"What the hell is this monster doing?" Meiling asked through gnashed teeth. She raced through the trees and clearings to take the short way back home. Lee struggled to keep up behind her. The welling of her eyes cast a soreness that pulsed through her temples. She sobbed as she ran, her hands trembling and white. Both panted through the midday heat beating down upon them. Meiling looked back to check on Lee coming up behind her as she ran. Smoke from the village rose over the trees. It cloaked the sky in a dark, lingering shroud. Small flakes of cinder began to rain down upon the trees. Meiling stopped and watched long enough for Lee to catch up with her.
"Mei, I..." Lee said, panting and coughing as she reached out to take Meiling's hand.
"We have to get to the house," Meiling said. "We'll go from there if we have to, but we can't be out here." She began to tug Lee along behind her. Lee stumbled back into a swift run, keeping up with Meiling's restrained sprint. She raised a sleeve up to her mouth to block out the smoke and char. The trees around them glowed in the distance. Meiling fought back the tears, thinking of her family's land, but she hurried along to get her and Lee into safe shelter, however brief it may be.
The pair approached Meiling's house, sweat caking dirt and soot to their faces. Lee stood behind Meiling, her hands shivering as she clung onto her. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks, leaving behind streaks in the dust. Her throat clenched, her teeth chattering restlessly. Her mind raced as to how things could have gotten as bad as they had, tortured over the racking of how much of it was her fault. Meiling turned to Lee. She grabbed her by the shoulders and stared intensely into her eyes.
"I... I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on, but..." Meiling paused. She swallowed through the dry, rough grit in her mouth, wincing through the burn. "I... we have to get out of here."
"No, Meiling, wait–" Lee said, still panting. "There... something I have to tell you..." Her voice was cut short by the vibrating echoes of thundering hooves. The beats came swift and louder by the second. Birds scattered noisily from the surrounding trees. Meiling turned to the main path. Her eyes were wide, her face running grimly pale.
"It can wait," Meiling said. Her lips shook as she spoke, but she fought to maintain her composure. "Get inside. Maybe it's help, but on the off chance it's not, I need you to hide."
"Meiling, please just listen–"
"Go!" Meiling barked, her expression glaring tensely down into Lee's watery eyes. Lee struggled to steady herself as well. She nodded and sniffled, glancing back at the road before rushing inside to hide. "And if something happens, no matter what, you run. Get yourself somewhere safe." Lee paused to hear Meiling's words. She nodded and vanished through the door.
Meiling looked back to make sure Lee had had it inside. She saw the house standing before her. It seemed so peaceful in the chaos. Every glance brought back images of growing up with her mother and brother. The bird songs were all the same, the same chi that her mother taught her about flowed through the grounds of the home by her shrine. The same laughter that her and her family shared together returned with every whistling wind. The tears that Meiling had shed over her losses washed into the beds of flowers that graced the land with color and life. It was all the same, and yet it grew and changed with her to become the temple she and her mother always knew it could be. Meiling stared back at those walls. Those trees. Those beds. She looked down at the patches of dirt and grass beneath her feet, faulting to find peace that she may offer herself to that very land right then and there.
Meiling planted herself in place. She faced the path, feeling the forces of the hooves growing nearer and nearer. She witnessed the shadows through the trees until the figures became full and in frame, pulling out in front of her.
"Meiling!" Commander Qiang shouted. He rode up on his horse first, his face covered with the ashy remains of the village, still burning in the distance. He huffed tiredly as his horse came to a stop.
"Qiang..." Meiling said. Her voice sighed with a breath of relief, if only for a moment, until more riders followed up behind him. Atop one regal steed was the Crown Prince, Fu Jie. He sat upright, his face unfazed by the carnage he helped incite. More of his men came up behind him, followed by another horse ridden in by Sima Yi, keeping his distance. Meiling scowled at the Crown Prince, but her eyes glared far more heavily toward her brother, standing on his side instead of that of the land they once shared.
"Meiling, stand down," Qiang said, dismounting and stepping toward her. Meiling held out her hand.
"Stay there," Meiling shouted. She wore an unwavering expression, determined to protect herself and everything else on the grounds around her. Qiang stopped and sighed.
"Barking commands at the royal commander?" Fu Jie said, with a slight scoff. "That is quite the bold move from someone in your position, Xiao Meiling." He dismounted as well, followed by Sima Yi and the prince's personal forces. Fu Jie stepped toward Meiling as well, stopping by Command Qiang's side. Hong Yuanji, still assuming the name Lee, watched from a crack in the wall. She could see Meiling standing up to the face that incited the fearful abandonment of her position as Crown Princess. "Then again, it does match what's thoroughly intrigued me thus far."
"You don't know me," Meiling said with a stern tone.
"I know much more than you might think, Xiao Meiling," Fu Jie said. He spoke with an amused grin, his eyes locked onto her burning stare. "And I certainly know all about you."
"Why?" Meiling asked. "I'm no one. You don't need to know about me."
"A gross misunderstanding," Fu Jie said, almost jestingly. "A proverbial dynasty in these regions, the Xiao name. Plus, the infamous 'Xian Thief'. You've really amused yourself, and others it's seemed, with your displays of ticklishness in the square. Bold performances, I've heard. There may be some positions under my care that I think you would be perfect for."
"Not interested," Meiling said. Her eyes cast over to Sima Yi, watching from behind the crowd. "I don't abandon my family for someone else's." She looked back to Fu Jie, her fists clenching by her side. "So with that, I think we're done here." Fu Jie's lips pulled back in a wide grin. His hand rose to his chest against a hearty chuckle.
"Oh, a more gross misunderstanding," Fu Jie said. "It's not your place to decline. I will soon become your emperor and you will do as I say."
"I don't care who you are, I said leave this place!" Meiling shouted. She took a powerful step forward before being brought to a sudden stop.
"Meiling!" Qiang yelled back. A puff of air grazed Meiling's cheek. She gasped and looked back. The stem of an arrow protruded from a basket of cabbages. Lee covered her mouth. Meiling's complexion fell to a more colorless shade as she glanced back toward the estimated area from which the arrow was shot. She saw another figure stepping out from the brush behind Fu Jie's men. A woman, dressed in black armor, drew another arrow back against a taut cord, aiming in Meiling's direction.
"Disrespecting your emperor?" Xianying asked, her eyes locked onto Meiling's position from behind the bow. "That can either go poorly for you or very poorly for you." Meiling stood in place. She kept her eyes on the woman behind the bow.
"Xi, down," Fu Jie said. "I admire this one's spirit. I want to hear what she has to say." Xianying huffed before lowering the bow from her sights. She kept her eyes fixed on Meiling, the arrow pressed lazily against the string. Meiling's shoulders lowered slightly.
"You... you burn my village, chase me onto my land, and then threaten my life..." Meiling said, her anger rising behind clenched teeth. "Oh, I really don't think you want to hear what I have to say."
"Oh, but I do!" Fu Jie said, laughing once more. "I love spirit. That fire, that energy! That rousing defiance! What is best, however, are the echoes of it. The relics of that energy long since vanished from those that finally break. I love listening to it. It's that much more satisfying... once it's gone."
"I don't know what you want," Meiling said, groaning with impatience. "But you won't find it here."
"I'm here for justice, Meiling," Fu Jie said, reverting to a more regal tone. "You need to answer for the crimes you've committed against the royal family."
"Crimes?" Meiling asked. "What? Some fruits go missing every now and then? I always pay it back!"
"No, Meiling," said Commander Qiang, his expression hung heavily. "You... We think you may..."
"Xiao Meiling," Fu Jie shouted. "You are charged with kidnapping and harboring the Crown Princess, Hong Yuanji." Meiling's eyes squinted in disgust. Lee's breath grew thin and caught in her throat. Her hands shook more as she faced the terror of her worst nightmares coming true.
"Hong... who?" Meiling asked. "How? There's no one else here!"
"I saw you," Xianying said. Meiling turned to her as Xianying smiled and waved. "Hi, yeah. Me. Nice to meet you, by the way. Lovely home."
"My advisor informs me that you were seen ushering the princess out of the fray back in the village," Fu Jie said, catching Meiling's attention. "Plus, we have additional sources of information that prove your involvement courtesy of the princess's advisor. I... believe you know each other." Sima Yi's eyes fell to the ground, yet her averted stare did not keep him from feeling the searing glare of Meiling facing the small army.
"Fuck, seriously?" Meiling snarled.
"He is your brother, is he not?" Fu Jie asked, wearing his amused smirk. Lee's eyes furrowed. She glanced between Meiling with her back turned and Sima Yi, standing by with waning confidence.
"What?" Lee whispered. Meiling huffed. She glared back at Sima, her lips pulling up into a snarl.
"It... it doesn't matter," Meiling said. "There is no princess here, I don't care what you think you've seen."
"As much as I enjoy a good heated discussion, I'm afraid there's none here to be had," Fu Jie said more firmly.
"So leave!" Meiling shouted.
"Not until you've paid for your crimes, in accordance with their severity, and the princess has been safely returned," said Fu Jie. He turned to look at Qiang standing by his side. "Commander?" Qiang's face lengthened across a heavy expression. He swallowed and cleared his trembling throat, staring back into the eyes of the girl and seeing only the scared, crying girl he found left all alone so many years ago.
"Xi-Xiao Meiling," Commander Qiang announced loudly. "For the kidnapping and harboring of a member of the royal family, of Princess Hong Yuanji... you are–" Qiang paused. His eyes fell to the ground as he felt every stare pressed against his shoulders. He reached up and stroked his stubbled chin with one hand, his other hand resting against the hilt of his sword tucked by his side.
"Commander, pass sentence," Fu Jie said, a sharp tone of venom in his voice. "It is your duty."
"My lord, I..." Qiang began to stutter. He looked back into Meiling's desperate, glossy eyes, tears shimmering as they trickled down her cheeks. "I... I cannot."
"You... cannot?" Fu Jie asked.
"Meiling, she... she is of no danger to anyone," Qiang said, his voice shaking less and less as his words brushed his lips. He looked back at her solemnly, commanding her attention with his words. "She would do no harm to the royal family, I assure you. Meiling is an upstanding and courageous, loving girl. I cannot rightfully sentence her, my lord. I assure you, she's done no wrong."
"Do you now?" Fu Jie asked spitefully. The crown prince paused and looked over the land. The eyes of his subjects all fell to him while Qiang continued to look back at Meiling. "Well, that's a real shame, isn't it Commander? How easily the spirit of a man can be swayed by the triviality of sentiment. Truly a more devastating force than any storm or army ever could be."
Fu Jie came closer to Qiang. He stepped out in front to meet the aged man's eye, stealing his gaze with a steely leer lowering over him. Ash rained down upon them both. Qiang's staggered breaths puffed against Fu Jie's throat, the crown prince smiling down at the old commander at a range intensely intimate.
"To think of all the potential that gets lost, year after year, because of this nonsense," Fu Jie continued. "It... it plagues my mind, Commander. But I commend you for showing me the kind of man you are. You may not care about fulfilling your duties, but your convictions certainly make it easier for me to do mine."
Fu Jie reached to take a hold of the hilt at Qiang's side. He drew the man's sword and grabbed the back of Qiang's neck. With a fluid, swift natural motion, Fu Jie plunged the blade deep within the center of Qiang's chest, drawing the man's head forward into the puncture. An abrupt gasp escaped Qiang's lips, the taste of iron rising to fill his throat.
"No!" Meiling shouted. Bursting through her own shock and disbelief, Meiling charged forward toward Qiang. Fu Jie jerked the sword from the man's chest. Before Qiang's lifeless body could hit the ground, he turned and pointed the blade at Meiling, stopping her just before getting her throat sliced. Meiling panted. Tears roared down her aching eyes as they beheld the squelching figure of the only man who ever cared for her like a father, collapsed in a dark, billowing pool. She sobbed. Anger and grief clashed into a mismanaged swell inside of her. Her hands trembled through the moments that passed like ceaseless nightmares before her eyes. Fu Jie stopped Meiling before she could get closer, the point of the blade prodding against her chest.
"Mei!" Sima shouted, cutting himself short. Fu Jie turned toward Xianying and gave her a subtle nod. Xianying smirked and peeled off into the surrounding brush. Meiling stood trembling, firm but deeply rattled. Her lips shook as she heaved through the staggered breaths, weeping before the man who had spilt familiar blood on her land. Lee continued to hide inside the house. Her eyes were wide and ached with their own rush of tears, her hands shivering as they clamped against her mouth. A sinking dread flushed a harsh chill through her veins.
"An avoidable tragedy, to be sure, but one that does not come without purpose," Fu Jie said regally to his caravan. His eyes slid back toward Meiling's. She looked back to see nothing but burning darkness, an unfeeling void that clenched at her churning stomach. "But I suppose you both will have the honor to be sentenced by the crown prince himself."
"Wha– both?" Meiling asked breathily. Her mind still raced to comprehend the madness unfolding before her. Fu Jie looked over to the edge of the cluster of men and horses. Through the small crowd, Sima Yi was pushed through and in front of them all, large metal cuffs latched onto his wrists behind his back. He stumbled forth and hit the ground with a hard thud. A trickle of blood traced down one cheek. Xianying stepped forward. She cracked her knuckles and neck as she smiled down at the fallen advisor.
"Thought you'd just get away with your little scheme, didn't you?" Xianying asked Sima. "Tsk, tsk. Sneaky, sneaky boy."
"From what we've gathered, you both are equally at fault for the vanishing of the crown princess," Fu Jie said. Sima looked over to Meiling. Her snarl had faded into dense dread and worry, her eyes watering at seeing her brother so broken and defeated. "So then... Xiao Meiling and Royal Advisor to the Hong family, Sima Yi... for the kidnapping and harboring of a member of the royal family, Crown Princess Hong Yuanji, as well as conspiring against the Hong Empire, the punishment, which shall be administered by me, Crown Prince Fu Jie, is death."
Meiling's eyes fell once more. Her forlorn expression barely moved at the news, having already assumed the outcome despite the confusion and absurdity. Tears and dirt caked her cheeks. She looked down at the ground, the very land atop which she grew and learned to laugh and love as well as survive and perceiver The energy of her mother's love circled her even then, the memories carrying with them the strength to accept her fate and the honor to meet her end on the soil that gave her life. Sima Yi shook his head. He sniffled and scrambled to his knees. He looked up to Xianying with wide, sympathetic eyes.
"Please..." Sima Yi begged. "Please, don't do this." Xianying stared back, cocking up one eyebrow. "Or at least... please... just spare her. Please spare Meiling. It was all my fault. I'm the one who conspired and sent Yuanji away. I will accept my death, just please don't punish Meiling." Meiling watched her brother grovel. Xianying studied the boy's sincerity. She stared back with a cynical confusion, an amused analysis of his words that came so foreign, yet so strangely evocative.
"Awww, sorry, pretty boy," Xianying said. "You're both on the block for this one." Sima cried. His head fell as tears rained into the dirt where he knelt. The sword pressed harder against Meiling's throat. She gasped and turned her attention back to Fu Jie.
"Now then," the crown prince said. "On your knees, like him. I'd like to make this quick." Meiling scowled. She slowly lowered herself down to the ground, pressing her weight into her knees as her eyes remained fixed on Fu Jie's. "Good girl. Now, have you anything to say before I carry out your punishment?" Meiling's gritted her teeth. Her aching eyes, dried from the mass spilling of tears over the bloodshed indulged in by the monster before her, came with a rageful, red, bloodshot hue. Her hands and lips shook. Her teeth chattered and pressed into one another with a primal, furious embrace.
"Only..." Meiling began. She steadied her voice and turned her head without taking her eyes off of Fu Jie. "That if this is the price I must pay for being in love, then let me face my punishment like I always have." Meiling narrowed her eyes back at Fu Jie, a slight smirk coming to her lips. Fu Jie huffed.
"Cocky little thing, right to the end," he said. He drew back the sword, eyeing a spot on her neck. "I like that. Shame I couldn't have seen that light fade from your still living eyes." Sima Yi turned away, bracing himself for the devastating sound to come. Meiling kept her expression locked on his, determined to maintain composure right to the very end. Fu Jie gripped the hilt tightly as he prepared to swing a mighty, slicing blow.
"Wait!" A shrill voice bellowed from the house. Fu Jie and his caravan looked up to see Hong Yuanji stepping out from the side. She rushed forward with her hands out, her face stained with tears and sweat. She huffed, stopping only when she witnessed Fu Jie dropping the sword to his side.
"Your Highness," Fu Jie said. "So it is true." Meiling glanced back, her eyes narrow in deep contemplation as she beheld her beloved Cao Lee, rushing forward to confront the militia.
"No, no, I told you to stay inside!" Meiling cried.
"Aaaahhh, a liar too," Xianying said.
"No, wait, this is... her name is Lee, she's just a traveler," Meiling tried to explain. She looked back to Lee, more tears beading in the corners of her stare. Lee shifted in place. She looked between Meiling, Fu Jie, and Sima, overcome with a unique dread that accompanied them all.
"I..." Yuanji stammered.
"No, Mei..." Sima Yi started.
"No, what?" Meiling asked. She turned back to Lee. "Just please... please just get away. Whatever happens to me, you can't stay here!" Yuanji sniffled as she watched Meiling pleading to her on the ground. She watched the love that she had built crumble right before her. The trust and respect and intimacy that she had shared with the woman who had changed her life was all laid out like ornate clay shards for her step on. Her voice shook. Her heart raced as she drew in the strength to confront the truth and the consequences that she may still salvage.
"You... you're right, Meiling," Yuanji said. "I can't stay here..." Yuanji turned back to Fu Jie, her expression stern and forceful. His men shifted as they considered how it was they should be addressing the young, discovered crown princess. The wind fluttered her long, black hair across her neck. Fu Jie stepped forward, his smile widened across pale yellow teeth.
"My princess, my bride to be..." Fu Jie said. "You have no idea how relieved I am to find you safe." Yuanji stopped approaching. She held herself sternly in place, upholding a strong, regal posture. She stood firmly before Fu Jie and his men, avoiding the confused glare of Meiling still kneeling in the dirt.
"By order of the crown princess of Xian, you will release Xiao Meiling and Sima Yi, for neither were at fault for my disappearance," Yuanji said. Meiling stared back at the girl she knew as Cao Lee for the long, intimate nights and playful, joyous days they shared together. She stared back at the traveler that she had taken in and with whom she allowed herself to be vulnerable, the same girl with whom she cried and confided in. Dozens of memories came flooding back of tender moments soiled in the slow realization of an underlying falsehood. The pain that resonated through her chest was slow and stabbed deeper than any sword. Meiling trembled. She bravely stood down death by the blade, but hollow emptiness left by the falsehoods painted for her by the girl that taught her how to love and share her passions devoured her composure. Tears welled against her aching eyes. Her teeth gritted as every moment staring back at the former Cao Lee stabbed at her heart again and again until the love she built was little more than bloody, pulpy slivers.
"You... you lied to me?" Meiling asked. It was the question that Yuanji had dreaded the most, the blatant confrontation of her own selfish misdeeds.
"I'm sorry..." Yuanji said, sniffling and avoiding looking down at Meiling.
"No, you... you lied to me," Meiling said louder. "Lee... Lee, look at me! You lied to me!" Yuanji winced into a new fit of tears, bearing a sorrow that she struggled to push down.
"That's enough, dog," Fu Jie snapped. "You will not speak to your crown princess that way. I should have your tongue, at the very least."
"You will not hurt either of them," Yuanji said. "Leaving the palace was my idea. Sima Yi was only following orders and Meiling was... uniformed as to who I was."
"No, no, this... this isn't happening..." Meiling muttered to herself.
"Regardless, your highness, they still put a member of the royal family, your own life, in jeopardy, aware or not," Fu Jie said. "And they must face punishment."
"I am ordering you to stand down," Yuanji said. "In exchange for sparing their lives... I will return with you to the palace and... our union will continue as planned." Fu Jie thought for a moment. He smirked and looked over to Xianying. She too grinned and nodded toward Sima Yi on the ground. Fu turned his attention back to Meiling. The girl knelt pale-faces and shivering, still mulling over the confusion and treachery incited by everyone around her.
"I don't see how it would happen any other way, princess," Fu Jie said. He held his head high, beaming with confidence in his victory.
"You harm them and I run," Yuanji said. "You'll never have the empire you set out to have. You will face the consequences of your actions with the forces you have and you will fall to the same ruin you leave behind. Or you spare them and... I will go with you. I will make things easy for you. I will do what you say, crown prince. I will... become your bride." Fu Jie peered back over to his sister, still hovering over a kneeling Sima Yi. His eyes darted back toward the princess as a wide, charismatic smile stretched across his lips.
"Very well," Fu Jie said. "You will return with me and in exchange, I will spare their lives." He held out his hand for Yuanji to take. Yuanji paused as she glanced back down at Meiling, now assuming the role of avoiding her sour gaze. A sorrowful pit bore into Yuanji's chest. She sighed, taking one last look at the spiteful form of Meiling, beaten and dirty, and stepped forward. She took Fu Jie's hand. Jie smiled down at his bride-to-be. "Good girl. You will be a real queen among the others."
"What others?" Yuanji asked. Fu Jie swiftly twisted Yuanji's hand to pull her arm behind her back. He roughly latched a pair of cuffs onto her wrists as she squirmed in place. "H-hey! What are you–?"
"We cannot take any more chances of you running off, princess," Jie said. Meiling and Sima perked up as they watched the prince brutally handle the struggling, whimpering Yuanji. Fu Jie passed the princess off to one of his men, who helped him lift the girl up onto the back of his horse.
"Hey, stop!" Sima Yi said, springing to his feet. Xianying drew a blade from her side and raised it to Sima's chin.
"Nuh uh, we've already made plans for you and your sister over there," Xianying said.
"What?" Meiling asked. Fu Jie turned to her with a grin.
"We promised to spare your lives," Fu Jie said, "which neither of us truly wanted spent anyway. You too are going to join my little... collection. Both of you." He grabbed onto Meiling's arm and latched another pair of cuffs onto her wrists as well, keeping her hands locked behind her back.
"No, I ordered you to let them go!" Yuanji said, trapped by the hold of one of Fu Jie's swordsmen.
"I said I would spare them from death," Fu Jie said, loudly and angrily. "They will serve their sentences as prisoners, living out the rest of their traitorous lives as servants to their new ruler. You will all bow to my every whim by the command of your new emperor. You will all consider every breath that crosses your lips an allowance, a privilege, a reminder of my gracious generosity!" Fu Jie raised Meiling to her feet from behind, violently maneuvering her as one of his men tightened a rope around her neck attached to a pack on their mount. Xianying smiled as she tied a similar rope around Sima's Yi's neck, playfully grinning and biting her lip as she secured the acquisition of her own new toy.
"We're going to have so much fun, you and me," Xianying said. Sima said nothing. He looked over at the pathetic, dirty shell of his sister, standing with a leash as she battled the storm that raged inside her thoughts. Yuanji looked back at Meiling. Meiling continued to stare at the ground. When Yuanji looked over to Sima Yi, she met the boy's gaze for only a moment before the horses began to head out.
Sima was tugged forward, forced to walk toward his shame and imprisonment. Meiling's tether pulled shortly thereafter. She stared down at the dirt and the tufts of grass, commanded to walk away from the land that she called home. As the bleakness continued to drown her psyche in an inky sea of hopelessness, Meiling found herself longing to have met her end on that soil, to have surrendered her body to her mother's legacy and to have died with love still in her heart. Each step away from home, forced by the tether attached to the mount like cattle, was one closer toward a fate worse than death, gradually farther and farther away from the life that she once lived and the love that she once shared. Yuanji stared back at her from the back of Fu Jie's horse. Every moment she beheld the shattered pieces of the woman she loved struggle to hold themselves together came as a lifetime of pure agony, agony that she knew she deserved.
Yuanji pulled her eyes away from Meiling, wondering which look would actually become the last. Fu Jie guided her toward her palace while ordering Xianying to ride back to his own, taking Sima Yi and Meiling with her. White ash continued to rain through the blackened clouds above, swirling more as the caravan split, where Yuanji found herself on the road to the palace and watched as Meiling and Sima Yi marched a grim path toward the village gates.