Threads 221-Family 1

Ling Qi danced through the newly grown woods atop the hill, a wraith of dream and wind and mist flickering in the shadow of blossoming green and verdant qi. She ran, leaped, and played along the web of qi that ran through the local dream, following them to their anchors.

Luo Zhong’s arts felt disconcerting. There was a resemblance to the wild qi that coursed through Alingge’s meridians, but she could see the places where they diverged. She could see where the ancient, nameless people became hill and forest and mountain and then Weilu and hill tribe. His qi was paper and ink, leather and metal, bindings and tethers and words.

Her foot fell upon a narrow branch, barely bending the pale green wood. Sound erupted around her, the noise of a dozen snarling and howling hounds returning in force, as Ling Qi dipped back into the physical world. She felt the wind shift before she saw the man-sized bullet shoot toward her, Wang Chao catapulting himself at such speed that she could not even perceive him as more than a blur.

She dispersed, no more than a cold winter breeze, a shower of snowflakes and chilled air, and in spirit, she grasped a tether of fire and metal, letting it pull her along to her destination.

Yet for all that his aura was a net of bindings, it still resonated with her own qi. Connection. Community. Luo Zhong was not, Ling Qi thought, as wise and savvy as he liked to portray, but he was only one knot in a wider net. His contracted spirits were manifestations of the spirit of his family’s city. She felt that strength touching on him, mother and father and siblings and relatives all bound to a great spirit that had seen them all grow from diapers. It was an immense support. It was an immense pressure. Luo Zhong was just one dog in the pack, full of pride and desire to give back what he had given, his drive overriding all concerns for those outside the pack.

Spirit contracts aside, this was family as most in the Empire saw it. Binding and obligation. Duty and responsibility. Blood, above all other concerns. It bothered her like a fly buzzing in her ear. Family was an obligation, but that understanding was incomplete.

She doubted Luo Zhong would have been pleased to know just how much she could read him through the rivers of qi flowing into the liminal, which he had left for her navigation. Even now, he underestimated her. Then again, perhaps that was unfair; so few knew of her growing study of dreams yet.

<Hey, now. You’re forgetting something,> Sixiang reminded.

Of course, it was Sixiang’s new talent for possessing qi constructs which allowed this to work at all. Sixiang possessed a summon, and then Luo Zhong’s contract and her bond allowed her to swiftly pull herself to Sixiang’s location.

Ling Qi reemerged back into the material to hear a tremendous bang that shook the hill. A slender hound made of crimson fire stood upon a crackling plane of joined ceramic panels, shrouded in glittering mist. Its canine face gave the impression of grinning, and its eyes sparkled black like Sixiang’s.

Behind the panels, Xuan Shi stood with his hands raised, feet set wide. On his back was strapped a long stick of green wood with a single bright orange leaf sprouting from its top. Zhengui’s flag. Ling Qi grinned. The silly thing really took the seriousness out of the air.

She met Xuan Shi’s eyes through the gaps in the panels and saw them widen as her gaze flicked over his shoulder to where a tiny gossamer winged butterfly rested on the flag, shrouded in glittering rainbow mist.

The panels moved quickly like the door of a vault, snapping shut to isolate forever the priceless treasure within. But she was the wind, and no vault could keep her out.

An instant later, the flag was in her hands.

Then, the panels snapped shut around her, a featureless prison without hinges, doors, or cracks, split only by the wide grin of nightmare. Ling Qi laughed.

Of course it wouldn’t be so easy.

It took the full twenty minutes before the game finally ended. The flag had ultimately ended up in her hands, but she didn’t think either she or Xuan Shi cared that much. It had been fun, and that was enough.

But all diversions had their end, and soon, Ling Qi was on her way back to meet with Cai Renxiang.

***

“I hope your meeting went well,” Cai Renxiang greeted. Her voice was clipped, and Ling Qi could see some of the subtle signs of stress that only someone close to the heiress would notice in her posture and expression.

“It went—” Ling Qi paused, considering her words. They walked through the loose crowds moving between the noble pavilions. The great cathedral-like cloth structure of the Cai tent loomed large ahead. “—acceptably. Xuan Shi and Wang Chao are both doing well.”

Whatever her thoughts on the extra person there, her main goal had been a success. Wang Chao was too bullish to let someone he perceived as a friend isolate themselves too much. Of course, that personality could backfire too, but for now, she’d call it a win.

“How did Her Grace take your message?” Ling Qi asked.

“My mother will begin a correspondence negotiating a state meeting,” Cai Renxiang reported tersely. “It will be delayed. It would be inappropriate for a commander to leave the field at a campaign’s denouement, and it would be further inappropriate to receive one of King Shao’s status in a military camp.”

Ling Qi digested that. It seemed a very lukewarm, but indisputably polite, response on the Duchess’ part to her. That, she supposed, was to be expected.

“It is likely that this is only an opening exchange,” Cai Renxiang said. “These kinds of negotiations are never simple.”

Ling Qi gave a shallow nod. Sun Shao’s sudden interest in a meeting and a military campaign were almost certainly meant to disrupt the Duchess’ plans and strain her relations with the Bai. Yet, because of who he was, she could not simply ignore or trample over him as the Duchess might a lesser obstacle.

Ling Qi felt a twinge of discomfort at that. Even the peak of cultivation was not immune to the winds of the world. She should have known that. Had Sun Shao not been humiliated last year? The victory she had cheered for in the finals had meant the eighth realm King of the West had watched his great-granddaughter be beaten and humiliated with no recourse.

“What troubles you?” Cai Renxiang asked, glancing over her shoulder as they reached the open square before the Cai pavilion.

Ling Qi realized that she had stopped, her expression scrunching up into a scowl. She smoothed her features and offered her liege a smile. “I’m just considering some of the strategic troubles we might face.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Renxiang didn’t seem to entirely believe her, but she didn’t press, resuming their walk.

Was being safe really so impossible?

Ling Qi dismissed the troubling thought from her mind. She expected a comment from Sixiang, but the muse was silent. They were stepping into the realm of the Cai after all. Yes, that was certainly the reason.

They approached the pavilion, but then, they turned aside at the entrance, following a path which led around the left side.

“I am glad you did not forget your appointment given all the excitement.”

“Don’t be absurd. I do not forget appointments,” Renxiang said stiffly.

They rounded the corner of the pavilion, coming into sight of the carriage yard. The Duchess’ carriage was just as resplendent as it had been last year, though lacking its beasts. There was also a second, more humble carriage painted in pale green, but it, too, was thrumming with qi enhancement. Presumably, that was the carriage of Diao Luwen, Cai Renxiang’s father. Beside the two carriages was a third. Larger and bulkier, it was painted a light rose pink.

Ling Qi had felt the security formations of Elder Sima Jiao when she had entered the command tent of the Sect’s forward base under the earth. She had felt the open threat of the security formations wrought upon the Bai ambassador’s chambers. She had felt the overwhelming presence of the court at Xiangmen and the ancient pillars of beast bone there.