Threads 358-Cornerstone 1

Cao Chun disapproved of her initiative. “I believe you have made an error, baroness.”

The rest of the meeting had gone well. There were a hundred, hundred details on which imperial and polar law differed from inheritance to property to the way civic disputes were resolved. But a framework was grudgingly being hashed out, and precedents to fill the gaps were being produced.

With the day’s session ending, she had headed to the ministry’s operations center. Down in Cao Chun’s office, she stood beside Zheng Fu, and behind Cao Chun was Jin Tae.

“And I believe it is the correct course. Nothing will be gained by our investigations tripping over one another,” Ling Qi rebutted.

“We would not be ‘tripped’ by barbarian efforts,” Cao Chun grumbled. “But it is done. I will simply have to take this into account.”

“Thank you for your understanding, inspector.” She was glad he was not pushing back too hard on this. The relative successfulness of the operation must have put him in a good mood. “But getting to business, may I ask if you have found anything useful with the parasite I have procured?”

“It is both an immensely complex construct and as ephemeral as dew.” Cao Chun clasped his hands together, his brows furrowed deeply. “I would know how you managed to acquire it.”

Thinking of Shu Yue briefly, she met his eyes. Perhaps he could dig it out of her head. He would not.

“On that, I must invoke the right to my personal methods,” Ling Qi demurred.

“And here I thought you were the one encouraging everyone to share,” Jin Tae snipped at her.

“Eh, what’s that? You wanna let me have a look at your pretty formations for a bit?” Zheng Fu laughed. “Come off it.”

Jin Tae said hotly, “I merely…”

Cao Chun held up his hands. “Enough. The privacy of one’s clan techniques will not be infringed. Knowing you have the capability of retrieving such deeply planted objects is enough. The parasite is not constructed to last. Even with your method, it will not remain stable for more than a few days. However, there are signs of its maker to be gleaned.”

“Still Waters Deeping, Archivist of the Reviled,” Ling Qi repeated, letting qi enter the words, echoing the feeling of slime and acrid stagnant water that made them more than mere syllables.

Zheng Fu glanced at her, his eyebrows visibly climbing even under his headscarf.

Cao Chun was more reserved, but he did observe her in silence for a long moment. Jin Tae looked at his mentor and back to her, frowning.

“Those words are part of it. There is more as well, including the time of manufacture, location, and some deeper traces of its maker,” Cao Chun said.

“And what about what you dealt with here, some kinda curse on the soldiers?” Zheng Fu wondered.

“It was a form of artificial disease spirit, deeply implanted,” Cao Chun said. “It would have begun inducing paralysis and causing transformation of flesh into wood. It seems designed to cause panic and suspicion based on a layman’s observation of the polar barbarians’ cultivation methods.”

Xia Ren would not have had any patience for further investigation.

“However, being able to observe and extract the process immediately… There are the same marks as this parasite. And the subject of this is not of their kind.”

“You are certain of that?” Ling Qi asked. “I felt there were some signs of Hui arts, but…”

“It is an aping of them at most. The Hui are dead, but this does not mean their knowledge died with them entirely. It is possible some methods were preserved or… lost.”

He glanced down pointedly. Ling Qi’s eyes widened. With all of the Emerald Seas out for their blood, the old ducal clan had scattered and gone to ground to be hunted down in the proceeding decades. If some had simply kept running…

“I am surprised you would admit that barbarians might co-opt imperial methods.”

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“The beasts underground are truly consummate scavengers. The ministry has begun to sift through their methods, and there is significant danger of technique theft by their foul arts,” Jin Tae explained. “As expected of ghoulish corpse eaters.”

“We have already passed the advisory to the Argent Peak Sect to destroy the bodies of the fallen on site if they cannot be recovered,” Cao Chun followed up. The old man looked like he had bitten into a lemon. “But while this is possible, there is another culprit to be considered.”

“Who?” Zheng Fu asked.

“The Meng, or rather, some rogue within them,” Cao Chun answered. “I am confident that it is not backed by the clan overall, but there are some markers which make me wary, and if there is anywhere in this province where some recollection of Hui arts would have been preserved, it would be the western marshes. Those names you spoke point in that direction.”

Ling Qi crossed her arms. She didn’t want to believe that. She had been making strong inroads with the Meng, and yet…And yet, she knew she was divisive, that the Meng clan was strongly divided internally, and that while she was friend to Meng Diu and those who followed her, that made her the enemy of others in the Meng clan.