Fates Parallel Chapter 61 - Rumors

The next few days were spent training according to Eui’s directions. Despite their best efforts they were not able to find an essence-based technique for deafening themselves. If they wanted to protect themselves entirely from Yue’s enthralling song, their only recourse would be to pierce their eardrums. Jia and Eui were reasonably confident that they could recover from that in a day or two thanks to their ki-empowered regeneration but—well, they just went with earplugs for practice.

Contrary to Jia’s expectations, learning to read lips was the easiest part. Her mind had long-since been enhanced by her cultivation, and it was really starting to show itself in how quickly she was able to pick up such a complicated new skill. What surprised her was how hard it was to fight without being able to hear. She relied more on her hearing than she ever realized.

Her domain covered for the weakness, in part, but it was a lot more difficult to distinguish the significance of a small disturbance in the air without being able to process it through proper hearing. On top of that, coordinating with each other was a challenge—they’d tried to come up with a series of signals, but it was taking a lot of getting used to.

Eunae was surprisingly helpful in their training, having already been accustomed to doing a lot of her fighting while deprived of one of her senses. After the promised two days had passed, Eunae and Jia were taking a break from training while Eui and Rika sparred in the closed-off garden courtyard of Eunae and Rika’s dorm.

“I’ve compiled as much information as I could about those two Qin students—Yan Yue as well. They’ve been rather secretive since their arrival here, but there was plenty of information available.”

Eunae spoke as she poured tea for each of them, and Jia gave a little bow of appreciation as she accepted hers before responding.

“Oh? Even after living with Yan Yue for a few days we didn’t really learn much about her. Nothing useful, anyway.”

Eunae nodded and took a small sip from her tea.

“Zheng Long and Han Yu are roommates, and they’ve barely spoken to any of the other disciples, even their countrymen. Neither of them has bothered attending any of Magus Hwang or Master Ienaga’s classes. They’ve been very careful not to reveal anything about themselves to their classmates or instructors, however...”

Eunae paused to take another sip of tea before setting the cup down and smirking.

“That doesn’t mean that nobody knows of them. Unfortunately, Yan Zhihao took most of the inner disciples from the Great Awakening Dragon Sect with him on the expedition, however there are a few outer disciples remaining among the academy students. Better than that, though, there are some students with less dedicated connections to the Awakening Dragon Sect.

“One of Rika’s classmates, one Hao Shanyuan, has a cousin who is an inner disciple of the Awakening Dragon Sect. He has a bit of a crush on Rika, and he was more than happy to describe his cousin’s retelling of an exhibition match he witnessed within the sect. One that just so happened to have been won by Zheng Long.”

Jia stared in slack-jawed awe at Eunae.

“When did you have the time to learn all this? I hope you’ll forgive me for saying so, but I thought you were kind of, uh, a homebody.”

Eunae covered a giggle with her sleeve.

“It’s true, I don’t tend to leave the house when I can help it. I do take advantage of the occasions when I must, however. Rika and Hana are hopeless gossips, and the Qin students in Hwang’s classes love to conspire. I listen to what people are saying, and I’m quite good at getting them to answer my questions without actually asking them.”

Jia blinked in amazement. Was this because of her royal upbringing, or was Eunae just secretly amazing at dealing with people? Jia recalled that Eunae had almost every person she met on a given-name basis within minutes and found herself leaning towards the latter.

“So what did you find out?”

Eunae sighed.

“Not as much as I would have liked, to be honest. Zheng Long is an orthodox practitioner of the Awakening Dragon style—like Yan Zhihao—but he’s reportedly mastered all of the sects houtian level combat techniques. It’s said that the only reason he’s not already xiantian is because he’s taken the time to perfect the style.”

“Wait, isn’t that fantastic news? I have all the Awakening Dragon manuals—doesn’t that mean I know exactly what he can do?”

Eunae grimaced and shook her head.

“Not exactly, Jia. Don’t forget that the manifestation of spiritual techniques is unique to each practitioner, though there are patterns. Also, knowing his capabilities isn’t the same as knowing how he will apply them. The Awakening Dragon style is quite versatile when fully mastered, as I am sure you’re aware.”

Jia sat back and put a hand on her chin as she pondered it. The core of the style was the Awakening of the Dragon’s Heart, a technique that allowed the user to create and control fire in ways that were supposedly based on the methods of ancient fire dragons. It was supported by Tranquility of the Verdant Marsh, which supposedly helped to keep the user calm—something that Yan Zhihao could have really used—and aided in healing the body.

There were also a variety of common techniques that were supposedly ubiquitous to Qin cultivators, such as the Earth Rending Sword Art, or the Path of Heavenly Ascension—

Jia slammed her hands down on the table, startling Eunae.

“He can fly!?”

Eunae blinked in surprise and set down her teacup.

“Most likely, yes. The technique is quite draining for a core forming disciple, but he should be capable of flying in short bursts. Not particularly easy to deal with.”

Jia clenched her fists. It wasn’t fair! She was so envious! She wanted to fly too, damnit! Eunae politely ignored Jia’s crisis and continued her description.

“As for Han Yu, he’s not quite so prolific, but I was able to discover a few things. Apparently he takes after his master’s specialty in herbalism and alchemy. He apparently owes his advanced cultivation to his own skill in creating cultivation-boosting supplements. He’s been known to use special pills of his own creation to greatly enhance his prowess temporarily, in order to offset his less profound mastery of the sect's combat techniques.”

“Huh, he doesn’t sound that strong to me.”

“Don’t underestimate him, Jia. Despite what Yan Yue may have said about him, Han Yu is known for his cunning, and while he may not be as specialized in combat as Zheng Long, he’s still a core forming cultivator. His power likely far outstrips our own, even if his mastery lags behind.”

Jia pouted sullenly, why did her enemies have to be so strong? Even Yan Zhihao had only lost to her because he hadn’t been taking her seriously, and she’d had a lot of help then.

“So what about Yan Yue? Anything useful, there?”

Eunae bit her lip and pressed her fingers against her temple.

“Um, Jia, you have to understand that this information was gathered mostly from the Qin disciples, all of which are men—boys, really. It’s not—not the most reliable—”

Jia crossed her arms and sighed.

“I get it, Eunae. Just tell me.”

“Very well. Primarily, the students of Qin think that she is beautiful, graceful, and talented. They envy whoever ends up winning her hand in marriage. Nearly every one of them wants to court her, but believes that they are not worthy of making the attempt. There have been a few nasty rumors—which they insist not to believe, even as they spread them—that she is secretly promiscuous, and somehow her friendship with you is supposed to lend credence to those rumors.”

Jia froze.

“Wait, what?”

“That was the next thing I was going to get to, Jia. While I was gathering this information I discovered that someone has been spreading some unkind rumors about you. They’ve been very subtle about it, and I’m not sure what their motivations behind it are, but whoever it is knows what they are doing.”

Jia frowned in consternation. What was going on? Someone was spreading rumors about her, but why? Who would even benefit from something like that.

“What kind of rumors?”

Eunae shrugged.

“As I said, they’re vague. It’s a combination of things that refer back obliquely to you, leaving the listener to form their own picture from incomplete information. Qin Zhao disowned you for degeneracy, you’re unusually close to a girl who bears the mark of exile, you’ve made friends with Yan Yue—who is now rumored to be promiscuous, when no such rumors previously existed. No rumor explicitly accuses you of anything—they simply hint incessantly at an uncharitable picture of you.”

“Ugh, but why!?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve tried to find out where this comes from, but if this is the work of an individual and not simply the natural product of the rumor mill, then they’ve hidden their involvement meticulously.”

Jia huffed irritably. This was frustrating. It hardly compared to her duel with Yan Zhihao, or her current crisis involving Yan Hao’s disciples, but it still irked her to know that people were making her out to be some kind of—she didn’t even know what! Something vaguely unpleasant, she supposed. It really was cruel and clever in equal parts the way the rumors left things to the imagination.

“Whatever, it’s annoying, but not really important right now. So we don’t know anything else about Yan Yue, or more details on Han Yu’s fighting style?”

Eunae shook her head.

“I’m afraid not. You should be careful about the rumors though, Jia. Such things tend to grow unmanageable if left unchecked.”

“I appreciate the warning, Eunae. I’ll try to bear that in mind.”

Eunae inclined her head in acknowledgement and took another sip of tea, before her face lit up as if remembering something.

“Oh! Have you made any progress on that ancestral technique of yours?”

Jia raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Ancestral technique? You mean Steps of the Stalker?”

“I do. I call it that because I believe it might share some similarities to my own ancestral technique. If what you say is true, and you learned the technique in a dream from your spiritual ancestor, then I think they essentially share the same origin.”

Jia frowned thoughtfully before slowly nodding.

“I...guess so, yeah. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I take it you’ve been looking into it?”

“I have, though I’ve made very little progress. Surprisingly, the most insightful source of information about it has been Kim Yongsun.”

Jia almost choked on her tea.

“Kim!? The guy with the tiger head who was really rude during the expedition?”

Eunae giggled and nodded.

“The same. Try not to hold a grudge against him—from his perspective, I was the one being slighted. Yongsun is the person I know who is most in touch with his spirit half—or he was, until I heard you describing your communion with your spirit half.”

“Huh, maybe I’ll ask him about it myself, assuming he’s willing to talk to me at all.”

“Despite his brusque attitude, he is actually quite friendly once you get to know him. He simply struggles to understand other people. I think he’d rather like it if you discussed spirit ancestors with him. Now, tell me about your progress!”

Jia chuckled and shook her head.

“Not much to tell, honestly. The technique needs me to infuse my body temporarily with shadow essence, but I can’t refine enough of it. This is the best I can manage right now...”

Jia closed her eyes and guided the meager shadow essence she had cultivated within the winding path of her meridians up into her heart, where it was then dispersed throughout her body. Once it was entirely diffused, she suppressed her lightning ki to allow it to take effect and opened her eyes again.

It only took about a second to do all that, and Eunae had actually opened her eyes to inspect Jia with interest.

“You’re a bit transparent, Jia.”

Jia nodded.

“Yup—that’s what it does. I’m also a tiny bit lighter, I think, but it’s hard to tell. I think if I could refine more shadow essence I’d be able to become almost invisible. I feel like there’s other things I can do with it too, but it’s all very—I don’t know, instinctive. I can’t be sure what it actually does until I try it.”

“Hmm, you should definitely talk to Yongsun, then. Instinct is something of a specialty of his, but I shouldn’t say more than that—it’s not my place.”

The meager shadow essence in Jia’s body exhausted itself and she became entirely solid once again. She sighed at the waste—that had taken her two days to cultivate, and only lasted a few seconds. Jia wondered if Dae knew when the next solar eclipse would be—it seemed like the kind of random information he would just know for some reason.

“I guess I’ll ask him about it, if I get the chance to—as long as he doesn’t try to bite my head off.”

Eunae giggled and shook her head.

“Just try to remember that he’s never as angry as he seems to be. That’s just—how he is, I suppose.”

“I’ll bear it in mind.”

---

Jia and Eui stood together in their living room, practicing a slow, graceful set of forms that resembled some sort of dance, at a glance. To make room, they’d shoved the table and couches into the corner with Yan Yue’s belongings—which they still had yet to return. As Master Ienaga had promised, she had found a technique that was compatible with both Jia and Eui for them to practice together.

It was a rather odd technique, as martial arts went. It was simply called “Soft Fist” and the manual they had been given seemed to focus more on easing the mind and strengthening the body than it did on actual combat applications. Each movement seemed to flow smoothly into the next, and the flow of the ki in her body filled Jia with a warmth that reminded her of when she combined her ki with Eui’s.

This had now become part of her daily routine with Eui in an attempt to mend their broken connection. Like when they had worked together on their gloves—which they still hadn’t had the chance to show Murayoshi—they could feel the very edges of their domains beginning to intermingle whenever they worked together on the same things.

So they made a concerted effort to do so more often. They would practice their spiritual arts together—since they were essentially the same technique, with Jia’s slightly modified—and then train in the Soft Fist. It was therapeutic, and it did make Jia feel closer to Eui, but it had yet to produce any tangible results. It was as though their domains wanted to merge together again, but missed some fundamental requirement. It was as though they had lost something when they had been torn apart, and neither Jia nor Eui understood what that something was.

Jia and Eui finished the last few movements of the form, and chatted as they began to return the furniture to their usual places.

“Not that I don’t enjoy doing a weird martial arts dance with you every night, Jia, but do you think this is really working?”

Jia shrugged as she pushed a couch into position.

“I don’t know. It feels like it might be, but it’s not like we’ve been doing it for very long. I think we might have gotten a bit spoiled by how quickly we’ve taken to certain parts of cultivation. This stuff is supposed to take a long time.”

Eui chuckled.

“Hehe, true, we are pretty great. But I mean, even if we did this for weeks, months, years...would it really restore our connection?”

“I don’t have the answer to that, Eui. I do know that when I was in that weird place—inside my domain, I think—I could feel my soul as if it was my physical body. There was a wound there, where we had been torn apart. Still raw and healing. Maybe as long as we keep practicing together like this we’ll heal...together.”

Eui sighed as she collapsed into one of the couches, and Jia sat next to her.

“That sounds nice and all, but I just can’t bring myself to be that confident. I’m trying to stay optimistic, but to be honest, I’m fucking terrified. It feels like history is repeating itself—like I’ve already fucked everything up, and all that’s left is for the hot iron to come down and take everything away.”

Jia leaned into Eui and took her hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing her reassuringly.

“I’m not going to abandon you, Eui. Whether it takes a month, or a year, or a hundred years—we’ll fix this, I promise. Didn’t we say we’d be together forever? I don’t remember saying ‘Oh, unless for some reason we run into a bit of difficulty with our cultivation’, do you?”

Eui chuckled and returned Jia’s squeeze, leaning into her in turn.

“Heh, I guess not. I guess seeing Sun Jaehwa around has me spooked. Wait—wasn’t she supposed to visit to talk to you about something? What happened with that?”

“Oh! Uh...”

Jia faltered, realizing that until now she’d entirely forgotten that Yan Yue had handled that conversation. She shuddered in disgust as she recalled the scene.

“Yan Yue was controlling my body when Sun Jaehwa showed up. You were right that Sun Jaehwa would try to turn me against you. She told me—Yan Yue—about your past, conveniently leaving out certain details and claiming that you had misconstrued the relationship as something it wasn’t. She said that she’d never reciprocated your feelings, even while she tried to figure if I like girls.”

Eui clicked her tongue in irritation.

“Tsk, that bitch!”

“Which one?”

Eui chuckled.

“Either of them, really. Ugh, I really don’t like the fact that Yan Yue knows about that.”

“If it’s any consolation, I don’t think Sun wanted her to know about it, either. It seemed like she prefers to keep her past a secret.”

Eui scoffed and shook her head.

“I’m sure she wanted to seem that way, but no. That secret is a weapon that she’ll use to get her way. She’s only keeping it to herself if she thinks she can reveal it at a more opportune moment.”

Jia frowned as she considered that. She hadn’t seen much of the schemer that Eui described, but she trusted that Eui knew Sun Jaehwa better than she did. Something nagged at the back of Jia’s mind as she mulled it over—something she had heard recently. Jia stiffened as she realized what it was. Eui noticed and glanced at her curiously.

“What’s wrong?”

“Eui, when you knew Sun Jaehwa did she ever spread rumors to attack people?”

Eui furrowed her brows contemplatively for a moment before nodding.

“Sure, sometimes. Those mage-college prep schools had some seriously nasty politics, actually. I was usually beneath notice, since my parents bought my way in as a commoner, but the nobles were constantly attacking each other’s reputations. Why?”

Ancestors damn it!

“Eui, I think she might be trying to attack my reputation, now.”