We kind of aren't this at all, though? We've failed to unite a party and aren't remotely versed in stories and laws. We use our music for entertainment and combat, not stories, and the job Renxiang has asked of us is to provide intel, not advise her on what to do with intel she gets elsewhere.
I think divination has strong connections to the storyline of us embracing EPC and our job as Renxiang's spymaster and is supported skill-wise by our strong stealth and decent perceptiveness and arts-wise by SCS and AM - divination lets us see information despite how it's defended without being seen ourselves.
As to SCS and FVM, despite us not taking it as our core domain theme, we do still have an affinity for darkness and freedom of movement. Daring to go in dark places like the Weilu tomb or where we found the Shaman and slip back out in one piece connects wandering the dark places of the world with embracing the absence of night. We know there's a time to be loud and a time to be silent. A darkness divination art would further reinforce this by letting us find out in advance what mix and order of noise and silence a situation calls for.
I think you mis-read what I wrote, and forgot that bard covers much more than the tiny slice I showed as an example.
Bards are sources of entertainment
and connection to the past. Ling Qi is not much of a law giver. But she is versed in stories. FVM is
literally a story in song form about a traveler as he travels through a misty vale full of horrible monsters. Ling Qi is also a gadfly. Literally. That's what her role has
been whenever she does something, acting as the center of attention. By party I do not mean adventuring party, because again I think using the idea outside of clear communication purposes is bad for this quest, what I meant was a celebration.
EPC has one thing that is connected to the Hidden Moon, giving us boons for secrets we find, full stop. That's it. It doesn't actually care how we find those secrets, it is
agnostic to the method of retrieving those secrets, and thus has no direct connection to divination beyond the barest idea that the Hidden Moon also has divination. Using something which is agnostic is not a good support for your point of connection.
Renxiang asking Ling Qi to be her spy master is a simple request, and is important for putting thoughts of "how do I spy master?" in Ling Qi's head, but that's it. Skill wise we make a... okay spy, and a pretty crap spy master. SCS is good for infiltration, but looking at our perception it ain't that good, and I'll repeat that AM's lesson which might be useful for a spy master/mistress hasn't made itself apparent and might as well not exist for all the visible benefits it has on the course of the story or interpretation of its details.
Your third paragraph describes a
spy. Not a spy master, which is what we were asked to do and what I'm basically discussing. Sure it might be fine and dandy in and of itself, but as it stands it
does not fit with the rest of Ling Qi, just SCS. It's basically taking SCS and going "How can I be more like the infiltrator you espouse" in a very literal sense by looking for and
casing a joint ahead of time. Or, another way, the darkness divination art you talk about is a thief's art exactly like SCS is and fits entirely along the character archetype SCS is a part of. I am not a fan of the idea because I like what we got with support bard/witch-bard.
E: And as to advising Renxiang about intel she gets elsewhere, part of a spy masters job is to verify information the one they hire receives. Often by sending out operatives to confirm it and fill out the edges and details. So yes, she's hired us to an advisory position, though a different one than what Gan had.
