> He’s equal with the Gods, that man
>
> Who sits across from you,
>
> Face to face, close enough, to sip
>
> Your voice’s sweetness,
>
> And what excites my mind,
>
> Your laughter, glittering. So,
>
> When I see you, for a moment,
>
> My voice goes,
>
> My tongue freezes. Fire,
>
> Delicate fire, in the flesh.
>
> Blind, stunned, the sound
>
> Of thunder, in my ears.
>
> Shivering with sweat, cold
>
> Tremors over the skin,
>
> I turn the colour of dead grass,
>
> And I’m an inch from dying.
Poem, late 7th Century BC, Sappho.
> Though I lay down my head, upon the arms of sleep, it is not with fitful dream, that my mind is wreathed, but instead my heart, in Pasithea's gentle hands is kept, until I wake again, in golden dawn's warm embrace.
Poem, late 3rd Century BC, author unknown, but various sources record they came from Lesbos
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~ RUO HAN — SOUTHERN RIVERLANDS ~
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The night sky turned.
Constellations slowly wheeled.
The wind rustled grass, tugged at stunted trees and shimmered across jutting rocks.
The moon, finally beginning its ascent from its semi-set position, lurking at the horizon.
Somewhere, a dog-like beast howled.
The six chanted the divining litany, their words blending together into something somehow more.
Sitting there, watching the night sky slowly turn, it was impossible not to feel slightly apart from the world around them.
The ground, their surroundings seemed to fall away… or maybe fade away.
There was simply the sky, and the stars. Their strange constellations slowly wheeling by.
Time felt like it stood still for him… as in the space around the six cultivators, a ghostly hemisphere began to form. A reflection of the self-same thing moving by above, but where that was vivid and vast, this image felt dreamlike and transient.
Whispers of the litany clung to everything… and then, almost anticlimactically, it ended. The six stopped their chant, and the only sound was that of the wind and some faint chatter from the camp.
“Well, that was… interesting,” Muli declared at last, after the silence around them had dragged on for almost thirty seconds.
He watched with interest as she picked up the jade slip in front of her and manifested a shimmering constellation with a faintly eerie cast into the space before where she was seated.
“Successful as well, it seems.”
“Of course it succeeded,” Jin Fu muttered, considering his own jade slip.
“So, it has given us an auspicious and an inauspicious divination from each enclosure?” Ji Fushan mused, looking around at the others.
“It seems that way,” Weng agreed. “The constellations appear to have a degree of cardinal overlap, though.”
“That is to be expected, given we worked with the intent as projected through the enclosures,” Shen Fan Jingfa observed. “Some are certainly nearer than others though.”
“This does bring up a salient point, though,” Muli remarked.
“Yes, we need some local star charts, or at least a way to construct a proximal interpretation that isn’t just ‘vibes’,” Quan Dingxiang suggested, drily.
“Well, mmmmm, not necessarily,” Muli mused.
“…”
The others all turned to look at her.
“Well, isn’t it interesting that the litany resonance just… works?” Muli continued, considering the projected constellation before her. “And basically, without any serious complications. All Twenty-Eight retain a foundational resonance with this other sky, yet I challenge you to point to a single constellation up there you can say for sure is the same as what we know. The Three Enclosures have also mapped… as near as I can see from my slip, anyway, pretty much flawlessly. Your earlier worry,” she nodded at Jin Fu. “That we would see some slippage in orientation or in definition has largely failed to materialize, beyond the one we worked to correct for anyway, in setting it up this way, which is that the four cardinals are chaotic, and have been for days, likely because of whatever broke everyone’s compasses.”
When she put it like that, Ruo Han found himself reflecting, even he, who had to admit he knew very little about the material aspects of this sort of divination ritual, could see the point she was making. The others were all frowning as well, now.
“So…?” Jin Fu frowned.
“We don’t need local charts; we can just derive some from first principles,” Muli pointed out. “It’s not exactly difficult. A bit time-consuming, sure, but we have some very bright minds from the Imperial School among us, so I keep hearing. If they were on a mortal world, they would be expected to be able to do this in their sleep.”
“That is…” Jin Fu’s frown turned to a scowl at her jibe directed at his faction.
“What, you never actually asked me. If you had, I could have told you all this before we started,” she sniffed.
“You could have volunteered that you knew this…” Ji Fushan pointed out, looking a little put out as well.
“Knew what? How to make a star-chart?” Muli snorted. “Without cribbing from some notes you redeemed cheaply and didn’t internalize properly?”
“In that case, what does that constellation tell us?” Ji Fu asked in a rather arch tone, nodding to her one.
“Individually?” Muli rolled her eyes. “That within this mansion, the constellation has mirrored on Yin and Yang, to a rather intriguing degree. This could hit at something approaching an absolute divination, but for the purposes of determining intent, it means simply that what we are detecting is one of a few things. Either it’s a mix of signals, a particularly astute form of performative, or maybe ablative tracking geomancy, or one very warped signal reflected into multiple enclosures.”
“…”
“My own instinct, speaking mostly as an alchemist, and considering this from the angle akin to ‘material contamination’, is that there could be multiple competing, or overlapping signals,” Quan Dingxiang mused, considering his own projection. “What happens if…?”
“We match them?” Ji Fushan nodded, putting his own slip down beside Weng’s.
“So, we have four… and maybe a fifth, or a variant asterism?” Jin Fu observed after all six slips had been compared.
“And tangible, if slightly hard to resolve evidence that we are being tracked,” Ji Fushan observed drily.
“Though we knew that already,” Muli pointed out, with an amused shake of her head.
“What is a… variant asterism?” Liao asked.
“An irregularity within the image of a captured constellation, relating to its orientation against a ‘standard model’ for the celestial chart it is being compared against,” Jin Fu replied. “Though we can’t know for sure without well researched star charts…”
“In this instance, the tell-tale aspect is that the Yin alignment is too strong, relative to the Yang, for where it places within the twenty-eight mansions,” Shen Fan Jingfa added. “I think… you can still actually see something of it, in the sky?”
They all craned their heads up as he pointed off over the riverlands, towards what was… probably the western horizon.
“If this was back home, we would be talking about cardinal obfuscation, which at this hour, for it to come through like this… likely means it isn’t related specifically to our divination, but that our divination has touched on something within the wider body of celestial alignments that is feeding back into it,” Jin Fu added. “A known hazard of doing the divination with less than twelve people, but that just is what it is.”
“It means they don’t know…” Jin Chen muttered.
“Indeed, it means we cannot say for sure,” Muli agreed, rolling her eyes as Jin Fu scowled at Jin Chen.
“However, we don’t need to know the specifics to determine intent, that is a beauty of this sort of divination,” she added. “The goal was to try and capture a snapshot of the intent of whatever is trying to track us, and it seems in that regard, we have succeeded.”
“In that regard, we have,” Quan Dingxiang agreed, a little pointedly, he thought. “So it would be nice if all three of you could just acknowledge that we are stronger when we work together in this…”
“Have I ever suggested anything else?” Muli replied with almost mocking sweetness dripping from her every word.
“…”
“In any case,” Official Weng cut in. “It seems to me that from this we can say there are at least three… maybe four attempts being made to ‘track’ our group, that are broadly speaking, affiliated with Han Shu, or those around him? One is probably our own group, following after us… which leaves three. Two broadly Yang-aspected, and one Yin-aspected, but the Yin one… feels less problematic than the Yang one with the variant Yin asterism affiliated with the enclosure centred on Miss Liao?”
“That would be my reading of it,” Ji Fushan agreed, tapping his fingers on his lips. “Brother Jin?”
“Yeah, pending us getting some local charts, I can accept that,” Jin Fu conceded. “All of them seem to be if not ‘behind’ us, certainly ‘chasing’ us, as well, which is… I guess it does mean we need to push more…” Jin Fu pointed out towards the riverlands but in what was sort of ‘northerly’ as far as they had decided on the directions. “I worry that that is some sort of analogue for a ‘water-carrier’ constellation, though.”
“The one relating to Ruo Han’s enclosure isn’t much better, mind,” Ji Fushan mused, eyeing the two images in front of Muli and Quan Dingxiang. “An ‘Arriving’ determination precludes any interpretation on how auspicious or inauspicious it is. If this was back home… the three-star alignments are all things like ‘Celestial Spear’, ‘Three Excellencies’, a minor on ‘Four Advisors’ with a hidden irregularity… and all of those are textbook—”
“You missed ‘Three Judges’ and there is also something like ‘Inner Steps’ or ‘Celestial Prison’,” Muli added, rolling her eyes. “There is no guarantee that Yin and Yang are mirrors on one within these two images, even if they overlap; you could be seeing a bipolar six-star alignment, for example… which is why…”
“Well, if you want to try and derive them, I am not going to stop you,” Jin Fu grumbled. “But will say again, I think our efforts would be better spent getting some local knowledge on it, somehow.”
“Which would mean either finding a town that doesn’t shoot us on sight, or capturing someone and hoping they know?” Muli pointed out. “—Or we go shake the new arrivals down to see if any of your erstwhile growing flocks looted anything more useful than ill will amidst their predictable feats of banditry?”
“She has us there,” Ji Fushan chuckled ruefully.
“Or someone who navigates boats for a living,” Quan Dingxiang suggested, with a clear hint of changing the topic back to something less ‘contentious’, because the question of newer arrivals bring them ‘more’ problems than they already had was an ongoing ‘process’, within the camp politics.
“Yes, or that,” Muli agreed, with a sigh.
“Can I ask why the ‘water carrier’ would be bad?” he asked, as they all lapsed into slightly awkward silence.
“Oh, hm, if it is something like that, it’s that we are delivering ourselves up to someone else for their benefit, more than ours,” Ji Fushan replied, before the others could. “It might not be ‘bad’, but there is no guarantee that the person why carries the water gets first drink of it, if that makes sense?”
“Ah, and in this case, the water we are carrying is Han Shu?” Liao suggested, grimacing.
“Yes,” Weng nodded.
“Even there though, it could be something as simple as the fact that we are protecting his body on behalf of Senior Cang and Senior Sister Dongmei,” Muli pointed out.
“Or it could be that the Jade Gate and those Hao clan idiots are still out there,” Ji Fushan added, to which Liao grimaced and everyone else looked a little bit embarrassed.
“I mean, with the talisman they used on him, it would not surprise me in the slightest that they can track him wherever they want,” Jin Fu observed with a sigh.
“And there is not a fate-thrashed thing we can do about it.” Jin Chen muttered sullenly. “Isn’t that right, Xiaoli?”
“…”
They all turned to look at Jin Chen, who just scowled back, challengingly.
“Do those talismans involve any ‘external fate’?” Weng half asked, half mused.
“Probably,” Quan Dingxiang conceded. “But even if whatever that was that occurred as part of that tribulation broke basically everything else, I would still not bet spirit stones on it fully collapsing that Nameless-sent talisman. If that was the case, surely, we would have seen some trace on Han Shu already? Instead, if anything, his soul-presence got even weaker after that event.”
“Maybe that is the effect?” Muli pointed out. “Those sorts of evil talismans are all about gaining control, by any which way possible. The fact that his soul presence is lessening in spite of that could well be evidence that the control of Din Ouyeng’s talisman is slipping?”
“What do you want us to do now?” he asked, at last.
“You lost your camping spot to that new group, so you might as well stay here,” Muli informed him, with a sideways look at Jin Fu, that the other youth pretended not to see.
“We did? Typical.” Jin Chen sneered.
“Aye, just grab a spot in the shelter of the other tent,” Quan Dingxiang agreed. “How are your conditions holding up, anyway? The divination wasn’t too taxing?”
“It… seems fine,” he replied, getting to his feet. “As to how we are—no worse, despite everything.”
“Speaking of tomorrow,” Weng cut in, pointing off at the horizon where the light show had been sporadically unfolding. “I think our onwards path might have been narrowed down for us.”
Looking in the direction Weng was pointing, as the others stood up, he could just make out a faint, flickering glow starting to illuminate the night sky behind the rising hills in that direction.
“A wildfire,” Ji Fushan groaned after they had all considered the orange haze for a long moment.
“Looks that way,” Shen Fan Jingfa agreed.
“Well, we were not considering going towards the pitched battle that has been raging since almost before sunset, in any case,” Muli pointed out.
“No, but it will probably drive a bunch of stuff towards us…” Weng sighed.
As if to spite the idea that the distant battle, if that is what it was, had abated, another ripple of brighter light rolled across the horizon beyond the fire. Followed again, after about eight seconds, by the dull thrum of thunder as the shockwaves reached them.
“I guess we will go set up a spot over there,” he informed Quan Dingxiang, helping Liao Ying to her feet, and gesturing towards the more sheltered side of the circular ruin, just beyond the fire pit.
“If you need anything, just let me know,” Quan Dingxiang replied.
Saluting Dingxiang, then the others, he reclaimed their stuff from the edge of the tent, noting as he did that both the injured cultivators had woken up at some point and were watching what was going on in sullen silence.
Neither said anything to him, beyond giving him gloomy looks, not that he expected them to.
Deng Changfei had been stung by the wandering wasp and was a part of the Imperial School ‘faction’. Fu Chongqing’s mishap, meanwhile, had been sitting down on a rock without checking it carefully first, and promptly being stung in the ass by a foot-sized scorpion. He had then decided to blame everyone around him—including Jin Chen—for his own mistake.
Heading back out, he found Jin Chen already scavenging a few extra blocks to make the foundations of their own small tent, while Liao affixed one of their blankets over a piece of liberated firewood, she had jammed into a crack in the rocks.
Quan Dingxiang and the others had also split up. Muli and Weng were sitting by Han Shu’s body, considering the scrips. Dingxiang had gone back over to talk to Deng Seong. Ji Fanshu had gotten up on the wall and was staring out into the darkness in the direction of the distant wild fires, and Jin Fu and Shen Fan Jingfa were making their way back down towards the surrounding campsites.
“I guess that is the excitement over,” Liao observed as he dumped their stuff on the ground.
“For now,” he mused, moving her pack over to the rear wall.
It was something, certainly, that they had gotten the divination to work, but given everything else that was still going on, he found it oddly hard to muster any real enthusiasm for it. A part of that was the soul injury, he was sure. The feeling of dissociation was a known symptom, and one you could only let go away with time.
“Soup?”
He blinked as Jin Chen proffered him a bowl of what had been in the cooking pot.
“Sure,” he nodded, taking it and hoping that his worry about Jin Chen’s sudden mood change wasn’t too clearly written on his face.
Sitting down, he took a sip of the warm liquid. It was a bit earthy, and a bit spicy, but that was fine. It at least cut through the lingering chill that still felt like it clung to all his interior organs.
“What do you think tomorrow will bring?” Liao asked at last, sitting down beside him. “Will their divination actually help anything?”
“Walking? Someone else getting stung by an insect they should have seen but didn’t?” Jin Chen muttered, passing her over a bowl of soup as well.
“That is the question,” he conceded, sitting back and suddenly feeling rather tired all of a sudden. “That really is the question, isn’t it?”
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~ CANG DI — ULDARA, QUARUNA’S ROOMS ~
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Distant laughter.
Music.
The alluring sounds of merriment.
The sweet scents of Honeysuckle and Jasmine.
The dream-like sensation faded… but the warm, luxurious feeling that had been tugging at him endured, even as Cang Di opened his eyes, realising that he had fallen asleep on the couch after being escorted back from Meuanna’s hall by Lissaea. Opening his eyes, he nearly swore, because Quaruna was no longer asleep, but lounging beside him on the couch, basically naked in the warm, yet dim lamp-light of the room.
“Ah, you woke up,” she giggled, meeting his eyes with a mischievous smirk, before sliding over to lie against him.
Before he could say anything, she kissed him, deeply, on the lips. The taste of fruit, and the sweet intoxication of her qi—mana—melding together with the lingering fragrance of the sweet wine, called to him, whispering to grasp her, to slide his hands across her smooth, cool skin—
“Mmmmm… so you do know how to treat a woman…” she whispered in his ear as, unbidden, he found his hands sliding gently down her back, just as he had thought he might.
“S-stop…” he grimaced, as she nuzzled his neck, keenly aware that his lower body was beginning to betray his desire to resist her. “Really?” she murmured, kissing his neck. “You really want me to stop?”
“We… can’t do this,” he insisted, gently trying to push her away.
“Is it because of her?” Quaruna asked, referring to Ao Qingcheng, who he hoped was still asleep where she was lying on the bed with her back to them.
“Partly,” he conceded.
Certainly, it would be beyond awkward to sleep with Quaruna while the other girl was lying on the bed.
“She is yours…” Quaruna murmured, playfully. “It is very noble, to want to shelter her—them—but what you choose to do, what I choose to do, in front of her, has no bearing on her… though I think she would join us, if you asked…”
“I don’t want to do that,” he replied. “And anyway, that isn’t…”
“Isn’t what?” she purred, slipping a hand back down to his crotch.
“Isn’t…” It was oddly hard to explain, he suddenly realised, even right here and now, in this awkward circumstance as he gently fended her hand away.
‘I met your grandmother, and even though we agreed to an alliance, she scares me—a lot—and I know you likely have a Heavenly Physique, and my divination art is still somehow telling me this is a bad idea, and after everything I saw in that hall, and in spite of the fact that I have to get you onside… to help save the Ao Qingcheng’s companions…’ even just running through that in his mind… yeah, it was awkward.
“Ah—you met my grandmother,” she sighed suddenly and sat back on the other end of the couch, though she made no effort to cover herself.
“I… did,” he replied, slightly surprised that she had guessed so quickly.
“—And, the fact that you are still here means she likes you,” Quaruna continued, slowly slipping her hand down the front of her gown, then parting it deftly to expose her crotch.
Even with the dim light from the town outside, he could clearly see that she was well groomed down there—
Quaruna stared at him, for the longest moment, as if trying to solve some kind of puzzle, then she gasped.
“That… don’t tell me you have ‘it’!” she slid forward so fast he barely saw her move. Pinning him to the couch with a strength he had never felt in her before.
“You… you do have it!” she gasped, shock in her eyes as she stared into his. “The spear I recognised… Honestly, that was why I initially felt drawn to you.”
“My… spear?” he blinked in surprise.
“Uh-huh, if you went to see grandmother, you must have gone through that hall, I can see it in your eyes, now,” she murmured, slipping her hands around his neck and straddling him. “Nobody else, except maybe my mother or her, would recognise it, but it was always hard to ‘recognise’, and she… doesn’t really follow my grandmother’s teachings; her path is different.” Quaruna replied.
“…”
He suddenly didn’t know what to make of that, except to rebuke himself for maybe relying too much on Origin’s talisman and Erishkira. That lay inert against his chest, currently, as normal as could be, possibly because she was still drinking and chatting with Meuanna. Though in his defence, he had been mostly worried about hiding it from his own peers and never expected it had such a history with the Ur of this place.
“For it to reappear with Erishkira… was unexpected, but I figured maybe that was why you were coming here, and I could entice you to give it up, in some way,” she pouted. “Except, now, I see what has been bugging you all day.”
He could only stare at her, now, confused.
-If she doesn’t mean my spear, then what…?
“You have it. My grandfather’s art,” she whispered. “The Heart of the Star Path—Shatterpoint.”
-Shatterpoint? My divination art?
His mind went blank.
Unable to move, cold sweat slicked his skin as he stared into her luminous eyes, suddenly very keenly aware of the remarkable parity in their cultivation foundations.
-A Heavenly Physique, he concluded. There was no other way she could be as strong as he was, while so much younger than him, that he could think of.
“Now it all makes sense, how you got in here, your ability to avoid all those little things, how… Aiii… how mysterious.” She sighed, deeply, staring at him.
“It… is an Ur art?” he asked at last, because there was no point in denying it.
-And if that is the case, did her grandmother know? Who am I kidding, of course she knew, and she just said nothing… though we did seal our agreement formally…?
His head hurt a little, just thinking about it—though that could well have been the spirit wine. Origin’s presence also remained… non-existent in his awareness, almost mockingly so, he could not help but feel.
“Well, that is difficult. It is an ancient art, passed down through my family line from a time so old that even gods do not really remember it,” Quaruna replied. “Or at least, that is what my grandmother told me. Few ever gained its gift, but my grandfather was the first, in many long millennia. It allowed him to hold that dreadful gate, until the end, and then beyond, so my people could escape,” she added. “It allowed him to match his spear, that spear you carry, that he won in the depths, with the so-called heroes of the Mad God’s kingdoms, and to even repel their Golden Death Bringers, when they came—when Chronominthian screamed and the world broke.”
“So…”
“Oh, you are worried we want it back?” Quaruna giggled, before kissing him lightly on the lips. “That art chooses its successors,” she continued. “And each brings something new to it. Some foolish people might be tempted, but I am sure you understand what it is like. Even if you died, they would not be guaranteed claiming it, and certainly not in any state someone would want to use themselves…”
“How… did you recognise it, then?” he asked, half suspecting the answer.
“Well, there is a sister art,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “That my grandmother holds. The inheritance key was bequeathed to her, and she passed it to me. So, we share the same art, in a sense. All today, I have been trying to use it, quietly, on you, but it works on none of you, so I assumed it was because of Lady Erishkira.”
“Oh.” He exhaled, weirdly relieved.
Even as she explained it, it was like a strange veil on his own art faded away, and the continual sense of… ‘wrongness’ about engaging with Quaruna faded away with it.
“So, now we have that out of the way,” she giggled, before leaning in a whispering in his ear. “You likely want… no, need my help… do you not? Isn’t that why you visited my grandmother?”
“I… do,” he sighed.
“Well, my price is… I think you can guess,” she murmured breathily. “If you want my help for setting up a household in this city.”
“And I cannot dissuade you?” he asked, sighing.
“Well, you can try with your mouth,” she giggled, slipping her hand down, across his stomach… then lower still. “But your hunting spear down here has made up its own mind, I think.”
Before he could argue, she kissed him on the lips and then slid down again, enveloping him in her ample bosom.
“Just… enjoy it, okay?” she murmured, starting to slowly massage him.
All he could do was sit there, trying not to groan, or look over at Ao Qingcheng, who was, he hoped, still sound asleep, because undeniably, Quaruna was very skilful, and also, undeniably, very attractive. Vainly, he tried shatterpoint, but this time… it told him nothing untoward would happen, and in fact… for the first time, finally, that going along with her would help achieve his goal of saving the rest of Ao Qingcheng’s companions from a likely very grim fate, and also benefit his cultivation greatly. The switch from bad to good was almost… too much, even if he suspected it was somehow related to the absolute phenomenon, as with formation readings.
Unfortunately, as if she took his silence as he pondered that a moment for evidence she was not doing enough, Quaruna started to tease him with her mouth as well.
“Mmmm, you are… impressive,” she murmured, looking back up at him, saliva moist on her lips. “And natural, too!”
“…”
He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that.
With a cheeky smile, she kissed him… and then took him in her mouth.
Now, he really was unable to fully stifle a groan of pleasure, because her tongue effortlessly found all the right places to stimulate him.
-Fates… is she actually using shatterpoint for this? He suddenly found himself wondering, as she took him fully inside her mouth, while still maintaining eye-contact with him.
For almost a full ten seconds, she held that, slowly massaging him, then with a gasp pushed herself away a little once more.
“Huwaaa… it’s almost too big for me!” she giggled, giving him another, playful kiss, before standing up in front of him.
As he watched, unable to look away, she slowly and lasciviously shrugged off her gown, revealing all the flawless curves of her body to him in the dim lights from outside. With the heady scent of the jasmine and the honeysuckle, and the way she held herself, it was impossible for him not to think, for a moment, of those proud statues in the courtyard—and then she was straddling him.
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“Last chance…” she smirked—
-Ah, what the fates…
Giving up, he grasped her hips and in one movement, pulled her close to him.
Her luxurious, hungry moan was soft, like velvet, or silk, but somehow filled up the whole room.
Her hips rocked, and she whispered something in his ear.
He slipped his hands up over her smooth skin, massaging her breasts tenderly.
She kissed his lips.
How long they held their embrace, hungrily, lustfully coupling, their voices blending together in the heady, fragrant dark of the room, he could not say, but when he regained something of himself, Quaruna was beneath him, and they were naked on the bed, legs intwined, their sweat mingling, hearts pounding in unison.
He had experienced beautiful women before, but… undeniably, he had to concede that she was… peerless. She clung to him… and he to her, as if they were made for each other. Her mana and his qi eagerly swirling in a single, unified cycle, dragging them both deeper into each other’s worlds.
“I need you,” she gasped, breathily, in his ear, gangling her hands in his hair.
Unable to resist the tender urge within her words, he lost himself again in her tender embrace.
…
“Amazing…” she panted, as they lay, side by side, on the bed, sometime later. “I’ve been with men before… but never like this…”
“T-thanks,” he gasped, taking a deep breath. He somehow felt both empty and… complete, in a way he had not when he slept with a woman before, maybe not even in the arms of those beauties, all those millennia ago… “You too…”
“Am I better than those beauties your teacher sent you to, to be trained… so you would not be caught by the charms of girls like me?” she giggled, propping herself up on her elbow.
-How in the…? Ah… he supposed she had seen something of his past experiences… somehow?
“Absolutely,” he sighed, not daring to look over to see if Ao Qingcheng was awake. He could sense no real disturbance in her qi, but still…
There was no real comparison, honestly. Quaruna’s compatibility with him was something else entirely. He had been with women ‘skilled’ in these arts—some, very skilled, who had been instructed to show him pretty much ‘everything’ they could do—but somehow, none of that came close to what this felt like. It was almost like he was completed, briefly, by the act of union between them, on that level…
“I wonder what your friend ‘Meyla’ will say,” Quaruna added, archly, shifting her posture slightly so he got a very good look at ‘all’ of her, such as the dim light allowed.
“…”
“Perhaps, she might join us…” Quaruna added, with a sexy smirk, brushing a few strands of his sweat-soaked hair from his face. “Who can know a woman’s heart?”
“…”
It was hard to know what to say to that—or, actually, what Dongmei would say about ‘this’.
She was not unworldly, but having spent time with her, in this place he had a much clearer understanding of her boundaries than he had before, and… well…
Sighing, he sat up and finally glanced over at Ao Qingcheng. She was still seemingly asleep, lying with her back to them.
Getting off the bed, he went over to the sideboard and poured himself a drink of wine—
Quaruna slipped off after him and put her arms around his waist, her breasts rubbing against his back as he drank it.
“Won’t you hunt me with that spear of yours once again?” she whispered, breathily. “We could go outside,” she added, suggestively slipping a hand down. “Beneath the moonlight… Or—do you want to wake her and do something more… exotic?”
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~ AO QINGCHENG — ULDARA BY NIGHT (-_-) ~
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-What did I expect? Ao Qingcheng sighed inwardly, and with some relief, when the pair slipped outside.
The daughter of the Town Master was a voluptuous beauty and clearly very determined to get what she wanted for the whole evening, and her ‘saviour’, ‘Hunter Kang’, was also, clearly, a skilled and vigorous lover. They had been… quiet, for having sex, but it had been a shock for her to wake from her emotionally exhausted slumber to find them having sex on the bed only a half metre away, as if she wasn’t even there.
It was a mercy that she was able to feign sleep well enough and keep her qi still and flowing in a restful way, so as not to disturb them. Of all the uses for that meditation technique her teacher had imparted to her those many years ago… that was not one she had ever anticipated using it for.
-Would I have joined them?
That was… also a disconcerting question to ask herself. She wasn’t fluent in their tongue, but she understood enough to get the implication of what Quaruna had said.
-Best not think about that, she sighed.
Based on some of the things she had heard among the other female captives, those who were… commanded… had no real say in the matter. It was either agree ‘willingly’, or be beaten and then be taken anyway. Mercifully, Hunter Kang had sworn that oath, so she felt she could believe in him. In fact, it was hard not to wonder how… it might have been—she had been prepared to offer herself to him, proactively, but that had been because that was all she had, at that moment. And yet… Quaruna had clearly enjoyed herself, and ‘Hunter Kang’ had as well, so if it did come to ‘that’, she supposed she would as well. And frankly, there was no other recourse she could see for saving her junior and senior sisters, other than to attach herself to him.
Rolling over, she glanced at the veranda, where, through the veiled curtains, it looked like Quaruna was pleasuring Hunter Kang with her mouth, against one of the flower-wreathed pillars. From here, she couldn’t really hear them, but that was probably a mercy in its own way.
-And I can’t really leave the room, can I? She sighed, glancing at the door to the main hall of the quarters—
Abruptly, the pair ended their fornication on the veranda and came back inside.
“Ah… you are awake,” Hunter Kang suddenly looked a bit awkward, shifting to grab his tunic top and cover himself.
Quaruna didn’t seem to care; she just giggled and said something in their local tongue she didn’t fully follow, but seemed suggestive in a way.
She then pulled Hunter Kang down on the couch and, without any effort, sat on his lap, spreading her legs over his in such a way that left nothing to her imagination.
-How shameless, she couldn’t help but reflect, as the Town Master’s daughter started to slowly tease his—it was… big, she couldn’t help but notice.
Suddenly aware that she was also wearing very thin clothes, and that the whole ambience of the room was heavy with lust, she slid over to the side of the bed and coughed.
“Might I get something to drink, Master Kang?”
“You want to drink this?” Quaruna asked, pointing to Hunter Kang’s member, proud between her spread legs, now with a naughty expression.
“Be serious,” Hunter Kang murmured, shaking his head and shifting Quaruna slightly so she didn’t have quite as much of an eyeful, to her relief. “I said it before: You and I… have an agreement. You may eat and drink as you wish,” he added to her.
To hear him say that, even now… left her feeling oddly touched, and not a little relieved.
“How… valorous,” Quaruna giggled, slowly, and quite deliberately shifting her hips in his lap. “But I won’t take no, even if she is here.”
So saying, Quaruna shifted her hips again and bit her lip, stifling a sexy gasp that told her very clearly what she had just done.
Doing her best to ignore the pair, she went over to the table and poured herself some wine, gulping it down. It was cool, surprisingly so, and sweet, despite the alcohol content, so she poured herself a second cup, then turned to the snacks. Mostly, there were fruits and baked goods. Tasting one, it had a dark, sweet filling, and was surprisingly a high-quality piece of spirit food.
“Oh… oh, so vigorous… I love it like that…”
Behind her, Quaruna was moaning, breathily… so she poured herself a third cup, and downed it all on one.
-Fates take how physical and accomplished they are, she complained inwardly.
Even without looking, she could tell how much Quaruna was enjoying it, and how much she was pleasing Hunter Kang in turn, as their gasps and moans turned more hurried and—
“Oh, mother… I’m gonna cum—!” Quaruna moaned breathily. “Cum with me,” she added, grinding down on Hunter Kang. “Stop holding back…”
-He was holding back? She sighed, pouring herself a fourth cup, unable to tune out the luxuriating moan from Quaruna that followed her exclamation.
“Mmmmm…” Quaruna sighed lethargically, lounging back against Hunter Kang’s body, uncaring of how much she showed her—which was far more than she ever wanted to see between another man and woman.
“I… apologise,” Hunter Kang’s voice echoed politely in her ear, sent through a pulse of soul sense. “For doing this in front of you… I, well…”
“Are you talking behind my back?” Quaruna pouted, shifting slightly to look up at him, as finally, she turned around to look at the pair. “And after you need my help?”
Inwardly, she was as shocked at how Quaruna had noticed what he sent to her, because he had barely used any intent and had been so subtle she had felt next to nothing in the way of disturbance.
“I was just apologizing to her,” Hunter Kang informed Quaruna, out loud this time.
“I… it is nothing,” she bowed hurriedly to them, trying to be as respectful as possible while not getting an eyeful.
Taking a breath, to collect herself, she bowed a little deeper, fixing on their legs, in the end.
“Of course, Master Kang will do as he pleases,” she murmured, in the style she had heard others use. “Your generosity is already as the Heavens themselves.”
“Actually, this does involve you,” he informed her, as Quaruna slipped off him and walked over to the table, beside her.
“I-it does, Master Kang?” she asked, trying not to let the nervousness in her heart creep into her voice.
“Ah… not like that…” He actually looked a little affronted, she thought, which, given how they had been coupling moments before, was sort of funny, in a weird way. “I, well, a household will be set up, in the city, to support the efforts of Sorceress Erishkira,” he informed her, claiming a cloth to cover himself. “She is looking for some formidable female servants and helpers…”
-Oh? Oh!
Suddenly, a few pieces of the puzzle slid into place, and she felt the weight on her shoulders lessen, a little.
“Mmmmm, and for that, your Master here, needs a backer,” Quaruna murmured, putting an arm around her shoulder.
“Me,” Quaruna added, as if she had not already worked that bit out.
“Please stop teasing her,” Hunter Kang asked, sighing a little.
“Mmmmm, but she is such a beauty, and so strong. It feels a waste for her to be so cold and untouched, or… is it that you only like women?” Quaruna murmured breathily in her ear.
It was impossible for her not to shiver a little. This close, she could practically taste the reek of sex on the other woman. Like it was a heady, intoxicating perfume of honeysuckle, salt and sweat.
She had… been around sex, and while she had not been with a man, it was not uncommon for physical comfort to take certain directions in a predominantly female sect, especially if ‘purity’ was not fundamental to your cultivation foundation … That theirs was a sect famous for the charm and allure of its disciples, and had a lot of women with yang-attributed spirit foundations, also meant it was a bit more open than some, but still.
“And… my junior sisters are… suitable?” she asked him, trying to control her breathing, because Fates if the woman beside her was not… alluring, in a way she had never felt about any woman… ever.
“I made a promise to you, and I saw how they performed in the battle today,” Hunter Kang informed her, both gently and… firmly, with some touching sincerity, in fact. “This seems a convenient solution to both our problems. I guarantee you will not be mistreated.”
She nearly asked ‘—and what about if we eventually want to leave?’ but managed to stop herself in time.
“Mmmm, she still has doubts though,” Quaruna murmured, stroking her hair gently. “She wonders what will happen if she eventually wants to leave…”
-How in the?
She couldn’t avoid staring at the other woman, who met her gaze with a playful smirk, and a wink.
“Your kind thought us easy, or just didn’t expect us… but compared to your world, I think ours is scarier… and maybe, also, less scary,” Quaruna murmured, moving so they both ended up sitting on the bed, where the Ur woman slid over so she was lounging almost behind her, her breasts pressing alluringly against her. “The opportunities you will find in service to my family, or in service to Sorceress Erishkira, will be… far more than you can imagine, I can tell you that much.”
“She… is probably not wrong there,” Hunter Kang conceded.
“Protection as well… It seems you have your values, and we have ours. You despise our practice of taking slaves, and think we are immoral, decadent, cruel and capricious—but I have heard of what some of what your compatriots did… Did you know some of those in the cells for this auction were not caught by us?” Quaruna added archly.
“Not… by you?” she asked, a sudden chill gripping her heart.
-Does she mean…?
“—Do I mean, ‘by your own people’?” Quaruna murmured. “Absolutely.”
“And… what happened to them?” she asked. “The ones who sold my compatriots?”
“That, I cannot say. I just know what the merchants informed my mother and father,” Quaruna replied. “But… several groups struck bargains, sold people like you to merchants for goods, protection, information even.”
“…”
-I guess there would be some, she grimaced.
Most of the sects taking part were purportedly righteous, but there had been enough clashes between powers of the Imperial Court and less… affiliated sects, like her own, that she could believe some unscrupulous souls had lowered themselves to selling captives from rival sects. Still, a few…
“—You are thinking that a few bad actors should not tarnish a whole group?” Quaruna mused. “Yet your people, calling us ‘demons’, and much worse, have burned entire towns to the ground, killed women and children, taken our people as worse than slaves, ruined this and devastated that without care or consequence… almost like the servants of the Mad God—”
“—They are not, I think,” Hunter Kang cut in.
“No, I do not think they are, either,” Quaruna agreed, with a deeper sigh. “But if I can see it, others can… I do not know whence you came, to enter this place, but I do not think leaving it will be at all easy for you… and, as I said, there are opportunities beyond your wildest dreams here, if you have but the fortune to find them…”
“And… this is one such ‘fortunate opportunity’?” she asked, trying not to dwell on how nice the woman’s touch felt.
She had to have faith that the safeguards her teacher left her… would protect her from artificial enticement—they had been intended to prevent a potential repeat of what Di Ji perpetuated, after all—but right now…
“If you play your cards right, certainly it could be,” Quaruna murmured. “Kang, here, certainly hopes it will be… and he has already done a great deal for you.”
-He has, she agreed, sighing inwardly.
Why, she was still not sure, though, and despite his oath, it was hard for her to make peace with that.
“You can protect my junior sisters?” she asked at last, curious what the Town Master’s daughter would say.
“Your arts intrigue me,” Quaruna murmured. “You put down two powerful foes in that arena.”
-Does she want the secret defence my teacher left me? She groaned.
That would be difficult, to say the least.
“Oh, I do not want that. It is interesting, but it is the thing of a Mystic Magister… nothing compared to what my family can put out for personal protection.”
-And how the fates does she know… that? She gasped inwardly.
“There is a lot I know that others do not,” Quaruna murmured. “As Hunter Kang has also learned, this evening. What I want is…”
The woman leant in, suddenly, and kissed her, gently, if hungrily, on the lips.
Held as she was, she couldn’t recoil, and it was tentative enough to somehow… not, linger more than a moment. She tasted sweet, like honey and also a little salty—which she didn’t want to think too much about. Conscious of the other woman’s status she could hardly wipe her lips either.
“Ahh…” Quaruna sighed and sat back on the bed, sighing softly. To her surprise, Quaruna actually backed off entirely, going over to sit again beside Hunter Kang, who was looking at them both with a slightly perplexed expression, she thought, as if confronted by a permutation he had not entirely expected.
“If it is… talismans, or formations…” she hesitated a moment before offering. “Lady Quaruna…”
“Oh, heh, no,” Quaruna shook her head, as if amused now. “It is a kind offer, but they are of a quality with our own methods, if not inferior as they come from a lower world.”
“Inferior?” she blinked. “But our spatial treasures…” she started to ask, still a bit irked at the loss of her own.
“Mmmm, they are rare, but it is due to the materials required to make them, and also the way the rules are here,” Quaruna replied, slipping an arm around Hunter Kang’s shoulder. “That is what gives them value. No, what you can give me is… knowledge, but it can wait,” she added with a playful smile. “There is no point in forcing matters, and I do not think what I ask, in return for giving my support to ‘saving’ your friends from their current predicament, will at all inconvenience you.”
She found herself entirely uncertain what to say in reply to that, so just gave the default response of bowing politely.
“In any case, for tonight, all I want is your spear, Kang,” Quaruna purred, before glancing over at her, while making sure she… got a very good look at just how endowed her ‘Master’ was… which was very.
-Does she really want me to pleasure him…? She groaned. He refused earlier, but she is ‘important’ in this town, and while he bought me, I have no idea how much control she has if she just orders it… or is she just teasing me, hoping that I agree of my own accord?
Even with her current circumstances, her body was flushed and her loose gown felt heavy and uncomfortable. She didn’t even want to think about the faint, gnawing feeling below her dantian. Body physiology was what it was, and Quaruna reeked of sex, and the pair were both heavy with yang energies, which was surprising, she realised, because usually a woman in Quaruna’s situation would be more ‘Yin’ than ‘Yang’.
“Mmmmm…” Quaruna eyed her again.
“Bring us some more wine,” Quaruna instructed her, all of a sudden, glancing over at the table by the bed. “It will be in a cupboard, beneath the table on the near wall.”
“As you command,” she murmured, bowing again, barely able to hide her relief.
Quaruna rolled her eyes, then slid her hand down Hunter Kang’s body and started to playfully massage him.
Exhaling, she quickly left them to it… and stepped from one kind of hell… into another.
The hall outside was… thick with the scents and sounds of sex. Looking around, she was relieved to find the musicians were still playing away, slowly now, and quite focused on their instruments. Mei Miao was also standing off to the side, against the wall, holding a jar of wine, next to the table Quaruna had mentioned… while the others, were partaking in what she could only call and orgy—Nisa and Kurra were pleasuring Sheng Huan, who very much appeared to be enjoying the experience as far as she could see, on one couch, while Garesh and Amanali were vigorously entangled on the other.
“How are you doing?” she asked Mei Miao, who was somewhat blank-faced.
“Oh, you know… it’s… educational,” Mei Miao muttered, not quite meeting her eyes.
“Is there wine in the cupboard?” she asked, pointedly keeping her own gaze away from the hall at large.
“Yep,” Mei Miao murmured.
Nodding, she crouched down to open it. It was indeed full of jars, so after a moment’s thought, she took two.
Before she could get tied into anything, she took the two jars and hurried back into the room.
There, Quaruna and Kang had moved to the bed, and were pleasuring each other… vigorously. Doing her best not to disturb them, she quickly went over the table and decanted the wine, then stored the other jar beneath it—
“Do you want to join us?” she flinched at Quaruna’s words, realising both had reached something of a… cessation, and were now looking at her.
“…”
A rebellious, instinctual part of her really wanted to know how it would feel to be opened up by that, but she quashed it, and resolutely sat down on the couch, hoping that through her body language she was intimating… politely, that she didn’t want to get involved.
Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was spur Quaruna on, because she threw herself on Kang again, making sure she got a full view of both of them.
----------------------------------------
~ CANG DI AND QUARUNA — BREATHLESS ~
----------------------------------------
Taking a few deep breaths, Cang Di lay on the bed, Quaruna slumped, tired at last, half on top of him. She was a very athletic, and accomplished, lover, but even her stamina had finally faltered a little, to the clear relief of Ao Qingcheng, whom she had been rather tormenting the last while.
The young woman from the Fire Orchid Pavilion had retreated to the couch, but that was only a few paces away, in effect, and she clearly thought it would be rude to openly look away, so had spent a long time… staring at the wooden carvings on the end of the bed.
“You finally stopped holding back…” Quaruna murmured, shifting slightly in his half embrace, then nuzzling his neck.
Their compatibility was… a little disturbing to him, in all honesty, if he took a step back from… everything.
He had slept with women ‘skilled’ in these arts—some, very skilled, who had been instructed to show him pretty much ‘everything’ they could do—but somehow none of that came close to what it felt like. It was almost like he was completed, briefly, by the act of union between them, on that level…
It had occurred to him, earlier, and in light of what he had seen in the hall, that she might be trying to get a child from him, but it was possible to ‘tell’, if that had occurred, pretty much in the conclusion act itself, and at their realm, it was really not that easy to just ‘get pregnant’ in the way a mortal couple would, having sex like this. As cultivators advanced, and especially once you crossed the immortal threshold, making a child, biologically, with a partner of a similar realm became exponentially harder, unless very particular rituals were taken into consideration.
Rather than reply, he just gave her a kiss on the top of her head. In response, Quaruna sighed lethargically, and snuggled up to him, uncaring of how much she showed Qingcheng, who was still, resolutely, and understandably, given her circumstances, ‘keeping her distance’, at least in a metaphorical sense.
He had a lot of sympathy for her, in that regard. This was absolutely an… awkward moment. It would get even worse, no doubt, if she knew who he ‘really’ was. There was also a rather awkward double standard at play, in that male cultivators, or perhaps his gender in general, could get away a lot more with this, but a woman, especially of her status… would not. Even if much of the Imperial continent viewed the likes of Verdant Flowers Valley as, at best, a sect of manipulators and schemers and, at the absolute, unjustifiable worst, as a sect of harlots and seducers out to undermine the moral integrity of the Imperial Court’s era, that reputation was thoroughly undeserved.
It was interesting, in a way, that Ur society didn’t seem to fracture along the same lines, and that there wasn’t much overt stigma associated with women picking and choosing their own dalliances, from what he had seen.
“Is that what I am, a… dalliance?” Quaruna asked, looking up at him, reminding him… again, that her ‘powers’ were working in very weird ways.
“You know, I am not promiscuous,” she pouted, looking slightly put out. “Sure, I like to flirt and play about, but this…”—she ground against him suggestively, then kissed him—“I don’t do this that often—only with people I like.”
“—Or really want something from?” he suggested a little provocatively.
“Hmmmph!” she pouted and reached down and gave him a squeeze. Hard enough to make him wince, and reminding him that, somehow, she was physically at least as strong as he was. “This daughter does not need to do this to get what she wants.
“—I do this because I want to,” she added, more seductively. “Because…” she didn’t complete what she had been about to say, which had sounded awfully like a confession, even more-so than the bit before, a part of him could not help but feel, and instead gave him another lingering kiss.
“Because I really like you,” she added breathily.
“…”
“Relax!” she giggled, after he stared at her for a long moment. “We are helping each other,” she murmured, starting to massage herself. “And this is fun, don’t overcomplicate it—that sucks. So just unwind, let some of the stress off, and in the morning, we will see to her friends,” she continued, a little more breathily.
Taking a breath, he didn’t meet Ao Qingcheng’s vaguely accusing gaze.
The way she had been able to unpick what Ao Qingcheng was thinking so surgically earlier had been disconcerting, even to him. He had no idea how it must have felt for the poor girl and, all the while, there had been no hint of Quaruna actually doing anything with soul sense, or any kind of mental intrusion. Even now, she was occasionally picking things up like that—
“You have seen that hall, and met my grandmother, and you doubt that I have not picked up a few tricks?” Quaruna interjected, huffing playfully rolling over onto her stomach. “It would be entirely within my rights to say that a girl should have her secrets,” she remarked, drily, “But I have to concede I pried open one of yours,” she continued. “So it seems fair I share a little. It isn’t Shatterpoint—It’s my innate constitution, as you would call it.”
“Oh?” he asked, curious now.
“Mmmm,” she nodded, though she didn’t actually elaborate. “It’s also why those idiots you saw earlier, at the arena and the auction, are putting eyes on me, but nobody wants to… dip their stick, if you catch my drift,” she added with a roll of her eyes.
He was about to reply, when a polite knock sounded on the door.
“Hunter Kang?” Mei Miao’s voice called through the door. “Lady Quaruna?”
“You may enter,” Quaruna called out.
“One moment!” he added as the door started to open.
“Coward,” Quaruna pouted as he slid off the bed and wrapped a loin cloth around his lower body.
She, he noted, made no effort to cover up, propping herself up on her elbows. Ao Qingcheng glanced at him, nervously. Thinking of her circumstances, he waved for her to go stand on the veranda, wondering suddenly why he had not thought to do that before… to spare her their earlier fun.
Once Ao Qingcheng was outside, he walked over to the door and opened it.
On the other side, Mei Miao stood, dressed as she had been, looking a little flushed. The party outside had moved onto… well, if not an orgy, the others who had come were being quite free and unhindered, but were now covering up, looking a bit annoyed, he thought.
“There are people here to see you,” she informed him, with a faint grimace. “One is here with some Soul Gold, from earlier. The other… is that old, yellow-robed old demon, along with some followers of his. He says he has a proposal to put to you.”
“To me?” he asked, frowning. “Not Sorceress Erishkira?”
“Mmmm, they were somewhat vague, but said it would be beneficial to your endeavours…” Mei Miao informed him, grimacing.
“Tell them they can come in. I will be out in a minute,” he instructed her. “Ao, can you come help Mei Miao?” he added to Ao Qingcheng.
“Yes, Master Kang,” the young woman replied, coming back in from the veranda.
He waited for her to go out, then closed the door again.
“Mmmm, they move fast,” Quaruna sighed sitting up. “I’ll head out first; if they see me there, that old bastard will be a little less tricksy, I think. Whatever they want, it will not be what they say,” she added.
“I will remember,” he nodded.
He watched as she went over to the basin of water in the corner and quickly washed herself off, her mana shifting slightly around her as she did so. Like a conjuring trick, the scent of sex and yang virility around her melted away, replaced with the alluring, mysterious aura she had had since he first encountered her. Then, she put her dress back on and bunched up her hair in a style that, somehow, worked with her slightly slicked hair. Giving him a slightly odd, tense smile, she then went out, leaving him alone in the room.
-So, how do I want to do this? He sighed, sitting down and pulling on his top.
The question of the ‘hunt’ that had been Meuanna’s condition for helping, had been something he really didn’t want to dwell on. It promised all sorts of problems, if he really was to get rid of this ‘dark beast’ plaguing Uldara—one of those horrifying monstrosities called ‘Sar Katush’.
According to Meuanna and Origin, the masked ‘elder’ he had met before was at the heart of their plot to infiltrate and slowly subvert Uldara, and Quaruna was one of their core targets—
-Ah, don’t tell me they will try to exploit her interest in me, and maybe Erishkira? Do they know she was involved in the tribulation?
He stared at the ceiling, then out at the glittering lights of the city for a long moment, then sighed and put his hand to his heart.
A silvery, palm-length needle appeared, shrinking down to the length of a splinter of wood. Etched down its length he could just make out a myriad of esoteric symbols, in the secret script of Emeishan. This needle did not really count among his ‘life-saving’ treasures, simply because it was so Fate-thrashed dangerous. His senior sister Aoxu had given it to him before he departed, as basically the first thing she did after coming out of seclusion, and her warning, imparted then, had been stark. ‘If you use this on something, it will die. It will absolutely kill one thing, in those dreadful depths, almost without exception. If you use it on a cultivator, be Fate-thrashed sure you want them deader than dead, because this needle ‘ends’ things.’
He stared at the ‘child’ ‘Karma Slaying Needle’, one of the most feared executioner’s weapons of the Twelve Peaks of Emeishan, and then, carefully taking it between his fingers, slid it into the pupil of his left eye. It wasn’t painful, because it was at its most basic a spiritual treasure, but it was… oddly discomforting. There was something subliminal about it that always made them uncomfortable to handle, according to his senior sister.
How she had gotten her hands on it, she had been unclear, but he knew she had excelled in at least one of the ‘Four Courts Trials’ held in the previous generation, of which Emeishan had been a guest judge, so that was the most likely source. Why, in all the Fates and Powers, they had given such a terrifying thing out, eluded him, but right now, he was very glad of it, because it potentially rendered a very difficult issue—namely how to assassinate, in effect, one of those horrifying demonic Sar’Katush—hopefully moot. He could have implanted it in someone else, and used them as bait, but his gut instinct was that that would not work. To make this succeed, and succeed with the least scope for mishap, he had to take the lead, be the bait as well as the spear, and the sooner he did it, the better.
Blinking, he walked over to the mirror on the wall and stared into his own eyes, but there was no trace of the needle. They were strange like that. If you looked at them head on, they were functionally invisible, through a trick of optics, and now, after spending weeks in his sea of knowledge, attuning to him and his qi, it was just another part of him, hopefully indistinguishable. It would not even need his intent to trigger, there was no warning in its use, and it would be functionally instantaneous, as he understood it, in how it acted. Not even perfected time manipulation or the like could evade it, according to the lecture his senior sister had given him. Not Fate Manipulation, not Shifting Destiny, it was a killer’s tool, intended for use on venerates and would even cripple an unwary heavenly venerate. She had stopped short of saying it could even injure a half-step, descended divinity but the implication was that they would have a very bad day.
Exhaling, he settled his nerves, suddenly glad that he had… given in to Quaruna. Not because it had been pleasurable, though it had been, but because his qi cycle still showed clear traces of their union, and anyone looking would likely assume any oddities were down to that. Especially as they both had a formidable inner yang strength. That was also why he didn’t bother with doing anything with Severing Law. His comprehensions there were still too shallow in his view, and there was a risk that anything he tried would hint at artifice, even if he thought he had succeeded.
Adjusting his clothing, he headed out into the main hall, to find Quaruna talking, a little uneasily, to the golden masked old ‘Ur’.
“Ahhh… Great Hunter Kang,” the old figure murmured, turning to him as soon as he appeared. “The man of the hour graces us with his presence at last.”
“My apologies, Lord Master Daraxes,” he replied, bowing, thankful he had caught the old demon’s name earlier. “I did not mean to keep you waiting.”
“Oh… not at all, not at all,” the golden masked Master chuckled. “We just got here. I trust you are enjoying the wonderful… hospitality, that Uldara has to offer visitors such as us?”
“Lady Quaruna has spared no expense on our behalf,” he replied, bowing again, then walking over to join Quaruna where she was sitting on one of the couches. “How may I help you, Lord Master?”
“Just Master Daraxes will suffice,” the golden masked figured replied, sounding amused. “—And it is just a little matter,” he added, airily. “I hoped to gain an audience with our esteemed sorceress and her apprentice, to discuss a small matter, but I also want to extend an invitation to you, Hunter Kang, to come experience our hospitality in Udrasa on the Gates. For a remarkable young man such as yourself, I think we can present a great many things that will catch your eye.”
-So, it is like that, he mused.
“With that in mind, I hoped to offer a first greeting gift in person,” Master Daraxes added, waving one of his adjuncts forward, who was carrying a box. “I trust you will find it most agreeable?”
“You are going to offer it in person, yet not offer it yourself?” Nisa asked, a little archly, from the other couch. “Great Hunter Kang, I hope you see how Udrasa’s words and actions differ?”
The taller of the silver masked Ur stepped forward, their intent darkening. Master Daraxes just laughed, however—a whistling, unsettling sound, closer to coughing than actual laughter, then took the box from the other silver-masked adjunct.
“Please… Hunter Kang.”
“…”
Hoping Nisa and the others were not going to cause an inadvertent problem, he stepped forward and accepted the box, as proffered, with a respectful bow of his head.
As he did so, the figure’s gnarled wizened hands touched his, and suddenly, an irresistible urge to look up into its masked face overwhelmed him. It slunk through all his mental defences, even those his teacher had put in place, as if they were not even there, and, like an unseen, whisper drew his gaze thither. The blue eyes stared into his—
His coupling with Quaruna blurred in his memory, as did the time he had spent with Dongmei, the tribulation, though not the bit with the goddesses. Erishkira’s assault on the tribulation was also seen by it, then his time before. It bled through every experience he had had, bar a few, shielded by those higher powers, like his meeting with Meuanna, and then flowed back into the azure eyes of the golden figure.
[So, you are, indeed, who we thought, excellent.] The figure’s sibilant voice echoed in his mind, not quite feeling like spoken words.
[You will enamour this girl, and through her desire for you, she will slowly be exposed to us. As will that girl who saw the moon, and the elf sorceress. You will enamour them, each in turn, according to whatever method best suits… and then, when the time is right, we will speak to you, and invite you to Udrasa, where you will deliver them to us.]
The voice rippled through his psyche, somehow once again evading all of his teachers’ safeguards, and scrupulously avoiding the talisman as well. It showed him scenes of Quaruna submitting wholly to him… and Dongmei—even Erishkira, until they could only think of him. Obey him. Serve him—
[And this talisman, fortune within fortune, deliver it to me, here and now. Act as if you are overwhelmed by this gift and want to give something in return…] Daraxes commanded.
The strength sank into his mind, his body, his soul, as he lost himself in that horrifying, azure whirlpool—
Like a silent knife, a silver needle reflected in that blue maelstrom… and winked out, like a snuffed candle flame. Both silver-masked figures collapsed like broken puppets. Daraxes staggered back, his form blurring, twisting and shimmering, casting a bizarre shadow this way and that, akin to the demonic, multi-armed, twisted, crocodile-headed Sar’Katush he had seen before. Then, it grew an extra pair of arms out of its robe and grasped for him, snarling inarticulately.
[DEATH!]
The twisted, abhorrent snarl melted away, even as it formed, devoured by something utterly beyond his ability to comprehend. The needle, shining like a silver point in that now dark eye, became a spiderweb of red, bleeding out, like cracks for a moment, then… faded, taking all the colour out of their surroundings with it.
The golden-masked figure and everyone else, stood frozen, around him. The last patch of colour to vanish was the golden tint on Daraxes mask, and as it did so, his body, and those of these two silver-masked subordinates… warped, in a way that left his skin clammy.
In eerie silence, their masks cracked… then scattered into flakes of tarnished silver and gold. The two minions were… normal-looking Ur, as it turned out. However, Daraxes’ face… was less that and more a twisted, warped skull covered with a stretched mask of scarred flesh. His nose was little more than two slits. He also had five eyes, two normal, that had been ripped out at some point, and then two more, dark, cavernous eye sockets above them, with a fifth in the middle of its forehead. The mouth was bent out of shape, the lower jaw starting to elongate slightly, and split apart, so that it opened vertically, rather than normally.
“That is one nasty treasure…”
He turned to find Lissaea standing there, at the entrance to the balcony, the only splash of colour in the now totally grey-toned room, giving him an appraising look.
“You can leave this to me,” she added, waving her hand.
What she did, he had no idea, but almost immediately, colour began to slip back into everything, and then the moment returned to normal. The three figures had their masks once again, and Lissaea herself had vanished, as if she was never there.
“Thank you… for your interest, Master Daraxes,” he replied, hesitantly, to the golden-masked figure before him. Its eyes were still shifting blue pools, but there was no… connection in them now, he realised. It was just blue light.
Master Daraxes stared at him for a long moment.
“We look forward to receiving you in Udrasa, when the time is right,” Daraxes replied at last, again nothing overtly different in his manner.
Bowing again, he took the still unopened box and stepped back, then the figure, along with the two followers, turned and left, without saying another word.
“Well, that was… odd,” Nisa muttered.
“Y-yeah,” Garesh agreed, hesitantly.
“I’ll take merely odd, when it comes to those creepy old fellows from Udrasa,” Amanali murmured, downing her wine.
The others all nodded as well, even the youthful-looking noble and his servants, who had been hanging back, though there, he still sensed something a little… hollow?
-Did that villain somehow subvert them as well? He wondered as the youthful noble finally came forward.
“Great Hunter Kang, ever the man of the hour, it seems even almighty Udrasa has you in its sight,” the noble murmured, bowing. “I am Ghrazir, son of Lord Maroz, at your service.”
-Ah, Maroz…
“I am led to believe you have Lady Erishkira’s Soul Gold?” he prompted, recalling that exchange from earlier.
“Yes, it is as my father suggested at today’s auction,” the Ghrazir nodded, waving forward the two youths behind him.
One, he noticed, had a storage ring on his finger.
With a ripple, a box a little bigger than the ‘gift’ he had just been given appeared on the table next to them. With a flourish, the other youth opened it to reveal an assortment of items—rings, necklaces, a broach, two small ingots, a batch of what looked like sacred coins and even a broken dagger blade, all made from a deep, dark gold.
“Lady Erishkira is… otherwise engaged right now,” he informed Ghrazir politely. She hadn’t come out of her rooms for any of this, nor had Dongmei, though she was surely ‘aware’ that they were here. “But if you leave this here, she will appraise it and if it is suitable, the deal struck earlier will stand, otherwise it will all be returned to you.”
“Of course,” Ghrazir replied smoothly. “However, I also hoped to conduct another little bit of business?”
“Oh?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It is no secret that that beauty there caught your eye earlier,” Ghrazir nodded to Ao Qingcheng. “My brother was also very taken with her and her compatriots, and I hoped that I could purchase…”
-Ah, and here comes the ‘little problem’, he groaned inwardly, noting Ao Qingcheng was looking… nervous, understandably so.
“Are you trying to cause problems, Ghrazir?” Quaruna asked, archly.
“Ahem, not at all, Lady Quaruna,” Ghrazir replied hurriedly. “I just hoped, given that this slave was already ‘excluded’… or that at least I could secure Hunter Kang’s support to…?”
“We will speak of it tomorrow,” he informed Ghrazir, grimacing inwardly. “If that is okay?”
“Tomorrow… yes, we can speak of it tomorrow,” Ghrazir nodded, after a moment’s thought. “In that case, I will take my leave.”
He watched as the youth left followed by his two servants, then sighed.
“Maroz’s sons always find ways to cause a pain in the ass for others,” Kurra muttered, eyeing the door.
“Metaphorically… or literally?” Nisa asked, rolling her eyes.
“Hard to say,” Kurra replied drily.
“At least he had the presence of mind not to try and invite himself to stay,” Garesh muttered.
“Yeah,” Kurra agreed, rolling her eyes, before waving at Mei Miao. “Pour us some more wine, would you? Something strong, to wash away the taste of those two groups—they have quite killed the mood.”
“Ah! Why don’t you dance for us?” he asked Ao Qingcheng, thinking quickly.
Formal dances were something she should be well versed in, coming from Verdant Flowers Valley. Even more so, the Fire Orchid Pavilion, which was where many women with yang-aligned roots ended up, was renowned within it for their vibrant and exciting fan-dances and energetic musical compositions.
Given Quaruna had a very yang-based foundation as well, her interest in them and supporting him in getting Qingcheng’s compatriots, would make sense as well to any casual onlookers wondering.
“Ohhh… good idea!” Garesh agreed, eyeing Qingcheng with interest.
“Mmmm, yeah,” Quaruna nodded eagerly, settling back on her couch.
As an elite disciple, Qingcheng should be able to perform most of them to a very high standard. It was just a pity that he had no real grasp on the strengths of the three cultivators playing the music. Their qi foundations were pretty good, and the music they had played earlier was pleasant to the ear, but still…
It was a pity there was nobody else from her sect here….
“As you command, Master Kang,” Qingcheng murmured, bowing to him and Quaruna, then the rest of them.
“Can you play ‘The Lotus Blooms Upon Meiyue Lake?’” she asked the three musicians in Imperial Common.
“Y-yes,” the youngest one, holding the lute, nodded. “I learned it for a competition.”
“Good,” Qingcheng nodded. “Just do your best and leave the rest to me.”
All three looked relieved, he could not help but note, and quickly struck up a simple rendition of the classic ‘The Lotus Blooms Upon the Water’. As a dance, it was notable for its elegance and charm, and also its depths. Easy to learn, difficult to master, was another way to describe it.
“They all move wonderfully,” Amanali observed as Qingcheng started to go through the steps, matching her movement to the music flawlessly.
“—and the men are vigorous,” Nisa added, with a smirk, eyeing first him, then Sheng Huan, who was sitting off to the side, looking… a bit flushed.
The youth’s qi was disordered a bit, and he could sense the faint traces of all the Ur women’s qi within him—even Amanali—suggesting that he had had sex with all of them. There was no trace of anything inauspicious, or conflicting in how his qi and theirs hewed together, either—so it didn’t seem as if he had been in any way an unwilling participant. If anything, he appeared to have gained, certainly in terms of his acclimatization to this place, from those unions. Garesh’s qi was similar in that regard as well showing traces that he had been with all the Ur women.
Interestingly, and reassuringly, though, there was no evidence that the female cultivators had been touched by any of those here.
…
Later, back in his room, he had just sat down on the edge of the bed to relax, when Quaruna slunk back in, and closed the door behind her, followed by Qingcheng, who was still looking… flushed, from her dancing, and a bit nervous, no doubt in case Quaruna made another move on her.
“Relax,” Quaruna slapped Qingcheng’s ass and gave her a saucy smirk.
Qingcheng gave her the most neutral look he had ever seen, as Quaruna shrugged off her gown and, in three steps reached him. Straddling him, she pulled off his top, and pushed him down, kissing him deeply.
…