Blood.

Already cold, it ran through his fingers

At first in a trickle, then burst like a dam.

•••

Days passed in a cadence of utter peace. Neither Hong Chunji nor Qing Xiashu was masochistic enough to bring up their inevitable coming to odds.

Qing Xiashu hoped and prayed that this was progress.

That he might just be convincing Hong Chunji into changing his mind and backing down.

As the days went, the prince grew just a bit more and more pliant to his whims, from dancing in the darkened roads at night to experimenting with recipes twice a day. Miantiao even enjoyed snapping up their leftovers like a hungry dog at every chance they gave her.

It was domestic.

It was pleasant.

And pleasant things always end.

If Qing Xiashu hadn't known that before, it certainly slapped him in the face when he laid eyes on Tiantang Tower in the distance.

With how flat the East was, they were still an hour or so away when the capital city came into view.

Dread smacked sense into him like a dead fish.

Without a sound of warning he dug his heels into the ground, quite literally. "We should stop for a while." He said, making a valiant effort to keep the whine out of his tone.

"We're almost there, we can rest when we get there." Hong Chunji said as he looked over his shoulder, pausing as well.

Qing Xiashu shook his head. "Not like this we won't..."

They likely wouldn't be able to spend time like this with one another again for a very long time.

If ever.

The prince sighed softly and walked the few paces back, grabbing ahold of Qing Xiashu's hand and pulling it lightly, until he began moving again.

"I'll write to you." He promised. "And I'll see you again soon, and you can bring Hei Xianying and Hefeng. I know you've missed them. Don't pretend you aren't eager to see them on my account."

Shoulders slumping, Qing Xiashu sighed, posture sagging slightly. "It isn't that I don't miss them, but that doesn't mean I want to miss you..."

The irony bit at his tongue, making him want to burn it away with a burst of laughter.

This whole problem started because he wanted to pretend there weren't any issues the entire time they'd traveled together.

He shoved it so far out of his mind that he practically forgot that it existed at all.

The closer they grew to the capital, the more distraught Qing Xiashu grew.

The more clammy his hands became, and the more a cold sweat nipped its way down his spine.

As they approached the gates, his feet became difficult again, stopping dead in their tracks.

"Promise me please."

"Promise you what?" Hong Chunji asked with a tiny little sigh, turning back towards him again, a patient expression on his face.

"Will you promise you won't kill him?"

His answer was worse than a no.

The sight of Hong Chunji's eyes dropping from his face and averting to the ground was like watching a gut wrenching battle play out without hope.

The expression there was nameless, a combination of apology and frustration.

"You know the answer to that."

Of course Qing Xiashu knew the answer to that, he could be naive, but he wasn't ignorant.

He knew he wasn't enough to stop Hong Chunji's decade of built up thirst for revenge.

"Yes... I know..."

The head disciple finally let Hong Chunji's hand fall from his grasp, a disconnection that felt like it had split a valley back into a canyon in a single motion.

"I'm sorry..." Hong Chunji's voice may as well have been a thousand miles away.

"It's fine."

This was so far from fine.

Qing Xiashu's chest felt like it was trying to collapse inward on itself, or just implode on the spot.

"Come on, let's check in." The prince suggested, beginning to walk again, moving in the direction they had all taken once before.

As expected, they were still relatively early on the list of arrivals, not first by any means, but still up there. "Names?" The tired woman at the desk asked with a sigh.

"Yin Liming and Qing Xiashu."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Alright, your trials are complete, you may carry on with--"

Qing Xiashu phased out her words as their swords and various belongings were returned to them. He checked through his kongjian bags just in case and after deciding everything was present and accounted for, he tucked them away.

He let her syllables jumble together while he eyed Hong Chunji, safe in the knowledge that the man likely wouldn't look at him again for quite a while.

"Chunji? Hong Chunji?"

The voice shattered Qing Xiashu's haze. The tone was sweet, gentle, almost motherly.

It made his skin crawl.

His stomach dropped.

Double stuff mommy issues strike again.

Except this time alarm bells beat his skull inside out at a much louder tone than when Yin Zhi had scrutinized him.

Off to his left, past Hong Chunji, was a Southern woman.

Something in this woman's eyes made a shudder run down his spine.

Despite himself, he grabbed the lower back of Hong Chunji's robes, trying to warn him of the threat in some way.

Either the prince missed his warning or he disregarded it, because he turned towards the woman boldly. Maybe he was unprepared to handle being exposed, but he would need to be prepared now.

"And who exactly might you be?"

Thank god he got the hint. His tone was edged with hostility, he was being cautious after all.

The woman walked closer to him, reaching a hand out towards his face. Hong Chunji batted her hand away, going as far to take a step back.

Qing Xiashu finally stepped away from Hong Chunji. "Sect leader Shi." He acknowledged.

"Ah, Head Disciple Qing. Did you get taller?" Her voice remained even and gentle, but Qing Xiashu had seen her sneer one too many times not to recognize the taunt.

Diplomatic it is.

"No, I'm afraid not." He sighed, taking his polite smile to a level above what it typically set and giving a small, just barely appropriate bow.

Typically he would make an effort to return the cultural bow to whoever he faced. But here, for this woman, he refused to match her poise.

A sea krait and a mangrove snake, both ready with venom only held steady by their distance.

"What do you want?" Hong Chunji stepped between their match of false smiles and mocking politeness, causing the sect leader to look towards him.

"You are the prince aren't you?" Shi Qin asked again.

An answer she must already know to so publicly claim.

"So what?"

"So what? So what? So you must come home! The South has been without its royal family for over a decade!"

"Which means you're doing fine on your own, you don't need someone with no experience at your head."

"No! You must come back, the nation needs you. It always has, everyone has missed you and your family."

Another shudder ran down Qing Xiashu's spine.

She was playing at something, and given her inherent hate of the Xue family, it was probably war.

"I have no interest in returning." Hong Chunji replied calmly.

"What have they done to you? The little boy I knew loved his country..."

"What has who done to me?" The prince, apparently now recognized, scowled at her.

The sect leader's soft brown eyes shifted slowly towards Qing Xiashu, as if seeped with suspicion. "The Northern royal family has had you along haven't they?"

Hong Chunji scoffed quietly. "Hardly. I've been perfectly fine on my own."

"You were on your own?" She asked, concern washing over her face. "Isn't that worse? You've been alone all along."

Uh-oh.

She found it.

Hong Chunji's glaring weak point.

His inherent loneliness.

The danger of him falling for her trap made Qing Xiashu's hair stand on end, shoulders bristling uncomfortably.

"I was fine."

Shi Qin frowned and boldly, again, reached out to touch him.

Please smack her away again.

His prayers went unanswered.

This time Hong Chunji allowed the contact, and he melted into it.

He might be as regal and proud as a lion, but sometimes he was more or less similar to a mere house cat. Hissing and spitting until he was pet and showed some care, then immediately falling into the arms of anyone.

To tell the truth, Qing Xiashu was brimming with something under the surface. He wasn't sure what to call it, but it was aggressive. It made him want to bite and kick, whatever to get her away from them both.

But he didn't say a word or act on the urge of violence. Instead he sharply turned, hair lashing behind him as he stalked away.

Whatever happened now was entirely out of his control.

It was all on the prince. Qing Xiashu would just have to trust him...

So he went out to find any Northern disciples that had made it back already. "Has anyone seen Xue Xiaojie?" He asked the small group when he found them.

One of his shimei stepped forward to speak. "I spotted her just beyond the wilds, she was accompanied by a young Southern disciple, I expect she is probably going to be slowed down by him a bit." She explained with a picture perfect form of professionalism.

It caught him off guard.

It shouldn't have.

The North was known for this cold professionalism, it wasn't taught so much as absorbed, but it was prevalent nonetheless.

"And Mi-didi?"

"I haven't seen Qi Shixiong." The disciple mentioned before rejoining the group.

"Has anyone seen Second Seat Disciple Qi?" He asked the group at large, only for them all to vaguely shake their heads.

That wasn't necessarily bad.

No news was better than bad news. And they were spread out quite wildly across the continent. Beyond that, he hadn't seen any disciples during his time traveling East, let alone a Northern one, Qi Haomi was skilled enough to do the same if he pleased.

Between the bitterness Shi Qin's appearance left in his mouth, and the sourness of the trials themselves, there was how he hated to see his withered juniors. Unhealthy as though they'd been through hell. And they surely had, he expected to find that many of his juniors had died in the wilds.

Qing Xiashu had hardly had to bother with the wilds, but he was quite sure he'd have been just fine. Especially with a demigod at his side, seemingly immune to most forms of inconvenience.

What the actual point of these trials were, he may never know. But Qing Xiashu was glad for everyone else's sake, that they were finally coming to an end.

"We'll prepare to leave in an hour, if you'd like to fly back on your own feel free to do so now, but be careful on your blades, you will be rusty."

There was a sound of agreement, a few disciples splitting away from the group to head back to Chaoting palace on the spot.

For the most part however, they stayed, waiting for Qing Xiashu's order to leave. Some reacquainted themselves with their blade spirits to ensure the swords wouldn't throw them off for abandoning them so long.

Touming seemed to rumble and rattle when he first picked it up, but it felt more like excitement than upset, a dog happy to see its owner return home after a long day.

He found that their relationship hadn't been damaged too badly when he flipped the blade through a few sword forms.

Yes, they would be just fine.

"Head Disciple Qing." Shi Qin said sharply as she stalked up from behind.

Qing Xiashu turned around and flipped on that smile again. All too happy to face the Southern sea krait without Hong Chunji in the way. He didn't even get a greeting out before she began speaking again, voice sharp and biting.

"Given the recent developments, and the crimes committed by your king, I suggest you prepare yourselves."

Qing Xiashu felt as though the ground had come out from under him. He didn't fall, but he felt weightless and sinking all at once.

Hong Chunji told her.

Maybe she had painfully dragged it out of him.

Maybe she assumed most of it from minor statements meant to divert her attention.

Maybe he'd given the information easily and freely.

Regardless.

He had told her and this simple statement, to prepare.

This was a declaration of war.

And Qing Xiashu wanted nothing more than to scream; "Had we not agreed?"

"Where is he? Did he agree to this?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Thank you for making me aware, Sect Leader Shi." He choked out with an unsteady bow.

"Go inform your king." She stated.

"I will do so."

Shi Qin openly grinned at the way his face settled into a state of utter terror.

•●•