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.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
A second tally on the same page is a bit excessive. Especially when the votes are this one-sided.
- Location
- FR
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think @yrsillar forgot to lock it anyways... We should be getting the chapter today, so he normally would have locked it yesterday
Year 45 Month 10 Arc 1-6
To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.
That was her truth, the core of Want as she understood it. It was the root from which self arose. Without want, there was no self. Yet, that all consuming hunger was deeply entwined with winter. This was the depth of the season, this was what she called on, in the middle stanza's of her Serenade.
The Whiteout Wonderland was full of want, empty and directionless, there was a keystone missing from it though, keeping it as this mere diffuse thing, only agitated to active action by a direct challenge. Ling Qi stood on a pillar of stone over a roof of congealed woodsmoke. Ling Qi was everywhere within the whirling snows, a hundred visions of endless white and cloying silence, broken only by the low monotone whisper of the wind. In her vision there was only one imperfection, one little blot of impurity in her empty silence, high curved walls of stone and the Not-Her which stood above them.
There was so much warmth inside, warmth denied the comfort of her smothering cold, did it not wish to be put to rest, how could it not, how could it persist, when beautiful silence awaited?
So warm, the fire. She WANTED it. It was rich in a way nothing else was, full of many things she had no comprehension of, but coveted dearly.
Ling Qi/The Whiteout felt the stir of envy, a sharp edge to the eternal hunger
The spark, Ling Qi thought, was there.
"Bao Qian!" the voice of flesh called, heard despite all impediments. "Release your defense, but only for a five count!"
The reply took a moment, she could feel his consternation, frowning up at the sky, but she also felt the moment he realized her plan, even if there was still a dubious feel to the thought.
It was dizzying, the rush of it. The stolid, grasping power which let not a single mote of itself free before the tugging winds loosened its grip. Heat and life and feeling flooded out wicked away by the hungry howling of the wind.
Joyous silence, settling quiet, full and heavy and…
The fist of gold clenched and not a single wisp more escaped, only the fraying cold of Not-Her
The reaction was dull, the wind tugged and cried, grinding away at stone. The crumbling was inevitable. Such was the nature of things. But it wasn't now.
She was so hungry, wasn't she? The emptiness yawned. Her and not-Her feeding, feeding, drinking deep of snows that could not hold what they wanted. Silence could not draw sustenance from silence.
Quiet. Quiet. Whyfore do you hide?
Sleep. Sleep. Under crooning stars. Dreams of Warm. Dreams of White.
Ling Qi spread her arms wide, sleeves billowing like banners in the whirling wind.
Warm. Warm.
Why. Why. Why?
Silence. Silence. Rolling on forever.
Gone. Gone. The fire never comes again.
Distress. A spasm, a movement within the infinite white. A concept introduced, just a little turning of what was already there. Loss. To consume something completely was to lose it. To devour without limit could only end in the throes of starvation.
She signaled Bao Qian, and for a precious moment the heat came again, the flame, the ambition, the want. It was savory, whirling away in the wind. And then again it was gone, the snowstorm shook violently, the winds hurled themselves at walls of stone and qi, clawing, crying, and received nothing for it.
Frustration, roiling into intent. In this moment, there was a danger rising, she had awoken the spirit from crushing, passive hunger, inflamed in its icy heart a desire to truly feed. But she had also planted other seeds, and as she raised her voice, Her and Not-Her sang, in a voice that was both and neither at once.
Silence. Silence. Lay over Misty hill.
Rattle. Rattle. Shutters tight, work done well.
Quiet moans the wind through streets swept white with snow.
Warm burn the fires, smoke rising bright.
Softly. Softly. Lay it all to rest.
Year past. Year past. Always and forever.
Tithe the white. Tithe the white. Fires burning bright.
Given freely, given first, to whiteout wraith of frozen night.
Once more the golden fist creaked grudgingly open, and this time, the rush of heat blew away the expanse of white, and Ling Qi was left standing under the clear sky and glittering stars, the hanging crescent of the moon blazing silver in the sky.
She flexed her fingers, watching frost flake off, droplets of ice and water slowly filling the cracks in her skin, restoring flesh in its wake as she drew her qi back in. Her shoulders slumped. She was really spent wasn't she? Her dantian felt gutted and empty, only just enough qi left to keep the embers of flame properly suppressed. That had been closer than she liked.
The pillar under her feet jerked, and began sliding down, crumbling back into the earth at a steady pace that soon brought her back to earth.
Bao Qian slowly stood, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Did you do what I think you just did?"
"That depends," Ling Qi said, slumping back to her chair. Hanyi yelped and dashed to insert herself under Ling Qi's arm, helping her cross the little camp. "I am going to have to organize a proper winter festival for Snowblossom now though. I'm glad I still have a little time."
"...You make it look so easy. Forming a fresh contract, bending a spirit into something you can properly contract with."
"I could only do it because of how close we were in nature," Ling Qi admitted. "And because the spirit was still somewhat unformed."
She couldn't share her exact method of course. "Well, and because you were so effective at shutting the flow on and off."
"If there is one thing we have in common, it is a bullish refusal to let go," Bao Qian snorted. "What sort of festival?"
Ling Qi glanced at their fire dense with qi rich charcoal. "... A bonfire festival for the mortals. Done on the outskirts maybe. Are those nuts native to the south?"
"They can be, given a bit of effort from sir Zhengui," Bao Qian replied, sitting back down across from her. "Chestnuts. They tend to like humid weather but there are some projects for cold weather breeds."
"Well I'll have to look into it… or convince the spirit of different offerings," Ling Qi said rubbing her forehead. Her head was throbbing now. She reached out for the pan, they were a little charred now, the shells having blackened and almost flaked off on their own, but the rich burst of wood qi still lessened the ache in her dantian as she chewed the treat. She squeezed her eyes shut, imagining immersing herself in that frigid expanse again.
"...Can we import these in bulk?"
"It might be a little expensive for a normal fresh baron, but given your finances, I think you can manage," Bao Qian chuckled. "Shall I draw up the contract?"
"Please do."
"So… does that mean we have to cut this lady in directly?" Hanyi asked, piping up from beside Ling Qi. She held a chestnut in her hand, and inhaled. It withered and shrank in her grasp as the qi was ripped from the 'meat' of the nut directly.
Her junior sister didn't sound to pleased. "For now, I'm afraid, maybe when Hanyi matures a little we can think about renegotiating."
Her junior sister huffed and kicked the frozen dirt. "...'Kay."
Bao Qian was frowning, his chin resting on his hands as he looked over the fire, but he didn't say anything further yet. Ling Qi leaned back in the camp chair, looking up at the high walls he had raised.
"Is there a reason anyone bothers with regular construction when such arts are around?" Ling Qi wondered. "Is it just lack of cultivators?"
Bao Qian hummed, looking up himself. "Earth does not take easily to change, to dynamic motion. It's against its nature. Given a few days, this will start to crumble, and the stone and earth will revert to its natural state over a week or so, if I do not take it down."
"Huh, is that so," Ling Qi said curiously. She supposed if she focused she could feel the strain in the qi embedded in the stone and earthworks. "That might be interesting to watch."
"Watching it happen is a foundational lesson in the arts of earth, at least as my tutors taught it," Bao Qian chuckled. "You can imagine how entertaining a ten year old might find such a lesson."
"Preparing you for tribulation early, how forward thinking," Ling Qi smiled. "Then…"
"You can construct with earthshaping arts, but it takes time, investment and sustained vision. It is faster than mortal construction, and capable of many things they cannot manage, but in the end, mundane methods are simply more cost effective for most things," Bao Qian answered her hanging question.
"A thing which is too expensive will never see wide use, no matter how superior it is?" Ling Qi wondered.
"Just so, not quite a law of wealth, but definitely a law of craft," Bao Qian said. "But then, formations fight against being widely spread, it takes true genius to wrestle them into a shape that near anyone can use. True change takes ages."
"Hm, in the context of a mortal life," Ling Qi said. "I think in the perspective you spoke of, things can change quite fast."
"Hah, true. Our Duchess proves that."
"Bao Qian. I have an answer to the question you asked, back at the start. About what I need the power of ascension for."
"Ah, do you now?" He questioned. "I suspected."
She gave a shallow nod. "I am going to improve the way we in the Emerald Seas communicate. Within and without. There are so many squabbling factions, in clans and between clans, a million petty disputes and borders that snarl and tangle every single thing, that cause battles that have no need to happen. This is what I am going to contribute to the future Cai Renxiang sees."
"There are a thousand arguments oen could make that those are countless different problems that can't be simply solved… but that isn't an argument against a would be sovereign's goals would it?" Bao Qian said thoughtfully. "This path… I wonder if I could follow it?"
"Do you want to?" Ling Qi asked curiously, leaning over the fire. She noticed how quiet Hanyi was being, rocking back and forth on her heels, looking away. Cheeky girl.
"I do not intend to reach ascension, or even try for it," Bao Qian said seriously. "There are things I want to do, opportunities I see. Hah the priests would have all sorts of colorful names for me if they could see inside my head. But none of them require that. In my mind… I can see myself aiming for Sovereignty."
"For what?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"How good would it be, if anyone could hear songs as those just sung, to feel the chill and the horror, or the beauty and triumph, not merely the sound, all in the safety of their home?" Bao Qian said. "My recording talismans… they're not good enough. They can't change the market, not as they are. Just artisanal toys that can only be turned out by my own hand. I suppose were I to aim for anything so high… grandmastership, an advancement in recording formations, perhaps something that does not need precious jade."
He shook his head. "But, I do not know if that is enough to keep our paths parallel. You are intriguing, like a muse on the edge of vision, but…"
"But we are very different people," Ling Qi mused. "...Come with us into the mountains tomorrow, to see to the last of the spirits, Bao Qian. I'm still not my best."
"An adventure then, to see where we stand?"
"My friends might call it a tribulation."
That was her truth, the core of Want as she understood it. It was the root from which self arose. Without want, there was no self. Yet, that all consuming hunger was deeply entwined with winter. This was the depth of the season, this was what she called on, in the middle stanza's of her Serenade.
The Whiteout Wonderland was full of want, empty and directionless, there was a keystone missing from it though, keeping it as this mere diffuse thing, only agitated to active action by a direct challenge. Ling Qi stood on a pillar of stone over a roof of congealed woodsmoke. Ling Qi was everywhere within the whirling snows, a hundred visions of endless white and cloying silence, broken only by the low monotone whisper of the wind. In her vision there was only one imperfection, one little blot of impurity in her empty silence, high curved walls of stone and the Not-Her which stood above them.
There was so much warmth inside, warmth denied the comfort of her smothering cold, did it not wish to be put to rest, how could it not, how could it persist, when beautiful silence awaited?
So warm, the fire. She WANTED it. It was rich in a way nothing else was, full of many things she had no comprehension of, but coveted dearly.
Ling Qi/The Whiteout felt the stir of envy, a sharp edge to the eternal hunger
The spark, Ling Qi thought, was there.
"Bao Qian!" the voice of flesh called, heard despite all impediments. "Release your defense, but only for a five count!"
The reply took a moment, she could feel his consternation, frowning up at the sky, but she also felt the moment he realized her plan, even if there was still a dubious feel to the thought.
It was dizzying, the rush of it. The stolid, grasping power which let not a single mote of itself free before the tugging winds loosened its grip. Heat and life and feeling flooded out wicked away by the hungry howling of the wind.
Joyous silence, settling quiet, full and heavy and…
The fist of gold clenched and not a single wisp more escaped, only the fraying cold of Not-Her
The reaction was dull, the wind tugged and cried, grinding away at stone. The crumbling was inevitable. Such was the nature of things. But it wasn't now.
She was so hungry, wasn't she? The emptiness yawned. Her and not-Her feeding, feeding, drinking deep of snows that could not hold what they wanted. Silence could not draw sustenance from silence.
Quiet. Quiet. Whyfore do you hide?
Sleep. Sleep. Under crooning stars. Dreams of Warm. Dreams of White.
Ling Qi spread her arms wide, sleeves billowing like banners in the whirling wind.
Warm. Warm.
Why. Why. Why?
Silence. Silence. Rolling on forever.
Gone. Gone. The fire never comes again.
Distress. A spasm, a movement within the infinite white. A concept introduced, just a little turning of what was already there. Loss. To consume something completely was to lose it. To devour without limit could only end in the throes of starvation.
She signaled Bao Qian, and for a precious moment the heat came again, the flame, the ambition, the want. It was savory, whirling away in the wind. And then again it was gone, the snowstorm shook violently, the winds hurled themselves at walls of stone and qi, clawing, crying, and received nothing for it.
Frustration, roiling into intent. In this moment, there was a danger rising, she had awoken the spirit from crushing, passive hunger, inflamed in its icy heart a desire to truly feed. But she had also planted other seeds, and as she raised her voice, Her and Not-Her sang, in a voice that was both and neither at once.
Silence. Silence. Lay over Misty hill.
Rattle. Rattle. Shutters tight, work done well.
Quiet moans the wind through streets swept white with snow.
Warm burn the fires, smoke rising bright.
Softly. Softly. Lay it all to rest.
Year past. Year past. Always and forever.
Tithe the white. Tithe the white. Fires burning bright.
Given freely, given first, to whiteout wraith of frozen night.
Once more the golden fist creaked grudgingly open, and this time, the rush of heat blew away the expanse of white, and Ling Qi was left standing under the clear sky and glittering stars, the hanging crescent of the moon blazing silver in the sky.
She flexed her fingers, watching frost flake off, droplets of ice and water slowly filling the cracks in her skin, restoring flesh in its wake as she drew her qi back in. Her shoulders slumped. She was really spent wasn't she? Her dantian felt gutted and empty, only just enough qi left to keep the embers of flame properly suppressed. That had been closer than she liked.
The pillar under her feet jerked, and began sliding down, crumbling back into the earth at a steady pace that soon brought her back to earth.
Bao Qian slowly stood, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Did you do what I think you just did?"
"That depends," Ling Qi said, slumping back to her chair. Hanyi yelped and dashed to insert herself under Ling Qi's arm, helping her cross the little camp. "I am going to have to organize a proper winter festival for Snowblossom now though. I'm glad I still have a little time."
"...You make it look so easy. Forming a fresh contract, bending a spirit into something you can properly contract with."
"I could only do it because of how close we were in nature," Ling Qi admitted. "And because the spirit was still somewhat unformed."
She couldn't share her exact method of course. "Well, and because you were so effective at shutting the flow on and off."
"If there is one thing we have in common, it is a bullish refusal to let go," Bao Qian snorted. "What sort of festival?"
Ling Qi glanced at their fire dense with qi rich charcoal. "... A bonfire festival for the mortals. Done on the outskirts maybe. Are those nuts native to the south?"
"They can be, given a bit of effort from sir Zhengui," Bao Qian replied, sitting back down across from her. "Chestnuts. They tend to like humid weather but there are some projects for cold weather breeds."
"Well I'll have to look into it… or convince the spirit of different offerings," Ling Qi said rubbing her forehead. Her head was throbbing now. She reached out for the pan, they were a little charred now, the shells having blackened and almost flaked off on their own, but the rich burst of wood qi still lessened the ache in her dantian as she chewed the treat. She squeezed her eyes shut, imagining immersing herself in that frigid expanse again.
"...Can we import these in bulk?"
"It might be a little expensive for a normal fresh baron, but given your finances, I think you can manage," Bao Qian chuckled. "Shall I draw up the contract?"
"Please do."
"So… does that mean we have to cut this lady in directly?" Hanyi asked, piping up from beside Ling Qi. She held a chestnut in her hand, and inhaled. It withered and shrank in her grasp as the qi was ripped from the 'meat' of the nut directly.
Her junior sister didn't sound to pleased. "For now, I'm afraid, maybe when Hanyi matures a little we can think about renegotiating."
Her junior sister huffed and kicked the frozen dirt. "...'Kay."
Bao Qian was frowning, his chin resting on his hands as he looked over the fire, but he didn't say anything further yet. Ling Qi leaned back in the camp chair, looking up at the high walls he had raised.
"Is there a reason anyone bothers with regular construction when such arts are around?" Ling Qi wondered. "Is it just lack of cultivators?"
Bao Qian hummed, looking up himself. "Earth does not take easily to change, to dynamic motion. It's against its nature. Given a few days, this will start to crumble, and the stone and earth will revert to its natural state over a week or so, if I do not take it down."
"Huh, is that so," Ling Qi said curiously. She supposed if she focused she could feel the strain in the qi embedded in the stone and earthworks. "That might be interesting to watch."
"Watching it happen is a foundational lesson in the arts of earth, at least as my tutors taught it," Bao Qian chuckled. "You can imagine how entertaining a ten year old might find such a lesson."
"Preparing you for tribulation early, how forward thinking," Ling Qi smiled. "Then…"
"You can construct with earthshaping arts, but it takes time, investment and sustained vision. It is faster than mortal construction, and capable of many things they cannot manage, but in the end, mundane methods are simply more cost effective for most things," Bao Qian answered her hanging question.
"A thing which is too expensive will never see wide use, no matter how superior it is?" Ling Qi wondered.
"Just so, not quite a law of wealth, but definitely a law of craft," Bao Qian said. "But then, formations fight against being widely spread, it takes true genius to wrestle them into a shape that near anyone can use. True change takes ages."
"Hm, in the context of a mortal life," Ling Qi said. "I think in the perspective you spoke of, things can change quite fast."
"Hah, true. Our Duchess proves that."
"Bao Qian. I have an answer to the question you asked, back at the start. About what I need the power of ascension for."
"Ah, do you now?" He questioned. "I suspected."
She gave a shallow nod. "I am going to improve the way we in the Emerald Seas communicate. Within and without. There are so many squabbling factions, in clans and between clans, a million petty disputes and borders that snarl and tangle every single thing, that cause battles that have no need to happen. This is what I am going to contribute to the future Cai Renxiang sees."
"There are a thousand arguments oen could make that those are countless different problems that can't be simply solved… but that isn't an argument against a would be sovereign's goals would it?" Bao Qian said thoughtfully. "This path… I wonder if I could follow it?"
"Do you want to?" Ling Qi asked curiously, leaning over the fire. She noticed how quiet Hanyi was being, rocking back and forth on her heels, looking away. Cheeky girl.
"I do not intend to reach ascension, or even try for it," Bao Qian said seriously. "There are things I want to do, opportunities I see. Hah the priests would have all sorts of colorful names for me if they could see inside my head. But none of them require that. In my mind… I can see myself aiming for Sovereignty."
"For what?" Ling Qi asked curiously.
"How good would it be, if anyone could hear songs as those just sung, to feel the chill and the horror, or the beauty and triumph, not merely the sound, all in the safety of their home?" Bao Qian said. "My recording talismans… they're not good enough. They can't change the market, not as they are. Just artisanal toys that can only be turned out by my own hand. I suppose were I to aim for anything so high… grandmastership, an advancement in recording formations, perhaps something that does not need precious jade."
He shook his head. "But, I do not know if that is enough to keep our paths parallel. You are intriguing, like a muse on the edge of vision, but…"
"But we are very different people," Ling Qi mused. "...Come with us into the mountains tomorrow, to see to the last of the spirits, Bao Qian. I'm still not my best."
"An adventure then, to see where we stand?"
"My friends might call it a tribulation."
Potency: G5
Type: Attack, Dispel, Cold, Song
Duration: Stunt
And lo comes the depth of winter, the darkest and longest night, a song of whispering wind over snowfield and frozen river, the cry of sleet sweeping through forest and village, and music of hanging ice rattling from canopy and gutter. The night which takes, ending the year past, burying the dead, and making the land anew. The limitless killing whiteout. Your voice whips a foe, erasing the world in a curtain of white, wiping away the artifice of qi and freezing them down to their meridians
When used targets up to three foes, this technique dispels one positive effect maintained by a target and prevents them from using the activating technique until dispelled, in addition to dealing damage.
Type: Attack, Dispel, Cold, Song
Duration: Stunt
And lo comes the depth of winter, the darkest and longest night, a song of whispering wind over snowfield and frozen river, the cry of sleet sweeping through forest and village, and music of hanging ice rattling from canopy and gutter. The night which takes, ending the year past, burying the dead, and making the land anew. The limitless killing whiteout. Your voice whips a foe, erasing the world in a curtain of white, wiping away the artifice of qi and freezing them down to their meridians
When used targets up to three foes, this technique dispels one positive effect maintained by a target and prevents them from using the activating technique until dispelled, in addition to dealing damage.
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Bao Qian is gonna be inventing vinyl records. Hanyi will be the first act to go Platinum
when the Bao get involved with the record industry it will make the Hui look like a fucking nunnery. Ducal politics is nothing compared to the shady backroom politics and backstabbing of the music industry
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- Location
- California
Poor bastard. Bao Qian, we hardly knew ye...
Ha! I was correct, their conversation was setting Bao up for a LQ tribulation.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
With BQ's ambition to make better recording talismans and LQ solidifying her desire to improve communication within the empire, i could see a long term collaberation of their Ways by inventing radios. Would be a cute way for their relationship to end up.
Bao Qian: I wanna hang out with Qi more so things will be less boring between us
*monkey's paw curls*
- Location
- Staring into the void
Yes! Some open clear communication on if they are compatible, and if courtship is going to continue.
And he's going to get his own LQ Adventure (tm)!
So hyped for this!
Ling Qi finally being able to have an open conversation about the possibility (or lack thereof) of a romantic relationship after how utterly unable to approach it she used to be is
rather fitting to be paired with her discussing her desire to ease everyone else's lack of ability to communicate properly.
rather fitting to be paired with her discussing her desire to ease everyone else's lack of ability to communicate properly.
- Location
- Europe
Yes, this is excellent. Ling Qi is taking her courtship seriously and accounting for Way compatibility. Now the question becomes who can meet her standards (fingers crossed for turtle boy).
- Location
- CA
She essentially gave the spirit's tenuous consciousness a nudge, making it more of a person, then confronted it with the consequences of a person having its ideology. Winter can devour everything, but a person that devours everything will starve to death; therefore, she convinced it to consume more moderately.
You can complain about the consequences of making a thing into a person in that fashion, but it's not mind fuckery or Hui bullshit, it's just a natural consequence of interacting with young, still-forming spirits.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
Ling Qi: I am going to change the laws of reality so that people will talk out their dang problems.
Truly, the hubris is strong with this one.
Truly, the hubris is strong with this one.
It can, we just saw Shu Yue use it on an enemy. Harmonize with their thoughts, and then speak with their own voice, and then finally tip them over the edge of a choice within the realms of what they COULD make but normally would not.
It only went so smoothly with the spirit because it wasn't a person yet. She dropped a seed crystal called Ling Qi into it, and then it formed into someone SIMILAR to Ling Qi, which meant that arguments that could work on Ling Qis would work on it.
- Location
- United States of America, Michigan
I wonder if we're technically family now with Winter Wonderland lol
- Location
- Washington
Taking a cultivator of a similar but unformed way and nudging them in the direction you prefer?
I believe that is called "teaching."
I believe that is called "teaching."
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Of course it also helped that Ling Qi made her the person that would be most likely to agree with her. What a coincidence.
I believe teaching is not done by implanting thoughts and desires that you want into your students.
oh yeah, any would be suitor gotta go tribulating with us as a matter of course. jolly cooperation!
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
It all comes down to who has the best abs.
- Location
- France
Sure it is. The method used is commonly called "talking".