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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.
I was thinking of writing a piece on this. Ling Qi as the Great Holiday Spirit, stealing into homes to leave toys.
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
She steals into your home, and if you have been good you get toys. If you've been bad you get your entire house stolen, leaving you out in the cold
If you think about it, leaving toys in peoples' houses is a heist.
No, Moon Aspected: The Archivest of Morality.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
We'll just steal his apprentice once he finally gets one. Not like Santa writes his own list
- Pronouns
- He
Ling Qi shall become the Spirit of Xianxia-Christmas.
We are planning on stealing his kid not his apprentice.
I mean they will probably be the same thing as the kid will already be locked to the Hidden Moon path by spirit bloodWe are planning on stealing his kid not his apprentice.
- Location
- Singapore
We are planning on stealing his kid not his apprentice.
"Oh, please don't take my kid, they are my pride and joy, etc, etc.
Emergency numbers are on the fridge, help yourself to the Icewine. We'll be back in about a decade, so they should have hit Green by then. Toodles."
I'm just saying that overqualified babysitters are probably worth their weight in gold.
- Location
- Finland
I'm not really sure if that's accurate.
I mean.
We were sent after the "totally not Bai bandits", and now Bai and Cai are allies.
We were sent after Ith, and now there are number of vassal Ith cities (more hopefully to come, as the other option is rather grim).
We were sent to disrupt a Ith, Cloud and Polar (though we did not know about them at the time) meeting , and now there is an actual treaty in palce with the Polar Nations.
Only time we have fought an enemy, and not caused a diplomacy, waswith the Cloud nomads.
So it would be closer to 2/3 or 3/4 change.
- Location
- FR
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Bai-Cai alliance was already happening, though they were more forgiving of the issues at the summit because of the Green Bai stuff
The vassalization of the Hai-yith-Kai happened as an answer to the death of Elder Zhong (Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny) Original - Users' Choice!), and they're unrelated cities anyways, so we have 0 claim on that one... So I'm maintaining my estimate to 1/3
Last edited:
- Location
- Finland
The Bai/Cai was already happening, but even then we were integral to causing that.
Had we made different decisions regarding our roommate, it might have been a Cai/Sun alliance instead.
Shenhua might have gone for her enthusiastic walk under Xiangmen even without our input, but we were sent after Ith, and did provide a testimony right before she did go on her walk, so i am counting that.
At worst, we have a very high correlation to enemies sent after, and diplomacy following, if not necessarily causation.
Shenhua was already in talks with the Bai; the only thing we did to help that along was make Meizhen vulnerable, which caused her to befriend Lady Ren, and this was not really the intent anyone had at the time or was even thinking about, I think.
Also, it is unlike that the Cai/Sun alliance would have happened
We were sent be the Sect to scout unknown enemies and later to test their reaction to an attack.
The duchess was already aware of the existence of the Ith before that
So I would say barty´s point of 1/3 still stands, which is, by the way, still kind of ridiculous considering LQ is just a 3. Realm and only a noble of like 1–2 years, and yet she already has this under her belt.
So while we "helped," I would not say we were integral to this alliance.
Also, it is unlike that the Cai/Sun alliance would have happened
And I don't think the choice of roommate would cause this to change. If we had gone with Sun as roommate, we would likely be in the jungle and curse the Bai/Cai alliance.
We were sent be the Sect to scout unknown enemies and later to test their reaction to an attack.
The duchess was already aware of the existence of the Ith before that
And by the way, it was Lady Ren who informed the Duchess, not LQ so we did in fact not provide Testimony right before she did go on a walk.
So I would say barty´s point of 1/3 still stands, which is, by the way, still kind of ridiculous considering LQ is just a 3. Realm and only a noble of like 1–2 years, and yet she already has this under her belt.
Year 45 Month 10 Arc 1-4
After the last three months, Ling Qi did not think she could feel relief from sitting down. But, that just proved how quickly little gripes could pass. The simple camp chair canvas stretched over a wooden frame did not so much as creak, and barely even sank under her weight as she settled into it. She had kept her qi circulating carefully, but by the moons were her calves burning down that she had eased the flow. Too much climbing, something she'd gotten out of the habit of, even before her injury.
"Should you really be sprawling like that, goes against the image you're cultivating I think."
"Sir Bao will have to have the decency of not spreading a Lady's secrets," Ling Qi drawled, cracking one eye open, with her feet stuck straight out, the heels of her boots propped up on a rock before the small crackling fire, it burned low but hot, consuming the chips of charcoal Bao Qian had fed into it.
She watched him across the fire. They were near the base of the hill, the bulk of the wagon providing a windbreak on the side the earth and scant trees did not. Hanyi was out there, in the darkness, instructing her new…. Following. She could sense them out there, comfortably enough.
"You have changed," he mused. He knelt on one knee over the fire, she watched curiously as he fit a metal grill affixed to three iron legs overtop of it, letting the metal slowly gather heat.
"We haven't had cause or time to talk much," Ling Qi replied. "But… It has been a dense set of months."
"It has at that, I think you just might be set to overtake my cultivation entirely even with your injury," Bao Qian chuckled, dusting himself off and settling into his chair.
"Does that not bother you?" Ling Qi asked, cracking her eyes further open.
"It's a prick to my pride, I won't lie. But, watching news of you…. Your ambitions are bigger and more urgent than mine."
Ling Qi hummed. "So you're content?"
"Hah, I don't think many would say that too a Bao."
She opened her other eye to observe him. He'd pulled an iron skillet and knife from his storage ring, and was now emptying a pouch of dark shelled nuts into the skillet. As she watched he picked one up, and began carving a gash in the shell.
"I'm not in a hurry. Already, I have three hundred years ahead of me," Bao Qian said thoughtfully. "I suppose that's my flaw, I'm not given to urgency."
"I haven't had the luxury, and war is coming for us far sooner than that."
"You have thrown yourself into urgent tasks! I don't know what my cultivation would do about a war though!" Bao Qian laughed.
He was a couple years older than her, as it was solidly at the sixth step of the third realm. She supposed… yes she could see his point in a distant way.
"You could say I follow our patriarch's school," Bao Qian said. "Wealth built in haste, a castle of sticks, wealth built in patience, a fortress of adamant."
"Oh, your patriarch gives lessons?" Ling Qi asked.
"Only for the very top earners," Bao Qian shot back, before pausing thoughtfully. "...It's central to us, the parts of the house which sided with the Duchess."
"Which was not exactly a plodding decision."
"And isn't that the fun of platitudes," he chuckled. He shook the skillet, evening the distribution of the now carved nuts.
"You missed one."
"Ah, that one is on purpose. Without the cut, it will pop from the pressure, and that will tell us when the others are done roasting."
Ling Qi hummed, straightening up in her chair, resting her chin on the back of her hands as she leaned toward the fire, taking in the smoky scent.
"I don't think I can agree, things change everyday. I understand I can't run forward at full speed all the time…. I can't settle in place. I don't want to."
"I could tell," Bao Qian agreed. "But you have an inkling of it. Wealth compounds on itself."
"Power gathers power."
"A success now may be worth more than a success later. It's a hard thing to suss out. Ah, but get into those equations too deeply, and you'll have a room full of elders spitting, hurling chairs and fashioning their diagrams into blades," Bao Qian laughed.
"So rowdy?" Ling Qi said, tilting her head.
"Only after the children are sent to bed and the ledgers come out."
"Bao Family gatherings must be… fun." Ling Qi said.
"They are," Bao Qian said, looking past her. "The halls, done up in displays of the works of the clan's finest artists and crafts folk, the tables groaning with delicacies from our chefs, the bright colors of whatever ostentatious show of fashion is in that year, with many hundreds of voices all raised in merry conversation. It's not for everyone, but…"
There was a sharp crack and pop from the fire. He reached down and shook the skillet, making the roasting nuts rattle in place. "Well, that should about do it."
Ling Qi hummed, reaching down and plucking one from the hot iron skillet, the shell had broken open further, and flaked away easily,
Ah, that was not bad, rich and sweet, with a faint wisp of wood qi to it that sent a pleasant buzz through her other senses.
"You haven't answered the question though. Does it bother you?"
Bao Qian didn't answer at first, chewing silently. "It does. I lack urgency, and I feel that may have cost me a very good contract indeed."
She met his eyes over the fire, considering. The tentative possibility of a courting arrangement between them had always been just that and she… had not been particularly ready for it when it came about. Those first meetings of theirs…. Well they were a mess there was no other way to say it.
"You are…"
He began to speak, but fell silent, just a moment after Ling Qi's head jerked up, her eyes panning to the sky.
Something was coming.
"Well, that might be a conversation for later," Bao Qian said, hauling himself up from his seat. "I think you've upset something."
"They could raise their objections less rudely," Ling Qi said, rising to her feet. Through her connection to Hanyi, she pulled, communicating to her junior sister that she was needed back in the camp right now.
Because the northern night sky was white now. Not the misty pale gray and blue of clouds drifting over the stars and moon, but a solid flat white.
She may have raised her voice a little too much.
It was less than two minutes before Hanyi raced back into camp surrounded by whirling fairies whose small tinny voices could not even fully reach Ling Qi's ears. Not over the screaming wind that was coming down from the mountains, the wall of impenetrable white which was descending on them, which was nearly heard, from the distant mountains already.
"This is going to be ugly," Bao Qian said, shading his eyes against the glare of the onrushing wall of snow. "Well, I don't sense anything indomitable in there."
"There is not, but this one is not a passing fairy either," Ling Qi said, resting her hand on Hanyi's head. Somewhere in the upper third realm, peak even? It was hard to tell with its power so dispersed, like her own trick dematerializing her qi. "A regional spirit, more than a snowstorm…. It has a central concept."
"This jerk, who do they think they are?" Hanyi said belligerently, planting her hands on her hips.
"Well, while you ladies determine that. I'll be preparing our fortification. Won't have my wagon blowing away now," Bao Qian said, lacing his fingers together and stretching. The hat tied around his neck was fluttering wildly in the growing wind as the snowfall began to really drive down.
He pushed his feet into a broad stance, and slammed his palm into the frozen earth with a muffled thump that sent a tremor thrumming under her boots. The hill they had camped in the shadow of came apart, dirt rolling down like a wave, stone splitting and cracking and flowing like water, like stone serpents spikes rammed into the earth and rose in pillars, foundation stones and walls piling atop each other like the work of a hundred masons in fast motion.
Ling Qi focused herself on the howling whiteout as it swept down upon them. Even her eyes could not see past it. This must be what it felt like to see her Mist oncoming, she thought.
It was upon them.
It wasn't a deafening howl, the wind did not rip at the rapidly assembling stones, it cried, rattling loose gravel, tugging and pulling a long endless freezing song. No, it didn't try to scour them away as Ling Qi might have expected.
It blanketed, it surrounded, it erased the world outside their little fire and rapidly rising walls. A lonely vista of untrammeled white, stretching on without end, a world buried and dead beneath the soft blanket of the snows.
"I see why I may have given it an insult," Ling Qi said quietly.
"Big sis does it better," Hanyi said stubbornly, but Ling Qi could hear the gnaw of worry in her voice. She understood that Ling Qi was hurt right now, not able to exercise her qi with perfect freedom.
Ling Qi understood her worry. She felt a little of it herself.
Quiet. Quiet.
Sleep in winter's arms.
Quiet. Quiet. Peace in all the world.
Oh yes, that was a quiet that she understood very well. The kind that came after you thought you were warm. The kind had the carts, collecting the bodies of those who'd not made it through the winter.
She could feel it, the winter spirit staring at her from the white expanse without any eyes. She had infringed upon it, challenged it, laid down her own claim to command what it did.
Who was the singer of the frozen death under winter's snow?
AN: Okay lil shorter than I'd like but uh... some events ate up writing time so I wasn't able to get quite as far as I wanted, I hope everyone enjoys anyway!
"Should you really be sprawling like that, goes against the image you're cultivating I think."
"Sir Bao will have to have the decency of not spreading a Lady's secrets," Ling Qi drawled, cracking one eye open, with her feet stuck straight out, the heels of her boots propped up on a rock before the small crackling fire, it burned low but hot, consuming the chips of charcoal Bao Qian had fed into it.
She watched him across the fire. They were near the base of the hill, the bulk of the wagon providing a windbreak on the side the earth and scant trees did not. Hanyi was out there, in the darkness, instructing her new…. Following. She could sense them out there, comfortably enough.
"You have changed," he mused. He knelt on one knee over the fire, she watched curiously as he fit a metal grill affixed to three iron legs overtop of it, letting the metal slowly gather heat.
"We haven't had cause or time to talk much," Ling Qi replied. "But… It has been a dense set of months."
"It has at that, I think you just might be set to overtake my cultivation entirely even with your injury," Bao Qian chuckled, dusting himself off and settling into his chair.
"Does that not bother you?" Ling Qi asked, cracking her eyes further open.
"It's a prick to my pride, I won't lie. But, watching news of you…. Your ambitions are bigger and more urgent than mine."
Ling Qi hummed. "So you're content?"
"Hah, I don't think many would say that too a Bao."
She opened her other eye to observe him. He'd pulled an iron skillet and knife from his storage ring, and was now emptying a pouch of dark shelled nuts into the skillet. As she watched he picked one up, and began carving a gash in the shell.
"I'm not in a hurry. Already, I have three hundred years ahead of me," Bao Qian said thoughtfully. "I suppose that's my flaw, I'm not given to urgency."
"I haven't had the luxury, and war is coming for us far sooner than that."
"You have thrown yourself into urgent tasks! I don't know what my cultivation would do about a war though!" Bao Qian laughed.
He was a couple years older than her, as it was solidly at the sixth step of the third realm. She supposed… yes she could see his point in a distant way.
"You could say I follow our patriarch's school," Bao Qian said. "Wealth built in haste, a castle of sticks, wealth built in patience, a fortress of adamant."
"Oh, your patriarch gives lessons?" Ling Qi asked.
"Only for the very top earners," Bao Qian shot back, before pausing thoughtfully. "...It's central to us, the parts of the house which sided with the Duchess."
"Which was not exactly a plodding decision."
"And isn't that the fun of platitudes," he chuckled. He shook the skillet, evening the distribution of the now carved nuts.
"You missed one."
"Ah, that one is on purpose. Without the cut, it will pop from the pressure, and that will tell us when the others are done roasting."
Ling Qi hummed, straightening up in her chair, resting her chin on the back of her hands as she leaned toward the fire, taking in the smoky scent.
"I don't think I can agree, things change everyday. I understand I can't run forward at full speed all the time…. I can't settle in place. I don't want to."
"I could tell," Bao Qian agreed. "But you have an inkling of it. Wealth compounds on itself."
"Power gathers power."
"A success now may be worth more than a success later. It's a hard thing to suss out. Ah, but get into those equations too deeply, and you'll have a room full of elders spitting, hurling chairs and fashioning their diagrams into blades," Bao Qian laughed.
"So rowdy?" Ling Qi said, tilting her head.
"Only after the children are sent to bed and the ledgers come out."
"Bao Family gatherings must be… fun." Ling Qi said.
"They are," Bao Qian said, looking past her. "The halls, done up in displays of the works of the clan's finest artists and crafts folk, the tables groaning with delicacies from our chefs, the bright colors of whatever ostentatious show of fashion is in that year, with many hundreds of voices all raised in merry conversation. It's not for everyone, but…"
There was a sharp crack and pop from the fire. He reached down and shook the skillet, making the roasting nuts rattle in place. "Well, that should about do it."
Ling Qi hummed, reaching down and plucking one from the hot iron skillet, the shell had broken open further, and flaked away easily,
Ah, that was not bad, rich and sweet, with a faint wisp of wood qi to it that sent a pleasant buzz through her other senses.
"You haven't answered the question though. Does it bother you?"
Bao Qian didn't answer at first, chewing silently. "It does. I lack urgency, and I feel that may have cost me a very good contract indeed."
She met his eyes over the fire, considering. The tentative possibility of a courting arrangement between them had always been just that and she… had not been particularly ready for it when it came about. Those first meetings of theirs…. Well they were a mess there was no other way to say it.
"You are…"
He began to speak, but fell silent, just a moment after Ling Qi's head jerked up, her eyes panning to the sky.
Something was coming.
"Well, that might be a conversation for later," Bao Qian said, hauling himself up from his seat. "I think you've upset something."
"They could raise their objections less rudely," Ling Qi said, rising to her feet. Through her connection to Hanyi, she pulled, communicating to her junior sister that she was needed back in the camp right now.
Because the northern night sky was white now. Not the misty pale gray and blue of clouds drifting over the stars and moon, but a solid flat white.
She may have raised her voice a little too much.
It was less than two minutes before Hanyi raced back into camp surrounded by whirling fairies whose small tinny voices could not even fully reach Ling Qi's ears. Not over the screaming wind that was coming down from the mountains, the wall of impenetrable white which was descending on them, which was nearly heard, from the distant mountains already.
"This is going to be ugly," Bao Qian said, shading his eyes against the glare of the onrushing wall of snow. "Well, I don't sense anything indomitable in there."
"There is not, but this one is not a passing fairy either," Ling Qi said, resting her hand on Hanyi's head. Somewhere in the upper third realm, peak even? It was hard to tell with its power so dispersed, like her own trick dematerializing her qi. "A regional spirit, more than a snowstorm…. It has a central concept."
"This jerk, who do they think they are?" Hanyi said belligerently, planting her hands on her hips.
"Well, while you ladies determine that. I'll be preparing our fortification. Won't have my wagon blowing away now," Bao Qian said, lacing his fingers together and stretching. The hat tied around his neck was fluttering wildly in the growing wind as the snowfall began to really drive down.
He pushed his feet into a broad stance, and slammed his palm into the frozen earth with a muffled thump that sent a tremor thrumming under her boots. The hill they had camped in the shadow of came apart, dirt rolling down like a wave, stone splitting and cracking and flowing like water, like stone serpents spikes rammed into the earth and rose in pillars, foundation stones and walls piling atop each other like the work of a hundred masons in fast motion.
Ling Qi focused herself on the howling whiteout as it swept down upon them. Even her eyes could not see past it. This must be what it felt like to see her Mist oncoming, she thought.
It was upon them.
It wasn't a deafening howl, the wind did not rip at the rapidly assembling stones, it cried, rattling loose gravel, tugging and pulling a long endless freezing song. No, it didn't try to scour them away as Ling Qi might have expected.
It blanketed, it surrounded, it erased the world outside their little fire and rapidly rising walls. A lonely vista of untrammeled white, stretching on without end, a world buried and dead beneath the soft blanket of the snows.
"I see why I may have given it an insult," Ling Qi said quietly.
"Big sis does it better," Hanyi said stubbornly, but Ling Qi could hear the gnaw of worry in her voice. She understood that Ling Qi was hurt right now, not able to exercise her qi with perfect freedom.
Ling Qi understood her worry. She felt a little of it herself.
Quiet. Quiet.
Sleep in winter's arms.
Quiet. Quiet. Peace in all the world.
Oh yes, that was a quiet that she understood very well. The kind that came after you thought you were warm. The kind had the carts, collecting the bodies of those who'd not made it through the winter.
She could feel it, the winter spirit staring at her from the white expanse without any eyes. She had infringed upon it, challenged it, laid down her own claim to command what it did.
Who was the singer of the frozen death under winter's snow?
AN: Okay lil shorter than I'd like but uh... some events ate up writing time so I wasn't able to get quite as far as I wanted, I hope everyone enjoys anyway!
- Location
- California
Ominous, especially with us not in peak condition. I feel this will be more of a clash of concepts and wills than strength though.
Also, he's not exactly wrong.
Loosing the ability to do the little things makes you appreciate them more.
That's a valid philosophy that has it's benefits though as stated it's not without flaw. Also the Patriarch giving lessons to the top earners is neat since it rewards success.
The Bao Clan is a bunch of artists and accountants which is a great vibe.
Bit of an understatement.
That's going to be something Ling Qi needs to deal with.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
I feel bad for Bao but still firmly on camp turtle boi
- Location
- Washington
Nah, he's in fact entirely wrong. It's not lack of urgency that's gonna have him almost certainly lose out.
- Location
- California
True, it's the lack of demon-bird pet.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Though honestly, if LIng Qi is holding out for specifically someone who cultivates exactly as quickly as her, it's going to be a lonely climb... and I don't necessarily think she is? Everything she's thought about this seems to be against devaluing those of lower rank in such a way.
That doesn't mean that a lack of ambition and desire to climb might not well be an impediment, don't get me wrong.
That doesn't mean that a lack of ambition and desire to climb might not well be an impediment, don't get me wrong.
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
