Twinned Destinies: A Cultivation Progression Fantasy

It clicked.

Ruyi's whole body was trembling. She held the pieces in her shaking fingers. She checked them, and checked them again.

They fit.

She couldn't stop shaking. Some of it was probably the energy elixirs she'd been pounding— it was her sixth day awake, and she was feeling incredibly detached from reality. She was so lost, she found herself again. She had it.

The door creaked open. She turned. It was Marcus! She wobbled to her feet, grinning a dumb grin. "I got it," she croaked. "I did it!” Then she saw the look on his face. “What?”

He said something to her, and she frowned. What?

He said it again, closed his eyes, shaking his head.

"I don't understand," she mumbled. "But— I don't—"

She was told this was the point she blacked out.

***

There was no time to rest. They were scouring the healing wards when she woke, pulling out all the useful elixirs. The whole palace was scouring itself clean, readying for the evacuation.

Ruyi had won. She'd done it. No one was proud of her. No one was happy. Even if she could brew a batch, it would take time, and maybe she could finish it in 30 days, but she was just one person in the end… maybe she could get up to deity levels for an hour or two. Could she take back the Demon Lord's scepter?

Marcus said he was grateful for her efforts. But she saw now this was just a project to keep her busy, to keep her from moping. There was nothing she could have done after all.

Now they were moving again. The whole tribe packing up its belongings, loading them onto sleds. Dow didn't want to move. When she came for him he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. No amount of shoving could rouse him.

"Come on, boy," said Ruyi, yanking on his leash. He gave her side-eye. She sighed. "I know," she whispered. "I don't want to go either, but we have to."

And just when she was getting comfortable, just when she felt she could stay a while too…

Livia and Sabina scared about, whipping everyone into motion. Nobody seemed to want to move. They'd all moved far too much these past few months; most of them just seemed to want to lay down and lie there for a long while. Not even Darius could muster up a smile.

***

They trickled slowly out of the Olympus Range, back into the dark, cracked plains. Day and night they tried, but it was not like before. This time, no one was singing marching songs. Marcus and the palace folk took the front, set the course. The tribe followed along despondently.

On the second day of their march, they were joined by another tribe. Warlord Cornelia. Marcus went out and greeted her warmly; Cornelia nodded curtly. They tagged along, a ragged few thousand. None of them bothered talking to the Frigus tribe. Ruyi recognized the looks on their faces—haggard, colored with the pain of losing a crucial part of yourself. They didn't know who they were anymore either. They looked just like the Frigus had just months ago.

On the 4th day, the warlord known as Storm Leviathan joined their march. Her folk were wielders of water. On the 6th day, Aurelia Stonefist with her tribe too; they had skin firm and smooth as stone, but most were webbed with cracks. They all shared the same bleak mood. As more and more came in, the mood only grew until it settled like a dense fog over them all, oppressive, horrible. Then came Aulus the Thunder Roc with his tribe, and Rayna Glacialis with hers. This was no proud demon camp. This was a herd of refugees marching in deathly silence.

The days dragged on by.

Ruyi tried brewing when she could. She'd made the formula, she figured she might as well finish it, make something of it. She knew it wouldn’t make a real difference in the end, but at least it kept her occupied. She tried her best to be positive. At least this time, no one had to die.

Marcus tried to be positive too; he would address the whole camp every few days, and he kept up this calm, hopeful demeanor, but he seemed smaller somehow, without his staff, like any old grandpa. And they didn't take him as seriously either; they didn't seem to respect that he'd just surrendered like that. His gravity was gone.

***

Around the end of the third week of their long march, Ruyi passed by the commander's tents and heard shouting. She saw Marcus outlined in the doorway, hands raised, calmly speaking. There were other warlords in there, screaming at him. Then the guards herded her away.

She asked Marcus about it later, in his tent. He'd managed to make it homely, almost a smaller version of his study—he kept trunks that doubled as bookshelves, a great wooden desk, and a plush chair too. No matter where he went, he seemed to insist on propriety.

"We are being followed," Marcus said. "Lucius has settled into the Demon Lord's palace, but this has not sated him. He means to exterminate the last threat to his rule. And that is us. In truth, I had suspected this would happen."

"So what are we going to do?"

"Hide in the Desolate Mountains. That is all we can do. I know the terrain better than he does, better than anyone alive. I know paths through those mountains you could fit an army through without rousing the gaze of the vultures or the monsters. Please, Ruyi, I need you to trust me. We will be safe." And he smiled, but his heart wasn't in it. He looked so tired.

Ruyi wished she could believe him. She felt helpless, all she could do was throw that feeling into her brewing. And hope.

***

General Shao Yang strode through Tiger’s Roar Valley, hands clasped behind his back, inspecting the ditches. They were right enough; most foot soldiers couldn't jump them, and the ones that could would meet walls of spiked barriers and turrets mounted with cannons and shock arrays, planning to drive them back at each turn. This setup ran 1000 li due north and 1000 li due south—or it should, if his lieutenants had done their jobs. They would all see if they had soon enough. Duke Qin’s forces were coming.

In general, Shao had fewer than half the Duke's men on the defense.

His son had handed him this task. To hold for two moons—that was all Jin asked for. Jin swore he'd find a way out of this; he just needed two moons' time."

And Shao, despite it all, trusted his son. Just as he trusted his daughter. He had always believed in what they were capable of, even when they did not believe in themselves. Jin would find a way.

***

On the 28th day, Ruyi finished it, yet it was so simple, so small—a thimble-sized vial. But if she drank this, she would gain the powers of a deity for an hour or two. To be sure, it would have to be enough.

She came to Marcus with her plan. She said if they got cornered, she would drink this, she would hold them off while they ran, and he chuckled gently.

He said even if she borrowed deity powers, there were tens of thousands of them, hundreds of demon kings, and one of her. It was a very noble offer. But if they truly were cornered, he would rather she fight by his side.

***

As the Desolate Mountains rose up in the distance, dark shadows against the gray sky, Ruyi felt her stomach knotting. Then she heard shouts coming up from the rear. She looked to the opposite horizon.

They were cresting the horizon—a line of black like the coming of night. They were here, they were coming, and 30 days were just about to pass. She had a horrible sense of deja vu. It kept happening—again, again, again…

When Marcus saw them, he said nothing. Instead, he pulled out a piece of parchment, scribbled something on it, and sent it off with a raven. Then he addressed the rest of them.

"Stand firm," he called. "Stay strong. Dawn is coming, I promise you."

They poured into the mountains, and the darkness followed them.

The winds churned and howled. Vultures screeched at them from above. Ruyi, glancing back at the wall of darkness, saw it kept drawing closer and closer. It had an aura of awful inevitability. But they had to keep moving.

Marcus guided them, twisting this way and that, down narrow valley straits. Just when Ruyi thought they'd made the right turn, that they'd shed Lucius's forces, she would crest a ridge and see them closer than she would have ever thought. Marcus must have seen it too. His face was quickly growing dark.

It was almost as though there was someone in their camp, somehow communicating to Lucius where they were heading… it was almost like there was a spy.

Then he quit the winding path. He led them into a huge basin of a valley, void of cover. There was just one exit, with a steep slope climbing to the pass between two wicked black peaks. But Marcus did not move to summit it.

Instead, he turned to them. "Ready yourselves," he said. "This is where we hold them."

Anger and consternation burst out. A warlord thrust a finger at him. "What is the meaning of this?!”

"He's caught us," said Marcus. "That way is dead. He will only corner us in the straits, and there, and us here, we stand our best chance."

At their anger—"Friends," he cried, "for two thousand years I have led you. For two thousand years, I have borne you from catastrophe to catastrophe. Now, I ask you to put your faith in me one more time. All of our fates hang in the balance! The situation is very delicate. If I speak to assure you now, it may all be ruined. I must ask you to trust me."

She saw warlords turning from him in disgust. But still, they went to their armies, still they readied for war.

Marcus's forces took up half the valley; they were braced there, waiting.

Then the great serpent reared its head through the entrance and narrowed its huge yellow eyes.

And from behind came its forces and their tens of thousands, pouring in like packs of rabid hounds, seething and hungry.

The two forces met like waves in a high storm. Torrents of essence scorched the air. Ruyi couldn't make anything out. She was with Marcus and his elite guard, hidden behind the front lines, waiting. For what, she didn't know.

Then she heard it.

Pouring over that high pass, the one that Marcus said they should not enter—the thump, thump, thumping of footsteps. One by one, like the beat of some heavenly drum. And it seemed the whole battlefield stilled to listen. It grew louder and louder; it must be tens of thousands of feet moving to the same beat. It reverberated through the valley, an awesome noise.

Ruyi glanced up, her heart in her throat.

That march was disciplined, clean, in firm order. That wasn't a demon's march.

That was human!