“Snow?!”

That word in MenTar¹Literally men (lake) + tar (wind)’s worried voice made ZaiWin²Literally zai (blade) + win (chaos). turn around, his mind going completely blank for an instant.

“What in the world is he doing …?” he heard ZenTar³Literally zen (silent) + tar (wind) whisper, distrust heavy on his voice, but he didn’t share his feelings at all.

A golden circle of sacred symbols surrounded the boy’s feet, its glow tinting his silver hair. And then there was another circle. And another.

Surrounded by the three glowing, revolving rings, he really looked like some heavenly holy being. And then he opened his arms, the silent command vibrating through the air, and the three arrays immediately obeyed, quickly expanding, spreading its golden light everywhere. House after house, they permeated the wooden walls, bringing a momentary sense of life to what was looked very much like a ghost town.

“Holy shit …” VinWei⁴Literally vin (hard) + wei (crystal) breathed and ZaiWin looked at the ground when the golden arrays finally reached them.

As they passed by him, he felt as if he’d been unknowingly drowning and had just suddenly been pulled back to the surface. Lightly stumbling forward, it felt as if he’d just crossed some invisible barrier, something warm flooding in his veins, making it easy to breathe even though he hadn’t noticed how hard it had been before.

Following the glowing rings, he saw that the golden arrays kept quickly expanding, sweeping the entire village, clearly purifying the land beneath their feet and the air they breathed.

Looking back at the silver-haired boy, still standing there with his eyes closed, he couldn’t help feeling impressed. So this was what a Celestial was supposed to be, he thought in amazement. Of course he’d heard people describing similar extraordinary feats like the one he’d just witnessed more times than than he could count. But actually being there, actually seeing it with his own eyes, feeling it with his own body, was an entire different matter.

Lowering his arms, Snow bent forward, hands on his knees, allowing himself to take a deep breath. And ZaiWin was immediately by his side, feeling conflicted between the extraordinary thing he’d just witnessed, and how angry he suddenly felt at the fact that he had clearly pushed himself too far.

Trying to control his anger, ZaiWin placed a hand on the brat’s shoulder, fearing he might just fall.

“Are you okay?”

To his utter disbelief the brat actually dared slap his hand away, raising his head, his pale, glassy eyes grave and serious.

“I didn’t work …!” ZaiWin heard him whisper and, before he could understand what he meant, the freaking brat was already running down the street, stumbling on his own feet, but quickly pulling himself together without even stopping.

“What?”

The word fell off his lips as he watched him go, running at a surprising speed. And then the anger he’d suppressed finally took over.

What the fuck was that brat thinking??, he grunted, and simply dashed after him.

ZaiWin ran past ZenTar, VinWei at his side trying to make sure he was all right, and then he saw the damn brat make a sudden turn and practically storm into one of the houses.

Looking up, he saw that the red mark had also been painted over that door. And by the time he finally reached it, he couldn’t help but stand at the threshold in absolute shock.

Inside there was a young child of ten or so sitting on a filthy bed, wearing equally filthy clothes. On the bed lay the already decaying corpse of an older woman, probably the child’s mother or some other family member. And the brat was leaning over the startled young boy, both hands on his face, his lips glued to the child’s mouth.

On a second observation ZaiWin could easily see that the child was sick, his small, frail body too thin, ugly yellowish eruptions covering every inch of visible skin. But by the time he had concluded all that the brat was already dashing past him, back outside, leaving the boy sitting on the bed with a shocked expression on his young face.

The damn brat!, he growled in his mind before spinning around and running after him.

He stepped outside just in time to see Snow enter another house. And when he finally reached it he was faced with a similar picture, the difference being that he was now kissing an old man, the old woman present in the room, probably his wife, watching the scene with a scared expression on her face. The woman, unlike the man, looked healthy enough. But the man had been so sick that he’d probably been unable to get up from the bed.

Crossing the small room in wide steps, ZaiWin grabbed the brat’s shoulder and pulled him back, probably with a bit too much strength, making him stumble and clash against a rustic dinning table.

“What do you thing you’re doing?” he demanded, anger spilling from his every word, and Snow did his best to stand straight, taking one look at the old man before running out the door again.

“You freaking brat! Stop right there! You hear me?” ZaiWin shouted after him, but Snow didn’t even look back, ignoring him completely.

ZaiWin gritted his teeth in fury. Who was the asshole that had stated that Celestials always follow their Chosen One’s command?! He really wanted to send their heads flying right about now for spewing so much nonsense!

Growling, this time loud enough to startle the elderly couple, he ran after him again.

He was going to beat the living crap of that damn brat!, he decided, speeding to catch up with him. Making him chase him throughout the entire damned village!

When he reached the next house Snow was just about to kiss an equally stunned young man. But by then ZaiWin had just had as much as he could handle!, he decided, grabbing the damn brat by his wrist and yanking him back.

“You damn brat! What do you think …”

“Let go of me!”

The angry demand in his voice and the fact that he’d stopped whispering felt as if someone had just caught him by surprise and had slapped him right across the face.

“What …?!”

“Let go! There’s still three more!” Snow declared, clawing at his hand, trying to get free, and ZaiWin looked at they young man sitting at the table, his skin covered with those ugly rashes.

Like before, he’d been in so much hurry that he’d failed to notice that they weren’t the only ones in the room. An older couple kept holding each other, looking at the intruders with scared expressions on their faces.

“Let go!! I need to heal him!” Snow kept demanding and, at the sound of those words, the older couple immediately stepped forward, anxiously grabbing ZaiWin’s other arm.

“Were you the ones that raised that golden array?” the woman urgently asked, clutching his coat.

“Were you the ones that healed us?” the man spoke over her words.

“Please! Please young lords! Please help our son!” the woman pleaded, her eyes full of tears, and ZaiWin glanced over towards the young man again.

So they had been healed by the brat’s array, but not their son, and not the child from before or even the old man.

“Let go!!” Snow insisted, raising his voice, speaking the louder ZaiWin had ever heard him speak. And ZaiWin gave him a hard pull, making him crash against his body, leaning over so his face was right in front of his.

“Shut up! And calm down!” he spoke one word at a time and the panicking pale eyes finally focused on him, his lips trembling and then closing as he’d commanded. “You said there’s three more? Are you counting the brat sitting there or not?”

Snow averted his gaze at his tone of reprehension and bit his lower lip before replying.

“With him makes four …” he whispered and ZaiWin straightened his back but didn’t release him from his iron grip.

Turning to the couple still clinging at him, he forced himself to smile and lightly bowed his head.

“Gentle lady, could I bother you and ask you for four recipients? Any kind will do. Four bowls like that one would do just fine,” he added, noticing the wooden bowl placed over the table, and the woman’s eyes widened hopefully.

“But of course! Of course!” she repeated, running to a small cupboard and taking out four bowls; all of different sizes, all obviously hand-carved. “I wonder if these will do!”

“They’ll do just fine,” ZaiWin replied, politely accepting them, and bowed again.

“I ask that you endure just a bit longer, while we quickly mix the medicine for your son.”

Both the man and the woman smiled widely at that.

Tears rolling down her face, the woman rushed to her son’s side, wrapping her arms around him even though he looked already dead.

“Did you hear that, WhiteBird? You’ll be just fine! You’ll be just fine!”

“How can we ever thank you, young lords? How can we ever thank you!” the man kept repeating, bowing at his waist time and time again.

“There’s nothing to thank us for. We’ll be right back,” ZaiWin quickly replied and dragged Snow out of the house.

Outside ZenTar and VinWei were waiting for them, looking as confused as he’d been just a few moments ago.

“What happened?” VinWei asked, looking at the house behind them. They could all hear the couple laughing and crying at the same time, while they hopefully encouraged their dying son.

ZaiWin handed ZenTar the pile of bowls.

“Hold this!”

ZenTar did as he was told but, looking at the bowls, he looked even more confused.

Grabbing the first one, ZaiWin held it in front of Snow’s face.

“Spit on it!”

The boy looked up at him, fearing he might have heard wrong. But the blue eyes staring back at him, although still clearly angry, remained firm and resolute.

Afraid he might change his mind should he take any longer, Snow grabbed the bowl and did as he was told.

“What in the world …” ZenTar asked with a disgusted expression on his face when ZaiWin passed the bowl with spit to VinWei, holding the next bowl for the boy to spit in.

“ZaiWin, what are you doing?” VinWei asked, looking at the bowl she now held in her hands.

“Apparently not everyone got healed by the brat’s array,” ZaiWin declared dryly, handing Snow another bowl. “The damn brat was running around healing the rest of them.”

This time he handed the bowl with spit back to ZenTar and he looked at it with an even more nauseated expression.

“Healing the rest of them …?”

After he spat on the last bowl, ZaiWin gave it to ZenTar as well.

“The other houses?” he asked, peering at the boy, and Snow looked down the street.

“The one with the yellow planter,” he pointed. “The one with the open windows. The one with the old roof.”

“You got that?” ZaiWin asked the other two and they nodded, each one holding two bowls, their expressions clearly confused.

“Go, mix some water in that, and make the sick ones drink from those bowls.”

“What?!” ZenTar immediately demanded in outrage, taking a step back as if someone had just asked him to take off his clothes while standing on a public square.

VinWei looked curiously at her bowls.

“Do you want them to live? Do as I say. And Vin, give me one of those cleansing crystals of yours.”

“Take my pouch,” she calmly told him, signaling the purple pouch hanging from her belt. “Use one of the blue ones.”

Since she had both hands occupied, ZaiWin unceremoniously untied the pouch from her waist and, grabbing Snow’s wrist again, simply dragged him away.

“Was he serious?!” ZenTar asked, watching them go.

Snow looked back at them, his expression a mix of fear and anxiety.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out. I’ll take this one and the one with the yellow planter. You take care of the other two,” VinWei quickly decided, stepping into the small house and leaving ZenTar standing there, still unsure about what to do.

Snow stumbled, and stumbled again. His wrist hurt from the force with which ZaiWin kept squeezing and pulling him. Suddenly he was feeling very tired, and it was all he could do not to fall.

When they finally stopped he was breathing hard again, feeling dizzy, his legs trembling weakly. Luckily ZaiWin pushed him down and made him sit, allowing him to take a deep breath of relief.

The soothing sound of water being poured filled his ears, but he was just too tired to be able to muster enough curiosity to see where it came from. And then something cool and wet was pressed against his lips.

Blinking, Snow saw that it was actually a wooden cup full of water, and that something blue and shiny was sitting at the bottom of it.

“Rinse your mouth with it a spit it out! Don’t drink it!” the familiar voice commanded and he obeyed, feeling too exhausted to think about it.

The water was fresh and tasted strangely sweet. And only then he realized that the pair of blue eyes was looking up at him, when it was normally the opposite - him looking up at them.

It took him a while to understand that ZaiWin was actually kneeling, which immediately left him feeling awkward and restless. It was weird having such a tall, imposing man kneeling in front of him like that. It left a certain unnamed pressure on his chest.

“Once more!” ZaiWin commanded, pushing the cup against his lips, and Snow filled his mouth again.

“You are most definitely a moron! Doing something like this! Do you, by any chance, think that because you have the ability to heal others you won’t get sick? Are you some invincible god that I don’t know about?!”

Snow spat to the side and looked fearfully at him, but ZaiWin simply pushed the cup against his lips. With a sigh, Snow filled his mouth with that sweet water one more time.

“You damn brat! Making me run all over the place! I should have broken your legs a long time ago, instead of simply threatening to do it!”

Snow emptied his mouth and, without any warning, his eyes simply closed, his head too heavy for him to hold upright. Thankfully his forehead landed on something, since he’d been sure he’d simply fall forward, ending up sprawled on the ground. A strong arm surrounded his back, pulling him into a comfortable warmth. And a familiar warm hand covered his head, long fingers diving into his hair, allowing him to relax since he was now sure he wasn’t going to fall.

“And the next time you go around kissing other people like that, I will sew your mouth shut!” he heard someone say in the distance. But then he was so tired ... The fingers that kept gently caressing his hair made him even more sleepy. Also something smelled really good, he thought with a small smile before he finally fell asleep.