Beautiful black and white hair, split evenly down the middle to highlight and stand out in a crowd. Even more so than the elegant, sultry silk gown that she had bought. Everything about Fushaka was designed to catch the eye and tantalize the mind. And yet, now? She wished she was an inch tall and black as midnight, for it would be only there that she’d be able to avoid the gaze of everyone who was staring. Being lead out of the brothel and across the town square towards the gates by someone so famous was far from what she was expecting in the morning, but Talia always did manage to destroy expectations.

Like the expectation of there being anything outside the town gates, except the farms, shacks and wide open road.

“You walked here?” Fushaka asked, looking around for any kind of cart of carriage.

“I did, Mum flew” Talia replied. It was easy to forget that the upper echelons of the Sects were wild and powerful creatures of Legend, given how rarely these powers were seen or used.

“..Then I need new shoes. These are not designed for hiking” she would lift her feet, showing off the sloped platform clogs she was wearing. Great for a height boost, but terrible for anything more than going to the shops.

Ci would stop, and look at the shoes, pursing her lips for a few seconds.

“They actually look fun to wear. Let’s swap” she would state. It was quite the…shocking comment from a woman who Fu had only heard about in legends until now, but she did so diligently, swapping her platform clogs for Ci’s flat shoes. They were good quality, hugged her feet and comforted her without being too thin to protect her from the ground.

“Good for your toes, aren’t they?” Ci asked, after they took off walking again. The woman was, quite predictably, walking as if she had been wearing them for decades. Even had the subtle swagger of ball-point walking.

“Y…yea. R-eanna wears them all the time. She claims that she can do some rather….improbable things with her toes because of the workout. I’ve never seen it, but her feet are always well washed and she does get a lot of traffic through her room” Fushaka replied, stuttering a little as she felt super awkward about this entire thing, but finding her feet in what she was comfortable with.

“Tell me more~” Talia asked, nudging Fu playfully.

“How am I going to tell you more? I just said I’ve never seen it. Apparently, people go in, she does things with her toes, people leave happily. I wouldn’t even know where to begin describing what you could do with your toes” Fushaka replied, a bit exasperated at the topic but glad to be somewhere she was more comfortable with, conversationally.

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“Well, you just need to imagine her toes as a tongue and extrapolate from there” Talia teased, her voice hot and sultry, though it didn’t get the desired reaction, as Fu just gave her a light wack on the head.

“You are supposed to be enlightened! Pursuit of apotheosis, ascension from the mortal woes. Why are you so lewd?” Fushaka asked, swatting Talia’s head.

“Mmm, that is the public image, isn’t it?” Ci asked, looking to the pair with a gentle smile. “And it is the aspiration. But, often times it doesn’t go like that, be it because we are ultimately human, or simply can’t let go of the ties we have made in life.

We try, and some make headway towards the apex every day. There have been enough successes to know it is possible, but there is also danger in overreaching and having your ideals collapse in on themselves. Those who give up this journey are the ones who populate the Valley Sects. It is the pursuit, the attempt of the idea, that separates the two”

Ci was pretty passionate about this whole thing, and it was nice to see, to know that despite her attempts to ascend beyond mortal concerns, she was still a person.

“And I am an outlier anyway” Talia put in. “Since my other mother is a Valley Sect Matriarch, so I get a life split between the attempt and the acceptance. For now, I am still trying to behave as I should, but every day is a day I may go live with my other mother. But that’s life, is it not? Every day is a choice between the attempt to strive for a new position, and the acceptance of the position you are in. Neither is strictly wrong, because striving for the sky can see you miss the dangers of the Earth. But dreams are always nice to have, always nice to try”

Fushaka was silent for a few moments, and then gave Talia another smack.

“Where is this profound introspection when you came to visit? You always talk like some Ganguro with more dye than brain-cells!” Fushaka exclaimed, her voice heating up again.

“Ohh, like you are one to talk about hair dye?” Talia retorted, catching Fushaka’s hand and giving the woman a twirl to lock her arms against her body and pull her tight to Talia.

“That’s part of my job!” Fu cried, tugging to get free, though it was useless. Despite how she acted, Talia was a Cultivator of a grand Sect, after all…

“Well, now your job is me~” Talia whispered, kissing Fushaka’s lips and neck for a bit before letting her go and skipping to go catch up with Ci. “Now come on! It’s quite the journey to the Sect if you don’t have Qinggong!”

Talia was not joking there, and it took them most of the day to walk out of the countryside and to the Five Peak Mountain where the Sect was located. While not unfit by any imagination, Fushaka had never gone on a cross-country hike and then up some mountain to the lower rung of the Sect. So by the time they did arrive, she was wiped out, and barely knew what was going on around her. She met with some old men, and words were said, she was introduced, and everyone was all very polite. Fu, mostly, just wanted to get something to eat then crash in the nearest bed.

Fortunate for her, that desire was obvious, and she was lead to a dining hall where a simple meal was given, and devoured with much gusto. Finally, completely dead to the world from post-food lethalga, Fu barely made it to the bedroom she was assigned before crashing in her clothes. Surely, this whole thing was just a crazy dream and she would wake up from it in the morning to carry on her daily duties…