Threads 436-Green 5

“We Liiiived long, so long Horizon Blade learned to wield a sword as a writing stick and elder’s cudgel, no matter how it made his hands bleed. Master learned denied acts, weaving, carving, smithing. Soothed, wrapped his wounds. Day by day. Good days. Cold and sick with biting wind and wan sun. But. Good. Good. Good enOugH.”

The repetition was clearly as much for her as them by this point, Ling Qi realized. It was a balm and a talisman against the black rage and hopeless spite which welled up from the beast’s verdant core like an ill suppressed blight surging through her veins.

“But war comes, conflict comes, ruin comes. Master put out their own eyes, and so did not see. Horizon Blade had grown dull and crusted with ink. He fought. So many children/students/disciples. So. So. So MAny. Should have left them to storm wind and bOLt, and gone back to sea and sUN.”

“But Master, Atamai, would not think such ,” Kohatu said lowly. “… No. Kohatu-who-was would not think this. Cloud men came, and war tribe gathered. Dream men ignored the cloud men, gathered no host. Disciples Argent did instead. Joined. Fought. With spear and claw and fire and blade. Fought Fought. When Horizon Blade’s student stood, we fOUght. When his curseblooded bride dug the cruel ritual from her ruined mountain, mASter carved out half their heart with the others. Forged their geas in blood and soul, an oath unbreaking to the cause of one hundred and eight and the young storm. Broken bodies, broken souls, so no StrENGth would be lost while one yet fought. Companions, oathsworn.”

Ling Qi swallowed. These were dangerous secrets. It was known that under the decadent rule of the Hui, it was Yuan He and his companions who had rallied the broken lands of the south against Ogodei and who had taken in the remnants of the cities hurled into the sky, scoured from the earth or dashed against the uncaring mountainsides.

She had seen the memory of a vast funnel of wind ripping a city full of people out of the earth. Against that backdrop, she understood why the elders of the Argent Peak Sect had no patience for mercy. When that terror had still been hanging overhead, she could see how one might turn to even more forbidden means. And what was being alluded to here, rambled on in Kohatu’s broken tones, was certainly that.

“No… Later. Later. When the hopeful sky was crushed, when the reprisals ended, when the clouds came again, and when Master had groWn feeble, they came. Descendants. MaSter’s students, companIOns, oathbearers. Without word, without warning, my master was betrayed and bUTCHerED! I was broken, and Atamai chained!”

Zhengui had already rocketed upward this time, feeling the tremors as she did. Kohatu’s limbs thrashed, broken talons digging furrows in the dusty firmament, and lashing tail bringing down the entire vast cliffside of the canyon she had made in the ruined city.

She couldn’t comprehend a reason for the elders to do this. Maybe she had misjudged Sect Head Yuan, Elder Ying, and all the rest, but even if Kohatu’s master had their ruse discovered, would those people really betray someone they had fought beside like that? Be utterly merciless to the cloud tribes, but this story didn’t feel right. This was not a thought she dared voice before the enraged Kohatu.

“Butchers and oathbreakers, ARRRRRGENT!!!!”

Ling Qi grimaced. A few months ago, that yell might have blown out her ears or worse, but she had grown more resilient in many ways. The raging arguments of sovereigns had a way of strengthening a survivor’s resilience.

“Kohatu!” Zhengui called out. “Green Caller! Remember Zhengui of your roots and Atamai’s fires. There is still much to say!”

Kohatu’s thrashing limbs slowed, her scaly chest pumping like a bellows. Smoke and dust rose, kept at bay only by the whirling wind Ling Qi summoned with her will, preventing the layered city from drowning them in choking ignorance and apathy.

“I do not knoW why. I do not understANd, but I feEl it. TheY want to fORget. I wiLL not be forgoTTen. ATaMai will NoT be ForGottEn. Master SwoRdsOng wiLl not be forgottEn! Never forgoTTen. I will gnaw at the rooTs of their drEams until the eNd of tImE!”

Kohatu’s eyes bored into her.

“And. You. You, who the scent of Argent clings too. Who claims kin. Who my chiLd trusTs so. Who says what treachery will grow? When you will. Need. reagents. When he becomes. Obstacle to PoWer. Green child, flame child, son of ruin and renewal, do not. Do nOT ever trust blood of dRaGoN. Watch. WaTch. WATCH!”

Ling Qi’s hair felt like it might tear from her scalp in the wash of that last scream, but her scowl didn’t waver, and nor did her seating. Those words made the core of frozen cold and lightless dark in her dantian churn, outraged despite the difference in power on display.

“I would never use nor harvest him!” she spat. “I am sorry for your betrayal, but you overstep. Who do you think brought him here in the first place?”

“Kohatu,” Gui said uncertainly.

“ArgGGGenNt say pretty words. MeaninGless lies,” Kohatu hissed. only Horizon Blade true, the rest. Student. Brother. Sister. Disciple. Friend. MeaninGless lies,” Kohatu hissed. “My mind does not folloW such ploYs. Child. Zhengui. You should leave this.”

Ling Qi’s fingers cracked the rest of her train with her grip, and she was on her feet a moment later, standing before the wind of the titan lizards breath. “You so easily call him your child, and your core may have made him, but I am the one who kept and cared for him and I am the one who brought him here. Do you not think I could have had wealth a thousand times over if I wanted, if I were so low a person?!”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Sometimes, in her darker dreams, she wondered how she could have afforded her little brother’s appetite without the patronage of the Cai, but never once had she thought of selling him.

“I brought him here to speak and learn, but I will not take such insults. My brother is mine.”

“Big Sister,” Zhen protested. “Please wait!”

“You protest too much, ArgGent. But I See. You hOlD back. There is a LIE in your voice.”

“STOP!” her little brother yelled, an earthy rumble that erupted as if from something far larger than his current frame.

The two of them fell silent.

“Gui understands how deeply Kohatu feels betrayed, but Gui will not distance himself from Big Sister.”

“I, Zhen will not live with such suspicion corrupting my heart,” Zhen hissed. “Big Sister should not be angry so quick, either. It is strange of you. Why?”

Ling Qi grimaced. “… Her accusations and choice of words frayed my temper. I have no excuse.”

Kohatu let out a low, rattling growl, looking up at them where they soared above her head.