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Thresholder, ch 26, Reflections
🕑 Added 2023-03-29 16:19:15 +0000 UTCAuthor's Note: I totally meant to put this at the end of last chapter, but yes, this world is something approaching xianxia, which I'm writing with the benefit of not having read much, if any xianxia. In theory, this isn't actually xianxia, it's a reconstruction of the genre from someone who has only contact knowledge of it and isn't attempting to stick closely to whatever the tropes and stock characters are normally there.
My general approach, as always, is to write something that I'd want to read, but because xianxia is a particularly Chinese fantasy genre, I am trying to infuse some of that into this, particularly in names. As I'm not Chinese and don't speak a word of the language, this is one of those unnecessary challenges that I probably didn't need to add in for myself. (There is also something that I like about inaccurate translations, so there's a little bit of that flavor in there too, even though nothing has actually been translated.)
This will also be my first time using ChatGPT as a proper research assistant, which I think does help keep me from falling down research rabbit holes, and only comes with the minor risk that I will be lied to. I'm not super worried about that, it's just fiction.
So far, I'm finding the change of setting just as invigorating as I'd hoped when planning out Thresholder. There's something about that new world smell and the wealth of possibilities that I enjoy so much, and the promise of this project was that I'd get to do it several times.
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Perry was worried about what this world had in store for him. All that talk about first and second spheres was concerning, because if Perry was of the first sphere and could just barely go toe-to-toe with a single member of the second sphere, it raised a lot of questions about how he would fare. If there were more spheres, then it seemed like someone of the third sphere could wipe the floor with him, at least if he was interpreting things correctly.
The whole sphere thing would need to be figured out, especially if they were going to assume that his sword and armor had been stolen. The second sword, which arguably had been stolen, if you weren’t allowed to win things in combat from bandits who were trying to loot your corpse, was disposable.
Language was going to be another issue. Only the swordsman had seemed to understand him. Was English the province of the second sphere? If that was the case, it would mean that the nearby village might not have anything for him. The bandits had one man who was part of the second sphere and maybe a dozen who were part of the first sphere, which said something about their relative rarity.
It was also entirely possible that ‘spheres’ had nothing to do with abilities and were more a matter of society, like a division between gentry and yeomen and common laborers.
Perry knew almost nothing about kung fu, wuxia, cultivation, xianxia, or whatever it was called. Those were probably different things. There also didn’t seem to be much reason to think that anything found in a book or movie from Earth would be instructive here. From everything that Cosme had said, the worlds weren’t big on ‘concept’, and the last one, with its Victorian underworld, had been a bit of an aberration, the comparisons to the mythologies of his Earth relatively skin deep.
“Give me a primer on Chinese mythology,” said Perry.
“I’m afraid I don’t know that much, sir, and an attempt at synthesis from the documents I have access to is beyond me at the moment,” Marchand replied.
“Wait, really?” asked Perry. “You couldn’t read, um, the monkey king one, or the Three Kingdoms, and give me the gist of it?”
“I’m afraid not, sir,” said March. “My capacity for summarization has always been poor without access to remote computing, and in my current compromised state the results would be too poor to share in good conscience, no better than pulling individual sentences from GratBook.”
“Alright, fine,” said Perry. “Can you give me that level of overview, something that’s better than nothing? Let’s start simple, tell me what a ‘sphere’ could refer to.”
“Very well sir,” said Marchand. “A sphere is a geometrical object which is defined by the distance in three-dimensional space of —”
“No, no, goddamn it, what is a sphere in the context of Asian mythology, cosmology, society, uh, anything else,” said Perry. This had clearly been a mistake.
“Asia is a rather large region,” said Marchand. “In Hindu cosmology, the three spheres might be refer to three realms, which translate roughly as the terrestrial earth, heaven, and hell. An alternate conception might be as past, present, and future. In Buddhism, the three spheres might refer to destinations for karmic rebirth. Under Confucian thought, the three spheres might be the family, the state, and the individual. To Daoist understanding, the three spheres might relate to the Three Treasures or Three Jewels, which are notoriously difficult to translate, and have different meanings depending on who is using them.”
“I never said three,” said Perry. “Why would we think there would be three?”
There was a long pause. “I can’t say sir,” said Marchand.
“You can’t say because you don’t understand where your processing went wrong?” asked Perry.
“Quite correct, sir,” said Marchand. “I believe it to be an error in answer generation.”
“March, I love you, you’re my only friend, and the best gift I was ever given, but you are really not helping me right now,” said Perry.
“My apologies, sir,” said March. “I will endeavor to serve you better in the future.”
The nearby village was small. Perry watched it from the air for a moment, trying to get a handle on the people there. The villagers didn’t see him, mostly because they didn’t look up, or possibly because of the glamour he’d carried from the last world, and they simply moved about their lives, cooking at fireplaces, moving things from place to place, and for the most part, talking in the same language that Perry didn’t know and March couldn’t translate. The clothes were simple, mostly brown with a few things that might have once been white, bandanas and bare feet, a few with buttons but mostly with fabric tied in place. They were pretty clearly Asian, or looked Asian. The buildings had thick wooden beams and angled roofs with black tiles, but there wasn’t any of the rice paper that he might have expected. He was pretty clearly going to have to sit down and educate himself on Asian architecture, but that would have to come later.
“Alright,” said Perry. “No electricity, very little metal, middling textiles, relatively little masonry, lots of pottery … if you were looking at a snapshot of this, where in the world would you say that it was taken?”
There was a long pause from Marchand. “California.”
Perry sighed. “I might have to hold off on talking to you until you’re fixed, but … why California?”
“I’m unable to receive a satellite signal at a moment, but internal tracking of movement indicates that we haven’t moved more than a hundred miles from our starting location in California,” said Marchand. “I suspect that this village is either a recreation by the Californian Historical Society, or possibly a movie set.”
“Right,” said Perry. “Thanks. I don’t know how that possibility escaped me.”
“The more that I look at it, the more I think a movie set is more likely,” said Marchand. “It occurs to me that the details of the scene are lacking in historical accuracy, which is more typical of a movie set than a true attempt at recreating a historical moment.”
“Chinese though, you think?” asked Perry. “Rather than, uh, Japanese or Korean?”
“I couldn’t say, sir,” replied Marchand.
“I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to get you patched up here,” said Perry. “The tech level is lower than the last world, aside from the giant ring structure, which might just be … I don’t know. How the world is shaped, I guess.”
“Very well, sir,” said Marchand.
“Still no radio signal?” asked Perry.
“I’m afraid not, sir,” said Marchand. “Should I send out a signal, do you think?”
“Absolutely not,” said Perry. “It’s extremely likely that anyone who can hear a radio signal from us would be an enemy. Though …” He looked up at the arc of the world, which faded off into the distance. Surely there must be someone out there who had a radio. It wasn’t all that complicated of a technology, he’d seen how uncomplicated it was. On a world this big, were they really stuck at this level of tech? And if he could find someone on the other side of the ring with an actual city, a place of heavy industry, actual computer chips, then he’d be able to fix Marchand, which was the first priority.
Somewhere out there was the Adversary though, unless Perry had come in first this time.
Perry weighed his options.
“We’ll hold off on sending a radio transmission for now,” he said. “When we do, we’ll keep it short and keep moving so they can’t come for us.”
“If you say so, sir,” said Marchand.
Perry wanted to drop down, to get the ball rolling, throw himself at the mercy of local authorities … but there were some problems that came with that, namely that he didn’t know the law. That went double because of the language barrier.He wasn’t going to disarm himself, not that he’d fit in with them anyway. He could pass in Teaguewater once he had proper clothes, but here, ethnicity alone would out him. He highly doubted that the glamour was enough for them to ignore the vast number of things that would make him stick out.
He decided to spy, which was one of the things that his powers were best at.
He did, eventually, find someone who had that particular look of someone of the second sphere, at least if the bandit leader was anything to go by. It was a woman who was wearing the same sorts of fabrics, if not silk, then something else that had a high thread count. It was colored with bright blue dyes, and showed none of the patching, wrinkles, or frayed edges that was apparent on the clothing of the peasants. If the whole concept of spheres hadn’t been on Perry’s mind, he might have thought that she was just a boring noble instead, but he was able to watch closely enough with maximum zoom, and the sphere were on his mind. He could see a special grace in the way she took her tea. Everything she did was as though she’d planned it out in advance. The more he watched her, the more she seemed like a different sort of creature. Her teeth were perfect, her skin flawless, her hair without tangles or split ends.
Perry played back the video of the swordsman in the woods, watching it, seeing things he hadn’t seen the first time, particularly the details of the man’s appearance. It was the same level of airbrushed perfection, as though every frame of the video had been gone over by a professional artist trying to get it ready for the fall cover. Even zoomed in so it felt like Perry was close enough to smell the man’s breath, there were no flaws. That was pretty impressive for a guy who had been walking through the woods with some dirty bandits, especially because unlike a knight, there was no obvious retinue.
The woman didn’t have any obvious support either, no handmaids or servants. The people she was sharing tea with had the same simple dress as everyone else, thicker fabrics that sat more awkwardly, function over form.
Perry waited for a considerable amount of time, reading through a few articles on Gratbook while hiding up in a tree. He felt faintly ridiculous, but he was hoping that someone would speak some English, or that he’d at least get some idea of what this world was about and how to navigate it. If English was the language of the second sphere, and they spoke it exclusively, then he’d have to figure that out and hope that he didn’t come across as an interloper — or at least not an interloper who needed to be imprisoned or executed.
It took some time for the woman to leave the village, but she eventually did, and Perry followed, keeping as much distance between them as he could. Her footsteps were silent though, cloth shoes on dry earth that didn’t seem to be getting her dirty. That meant that Perry couldn’t just rely on March listening to her movements, and needed to be closer, which risked him getting caught.
She moved down a dirt road, all on her own, with no chaperones to speak of, which struck Perry as a bit odd given that there were roaming bandits.
When she was some distance from the village, around a few bends and a small hill, she vanished in a beam of white light. Perry was far enough away that he didn’t directly see her, but he saw the direction of the beam through the trees, and she had vanished.
“March pinpoint where that beam was going,” said Perry.
“There, on the celestial body, sir,” said March, painting it on the HUD.
Perry flew close to where she had been. He wished that he had a way of storing the second sword, because holding it seemed like it might be a threat. She was gone though, completely vanished, with not so much as a hair left behind to show she’d ever been there.
“Teleportation,” said Perry. “Or … something like it.”
“Teleportation is impossible, sir,” said Marchand.
“Right, right,” said Perry.
He looked up at the moon, which was still marked on the HUD. It was the largest of the three, full and bright even in the daylight. The sun overhead had moved toward the center of the sky, though not quite the exact center, and Perry was curious whether there would be a shadow cast by the other half of the ring, which was presumably overhead.
“Distance from the moon to the Earth,” said Perry.
“238,900 miles, though it varies with the orbit and where you measure from,” said Marchand.
“Time it takes light to travel that distance?” asked Perry.
“It takes three seconds for a round trip, if you’re thinking what I suspect you are, sir,” said Marchand.
“And what do you think I’m thinking?” asked Perry.
“That beam traveled to the celestial body, and you suspect that it will return,” said Marchand.
“You got it right that time,” said Perry. “Was the beam traveling at the speed of light though?”
“No,” said Marchand. “It’s difficult for me to assess what the beam was composed of, or how it was made, but the velocity was more similar to hypersonic rounds.” The picture-in-picture showed frame-by-frame with some calculations and comparisons, and Perry shook his head a bit to clear it away.
Perry waited. He suspected that however she’d left, she’d left because of him, and he hoped that when she returned, it would be because he’d shown that he wasn’t a threat. She was his best lead on someone who actually shared a language with him.
When she reappeared, it was by a beam of white light, appearing to originate from the same moon as before. She was two hundred feet away and holding a longbow that was taller than she was. It was bone white and nocked with an arrow. White mist briefly rose around her before dissipating.
“I am Luo Yanhua, Sky Piercer, Outer Disciple of the Moon Gate,” she called to Perry. Her voice carried to him without any seeming force, not a yell or a shout, just a forceful sentence. There was a trace of anger. Her almond-shaped eyes were a warm brown with long lashes. She was staring him down, cheeks slightly pink. “Who are you, to follow me?”
Perry dropped the sword and gave her a wave. “Sorry!” he said. His voice was amplified by the power armor, but he imagined the effect was far less impressive. “I’m a traveler from distant lands, another realm, and seek the hospitality of someone who speaks my language. I have gold to trade, and labor to give, knowledge that this world doesn’t have, I just need a safe place to stay for the night, somewhere free of roving bandits.”
She considered this, arms not moving from a position to loose her arrow. Perry was skeptical that an arrow could pierce the armor, even if it was magical, given how high of caliber a bullet the power armor could tank. He didn’t want to test it though. It didn’t feel like such a huge longbow would necessarily result in more power, but it certainly felt more threatening.
“Refugees of the Grouse Kingdom have been offered shelter in the Central City of the Kingdom of Seven Valleys,” she said. “Those involved in the Swallow’s War will have no quarter.”
“I’m really not from around here,” said Perry. “Not from this world, but another.” He didn’t know how to phrase it to make her understand. “A man told me I was of the first sphere, not the second, and if you don’t know of a place for me to stay, then I need to know more of this world. I don’t even know what a ‘sphere’ is.”
She brought her bow up and pulled the arrow back. There was no quaver in her arm. She stared Perry down, as though daring him to make a move on her, or to lie, or to do anything that would give her cause to put an arrow through his skull.
“Drop your sword on the ground,” she said. “Remove your helmet.”
Perry was hesitant, but he unhooked his sheathed sword, letting it drop, then slowly removed the helmet. It wasn’t the easiest thing to get off, and the tubes brushed against his face. The earpiece was in his ear, allowing him to hear March, not that March would be much help.
It was an act of faith. He’d seen how this woman had acted around the villagers, the way she’d seemed to show them deference even though she was obviously of a higher standing than them. His other options were to run or fight, and both seemed bad.
“I will approach now, to get a sense of you,” she said. “I will not hesitate, if you give me cause, to end your life. I will not approach to within striking range of you, nor will you move until I give you leave to.”
“Understood,” said Perry. He had his arms up, palms out.
She came closer, holding the bow taut the entire time and without any apparent effort. It was a full draw, and her upper body glided along like a ship over the water, her footwork as she walked forward smooth and choreographed, even when she had to step around a small rock in the path.
Perry didn’t like having guns pointed in his face, and this was giving him a similar feeling. If she decided to kill him, then with his helmet off, she’d stand a good chance of it, so long as her aim was true. She kept the arrow pointed at him the entire time she was walking over though, and kept it there as she looked him over. He had a bit of scruff, having not had time to shave before he left, and he hadn’t had a shower since the fight at the fairgrounds, because he’d been worried that he’d be in the middle of it when the portal came.
Having the helmet off was the first time he got a good smell of this world. It was earthy and green, the plants hanging their scent in the air, and there was no trace of pollution. The people of the village had been burning charcoal, and that smell was there too, but it was faint and pleasant. Teaguewater had been short on fresh breaths of air.
“You have a spirit root, but undeveloped,” said Luo Yanhua. She was looking at him intensely, as though seeing through him, which she might have been. “Your armor and swords, where do they come from?”
“The sword was a gift from a king, wizard-made, given to me in a world where I worked as a soldier,” said Perry. “The armor was built for me by a woman I was courting, to help us fight an evil man.” He was trying to get his language to match hers, but wasn’t sure that he was hitting the mark.
“What is the provenance of the other sword?” Luo Yanhua asked, pointing at the one Perry had taken from the bandit leader.
“A group of men attacked me in the woods, shortly after I arrived,” said Perry. “They had been denied amnesty, which I would guess was because they were involved in the Swallow’s War. One of them was a man who claimed to be of the second sphere.” Perry nodded at the sword. “That was his.”
Luo Yanhua took her eyes from Perry and finally relaxed her draw, though not so much that she couldn’t put an arrow through his skull. She was looking at the sword, which was laying on the ground.
“It’s of the second sphere,” she said, sucking in a breath. “You ambushed him?”
“He said that someone of the first sphere couldn’t beat someone of the second sphere,” said Perry. “But that would work, ambush? Because his reflexes seemed pretty sharp. And you seemed to spot me pretty easily.”
“I saw you while I was in the village,” said Luo Yanhua. “This man, this bandit, how did you defeat him? Where is he now?”
Perry related it as plainly and truthfully as he could, which Luo Yanhua listened to with an impassive face. All in all, Perry thought that he came out looking pretty good from the whole exchange. Three times he’d been attacked by them, first by the swordsman, then by the mooks, then by the swordsman again, and he had always been responding to attacks, never initiating them himself. In a court of law, it would be a pretty solid self-defense argument, a topic which Perry had read up extensively in the course of some online arguments.
Luo Yanhua seemed unimpressed. She’d been holding the half-draw for several minutes, which Perry thought was much longer than he’d have managed.
“Do not think yourself an inestimable champion for having bested a man like that,” she said once he was finished. “The men sweeping through the Green Snake Valley have been shattered by the fall of the Grouse Kingdom, and to live as they’ve done, thieving and pillaging, invokes a terrible toll upon their cosmic balance. It has been two months since the conclusion of the kingdom, enough time for a man like the one you fought to have weakened himself twice over with transgression. With the loss of a civic tether as well, his kingdom gone, your victory proves less impressive.”
Perry tried to get a handle on some of the terminology and failed. “You believe me then? That I’m from another world?”
“It would be a bold lie,” Luo Yanhua replied. She finally, finally, stopped pointing the arrow at Perry’s face and put it back in a quiver at her hip. “The armor and sword came from somewhere, but do not comport with the nature of the second sphere. There are many grand things in this world, many strange mysteries, and it is not unbelievable that you are a new one.”
“And … you’ll help?” asked Perry. “Find me a place to stay, somewhere I can work for my supper?”
“Not yet,” said Luo Yanhua. “In your recounting of the fight with the bandits, you mentioned that you killed several of them, the man of the second sphere among them. Yet you did not say to me that you burned or buried their bodies.” She gave a small nod. “This must be done.”
“Done … by me?” asked Perry.
“By you,” nodded Luo Yanhua. “You will engage in common labor, and by that, I will know your character and your worth.”
