Chapter 12 - Interlude One: Seeing in Darkness

Dark clouds rolled across the sky of the Shattered Moons minor realm, bringing with them a seemingly endless drizzle of cold rain. Few people could be seen moving about the muddy streets of a nameless small town late at night. Those who did move carried dark paper umbrellas or wore broad hats and heavy cloaks to keep the rain at bay.

One such figure moved from one disreputable establishment to the next, a bloody aura emanating from the twin sabers at her waist. Finally arriving at the next establishment on the darkened street, hoping the people she'd spoken with at the last establishment had told the truth.

Opening the door to Moonless Night Tea House her sensitive nose wrinkled at the thick smell of smoke and opium that wafted from within. The lanterns in the tea house flickered dimly, several of them barely providing illumination through their grimy glass panes while others had been left extinguished entirely.

"Welcome patron," a glassy eyed woman behind the counter greeted. "Have you come to drown sorrow or chase dragons?" From the way the woman draped herself over the counter, pale cleavage spilling from her lose robe she all but screamed that there were multiple things in which people could drown sorrows at the Moonless Night Tea house, some of them less reputable than others.

"Neither. I'm looking for a selfish coward and miserable excuse for a man," the visitor said with a scowl. She shifted her eyes to the people lingering in the common area, her lips twisting in disgust at people who fled from their problems to places like these. Others might judge her the same, drowning herself in violence could be seen as just another escape, but at least the violence she sought out was in the service of something beyond hiding from her own heart.

"We have many such men here," the proprietor said with a faint smile, bringing the woman's attention back to her. "If it's a night of tortured screams you're looking for, I can help you find a few… willing partners," she said with a faint smile on her painted lips.

"She's looking for me," a rich masculine voice drawled from a dark corner of the common area. "Aren't you Cang Bai?"

At first glance, the disheveled figure slouched in the corner might be mistaken as just another wastrel drowning sorrows in drink. Certainly the wine bottle never strayed far from his clutching fingers. But peering closer, one could glimpse vestiges of former glory lingering amidst his aura like tattered silken robes on a beggar prince.

Inky hair receding towards temples betrayed uncommon handsomeness in youth, now corroded by grief. His eyes still blazed with arcane power, a mystic who delved too deep, seeing things that mortals were never meant witness. Everything about him screamed talents wasted, fortune squandered. Yet energy crackled in the air, responding to hidden forces only he perceived. Cards and runes orbited those long, sensitive fingers as effortlessly as cup or bottle. Hands equally capable of scrying Heaven's secrets as stroking a lover's skin.

But no smile graced those full lips to soften his sharp features. No hope or mirth flourished in those haunted eyes filled endless sorrow. Only echoes reverberated through his aura, echoes of glory, echoes of love, echoes of secrets none should ever claim to know. Here perched ruin of a man who drowned endless loss in rivers of wine and oceans of oblivion.

"Zhang Li," the woman said, suppressing the urge to draw her sabers and give him a piece of her mind as she beheld the state he'd allowed himself to fall to. "We need to talk."

"Here is fine," the disheveled man said, gesturing at a seat across from where he sat sipping his wine. "Mistress Night," he said, calling to the woman behind the counter with a hoarse voice that had once been rich and sonorous. "This woman is the wife of my Master. I must show her appropriate courtesy. Can you bring a cup of warmed goat's milk and honey?"

"Of course," the woman said, slipping behind a curtain towards a small kitchen.

"You remember to call her Master but you still won't return?" Cang Bai said as she took her seat across from Zhang Li. The once elegant seer had allowed time to ravage him, his dark hair turning steely gray at the temples, wrinkles forming at the corners of his dark mysterious eyes. An immortal cultivator of his stature should easily be able to maintain his youthful looks, there was no reason for him to look this haggard unless he chose to.

"There are still three thousand five hundred years remaining of my exile," he said, pouring himself another cup of wine and drinking it down. "How can I face Master and her daughter without paying for my crime?" Zhang Li shook his head sadly. "Whatever she's sent you here for, you should return. Tell her that I'll return if fate allows it but not before I've atoned."

"It doesn't matter," Cang Bai said, fighting to keep her emotions in check. Thankfully, the proprietor arrived with a steaming tea pot filled with warm milk, cups and a small pot of honey. Taking a drink, Cang Bai allowed the sweet nostalgic taste to spread through her along with the warmth of the drink. Sighing, she looked deep into Zhang Li's eyes before she spoke again. "Mei Lien is dead," she said bluntly, hoping the cold words would pierce his armor of self pity. "Besides, you exiled yourself. She never blamed you for what happened to An'er's father."

"Dead?" Zhang Li asked, shock rippling through his eyes as his wine cup fell from his fingers. "How? She had returned to the sect in the Divine Realm! She should have reigned for another ten thousand years!"

"If you knew her when she was Jun Biyu, you'd never think her fate was so secure," Cang Bai said wistfully. "The woman who charged into a den of Goldsun Mountain Lions to rescue a wounded tiger cub was never a person who placed her safety above the lives of those she could help. She has always put herself at risk to protect the rest of us, even when she had no weapons other than her music and her beauty."

"When?" Zhang Li asked, mechanically pouring himself another cup of wine and gulping it down. His tongue had long become numb to the taste but the burning feeling as it slid down his throat anchored him to the present more than most things could.

"Five hundred years ago," she answered. In the years since they'd said goodbye she'd killed countless enemies of the sect, rescued thousands of disciples across the realms but nothing filled the hole left by losing her love so soon after they'd reunited. "It's been five hundred years since she died and the sect disbanded."

"The sect disbanded?" Zhang Li said in disbelief. He'd hoped that when his exile ended he would be able to visit the fabled Divine Realm to see the sect that his master had built there. Now, it seems the thing he'd dreamed of seeing was already gone, along with the master he'd followed for much of his life. "How could things have gone so wrong so quickly?"

"I don't know," Cang Bai growled, her eyes hot with anger. Suddenly her hand shot out, grabbing a fistful of his wine stained robe and pulling his face within centimeters of hers. "Maybe because her trusted seer abandoned her to throw himself a millenia long pity party instead of facing up to the consequences of hiding the truth from her and Feng An!" she spat, struggling to not shout at him in the middle of a house of ill repute. "Maybe because there was no one at her side to warn her of the dangers of being seen by a mad Divine Lord who would do anything to possess the most beautiful woman of an era. Have you considered that your atonement punished her more than it punished you?" Cang Bai trembled as she shoved the stunned seer back into his seat, nearly knocking him over with the force of her shove.

"I… I'm sorry," Zhang Li choked out, his voice horse. Deep inside, a piece of his pride snapped. What had he been doing in exile all these years? Had he been atoning, or hiding? Did he do it for her, or for himself? The more he confronted it, the clearer it was that Cang Bai was right. This had never been about atoning, it had been about escaping. Now, his master was gone. While she would return eventually one day, whether or not he would ever have a place at her side again likely depended on what he did here, right now. Sliding out of his chair he knelt formally before Cang Bai, ignoring the sticky feeling of the dirty floorboards and tossing away the remnant of stubborn pride that he had selfishly clung to. "My Master has fallen," he said stiffly, pressing his palms to the floor and bowing his head deeply. "What commands does Fourth Mistress have for this unworthy servant?"

"Get up," Cang Bai snapped. "You know I hate it when people do things like that. You were her friend. You were Feng An's Uncle Zhang. You were and still are part of this family," she scolded. "So help us find her, before that mad god breaks the seal she placed on him and finds her first."

"She's been reborn?" Zhang Li asked, returning to his seat and fumbling for a deck of cards in his spacial ring. "When? Tell me anything you know, it'll help the divination," he said, hope beginning to flicker in his eyes. This was why she had sought him out. There was still time to help, and a chance to see her again.

"We know barely anything. When she died, An'er covered her with her flames and Long Yao sacrificed his blood essence to protect her, but none of the treasures she left for us can find any trace of her" Cang Bai said dejectedly. "Long Yao has been wandering the Immortal Realms, talking to people who recently ascended from Mortal Realms, but he's heard no news of someone like her, and no matter which of her lives you examine, she's rarely been a figure that could escape notice."

"Hmm," Zhang Li said, shuffling the thick cards as dark purple and midnight blue energy swirled around his hands. "Across time, beyond space, in the depths of the Void all things meet," he intoned, his eyes filled with stars as he gazed deep into a realm only he could see. Slowly, he turned over a card, speaking with a voice that came from far away. "The Blocked Path, a mortal realm from which ascension is impossible." Turning over another card he spoke again. "The Two Faced Woman… a shapeshifter! Is it her, or someone who threatens her?" Turning over a final card he stopped, staring at it for several moments before speaking again. "The Scales of Fate. Not her own fate in the balance but the fate of many lives. Something will weigh on her greatly. She'll need help," he finished, wiping away a trace of blood that had flowed from the corner of his eyes. Peering into the secrets of the Heavens was never without cost.

"But where?" Cang Bai asked. "This barely told us anything!"

"We're lucky to have gotten this much," he said, putting away his cards and placing a large bag of spirit crystals on the table to settle his tab. "You said Feng An fed her flames into the rebirth? And Long Yao's blood essence?"

"Yes, An'er is the one who felt her awakening," Cang Bai said, trying to not recall how heart wrenching it had been to be in the room with her when she died this time.

"Then we'll start with them," Zhang Li said. "I'll need their help to find a way to a lost mortal realm."

"Good," Cang Bai said with a hint of a smile. "An'er misses her uncle, and you've been away long enough. While most of the sect is dispersed, we still have a few strongholds in the Immortal Realms - I'll take you back to the family."

Together, the two stepped into the rain, vanishing into the stormy night. Several minutes later, a third figure left the Moonless Night. His many years of shadowing Mei Lien's disgraced seeker had finally paid off!