A Gathering of Heroes series: Anhu

Chapter 13 (Li)

I stare out the window at the vast garden of the Yuwen manor. Everything had gone surprisingly smoothly at the gates and the guards let us into the capital with minimal holding time. The Yuwens wield even more power than I had expected. I have sent the mercenaries out to gather information, and Tiexin has left to check on Qiuhuo, with his excuse Meiyu in tow. I have also sent two of the mercenary children to follow them as a precaution, although not because I do not trust Tiexin. He did not betray us at the gates while pretending to be innocently sleeping with the other children in the cart, and in my heart, I do not expect him to betray me now. Still. I can never be too careful here, in the enemy camp.

As I am pondering the days' events, I hear them in the distance, the wheels. They get closer and closer and I sigh. Finally, when a confrontation appears inevitable, I turn my back to the window and stand facing the room as he comes in.

He's grown much older since I last saw him, those years ago. His hair has grown longer, his face has those lines of maturity that didn't exist back then. Still, the years were kind to him. He still retains that sheepish, boyish look that I remember so clearly, even when I don't want to. We stare at each other in silence, measuring each other, deciding what would be right to say and what would be taboo in this reunion. I don't know, so I wait for him to make the first move.

Finally, he says, "I thought I'd never see you again."

I shrug as nonchalantly as I can and fight the urge to turn away. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?

He smiles sadly at me, eyes still lingering on that old scar of mine. It was annoying how he always did that then, and it isn't any less annoying now, years later. "Does it still-" he begins, but I cut him off.

"It's fine," I say tersely. "It's been years after all."

He sighs and looks away from me. "So, what brings you here?"

"Do you really want to know?"

He shrugs to nothing in particular and says, "I should know what kind of trouble I invited in, shouldn't I?"

"But what if I don't want to say?"

"Then I won't force you. I promised then and I don't intend to take that back now. I'd do anything, absolutely anything within my power, to help you. Always. No questions asked."

"You were naïve then and you're still naïve now," I say softly, looking closely at the side profile of his handsome face. My heart twinges with regret, but I ruthlessly stamp out these ancient feelings of mine.

"Only with you," he retorts, turning back to me with a small smile. "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Nothing specific," I say, averting my eyes again. "We just needed a place to stay."

"What's mine is yours, Chunfeng. Always."

I look back and smile at him, but it's painful. I don't want to be here, looking at him. I just want to go home and never have come here. Let this be a dream. But it's too real to be a dream. He's too real to be a dream. This impending battle... is too real to be a dream.

"I have a guess as to why you're here," he says, approaching the window next to me. If he notices me flinch at his approach, he wisely does not comment on it. "Would you like to entertain my theory?"

"Go ahead," I say as evenly as I can, leaning back against the sill and looking back out the window as well.

"I heard what happened in Dong Ying. It seems the imperial guards were searching for someone, someone with a specific "trait" to open a "gate." They slaughtered many civilians, even officials, searching for this someone. They brought prisoners back, jailed in the highest security jails in the palace itself. The xianzhang. Several officials and their families. And... women, meant to be sold as sex slaves in that ever-robust underground market. If you didn't announce my name at the gates, you probably would have been charged with some minor crime and been subjected to the same fate. That's how far the capital has fallen."