Threads 142 Spear 1

The Cai force’s arrival was marked by a plume of rising dust, visible from kilometers away. The northern road was cleared of traffic, commerce and civilian traffic alike coming to a halt as the cleared fields north of White Cloud Town were made ready to receive visitors.

Sect Head Yuan He waited at the entrance of the town. His flowing storm gray robe snapped and flapped in the blowing breeze. His intricately bound beard and naturally spiked white hair crackled with static, and the gnarled wooden cane clasped in his hands thrummed with power.

Far away in the sky, the kilometers-long coils of a dragon churned among the storm clouds, and a rumbling that was not thunder could be heard from the black depths of the storm where twin blue-white lights burned at attention.

Behind Sect Head Yuan was a small, gathered force of the Sect, eclectic in make-up but all core disciples. The disciples stood at attention, a multitude of weapons held on shoulders or sheathed at hips, the only commonality among them the silver sigil of the sect on their armor.

It took a great effort of will for Ling Qi not to shift uncomfortably. She and Cai Renxiang stood off to one side. They were not with the Sect’s forces because right now, they were not acting as disciples, but as the representatives of the Cai.

Likewise, Bai Meizhen stood a step behind them, standing perfectly still with an imperious expression. As of right now, she, too, was representing her clan, if only because the Bai had not yet deigned to send a full representative to observe the military operations.

Ling Qi felt the earth shaking under her feet from the pounding of hooves. She felt the wind disturbed by the passage of many bodies.

The vanguard of the Cai force emerged from around the bend in the northern road. The horses were armored in plated barding, hung with tassels of gold and white. Behind the lead horseman fluttered a banner of pure white splashed with the official sigil of the Cai, a crimson butterfly emerging from a shattered cocoon with prominent golden eyespots on its wings.

The rest of the force came behind. Each soldier bore armor of overlapping bands of flexible steel, enamelled in white. The soldiers in the frontmost ranks bore halberds with crimson tassels and golden blades while the ones who came behind bore a saber at their hip and on their back, an immense thing that looked like the halfway point between a crossbow and a siege engine. In the rearmost ranks were more halberdiers mingled with men and women who bore no obvious arms but who wore crossed bandoliers lined with dozens of pouches.

There were one hundred of them. Eighty third realms varying from green appraisal to threshold in power were accompanied by eighteen fourth realm lieutenants, bearing a second white plume on their helms. Two fifth realms rode among them as well, commanders distinguished only by the crimson cloaks on their shoulders and their aura of power.

At the center of the formation rode General Xia Ren herself. Armored in a gold enamelled plate, her faceless silver helm flashed under the light of the crackling clouds, and the spread wings of a heron marked her breastplate. The wind parted around the general and her warhorse as if cloven by a blade and not a drop of moisture or a speck of mud touched any part of the woman or her mount.

<By Grandmother, what a bunch of creeps,> Sixiang whispered, shivering. <Can you feel that? The way they’re cut off, the way they’re not thinking for themselves?>

Ling Qi kept her expression even. She did see the eerie synchronicity of the Cai force’s movement. It wasn’t just discipline. Each soldier and each horse moved perfectly in sync with their fellow soldiers and mounts, and in her more spiritual senses, Ling Qi could not see anything individual about their auras. They felt like a single entity, a machine of gleaming clockwork whose ticking heart was the General.

They felt unnatural to her senses, so recently attuned to the flows of Dream.

The White Plumes flowed into the space left for them, hooves that glinted metallically churning the dirt. As one, they dismounted and formed perfect ranks without a single shouted word from the officers or visible signal. Their armor gleamed and crackled with nascent power.

Cai Renxiang had told her the difference between a regular soldier of the Cai and a member of the elite White Plumes was that each one of the thousand soldiers that comprised the White Plumes bore equipment, arms, and armor crafted by the Duchess herself.

General Xia Ren stepped forward from the ranks to face Sect Head Yuan. “I come, commanded to render aid in the name of her grace.” Xia Ren’s voice was cold and dry, her words clipped and utterly without affectation or ornament, more mechanical than Renxiang had ever been at her worst. “I offer my full cooperation with your leadership, Sect Head Yuan of the Argent Peak Sect.”

<Not her subordination though,> Sixiang noted. <That’s going to ruffle some feathers.>

For a moment, the air crackled with tension, and not a few core disciples subtly bristled. However, Sect Head Yuan He tapped his cane on the ground. “I, Yuan He, do accept my liege’s aid gratefully. Be welcome, General Xia of Xiangmen.”

Xia Ren nodded sharply and swept off her helm. Her face bore similarities to Alingge’s in general shape and structure, but her scalp was bare, bearing only a slight layer of dark fuzz, and her features were hard and scarred. A thick line of scar tissue extended from her right temple down to the left side of her chin, an ugly scar marked the flesh around her left eye, almost as if an arrow had been ripped out there, and a pair of faded geometric tattoos marked the general’s cheeks, reminiscent of the old tribe tattoos Ling Qi had seen. But Xia Ren’s eyes were both intact, the color of liquid steel and solid without a pupil or iris.

The intimidating woman gave a short bow at the waist. “Sect Head Yuan is wise. Where are we to be quartered?”

“Space has been prepared on the Argent Peak,” Sect Head Yuan replied, naming the centermost peak of the Sect where elders and their chosen core disciples lived. “My disciples will stable your steeds. I will show you the way. Do you require time for other business first?”

Ling Qi saw the way the old man glanced in their direction.

Xia Ren tilted her head, her steel gaze falling upon them. “If the Sect Head allows. A simulacrum will be sufficient.”

“By all means, General,” Sect Head Yuan said. “Allow me to show you the way then.”

Ling Qi felt the air in front of them carved apart, and the earth in front of Cai Renxiang split open. Before her eyes an exact copy of the general stepped out as if from a portal in the air. There was a brief shimmer of steel qi across her form, and to Ling Qi’s senses, the woman before her felt hollow like a structure of spun glass, filled with air.

She bowed low all the same.

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“Young Mistress, Lady Bai,” General Xia greeted shortly. “Your continued good health is pleasing.”

“It lightens my concerns that my gracious mother has assigned you to the southern border, General,” Cai Renxiang said.

“It pleases the Bai to know that our allies are handling their affairs with rigor and competence,” Meizhen said, bowing as well. “My aunt apologizes for the lack of a more experienced observer.”

“The Emerald Seas can stand on its own feet,” the General said flatly. “But our ally’s concern is appreciated.”

Bai Meizhen raised her head. “The Bai offer our full confidence in your endeavors.”

The older woman’s eyes moved back to Renxiang, who stood patiently, waiting for the General to finish. “Young Mistress, Her Grace has words which I am to convey to you in private.”

Cai Renxiang’s eyes widened marginally. “Very well, General. Is this regarding the task which faces us?”

“Partially,” Xia Ren replied. The woman raised her right hand from her side. “Sergeant Xia Lin!”

Ling Qi felt the rush of displaced air that accompanied a swiftly moving cultivator as she partially raised her head. She saw a young woman standing behind and to the left of the General. Xia Lin looked to be about the same age as Ling Qi with similar cultivation. She appeared to be one of the halberdiers of the army, the weapon on her back gleaming in the dim sunlight. Her helm was under her arm, revealing a girl who looked somewhat like a younger Xia Ren. Her dark, curly brown hair was shorn at her ears rather than wholly shaved however, and her scars much less severe. There were only a few thin white lines across her cheeks and lips. Her eyes were a natural storm grey with only a few steely sparks.

“Sergeant Xia Lin will be your adjutant,” the General said brusquely. “Her Grace has determined that excessive cultivation and preconceptions would be counter-productive to your task. The sergeant is the best of my soldiers in the Young Mistress’ generation.”

“It is my honor to serve the heiress of Cai,” Xia Lin said, striking her breastplate with her fist as she bowed low. “I will not fail to meet your expectations.”

“I am certain that General Xia’s recommendation is a good one,” Cai Renxiang said.

Ling Qi thought that she saw the younger Xia’s expression briefly become happy. It was odd given that she still couldn’t feel anything from her.