The Sun came up and Xui Ying was having a hard time keeping her eyes off the rising sun. This, the first sunrise of her life, left her feeling tranquil, she felt it was important to see. Her entire body felt like worshiping the sun itself, strength and vigor rose within her and her body grew warm in the sunlight.
The warmth in her chest wasn't from the ambient heat of Qingchi's sleeping body but from the fire energy swarming in her soul, working its way to the surface.
A glowing nucleus of life, bringing intense waves of clarity and direction in her eyes. Ying could see the differences in temperature, she felt like it was within her grasp. "I wonder what is growing inside me.. this fire, it feels like its my own and not something that was given to me. We should get going soon."
Looking over at Wúliáo, who hadn't gotten any sleep since the fire event earlier, he stood up hearing Xui Ying's words.
"Very well, I'll go grab what's not crushed so we can make our way. Its five days of climbing, it won't be fun and we need supplies" Wúliáo was going to say something else and then he saw Miss Xui get up and walk outside alone.
The mountain air steamed with her every step. She jumped but.. she didn't come back down. Along with the flames surrounding her body, she rose into the sky and started flying around near the cave entrance.
"Amazing" Xui Ying couldn't stop her own gawking. Luitian had said it before but she had half dismissed it.
Before, she had been in dream state, to be more exact, it was a nightmare and then, with Qingchi's interference, she had broken through the constraints and beaten back her inner demons.
The mind is a strange thing, through her experience Xui Ying quickly understood her powers a lot more. Her imagination, though the interpretation was warped by the dream, had given her a bit of control. She fought hard and long in a battle for her soul.
Looking at her children who were slowly waking up, she lowered her body to the ground and stepped back into the cave. The flames that were used to keep her afloat had disappeared and no longer gave off heat. They wrapped her body lightly, Xui Ying was doing her best to keep the flickers of fire going but at a minimal level. "I think I can just carry us, it's faster than walking. Do we have a chain or a swing or something?"
Walking back outside Ying looked for a chain or something for the children to hang onto while she flew. The oil field had a yard near the cave, it had plenty of cut chains that were used to mix concrete. After finding a chain that was suitable, she brought them over to the cave while flying. It didn't affect her in the slightest, the chain felt as light as the air.
Hovering in front of the Cave mouth, Miss Ying called out to Wúliáo, "Touch the end of the chain, tell me if its hot." She set the end of the chain down and watched as Wúliáo threw some snow onto the links.
There was no sizzle or steam, so he grabbed onto it. Wúliáo held on for dear life, Miss Ying flew up a few dozen meters without saying anything before. He barely had a decent grip and he felt like he was going to fall. "Its not hot!" Wúliáo started yelling, "I am curious to see if you can hold all three of us on a chain and fly us to our destination. You'll be attracting attention if you fly too high or if anyone sees us." Wúliáo made a decent point but it didn't matter, she was going to try it with or without his approval.
.
Xui Ying needed to know that what happened in dream was real, after setting Wúliáo down she tried some simple maneuvers. Things were making sense to her, things she knew nothing about previously, fire and heat, she understood them well. Clasping the links together, she handed each of them a section of the chain.
"We're doing this. Grab on! Tie yourselves to the chain, use whatever you have. If it starts to hurt holding yourselves up, I'll land for a minute so we can switch hands. I think it will be much faster. I plan on sticking as close to the ground as possible without passing over the treetops." Ying reignited her flames and held her position about 10 feet off the ground.
When everyone was ready, Wúliáo pointed up the mountain.
After slowly rising to a height that didn't drag anyone and adding a few more feet she leaned into her bearing and began flying faster and faster. The trees were spread far enough apart that she didn't set any on fire while she passed and no one got caught up in branches. By the end of the morning they had reached the Small Village of Priests that Wúliáo had spoken of.
Their arrival by air completely marveled the onlooking priests. A fire goddess had descended with her children.
"The Temple welcomes the Goddess!" A thousand priests rushed out into the courtyard and laid down in prostration.
"The Temple welcomes the Goddess!" Luitian, Qingchi and Xui Ying swallowed hard, it was a lot more than they expected.
"Why are they bowing?" Luitian asked, he was the smartest in the group despite his age and even he couldn't figure it out.
It was a waste of breath, but he didn't care.
"We are the Temple of the Gods Caretakers. We have waited for the G ods for almost 81 generations, your highness, we mean to serve you. Even if we are to give our lives, we will protect you." Unable to process what was going on entirely before them, the Xui Family watched as a few Elder Priests wanted to lead them somewhere to explain.
They were led to a chamber where carvings covered the walls.
"This is the history of our clan." Pointing to a fresco on the wall, pictures that looked like cave drawings were illuminated with torchlight.
He continued. "We've always believed that one day technology will revive the Gods. Death and Samsara, Rebirth and Reincarnation come to all things, even the Gods. With the creation of technology and the passing of time, the wages of war from those in exile will return to seek supremacy and supplant the divine."
"The appearance of the Gygax over a hundred years ago started a chain of events that no science will be able to unravel because it was never part of nature in this world." The Elder was ready to repeat it when all of the Xui family started waving their hands to stop.
"Whoa whoa whoa... You're saying that our Mother is the goddess of fire?" Luitian looked at his mother and then laughed a little bit.
"She has more power than the last fire mage recorded on earth nearly 4000 years ago, We have the records. The last 'Fire Spirit' was also female, she was worshiped as the sun god by the pagans for a while until Christianity wiped them out and labeled magic as 'demonic possession.' That really screwed up our cause for almost a thousand years, but we survived." The Elder wanted to continue inside the main temple where there were seats, he led the way.
Guiding them to the Temple, he continued talking. "We can train you here and help you hone your abilities. Ultimately we hope it will be you who helps our people to the new promise land. This world is dying, and no one can save it."
"So, what do you expect us to do? Exactly." Xui Ying still didn't understand but she heard their narrative.
"lead us out of this world, and to the Emperors home, Shìyán!" The Elder spoke and treated the name 'Shìyán' like a holy word.
"Shìyán?"… It didn't exactly roll of the tongue, Luitian thought it was something his uncle came up with.
"Are you certain?" Xui Ying asked once in disbelief.
"We are absolutely certain. Shìyán is led by the Esper Emperor Zao Wu Hai." The Elder maintained his straight face.
The look of ridiculousness creeping across the faces of the Xui family made him uneasy and so he pointed to the wall. "See, right here."
The letters had been brushed so many times it was impossible to misread '….Esper Emperor Zao Wu Hai...' had been etched into the rockface.
"This is impossible, My brother is not the Esper Emperor.. he's... … he's.." Xui Ying couldn't refute anything... she knelt to the floor beside her children quitely and closed her eyes.
She had heard a lot of things in the past few minutes that didn't make too much sense, but she could feel that fate had been driving her, no.. it felt like this was Wu Hai's intentions.
'Maybe he knew I would stay' She thought to herself before the Priest interrupted her.
The Elder frowned briefly before his eyes glowed with envy. "So, you're the Sister of the Esper Emperor? No wonder you're so powerful."
"The Fire Spirit is the Emperors Kin."... The Other Priests were starting to whisper among themselves, but in a positive way.
"Treat this place is your home now. No one will drive you away or stand in the way of your progress. Let us discuss what to do after we eat and you've had some rest. I'm surprised that Wúliáo helped you... he tends to keep to himself, after he escaped a prison he came here. He had been held captive, escaped and found his way here years ago. He screams at night when too many people are nearby. Its best he returns soon, for his own sake." The Elder led the way down into the mountain temple.
There were corridors in every direction and priests worked doing a myriad of different tasks, everything from sculpting stone to cultivation. There were almost none that were idle and wasting time.
"This sect was started by a strange being that came here, he slept for over a thousand years to wait for his masters return but it never came... one day, he just stopped coming out of his resting hole. The Grand Elder has been running the Yamabushi since before the Japanese had a word for it. The Black Dagger is one of our sacred artifacts that never leaves the temple. Only those with genuine power are worthy to hold it. Give it a try." The Elder explained quickly while standing in front of the Dagger.
"If you succeed and you certainly will, I'll take you to see the Grand Elder after we wake him." The Elder started chanting lightly while Xui Ying Stared at the blade.
Reaching out to grab the dagger, she felt a pull like gravity. When her fingers wrapped around the handle a black flame spewed forth wrecking the wall behind it.
"Such immense strength" The other elders cried out in joy.
"It has begun." Another Elder turned and walked to the passageway that led to the Grand Elder's Chambers.
Inside there was a stone alter, a stone bed and a small light that twinkled every now and then. It was a dark place with almost no light, but a faint movement could be heard when they entered the room.
"I hear that you powered the dagger. I can feel your spiritual presence." A voice came from the darkness.
A figure emerged from the darkness. "My name is …." The air was dry, but a sudden light illuminated the area, a spark of lightning flashed and the figure was on the other side of Xui Ying.
"My name is Zao Ho and we have a lot to talk about, Sister.…...."
Ho sat across from his distant and and yet not quite Sister. "I come from the other world, and yes there is a way to return. To do so I need the right amount of power, I simply cannot do it myself. Master Darkwing taught me when I was a child, when we were 7 we went out. The Four of us were out on our first mission, it had been delayed and so Master Darkwing taught all of us how to use our Darkness Skills. We all learned how to play by playing with Shadow and void magic."
"My Father was probably worried about me after I disappeared, But I was fortunate enough to beg Brother Wu for an Elemental body before we left, otherwise I'd have died without anyone knowing." Ho looked like he was proud of his decision, but his mood changed when he kept speaking. It was obvious that it bothered him somewhat.
"Elementals can't have children. We also don't age like humans. So my time on this planet got pretty boring after the first thousand years. Its only just recently in the last hundred or so years that its gotten interesting." Ho wanted to continue but Xui Ying was quick to cut him off.
"First thousand? Just how long have you been alive?" Xui Ying was ready to lay into questions when Ho raised his hand.
"I have a few more things to say before I answer questions. Please let me finish." Ho had been waiting a long time to have this conversation with someone... anyone.
"I've been alive for roughly 7000 years." Answering her question quickly, Ho asked one in return.
"Let me ask you a different question, roughly how long has it been since Zao Wu Hai left earth. It couldn't have been too long." Ho was doing calculations in his head.
"My Brother, No... The Prince, left 2 days ago." Ying answered and waited.
"Tch.... " Ho clicked his tongue and started talking again.
"Well, its going to be a while. I can't go back until he makes his next trip... which, will be the first time for me.. but, things didn't go right." .. Ho started to ramble and caught himself...
"My three Brothers wanted to be different from each other but still wanted something we all shared, so we all chose Darkness Magic as our Foundations. Darkwing taught us about darkness powers, but I was the only one that chose to use the same powers as our Brother. Because I had the same powers as the Esper Emperor I was encouraged along with my to visit Earth when Brother Wu Hai returned." … Ho seemed like he was going to lose himself in thought and slapped his thigh.
"Anyway, something went wrong. I was channeling my powers when the Teleportation went off, the only thing I could figure was that I somehow separated from the others on entry to Earth. I ended up in a remote area with a bunch of Farmers. I couldn't even speak their language." Ho continued with his story.
"After a while, I got bored of trying to figure out where I was.. I looked all over and couldn't find any trace of Brother Wu Hai, Darkwing or my Twins. After making way across the Sea to Atlantia I found some craftsmen who told me where I was, they were primitive. When their continent sank, I ferried as many as I could to safety but it was not nearly enough. I sailed for a century, looking for signs of my family, waiting. But there were no signs. I started to think that maybe I was lost forever and started teleporting all over the globe, from one place to another.. asking anyone who'd stick around long enough to talk to me." Ho was getting worked up in his own story.
"After some time, people started to worship me. Brother Wu told me about how it could be a terrible thing if people started to believe in the wrong messages. He told me that If I should ever find myself with a primitive culture to hide and build a fighting force with as many strong people as possible." Zao Ho fumbled with his storage ring and pulled out a crumbling book. It was written and printed just a few months ago... but It looked like it had seen a millennium.
"I remembered reading about Japan's Swords in the Library. They were notoriously good in the bronze age according to one of the books Brother Wu had brought back from Earth. It talked about samurai and ninjas, they were the basis for our practices for the Stealth Corp back on Shìyán. I knew them better than anyone. When I made my way to Wakoku, I found a few tribes of warriors who were fairly skilled and taught them to use the art of stealth. " ... Ho's Expression kept changing.
"I became the Leader of the Yamabushi before they were ever called such a name. When the Wars kept coming, I got tired of fighting for people that ultimately didn't respect my power....I returned to Neolithic China and sought refuge in the mountains. Master Darkwing told me that the mountains were a great place to hide with lots of prey. Since I'm an Elemental, I don't even have to eat. Waiting became a game of leapfroging across time." Ho was getting tired of talking by himself, but he had to finish.
"After the the Battle of Meizhou, I was simply done with trying to 'assist' humanity while I waited. There was so much death. I gathered some of my devout followers after another round of teleportation and brought them here. Their descendants and those they trusted enough to learn the secret have protected me while I rest." Zao Ho looked at Xui Ying with trembling eyes.
"I'm sorry. Back to the point. My Brother, your Brother.. will return in about 7 years time. Brother Wu and Brother Zhan will bring the entire stealth team and the Dragon Corp to Earth but still it won't happen for years. … Its like a nap to me, but you're going to age. I don't have any way to extend your life, So Live." Ho wanted to reach out and hold her hand, but Xui Ying burst into flames.
Xui Ying was speechless as her entire body roared with flames, She had heard some craziness, from Zao Wu Hai when he had come by the house and scared her stupid. Now that she was talking to someone who claimed to have been around longer than the Nation of China.
"How are Luitian and Qingchi?" Ho asked politely.
"Elder Brother Wu use to cry a lot when he thought about why you didn't come to the Hotel that day. It was one of the main reasons he came back to Earth a second time. He was hoping to find more warriors to return with but he's coming for you and your family."
"Just for me and the kids?" Tears of fire started rolling down Xui Ying's face, heating the pavement as it dripped from time to time.
"The Zao Clan never gives up." … Zao Ho could see the emotion running wild in Xui Ying.
The flame tears were a clear sign of her inner conflict.
"My Mother wanted to meet you after she heard about Wu Hai's life on Earth. The Queen was always fond of hearing about a daughter she never had." Ho looked at the shadows on the wall.
"You have to train. Our Brother will be coming and when he does, this world won't be the same. Until he does.. You, Luitian and Qingchi should train with the Priests. Luitian should have eaten the Blue one right? Please tell me he didn't eat the Soul Crystal." Ho wasn't sure which child had what power, but Wu Hai had planned to give the pink one to Qingchi.
"Of course. Jigui.. Er.. Wu Hai had told me beforehand." Ying looked at her two children again.
Then, she stood up. "When do we start?"
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍