White birds over the grey river.

Scarlet flowers on the green hills.

I watch the Spring go by and wonder

If I shall ever return home.

- “Another Spring” by Dù Fǔ (杜甫) trans. Kenneth Rexroth

----------------------------------------

“So.”

“So.”

Zéyì and Gong Lau Yan walked slowly together along the main route that led through Chūn to Zhū. It was the first words they had exchanged on the whole walk, and they had been walking for several hours now.

This exchange of 'So's was followed by further awkward silence.

At last, Gong Lau Yan said, quietly, “I'm sorry.”

“... For... which thing, exactly?”

The loong winced. “Fair. I'm sorry I didn't really explain clearly what I was doing and thinking. I've been...” She made frustrated and mysterious movements with her hands.

“You really aren't very good at communicating, are you, Gong Dze?” Zéyì smiled up at the blue spring sky above them. “From the first time I met you, you would get an idea and then just go off and do it without telling anyone else what you were on about.”

“I tried,” Gong Lau Yan sighed. “We went together to the auction, didn't-” The expression on her face indicated that she had suddenly remembered how that particular episode had ended.

“So now?”

“So now... What would you like to know? Ask me anything.”

“Anything? Then, why is it that you do things without telling others?”

The regret on Gong Lau Yan's face was almost comical. “I... I'm not sure.”

“Have you never though about it before?”

“No, I knew. Sort of. Huh.” Her expression was one of someone making a sudden discovery.

“Hey, Gong Dze?”

“Hm?”

“Where are we going?”

“To Zhū... To Dzue.”

“Why?”

“Be... because... It's the right thing... It makes sense.”

“Why does it make sense? What's right about it?”

Gong Lau Yan's expression had already become dark, her eyes wandering away to the ground. They refocused on Zéyì when the woman took the loong's hands.

“What are you worried about, Gong Dze?”

The loong laughed. “I don't know. It doesn't matter. You're happy to go to Dzue, right?”

Her hands twitched. Zéyì sniffed haughtily. “I don't agree with you. I don't want to.”

And there it is.

Gong Lau Yan's face was green, as though she were about to throw up. She hastily let go of Zéyì's hands and fumbled for her water flask, drinking distractedly.

“Is that what you're afraid of, Gong Dze?” Zéyì said softly. “That I won't agree?”

“That... well, no, because no one will agree all the time,” Gong Lau Yan said sardonically.

Zéyì's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, a little more white than black. “Well in any case, I think it's a stupid idea.”

No mistake, Gong Lau Yan flinched.

“I'm sorry,” Zéyì said quickly, placing a hand on the loong's arm. “I... Gong Dze, you are afraid.”

“I guess I am... Gods damn it... Of what?”

“That I'll disagree with you.”

“I don't think that's quite right though... We've disagreed before.”

“Perhaps... my judgement of you?” Zéyì suggested thoughtfully. “Are you afraid that I'll think you're a fool?”

She watched comprehension, followed by annoyed embarrassment, dawning in Gong Lau Yan's eyes, and changed the subject. “How is your health at the moment? Will you be alright, after all this travelling?”

“Dzue Yi-sang... well, Haat Ngan Wan, she made a stronger medicine for me.”

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Reaching into the pouch on her belt, Gong Lau Yan produced the tiny bottle that Haat Ngan Wan had given her, and tipped out a pill. She swallowed it, chasing it down with a swig of water. Eyes closed, she stood still for a long while.

“... Zéyì?”

“Yes, Gong Dze?”

“May I... Can I hold your hand? Please?”

Zéyì wordlessly held out her hand. Gong Lau Yan's fingers were cold.

But her eyes, when she opened them, had a vitality that Zéyì had never seen before. The slow river of her grey-brown eyes sparkled, although her expression was grim.

“Shall we?”

“Yes... Gong Dze, there's nothing to be ashamed of. After all, you've seen me at my lowest.”

“Ah, it's not like that... I was just so sure in my- I'm the legendary Demon Hunter, Miss Fen! Why would I be scared of what others think of me?”

“Because you care,” Zéyì said quietly.

The road rolled on beneath their feet. Occasionally they would meet other travellers, or villagers, but other than acknowledging nods, they offered no other interaction.

The number of people they passed dropped away as they headed further and further east, until the walked amongst hills where only animals roamed, and the only sound was the wind over the long grasses. The road had faded to an impression in the grass, a memory of the paving stones that lay beneath a shallow layer of dirt.

They crested the last hill.

Gong Lau Yan's hand tightened around Zéyì's, but her eyes remained fixed on the scene before them.

No matter how many times she saw this place, Zéyì thought she would always feel the same shock.

Previously, she had flown over the remains of the pine forest, Tsaam Lam, to the north of the country. Here on the western border, there stood a huge, crumbling stone statue of a loong, glaring towards Chūn.

The surrounding land was dusty and cracking. Not even a single blade of grass relieved the dry monotony. Zéyì's eyes felt painfully dry simply looking at the place.

Gong Lau Yan's eyes were closed, and she was murmuring to herself in the Dzue tongue. “... tseng chou yau si cheon... haang dou seung saam tsue... tsung fung chau saat yan...”

They walked down to the statue. Zéyì brushed dust from the inscription at the base and tried to decipher the tiny writing. Some characters were familiar, still used in Xiang script, but others were intricately detailed and unrecognisable.

“'Show me the person who doesn't die, death remains impartial.

I recall a towering man, who now is a pile of dust.

The World Below knows no dawn, plants enjoy another spring.

Those who visit this sorrowful place, the pine wind slays with grief.'” Gong Lau Yan recited these words without looking at the writing once.

“That was the poem you were saying to yourself just before, wasn't it? I recognised some of the words.”

“The rest of the inscription reads: 'Those brave ones who fought for a dawn they would not see, may they quickly re-enter the cycle of reincarnation. Those who lived to see another spring, let their deviated souls find peace soon. Those who Ascend this mortal realm, let us meet under evening clouds once more.'”

Zéyì craned her neck back to look into the face of the stone loong. “This was from the Great Demon War, then.”

“It was Yuan Mu's idea.”

“That sounds like something Shi fu would do.”

They left the statue behind, with no clear road to guide them, but Gong Lau Yan walked unerringly until they came to the dry bank of what must have once been a mighty river.

Zéyì knelt respectfully, mindful not to get too close to the edge. The fall looked to be well over ten times her own height, and although with her abilities a fall was unlikely to cause her much damage, it would take up unnecessary energy that she needed to reserve. The dry heat of the air had her already very uncomfortable.

Across the deep, barren channel, on the other bank, two shallower channels ran into the main river. In places they almost disappeared where dust had blown into them, filling their otherwise empty impressions.

“I hope it was quick,” Gong Lau Yan said, her eyes wide and unfocused. “I hope they didn't feel anything. That they didn't know-”

“Gong Dze-”

“No, I'm being stupid. Maybe the humans didn't know...” Her gaze drifted, unseeing, from impression to impression in the dust. “Dze-dze lived for a while afterwards. She made it all the way to Cheon, to Chūn, after all. And Tsaam Lei... He's still alive somehow. So they... They must have...”

Her face twisted into an ugly grimace of despair. “My little nieces...” she wailed, staring at her hands. “Those babies...”

Zéyì flung her arms around the shaking loong, as if she might physically hold her together as she was falling to pieces.

“I should have died with you!” Gong Lau Yan babbled uncontrollably. “I should have been here! I should have been here!”

Screwing her eyes shut, Zéyì held on tighter as Gong Lau Yan sobbed in her arms. She could feel tears creeping down her own cheeks.

It took some time for Gong Lau Yan to calm down. She was still shaking when she wrapped an arm around Zéyì's waist and leapt effortlessly across the canyon to land between the two shallow channels.

“Dzing Se, Dzing Wai, how have you been? Sorry I haven't visited recently. But this time I brought a... I brought Zéyì. Do you remember her? She was only small, back then.”

Zéyì bowed. “Greetings, Your Highnesses.”

“I should have some incense...” Gong Lau Yan fossicked in her pouches once more, and found three sticks of sandalwood incense wrapped in yellow talisman paper. “I won't light them, though.”

She stuck the sticks into a crack in the ground, and immediately turned to leave. Zéyì bowed in farewell and followed silently.

They walked along the edge of the empty Ming Dzue river, small clouds of dust following them. This was a country of low mountains, and eventually they were hopping their way up a steep slope, Gong Lau Yan yet to show any sign of tiring. The empty riverbed dropped away to the west as they climbed.

When they reached the ridgeline, Zéyì saw that they now stood on the spine of a long range that wrapped itself around a sheltered basin at the coast, like a slumbering dragon. Ming Dzue curled around to meet the ocean to the south-west. It was unnerving to see the way the ocean crept to the mouth of the river channel and fizzled into nothing.

“There it is,” Gong Lau Yan said heavily. “Ming Yuet, the shining city.”

No longer shining, the crumbling remains of Ming Yuet gaped distantly up at them. Buildings that once reached to the heavens lay wrecked on the ground. Like cracked teeth, more and more ruined structures poked from islands further out into the ocean. Ming Yuet had once been a vast and glittering place. Its bones now bleached in the dry air.

Zéyì found she was clutching her chest. Gong Lau Yan gave her a sick look.

“You don't have to go down there if you don't want to.”

“I don't want to. But... I need to. I need to look.”

“You're braver than me.”

“Have you not looked?” Zéyì asked, taken aback.

“Not since the first day when... and I was too sick to even walk by myself. After that.. I just couldn't find the courage... I'm a coward, Zéyì.”

“What coward? Gong Dze, this place...” Zéyì could barely find the words to express how the look on Gong Lau Yan's face made her feel. “It hurts. This place hurts. I barely remember it and it still hurts me. I can only imagine how you're feeling.”

“Not... great.”

“You don't have to go down there if you don't want to.”

This brought a little laughter out of them both.

“Shall we?”

“... okay.”

Fighting against the urge to run in the opposite direction, the two of them began the descent into the ruins of Ming Dzue.