Forge of Destiny Threads Chapter 555 Emerald Dreams 5

"You look like you got half-exploded," Hanyi said bluntly.

"How do you half-explode?" Sixiang wondered.

"I dunno. How did you?" Her junior sister snorted. "Well, Big Sis is fine, so you did your job."

"Glad to be of service, young miss," the muse drawled.

"I am glad to see your audience went well." Bao Qian offered her a smile.

They stood beyond Fantasia, its temple gate behind them. Bao Qian's wagon awaited their boarding.

"I am glad it went well, but thank you for waiting for me. I didn't realize the flow of time was twisted so deep in the liminal," Ling Qi said.

It had been several days.

"No trouble. It's not as if we didn't factor that into the trip. It was kind of the Autumn Madam, not to afflict us so during her trial," Bao Qian observed.

Ling Qi nodded, turning to Hanyi and interrupting her playful bickering with Sixiang. "I hope you were well behaved, junior sister."

Hanyi drew herself up proudly. "Of course!"

"Have you been getting along with Jinli?"

"I told you guys that I don't need a backup. She's annoying and pigheaded; she doesn't listen to me at all!" Hanyi complained.

"Oi, who're you calling pig-headed?!" Jinli stuck her head out of one of the open windows on the side of the wagon, scowling, her ears twitching angrily. "You aren't my boss, so I don't have to listen when you try to order me around."

"I'm way more experienced, so you should!" Hanyi yelled back, spinning around to face her.

Ling Qi chuckled. That was about as expected. She'd step in if Hanyi got too overbearing, but letting the girls establish their own dynamic was probably for the best. "Shall we get going then?"

Bao Qian nodded. "We had better. The main roads are still quite busy."

***

The host of the Meng could be heard long before it was seen. The soft strains of music drifted far on the wind. Mist overflowed the winding swamp paths, its fingers curling out into the trees and shrouding the lakes even under the noonday sun. Where the Meng marched, they were wrapped in a labyrinth of liminal ways.

Ling Qi understood now why her arts had received comparison to a revered ancestor of the Meng. Of the details, she could see little. The Meng were less numerous, their formations less packed than the armies of the Wang or the Bao. Slender figures bore armor of pale living wood and long spears. The low song of crickets and frogs joined with human melodies. Towering among them, she saw the gates of mobile temples moving through the mist like mobile islands in the fog, and through the air, the shadows of massive dragonflies and elegant cranes swooped, their backs bristling with human riders.

"The Luo and Jia should be arriving at the mustering point soon. It's only the Diao left, marching south in honor guard for the Prime Minister and the Duchess," Bao Qian commented as they rounded a bend, taking them out of sight of the sea of mist which covered the main roads.

Beside him on the driver's bench, Ling Qi nodded. "No more peaceful days and games soon, but that, too, will pass."

She just had to make sure she saw the other end of it. For now, it was time to go home, for just a little bit longer.

***

Ling Qi closed her eyes for a moment, luxuriating in the simple sensation of the wind blowing across her face, tugging at her hair and the hems of her gown.

"Oi! You said you wanted to help, so don't go getting distracted!"

She opened her eyes, turning an amused look on Ling Nuan. "A few seconds isn't going to make any difference at this point."

The sky was clear and blue, streaked with gauzy wisps of white. The clouds, the real ones, anyway, were barely visible.

Ling Qi observed a gently rotating ewe lazily kicking her legs as she chewed her last mouthful of grass. The ewe bumped against another, and both sheep went off in opposite directions, drifting at a mortal's walking pace.

There were several dozen of them up here after the windstorm that had blown through Shenglu. The spirits of the breezes had been particularly energetic. People would be replacing roof tiles, and a few had suffered minor injuries from debris. All told, however, it was a minor issue. Even this, the shepherds could have mostly handled on their own with crook and lasso.

However, Ling Qi had needed a break from the office, and her adopted sister was here.

Qiu barked happily, his crackling tongue hanging from his muzzle. On top of the thunder hound at his full size, Ling Nuan almost looked small.

"Don't encourage her," Ling Nuan scolded. "By my count, we've got about four stragglers. Can you find them while I loop this bunch back down to the fields?"

Ling Qi hummed, listening to the breeze. She scanned over the voices of the sheep she could see. They were mildly distressed, but not much more than that. She listened to the fading giggles of the wind spirits that had kicked off the storm with their short lives, and then to the more distant whispers of the grasses and scattered trees on the rolling hills. Two, three… four voices. One of them even carried a thread of panic.

"Found them," Ling Qi said, and dissolved into the wind.

She didn't miss Ling Nuan's muttered accusation. “Show off.”

"Is she wrong, though?" Sixiang laughed.

Ling Qi did not dignify that with an answer.

The distressed voice was a grey wooled sheep that had landed upside down in a crevice in the mountainside. Soothing her took some effort, even after popping the beast free. The others had simply drifted further. One was caught, tangled in a tree branch; the other two, she found grazing atop a distant hill. All four were soon returned to the pastures.

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"See. I was useful. We could have definitely lost one if I hadn't come out to help," Ling Qi justified.

"You saved Qiu and me from running around after it, or your guards running around even longer for sure," Ling Nuan retorted. "But yeah, sure, I'll tell the boss you were being productive."

"Sister, I must give you instruction on courtly language and subtlety." Ling Qi sighed, shaking her head sadly. She drifted off after Ling Nuan and Qiu as they left the pasture gates behind, where the shepherds were getting the flock back in order.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that."

"It's actually pretty fun, once you treat it like a puzzle. It's great when you figure out just the right way to sneak in a dig at somebody they can't respond to," Sixing chirped, briefly manifesting their face over Ling Qi's shoulder.

"Not my kinda puzzle. Gimme a set of rings any day." Ling Nuan snorted. "Maybe I will be up for a break, though, next time we're both back here."

"You're sure you want to deploy with me rather than the Sect?" Ling Qi asked.

Ling Nuan shook her head, her many piercings jingling softly as the wind rushed past them both as they swiftly approached Shenglu's center. "Yeah. Nobody's gonna call it dishonorable to join your clan head on the field when they're going to the front. Not when the Sect is playing defense."

Ling Qi didn't answer at first. Ling Nuan’s deployments in the mountains had left marks on the other girl. The girl’s cultivation wasn't unstable, but it was definitely strained. "Well, I'm happy for the support. I don't think it's going to be less…"

"It doesn't have to be. I just need a change."

Ling Qi nodded. It wouldn't be helpful to press any further than that. Her adopted sister's cultivation was brewing on some concept; it whirled around some event or enemy she had encountered not too long ago.

[Strife]

They descended on the manor gardens from above, and Ling Nuan hopped down onto the path as Qiu rapidly shrank down to a little puffball of a puppy rather than an immense herding hound. Biyu squealed in delight and came running over rapidly from the courtyard where she had been playing.

The spirit hound yipped happily when Biyu hugged him around the neck, licking her face and wagging his tail furiously, even as Biyu's hair started to frizz from the contact with his static fur.

Ling Qi caught her mother's eye as the older woman came up behind her youngest, having risen from her seat on the porch overlooking the back gardens.

"Everything went well then, I hope?"

"It did. Truthfully, I probably wasn't needed," Ling Qi confessed. "It was good to get out and fly anyway."

"You did save me a bunch of trouble, but I don't know if your work was more important than that," Ling Nuan poked at her before crouching down beside Biyu and Qiu.

"Aw, c’mon, joking aside, she wouldn't put off anything that couldn't wait a couple of hours. This girl is way more stuffy than she acts," Sixiang sent her the sensation of having a finger prodding her cheek.

Ling Qi waved her hand to scatter the phantom sensation. "Let me have my fun, will you? I suppose everyone in the house is fine, if you're out here with Biyu, Mother?"

"They are. The manor wards and Hanyi kept Biyu safe, while I was able to stay safe in town until the streets were safe," Ling Qingge replied, bending down to scoop Biyu up, much to the girl's protestations.

Her little sister was getting so big. If she were still mortal, Mother would have probably had trouble lifting her like that.

"Let me get inside. I should let Lady Cai know that I'm back. I will see you all for dinner tonight." Ling Qi ruffled Biyu's hair, carefully embraced her and her mother, then headed inside, her family giving her their temporary farewells.

The peace felt surreal, knowing what was coming so soon.

People bowed and scurried out of her path as she walked through the manor halls, though she did her best not to disrupt the traffic in the building more than she strictly had to. Her friend's presence in her office was a beacon, as it always was. She could see Renxiang's light permeate the floorboards and walls, crawling along the seams between materials, invisible to the mortal eye. Everything it touched was a little more organized and a little clearer; people moved with slightly greater awareness of each other and performed their tasks a touch more efficiently.

She didn't knock when she reached Renxiang's office. Her friend had already welcomed her without a word long before that.

"Lady Cai," she greeted, shutting the door behind her.

"Baroness. Your flight went well."

It wasn't a question. Ling Qi slid into the seat across from her friend's desk. "No one had any questions about me taking a whim out to rescue some sheep, no. I was visible, without stirring up any alarm that the 'big folk' were acting."

She wasn't dishonest about her intentions. Going out with her adopted sister was more fun than dealing with material requisitions for maintenance on the shrines under her purview. The amount of special resins and waxes and incense and paints was already cumbersome to deal with.

She sighed. "I am looking forward to when I can split off a simulacrum to keep my work going while I'm at it, though."

"You are well aware that a cultivator's multi-presence does not absolve them of awareness of their labors." Cai Renxiang glanced up from her own work with a touch of amusement.

"I know, I know," Ling Qi said in mock disgust. She leaned back in her seat, stretching her arms overhead. "Is it going to cause trouble, you think?"

"If you were to flaunt and brag of the talisman’s provenance on every street corner, perhaps some vultures which even my shadow could not deter would circle," Cai Renxiang said. "As it is, a close inspection is required. A greater cultivator will recognize the customized nature."

Ling Qi hummed to herself, feeling the weight of the flute in her sleeve. It simply did not fit into her storage ring; she was quite sure the spatial formation would have broken if she really tried. Luckily, Qiyi was a good girl and had easily created a hidden pocket in her sleeve so that she could pull the flute out with ease.

She sent her gratitude to her dress.

"I suppose so. Has your relationship been going well with Sir Mu?"

"He is not an objectionable presence. And a fencing partner is welcome. He is settling. Most of our preparations are complete."

"So, the settling doesn't do much good," Ling Qi said wryly. "We leave in… twelve days, was it?"

"It is best we be prompt, and we will not be able to take the fastest course, with all the musters converging," Cai Renxiang agreed.

"I will be delegating more of my paperwork to my subordinates," Ling Qi advised.

"Expected. I trust you to understand what you should not."

Ling Qi nodded, glancing out to the closed-off balcony behind Renxiang. "Will you be coming to our farewell celebration on the last evening?"

Renxiang's brush paused. "I would be remiss otherwise. A leader should not close herself off."

She smiled. Neither of them was the same as they had been a year ago, or even six months ago. Neither of them would be the same in six months, in a year, or in a decade. She had to believe they would both remain on course, though.

"Oh, do you know where Gan Guangli is? We had discussed training spiritual defenses with a new technique of mine."

Cai Renxiang raised an eyebrow. "I will praise your diligence, but were you not going to have a meal with your family?"

"I am. I just want to check in with him and see if he still wants to meet in the morning," Ling Qi said. She smiled wanly. "It's not a pleasant art, so I appreciate his offer to let me practice…"

"And so, you feel the need to confirm. Gan Guangli should be out at the barracks site, overseeing the men's training. I believe Sir Mu was observing."

"Hands on, then. That's not a bad characteristic."

"Definitely makes your soldier boys sweat, though, I bet," Sixiang whispered in amusement.

"Without a doubt," Ling Qi whispered back. Then, aloud, she said, "I'll leave you to your business then, Lady Cai. Was there anything else I should direct my attention to before dinner?"

"No. So long as your spiritual ecology report for the storm is on my desk by morning."

Ling Qi stood and bowed, then took her leave.