"I think we can do without it," Ling Qi said. "I've grown much more skilled since then, and we won't be anywhere near the ith-ia's actual territory." Ling Qi said, thoughtfully.
"And it will be good practice," she added quietly, catching her Mother's worried eyes. "We will be going much deeper soon."
"That is true," Li Suyin sighed. "Well since I am with you, it will be fine. I suppose I'll save on the reagents this way."
"...Li Suyin, how much are you going to expend on this?" Ling Qi asked.
"No more than her discretionary budget for the month," Su Ling said flatly.
"...Since when do you use words like discretionary," Ling Qi asked, staring at her blankly.
"Lingling's been a real scholar these past few months," Sixiang said, bright and singsong
"Su Ling is very diligent when she decides it is important," Gan Guangli said serenely.
"Oh, all of you go to the hells. I just don't use big words just to sound flowery and sh-" Su Ling cut off her curse, glancing at Ling Qi's Mother.
"Yes," Li Suyin said, clearly hiding a giggle. "I am not expending anything I can't afford. So Ling Qi, it's been some time, what can I expect from you?"
"Well to begin with, I have been working through my cultivation of my construct arts, the Beast King's and I think this trip will help me bring it to another stage."
***
They'd spoken through the morning well after the dishes were cleared away, but eventually the time came for them to go. She offered to bring everyone up the cliffside, but only Suyin and Sixiang accepted. Li Suyin could just walk up the cliff, but flight was much quicker. Gan Guangli had just scooped up Su Ling, whose tails bushed out adorably, and just leapt to the top of the cliff.
Gan Guangli really did have a mischievous side, huh?
She hoped it had been worth it, because Su Ling looked like she could set fires with her eyes for the rest of the trip. They arrived at the cavern which held the Cathedral as the sun was sinking toward the horizon, staining the sky red and orange. The scouts assigned to the clifftop hadn't reported any changes, and true to their word, the exterior was no different than they had left it. However, they had not sent men into the cavern, given the danger, and so they proceeded inside with caution.
The piping sound of the wind blowing through the naturally perforated stone was much the same, an eerie and melancholy tune, carried out through the high crevice which led inside. Then came the great chamber itself, lit from within by rose gold light distorted through the great crystal growth which took up the great gallery.
The clean water of the spring in the center had changed. Gray and polluted, thick like silt, black fungal growths crept up onto the shore, extending stringy veins of fleshy material across the stone. Here, there were none of the predatory water spirits she had encountered last time, schooling beneath the water, the surface was opaque and still.
"Well that looks real welcomin'," Su Ling drawled.
"Ugh, well for what it's worth, I think that's a recent change," Sixiang said, grimacing as they peered at the water.
"I don't feel the echoes of dying or strife, so the natural spirits of the tunnels haven't been destroyed, I think," Ling Qi said, peering at the silty water suspiciously.
"The crystal remains pristine!" Gan Guangli boomed, looking up at it. Ling Qi's ears caught nothing from it though. The Spirit of the cavern was definitely still alive, but unresponsive, closed off, like a tortoise drawn fully into its shell. She could tell there would be no response if she spoke, and if she forced it, the spirit would certainly interpret it as an attack.
Li Suyin was already crouching, hands spread wide as the air distorted between them. Ling Qi had never seen an object take so long to withdraw from storage.
It looked a bit like a rain collector, a wide silver funnel covered in countless etched characters filled with some black gemstone dust, set in the mouth of a clear crystal glass container the size of a small barrel. Li Suyin examined it with a critical eye, before nodding, and much more quickly producing a stack of paper talisman's in her palm. "The Four trigrams Lunar Absorption array is undamaged. Sir Gan, if you would please find a flat place to install it outside. When you place the container please add four of the anchoring talismans at the prime radials, with the talisman edge exactly fifteen centimeters from the funnel's outer edge. If placed properly they will then activate themselves."
"Understood Miss Li!" Gan Guangli boomed. "Any further instruction?"
Li Suyin considered. "It should be placed on bare stone if possible, but if not please clear away any plant matter from the installation site. It would be a small inefficiency, but we should be diligent."
"Yeah, guess I go out with him. Prolly easier to cut grass than rip it up," Su Ling sighed. "You two gonna be good in here.
"I'll manage, certainly for long enough to call you back if it comes up," Ling Qi replied, amused. If there was something she couldn;t hold off for that long Gan Guangli and Su Ling weren't going to be much help.
"Think you want me to load up to the old digs, Qi?" Sixiang asked, turning her attention to them.
"Will your body be safe up here?"
"Haha, I can watch over it, Miss Ling," Gan Guangli said brightly, turning back to her the qi gathering device in his arms.
Ling Qi nodded then and Sixiang smiled brightly. Their form shimmered, silhouette blurring as the bent light and air wavered and vanished. Beneath the appearance of a body was a life sized humanoid doll, made from polished wood and porcelain, articulated with gears of polished silver visible in the seams and joins. The face was a panel of soft wood very loosely shaped like a human face, set with eyes of polished crystal glass.
As she felt Sixiang vacate from it, it sagged like a puppet with strings cut the lingering qi in its limbs guiding it down into a slumped over kneeling position. Which ended when Guangli scooped it up naturally.
"Tell him to be careful! I don't want my paintjob scratched!" Sixiang said. Their voice emanated comfortably in her head, as if they had never left.
"You can tell him yourself still," Ling Qi replied, amused. "But take care Gan Guangli. I wouldn't want Sixiang to need a night under the polish."
Bathtime. Fun!
That was because Qiyi was a good girl. Even if she didn't strictly need washing.
"Just get back and already getting bullied, this is a hostile working environment you know."
She thought Renxiang had a form for that. She could get Sixiang one later.
"And now paperwork! Abuse of muse!"
She had missed Sixiang, truly.
"... missed you too, Qi."
Ling Qi had begun to stroll as they spoke, with Gan Guangli and Su Ling going, walking the perimeter of the Cavern as Li Suyin got along with the rest of her preparations, chalking lines and characters along the stone, placing objects, from incense burners to tall flat wooden plinths set in stone bases, formations painted down both sides. She could feel the ambience of the qi changing, the air getting cleaner, even the small particulates being swept away into the purifying formations. She kept a close eye on the fungal scum that had begun to grow, now graying and withering, the silty consistency of the water beginning to break up. Li Suyin moved through it all in a storm of glinting wire and thread, characters being traced out and objects places by the dozen, while she held a tablet of jade in her hands, claw tipped fingers dancing over the smooth surface as incomprehensible markings flashed through the deep green, nearly black stone.
"Okay," Li Suyin said, looking up some minutes later, a complex grid of a formation formed by her efforts on the stone floor. "That will do for the surface. The others will be able to contact us as well when they finish setting things up outside."
"Does that mean we're ready to go down?" Ling Qi asked, turning from her examination of the great crystal formation. "Aren't you bringing any of your constructs?"
"I am, but I have them stored in various ways, I'll deploy them at need, it's more efficient that way. Are you ready to begin?"
Ling Qi nodded, stepping up to the side of the pool, where Li Suyin passed her a cloth facemask. Hers was dark blue, nearly black whereas Li Suyin's was a lighter lilac. Hooking the strings around her ears, she felt it snap into place, sealing down vacuum tight against her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose.
Qiyi extended ribbons from her color, brushing suspiciously over the foreign cloth.
It was only temporary, she assured her gown.
Qiyi could do better.
She could experiment with that later.
"Territorial little thing, huh?" Sixiang chuckled.
Ling Qi acknowledged with a nod as she joined herself at the slick edge of the pool. "Me first, or together?"
"Together, I think."
No more needed to be side, the both of them stepped out over the silty surface. Li Suyin sank like a stone, dragged along by grasping wires propelling her downward by pulling along the walls. Ling Qi dropped more like a billowing leaf, tugging at the flows of air to drive herself downward despite the buoyancy of her supernaturally light body.
VPhysical vision clouded, the water nearly viscous in consistency, they descended and descended. At her side a bright light blinked on, an orb of polished white jade floating over Li Suyin's palm. Where it shone, the silt was seared away, leaving clear water.
And soon, their feet touched down on stone. There at the bottom Ling Qi beheld the tunnels beneath the Cathedral for the first time.
Fleshy fronds squirmed in the currents, dark slimy fungal flesh encased the stone. In the dark, pale yellow eyes blinked and pulsed, scattering like schools of fish as her gaze turned to the crevices they lurked in.
And all around she could not shake the sensation that the tunnels were breathing.
