Threads 231 Thunder 2

As they left the town behind, Ling Qi smiled. “I think you did pretty well there.”

“Are you sure about that? Pretty sure your mother doesn’t approve of me,” Yu Nuan said.

“I think she’s not entirely sure what to make of this yet,” Ling Qi corrected. “I wouldn’t call it disapproval.”

“She’s your mom.” Yu Nuan shrugged.

Ling Qi hummed an agreement. She liked that Yu Nuan was already growing casual with her. Most of her friends still didn’t really do casual. There was really only Su Ling and to an extent, Li Suyin. “Why did you offer to take me on this trip anyway?”

As they left the town behind, turning toward the western foothills and the dusty road that wound between the outlying farms, Yu Nuan said awkwardly, “It’s part of the deal, isn’t it? Access is one of the resources I bring.”

“I’m looking forward to this trip. I haven’t had a chance to explore any odd spirit locales without a lot of pressure on recently.”

“Moons, do I not even rate an odd?” Sixiang complained aloud, voice carrying on the wind.

“Dreamwalking is entirely different,” Ling Qi shot back.

Yu Nuan watched her out of the corner of her eye. To a mortal, Ling Qi probably would have looked crazy, arguing with the thin air. “You really that carefree?”

Ling Qi gave her a sidelong look. “Carefree isn’t how I’d put it. I’ve worked pretty hard to earn some confidence though.”

Her companion let out a breath. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

Ling Qi hummed the first notes of a half-formed melody as they walked on at a swift pace, the pastoral landscape soon vanishing in favor of scrub and thin trees. Her fingers idly twitched as she toyed with the wind blowing around her. “What are you working on in your cultivation right now?”

Yu Nuan looked up from the trail they were on, and ahead, Qiu paused, raising his own head to look back at them. “Movement. I’ve been studying Qiu and looking up similar arts. When one of us summons a storm, I want to be able to move between lightning strikes.”

That made sense. Yu Nuan was also serving a scouting role in the sect forces. To be able to move swiftly and avoid large numbers of enemies would help her in her duties.

“How about you?”

“A technique called the Opened Vault,” Ling Qi answered with a smile. “It allows me to sneak between the barriers of the world and access spaces I shouldn’t be able to. Don’t tell, obviously.”

“I’m surprised. That seems like the kind of activity you’ve tried to leave behind.”

“Do I come off that way?”

“I assumed,” Yu Nuan admitted as they crossed under the shade of the thickening forest that lay between a pair of larger hills. Qiu let out a bark, trotting ahead on the trail.

“I haven’t had much need for those skills lately. But Lady Cai and I, we’re stepping out of this little walled garden. I think you have an idea of what things are really like out there.”

“I get it. I guess I was just distracted by how shiny you lot are.”

“Lady Cai isn’t stupid. The real world… I don’t think it will ever be as clean as she wants it to be, but there’s value in trying.”

“And how does stealing out of people’s purses fit into that?” Yu Nuan asked.

“What I take out, I can put back,” Ling Qi replied. “You’d be amazed at the kind of documents and objects people will carry around. More than that though, I think it’s just a first step. Are you going to stop once you figure out how to jump with the lightning?”

“No, that’s not enough. I gotta be able to move when I need to. It’s scary how much difference getting a warning out can make.”

“And I have a lot of barriers I have to learn to navigate,” Ling Qi said wryly. Between the squabbling clans of the province, the province and the capital, and both and the foreigners, it was a labyrinth she really dreaded taking a step into.

She’d already chosen to do it though.

<It’ll be fun to be able to peek into peoples stuff though,>? Sixiang needled.

“Of course,” Ling Qi said without missing a beat. “It’s always somewhat thrilling to be unnoticed.”

“I don’t really get that part,” Yu Nuan drawled. “Being ignored has always pissed me off.”

And wasn’t that as clear a description of their differences as there could be. Isolation approached from two different venues seen in two different ways.

“What are you trying to do with all of this anyway?” Yu Nuan asked as they walked on.

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“Isn’t that a big question?” Sixiang drawled aloud. “Could you answer that one?”

Yu Nuan glanced at the empty air as if looking for a face. “You know what I mean. This whole crazy project with the barbarians.”