Bearing Destiny 4

Rixiong grimaced as his foot caught on a twig, sending a crackling snap echoing through the forest. The sun was setting, the undergrowth in long, ruddy shadows. He froze where he stood, eyes darting to and fro, ears straining for any sign that the noise had alerted. The weight on his back shifted. Ran Fen let out a small groan, slumped against his back.

“Aren’t you supposed to be good at this,” she said, words slow and slurring. The venom of the dreamspinners clearly not yet purged from her system.

“I am good at this,” he huffed. “Please be quiet a little longer.”

He was tired, even his stamina flagging after the running battle through that trap of a false nest. A labyrinth of glimmering webs and skittering legs, twisting the world into shadow and fear… not an experience he’d volunteer for again. The worst had been when the egg sack he’d been thrown into by the bash of the nest guardian's leg had burst right under his face…

Rixiong shuddered, he would be feeling that crawling sensation across his tongue for a long time coming. But! They had gotten the jewel that had been hidden at the center. The second of the two they needed before returning to the starting zone to finish the exercise.

With even more care, Rixiong pushed through the brush, squeezing between two closely spaced trees and into the little space which they had made their camp. “Ran Fen, we are inside.”

She stirred, pushing herself up, and he felt a stirring of qi ripple out. The trees behind them groaned, roots stirring in the earth and dragged themselves closer shutting off the entrance to the little clearing. He let out a sigh of relief, and moved to set her down at the base of the closely packed trunks that formed the rampart around this little pond they’d found.

Ran Fan groaned, releasing his shoulders as she sprawled at the base of the tree, she was in her training garb rather than one of those frilly things thankfully, and he eyed the ragged red cloth tied around her ankle with some concern. “You are sure you can handle the venom?”

“N-now that I can sit still and cycle my qi,” she groaned. “Ugh, I see the colors dancing even when I close my eyes…”

Rixiong settled himself at the pond's edge, rummaging through his pack for a clay bowl. He brushed his fingers fondly over the crude solar disc painted on its side. Mother had been very kind to get him the pigment!. Into the water went the bowl, filling it. He settled on his haunches,  holding it as steam began to rise, the water gently bubbling as he cleansed its impurities.

“You did well back there. I’d have never guessed those little fellows were lying to me about where the nest started,” Rixiong said. Really what kind of squirrel lied? They’d not usually have enough thoughts in their head to manage. Even after giving them such fine trail mix!

“Those who takes bribes cannot be trusted. If you can bribe them, so can someone else, it seems that goes for man and beast alike,” Ran Fen grumbled. “Though I suppose the proctors might have arranged it after you demonstrated your abilities…”

“Hm, I like it not, but I suppose I must be wary of cunning as well as physical threats, it is not a bad lesson.”

If the elder and inner disciples were truly tailoring their lessons so closely, he was thankful! Back home, in his Mother’s court, predator and prey alike were still of the Zenith in the end, they did not think in such ways. Mother was right that he lacked experience.

“Well, at least I managed to be useful for one thing,” Ran Fen grumbled, leaning her head back against the tree trunk.

“You are inexperienced in woodlore,” Rixiong agreed. Ran Fen did not even know how to start a fire, or that water should be purified, and when she began had no notion of what made a safe place to sleep. “But not useless! You have been better at identifying medicinal plants and the forage richest in qi than I.”

“It is just basic herblore,” she mumbled. He could scent the vaguely sick smell of the toxin being purged from her pores as they spoke, a wispy smoky shimmer of many colors rising up.

“Oh, does everyone in the Peaks study such things?”

Ran Fen didn’t answer him at first. “...No. My family's wealth comes from our orchards and reagent fields. So our arts are… agricultural.”

Rixiong pondered this for a moment, standing up to bring her the bowl of cooling but clean water. He was not the most insightful person, but he did pick some things up. “Is this why I see them sneer at you too sometimes? It seems many do not respect work done with their hands.

Ran Fen stiffened at his words, but accepted the bowl, drinking from it silently. “I do not expect you to understand the nuances completely, Rixiong. But the Ran family is young. We were raised to full viscounty under His Imperial highness An, when our lords were… found guilty of imperial treason. Many feel they were more deserving of such a title.”

“Oh that is strange of them. The man who brought me here told me that the Emperor became a Great Spirit. Who would question his judgment?”

She snorted violently, holding in a laugh. “Rixiong. You know, I do not hate the things you blurt out sometimes.” 

He frowned, but she was not trying to insult or be mean, he could tell. She was just talking in the weird way that Peaks people did. “You are fun to talk to as well, sometimes!”

She gave him a withering look and shook her head, but she was smiling, just a little. “Just give me an hour, and we can move to the tower.”

She was odd, but he was glad he had met her, this first human friend of his.

***

The finale of the trial was to reach the ruined tower deep in the Outer Sect wilderness, and there, climb its highest floor, where the token they had collected could be handed in to pass. Reaching it was alone, nearly another tribulation itself. Many pairs of disciples chose to guard its approach, to behave as miserable bandits and rob those who had undergone the forest's challenges.

Even if he could grudgingly see their logic. Rixiong found it infuriating. By the time they forced the crumbling stone entrance with the bright noon sun blazing mercilessly overhead, even he was battered, his furs torn and scorched, the sting of a dozen small wounds pestering his thoughts like buzzing flies. Ran Fen was worse, qi guttering down to barely a spark, slumping like a wilting flower through the gate behind him.

He had thought them done. The tower was not very large, a broken stump of a structure, leaning to the side, looking as if it might collapse any day. He had thought there was, at most, a bit of a dangerous climb, perhaps some final traps.

He had not expected to mount crumbling stairs, and step out onto a floor of polished gleaming bronze, with pillars of brass as large as tree trunks surrounding it, stretching up to support a ceiling that he could not look at, as if the whole sky were radiating the light of the sun. In its center stood a warrior.

They were not human, nor beast. Rixiong had understood that the moment he met eyes of molten metal, staring back at him from the shadow of a heavy plumed white helm. She towered over even him by a full head, broad shouldered, broad armed with skin like organic brass. The spirit bore no weapon, only a shield, emblazoned with a shining sun.

He had been overjoyed at first, he knew a fragment of his patron when he saw it, he had seen Mother treat with them at the pool on festival days. Then, she spoke.

“She may not pass.”

Ran Fen winced, holding her hand over the bandaged wound at her wait. “What is this the final trial? I admit I could not duel Rixiong right now, but there is no need to phrase it so…”

“No You are leeching off of your better in strength. Therefore you are unworthy,” the spirit said bluntly. “You’re misfortune that you arrived here at the hour of the zenith.”

“Honored spirit of the noontide, I object very strongly,” Rixiong said, stepping forward. “Ran Fen has done no such thing.”

“Eyes are upon you child of our Oracle. We observe.”

“Not very closely then,” Rixiong said angrily.

“Rixiong, you should not,” Ran Fen began, eyeing the spirit nervously. “I wish to win as well, but…”

“She lacks strength. The feeble arts of pen and voice and trickery are dim things, which ensnare the strong. It is unworthy of you to defend this. You pass this trial, you may get your reward, this stripling will not be harmed.”

Rixiong scowled. “Spirit, it pains me, but you are wrong.”

Those eyes flared beneath the spirits' helms, the temperature rising to bake against his skin, he only squared his shoulders further. “Oh, you dare?”

“I dare! I may dislike many things about the world of men, but I have seen my fists and my spear cannot solve all problems. Ran Fen bargained with me fairly, giving me new tools as I gave her mine. The Zenith does not reject all things that are not martial, if you do, I think you must be some tricksy thing fooling my senses.”

“Rixiong, Unless she is far, far above us, I really think she is not,” Ran Fen said quietly, stepping behind him as the fiery spirit took a step forward, the air rippling with eye watering heat now. Rixiong grasped his spear so tightly he felt it might snap as he felt his mouth drying and sweat breaking out on his skin.

“This is your answer? You reject your victory to favor this feeble thing?”

“Yes,” Rixiong said stubbornly, even as his eyes ached with heat and sun blindness, he did not look away.

And in an instant the heat was gone, the burning in his eyes was gone. The spirit stood before them in calmness. “Then proceed.”

“Hah?” Ran Fen said dully.

The spirit looked over her, and clapped a fist to her brass chest, with a reverberating clang. “We apologize for our insult. It was a necessary test.”

“...Why,” Rixiong said warily.

“There are many who say they walk Grandfather’s-the Zenith’s path, who hold disdain or contempt in their hearts who do not wield a warrior’s arts. If you were one of them, I would have smote you for your hubris, as those voices are a sickness in His house,” the spirit said calmly. 

“This was not even part of the trial, was it?” Ran Fen said dully.

“It was not,” the spirit said, bowing. “Though we thank the sect for placing their trial in such a way as to allow many to pass through this tower, where the divide is thin.”

Rixiong pounded his fist in his palm. “I see! Well that is good then. I was truly worried for a voice of the great Zenith to be saying such things!”

Ran Fen slumped. “...Can we please just finish this. I really want to see my actual bed again.”

Rixiong laughed, and began to march forward toward the stone arch which had melted into view between the columns on the far side of the room. He glanced to his left in surprise as the spirit fell in beside him. “Why?”

“This one is Zhengyi, named for the prime virtue. Grandfather has assigned this one to assist and guide you on the Way to the Brass Palace, until you prove yourself unworthy. Unless you reject this?”

Rixiong blinked slowly as they passed back into the cool cold of the crumbling tower stair. “No, of course not, honored voice.”

Behind him, Ran Fen grumbled and rubbed her hands against her temples.