Ling Qi shared a long look with Xuan Shi.
As much as a founding tale could be interesting, how much would it help? Flipping the situation around in her head, how much would the tale of the Empire’s founding tell one about the Emerald Seas of today? In the end, this summit was still mostly...
2022-12-22 23:14:25 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi swallowed once. Even she knew there were many ways this story could go from a hundred hundred scraps of folktale and spirit knowledge.
“We would be happy to bring you your firewood, grandmother,” she called back, “if you offer the guarantee of your hospitality.”
Her re...
2022-12-20 01:42:11 +0000 UTC View PostShe wasn’t going to be caught again. Not like she had been with the fox.
“Xuan Shi, we’re going to move much faster now,” she warned. The pressure of the voices scratching at her thoughts was growing now, and the mineshaft rumbled and contorted, bending all around them. Ling Qi flic...
2022-12-16 02:56:37 +0000 UTC View Post“I think going downward through the tunnel will be the safer trip.”
“I wouldn’t call any of this safe,” Sixiang said dubiously.
“I said ‘safer,’ not safe. The storm above is wilder. I worry that we might get lost in it.”
“We party hard,” Kongyou quipped. ...
2022-12-13 01:24:21 +0000 UTC View Post“You are an attentive student,” Shu Yue praised as Ling Qi finished her analysis of the last letter, a simple invitation from a baron in the nearby Wang lands to trade some pointers regarding the establishment of agriculture in mountainous lands.
“You are a thoro...
2022-12-10 04:03:35 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi’s head snapped up, eyes widening in surprise. “But…”
“I was not there. You are important, but you are not my only business,” Shu Yue explained, righting the angle of their head. There was a faint scraping sound like bone on a carapace.
That… made sense. “Of cou...
2022-12-05 22:52:23 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi drew her breath into her lungs and exhaled, beginning the next stanza of her song. Moisture became falling snow, swiftly dirtied to gray by dust and mud. She sang of the girl, little more than an animal, living only to survive. The girl was but one rat, one starving street hound among the...
2022-12-02 00:04:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe ith-ia gardener raced toward her.
He leapt, and she vanished, ghosting backward, a dress and the silhouette of a face in the dark without hands or limbs like her teacher once had appeared. The stalking beasts and men and things between that stalked her mist circled and closed in. A burs...
2022-11-28 22:09:45 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Meant to get this out before the holidays but it didn't work out. Enjoy and look out for the next part soon.
The army of Phoenix Home wended its way through the dunes like a river of red and black. Following the lazy curve of the great road still, ...
2022-11-26 22:34:51 +0000 UTC View PostOne more announcement for the holiday season. From now on I'll be partnering with Fourthwall, to produce merchandise for the Destiny Cycle series! Right now I only have a small selection of products for folks to consider, but please take a look and keep an eye out as I grow the catalogue!
<...
2022-11-23 16:22:39 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi took the central path, straight on toward the target. The old veteran and one of the officers went left, and the Ministry official and the others took the right. But all remained in her mist, and though she could not see them, she could feel them each and every one.
She took a stead...
2022-11-21 22:56:53 +0000 UTC View PostWhat it says on the tin folks. Going to be traveling for the holiday. Thanksgiving for those who don't celebrate. I hope everyone has a good one.
2022-11-19 21:21:06 +0000 UTC View Post“What?!” the voice from the crystal, Yan Renshu’s voice, snarled.
“Dead men lose their hearing. Good to know,” Ling Qi said coldly.
“You... You can’t be here! This room is impenetrable without the power of a fourth realm! And what did you just do to my masterpiece?!” 2022-11-18 01:23:02 +0000 UTC View Post
They had been watching for two days now.
Yan Shenyi was a young seeming man who bore some resemblance to his cousin. He was short and a bit broad with the rough sort of face that was not usually deemed handsome. His dark brown hair was short and closely cropped, but he had a stringy mustach...
2022-11-15 01:15:54 +0000 UTC View Post“So, how bad do you think the damage is going to be?” Ling Qi asked, looking out the window of the carriage as it began to get moving. The outlying buildings of the sect town rolled by.
“Hah! I saw a lot of sour faces back there, but you knew what you were getting into,” Sixiang tea...
2022-11-10 21:25:46 +0000 UTC View Post“I’ll have to hope enough people are enraptured by what could be to counterbalance any disagreements about what was,” Ling Qi mused.
“Guess I’ll just have to hope you're as good at the hustle as you are at the flute,” Yu Nuan quipped.
“Is it a hustle if you believe what ...
2022-11-08 00:58:10 +0000 UTC View Post“By the way, which of my retainers would you prefer to be my liaison at your settlement since I cannot be on site yet?” Meizhen asked.
Ling Qi considered. She was curious about Bai Anxi’s musical style, but it could wait.
“As much as I am sure Xia Anxi would appreciate the opp...
2022-11-03 22:33:25 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone. This post is just a bit of long overdue admin. I'm going to collect here some important links for you guys and pin this up to give easier access to various bits of content and patron bonuses.
First up, we have my discord, where you can discuss the story and access a lot of c...
2022-11-03 18:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostWhat to do? Joking aside, she actually did feel for them a little.
<There’s a poetry reading going on. Got a couple of Gan’s folks there,> Sixiang pointed out. <And Wang Chao and his swordsman buddy are off doing some weapon testing with some of the crafter folks off to the rig...
2022-10-31 22:36:55 +0000 UTC View PostHome. It still eluded her. The house in the sect town wasn’t really hers. Tonghou had certainly never been home. But this, she had built, a little retreat where she could cultivate her arts, bully her juniors, and trade pointers with her peers.
<One of those activities is not like the ...
2022-10-27 20:43:25 +0000 UTC View PostEye of Grudges. An art? A technique? Ling Qi wasn’t sure, but it sounded ominous. Nonetheless, she was confident that she could make any lessons her own.
“It’s been some time since I’ve had a chance to cultivate the eyes I was born with,” Ling Qi said, referring to her early words...
2022-10-17 22:30:52 +0000 UTC View PostThey took it a little slower in returning, but as they came near the great manor nest, they found the old spirit beast and his grandson awaiting them. Both of those beasts kept up appearances, but Ling Qi could feel the shock and surprise practically emanating from the old beast’s litter bearer...
2022-10-14 01:11:17 +0000 UTC View Post
That's right the wait is almost over narrated by Natalie Naudus, like the previous volumes, the first book of Threads is coming to Audio you can preorder at the link!
2022-10-12 20:39:03 +0000 UTC View PostShouldn't be much difference for you RR and Patreon folks. But I read my calendar a bit wrong. 19th-26th will be the break
2022-10-12 20:32:03 +0000 UTC View PostFirstly. Sorry for the days delay on the previous update! But as you can tell from my missing a basic thing like that, it's getting to be time for my semi regular break. SO for one week here there will be no updates while I recharge the batteries.
Take care and thank you for your...
2022-10-11 23:38:55 +0000 UTC View PostThe young beast regarded her in shock, the old one with consideration. “Be wary,” Changin warned. “Their power crumbles artifice and severs law. They devour the breath and souls of the living.”
“If their appetites are like others of that kind, I may appear most appetizing,” Gan ...
2022-10-11 23:36:19 +0000 UTC View PostThe short journey through the woods proved pleasant. There was no rising hostility or pressure in the air, and their only watchers were circling birds and small beasts that skittered away at their passage. There was, however, a tension in the air, a feeling like the earth and the wind and the wat...
2022-10-06 23:36:43 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi blinked.
“The surveyors have discovered a high concentration of spirits, which they are not equipped to engage with. The concentration lies along the southeastern tributary of the river. They believe it to be a local spirit court.”
“And you want me to open talks.”
<... 2022-10-03 23:14:18 +0000 UTC View PostAs they moved out into the gardens to take a small lunch, conversation turned to the recipe she had provided Suyin, an elixir that would aid in the fourth realm breakthrough coming in their future.
“Have you made anything of it?” Ling Qi asked as she took her seat at the polished marble...
2022-09-30 00:56:43 +0000 UTC View Post“The construct,” Ling Qi explained, “along with some other projects, was found in a clanless fourth realm crafter's workshop after he passed. Since he had no living kin, it all went to auction.”
Li Suyin’s eyes lit up, one rather more literally. “Really! How in the world would o...
2022-09-26 23:37:05 +0000 UTC View Post