Chapter 244 - Quiet Reflections

In the abandoned house to the west of the village, Yuzu watched the events unfold on the tapestry. She sat cross-legged in the center of the main room with a single lit candle providing just enough light to keep the room out of complete darkness.

Her eyes glimmered softly with shimmering golden threads, reflecting the dim, flickering light.

She watched the tapestry without disturbing it, seeing how the weave flowed, how the threads affected one another as if they had a life and a will of their own.

In the physical world, one could have thought she was meditating as she sat motionless in front of a solitary candle for hours on end. However to Yuzu, she was sitting in the midst of hundreds of constantly shifting golden strings. Each string glimmered with its own light, each string carried upon it the whispers of fate.

Since Yuzu had arrived in Fuha, she had passed the nights watching the tapestry in the way that she used to watch the birds by the river near her home. Not analyzing, not judging or planning, just… experiencing it.

It was a peace that she had not known since that fateful day that the ornate box had landed in her hands.

As she watched the strings, night after night, she came to realize a few things about the tapestry and the fate strings that composed it.

First, her mental state had a great effect on her perception of the threads. When she was focused or watching the tapestry with a purpose, the threads related to her focus became more vibrant, and threads that were not important faded out of sight. When she was relaxed and calm, those background threads slowly phased into her awareness.

These background threads were not all linked to people or animals. They simply existed, in the way that the fabric of an embroidered cloth existed as a background to the colourful, purposeful embroidery. It was these threads that enabled her to look in the distance even where there were no people around.

These delicate threads could be pressed or twisted, just like those of people, though they could only be subtly manipulated. If she applied too much pressure, her hands would just pass through and stop affecting them. And though Yuzu could manipulate them, she didn’t know what effect moving those threads had, since there was no one around to be affected by the action.

The biggest use Yuzu had for the threads was using them to judge how far she could extend her spiritual vision. When she was in Noga, her limit seemed to be about two kilometres away. Under special conditions, such as at the center of Deka’s divine kingdom, she was able to see and affect strings that were much further away, which Li Ru had explained was due to the high concentration of aether in the air.

Sitting in her shelter on the outskirts of the village, Yuzu could see about two kilometres into the distance, and if she really relaxed and calmed her thoughts, she could just barely make out the tapestry another half kilometre away. In addition, when she was in good condition she could see up to half a day into the future. This was a good deal beyond the limit of four to six hours that she previously was able to view, meaning that her abilities had somehow improved over time.

When she was in Noga, these limits were large enough to be useful, as she was able to keep track of many people at once and guide the flow of fate. However out in the marsh, the distance was insufficient, as she couldn’t see far enough to locate towns or people outside of the village that could help her, and with nothing ‘happening’ around the town, being able to only see half a day in the future was hardly useful either.

On the other hand, these isolated surroundings also gave Yuzu the opportunity to experiment with the threads and observe the effects over time. When she made big changes to the tapestry, like coercing the wild boar to enter the village to be slaughtered, or telling Nilya not to let the guru-chi approach his sister, the threads moved harshly and unnaturally.

It wasn’t just the specific people or animals that she touched that were affected either, whole bunches of the tapestry would shift and twist in a way that were obviously out of sync with the natural flow. These twists would ripple out across the threads in the area causing a cascade of effects unrelated to the original change.

On the other hand, when she carefully manipulated the strings, gently gathering them or shifting them away, the ‘ripples’ would be more subtle and wouldn’t spread so far.

Yuzu thought about the changes that she had made back in Noga, to resist the flow of fate around Deka’s resurrection. They were all of the former type - harsh, heavy handed - dare she say ‘unskilled’?

If there were anyone in Noga attuned to the Domain of Fate with the ability to see the strings, they would have definitely known that someone was out there manipulating the tapestry.

Yuzu’s eyes darkened as she thought about the warning the Argus had sent to her through Char Char.

“The Kismet Order of Fate is looking for you.”

At the time, Yuzu had kept her eyes out for signs of Fate attuned Exalted, hoping to notice them first and avoid them. But thinking about it now she hadn’t considered how the Kismet Order was looking for her.

She hid her identity well to the many Exalted factions that were looking for the White Maiden, but for any Exalted who were able to see the fate strings she might as well have painted a target on her back.

When Yuzu had arrived in Fuha, she had made the ‘heavy-handed’ change to the tapestry of bringing the boar into town. She now realized how careless such actions were, but there was nothing she could do about it. She’d just have to be more careful in the future.

There was one final discovery that Yuzu had come across, one that she was surprised she hadn’t figured out sooner.

When Yuzu drank the aether-rich liquid from the white porcelain jar, her abilities would temporarily increase in potency. With just a sip the distance she could see increased by another kilometre, and the time into the future with which she could see increased to just over a full day.

In Noga, when she had access to the prayers of her followers the jar took only a day to refill. Here in the wastelands it filled at a much slower rate, only a few drops a day.

It was a precious resource that Yuzu planned to use to its maximum.

Yuzu’s eyes settled on Nilya’s silver string. The commotion caused by Nilya and the guru-chi was finally settling down, the golden strings of the villagers which had spun together were now dispersing back to a peaceful state.

She carefully watched the strings, observing the changes that had occurred due to her interference. The most notable change was that Nilya’s sister Anya had been saved from perishing from the devil eyes.

Saving the girl, who was around Yuzu’s age, was a change to the tapestry that Yuzu felt was positive enough to warrant the risk of exposing herself. Her plan had gone through exactly as planned - The vision that took Nilya out to the swamp could have come from any Exalted source, and so its effect on the tapestry was not as pronounced compared to if Yuzu had directly pulled his string over.

The droplets from the porcelain jar that Nilya had administered to Anya had both revitalized Anya while also activating the devil eyes within her, but Yuzu easily took care of the devil eyes the same way she had done dozens of times in the past. With all traces of the drops gone, it would be hard to determine exactly what the medicine was, and what the method of healing Anya had been.

The one thing Yuzu hadn’t predicted was that Nilya would be targeted by the guru-chi. Yuzu didn’t know what the guru-chi had planned for the young Exalted boy, but she silently vowed to keep an eye on him.

Yuzu sighed softly, rubbing her eyes as she released her spiritual vision. The glittering tapestry faded from sight, leaving her in darkness with only the dimly flickering candle lighting the space around her.

She stood, picked up the candle holder and made her way to a room with a small cot and bedding. She lay down on the hard bed, pulling the rough blanket over her, then extinguished the candle with her spirituality.

Her mind whirled with thoughts as she settled down to sleep. All the excitement and epiphanies and worries of the day replayed in her head over and over, just as they did every other night. And just like every other night she knew that there was nothing more she could do to get home faster.

As her thoughts calmed down and fatigue took over, a feeling of homesickness stirred in her heart. Memories of her brothers and her sitting at the kitchen table, talking about their day. Memories of sitting behind the counter at the pawn shop and having tea with Grandma JingYi.

Memories of eating sandwiches with Char Char at a cafe accompanied her to sleep.