A Wuxia Tale: Blade in Training

Standing Still

(GENERAL WANG)

It still took me four hours to get back to the Capital even though I rode hard and my horse to exhaustion. I went straight to my home, Wang Estate. I need to see that my lover and daughter are alive.

"Captain," Dayu was the one who welcomed me. I quickly grabbed him in my arms, hugging my heart tight. "Captain...?"

"You are alive. You are alive," I felt my heart beating so fast. Ready to burst. Dayu is alive. He is alright. Then I pushed Dayu away. "Hua? Where is Hua?" I asked my lover frantically.

"She is alive as well," Dayu said in a slow tone. His eyes filled with worry. "She is alive..."

"But she is not fine," that much I can easily discern from the worried and hurt look on Dayu's eyes. I let my lover go to look up. I know that my daughter is on the second floor of our home. "Is she hurt? I tried riding faster, Dayu ah. I tried...I'm sorry...I tried..."

"Shhh..." Dayu hugged me again to stop my fumbling apology. "I know you tried your best, Captain. I know. Don't do this...Hua needs us." Dayu's voice broke. "Your daughter...she killed Nadira."

My world stopped. "Hua...killed Princess Nadira? That Mughal Princess was here?"

Hua killed someone. This is not the first time my daughter used her strength to kill someone...but deep inside, I know this kill is different.

Dayu let me go to nod at me. "She was part of the invading force that attacked our home. An invading force made up of fifty men. We killed them all." My lover explained.

"And do we have casualty as well?" I asked.

Dayu's eyes dimmed as he nodded. "Fifteen of our servants were dead, as well as eight of our guards. Many more were hurt. We are already mending them, I set up an infirmary to accomodate all the wounded. What happened? I thought the Mughal force was going back to the South."

"It was a ruse to get me out of the Capital. And I willingly fell for it." I feel like beating myself for that stupidity. I was so eager to get Princess XiLen away from my daughter and Hua's fiance that I didn't see the trap she laid out for me.

"Is Hua hurt?" I asked Dayu, a little scared. I don't want to see my daughter hurting again. She already suffered a wound in her arm when she helped to save her fiance from an attack when this whole courtship with Prince Jin was just starting.

"Worse," Dayu said. My eyes widened at that. What could be worse than Hua getting hurt?

I was not prepared for the answer to that question. As Dayu and I moved upstair to see our daughter, I was not ready to see Hua kneeling by her bed while looking at her dead Nanny lying on my daughter's bed.

"She is not yet ready for us to take her Nanny. She won't let us touch her Nanny," Dayu's voice was laced with pain and fear. "I have never seen her like this, Captain. I don't know what to do." My lover seemed lost as well.

What could we do? If Dayu couldn't pierce into Hua's mourning, who can? I look around and saw my son standing close to the ruined doors of Hua's room. Dao is so still as he watched over his sister. I spied Prince Jin inside the room with Hua. Like Dao, my daughter's fiance is standing still while guarding my daughter.

No one is moving. No one has any idea how to move Hua from her post. No one knows what to do because this is a new territory for all of us.

Hua's world is standing still with her dead Nanny. And we are all standing still with her.

What should we do?