Jade sat on a boulder in the ruins of her kingdom dressed in a tattered white robe with a glass of cherry wine in one hand.

‘Sparrow.’

‘Jade.’

They stared at eachother for a while. Empress, Vagabond. There were lines under her eyes that Sparrow had never seen before. She looked… old. And yet she was still so young. Her hands seemed to hug the rock where it had been compressed by a large blast.

‘I’m sorry about the Emperor,’ Sparrow said.

Jade rubbed her palm against the rock, ‘He was a good man.’

‘He was. And you are a good heir to the throne.’

Princess Jade sighed, ‘We will work to rebuild. Sadly I think our region’s best days are behind it.’

Sparrow walked over and took a seat next to her. He could feel power radiating from the rocks. There was a life-force to them.

‘All things must pass Jade, the strong, the old, the powerful. This is what gives rise to new life. Besides, I think your most important years are still ahead of you. People need a strong leader in hard times.’

Jade wiped her nose, ‘And that is why I have called you here,

‘Jade, no. I sold myself to the gods, I don’t want to waste the little time I have left with my friends.’

‘So the God of War gave you some time off?’

‘Yes, a month to see my friends, then we’re off to another universe entirely.’

‘Am I your friend Sparrow?’

‘That depends.’

‘On what?’

‘On what you’re asking me to do Jade.’

Sparrow looked at her arms, they were stiff and awkward. There was a distance between them.

But she was smiling and there were tears in her eyes, ‘I think you will still love me even after you complete this quest.’

‘I’m not doing it Jade.’

‘There’s a village to the East who are giving my tax collectors trouble… I’m sending you to them.’

‘Jade, I am not your plaything.’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

‘Consider it a personal favour.

‘I don’t owe you any favours.’

She swallowed, ‘Well, your friends have already signed up.’

Footsteps sounded behind Sparrow - it was Piggy and Rhino-xi. He knew from the way they were looking at anything but him that this was true.

‘We’re all going to be travelling together in the back of an ox-cart.’ Rhino-xi said, ‘It’s a good excuse to hang out before you leave us.’

‘You mean its a good excuse for her to get us to do whatever she wants.’

Princess Jade looked a little unhappy at that, ‘I’ll be coming too.’

‘Good.’ Sparrow wandered away from them, ‘lash up your oxen. I’ll go, but I won’t be happy about a second of it.’

****

It took weeks for the oxen and their cart to wind from the lowland rivers and lakes to the mountains of the east. As the days grew shorter and the people thinner, Sparrow began to forget his animosity towards Jade.

She made him sdishes of claypot chicken spiced with herbs of the road, he showed her how to roast and crack macadamia nuts on the embers of their campfires as they and Rhino-xi and Piggy passed bottles of rice wine between them and told stories of their time in school and after school and the people they missed.

And they bathed in mountain streams to clean themselves, and fed the oxen on new shoots of dew-coated mountain grass.

And Sparrow was almost sad when they got to the village.

‘Tell me more about them,’ he said as they rode the final pass before they descended towards the village.

‘Thy’re protected by a single cultivator,’ Jade said, ‘its said she decimated an army of bandits in the time it took to brew a cup of tea, that she hung their heads from the roadsigns as a warning, and that she reached down a man’s throat and pulled out his heart while using her other hand to roll dumplings.’

‘And you think I can defeat this woman?’

The others laughed, and Sparrow glared at them, ‘What’s so funny?’

‘Well, let’s just say that for once, I’m not betting on you,’ Piggy said.

****

Their cart pulled up in the middle of the village. Men with scyths and sharp sticks peered at Emperess Jade as she got out of the cart.

‘You know who I am,’ she said.

‘Yes, and want nothing to do with you.’ one of the men shouted.

Jade scanned the crowd, there were men and women with children peering out from the doors and windows of stone huts.

An old woman marched to the front, her knees were bent and arms saggy, but she walked with the strength of ten men, ‘I owe you nothing Empress.’ the old woman croaked.

Jade laughed, ‘You’re just like him.’

‘Who?’

‘The one I’ve sent to defeat you.’

It was the men’s turn to laugh, ‘Many have tried before Emperess, none left alive.’

The old woman eyed the carriage the Emperess had arrived in. There was room for at least six in there - this could be a trap, surely, surely the Emperess would have access to cultivators. Perhaps even one more powerful than her.

Jade clicked her fingers, and from the cart came Sparrow.

The old woman didn’t recognise him at first, he’d been so young when she’d taken him to the academy, so small. Here was a man, fully grown with the scars and roadust of the world on him.

But Saprrow recognised her, he recognised the wrinkles that sculpted her face. The calloused palms that spoke of nearly a century picking turnips. He could smell the fields surrounding them and the smoke and tea coming from their huts.

And then the old woman recognised him - beneath the scars and the tanned skin he had the same eyes. He was still soaking in the world the way he had as a child. She took a step towards him. Her hands shook. And they defeated eachother with a single hug.