It was early, the lower edge of the sun still touching the horizon when she t with the Minister. She ca to him at the nondescript but well-appointed office of the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs in the administration district. One might think the Ministry's headquarters in the capital would be less austere, but Ling Qi could see the logic to it.
The Ministry of Spiritual Affairs oversaw a vast web of spirit pacts and served as a congregating place for many varied priesthoods. Anything truly grand could easily offend so spirit or court. So, the headquarters was instead simple lines, dun roof tiles, a clean layout, and just a hint of draconic imagery woven into the scrolling of the rails and painted into wallpaper, quietly asserting the Celestial Dragon's spiritual supremacy.
They t in a simple office, lit brightly by a formation lamp on the ceiling.
"Minister, thank you for granting
the honor of a conversation, even before the ti of the eting with Law," Ling Qi said, paying respect to the cultivator’s position, bowing low.
"As the young heiress' closest spiritual advisor, it seems only sensible that I speak with you, considering the influence you have already shown in the south." Zhu Fan stroked his beard. Although he wore the horned band of his order on his head, his robes were much less intricate than last she t him. They were clean, soft earth tones with so geotric embroidery.
"It is a role I've found ca naturally, but not one I received any classical training for," Ling Qi admitted, choosing her words carefully. "I, of course, do not an to cause disruption, rely to aid where I see it is needed."
"Understandable. When one is young, it is easy to see only nurous problems and easy solutions," Zhu Fan said agreeably, gesturing for her to rise and moving to take a seat himself. "And those youthful eyes are not always wrong. There are many lingering problems left behind from Ogodei's wake."
Ling Qi nodded cautiously. That was a relatively good start to their conversation. It certainly hadn't been the polite rebuke she had feared would be coming her way.
“Pretty conciliatory, but I wouldn't expect him to just pat ya on the head and tell you good job, either. There's gonna be a lot of buts to those words, I'd bet," Sixiang murmured.
Ling Qi ventured, "The calamity of that invasion has left many deep scars. I do not fully understand the hows of it all."
"The cloud tribes do not interact with spirit courts as we do, and so, they have no respect for the rituals and rites and pacts they do not make. When the people of the south were slaughtered and driven from their hos, the spirits they had cultivated as their neighbors were rely collateral, uprooted and replaced by wilder spirits born from the torrential floods."
There was a heavy beat of silence.
Zhu Fan continued, "Great Tsu beca the Bountiful Earth and ordered the seasons, which were themselves but expressions of yin and yang energies in the world. Rising heat, highest heat, falling heat, lowest heat. This, he made a cycle, rather than a chaotic jumble, and man's wars cannot disrupt this. But the smaller details…"
Ling Qi filled in the answer to the unspoken question. "When do the rains co? How often, in what quantity? Which rivers flood and where? When does the first crop-killing cold co? These answers are the work of much smaller spirits. This is one of the matters I have sought to stabilize in our fief, or at least, regulate the coming of the snows.”
"It is a unique thod," Zhu Fan allowed, dragging his fingers slowly through his beard. "Unstable. Your spirit does not have the potency to be such a far-reaching lord."
"She may grow to be so. Her mother was much more potent than she."
"And yet, that spirit was only the cold of the mountaintop, not a matriarch of winters to stretch across the province," Zhu Fan replied. "Caution. Be wary of what you change. However, I know you act with the blessing of certain interests among the ng, so there is clearly a plan. I hope you will convey that I would like to hear it."
That was rather pointed, as far as requests went.
"Hanyi's tour seems to be working out, but yeah, it's starting to get kinda serious, too. That's probably a talk we need to have with Granny ng," Sixiang advised.
"I will raise the matter where I can. If I may, we have so plans to expand to more of a troupe model to spread the authority involved. Hanyi has also been learning to cultivate lesser spirits into local agents who can act in her absence," Ling Qi answered frankly.
"That is sowhat reassuring. A roving court is not a new concept, among man or spirit, but it has its own complications," Zhu Fan said after a mont's consideration. "Primarily, I would like to speak with you about your thoughts on spiritual organization. You are a rising star of the south, and your actions will influence the likely new wave of settlent that will be arriving."
"The Minister thinks so highly of ?"
"I recognize youthful ambition and the success which has granted you influence," Zhu Fan replied neutrally. "The heiress has taken the first steps of solidifying a position. It behooves a wise man to observe the new growth that survives its first winter."
"I cannot say I have no intentions of ordering things toward my own vision of harmony, in the regions that co under my purview," Ling Qi said. "Nor holding myself back from advising my neighbors."
"Who would be influenced by the extensive spiritual infrastructure being raised before they have done much more than break ground, regardless," Zhu Fan observed in a voice as dry as dust.
"I don't know if it could be called extensive."
"It is."
She ducked her head, and Sixiang chuckled. "I will defer to the Minister's judgent."
He did not quite sigh aloud or do anything so crass, but the flicker of irritability in his aura told her he did not believe she would. "There are several strains of thought in the purpose of spirit pacts."
Ling Qi nodded. "ng Duyi has taught
about this. The Weilu thod prioritizes minimizing natural disruption."
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"That is how they would put it. I would say, rather, they prioritize taking advantage of and then shaping already present phenona in the long term. The imperial thod prioritizes constructing optimal environnts for human safety and health. I will not ask which of these thods you favor, as it is obvious. Instead, I would ask what you believe the priority of a lord and their priests should be in arranging their environnt."
Zhu Fan posed hypotheticals. "Is it the ease, health, and happiness of their citizens? Is it the long-term harmony and stability of one's fief, past any mortal man's lifeti, forgoing growth? Is it the productivity of the land, bolstering the wealth it produces? I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter."
Ling Qi rubbed her fingers against the armrest of her chair thoughtfully. That was an interesting way to fra it.
"The productivity and bounty of the land is the most fundantal goal," Ling Qi answered, thinking of Zhengui. It was his enrichnt which allowed the otherwise ager land to bloom so well, and it was that blooming which drew in their steady trickle of new citizens, despite the danger. From that growth, the manpower to build and develop more anities rose.
"Providing that is what enables the rest. Comfortable, content people are steady because the most fundantal happiness is the freedom from deprivation," Ling Qi continued. "This goes for spirits as well. In my role as a priestess, determining what a spirit hungers for, what its wants are, and how they may be aligned with human interests to produce prosperity is the goal of my pacts. I don't think stability, at least in the way you described it, is necessarily desirable. Day-to-day and mont-to-mont, yes, but the world marches on. Trying to cling on to a certain state for too long is just as dangerous as wildly breaking your pacts. n change, and spirits do, too."
"Contentnt is a prize which n can never hold for long,” Minister Zhu Fan warned. “When one generation grows into new luxury, the next will see it as their entitled right and will demand more to be elevated still higher. That is the curse of wealth and expansionism. The Bao have filled whole libraries with discussion on this. The old ways do have their point in curbing this. When one lives as their parents did, as their grandparents did, harmony is achieved wherein pacts and stable lives may continue on for a thousand years or more without disruption."
She thought she saw the shape of this conversation now.
"Ain't about being right or wrong. It's about being able to defend and advance your position, yeah," Sixiang whispered.
"I don't believe so, Honored Minister. I have studied the Weilu. My understanding is that as the age of the first dukes wore on toward their exit, discontent, strife, and contraction were the na of the day. That is the lie that sotis sneaks into the word stability. There is no perfect stasis. In the absence of growth, decay remains," Ling Qi replied. "If a man has two sons, they must divide his fields between them. If they each have two sons, the fields are divided again. Strife, or at least the demand to clear more fields, is inevitable."
"A surprisingly traditional argunt," Zhu Fan said, a touch of amusent into his voice. "And perhaps one born out in the modern day as well."
"One that has been recognized, I am sure," Ling Qi acknowledged, knowing he could only have been referring to the ng and their recent indiscretions. "I freely admit I am not well read on the traditional argunts.
So many cultivators over so many centuries would co to so of the conclusions I have, thinking on my own. I do understand this. I am not so arrogant to think that my musings are unique."
"It is good you are able to admit that to yourself. I might suggest so tos for reading, if the Baroness wishes," Zhu Fan offered.
"Please."
"Don't worry, Qi. I can do so voice for ya. Promise. We gotta go out and improv so poems after, though!"
She refrained from snorting. She could take that deal with Sixiang.
"I stand by my words.” Ling Qi returned to the topic. “Abundance is good for both man and spirit, within so guidance against excess. This demands of the citizens an understanding and education on how to interact with the spiritual, but I do not think this is unreasonable."
"It is easy for an expert to assu their expertise is easily spread, for a certain kind of expert," Zhu Fan cautioned. "I have heard of your arrangents. The more complexity one loads upon the layn, the greater the certainty of error becos. What will you do when a fisherman or quarryer inevitably makes an error, in the small rites you are devolving to mortals? The spirits will demand recompense, and it will not always be so easy task or item for a civilized mind to stomach."
Ling Qi pursed her lips, rembering the miners buried in the cave in at the summit. There, she had wielded the threat of the General and conciliation to quell the mountain's demand for blood. She had since gained greater insights, and worked through rites, invoking imperial backing, such as those she had wielded against the Lonely Mother.
"I am where the responsibility flows from. I will be the one to make whatever offerings are needed," Ling Qi said.
"A fine sentint, but not a true answer to the problem. You intertwine man and spirit, but they are not the sa. The Weilu thod demands that n pay their blood. The imperial thod is to bring the spirit into submission to imperial law and the celestial court, routing their grievences through its ritual infrastructure. Spirits take slight at many things which a man would consider unreasonable."
Ling Qi pursed her lips. "I do favor citizens. When the wildfire rages, I extinguish it. When the blizzard cos, I offer it fire and stories to whirl about, but if it ca regardless, I would scatter it. My personal connections are different. I admit that this might be hypocritical of ."
Zhu Fan nodded. "So it is with many new cultivators who bear strong spirit companions, though the potency of yours has few precedents. I only ask that you ditate upon this and find a core principle on which to adjudicate rather than arbitrarily decide in the mont based on your feelings. Returning to the topic, you contend that abundance is the greater priority than happiness."
"I would contend that it is a prerequisite,” Ling Qi rejoined. “Perhaps not in the most common sense of abundance, such as the riches of mine and field, but without sufficient abundance to serve their base needs, happiness is only a fleeting thing existing in warm monts before the anxiety of tomorrow's al and tomorrow's roof steals it away."
"It is crude and base to imply that re material abundance is the basis of spiritual health."
"It is the thought of a man who has never been hungry to imply that material items are not the foundation of human need," Ling Qi retorted. "It is perhaps satisfying to the refined scholar to imagine n's minds exist on a higher plane than their stomachs, rather than the two being deeply intertwined. For a cultivator of the higher realm, this may even be true, but we are not speaking of such cultivators."
She t Zhu Fan's stern gaze. On this matter, she had no second thoughts.
"Mm, We co then to the principle, amid the pleasing words," Zhu Fan said. "So, it is a lord's utmost duty to provide this foundation to their people, then?"
"My Lady Cai is far wiser in the ways of rulership from on high than I. People have many needs, but I agree with your choice of words, Minister. The most beautiful structure is but a pile of wreckage without a firm foundation. That is why my role as a priestess is to bring about abundance and prosperity, and from there, allow happiness and stability to derive.."
Ling Qi paused, thinking of the nightmares that Shu Yue had shown her.
"In so ways, I think there is a limit to how much happiness can be granted from above or outside. Stability… I think it can be better called consistency. A person must know the laws that govern them and have a notion that they are both fair in nature and unlikely to change without warning. In this, humans are not so different from spirits."
Ling Qi shook her head. "I apologize. That got away from , sir."
"It is sotis more informative when a junior allows their thoughts free flow than when they are choosing them carefully," Zhu Fan said. He did not voice approval or disapproval of her words. "I have heard what I require. I will send along that reading list, and I would have you inform
of your thoughts on them.”
"You are too generous, Minister," Ling Qi said.
She really wasn't going to be able to skim these books.
"Perhaps, but an old man may be allowed his hobbies. Regardless, the ti for the primary eting is soon, and the Law delegation is on the approach."
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