A Love Beyond Time

Cold Plum Blossoms Illuminate a Bleeding Heart

Amid the dust of the world, there are always hearts that love too fiercely

Laugh not at their folly, nor call it madness.

Tell me—what is love, in this fleeting world?

It is that which binds one to another, unto life and unto death.

Without a cold that pierces to the marrow,

Whence comes the fragrance of the plum in bloom?

Shinsekyo—Horai, The Grand Castle, The previous day.

Zheng-Yu took a small bronze chest from the large cabinet and snapped it open, revealing a large sphere. Of a midnight black so deep, so dark, it was a sphere of eternal abyss that devoured every spectrum of colour, every beam of light. An abyss of endless greed, of insatiable lust, of uncontrollable desire.

Just like his heart.

It longed, oh, how it longed! For what was once within his grasp, but now unattainable. Though he did not know what it was that he longed for, or why he longed for it. Or if it was even real.

Was it something impermanent, like a breeze through the hair, like time through space?

No, it was real. And you will have it again. Soon. Very, very soon.

Eyes gleaming black as the sphere, he reached into the chest. It felt cold and heavy. He had forgotten how he came by it. Perhaps one of the four immortal realms had offered it as a tribute. Perhaps one of his lowly human devotees had offered it during prayers. He turned the orb slowly, admiring its unrelenting, absorbent black. As it rotated, flecks of glowing crimson surfaced, the eyes of hundreds of ravenous demons awakening from a deep slumber. Ready to feast, to gorge on innocence and purity.

As the red flecks grew, that terrible desire began to build once more. In his chest, his stomach, his loins.

He hissed, put the sphere in his pocket, and returned to his bedchamber. Red-flecked black eyes raked over the slim figure in the bed. So small, so fragile, so breakable, lying tangled within the ice-white silk sheets and blankets. A tiny fox in that huge bed, helpless and weak and oh so sweet.

His Fox. His little pet. Sassy, proud, untameable.

It had been a pleasure keener than the Celestial Imperial Sword to break that spirit, fragment by fragment. To ground each fragment into fine dust. To watch that spark of indomitable defiance diminished into terror and grief that extinguished into nothingness.

So, so gratifying.

"Little beauty, my little beauty." Long fingers graced over that bewitching face. "Do you know why I became the Jade Emperor? It's all for you."

Mother, who will that Kunlun Snow Fox belong to once the ancient rulers send it over?

To you, of course, Zheng-Xuan. All Celestial Pets belong to the Jade Emperor.

"I couldn't let Zheng-Xuan have you, you see. You belong to me. Only me. I saw you first."

He has taken everything from me. Why must he take you too? NO! NEVER!_

"But did you show me any gratitude? Any respect?" He bent closer, spittle spraying, eyes glowing. "After all I did for you, after all the scums I had killed for you? Those filth who dared covet you, who dared lust after you. I killed them all! For YOU!"

Right before his devouring eyes, that face peaceful in repose began to change.

The drug was wearing off. Rien had told him that the effects would last three days and nights. Now, that exquisite form that was his eternal fevered dream began to fade away, bit by bit. Like soil washed away by the rain.