Threads 319-Parting 5

Ling Qi took a deep breath.

Li Suyin chuckled, scratching her cheek with a golden claw. “That ended up being very serious.”

“So, hey,” Hanyi interrupted. “I wanted to know, can you make me a cool skeleton handmaid? ‘Cause I have, like, a bunch of money now.”

Ling Qi blinked. Li Suyin blinked.

“Hwah?” Her friend made a confused noise.

“You know, like the ones you have, but, like, with ice instead of icky spider stuff!” Hanyi explained happily.

“My silk isn’t icky. Ling Qi, did you…?”

“First I’ve heard of this,” Ling Qi said blankly. “Hanyi, what would you even do with something like that?”

“It’d carry all my stuff, comb my hair when Sis isn’t around, and look really cool,” Hanyi answered, counting off the benefits on her fingers.

“Ah, I’m not taking commissions right now,” Li Suyin said, still looking befuddled. She glanced at Ling Qi questioningly. “… Maybe in a few months?”

Ling Qi sighed. “We’ll talk about that later.”

“I’d just ask for one of Sis’ maids, but they’re fragile! I’m trying to be thoughtful. You’d be mad if I broke one!”

Ling Qi stared at her. Hanyi looked back defiantly.

“… Yes. I would.”

Li Suyin smiled awkwardly. “How lively. Honestly, I hadn’t even considered selling my constructs. The aesthetic is a little too niche.”

“I’m sure you could find buyers,” Ling Qi said.

Hanyi puffed out her cheeks.

“More buyers,” Ling Qi corrected.

“Maybe, but I’ve been so busy, and the Sect is providing so much in the way of materials, that I hadn’t even thought about it.”

Her friend did have a really beneficial arrangement with the Sect right now.

“I’m just glad you’re doing well.”

“And I’m glad to see you again. I hope I can get out to see what you’re building at your new fief in a few months.”

“I hope so too. It can be a little adventure for old times’ sake. Anyway, what have you been working on? I know you probably can’t talk about everything, but I’m really curious.”

“I can share, if you tell me more about these foreigners! What’s this about a flying ship I’ve heard about?”

“It’s not exactly a ship, but…”

Friends, teachers, so many people here at the Sect that she was going to be leaving behind. At least with Suyin though, they had clear plans to meet up again, both for the adventure and their ongoing cooperation on the fourth realm elixir project.

***

She never had gone to as many lessons as she could have while in the Inner Sect. There was just always something to do: people to meet, duties to fulfill, and places to explore. Still, the quiet atmosphere of the elder’s lecture site had a comforting air.

Of all the elders she had met, she did not think she had actually sat in on a public lesson taught by Elder Ying. Her classroom was a stony grotto set near the base of the mountain where falling waters formed a misty curtain on the north side, pooling in a clear sparkling pond in the center. The student benches were raised rounded stone with fuzzy green layers of moss that did not stick to or stain even the more mundane robes and gowns of the other students.

The elder herself stood on the rippling water of the pond. Elder Ying had not changed since Ling Qi had seen her last. She was still a short, stooped elderly woman with thin white hair tied up into a bun with a deeply lined face and a friendly expression. She wore a plain gown with tones of tan and near white.

“… And so, the nature of defense is as complex as the ways of harm, ever changing with the needs of the moment, the battlefield, the opponent, your goals, what is wanted, and what is needed. There can be no universal shield, any more than there may be a universal blade. To think in such terms is itself a failure of thought, a foolish dead end which has ensnared growing cultivators since before the founding.”

Today’s lecture was a meditation on the nature of defensive arts, or more specifically, on the concept of “defense” and “protection” itself. It was a discussion as to what those concepts truly meant in their contexts on the battlefield and off.

Ling Qi herself had many small answers to this question percolating in her mind, developing and clinging to the edges of other ideas and concepts.