Fates Parallel (A Xianxia/Wuxia Inspired Cultivation Story)

Eui left the Sun estate feeling refreshed. For once, she felt as though her past was well and truly behind her. It also meant that she could no longer put off the official reason for her visit to Goryeo.

Eui considered the upcoming audience seriously as she flew with Misun back to the capital. She wasn’t as averse to political pursuits as Jia was, but she was still far from the ideal candidate. Kaede would have been better suited for it, and Eui fully intended to draw on her expertise during her meetings with the royal family.

Near the top of her priorities were chances to speak to Do Hye and Void. Yoshika was committed to the pursuit of divinity, and those two were about the closest she’d ever get to friendly deities who might be able to offer her some advice.

She also needed to solidify Jiaguo’s relationship with Goryeo. Of all the surrounding countries, Goryeo was the only one which was stable and friendly, and Yoshika needed to make the most of it. She didn’t expect anything as dramatic as the alliance they had formed against the demonic enclave, but even a public acknowledgement would be an enormous boost to Jiaguo’s legitimacy.

They arrived in Songdo without any issues—Misun’s presence did a lot to smooth over their passage.

Yoshika’s estate in the city still technically belonged to her, even though Eui’s parents had emigrated. Eunae had recommended petitioning for it to be recognized as an embassy, but for the time being, it was just a place to stay.

Misun was eager to get things moving after the long detour. The first time Yoshika met with the queen, they’d made her wait for a month after her audience was approved. This time, it took less than a day.

That was a good sign, as it suggested that the Seong Clan intended to treat Yoshika as the world leader that she now was.

The royal palace was an enormous complex of sprawling structures, courtyards, and pavilions neatly encased in a huge wall of enchanted jade. It was like a miniature city within the city, with the main castle standing in defiance of the infamous towers of Songdo’s mage colleges.

The castle was a declaration. The towers might be taller, but the palace was where the true powers of Songdo resided.

Even after the attempted coup just a few years before, the Seong clan stood strong.

Eui was led straight through the palace grounds and the great hall of the castle, to the same throne room where she’d intervened in that very coup. It was subtle, but she could even see where parts of the castle had been repaired after the destructive battle with the elementals.

Rather than a servant, Misun herself met Eui at the entrance to the throne room.

“We’re going straight in, are you ready?”

Eui nodded.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Good. How should I introduce you?”

“Introduce? We’ve already met.”

Misun sighed and shook her head.

“That’s not how it works. You’re not a person right now, you’re a nation. You are not here representing An Eui, or even Yoshika—you are here to represent Jiaguo. Now, how does Jiaguo want to be introduced?”

 

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The heavy doors to the throne room swung open and Seong Misun strode confidently to the center of the court before bowing.

“Mother, Sisters, it is my honor to introduce High Arbiter Yoshika, of Jiaguo.”

Seong Eunhee smiled down at her precious ‘daughter.’ As the clan matriarch, the rest of the clan were all her daughters, even if Misun was actually her niece, by blood.

Misun had matured more in the last five years than she had in the previous forty, and it was really about time. Like her sister, the time abroad had been a positive influence—though perhaps it wasn’t so much the time away from the castle, but rather the specific company that the two sisters shared as a positive influence.

Eunhee hoped not—pilgrimages to foreign allies could be instituted as clan traditions or national policy. Making friends with Yoshika wasn’t quite as easy to generalize.

Speaking of which, her guest entered after Misun, head held high. She stopped two paces in front of Misun, and offered a polite bow, rising without being prompted.

Good. She wasn’t behaving as a subject, but she wasn’t trying to establish dominance, either. Misun wasn’t the only one who had matured.

The first time they’d met, Lee Jia and An Eui were both as timid as could be. They’d done well enough, for their first time. Eui’s hairstyle in particular had been a bold statement—revealing and even emphasizing her brand of exile in an audacious display of passive defiance. Eunhee had to applaud it, even if their demeanors hadn’t quite managed to keep up with the message their presentation sent.

This time, however, An Eui held herself with all the confidence and grace Eunhee would expect of a fellow queen. Her clothing was fine, but tasteful—in a style which Eunhee didn’t recognize—and her hair had been done up in much the same way as their first meeting, but with an even bolder statement.

The brand was gone.

“Rise, my daughter. It is so good to meet you again, Lady Yoshika. You’ve been awfully busy since our last meeting, haven’t you?”

An Eui smiled wryly.

“You could say that. It’s good to meet you as well, Your Majesty.”

“Allow me to reintroduce my daughters—to my right, Princess Seong Minhee, advisor to the throne.”

The title was mostly meaningless, but Eunhee did take counsel from her big sister now and then. Minhee mostly stayed out of national politics,though—focusing instead on strengthening the clan and producing the next successor to the throne.

“On my left, Prime Minister Grand Magus Princess Seong Min.”

Yoshika looked askance at Min.

“You’re still doing that?”

Eunhee bit back her laughter as Min made an affronted sound.

“My titles are well-earned, Lady ‘High Arbiter,’ and you would do well to respect them. I’m not so certain the same can be said of you.”

The queen sighed. Her daughter—her actual daughter, by blood—could be a bit of a handful. She’d been born around the same time as her cousin, Misun, and they both shared an indomitable sense of pride. However, while Misun felt no need to prove herself, Min was almost obsessed with the way others saw her. That had done well for her as an overachiever in both academic and political pursuits, but she had a nasty habit of lording her superiority over others wherever she could.

Perhaps Min needed to go on the same journey her cousins had—but no, she was too valuable at home. Min’s boasting wasn’t just hot air—while Eunhee was queen, it was Min who ultimately ran most of the nation. The queen gave direction, but it was the prime minister who turned that direction into actionable policy, and Min did as fine a job of that as any prime minister who’d served under Eunhee, with the exception of Do Hye.

Though she supposed Do Hye’s current incarceration as a traitor to the crown was worth a few points off, retroactively.

“Now, now, let’s not be hostile to our guest. Lady Yoshika was instrumental in the attack on the demonic enclave, and she did our country and the world an enormous service by recovering the Sovereign’s Tear. That she opted to keep it for herself is disappointing, but hardly unexpected.”

Minhee shifted, recognizing the queen’s prompt and taking the opportunity to move on to more important topics.

“About that. Lady Yoshika, our interrogation of the former Grand Magus has led to the understanding that the artifact you possess has far greater significance than we were originally led to believe. In the interest of good faith, I’ll give you this opportunity to tell us what you know about the Sovereign’s Tear.”

Eunhee held back a sigh. That was coming on a little strong. Yoshika wasn’t a subject anymore, and more than that she’d grown an incredible amount since their last meeting.

An Eui took the implicit threat in stride and inclined her head.

“It wasn’t our intention to keep anything from you when we brought the subject to your attention. Our own understanding was limited at the time, and we simply weren’t sure what to do once we retrieved it. We just knew that allowing the descended deities to take it would be the worst case.”

Queen Eunhee nodded gracefully, glad that Yoshika was still willing to cooperate.

“We understand. Can you corroborate our intelligence, then?”

“Certainly.”

Yoshika went on to explain what she knew about the Tear. Most of it was exactly what they’d managed to get from Do Hye—it was an effectively limitless supply of divine essence, and the source of nearly all mana in the world. Given enough time, the essence it produced would overwhelm the divine seal which isolated their world from the heavens, but with catastrophic results.

She went on to describe a fantastical tale—apparently related to her by some ancient vestige of the Bloody Sovereign himself—that the entire universe, including the divine realm and beyond, was actually the corpse of some unfathomable timeless being known as a demiurge, and that the artifact was a crystallized fraction of its essence.

Eunhee had heard part of it before, but the full story sounded even more strange and unbelievable than before.

“That lines up with what we know, thank you. Now, I’m sure you understand that whether it’s centuries, millenia, or even eons in the future, we aren’t exactly comfortable with such a calamity hanging over us, especially with the source of that calamity sitting in the hands of a relative unknown.”

“Of course we do. That’s why we decided to keep it. With all due respect, Your Majesty, we don’t know you except by the nation you represent. And while it may be no fault of yours, that nation was not kind to us.”

The queen bristled a bit at that. Normally she might have taken a moment to collect her thoughts before responding to such an obvious provocation, but Min was already about to explode, and she needed to act before her daughter could say something they’d all regret.

“You have our sincerest apologies for the hardships you and your partner suffered under our rule. As you must be aware, even with a state as small as yours, the decisions of a ruler are not always easy, and sometimes it is neither practical nor desirable to ensure favorable outcomes for all.”

Yoshika smiled thinly.

“On that, I’m afraid we’ll just have to disagree.”

Ah, to be so young and naive. Eunhee almost envied them. Well, it wasn’t like she expected Yoshika to just give up the Tear.

“Very well. I understand your position, of course, but is there no way that we could arrange for co-operation of some kind? Perhaps you could allow our mages to help study the artifact so that we might better tap into its power, or discover a way to break the divine seal.”

Yoshika shook her head.

“We’re more than happy to foster a co-operative relationship between our nations. The limited trade we’ve established has been a huge boon already, and Princess Haeun is an exemplary student—a credit to the entire academy. But the Sovereign’s Tear is off-limits. Only my closest friends and allies are even allowed to know how to access it, much less actually do so.”

Eunhee sighed. The young sovereign had a lot to learn about international politics and negotiation.

“Then I’m afraid you don’t really have much of anything to offer us, do you? With respect, your city-state is far too small to make a meaningful dent in our economy through trade, and though we’ve laid the foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship, we’re not so committed that we couldn’t reverse that course. At the very least, you haven’t given us a reason to risk antagonizing Yamato.”

Yoshika frowned.

“Don’t we? Goryeo is a nation that prides itself on technological prowess—with the mage colleges constantly developing simple new enchantments for everyday use. From temperature control formations, to showers, to magical stoves—even the poorest mortals living within the city walls have access to common enchantments that would be the envy of wealthier foreigners.”

The queen smiled politely.

“Yes, I’m familiar with my nation’s strengths.”

“And what we offer is the exclusive ability to maintain that technological edge. Our academy is already developing magic beyond anything your colleges have ever dreamt of, and as we continue to develop and refine our methods, we’d be more than happy to share them with you—both through student exchanges and more directly by trade.”

Seong Min scoffed incredulously.

“Our colleges are already the most advanced institutions on the continent. You should be paying us for such a treaty.”

Yoshika cocked her head.

“Are you sure? I’d like to ask your cousins what they think about that. Eunae, Haeun, what do you think?”

She turned to the side, addressing the empty air next to her, and Queen Eunhee’s eyes went wide as a pair of apparitions appeared, looking completely identical to the two youngest members of the clan.

Eunae bowed low.

“It’s as Yoshika says, Sisters. Jiaguo’s magic is advancing at a pace that boggles the mind.”

Haeun was trying desperately to hold back the huge grin on her face.

“Wow! This is the castle? Master, is this real?”

Yoshika smiled, not breaking eye contact with Eunhee as she answered.

“It’s an illusion, but it’s perfectly matched in real time.”

Eunhee pursed her lips.

“You’re producing that image from hundreds of miles away, through the city’s shield formation, that of the palace, and this throne room—not to mention your own?”

“Mhm!”

“How?”

Yoshika grinned with the unabashed confidence of someone who knew that they’d won.

“How much do you want to know?”