Fic Update Thread: I can't drive 55

[Mamorien]

Threads of Destiny 405-Standing 3.

There was a dichotomy, Ling Qi thought, in her foundations. It was not a cultivation-ruining flaw though, or at least, she did not think so. It came down to the way her secondary patrons could appear to clash. Dreaming and Hidden. Art and Secrets. Expression and Mystery.

The Duchess had honed herself into a merciless truth, where no contradiction could exist. She could not and would not hold any of herself back, and she could not allow any shadow of doubt to exist. And so Cai Renxiang was broken, like a child's doll cast down on the stones.

The Hui, the former ducal clan, had been the Duchess’ opposites. They had been masters of lies who thrived in doubts.

The merciless, all-scouring light of Cai Shenhua had been necessary to break them. It had been needed to dig the rot of ages out of Xiangmen's halls and ministries, so that something untainted could begin to grow.

But humans could not endure living under such a light forever, neither would the Duchess last forever. Nor could Renxiang be such a light. Renxiang's light was not as harsh as her mother’s, but it was still not a thing which left people at ease. Her intent was good, humblingly so, but it did nothing to make her light warm.

What Ling Qi could be, though, was the one who stood between the light and the people. There was more to clearly communicating than baldly stating facts. It included softening words, adjusting tones, or speaking in words and metaphors which would not slide off of a person's preconceptions like water from a duck’s feathers. If the truth was that burning, pitiless light, her mists should be that which softened its rays into something which men and women could endure.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/...standing-3