Deadtired

"Provinces," Cinder said. "We don't have a local provincial government here. Though some of the western provinces might. The central ones certainly do. As for travel. No. Not really."

"Travel is expensive, and time consuming. Merchants travel, those with nothing but desperation in their bellies, and some few wandering cultivators will take on a dao that will have them explore the world, but most stay where they're from, with rare exceptions," Elder Frost said.

"I see. I think that was often the same in my day. There were times when it changed, where a nation's people would become rich enough to travel, but most people lived and died within a day's walk of the same place," I said.

"That's rather sad," Alex said. "But I can understand it."

"Why?" Rem asked. "It's stupid. You go where the prey goes."

Alex shook their head. "As a butler, your job would be to tend to the master's domicile. A domicile rarely packs up and moves. It's natural for a maid or butler to remain in one place their entire lives if that place is where their master needs them, isn't it?"

I wondered... I had had a number of maids and butlers in my day. I warned them of my intentions before taking my rest, but I had left them in charge of some small estates and laboratories. Were they still there to this day? "You'd think wanderlust would kick in eventually," I said. "Even I ventured out of the lab, at times."

We reached the outer wall of the city, where the gate was opened for us, then the time for chatter was reaching a middle, because it was time to get a move on.

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Chapter Fourteen — Peculiar Path

Chapter Fourteen — Peculiar Path

"So," I began as we kept up a respectable pace through the more sparse woods near the city. "What sort of wildlife should we expect around here?"

Cinder was the one to answer. She was at the head of our little group, pathfinding through the woods while taking a zig-zagging route. That mostly meant hopping from one flat-topped stone to another, each some three or four necrometres apart and perhaps a necrometre above the ground.

These rock formations were obviously unnatural. Stones didn't just rise out of the ground as stumpy little pillars at more or less even intervals so easily.

Interestingly, these seemed to be acting as a sort of road. With branches heading out to the sides and some stones visible deeper in the woods.

They were relatively well hidden as well, I could only see one or two stones ahead, with no straight path in sight. Instead, most of the stones were placed in such a way that the natural ebb and flow of the hilly landscape hid those further out from view, or they'd be hidden from the side by large, thorn-covered bushes or older trees.

"So close to Shitake City? There's very very very little to worry about. The natural predators in this region are culled frequently. There are snails, as I believe I've mentioned before, but they're relatively slow moving."

"I see. And further out?" I asked.

"Hmm hmm hmm, further out there are more dangerous animals to worry about. Ash wolves come to mind. They are large beasts, the same grey as the ash all around, and they can lie in wait for long hours only to jump out and attack. They fight in packs."

"Rem remembers those," Rem said. "They are large, and bony. The meat they have is tasty. Lots of chi, but there's very little actually meat."

"Bone doggies," Mem said. She sounded rather despondent. "They're not very nice doggies."

"Bone doggies," I repeated. "I presume that they're covered in bones, then? Are they perhaps undead?"

"No no no," Cinder said with a dismissive wave of a sleeve-covered hand. "The ash wolves are living creatures. Though their nature is very... Yin. As are most creatures from the Ashen Forest."

That was a new term that was I wasn't entirely familiar with. I made a mental note to explore that later. "Are they the most dangerous predator in the woods?"

Cinder shook her head. "No. That would be the mantises."

Rem puffed up a little between one jump and the next. "We are the best hunters," she said.

I could actually believe her. Yes, Rem and Mem were both... relatively weak, all things considered, but even the exceptionally impatient Rem was able to hold still for extended periods. And for all that I suspected her Intelligence was a dump stat, she was still able to talk and with some learning read and write.

That placed her and her siblings above the common animal. Being that intelligence made a predator an exceptional threat. It allowed for strategic and tactical thinking. The laying of traps and the outsmarting of foes.

It meant that they could, if pushed, use tools to make the task of hunting their prey that much easier.

"There are other dangerous animals within the forest," Cinder said. "One of the reasons we're travelling via these stepping stones is to avoid disturbing the ash. Some creatures linger beneath the surface and will jump up to assault you. That, and the ash can be deceptively deep in places."

"How deep?" Alex asked.

Cinder actually came to a full stop three stones later. It was a larger platform, more than wide enough to accommodate all of us and jutting out of the side of a hill. She pointed down into the dip in the landscape below. "How far do you think the ground is?" she asked.

Alex glanced over the edge. We were only perhaps half a necrometre away from the surface of the ash. "It doesn't seem so deep."

Cinder chuckled. There was a tree next to the stone plateau we were on. With an easy hop, she leapt up into its branches, then stopped her foot down. The branch cracked, the sharp retort echoing out across the barren landscape before the entire branch came rushing down, dislodging ash from above as it went.

Alex covered his mouth with a handkerchief as she backed away from the edge. The branch crashed down onto the ash... and disappeared below.

"We're on the edge of a gorge," Cinder said as she landed next to us once more. "It's deep deep deep."

I leaned closer to the edge. The large branch had come to a stop some three necrometres deeper than I would have expected. Assuming that it had touched the ground below, which wasn't a sure thing... then there was something like four or five necrometres of ash here. "That's ash-tonishingly deep. Ohoho!"

Cinder chuckled, and I noticed Elder Frost giving me a look that I couldn't quite decipher.

"Places like this are relatively common," Cinder said. "Where the wind isn't strong, or is blocked by the hills and trees, and where there's a dip for ash to settle. They're dangerous for those walking across the Ashen Forest. Naturally hidden pitfalls. But also, places for monsters to lurk."

She pointed just in time for the ash around the tree branch to shift. Something with a large, long mouth, snapped its many teeth into the bark of the branch. It was shaken, and that shaking made more ash fly up into the air and unsettled the rest so that the hole was covered up.

"What was that?" Mem asked.

"Ashligator," Cinder said.

I snorted. Ashligator! Fantastic!

"They're not much of a threat, actually. Slow, territorial, they rarely venture out of the thickest ash. Dangerous, yes, but only for those that don't know where they're going."

"More than one curious visitor to these forests have lost a leg to them," Elder Frost said. "We should keep moving."

I nodded along and followed as we hopped over to the next stone.

"These pillars. Obviously they're not natural..."

"One of my ancestors," Cinder said with some pride.

"My uncle," Elder Frost said. "He was a weak fighter, but a cunning and powerful cultivator all the same. He discovered some magical tricks that allowed him to turn ash into stone. He created a path for us from the edge of the forest to our sect. Then more. Many more."

"Leading to points of interests?" I asked.

Cinder nodded. "Points of interest, and paths that lead nowhere. We actually have outer disciples tasked with travelling across the forest via unused paths, just to ensure that they're still serviceable, and to leave tracks for others to follow."

We were leaving tracks ourselves. Cinder and Elder Frost and Alex were the only ones moving in such a way that they left no footprints. I was, of course, a wizard, not a rogue, so I have little care about stealth. Then again... Rem and Mem's steps only left small points behind, so the shoe-scuffs of my oxfords were the most obvious markers we were leaving in our wake.

I used a bit of prestidigitation on our next step to smooth out the ash behind us.

It was a clever system, actually.

These stones were safer, ostensibly, than walking on the ground, which meant that anyone with a lick of common sense would use these to travel. The stones could be used to mislead people and send them off in the wrong direction because they acted as roads. Someone travelling through the Ashen Forest would want to use these.

But there was another layer to their use. They made the ground seem that much more dangerous, and the forest that much more threatening. It was a simple psychological trick, like providing a tiny sphere of light in the void of darkness. A promise of civility in a sea of danger.

That could easily be turned against someone. Flick off the light, and suddenly the one depending on it would be caught unaware and unprepared.

How hard would it be to tuck a few traps into these stone platforms? A few spells with delayed reactions, the caster hidden in the ash like one of those ashligators?

We continued, keeping an even but quick pace for another couple of hours. Then the stones ran out.

"From here on we walk," Cinder said as she hopped down. The ground puffed up with her step. "We'll be staying on the ridge of a hill. It means we'll be very visible, but the wind sweeps the ash away."

"Fair enough," I said as I stepped down as well. "I imagine we'll reconnect with another similar set of stepping stones further out?"

Cinder blinked, then nodded. "Quite so. Just an hour's walk across the hills. The rest of the stepping stone paths from here lead to areas of the forest which are... unsafe."

"Any other threats we should worry about?" I asked.

"Hmm, you don't breathe, so it's not an issue for you. But we'll be traversing a windy area with fine ash particulate in the air. They'll clog your lungs and leave you for dead if you're not equipped properly."

"Well, that's breath-takingly inconvenient," Alex said.

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Chapter Fifteen — Brilliant Banners

Chapter Fifteen — Brilliant Banners

I was quite glad for the existence of spells like prestidigitation as we waded through calf-deep ash. The two cultivators had techniques that allowed them to step onto the loose ash as though it were solid ground, but our mantis companions lacked any such abilities and were forced to push through the ash with some difficulty.

I took some mild amount of pity on both Mem and Rem as they started to cough and splutter at the presence of so much ash. Cinder had been right when she warned that the ash could be dangerous to those that needed to breathe.

A few simple healing spells, cast so that they'd dispense their healing over the span of several hours rather than instantly, helped to alleviate our insectoid companions' suffering. It also stopped Rem's grumbling. I wasn't entirely irate by her complaints, seeing as there was a good reason for them, but I would be lying to myself if I didn't admit that they were frustrating to hear.

The path that Elder Frost charted eventually led us to a second set of stones that we could walk upon. I noticed that these had been brushed off and were much easier to find. They had tall banners next to them, with a symbol embroidered onto their surface.

The banners were black and white, a diagonal stripe splitting the shades across the middle. In the centre, a mountain, and from the top of it, a grey tree rose. "Is that the symbol of your sect?" I asked. There were two words written in the local pictograms. Ash and Forest.

Elder Frost chuckled. "It is. There was a strong fad some three decades ago. Every sect needed a banner with art and symbols to represent them. This is ours."

"A fad," I repeated. "I recall such things coming in vogue then leaving in time. Knightly houses would adopt a coat of arms, then the nobility would adopt a crest of their own. Businesses catering to them would commission complex signage, then smaller ones would adopt their own."

"So everyone would have a banner of their own?" Cinder asked.

"Until every shop and inn and street gang has a crest of their own, yes," I said. "Then the nobility would start to think that such things a gauche and rather kitche and would simplify or drop their own heraldry, starting a new cycle."

"How long do these cycles take?" the elder asked. "I recall such banners being popular in my youth, but that was a long time ago. Then they, as you said, became somewhat unfashionable."

"I think the time for fashions to change depends on a number of factors," I said. "But the most important of these are the degrees to which people can afford to change their organisational appearance-which requires both the means to produce new appearances and the means to afford that production-and a certain degree of communication. Good ideas, if isolated, are lost."

Cinder nodded along. "The idea for the banners came from the west. A few of us went there for a grand tournament where banners were seen, and so we created our own. More recently, I think the idea of such things has become less popular. Though maybe not unpopular."

"That makes sense. The empire is rather wide and communication standards are still quite slow. News seems to mostly circulate via criers, heralds, and letters. If the empire had better road infrastructure, or magical means of travelling, then news and new ideas would move far faster."

"Is that something you wish to change?" Elder Frost asked.

I considered it for the next few steps. "I don't think so. But I might bring about such changes anyway. If your sect falls in line, the limpet continues to grow, and we start to establish a foothold in the empire, then I see no reason why the regions under my control should stagnate. Poor communication bothers me, and it's not overly complicated to rectify."

"How would you do it?" Cinder asked. "I'm very very very curious."

"Well, the simple method is to employ undead birds to carry letters and light parcels. Use undead labour to rebuild and improve roads, In times of uncertainty or when banditry is still an issue, instituting a caravan system with undead guards can also improve material-travel times."