The young Xian peered through his sticky eyelids to the bright orange point on the horizon. He was but a few months old, thirty or forty centimeters long, a few meters shorter than those of his age. He also had bits of silver and blue scales under his tiny belly—in his eyes, a golden iris expanded with the approaching Sun.

From the opening inside the mouth of his mother, the young Xian watched the majestic mountains and hills blur by, fast enough to distort but slow enough for him to recognize. A refreshing wind blasted his cute scales, scratched at them, all the while his heart beat with excitement. In him was a wonder that all children shared, a joy most related to curiosity and exploration. He didn’t recognize these lands, for they remained too far from his nest, and this happened to be the first time he saw beyond the nest. Here and there poured some rivers much larger than he ever saw, and cliffs so steep he couldn’t float down. Ancient trees sprouted some places, home to flaming birds thrice the size of his mother—though none approached them— and even more things than he thought existed.

It had been a long time since he flew with his mother; she had left him when he was a babe, to be taken care of by the males, while she tended to her cultivation and divination. Indeed, it had been too long.

He couldn’t even recognize her appearance. He only knew her voice.

‘’Mommy.’’ he asked with a low squeal. ‘’Can I come out to watch?’’

But she didn’t answer. He could feel her pulsing heart—it was racing, thumping like a stomp of a giant. She was worried, and she didn’t hide it. What had happened?

‘’Mommy, are you okay?’’

She made no comment. He kept squealing to get her attention, and even, in a sudden burst of defiant courage, softly pinched her fangs with his tiny claws. He felt a tremor run through her, then nothing more.

He kept staring out at the world after that. It had been his lifelong wish to see outside the nest. They had many nests, and most Xian could go between them. But he was forbidden. No one told him why. One of his mother’s servants, when he was a month old, a time where he had been too stubborn even for a babe to resist, told him that it was for his own good. It was safer here, she said.

But he didn’t understand it. He had his daddy, mightiest of the males, and his mommy, who could see far into the future. What could happen to him in this world?

Soon enough he saw the scenery change: there were strange pagodas very different from his nest, short and tiny, and he saw upright creatures with two legs and arms. There were alot of them, scurrying around, whispering. His mother flew by them, too, and went past a lot more of them until he saw two of those blocking her path.

One of them, he noticed, had no pupils. The other made him tremble. The creature looked terrifying, and he could see a red shadow grinning behind it at him. Young Xian hid behind one of his mother’s fangs and peered at them.

The one with no pupils...smiled at him? He retreated further. For the first time he heard his mother talk.

‘’Shey-Amo. Paragon.’’

The other two replied something. He didn’t understand their words. The thing with no pupils kept its smile on him, so he peeked over her mother’s fang and blinked.

‘’I saw it.’’

His mother spoke a little differently than before.

‘’I will kill fate if I find it, and I will kill your disciple as well. I swear it.’’

Both of those creatures didn’t say anything. Only, he saw something of a regret pass over the red shadowed creature. It looked at him, then something of a glint passed its eyes. It said something.

‘’...I know. I’ve seen it, I told you.’’

The other creature whispered something.

‘’I will change it.’’

Then two creatures spoke no more. Then, the young Xian heard a pair of voices echo in his ears.

‘’Take care, son.’’

‘’The path yet remains long, child.’’

Then he trembled. He shivered, grasped at the fangs of his mother so tight he heard her flinch.

‘’What?’’

His mother—whose mother?

Suddenly, a light flashed by, and then a young man came into being. The scenery vanished, as did the people, and Zhang Cai raised his head to look back.

His consciousness cloudy, he thought there was a familiar figure there. He leaped forward.

He fell on his knees, unable to grasp. There was only a void before him, and the moment he noticed it, the space changed to a garden. A warm light fell over the purple magnolias across the yard, each tree at least hundreds of meters, and under them stood a lake spanning a dozen kilometers. Before the lake were a pair of Xians, one yet a babe and the other a gigantic Draken made of frost.

The huge draken opened its icy eyes and looked straight at him.

‘’Mommy?’’

Zhang Cai froze at his own words. Why had he said something like that?

‘’You...why?’’

‘’Mommy?’’

This time, the baby Xian repeated Zhang Cai’s words.

‘’Hush, my treasure.’’ The draken nuzzled the babe’s head and gave him a soft lick. ‘’Sleep.’’

The babe closed its eyes at the mother’s words and fell into a slumber. The draken let it rest beside the lake, and Zhang Cai found the young dragon...perhaps, adorable to his eyes.

‘’Where are you from?’’ The draken said to him. Zhang Cai found that he could not feel any fear at the creature, even though it had Spirit level pressure. ‘’What time are you from?’’

‘’Why do you carry traces of our child?’’

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The draken sniffed at him again and again, until he found that it looked quite a lot like Long Kongzi. Their scales were of the same color, though not so big, and he remembered that the young Xian had golden pupils. Golden pupils was common in both beasts and Xian, but being where he was, with the awareness coming back to him bit by bit, he realized the identity of the Xian before him.

Ice. Mother of Long Kongzi.

Then the babe sleeping there would be Long Kongzi himself. Zhang Cai put a hand over his squeezed chest. He still remembered the warmth he felt from his mother, the excitement and curiosity, and the childish wariness from those two figures too blurry in his memories. He still remembered the trains of thought, as well as the wishes of the young creature. It was born an explorer. That deep well of aspiration still remained in him, and Zhang Cai felt the pit of his stomach churn.

‘’I...’’

He said that alone, then said no more. How was he supposed to feel, when he stood before the mother of the child he killed? That child had been an enemy, one who time and time again sought after his life and of his friends. He thought himself blameless—he too lived, and he had to live. He had too many things he had to accomplish, and he couldn’t die before doing any one of them.

Even then, he still felt connected to that pure child. The child who couldn’t accomplish any of his desires.

Long Kongzi’s mother recoiled from him, yet her gaze remained.

‘’That day has come...’’

Her voice carried an intense cold that splashd Zhang Cai’s spirit awake.

‘’Are you the one? Are you the one who will steal our treasure away?’’

‘’Will...I have already done it.’’

Zhang Cai kept his head low, not daring to look up. Was this a dreamland? Was this a product of his imagination before death? Was he trying to absolve himself of guilt to go clean? Or had this been the work of that demon, or any other being?

‘’My treasure...my dear child...’’

He heard a low whimper escape the draken.

‘’Why must it come to pass...why?’’

He said nothing.

‘’Raise your head.’’

Zhang Cai did as she asked, and he saw her deep blue eyes tearing up. Were Xians capable of crying?

‘’Why have you stolen him from us?’’

‘’He came for my life.’’ Zhang Cai said. He did not want to say anything stemming from his conscience. He could make up any other word, or perhaps show himself guilty to ease his heart. But he would never lie. ‘’He came for the life of my friends. I had to, because I needed to survive.’’

‘’Why...why would my treasure go after you? What have you done to make him so?’’

Zhang Cai didn’t reply to that. He didn’t know himself. He still suspected the Xian outpost, and those seven Spirits there. Those drakens did not seem similar to Long Kongzi nor his mother. He would never mistake it—he would be a fool to forget such a sight.

‘’...take me to my treasure.’’

‘’I can’t.’’

‘’You can!’’ The draken bellowed. Her voice carried deep torment. ‘’You are possessed by demons! This is their realm! All you need is to think and it will come to be!’’

He was still in their realm? Then how was she able to communicate with him?

‘’When?’’ He asked.

‘’All.’’

Zhang Cai nodded. Then he went back, all the way to that single mountain at the frontier. As he thought of there, of how he fell and how he escaped, the scenes played around them. The garden was still there, but as if overlayed by transparent paper, they could see both without interruption.

When he tried to think of the Xian base, Zhang Cai found his memories blurred. Something was tampering with them.

‘’Who dares obstruct us!?’’

Her shout did nothing.

‘’There were seven drakens there. All of them Spirit, Blue-diamond scales and clad in golden armor.’’

She said nothing, so Zhang Cai proceeded. He showed her his fight and how he cracked Long Kongzi’s skull.

She said nothing.

He proceeded again. Now they were beyond Il-Ich, across the crossroads, and were battling against Long Kongzi with Li Bo and Li Huan.

At Long Kongzi’s victory, he noticed, the mother showed a slight smile. Zhang Cai felt his heart ease a little out of...disdain. Perhaps not disdain, but akin to it, for he recognized that she was pleased at their demise more than her son’s success.

She held a grudge.

He went forth again, to the strait, and thought of everything in order. From the encounter over the sea to the battle, then to the struggle under the waters.

At last, Long Kongzi’s drowning image played out. His body clad in bloodied wounds, his golden pupils dim, swallowed by the dark abyss of the strait bit by bit. His last whisper echoed inside the garden.

Zhang Cai stopped his thoughts there, and stared at the draken. Her gaze remained on his son for a long time. There were no twitches in her pupils, nor trembles in her limbs. A blank, if not despairing, gaze remained in her being.

‘’...my son...’’

She whispered, then there was nothing.

Zhang Cai sighed. He gave a deep bow to the draken.

‘’...what does it accomplish?’’

‘’I am sorry.’’

‘’We have no need for your feelings. We have seen a long time ago, from the moment he was born, that our treasure would not live long. He would be taken away, in ways most horrific, and he would suffer many more if we trapped him in our nest.’’

Here she put her snout in his face, and her stare pierced into his heart. She did not need any secret technique to understand his confusion.

‘’But it was your choice to kill him. It was his destiny to die, but what does it change? There is always death—either by men, or by ill and time. The unchanging fact is that you have stolen from us our most dear treasure, our joy and happiness.’’

Something flashed in her pupils, and Zhang Cai felt a flow of information forced into his head. Then he heard two voices, one starting later than the other.

‘’I have no need for your atonement, do not speak of forgiveness. I will not forgive you. I will avenge my son by my own fang, through my own claw. And you...you will live.’’ She retreated her long crystal blue neck up in the air. ‘’But if atonement is what you seek, which will accomplish nothing but soothing your own guilt, then endure what is to come right after us.’’

‘’What will come?’’

The disorienting voices disappeared. Zhang Cai found a pair of words stamped into his brain.

Fate Gaze

He understood that it was some kind of technique, but nothing else. At his question, she bared her gigantic fangs and laughed at him.

‘’Find out yourself, child of the Paragon. And use my gift well.’’ She stressed the word gift. ‘’See the world as I do—suffer, knowing you cannot change anything! Let destiny weigh on your back, let fate bind your hands, and watch as everything you hold dear burns to ashes!’’

‘’If you survive what is to come, then I will be there, watching your despair, as I am now wallowing in.’’

She said no more. Walking back to her child, she nudged the babe awake. Long Kongzi peered at his mother, unaware of Zhang Cai’s presence, and nuzzled her chin.

‘’Mommy, can we go flying?’’

She took him into her mouth and settled down. ‘’Mommy?’’

‘’Hush, my treasure.’’ She said, and licked his scales. Soon the boy fell asleep again, only twitching at the occasional lick of his mother.

‘’Leave us alone.’’

Her words mixed with the soft wind caressing the magnolias. The leaves rustled, and a single flower fell on the crying mother.

Zhang Cai cast a single glance back, then closed his eyes. Then he was back at the banquet hall, where there remained no more demons. He looked down to see all his body back in one piece down to the toes.

He still had questions for himself, and more doubts regarding the demons who created his...dreams. Yet, he felt not so much guilt, only spent and exhausted. He didn’t wish to think more of it, so instead turned his attention to the humongous bronze gate across the hall.

‘’How do I get out?’’