338 RTYY 335 - Last Portal
Since the previous afternoon, when they'd met those three, huge feimao, the air had become even heavier and harder to breathe. The trees too, had gone from darkened dead naked spears, silently reaching towards the dark-gray sky, pleading in desperation for a help that had never arrived, to rotting pieces of almost unidentifiable wood, most of them broken and cracked, scattered around the even darker empty dirt.
All in all, the scenery was too depressing. So much so that, that morning, Snow hadn't even dared to venture into the dead woods. Not that he feared the feimao. Sure, as ZaiWin had put it, he had no way to effectively kill them. But he wasn't completely defenseless either. Even more so since, after their last fight against the dreadful creatures, Snow had come to realize that his golden arrows of purification could actually hurt them.
Still, the levels of corruption were just too high. And Snow wasn't sure his golden shield would be enough to keep it at bay. If it wasn't, and some of that dark energy ended up seeping into his daitai, ZaiWin would have to cleanse them again. And he'd just spent the entire night doing exactly that, allowing Snow to have some sleep.
Now that they had an idea of what MaoHan was able to do, they both had silently agreed that, no matter what, Snow had to be kept free from any of that dark energy. After all, if they both were to fall under MaoHan's control, how could they ever hope to find a way to escape?
As such, Snow had been carefully rationing what was left of the water he had gathered the previous day. He would have to ask one of them to fetch him some more, the next day, he thought, wishing he didn't have to. He didn't feel like talking to any of them at all, much less to ask them for favors. Of course, he could always just suck it up and go find it himself, he considered, looking at the rotting dead trees flanking the road. And yet, not long after they'd gone back to the road after their midday meal, the trees simply disappeared, as they finally exited that stifling forest.
It was kind of strange, to suddenly be offered such a wide horizon, after days and days of seeing nothing but tall trees. But the horizon Snow's eyes captured was even bleaker than the forest of dead trees had been.
Everywhere he looked he could only see black dirt; plain, naked, barren dirt. It was almost as if the land had been scorched by some horrible fire, he thought, and nothing had been able to grow since then. Even though there had been so many trees just a few moments ago, now there wasn't even one. There were no houses or man-made constructions either. It was just a huge, dark desert. It made Snow's heart hurt.
How could land that should have been full of life and color become like that? And he could even understand, if someone came up to him and told him that some huge disaster had occurred in that place. But now he knew better than that. The land was dead because the ones in charge of it had allowed it to die. He didn't know what horrible thing they had done, to create such a huge unbalance. In fact, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even begin to imagine what could have led to such a sorrowful situation.
He supposed that Nox had looked a lot like that too, when ZaiWin had taken over it. But Nox had been abandoned for more than one hundred years. No one had cared for it. And the people had adapted the best they could, resorting to all kinds of shady deals just to make a coin. But this …
He knew, from VinWei's teachings, that at the moment there were four ungoverned Provinces in Wen. He'd recently been to two of them, Pon and Sur. And, although he had been able to feel that there was some instability within the land, none of them had been even close to that dreadful state.
The other two ungoverned provinces were Far and Ven. Coincidentally, these were also the southernmost Provinces of the Empire, and they were both surrounded by sea by every side, except one. And yet, even though Snow had never been to any of them, he still had the feeling that they too, didn't look anything like the dark devastation in front of his eyes. Besides, when they'd studied ZenTar's map, no one had shown any special concern regarding these two Provinces.
In fact, Snow had been thinking about this for some time now and, taking into consideration what he had learned about Wen's geography, added to what Nox had whispered into his heart, he was almost certain that the sad dead land before his eyes was actually the Province of Tei. The same Province he had wanted to save. The same Province ZaiWin had forbidden him to ever set foot in. He had really been too naïve, he had to admit, his mouth tasting bitter, the air hot and damp, making it harder to breathe.
Save this land?! He could barely keep himself safe. He was forced to leave ZaiWin unprotected at least half the day. He didn't even have enough energy to cleanse ZaiWin's food. And he had wanted to come here, on his own, to cleanse this land? How full of himself he had been!, thinking that, as long as he tried his best, he'd be able to do something about it, he'd be able to right this massive, overwhelming wrong.
Actually being in that horrible place, Snow was, for the first time in his life, aware of just how small and insignificant he really was. Purify the land?! He had to mock himself for his own self-righteous presumption. He would never have even been able to remain alive this far, if it weren't for ZaiWin's constant efforts to cleanse his energy. And he couldn't help remembering the Snow from his dream, how he had openly declared that he had been sent to this world to make sure that the land became inhabitable, that it would provide food and shelter for the people. How fearless and self-assured he had sounded. Well, if that was the case, then Snow was now completely certain that he and that other Snow were nothing alike. Because there was no way he had what it took to keep Heaven's side of that ancient agreement.
They didn't travel long, before they stopped again.
Dismounting his horse, MaoHan approached YunZen's mount and coldly slapped his cheek. As always, the other man was lying on his stomach, stretched over his horse's neck, his unconscious body tied to the saddle so he wouldn't fall from it.
Clenching his fists, Snow couldn't help feeling angry, watching the cold way they treated their own companion. YunZen had just opened a portal for them the day before! Surely they weren't trying to make him open another one!
"YunZen! Wake up! Wake up and drink this!" MaoHan commanded, roughly pulling his head back and pressing one of those vials to his lips. They had just fed him one of those that morning!, Snow thought, feeling sorry for the other man, who grunted something unintelligible but still obeyed. Well, of course he obeyed. As long as he was alive, he would always obey MaoHan. They all would.
Patting YunZen's back much in the same way one would pat a pet, MaoHan nodded approvingly.
"Good. Now open another Portal. It's the last one and will be home. You don't even have to get off your horse. Just make sure you take us to the city gates."
YunZen mumbled something again but didn't even move. He probably wouldn't be able to, even if he wanted to.
"I know, I know. We're all tired. That's exactly why I'm asking you to do this. Afterwards we can all get some well-deserved rest. And I'll be sure to get you as many blond children as you want, for you to play with," he added, and Snow cringed instinctively at the sound of those words. What did he mean by that? Children for him to play with …?
ZaiWin's warm hand on his head felt reassuring, but it didn't erase the disturbing sensation that knotted his stomach. And then that dark breach cut the air right in front of them, expanding until it was big enough for horses and people to cross it.
Patting YunZen once more, MaoHan quickly made his way back to his horse, leading the rest of the group through the portal.
Leaning closer to the bars, Snow tried to catch a glimpse of where they were going. MaoHan had mentioned city gates. So they had finally arrived, he thought, unable to tamp down his curiosity.
Like always, as the cart passed through the portal, one moment he was looking at a dark, empty desert, and, in the next instant, there were tall stone walls rising in front of him. It almost looked like a huge fortress, Snow thought, the stone that the walls were made of glistening with flecks of gold and silver. The city gates that MaoHan had mentioned were massive doors made of some dark-looking metal, assuring that, once closed, it would probably be impossible to force them open.
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Author's Note: Phew. They're finally here. Just don't know if it's for the best or for the worst. Just that so far this has undoubtedly been a very dark experience for Snow 😟
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