Chapter 5 - A Voice from the Past

Within her inner world, Ao Wen crashed through the palace gates with a roar before collapsing in a deep bamboo forest. For a moment, confusion flitted across her face before the sensations from her body overwhelmed her and consciousness slipped from her grasp.

In the welcoming hall Elder Dong Yu gave quick instructions to the servants. "Take this one to my chambers personally," she commanded, pointing at Ao Wen. "She has overdrawn her energies in her Awakening. I'm afraid that if she isn't supported properly she may find herself crippled even if she did awaken. Now, you girls," Grandma Yu said sternly addressing the seventeen newly awakened young women. "You will come with me but let me make two things clear. First, it is likely thanks to that young woman that so many of you have awakened. Second, if you tell anyone that truth, you're likely to bring endless troubles to her. You will not speak of this to anyone, do you understand?"

"Yes Elder Dong," the ladies voiced strongly. None of them wanted to bear the sin of harming their benefactor.

"Good girls. Now, come with me, there are things you must learn…"

Within her inner world, Ao Wen woke slowly to the sound of soothing zither music and a softly splashing waterfall. "Take your time," a woman's musical voice said. "Awakening can be disorientating."

"Where am I?" Ao Wen asked, eyes darting about the peaceful garden she found herself in. When she had spoken to Feng Xi about Awakening, Feng Xi had told her that she was able to push open a humble sliding door just enough to enter a small room that contained a single cushion and an unadorned zither. According to Feng Xi, a person's inner world would slowly grow in size and complexity as their cultivation advanced. But this didn't feel like a humble room of a newly opened inner world. It felt like the majestic garden of a grand palace! And she wasn't alone!

The vision seated amidst the flowering trees plucked a melody of sublime enchantment from gleaming zither strings, instantly commanding the full attention of Ao Wen's senses. Everything surrounding this woman proclaimed her an immortal of peerless grace and allure, from her lustrous black tresses tumbling past sculpted shoulders to eyes brimming with ancient mystery.

Her elegant posture and the sensuous caress gliding across each note sang of one fully embracing pleasure and beauty. Jasmine scented the air as heady as fine wine, infusing the garden vista with an ethereal loveliness to match its presiding mistress. Soft azure silk hugged generous curves barely constrained by their embrace.

When full plum colored lips parted to sing in dulcet tones no mortal vocalist could hope to replicate, Ao Wen trembled under sorcery no magic could replicate nor defense dispel. It felt like the voice of desire itself had gained substance to tantalize anyone who wandered int this secret garden. Gazing upon such celestial glory, Ao Wen instantly understood why wars raged and kingdoms burned throughout history to possess but a fragment of this woman for even a fleeting heartbeat. To renounce one glimpse felt unimaginable.

"This is your Soul Palace," the celestial beauty said in soft musical tones. "A small corner of it that you built in a different lifetime."

"Soul Palace? Not an inner world? And what do you mean a different lifetime? Who are you?" Ao Wen spoke in a rush, trying to understand what was happening. She'd never heard of encountering others during an Awakening but she'd heard at least two voices outside the gate and now there was a third person?

"A Soul Palace," the woman said, getting up from the zither before coming to help Ao Wen stand. "A Soul Palace is constructed within an inner world by Immortals as they approach the Divine Realm. This is yours, built over seventeen lifetimes and expanded each time you entered the Immortal stages," she said, a touch of nostalgia tinging her voice as though she was repeating words that had been spoken to her long in the past.

"Seventeen lifetimes? I've lived seventeen times before?" Ao Wen asked, finding it difficult to believe. "But if I was Immortal, how could I have that many lifetimes?"

"Immortal doesn't mean you can't die," the woman said, leading Ao Wen to a small table where she began to gracefully pour tea. "Drink, it will help steady you," she said before continuing the previous topic. "Immortal just means you have escaped from a finite life span. Immortals can still be injured, fall sick, even die from errors in their own cultivation. The path doesn't end when you become an Immortal, it's just one of many beginnings. Today is also a beginning. Yours."

"I don't understand," Ao Wen said, sipping the fragrant tea and trying to slow her rapidly beating heart. "Who are you?" Ao Wen suddenly dropped the tea remembering some of the more outlandish fantasy stories her mother had read to her as a child. "Are you taking over my body? Possessing me to continue your life?"

"No," the woman said with a soft smile and a musical laugh. "I'm Mei Lien, the Singing Lotus Immortal Empress. I'm what's left of the life you lived before you became Ao Wen. Soon, I'll fade away becoming nothing but memories. Before that, there are a few things you must know about yourself and some gifts I have for you as well."

"I was an Immortal Empress?" Ao Wen whispered, struggling to reconcile the identity of an Immortal Empress with that of a stonecutter's daughter. They couldn't be further apart!

"You were, and many other things as well. What's important now is that you're Ao Wen. This is your life," she emphasized the word 'your' heavily. "You decide for yourself who you want to be. Warlord, Medical Saintess, Diva, Thief… you've been those before and more. In this life, of all the Myriad Paths you could walk, you get to choose which ones matter to you. I imagine you'll make very different choices than I did."

"Why do you say that?" Ao Wen asked, feeling increasingly overwhelmed.

"Because you're very different from anyone you've ever been before," Mei Lien said with a smile. "After all, you're not really human are you?"

"Human?" Ao Wen blinked at the sudden change in topic. "Of course not." Ao Wen answered quickly. Humans were exceptionally rare on this continent. As far as she knew, she'd never even met one. "Wait, are you telling me that you were?"

"Not just me, all of your previous selves have been human. But you're different. You carry the bloodline of Spirits. Extraordinary bloodlines too," the Immortal Empress praised.

"I'm not a spirit," Ao Wen denied. "We're called Spirit Folk because we've lost the ability to take the form of our ancestral spirits. They say Spirit Beasts are the other half of our Spirit Clans, they're the ones who have lost the ability to take the shape of a person, even losing much of their ability to reason and speak."

"Spirit Folk then," Mei Lien continued. "And do you know which extraordinary ancestral spirits you're descended from?"

"No," Ao Wen shook her head. "Father thinks that we may be related to the Stone Lion. His grandfather had the ability to bring stone carvings to life with a mighty roar. Mother doesn't know either. She thinks that we might be related to an Ember Wolf since most of her family takes up jobs that relate to fire in some way. She's a baker, her father was a whitesmith."

"Stone Lion and Ember Wolf," Mei Lien smiled. "Not bad conjecture, but far short of reality. Your paternal bloodline belongs to the Earth Dragon," she said. "Didn't you feel your blood resonate with that dragon's roar earlier? And your maternal bloodline comes from the Vermillion Bird. Neither of these are simple bloodlines."

"That's why the voice said 'a dragon's heart must beat fiercely,'" Ao Wen said, understanding beginning to dawn. "Wait, that voice, was that another life I lived? Was I a man before? Is that why I…" her voice stopped, trembling as her mind spun in a dozen directions.

"Why you're drawn to Feng Xi as a lover?"

"You! You know?" Ao Wen sputtered, her cheeks burning in embarrassment.

"Of course I know. Myriad faces, one soul. What you know, I know," she said as though it were obvious. "Still, the opposite won't be true for a long time to come. Anyway, no, that presence isn't a past life but a current friend. He's someone who paid a heavy price to protect you in this life. Maybe as a dragon yourself in this life you'll be able to out stubborn him for once!" Mei Lien said with a sad smile. "To answer your question, our life has had many loves, but we've never found a man that stirred our heart the way a woman could. Perhaps it's because our first true love was a woman that the mold became set. Perhaps not. It doesn't mean you won't find a worthy man some day, you very well may! That's part of our life after all. Some things happen again and again, while others are entirely new. This time, you're something other than human, you might love people other than women. What I want to say is that you shouldn't feel like you can only follow the paths you've walked before. Love who you wish, as I did," she finished.

"It sounds like you had a happy life… what happened?"

"It ended," Mei Lien said simply. "Some things must be protected, no matter the cost, and in paying it, the ones we love could escape catastrophe. I died without regrets. In time, you may find others who know you, who are alive today because I died then. How you relate to them is up to you, but I do wish you'd be kind to them, even if you can't love them the way you might once have."

"I will, I promise..." Ao Wen began.

"No," the Immortal Empress interrupted sharply. "The promise of an Immortal is a heavy thing. You may not be an Immortal in strength yet but the Heavens will consider you as one when judging your actions," she advised sternly. "You may find some past loves to be insufferable or even meet them as enemies. Life doesn't always let us stay the same, even for those who aren't reborn. It is best that you take oaths very seriously lest you trap yourself in ways you don't yet understand."

"I have a lot to learn, don't I?" Ao Wen sighed.

"You do, but you'll have a few advantages. It's time. Each time you encounter an ending, you prepare a few gifts to carry forward into your next life. This time, you'll not only receive that which you prepared for yourself, but the blessings of a stubborn dragon and a wilful phoenix that have followed you into this life. Come," she said, extending a hand to Ao Wen. "My time is about to end and yours is about to begin."