She was being ridiculous, Ling Qi knew. She had rushed down here only to falter at the finish. She could do this. Ling Qi wasn’t so awkward and lacking in social grace that she couldn’t even greet her mother in public without causing a scene.

  Besides, as much as she might like to hug Mother, looking at her now, mortal and frail, Ling Qi was pretty sure that she wouldn’t want to do anything too sudden anyway. So with that in mind, Ling Qi took a deep breath, composed herself, and resumed walking forward. The two guards watching the street noticed her approach, to their credit, briefly tensing, but then seemed to recognize her. When the two men clapped their fists together and bowed, it drew the notice of the others, including Mother.

  She almost paused at the sudden attention and the shows of respect from men years older than her, but then she focused back on her mother. Ling Qi saw the alarm and fear in the older woman’s eyes, and the obvious tension in her muscles as her mother prepared to kowtow. It might have hurt a little, but Ling Qi was sure that she wouldn’t have recognized herself either.

  “Mother, it’s so good to see you again!” she called as cheerily as she could sweeping past the bowing guards.

  Her mother’s previous alarm dissolved into confused disbelief as the older woman froze in the middle of bowing her head. Ling Qi could practically read her thought process as her eyes flicked back and forth, searching for anyone else who Ling Qi’s words could have referred to. Of course, her mother composed herself quickly, but it made Ling Qi even more aware of how much her senses had changed.

  “Ling Qi?” Mother asked, daring to raise her eyes slightly. Her words were quiet and hesitant.

  Ling Qi wasn’t surprised that Mother was so worried about giving offense. As far as Ling Qi knew, her mother’s only experience with cultivators were those rough types that had made use of the establishment she had worked at.

  “I know I’ve changed quite a lot,” Ling Qi replied instead as she came to a stop in front of the older woman, her gown swaying in the phantom breeze. “But please raise your head,” she added more quietly. She hesitated then reached out to take one of Mother’s worn hands in her own.

  Finally, her mother straightened enough to look up and meet her eyes, and although there was still a mix of emotion there, Ling Qi could see the recognition as well.

  “Ling Qi,” the older woman breathed for a second time. “You are truly……”


  “Momma?” Ling Qi’s attention was drawn downward as a much younger voice spoke up. Looking down, she saw the little girl half-hidden behind her mother looking up at her with wide eyes. “Is that a fairy?” Her grammar and pronunciation was still childish and poorly enunciated but in a way Ling Qi found cute.

  Ling Qingge glanced helplessly at the girl, a shadow of her worry still present, but Ling Qi just smiled, and after a moment, her Mother smiled back, even if the expression was a wan thing. It seemed to help that introducing her younger daughter seemed to give her mother something concrete to fall back on. “Biyu, this is your elder sister, Ling Qi.”


  Ling Qi reluctantly released her mother’s hand in favor of lowering herself into a crouch to meet the younger girl eye-to-eye. “Hello, Little Sister. I’m sorry we haven’t met before,” she said lightly, glancing back up to meet Mother’s eyes. There was more than one layer to that apology.

  Biyu blinked, shuffling a step away from Mother to look at her more closely, her lips turning down in a childish frown. “Pretty sister,” she said, proclaiming her judgement. “Will Biyu sparkle?”


  She was never going to hear the end of that, was she?

  “Maybe someday,” Ling Qi said, patting the little girl on the head with as featherlight of a touch as she could manage. She stood up again, meeting her mother’s eyes. “Why don’t we go inside? There is no reason for us to all stand outside in the sun while the guards take care of the luggage.”


  “If it will not be any trouble,” her mother hedged, glancing at the guards. The guards appeared to be studiously not paying direct attention to them. There were few curious civilian stragglers and at least one Outer Disciple though. “I do not wish to impose on anyone.” The words seemed almost mechanical, a rote response often repeated.

  Ling Qi looked to her right, meeting the eyes of one of the two men directly guarding her mother. The guards were both mid second realm with more potent qi than similarly ranked disciples she knew. She supposed that was the benefit of experience. The rest of the entourage was still taking care of the carriage and luggage. “It will not be any trouble, right?”


  The man bowed carefully, one hand clasped in the other. “Of course not, Lady Ling. We will stand guard wherever you have need of us.”


  Ling Qi pretended not to notice the flicker in Mother’s eyes. It seemed that she was still having a rough time processing the situation.

  “I know a nice little teahouse only a few streets from here. I think you deserve time to relax after such a trying journey, Mother.” With the better part of a week stuck in a small area with a child of Biyu’s age, Ling Qi did not feel that she was exaggerating.

  “.…… Of course. Thank you very much, Ling Qi,” her mother replied with a hesitant smile. Ling Qi hoped a soft, mellow blend would help calm her nerves.

  Cai was already getting to her, wasn’t she?

  Acquiring a private room at the nearby establishment was the easy part, Ling Qi mused. Figuring out how to talk to Mother again was much harder, even once they had left the guards to stand outside the door. Mother seemed as unsure as she was, and Ling Qi did not miss the glances the older woman stole at her now and then in what was probably the closest the older woman could really come to fidgeting.

  Biyu was the only one not particularly affected by the atmosphere, quickly distracted by the flowering plants and silk painting decorating the room’s walls.

  “There’s nothing dangerous in here,” Ling Qi said, noticing her mother about to call Biyu back. It would take more than a three year old mortal girl to damage anything in a room meant for cultivators.

  “As you say,” Mother said quietly. The instinctive air of submission her mother gave off irked her, but the feeling wasn’t directed at the woman beside her. “Ling Qi, I do not-”


  Whatever she was going to say was cut off as Ling Qi wrapped the shorter woman in a hug. Ling Qi was careful; she was never more aware of the power her cultivation granted her than in this moment with her arms wrapped around a woman who was no more durable than a bundle of sticks to her. “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said softly.

  Ling Qingge had stiffened in alarm at first, but those words seemed to erase her tension. After a moment, Ling Qi felt her mother return her embrace.

  “Foolish girl. What have you to apologize for?” Ling Qingge’s voice was choked and uneven with emotion.

  “Not appreciating the things you did for me. Leaving you alone,” Ling Qi said, closing her eyes. It seemed so obvious in hindsight. Teaching her to read and to comport herself as a lady were not the actions of an uncaring parent. Even Mother’s fretting over Ling Qi’s feminine lackings was hardly unreasonable in that light.

  “I did little enough, and you have grown beyond my every expectation,” her mother replied, defeated, leaving unsaid the fact that Ling Qi had done it almost entirely without her. “Your choice was the right one. I could not have-”


  “Maybe not, but you would have tried,” Ling Qi interrupted, reluctantly letting go of Mother. “And I appreciate that now.” She glanced over to Biyu, but the little girl was busily peering between the fronds of the potted plant in the far corner. “Let me be the one to do so now.”


  Ling Qingge sighed, stepping back from their embrace, a touch of moisture at the corner of her eyes. “Have I truly grown so old already?” she asked, a touch of real humor in her voice. “That I must give myself over to my daughter’s care?”


  “Of course not,” Ling Qi replied with a smile. “Your daughter merely wishes to share her great fortune.”


  There was a faint knock at the door then, in the style Ling Qi recognized as the attendant arriving to take their order. “Let’s sit down. We have quite a lot to talk about.”


  After they had given their order, Ling Qi began to explain her experience over the past months in more detail and her situation as things stood now as a retainer to Cai Renxiang. She paused only for as long as it took their attendant to lay out the tea and leave.

  “Such things are difficult to comprehend,” Ling Qingge said, looking down at her cup, after Ling Qi finally fell silent. Biyu had since fallen asleep on the padded bench that lined the wall, the fatigue from the trip catching up to her. “That you would speak directly to the heiress of such an exalted house, let alone be recruited by her…… You must excuse me. Such things are beyond my experience.”


  Ling Qi was glad that she had not referenced Bai Meizhen or their interpersonal troubles. Her mother was too young to have heart troubles yet. “I did notice that you had some knowledge of nobility,” Ling Qi inquired carefully. “You have not said as such directly, but……”


  Her mother’s expression grew more tired, but she nodded without looking up. Ling Qi hoped that Mother could unlearn that habit one day. “It is a long tale, but you deserve to know of such matters. I cannot rightly consider you a child any longer.”


  “There is no need to get into painful details, Mother,” Ling Qi replied. She didn’t want to burden the older woman even more on her first day. They had plenty of time to talk.

  “I will spare such things,” Ling Qingge said. She sipped quietly from the cup in her hands as she considered her words before finally raising her eyes. “I was born under the name He,” she began. “They were no family of import, just one of the many servant clans beneath the Liu family that governs Tonghou and the surrounding regions.”


  Ling Qi nodded. That explained why her mother would have the education she clearly did. Bigger clans usually had a bunch of unranked mortal and common cultivator clans beneath them to take care of the day-to-day minutiae, or so she was learning as she slowly got to grips with the details of her new position. “Were any of them cultivators?”


  “A bare handful, but I was never considered for such things,” Ling Qingge replied, shaking her head. “So I was not educated in such matters. I will not bore you by speaking of that life, but one day I caught the attention of a young master of the Liu. My father was overjoyed of course and quickly began moving to have me recognized as a concubine. Being a foolish, rebellious girl…… I ran.” Mother met her eyes then, a slightly bitter smile on her lips. “You see why I could not be angry at you, Ling Qi?”


  “I suppose so,” Ling Qi said, glancing away uncomfortably. “If I may ask, what happened?”


  “I lived freely for a few months,” her mother replied wistfully. “I made questionable choices. I do not regret you, Ling Qi, but some of the decisions involved were not my best.” She shook her head, her eyes dropping back to the tabletop. “I could not escape notice forever though. My father expelled me from the family in the hopes of limiting the Liu clan’s retaliation to myself rather than the He clan as a whole. I suppose he succeeded; I did not hear of punishment falling upon the He, and the man who had wanted me was satisfied with ensuring that the only occupation I could find was the one which he felt I deserved.”


  Ah, her teacup had frozen; she would have to apologize to the owner, Ling Qi thought absently. Thankfully, the effect had been localized so Mother hadn’t been disturbed. One thing stood out to her though, an opening to a question she had never really considered before beyond assuming the answer to be one of her mother’s clients. “If I may ask, Mother, you said that I came before……”


  “Your father was an entertainer from the south who came to the city with a trade caravan,” Ling Qingge answered, understanding her question immediately. “He promised me that he would help me leave the city,” she continued, closing her eyes. “A lie of course. He vanished the day before my father found me. Let that be a lesson, Ling Qi, to not accept the promises of men without assurances.”


  Ling Qi sighed. She hadn’t expected anything happy, but it was a little depressing. “It doesn’t matter now,” she said firmly. You are my mother. Anyone who wants to cause you trouble will have to go through me,” she continued with confidence. That was one benefit of Cai Renxiang’s patronage. Ling Qi doubted such a small grudge would be worth crossing that line for a viscount family.

  For them, anyway. Ling Qi wasn’t sure how she felt yet.

  Mother seemed less sure, but she accepted Ling Qi’s word with an acknowledging dip of her head. Their conversation turned to lighter things after that, avoiding more serious topics. By the time they left the teahouse, more than an hour had passed, and Biyu had stirred from her nap, full of energy once more.

  Ling Qi escorted her mother to the house the Sect had arranged for them, a tasteful three floor building with a large garden and a couple of servants to take care of things. After looking over the defensive formations and giving the guards a quick review, Ling Qi left, promising that she would return to help Mother finish arranging furniture and belongings the following day.

  Ling Qi felt lighter than she had in some time.

  Threads 170-Emissary 5

  At least Gan Guangli seemed to be getting along with them.

  “While I stand by my word. I will not deny your dedication to excellence,” the foreign man rumbled as he stood up, flexing his hand.

  “I apologize for my earlier words, Sir Ostrik. They were spoken in ignorance,” Gan Guangli said. Standing as well, he bowed his head.

  “Youthful impetuousness, I am well acquainted with it,” the older man said, waving off his apology. “But we have guests! My apologies for not noticing your entry, Emissary!”


  Ling Qi felt a faint stirring of her old nervousness as all the eyes in the room turned to her. She put aside her discomfort and offered a small bow. “Please do not mind me. I was just hoping to check on my companion and view your shrine.”


  The man, Ostrik, gave her a toothy grin and spread his arms wide. “Be welcome then, though it is but a humble place we have built, so far into the wilderness we are.”


  “Your carvers and painters have certainly done amazing work,” Ling Qi complimented. The faces carved upon the pillars seemed almost alive looking down on her.

  Sixiang murmured.

  “But please, let me introduce myself. I am Ling Qi, and this is my junior sister, Hanyi,” Ling Qi said politely. “And Zhengui, my brother, is on my right.”


  “I am Ostrik the Sunsoul, keeper of this little place. Be welcome, Lingchee of Tsai,” the man boomed. He waved his hand, scattering the lesser priests back to their duties. Gan Guangli followed him as he came around the well. His gaze turned down to her companions, and for once, his expression didn’t fall or change as he stopped in front of them. Ling Qi blinked as he knelt down, reaching under his mantle to rummage for something.

  His hand emerged holding a faintly glowing object. At first, Ling Qi thought it was a spirit stone, but the qi was not right for that. In fact, it looked almost like a sugar candy. He extended his hand to Hanyi and smiled kindly. “Hello there, young miss. I’ve heard good things about you. Do you think you would care for a treat?”


  “I’m not some kind of baby,” Hanyi huffed, but she glanced up at Ling Qi. “I guess I’m a little hungry though.”


  Ling Qi met Ostrik’s gaze and gave a little nod.

  “I, Zhen, hope that Sir Sunsoul is not going to be stingy,” Zhen hissed.

  Ostrik blinked. “What an odd little god to speak like a man, but let none say that I am ungenerous.” Two more candies were flicked out and caught in two mouths. Both of Zhengui’s heads hummed in happiness.

  Ostrik dusted off his trousers as he rose back to his full height, towering near a full head over even Ling Qi. “I apologize if I might have overstepped myself, Emissary, but I know it can be difficult to care for children.”


  “I do not mind,” Ling Qi said slowly, watching Hanyi. She was rolling the candy around in her mouth. Her eyebrows were scrunched together, and she seemed intensely focused on the flavor. “What was the contest between you and my companion about?”


  “I spoke too quickly,” Gan Guangli explained, dipping his head. “I still find it strange that you would disdain martial valor so, Sir Ostrik, when you are clearly a man of great might.”


  “It is not a matter of disdaining valour,” Ostrick grunted. “A man should not raise his hands against his fellow man, save in friendly sport.”


  “If you do not mind my asking, why is that?” Ling Qi asked. It seemed that what she and Meng Dan had learned from the letters was accurate at least.

  The foreign man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, considering her for a long moment before gesturing to the columns. He spoke in a clear, rolling voice that commanded attention. “It is as you see around you. The three aspects of the sun are the three aspects of men: joyous, inspirational Koliada, Lord of the Dawn; raging, mercurial Perkunas, the Stormbringer; and the wise, mysterious Crowfather, who walks beyond the Gates. A man who raises his hands to other men has allowed Perkunas to master him, giving in to his natural tempestuousness and rage. Such a man cannot stand among the suntouched for he is open to the whispers of the Outer Night.”


  Gan Guangli frowned during the speech, but she got the impression that he had already heard it. “I am not inclined to agree. Discipline and martial practice go hand in hand.”


  “It is good then that you speak to a man as radical as I and my comrades,” Osrik said in amusement. “Some of my crustier colleagues regard even sport as too much. But you held up against me in Koliada’s light, so let us argue no more. Perhaps in your strange, northern lands where the Night is weak and the Sun is ascendant, things are different.”


  “I will say no more on the matter, Sir Ostrick,” Gan Guangli said. “I must say, I was expecting you to defeat me more easily given your power.”


  Ostrik’s thick eyebrows rose. “Under the light, such contests are not a matter of strength, but spirit and discipline.”


  Ling Qi had been wondering about that. Ostrik seemed like he was at the peak of the third realm, although she was unsure how accurate her senses were among these people. Still, it was a good thing to know that these people differed from their more southerly peers. Something to note for her report.

  “Is that how you come to accept the men of the cloud tribes?” Ling Qi asked, drawing his attention back.

  Ostrik’s lips briefly twitched into a grimace. “Yes, it is a hard thing, but they are not quite men as we are, yes? Their beast souls protect them from the whispers of Night. They cannot be suntouched, but their ways do no harm, so far from the Gates.”


  He must be referring to the cloud tribes’ cultivation method where they bonded with their mounts to the point of combining cultivation.

  “Let me ask you a question in turn, Emissary,” Ostrik said. “Could you explain to me this business with you and these children? The being behind your eyes is certainly the sign of your pact, as your husband’s sun shadow is, but I do not understand what I feel between you.”


  She and Gan Guangli shared a look, and Ling Qi grimaced. “Ah, that is another misunderstanding. There are no marriages among our group.”


  Sixiang stifled a chuckle in her head.

  Ostrik blinked, a look of mild surprise crossing his features. “Are you seeking to seal a marriage alliance then? That seems hasty for a first meeting.”


  “No, we are not,” Gan Guangli said a little too quickly.

  “We are not,” Ling Qi agreed.

  Ostrik shook his head. He seemed a little disapproving in the look he gave Gan Guangli now. “Well, regardless, you haven’t answered my question, Emissary.”


  “It is difficult to explain quickly,” Ling Qi said, looking down to Zhengui, who was now peering around curiously at the room. Zhen seemed a little hypnotized, staring into the light radiating from the amber at the center of the chamber. “Under the imperial methods, a cultivator”—seeing Ostrik's incomprehension of the word, she corrected herself—“a person of power can choose to join their qi with a spirit or beast. The spirit or beast provides strength and companionship to the person, and the person offers the spirit or beast new avenues of growth.”


  “So it is like the bonds of the cloud folk, but less deep and permanent,” Ostrik mused, combing his fingers through his beard. “Yes, I suppose that makes some sense.”


  Ling Qi pressed her lips into a thin line. It really wasn’t the same at all.

  Sixiang chided.

  Maybe, Ling Qi allowed grudgingly. It wasn’t worth arguing over.

  “Hey, Mister Ostrik, do you have another one of those candies?” Hanyi piped up from her side, smiling sweetly.

  The foreigner let out a chuff of laughter and reached under his mantle to procure another. “Only one more, young miss. You’ll get yourself sick otherwise.”


  “Thank you!” Hanyi chirped, all but snatching it out of his hand.

  It was amazing how fast that girl’s mood could turn around. “Well, thank you for your time and kindness, sir. Will you be staying a while, Gan Guangli?”


  “I think I should like to,” Gan Guangli said. “If Sir Ostrik would allow it, I would enjoy conversing further on our differences and similarities.”


  “I can free the afternoon, particularly for a young man in so much danger given the sensitivity of all this,” Ostrik said primly. “Better you stay with me than find yourself in the barracks.”


  Ling Qi coughed. The implication was bizarre. The foreigner sounded like a scolding grandmother. Gan Guangli’s expression screwed up in disbelief as well.

  “Well,” Ling Qi said a touch too loudly, “I meant to ask, Sir Ostrik, is there a place like this for those of my type? If I am to speak in the role I have been labeled as, I think I should understand your customs better.”


  The sun priests were interesting, and she had definitely learned more about how these people organized themselves socially, no matter how strange it was, but she still needed to learn what the title they assigned her meant.

  Ostrik looked thoughtful as he nodded. “I suppose so. You’ll find the shrine of winter, the lesser one at least, further along this hall here.” He gestured to the entrance on the far wall. He gave her a series of directions, and with a final bow, Ling Qi parted ways, leaving Gan to his discussion on the nature of the Sun with the older man.

  The path she took was not a long one, though it took many turns. This place, Ling Qi decided, would be a nightmare to invade with peer forces. She trailed her fingers along the wall and found herself unable to press through the dense, qi-rich iron. It was like trying to push through another cultivator.

  As she drew closer to the shrine, the painted sky overhead began to burst into the rich colors of sunset and then faded into black. With every step she took, the light dimmed. Had she been a mortal still, it would have been pitch black by the time the passage opened into a tall cylindrical room with a domed roof.

  Arranged around the room, she saw three statues of iron, their heads near the ceiling some five meters up. On the left was a young woman in rich furred regalia. A spiked crown similar to what Jaromila had worn in battle rested on her head. A scepter was clasped in her right hand and raised toward the roof, and her left hand clasped a sparkling orb of crystal to her chest.

  In the center was a mature woman, whose hands held weapons of gleaming blue ice, a pair of axes raised over her head. The mature woman’s expression was a defiant snarl, and her hair hung loose and wild about her shoulders. Scandalously, the woman was garbed in only the hide and fur of some unidentifiable beast, wrapped around her shoulders like the cloak. The rest of her body was wholly bare and rendered in uncomfortable detail.

  On the right was a crone. Hideous, with sagging jowls, a pointed chin, a bulbous nose, and wild straw-like hair, the crone bent over a table and held a mortar and pestle in her hands. She was garbed in shapeless robes and furs, and her expression was a snaggle-toothed smile exposing crooked fangs. A necklace of human skulls hung about her neck.

  For a long moment, Ling Qi’s gaze lingered on the crone. Something in the cold iron visage resonated with the chilling note of silence and endings which she had cultivated in the form of the Frozen Soul Serenade and the Starless Night’s Reflection arts. More than that, there was something lonely there in the hunched shoulders and shadowed, wrinkle-lined face.

  Ling Qi felt Hanyi squeeze her hand then. She glanced down at Hanyi, and the spirit looked back curiously. “Why’d we stop, Big Sister?”


  “It’s nothing,” Ling Qi said quietly. It seemed disrespectful to speak loudly in this place. “Let’s take a look.”