Threads 361 Maps 2

They parted ways after that, making their way back to their places at the table, Rostam and Inzha to their side and her to Renxiang.

“Any further complications?” her liege asked. “I have been informed of the Luo promise.”

“We will need to push for more sharing of formation and cultivation basics for better infrastructure cooperation next week,” Ling Qi whispered. “I believe there are no remaining obstacles to the legal phase though.”

Renxiang gave a shallow nod, turning her head back toward the table. “Very good. Then let us proceed, and lay this first stone.”

Cai Renxiang spoke up, calling the others to attention. “Lords and ladies of the Emerald Seas, agents of the imperial throne, worthies of the Polar Nation, I hereby call the summit back to order. These deliberations have been most fruitful despite their brevity. The time has come to take what we have discussed and lay down the foundational document which will guide our efforts to establish an equitable system of conflict resolution between our people. I am certain there will be much to add to what we lay down here today in the years that follow, but your wisdom today will inform and guide it. Let us begin the drafting process…”

She was glad that Renxiang could be so passionate about this kind of thing, Ling Qi thought. She cast her gaze over everyone gathered. It wasn’t merely her imagination that there was something in the air now, the beginnings of a treaty.

Letting her senses peer over the veil loosely into the liminal realm beyond, Ling Qi could see that the hall and the groaning chaos of the valley had somewhat settled. The twisted caricature of it with its patchwork construction and shifting foundations was a little less ugly. It shook a little less, and it creaked a little less.

And that extended here to the physical realm. The Polar Nation held a united front, the creaking cliff of a glacier grinding down a mountain before it. There were knots of conflict in it, cracks in the ice and clashing wills, but it was steady in its primary purpose.

Her own people were less united, a mixed grove of trees, grasping roots fighting for the most nutritious soil, branches straining to steal the light from their neighbors. They were too busy, too disinterested, or too occupied to strangle the saplings sneakily growing in the light let in by the narrow break in the canopy. Yet for all the knife fighting among themselves, she thought there was a growing notion that this whole endeavor had real value.

For both good and ill.

Even the old watchman, glaring from behind his mask, had settled now, if not in acceptance, then at least grudging resignation.

She looked at all of this, feeling the flow of information and seeing it in a way she could not before, treaties as binding chains and tensions as splinters and thorns and chips of frigid ice. It was not what the prime minister had shown her back at the tournament, that crushing, all-consuming empathy, but instead, it was a vision of egos and grudges that she could perceive and endure.

“Four judges with a majority of three are required to pass a judgment upon a case, ensuring that some consensus must always be found. Three such panels will be rotated in and out of the embassy to ensure that there is always availability,” she heard Cai Renxiang say. “Housing will be constructed here, commensurate with what is needed for such worthy experts and their staff.”

The first seeds of a joint settlement would be planted here, a reason for both nations to have a fixed presence.

Cai Renxiang continued. “The establishment of an investigatory force with a similarly mixed staff headed by a pair of experts, one of each of our nations, with authority to investigate claims along the borders will be discussed in the following week’s negotiations. These experts will act under the command of my mother’s court through our magistrates on site and the polar althing through your magistrates. Their duties shall include…”

Ling Qi’s eyes fell on Meng Dan and his uncle. There was discomfort there. Animosity wafted in the air between Cao Chun and the older Meng, and anxiety radiated from Meng Dan, for all that his smile never wavered. She would have to talk to them, too.

Their ducal watchers would become involved next week with the need for the Sun’s input on border negotiations. Zheng Fu was diffuse in her vision, as difficult to grasp as a cloud of mist, but he was unhappy or fretful over a failure. Sun Liling and Bai Meizhen were very similar in their aloof boredom, though she would certainly never say that to either. In contrast, Xuan Shi was full of eagerness, scribbling away in his book. He had a meeting scheduled with a member of the White Sky, the first of them, for soon after this day’s conference.

“The decisions of the judicial panels will be backed by the will of the Duchess Cai and the authorities of the White Sky, and its punishments will be enforced with the full extent of their authority. Neither polity will shield its members from justice as decided here. So shall be sworn in the oaths establishing the court…”

Experts began to speak up, pairs of lawmakers and clerks, establishing a handful of foundational legal codes which everyone had agreed on. Land ownership, life, and cultivation were the basic subjects. Codes and categories of offense were laid out. It was still only the beginning with precedent and law to be built on over time, but there were clear mechanisms for addition or removal of items from the foundational document.

Said document took shape as everyone spoke, written in alternating sections, elegant imperial characters beside the harsher strokes of polar runes. Right now, it was only paper, but later, it would be carved into iron and jade tablets in the courthouse when it was constructed. Although densely written, it was perfectly legible, laid down by skilled scribes and scrutinized a dozen times over for any discrepancy as it was passed around the table. Finally, it was done. The text seemingly took up only a single sheet of the finest paper, but the text scrolled through dense contents under a reader’s glance.

Everyone stood as it was finished, the arrangements shuffling as Jaromila and Cai Renxiang came together in the center with their entourages. The document was laid out before them with a small blank space at its bottom awaiting them.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.

“Let this seal mark the beginning of our peoples’ cooperation, the first sign of oaths to be sworn upon the success of this summit,” Jaromila proclaimed, straight-backed with metallic flecks glittering in her eyes. Her voice held an authority beyond her cultivation as she was given an iron seal by the priestesses surrounding her. Its press left the impression in dark blue of a rune that Ling Qi recognized as being the symbol of the White Sky as a whole.

“Let this signing mark the truth that law is the foundation of civilization, that in its understanding, the sword may be set aside,” Cai Renxiang declared gravely. The brush held in her hand was mundane, but the ink she set it in, the container held by Ling Qi, was more potent, a deep crimson that glittered with wavering lines of other colors and thrummed with the tiniest breath of the power that shone out of the eyes of the duchess. The character of Cai was laid down in neat, perfect strokes beside the seal of the White Sky.

The liminal chaos settled just a little more.

Cai Renxiang and Jaromila turned, first bowing to one another and then clasping arms. A quiet susurrus of noise broke out among the observers, discussing the finalization of the legal agreements.

Ling Qi let out a quiet, relieved breath. The first step had been achieved. The small part of her that worried if this was even possible, if they had far overreached themselves, quieted. They were succeeding. And they would find success here.

She would not accept any other result.

***

The days that followed were spent in small negotiations, arguing over details until it felt like her head was pounding, but in the end, it was still only the beginning of the summit.