The world was still a dark one and anything clear couldn't be seen. But in the darkness, two animated figures could be heard talking.The former sounded old, deep and gruff like a peeler scraping your ears off while the latter voice was young, melodic and smooth, almost like it was singing. The moving shadows resembled a man of long hair wearing a robe with long sleeves that fluttered around as he moved and a girl about a foot shorter than the man with her hair just reaching her neck.
"Curses! He was just in my hands to be crushed, that boy! But in the end, He is still protected! We can't eliminate him now. We will have to wait until that blessing disappears."
"Elder's words have infinite wisdom. We will do as you say."
"The brat's luck still remains strong, even now. But heaven's protection is not endless and the day will come when he shall perish."
"Apologies, Elder Khrom. This one is ashamed to be ignorant but this one does have a lingering question."
" Go ahead! "
" Gratitude Elder Khrom." Geria takes a pause before beginning again. "This one does not understand why a person as esteemed as you still bothers about a weak ant like that boy"
A silence enveloped the world as soon as Geria finished asking. It was still a dark world and the silence made it gloomier. After a moment of quiet that felt a bit too long, Elder Khrom took a deep sigh and started talking."Little Geria, I presume you have heard of the surname Tenzin." "This one has. Elder Khrom. This one has heard that they are an ancient clan but traces of its existence have vanished since 20 years ago. Ever since the Supreme Alliance waged war against the Tenzin clan, they have never been seen. Some say they are dead, some say they are hidden, some say they have fled. I don't know which of them is right. But how is the Tenzin clan related to that boy?" Geria was surprised to hear the 'Tenzin clan' from the elder's mouth. She obviously knew about this legendary clan. Nobody didn't. It was said that to annihilate the Tenzin clan, the five supreme sects of High earth joined in an alliance. But the alliance didn't have an overwhelming victory to everyone's surprise, instead the alliance and the Tenzin clan fought for a hard year with deaths and wounds on both sides. It was maintained that the Supreme Alliance grasped victory by advantage in numbers and resources, thus making those of Tenzin's clan retreat and hide. The victory of the Supreme Alliance was not glorious. Ever since then, no person surnamed Tenzin has walked in public and those who have, are caught and killed. But Geria knew that the Tenzin's name still commanded fear and respect. No one would take the Tenzin name out in vain. Casually mentioning it was considered taboo and her companions would speak about this clan with a hushed voice. Even some of the elders of Geria's sect would proceed with caution. Geria didn't know why it was so but she remembered being told something. Something about the Tenzin clan holding some relation to 'the great law.' Something about them being the first learners and the final protectors. 'What else?' thought Geria as she looked at Elder Khrom for some answers.
"Good, little Geria. You have learned well. The 'Tenzin' clan is indeed an ancient clan, powerful and with incredible inheritance. And as you say, they are not found anymore. But hear this, They are not gone. They are hiding! They are nursing their wounds, training their young in the 'Great Law' and sharpening their blades. The time will come when they will repay the wrongs we have done to them. We don't know where they are hiding but we must find them and exterminate them." Elder Khrom took another pause almost looking like he was rethinking his words before continuing "You ask what relation that boy has to the Tenzin clan. Do you really want to know? Humph! Alright, I will tell you. That little boy is surnamed Tenzin! Do you understand what that means? That boy is a 'Tenzin', a 'Tenzin' of the main family!! " Elder Khrom took a short pause to let it sink in, almost to insinuate the gravity of the information, before continuing again. "That boy not only comes from the main family of the Tenzin clan but he was believed to be the greatest genius their clan had ever produced, their brightest star! And that made us wary. Moreover, rumours were floating around that he was blessed by the 'Great Law.'And that made us come to the decision that we had to eliminate that boy before he rose to power. As they say, 'the nail that rises above is the one that gets hammered out' and that boy was the tallest of his generation. And yes, We did kill him. We confirmed that he died. But now, he still lives! Can you believe that?! He still lives!!" Geria listened to Elder Khrom shouting with shock as she processed what was being said. That boy, that weak boy, was not only from the great Tenzin clan but once was also a peerless genius. And out of fear for his success, he was assassinated by the elders and he died. But he is now revived, he still lives. How was that possible? Even one of those pieces of information was enough to shock anyone, but all of it in succession gave Geria a paralysing blow. She shook her head, in a manner of dismay, and asked with a faint trembling voice " But..But..If he died, how does he still live? How did he manage to cross to 'Low Earth?' What about the Divine Dao barrier between High earth and Low earth? Also, also… When the Elder captured him earlier, he didn't seem to know about the 'great law.' He didn't even seem to know who we were." But as soon as she finished speaking, she realised the mistakes that she made. Just now, she inquired about the 'Great law' and the Divine Dao barrier. Doing that in Low Earth is a great taboo.
"Little Geria, hush now. There are things that should be spoken and there are things that should not. The 'great law' is strict here. It hears all and we must not provoke it. Otherwise, we will not be able to bear its wrath."
Geria cupped her hands, covering a fist of her left hand with the palm of her right, and moved it away from her in Elder Khrom's direction as she bowed her head followed by her hands. "Apologies, Elder Khrom. This one realised her error as soon as this one stopped speaking. This one was just overtaken by shock and unbelief which resulted in the lapse of my judgement. I apologise and never again, will I repeat the same mistake."
"It's alright. Little Geria. I understand." Elder Khrom said calmly as he took a long breath. He slowly put his hands behind his back and slowly walked away from Geria and stared into the void. " We will have to return and report back to the council. This was a failed mission." Shocked by Elder Khrom's words, Geria jolted and asked without much thinking "But..can't we still capture him? He is weak and vulnerable now. He is still in Elder's Mara. He can't escape easily. We should go and break him this time. Then we can take him back!!" "No, Geria. That was our last chance. We made an incredible effort to cross over to Low Earth and risked our fate with the great dao barrier for that chance to either capture him or kill him. The great laws are not complete here. But it is still strong and protects the handicapped people of low-earth from high-earth. You know that. So we can't risk using too much power lest we incur its wrath. We will not be able to handle the Karma!" Elder Khrom said in a stern voice pushing Geria's will down and continued. "It's ok. We have lost this chance. But we will still have plenty more. He will soon come to our land, his land and we will meet him there. Fate will run out of mercy for him soon enough!" "If this one may ask, how is Elder so sure that he will come back to High-Earth?" Geria meekly asked. To this, Elder Khrom smirked and let out a small laugh before saying "You will see. Let us be on our way back. That boy will be in High-Earth soon! Mark my words." Geria was puzzled by the Elder's response as she started to follow Elder Khrom who was slowly walking away in the void. While walking, Elder Khrom stopped and looked at a direction with a deep gaze and exclaimed "Hah, you have found your way out ehh! But don't worry, your nightmare has just begun. The wheels of fate have started spinning and nobody can stop it!!"
In a different corner of the void, Kunkhen was clutching his pendant as he slowly stood up, unaware of the conversation about him. Kunkhen started to move. He walked around the darkness to see if he could find a way out. As he walked, Kunkhen stumbled across a puddle and he felt some sort of liquid splash him. Kunkhen moved his glowing pendant to illuminate the surroundings. Kunkhen hadn't paid attention to it earlier but now he saw that the ground was filled with puddles of dark liquid. The black fluid looked like tar but wasn't as thick. The black liquid was the same shade of black as everything in this world. A jet black, Vanterblack. One could forgive him for not noticing it earlier. He carefully knelt down to touch the liquid as he was curious to know what this liquid was and brought it closer to his nose to see if it had any smell. As he did that, a subtle but sure smell of ash wafted into him. Something was burned here and then doused with this liquid. He sniffed with a bit more mind and he was taken aback as he processed the odour. This was a smell he was very familiar with and he loved it a lot.
As he sniffed more, he recalled his mother and father having their long prayer sessions while burning juniper leaves and incense very early in the morning. The smoke from those flames would engulf the whole room and make breathing harder but the odour was undeniably cleansing. It is a very old religious tradition among Tibetans to burn Juniper leaves as an offering to the regional gods and nagas. Said to purify the surrounding, bring luck and appease the god, this practice of offering the smoke of juniper has been practised by Tibetans from time ancient.The same fragrance of juniper that populated his memory of home was here. A huge amount of juniper was undoubtedly burnt here and mixed with this liquid. But why? Kunkhen grew more confused as mysteries only multiplied. He didn't know how the juniper had been brought here, or why they burned it or for that matter, what this liquid was. Kunkhen stood up from the ground holding some of the liquid in his cupped hand. Thinking he could see the composition of the liquid more clearly, Kunkhen brought his pendant towards the liquid. But a strange thing happened that greatly shocked him. The liquid in his hand bubbled and swirled and as if there was a suction in the turquoise of the pendant, the liquid swooshed in.
It happened so fast that when Kunkhen processed what was happening, the black liquid had already disappeared into the turquoise. The turquoise shined a bit brighter and shivered ever so slightly. The greenish-blue became extra solid making it almost seem excited. Kunkhen smiled; 'Like a child!' he thought. At this point, Kunkhen had thrown all of his common sense out the window and learned to accept any additional mystery that would be thrown to him. Strange things had happened to him one after another that the pendant gulping down the black liquid was another addition but at least it was cute. Kunkhen brought his pendant near the puddles of black liquid that surrounded him and said "Go ahead, it's all yours."
He dangled the pendant from his hand and waited. Kunkhen didn't know if the pendant could understand him but he saw no harm in trying. And no second later after that thought, the turquoise started spinning. The red thread followed true to the turquoise and Kunkhen felt the thread wiggling violently in his hand. The light from the pendant dimmed, as if all energy was being used to spin, and darkness surrounded Kunkhen once again. Kunkhen held the thread tighter but the spin got faster and stronger until Kunkhen had to let the pendant go. As he did that, the recoil made his body stumble backwards. "Fuck" He cursed as he efforted to regain his balance. Kunkhen looked at his hurting palm which was beaten to red by the thread and scanned for where the pendant was with anger. As he looked around, he found it. But his anger dissipated as soon as he saw the scene before his eyes.