D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

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“What did you say?” asked Feng, raging building. He was giving his sister a chance to go back on her words. To answer differently.

He chose poorly. Bing’s eyes started to glow, wisps of wind started to surround her form as she stood proud in front of her brother and spoke, “I said that it DOES matter. The fact that Meng loves us IS the difference!”

“How can you say that? Everything we’ve ever known about her is a lie!” hissed Feng.

“You don’t know that Bang has lived in truth either. What does it matter though? Were we not raised on the same stories? The same legends? The tale of the ‘Tired Soldier and the Broken Woman’ or perhaps ‘The Spy and the Peasant’ is more relevant to this case? ‘Love Conquers All?’, ‘How to Repair a Broken Dream’ these are all stories I know you’ve heard with me,” stated Bing, her voice taking on a slightly ethereal quality.

“Those are just stories Bing! This is the real world! Somehow who can so happily admit to being a spy should have no place in our family. We were taught how to spot spies from a young age. Taught about the damage they do. The havoc they can wreak. We were told of the tragedies, of sects bought low because one person failed to notice a spy within their ranks. We have used those techniques to find spies before, and we should treat the one we have found now with the same tactics!” stated Feng.

At this point, Feng was also bringing up his qi, but it paled in comparison to the unconscious collection Bing was managing. Her cultivation technique was one unique to the Holy Icy Wind Sect, and it was ‘Celestial Maiden of Heavenly Winds’. Something in this moment was resonating with her heart, her soul, and her cultivation. The winds were gathering, and Feng could not hope to stop it with a bit of his own qi.

“Why do you think we were so good at it Feng? Our mother is a spy! Own up to the fact that you love her despite her profession. She has taught us well and LOVED us. We are her children just as much, and likely more so, then the woman who gave birth to us. While it is a tragedy she will not see us in life, if she yet lives I suspect she is proud of who we have become. I will happily stand by my mother, or run with her if the situation comes to it. There is power in love, power in compassion.

.....

“If you truly have such an issue with her cultivation style, why not ask mother to change? Ask her to be better! I might not think she needs to change, but you seem to. If you care about her, wish Meng to be better! Don’t just throw in the towel and say ‘I want nothing to do with this spy’. That’s called RUNNING AWAY FROM YOUR PROBLEM!” boomed Bing. Somehow a great deal of wind had found its way into the bunker, and Bing spoke with the full weight of it.

Kat had wrapped her tail around her legs to prevent her kimono from flying up and pulled her wings in tight, while Meng had loosened it a bit around her shoulders so that she could stand on the bottom of her own outfit, arms crossed to hold the top in place. Feng wasn’t paying attention and his clothes whipped around him in the increasingly turbulent winds.

“It… it goes against everything we stand for,” said Feng, though it was clear his anger was breaking against the force that Bing was projecting.

“No Feng. You do,” said Bing, the raging winds falling silent, despite the speed continue to increase. It was as if the world was forcing Feng to acknowledge his sisters point. He could not escape from it any longer. He must confront the truth instead of bathing in anger, pulling the pain of betrayal to the forefront of Feng’s mind and forcing him to focus on what it really meant. Not just in the superficial sense, but for everything.

Feng went to say something in response, to scream at Bing, to tell her off for picking someone else over him, her brother, her twin… but the words caught in his mouth. Heavier then any weight he’d tried to lift. Even as he tried to break out of this stupor, he felt this pressing holding him down, and the words inside his throat.

Then Bing fell forward, like a puppet having her strings cut. The fact that she’d started floating at some point not helping matters. Meng didn’t waste a moment, she dashed in front of Bing and let her daughter fall into her arms carefully before throwing down an real-illusion chair and hopping onto it with Bing being bundled into Meng’s arms.

*So warm. So fuzzy. What’s happening to my head? I… what was I doing?* Meng couldn’t help it, so she gave her lovely daughter a kiss on the forehead and continued to run her hands through Bing’s hair. “It appears my little whirlwind has had an epiphany. It will take a bit to stabilise, but she will end up either at peak Rank 2 or scrape into Rank 3. What a productive day this has been,”

Bing was still reeling from the experience and her thoughts were out of order. Meng was gently infusing a bit of her own qi to help stabilise her daughter’s foundation. It was only a miniscule amount; the illusionist didn’t want to risk hurting Bing’s future by interfering too much. Just the slightest nudges here and there to keep things going on their optimal course. If Meng had been less familiar with Bing and her qi, or if Meng had even the slightest idea of foul intentions this technique would be almost impossible to manage as only a Rank 4.

“It will take her quite some time to match my skill at Rank 4… but perhaps if my dear daughter is rushing to catch up with me I should finally make the push for Rank 5? Hmm… but I doubt I could deal with the tribulation lightning and any pursuers we might have. That sort of lightning is very noticeable after all… best to save it for when we are all settled again,” mumbled Meng.

“Is there anything you’d like to say Feng?” asked Meng, after a few moments of silence. Her voice was soft and non-judgemental despite all the things Feng had been saying up till this point.

“Yes? No? Maybe? I don’t know? I… no I do know that I have things to say but I don’t want to say them. These feelings are tearing me up Mo-Meng, and I don’t know what I am to do with them. We have just been told that our entire life is a lie… and somehow Bing was able to overcome this. I am not so easily able to dismiss the greatest shock I have ever experienced. If this doesn’t solidify into a heart demon I will perhaps be the luckiest cultivator under the heavens,” said Feng, foot tapping rapidly on the ground.

Meng sighed and said, “Feng, your sister is not immune to these issues, and they have not truly been dealt with yet. While I admit she is doing MUCH better then you at handling those feelings, she’s running away by instead focusing on feelings of love and family. What is going to happen when she meets Bang and we are forced to fight him?” Feng went to interject but Meng rolled her eyes and added, “Yes I know Kat agreed to talk him down, but I doubt it will help.

“That means that Bing will have to figure out a new way of dealing with everything once it is proven that Bang is not coming with us. It will be a different problem… and one I do not know how your sister will overcome,”

“Bing always was so a mummy’s girl. She got lucky with which parent had the weaker loyalties,” grumbled Feng.

Meng shrugged, “I cannot help you with a number of… exclusively male problems. Sure I’ve pretended to be a man more than once but it is infinitely easier to stick to my own gender. There are many things that I will simply never understand. So while that means that Bing was more willing to come to me for that sort of thing… I understand if you might feel that sometimes you were left out of the conversations,”

“That’s not why I’m saying it at all,” returned Feng with a huff.

“Sure you’re not my little snowman,” said Meng fondly.

“I’m not FIVE Meng, my name is Feng,” grumbled the ice cultivator.

Meng just shrugged again, “I don’t see any reason for that to stop me from using your old nicknames. I had to pretend to be a loving, but somewhat cold and busy sect matriarch. Now I can spoil my kiddies without all the stupid elders decrying favouritism. OF COURSE it’s fucking favouritism you blind fucks. Why would I not favour my children? Honestly some people…”

“Should you really be badmouthing the elders? They perform important rolls to keep the sect running,” said Feng.

“Bah, that’s nonsense. They like to pretend they’re important just because they’re old fucks. In truth, they’re just old men and women with no hope of advancing their cultivation further so they play games with the younger generation and live vicariously through their chosen descendants. It’s pathetic really,”