Part 8.5
This is a draft chapter, and not even a completed chapter, so please expect typos, ongoing revisions and for this to trail off randomly because I haven't finished it yet!
It did not bend.
The path was narrow, twisting. It was open, and straight.
The array in the Thicket was a marvel. The wide area of effect, the way it ran perpetually and uninterrupted. It worked with the plants and greenery of the Thicket, and tied into the arrays that encouraged the plant growth. It did not interfere with disciples' own personal arrays unless that interference was to obstruct wayfinding and travel and that interference would then occur only because obstruction that was the array's purpose. It interfered with a wide range of Arts, arrays, talismans and skills that outer disciples might employ to make the Thicket easier to pass through, as well as preventing normal, basic memorisation of routes and distances.
To maintain even half of such an array over half the area for half the time, blocking half the Arts and techniques for half as many people who were half as talented... Her clan could not afford such a thing even if they spent every drop of qi and burned up every last spirit stone in their possession.
Half the array again and maybe they might be able to support that burden, but the clan would not be able to meet the extortionate demands of installing such a twice-halved array.
Such was the marvel of the Thicket, a marvel so many forgot existed in the sect as soon as they left the outer disciples' cottages behind.
It had two weaknesses, that array. The first that any sufficiently driven disciple could force their way through the Thicket and the array if they had a second-realm's qi.
Like that idiot who kept sneaking out to hidden corners of the sect grounds at night to train her combat Arts until she was at the brink of collapse or beyond, like a fool. Or like that idiot who kept slipping out of the Thicket to go and involve himself in inner sect business and kept getting himself needlessly hurt in the process of such pointless heroics, like a fool.
Use of a suitable second-realm Art would suffice too, even with less than a second-realm amount of qi. The method used by that idiot who just bulled her way through the array and drained all her stored qi just to talk to some arrogant, heartless wretch of an inner disciple.
Felli paused in her ruminations, well, maybe that last one was only half an idiot. The inner disciple was definitely a cruel, horrible wretch, but he at least knew his business. It had probably been worth the qi spent to have that conversation with him.
Anyway. The second weakness of the array was of course that it was as general and wide-ranging in its suppression of Arts and techniques as possible. In targeting all the common methods, it left open for use the most obscure and niche methods.
Methods like those which were part of Felli's fundamental cultivation Art. She had had little choice in that most important of first Arts, because of her unusual constitution, her vast potential in all its vastly constrained glory. No browsing a sect library, or having the pick of the clan's handful of fundamental Arts. No, she had been given Eight Eyes Bound in Moonsilk and that was it. Such wise and generous clan elders, such lovely family. Very kind. Felli thought so highly of them. Saddled with this ridiculous Art and its ridiculous moon spirit mind nonsense. Oh but surely it was such a great boon that the vision granted by the Eight Eyes was untouched by the Thicket's array. Stupid, stupid eyes.
Felli could not see any good rocks, or stones, or walls or anything that she could kick. Why was everything so annoying? She couldn't even shout in anger, she was too close to cottages to not be heard. Stupid.
Well if she could not turn off her spirit eyes any more than she could turn off her own mind, at least she could walk directly to a friend's cottage without getting lost, or scuffing her shoes on some irritatingly placed shrub, or spending twice as long as needed because the left turn into the small gap between two large trees was hidden by shadows and vines and that most marvellous, most pointless array.
Felli found the turning. It was a little ways on, surely, all the trees looked the same. No they didn't, the turning was right there.
She found the cramped little path worn through the undergrowth surrounding the cottage. The path meandered around thorny brambles. No it didn't. There were dense shrubs and snagging, prickly bushes all around with low hanging tree branches encroaching on her field of vision. No there weren't. The area was a relatively open space, filled with wild flowers, berry-laden bushes, vigorous but natural undergrowth and there was even some elegant bamboo. The trees were tall, venerable pines, maples and oaks. Too proud for low enough branches to be at a disciple's eye level. The array tried again, to hide the flowers and berries and bamboo and tall trees. Felli ignored its suggestions. Again.
Such a marvel, that array. And so annoying. Why could it not just give up already? Foolish array.
Sometimes. Sometimes, Felli really, really, really wanted to kick something.
She knew exactly where she was, what strangely troublesome array-directed plants were where in her vicinity. She knew what insects and animals were living in amidst the greenery, what birds were perched in the branches above her head. She knew where all the people in the area were, who they were. She knew where the buildings were and the paths between them and the direction she needed to go to arrive where she wished to. The array's persistent misdirections were nothing to her, just an irritation.
Why did cultivation have to be so annoying?
Well. At least she had made some real friends at the sect, even if some of them were idiots. And she could visit them easily. Much more easily than anyone else in the outer sect could do the same thing.
Here. Meishen's potted plants. Her verandah, home to a small assortment of herbs and aromatic plants. The pot that held an array not made by any disciple's hand. A woven doormat, laid out in welcome on the clean wooden floor of the verandah. Swept steps up, no dust and grime on the door, or the walls, the shutters. Everything well kept and tidy, looked after carefully. Even the rafters of the overhanging eaves were free of cobwebs and failed attempts at bird nests from some halfwit sparrows or whatever.
Then there were the less mundane details. Security arrays, intended like most security arrays to be hidden to all eyes that didn't belong to the owner. Arrays that were very much made by a disciple's hand, not like that pot. Which Felli knew because they were not hidden to her, Felli saw every single one and even the the individual characters of the inscriptions as clear as moonlight. There were a few new ones today, ones that extended over the entire clearing. There was a buried pit behind the cottage, that was especially rife with arrays, some of which were more protective and others which had less active functions. Felli saw all these even as she walked up to the front door on the far side of the house from that concealed space.
Meishen was lovely, and so very neat and polite too. A wonderful, tidy home that was not some slovenly dump - unlike some people Felli could mention. Even her arrays weren't such an eyesore. That smart little spiral one over the hidden pit looked very good, such deliberate and precise work. Felli liked visiting Meishen's house for tea, when their schedules aligned. There was much less noise here than at some people's cottages. Some people didn't know when to be quiet, and they had no idea about tidying up either, or proper decor. Idiots.
Meishen answered the door quickly after Felli knocked. Of course she did, she had only been sitting a span or so away at her table.
"Felli, how pleasant to see you!" Meishen gave her both a polite bow of the head, and also a very genuine greeting. She was surprised to see Felli, but not at all unhappy. There were shadows under her eyes, and she was clearly tired. It didn't dampen her delight at Felli's appearance at her door. See? Lovely.
"Meishen, I hope I am not calling at a bad time," Felli began, "but I received a new blend of tea, and thought perhaps you might like to try it with me."
Lies. Well, not lies. But that wasn't why Felli was here. This was what they would do, and it would be nice, but it wasn't Felli's purpose here. She didn't usually have a purpose at all, but today she did.
Meishen didn't think Felli was lying. She was wondering what the tea would be, she knew Felli liked different teas to her own favourites, she was interested to taste a new variety. "Oh, not at all, Felli. I was just working on an assignment but it's not at all urgent. Tea would be most lovely." Meishen was also lying, she had a lot to do and not enough time, the assignment needed doing. But also, yes, tea would be nice. "Please, come in." She welcomed Felli in anyway.
Felli was... Glad? Happy? Pleased maybe? That she was liked enough for Meishen to set aside her work to spend time over tea with her. Meishen cared about her work a lot. She did not cultivate an unusual Art, she was not a born leader, or once-in-a-generational talent like Felli or some idiots they both were acquainted with. Meishen worked hard, because she had no choice. She chose to have tea with Felli."How is your new recipe coming along?" Felli asked as she stepped through the door, and started taking off her shoes.
"Oh, I have barely started." Meishen was running out of time, she was rather stressed about it. "But Little Verdure has been sleeping a lot recently, I think he will hibernate soon so I have been preparing." She added, by way of explanation. Felli thought of pits in the ground, filled with arrays. Yes, she could understand why Meishen was so tired if she had made all of that since they had last spoken. It must have taken a lot of time, time spent with a fine brush and fine ink and a very steady hand. No mistakes allowed.
"I'm sure Little Verdure will do very well with his growth if you are preparing for it." Felli said politely. She could not say that the preparations were so extensive that any other outcome was now almost impossible, she was not supposed to know about other people's business the way she did. But she could at least say this small polity to Meishen and hope it would ease her friend's worries by even a hair's breadth. It was the truth, too, Meishen did not do half-measures. See the aforementioned reckless dash across the Thicket, yes? Another thing Felli was not supposed to know about but it was evidence enough for her, that anything Meishen chose to do would be done without reservation.
"You are very kind, Felli. I, too, hope he will do well." Meishen gave a wan smile, even as she cleared the table in the room, set out a floor cushion for her guest, beckoned Felli to make herself comfortable. Felli proffered the tea, in a neat box of layered paper, the leaves held in a packet of more delicate paper within. Heartjade Thaw - a less than common tea.
In fact, it was the very type of brew they had discussed previously. It had been commensurately expensive and hard to source, Felli had needed to rely on a certain unfeeling, exploitative creature to both fund and facilitate the purchase. There weren't exactly many disciples with the connections to sniff out the right merchant or trader, forget about then making contact. If she had been able to find anyone else to use, she would have. Though there was one slim benefit to using him, and that was that using the wretch had meant using his money.
Felli had threatened to stop helping his little scheme with the heroic idiot and the Office of Justice if the four-eyed scoundrel hadn't forked out. He'd grumbled, and blustered about complaining back to the clan head or something like that. Felli had ignored all the noise, she didn't really remember the exact things he'd said. All she cared about was that her extortion worked - and here was the result.
"It's not a tea I've sampled before," Felli informed Meishen as she handed over the box, "a green tea but from the Heartwaters. Something new for us both, I think." There were two new copies of books on Meishen's shelves that were about tea. Acquired after the shrine mission, evidently. Felli was even more certain she had chosen the right gift to bring along for this.
"Oh, what a rarity! And we were just speaking about these at the teahouse, too." Meishen was delighted and surprised, but Felli could tell that she already knew the basic brewing requirements for such specific tea leaves. She had not bought those new books for display purposes. "Please, sit, and I'll be through with a pot and some accompaniments shortly." Meishen bade her relax and the immediately vanished into the kitchen.
She bustled about in there, very quietly to anyone sat in the main room. That didn't stop Felli from knowing what her hostess was doing: fetching snacks from the stasis box, brewing a pot of the Heartwater Thaw with careful precision and a very expensive teapot. Making sure the matching teacups and saucers were spotlessly clean. Assembling the snacks on a small serving platter in a charming spiral to feed the eyes as well as the stomach. Truly the work of a budding chef.
Felli could not see it happening, but she could 'see' it. She could 'see' a lot. The way Little Verdure had his qi all bundled up inside, an automatic preparation for his upcoming growth and the reason he was so sleepy now. The way Meishen's qi instead was diffuse and sluggish, a turgid crawl where there should have been a steady, stable flow. Meishen's qi was not especially voluminous, nor rapid, nor dense, even at the best of times. The other disciple possessed what Felli considered above-average amounts of qi, and it was above-average in density but not significantly so. Her control was very much her outstanding trait, but what good fine control when you had nothing to control? It was clear the other girl had been using qi much faster than she could replenish it, and was now making do with less and less.
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