I look at the old man on his deathbed, his disciples gathered around him. My mind feels strangely empty.

Teng Zhu’s spirit sits next to me, the both of us witnessing the scene that occurs every time I play the Fifth Requiem. 

“I feel lost.” I say softly, looking down at my hands.

Teng Zhu stays quiet. In spite of the fact that I know he is only an illusion, his presence feels solid beside me.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do…” I pause, thinking over my words, “There must be some greater purpose to everything. I just can’t see it.”

“Hm.” Teng Zhu makes a noise, bringing my full attention to him. “Life is strange, little one. Sometimes it acts without purpose.” He smiles slightly at his words. “And then, you are the one that has to find the purpose in it.”

I frown, annoyed with his words. They sound wise, but they don’t truly help me. He offers false platitudes for something that is truly horrible. Anger rises up in me at the small smile on his face and the way he dismisses what I am going through. 

“Your words are ridiculous.” I start, my words coming out heated. “ What purpose am I supposed to find in the murder of my friends? There is no purpose there! Only cruelty and tragedy!” I stand up, my fists clenched as I shout at him. “Don’t try to excuse murder! You live so much in death that you forget how horrible it is when your blade swipes through a man’s neck. As you watch his blood fall to the ground. His eyes staring at you as he wants to scream, but can’t because of the gaping hole in his neck. You-, you-, you can’t excuse that! You can’t ignore it as if it never happened!” 

I breathe heavily, my voice sore from the qi I’d unconsciously put into my voice. My heart beats fast as my stomach twists from the images stuck in my head.

A sad look crosses over his face as he watches me, and I turn away so that I don’t have to look at him. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that.” Teng Zhu says softly.

I turn away even more, trying to hide the fact that I want to cry. 

I cry too much already. I’m not a child anymore.

“It was horrible.” I say softly. “So horrible. Some of them screamed as I cut them down. Some… didn’t”

A hand rests softly on my shoulder. “You have a home, and friends waiting for you there. Don’t forget that.”

I nod, wiping away tears with the back of my hand. 

I get rid of the illusion and the world shifts back to the clearing Matu and I met in. The comforting weight of Teng Zhu’s hand disappears with the illusion. 

I look up at the stars in the sky, different from the stars of my home. 

The soft snoring of Matu brings my attention back to him where he sleeps on his cloak. He’d given his bedroll to me and I appreciate his kindness.

Soon we’ll arrive at the city. From there, I can figure out how I am supposed to get to the other side of the portal. 

I want to go home.

 

******

 

Ming Lai

 

I look over my room one more time, making sure that I’m not forgetting anything. I won’t be able to return until we’ve found Jia Lin. The sect won’t let us sneak out a second time. 

Confident that I have everything, I leave the room. 

I stiffen as I come face to face with Elder Li Mei Wu. 

“Elder-” I start.

She raises a finger, shushing me. 

Carefully, she removes her veil, revealing burn scars crossing her face. She smiles at my shocked expression, before motioning me closer. 

I oblige, stepping closer to her. She reaches up, placing her hands on my head. With the elegance that she uses for every action, she stands on her toes and brings my forehead down, lightly kissing it. Qi flows from her, marking where she kissed.

“Stay safe, disciple of mine.” 

With that said, she places her veil back on and turns around to walk away. 

I bow to her back. “I will, Elder Wu.”

I wait until she is out of sight before rising from my bow and hurrying to the stairs where Jing Xia is waiting. Her foot taps with impatience as she watches me approach, a surprisingly small bag strapped to her back. 

As soon as I reach her, she turns around and starts travelling down the steps. “The longer we wait, the harder it’ll be to find any clues.”

I follow her easily, our pace increasing as we officially leave the sect and enter the surrounding forest.

She walks in front of me as we travel along the road. She doesn’t say anything as we walk, keeping unusually quiet.

“What do we do if she’s dead?” Jing Xia says, her tone lacking its usual playfulness. 

I keep quiet. I hadn’t wanted to acknowledge the possibility and to be honest… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do if she did die.

I hadn’t thought any of this through really. I just know that the sect will take too long to search for any survivors. If anyone is going to be found alive, Jing Xia and I will have to find them.

“Then we kill whoever did this to her and our fellow disciples.” I finally respond, my resolve hardening.

Jing Xia stops, turning to look at me. Her expression is darker than I’ve ever seen it. She looks away before nodding. 

 

***

 

Three days pass as we travel nonstop through the forest, following the trail of the caravan. 

On the evening of the third day, Jing Xia stops suddenly on the road, her eyes scanning the forest. 

She raises her finger to her lips, motioning for me to be quiet.

I nod, and she steps off of the path, her presence completely disappearing into the trees. 

I close my eyes, taking deep breaths as I wait for her to return. After a few minutes, she steps out of the trees and motions for me to follow her. 

She grabs my hand as her presence melts into the forest. If she hadn’t grabbed my hand, I wouldn’t have known that she is right next to me. 

I hold out my free hand, ice forming into a blade as she leads me. Being silent isn’t my specialty, but I do my best to have my qi match hers in order to conceal myself. 

She stops suddenly, motioning towards a tree that looks over the road we had been travelling on. It takes me a moment, but I begin to pick out the silhouette of a man in the branches of the tree. 

He holds a bow at the ready, watching the road carefully. His clothes are made of a strange material that helps him blend into the tree. She motions to another tree where another man also waits with his bow strung. 

They don’t hail from any sect I recognize, and The Flowing River Sect doesn’t have anyone like them watching the roads. That means that they are either bandits, or with the people that ambushed the caravan.

Holding up her hand, she starts counting down, letting go of my hand to slowly disappear into the trees.

I watch her fingers until she is gone, continuing the count in my head once I can’t see her.

Five. Four. Three. Two.

On one, I shape my ice into a spear and throw it at the man closest to me. His head whips around as he raises his bow to block the spear at the last second. 

The force of the blow knocks him out of the tree and into the road. 

The muffled screaming of the other man tells me that Jing Xia is dealing with him. 

The man I had attacked slowly stands up, pulling the spear out of his shoulder while cursing.

The qi I had imbued in my spear spreads through his body, turning the skin around it a pale blue. 

I step out of the forest slowly. My spear melts away into water, only to reform itself in my hand as a sword.

The man throws away his broken bow, pulling a curved sword from his waist. I don’t recognize the sword he wields, which means he isn’t someone from the Chengshi Empire. 

The man pauses when he sees me fully.

“Do you recognize my robes?” I ask softly, ice spreading out from where I stand, covering the road. 

He doesn’t answer, instead raising his weapon.

“Have you perhaps seen similar robes recently?” I ask again, my qi that rests in his wound going wild with my emotions as it starts to freeze him from the inside out.

His arm starts shaking, his teeth chattering. 

“Answer me.” I say, stepping into the range of his sword.

He swings, but his movement is sloppy and slowed. I easily deflect his blow, causing his sword to fall to the ground. His body falls moments later, shivering as he turns a deeper blue.

“Be useful before you die.” I look down on him, my emotions dark.

“You will die. Just as they did.” He says, his voice shaking from the cold.

My arm moves, cutting through his neck and severing his head in one blow.

“We’ll see about that.” I say to his headless corpse. 

“S-sister Lai?” Jing Xia says, stepping out of the forest carrying the other man’s dead body. “C-could you withdraw your qi? I-it's really cold.”

I look at her darkly before my mind clears. I withdraw my qi. “Sorry.”

“No harm was done.” Jing Xia throws the man she killed next to the one frozen on the road.

“You seem awfully calm about this.” I say, surprised at the nonchalant way she carried the dead body. 

She looks at me, her eyes darkening before her expression shifts into a smile. “We all have our secrets.“

I leave it at that, looking back at the men we’d killed. “They aren’t from the empire.” I tell her.

“No. They aren’t.” She leans down, pulling up the cloth on one of the dead bodies. “I’ve never seen this stitching before, and the weapons they use are strange.”

“What are they doing here?” I ask out loud, not really expecting an answer.

“I have no idea.” She shrugs, her hands moving to check the pockets of both bodies. “We should move off the road, there might be more ambushes, and I won’t be able to detect them all. “

I nod in agreement as she pulls a piece of cloth from the pockets of one of the men, but nothing from the other. 

What were these men waiting for? Only those traveling to or from the sect use these roads. Were they scouts? Sentries?

I close my eyes, unable to come up with an answer. I reopen them to follow JIng Xia into the forest.