A Tear Frozen in Time

A Promise

Gently wiping away the tears, his fingers lightly brushed over her cheeks while her eyes remained fixed to his face.  He really did know how to break through her every defence without even trying she thought to herself.  The look of immense sadness in his eyes was enough to have her hands raising to lightly brush across his lashes before lowering them again to her lap where she continued to sit even though an awkwardness had now fallen over them.

"Will you listen to me?" he asked softly when she had finally settled enough to drop her head back against his shoulder.

Saying nothing, he took that as permission to speak and what he had to say to her, came nowhere close to the emotions that rose as she learned of what he knew about her trial, why Ye Hua had dug out her eyes and why he had been forced to give them to Su Jin who he hated more than anyone else in the world.  But what she also learned of, was a spell.  One of many that Ye Hua had been gifted along with his fathers immense cultivation. 

"That spell is one that I also know, and as far as I am aware, we are the only two people who have knowledge of it.  It allows one to see through the eyes of another." he explained as Daoji immediately came to mind.

"He was that horse?" she asked incredulously.

"No.  He wasn't.  But his spirit had the ability to travel through the eyes of another." he explained before bringing to light his brothers desire to be with her outside of the Lotus Ponds confines.

"For centuries you had sat with him in his Lotus form, so it was natural that he would cling to the frriendship that you had offered him.  Only he wanted more, so he used the spell our father had given him so he could see a little of the world, though I am sure he had not meant for Ye Hua to use it chase after you.  He would only have given it to him as a way to see though the eyes of birds or any other small creatures in order to view his wider surroundings." he explained clearly and slowly.

"And that's why he took over Daojis sight?  So he could spend more time with me?" she asked more than stunned, because this was a magic that not even the Foxes had knowledge of, and she herself was a Master of Spells having learned them all under her father and brother as well as Zhe Yan.

"It was pure chance that he learned of the horse.  I had brought Daoji to the top of the mountain to heal him from his wounds when he first arrived.  At that time, you were on your two week vacation and during that time, I allowed the horse to roam at will so of course it would have walked about the Lotus Pond confines."

"Only Ye Hua was confined to that immediate area seeing as his spirit needed to remain as close as possible to his lotus and that meant being able to see into only a few of the caves and chambers in his immediate vicinity.  The spell allowed his spirit to see outside of his confines, even though his spirit remained in his Lotus." he explained further which only added to the mounting questions.

"If he was able to see through the horse, but his spirit remained in the Lotus, then how was he able to affect the horses decisions, because I know now that he did." she asked becoming confused at the jealousy Daoji had towards Mo Yuan at that time.

"That would have been a combination of both of their love for you.  Using any other sentient being in this way will affect their ability to think rationally, and because Ye Huas love for you was spawned on this mountain, Daoji would have also felt it as its own." he continued to explain until she fully understood.

Because from his view point, this was important and explained why she herself had lost her own eyes.

But she didn't need him to explain this, because her mind was already figuring it out for herself though she did have one more question.