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When Liu Yelan is five years old, her uncle comes to visit. His visits are sporadic and random, and it is easier to send him mail for him to reply to than to try to reach out in other ways to contact him. When she is five, she can count the visits on one hand with fingers to spare, and each visit is memorable. But he visits, and he often brings small trinkets and gifts for her and her family from all the places that he passes through on his travels.
Her father says he has strong magic on him that prevents anyone from scrying or divining his location. Her mother says that he is perfectly able of being Seen, but it must be done in the correct manner, and the cultivation required of those correct manners are long forgotten. Liu Yelan, for her part, takes that as a challenge, though nothing will come of it for a few years yet.
“Here, Yelan,” her uncle says, and he gifts her a slender hairpiece covered in daisies. They are a strange flower to her, but the way the neck twists off to reveal a slim stiletto reminds her of her mother’s assortment of jewelry. Liu Yelan is not old enough to handle those without supervision yet, but her mother teaches her how to wield them all the same.
In her hands, the hairpiece gives her a small jolt, like a static shock. Liu Yelan blinks down at it, wondering.
“Uncle,” her mother tsks, though it’s not a reprimand. Liu Yelan does not know what she means.
“Yelan is old enough to learn her nature,” her uncle says in explanation. He is blunt, and to Liu Yelan’s young mind, much easier to understand than the complexities of formal speech that she is nonetheless being tutored in. Then he turns to Liu Yelan with a firm look in his gray eyes. “Your nature will make certain things easier. But you must not rely on it to the point of ignoring everything else.”
Liu Yelan thinks this through, and nods. It makes sense to her. But if her uncle thought to bring her a tool, then… “Are you going to teach me?”
Her uncle blinks at her question, as if he is surprised. “Not this. You are too young yet to be taught what I can teach.”
She wants to know what it is that he teaches. It must be something special if she can’t learn yet. “Will you teach me when I am old enough to learn?”
Her uncle thinks this through for a moment. “If you still wish to learn when you are old enough to be taught and know what it is I can teach, then yes.”
Liu Yelan knows very little about her uncle in truth. She knows they appear similar, which only makes sense since they are related. She knows he is taciturn and blunt and firm in expression, and that he thinks of his family often, bringing them trinkets and toys. But she doesn’t know much about what he does beyond travel. She doesn’t know things about him that she knows about her family, like their favorite foods and hobbies and what kind of magic they like the most.
She does know him well enough to know that he is not lying. Not delaying, assuming or hoping that she will forget, or trying to be polite in declining her request.
She also knows that he is old enough, a venerable ancestor, that she does not, necessarily, need her parent’s permission to learn from him. But she is a dutiful daughter and she loves her parents, so she still looks at them. Her mother nods immediately, her father a second behind.
Liu Yelan looks her uncle in the eye and says: “Then I will wait.”
She might be making things up where she wants to see things, but her uncle looks pleased at her answer, and she decides that that is the truth regardless.
Her uncle visits a few more times over the years. But it is not until Liu Yelan is eight years old that she is old enough and learned enough to understand what it is that only her uncle can teach.
“Cultivation?” Liu Yelan asks, even as she holds a globe of water in the cup of her hands. This technique is meant to teach control. She must hold the water without getting wet. It will lead into more complex and stronger forms of magic.
“Specifically, his cultivation style, which is physical and focuses on the refinement of the body itself,” her mother explains, “It’s a tough style to follow. You must discipline and refine your body and mind alongside your magic.”
Liu Yelan thinks that sounds familiar to the martial art that her father is teaching her. But since her father is magic, it must only sound familiar. It can not be specifically taught otherwise. “What do you mean by tough?”
Her mother smiles, and it is half a grimace. “It means that when I say refine, I am being literal.”
That sounds terrifying and exhausting. Liu Yelan has already started her lessons regarding alchemy after all, and the pressures the ingredients are put through would be horrifying when applied to living flesh.
It does, however, sound like an advanced technique. Something to work towards instead of starting with it. But, like the arbitrary line in magical skills between ‘beginner’ and ‘advanced’ there will be things that Liu Yelan will not be able to do without that refinement.
“Uncle?” Liu Yelan asks her uncle, who allowed her mother to speak for him.
“There is a reason why my Sect’s cultivation styles have not survived,” her uncle says solemnly. “Much of what your mother knows is what is safe to know before reaching that critical point.”
“Did your sister practice the same cultivation style?” Liu Yelan asks.
“No,” her uncle says simply. He inclines his head towards her mother, specifically the hairpieces that she always wears.
Her mother, for her part, obliges and pulls one of her pins out, and with a deft twist of her hand, several tines extend from the tip in a barb like shape. She only keeps it out long enough for Liu Yelan to recognize it before it disappears back into her hair, hidden once more.
“Your cultivation style is focuses on physical refinement,” Liu Yelan says slowly, “But what does that mean?”
Her uncle smiles, a small thing that’s there and gone. “Many things. Increased strength, increased agility, increased durability. But the most notable that is different enough to magic– my blood is toxic.”
Liu Yelan will deny it later, but that revelation makes her flinch in place dramatically enough to be comedic. The sphere of water bursts in her hands, drenching not only herself but her mother. She jerks in place to stare at her uncle. “What?”
“My blood is toxic,” her uncle repeats.
Liu Yelan stares. Looks at her wet hands and the small callouses that already cover her palms and finger tips. Looks at her mother, who knows the basics of what Liu Mingyan once practiced many generations ago. Thinks about what she already knows, and what she wants.
“Uncle,” Liu Yelan says formally, ignoring the water to bring her arms up into an ancient salute. “Can you teach me?”
Her uncle watches her for a long moment. She wonders what he sees when he looks at her. And then he inclines his head. “Yes.”
Adding an entirely new discipline is not that simple. Most of the logistics of such a thing is handled by her parents and her uncle. All Liu Yelan is aware of is that her schedule is more full, and that she must give up some hobbies, the ones that can be replaced by what she will be learning from her uncle.
Her free time, though, remains. Her uncle insists on it. Downtime and relaxation is important to growth, and pushing her will cause problems in the long run. Her parents understand and easily agree, but Liu Yelan thinks that her uncle can and will pull out examples and sources if pressed. She does not think her uncle is stupid by any means, but the almost clinical and scholarly way he presents information seems out of character. She wonders where he learned.
In the meantime, her father continues to teach her martial arts, and her mother continues to teach her how to handle weapons. The basics and her physical conditioning must remain the same, and her uncle only demonstrates what she must be able to do before she can move to the next level. Her parents are skilled enough to learn those basics and teach them to her in turn.
Part of Liu Yelan is disappointed that her uncle continues to travel, leaving her with her parents to teach her. She has thought her uncle might stay longer. The rest of her is only excited and determined to learn. Besides, her uncle is visiting more often to check up on her progress. She is definitely seeing him more often than she did before.
Magic is inherited through the bloodline, and she continues to learn magic from her father. His family is old and powerful, and so Liu Yelan is powerful. Cultivation is similar, but critically not the same, so although they are done differently, the mental disciple required translates easily across for both. And, most importantly, both magic and cultivation follows the philosophy of the five elements, which means her magic lessons serve as the basis for a lot of her cultivation lessons.
Her mother continues to teach her everything that is required of a noble young woman. And with modern times being what they are, her education is extensive enough to have her considered a scholar from when uncle was a young man. He provides her mother with ancient books and scrolls specific to what she needs to learn and otherwise lets them be.
Liu Yelan is determined to learn cultivation. She is impatient, and she hates that feeling. It’s so childish, and she refuses to hear her parents tell her that she is, in fact, a child.
Her uncle agrees that she is a child. But he also asks, “Why are you so insistent that you need to know?”
This throws Liu Yelan off of her brooding– not sulking, never something so childish– and she blinks at him.
“Or, why are you so insistent that you need to know now?” Her uncle clarifies.
“Because I know that I can,” Liu Yelan says.
“Know?” her uncle asks.
Liu Yelan bristles before she recognizes that he is not challenging her claim. He is just asking for further information. “I knew I would be a cultivator from when you first mentioned it.”
Her uncle nods, accepting that. But he looks off into the distance at something in the process. Liu Yelan is curious as to what he sees, but she doesn’t want to give any reason for him not to rescind his acceptance. She does not think he will, but she’s cautious anyways. Too many adults question her determination and dedication.
She doesn’t particularly think about that again until she has a dream, one so clear and detailed that she thinks she is still dreaming when she wakes up.
Her father knows what is happening immediately. “A seer.”
Her mother inclines her head in the same way that her uncle does. “I see. It does make sense.”
“I am not a seer,” her father says, and it is the first time that Liu Yelan remembers her father ever displaying anything like regret. “But they are not unknown in my family. I will find you a teacher, so you may protect yourself.”
“You are strong, my dear,” her mother says, “and strength begets challengers. Seers face more than most, because they interact with more than just the waking world.”
Liu Yelan accepts that. She rises to any challenge presented to her, and she can’t imagine that others are not the same. This is a new one, and she is more surprised that she’s not surprised by than anything else, but it is still something to work for.
“Do you think I can learn how to See Uncle?” Liu Yelan asks. It has been many years, but she knows why they are at her uncle’s whims of coming and going to communicate with him.
Her mother blinks, then raises her hand to hide her smile, broad and unbecoming of polite company. “My dear, I daresay that you can.”
Liu Yelan only nods, wondering where to learn how to See her uncle in the way that magic cannot. Challenges, challenges, and she delights in them all.
When Liu Yelan is thirteen, she Dreams, and Sees, and learns that she will experience a love so full and powerful one day that she will create a family around it. It’s intimidating, even to her, and Liu Yelan can only wonder at how it will come to pass. Who will she meet that she will be so ready to follow after, and who will she love so much that she would give birth to many children?
She knows very well what issues her mother had while pregnant with Liu Yelan, and why she is an only child. To know that she will either not have that problem, or push through regardless, lights a heat within her breast that will carry her unto her death.
Liu Yelan does not know the specifics, and chooses not to know it until it happens in linear time. Divination has its place, but sometimes the journey is the point.
What she does know, is that she will be the leader of another Clan, known as the Madame and not by her own family name. Not in the way that is afforded to her now. She will be known as being of that Clan and all that entails.
If not for that burning in her breast, she’s not sure she would think it worth it at all. But Liu Yelan faces challenges head on, and this is only a new one in a long line of them. Besides, she does not See anything that says or implies that she cannot visit and speak with her parents and family.
“I will be marrying out,” Liu Yelan informs her parents after breakfast. She is not sure what expression she is making, but she hopes it is not as sappy as she felt in the dream.
Her mother smiles, and it is sad and proud and joyful all at once. There is a lot of emotions in that smile that Liu Yelan did not know how to recognize when she was younger. She knows that the joy is for love found, and the pride from knowing it so soon. But the sadness comes from marrying her only child out.
“Then we must prepare you for being cast out in an unfamiliar Clan,” her father says, and his eyes are damp. That is a stranger thing to see than her own divinations. “I know you well enough to know that you will not marry into a place you will not thrive. But I worry regardless, and marriage will bring unique challenges you can only experience as they happen.”
“It has been many years since a Liu Clan member married out, instead of bringing a spouse in,” her mother says, and there is a sharp look in her eye that means Liu Yelan must prepare for some thorough lessons. “A spouse brings not only a dowry, but their knowledge and experience. We will discuss what can be taught to your future spouse, and what must only be taught to your children.”
“I understand,” Liu Yelan says.
And she does. She does not know who the person she will marry is, nor what kind of family she will marry into. But she knows herself well enough that she will only marry someone that can keep up with her, complement her skills, and fill in the blindspots and weak points that she cannot handle herself.
“And, as you are a cultivator as well, we must speak with Uncle,” her mother says.
Liu Yelan is too well taught to make a face, but she wants to at the thought. Her uncle is protective of them, starting from when her ancestor Liu Mingyan decided to get married and continuing with her children and so on and so forth. Incoming spouses are more manageable, but with her leaving the Clan instead, he will be frantic. She can See it if she wants, but by now, she simply knows her uncle well enough to guess at his reaction.
(When she informs her uncle the next time he visits, she is proven right. He has enough self control to only frown, but his qi is erratic in a way that means he is emotional. Silly man, she has never Seen a time when she has not been able to speak with him, and she tells him so. That is thankfully enough to get him to calm down.)
It is not until she reaches university that she meets her future spouse. He is exactly what she imagines when she thinks back to what she Saw, and completely unlike what she expects. He is not perfect, but he is perfect for her. Even with her learned caution at relying and focusing on what she Sees instead of the present reality, she falls for him quickly.
He is kind, and observant, and he is incredibly competent. He sees her not only for her appearance, but her own skills and ability, and finds her witty and charming even underneath her stoicness.
It does not take them long to tell each other about their Clans. She recognizes the Li Clan easily, and she knows he recognizes the Liu Clan as well. Neither of them are small Clans, though their history comes from different places.
The Liu Clan, despite its focus on magic in the recent generations, is a warrior clan, and one of the last practitioners of cultivation.
The Li Clan is a family of powerful magicians, having produced one of the most prolific and powerful magicians in recent memory. Even her uncle has heard of Clow Reed.
Liu Yelan is of the Liu Clan, and though she sees his own skill with the easy way he moves, she would not be a Liu if she did not challenge him on it. She prefers the fan for fighting, but her uncle would have refused to teach her at all if she was not willing to take up a sword. The fight is less a spar and more a duel, and it does not stop until she is forced to yield.
The heat in her breast mirrors a growing heat in her belly, and Liu Yelan decides she likes both.
From what she sees of the man who she will marry, he feels much the same. The blush that rises on his cheeks and ears is charming and cute. The heat in her belly asks her to find out if that blush covers more of his body underneath his clothes.
Liu Yelan, having met the man instead of just recalling him fro Dreams and divination, follows her mother’s words of advice and forcefully separates those long harbored feelings and focuses on what she feels in this moment. She already knows she will marry him. Now she must live through it to figure out why. Her mother’s lessons have always been about pragmatism and foresight, teaching her to rely on her own wits and cleverness instead of what can be and what will be.
She likes him. He is cute, and charming, and a good fighter. He is forthright without being reckless, and brave without being overconfident. He respects her and her skill, and does not seek to speak over her or around her.
So, aware of her own feelings and her own self, Liu Yelan decides that there is no time like the present. She is, in fact, the one that asks him out on a date.
Her wedding is extravagant, opulent, and perhaps a bit tacky in some places. Liu Yelan loves it. She loves the colors, the presence of her family, of being dressed up like an ancient princess, and the multitudes of hairpieces she gets to wear. It is not something that she will ever wear outside of this event, but because it is her wedding, she can’t help but enjoy it. Any discomfort she can potentially feel is swept away by the sheer giddiness at the event.
There is a childish sense of wonder here as Liu Yelan lives through a Dream that she has Seen for more than a decade at this point. She is nervous, yes, because despite everything this is a change of a lifetime. But more than that, she rides upon her joy like a boat upon the sea. There is nothing that can bring her down, and anything that dares try knows she will be vicious in turn.
Her uncle is an honored guest at the wedding. He puts in the effort to be another cousin in the crowd, but he is powerful and he carries that power with the same grace of an emperor. But her family is powerful and so is she, and with how similar they look to each other, no one thinks anything of it. He is only a favorite cousin of hers.
He has been a guest at many weddings in his long lifetime. But his eyes are bright and misty, and she knows that he is more affected than he presents himself. She is his first disciple in many years, and she realizes that she has found a place in his heart not unlike his sister. This realization makes her tear up as well, and they pretend that their emotions are only due to the wedding and nothing else.
The wedding lasts into the night, and by the end of the celebration, Liu Yelan is now Madame Li, the Lady of the Li Clan, and the matriarch to herald the Clan’s future. Her path forward opens up like a flower blooming in spring, full of potential and branching paths, with the family she has Seen her destination. And, supporting her as they always have, is the Liu Clan.
But for now, Liu Yelan is married, and she intends to focus only on the here and now, and on her husband. This is the start of her long awaited family, after all.
In her Dreams, when she Sees further than what is necessary to check for warnings, she knows that her youngest and only son will be the next head of the Li Clan. She knows she will have multiple daughters and one son. She has, somewhat selfishly, divined if they will have families, and found herself glad to know that all of her children will find and create families of their own, and know the same fierce love that she has for her husband.
What she does know is this: her daughters will not have magic of their own. Or, if they do, it will be at a level that is not conductive to leading a Clan full of magicians. She is Liu Yelan and her husband the most recent descendant of powerful line, so all of her children will have power. But it is her youngest and only son that will become heir, and there is a reason for that.
Liu Yelan, knows, however, that there is more to the world than just magic. She has spent decades now training in more than just magic, after all. So when she holds her first daughter in her arms, knows that she will never have more than enough magic to cast anything other than the most basic of spells, she decides then and there that her daughters will not remain powerless.
Her husband agrees with her. Not that Liu Yelan ever thought otherwise. Her uncle visits more often now that she has children of her own, and she requests him to teach her daughters. If her son wishes to learn when he is of age, he can be taught, but it is her daughters that need it. They will learn to fight as everyone in the Liu Clan does, but they will need more if they are to excel against all those that would move against either the Liu Clan or the Li Clan.
When she introduces her uncle to her daughter, and explains that none of the rest will have magic strong enough for the Clans, he agrees to train them when they are old enough. She is a powerful cultivator as well, though she will always have stronger magic.
Without having to split their focus, it is likely that her daughters will grow to be stronger cultivators than she is. Liu Yelan can teach her daughters the basics, but her uncle can teach them more. Regardless, even without Seeing, Liu Yelan knows that her daughters will be splendid.
(There is a bit of a kerfuffle when her second and third daughters, fraternal twins, are born, and one is assumed to be a son. She has let the Li Clan know that her only son will be the heir before, and they assume it is her daughter.
They are foolish, of course. Liu Yelan knows her children, and has known them since she was a child herself. Still, she does allow them their assumptions, knowing quite well that they will be proven wrong. By the time the twins are six, it’s irrefutable that the twins are both daughters.)
And when her son is born, more than five years after her fourth and last daughter, Liu Yelan can feel his strength. It is young and immature, but her son will be stronger than she by the time he reaches his third decade. And, if what she Sees when she holds him, it will be with someone with as much, if not more, power. Enough so that she thinks they might even challenge her uncle. Her son heralds a change, and it is only the fact that that change poses no threat to her and her own that keeps her from Seeing further.
“He will be taught the basics, as his sisters were,” her uncle says, and she agrees wholeheartedly. It will do no one any good for their foundations to differ, even if they have different paths they must take. “And it will be up to him if he goes any further. He will be a strong magician.”
Her son, even beyond the coloring that all of her children inherits from their father, resembles her husband so much that it brings an ache to her breastbone. He can be an amazing cultivator, but the strength of his magic is undeniable.
“I will make sure of it,” Liu Yelan says.
Her uncle is a swordsman, and so is her husband. She will have them speak and learn from each other, if only to create the best possible path for her son to walk down. She will do anything for her children, and making sure they are educated and taught to the best of her ability is the least of it. Heaven help any who would push further.
Her husband dies unexpectedly, and it is all Liu Yelan can do to stay afloat. She is functional and capable, and she does not let her children want for anything. They will never doubt her love and care for them. But she is only functional, and any passion she has for hobbies or other tasks that does not require her falls to the wayside.
Liu Yelan only sobs once in her life that she can remember, and it is under her uncle’s watchful gaze in the privacy of her own room while her mother takes care of her children. It is the only breakdown she allows herself.
It is here that Liu Yelan learns more about her uncle and his own relationships. He never did have a spouse or any want of a child, leaving that to Liu Mingyan, but he did have partners, and she learns how the presence and absence of them shaped her uncle into the man that he is today. She learns about his grief and his healing, and some of the reasons why he continues to travel the world.
She knows reincarnation exists, but it is strange to have concrete confirmation. The nature of souls and the cycle of time is well documented if not well understood. She is strong enough that she will live long enough to observe it herself.
While her husband will never be her husband again, not without him regaining those memories himself, he will once again exist in the world. It is not relief, but it is a type of hope, and Liu Yelan knows why her uncle travels the world over. She has too many responsibilities to travel like he does, but her children will not remain children forever. Perhaps one day…
One day, she Dreams, and she learns the shape of the future that her son will be part of. It is nothing more or less than she already knows. She appreciates the reminder, and she makes plans to help her son for the future that comes for him. He is young, but like all of her children, has the same determination and focus that she does, pity for anyone that dares stand in their way.
But she does learn something new. Or rather, meets someone new. She is a young woman with auspicious jade green eyes, and Liu Yelan already loves her knowing that she will marry her son one day. She is a dreamseer as well, and though they do not speak, Liu Yelan is told of one thing: that the warrior is matched by the scholar, and like the tide, their meetings always come and go.
When Liu Yelan wakes up, with her son ten years old and the Book of Clow almost waking up under the touch of the young woman who is currently only a young girl, she sends word ahead to her uncle.
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