× Master of My Soul × [ Dynasty Warriors ] [ Slowly Updating ]

× 16 - Omen of Endearment ×

The sky was dark blue tonight. A surreal blue that covered the heavens like some sort of fine silk that was never supposed to exist. The tiny stars glowed with silvery light, blinking randomly in the distance. A pale hand was raised toward the flashing brightness, looking almost the same as the stars.

Why is the light so far away?

As wisps of black smoke appeared in my vision, I glanced downward, watching as the curls wrapped around my ankles, but I couldn't feel them. The darkness seemed to have come out of nowhere, spreading outward from me in an agonizingly slow pace. I don't know what I was supposed to expect, but the tendrils appeared to remain the same length as they waved in the air. I tried to pull my feet away from them, but the wisps only jerked back to my legs the moment I stepped elsewhere. As I hopped and danced on my feet in an attempt to get them off, my surroundings changed, but I wasn't surprised.

I couldn't be surprised.

The buildings which formed around me were foreign, yet as I took slow steps up a set of stone stairs I knew that I was heading into the main hall. The room was dark, the deepest corners of it being pitch black, but when I walked inside, every shape and form began to show. The lighting in the room hasn't changed one bit, but there were some sort of invisible lines that I could detect, that I could feel.

The hall itself was big, but not impressive in any way. The inside was well-decorated but not excessive, like a public area where people of all kinds should feel comfortable being in. A narrow, burgundy carpet under the tendrils of darkness led to the main seat in the back of the room. On each side of the hall were sets of short tables topped with bronze wine goblets and small plates, all of which were empty. The entire room was set up perfectly, but it was eerily desolate.

People were supposed to be present, wine was supposed to be poured, and food was supposed to be served.

But there was no one here but me.

I took small, staggering steps toward the main seat. Though barely noticeable, my movement became slower and slower and slower... Finally arriving before the chair, I saw a disturbance in the light behind me, like a shadow passing by. I turned around and stared at the doorway. Nothing had changed. The sky was the same blue, the stars the same silver, and even the open doors remained unmoving. A sudden breeze made my white nightdress flutter and dissipated the black smoke, but the wisps returned a moment later.

Xue...

Father?

I spun on my heel sharply and froze in place. No, not father... or at least, it didn't look like him.

A figure in a dark robe was slumped on the chair a mere arm's length from me. Long and untamed locks of ebony draped over where the face should be, obscuring any signs to recognize this person from. The rough shape of the body and the large hands told me it was male, and there was a vague sense of familiarity about this man, despite his head hanging and his curtain of hair.

Father was skinnier than this.

For a while, nothing moved, including me. The motionlessness was broken by the man sluggishly raising an arm, which had been placed on the armrest before. Slowly, his clothing began to tear on its own, and bright red color oozed out from the fissures of his robe, which I had realized was a dark blue color. Just like the sky. His fingers spread and seemed to reach out for me, and the tendrils of darkness climbed up my dress even further, as if being controlled by this man. I tried to take a step back, but it was like I was being weighed down by something.

As the person lifted his gaze, rays of light seeped from the rips in his clothes and poured out of his mouth like blood. It was difficult to keep my eyes open to such intense energy, but somehow I did it, and I soon found myself staring into a very familiar eye. An eye full of sorrow, regret, pain...