Threads 270-Grudges 1

“So, how bad do you think the damage is going to be?” Ling Qi asked, looking out the window of the carriage as it began to get moving. The outlying buildings of the sect town rolled by.

“Hah! I saw a lot of sour faces back there, but you knew what you were getting into,” Sixiang teased. They sat cross-legged on the bench opposite of her, their image clothed in an old weilu costume. Sixiang’s black eyes glittered with amusement under the horned headdress. “You’ve gotten so bold. Every time I start to wonder, you remind me why I stick around.”

“Don’t pretend you ever doubted,” Ling Qi said haughtily, turning up her nose. “I am the great master of ceremonies, left hand of the new Cai! My performances are always beyond compare!”

Sixiang snorted at her, and Ling Qi broke down into laughter.

“Riiight. My apologies, young mistress,” Sixiang drawled. The walls of the town passed them by, replaced by the evenly spaced and trimmed trees which lined the northern road. “But yeah, I’m sure plenty of your fellow kiddies are sending letters flying home. And folks you’ve made nice with will notice.”

Ling Qi composed herself, expression growing more sober. “It’s fine. As you said, I knew I was going to upset some people, but if what we are working toward finds success, we will upset them regardless. Signaling to our allies and making possibilities known to those who have not chosen a side is important.”

“Meng Diu and Meng Dan will be pleased with the support, especially since Hanyi’s tour is going over so well.”

“It’ll take time to see how this works out, but I have no regrets.” There was a faint rocking motion as the carriage hit the straight part of the road and picked up speed. “Let’s get to the next bit of business.”

“The weasel who messed with our little sis,” Sixiang said, nodding smartly. The headdress slid down over their eyes.

Ling Qi raised an eyebrow. “Our?”

“Aw, come on. Of course it’s ‘our’!” Sixiang nudged their headdress up to reveal an eye. “So, Haishan.”

“That’s the one. Smaller city on the same old trade route Tonghou is, but further south,” Ling Qi recalled. “Who was the ruling viscount?”

“Uh, I wanna say Xu. Yeah, it’s Xu. Middling for viscounts. There is a fifth realm patriarch, and the head looks like he’ll make it in his lifetime, a handful of fourths, and a healthy crop of thirds.”

Ling Qi considered the reports she’d read. “No major problems with the city.”

“No obvious ones,” Sixiang agreed. “The family mostly plays the Diao line for politics. Considered kind of wishy-washy.”

Ling Qi sighed. “Probably not directly involved then, unless they’re hiding a lot of passion.”

“You never know,” Sixiang said with a shrug.

“And the subordinates of Diao Hualing we were meeting up with were…”

***​

The reports had been unfair to the city of Haishan, Ling Qi decided. They had painted a picture of a run-down backwater and put her in the mind of her birth city. However, the gates of Haishan were well maintained. Its outer wall was in good repair, and though there was a shabbiness to its outer districts, she did not feel the same malaise here that she was familiar with from her youth. The streets were clean, the people looked upon the guards with only moderate fear, and there were few beggars, even at the edge of her senses, so they hadn’t simply been driven away from her route into the deeper alleys preceding her visit to the Ministry of Law compound.

The Ministry of Law’s offices were a set of squat, dour buildings inside of a two-meter high curtain wall. The interior courtyard was clean and well swept, and clerks and other low ranking officials moved with purpose along the paths.

She was met at the gate by a pair of guards, and to her amusement and mild discomfort, she was announced as a noble guest. Dozens of people in the middle of their work all stopping to bow and give respect would never stop feeling strange, Ling Qi suspected. She was shown then to the eastern building to a waiting room and offered refreshments, which she refused politely.

“Notice anyone in particular?”

Ling Qi scanned the plain beige walls. Her eyes fell on the scrollwork on the decorative wood which lined the joins between the walls and the floor. Formations. Simple ones for improved airflow, temperature control, and enhancement of the building materials. No listening formations, but there were a few to contain and dampen sound from inside the room.

It was, as the guard had said, a room for meeting with important guests, ones who might be offended at others listening to their words.

“Nobody who seemed particularly fishy. Some curious folks wondering about a relatively bigshot showing up,” Sixiang said, their voice manifesting right in her ear.

“Same. I didn’t detect anything like guilt or fear from anyone present,” Ling Qi said quietly. It was probably as Diao Hualing said. The slowness of the investigation likely came down to simple institutional sloth and inertia. “If there are collaborators, they were either not present or unaware of what my presence means.”

She held up a hand to quiet Sixiang’s response as she felt an approaching aura of a cultivator just barely into the third realm. A dim but even light, it felt like the sweeping cone of light from a lantern, cautious and careful.

She did not stand. At her rank and cultivation, it wouldn’t be right.

There was a quiet knock on the door.

“Come in,” she said.

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The door opened, revealing an older man in plain black and gray robes. With strands of silver at his temples and shot through his trimmed and pointed beard, he appeared to be forty or fifty. His face had some lines around his mouth and at the corner of his eyes, but his posture was still strong, and he bowed smoothly to her hands clasped in front of his chest.

“Baroness Ling, my apologies for your wait. I am Pan Xi, district officer of the third rank. I was given your case after Lady Diao’s interest was made known.”

“I see.” Ling Qi gestured for him to enter. As he did, closing the door behind him, she examined the man out of the corner of her eye. “I am curious which of your juniors was responsible beforehand.”

“Please forgive this one,” he replied, turning back to her and bowing lower still. “Our duties are unending, and the young may lack the knowledge to prioritize every case effectively. This one will accept any chastisement Lady Ling may have.”

Smooth, practiced, calming. The attitude of one who very regularly dealt with volatile tempers. He wasn’t just trying to steer her, she thought. He really was accepting responsibility for his subordinates.

<Shielding them too,> whispered Sixiang’s voice.

She couldn’t say she disliked that. “It is nothing. Please raise your head. I understand that my case may not have seemed in need of the most immediate response.”