Threads 203-Opening Day 1

“Our itinerary is set then,” Cai Renxiang said. Ling Qi was familiar enough with her liege to detect the satisfaction in her cool voice.

“Well and truly organized, my lady,” Ling Qi said agreeably, leaning back in the seat across from her. On the desk between them lay a meticulously written document. Thin, straight lines divided clean white paper into a grid, and in each section, small, neat handwriting laid out dense information in brief words.

It was, Ling Qi thought, the sort of thing that only Cai Renxiang would take such satisfaction in.

<She’s almost as weird as you,> Sixiang whispered wryly.

Ling Qi let the corner of her lips quirk up in a smile. Said the rippling lake of dream and fantasy that lived in her head.

“You find something amusing?” Cai Renxiang asked, letting her chin rest on her hands.

“Just Sixiang and their jokes,” Ling Qi said. “Thank you for taking my preferences into account, Lady Renxiang.”

“Gratitude is unnecessary. I laid out the tasks which required aid, and you selected from them,” Renxiang dismissed. “I found your selection of the Diao surprising though.”

Ling Qi tapped her fingernails on the desktop. “We have our troubles with them, but I think I’m better suited for addressing them. Your own reputation with them is fixed.”

Prime Minister Diao Linqin did not care much for either of them, Ling Qi knew, but she was much more irrelevant in the seventh realm cultivator’s eyes. It would be less difficult for her to make some basic inroads.

“Reasonable,” Cai Renxiang agreed. “I will trust you to at least discern where the average Diao’s opinions lie.”

<I still think you should let me do a little manifesting. I’m good at making friends,> Sixiang complained.

Ling Qi didn’t think that was a good idea. “I’m more worried about the things you’ve told me I missed. You could have contacted me earlier.”

“I judged that it was better for you to complete your personal business,” Cai Rnxiang said, arching an eyebrow. “What good would it have done you to know that my mother has delayed her arrival time?”

“Well, it wouldn’t,” Ling Qi said unhappily. “Still, I don’t like surprises. She didn’t tell you why?”

“Just that a matter encountered on her route had required her attention,” Cai Renxiang said. “She will only be delayed until this evening. I have been assured she will make it to the planned feast for our Bai guests.”

Ling Qi nodded, glancing worriedly out the window of the study. She saw only an early morning sky kissed by the first rays of the sun. She didn’t see a second sun on the northern horizon, so surely the matter couldn’t have been too critical. “… and the other surprise you had for me?”

Renxiang let out an actual sigh. “You worry too much, Ling Qi. While it is strange for my father to be called to the same place as Mother, this does not change our plans beyond my needing to pay my respects before we begin today’s meetings.”

Ling Qi studied her friend’s face. She saw nothing but a faint exasperation. Perhaps earned, given that this was the third time Ling Qi had broached the matter. Maybe it was because she only knew the Duchess, but there was something that itched at her about her liege’s apathy.

“As you say, my lady,” Ling Qi said.

“On that note, we must be going soon if we are to maintain the schedule. Make your arrangements, and meet me at the entrance to the fairgrounds within the hour.”

***

Ling Qi walked with her hands hidden in her sleeves. She had adjusted her gown for the occasion. She had shed her mantle in favor of a light, airy pibo of pale blue silk and altered the color to a mix of midnight blue and black. She had also extended the train and added more lace to the hems and her sleeves. Her hair was styled up, a silver ornament of a grinning crescent shining in her hair. It had taken some help from Sixiang to get just right. Overall, her look was the sort of traditional style favored by the Bai.

Cai Renxiang walked a step ahead with her hands folded behind her back. The only change she had made to her appearance was to bind her hair in a single tight braid that glittered with rose gold thread that caught the early morning sunlight, seeming almost to burn. Still, even that much change was surprising for Lady Renxiang.

The Pavillion of the Cai loomed high, overshadowing all others, even standing only half-raised as workmen huffed and sweated, moving support poles the size of entire trees and bolts of white and gold cloth bigger than wagons. The central part of the pavilion was already raised, two pennants, one in the imperial colors and the other in the Cai’s, already fluttered from its high peak.

They entered the dazzling interior, passing by silent white plumed guards, and immediately stepped from grass to polished marble tile. It extended under their feet in every direction. Polished furniture and stages were being hauled into place for guests and performers. In the center, there was a high fountain of gently spraying water surrounded by a ring of greenery and color. Workers and functioners paused and bowed, paying their respects as the two of them passed, heading for the small group of people standing before the central fountain.

Ling Qi did not know what she expected from Cai Renxiang’s father, Diao Luwen, but the man Renxiang stopped in front of wasn’t it. He was a small man, his head barely coming up to Ling Qi’s chin, with a face handsome in a sort of academic way and a narrow shouldered build. He wore a black minister’s cap on his head, and a few curls of dark brown hair poked out from underneath. His complexion was a few shades lighter than hers.

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“Hm, hm, no, this is all wrong,” he fretted, gesticulating toward the half-set up display in the center of the pavilion. His glittering green robes swished with the quick motions of his hands. “The angles of these walking paths are utterly wrong in relation to the celestial pathways of qi veins of this region. Do you wish to make ill feelings and rivalry linger here in the very center of the arrangement instead of flowing naturally from the space? Imbeciles, imbeciles all! If you cannot handle even so basic a task, I will have to finish the arrangement myself!”

Ling Qi stood behind Renxiang as the short man berated the cultivators, experts of the third and fourth realm all, for almost a full minute, spitting orders and terms that she almost recognized from her studies in formations and geomancy. In front of her, Renxiang waited patiently.

Ling Qi found it difficult to read the man’s aura. It was tightly controlled, but every time he waved his hand, wrenching up and rearranging tiles at a gesture, or sprouting meticulously shaped plant life or shrubbery in newly cleared spaces, she felt as if she had just tried to read a page from one of Renxiang’s denser mathematical texts.

They stood there, completely unnoticed, until Renxiang startled Ling Qi by clearing her throat and fluctuating her qi very slightly in the lull between orders being given.