Chapter 175 - Dreams and Fantasies

In the courtyard that Feng Xi and Ao Wen shared, Feng Xi sat quietly in the guest room where they'd settled Alchemist Ma Xiaohua. Looking at the older woman's frazzled state, her bone deep fatigue and the eyepatch across her face, Feng Xi's heart couldn't help but ache for the the alchemist. Ao Wen had said she'd been under Lord White's thumb for two years. Feng Xi couldn't imagine the suffering that must have gone along with such obviously cruel treatment. 

Pulling out her zither, she considered several different melodies that would soothe the weary before discarding all of them. Those would have been fine solutions for the woman she'd been as an Aesthete, but her world was larger now, especially after the gift she received from Big Sister Qi Yue. Mentally flipping through the manual Qi Yue had left in her inner world, Feng Xi hesitated for a moment before selecting 'Sorrow's End.' 

The first mournful notes of the song sank deep into Ma Xiaohua, bringing each of her deeply buried hurts to the surface. In her dreams, Lord White entered her shop carrying the limp body of his poisoned lover. For days, she had ransacked her library and her collection of herbs, elixirs, pills and rare ingredients. Every night, Lord White returned to her with harsher demands, darker threats and ever growing desperation. Finally, she'd believed that she found a solution. She couldn't have been more wrong. The pill she'd painstakingly refined for the Dark Hound had proven nearly fatal and only by consuming many of her life saving treasures had she been able to pull his life back from the doom she'd nearly brought to him. 

Lord White hadn't been merciful. As Feng Xi's sorrowful chords pulled her deeper into her dreams she remembered the freezing pain as he bound her sight. The curse he inflicted upon her convinced her body that the eye was dead, rotting away in its socket despite the fact that the organ itself was perfectly healthy. No elixir, pill, concoction or other application of alchemy could heal the wound to her soul that robbed half the light of the world from her. From that day forth, he'd told her that her life belonged to him until his lover opened his eyes to gaze upon the world again. If not for the fact that Lord White intended to make use of her skills, he would have taken both eyes from her for the crime of nearly killing the Dark Hound. 

Slowly, Feng Xi's song began to shift, faint notes of hope weaving their way among the sorrows. Months and years of trying and failing to master the dark manual melted away when Young Lord Ao Wen appeared in her dreams. The aura of strength and confidence that radiated from him made her feel that nothing in the world would be beyond his ability to solve. As Feng Xi's music brought more hope, Ma Xiaohua's dreams shifted from memory to fantasy. She worked together with Ao Wen, side by side in both her alchemy lab and his, each of them progressing their understanding of alchemy and the affliction that bound the Dark Hound to his unending slumber. 

In her dreams, the woman with the zither often appeared, tending to her lover and occasionally providing a moment of affection for the older alchemist working at Lord Ao Wen's side. Feng Xi and Ao Wen formed such a blindingly perfect couple in her mind that she could never see them apart. Only, in her dreams, powered by Feng Xi's increasingly hopeful melody, she started to see herself along with them. When Feng Xi pulled Lord Ao out of the alchemy lab for a much needed break and meal, she now invited Ma Xiaohua along with them. As they came closer to a solution to the curse, she also became closer to the mysterious alchemist and his beautiful wife. 

When Feng Xi's song finally reached the end, Ma Xiaohua dreamed of success in curing Lord White's lover. Before Lord White could restore her vision, Ao Wen resolved it, inviting her to leave with them when they resumed their journey. While she was never intimate with the delicate young alchemist, somehow, it was enough for her just to be brought away, to have the hope of something more in the future. 

Several hours later, Ma Xiaohua woke feeling better than she could remember feeling in years. Not only had she recovered from the past several days of sleepless nights but the tremendous weight she had carried for the past two years no longer depressed her heart and soul. "You did that for me, didn't you," she said when she noticed Feng Xi sitting behind her zither in the corner of the room. While she couldn't remember the tune, she remembered the sound of the zither seeping into her heart and carrying away her worry. "Thank you," she whispered.

"From what Wen said, the past two years have been very hard on you," Feng Xi said gently. "I don't have Wen's talent to mend the body, but the heart I can at least do a little bit for. I'm glad to know that it helped."

"You did a lot more than help, Lady Feng," Ma Xiaohua said, pulling herself together to ask one of the questions she most needed an answer to. "You call Lord Ao so affectionately, you are his wife?" 

"I don't know that I'd claim such a title," Feng Xi said, blushing slightly. "It's enough that we share a bed and our hearts for now. A wedding would be nice some day," she said wistfully. "But we're in no hurry to make anything formal."

"I see," the alchemist said softly, gathering her courage to take the most frightening step. "Lady Feng, I brought something for you. I'm told that you're following a Martial path along with your Artistry and that you've only recently begun to cultivate your archery, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is," Feng Xi said, narrowing her eyes slightly as she felt the storm of emotions swirling behind the alchemist's question. "Why?"

With a wave of her hand, Ma Xiaohua conjured a small jade box from her spacial ring, opening it to reveal a lustrous green and silver pill the size of a small bead. "This is a 'Child of the Wind' marrow cleansing pill," she explained. "For Martial path cultivators who touch the power of wind, it allows you to better channel the natural flow of wind around you, lightens and strengthens your body, and speeds the cultivation of wind based physical arts. I would like to gift this pill to you," she said, bowing from her position sitting in bed and extending the pill toward Feng Xi. 

"I don't understand," Feng Xi said, remaining in her seat in the corner of the room. "Why would you gift me such a thing? A pill like that must be worth at least a thousand spirit crystals, what reason could you possibly have to offer such an extravagant gift?"

"Lady Feng, I find myself trapped," Ma Xiaohua said, looking up into Feng Xi's questioning emerald eyes. "Never in my life has anyone stirred my heart the way Lord Ao has. Never in my life has someone shown me so much care when I am worth so little. I know that you are Lord Ao's love and I would never wish to tear you from his side. I only ask for your permission to attempt to attract his gaze. Even if I live my life as a concubine in his coldest palace, for the chance to follow him and earn his affection, I would give much more than this pill. Please, consider this proof of my sincerity. I don't wish to come between you, I just hope to be permitted to follow along at his other side."