Threads 199-Rite 3

Ling Qi and the spirit stood there for a moment as the faint strains of music echoed through the dream. She gave a terse nod. The spirit’s liquid avatar spasmed in a way resembling a bow. With a flex of her legs, Ling Qi shot back into the sky, catching a current of wind to drift her way toward a spinning leaf as they fell from the hills and cliffs of Seven Stream’s domain.

Sixiang materialized behind her, a hand on her shoulder. “You did good there. That was probably the least messy way it could have gone.”

Ling Qi breathed out, balancing atop the drifting red leaf. “A few weeks, maybe a month,” she said tersely.

Sixiang grimaced. “That’s what you gave up, huh?”

“It’s not much,” Ling Qi said. “Not when I have so much time ahead of me. Keeping up my reputation so Renxiang and I’s project succeeds is much more valuable. Hanyi’s performances are probably going to be more important than I thought.”

“The temple priests are gonna give you trouble on that. The fact you succeeded is just gonna prick their pride more, even leaving aside other stuff,” Sixiang noted.

“Some will, but I’m not going to assume how many people will be. If the ones who don’t like me are holding all the tiles, then I just have to find the right friends to give a boost to.” Ling Qi wasn’t quite as confident as she portrayed, but she hadn’t chosen an easy path. That was just how it was.

“Hm, I won’t say I mind you being more aggressive.” Sixiang leaned on her shoulder.

Ling Qi let out a huff of laughter. “Let’s get back and see if I can catch the end of the show.”

***​

They weren’t able to catch more than the final procession through the temple gardens in the end. She supposed the transfer of power must have taken longer than she had subjectively perceived. At least she had been able to slip in among the crowd to add her applause to the end as Hanyi took her bows. It seemed as far as the audience had been concerned, it was a splendid festival performance.

She spent some time among them, mingling with her fellow nobles. After her negotiation with the river spirit, it was almost relaxing to field questions about the “unique twists” to the ritual and deflect with a smile and some words about changing conditions.

There was some legitimate unease, but between her confidence and the silence of the clergy, it was no more than that. It seemed that whatever their opinion on her, the priests had no interest in showing weakness either. Eventually, as the guests were called to the holiday feast set for after the ritual, Ling Qi was able to make her way back into the staging area and meet Bao Qian again.

“Of course I knew that there were ten rivers,” Bao Qian said, seeming a bit offended at her question. “I was assured in our correspondence that the priests were planning a special individual ceremony for the Seven Hill’s Stream since its source was in the snow melts and might view this as an intrusion.”

“I hope that you kept every piece of the correspondence then,” Ling Qi said stiffly. Her temper had cooled, but she still felt very irritated by all this.

“As do I, since I wrote of no such thing.” An older woman’s voice reached them, and Ling Qi frowned as she peered through the door to their destination. It was a room filled with tables and benches for the ritual performers to relax in. Right now, it held only the older woman and Hanyi. Her junior sister was looking smug, and the two of them seemed to be studiously ignoring each other.

“High Priestess,” Ling Qi greeted, entering the room with a bow. “I was able to prevent any immediate issues.”

She didn’t let her voice waver toward pride too much.

Chao Yanlin narrowed her eyes. “Yes, though we shall see what a river spirit drunk on darkness might do in the coming year. How did you achieve your negotiations so quickly, Baroness?”

“I must keep my methods to myself,” Ling Qi replied. “As you see here, it is sometimes necessary to have some secrets.”

The older woman’s nostrils flared in irritation.

“Lady Ling’s privacy is not up for debate, but I do apologize for any trouble. You can be sure that the temple will receive a donation to aid in covering any lingering trouble,” Bao Qian said diplomatically, stepping in behind her. “Lady Chao, might you want to share the other issue which came up during the procession?”

Chao Yanlin shook out her sleeve, the tiny bells woven into the fabric ringing, and an iron cage appeared on the table between her and Hanyi. In it were a variety of pulsing lights bobbing and bouncing crazily in the confines. They were dark blue black and shimmering white. Winter faeries, if Ling Qi had her guess. “There was further sabotage. An attempt to disrupt the ritual was made using a bound mortal servant.”

“Luckily, my own arts were able to detect something wrong with the man carrying the spirit cages since Lady Ling informed me that high alert was necessary. Unfortunately, there was little to be gained from the poor mortal.”

Ling Qi squinted at the cage. The faeries shrank back under her gaze, huddling at the bottom of the cage. “What would releasing these have accomplished?”

“Important rituals interact with the flow of the world’s energies. They are the region’s meridians, if you must compare it to human cultivation. Introducing foreign qi into the midst of a ritual unplanned would confuse and anger the spirits of the land and may even cause them to lash out at the performers, perceiving an insult,” Chao Yanlin said sourly.

“Why isn’t there more security then?” Ling Qi asked.

“Because open sabotage like this is not done,” the woman shot back. “Not since Her Grace’s reforms to the Ministry.”

“It seems really sloppy to me,” Hanyi said absently, watching the fairies dart around their cage. “The Duchess is really scary. You’d have to be pretty dumb to break her rules like that.”

There was a shared moment of silence among the three of them. Truth from the mouths of children indeed.

“It does seem very hasty and ill advised,” Bao Qian agreed. “But before we get too far, the letters?”

Ling Qi was silent as the two of them spread letters across the table.

<Might be someone panicked when you ran off. If you were supposed to be here, maybe these little fellas were meant for something else?> Sixiang mused.

She watched as Bao Qian and the priestess reviewed the letters, stabbing their fingers down at the suspicious ones and politely bickering over their origin. It was clear that someone had altered the mail as well. Most importantly, it was becoming clear that this was more than idle sabotage. Someone was looking to seriously undermine her and her sister.

“Whoever did this was quite a forger,” Bao Qian said sourly. There was no trace of his joviality. “Although, I do believe they have made a mistake.”

“Oh, and what is that?” asked Chao Yanlin, looking as if she had bitten into something sour herself. “By my measure, you were bamboozled completely.”

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Ling Qi bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that the priestess had been tricked as well. It wasn’t helpful.

Bao Qian rubbed a finger across the text of one of the offending letters. “I had no reason to find it suspect before, but the ink used in the altered letters is different. The soot in it comes from a specific grove of valley pines.”

“How do you know that?” Ling Qi asked curiously.

“Family trade secrets,” Bao Qian answered.

“How… convenient,” Chao Yanlin said.

“Hey, none of you are going to eat those, right?” Hanyi asked, interrupting them to point at the cage of fairies.

“Hanyi,” Ling Qi sighed.

“Hey, it’s not just cause I’m hungry. I bet you I can tell you where they came from if you let me eat a few,” Hanyi said defensively. “When Momma went wandering with her second soul to visit other ice spirits, she’d bring me treats like this from all over the place.”

Ling Qi paused. So did Chao Yanlin and Bao Qian.

“If neither of you object?” Ling Qi asked.

Chao Yanlin pursed her lips. “A more trustworthy method, I suppose. Spirits do not lie half as well as men.”

“By all means,” Bao Qian allowed.

Ling Qi gestured, and Hanyi’s hand shot out, kicking up sparks as it slipped between the bars of the spirit cage to snatch a pale blue fairy. The little thing let out a distressed shriek, its delicate wings fluttering furiously as Hanyi popped it into her mouth and brought her teeth together with a sharp crunch like a sugar candy being chewed.