Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty Three - Name

The Kalpas’ heavenly fingers could only now grasp, and only those that were not severed or obliterated. Neither terror nor shame registered in so eternal a gaze for such an existence was above emotion, yet it indeed recognised causality.

[Ink] burned in multitudes.

Fu thought it beneath him to check, for what mark upon parchment might detail greater the insight of his last [Season’s] worth of trial. What state his flesh, his [Spirit], his [Mind], his straining [Constellation Seeds] now stood were a mulched blur.

Some weeks into the bout he had lost an eye, as had Zhu lost a wrist. Shuidi’s shell was cracked as were Tanshuai’s [Meridians] barren.

Days of incessant motion allowed only by [Barefoot Emperor’s] once-gift. An art refined and bolstered by the [Divine Qi] so abundantly gifted by the Cloudy Serpent Sect’s external machinations. A [Tribulation] of dilated time.

One that had these former ghosts, these [Primordial Lords], under blissful duress for weeks on end to leave all broken.

Ruptured.

Bloodied.

Triumphant.

Seconds passed as Fu and Zhu gasped for unnecessary air, seeing before them the Kalpas fail to scrape any ground from its spatial disturbance. A titan reduced. One whose sixteen hands could not find purchase upon the heavenly boundary of its portal.

“[Clouded-”

“[Firmament.]” finished Zhu.

Dragons encapsulated their forms as these cultivators blurred toward the open portal within a shell of Heavenly wrath. Three divine beasts of clouded, shining and umbral scales that held in jaws the poised blades of chain and axe.

In perfect unity their weapons met the final grasp of this Kalpas , obliterating its radiant flesh with a release of their remaining, expendable [Divine Qi] all at once.

Then the fissure into which it fell, collapsed, granting a small sight of some stupendous eruption of power behind the fading chasm as it sealed itself as a seamstress might bind two torn sleeves of fabric.

All that Fu had imbued into this [Tribulation] multiplied upon completion, giving ponderance to whence it truly came. The order of magnitude it returned in was… cosmic, grand, and turned oceans to puddles in light comparison.

This energy diverged.

Split.

Unfolded upon Fu and Zhu’s [Cores] without further warning, drowning each cultivator and partner in heavenly power.

[Cloud Dragon Sutra].

The method of their cultivation, their God-formed technique, could scarce contain the rampant flood as it scorched about their [Meridians] and [Channels], and only Shuidi’s talent allowed them to parse such quantities of [Divine] and [Primordial Qi].

Few wells are bottomless. Let us not delay. What we do not seize now can be reclaimed across eternity, sister. Our ascension comes first.

But their hearts were as one.

Shuidi’s hum now was of trance-like focus, impressing and directing acts to her counterparts faster than comprehension. How their [Inner Qi] orchestrated into a thousand spirals within a thousand more; how Hushi compressed as Fu shifted and rotated; how they, as one, grew a clouded leviathan within their flesh.

Such was the route to immortality.

To take all one has tempered, to take [Mind], [Body], [Spirit], and [Harmony] and meld it into a gestalt greater than the sum of their parts. Yet to achieve this, the Paths of [Core Formation] had to be malleable- liquid.

Shattered pieces.

One’s technique ordered it. A singular ocean for those of [Water Qi], a grove for those of [Wood Qi], or a canopy for those of [Wood Qi], a system of roots, a solid trunk, a dispersal of petals… the paths were as myriad as the stars above, yet shared in their simple truth.

Destruction and reformation.

The three folded into the lotus position amidst this onslaught of energy, bending it to their will. “We are the opportunity and the dangerous wind. We are challenge and change. We the means and the end,” and in this simplicity they formed a mantra, condensed. “We are the Duality of Ever-Shifting Clouds.”

About them the [Cloud Dragon Sutra] became manifest.

About them roared a beast of dreadful depth and unimaginable brightness. Some amorphous, ephemeral mass of golden lightning and blackened cloud that moved with draconic grace if not one’s outer shape.

And this beast, this Cloud Dragon, devoured.

[Divine Qi] drained. [Primordial Qi]. [Constellation Seeds]. [Martial Prowess]. [Dao Principles]. [Primordial Law]. [Constitution].

For each facet of cultivation swallowed the Cloud Dragon swelled. It became a cataclysmic storm, ever-whirling, ever-rounding, ever-tearing in the space where Fu, Hushi and Shuidi sat, so wild that it scarcely listened to the demands their technique afforded.

Fu lifted a palm. “Come, our clouds.”

It did.

The Cloud Dragon’s entirety rushed through his spread palm, detonating the emptied [Core], [Meridians] and [Channels] within. All became like magma, like a deluge of liquid lightning that these three demanded coil within their soul.

For each circulation of the dragon the three sublimated their once-mortal shackles. The vestiges of their former cultivation washed aside, granting insight to how unrefined, how linear and child-like such a method was.

Gone were flesh and thought, spirit and equilibrium. To have held them apart and delineated them held its use then, yes, done as a first step and introduction to the existence they now possessed. A true gestalt- a confluence of representation that transcended each individual Path.

These three stood, snapping open their gaze. Ahead, something beckoned, a resonance that would shape the final outline of their vessel. A frame to support the concept, the force of nature they had become.

As one they reached, and paused.

Oh? There is such a good thing?

Tranquility reigned with the Cloud Dragon’s absorption. All storms were held within. Yet before them hovered a single bead of unreaped water.

A sphere in perfection.

An awareness sprouted of Zhu’s motion, of his own success and forward reach. He and Tanshuai had not hesitated to brush their own droplet aside.

A gift. A request. A role.

However Fu could only ponder why he had not thought of such a course before. This resonant bead… this floating droplet, hued in a colour few could touch… Hushi grasped it, and upon acceptance of this innocuous bead the Cloud Dragon erupted once more, many times its former scale.

Such a twist… how vexed will Grandmother become?

[Ink] burned.

As did a chime toll.

🀧

It did not occur with the swiftness of Long’s ascension, for indeed, [True Golden Demon] had reached immortality before.

No.

Fu’s energy ran rampant. [Divine Qi], [Primordial Qi], [Intent], [Dao], these cracked about him as if his form was the eye of a calamitous storm. For indeed, it was. These errant energies tore and lashed, causing the disbelieving hand of [Gleeful Viper] to rear back from his throat.

“A [Tribulation],” she hissed. “Yes. [Everlasting Scales Upon Canvas] spoke on this… what hope does a single Heavenly bolt bring you?”

The Cloud Dragon within settled at their command as [Gleeful Viper] tried to reassert her hand upon his throat.

[Thrice Clouded Boa] hissed in turn. “No longer will you rebuke me, sister! No longer! The circumstances of this-” she gestured to Fu. “-thing is of no consequence. Face me!”

Shuidi lifted a pincer from beside her pristine, mended shell. “The serpents would do well to put in their eyes.”

“Ears,” offered Fu.

A chime sounded from below, and rose with meteoric speed as its origin rejoined the hostilities. Zhu and Tanshuai dissuaded [Gleeful Viper’s] reaching hand with a brush of his own, leading Fu back several paces.

The Heavenly flames about him did much to aid this.

His robes were half-worn, exposing the musculature of his chest and all the [Ink] that shone upon it. Infinitesimal stars patterned across arm, shoulder and neck shone in black and gold outlines, a match the rogue streaks that ran throughout his hair. The same repetition was upon Tanshuai’s wings, now a hand’s width each among the least of changes.

[Profundity] burst as the chime finally emerged, heralding a great and heavenly voice from the surrounding air.

“[Twilight Nectar Sovereign].”

His brother’s [Dao Name] did not have the serpents’ freeze, but small mutters of impossibility crossed their lips.

“Immortality suits you, brother, sister,” spoke Fu, never lifting his gaze from the twin terrors before them. “[Twilight Nectar Sovereign]. Mystery being the sweetest amongst all one might find.”

Zhu stroked a golden hair from his own brow, seeming more irked by its continual disagreement than the peril at hand. His frustration… perhaps was misunderstood, for Fu thought he witnessed the Heavens themselves darken and grow bright once more at its conclusion. “A final act for our fallen Master?” he queried. “Cease your pageantry, I’m curious.”

His flames ceased.

Both sisters hissed further. Their partners above set the skies a-quake in equal rage.

The honor is yours, my heart of hearts.

Hushi and Shuidi embraced the resonance held within, and thus did their chime arrive at all ears gathered. Under such a weight of gravitas, it might well have reached more.

Golden fog washed from their forms in place of Long or Zhu’s flames, as did bolts of surprising hue storm within. What arrested all further acts was the scope of where their own transformative display stopped.

For it did not.

High above where serpent met serpent and annihilation met its own, the skies became purged of elemental filth. The detritus of Qi, the scorched air, the oppressive [Intent] and lingering [Profundity] made way for a screen of unmolested white. Bright, gentle clouds overcame the angered Heavens to span from one horizon to the next, and from them showered a rain of singular colour.

Their [Dao Name] came.

“[Cherry River Cloudcaller].”

Fu allowed the cherry-coloured rain to fall upon him. How pleasant it was as he had it wipe free the filth of all that had transpired. From the gathering pool in the crook of his palm came a gentle spiral to cleanse the remainder of his being, and in passing spun his hanfu into threads into a patterned display of clouds and fallen petals.

“Jinghui Hua,” hissed [Gleeful Viper]. “Her hand in this is plain. This seat sees now why you have the confidence to spout such delusions.”

[Thrice Clouded Boa] enshrouded herself in a cloak of [Primordial Law], making clear her intent to speak no further. The nightmares upon this fabric coalesced into a wicked length within her grasp, unveiling a chain wherein each link was dread incarnate and the head was a thing to suck joy from the world.

Equal parts [Law] and [Divine Qi].

[Twilight Nectar Sovereign] and [Cherry River Cloudcaller] shared a pensive look, and in each gaze the other saw a hint of challenge. “We’ve not the history with certain serpents as you do,” offered the former. “Either will do.”

Fu dipped his head. “Gratitude, brother.”

The rage that escaped both serpents-

[Clouded Sovereign’s Departure].

An arm looped into the crook of [Gleeful Viper’s] elbow as Fu drove her some hundred li in a single step, flinging her sidelong as they came to fresh skies. “I would try reason once more, venerable serpent.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

The shift from [Core Formation] to immortality had altered [Gleeful Viper’s] stare. Her vitriol was muted, if not by mild respect then by some scant acknowledgement. Thus when she spoke it was not with fervor, but icy normality. “The Cherry River rings hollow to name you so, blood of Jinghui Hua. [Cloudcaller]. What love is in these droplets?” she said, allowing a cascade upon her palm. “By her aid have all schemes succeeded, in this my mind is clear. You are merely a meritless, traitorous worm.”

She did not strike.

She offered no oblivion.

Hushi dipped. “Firstmost, there is gratitude.”

“Indeed,” offered Shuidi.

Fu bowed high. “Gratitude unending, venerable serpent. There is warmth held in our hearts, and for this reason we attempt to sway you before the end. Thousand Shore City is a name you may not recall, so paltry it was in the Jianghu’s eyes. Yet for all that was lost that day at your hand, we gained more. We were led here, grateful despite the tragedy we know it as.”

“Gratitude?” she hissed, mouthing then the threat in his words. “Before the end?” formed the pattern of her lips.

“The [Three Eyed Spying Array]. If not for your intervention, a fisherman I would have remained. A failure. Poorer for the absence of these two hearts that now beat with mine own. Had I not known your [Tribulation], I would not have recognised the squalor I had inflicted upon my kin. Thus, once more, gratitude.”

[Gleeful Viper] hissed, pensively. “A worm that aspired to shed its skin, yet a cherry-hued insect you remain. Some semblance of [Spirit] drew my eyes to you most, my once-serpent. I see now it was novelty. Shallow. The sacrifice that you claim to speak of… this correct love, is plain. One singular facet, one inciting wisdom that sparked memories of this grand seat’s humble beginnings! No more than this Yes. Yes. Mortal sentiment of such a strength it drew even my attention. It is… it can be nothing else.”

Some shrill scream escaped about them, sourced from a [Spirit Eel’s] maw.

It went ignored.

A whisker was stroked. “I wonder, venerable serpent, if this was your mother’s wish. To have love fostered in this fashion. Secluded. That you stood atop the world as a babe, it has lessened you. Isolated you. In truth it saddens me.”

“I need not entertain this-”

Shuidi hummed her interruption. “And yet, you do. Let us drop all pretense, [Gleeful Viper]. We hold the insight you seek.”

With effortless will Hushi’s arms formed a cradle into which the plentiful raindrops drew. His exterior limbs wove in sleek patterns, sculpting the central waters as if clay, though what held there was no complexity of shape.

Merely, a [Pill].

The act itself was rudimentary, for it was no more than a condensation of their [Hundred Poisons Synthesis], and yet… yes, Fu felt an impression there that drew from more than their freshly immortal [Origin Core].

An abundance flowed at their fingertips, yet so was it impossibly distant.

Some wonder of the Heavens in undiminishable state. A wellspring of [Primordial Qi] in confluence, spread across [Affinities], transcending [Affinities], to flow as a pristine force.

The Cherry River fed their [Pill], transforming the mundane distillation of their [Impending Mortality Dew] into something beyond even immortal ken.

“Of all insights, this is the greatest we might grant,” he said, withdrawing the [Impending Mortality Pill] from Hushi’s grasp. “It will allow you to begin again. To experience the love of which I speak without gilded cages and tainted views. A gift, venerable Nu wa. Our repayment for all you have had us become.”

Outrage sounded in the serpentine Heavens above, piercing all corners.

“Mortality” [Gleeful Viper] sneered. “You dare suggest this? I, Heaven’s Better, Highest Beneath the Stars? This magnanimity of speech I offer you, it ends now.”

Fu inclined his head. “Ah. Apologies. We did not offer this as a choice.”

For one whose [Might] already eclipsed those at the pinnacle, immortality had brought them to swiftness unmeasurable. In simplicity, [Cherry River Cloudcaller’s] palm could not be denied as his [Impending Mortality Pill] drove into [Gleeful Viper’s] navel with direct force. With his other arm he cradled the impossible immortal as she slumped over, overcome by sapping, sublimating energy and blurred both of them to the ground below.

“You- you,” she gasped and spluttered, seeping into the filth-strewn muck of scorched earth.

Shuidi directed the energy with precise motions, weaving an internal frame to prevent the most catastrophic of damage. A tide turned trickle in which she guided this Cherry River poison through individual pockets of flesh, and the layered oddities of her [Origin Core], sealing rather than crippling each of her titanic partners in turn.

For it, the skies grew silent.

Tranquil.

Uncontested.

“Perhaps this time, [Love] will not be your Path,” offered Fu. “My hope, Nu Wa, mortal soul, is that you find what you could not in previous times. A thousand gratitudes,” he bowed, making clear the finality of it.

Mud-drenched and sallow, the young-seeming girl there had lost all venom to her hiss. More so as some diminutive viper rushed her from the brown-stained grounds nearby, coming to rest upon her nape.

“My Sect will find me,” she raged. “A single word and the Gao shall be razed from existence. The Cherry River will be bled dry! The madness of you is plain, traitor, for no soul would be so brazen to do this! The Cloudy Serpent Sect-”

He only shook. “As it was with us, not all gifts are welcome at first. Farewell, Nu Wa.”

🀧

Uncountable quantities of [Divine Qi] had turned [Thrice Clouded Boa] monstrous. In [Might], in [Senses], [Pull] and all else that might be listed upon one’s [Ink].

Few Pillars possessed talents that were inherently Martial. [Prowess] was unnecessary, or indeed, beneath one so far above even most immortal’s ken. When one might scour entire continents with a turn of the hand, what need held they for a jian’s edge?

Zhu stood his ground if only for this.

Her [Dao], her [Primordial Law] and her [External Arts] were too slow to match him, and thus her chain had been drawn.

Yet now- a stalemate was clear as Fu approached.

“...by the sins of one’s forebears. Bah. It’s childish,” shook Zhu.

“Plum blood will ever stain you,” she returned, thundering her voice across the vast swathe of skies between them. “One cannot wash free the call of heritage. Of belonging. It is ever there, the snare of weeds beneath tranquil pools. The mud beneath parched ground. Hatred is the root of many fears, once-plum, as is inadequacy.”

The [Dao of Conquest’s Exhalation] and [Sovereign Clouded Existences Art] clad the three Gao fully, leaving them merely in observation.

“How vexing then, that you continue to act when there is nothing to prove. [Thrice Clouded Boa] is not blind. You’re not blind. There’s little need to explain your sister’s absence, for all here plainly felt the loss,” he said. “Fear. Love. The contest set forth by [Clouded Serpent Queen], bah, surely the victor is clear?”

[Thrice Clouded Boa’s] neck twisted marginally, as if struck by unseen force. It took until now to see Zhu’s machinations. The great weight of his [Dao] as it held her tongue captive, enforcing this exchange whether she felt it or not.

Impressions rang from Hushi, for he had thoughts on how best to end this day if Zhu’s own fell short.

“My sister’s failure was plain,” she declared. “Yet her absence does not fulfill my purpose. The [Hollow Throne] is proof of my victory, naught else. These words you twist from me, cultivator, are they not plain to see? Does not my Path embody the answer without the need for these prying questions?”

Zhu nodded. “It does. [Terror] in all aspects, truly, your insight is unrivalled. But you must recognise its wasteful nature. Why pursue this trivial thing when already you stand upon the highest stage? To claim the [Hollow Throne]- what would follow? Governance? You’ve already done all that was wished of you. Under these [Boundless Dao], what more will you waste before the true conclusion is reached?”

“Waste?” she pondered.

It was here that her eyelids spasmed, and clarity returned to her serpentine pupils.

“Compulsion,” her voice soon thundered. “My mind is my own, yet you have warped it. No. I see now, it is truth. Reality. This venerable Matriarch acknowledges you, [Twilight Nectar Sovereign]. A dispassionate sage, untroubled. Such words would be written upon your tomb, had I the grace to leave flesh enough for burial.”

Her four mountainous beasts reared and against such an annihilatory force Zhu lifted a single finger. “I’ve no care for those who do not listen. Across these limited [Seasons] we’ve encountered many. Know, Nu Gua, that my empathy for you is without equal. I, nor my brother would listen should one attempt to twist our Paths with words alone. My understanding in this is clear… bah, no, my patience has eroded now,” he shrugged, spurning her at the shoulder. “Do as you please.”

[Thrice Clouded Bao] sent forth five pillars of turbulent black, from palm and the gaping maws of her nightmarish partners. In their midst did terrible shapes race, skulk and linger, seeming as though a river of horrors conspired on Zhu’s position.

Great, twin axes blocked this obliteration of [Primordial Law], driving him back a single step within the air and causing the attack to thicken with [Thrice Clouded Boa’s] disgust.

A poetic scene.

A dramatic one indeed.

Shrouded to all but three, Zhu unstoppered a fresh bottle, passing it to Fu. “Now that we’ve achieved immortality,” he said. “Let us never fall prey to this foolishness. These Pillars, they only see what they wish, no?”

Fu considered the bottle, still half taken aback by the depths of his brother’s talents. The effigy of [Celestial Qi] and [Primordial Law] he marionette from the shadows had fooled even Shuidi until the last moment.

“[Gleeful Viper]?” asked Zhu.

“This peerless mistress… no, this cherry-hued mistress, believes she will find reason before the end,” hummed Shuidi, drinking a flow of droplets she suspended from the bottle’s nape. The [Spirit Crab] then looked skyward. “Ah. Let us hope these brief moments were enough.”

Hua’s orchestration flashed but once.

To Fu it seemed not as a brilliant burst of cherry-light, but a rival for the dawn. A blinding, gentle thing that warmed his eyelids all as things faded from sight- as space tore at the [Cherry River Sage’s] bidding and blurred the line between impossibility and miracle.

What followed was no gentle thing.

A calamity of noise exploded beneath Fu with such violence that it seemed the Jianghu had turned sideward, slanted, crumbled and flipped upon itself many times over. Earth, structure, water, air, bodies- the suspended island of the Golden Merchant Canton arrived over unknown lands with devastating impact.

All at once.

With utmost haste Fu blurred to catch Grandmother Hua’s falling form, as did Zhu arrive to cradle the impressive splay of Ershiba in all her glory, supporting the [Spirit Cuckoo’s] titanic gestalt upon his back.

Yet they did not descend.

The Canton’s depths spilled like headwater, as if the tide was angered and infested with some thrashing shoal of murky predators, ravenous for all in their path.

Hushi drew upon their tie to the Cherry River and-

“Bah, foolish blood of my blood. Son-in-law,” shook Hua, rising a mite in Fu’s grip. “Not all things need be done by you. To share a burden, is this not a family’s duty?”

Above the catastrophic noise came a ridiculous crow to drown all further chaos.

Fu traced a meteoric rise from the Canton’s center, held aloft by wings that ought never to have allowed it. Changkuai’s form was unaltered, and as far from fable as any common rooster, yet as the reverberation of his crow carried so did the unceasing tide slow.

At his second, verdant grass pushed forth it to further break the advance.

At his third, the waters gentled, becoming no more than streams.

At his fourth, the landscape stilled.

“The day has taken much from us, Gao Fu,” said Hua. “It need take no more. Our beloveds await. Bring us to them.”

The [Cherry River Sage’s] words had not yet finished as he unfolded in the midst of their ruined Canton, arriving to a scene of myriad [Arrays] and [External Arts], of [Dao Principles] and priceless treasures used with abandon to shield all those beneath them.

Mubu’s bracing arm slipped beneath Hua. “I will cut in here, son-in-law. There are others you wish to cradle more.”

To his immediate rear arrived Zhu, lowering Ershiba’s form atop still-bursting carpets of grass. Fresh growths that reached through cracked marble and bloodied ground. “Uncle,” he smiled. “I would know, without mystery,” he casually gestured.

“Oh? Isn’t it obvious, nephew?” he grinned. “Changkuai merely freed the ground from its obligation. Earth is ever unhappy when asked to move, thus-”

Zhu snorted a laugh as Fu was impacted from six individual sources. A gaggle of arms and paws nigh crushed the life from his all too inactive [Constitution], having him topple into a clutch of sprouting green.

“Father,” arrived sixfold.

“My family. You are all unharmed,” he struggled, managing to brace a knee as the embrace continued. “Filthy, yet unharmed. Could a father ask for any greater gift?” Yuling was first to pull back, yet the wind buffeted her back into this huddle.

When finally Fu relented in releasing his family, she dipped her head. “Immortality, father. This daughter congratulates you.”

“Immortality?” smiled Yuqi. “Father, Hushi, Shuidi, that is wondrous! These robes, the glint in your eyes, how proud we are.” Her arms squeezed ever so tight around the [Spirit Octopus], who himself did not refrain from a further embrace.

Warmth flushed their [Spirit] as he put his family at arm’s length.

“Ah,” he said, stroking his whisker. “Amidst the labours of this day we have gained much. The [Boundless Dao] have named us, and yet, we would first ask permission. Once we discover if it is rightly our [Dao Name], we will share it.”

Hua was some strides behind, and-

A second warmth filled Fu’s cheeks to see the open affection shared by the [Cherry River Sage] and his father-in-law’s lips. Indeed, immortality was a blessing and curse, for it seemed the pair had no intention of seeking air any time soon.

Her eyelid creaked open beneath an arched brow. “Really, Gao Fu, of all sights today you would redden at this? Please, I have millenia more experience than any here in this regard, do not be so prudish.” But then her face softened. “For all that, I am not the [Boundless Dao], nor the Heavens, merely one that stands close to them. You are as they have named, and it is a thing those that remain will gladly endorse. Bah, the peril of serpents has ended and your family are close. Rejoice, and do not trouble us further.”

Mubu grinned, and was surreptitiously dragged sideward by the ear. “We will return soon, son-in-law.”

“More is the pity?” chastised Hua, leading him from sight.

Fu blinked.

Indeed many shared this expression save for Yuqi, whose smile only grew. “Grandmother… for so many moons she put on false smiles. It is a good day, father. A terrible day,” she suggested around. “But in its way, good.”

Shuidi ruminated more on Hua’s words. “The peril of serpents has ended. [Thrice Clouded Boa’s] grand [Array], the backlash of its collapse… We have severed the heads of all snakes.”

The words went inward, and yet, faded as the three comprising [Cherry River Cloudcaller] swept their eyes to the last of all surprises this day.

Atop the scattered rubble of a once-serpentine pagoda, robes unfurled. Simple monastic cloth accompanied by the great landing of a violet [Spirit Toad], the latter of which spread wide his enormous mouth, allowing many souls to pour forth.

Udvah’s grin was already wide upon arrival, and stretched comically wider as he met Fu’s gaze. Then with the swiftness of hummingbirds, averted it. Something was mimed in that turning, although they did not have to wait long to have it deciphered.

There stood Mingqin, [Righteous Melodies Phoenix], backed by her impossible partners overhead. Her gait was anything but noble, nor was the implement she violently thrust below Fu’s chin. “Gao Fu.”

“City Lord,” he returned, blocked from bowing by the bristles of a dust-coated broom.

“Before gratitude is shared, before praise, reward and festivity, this noble seat would know a thing,” she demanded. “Of all locales, why here? Why deposit this ruin atop my Jade Songbird City?”

The horizon had indeed seemed similar.

Of all things, Shuidi fixated upon the broom. “Has this cherry-hued mistress not done enough? Why offer us this?”

A broom landed at their feet, cast from some dozen paces away.

Eighteenth Sruti launched another.

Two more metallic brooms fell from [Dour Faced Strategist’s] spatial ring.

With an unguessable shrug, Eighty Seventh Bhandana added his own.

Mingqin bowed at the waist, and rose with a rare smile. “Because, Gao Shuidi. No less than that is required.”