Book One, Chapter 7 - Whoa, Who’d Have Thought This City Has, Like, Other People In It

Got sidetracked with romance (not really my own, I'm just really good at giving advice about stuff and have a pretty high-leveled "Good At Listening" skill). But! Came back around! Not gonna make a full chapter release tonight but I should hopefully wrap up chapter 8's rewrite and start on chapter 9 before I hit the hay. Thanks for reading, lovelies!

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In line with the cultural renovations the Empire has undertaken, major trading hubs have been established along Imperial highways and a rare few pre-established mortal villages, creating cities on a scale rarely save surrounding the complexes of sect or cultivator families. These cities have been built to Imperial standards, organized by the Division of Mortal Affairs into functional utopias without compare in the World.

Sects, rather than isolated and monopolizing rare resources and locations, have been incentivized to join these major locations, relying on the Empire’s favor and their merits to gain the tools they require, and in turn provide added structure, authority, and safety to the cities they reside in. While the number per-city varies, they are organized around the periphery, all equidistant from the Imperial Palaces placed at the heart of each new blossoming cultural anchor. From that central palace, where the Emperor of Emperor’s will can reach across the entirety of the city, one’s view can be expanded to include the nobility, those who have contributed the most to the Empire’s goals and who are most valuable to its processes. Beyond them, the merchants that connect our great works and serve the higher minds and wills of the nobles and the Imperial families and the Emperor beyond them, and beyond them in turn, unique cultural touchstones of the once-warring cultures of the Empire may be allowed. On the outskirts, at last, we find the living spaces of the citizens of the Empire, interwoven and adapted to their environment to provide food, housing, education and protection for all as they toil in the service of the Empire’s Divine Order.

-Primer on the benefits of Imperial Living, mandatory reading in all lower-level governmental education programs.

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Raika starts forming habits.

Habits can be good or bad, of course. Generally speaking, one might refer to the more productive habits as “positive”, while ones that cause harm are usually negative. While one may be generous and assert that Raika’s particular habits are healthier than the drinking or opiates one can slip into to escape or survive their situations, they would be at least partially incorrect. After all, those habits happen to make people feel better for a while. 

Then again, personal vindication is an excellent and delicious feeling and certainly has her feeling better by some definitions. So it’s all good habits all the way down actually.

Dink has really given it its all over the week and change since she’s started hanging out with it. Say what you will about inanimate objects with no true will of their own, but Dink puts in the work and Raika can’t help but respect its commitment to the hustle. As it stands, she can stomach somewhere around twelve to twenty “tunings” before she passes out for the day and wakes up having lost her begging bowl (which has happened twice now. Finding new bowls takes time, damnit). All the talk about pushing herself remains, but for the sake of being able to still hobble back “home” at the end of a long day, she tends to limit herself around seventeen on average.

And then, of course, every two or three days she tries to go for twenty-five.

Notably, and notably enough that she’s started to put stock in it, she’s not as hungry anymore. She still is, obviously, but she’s gone from being barely able to see from hunger to just being in pain. Exceptional news, considering that pain she can handle; a quarter of a year as a mortal, in her state, has made her intimately familiar with it. Even as she refines her focus, goes back to her training, it’s always there, always radiating from her broken system.

Still, she pushes on. Even if she wasn’t quite as psychotically driven, even if she wasn’t truly inspiringly dedicated to spitting in the face of reality, it’s not like she’s got anything better to do. And, interestingly enough, she tends to have a bit more energy nowadays, enough to nod at some folk as they pass rather than just listlessly sit in front of her bowl. Now, she sits upright, right leg unfolded but left in an almost-lotus pose, and spends her days giving small smiles beneath her scarf to the generous and hitting herself in the head with a tuning fork.

It’s… surprising how genuine the smiles are. How much it means to have someone give something, anything, when all it costs them is a bit of time and care. Gratitude is hard to come by in her state, but the lack of total systemic collapse gives her just enough leeway to find some now and again. Sometimes it stings more, like when those in fine silks leave her coppers of whatever pocket change they have left, but even then she can reflect that, well, it’s better than before, and they didn’t have to do that. Oh sure, watching fine brocades and dashing young lords and ladies occasionally pass in sight still makes her think that they really should just give her all their gold, and she definitely has some fun times picture beating them up and taking their shit, but for those who look closer to her rank in society than not, the gratitude is real.

It is a little more than a week from when she first started “tuning” that Raika sees a face she recognizes.

A young woman in healer’s robes of white and red stops dead in front of her.

Perhaps it was the “Dink” of Raika’s constant companion, or perhaps just the sight of such specific injuries, but she stops abruptly enough to almost drop the bundle she’s carrying, staring at Raika with wide eyes.

“You’re alive!” Li Shu bursts out.

Raika looks up at her, quirking an eyebrow. “Last time I checked, yes,” she rasps, a smile pulling at the scar tissue. “Always good to have confirmation from an expert, though.”

“I didn’t- you- I can’t-” Li Shu stumbles, blinking owlishly at her like she’s trying to get her eyes to focus. “It’s been months! It’s almost winter!”

Raika nods sagely. “I thought it was getting nippy out,” she rasps.

“How are you still alive?” Li Shu asks, setting down a bundle of what looks like herbs and grasses and crouching, examining Raika like one might a strange fungus in an unexpected place. “Do you still have some rations? Has someone helped you? I- I thought you were-”

Raika shrugs, or at least tries to. Hurts her ribs to properly lift the shoulders, but it’s worth it to interrupt that train of thought. “Not since you, really,” she says, her voice low and cracked. “Out here it’s just guards who like to kick down and brats who act like birds when they see someone else’s coins. If you have more rations, though, the one with the dried berries was the best.”

Li Shu blinks, then grins, a mix of sheepish, embarrassed, and humored. “I’ll keep it in mind,” she says with a shake of her head, “but how are you still alive? It’s one thing to be a beggar with one’s health, and even then many grow sick from their environment, from lack of food and proper medical care. You had some of the worst wounds I’ve ever seen, and you’re just… fine? You came out here looking like-”

“You mean I was sent out here,” Raika rasps. She doesn’t bear any ill will towards Li Shu, but she refuses to let the comment slide. This time Li Shu does color in her cheeks, a bit of pink. It’s actually kind of cute, which is rare enough for Raika nowadays.

“...Yes,” the younger woman whispers. “But I don’t know that we could have healed you much more anyways, in truth. Without meridians to send supplies through or a dantian to purify and absorb them, mortal medicine can only do so much. Maybe in the second ring, or the capital, but I still think it’s a little mad that you survived at all.”

Raika half-shrugs again. “The Heavens will have to come down and kill me themselves if they want this to be done quick,” she promises, voice dry but holding something like a laugh in it. “Otherwise, I intend to drag my carcass all the way back to strength, whether they like it or not.”

Li Shu does a mix of tilting her head to one side like a confused pup and a gentle smile, like she’s trying to tell if Raika is serious and also just trying to be nice. Raika just gives her a huff, before introducing “Dink” by performing his namesake.

“Just wait,” she rasps. “Gonna be stronger than ever soon.”

At first it’s just the smile again, but then it turns to a frown with the head tilt. “...how?” Li Shu asks. 

Raika blinks at that. It sounds like she’s… actually being genuine.

Making a decision, she shrugs. “I dunno,” she tells her honestly. “But Dink here sometimes makes me black out, and sometimes I wake up feeling not worse. Besides, being blind and missing your hands never stopped a good sculptor, hmm?”

Li Shu gives up a giggle at that, and it’s the nicest sound Raika has heard in months.

And then, of course, something interrupts. Because if nothing else, the Heavens are consistent about pissing in her rice whenever they get a chance.

“Honorable apprentice!” says a voice that sounds like it wants to be important.

Raika and Li Shu both turn their heads at the same time, looking towards the market Li Shu came from. Standing there in the colors of one of the city’s three sects (the… Purple - flame - something - something sect) stand three young cultivators, one almost three inches taller than his fellows, the other two already following him into a polite bow towards Li Shu.

“There is no need to bother yourself with this one, honorable healer,” says the guy in the lead, laying it on a bit thick. “You are generous beyond imagining, but this is no mere beggar. They are a cripple, and any blessed healing Qi or resources given would be wasted on them.”

“And why is that, young master Qen Hou?” Li Shu, sweetly enough that Raika can’t help but… well, not giggle, she can’t do that any more, but close.

That gives this “Qen Hou” pause, clearly not having read the script where someone doesn’t blindly agree with him and thank him for talking. The younger cultivator looks to the others, confused. “Well… they cannot cultivate, honored healer,” replies one behind him, a young man with raven-dark skin and bright eyes. “I apologize for my ignorance on medical arts, but I’ve heard that any Qi-based medicine would go through their meridians, would it not? And since they have none…”

“And I suppose you all are apprenticed at the honorable Ru Kai’s clinic, and thus must surely be my senior brothers and sisters?” Li Shu asks in the sweetest, most subtle tone of condescension Raika has ever heard. It’s pretty hot, honestly.

The one who just spoke averts his eyes, but the one in front who first spoke (Qen Hou, was it?) seems to take it in stride. “I would never claim this one’s knowledge of the medicinal arts would even touch honored healers,” he says, all proper and prim. “I only mean to assist you in surpassing the bounds of misplaced generosity.”

Raika rolls her eyes at that, but she can’t help it; he’s got his lines down pretty well, and he’s navigating this decently. Plus, he’s technically right; any time that Li Shu spends talking to her, she isn’t learning, helping her master, or healing someone.

Doesn’t mean she’s not gonna remember his ass for interrupting a good vibe, but she’ll probably let him off with a fucked up rib when she’s back on top.

Aaaaany day now.

Raika can’t really get up, much less bow, but she does sit up a bit straighter and incline herself forward a bit. “Thank you for your time, Li Shu,” she rasps. “It has been an honor and a joy to see you, and I thank you for the kindness you have shown me. I am sure that we both have pursuits we must return to.”

Li Shu’s face falls, just a bit, just enough to make Raika feel good. She doesn’t want to leave. That, as the kids say, is the mark of rizz, short for charisma, short for the power of undeniable sexual prowess that oozes even from her lessened state. Or maybe just genuine interest and incredible kindness. The latter is most likely, but the part that agrees the most with it is an idiot and a coward, so obviously it must be that even in her condition Raika is simply irresistible.

The younger woman stands and gives Raika a bow much deeper than is proper. “I admire your survival and your dedication,” she says, somewhat formally, “and I am proud that the services of the Ru Kai clinic have helped to strengthen and support you. If ever you find yourself in greater straits, we welcome you once more.”

Then she pauses. “Do you often beg here?” she asks. 

Raika nods. “Can’t walk very far. Here morning, noon and sunset, most days. Except thirds-days, that’s when people don’t come and the stalls give free scraps sometimes.”

Li Shu seems to take that in stride, giving a shorter bow. “Then perhaps our paths may cross again. I bid you well.”

“I bid you well,” Raika replies.

Li Shu walks on her way, bag heavy with the herbs and supplies she’s surely bought this trip. And Raika watches her go a bit.

Then “Dink” reminds her, vocally, that she’s got shit to do, and she lets herself fall back into the rhythm of trying to hold the imagined vibration as firmly inside herself as she can.

She does not notice the looks she gets from those who walk past a moment later. Not the look of derision and disgust in the eyes of the raven-skinned disciple who mentioned her cultivation, not the look of confusion from the quiet one beside him, and not the look of fleeting but genuine curiosity in the eyes of one Qen Hou.

She’s busy.

And also enjoying the memory of having someone give a shit about her.

And also indulging in a little fantasy about kicking people’s asses when she can walk again.

But mostly she’s busy.

Dink