Interlude Two:

Interlude Two

~~~Ancestor Wen~~~

I remember running through the forest under the guidance of my mother, I remember her yips of worry and how little I knew of what she called the strange legs. I learned quickly that she meant the spiders when both of us were captured for their breeding pits so that they would have our half fox offspring raised for their fur, as humans despite having less fur on them could grow more and faster due to some quirk of when our lines are combined.

The arithmetic changes when cultivation enters into the equation, but the spiders would have rather raised a few foxes to nascent soul and muzzle them as they used us to produce hybrids than do the same for humans.

I remember the misery of that time, the humiliation and the loss of seeing my own offspring skinned once they grew too old to produce fur and of the fact that I and all that were raised under the baleful webs have sworn vengeance.

"Ancestor Wen, it is a pleasure to see you again, even if I wished our meeting would have come under happier circumstances." A female voice said as I entered a strange cave.

The cave, if it could be called as such, was a single massive limestone half sphere cut by no stone or iron tool, it was too smooth for that, no this entire thing was the private retreat of the woman who pulled me and many others out of the breeding pits and allowed us our freedom.

The woman herself was almost the same as she was the last time I saw her a thirty years ago. Her black hair continued being unreasonably short as it barely reached her shoulders, her blue eyes continued twinkling whenever she saw a big pile of fluffy fur she could laze around in and her pale skin continued having those black feather-like marking on it. She was even wearing the same gold and red robes she wore the last time I saw her too.

The only thing that was different was that the black feathers have started reaching her neck. I smiled softly at that as I walked to the center of this strange and nearly empty chamber.

I could feel the Qi in this room, the limestone giving it a strange aftertaste I was unsure how to feel about. I think it reminded me of apples? I never understood my bipedal descendant's fondness for the fruits, but I could still understand the fact that it was supposed to taste good.

The limestone layer was merely the last out of several layers meant to filter Qi until it had the texture the Empress of the Blazing Sun wished it to and while I was not too keen on the end result I could appreciate the level of effort and wealth this took.

"Happier circumstances your majesty? I find it difficult to think of any short of the spiders dying out." I answered jovially.

Her lips pursed as her blue eyes looked straight into mine.

"Then perhaps an explanation is in order. Why have the Sisters of Dawn occupied one of my towns?" She asked pointedly.

I was now in front of her and I lowered myself in a relaxed position on my side and invited her to rest on me with one of my paws. Her weakness for fluffy fur was well known and I have talked to her many times before to establish certain boundaries.

The trick to emotional weaknesses is to use them sparingly, because if you abuse them too much then they will be closed.

Me inviting her like that meant something simple, there was no wrong done, just a misunderstanding as always that we need to figure out how to address. Hopefully there will be fewer of them in the future now that little Hao managed to find out why the fox clans and the human clans couldn't get along.

She sighed and the being that could burn cities to cinder with the same ease I could take a leisurely walk proceeded to move from her lotus position to resting on my fur and relaxed into it as if it was a soft bed.

She took one of my tails in her arms and used it as a blanket and I started speaking.

"They have not Ci Zi, the Sisters of Dawn do not occupy cities or towns, they act as bodyguards for one of my descendants. She has managed to integrate herself into the local community as a well respected figure. One of your scholars managed to make sense of the unwritten and put what neither of our scholars could articulate to the other after being taught for some time by her. Little Hao Wen is currently testing things out to see if long term cohabitation is possible and the Council of the Nine Tails has decided to be overzealous in protecting their investment." I answered as the woman was making herself comfortable on my fur.

I am not the only fox to ever talk to her, but all of us knew quite simply how this is meant to work. We make her comfortable first, then we start talking. If she decides to not rest in our fur then we know something went terribly wrong.

"Securing your investment does not mean having ten Tier Two cultivators all but taking over one of my towns. Those Sisters of Dawn have been seen pruning the social scene there, and they only do that on their territory Fleet Foot." She replied in amusement as she used the name my mother gave me.

I could feel her small hands playing with my fur and it was very difficult to not feel as if it was one of the young ones playing. I could feel her slowly warming up as a warning. It was a cordial sort of warmth still, but it could quickly turn hot enough to melt steel.

"Good thing that they are not. The city's administration remains in place, if a tax collector were to come then they would be able to collect their taxes unmolested and the lemon banner continues to fly. Lord Xi continues to rule the town and my descendant is merely jockeying for a privileged position as the clans have no interest in incorporating that settlement into our administration." I admitted with ease.

The smell of apples was growing stronger the longer I stayed in this room and it was enough that it was starting to get irritating but not enough that it was becoming something that could spill over. It was like a sneeze that refused to come but you could feel the start of. I remained silent on it as this entire room was Ci Zi's latest attempt at remaking the feeling of her childhood and the orchard she was raised on.

All of us old souls have our own ways of dealing with the passage of time. Some fall into obsession, others into fulfilling a simple goal and people like Ci Zi try and remember what it was like to feel young.

"I see, I do not approve of having the Sisters and Brothers of Dawn operating on my territory. They can continue defending your descendant and 'protecting your investment' as you wish to call it, but they cannot act in any other way like they are used to. The Blazing Fist Sect is getting restless and certain individuals in my administration with links to them are already trying to petition on their behalf in regards to this situation." She replied with a huff.

The heat turned back to room temperature and I fully relaxed, it seemed that things have been diffused.

"Fair enough, I'll inform little Hao of the fact when I get back, I am sorry for the issues this has caused." I answered promptly.

"Don't be, the Blazing Fist Sect have been an issue since we started working on the air current project. You giving them another reason to whine did not change the fact that the sect in charge of the Orange Prefecture is feeling disrespected and restless." The woman who is the cause of said restlessness tried to assuage me.

Orange Prefecture was the testing ground for our latest attempt at cleansing this world of the spider clan, a way to steal their very air and choke the abominations as they boil. But for that our people needed to understand air currents and how to control them and that took us centuries to do.

In order to learn that we need a place to test our assumptions in a region that few people would care for and that is far enough from the spiders to easily figure out what we were doing. Unfortunately for the southern part of Orange Prefecture, their empress decreed that their prefecture is perfect for it and so they have to suffer the unfortunate fate of having their local weather toyed with until it acts just right.

"I am not up to date with the weapon's development, will we be able to deploy it before Ming will attempt to ascend?" I asked.

"My scholars tell me they will be able to give me a working formation in five years, and in five more will be able to gather the resources and manpower needed to fully surround one of the clans with it and choke them. Have your peers decided on which one to target first?" She replied.

So we are not getting anywhere close to Ming's two hundred years limit.

We drew lots two hundred years ago on which of us it to decide the first target as the foxes are to fund the majority of the research, the Imperials are to provide most of the manpower and Ming will handle the fallout so that it doesn't cause the hole the weapon will cause to erupt like a volcano that will kill off all life on this world. The foxes won first pick on it as foxish luck remains undefeated.

"The Western Spider clans, it was decided as a peace offering of sorts as it will allow us to deal with your little traitor issue swiftly as well." I admitted softly.

None of us expected the Stellar Blade Sect's betrayal, especially as it came at the same time as the Shu betrayed our alliance and sided with the spiders of all creatures. At least the former imperials remained hostile to the spiders, but the damage was already done as our combined offensive died quickly and messily.

That bit of treachery was so well coordinated that it undid five hundred years of preparations on our end and caused us to consider the mad weather weapon as an alternative. Needless to say, none of us appreciated it and are eager for revenge.

"How kind of you my friend, I know you were more eager to deal with the Central Spider Clan to secure some proper trade lanes to the north." Ci Zi replied softly.

It seems she appreciated our peace offering at least, most of us did want securing a safe trade route more than we wanted to deal with the treacherous curs, if only just, as the best revenge is becoming richer than your foes and using said wealth to beat them into submission afterwards.

We were willing to compromise though and have the traitors die without seeing all that they have squandered with their treachery if it meant we could continue our friendly relationship with the Empire.

"None of us likes traitors and while we won't get as good a trade route we'll deal with it. It's a pity we can only use the weapon once as even emperor Ming's abilities would not be able to keep the tectonic plate in one piece if we fired it multiple times." I grumbled back.

The Shu and the Naga will act as intermediaries between our land trade routes and the Lao refuse to allow us to pass through their waters to go that way and the Imperial south is too undeveloped to be worth it economically. Fools the lot of them as stability always brings more profits in the long term.

My distant descendant's breakthrough is useful in what it means for our future relation, rather than monetarily and most of the Council of Nine Tails cares more about that sort of thing than making sure our relationship with the Imperials will last once the spiders are dead.

"The spiders are many things friend, dumb is not one of them. They will be able to create countermeasures to our weapon once we use it once or worse find a way to turn it against us like they did in the past. Once one of the three clan confederacies are gone, the other two will become easier to deal with as their subterranean tunnel network will crumble." She said as she noticed I was not happy about it.

"It soon won't matter what they are and aren't as they'll be dead." I replied simply.

"That they will be." She agreed happily.

None of us will accept anything less for as payment for the horrors they inflicted on our peoples and us personally.