We called ourselves great, when we had walked past starving children to get to our mansions. No. The great ones among us were the monks we spat at, the monks we laughed at for clinging to their "superstition," the ones who bandaged the wounded, healed the sick, and fed the hungry. They were the great ones.
***
Thirteen Years Ago
***
There was a demon in a pantry. Or at least, that's what the Enlightened Father had told Dai Lan.
And since those words came from the holy lips of the Enlightened Father, Dai Lan had had two Acolytes drag him out of bed. He had put on his monk's habit, kissed his sleeping wife goodbye, tied his cloak, and left his small home on the edge of the monastary.
The night's wind was cold, bitter and biting, every blow a lash of stinging cold air. Dai Lan wrapped the warm wool cloak closer to his form.
Xin Fan and Hanshen waited for him at the complex gate. Xin Fan carried a sputtering lantern whose tiny orange flame cast a hundred flickering shadows on their faces. Hanshen carried the traditional basket of prayer scrolls, incense, and a flagon of wine for the offended spirits. They, like Dai Lan, had dark circles under their eyes.
"Another demon?" Dai Lan asked in disbelief.
Hanshen nodded. "Why else would we be up this early?"
Right. Demons. Evil spirits. The foul, unclean specters that made stinks, propogated bad luck, and caused the Enlightened Father to drag hapless monks out of warm and comfortable beds to go perform an exorcism.
"I want to get back sooner rather than later. My kids don't like me being late." Xin Fan began to walk away with the lantern, carrying the only light they had away. Dai Lan and Hanshen followed.
The path down the mountain winded around the mountain, and the only thing that guided the three monks down the path were the fluttering prayer flags, offering praise to the Light Above, and asking His guidance for those who walked the path. Either way they walked it.
Some walked up, seeking solace on the mountain peak to achieve enlightenment while meditating. The Enlightened Father said that the perilous journey and the elevated hights made the peaks of the mountains the closest earthly place -both physically and spiritually- to the Infinite Wisdom of the Glorious Light.
Some walked down, ready to spread the glorious wisdom they had gleaned. They wished for all to be rich, rich with the glorious and sublime wisdom of the Light Undying.
As they walked down, they were lashed again and again by another blast of wind. Dai Lan had heard the pilgrims call this wind the "Spirit's Scourge." Now he knew why. It felt like he was being scourged. And the only way to ward it off was to pull the cloak closer to his frame.
The three of them tried to cling closer to the flame. The lantern was their only guide as they made their way down the mountain. They stopped at a fork in the road. "Which way?" Hanshen asked Dai Lan.
Dai Lan paused. He had memorized all the wandering paths. The house the acolytes had told him about could be reached two ways. One was to go down the mountain and back up it. But the other one, while slightly riskier, was much faster.
"Right," Dai Lan ordered. The sun wasn't rising yet, but the sky was tinged with that cold blue that chilled him to the bones. Dai Lan's breath was a cloud in front of his mouth. The mountain might bring one closer to Truth, to God, but it was so cold.
The three of them headed down a thin walkway, their boots stomping down the old, age worn stone brick stairs. "Wait, isn't this the old path that got... you know, landslided?" Hanshen asked.
"Yes. Don't worry. It's just one area of it," Dai Lan assured. However, he sensed an uneasy tension in Hanshen's poise, the way he walked, the stiffness of the shoulders. Hanshen was terrified of heights, that was true. And the tiny pass had one rather problematic area.
They turned around a bend, and there it was. The bridge used to span across a gap, but now, a giant hole separated the two ends. One could clear it with a jump, but that was the problem.
It involved jumping over a giant chasm. And that was something Hanshen was terrified to do. "Can you get over it?"Dai Lan asked a nervous Hanshen. He nodded.
"Hold these," he said, giving Dai Lan the basket. Hanshen walked to the edge of the bridge, looking down. "On second thought," he began, before he began to back up.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Xin Fan said. He walked up to the edge and held his hand out. "Air, harden and bear our weight!" he commanded. There was a sharp crack, before he grabbed Hanshen's arm and dragged him over, stepping on solid air.
Dai Lan walked across it quickly. If anything, the solid air felt more stable than the bricks. Xin Fan was gifted with the Voice of Light, like the Enlightened Father. He didn't need to use the language of Elysion. He spoke in common tongue, and it happened.
They kept walking down the path, Hanshen looking visibly shaken, before they reached the tiny hovel on the outskirts of town.
The couple clutched each other, terrified. Their expressions filled with hope the second they saw the three monks. "You're here!" the wife said. "We sent the signal fires up, but didn't know if you saw them!"
The signal fires. Yes. Burning three small fires in a triangle was one way to get the monks down. It was the sign for exorcism. "We have lookouts," Dai Lan said. "Now, can we enter your home?"
"Well, I don't know how safe that would be," the husband said. "It came through the window, and ever since, we couldn't go near it!"
"Wait wait wait. Did you say it came in through the window?" Xin Fan frowned. "Demons appear from the spirit world. They don't break in!" There was a crashing sound from inside the house. "It's not our problem." He turned to move away.
"Xin!" Dai Lan grabbed him by the shoulder. "If you don't want to help, fine. But know that the Enlightened Father will hear about this." And, before Xin Fan could respond, Dai Lan walked into the house.
The home was a small one, and it was a mess. A table and four chairs were thrown across the room, and the rug had been tossed aside. Now, it clung limply to the wall. Dai Lan tread carefully through the mess. Whatever had stolen its way in probably wasn't good.
Dai Lan ducked as a plate flew out of the kitchen. So, there was the disturbance. He slowly crept up behind it, keeping his cloak back. The last thing Dai Lan wanted to do was betray his position.
It was easy to see why they thought the creature was a demon. It had horns, after all, and scales. But scary as it was, Dai Lan recognized it instantly. A Changed.
They had, at first, heard about them in stories. Bodies of men, spliced with the flesh of beasts. But then the Changed began to show up at the monastary door. First, it was a man with the arm of the tiger. Then the woman with lizard legs. But this one was different.
It didn't look like he had gained dragon horns. Rather, it looked like a child and a dragon had blended together. The child stood upright like a man, but his skin was scales. He had horns, tiny nubs of ivory that jutted out of the back of his skull.
The thing whirled around. It wore only a pair of filthy trousers, but that wasn't what made Dai Lan's heart ache. It was the tiny wounds on his chest, the sharp curves of ribs that jutted out from under skin. The poor thing was half starved. But the saddest thing was the look in his eyes. Madness, fear.
"GET AWAY FROM US!" it yelled, backing away. But it yelled those words in two languages. "Get away" had been in Alberion, but "from us" had been in the tongue of Elysion.
"There's only one of you," Dai Lan said.
"Only...one?" The thing looked at its claws, and for a brief moment, the madness in its eyes evaporated. "Oh...no..." He looked around. "I...I was mad."
"You were mad?" Dai Lan asked.
"I think, that..just for a bit, I've gained lucidity," the Changed said, now entirely in Elysion. "You have the Voice?"
"Why did you say "us?"" Dai Lan asked.
"I...I think I fragmented." The Changed sat down on the ruined floor. "Yes...yes, that's what has happened. I can feel it in my mind. My thoughts are trying to rip me apart." He sighed. "We have little time. I can save myself, but you must use the Voice on me. Your questioning brought me back into reality for a while. Your command will put me to sleep." His voice had wisdom to it, a weight that came with age. This was more likely the dragon speaking.
"Put you to sleep?" he asked. The Changed nodded.
"If I rest, I may slowly rejoin." He winced. "Quickly, now. Act. Tell my restless soul to rest and awaken when I am whole." He paused. "Protect the kid. I am older, wiser than him. I know how to use my dragon blood. He doesn't. He has to learn. And whatever you do, don't use his old name. Give him a new one."
"Why?" Dai Lan asked. "Will it re-awaken you or something?"
"Possibly. That's why I'm taking away his memory.Well, most of it. Not languages. He'll know some Ten-Zuani, some Alberion, some Jakari." The Changed gritted his teeth. "But mostly, his name is terrible. Stupid."
"What is it?" Dai Lan asked.
The Changed told him.
"You're right. It is stupid." Dai Lan nodded. "Let me say the words."
"Before you do..." he said, gritting his teeth, "I need to warn you. The Fever Blood will destroy. He must learn on his own to control it. Otherwise he'll never be able to use it on his own."Dai Lan nodded. "Now, do it. My mind's drifting apart. Quickly now!"
Dai Lan nodded. Then, preparing the Voice, he spoke. "Sleep, restless soul. Awaken when you are hale and whole." The Changed quivered, and it's eyes unfocused as one soul waned and fell asleep, but the other, newer soul took charged. They refocused, but there was something else in them. Confusion.
"Where am I?" the child asked. Unlike the other voice, this didn't have the gravitas. This didn't have the authority.
This was the voice of a small and frightened child.
Dai Lan was about to answer before a skillet slammed into the child's head with a loud clang, knocking it uncoscious. "I can see why they thought it was a demon," Xin Fan noted.
"I was talking to him!" Dai Lan said, a bit angry. "You could have hurt him!"
"Not likely," Xin Fan said. "Besides, you were taking too long." Xin Fan reached down to pick up fallen child, before, at the slightest touch, he jerked his hand back. "Light above! He's burning!"
Dai Lan stared at the fallen Changed. On the wooden floor around him, tiny little curls of smoke gently wrapped around the thin, starved limbs. Dark stains grew out as the body heat of the Changed burned and scorched the area around him. Eventually, it stopped.
Dai Lan and Xin Fan stared. "He's...terrifying," Xin Fan said. "Just a child, and yet able to do that."
Dai Lan looked around. "Come on, help me find something to carry him up."
"Carry him... you want to take him back?" Xin Fan asked. "What gave you that idea?"
Dai Lan looked around. "He's hurt, half-starved. He's a child, Xin Fan. You shouldn't be asking why I would do it. You should be asking why aren't you doing it?"
Xin Fan frowned. "You're self-righteous. Just like the rest of them!"
"No," Dai Lan said, digging in through the mess that was the pantry. "The prescription for reproof is thus; whatever blemishes upon others ye seek to cleanse, examine the self, and see to it that ye have the blemish not."
"Yeah, so?" Xin Fan asked.
"You should learn charity." Dai Lan didn't find anything there. "I'm not being self-righteous in saying that. I have my problems to deal with." He spotted something that could work. "Hold on a moment."
"You don't even know the thing's name!" Xin Fan protested.
"I do," Dai Lan said. He stopped. The dragon had told him to give the child a new name. So, he did. The first thing that came to mind.
Fever Blood.
Lai-Shak-Yin. Hot sick body. The ancient archaic Ten-Zuani word combination that meant fever. Du-Pon-Nai'Shen. Red life liquid. The ancient archaic Ten-Zuani word combination that translated to blood. To make names, the first word was used and combined with the second.
"His name is Laidu." Dai Lan left the room and walked outside the home. Hanshen was talking to the couple.
The wife saw him. "You're alive! Did you banish the demon?"
"It's actually not a demon. It's a Changed child." The look of shock on their faces was almost comical. "We're finishing up with it, but I need to ask you something." They looked at him. "Can we borrow your large pot?"
***
"Dai Lan, I'm surprised you're back so soon," the Enlightened Father said. He sat facing the cold mountains, sitting in his meditation chamber. Framed by the cold morning light, he seemed imposing. But Dai Lan knew he was just an old man. An old man armed with the power to command the universe.
"Well, it wasn't a demon," Dai Lan said, huffing and groaning. That pot had been heavy! Carrying the child up meant they had to devise a way to carry it without touching him. But, now that he was cooled off, he had been taken out. Laidu was now sleeping peacefully in Dai Lan's house. Unfortunately, the Enlightened Father's summons came too quickly for him to awaken his wife and tell her. Hopefully, Laidu kept sleeping on until Dai Lan could explain what had transpired to his wife. And the plans he had. "It was a Changed.
"Ah. Perhaps a fusion of man and ram? That could account for horns." The Enlightened Father sighed. All the monks were sick of the cliche that demons had horns, or red eyes, or some other nasty mark. All that was folklore and superstition.
"No. A child had been joined with a dragon." The Enlightened Father flinched.
"What did you say?"
"H..he's part dragon."
The Enlightened Father rose. "Alright, then," he said. "I'll see to the child's welfare."
"Actually," Dai Lan said, "I want to adopt him."
The Enlightened Father stared at Dai Lan. "You want to adopt the Changed child?"
"My wife and I wish to have a child," Dai Lan explained. "But she had a season of winter fever. It left her barren."
The Enlightened Father nodded. "I see." Dai Lan stared at the silhouette. "If I let you adopt the child, what will you do with him?
"I would raise him to be the best man he could be. I would love him. Discipline him. Protect him." Dai Lan didn't regret any words.
"And if your wife became fertile? If she bore you a son, one of your own flesh?" the Enlightened Father asked.
"Then he'd have an older brother to learn from. Laidu would have a younger brother. I would love Laidu with all my heart. I'd love the younger son with all my heart."
The Enlightened Father nodded. "How did Janyin react?"
Well, that was a bit of an issue. "Um...I didn't tell my wife yet," he said.
There was a sigh. "That is not going to end well. I don't need the Wisdom of God to tell that." He shook his head.
"It was going to be a surprise!" Dai Lan said.
"Dai Lan, you sound like a fool. A surprise constitutes flowers. A pet, sometimes, but even that is pushing the boundaries." There was a pause. "Bringing home a son is completely over the line." He gestured to the door. "Go, explain to your wife what you have just done."
Dai Lan gave a slight bow, before exiting the meditation chamber. He walked out of the Enlightened Father's quarters, before crossing the stone courtyard. He slipped into his house, making sure that he didn't make any sound.
The house had five rooms, not counting the root cellar under the kitchen. There was the bathroom, Dai Lan and Janyin's bedroom, the common room, the kitchen, and the one room they didn't like to talk about. The child's room. That was where Laidu slept peacefully.
He entered his bedroom, undoing his cloak, and sitting on the bed. "Did the exorcism go well?" his wife asked.
"Yeah," he said. "Dear, there's something we have to talk about." He rose. "Can you come and see something?" She nodded and sat up. Janyin wore her nightdress, and she pulled it closer to her form.
Dai Lan moved from their bedroom to the child's room's door, before stopping in front of it. Janyin frowned slightly, but didn't say anything. "What do you want most in the world?" Dai Lan asked.
"A child," she said. "One to call my own."
Dai Lan opened the door. "Even if they were blemished?"
"Even if they were. I don't care if they're weak, or a half-wit, or deformed, or the ugliest creature on this world. I'd love them all the same." Her eyes moved from her husband to the bed inside. "Oh," she said, eyes wide.
Laidu hadn't slept peacefully, it turned out. He had kicked the blankets off him, and the young child -he couldn't have been more than nine years old- was curled up in the fetal position. "I can see why they thought he was a demon." His scales were stretched taut over half-starved ribs and the bumps of a spine. "Poor thing. While he stays here, I'll make sure he's better fed. Help his family get the food he needs."
"Well," Dai Lan said, "that will be easier than you think."
"Why?" Janyin asked, looking at Dai Lan.
"You're staring at his father."
She frowned, before realization struck her. "You adopted him?" she asked. Dai Lan nodded. "Oh. He's...he's our child now?" She kneeled next to Laidu. That Changed child, what many people considered deformed and foul, was more precious than diamond and silver in her eyes. Dai Lan knew that. It was the same for him. He had a son. A child to raise, one to call his own. They had another life in their hands. A soul to comfort when it was hurt. A heart to mend when someone broke it. A person to celebrate with when joy was plenty.
"Poor thing." Her voice was full of emotion. "Don't you worry...Momma will make it all better," she promised. Laidu looked troubled in his sleep. She gently kissed the sleeping Laidu on his forehead. His expression softened slightly.
Janyin rose, smiling, before wrapping her arms around Dai Lan, weeping. "Thank you," she said, over and over. "Thank you. Thank you."
Dai Lan returned the embrace. "You're willing to love that? He's definitely not normal," he remarked.
"He's beautiful." It was something only a mother could say. Guess that meant Dai Lan was the father.
But scales or no scales, horns or no horns, Laidu would be raised to be honorable, noble, honest. He was the father now.
The mother wept.
The father held.
The child slept.
The family was complete.