Bearing Destiny 5

“Have you tried the Seven Springs Oil I recommended last week?”

“Only  small amounts. The scent is too strong, though the shine is pleasingly bright.”

“Really, you’re meant to dilute it with three parts water you know. Did you not read the instructions?”

“I did. The recommendation was not meant to avoid the caustic properties when applied to flesh?”

“Well, obviously that, but it also dilutes the scent. Honestly I wonder if that helmet is hollow sometimes…”

“It is. My surface layer is a hollow container for His righteous flame.”

“...Of course.”

Rixiong pursed his lips in consternation, bouncing his spear off one shoulder. Honestly, back at the end of the test he had wondered how the spirit he had now bound was going to impact his friendship with Ran Fen. Who remained understandably weary as they proceeded through the finishing event of the test. He’d been eager for his new friend and slightly less new friend to get along!

But it might have worked a little too well.

“Excuse me, Ran Fen, Zhengyi, we need to finish this, or our training field reservation might very well lapse.”

The two of them looked up from the market stall they had gathered in front of, with its neat little lines of oils and tinctures and perfumes. Rixiong understood the importance of fierce displays to maintain respect, but he didn’t really care much for these, they made his nose itch.

Though he was very pleased with the cloak and better tailored armored tunic he’d commissioned! A proper Solar Hero required a cape to billow inspiringly. He had been a little dubious but Zhengyi had been insistent that this was the proper way, if he did not want a plumed helmet. He wanted to get some good boots as well, but he’d not decided on who he should challenge and hunt for that. He found the lax attitude of many toward the respect owed to prey a little worrisome and did not want to be so disrespectful himself.

“Ah, is it really so late already?” Ran Fen frowned. “Well, sir Hao, I shall purchase another vial of the usual, and please give my compliments to your elder brother.”

The slightly pudgy cheerful young man behind the stall bobbed his head agreeable, moving to swiftly package her purchase. “‘Course, ‘Course Madam Ran, your custom’s well appreciated. Anything for the Uh…”

He faltered a little when Zhengyi’s burning eyes fell on him. She was really too intense.

“This jewelry polish.”

“Right, right let me just get that, we’ll get the flame resistant paper for you ma’am, don’t you mind…”

Soon they were off, walking the rising mountain paths toward the better class of training fields. Rixiong found himself thinking back, over the months of lessons and cultivation. Whatever his reservations about some of his fellow disciples, the Core students and elder’s who’s trials and occasional public lessons had forced him to push himself a great deal.

Up through the first realm, thundering through into the second like Mother at full charge, now with the year's end approaching, he was at the threshold of the third. He had tried once, only for the realm threshold to resist him, leaving him feeling as if he’d been crushed down into a container half his size.

He was grateful to Ran Fen for being there for him that day, to Zhengyi for looking at him not with scorn for a failure but the patient confidence of an expectant teacher.

“It is not like you to be lost in your own mind, Rixiong.” Ran Fen said. “I hope that you are not still dwelling.”

“No, just thinking of my good fortune,” Rixiong said. “...And the tournament.”

Three months until he would be under the eyes of his kind from all over the Empire, to win glory or ignominy, advancement or stagnation.

Ran Fen huffed at him, fluttering her fan in front of her face. “And I told you you should not worry so. I will be shocked if you do not break through by then, and with the mass promotions elevating disciples to mobilize for war, there are only a handful who might stand against you, such as…”

The arched gate over the sealed training field ahead of them flashed, its wards unwinding to reveal the slowly smoothing craters left in the packed earth, and its former occupant stepping out.

He was a wide, squat man, with short bristly hair and a silhouette packed with dense muscle, patchy bristles poked out along his chin as well, the beginnings of a beard. The older boy grunted as he strode out, plucking bits of stone and gravel from his hair.

“Ah, Senior Brother Fan, you were on the schedule before us!” Rixiong said brightly, raising his hand to wave as they mounted the final steps on the mountain path to come level with him.

Fan Yu looked at him blankly, the senior outer disciple wasn’t very expressive, Rixiong had found. “...It seems so, Junior Brother Rixiong. I’ll clear out of your way.”

“As you wish, I hope your training was fruitful,” Rixiong said, clasping his hands and bowing his head. He had met the older boy on a paired Sect job, and his sensory skills and spearmanship had impressed Rixiong, even if he was very taciturn and seemed to take Rixiong’s words of praise as insults at first.

“Good enough, though I don’t doubt you’ll pass me,” Fan Yu snorted. “Excuse me, Sect Sister.”

She pursed her lips and stepped aside for him, letting him by. Zhengyi stood silently, barely giving him a glance as he traveled down the path away.

“Such as Senior Brother Fan, there are only two other third realms, and the Wang scion is taking the crafting track,” Ran Fen finished as they stepped into the training field. “The other is a common born, but she seems to have stalled much longer than you, still best to assume she will manage, those types are always surprising.”

“You do yourself a disservice Ran Fen!” Rixiong laughed.”Do you think I have not watched you too. You acquitted yourself quite well in your last duel and I know you have been preparing your medications very meticulously.”

“I agree, Miss Ran’s ambition is not small,” Zhengyi said, crossing her arms as strode across the field to face them, rippling heat beginning to rise from her metal skin as she prepared for the sparring. “A worthy companion.”

“Ai Daiyu is a simpering bully with a swollen head. I am more annoyed that I was forced to reveal my Five Petal Dance before the tournament,” Ran Fen grumbled. “I suppose that is the problem with feigning weakness.”

“I never begrudged you, using my shadow to hide your skill,” Rixiong mused. It was amusing how much more straightforward ran fen had become in their conversations “But I did never see the point.”

She sighed. “It is moot now, so let us leave it aside.”

Rixiong rolled his shoulders. “As you like! Zhengyi, what are you thinking today?”

Zhengyi’s finger tapped against her elbow, making a bright ringing sound as she considered his question. “You have developed the Void Sundering Flare style I was given to teach you very well, but I wonder if your recent troubles do not lie in neglect of your foundation.”

Rixiong frowned at her.

Ran Fen gave him a look over the top of her fan. “Rixiong, don’t think I have not noticed your efforts. You have done very well, and I appreciate you taking my lessons to heart but…”

“You are trying too hard to be else than what you are,” Zhengyi said flatly. “I have noted your dissatisfaction and avoidance of certain techniques.”

His frown deepened. He hadn’t really, had he? It was true he had been focusing on the explosive power of his spear art. He simply hadn’t needed his Mother’s arts as much recently, given how few could endure his spear.

…He had come to enjoy a certain degree of respect though hadn’t he. And that came with behaving more like Ran Fen’s lessons on gentleman's etiquette. It was a bit fun being able to match even the snobbiest nobles and watch them grow more and more frustrated when they found they could not talk around him.

On the other hand, he had not challenged near as much, and there was definitely an itch that told him he should just punch them in the jaw a few times after declaring insult.

“...I suppose you might be right. But I am not ashamed,” Rixiong said slowly.

“I do not think you are,” Ran Fen said, turning to face him fully and snapping her fan shut. “But… you have found it easier I think, to follow the flow of those around you. This is human nature.”

“The beast who clashes too hard with their pack is the one who goes hungry come the snows,” Rixiong sighed, scrubbing his hand through his hair. “Yes, I understand this, and…”

“You wished to strike that fellow from the Alabaster Sands at the gathering yesterday, didn’t you,” Ran Fen said.

His fist clenched and his nostrils flared, a deep rumble of anger rising in his chest. “These ‘treasure fleets’ sound like no more than banditry!”

“...Leaving that aside,” Ran Fen said quietly. They had this argument already. She did not understand his anger regarding ‘barbarians’ being attacked. He could not fully refute her point that it was no different than any other relationship of predator and prey. “You would not have restrained yourself when I met you.”

“...I did not wish to cause a scene.”

Those words made him recoil on himself. When had he ever thought in such a way. It was one thing if the one who spoke was too strong to challenge but… He knew, in his heart he could have afforded to make some insults, given how strongly he had positioned himself.

“I apologize for my part in this. Rixiong,” Ran Fen said, bowing her head. “I have appreciated our lessons and friendship, but… do not damage your cultivation by following my words.”

Zhengyi nodded crisply. “Indeed. I would like you to throw aside your spear. I will come at you. You are to endure and rebuff me, with your foundational arts alone.”

Rixiong considered the spirit. The third realm spirit, who was not strictly bound to him yet, waiting instead for him to cross that barrier. He regarded his spear, it was a fine thing, polished and lacquered wood and sharp gleaming steel a far cry from the handcrafting thing of rough carved wood and bone he had arrived with.

He dropped it onto the packed earth, and exhaled, sliding himself into the low slung stance that he had learned from imitation of his Mother, letting the purity of flame he had been cultivating ebb away and something rougher, craggy and mountainous rise in its place.

“A fine idea. Please don’t hold back!”

Zhengyi regarded him with no change in the intensity of her gaze as Ran Fen rapidly backed away. Only the intensification of the heat shimmers around the bronze and brass skinned spirit grew, flames licking out of the inside of her helm.

Metal creaked as hands curled into fists.

“Consent accepted. Commencing trial.”

He all but folded in half as a fist wreathed in flame drove into his gut, dragging his heels through furrows in the dirt. Air blasted from his lungs in a wheeze,even as he lashed out, grasping the metal limb that had struck him. His chest swelled as he inhaled, and let loose an ursine roar that rattled the gravel at his feet and briefly snuffed rising flames.

Yes. he had to admit, he felt lighter already.