Immortal Mortals

Mortal love

Not wanting to interfere in the local politics and ego driven undertones that the Mortal Realm thrived on, Mo Yuan carefully eased himself into the conversation having already been introduced by his young crew.  

With his natural ability to offer advice and knowledge, while giving the impression that they themselves were coming up with the ideas, many of their problems were solved within an hour.  The most common, was understanding the space they were working with.  Too many were designing impossible structures within such a small space, that many were cutting corners to keep the design without considering the flaws.  

Facing one overseer, who had roughly scratched his buildings design onto the table they were sitting at, Mo Yuan looked at it thoughtfully.  "I can see how you've factored in an attic above the three main bed chambers to stabilize the roof, good idea" he said, causing the overseer to look at it again.

"Ahhh........ Yes.......  that was the plan." he said stroking his scraggly beard thoughtfully, before finally understanding that he had indeed done just that.  Then smiling at Mo Yuan he raised his bottle.

The rest of the evening gave way to the usual bawdy talk, so excusing himself, he rose to leave, but not before he gave his young crew a look that meant they had best call it a night too if they were to be at work on time.   Then turning to leave he suddenly found himself face to face with Ai. 

Surprised to see her there, he didn't waste time.  "Ai.  What are you doing here?" he asked concerned.  It was no place for a woman, not at that time of night and not for a woman of good repute.

"Jie.  When did you get back?  Your boys told me you had gone for a few days" she asked surprised to see him too.

Taking her arm and leading her towards the back, he turned her gently to face him.  "Ai.  Why are you here?" he asked her softly.

Sensing his concern, she raised the cloth she was holding in her hand and suddenly looked down.  "I work here with some of my girls to help the owner.  His wife died in the destruction, so we assist in the many different businesses throughout the town wherever we are needed." she said, suddenly feeling very guilty and wondering if he was angry with her, though she couldn't think why he would be.

Realizing he may have upset her, he smiled at her.  "Ai, I'm sorry.  I was concerned to see you here so late at night." he said gently at the sullen look she was giving him.

Understanding immediately his concern, she realized she had stayed longer than she had intended and going by the bawdy talk from his young crew, she could see it would be best if she left soon, the last thing she wanted to do was fight them off her, they were well and truly drunk.

"Let me walk you home Ai.  It is not safe for you to walk alone." he said gently, having already seen many of them staggering about the tables looking for the way out.  Then, giving her no option he took her arm and guided her swiftly to the exit, and with only a little minor pushing and shoving to get her through safely, they were out in the main street before she could blink.

"Jie, I'm fine really.  You don't need to walk me home." she said softly.

Noticing the other Taverns nearby were also emptying out onto the street ahead of them, he ignored her pleas, instead he took her hand and placed it in the crook of his arm. "Ai.  Just hold onto me, and don't talk." he said gently, but the grim thinning of his lips, told her to be quiet and obey, though inwardly, she was smiling.  She was more than capable of taking care of herself, but she did have to be careful, she was in the Mortal World, and taking care of herself usually involved a sword and a ton of magic.  So deciding to leave it all up to Jie for now, she walked silently beside him in anticipation.