Threads 349 Summit 1

She felt like she was beginning to understand the undercurrent in her contacts. Quiet or fervent, subtle or up front, this feeling was something like what they meant when they said “the Emerald Seas.”

Ling Qi crossed the distance to the head of the table without taking a step, a flicker of shadow and a gust of wind. She didn’t need a dais or a platform. Standing a little off the ground along with her own height was enough.

“Everyone, diligent members of our household, this is truly a happy day. Among you are four who have been blessed by the heavens with opportunity. Among you are four who have great fortune. All of us have known the opposite. We have known ill luck and closed-off opportunities.” Ling Qi loosened her hold on her qi, allowing the mist rolling along the ground to grow thick and her shadow vast and deep. “Not one person here has not known unfairness.”

The whispering voices fell silent as she spoke, all of them looking up at her.

“And that is why we must support each other. Fortune shared is fortune spread. To those who have struck luck, I ask that you all give your support, your admiration, and your joy. For those who receive this, I ask that you give your diligence, your ambition, and your best efforts. In this way, we may strike back at unfairness, if only a little. The trials we have undergone have come from our choices and the choices of other men and women. If I have any command for you, let it be this. Choose better than those who have trampled upon you. Be the support which you have wished for.”

The wind picked up, making the candles on the table gutter.

In the end, even though the thief of winds had been acting for herself, her adventure had changed the world. She had brought new choices and new horizons to many in her strike against the tyranny of the mightiest, those who sought and had ultimate freedom, the ability to do as they willed without restraint. In humbling them and in breaking their hold, the winds had spread across the world.

“Do this, and the Ling clan will always be a place of welcome and a place of plenty. Do this, and though you might not have the power of cultivation yourself, you will always have its aid. And for those who have had heaven’s fortune, never forget this day and these people around you. They are your foundation who will raise you and carry you as you grow. Now, that is enough from me. Eat, drink, and make merry. Tonight, you have no duty but joy and companionship!”

She lowered her hands, sinking into her own seat. She did not let her nerves show. She had felt so foolish making such a grand speech, but people bowed their heads. They showed her respect. It wasn’t the empty smile of those coerced to respect a superior.

<It was good. It was good. This kind of speech is more about the feeling than the words,> Sixiang whispered.

“You did well, Ling Qi,” her mother murmured. “There is a great deal of satisfaction in being acknowledged like this.”

“I certainly hope so. Let’s enjoy the celebration now. I won’t have a chance to relax again for quite a while.”

She was going to have to make a lot more speeches in the future to audiences much less invested. It was freeing to know there were so, so many out there, all affecting outcomes just as much with their choices. It was terrifying thinking of the scope her decisions now affected. But that was the way she had chosen.

The summit loomed.

***

Below the balcony, imperial and foreign workers passed by, the last of the departing work crews returning to their respective camps. Even before splitting to go their own ways on the north-south road, they remained two very distinct groups. However, there was some mingling here and there as translators spoke to each other or as workers simply walked shoulder-to-shoulder with their counterparts on the narrow road.

The Grand Embassy Hall, which she stood in as ministry agents and Polar Nations’ crows swept through their final security checks, was less grand than she would have liked. Much of its interior was sparsely decorated or entirely unadorned. The furnishings were without flair, plain wood or a single color of paint. She felt as though she was reaching the limits of her abilities or overstepping more often these days. She hoped this would not be a trend.

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“Your mind wanders even if your eyes do not.”

The whispery rasp of her mentor Shu Yue’s voice scratched at her ears. She didn’t bother to turn, feeling the looming shadow above and around her and the air grow cool and dry with the cultivator’s presence.

“It does,” Ling Qi said. “I really wish I had been able to begin this last month.”

“Your spirit was not yet settled or ready.” Shu Yue leaned past her shoulder, pale face extending past her on a neck just a little too long as they peered below. “You have opened yourself enough now. Your first fumbling theft has been done.”

Ling Qi had been seeing little flashes of insight since her tribulation. Although they had seemed mostly accidental on her part, she had attempted to deliberately gain insight on Sun Liling recently.

“Does that really count? It’s not an art, just a part of my senses now.”

“Does a martial manual graft new limbs onto its students?” Shu Yue asked. Their head tilted to the side, twisting their neck at an angle that would be deeply uncomfortable, if not fatal, to a mortal. “Your Serenade is part of you, though you might not feel it so yet. It is your voice and breath you are refining. So, too, this, your Thief of Names. It is your eyes and your ears you train. Arts and techniques, these are methods to teach children how to mimic the actions of their elders with more limited and feeble forms. Should you attain higher realms, you will find your every action to be an art or technique.”

Ling Qi considered the way she often moved now, not bothering to walk from place to place unless someone was looking. She recalled the way she instinctively cooled her drinks with a thought or wrapped those close to her in the feeling of her support.