Sky Pride

The Windblown Manor spent two days flying deep into a mountain range. They had to go slow. There were “atmospheric challenges” presented by the Primeval Giant’s Spine Mountains. Under normal conditions, there were currents in the air, steady streams that flowed in predictable ways and the Windblown Manor made use of them to fly further and faster than it would otherwise. The Giant’s Spine Mountains nodded thoughtfully towards that concept, then made the airflow as close to utter chaos as they could manage.

Daoist Steelshimmer casually mentioned that he should be grateful there weren’t clouds of boiling acid flying around, or particles of ice so cold, they made skin die and rot away almost instantly.

“Does that happen often?” Tian asked.

“It’s happened more than once.” Her smile would have warmed the heart of anyone who didn’t know her. Tian was currently trying to determine which of the six Snow Grace Cranes in front of him was real and which were illusions based on the pressure they exerted on his mind. Of course, since she was an Earthly Realm bird and wasn’t trying to exert any pressure on him, he was failing.

It felt like he was set up to fail, but even if he was, it was still an important skill to learn. He kept at it.

“So how does the Five Elements Courtyard manage to travel through the mountains?” He had been pointedly instructed to respond to any statement with a question unless otherwise directed.

“Geomantic compasses. Swordmasters have swords, beast tamers have beasts, array masters use geomantic compasses.”

“What’s a geomantic compass?” The bird in front of him cocked its head at him. The bright yellow iris was making hard eye contact. He had the distinct impression the bird thought he was an idiot, but then, birds often looked that way.

“Like a normal compass, but with a ton of various geomantic calculations carved into it. What makes the ones used by array masters special is that they don’t always point south. They can be tuned to different locations or features and then, with a skilled user, assist in calculating how arrays should be created or destroyed. They are also used for divination, though at the Earthly Person Level, they aren’t what I would consider reliable.”

“So they divine their way through the hazards, using the compasses to chart a safe course?” Tian tried to make himself as open and sensitive as he could, but he still wasn’t detecting anything in particular from the birds. His sensory art didn’t help with this either- he had checked.

“That’s one way to do it. Another way is using the compass to point directly at, say, the nearest major concentration of a certain highly specific type of qi. It only works if they know exactly what they are looking for in advance, of course, but it’s a powerful tool nonetheless. At the Earthly Realm, they lard them up with extra tools to control basic arrays. Wildly complex, for something a foot and a half across. Incidentally, you might try a bit of lateral thinking here. If her attention isn’t on you, then you should draw her attention somehow.”

Tian thought about that for a moment, then pulled out a fruit and cracked it open. The hard red exterior parted to reveal a wobbly white interior and a floral aroma that shamed formal gardens. The birds crowded in, shoving each other, long beaks stabbing like spears towards the fruit. He danced back, waving the fruit in the air, angry squawks and hungry birds chasing after him. It was hard- they all moved differently, but correctly. They looked identical. They smelled, sounded, and felt identical. But only one of them was real, which meant that only one of them was putting the weight of attention on him.

Using brainpower. Whatever that was.

The second crane on the left felt different. How, Tian couldn’t say. He snaked his hand through the stabbing beaks and offered the fruit to her.

“Well done.” The other cranes vanished in a shimmer of light, leaving only the real Snow Grace Craine to none-too-gently claim her prize.

“That bright red face never looks right. I’m used to it now, but it just never looks right.”

It’s how they are. Lots of stranger things than her living well in the world.

“Like what?”

You know your tea pet? The bird? That’s a real bird. There are real birds that look like that. And they look normal compared to Qilin. Qilin look like someone scooped up all the mountain mammals and at least one lizard, put them in a jar, shook ‘em up, and called what came out a sacred beast.

“Is… is that what actually happened?”

No, but the truth is somehow more unbelievable. Eyes up. You are breaking her rule.

“Does the Five Elements Courtyard favor brain affecting illusions or the ones made from light and sound?”

“FINALLY!” Daoist Steelshimmer didn’t quite throw her hands in the air, but Tian could see them start to rise before she controlled the urge. “Not one of you, literally not one of the five of you, seem at all interested in how the Court likes to operate. You do understand that the more you understand your enemy, the better prepared you are to counter them, right?”

Tian looked directly into the envoy’s eyes, and held them. “Are they my enemies, Elder?”

She held the look for a moment longer, then sagged. “Problem child. No, they are not your enemies. They aren’t your friends either. They really, really won’t be your friends if you do your job this trip.” She waved away the point.

“The answer is situational. It requires less qi but vastly more skill to use mind affecting illusions. What’s more, you can’t use it at all unless you are deep into the Heavenly Person Realm. If you see a place protected by a mind affecting illusion, it’s something or someone a quite senior Senior wants protected. Proceed with all necessary caution.”

“And the other sort?”

“Lower level disciples, or those using premade talismans, will usually rely on light and sound based illusions. The smart ones hide things, rather than try to make you think something is there that isn’t.”

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“So they favor things like concealing that they have drawn a weapon, or leading you into a buried trap?”

“That kind of thing, yes, though true invisibility is very hard and concealing your immortal breath is much harder still. Not strictly impossible, just prohibitively difficult. Duels with people from the Five Elements Courtyard tend to be over very quickly, one way or another. If they can turtle up behind a protective barrier, you are in for a world of hurt. If they can’t, they surrender fast.”

“Why aren’t we practicing breaking barriers then?”

“Because ‘Hit them a lot’ is usually the correct answer, and when it isn’t, ‘Hit them in the right spot’ is what you need to do. And ‘the right spot’ varies between every array, and it can even vary within two arrays of the same type, deployed in different places. Or you can disrupt the energy flow if you have the means to do so and don’t mind risking a catastrophic explosion. It’s an enormously complex field, and usually requires special tools to be effective. No point in learning now. Just hit it a lot.”

“Disciples, gather in the garden in twenty minutes. We will arrive shortly, and I want you all looking presentable.”

Elder Feng’s voice whispered in his ear. He cupped his hands and bowed towards Daoist Steelshimmer. “Thank you for your teachings. I need to go get changed and make sure my hair is fixed up.”

“Off you go. Wait.” She grinned. “Pull out your hairpin. I want to see you with your hair down.”

“I beg your pardon?!” Tian had never heard of such a thing. Yes, he had fought a battle naked, but that was due to circumstances. This was sheer, unmitigated, willful dress code violation!

“Go on. Your Elder will forgive you since I asked. I really want to see it. What does this very proper little daoist look like as a madman?”

The Elder might forgive, but his father would frown mightily. Tian exhaled firmly. Hospitality and respect were more important than unthinking obedience to the rules. Besides, she was, in a way, testing him. Tian stripped off his outer robe-

“Did you somehow confuse your robes and your hair pin?”

“No, Senior.”

He hung the robe over a decorative rock, then scooped up a handful of dirt from the ground. He turned his back to the senior and carefully rubbed it into his face, then into the coarse white silk of the under robe. He hunched forward slightly, letting his knees bend, shaping himself into the form his burns and too-thin limbs had required when he was a child in the dump. Then he turned around, letting that feral child glare past the layers of propriety he had learned. He reached back and pulled out the dragon pin, letting it drop to the ground as his hair poured down his back.

There was silence in the courtyard. He could feel the attention of both elders on him. The moment stretched on. It got uncomfortable. He kept staring.

“Stand up straight. Shoulders back, arms loose. Wipe the dirt off your face. Good. Do you have a calabash gourd?”

“I don’t, Elder.”

She handed him an empty one. “I know you don’t drink wine. Fill it with cold tea and hang it from your belt.”

Rank heresy. But if it was an order, he would have to find a way to make it work.

“Do you play the flute?”

“I don’t play any instruments, Elder.”

“No, you play the flute. Here. Don’t argue, it’s just a random piece of bamboo I poked some holes in. Tuck it into your robe. Learn to play on your own time. Be honest about not knowing how to play, but wanting to learn. Tell people how you dream to soar through the clouds on the back of an immortal crane, harmonizing with the wind on your bamboo flute.”

“I… have only dreamed of some of those things, Elder.”

“Start dreaming now. And for the love of all that’s holy, keep your hair pinned up and your outer robe on until you are ready to kill.”

Tian was thoroughly lost, but it was definitely time to clean up and get Temple Tidy. He would have to chalk it up to the strangeness of his elders, and simply do his best.

“Grandpa, should I wear the gourd next to the rosary, or is that too much?”

Too much. She was accessorizing you for when you are presenting as an uninhibited primitive daoist, wandering the deep mountains as you play your lonesome flute and toast the moon as you accompany it to drink at night.

“Don’t you need all your fingers to play the flute?”

Maybe. Probably. Who cares? It’s about the look, and creating that gap. Hell, what is better than a daoist trying to play a flute with seven fingers? You will figure something out, even if it isn’t exactly right. First impressions- Temple Tidy, keep the rosary, remember you won’t impress anyone worth impressing with a fierce look, but you won’t impress anyone at all by looking soft.

“Do I even care about people thinking I’m beautiful?”

Vanity is an awful thing and to be avoided. On the other hand, Pretty Privilege is a real thing. You are my handsome grandson, so why wouldn’t I help you grab all the benefits you can get?

The envoy party gathered on the flying cloud. Elder Feng gave them some final instructions.

“Since you are all Earthly Realm cultivators, we will be visiting the Songlight Garden portion of the Five Elements Courtyard. You can think of it as somewhat similar to our Mountain Gate City, in that it is theoretically their “Inner Court” but in their case it is actually a mixed bag of ranks. Where it is different is that there are no mortals. While there will be plenty of Earthly Realm cultivators, they are all, to some extent, elites.”

Tian nodded along, as did the others.

“Elite is, of course, a relative term. You may benefit from, or be frustrated by, the nepotism and cliquishness of our Ancient Crane Mountain. All I can say is that we are an unflinching, inflexible meritocracy compared to the Five Elements Courtyard. Everyone you meet will have some degree of a background, though it might be a rather awful one. Or not. The Courtyard is obsessed with strategy and they concluded quite a long time ago that building mutual trust through reliable, generally virtuous, behavior, tended to produce better outcomes long term.”

She paused and visibly weighed her next words. “It also means they are severely irritating and frequently offensive because they are constantly pressing you for emotional reactions and insight into your psyche. They love games to what I consider an unhealthy degree. Their theory is that with a perfect understanding of the people around them, they can perfectly control the outcomes of every situation. The fact that this has not worked is taken as evidence of flaws in their methods, not their basic theory. Make of that what you will.”

Tian thought it sounded insanely irritating, and was already getting a bit hot under the collar thinking of strangers poking at him all the time.

“So feel free to tell the pricks off, and fight at the drop of a hat.” She concluded. “And I mean at once. If you give them even a little time, they will try to lure you into some kind of setup. Anything you can do to throw off their rhythm is going to be a good thing for us. Well, there is more to know, but you need to get a feel for them first. Remember- it is better to be considered rude and strong, then polite and weak. Crush them at every opportunity.”

“WELCOME, ENVOYS FROM ANCIENT CRANE MONASTERY AND THE SEVEN STARS SCHOOL! WELCOME TO OUR FIVE ELEMENTS COURTYARD!”

A man’s voice roared out, and the blue skies parted in a wave of rainbow light. A mountain lay before them, its top sheared flat. A fantasy of elements danced atop it, drifting pavilions on lakes of burning cinnabar, trees that swayed with the mountain winds and scattered dirt from their branches. Animals made of elemental smoke ran through head-high stalks of grass, then vanished into a wind made of summer itself.

It was a joyful madness, and if all illusion, it was a brilliant illusion. And if not an illusion, it was more brilliant still.

That was the game the Courtyard was playing- a mix of truth and seeming. Which raised an interesting question. Tian started fiddling with his rosary. Did they really come into a windfall? Or did they receive an advance payment for services to come?