A Tear Frozen in Time

Betrayal

It was day three and Mo Yuan was still readjusting to being alive and even more so being awake.  It seemed inconceivable that having spent seventy thousand years battling to open his eyes, alll he really wanted to do at that moment was close them again.  Zhe Yan had told him that he would need to go into seclusion for at least three months before he would be able to manage a full day without tiring, and he was also ensuring that the visitors who were still streaming though the doors, were kept to a minimum and only to those who actually knew Mo Yuan while everyone else was offered Kunlun tea and freshly baked biscuits before given a polite but firm escort off the Mountain, a chore was given to Liang and Ling Yu being the two gentlest of his Disciples.

But not once in the three days of his return did Mo Yuans heart not race whenever a new visitor made their way past Die Feng who was inspecting the credentials of everyone who made it to the main entrance and though Zhe Yan could see Mo Yuans disappointment as old friends and acquaintances bid him welcome and to offer all manner of gifts and alliances, he had yet to inform him of what had happened in his absence.

For a couple of hours, Zhe Yan had left the running of the mountain to Die Feng, while he raced back to Qing Qiu to see if he could get the girl to follow him back.

"What for?  There is nothing left of me there, it ended seventy thousand years ago." Bai Qian  replied stone faced and ice cold, a demeanor that Zhe Yan was now used to, but still, he could never stop wishing for that little girl that Mo Yuan had once chased all the way back from Kunlun Mountain to his Peach Tree Grove because of a mischief she didn't want to take responsibility for.

"Xiao Wu, he wants to see you.  He....." he began only to be cut dead in his tracks.

"As you have already informed me.  He knows who I am, therefore he knows where I am.  If he wants to see me, he can make an appointment through Mi Gu, though I cannot guarantee that I will be available" she said with that same chilling tone she used whenever his name was mentioned.

And for a few seconds Zhe Yan had stood staring at her with the same hard look he aways gave her when she took that tone with him,

"Now you listen here Miss Bai." Zhe Yans voice suddenly crackled in anger while reverting back to her proper title whenever he angered with her.

"Regardless of what you feel for him, he sacrificed himself for the entire world, gave up everything he had loved and cherished to save us all.  You of all people should know that this was the kind of man that he was, but he never once stopped fighting to come back and as his Disciple, your place is back on Kunlun Mountain.  You have no idea of the battle he fought to return, and you have idea of who it is that he came back for......." he said before he was once again shut down.

Ignoring the innuendo, Bai Qians face flushed wildly.  "I too sacrificed myself, not only for the entire world Zhe Yan but because he felt it necessary that I do so, otherwise he would never have given me that spell.  He made it very clear that day, that not only was I not worth staying for, but my life was to be forfeited in exhange for the debts I owed him."  she screamed back.  "Only I didn't die didI.  Instead I met his likeness who decided to add salt to my already bleeding heart?  But that does not mean I did not pay my debts.  After all, seventy thousand years of heart blood is over and above what I owed.  I am now debt free, so there is no reason for me to see him now." she spat out in anger.

"He is your Shifu!  You swore your allegience to him." He suddenly roared over the top of her and bringing Mi Gu running into the main den where they were.

And instantly, the extreme cold from her and extreme heat from him initially confused Mi Gu, but realizing what was happening,  he just as quickly left, because he knew exactly where this argument was headed.   It was not the first time these two had fought over that man only this time her voice lowered to a mere whisper, something that they all knew to mean she had reached the end of her patience.