Threads Chapter 4

“Breathe in. Breathe out. Feel the flow of the qi pulsing in time with your heartbeat,” Ling Qi repeated soothingly. She sat with her mother on the veranda overlooking the garden behind the home the Sect had provided. The early light of a new day shone over them.

Her mother sat across from Ling Qi, eyes closed, her lined features scrunched in concentration. Faint red light shone from between her fingers, the only sign of the red spirit stone clasped in her hands.

“You can do this,” Ling Qi murmured. “You are doing it. You just need to keep trying.” She could feel qi, tiny shreds of it, sinking into her mother’s almost non-existent aura, and with each one, her mother felt a little bit more solid, a little bit more real, to Ling Qi. She couldn’t lie to herself. Ling Qi was pushing the older woman on this as much for herself as for Ling Qingge’s sake. She knew she didn’t want her mother to disappear again in a mere few decades.

Ling Qi was so focused on encouraging her mother’s efforts that she almost missed the tiny disturbances in the air that indicated that someone else was stirring nearby. Ling Qi glanced to the side as the sliding screen that separated the interior from the veranda slid open a crack.

“Good morning, Biyu,” she said cheerfully, meeting the little girl’s sleepy, curious gaze.

“… Morning, sis-sis,” Biyu mumbled. Her hair was loose, and seeing her in her rumpled sleepwear, it struck Ling Qi again how small and fragile she was, even compared to her mortal mother.

Ling Qi put on a smile and held out her hands. “Come here. It’s still cold, isn’t it? Why are you up so early?” While the temperature was no trouble for her, she could see the goosebumps on the little girl’s arms. The shawl and blankets her mother was wrapped in only made it more obvious.

Biyu nodded and made an agreeing noise, toddling over to plop herself in Ling Qi’s lap. “Lights made the dreams run away,” she said blearily, leaning back against Ling Qi as she wrapped her arms around the little girl.

“Dreams, huh,” Ling Qi said softly. <Sixiang, did you sense anything?> she thought, just a little sharply.

<Just the normal stuff. Nothing malicious,> Sixiang replied in amusement. <Children’s dreams are a nice place for my littlest cousins to get started.>

“It was fun,” Biyu said with a yawn. “It was warm, and there was a river! We were playing…” Her soft features scrunched up in thought. “Um… I don’t remember.”

“That’s fine,” Ling Qi tussled her sister’s hair. “Do you hear dream things when you’re awake, Biyu?”

“Mhm,” the little girl said, nodding her head. “Momma said not to listen to the leafy voices. ‘Cause they’re mean.”

“Mother is right,” Ling Qi agreed. Even if the little spirits of the forest weren’t necessarily malicious, they didn’t have a human’s best interests in mind. “If you ever hear one that’s really mean, even in your dreams, just tell Big Sister, and she’ll beat it up for you.”

<Ling Qi, nightmare puncher,> Sixiang drawled in her head.

Biyu made a cheerful sound of agreement, wiggling a bit in Ling Qi’s lap as she began to wake up more. “Is Momma sleeping?” she asked.

“Mother is practicing,” Ling Qi gently corrected.

“Oh! Can Biyu play with the shiny rocks too?” she asked excitedly, looking up at Ling Qi with a shine in her eyes.

“Not until you’re older,” Ling Qi said with a grin. “Those are grown-up toys.”

The little girl puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, and Ling Qi ruffled her hair. She looked again at her mother. Mother would come out of her fugue soon; the light shining from between her hands was fading.

“You’re doing well,” Ling Qi said as her mother opened her eyes. A brief look at the stone in her mother’s hands showed that it was not yet used up.

Ling Qingge gave her a tired, weak smile. “I am beginning to grow more used to this,” she agreed quietly. She had not objected to being given more stones in some time; Ling Qi was glad that she had worn her down in that regard.

“That’s the spirit,” Ling Qi said cheerfully. “Why don’t we head inside? I asked the housekeeper to put some breakfast on a little bit ago. I bet this one is hungry,” she added, poking her little sister in her pudgy cheek, drawing a giggling protest.

Her mother’s expression was thoughtful, even as she nodded in agreement. Ling Qi stood smoothly and offered her mother a helping hand to do the same as they gathered the blankets and headed inside, preceded by a chattering Biyu.

“Have you settled in well, Ling Qi?” her mother asked as they entered the dining room where three places were set out. It was a simple meal of congee with a sprinkling of rousong and a few strips of fried pastry placed on the side for dipping, along with warmed milk.

It was simple fare, but Ling Qi knew her mother was uncomfortable with the richer sort, and Ling Qi hardly minded. For her, the food was essentially a snack regardless. “Yes, although I don’t intend to stay in one place for long,” she said brightly.

“Ah, that is right. You change homes with your rank. How troublesome that must be,” her mother replied absently as she seated Biyu.

“We only move when we change tiers. It would be too troublesome otherwise,” Ling Qi agreed. “But as I said, I don’t intend to stay in my current tier for long.”

“My daughter is ambitious,” Ling Qingge said, fussing for a moment over Biyu’s disheveled look before silently deciding that it would be better to get her cleaned up and dressed after breakfast.

“I have to keep up after all,” Ling Qi said, thinking of Cai Shenhua’s burning gaze. She held in her shudder, and her family didn’t notice. “How are things in the village?”

“I have made… a few acquaintances at the market,” Ling Qingge replied after a moment of hesitation, smoothing her plain gown as she sat down herself.

“No one to play with,” Biyu grumbled around a mouthful of pastry. “Boys are dumb.”

Ling Qi shot a look of amusement at her little sister. “I’m glad you’re settling in. We’ll be here for a couple years yet.”

The next few moments passed in companionable silence.

“Ling Qi, might I ask of you something?” her mother asked, surprising Ling Qi.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Of course,” Ling Qi replied, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically given the way her little sister looked up from her meal, startled, a spot of congee on her cheek. Even her mother looked taken back. Too enthusiastic indeed.

“I had hoped that you might allow me authority over the household budget. The Argent Peak Sect handles things well, of course, but…”

Ling Qi had left all of that to the Sect staff who had been assigned to the house, wanting her mother to be able to live without worries, but she understood now that having everything taken care of may have been overdoing it. “I will put in notice for it,” she said agreeably. “I didn’t want you to have to work, but I understand.”

“Thank you, Ling Qi,” her mother said tentatively. Biyu returned to her breakfast, losing interest in the conversation again.