Sorrow In Autumn

Bonus Story: Three Kings & Two Guardians

I wrote this piece ages ago as the possible ending for Sorrow itself. I liked it, but it didn't fit. So I reworked it as an epilogue story, forgetting I already had half of that already....

So,  this is the alternative version of the part preceding chapter 41!! Set around the Reunion.

For my dear friend Akai_Seirei. I did promise you a Ultimate Note king! :)

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The Gathering was a clause written into the Peace Treaty and one that had shaped the world in the years after peace was established.

If Shen Wei was feeling generous, he might admit that it had been part of the reason peace had remained successful, but it was rare when he felt anything more than irritation when he arrived at this sacred place.

He would choose not to come at all and send a representative, but Shen Wei would be the last to dishonor Dixing's rightful place at the Discussion Conference. No, he had to attend and bear it for the too-long three days in mid-winter.

Once perhaps such a gathering, it had seemed innocuous, or a test of good faith in the disarmament period after the war had ended. But the Lord Guardian of the Realms, Lord Ma Gui had decided it with the other leaders of the Allies and Shen Wei's opinion had been one of the few naysayers.

Kunlun would not have agreed either. Certainly not to hold it in winter.

There had been ten winter gatherings so far, a ritual every year, where all three realm monarchs, a representative of the jianghu and the two Guardians, came to discuss issues and cement ties over a Conference.

It would have been heresy in the time of their ancestors, a ridiculous, unheard of idea that three kingdoms could meet on neutral ground. Madness to expect a monarch to leave the sanctuary of their kingdom and venture to a territory far from their own. A security risk, a risk of authority and usurpers at home. Three reasons Shen Wei did not fear.

His seat of power was too strong and he had left Chu Shuzhi as Regent. Wang Zheng and Shen Anujin were safe in the Underground Realm and he was far too popular with the people. For most though it was a risk.

But the world, scoured and broken by war could not afford to stand fractured and always broken. Something had to be done to heal the rifts and prevent another conflict none of them could afford. Haixing had been defeated but not killed nor invaded. Dixing had just lost its unifying king and had been replaced with the loathed Ghost General. The Middle States were struggling to remain whole and Shangbei was both victor and reeling from the loss of Kunlun.

It was supposed to help peace and prevent the rise of one kingdom over the others once more. An idea that any ancestor would have laughed at. But they, the generation left to fend for themselves post-war, had little choice but to comply.

'Let us keep our borders and protect our people through the building of ties and trade'. That was the promise at least and it rested heavily on the shoulders of the Realm Guardian.  The penalty, one he could easily enact was the forced closing of the portal gates to their individual realms and sanctions none of them could risk.

So, the Gathering was a tradition kept. Three  days of political talks. For years it had been the continuation of the peace talks that brokered the Peace Treaty and then came the more bitter issues. Plus, there were the issues of the jianghu in relation to the kingdoms and the free peoples.

The Sect Council came as the representatives, chosen by the clans and sects of the jianghu. These five cultivators came with their own attendants and often acted as mediators and negotiators.  The current head of the council was a cultivator close everyone said to ascension to immortality. The deceptively youthful face couldn't hide the tragic gaze and air of old wisdom that Chu Wanning held close to him, like a cloak of frost. He sat in mourning white and only spoke when necessary, but his words were sensible and Shen Wei liked him.