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Threads 214-Friend and Foe 3

“My people are only a city made of three communities, three hearts in harmony, following the will of the god whose spoken name is Ha from the time of migration,” Tcho-Ri replied. “We are not a league. They are seven whole cities who once followed different faces of Ya, but they reached a consensus to make him one. They are a league and are at the limits of consensus. A great league requires that multiple gods remain and form a pantheon, a community of gods.”

Ling Qi nodded, thankful for the elaboration. “When I infiltrated one of the component cities of our foes, I heard laborers speaking of pack and family and the need to ‘awaken’ pups, which I assume are children. My question is: what is family to your people? How do you raise your children and organize your households?”

Her conversation partner fell silent, and Ling Qi waited for a polite beat even as the faint hum of the ith-ia’s suit increased. The White Plume guards flanking Tcho-Ri glanced her way as she let out a pained hiss. “Why do you wish to know this?”

Ling Qi held back a wince, understanding only a moment later that such a question might seem rather threatening given… She tried to ignore why it might seem threatening. “Kinship and community are important to me. I cannot understand you if I do not understand this.”

Labored breathing resulted. “Family—pack—is the smallest unit of consensus. Individuals who find contentment or joy in one another, joining in ceremony and blood... This is a blood-pack. This is not the same as work packs, those joined by their common labors, which are often composed of many blood packs.”

“So, it is not a male and a female joining together for the sake of children?”

“A pack of two is very small,” Tcho-Ri said dubiously. “Young, perhaps. Three to five is common. Some blood-packs grow as large as ten. More is unhealthy in this one’s opinion. Individuals will have their needs untended with so many, but this is not a consensus. This one does not understand the relevance of male and female in this.”

Ling Qi grimaced, feeling faintly mortified to have to speak of such things even obliquely. “Well, you need a man and a woman to create children, so…”

“Wait, what? Go back to that first thing,” Ling Qi interrupted. She was going to be allowed to visit the new Cai?

“I am not going alone,” her liege said stiffly, fingers tightening around her cup.

“I see,” Meizhen said. “I suppose the security must be sufficient that there is no threat from a third realm.”

They all fell silent at that, the air growing more solemn as the consideration of what could have brought an unprotected infant outside the fortress of Xiangmen settled in.

“Yes,” Renxiang said, short and clipped. “This is above our heads.”