Chen Bohai woke up first. His head was pounding, and his vision blurry. Through the hazy image, he concluded that he was in a cave of some sort. It was dark, and he thought he could make out the shadows of bats. But what gave it away was the musty smell, and damp air.
As his eyes struggled to focus, the outlines of four people came up to him. Only then did he realize he was tied up. The blurry images of people picked him up and carried him to a space with more light. Besides him, he could make out two people carrying the still unconscious Tan Huizhong.
As they entered a makeshift house, where an abundance of light was, Bohai immediately shut his eyes. The sudden change from darkness to light made his already-hurting head's pain multiply. But, as he slowly opened his eyes he became accustomed to the sudden change in lighting. And when he could see properly, he was shocked as to what he saw - or rather who.
He had only encountered him once, and he hadn't a clue as to what his name was. The short man standing before him was the same man who had initially denied his entrance to Long Guangli's estate on the night of his party. The butler whom he had threatened to be let inside.
As he got over his shock, he realized that Tan Huizhong had awoken besides him. The old man seemed to be in a worse shape than he had initially been in, but he was adapting much faster than Bohai.
"What an honor it is to meet you," a man in the shadows began to speak. "Both of you." He added. "Who would've imagined, that in this day in age, I'd be so lucky to be in the room with a Tan and a Chen.
"What would the Emperor give me if I turned the both of you in right now? Surely, whatever I wanted." The mystery man said with a laugh.
"What coward speaks to me?" Tan Huizhong growled. It seems that he had finally come back to his senses. "Show your face." Huizhong spat.
"My face?" The mystery man said with an obvious reluctance. "Fine. SO be it." He spoke, his tone revealing his obvious annoyance. "You shall be able to see the man who will go down in history. The man who turned in the hideous Tan Huizhong and the despicable Chen Bohai." He said as he slowly came out of the shadows.
The teacher-student pair was stunned into silence. The man before them was Long Guangli - or at least looked exactly like him.
"Long Zhiquiang." Tan Huizhong spat after a moment. It had taken him longer than he had hoped to recognize the person in front of him. It had been specified in Long Guangli's letter that he had received months prior, that the reason he was reaching out to him for his help was because of his twin brother. A brother that the public did not know about. One that was supposed to have never been born.
He had always coveted his brother's power, and had acted in the shadows to become the real Duke. While Long Guangli was the Duke on paper, Long Zhiquiang was the one with the actual power. And he planned to do terrible things with it - once he was the official Duke of Duan.
Long Guangli had begged Tan Huizhong for help before it came to that. However it had been set back due to the reveal of Bohai's real identity.
Tan Huizhong could only roll his eyes in annoyance. He never intended on helping the Duke, but now he wished he had eliminated the problem from the start. They would still be at the tavern, on their way to find the Lee clan, if he hadn't been lazy.
"Micah." Long Zhiquiang called out. Out of the shadows, the same young boy from the tavern appeared. His disheveled hair covered his eyes, but he suddenly lifted his hair out of face - revealing his eyes.
By the time that Tan Huizhong realized the boy's identity, and the trick to his power, it was too late. Both Tan Huizhong and Chen Bohai were knocked out again.
-
A chubby hand reached out towards the clouds in the sky. The giggling laughter of two boys ringed throughout the courtyard.
"Silly," a young Bohai said in between his fits of laughter, "You can't hold onto the clouds. You're too small!"
"Am not!" The young boy besides Bohai retorted. His hands still reached up at the clouds, this time glancing at Bohai to see if he was still watching him. When their eyes locked, Bohai was suddenly looking up at the boy who was sitting on the clouds. Their laughter echoed throughout the courtyard.
Bohai's eyes opened suddenly. He looked around frantically, and when the pain in his head subsided his vision was restored. He gazed upon his hands, and sighed out of relief when he saw that his hands weren't what they once were - chubby and weak. He had just awoken from a dream, or a memory that he had long ago forgotten. In the dream, he hadn't been able to see the boy's face, but something about him seemed so familiar.
"Are you finally up?" A quiet Tan Huizhong spoke. Bohai whipped his head around to see that the old man was tied to a pole behind him. It hurt his neck to look at the old man, but he craned his neck like an owl to listen to the old man. "We're in trouble."
Bohai didn't say anything. He knew just as well as Tan Huizhong that they were in a serious dilemma. They had been knocked out by that boy, whom Long Zhiquiang had called Micah, not once - but twice. And both times, they hadn't been able to do anything to stop it. Bohai had no idea what kind of power that the boy was using, but he knew that it was powerful.
"That kid," Tan Huizhong began. His voice was full of worry, and what sounded like a hint of fear. "Is one of the Unnamed." He managed to spit out. Bohai had no idea what the old man was talking about. "Of course you wouldn't know what the Unnamed is, your grandfather never told you anything." Huizhong said with a painful laugh. "That skill you used when fighting Duyi,"
"The Ghost?" Bohai interrupted.
"Yes." Tan Huizhong paused. "The Ghost, its a deadly attack from the Lee clan. But, where did the Lee clan learn about this deadly attack?" When Bohai did not answer, Huizhong continued.
"From the Unnamed." He sighed. "No one really knows who they are, or what they do, but they were created before the Emperor's palace was. Thats for sure.
They all have different abilities, but they all are connected to one thing. Their eyes. Its said that the Unnamed get their power from their incredible eyes. That, mm-mm, are always blue."
As his teacher spoke, Bohai was suddenly reminded of his childhood. Sneaking in to watch his older brother learn the deadly Ghost attack, he suddenly remembered the secret to the Ghost technique. It was the only reason that Chen Shi was the only one learning it, and not Chen Geming - who was equally qualified for the secret skill, if not more so. It was because Shi, just like Bohai, had blue eyes like their mother.
Remembering the secret, Bohai was suddenly reminded of his dream. The giggling child who had made the illusion that he was up in the sky, touching and sitting on the clouds. Before the illusion had taken place, the small boy had made eye contact with Bohai. And surely enough, he had big blue eyes.
"Ru-yu?" Bohai whispered to himself in shock. Suddenly, he remembered why the boy from the tavern had looked so familiar. He was his distant cousin, Lee Yunru. They had spent an entire summer together once, and had become very close. It was before Bohai had received any training, and before Yunru was forced to give up his name to become one of the secret Unnamed.
"Are you even listening to me brat?" Tan Huizhong said in shock. Here he was, telling Bohai of something of grand importance, and he wasn't even listening! If they got out of here, he would make sure to remember to smack him across the head for being disrespectful.
"Yeah." Bohai responded absently. His mind was preoccupied with thoughts of his cousin. He had been told he had passed away in a terrible accident, which obviously wasn't the case.
"That boy, what'd that bastard call him? Mikal? Mic-"
"Micah."
"Micah. Yeah. Whatever. That boy, is our biggest problem right now. We can figure out how to deal with that Long bastard later."