The four sat equidistant from each other. Guan Shi Ai looked at the children before her and sighed. There was a cruelty to this world that only those who have lived upon its ground for the time she had could know. Ageing slows as a practitioner’s skill grows, and Shi Ai had been at the pinnacle of her peers so long she no longer had peers.

Looking over the children before her, a piece of her old soul wavered. It was too much for them, the boys didn’t have a wisp of stubble, the girl hadn’t even grown into her body yet. Not for the first time, Guan Shi Ai raged against fate’s cruel machinations.

Yet, as she looked at the grey eyes of Ah Dan, the sweetness they had held beaten away by injury and mistreatment, she knew those were just excuses.

“So it is,” she finally relented. What business is it of her’s to choose who knows and who doesn’t? Finding comfort in her habitual belligerence towards life, she threw caution to the wind. “You know nothing of soul stones, mm?” The question was a formality, as she was sure they didn’t, yet instead of curiosity she saw suspicion in those mystic eyes that now lived within Ah Dan.

“Guan Po Shang mentioned them.” His words were coloured with a careful bearing. The eternal matron within herself wanted to scoop the poor thing into her arms, wanted to shoo them along with some silver for sweets and let them be children. She had decided not to do that, but seeing how thoroughly she had failed to keep the sparkle of trust in his eyes nearly snapped her resolve. “He said that I was an ignorant weapon because you hadn’t told me of them.”

Po Shang. Maddening, tragic Po Shang. Her poor, self-loathing Po Shang. She had failed a lot of children in her time, she realised now. She had seen the venom growing in his mana, the poison wracking his mind with doubt and anger and she had encouraged it. It was a long time ago, and her own actions seem the height of ridiculousness now, but her sons had needed to be warriors.

Po Dia had weathered the storm of war and returned burnished and blazing, the stalwart soon-to-be-patriarch that the family had needed. Po Shang had returned infected. Guan Shi Ai knew now that seeing his brother claim accolades for the empire, become friends with the emperor, even the inevitable coronation to Patriarch when Po Bao stepped down, all of it had been like needles to Po Shang.

A torture in silence, inflicted by himself more than anything.

It was her inability to see that which set the wheel of fate spinning against her. Guan Ah Dan was her attempt to remedy that. She had thought she might alleviate the guilt by helping him, a struggling babe that had too much mana for their own good, too pure to likely do anything with. Now he sat before her a being of power. It had happened in the short moments that she had looked away, and now the momentum was too much to handle.

“You are not a weapon. No, no, I never wanted that for you. You were not supposed to be a tool, little one.” Guan Shi Ai desperately wanted Ah Dan to soften his face, to smile again and relieve her tension. That was selfish, but even as she told herself that, he did. The fierce mask of his anger gave way, a facade to hide fear.

“I thought that maybe- I know it was just intimidation but,” Guan Ah Dan turned away from the group, his friends showing quiet support, “he wasn’t wrong, was he? I have become a tool, in some form or other.”

“Yes,” Shi Ai said simply, “because you have exceeded all expectations. I felt your mana flare all those years ago and knew you needed guidance. I moved the Park boy to look after you. That was all the influence that your life needed, I thought.”

Guan Shi Ai took a deep breath. The two others, the tall boy and the short girl, were respectful of the quiet pauses. Ah Dan looked at her questioningly. “Weren’t you responsible for me coming to the Jiaoduo?”

“No,” she shook her head, “you were to be left alone. That is, until my son, Po Shang, caught wind of you. He made you his enemy and was going to act on it. He sees enemies in all shadows these days. My touch upon your life made him fearful that you could be more, and in his scheming he made you more.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I see,” Ah Dan said, the boy’s disappointment was palpable, “that makes sense.” Guan Shi Ai couldn’t change what Ah Dan took from her words, and they needed to be said.

“The puppetmaster in the forest was a scheme of his, as you know, but it was not aimed at you alone. In one swoop, Po Shang attempted to change the landscape of power in the family. He succeeded, but the scales tip away from him now. He wanted to kill you, Dan, along with my granddaughter Fa Lian.”

“Why didn’t the patriarch react?” To Shi Ai’s surprise, it was the daughter of Byun Dao that spoke up. Her’s must be another of the sad stories built up in this place, Guan Shi Ai thought.

“When you have the power to destroy all before you,” Guan Shi Ai answered, “it means wielding that power is the last resort. Po Shang knows this,” she turned back to Dan, “and it is why he feels able to push against his brother to this degree. If Po Dia moves on Po Shang, the entire Guan lands will shake.”

“So,” Ah Dan was suddenly on his feet, “how do we fix this?”

Even his willingness to forgive felt like a knife to Guan Shi Ai. At that point, she had to admit it was her being unfair, and not the other way around. The boy couldn’t help her emotions because it wasn’t his fault she felt like this. It was her own. Instead of allowing herself to revel in them for a moment more, she dispelled her sour thoughts with a forced smile.

Guan Shi Ai looked at the three children, the heavy blanket of destiny not yet settled on any one of them. Her lips turned up even more, almost mischievous now. They certainly weren’t going to love her answer.

“You need to leave.”

It was intentionally not enough information, because Guan Shi Ai was a trickster at heart. She couldn’t help it. Seeing the quick spread of outrage and denial forming was a delight that she savoured since she was young. Though, it was only enjoyable when you could snuff out the growing anger and replace it with hope.

“Fa Lian is already prepared, all you must do is meet her.”

That, too, would only serve to add more confusion to the mix. Fa Lian herself did not know that she would be joined in the vault, and as much as the girl rebelled against the family, she could not avoid being central to the future of the clan as a whole, let alone the main family. If Yo Shen did not succeed in his plans, it would be down to them. It would likely be down to them regardless.

“The door you must open is locked to you, however. You need the key.”

Her coquettishness had reached its peak. She would soon alleviate the confusion that she had caused. This might be her last chance to play, with children or otherwise. She would not have the severity of the moment undercut her own base nature.

“We don’t need a key to a place we were never going to.” Guan Ah Dan’s reaction was perfect, as though he were following the script designed to have her joke flow perfectly.

“Ah but you came to me for answers to questions too big for you,” she bandied back, “and the answers are where I say they are.”

“You left a message for me.” Ah Dan wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t playing his part any more and, she supposed he was right, it was time to come out and say it.

“You are a uniquely perfect vessel for a soul stone, Ah Dan. I’ve never seen a more open soul. It was clear the moment I saw you, but helping you was not for that reason. If Baba and I hadn’t helped you, you would have popped from your mana. I did not want to see that.” This was, she had thought, the greatest of revelations. Guan Shi Ai had actually braced herself for their disbelief, but it never came.

“Okay, so what?” The large boy asked. “Just because Dan’s a good cup or something, why does that change anything?”

He didn’t seem slow to Guan Shi Ai, in fact the question was as concise as she could imagine. “It’s important,” she said solemnly, “because Po Shang cannot absorb a soul stone. He believes that if he can remove those who can, or have, that he can consolidate power.”

“Can he?” Ever astute, Ah Dan was now the one to speak.

“Yes. If he succeeds in removing those who hold them, or who might hold them, he could.”

“So if we leave, with Guan Fa Lian… It’ll be safer for everyone?”

“Exactly right.” The grey of his eyes made them much more fierce, and as Guan Shi Ai confirmed that there would be less bloodshed without them around, she saw Dan make up his mind. Good. The next step would need that kind of resolve.

“So, where is this key?” Now that the others had broken their silence properly, the girl seemed happy enough to join in. “And what does it unlock?”

The last, most important question. “The key is a Guan soul stone.” With a force of will, Guan Shi Ai separated her core from the other inside. It screamed as she tore it away from her mana, but she had long since gone deaf to the anger of a fractured mind. “It looks like this.” As though she were reaching into a cupboard, Guan Shi Ai put her hand into her own chest. From it, she removed an orb of pitch black. “It unlocks the vault… and,” Guan Shi Ai’s breathing became instantly harder, everything became more difficult as the source of most of her power vanished instantly, “now it is your’s, Guan Ah Dan.”