Threads 45-Death 2

Ling Qi looked to her right, following the line of Sixiang’s attention into the lane between rows of stalls. Briefly, her vision was blocked by some passersby, but she soon met a pair of dark amber eyes, and the young man they belonged to immediately stopped.

It took only a moment to place his face, even if she had only met him once. Luo Zhong, one of the clan scions she had met at Cai Renxiang’s parties, looked back at her with an air of mild interest. He stood at ease with his hands in the pockets of his loose robes.

“Sir Luo,” she greeted simply. “Can I help you with something?”

“You have better senses than you have been given credit for,” he said casually. He glanced past her toward her companions. “But perhaps that is a more recent development?”

“Do you know this man, Ling Qi?” Bai Meizhen asked mildly.

“We have met,” Ling Qi replied.

“Do tell,” smirked Xiulan, eyeing the young man up and down.

“My apologies for interrupting your trip, ladies,” Luo Zhong said, offering a polite bow. “I had hoped to speak with Miss Ling, but she has been difficult to find since her return.”

Translation: she had been hermitting it up at home. Ling Qi glanced between her friends then nodded. “We can talk now, if you would like. What’s your concern?”

The Luo scion smiled, and Ling Qi found herself thinking that he was fairly handsome in a rough sort of way. She blamed the thought on Sixiang and the conversation that her friends and she had been having a moment ago. “I have unfortunately not been able to access our Lady Cai. Is it true that the two of you fended off an invasion of our borders?”

She didn’t miss the way his gaze briefly lingered on Meizhen, who drew herself up imperiously. Nor did she miss the attention being directed their way from other passersby. She almost snapped back, but pausing a moment, she felt the fluctuation in Luo Zhong’s qi spreading around them like a pack of canny herding hounds keeping onlookers at bay. He was screening them. Still, she glanced to Meizhen, and cool qi washed out.

“It was nothing so grand,” she replied. “Just a band of criminals with an unusual strength.”

“So that is where you disappeared to,” Xiulan hummed. “You crushed them, I suppose?”

“Yes,” Ling Qi replied, almost faltering for a moment. “Neither Lady Cai nor I were badly hurt, and none of the criminals escaped. There were no casualties beyond the initial attack,” she added, looking back to Luo Zhong.

“I see,” he said thoughtfully. “You are aware that some are grumbling about how insecure the border has become, correct?”

“Opening a few roads hardly affects the security of the wilds,” Meizhen replied coolly.

“I agree,” Ling Qi backed up Meizhen. “And if I may, Sir Luo, certain events surrounding the attack were very… conveniently timed.”

He smirked, showing teeth that were a bit sharper than normal, and gave her an appraising look. “That is quite the implication you have there, Miss Ling. Be careful with how you wield it. It would be disagreeable if the province took a turn for the insular again.”

<He’s not wrong there. Someone could lose a finger on that edge,> Sixiang muttered. <Oh wait, did I say finger? I meant head.>

“It would. Goodness knows how much money would be lost,” Gu Xiulan said, tossing her hair.

“The Luo would survive, but losing the support of the Gu clan’s mines and quarries would be unfortunate indeed,” Luo Zhong agreed easily. “Is your sister well, Gu Xiulan?”

“Elder Sister Yanmei has been quite busy,” Xiulan answered smoothly. “But I believe she is in contact with Father regarding your uncle’s suit.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. Then dipping another bow to the three of them, he continued, “In any case, my apologies for taking up your time, ladies. Thank you for your time and words, Miss Ling.”

“You are welcome,” Ling Qi replied.

“Miss Gu, Miss Bai, I hope you have a good day as well,” he added, straightening up. “And Miss Ling…”

“Yes?” she asked.

“I sometimes get together with others from the east of the province to have a little hunt and discuss matters of the province. If you would like, please feel free to join us as your time allows. Vassals of the Cai should get along after all,” Luo Zhong invited smoothly. “I would be honored by your presence.”

“If time allows,” Ling Qi demurred. If it hadn’t been clear already, it certainly was now. She could no longer stay out of Emerald Seas politics.

Still, she refused to drown in them. As Luo Zhong took her leave, she put his offer out of her mind for now. She was here to shop and to tease and be teased by her friends. “So, Meizhen, I’ve been meaning to ask. What have you been doing with Bao Qingling lately?”

***

Over the next few days, Ling Qi remained immersed in more relaxing things. She attended Li Suyin’s breakthrough celebration, congratulating the girl and complimenting her on her new dress that she and the boy she had been cooperating with had finished. She spent time working with Zhengui and Hanyi and more time at home, playing music for her little sister or cultivating with her mother.

But she knew she did not have all the time in the world to relax. She would be going out with the Sect’s scouting corps for live exercises soon.

Ling Qi began to wish that she had never begun to think about things like this.

“It always would have come up at some point,” Sixiang pointed out, idly kicking their feet in the shimmering dream water.

Ling Qi sighed, looking out over the shore where they sat. It was still a little strange to be so literally enmeshed in her own mind, but it could be relaxing. “If Meizhen is right…”

What did it say about her that she had never really thought of spirit beasts in the same way she thought of people? What did it mean for Zhengui? She called him “little brother,” but was he really only a pet to her?

“I think you’re taking the recrimination too far there,” Sixiang said idly, their wispy rainbow hair drifting in an unfelt breeze as they stopped kicking their feet and turned to look at Zhengui. “People think and dream contradictory things all the time, you know? You definitely think of the big doof like family.”

Ling Qi dipped her head in acknowledgement. She supposed that was what it came down to. A person was different than people. But it still bothered her now that she had been forced to acknowledge it. Did every spirit beast count? Every simple animal? Every bit of quasi-active elemental qi? Were barbarians supposed to be people too? If so, what did that mean for her current conundrum?

The simple fact was that the deaths she had inflicted on the bandits and the renegade Bai had felt different than hunting beasts. It had felt different from attacking that barbarian shaman so long ago. She had imagined killing before, thought darkly of what she would do to some of the people who had hurt her in the streets or more recently, the ones who had abused their power over her mother. The reality had differed and had churned her stomach but if she asked herself if she could still take satisfaction from those fantasies, the answer varied. For most, the idea seemed horrible now, but…

There were still a few that she could picture suffering those same fates and feel nothing but satisfaction for. She had rejected the permanent torment that her mentor inflicted on her treacherous husband, but there were those who deserved to End, ones who, even now, she would freeze the life from with hardly a moment’s hesitation, if things were arranged such that there would be no further consequences.

The Mirror that she had cultivated in her thoughts and accepted into her spirit did not allow her to lie to herself in that. Was she a bad person then?

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I’m still pretty new to the concept, so I can’t help much,” Sixiang said with a helpless shrug. “But… Hmm, death is part of the world too. I think it comes down to the circumstances.”

“You’re probably right,” Ling Qi said with a sigh. “But I don’t know if I should be the one judging that.”