into snowflakes and be back again later."
"So it's not just you," Ling Qi chuckled.
"That's a technique!" Hanyi whined. "You know what I mean."
She did. Minor weather spirits weren't really discrete individuals, they were just manifestations of the patterns wrought by the greater spirits. You could influence them though and with enough effort influence the greater spirit.
"You have to give them something," Hanyi said. "You beat them up a little till they stay still, but then you have to give them something."
"A plan, a future, a role," Ling Qi said, a half dozen balls of snow and a single craggy chunk of ice whipped through Hanyi's settling whirlwind, this time Ling Qi merely bent the wind and sent them flying off around them, tugging at her hair.
"I was gonna say a job, but yeah, Big Sis is right. But to make it stick, there needs to be a piece of you too, or there's not enough of them to last," Hanyi said. "....That's why things are so messed up where I go on tour. The big big spirits are just doing what they've always done, following patterns…. But all the sorta big spirits like me are gone, so the little spirits just run wild except where the priest guys make them bounce off with temporary stuff. They can't make contracts with them 'cause they're too dumb to remember what they agreed to season to season."
"Is it the same here?" Ling Qi wondered.
"Kinda but not totally. I think there's at least some other sorta big spirits around. We'll have to make them…" Hanyi paused. "I mean, make friends with them."
"I'm sure, Ling Qi replied.
She considered the snowstorm around them. The clouds stretched for many kilometers out over the hills, but there was no guiding mind behind it. No mighty spirit embodied in the clouds except in the most distant way.
"Then show me, Hanyi, show me what you've been doing all those months," she said mildly.
"Hm… There's no stage though, no audience but these dumb fairies, I dunno…" Hanyi said, uncertain.
"I'm here," Ling Qi said. "Today, I'll follow your instructions, but remember, I'm still going to be a little slow.
"Okay," Hanyi said, furrowing her brow. "Well I guess um…. Will you lend me your authority a little Big Sis?"
"I'm not sure what you mean," Ling Qi replied, frowning.
"I mean, Boss Lady is the one in charge at the top, and she goes right up to the Duchess. Um ... the temple priests kinda do this on tour, that's why we work right with them, cause they can make me…. Legitimate?"
Hanyi explained slowly, she clearly wasn't fully used to thinking this way, but Ling Qi saw what she meant. This wasn't imperial land, not properly yet, going by the disorganized ecosystem, it hadn't been properly anyone's land in a long time. Fought over back and forth for centuries.
"I see, I think I can work that out," Ling Qi said thoughtfully. That was how imperial spiritualism worked. Even the old Weilu methods were like that to an extent, forming contracts with amenable spirits who would in turn pressure and alter their ecosystem, and bring human voices to the Great Spirits above.
Yes, she could do that.
The wind shifted, the clouds parted for a moment, and Ling Qi's shadow stretched long, over the hills and streams behind them, over the distant flatlands lost in the flurries of snow. It stretched backward, and radiances coursed through it like glittering stars running back up to her feet. She breathed out, and the flurries of snow around her thickened and clumped, falling heavier and faster.
Without any conscious thought to it, the snow crusting her gown and hair flowed and limned the hems of her gown like an lace trim, and she felt cool ice forming across her forehead, in it was sealed a mote of colorless radiance, drawn from very far away, but even that small fragment gleamed like a gemstone on her brow.
It wasn't a technique precisely, it was a song, woven through the art of the Spirit Seeker. It was an announcement of her authority expressed into the world
"You speak for me, Sister. Go ahead and make your stage."
Hanyi puffed out her chest and stepped forward. The fairies' laughter was edged, not with fear, for things that did not understand death had none, but uncertainty.
Hanyi spread her hands, and began to sing.
AN: Alright folks welcome to the longest arc since the summit, not that this means much, but expect this one to go on a bit even as I have to split certain updates without a vote. Lotta stuff thats been compressed needs to be unpacked here.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States of America, Michigan
Time to bully some 9balls aka Cirno as is tradition