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Commission: Phantom Line: Bloodfall 2
🕑 Added 2024-12-08 19:38:42 +0000 UTCBai Meizhen starred the arena below as Ling Qi’s bone-rattling, empty shriek of a finale echoed through the formation arrays which conveyed the sight and sound to the audience boxes… and Sun Liling dissolved into winking lights whisked away by the emergency arrays.
Ling Qi’s head lolled back on her shoulders as she collapsed to her knees, frost, and motes of dust leaking from the fractal cracks that spread from the corners of her lips. Bai Meizhen could almost imagine that those vibrant blue eyes were looking up at her.
She swallowed, her heart fluttered, that same nauseous mix of love and shame that she had grown used to these months coiling around her heart. But the silence in the box was deafening. Bai Meizhen did not, could not dare to turn her head, to look at whatever expression her Aunt was making. The shadows of the enclosed stone box were deep, and the air thrummed with the pressure of a deep lake. The Crystal glass of the windows shuddered.
A fingernail tapped against the wood of an armrest and rang like clashing swords.
“This girl. She was truly only the daughter of a prostitute, untouched by any cultivation?” Bai Suzhen asked softly.
“She was, Aunt Suzhen. It was only drive and… dedication to me, which did this,” she said. Her voice sounded a little hollow to her own ears. She finally dared look up, to meet cold yellow eyes. Blades whispered across her skin, but…
Bai Suzhen’s expression was two parts amused, and one part consideration. “Your stipend would not have supported a second cultivation without stunting your own growth.”
“It would not.” she had considered it. She had come so close to doing so. But if there was anything that would spit in the face of Ling Qi’s resolve, it would be her allowing herself to be too weak to hold up her side of their promise.
She had sparked something equally terrible and wonderful that night by the lakeside. She had thought she understood the loneliness of the other girl, it had warmed her heart, it had drawn her. The purity of her smile had been irresistible.
But she hadn’t truly understood the depth of it.
There was no going back. Not for either of them.
“A talent for raising subordinates is not… common among the White Serpents. But it is a talent all the same, one more vital than many acknowledge,” Bai Suzhen said. The corner of her lip quirked up. “My dear niece… a weaponsmith.”
Those words, meant in praise, filled Bai Meizhen’s heart with an awful bleeding ache.
“This method cannot be used with another unless you break this one,” Bai Suzhen said calmly. “Please keep in mind where that devotion stems. Even I see it cannot be shared.”
“I know,” Bai Meizhen whispered softly. It took all of her will not to curl in on herself. Her Aunt glanced at her, the cruel amusement of their enemy's humiliation fading from her lips. Bai Meizhen swallowed hard. “Does that mean…”
“I will allow it. You have earned some leeway to experiment, by bringing about this humiliation of the Sun, my niece. Making the connection obvious will not only save that girl's life, but ensure your position. I assume she understands how the finals must go?”
“Yes Aunt Suzhen,” She wasn’t sure Ling Qi’s way would allow her to strike Bai Meizhen a defeat even if Ling Qi’s cultivation was twice her own.
“Good. I am proud of you, niece. To strike down a foe while never needing to raise your own hand is also strength.”
***
“There will be blood on the border for this,” Mother said clinically. “After the last round of assassinations, it seemed things had settled for a decade or two. I should inform your father to raise the quotas for the copper mines, pulling workers from the iron I suppose.”
Gu Xiulan gave her Mother a wide-eyed look.
“Likely,” her sister Yanmei said, hands folded in her lap as she looked down. “If the Bai herself had dealt the defeat there would be ramifications, but this humiliation…”
“You think the Sun or the Bai would break the imperial peace for this?” Gu Xiulan asked.
Mother gave her a look that was not quite condescending but was that of a parent whose child had asked something foolish. “No. Their shadow war of assassins and sabotage will increase aggressively. I expect to hear news of settlements on either side of the border falling to beasts and worse.”
“That girl… it is unsettling to see how much she has changed. Are you still in contact, Xiulan?” Yanmei asked.
She looked down at Ling Qi as the medical formations whisked her from the arena as well. Her smile sent a shiver down Gu Xiulan’s spine, making her rub her hands together from the chill. “...We’re cordial but… she’s been fully focused on her cultivation for some time.”
She’d thought she was deeply in love with Han Jian. She had thought that, until she saw the intensity in Ling Qi’s eyes, that determination and obsession.
And then she’d begun going up to the mountain top.
When Han Jian had told her to her face he did not want her, for all the pretty words he tried to dress it in, her heart had blazed up in rage, and she had… almost done something foolish. But the sight of Ling Qi’s face and that smile had stopped her.
She did not want to have such an obsession, that one person's words could make or break her life.
“I do not see why. First-generation talents… they often become like this, if they have ambitions, unless they become dead in the transition,” Ai Xiaoli said. “She is on a track not so dissimilar to yours. If she wishes to be the handmaiden of a serpent, no less could be expected.”
Mother’s eyes turned to the arena, and Gu Xiulan was certain the woman’s eyes softened, for just a moment. “... Xiulan. Thank you for thinking through your actions. Be certain, that your talents are recognized. Your Father and I will ensure you have the resources you need.”
She winced. She had thought of hiding what she had almost done… Yanmei would have let her.
But she had decided she was going to be bold and forthright, to not let herself or others be strung along by hidden emotions.
…She’d been cruel to Fan Yu.
But they had both reached the pinnacle of the second realm by the end of the year. She didn't love him, but there was a man worth something in there. Neither expected to stay there for more than a few months. Even if that witch Wen Ai still rankled her with how smug she’d been in victory.
“Thank you Mother.”
***
“Another foundation stone crumbles,” Sima Jiao snorted, leaning against the rail, lounging performatively... “The Bai are going to be insufferable. The Sun problem is going to explode in the next century, you mark my words.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Xin said quietly, calculations upon calculations spun, there was no path to her result here. Poor Zeqing, her nature had only been reinforced. The strain wasn’t ruinous yet, but the contradiction in her core remained not easily broken. “Well, the alliance between the Bai and Cai will limit the fallout somewhat at least.”
“Will it?” Jiao snorted. Eyes studied her, in shadow and spirit. “There are a dozen failed or discarded schemes for each one which completes. I wouldn’t expect you to be melancholy over it.”
She chuckled, leaning into his side. “Oh, I just had a particularly good feeling about this one.”
He sighed theatrically. “So soft-hearted. I suppose we should break out the good wine for New Year's then, late as it is. Let us both drown our disappointments.”
“I suppose. To next year, and new schemes.”
