They arrived at the Sky Temple Monastery before noon. Unlike the last time, when the outer yard had been crowded with carts, horses, donkeys and oxen, on this day they were the only visitor. A young boy in an orange robe and a bald shaved head rushed out of the gate to attend to the horse while MeiLan and Emilian slowly walked inside.
This time it was MeiLan who struggled with the overwhelming feeling of deja vu as she walked slowly up the cobbled paths, and it was Emilian who showed her the way to the ruined pagoda where he was supposed to have died. She knelt respectfully while Emilian lit incense, not for himself, but for his brothers who perished in the fire. "It seems unfair," he muttered as he watched the smoke curl off from the incense and waft around the tablets, "that they all died because of me. Yet I was saved."
MeiLan's hand rested on his shoulder, "You were just a boy then, you could not control what happened."
