Give Me Fire

A Distant Promise

Bai Mu climbed down the mountain slowly, keeping the broken guqin close to his chest, like a mother hugging her child to sleep. That guqin was a gift from his master, Bai Senmei. The memories of him were now shattered, just like that instrument.

Bai Mu was not sure he could repair it. Bai Mu was not sure if he could remember it all.

The young musician shielded his eyes from the sunlight rising over his head, his fingers casted thin lines of shadows over his face. It was morning and the birds sang. It was only last night when his life took a turn.

Under the midnight moon he talked to his Shizun Bai Senmei, the next he disappeared and the darkness emerged.

"I wished you were not here to see this..."

Bai Senmei had said that to Bai Mu last night. The disciple didn't understand what the master meant. Perhaps it was as that demon had said, he was too young to understand.

Even so, he wished to have someone to explain things to him. Bai Mu looked at the clear blue sky and exhaled. It was the pale blue that he saw every day and yet the color brought tints of hopelessness.

When that same sky was dark azure, he inadvertently said goodbye to his Shizun. He didn't make much of the events, but slowly, as each step climbed down the stone stairs, he remembered what he needed to remember.

Last night Bai Mu couldn't sleep.

The moon was shining over the dark mantle but there were no stars, and a few clouds veiled the round silver as the wind blew. The snow kissed mountains showed little to no color, amidst the patches of white, some grass peeked through. Sometimes the breeze shaked the tree branches, shedding more snow into the pathways leading into the temple of the thousand bells. The home of the Qian Bai Ling sect.

The bells sang slowly, the melody like the song of dormant crickets.

Few other sounds joined in the night. A few birds chirping, perhaps some arctic foxes hunting, the creak of steps over the stone as disciples took their watch around the temple.

A long stone stairwell circled the mountain like a snake coiling. The trail ended in the rounded gates of the Qian Bai Ling sect, carved with a wood so light it gleamed in the night. From that height, a caldera was visible. The waters were frozen and the crater so big, it resembled more of a sea than a lake.

The frozen sea.

The blue surface shone in silver and teal as it reflected the moonlight. There was always something illuminating the mountain, even if there were no lanterns.

There was no real darkness in the temple of the thousand bells.

No darkness, no doubts. Everything carried on impeccably through the night, like the wind beneath the wings of a sparrow. Each of the people inside the temple glided through their tasks, one after the other, through morning and night.

However,Bai Mu did not follow that rhythm, he could not find peace. Bai Mu turned over from his bed, grunted, and massaged his temples in the end, trying to ease some of the tension. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't sleep.

From his bed, tucking inside the covers, feeling the woven threads beneath his fingers, he brushed the fabric as if it were an instrument. Bai Mu's fingers were long and silky, like the tip of a brush painting over a canvas. His mind was restless with a song, how could Bai Mu go to the world of dreams if his mind was already there?

Bai Mu wanted to play music but the time was not right. It was time to sleep; Rules were very strict in Qian Bailing.

Despite living in that temple from a tender age, Bai Mu found many of the rules arbitrary and annoying. One of the old masters was not so thrilled about his musical talents and scolded him on a daily basis. Bai Mu considered him an ignorant fool, stuck up in a frigid world. Luckily his Shizun, Bai Senmei was not like this. His master understood him, as the two of them never quite fitted in that place.