Threads 340-FrostSong 1

“So it is something your scholars have an interest in as well?” Jaromila asked.

“It is. Her Grace has indicated some interest in celestial phenomena. If your people could be convinced to share their knowledge, I believe I can convince ours to share their equipment.”

“Superb. That is one more item which can be used to drive interest.”

They were outside the meeting hall, now with construction resuming. There were fewer people inside, and the work was proceeding more carefully. But the construction did tentatively seem to be going well. Ling Qi observed the exterior where the earth was being churned up and saplings and flowers were being transplanted into what would in the end be a serene garden where participants would hopefully be able to stroll in and ease themselves of tension during talks.

“I apologize for my rudeness. I feel I should recognize your companion, but…”

Ling Qi’s eyes widened a fraction as Jaromila looked over her shoulder to where Sixiang stood, rocking back and forth on, at the moment, his feet. He hadn’t shifted his form much, looking mostly androgynous still.

“I didn’t directly say hi, but I was with Ling Qi last time,” Sixiang said. “Been at all your talks.”

Jaromila frowned. It occurred to Ling Qi that a spirit like Sixiang probably wasn’t too far from their idea of possessing star daemons.

“A wisdom spirit then. Strange to see it unhoused…. Stranger still that you allowed it into your own body.”

“‘It’ is impolite,” LIng Qi said evenly. “I’m afraid I don’t understand the meaning?”

Jaromila blinked, looking away from Sixiang. “I apologize. ‘He,’ then?”

“Whatever I’m doing at the moment,” Sixiang said brightly. “So yeah, ‘he’ today.”

The older woman looked uncomfortable for a moment, but moved past it, crisply explaining herself. “Some who walk paths of runelore will step into the world of spirits and make the beings found there into physical items. This originated with the man who became the Crowfather, who used the skull of one of the last giants. This is a wisdom spirit.”

Ling Qi considered. “That is not entirely right. Rather, Sixiang is my companion, who I met while performing rites for what you might call one of my gods.”

“Auntie’s pretty big, but it’d be her greater self that gets a title like that,” Sixiang commented.

“I see,” Jaromila said. “So something more akin to a divine messenger. I apologize.”

“No hard feelings,” Sixiang dismissed. “I don’t want to distract from Ling Qi’s actual business anyway.”

Jaromila gracefully accepted the end of that conversation. “Ah, yes, you will be pleased to know I did convince Emissary Dzintara of the value in having a one-to-one talk before the summit begins in earnest.”

“Thank you for that,” Ling Qi said.

“I would warn you that the people of the Twisted Pine are of a more martial bent, but my experience with you says that this might actually be soothing.”

“Perhaps,” Ling Qi said, smiling self-deprecatingly. “Shall we go then?”

Jaromila nodded, gesturing for her to follow.

They made their way from the meeting ground, traveling south. Sixiang fell in beside her, walking with his hands behind his head. It should have felt companionable. I

<Hey, still okay if I talk in here?>

Ling Qi did not outwardly react. It was fine of course. Sixiang’s voice felt distant compared to their old situation, barely brushing her thoughts.

<Okay… I don’t want to distract you too much here, but… this is okay, right? Talking and joking like we used to?>

Ling Qi mulled that over as they walked through the checkpoint at the valley center where imperial road transitioned to the patterned cobblestone of the White Sky. It felt strange, especially because she knew that there was something genuine behind Sixiang’s playful needling. All the same, the idea of treating Sixiang with formal distance made her chest hurt.

It was fine. They would find their new equilibrium naturally. So she hoped.

<Hah, yeah. Let’s just see where we go, huh?>

Ling Qi inclined her head in silent response.

Jaromila glanced back at them. “We’ll need to turn from the path here. We have arranged a few small sacred spaces for our people, and Emissary Dzintara believed that Fryja’s grove was the best place for this meeting. I apologize if this is inappropriate.”

“I do not have a problem with that,” Ling Qi said.

A bit of dominance posturing, meeting her in a place closer to the other emissary’s power? She could go along with that.

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“It’s not like Ling Qi’s patrons are ever far,” Sixiang said wryly. “Even ground, eh?”

Jaromila considered that as they left the road, following a track that seemed more like an animal trail. It wound up into the uncleared woods where the dark, twisted, and closely grown trees she had experienced on her first trip here were still intact.

“I do not know your ways. Do you not keep temples then?”

“There are temples, but they are places of negotiation and administration for higher cultivators,” Ling Qi said, looking around. There was certainly some power here. “A place for larger rituals. This feels more like a cultivation site.”

“Cultivation,” Jaromila said thoughtfully as she mounted a rise thick with as many tree roots as earth. “That word is interesting.”

“It is concerning,” a voice interjected. “These people have gods who walk about unrestrained and unfiltered.”