A Wuxia Tale: Blade in Training

Mourning

(PRINCE JIN)

General Wang ordered a coffin fit for nobles. Hua's Nanny was wrapped in the finest linen after she was cleaned by a doctor and morgue official. The body was placed on the coffin and the short parade will happen from the Wang's main house to the west gate where there is a cleaned patch of land where a hole was dug. That place will serve as the resting place of Hua's Nanny.

Hua woke up after six hours of sleep. She seems disoriented at first, asking for Master Dayu and then for her Nanny. At that time, Wang Dao has came back from his sojourn in the Palace to ask to be excuse from his duties today.

Master Dayu came to hug Hua and my love finally remembered that her Nanny won't be able to come to her any longer.

But instead of crying, Hua turned quiet. Her Father and brother left us alone so we can talk. Hua sitting on the bed while I sat on the edge to stay by her side.

"I was translating a book when the news that your home was being invaded came to me. I rode quickly to get here but...I was too late." I finally gave Hua the answer to her question of where I was, and what I was doing, while she had to suffer an attack on her home. "I'm sorry, Hua," I apologized to her.

"No," Hua shook her head as she took my hand. "None of this is your fault, Jin."

I gave her a pained look. "My mother ordered this attack." That one, I think, is clear to both of us. "After all her blustering about the former First Minister endangering my life, she ordered an attack to my heart. She is..." I failed to look for a word to describe the hideousness of my mother's action.

"She told me yesterday before leaving that I deserve everything," Hua said softly. "Is this what she means by that? Did she means that I deserve what happened? I deserve my home being invaded and losing my Nanny..."

"No," I held Hua's hand tighter. "You don't deserve this kind of pain, my love. No one deserves this kind of pain." It pained me to watch my gentle Hua wrestling with this. Hua doesn't deserve to get hurt like this.

Hua stared at me. "Aren't you afraid of me?" She asked in a small voice.

I frowned at her question. "Afraid of you? Why should I be afraid of you?"

Hua swallowed, "Because I can kill someone with my bare hands." She said.

I find that ridiculous. "I saw you kill before. You killed those assasins who attacked me during the Harvest Festival. You killed those black guards whom the former First Minister sent to us to harm even you and Dao. This is not the first time I saw you kill, Hua."

"This is the first time I killed for rage. With revenge in my heart." Hua replied with evident hardship. "I killed those assasins and black guards to save you. To save myself and my brother and our friends. I killed to save the people I love. This time is different."

"Hua..." I want to smack my head for thinking that what she is thinking and feeling are ridiculous. Of course this is something big for my fiancee.

Hua turned her head to the open windows in Dao's room. The sun is shining brightly outside. It's a beautiful day outside.

"The sunshine is mocking me." Hua said in a tone laced with bitterness. "This day dawn like nothing earth shattering happened in my home. The sun is shining like I didn't just lose a big part of me. Outside this estate, other people's lives are continuing like my Nanny didn't just died. How can that be?" Hua gave me a questioning look. "How can the world continue to spin when I feel like it should stop? Everybody, everything, should stop. I lost my Nanny, Jin. My Nanny died. I killed someone for it. Nadira's blood on my hands. Why is the world continuing like all of that doesn't matter? Why?!"