By The Will of the Gods

A Race Against Time

The Upper Heavens

Nowhere in any archive in all thirty six Heavens could Tian Ming find anything akin to what he was facing.  Not only had he lost Jin Si, but an emergency meeting of the entire upper Heavens Weavers had been called, the first time anything like it had happened in all of its history.  Normally small meetings were held with just the Tiāntáng Sān or Heavens Three, the over all rulers of all Realms below them, only the seriousness of what was taking place, had reached a point where intervention was necessary.

Jin Si, was an artifact of fate that followed strict rules.  Any fate that was sealed in gold was an absolute given, so the weavers were always careful of what they wrote and could sit for days, even week pouring over every consequence before they wrote anything, because by the Laws of Universe, once written, there was no going back.

Only, whoever found it, had somehow managed to change fate, first with the marriage alliance of Sang Ji to the beaver spirit when she should have gone to Li Jing, and then the creation of snow which covered the entire Immortal Realm and therefore spawning a war that also should not be happening.  In fact, Tengfei was meant to make his grand entrance back into the world, and his people welcomed with open arms.  It was meant to be a time for celebration only now, the consequences of a war would see lives lost, people who also had fates they were meant to fulfil which would soon be lost.

And this was what had Tian Ming heading to the Grand Parlour with every other weaver to discuss what had gone so wrong.  No one blamed him, because he had done nothing wrong, but something untoward had happened, and they had to find the underlying cause in order to fix it.

In total there were forty two weavers who dealt solely with the fates of the Immortals, and though several more were in training, only these forty two were present and each of them save Tian Ming had their own book of fates in their possession which they all placed under a brilliant white light to be read for any discrepancies which took less than a few seconds.  Once done, their books were placed one on top of the other and taken away much to their dismay.

"Unfortunately, whoever has Jing Si, has also changed many of your fates, which are fast disappearing from your books of fate.  The fine balance that you have all worked very hard to achieve has shifted, unfortunately what is happening in the Immortal world now needs direct intervention in order to prevent any more damage." Tiāntáng Sān said as one voice.

No one said a word and nor did they dare to look at Tian Ming whose head was hanging low having fully blamed himself for this catastrophe.  For The Three to involve themselves was unthinkable and unprecedented, nothing the other weavers could have said would make a difference now.

"That Jin Si refuses to answer the call to return, suggests something happened to it.  Do you have any ideas on what that might be?" they asked as all eyes then moved in his direction and forcing him to move forward.

"I do not.  I completed my final fate as I have done all others before it disappeared.  And my time among the Immortals drew nothing, the book is still refusing to return." he replied honestly before bowing.

"Then it seems as if the artifact is not happy with a particular fate and perhaps the final fate is where you may find the answer to its whereabouts rather than in hiding among them.  You all know that many things are taken into account before any fate is written, could you have made a mistake in matching a couple without first considering the consequences?" they asked gently and with more compassion than he thought he deserved.

"Prince Sang Ji was meant to marry the Princess of Qing Qiu, and the beaver spirit was meant to marry the Prince of the Ghost Realm.  Both couples were suited to each other in terms of rank and social standing which would have brought closer alliances between all three tribes, because the beaver is also of Qing Qiu.  It would mean the Ghost Realm would align itself with the Qing Qiu and in turn the Celestial Tribe.  Only now all three are at odds with each other." he stated firmly and precisely as he saw things.