Threads 348-Clan 3

Planning this celebration was so far from the stresses of the summit that Ling Qi could not help but feel lighter as she drifted through the days. What was a brief conversation with a sect official compared to dealing with the Ministry of Integrity, the foreigners, and the many, many observers? What was some brief instruction to a pair of first realm outer sect disciples given the run of the kitchen compared to searching for a conspiracy to sabotage their efforts?

Mother came through as well. A handful of wait staff from one of the town’s roadhouses were put on retainer to make sure no one in the household had any duties during the feast. As days passed, she cultivated with her mother, played with Biyu, and cultivated with Zhengui to shape the garden.

Even with everyone gathered, families and all, the Ling wasn’t a huge household. It was enough to put out a single long table in the center of the garden under a silk pavilion. There was a second table at the head, a small one just for Ling Qi, her mother, her spirits, and her sister. The successful cultivators and their family would be seated with honor at the end of the larger table near to them, but they would still be among the others.

“It feels weird, finding out about the heavy stuff way later.” Sixiang sighed, leaning on her shoulder.

It was the last day now, and the sun was beginning its descent. The disciples were working away in the kitchens, and the hired staff were on standby. Everything was ready for the gathering.

“I think I’m glad to be able to contemplate by myself. I still want to know your thoughts, but it feels better to tell you about them,” Ling Qi said. Her hands were folded in her sleeves. Waiting out in the garden while mother took care of the last bits of organization made her feel useless, but she could tell mother preferred to be the one handling the people herding, as it were.

“Yeah, I get it.” Sixiang straightened up, walking backwards away from her to hop up and seat themselves on the smaller table. She’d scold them, but it wasn’t as if their body was anything but bent light and diffuse qi. “I don’t know if I agree. I can see how you could find freedom in a system, but…”

“I don’t know if freedom is the correct word, but without some kind of organizing principle, the only freedom that can exist is the freedom of the fist.”

“Ugh. ‘Organizing principle.’ That Cai really has corrupted you!” Sixiang made a face. “In the end, any kind of system has to be enforced. So, does it really matter how many pretty veils you put the fists behind?”

“I think it does. To do whatever you wish without constraints… That’s the fantasy of a child or a monster.”

“Or a nightmare,” Sixiang quipped. “I’d say that I still don’t care much for collars, but it’s not like I resisted sliding into yours very much.”

She gave them a flat look. Siiang held up their hands.

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean it that way. Just, ugh, being attached to others is hard.”

“It is.” Ling Qi looked down at her hand, opening and closing it. Wind sent the tablecloth fluttering and the flowers swaying. She could still feel the qi trying to trickle through. The spiritual impurity that had congealed there was starting to crack. “I don’t regret it though. Maybe I’d be safer or more free, whatever that means, if I’d stayed the same, but I won’t give up what I’ve made mine.”

Sixiang huffed. “You still gotta bend your words around and make yourself sound like a bad guy, huh?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You count, too. You call me gloomy, but I’ve stopped you from dissolving twice now.”

Sixiang stuck out their tongue. They changed the topic. “What’s the plan here anyway? You going to just give a big speech and then let everyone eat?”

“Well, I’ll be greeting the families first. I want to speak with each of them one on one, or at least speak to the ones who are old enough to make it meaningful.”

“And then the speech?”

“Yes.”

***

The sun was low in the sky, splashing colors across it by the time the feast was ready. At the entrance to the gardens, Ling Qi stood alone as their household began to emerge. Zhengui was back in the garden, grown to a larger but still manageable size, his shell towering over the end of the table he’d set himself beside. Hanyi and Sixiang were seated just to his right. Mother was seated one seat over with Biyu, leaving the center space for Ling Qi herself. She glanced back to see them chatting, briefly catching her mother’s eyes.

From inside the manor, she could practically feel the low level anxiety wafting off the household members. They would be dressed up in their best, in robes and gowns all finer than anything they would have had in their lives before, but still quite plain by the standards of what Ling Qi had grown used to being around. As a soft bell was rung by one of the hired servers in the garden, the first of them began to emerge.

Out in the front was the Min family. The older woman, Min Hua, was Biyu’s nanny, and she knew the woman was her mother’s close friend. Having spoken more to her mother about life in Tonghou, she was grateful to the woman for helping her mother where she could. Ling Qi was glad her granddaughter had shown talent.

That granddaughter, Min Leidi, walked beside her elderly relative. She was a plain and unobtrusive girl, but she looked like she had tried very hard to clean up, and her hair was tied up in braids and adorned by a circlet of flowers. She was looking out into the garden with wide eyes. Ling Qi had lett her mist out a bit, rolling along the paths, and Sixiang had wrangled together a number of little fairies to drift around as lights, little bundles of qi too simple to cause any trouble with a greater moon spirit around.

“Welcome,” Ling Qi said as they approached. It was easy to let her voice roll out and carry through the garden. “Welcome here to this feast, this celebration of your merit.”

Both of them bowed very low. The young girl spoke up in a choked and nervous voice. “Thank you, Lady Ling. You are very kind. This Min Leidi is only thankful that she might be of some use.”

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“Please raise your heads. You have all been of use. My family is young and small. Though your contributions might have been small, they, like others’, have been valuable. I am sure your future ones will continue to be so.”

“Yes!” the girl said fervently, glancing at her grandmother, who nodded her head as well.

“We will both cherish our duties, whatever they might be,” Min Hua said.

Ling Qi took the opportunity given, observing the girl. “And what duties do you wish for, Min Leidi? Please answer honestly.” The girl was only just awakened, a sparking scrap of qi in her dantian. She did not have much of a qi identity yet nor a clear aura to read. A faint pine scent, a touch of wood ash maybe?

“If it pleases Lady Ling,” the younger girl said, looking up at her with not a little awe. “I tend the gardens and keep the grounds. I would like to continue that, and um, I might like to work with Lord Zhengui to spread his blessings further. I had a little training as a junior priestess before…”

Before a minor social altercation with a wealthier initiate and her own background had seen her kicked from the training, Ling Qi finished silently. She’d gotten the story from her mother.

Ling Qi gave her a small, calm smile. “I see no troubles with that. Zhengui has mentioned you in good terms before. I cannot make permanent arrangements yet, but I understand your wish, and I hope that you will prove equal to the task of grasping it.”