v5c23: Tomorrow, One Step at a Time

Miantiao thought that after the destruction of his home village and the death of his Master he would never have a place to call home again. The wound from that loss was still so raw even after so many years. It was a gaping chasm, a void that he held back, hiding, but when he failed and it rose up it drained out every other emotion save for rage and sorrow.

When he had first come to this place, this Fa Ram, he’d done it for Yin’s sake. Hiding away his wounds. He imagined she would have a better life here, while Miantiao himself would quietly fade away, as he should. He had imagined himself already a moving corpse bound to fade into nothingness.

The people of this Fa Ram did not allow that.

They had not, would not, let Miantiao wither. They engaged the old, broken thing that marched into their home… and slowly but surely, they broke through the shroud of darkness that had surrounded everything since his village’s destruction.

Bi De had shown him he could atone. Yin, Wa Shi, and Chun Ke had shown him that life was still worth living.

And most of all, Jin and Bowu had shown him that Miantiao could still honour his Master’s memory, captured in panes of glass.

Both of them were brilliant, envisioning wonders without compare—and both of them needed the teachings of Miantiao’s Master.

They needed him.

Once more, the works of Boli Xin entered the world; in every creation he exalted the teachings of his village and of his Master, breathing back into the world what he thought would be lost forever. He would have loved the greenhouse. His old Master would have spent the entire winter there if he could, for he had been nearly a snake himself—he hated the cold.

Somehow, Miantiao had become an integral part of this place. His works lined the shelves. Pieces of art that brought delight and simpler, more mundane work that eased the working days. Everybody had asked for help with some project, or requested him to craft something. For the first time in a long time, he was happy.

He had found a home again.

And now something wanted to take that home away from him.

‘Again!’ Miantiao hissed.

The air warped unnaturally—and then a bolt of burning sunlight struck it. Miantiao hissed at the strain as the searing lance that passed through a lens in the air and compressed itself into a needle of white hot fire.

The lens only lasted moments before Yin’s Qi utterly overwhelmed Miantiao’s own and [Twisted View] disintegrated.

‘It held for longer that time,’ Miantiao stated, shaking off the effects of his technique shattering. His dantian was burning from the strain, and his breath came in gasps. ‘Again.’

Yin, in her human form, looked upon her Shifu, and then she finally spoke.

“Shifu, we can’t fight together anymore,” she whispered. Miantiao froze as the truth of those words hammered home. Pride warred with disgust in his heart. Pride, that Yin was so mighty. Disgust, that he himself couldn’t keep up.

Against Shen Yu he’d been useless. At the time he had not minded. He had trusted Jin to see things through and he had been vindicated.

This was not so different. He tried to muster the same faith. He tried to believe that everything would turn out all right. But every time he heard the word demon or demonic… he couldn’t help but hear Sun Ken’s howling laughter.

The void rose up inside of him, yawning wide. He smelled burning flesh, his eye and back throbbed with pain.

‘It isss fine, Yin. I shall ssseek out another way—” he began, but Yin shook her head.

“Shifu… I think you should stop for today. You’re going to hurt yourself. I think you should focus on something other than fighting,” Yin said, her voice gentle. “Maybe you can help with the formations?”

The words were a dagger to his heart.

He was weak.

He had always been too weak; a failure too weak to protect his home.

He saw Fa Ram burning in his mind’s eye. Visions overwhelmed him.

Jin and Meiling screaming.

Chun Ke’s body torn in two.

Yin, blood pouring from her mouth.

The house collapsing, burning, burning, burning!

Miantiao’s heart beat so fast he could sense nothing else until he felt the pressure of arms around him. He belatedly noticed that he was in Yin’s warm embrace as he panted, his student held him so he didn’t tie himself in a knot.

‘I can’t. I can’t lossse it all again, Yin,’ he whimpered.

“You won’t,” Yin promised him. She held him tightly as she nuzzled her cheek against his. “I made an oath. Just like Xiulan promised. No more destroyed villages. No more Sun Kens.”

He pulled back and saw her head haloed in golden light. Yin’s red eyes were burning with conviction.

“This is our home. This is the place where we belong. And what happened to you will not happen here.”

Her oath resounded through the air, as a woman who was the incarnation of the dawn stood. The rays of light pierced the shadows descending around Miantiao’s heart.

He couldn’t help but believe her.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author’s preferred platform and support their work!

Miantiao really did not deserve to have such a fine daughter.

=======================================

The warmth of the greenhouse suffused Xiulan as she worked. She was in the middle of cross-referencing the topographical maps Vajra had created with the old survey maps from the Archives. Luckily, even though the maps were over three hundred years old, the land north of Fa Ram had changed little. The rivers were slightly different, Vajra had found, but otherwise it worked for their purposes.

Today, Xiulan was not Xiulan. Today, Xiulan was the Grand Marshal once more. Jin had asked for her to aid him, citing that he had little idea how to properly run what was turning out to be a military campaign. They had far, far more bodies and ways to gather information than Xiulan had originally thought, with the inclusion of Vajra.