The way the ghost mourned flickered in his vision.
"Gege!" Qing Xiashu called again as the Southern disciples forced him to his knees, pushing between his shoulders and pulling his arms back. His arms creaked in a fashion he personally found to border on disturbing. "Just tell them you didn't do it! You wouldn't! So tell them! Tell them whatever they want!"
Xue Feiyi didn't lift his head, only slowly looked over to Hong Chunji, refusing to look him in the face. Gloriously he was ignoring Shi Qin entirely. "I am guilty. I've told you this. And I will tell you again if you need to hear it, so why did you bring him here?"
"No-- No he isn't! He didn't do it, it wasn't his fault!" The head disciple fought to get his feet beneath himself but was only pushed down again. His forehead was pressed into the broken marble ground, shoulders protesting under the pressure that threatened to separate the joints.
Hong Chunji shifted uncomfortably on his feet. Left to right, then anxiously back again. "Shi Shijie... Why is Qing Xiashu here?" He said in a soft tone. "I thought he was supposed to be kept busy?"
"To prove a point." Shi Qin stated, turning Touming over in her hand. "Head Disciple Qing wiped out three thousand Southern cultivators with a total of three hundred hardly battle trained disciples. He is a threat. As much as you wish to deny it." She explained, curiously trying to draw the blade in her grasp before discovering it was sealed. "How many did you kill by your own hand, since supposedly you're so harmless."
"I didn't know there would be a quiz." Qing Xiashu muttered under his breath.
"Oh, don't tell me you didn't count, I'm sure you would want to gloat when you returned home." Shi Qin scoffed, rolling her eyes as she walked closer to him.
"What is there to gloat over massive loss of life? Is that what you Southerner's take enjoyment in? Do you enjoy the slaughter of children?" Qing Xiashu hissed, eyes narrowed up at her.
The sect leader glowered down at him before extending Touming toward him. "Draw the sword, head disciple." She demanded flatly.
When he only glared at her, she struck him with the sword's metal tipped scabbard.
He spat blood at her boots.
A cut opened on the side of his face when the cap on her heel connected with his cheek, a bruise blooming just as quickly. "Draw. The sword." She said again with a dangerously sharp tone. Only for the mousy push over that Hong Chunji would describe to snarl like a dog in her face.
Where Hong Chunji saw a friendly rodent, she only saw a wolfish viper in strike ready poise.
"Qing Shidi... just draw the damn sword..." Xue Feiyi muttered toward the ground.
Finally Qing Xiashu ripped Touming from the sheath, making the instant move to stand and strike.
"A-Shu. Do not make yourself a larger enemy." The crumpled king snapped at his brother. "Hand her Touming."
Qing Xiashu froze mid motion before hesitantly placing Touming into the waiting outstretched palm of Shi Qin.
Instantly his limbs were restrained again and he was forced back to his knees.
"You see, Dianxia?" Shi Qin turned to look at Hong Chunji with an apologetic smile. "This is a cold blooded snake. Not some docile and tame dog. As soon as his master is gone, he will put up a fight. One we may struggle to stifle if we don't act now." She explained, walking back across the hall towards the two royals.
Hong Chunji averted his eyes from her intense gaze, unsure how to respond or argue despite his visible disagreement.
Shi Qin again turned the blade in her hand, as if inspecting its quality. "The only way to put down a problem before it starts. Is to take off its head." She punctuated her last word by raising Touming above her head.
Qing Xiashu saw Xue Feiyi's lips moving as the strike fell, tears appearing on his delicate face, eyes so clear they could have cut stone. "A-Shu. Library."
The last direction couldn't have made less sense, but the words came across the hall without sound.
He was smiling.
Xue Feiyi was smiling.
The king's body was falling to the floor, freezing cold air rushing away from the corpse like something escaping from its prison.
The pressure change in the room, forced by the sudden drop in temperature made Qing Xiashu lightheaded, knocking Hong Chunji forward a step, forcing that avenging lion to crumple.
Blood appeared later than it ought to have and began to trickle free of the pale body, spilling off the edges of the cracked marble in a horribly smooth red river.
Amber eyes traced the path it carved as the blood ran across the slanted slabs, pooling and rising before running across the next slab, towards the inevitable dip in the floor.
A pond of blood was stretching across the floor towards Qing Xiashu so slowly that it cradled his mind for a long few moments, protecting him from fault and fury.
But that would be the last time. Wouldn't it.
The last time Xue Feiyi could protect his self-sacrificing disaster of a little brother from the chaos in his head.
Cold sticky red touched his fingers and he couldn't help but to reach the tips of his fingers out towards it, spreading the red liquid out in a smudge that slowly filled in.
Oh...
No.
No.
No.
No no
No Oh no. No
no. oh no no
no no. No no no no
no
no No.
This can't be happening.
oh no This can't happen.
no Please.
Please, anything but this. no
no Anything.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Anything is better than this. no take it back
no take it back no take it back
take it no
no This wasn't supposed to happen.
This can't happen... no
This
can't
happen.
no...
Qing Xiashu heard the scream before he felt it rip through his throat and claw the passage raw. The sound seemed to shatter the icy air around his head, shaking everyone from the trance the slowly seeping blood had latched them into.
Touming splintered in Shi Qin's hand, shards of metal clattering to the floor loudly. "That was all it took?" She asked with a scoff. "What a fragile blade spirit." She chuckled as she dusted her hands clean of any small drop of blood. "Took long enough, hm?"
Hong Chunji stared with wide eyes at the beheaded body at his feet.
"Scatter the remains. I want no chance of resurrection. Burn everything but the main palace." Shi Qin instructed her disciples.
"That wasn't the plan." Hong Chunji argued, looking over to Shi Qin with an expression that could only be described as confusion.
"Dianxia, it's very important that we put down any resistance now, the North can not be allowed to rise again. If we leave any amount of structure it will only fester until it becomes uncontrollable." She explained with a kind and sweet smile. "This is a war... Whether you chose to believe it or not. And we won. We need to keep it that way for the sake of the people."
Hong Chunji opened his mouth to protest but couldn't manage to get the sound out.
Shi Qin gently patted the soon to be king's arms. "Now let's go, we have a celebration to arrange." She said before she turned to the disciples still holding Qing Xiashu. "And take the rat down to the dungeons."
The disciples pulled on Qing Xiashu's limp arms and dragged him from the main hall.
Closing his eyes did nothing to push the red blood from his mind.
Only when he recognized the unmistakable scent of old scrolls did his eyes reopen.
The disciples were taking the route to the dungeons that took them past the library.
"A-Shu. Library."
Something must be there.
With a startling burst of energy, Qing Xiashu ripped his arms free from their grasp.
What an error to leave him with only two disciples.
He kicked off of the ground and wrapped his legs around one disciple's neck, grabbing the head of the other and twisting his entire body in a death roll.
The twin crunches might have sickened him if he weren't already on the verge of vomiting up nothing but acid. He crouched to check their pulses, ensuring they were truly dead before taking a sword off one disciple and unsealing his qi. Southern disciples may be trained to kill humans more often than Northern disciples.
But the royal guards had always been an exception.
Forgetting his occupation was an error. Assuming him too kind to kill was another.
Assuming the palace was weakened in his absence wasn't entirely wrong...
Weak yet necessary to attack in the dead of night when they would be vulnerable.
Qing Xiashu stalked into the library with a hand in a death grip around the sword he'd collected.
The library.
Xue Feiyi could have only meant that Qing Xiashu was finally being allowed to read through the King's manuscripts. Documents which told tales of points of history no one seemed to know about.
Except inexplicably Xue Feiyi.
•••
Qing Xiashu threw the manuscript in his hand to the ground furiously. "Guilty my ass!" He snapped, face growing hot with anger as he raged, throwing books and scrolls off shelves in that violent fury.
Even when he'd thrown everything to the ground he couldn't quiet the endless pool of wrath boiling in his stomach.
The manuscripts held answers yes. But they only highlighted the injustice of the world. Injustice he was sure he'd left behind, something he knew he hadn't escaped.
"Fuck!" He screamed, even when he heard footsteps and voices responding to his commotion. He didn't bother running. He picked up a number of the manuscripts and hid them inside a few Kongjian bags, hoping to save them from the coming destruction. The enchantments on the covers were truth binding, even the South wouldn't be able to hide the facts of the words on the pages.
When the disciples captured his arms again and slapped a paralyzing talisman to his back.
He didn't bother trying to struggle.
Even without the paralytic he wasn't sure he'd be able to fight them.
They dragged him to the prison in much greater numbers this time. Apparently learning their lesson after being forced to step over the bodies of their peers.
Shutting him into a cell was fine.
Just fine.
He could lay on the ground the same way he used to lay in his little damp hollow.
Locked in was fine.
Locked in was safe.
•••
Water was splashed over the back of Qing Xiashu's head, shocking the man awake. Choking on the disfavored salt water that crashed over his face when some unfortunately met his tongue.
"Wake up!" Shi Qin snapped.
"Sect leader Shi!"
"What?!"
The disciple that had scampered over bowed quickly before he spoke in a rushed whisper. "There's been an explosion in the mountains near the Baolan Mines."
The Southern sect leader took a slow deep breath. "It's likely a resistance." When no one jumped into action she continued. "So. Go. Kill. Them."
"Sect Leader- A spiritual energy has been detected that is stronger than twenty disciples combined..."
Shi Qin scoffed and clicked her tongue. "I'll take the prince with me then. I want everything and anything of importance pulled out of the rat. That princess needs found. Jump in to taking off limbs if he won't comply." She told her disciples before marching off to apparently sort the issue near the mines.
Qing Xiashu glared after her, only half propped up from where he'd been laying on the stone floor. They'd sealed his qi again which was arguably a good choice, but he was left cold despite his usual resilience, shivering slightly in his now soaked robes.
"Well then." The Southern head disciple, Yu Ran, turned her head to peer down at Qing Xiashu's body. "Want to just tell me?"
Qing Xiashu simply glared at the woman. He wouldn't be telling her anything, even if he had known.
Unfortunately, the South were relatively adept at invasive interrogation tactics, so when Yu Ran ignited another paralytic talisman and grabbed his hand, he wasn't surprised when she began cutting a talisman into his palm.
"Truth talisman? Really?"
The woman scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Tell me where Xue Huayu is now or I'll take out your right eye. Understand?"
"Take it, I don't want to tell you." Qing Xiashu said simply, glaring her down through the mess of his hair.
Yu Ran shrugged. "Alright." She picked him off the ground by his arm and hauled him up against a post in the middle of the room. She forced him to lean against it while she tied down his hands and legs leaving him awkwardly slumped on his knees.
She pulled off the paralytic talisman and glared down at him. "So?"
If he had thought of answering he'd done it too slow.
Qing Xiashu jerked his head back when her hand flew at his face, he could only tip so far before colliding with the post. She grabbed a handful of his hair and sliced it clean off, dropping it to the ground. "That's better. You look more like a prisoner." She hummed with a tone that was far too sweet for her actions.
He watched his hair fall in small strands from her hand as she shook out her fingers.
He almost mourned it.
Imprisonment fit the bill just like slavery had.
"Oh no." Qing Xiashu muttered flatly.
"Quiet now." Yu Ran cooed with a grin, grabbing his chin and tipping his head back. "You have good eyes, you know, both you and your sister do. It's so rare for Northerners to have such warm eyes. So does that little golden eyed girl you baby so much."
Qing Xiashu's eyes flared but he knew better than to open his mouth. "Did you think we didn't account for that?" She laughed. "Legally she's your daughter, and on paper you're an illegitimate prince, it's hard to ignore a member of the royal family. If you don't tell me where the crown princess is, I'll find the girl and take off a finger for each day you wait."
A beat froze in the air. "So... you don't have her, you'd have to find her first, you have nothing to hold over me." Qing Xiashu purred, a smug expression appearing on his face as he leaned back against the post, putting on a biting smile.
Yu Ran's eyes turned stormy and her nails dug into his cheek. "Silence." She growled out, striking him across the face.
"Ouchie." The Northern head disciple sneered.
"You little fuck, I'll feed you to the dogs bit by bit. Starting with those eyes." Yu Ran snapped.
Anger issues much?
He wanted to snicker.
She dug her fingers into his right eye socket.
His thoughts died in his skull.
A groan escaped his throat as the optic nerve tore when she ripped her arm away, the small orb turning between her fingers as she gazed into it. "Amber." She acknowledged. "Have you been to the East? They wear a lot of this color." She tossed it behind her where one of the Southern hounds snapped it up in their jaws.
Blood was spilling from Qing Xiashu's empty eye socket, he was struggling to blink without the vision in his other eye darkening.
Ok, this woman was rather sick.
That was easy to see...
Even with only one eye!
The internal joke made him smile a little, despite his violent discomfort
"Where is Xue Huayu?"
Qing Xiashu didn't answer with a single sound, even if he could have he wouldn't have.
A strike appeared against his arm, shattering bone.
"Where is she?"
No reply.
Another strike landed against one of his legs.
"Where is the Princess?"
No reply.
More bones splintered under her qi powered strikes.
"Where is Xue Huayu?"
No reply.
For three hours.
Three. Hours.
Blood dripped from Qing Xiashu's mouth, and finally words came with. "I don't know." He choked out on the blood in his throat.
Yu Ran squinted down at him and looked over his shoulder, inspecting the truth talisman etched into his skin.
It was perfectly intact.
"All of this for you to not know anything?" She let out an open throated laugh, clearly annoyed. "You hopeless little rat."
Qing Xiashu didn't bother to answer this.
He wouldn't bother keeping his remaining eye open.
Oh, what a liar.
Oh, what a liar he was.
If he ever saw A-Ying again, he would kneel at her feet and beg forgiveness.
•●•