Threads 288-Construction 1

“The Bountiful Earth must smile upon us!” Gan Guangli laughed. He leaned against the side of the carriage, his bulky arm resting upon the window frame.

“That is definitely the implication that I wove into the cover letter of my report on the find,” Ling Qi said. “It is very lucky.”

“Improbably so, but such is the nature of spirits,” Cai Renxiang said. She tapped her fingers on the sheathed saber laid across her lap. Her expression was slightly pinched.

“I have already said my piece on my haste,” Ling Qi said.

“That is not the trouble. Now, before there is a large civilian presence, is the time for haste and chances taken,” Cai Renxiang dismissed. “No, it means there are even more eyes upon us, and more importantly, it will increase the pressure on us to demand a wide claim in the region during negotiations.”

Ling Qi grimaced and scratched the back of her neck. She hadn’t thought about that. Of course people would believe that where there was one, there might be more veins to be found in the region. How troublesome.

Gan Guangli rubbed his chin. “True. There will be more lords eager to make claims now. Thankfully, the immediate gains are all under your mother’s oversight.”

“It mitigates the issue,” Cai Renxiang said grudgingly. “Regardless, it does not change our immediate goals. It has taken me some effort to make arrangements for our early visit to the summit location to meet the other stakeholders, and we must take advantage.”

“We need to determine the minimum acceptable terms for our negotiations,” Ling Qi agreed. “It’s difficult that it took until now to manage.”

“We knew we would not be taken entirely seriously,” Cai Renxiang reminded. “But there are representatives of all the major players here now. We will split them between us and determine their desires, and when we are finished, we will compile the information into the beginnings of a plan.”

“Yes, Lady Cai,” they agreed.

“I will handle matters of the Bao, the Peaks delegation, and the Diao,” Cai Renxiang continued crisply. “Gan Guangli, you will handle the matter of the Jia, the Luo, and the sects. Ling Qi, you will focus on the Wang, the Meng, and our foreign guests. If crossover occurs, you will handle the matter as needed.”

Ling Qi nodded at the same time as Gan Guangli. They had their respective mission and area of focus, but these were unlikely to stay perfectly delineated. “We’ll handle it. We won’t be able to fulfill every expectation, but I am confident we can reach an acceptable conclusion here.”

“Agreed. I trust in the both of you,” Cai Renxiang said, giving a sharp nod. “Now, prepare yourselves. We are nearly there and will be greeting the General first.”

Ling Qi couldn’t help but grimace. General Xia Ren was definitely not the best person to be assigned to a diplomatic mission, even if her presence made the security all but unassailable.

When the carriage passed around the next turn in the newly laid road, the valley came into view. When they had passed through here on their journey to the south, it had been a dark and tangled mass of closely packed trees around a shallow, winding waterway flanked by mountains on both sides. It was barely recognizable now.

The trees had been carved back from the stream and thinned out in general near the road. Great warding stones, plinths carved with formations which set down dense legal contracts in both stone and spirit, dotted the landscape. On the east side where the valley bent around a protruding peak, the entire upper third of that mountain was gone. Stopping at a razor straight line, it was now an artificial plateau. Construction could be seen going on atop it.

But there were not only signs of imperial presence. In the far south, Ling Qi saw a towering gray barked tree, which had, even at this distance, the faint contours of a woman with her hands over her face in its trunk. It might have been tiny in comparison to Xiangmen, but Ling Qi thought it must still be over a hundred meters tall. Its pale green-gray leaves rustled and teemed with what must have been thousands of birds from bright little songbirds to bulky black crows and fierce eagles. Their crying was a cacophony over the much trimmed forest.

Passing under the reduced canopy, their carriage silently flew along the well paved road that followed the river, and swiftly, they came to where the ruins of the Hui bunker had been.

Work crews teemed here. The filth and muck had been cleaned from the structure, and the half-drowned island it had been built into was now the site of rising pillars of stone and polished wood, the beginnings of a fine noble manse. The foundations for bridges had been laid across the river, and even now, sweating laborers dragged blocks of stone and other materials to complete them. On either side of the river, buildings were going up as well, homes for emissaries of the clans and officials that would come.

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“It is amazing to see this all built so fast. I wish we could manage that.” Ling Qi eyed the pillar of gleaming white steel that awaited them at the end of the road. Even so distant, she could feel the sword intent pass over her, the whisper of a silk wrapped blade across her skin.

“This expansion comes with the full backing of my house and all the wealth of Xiangmen and its people. The expense of this undertaking is immense.”

“And that is why I am still confident. There may be doubts, but this summit is receiving a great investment.” Gan Guangli crossed his arms. “This is so even if, to many, it is being sold as a logistics center for a true wave of expansion into the Wall.”

The carriage came to a stop in front of the general, who waited for them by one of the completed bridges that crossed the river’s span. She felt Sixiang, who had been quietly observing, withdraw further into her head as she followed Cai Renxiang out.

“Welcome, young Lady Cai,” Xia Ren said crisply. Her voice echoed metallically from inside of her helm, which was unbroken by any seam or gap. “Construction of this base is continuing at an acceptable rate. There have not yet been any signs of sabotage or foreign action from above or below ground, outside the region designated for your targets.”