Capítulo 128: Chapter 126 - A Somber Return
The trip back to Turning Leaf town took several hours. To bring so many people to Four Sunken Corners, a number of carriages had been used, along with several horses carrying soldiers and hunters. Now, the enclosed confines of a small carriage allowed for a number of conversations to take place as the group traveled through the night.
In one carriage, two children dozed lightly, leaning against their mother while Wan Yue and a member of the City Lord's guard sat opposite them. "So what happens to us now?" Teng Shien asked softly, not wanting to wake her children. Long Wing had tried to be strong for his sister but conflict warred within him. He'd known his Uncle Ma much longer than he knew his own father and he'd always admired the strong Soldier as an ideal role model. Long Wei had it even worse, her father had been murdered before she'd been old enough to remember him at all. To her, the man of the house had always been Uncle Ma and she often asked when he and her mother would get married. Both children had responded to the news that their Uncle had murdered their father with tears but those tears warred with still more tears that their beloved Uncle had been killed right in front of them. What happened now? Teng Shien had no idea what to tell her children or how to provide comfort in this moment when she was just as lost.
"What do you want to happen?" Wan Yue asked gently. "I doubt that you were involved in any of this. For all his many sins, Long Ma seemed to truly desire to keep you and the children away from some things. If you mean what happens tonight," Wan Yue began to explain. "Tonight you'll return to the City Lord's manor with us as our guests. Unfortunately, you won't be allowed to return home for a few days while we look for answers or information about other crimes. I imagine that Zhang Bai will be sent to handle matters there. He's young but he won't cause pointless damage to your home. There will be some details to attend to beyond evidence of crimes," she continued, focusing on the concrete items first.
"Long Ma has victims, at the very least, Master Ao Yang. While it may not seem like much to cultivation families, the loss of his hand will likely destroy the Yang family in Turning Leaf town. He has trained no apprentice other than Ao Wen and she'll be departing Turning Leaf to seek her fortune with a sect in the spring. His business will close. He will suffer the remainder of a mortal lifetime in pain. Because of Long Ma's poison, he may never know true health again," Wan Yue enumerated. "Some of the Long Family's assets will be taken and given to his victims to compensate them for what he has done to them. My husband will pronounce a judgment and will make the award public when he has determined what is fair while also considering that you and your children are victims. You've lost a husband and the children have lost a father and that crime too must be paid for. My husband will not leave you destitute just to make a grand gesture to Ao Wen's family. Losing a hand and losing a life are not the same."
"What about after that?" Teng Shien asked. She could accept all of these things and she was grateful for the promise that Long Ma's misdeeds wouldn't be used as an excuse to strip her family of their wealth, but how would she make her life in this town after what Long Ma had done?
"You do what you want to do," Wan Yue said firmly. "You think long and hard about what you want that to be and whether or not you want that to be in Turning Leaf. History is full of people who changed their lives drastically after the 'fall' of their house. Perhaps you will move to Red Moon City or some other place to start anew. Perhaps you'll cling to this place and give your children what it takes to be a different sort of Long family. The choice is yours. I know that Long Ma put pressure on you to stay in your husband's home, under his roof and his rule. Consider for a moment," she said, leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes to rest. "Consider that you may now be more free to choose than you've ever been before and then, decide what to do with that freedom."
In another carriage, Feng Xi cradled the injured Ao Wen gently as the carriage swayed over uneven ground. Opposite her, both Tang Jin and Zhang Bai seemed lost in their own thoughts, each staring out one of the carriage windows at the dark forest slipping by in the night.
"I think I know why she insisted on being the one to fight," Feng Xi finally broke the silence with her soft words.
"Besides the fact that she's clearly much better at it than any of us are?" Zhang Bai said, self-mockery thick in his voice. He'd trained in the two-handed long sword since he'd been tall enough to swing a practice weapon and after two decades, he'd thought himself a decent warrior. Compared to the Battle Fairy they'd witnessed tonight, however, he felt like a bumbling fool.
"She's better than herself too," Feng Xi explained. "The Ao Wen of tonight… the Ao Wen who fought the Rage Queen couldn't have done any of that. It's not just the techniques either, the flames and whatnot that she didn't know back then," she explained, recalling her view of the battle from atop the boulder. "Against the Rage Queen, Ao Wen fought with cunning but little strategy. She sought weakness and exploited it, created an opening when she could, forced her way through with raw strength when she couldn't."
"She was really different tonight," Tang Jin agreed. "I don't like it either," he said, red and gold claws of energy emerging from his fingers and scratching the window frame as he tightened his grip on the carriage. "She let him hurt her."
"She was doing it to gain time," Zhang Bai reminded Tang Jin. "She told us that she needed to understand Long Ma better for her flames to burn an opening for her. She needed him focused on her to learn what she needed."
"This didn't have to be a duel though," Feng Xi said, shaking her head at how the night had gone. At the time, it had been such a drastic improvement over her previous madness that the group had accepted the roles to which they'd each been assigned, but could it have gone differently? Could Ao Wen have taunted Long Ma from behind Zhang Bai's barrier and learned just as much? Could they have placed a barrier over Ao Yang and taken Long Ma on as a group? "Ao Wen doesn't trust us," Feng Xi said, a tear falling from her face to splash softly on Ao Wen's sleeping cheek.
"That's not true!" Tang Jin insisted. "She's told us so much that she doesn't have to, she's shared so many of her secrets, if that isn't trust…"
"No, Sister Xi is right," Zhang Bai interjected. "She trusts us with her heart and more, that's for sure," he quickly clarified. "But she doesn't trust us to fight with her. Not when it really matters. For all she told me she trusted me during the Alchemy Challenge at the banquet, she always had her fan close at hand. She was ready, at any moment, to recover from my failure if I didn't succeed. When it came to fighting to rescue her father…"
"Why?" Tang Jin said, hurt and anguish playing across his golden eyes in the dim light of the carriage. "Haven't we been through enough together? Aren't we her brothers?"
"It's not the same," Feng Xi said, brushing aside Ao Wen's hair and gently stroking her brow. "I think she's struggling to come all the way back from the war she left in her memories. The people she lost and the battles she fought were so much bigger than here and I think we still don't understand what that was like for her."
"How could we though? If I could face it with her, I…" Tang Jin started before shaking his head. "What happens when she remembers more about other people than she knows about us? What happens when we become the smallest part of her vast life?"
"I don't know," Feng Xi whispered. "I've been asking myself, 'What will I do when I meet one of her other lovers.' She said there are others out there that are still alive, still searching for her. You know, at the Sacred Flame Celestial Temple, she had a girlfriend? She had moved in with her Senior Sister Qi Yue," she said softly. "She said that her Senior Sister was a Mystic who cultivated the word 'Desire', that she could arouse anyone with just a look and a touch. How do I even compare to someone like that?"
"By being the woman she came back for," Zhang Bai said firmly. "She could have immersed herself in those memories for as long as she wanted. She came back for you and Brother Jin. Look, I know it's easy to get wrapped up in all this, I'm sure it's hard for her too," he said, deciding to put on the 'eldest brother' hat for a moment. "What we actually need to do is pretty simple though. We need to stay with her. We need to follow her when she leaves. We need to spend the time and build the memories. We need to be strong enough that she doesn't need to dive back into those memories to rescue us. We need to help carry some of the burden so she doesn't hurt herself trying to do it all. Xi," he said, looking at the woman who was closer to Ao Wen than anyone else here. "I know you want to stay close to her while she recovers but we should spend some time training too. You can make a few hours to practice with us, right?"
Drawing a deep breath, Feng Xi nodded her agreement. "You're right. Until she sees that we can take care of larger threats without her help, she'll never let go enough to put down the weight she's carrying. We should rest for a bit when we get back and I know we all have things to look after but every day until she's well enough to join us, we spend at least two hours together practicing. Agreed?" Seeing nods around the carriage, Feng Xi fell back into silence as she cradled Ao Wen, joining the men in staring out the window into the passing night and worrying about what the future held.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
JustJae
JustJae Thank you everyone for all the support! If you’re enjoying this, please check out my other work ‘Unparalleled Artist Unlikely Hero’, set thousands of years earlier in the same world and following Wu Ling the disciple of one of Ao Wen’s previous incarnations!
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