Forge of Destiny

Cai Renxiang considered her for a long moment. Ling Qi heard distant snarling again, wordless and incoherent. Her liege set her cup down.

"Very well. An insight for an insight, that we might put this disagreement to rest."

Cai Renxiang laced her fingers together in front of her face, eyes focused somewhere beyond Ling Qi. The rays of light which shone weakly around her at rest brightened. Rays of light were cast into the corners of the room, chasing out shadows and outlining motes of dust that were swiftly erased by its purity. Somewhere, far away, a bell chimed softly, and paper shuffled, a soft and soothing susurrus.

Ling Qi let out a breath, and frost crackled across the warm surface of the tea in her cup. Wispy lines of silver mist escaped the hems of her gown to crawl along the floor as her shadow stretched long under her liege’s light, tall and inky black across the wall behind.

Liquid light gathered along the seams of Cai Renxiang's clothes and highlighted her dark hair. In the light, her skin seemed almost metallic, but her eyes were clear and human still.

Ling Qi was not so different. She saw herself from every angle as she saw Renxiang, the women in the kitchen, Zhengui in the garden, Biyu in her painting room, and Mother in her study, along with everyone else in her household. She was a tall wraith with starry hair blown by the wind, eyes of silver blue ice blazing from within the shadows of her face, and a slim crescent smile. Dull angry flames still flashed and crackled within her, eating away at the shadows even as they were smothered by them.

These were but shadows of who they were, the meanest visual expression of their domains.

Now, she had to choose what to share, some concept that Renxiang would both resonate with and needed most.

Cai Renxiang was not wrong. Family and community were not without flaws and vices. However, her liege did not understand them well enough. Given her history, why would she?