A Tragic of the past

The next morning, the sun shining bright. It was like any other day. Except the views were more beautiful and vibrant. The sun shines on the mountains and plains.

Yin was awake before anyone and left for the village behind those mountains. It's been 3hr since Yin left the camp. Everyone else woke up, a girl on the same squad as Yin found a note that was written by Yin saying "I've some important work to take care of. I'll be back by tonight". The girl read the note and passed the message to everyone else.

After for so many hours, Yin stops under a big tree and took a little break. "*Huff, huff". She was breathing hard after walking for so long but there were still more ways to go ahead. She was sitting under the tree shade. A gentle wind blew "Whoosh". As the wind blew she elegantly brushed her hair behind her ears while writing her diary. Yin always keeps note of the events happening in her day-to-day life.

After resting for a while, she stood up and started walking again. She walked for another 3hrs and finally reached the village. The village was very poor, there were people in the alleys who were so skinny that their bones were able to be seen. There were food shortages, bandits around every corner, and theft in broad daylight. Everyone was looking at Yin as she was walking.

Some bandits came walking towards Yin and said "Hey there, you look amazing why don't come with us and we all can have a good time together, right guys?" There were 5 guys and they all started laughing "hahaha". One guy tried to touch her on her chest. Before he could get any closer to Yin, she used her right leg and dropped a high kick to his face, slamming him to the ground. The others stepped back a little seeing that but the other guy who was their leader said "Don't tell me you'll scared of a girl? Go and get her. The one who can catch her, I'll let him have her after me". After hearing that rest of the guys ran towards Yin together and started attacking her.

One of the guy throws a punch but Yin dodges it. She crouches and swipes his feet throwing him to the ground and then kicks him in the face knocking him unconscious. Yin could've easily finished this fight in seconds using her elemental powers but she didn't because there were people around her and they could get hurt. After she finishes the rest of the 2 guys, their leader came forward. He ran toward her and throws a jab at her but Yin dodges it by crouching down and then throws an uppercut at him. The guy falls to the ground flat. Seeing Yin defeating the bandits the people around started applauding for her. Yin smiles at them and then starts walking away.

She thinks about where should she start to look for the person named "Lee". "Hmm… where should I look first? Ah! I remember someone once said to me that a bar is a good place for information. Maybe I should start from there". She then looks for a bar and after walking some time she comes across a bar. She heads inside. Yin enters the bar and thinks "Rule no 1. Be calm and confident". She walks confidently and takes a sit. She then says to herself "Rule no 2. Order a drink". She then orders a drink "Hey, can I drink". The bartender replies "Yes ma'am". The bartender then gave the drink to Yin. Yin then said to herself again "Rule No 3. Ask for the information. Finally I've cleared all the steps. Yay!". Yin asks the bartender "Do you happen to know anyone by the name "Lee". The bartender replied "Hmm… it does sound familiar but there are a lot of people by that name. Would mind sharing some more info perhaps then I can tell you". Yin thinks for a bit and then whispers to the bartender slowly "He used to work with the elders in Huo Village but was exiled".

The bartender thinks for a bit and then he replies "Ah! I see that Lee. He lives over by that river near a big tree. You'll see a small house that's where he lives". Yin then thanks the bartender and leaves after paying for the drink. The bartender smiles as she leaves and says "What a nice young lady. No one I served a drink ever said thanks to me. I hope she gets whatever she's trying to find".

[Authors Note: Karma means good or bad luck resulting from one's actions]

Yin starts walking a bit faster than before. After a while, she reached the spot the bartender told her. There was a small shabby house in front of her. She walked towards the door and knocked "*knock, *knock". A small girl opened the door. She was around 8yrs old. The girl said "Ye..yes, who are you looking for?". Yin was a little confused seeing the little girl because she thought it was Lee or someone else but not some little girl. Yin replied, "I was looking for Mr Lee. Does he live here?". "The girl knew about Lee's past so she denied that Lee stays here. She replied "N..no there's no one by that name here". Lee from inside the house said in loud voice "Let her in Sarah. I know her". The girl stood near the door for a bit and let Yin enter.

The girl said, "He's this way follow me, miss". As Yin followed the girl, she reached the bedroom. Yin entered the room while being prepared to fight since she knew he would attack her. But as soon as Yin entered the room, what she saw was totally unexpected. She saw Lee lying on the bed completely helpless. The little girl went towards Lee and helped him to sit straight on the bed. Lee then said to the girl "Go leave us alone and don't come in until I say so". The girl hesitated to leave. Lee put his hands on her head and said while patting her "It's ok go and remember you saw nothing". The girl then left the room while closing the door on her way out.

Lee then asked Yin "So who are you? I know you're here to kill me but at least Iet me know who you are". Yin replied, "You don't need to know who I am. But I want you to answer my questions". Lee replied "Fine". Yin was a little shocked and said "I didn't think you'll agree so easily". Lee replied, "Haha, look at me, I'm in no position to fight back, I can't even move on my own". Yin then asks "Tell about the incident of Huo Village. I'm talking about the "Holy Flame tragedy".

Lee with a frowned face replied, "I see that's what all this is about". Yin replied, "If you lie even a ...". Before Yin could finish Lee interrupted her and said "Don't worry I won't lie. At least after all this time someone came to find the real reason". Lee then takes a deep breath and starts talking about the past, about the "Holy Flame tragedy" and what exactly happened on that day.

Lee says "Where should I begin? Ah! I remember it was almost the end of summer and autumn was about to start. My brother was a very talented person and everyone used to love him and his wife too. His wife was the most beautiful woman I've seen and she was very kind towards everyone. I fell in love with her when my brother introduced her to me after his marriage. I know I'm a disgusting person to fall in love with the person my brother loves and is already married but at that time I didn't think of anything else. I just wanted her to be mine. I was always jealous of my brother since he's liked by everyone and now he's got a woman as beautiful as her. I tried everything, one day I finally confessed to her and told her to leave my brother and come to me but she refused. She wasn't angry or anything rather she talked with a smile and said "I'm happy you like me so much but I'm sorry I like your brother and I always will but I'm sure you'll find someone who's even better than me".

Yin then replies "You really have no shame. What did you do after that?" Lee replied "I gave up at that point and thought there's nothing more I could do. I thought that would be the end of it but I was wrong

After a month later my brother had a child. I remember it clearly it was autumn and there were many cherry blossom trees in our village that blossomed that day, it was beautiful. That was the day when Yang my nephew was born. My brother and his wife were very happy. In fact, it was my brother who was crying more than his wife while holding him. His wife was comforting him when it should've been the opposite. My brother was always mischievous and used to make fun of everything and everyone, even his wife. He was always so cheerful, the total opposite of me. I was envious of him even more because now he even had a child with her. With the person I loved".

Yin was getting a little angry because she could predict what was going to happen next. Lee continues "Later, that night as I was walking home. A guy came to me. The guy was sent by the elders in the village. The guy invited me to meet the elders, so I went with him. When I meet the elders and heard about their plans. I was a little scared but I was happier. They planned to assassinate my brother and take away the child and promised me that they would spare his wife. And that meant I could be with her with the one I love. I couldn't think of anything else at that time".

Yin stood up from the chair and walked towards him and grabbed him by his shirt collar and said "And you just went with it. I get it you're angry with him and jealous but so much that you would plan to kill him just for your own gain". Lee doesn't speak a single word. Yin leaves his collar and goes back to her place and sits down.

Lee then continues "The reason why they wanted to kill my brother and take away Yang was because my brother was the strongest in the village and only someone who's close to him can get closer to him and kill him without any problems and as for Yang. They wanted him because he was born with a lot of mana. Something which no one has ever seen and they wanted to extract his power for them or use him as their sword and use him as their puppet". Hearing that Yin bites her lips in anger but stays quiet. Lee then says "My brother and his wife knew about Yang and they wanted to hide it. But they didn't know that the elderly already knew about it. All this happened the same day Yang was born. Since he was just a child and couldn't control his mana his aura was leaking. My brother made a special talisman to seal some of it. The next day things got even more worse. First, my brother got fired from his job, he went to look for other jobs but none hired him. Later, after a long day, he returned home to see everything in the house scattered. He panicked and looked for his wife and Yang and found them hiding inside the cupboard. His wife was crying so comforted her. He said everything that happened today and so did she. My brother thought something was going on and he told her to leave the village together but she didn't agree. She thought it was just bandits and nothing else even though she was still shaking out of fear".

Lee looks over at Yin and she is still sitting in the chair and haven't moved a bit. Lee then continues "If they had gone that day everything would've been different. The next day was when the incident occurred which know everyone knows as the "Holy Flame tragedy". It all started in the evening. I ran towards my brother's house and warned him and his wife about the attack and what the elders are planning. And suggested they leave. They trusted me and that's exactly what the elders were planning. They finally decided to leave the village. While they were about to leave some people ambushed them and started attacking them. My brother fought them all but was injured. It was almost dark and the sun was about to set. It started raining heavily. Then more and more people started to attack him, trying to catch Yang. They ran and ran until they were surrounded. My brother kept fighting but he was almost at his limit. Finally, the 5 elders came and stood in front of him and said "Give that child to us and we'll spare you and your wife". His wife yelled, "No, I won't, his my child". Then I came forward. My brother was happy to see me since he thought I would help him. I walked towards him and as he hugged me, I….I stabbed him with my poison knife. He pushed me back and pulled out the knife from his stomach and said "Wh…*cough why brother?". His wife yelled and ran towards him "Dear are you okay. Oh no, no, no your bleeding someone help us please".

Lee coughs up some blood since he was talking for so long but Yin didn't care at all. At this point, Yin didn't seem to care at all. Lee then says "The villagers who used to love him, who used to praise him everyone just stood there watching. As my brother was down they snatched Yang away from his mother. But at that point, my brother stood up again and punches the guy and takes back Yang. He said, "Don't you dare touch my family". He fought and fought and fought. Then one of the elders jumped in to fight. My brother kept the Yang in a small basket in the middle of the street while his wife was protecting it. While they were busy fighting other people the elder throws a spear towards the basket since he knew they would rush there to protect their child and that's what they did. The spear pierced through my brother and his wife and it was only a few inches away from Yang. I was about to help her so tried to run towards her but one of the elders stopped me from going and binded me with magic. I shouted "Why are you doing this? You promised you would spare her. The elders didn't listen. Both my brother and his wife died standing there on the street with spear pierced into them. Yang was laughing since he was happy seeing the rain. They slowly closed their eyes and fell onto the ground holding each other. The elder that threw the spear walked toward Yang, he stared at him for a while then picked him up by holding him by his back. Yang was having fun and he giggled. The elder spoke "Look at you. Are you having fun? I just killed your parents and you look so happy, maybe I should kill you too. Another elder spoke "That's enough, we need this child". The elder didn't listen, he holds Yang's neck and tries to squeeze a little and says "Stop laughing or I'll kill you, you brat". The elder said, "I said leave him".

"Just then when they were arguing with each other, Yang started crying because he felt uncomfortable. As he started crying more and more his aura increased the talisman my brother put on him suddenly broke due to being unable to hold back his power. Finally, the talisman broke and a huge flame erupted from the ground from every corner of that area. Yang's body was surrounded by fire. The elder dropped him back in the basket because he couldn't hold him anymore. He cried even more and the flame increased. The other elders commanded other to go and calm him down but they could even get close to him. I was hiding near a house, thinking about what I've done. It was raining heavily but the flames weren't affected by it. Then as the elders couldn't control the situation anymore, they decide to kill Yang and later try to take as much mana as they can. Everyone took their position and ran towards him with the intention to kill. The flames protected him and a giant tornado of fire emerged, it pulled most of the people inside and killed them. The people didn't give up, as more and more people started approaching since it was the elders' command, the flames engulfed more than half of the village. Innocent people ran away from their houses to somewhere safe, while others stayed back to fight. After a few hours, Yang slowly fell asleep after crying for so long. The rain stopped and the sun shined bright. Many were injured and many died. The elders approached Yang and saw him sleeping peacefully, and they took him away. They then exiled me. I said "I would say about this to anyone, please trust me" and to let me stay but they said "Someone who would kill his own brother isn't someone we can trust" and then they throwed me outside".

Lee then says "Do you who that girl Sarah is? She is not my child. One day I saved her from some thugs and since then she's been with me and even though I can't move much now she's still here looking after me". Yin gets up from the chair and with a cold stare at Lee, she says "I don't even have the words to describe you. Do you even know what you've done? You ruined a happy family and for what just because you were jealous". Lee replied looking down " I know that's why karma has struck me and know I'm here in this state. Please do me a favour, I want you to kill me….". Yin replies "I won't dirty my hand by killing, I guess Yang hasn't found you yet. He'll be the one to kill you, not me" and as Yin start's walking towards the door, Lee yells "Please kill me I beg you, Please".

Sarah was waiting downstairs all this long so she got a little nervous and decided to up to the room. As she was about to open the door Yin came out of the room. She gently patted her head and left. Sarah entered the room, seeing Lee crying she asked "wha.. what happened?". Lee hugged her tight crying.

It was night when Yin came out of the house. She looked at the sky and remembered what Yang said when she asked if he had killed innocent people and he replied with "Yes". She cries a little but then wipes her tears and makes up her mind that she would meet with Yang and try to talk with him again. Yin then starts walking back towards the camp. After walking for so long she finally reached the camp in the morning.

Time before the war: 1 Day left