As the sun began to set, Wu Ling showed no signs of slowing down. Inspiration seemed to have taken hold and he let the ideas and feelings flow. Su Xiang was kind enough to bring over a few lanterns to help him work and then she settled in with Yue to watch Wu Ling finish his piece.
While he was working, he never forgot the lesson that Hua Jue taught him about connecting to his heart rather than focusing on concepts and outcomes. The totem he'd designed was a pendent of a wolf's head in profile.
For this totem, he used a piece of the skull because he wanted to call on three of the wolf's most primal and useful abilities; its senses. Not all of them, in fact, while he could have tried to draw out the wolf's sense of taste by carving a lolling tongue in the totem, he rejected it as both unnecessary and artistically distasteful.
Instead, he focused on the wolf's superior hearing, sense of smell, and vision at night. As such, he paid particular attention to the ears, nose, and eyes of his carving. He knew that Yu Jinqi carried the bloodline of the Celestial Bloodhound and that he had a refined sense of smell already. He hoped that this totem would function like adding wings to a tiger for the young alchemist's already extraordinary nose.
For Wu Ling, when he thought about smell and art, he mostly thought about the countless aromas associated with different types and preparations of tea. Whether something would be pleasant or not, if it had gone wrong in the preparation or the wrong herbs had been blended a sensitive nose could reveal all of these things.
As he carved, he thought about the innumerable cups of tea he'd shared with people over the years. The eager excitement he'd felt when his mother's sworn sister, his Aunt Hyacinth, had brought over a new blend. The calm, soothing aroma of the blend he'd made to help his mother sleep in their helpless years of exile.
There were so many scents and so many memories and feelings that he let it all wash through him as he carved. As he worked, the fur on the nose of the wolf started to resemble the wispy, drifting steam that rose from a cup of tea on a cold morning.
When he finally felt like he couldn't make things any more refined on the muzzle of the wolf, he moved to the eyes. Sharp and focused, the eyes took in all of the sights that the world had to offer. Wu Ling gave his painter's senses free rein as he shaped the wolf's bushy brows and wide-opened eyes.
These were eyes that didn't want to miss a moment of the wonder of the eclipse, a sunrise, or the return of a loved one. They were also eyes that would remember every detail of the person who hurt his loved ones, eyes that would never let a hated foe escape into the darkness of the night.
Finally, he reached the tufted ears at the top of his totem. The stark terror he'd felt at hearing the wolf's cry and the bear's roar on the night of the eclipse blended with the sweet tones of Yao Meifeng's zither when they played together to create a complex sense of hearing. Thinking of Yao Meifeng brought instantly to mind the night he'd heard her playing on an out-of-tune zither, straining her injured wrist, trying to keep up with an accompanist who didn't give her a moment to catch up… More than anything, the feeling that moment allowed Wu Ling to infuse into the totem was the feeling of using what he'd heard to find something that was hurting his friend and to help them escape that suffering.
As he carved, if one looked closely at the faint lines of the hair around the ear, one might notice a set of perfectly straight parallel lines that resembled the strings of a zither. From a distance, it could be mistaken for the texture of fur, but Wu Ling put it there as a reminder to listen to the subtle changes in sound and to use what he heard to help others.
It wasn't until the moon began to peak above the hills that Wu Ling finally put down his tools and gazed at the small bone totem lying in the palm of his hand. He hadn't reproduced the exact profile of the wolf, rather, he'd created an object that clearly evoked a feeling of the wolf's senses with its over-large ears, nose, and eyes. The distorted proportions, rather than looking comical, however, added to the feeling of almost primitive worship of the wolf's powerful senses that the totem evoked.
Slowly, Wu Ling let just a trickle of his energy flow into the totem. Instantly, the night seemed to brighten and his eyes flickered with a golden light. Shifting the flow of his energy, the night became darker again but the sounds of the night became incredibly clear. Not only could he make out the faintest of sounds from insects humming nearby, he could also hear the sounds of beasts moving through the dark forest as far away as the opposite side of the lake!
Finally, he shifted his energy to the nose of the totem, marveling as the rich smells of the night became clearer, filled with woodsmoke from the group's campfire, along with the smell of innumerable different plants and even the distinct scent of each of his companions.
"It works," he told Su Xiang, beaming with pride at his latest creation. As an Aesthete, he would have been lucky to create this talisman with a single feature. As an Understudy, he'd been able to expand from capturing 'the vision of the wolf' to 'the senses of the wolf' in a way that made even this minor talisman significantly more useful. Only one feature could be empowered at a time but the flexibility it offered was still a substantial improvement over what it would have been just a few days ago.
"Congratulations, Brother Ling," Su Xiang said, leaving the place she'd been sitting with Yue to watch him work and giving him a warm hug. "You seemed very intense so I didn't want to disturb you, I'm glad you succeeded," she said with a smile.
"I should probably hurry back though," Wu Ling said, looking at the rising moon. "I'm sure that Brother Fang is bemoaning the fact that I haven't returned to cook yet."
"It's fine," Su Xiang said, helping Wu Ling to stand and put away his tools. "I think everyone will forgive you when they see what you've made."
"I hope Brother Yu likes it," Wu Ling said as he began following Su Xiang back to their small camp of bamboo huts. "Now that I've made this one, I think the next ones will be even better."