[PPZ] - Til Death Do Us Part #BigChange [Elarcy]

3| Tell a tale of a bull that shits

I raced out into the night, into the manicured grounds of Pemberley Estate. Around me I could hear the approaching howls of the Stricken. The Horde was drawing near. Darcy's commands echoed across the night. The shouts of his men. The crack of muskets.

The battle had started which meant I had very little time.

Shortly after our marriage, Darcy had constructed a small replica of the Shaolin temple where I could go to meditate. Inside I kept a collection of oriental incense, the carved stone Buddha and atop an altar sat the mahogany box Master Lao had gifted me upon completion of my training. Inside was a bronze amulet much like his. A sacred artifact only the purest of those trained in the Shoalin arts were worthy of possessing.

"Coming events cast their shadows before them; should you find yourself cast beneath a shadow too great, too dark, call upon the Spirits of our Shaolin Fathers and they will heed your prayers." 

Entering the temple, I fell to my knees and lit the sacred incense. Opening the mahogany box, I fumbled for the amulet and pulled the delicate chain over my head. Reciting the sacred words Master Lao taught me, I said the Prayer and called upon the Spirits of the Shaolin Fathers.

Around me the air stilled, sound vanished—leaving a silence too thick to bear and I knew, without logic or reason, that time itself had stopped.

Opening my eyes, I gasped as I no longer knelt within the walls of my temple, but now stood in an emptiness surrounded by the ghostly apparitions. Hundreds upon hundreds with silver gazes all pinned to me.

<Rise.> The figure closest to me spoke without speaking and swept a ghostly hand through the air. <Ask.>

Swallowing deeply, I took a quick breath before finding my voice. "I call upon you to send me warriors to help vanquish a great evil."

Silver eyes didn't waver. <Warriors, you say. Cost. Payment.>

"What do you want?"

<Sacrifice.>

I swallowed again. "...me? My life?"

Laughter rattled around me but no faces rippled with mirth. <No. Love. Someone you love. Darcy.>

My heart clutched, terror filled me. "You want my husband's life?"

The apparition's head angled. <Love for life. For all lives? Would you sacrifice?>

I thought of Darcy. I thought of my fierce, proud husband and though it pained me greatly, I knew what he would say if he were here. He would stand next to me, without hesitation or question, and offer to fall on his sword if that's what it took. So would I.

For the greater good.

I chose my next words carefully. "I will pay whatever price I must, but cannot make such a choice for another. Take what you will from me, all that I am--all that I have—I give gladly to save my people. My country."

Silence swelled and my heart rose into my throat. The first flicker of emotion rippled across the apparition's face, splitting his lips into a smile and turning his silver eyes into half moons.

<Worthy,> he whispered. <Warriors you shall have. For the rise and fall of one moon and no longer. Go.>

The ground gave way beneath me and before a scream could break through my lips, I'd slammed back down into my body, into the weight of gravity. The world rocked around me and I became whole again. Gasping, I looked to the incense to see it had been reduced to ash. Beyond me light shone. And grew. A silver, opalescent glow too white to be from the sun.