The Last Hope

9. Voices From the Past

Shen paused, gazing down. He couldn't believe he'd do that someday. Slowly, he raised his head again and looked at the great stone wall that towered in front of him. Actually, he had never cared for this place. On the contrary. He really hated it. He had always felt like an outcast in the family, so why should he care about the history of his relatives? But if he wanted to know the whole truth, he would have to come here to find solid evidence of a brother's existence.
The white peacock stood near the Gongmen Palace, which he had once destroyed and which had been rebuilt. He could not hope for any records from the city archives because Lord Xiang had burned almost everything when he had attacked the city a few years ago. Fortunately, however, he hadn't plundered the family chamber. It was too well hidden for that. Even the opening mechanism could not be found until you knew where it was. The white peacock walked along the wall until he came across a wall relief that was shaped like a peacock. There he pressed on a certain stone in the masonry. In the next moment, the stone wall moved aside with a loud groan and gave way to a large, dark corridor.
Shen took the lantern he had brought with him into the wing and went into the tunnel, which led downwards. Shen's steps slowed. The walls here were bare and bleak. Only towards the end of the corridor, the picture started to change. Painted and chiseled little peacock figures appeared on the stones. Actually, it was just male peafowls with open peacock wheels who had been painted with different colors. At last, the white peacock had reached the end of the tunnel. There he put the lantern down and looked at another stone wall with a trace of awe. A particularly large peacock was pictured here. He was thrice as large as Shen, had his peacock wheel open and his gaze was directed downwards as if he wanted to see who was trying to gain entry into the room. Shen had never asked who this was supposed to represent. Probably a great father of his. The peacock did not want to waste any more time and took out a peacock feather that he had to tear out beforehand. And for a good reason. With the long peacock feather in his wings, he walked to a long flat stone, hidden in the floor on the side. There he put the feather down, because the mechanism was only triggered when a peacock feather reached a certain weight. There was a cracking noise behind the wall. The opening mechanism was unlocked. Shen counted a few peacock figures on the wall and pressed a specific painted peacock figure on the stone. This caused the large stone slab to rise and revealed the space behind it. Shen picked up the lantern again and went to his ancestral archives. The room was immeasurably large. Painted pictures of the former families and rulers hung on the walls. One of them caught his attention immediately. He held the lantern higher and looked into the painted faces of his parents in the family portrait.
Shen twisted his beak bitterly. "Don't look at me like that!" he hissed as if the images were alive. "It's just your fault!" He sighed. "Why am I talking to you? You don't talk to me either."
He looked around hastily, just to make sure that no one was watching him. Then he wiped the tears from his face. He hated crying as a grown man.
He turned away from the picture and walked past the tall wooden shelves crammed with scrolls. Whether birth certificates or all kinds of records, everything had to do with his family. Shen thought for a moment. Strictly speaking, he had to continue this tradition of recording. He decided to talk to Soothsayer later about it. He searched the compartments quietly. Since only his family's records were stored here, he didn't have to look for long. Nothing related to his family had happened since the death of his parents. He was the last of his parents. Or at least that was what he thought recently, but none of his distant relatives had shown up after that. For whatever reason. Not even friends. Sometimes Shen wondered if his parents had any friends at all. He only vaguely remembered visits from others, but these were only acquaintances for a moment, which he then quickly forgot, or even wanted to forget. Although... Shen brooded again. He might not remember close friends, but he could remember arguments. He remembered exactly because he had never seen his father becoming violent. Except for one incident. There he was... Shen frowned. How old who was he there? He must have been under 10 years. Or even under 5 years? In any case, he remembered the one time where his father had fought against another peacock in the back yard. Shen had looked out the window at that moment. His father had wrestled with the other peacock on the ground. In the next moment, his mother had come running up and had tried to pull his father away from the other peacock. After she finally had made it, the two peacocks only had yelled at each other.
"We have nothing more to say to each other!" Lord Liang shouted at the other peacock.
"No, absolutely nothing more!" the other peacock snapped back in annoyance. "Just hide here with your kung fu and your fine family! Although, your son doesn't look any better either..."
From then on, Shen hadn't wanted to listen anymore. He just ran away after that. He had only heard his father cursing something in the background. Shen didn't know anything after that, only that he had never seen this peacock since then. He couldn't quite remember the color of this peacock. Was it green or blue? No, maybe even with yellow spots? Shen shook his head. That wasn't important at the moment. All of this family stuff around him seemed to affect him so much that even his mind dug into the past. There was only one past he wanted to know.
Finally, he found what he was looking for. He pulled a scroll that included the year in question. Quickly, he unrolled it until he found the part. In a low voice he read aloud, "In the time of Lord Liang and Lady Ai, a second son was born to them, white in shape..." Shen scanned the text. Or maybe there was something the old goat hadn't told him. But in this recording too, the result remained the same. "... and had never been seen again," concluded the report. Shen was going through the rest of the records of his father and his funeral. But even to the last line, his brother was never mentioned again.
Disappointed, he struck the parchment with his feathered fist. At least now he had proof that it had all really happened. Sighing, he put the scroll away again, picked up the lantern and left the archive. He had lost track of time, so he was worried about missing the ship to Japan.