Legend of Fei

20. Two Are Better Than One

A'Fei found their room not inconvenient at all. But between the insistence of the inn owner who was a member of the yellow bat himself and the polite acceptance of Xie Yun she moved rooms. In their previous room, lay the dead man with a physician determining the cause of his death. The injuries so far were superficial but they were made at precise points to cause blood loss and make it look deadly. It was a message.

Yet, the physician concluded that it wasn't the cause of death. The man looked like he had run out of his life force all together. Qi exhaustion. She understood. Alighning the physician's words with Xie Yun's recollection of his encounter with Feng Feihui in the Forest of Stars. The sheer inhumanity in the act was beginning to hit her. This had gone beyond anything she would imagine. This wasn't Disha or Azure Dragon. This wasn't just a person claiming himself a god in martial art world. This was a man that had achieved evil and enforced evil beyond redemption. She closed her eyes for a moment. The elaborate picture in Lu Ran's last residence, the attempts of bringing back the dead was purely against nature. The force radiating off of it was of death. She had tasted it first hand. But this... this was humanity at its lowest.

The reality for what it was, was beginning to hit her now. She looked at Xie Yun sitting on the table, conversing with the inn owner, a bat member. They were discussing strategies to send back a message of their own. They had not conversed on the topic but she saw Xie Yun slip into battle form as soon as they witnessed the mass of blood at their mode. She saw the man with his years of experience living in the real world while she grew up sheltered. She saw the face of a fallen royal that knew navigation on such a political level that she understood the emperor's fear. Xie Yun had not even cracked a reassuring smile at her. He was afraid for her. Without having said the words, they were both thinking the same thing. Is this what the white tiger wanted of her?

She knew she had a high internal qi but there was nothing extraordinary about it for White Tiger to single her out. She looked back at her husband. Whatever he wanted of her, Xie Yun was dragged into it. She was putting Xie Yun in danger. She once told her mother she would protect her own and now was the time to do it. She never once suggested that they halt their plans to take care of this situation but now, she couldn't go on anymore. Even if she did, Xie Yun would know it was for his sake and he'd never accept that. 

She looked at him, hands moving over the map, the inn at the very center of it. Xie Yun told the inn owner that they'd stay in Nanping until the matter of the peddler's death wasn't resolve. To a gang of misfits, there was only one resolution: revenge.

It was the middle of the night and A'Fei had her ears on their conversation while her eyes roamed about the room. She was restless despite her newly discovered ability to sense the unseen presence. The room had a sense of being closed off. 

According to the owner, this was a highly guarded room and was only ever given to the most prestigious guests. A'Fei saw the complex mechanisms on the door and window panes to keep them locked when the resident wanted it that way. 

A'Fei also saw bat statues mounted on the four walls and as Xie Yun had pointed out that they were probably mechanisms too. He was right. The owner told them to be cautious of touching the bat spots on four walls that would activate the defense. Xie Yun had beamed at that one, but that curve of the lip was challenging. A'Fei knew there were more things but she couldn't find them.

"A'Fei. What do you think?" she finally turned to her husband and gave her thoughts, "I can be the bait alone, we both don't have to do it."

"It will be dangerous." Xie Yun cautioned her and she cautioned back, "It will be."

"Two are better than one," he came to her, arm wrapped around her shoulders. She didn't refute him. She'd rather have him in front of her eyes than in the blind. They often shared the same opinion on the matter of each other safety. She knew very well that her husband was capable but his lack of martial skills combined with a generous heart worried her in moments of action just as her brashness worried him. Their conversation came to end shortly after that as each was unwilling to bend.