They had barely managed to make it back to their house when it happened.
Lily felt it first; the sudden thrum of energy, of burning, terrible light that filled the city in a way that went beyond the natural pale; that leapt, its conflagration devouring, a terrible presence shadowing the whole city in its enormous urge. It thrumd beneath her skin, in her spirit, in her eyes, and she snapped her gaze heavenwards just in ti to see it—
A flower of sunlight, blooming over East Saffron. A burst birth of such sudden, such overwhelming majesty that it threatened to send her to her knees as it lanced its searing trail across the sky, bursting down scatter-shot sowhere over Saffron Lake.
Avyr imdiately curled up beside her, hackles raised— eyes peeled for any threats, useless as that had to be against… against this. Whatever it was. She did not know, felt, intrinsically, deep within her, that she could not know, for whatever buyed forth that terrible force was sothing so utterly beyond her that she could not even begin to fathom…
The retort of thunder snapped over the city, a furious crack as the very skies were left sundered in the shimring afterimage of that glorious strike. The whole of the city seed to tremble, but briefly, as a wave of noise swept over it all— a brush of white mist so seemingly harmless and yet in its wake leaving her reeling from the force of it. How much worse had it been, closer to the actual site of the attack?
She traced one of the beams that had lanced into the city proper, and thus— looking skywards, at the echo of that technique— for what else could it be? She saw in painstaking detail as the famous wards of East Saffron ca to life against the threat. In their full and bloody force, carmine incarnated— she could see, so perfectly, the way the runes almost seed to bloom in the sky, such magnificent and terrible things, all swirling together to form a barrier. No, the re word barrier was insufficient for what it was. It was an almost divine thing, terrible and awe-inspiring in its power— and what an incredible power it was. The runes… the concepts, the echoes of what they called into being, she tried to grasp them and felt them fall from her, utterly beyond her in their ancient majesty. She’d seen pictures, of course, in school, but… the real thing was so much more incredible.
It didn’t help them, she knew, when the enemy was already inside.
A secondary shield layered over the top— not quite as complicated as the first one; she could tell, it didn’t make her head throb and swim with impossible emotion, evoked, strange and sinking feeling— but it was still beyond powerful. The way it swirled together, washing over her with a gentle touch yet utterly imperable to the golden energy that even still suffused the whole city in its terrible glow…
The way it swirled, revolving in on itself, a cyclone maelstrom, a swirling sphere… “the Elder.” She allowed herself, at last, to breathe a sigh of relief. “The Outer Elder has raised the shields."
Avyr was silent for a long mont. “I didn’t even know that the university had such a thing.”
“It was built a long ti ago.” She didn’t need to say more; the implication was obvious. “At least the Outer Elder cares enough to defend us…” it was his job, probably— she wouldn’t dare to speculate on the whims and workings of such high-level cultivators. “As long as he’s guarding us, then we’re safe. If they weren’t, even with that, then they had far bigger problems to worry about…
For a long, far too long, too tense a mont, they stood there, back to back— Lily holding her sword, Avyr holding back barely restrained qi— waiting for an attack that seed reluctant to co. Waiting, nervously, for the sort of attack that had wiped out the historic south districts and replaced them with the ugly modern construction that made them what they were now…
Yet, nothing happened. She thought she might have sensed a brief little bit of qi fluctuation towards the north, over the lake, but her senses were heavily impeded by the giant shielding formation that smothered them twice over, and Avyr couldn’t sense it, so she let it drop. Either way, after almost an hour of tensely waiting, the Outer Elder dropped his shield. Lily watched in fascination— and no small amount of relief— as the crimson-tone barrier shrunk, curling in on itself the echo of so greater beast, now recalled to its master's side. Water into a drain, revolving down inwards, taking in reverse all the power that had been expended to marshall it to action in the first place.
She could not shake, still, though— for as long as the terrible and aweso symbols of East Saffron’s true barrier held themselves so brilliantly in the air above them, in that crimson shield from wall to wall encompassing— that they had narrowly escaped a terrible fate. It was easy to stay on edge, after all, when just looking skywards sent a spike of wrongness into her mind and reminded her, still, that there was a fathomless depth left to learn.
Avyr, at least, didn’t seem to have as much trouble; perhaps it was because he lacked the sa level of perception as she’d accomplished, though Lily found it just as likely that it was because he possessed a much better self control than her. Not looking up at that shield was probably a much better way to go about the whole thing, but how could she not? Such incredible, fathomless secrets, ripe for the picking if she just stared into the heart of heaven…
Needless to say, she had a rather piercing headache for the entire ti they spent unpacking their belongings.
It was only when they were mostly done— having, as it were, left most of their stuff at their university residence anyways when they’d returned to the 32nd Precinct— sitting around in the courtyard beneath the strange and warped light of the barrier, that it finally retreated. Again, she saw it first— this ti more because she couldn’t resist looking up every now and again.
It… she could not describe it. Maybe to a mortal, it would look like it broke apart and burned away, retreating back towards the rune-nodes slow in reverse of its sudden deploynt, but… that wasn’t it. She stared in fascination— ignoring, still, the dull headache that threatened to burst into a migraine at any mont— as it… the best way she could think to describe it in the mont was that it peeled back, rolling away almost naturally. As the state of the barrier when it was unfurled was the natural state of the world, yet its inactive state also equally natural.
How they had managed that, she had absolutely no clue. Then again, the barrier over East Saffron was supposedly a divine treasure that had been emplaced by the old Empire of Twelve Constellations that nobody understood, so she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up.
At the end of it, she pulled back her perception and just— watched it, as a mortal would, the crimson glow like the touch of cold stars in the night, falling, so silently returning once more to their ho in the houses of heaven. It was beautiful, in a grim sort of way— a bloody reminder of the power that had been set aside for war. She couldn’t even imagine what the Bloody Saffron Sect had to protect itself, if this was what they’d given their city…
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She breathed out as the last of it escaped, their courtyard suddenly so much quieter— darker, now, no longer hued bloody beneath that bloody night. “What was that?” High above, the stars twinkled their ever cold light, echoing quietly the fathomless night they lay studded within… “I…”
“I don’t imagine,” Avyr responded slowly, “that that is a common occurrence in the city?”
“Not in the slightest.” Not once in her entire life had she seen the barriers roused to wakefulness. Never. The last war hadn’t gotten close to East Saffron, what with its focus on Beixian and the Severing Sea. “Whatever that was… you felt it, no? The power.” The terrible and golden light.
There was only one group that it could’ve been. Only one faction would have the absolute terity to attack East Saffron so brazenly, and the golden sunlight only reinforced that…
She shivered, hoping that war had not just been made inevitable.
Desperately, she fumbled around for a different topic— not wanting in the slightest to discuss war, and the terrible things that would co of it. “So…” she really didn’t know what to talk about, though— oh! “This sester. You… do you have any, what’s your goals?” She blushed at the horribly bungled sentence, but Avyr seed not to mind. Or, at least, he pretended not to mind, sothing for which Lily was incredibly grateful.
The big cat cocked his head, contemplative for a mont. “I think… there is more for to do. I must get more powerful. This, if nothing else, is a good motivation.”
“The sect awaits us.”
“Not if we’re lazy.”
Lily snorted, then shook her head. “Not what I ant, you silly cat.” One hand found itself between his ears, rubbing vigorously— eliciting an annoyed yowl from the big cat. Funny to think that not too long ago she would’ve been terrified at pestering such a clearly powerful creature, yet now it was just… friendly ribbing. “I ant that we need to work towards that. They’re the ones that’ll give us the power we need to… you know. Be sothing. Do sothing.” Be soone, left unsaid, in the shadow of that statent— that the sect was the road to true power. Him, against everything that dogged his every step, the Empire that had shattered his people and taken his holand and yet, still, lusted after more, and her…
Against that very sa Empire, she supposed, though to a sowhat lesser extent— she was only an orphan. She feared she could not match the depth of tragedy, the depth of drive that Avyr had. It had always been Lily’s dream to get into the Bloody Saffron Sect— from the mont she’d first learnt about it as a kid, to the mont that she really realized what she wanted, the mont that she set her full self to the goal of it, the mont she’d t Mingtain, the mont she’d t Avyr…
Yet, she could not deny, sitting beside her friend as they basked in the starlight over East Saffron, that he was the one who needed it.
Unbidden, her mind returned to the spirit severing formation— and the twelve contribution points that she’d been given, burning still a hole in her pockets. That sort of wealth… she couldn’t help but feel like she was carrying around a lump of solid gold in her pocket… but, she knew it wasn’t the sa. Gold was far less valuable than Bloody Saffron Sect contribution points. What treasures she could buy with that…
She also had her contribution from earlier— University contribution points, the mock-system for students— but she was sure that she could probably get so good stuff with that, too. She wasn’t sure what to get, though— she had everything she could want. A sword— her liaison’s old sword, even! Techniques to use it, taught straight from a core formation cultivator, and formations knowledge she’d not found the peer of even amongst Bloody Saffron Sect disciples…
The answer ca to her easily— obviously, even; in the sa breath as the reason she cultivated— if she needed nothing, then she would simply spend them on Avyr. Sohow.
Avyr gave her a curious glance as she shifted in satisfaction against him, sighing out— her breath a faint mist, catching the light of the heavens so vast and vaulted above— but she didn’t give him a response. He’d figure it out soon enough…
It was a day shadowed with the echo of a terrible attack.
It was a day, echoing, their conviction— their desire, their…
The two of them, still, friends. There was a surpassing worth in that, she couldn’t help but think…
She just leaned into Avyr’s warm fur, and basked in the midnight luminescence.
………
It almost felt nostalgic, sitting on top of the roof— cool tiles beneath her, bitter air around her, the harsh city air all around her… it hadn’t even been a month, and yet finally now that she was back, she felt refreshed. Ready, if only in a small way, to take the whole world on and make it hers. There were so many different paths it could take…
A weapon, for a cat, perhaps? It was well in her purview, certainly… the art of formations was sothing she was good enough with, and she couldn’t imagine it too hard. Laying back for a second and watching the stars— watching, in turn, the moon, so vast and luminous in the night sky, a promise of peace…
No, she did not think that Avyr would like a weapon. He would be able to use it— he would use it, especially if she made it much better than anything he could do by himself— but that was not his path. Or at least, she didn’t think it was his path; who was she to judge others’ dao? She was certainly no Master Mingtian… she chuckled to herself at the absurd thought.
No, she could do better than a poisoned gift. Sothing that would fit Avyr and his fighting style… perhaps better equipnt? He’d been rather annoyed, recently, about how his bags kept burning up every ti that he put his all into a surprise fight— twice now, which was just absurd. At least they had enough money now that it wasn’t too much of a problem to replace them, but still…
Yet, that, too, felt limited. She had celestial power at her fingertips, the very weft and weaving of heaven and earth, formations and drive, and… she would not make Avyr bags. Her pride as a student of formations, her pride as a friend, would not allow her so paltry a gift. Armor, then? He would like armor, she was pretty sure, but again… if not quite to the sa extent as a weapon would’ve, it contradicted his path.
In so way, still, she felt that Avyr yet followed the path of the Peerless Paw. In others, she imagined it was simply convenience; annoying as it made the world of the academic, the world of the cultivator, Avyr would never be at a loss for weapons. It was far more sensible for him to train what he had, rather than study what he did not.
To grow forth the innate, and cultivate his intrinsic talent… there was a ssage in there, she was sure…
She laughed, softly, as the answer ca to her. It was simple really… how reminiscent of, even, a different ti not too long ago when they’d thought of how she might help him in a different school.
How amusing, that history repeated it so.
If his intrinsic strength was the key of things, then the answer was clear— simply figure out how to make him stronger.
Techniques were similar to formations anyway, were they not?
She would make Avyr a ridian Opening manual.
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