Heavenly Shae

Addressed to Aunty Mei

Written by Zhi "Shae" Chen-Ai

At The Honourable Dragon's Entreaty Sect.

During mid-fall, two weeks past the equinox.

To be delivered by Runner Carli

Prepaid, but feel free to give her a tip if she arrives promptly.

Hello Auntie!

Or should I call you Diviner Mei?

If so, you could now call me Heavenly-Wisdom's Shae. Though, I'm sure you've heard about it already. I managed to earn those cultivator titles close to when we last spoke. It took a little while for me to fully accept them, I'm still a little shaky on Heavenly, but what can I do, reject it? Haha!

Thankfully, I stumbled into the combined form while filling out paperwork to get into the sect. I honestly thought it was 'Wisdom of the Heavenly,' but they corrected me eventually. ... Not sure I like it as much, but it's easier to say.

I'll have to ask you to send word to whoever's left in town. Hopefully Carli caught the monks before they left! I'm sure even Staff Sergeant Xiang would like to know I made it. Oh! Tell him I met two of his cohort in Gatewash, Doctor Cho and Nurse Joi. They were very nice people.

I'm sure Master Cheng will still be there. Let him know his bow and arrows were used by a cultivator to injure a powerful spirit beast! I'm sure he'll be proud a few of his arrows could be used with techniques. Although, he's old enough that this probably isn't the first time, hehehe! Don't tell him that part! Unless you want to!

That was during the Gatewash battle. I participated in the fringes, and was safe from injury. ... I'm not lying! Just downplaying it a bit. The sect kept me safe, I only met the doctors because I was knocked out by qi pressure at the end. Probably my own fault for pushing a little too hard.

Anyway-anyway. Since people call you Diviner Mei, do you know anything about divine qi? It looks like the sect is having a hard time finding a cultivation manual for me. It all seems a little silly since everyone pulls down divine qi during enlightenments. Sure, mine's not the exact same qi, but still... Hmm... Now I've distracted myself.

... Are they trying to pull a fast one?

... Or am I ahead of the curve? I guess that might be it. I'll think about it.

You already figured out I was a lost soul, right? That last tea with the calming soul root in it gave it away. People keep trying to dose me with the stuff, it's annoying. Ah, right, I had a question for you. The phrase 'cut through fate' keeps coming up, mostly in relation to lost souls. Is that, like, a thing? I can't tell if it's just a saying or not.

I hope you don't mind the casual tone I'm writing with. This place is so stuffy I needed to vent a little. Keep in touch! Please!

Shae

Shae's trip to the Mission Hall was delayed when she was told to come back tomorrow, when the Mission Hall elder would be available. They refused to take Colorful Koi's mission, saying it would take longer for them to verify than if she just returned tomorrow morning. The main obstacle seemed to be that they couldn't accept messages passed on by recruits without sect tokens.

The next morning, the attendant was a little annoyed by the mission request until Shae mentioned they were a Researcher. Then their eyes snapped open and they began processing it right away and ignored Shae completely.

She considered complaining about yesterday's attendant, but couldn't actually remember their name. That and she didn't want to admit that many of the dark haired, pale skinned attendants sort of looked the same. Their matching uniforms and hairstyles certainly seemed to encourage the mistake. Though, she realised later that it was probably because she had just met so many new people recently.

While she waited, she spotted Guard Shu and waved at her. Shu was in another line, and made it over to Shae before the attendant had finished filing the mission request.

"Wise Shae, I didn't expect to see you in here." Shu gave her a warm smile.

"Guard Shu." Shae bowed politely. "I didn't expect to be here either. I had to run a mission request over for Researcher Colorful Koi."

"A researcher? How did you get caught by one of them? Oh and I'm not a full time guard, remember."

"Ah, right, sorry Senior." She bowed quickly and Shu waved it off. "I had a meeting with Master Long at the research building, and a little more beyond that, long story." She forced a smile.

"It's fine, your business is yours. Did they pay you for the errand? Make sure they do, we don't work for free around here."

"Yes." She looked to the attendant who had glanced up at their conversation once or twice already. "I'm waiting for that, and extra mission credit that Researcher Koi said I was to receive."

One of the attendant's eyebrows jumped up and they quickly searched their desk to read over Koi's note again.

"Mission credit? That's somewhat unbelievable, you've only been here two days." Shu chuckled. "Do you even have a sect token?"

"A-hem, yes, I will need that to continue." The attendant tapped the edge of the desk closest to Shae.

The young cultivator shrugged. "Yesterday, Master Long said he would drop by and let someone know I needed mine sooner... Or maybe he stopped by the admin building?"

"I'll go ask around, stay here." The attendant huffed and walked away.

"So, what brings you here?" Shae asked.

Shu smiled. "Collecting my pay for the recruit-fetching job. Then I was going to go hit the market, oh! You should come with, you have a coin or two right? You did win that arrow bet. Apollo collected it after you passed out."

Shae's eyes went wide and she moved to slap her own forehead, flinching just before the contact, she froze the movement and settled for just pulling her hair a little. "Ugh, I totally forgot about that. And Apollo didn't give it to me, unless she hid it in my bag." She frowned.

"Snrk," Shu snorted. "You two seemed to get along well, so I don't think she would have stolen it. Maybe she'll remember and drop the comp directly into your sect account." She shrugged.

"Sect account... Is that what they meant by credit for the mission, too?"

"Eh, maybe." Shu wobbled a hand. "Some elders mean it like that, but there's also mission completion points. Different from sect comp, that's the currency."

"Right, right. That's that coin Long wanted me to cut."

"Yea, exactly, do you still have that?"

"Mm-hmph!" She fished her coin pouch out of her robes and found it.

"Okay, so that's a one point coin. The lowest value. Still worth twelve gold crowns, though. Most good cultivator stuff isn't cheaper than one of two of these. Because one is supposed to match a weak spirit stone."

"Supposed to?" Shae tilted her head.

"That gets into mercantile complexities, market demand, that kind of thing. Don't worry-"

"Er- yea, I get it, supply and demand. Prices fluctuate." Shae shrugged.

"Huh. I thought you were a peasant? Usually only merchant kids know that." Shu looked at her more intently.

"Farmers, especially those close to the border, need to know it too. If everyone's crops do well, the price of the grain drops and we might lose money. So it could be better to sell it across the border, even with tariffs."

"Huh. Right. We talked about something like this before, didn't we? Sorry, I'm just used to all the newbies being a little thick." She tapped the side of her head.

"Heh. It's fine. I probably know more than most anyway. And I'm sure I still have lots of blind spots." Shae cringed internally. Good cover story, but I should be more careful unless I want everyone to know I'm a lost soul.

She paused to think, would that be so bad?

"Shae?" Shu waved over her eyes.

"Huh? Oh sorry. Distracted myself. You were saying?"

"Right, so the sect coin is more stable than the price of a qi stone, so that's why we use them. The other common denominations you'll see are three, five, seven, then it jumps to two sets. Not sure why." Shu shrugged again, closing her eyes and throwing her palms out wide.

"Probably not just to be different. Hmm." Shae hummed. "Good question for Analyst Bai, it's probably a math thing, those first few are prime numbers."

Shu rolled her eyes. "Ugh, math. That's why I didn't want to be a merchant. Bartering is great fun, but running a business is mostly math. That's also why I should show you around the market, you'll get a good idea of common prices with me backing you up."

"That'd be great. And could I borrow you for longer? I need a better tour of more of the sect, like the library."

"Hmm, I dunno. I'm already expected to do that for my cousin."

"Oh! Right, Junior Nalin, we've met, you could show us both around at the same time. We could bring her to the market too." Shae bounced on her toes excitedly.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Hah. What are the odds?" Shu chuckled. "Well, if we can find her."

Shae nodded quickly. "She's probably at the training grounds. We've been getting breakfast together."

"Alright. Maybe we can drag a few more recruits in and I can charge you for it, ha-ha-hah. I did say we don't work for free around here." She smirked.

Shae's excitement began to waver. "Oh. Well I suppose."

Shu's smirk changed into a smile. "I'm just teasing you." She lightly batted the younger woman's shoulder. "Nalin might not have any coin for the market, but we can go ask her."

Shae smiled wide. "Great, it's a plan."

The attendant returned a short time later and said the resident elder would come by shortly. They continued processing Koi's mission request, then filled out a few more forms, asking for Shae's input a few times.

The question of qi slipping level came up, which was new to Shae.

"It means how much qi pressure you can handle, basically," Shu offered.

"Oh. Well, I've completed directed tempering, so pretty high. Uh, the qi between here and Gatewash didn't bother me, and I can handle pressure from a core stage cultivator." She stated factually and nodded to the attendant.

The attendant gave her half a frown. "That doesn't prove a whole lot. Elders usually restrict their qi pressure to what newbies should be able to handle. And almost every new recruit took the trip up from Gatewash."

"Eh, no, I didn't go with them-"

"So this is my headache for today?" A booming feminine voice said from behind Shae.

Shu and Shae both jumped and spun around. Shu relaxed then bowed as soon as she saw the speaker, so Shae followed suit.

"Elder Fengi," Shu said.

"Elder Fengi, nice to meet you," Shae copied.

"Nice for you, since I'm the one doing you a favor." She looked down on both of them, somehow mostly on Shae. Her long black hair was tied back tightly, and Shae spotted streaks of grey and white in it, then red at the tips when she walked by. Her sect robes were the brilliant white of an elder, embroidered with the deep blues and reds of the sect, red on the right, blue on the left. Hers had a magnificent dragon in blue, but the red side was all straight lines, erratically drawn. It took Shae a full breath to realize they represented cuts or scars.

Her quick stride took her around the desk to the attendant. "Junior Phal, what's the hold up?"

"Just debating her slipping rank, Elder."

"What's to debate? She's new. Set it to zero." The elder quickly spotted disagreement across the three faces and she raised a single finger to stop them. She pointed at Shae. "You've not learned the qi slipping technique, have you?"

"No, Elder, I have not." Buu~t, she thought.

The elder raised her finger to cut her thoughts off. "Then it's zero. It's taught in the first month of class, so if you have any talent, it can be reassessed then. Next?" She looked down at her attendant.

"That's all, aside from the specific reward. Here's the relevant request from Researcher Koi." They presented the note.

Elder Fengi skimmed the page, then reread the end a few times. Getting noticeably more annoyed each time. "Tsk. It seems to be unavoidable. If this was the only request I'd simply keep it to the logs, but lucky you that another request came through as well." She sneered at Shae. "We don't like to be seen offering favoritism, and receiving your sect token so soon often looks like that."

Shae swallowed but remained silent. She tried not to glance at Shu for support. The elder's face told little about her age or experience. Shae only spotted the hint of a wrinkle at the corner of her eyes, otherwise she almost looked like a stern office manager.

"Great, another one that just stares. "She pointed her finger at Shae again. "Junior Zhi, a little advice, some will take that intense gaze as a challenge." With a flick of her wrist, she dropped a small circle of jade on the desk. "Since you need it so early, you get one of last year's carvings. A reject that has held together, but will probably break when you're too rough with it."

Shae looked at the keyring sized donut shape. Its sides had been flattened into a square cross section and there was a slight twist to it, meaning the same edge didn't line up with itself after a full loop around the torus. Writing had been carved along the flat surface, but it was also interrupted by a crack.

"Replacements will cost you a sizable fee. This is the cost of favouritism." The elder tapped the desk.

Shae tilted her head. "I'm not sure if I should argue about that, or if you expect me to reject this in favor of waiting."

"Hah. Neither would help you." She scowled. "You've already been revealed as Long's favorite. And your connections in research won't help you. Is little Koi a distant cousin or something?"

Shae just blinked at the woman's bluster. She turned to Shu, who had a curious expression. "Senior Shu, could you do me a great favor by telling me a joke?"

"Ah? Sure? Um," she said and glanced at the elder then back to Shae. "How many merchants does it take to refill a lamp's oil?"

"Hmm, how many?" Shae asked with a flat expression.

"Two. One to sell you a new lamp, trading in the perfectly good old one, of course. Then a second to sell you the oil already in the new lamp."

Shae smirked, then burst out laughing, falling into Shu's side and grabbing her arm for support while she did so.

Several people in the large Mission Hall stopped what they were doing. Watching with confusion as the young woman laughed at her friend, right in front of the hall's Elder.

Shae's laughter caught on itself a few times as she felt the elder's qi pressure ramping up. Finally she took a few deep breaths and turned back to the older woman.

"Are you quite done? Think yourself clever for wasting my time?" The elder continued her scowl.

"I think a lot of things about myself. Clever? Maybe. Mostly I know it's unwise to laugh directly at a stronger cultivator, regardless of how absurdly wrong their assumptions are. I also know you've made up your mind about me. So, should I waste more of our time trying to change that, Elder Fengi?"

"No, I think you've dug yourself a big enough hole for one day. Since you've proven capable of earning mission credit, you'll be expected to continue doing so until classes start, just like our other students. Attendant Phal will finish up the rest. Good luck at the sect, little Zhi."

"Thank you, Elder Fengi." Shae bowed politely. So politely it might be taken as mocking, especially since she held it as the woman walked away.

There was a tense silence as Attendant Phal continued to fill out paperwork. It was finally interrupted by Shu asking, "Was that really necessary?"

"Hmm?" Shae looked up with an eyebrow raised, then shrugged. "Which part?"

"You could have done that better. It's only your second day, aggravating the Mission Hall elder is not a great idea."

She tilted her head and twisted her mouth to the side. "Nah, I didn't aggravate her, she was already furious. Sucks that she hates Master Long so much she's talking it out on me, nothing I can do about it except tell her she's wrong."

Attendant Phal sighed and tilted their head down, looking over their reading glasses, "You could have bowed and apologized."

"For what!?" Shae squeaked. She tensed up then turned away to cough into her sleeve, then turned back and quietly hissed, "For what?"

Phal smirked. "For being an inconvenience. It's not your fault, certainly, but you shouldn't give her reason to continue disliking you."

"Pffft," Shae blew out a breath and shook her head. "If she can't handle me being real, then she doesn't deserve me being fake."

Phal stared with a shocked expression. Shu also seemed surprised, and a little worried.

Shae looked between them, then cleared her throat into her fist. "A-hem, sorry, that's kind-of a quote. She's an elder so she probably does deserve my respect. However, I don't think false apologies are respectful. Especially not to myself." She brushed the front of her robes down.

Attendant Phal shook their head and gestured to the sect token. "Please pick that up with both hands and channel your personal qi through your hands. As much as you safely can and try to make it only your personal qi."

Shae nodded and followed the directions. She took a few deep breaths to center herself and draw her qi out, moving denser qi into her right arm, since it could handle more. Her left twitched as she tried to match the quantity of qi, and was forced to back off.

A tense voice broke her calm. "That's enough," Phal said, sounding almost nervous to Shae's ears.

She relaxed her qi, returning it to her Dantian and breathing deeply before carefully setting the jade token down on the desk. It clicked loudly as she set it down, and she noticed how quiet the room had become.

Phal had pushed their chair back from the desk, and they continued to lean away, shock in their eyes. A glance to her side saw that even Shu had taken a step back, but she looked apologetic. She shrugged and said, "Sorry, that was a bit surprising."

"Hmm, I guess I overdid it a bit." Shae looked between them. "You look like you've never seen someone use qi, Attendant Phal."

"Ah, yes, I mean no, of course I have." They limply pointed at Shu. "Yes, that was rather surprising. I've only rarely felt that kind of power."

Shae nodded. "I suppose it's a bit odd for a new recruit to touch on it." She leaned forward to look at the jade ring. It looked to be twitching slightly. No, it's the qi moving, she saw a faint glow inside the ring. Traveling circuits around the square edges. The light made the geometry much more obvious, the twist of the square cross section was only a quarter turn per orbit. "Ahh, like a Mobius strip," Shae whispered.

As she watched, the light also revealed more details around the crack. It wasn't just a mistake in the carving, it was intentional detail. She saw the vague outline of a head, mouth, fangs and eyes, either snake or dragon, it was hard to tell. She guessed that the carver had been reluctant to continue the fine detail work. "Ooh, and it's an Ouroboros!" She exclaimed, slightly louder than a whisper.

"A what?" Shu asked and leaned in as well.

"Heh, well, I'm glad you recognize the design, even with different words." Phal smirked. "Perhaps that will encourage it to hold itself together."

"But why four sides?" Shae tilted her head. "Is there some significance there?"

"Ah." Phal said and nervously glanced at the token. "I'm not entirely sure of the reasoning there. I believe the artist made three and five sided versions as well."

Shae nodded. "Alright. So they were trying all the variants? I mean five I get, what with the element cycle. Even three makes a lot of sense. Especially to some people, myself included."

"Uhm, it's just a number, no important significance." Phal tried to wave the idea away.

"Like maybe I'm the fourth side...?" Shae tilted her head back, scowling at the ceiling as she considered the idea.

"Ah, yes yes. That's it. Don't think about it any further." Phal stood and tried to get Shae's attention.

"Eh, nah, I don't like it." She shook her head.

Phal brought a wooden lid out from under the table and slammed it over the jade token, holding it down with both hands.

Shu and Shae watched them with curious looks. "Expecting it to explode, Attendant Phal?" Shu asked.

"A-hem. Just a precaution." They forced a smile, but didn't relax. "These things are- well- they can be temperamental. Especially when unique qi signatures are involved. It hasn't settled since you set it down."

Shae shrugged. "Makes sense. My qi moves on its own."

"Oh!" Phal's eyebrows jumped. "That could explain it. Uhm. If you wouldn't mind accepting the token as yours. Regardless of its geometry, if you accept it as is, it should stabilize."

"Hmm..." Shae considered.

"The circle is also a symbol of the cycle of samsara." Shu offered. "The four sides could represent the four realms and how they are linked."

Phal smiled wide and nodded, suggesting her logic was sound.

Shae's mouth twisted sideways again.

A sharp crack came from under the box. Phal twitched and slumped dramatically.

Shae pointed at the box. "I'm not paying for that."