52. Many Peaks

Di Ram looked out at the vast clearing in the jungle where the new city was being built. He had cleared the wilderness himself and risen the foundations with his own power, and now the mortals were unpacking and beginning to build what would, hopefully, be their new homes.

They were perhaps a hundred miles from the city of Mer’cah, but that was a stone’s throw for a cultivator, so he was not surprised when he was interrupted while reading reports on the updates to the sewer system that the mortals were constructing based on records found within the library he wore on his finger.

“Lady Tonilla of the Raging River Sect informs Lord Di Ram that she has personally made the journey to visit in hopes of striking a mutually beneficial alliance,” the messenger, a mortal woman, explained in heavily accented words. “If it is suitable to the lord, I shall act as translator. Lady Tonilla has been working diligently to learn the northern tongue, but I shall strive to ensure that there is no confusion.”

“Of course,” he said. He glanced around the pavilion which sat on top of the hill and glanced at his field desk and decided that he was ready for the audience immediately. “You may inform her ladyship that I am ready to receive her at her convenience.”

The mortal bowed and walked off. She returned ten minutes later with a cultivator of the late silver path. He smiled. Another silver-ranker who lacked either the insight or the resources to make the final push into gold.

Just like himself.

He set his report down and rose to meet the cultivator, bowing politely. “Welcome to ‘Port Hope,’” he said, translating the words into the southern dialect rather than using the northern dialect. While the official name of the city he was building was ‘Resh Fali,’ he preferred the meaning to the phonetics. “I must thank you most humbly, Lady Tonilla, for the support you have given my people on our long pilgrimage south. Many who will live and hopefully thrive in our new home would have perished along the way were it not for the supplies you sent.”

The words were translated, and after a moment Lady Tonilla also spoke words which were translated.

“Those supplies were bought and paid for in the form of judges for our tournament and experts on Toh Foram Siel. However, I will not deny, after seeing the scope of the migration, that perhaps I did not understand just how desperate the situation in the north truly was. That and the reports that I have received from my daughter have me greatly concerned that the blight which has infected your homeland will spread. Tell me, what is the source of the undead invasion?”

“If I knew, I would take steps to resolve it,” Di Ram said, sighing. “I suspect that Ko Ren has something to do with it, but where he gained the knowledge and experience to raise such a powerful army of monsters I know not. And because we do not know where the leak in the damn between life and death lies, we cannot plug it, and the corruption continues to spew forth.”

Tonilla listened to the translation, then nodded. “It seems that, for better or worse, we are neighbors now, and it seems to me that if we are to be good neighbors then we had best begin working on a relationship. Let us talk about our pasts and our histories, so that we both know where it is that we came from and what direction we hope our future paths will lead.”

Di Ram nodded. “Would you like to start or shall I?”

“I shall. The Raging Rivers sect was founded by my ancestor, who ascended three hundred years ago. For a while we were most prominent, controlling the confluence of the Thresh, the Loren, and the Pohkul rivers, which is where most of our wealth continues to come from in terms of trades and goods. Our cultivation traditions are based upon a number of local heritages, which our sacred ancestor studied and blended into her own. We are a proud sect, and we stand at the front of the alliance which is forming to face the threat in the north.”

Di Ram nodded at the translation. “The Six Mountain Sect was founded by not one ascended, but six. These companions united the north two thousand years ago in a conquest that was one of shifting alliances and mutual destruction among warlords until finally, their six armies stood at the battlefield. They parlayed before the battle and came to a solution which would prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of warriors. They said that whoever could raise the highest mountain would be proclaimed the ruler of the northern continent, and all of the others would swear fealty. Thus, for six months did they cultivate, and they raised their mountains. When the six mountains were measured, however, they were identical.

“Rather than break the pact, the six warlords each swore fealty to the other, becoming bosom companions and remaining friends until the day they decided to ascend. They each passed down their heritages.”

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The words were translated, and Tonilla looked as interested in his sect’s history as he’d been in hers. Finally, she looked to his ring.

“You have a need for much more that is presently outside your grasp if you wish to make this city of yours thrive. Help from the locals will be invaluable, but unless I am mistaken, that tradition of which you are rightly proud is the only currency you have to your name. Tell me, will you be willing to share the knowledge contained with in the ring which you now wear.”

Di Ram sighed, knowing that it would come to this. “Conditionally,” he said at length.

“I am eager to hear the conditions.”

“First, I am eager to know why it was that you did not simply take it from Pi Phon when you had the opportunity to do so. He was of but the bronze path and would have been an easy target for your assassins. Instead you insured that the ring, after learning its worth, was returned to my hand. Why?”

Tonilla nodded at the translation. “There are several reasons. The first is, if I took the ring from you, then I would prove myself untrustworthy after decades of building alliances and establishing relations with the southern sects. Just as your six founders attempted two millennia ago, I am attempting to unite the southern sects under one banner. I will not build this trust by stealing heritages. Especially not when I might gain by trade what I could take, and possibly lose just as swiftly, by force.

“The second is that even if I took the ring for myself, that does not mean that I can use it. I would assume that the library is filled with tricks and traps to keep out those who do not belong there. It would be better to have a guide who knows them, or can at least recognize them, than to lose my own researchers in such a way.

“The third is that I would not be able to understand the wisdom contained within until it is translated. Thus, I need translators, and taking the ring by force would severely upset those who are best for the task.”

Di Ram felt somewhat relieved at listening to her reasoning. It wasn’t that taking the ring hadn’t occurred to her , she simply had good reasons to see it returned and then barter for the contents as a separate matter. She may covet it, but she preferred to obtain the knowledge legitimately for a number of nuanced reasons.

“Now then, for my conditions,” Di Ram began. “The first is that supplies continue to be delivered to my people here at Resh Fali and those who remain in the north. We will endeavor to become self sufficient as swiftly as possible, but at the moment we remain dependent upon the good will of our southern allies.”

“Done,” Lady Tonilla agreed promptly, before the translation had even finished. “I was already prepared for this condition. We have ten thousand bags of Quinoa ready to be delivered to Resh Fali tomorrow.”

Di Ram nodded, closing his eyes. That would relieve the pressures on the peasants considerably. “The second and third conditions go together. Those who study the techniques of the Six Mountain Sect must swear never to use them against the Six Mountain Sect, or to spread the knowledge to any who bear us ill will.

“The third is that they must swear to be our allies in standing fast against the corruption that is stemming from the north.”

Lady Tonilla agreed, a predatory grin forming on her face. “I have a proposition.”

“I am listening.”

“As you know, I am the leader of a council which is acting as a provisional government. While I have been personally bankrolling much of the support that I have been giving you, I am prepared to say that that support instead comes from the collective council.”

“If that suits your needs, I do not care where you say the food comes from. As long as it comes,” Di Ram said.

“We shall say that the council has been supporting you all along, my friend,” she clarified. “And now that you have something in exchange to offer, we wish to form a formal alliance with the remnants of the Six Mountain Sect. A formal alliance between a sect with two thousand years of history will do much to legitimize our rule, and the knowledge in your ring shall also encourage many of those who are resentful of our position to join us and end their opposition. I wish to form an alliance like that of the six heroes of your story, Lord Di Ram. Let us be the first to raise our mountains.”

Di Ram was silent for a moment as he considered the translation for a moment. Then he nodded. “Let our meeting signal the beginning of the Many Peaks Alliance,” he said.

She laughed. “Oh, who said you get to pick the name?” But she did not provide her own suggestion, and so the name stuck.

And the threads of fate spun and wove as many possible futures snapped into becoming closer to reality, while others faded into the depths of ‘might have been.’

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