Flames flickered closer in unpredictable jumps.

Leaping like bugs and chewing like dogs.

A painting of the Chaoting palace master sitting with a child over reading materials crumbled in the blaze.

Red paper lotus withered.

Dense structural beams were left smoldering until they failed to hold the weight of stone they'd supported for centuries.

Corpses of those they once sheltered were buried in their rubble.

•••

"And you promised to write! Remember?" Yin Hua said for probably the tenth time as they neared the hunting paths that they had ridden to arrive from the trading town. "And remember to eat the food A-niang made for you."

"You lecture worse than she does, I swear."

"That's because she never gets mad at you, gege." Yin Hua puffed, arms crossing.

Hong Chunji rolled his eyes at her dramatics. "Does so, remember when I stole soup and it ended up rotting in my room?"

"Alright, she gets mad at you once and then never again."

"Well, maybe you should behave better."

"Alright now, children." Yin Zhi sighed, raising her hands in front of her as if to placate the two. They did in fact instantly settle themselves. "And Head Disciple Qing, do keep an eye on our Ming-er."

"I don't need to be watched..." Hong Chunji grumbled under his breath, ignoring the way Qing Xiashu brightly nodded.

"No need to worry, I will watch him very carefully."

"I bet you will." Yin Hua snickered to herself, tucking her face behind one of her sleeves, acting as though she'd only coughed when Qing Xiashu gave her a tiny huff.

"Alright now, get going." Yin Zhi ordered, pointing off down the hunting trail. "Ensure you visit the horses soon."

"We will!" Qing Xiashu called over his shoulder as they began walking, they had so far left to travel...

"And make sure to write!" Yin Hua demanded once more.

"I will!" Hong Chunji laughed before the two women fell out of view.

"You'll have a lot of writing to do." The head disciple noted in amusement, shifting where his bag was sitting on his shoulder.

Maybe he should have made more kongjian pouches after all...

Hong Chunji shrugged. "I think I'll manage it. It's not like babbling a few random paragraphs is particularly hard."

"Maybe for a perfectly educated prince that is totally possible but some of us didn't learn to read until we were almost ten."

"Were you one of those?"

"Mute slaves are the best slaves, but illiterate slaves are better than educated ones." The head disciple pointed out with a sigh. "Young slaves don't typically get the chance to receive any form of education that isn't directly related to their purpose, cleaning, transport, personal service, whatever it is, unless it's relevant to their job, no one cares to teach it."

"I... See... That's vile."

"Indeed. And then of course there's the weird arranged marriage part that some slave owners do."

"I'm sorry??"

"Some people who had slaves, and romantically useless children, would raise the slaves up to be wives or husbands. Only if they had more than enough money and a child who was already making more for them."

The prince shuddered. "Well isn't that unsettling."

"Very, especially given that by the time they bought the slave they would have already known their child was useless so there was bound to be a minimum of something like ten years between them."

"How can someone be that desperate for marriage, and that useless interpersonally?" Hong Chunji sighed with a headshake.

"In those cases the child was neither most of the time. Sometimes the parents wanted grandchildren and their child was only interested in their own sex, other times they just didn't want to have a partner at all. But there's always that fraction of people who were desperate for connection and ended up frightening all potential matches away."

"Marriage itself is important, but is it really that important?"

"Nope. But then again I hardly think it's important at all. Most importance can be placed in politics and money. And that all in all is a terrible reason to marry." Qing Xiashu reasoned with a small shrug.

"Hm... maybe so. But as a promise to love forever, I think it has value."

"The promise should be implied from the start."

"Then what do you think the start is? Sleeping together?"

"Probably kissing." The head disciple hummed with a nod.

The prince cleared his throat before humming, slowing his steps. "Is that so?"

"I think so." Qing Xiashu said as he glanced back at the prince, confused by the chance of pace.

Ah.

Wait a moment...

"Functional purposes don't count! Keep up!" He shouted over his shoulder as he began walking even more briskly than he had been before.

Thankfully, all Hong Chunji did was chuckle at the implications, and let the rest slide. Apparently for once the prince chose mercy and decided not to bring up the questionable point Qing Xiashu had accidentally made.

The journey towards the Eastern capital was slow, but not without its pleasures. They played in the rolling fields and tumbled about in meadows. Sometimes running instead of walking, just to keep themselves entertained.

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Despite the winter's fast approach and the bitter frost at night, the weather during the day was mild. There was no snow or rain. A fog rolled down from the Northern mountains and a morning mist was always heavy through the earliest parts of their days. But during the day the sun was gentle and warm.

When they were in particularly unpopulated areas, they would chase one another through the endless Eastern meadows, Hong Chunji always won these races and games of chase. Be it outrunning Qing Xiashu until one of them got too tired and flopped down into the grass, or catching the head disciple, wrapping an arm around his waist and dragging him to the ground for a few minutes of rough housing until they were inevitably forced to get up and keep moving.

With his head pillowed on the prince's shoulder, Qing Xiashu was entirely comfortable sprawled out over the grass. "The Eastern climate is so kind." He mentioned as he brushed a hand through the grass, making it sway back and forth with his touch, shifting with a soft warm breeze brought in by the South.

"Mn, it's a bit like a little paradise isn't it?" Hong Chunji hummed as he stared into the fluffy clouds.

"Eh, it might get boring to have year round. The trees always seem on the verge of autumn and the only change seems to be temperature, they barely even have a wet and dry season..."

"At least they have a warm season. Unlike the entire North." The prince pointed out with an amused smile.

Qing Xiashu rolled his eyes dramatically, picking a small yellow flower out of the grasses, collecting a number of them until he'd braided them into a long chain that could be woven into a circle and dropped it on top of Hong Chunji's head. "Flower crown." He announced, as though incredibly proud.

The prince chuckled and patted the top of Qing Xiashu's head. "You're such a child."

"Perhaps at times. Issue?"

"None at all. None at all."

•••

The bronze sword, while unfortunately spiritless, was weighted undeniably well. Qing Xiashu was able to turn and split flesh just as smoothly as he could with Touming in hand. The power was just a bit less devastating and he was forced to work without Touming's warning running through his skin like a second foresight.

"Are we taking the commission for this?" Qing Xiashu asked as he split the skull of a rather furious snake. He'd seen less experienced cultivators devastated and slaughtered by these snakes. Between himself and Hong Chunji though, it was a breeze.

Clearing out a snake pit like this one, while time consuming, wasn't hard.

"I wouldn't." Hong Chunji mentioned as he lopped the head off another.

With a hundred years they would probably have been able to argue with these beasts. But they wouldn't be able to let them roam around and eat everything and everyone that they came across until that happened.

"Everyone is pressed for money and help. I don't think they have the funds to cover everything they need done. Besides, we still have plenty of money."

"Very well." Qing Xiashu shouldered through one of the still writhing snake corpses to catch another before it could strike from its coil. "Do we bother checking in before we leave then?"

"No, may as well make our time useful and head for the next stop. We'll be camping out if we don't leave quickly enough."

"Very well very well." The head disciple said again, spinning to lay another forceful strike across one of the last snakes in the pit. "Ah I miss our little ponies." He mentioned as he wiped the bronze sword's blade.

"I don't." Hong Chunji announced flatly as the last beast was put to rest. Qing Xiashu hopped over one of the corpses to stand beside him and glance over their carnage, assuring each and every one was properly slain.

"You wouldn't. Come then, we have progress to make!"

•••

"This is lively..." Qing Xiashu pointed out as they entered the town they had picked out to stay in.

"Mn, it wasn't like this last time."

The streets were bustling, lights and lanterns were hung on every slope of every roof corner. The town was lit up like perpetual dawn. Children squealed in the streets with paper streamers of various colors and adults milled about vendors, buying trinkets

"A festival?" Hong Chunji suggested.

"Mm, but which?" Qing Xiashu shrugged before splitting away from the prince to speak to one of the vendors, picking out a few snacks to take with him. "Excuse me! What's this festival?"

"The night of the three celestials!" The vendor chirped excitedly as she took the coin he handed over. "Theia, Earth, and our moon! You seem like a Northerner, it's no surprise you've not heard of it. Theia gave her life for our moon, it nearly destroyed the gods as we know them!"

"Theia was a major deity?" Hong Chunji asked gently as he appeared beside Qing Xiashu's side. "And she died?" He took a small portion of the food the head disciple picked up, and popped it into his mouth.

"Indeed! She and Earth crafted an immortal slaying blade and she slit her own stomach to give life to our moon. Some say Yang Xianshen still protects that knife to this day." The woman explained with a few animated gestures. "This is a celebration of their lives!"

If Qing Xiashu hadn't met Linghun Xianshen himself, he might have rolled his eyes at her words. Instead he listened with fascination.

So the primordials could be destroyed, but at great cost to the existence of everything else.

"Well thank you, we'll be off now."

"Enjoy the festivities!"

"We will!" Qing Xiashu called over his shoulder, walking with the prince into the middle of the town. "Eastern festivals are so different from the ones in the North."

"How do you mean?" Hong Chunji asked between his bites of sweets.

"Remember the festival in Yu Shu? With the lanterns?"

"Mn, that one didn't seem different."

"Mhm, that was a Southern festival. Northern festivals are red. And explosive. Literally. There are fireworks all night long. Even little ones that children enjoy setting off and running about with. The first talisman most Northerners learn is one for ignition."

Hong Chunji laughed softly. "I think the North is the strange one, with all your xue xue hua and saltpeter."

"Eh, we have to have something special in our isolation. We hardly even have soy anymore since the Eastern trade taxation."

"No soy, no salt, no wonder your foods are so bland."

"Our meat is better than yours though~!" Qing Xiashu sang, swaying side to side, bumping into the prince's shoulder.

"I will give you that. Northern red meat is very good."

A smug satisfied grin lit up across the head disciple's face. "Hmpf!"

"Don't get too full of yourself now, Qing Xiashu."

"Who? Me? Never. I'm very humble."

"Uh-huh?"

"Mhm!" Qing Xiashu practically skipped through the streets, drifting this way and that, sometimes he was the driving force, sometimes it was the prince with an eye for shiny trinkets.

They again ended up in front of a stall selling abalone charms and Qing Xiashu could hardly help himself. "You're absolutely certain you don't want one?"

Hong Chunji heaved a long breath before shaking his head, turning to wander toward another vendor. "No, we don't need it."

"Eh? Chunji!" The head disciple caught his arm, dragging him back. "That isn't what I asked. I asked if you wanted it."

The prince puffed a small sigh before looking into Qing Xiashu's face. "Look, financial strain might not be something you struggle with on a personal level, but I don't want to go back to scrounging, I'd rather save and stash what I can."

Qing Xiashu huffed lightly but released his hold. Hong Chunji had a point. The head disciple was under no illusion that he was particularly privileged. Able to access the funds of a nation at most points should the need fancy him. But even he knew when things were and weren't expensive.

He'd spent his time below the poverty line.

"I'll get you one someday then. When we aren't sharing your uncle's funds."

"Fine." Hong Chunji puffed, arms crossing as he side eyed Qing Xiashu. All he received in reply was a grin.

The town's inn, as many in the East were, was empty, and expensive. The price of a single room without a servant's quarter or anything similar in the East, was the same price as a full suite in the South. "So stingy!" The head disciple scoffed as he tapped his foot against the splintering wooden bed that lacked even blankets.

The prince rolled his eyes. "That's how I felt about the North when I first visited."

"At least ours isn't directly self-inflicted! I swear the East has been doing its best to kill travel and trade for itself from the start!"

"Maybe it's pride." Hong Chunji shrugged as he peered through the single tiny window at the street that still bustled with lights below.

"Pride of the royal family? I believe that. Royal families are always proud. It's why they so often clash. Sect officials as well."

"Are you talking from experience?" The prince chuckled.

"Oh absolutely. You have no idea. But remember. Humble. I'm humble." Qing Xiashu said, plopping down on the poorly maintained bed. "I think I could break this thing with a kick." He mentioned as he wobbled from side to side, causing an aggravating creak sound.

"Please quit that." Hong Chunji groaned quietly, grabbing Qing Xiashu's shoulder to cease his movement. "That is more obnoxious than you and meimei gossiping."

"Hey now, be kind to us both, Chunji."

"I'm kind, I'm kind." Hong Chunji chuckled, sitting down beside the other. "I don't want to sleep on this." He admitted. "I think we'll both end up skewered."

"Mm, the floor may do better for our purposes..."

And it certainly did.

•●•