"It soars a high, the sparrow,
Shush away your sorrows,
Spread your wings & fly,
Oh bird of mine, you sparrow…"
Musical words echoed throughout a rundown castle. A beautiful woman garbed in a noble dress walked through the corridors, singing a song that whimsically flowed into her mind.
Maids passing by bowed their heads to her while the guards saluted. She smiled to all in acknowledgment.
She scaled the stairs and crossed a gallery before entering a wide library. A scruffy man was reading book titles and arranging them in the cabinets. He mumbled something intelligible continuously under his breath.
"Deo…let's dine together." Xiao called from behind. He did not answer but his muttering stopped. Xiao glanced around. The whole library was filled with books & scrolls handpicked by Deodomus over the last year. He had become obsessed with amassing knowledge of combat techniques. He had made a generic collection quite contrary to his countenance as an unruly mercenary who would rather mix up his techniques.
"Must…stronger…have to be…" Deodomus resumed his muttering while assorting books and picking some before putting them on the table nearby to read.
Xiao sighed sadly, glancing at his broad back. Deodomus wasn't the same anymore after the war. He was barely aware of people around him; always struggling with his inner demons. He would enter closed-door cultivation for weeks without a break and shut himself in the library otherwise. Reading, learning, practicing, cultivating; that's all he knew. He would barely recognize Xiao and couldn't remember that he had a son.
"Ryuga? Is that you…?" Deodomus suddenly spoke, looking at a shadowy corner. Xiao closed her eyes, pushing back her tears and silently walked out. She missed her friend Lyra just as badly Deodomus missed Ryuga. Their corpses were given to the Gen soldiers and Maiden warriors when they had come to Xiao after the fateful war.
Xiao stepped down the stairs slowly and walked ahead.
"Hailey!!" Deodomus' sudden scream rattled her and her heart ached badly. She stopped and clutched at her chest and gritted her teeth before walking ahead silently. She had buried that name deep in the crevices of her memories as it only made her feel utterly weak and sorrowful. Barely anyone among the new subjects knew about Hailey and they dared not ask their eccentric Lord. But sometimes when asleep, Xiao could be heard calling Hailey's name.
Xiao walked past a window that showed a lone nameless marbled grave in the garden, surrounded by the prettiest of flowers. Xiao hadn't visited Hailey's grave since the day she buried her there.
"Mistress." A woman called out from behind. Xiao turned to find her kneeling.There was a little girl in her arms.
"Yes?" Xiao asked in a musical voice.
"This is my daughter Xui. I pray that when she grows up, you let her serve as a maid in the castle." The maid named Yimu said.
Xiao stepped forth and caressed Xui's head. She had black hair and black eyes, the most common features in eastern nations like Carny. But for some reason she seemed familiar to Xiao. Xui's delicate face revealed a sweet smile and Xiao beamed at her.
"Sure." Xiao said. "She'll be in my care."
"Thank you, Mistress! You're too kind!" The maid said as Xiao walked away.
Xui, with her 'mother' Yimu was rescued by Laclkrine, the Empyrean doctor. True to Xiao's judgment of him, Laclkrine had remained a good man. On the last day of the fateful war, when he had left the palace, he had taken all the maids and servants along, in his spatial ring. He wouldn't leave anyone behind to die.
Then he came back quickly after the war, happy to see Xiao alive. He returned her son back to her along with the maids and the servants and bid goodbyes after healing Deodomus. Xiao hadn't heard from him ever again but she knew that her mother Yuxian would be safe in his hands.
Xiao often hoped that Laclkrine would succeed in reviving Yuxian. What wouldn't Xiao give to see her mother again, to talk to her, to live with her. Alas, Yuxian never returned. Laclkrine apparently hadn't succeeded in reviving her. Death was an absolute truth. Nobody had ever returned from it but that didn't make people stop wondering how great it would be to have their loved ones with them again.
---
In a land far-far away where the sun was still up, a dark woman climbed a hill and reached a simple grave. It was an empty one. Symbolic. A place to remember someone. On the headstone the name 'Shyaren' was etched.
The dark woman sighed and kneeled, sprinkling the handfuls of white, black and purple flowers she had brought.
"I've been well, Shyaren." Ayla spoke. "I've been taking care of the children. Noxus has your skin but he resembles Deodomus so much." She smiled.
"Rest well Shyaren. May God Chaos keep you in his embrace forever." Ayla murmured a short prayer and arose.
Turning around she glanced at the distance. The caravan was inching towards the horizon. Ayla was still with the caravan; her cultivation willfully suppressed, and her past unknown.
Smitten by her curves and exotic beauty, the caravan owner had married her who was more than happy to find a better position and riches to raise her multiple adopted children. Since she was keeping her identity as that of an ordinary human, she couldn't go around doing things like a cultivator and make more money. The children won't always stay little either. Ayla's husband was a fat ugly and greedy man, not even a cultivator but that's what helped Ayla keep a tight grip on him despite faking submissiveness. She was a cunning woman.
Suddenly she frowned, noticing smoke rising in the horizon where the caravan was. Her face paled. Her children were still there and the smoke was increasing as yellow flames spread through the caravan.
Swoosh! Ayla jumped down the hill; her dress billowed around her and winds whistled past her hair. She removed the self-imposed seals on her dantian one by one, regaining her cultivation base.
Basic realm, Novice realm, Advanced… Master… Sage realm!
Swoosh! She reached the caravan within moments. Her observation technique scoured everywhere for the children. The caravaners were screaming and running around. The luggage was burning.
"Missus! Bandits! Run!" A man shouted. Ayla grabbed him and accidently too hard, his bones cracked under her fingertips.
"Gyaah!" He screamed and Ayla immediately let go. "Where are my children!?" She barked.
"They…they took them. All of them. Everybody's children!" The man said frantically.
"Missus! Missus!" More folks ran towards her.
"Missus my daughter! They have taken her! Please do something! Send the guards after them!" A woman wailed, pleading.
"The guards were in cahoots with the bandits!" An injured man growled.
"They are no bandits…" Ayla muttered. Her eyes glowed white, startling everyone. Her energy whipped around her threateningly.
"C-cultivator! Missus is a cultivator!?" Someone exclaimed. Ayla disappeared from amidst them, reaching the front of the caravan, ignoring the corpses and the injured people.
In front of her were several assassins, clad in different colored clothings but they all had hoods covering their heads. Their faces masked, some with cloth wrappings, some wooden with bird-like features. They had been killing the caravaners casually while looking for more children when Ayla arrived, fully displaying her cultivation base. The assassins all halted.
"Sage realm!" An assassin exclaimed.
"Bloody hell, at once I thought Luna had returned, alive and all." Another one muttered under his breath.
"She haunts me in my dreams too, but get a grip!" Another assassin spoke in a hushed voice.
"Where are the children?" Ayla demanded but none of them replied. They surrounded her instead while a hawk-masked assassin appeared in the sky, hovering above Ayla. His Sage realm cultivation also apparent.
"Children are the world's future, won't you agree?" Hawk said, hovering as he flapped his strategy wings. "Even us Assassins need them to keep our Squad going."
"Not my children." Ayla growled.
"They are ours now, already taken afar. You won't ever find them hehe."
"I'll upturn the whole world to find them. And you… You're going to regret taking them!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Ayla and Hawk leapt at each other. Even at large distances from the caravan explosive sounds could be heard.
---
As the sun set down in the horizon, a badly injured Ayla stood up, coughing blood. Assassin corpses were lying all around her. A lone assassin was flying towards the horizon, out of reach.
"Coward…" Ayla scowled, coughing more blood. Then she stumbled away into the distance. "I will…find you, my children." She muttered, thinking of the kids. They were the offspring of powerful yet pitiful female cultivators like Shyaren, Tian Mei, Yana & Ayla herself.
Ayla had vowed to protect and raise them into wonderful humans. But now they were gone; stolen in her absence. She cried silently but walked on. She had to find them. She could not give up. Her lone figure eventually turned into a silhouette in the distance.
---
7 Years later in a courtroom on an evening, Xiao was sitting on her throne, weary from the day's proceedings. Her face showed more signs of maturity.
"Mistress, Kol troops have annexed another city." A spy informed solemnly, and Xiao sank further into her throne. This wasn't the first time Kol had transgressed. They were inching towards South Carny where Xiao was ruling from, living in her ancestral castle in the once old and now current capital.
"Alarm the cities near it." Xiao instructed. "Appoint spies there too." She sighed, gazing at a distance. "Someday soon, it will be time for war. For now, we just focus on developing our military strength.
"Yes, Mistress." The spy disappeared. Xiao got up and dismissed the subjects. She moved towards Wind's chamber and found him fast asleep. A maid was fanning him slowly & perked up, noticing the Mistress.
Xiao put a finger to her lips, signaling her to stay silent and calm. She just glanced at her son pitifully for long and then walked away. Wind had remained ill all these years. His extreme yang syndrome could not be fixed by anyone below Empyrean level doctors and Xiao no longer had the kind of money to hire one. South Carny was poor with bare minimum troops that Xiao had gathered from amidst the citizens. She hadn't had any communication with Gen state since the fateful war and had realized that Lord Joseph didn't take it kindly that his two Generals had perished in a meaningless war. Ryuga was Joseph's best friend. He possibly hadn't been able to forgive Xiao.
Xiao walked into her chamber and glanced at the empty bed. Her husband Deodomus had disappeared years ago, seemingly in a quest to obtain more power. She hoped that he'd return but he didn't. Instead, a certain token had cracked in Xiao's possession. The token set was linked to Deodomus & Xiao's lives. If either of them perished, the tokens would crack. Deodomus; was long dead now.
Xiao moved to a window and sat by the ledge, staring out the distance. Her gaze slithered past Hailey's grave and her chin trembled. With teary eyes Xiao stared at the setting sun and sang to herself in her sweet voice that flowed like a wind and soothed every heart that it touched.