Threads 448 Cathedral of Winds 7

“It’s not impossible,” Li Suyin assessed.

Even as she spoke, her wire limbs prodded and examined a wounded water spirit, flesh still charred where her construct’s mancatcher had caught him. The wounded flesh bubbled as the wire sank into it like warm wax. Burned flesh flaked away, and scorched muscle twitched and went taut. Ling Qi grimaced as the spirit shook and cried out. It was clearly not a comfortable procedure.

“But I need the array intact for the installation of the seal, and a wild spirit of such potency… They’re not known for their delicacy with human craft,” Li Suyin continued. “I am seriously concerned that this Piper will break the siphoning talisman.”

“I see. I could cover any cost of damages…”

Li Suyin shook her head. “It’s not about the spirit stones or reagents. The array uses nothing I can’t get from the sect market with some effort. It’s the time and effort. Building and attuning a replacement to lunar qi will take another two months at least.”

The wires released the spirit, who shot away immediately. He clutched his chest and peered at them warily from among the water weeds.

Ling Qi glanced around the cavern, eyes catching on silvery scales. Most had fled, watching them from the darkness of the passages. Thankfully, the flesh of the corpse giant had dissolved into water without the parasite keeping its shell together, so the room was no longer cloudy with gore.

“Could I act as a conductor for the qi to keep the draw controlled? Mediate between the spirit and your craft?”

“That is incredibly risky. Even if the spirit is damaged and weakened, you said it was much more potent than you. You would have no way of compelling it to obey your instructions if it decided to pull more than you and the array could handle.”

“I don’t need to compel it when I can convince it.”

“That’s hardly reliable,” Li Suyin fretted. “You’ve just met the spirit.. You can’t possibly understand its nature well enough to guarantee that.”

“Oh, she definitely has. Whether that’s wise or not, I’m less sure, but Qi’s pretty sure she’s got this,” Sixiang spoke up.

“Just consider what allowing the spirit to restore its influence over the waters will do,” Ling Qi cajoled. “We may not even need the impurity filter, except in the worst locations at that point.”

Li Suyin sighed. “Alright. This is your expedition, after all. I’m only assisting. Let me send a transmission to Su Ling, and tell her she’ll need to adjust the array.”

“I have a good feeling about this,” Ling Qi promised. “Just be polite, and let me do most of the talking when we meet the spirit.”

Li Suyin gave her a dubious look, but nodded, gesturing for Xinghong to follow them as they took the passage upward to the crystal chamber.

It was a good thing she had gotten so well practiced in negotiating with spirits. Li Suyin’s qi did not make the best impression upon the spirit.

The crystal pulsed suspiciously, even as Ling Qi went through the motion of a deep breath beneath her filter mask. “Thank you for your understanding, Spirit of the Song.”

The Piper had not yet indicated what it wanted to be called, and so, she was stuck cycling through titles and feeling for approval or disapproval. It was vexing, even if she could understand the spirit’s position.

“One cannot counter a poison without understanding it. I apologize for any offense my methods have brought,” Li Suyin said with stiff politeness.

“Twister of bone and flesh, the abyss beckons, its use poisons, but here and now, thy presence is accepted. You offer the bounty of silver, guided by winter’s song. To purify, to seal, this bargain is accepted.”

“Then, let us begin the arrangements. I am sure our enemy is not standing idle.”

“It slinks. It gnaws. It musters its dead flesh against me.”

She wondered how a spirit she could frighten away could occupy the attention of something so much more potent than her cultivation. Was it just a matter of nature? Or, perhaps, because its methods befitted a parasite, it was strongest against its own host.

“Very well. I will need to set up three tuning arrays to refocus the flow of lunar qi. Will that be acceptable?” Li Suyin asked.

“Begin.”

And so, they did. Suyin arranged three silver tablets on the walls of the chamber, affixing them to places where the stone was bare, and as she did, she released her constructs: Horse Head and Ox Head, Bear and Boar, and Lion and Wolf, with Xinghong as their commander. While Ling Qi and the Piper drew on and controlled the flow of qi, Suyin would have to handle the defense against the parasite.

Ling Qi could feel the chill in the water growing as yin-aligned qi rippled through the water like a blot of spiritual ink. Deep in the crystal, and all across the dark and polluted caverns, she felt the awareness of the Piper stirring, disparate shards of ego reassembling from their dispersed and defensive slumber. All of them were aligned in the desperate hunger only true starvation could bring.

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“Peace, peace, Spirit of Deeping Caves. I have promised to guide, to keep the stream flowing. Abide, else the bounty be ruined. Trust that I will abide by my own words,” she sang, carrying caution, reassurance, the promise that her words were good.

As she did, she sank back through the veil of the liminal where a torrent of silver whirled down into the hazy, glowing geomantic network that she saw as the Piper on this side of the world. With her song, her hands, and her steps, she took hold of the vortex flooding in and tamed it, making a steady stream of a raging torrent. She was all the more impressed that Li Suyin’s formations could make use of and guide these energies into much more complex patterns, when just keeping it steady tore at her grip.

If the spirit pulled hard enough, she would not be able to keep her control over the qi, so she sang her best reassurance and plea for trust.

The strange crystal entity embedded in the material realm connected to the funneled qi and drank deep. Ling Qi felt her hands tremble and her channels pulse, her skin clammy and cold at the overwhelming depth of yin she held. But just as the Piper drank with tense patience, so, too, did her grip hold.