Winter Blossom

An Enigma

Resting on the sofa with a book, Mo Yuan briefly lost himself to a history lesson on ancient Mortal combat strategies.  That she even had a book on such a topic surprised him, because no Goddess of the Upper Realms had shown any interest in warfare, let alone its history.  

Now and then he would look up to watch as she attached small flowers to a head pin, a little hobby she would sometimes indulge in, and once finished, she would place it with the rest of her head pins which she gave to the children when she visited the mainland.  But rather than use magic, she made them the same way the Mortals made them.  It was painstakingly slow and extremely messy, but she had a lot of fun making them.

But what he noticed the more he watched her, was her silent peacefulness.  There was something exceptionally calming about her.   Even then, as he watched her make her flower pins for the children, a great calm washed over him, and having lived his entire life as peaceful as he possibly could, he had never felt that level of tranquility as he did then.

Which only seemed to go against the book he was reading.  In fact, almost every book she owed was in opposition to the woman.  She had books on marital arts, weaponry of both the Mortal Realm and Immortal Realm, complex magic belonging to both High and Low Realms, and even the histories of almost every Tribe known.

And alongside those, she had copies of the Tao Te Ching, music sheets which included the works of the great classical composer Zhu Zaiyu who created the first system of equal temperament and even the Twenty Six Quantum's of Universal Law which he was schooled in but had not realized a book had been published because such knowledge was only learned by a select few.

She was a complete enigma to him. Her peaceful nature when they were not throwing each other about the bedchamber,  seemed to be her true character, but as yet he didn't think he had even touched on the quiet intelligence he now knew she possessed.  There was something far deeper behind the mischief that flared more often than not.  And not even her very playful nature could hide it, because behind every mischief she had pulled to date, there was an intelligence behind it.  

"What?" she asked questioningly without looking up at him, having felt his eyes on her for sometime.

With a look of mischief in his own eyes, a sudden idea came to mind.  He had also been wondering if she utilized the skills in her books and going by how well read a few of them were, his memory rapidly went to one such book.

 Lifting just one finger very slowly, he threw a burst of energy at her.  It was lightening fast and there was even a little bit of power in it which was aimed to hurt.

But not only did she see the sudden flare of energy, her rapid reflexes sent it straight back.  It was done so quickly, that he only barely managed to avoid being hit by his own magic, and the stunned look on his face soon had her laughing at him.

"You're going to have to try harder than that if you want to catch me off guard." she challenged him which only increased his excitement that was beginning to rise.

If she was that quick to deflect an energy burst he had sent stealthily, something no other had managed to do yet, then what else was she capable of, he wondered as her book of martial arts came to mind.

Looking up at him, the breath in the back of her throat caught as a level of mischief in his eyes stunned even her, it even outdid her.  Knowing he was up to something, she waited for it and though her eyes remained on him while she continued to glue her flowers to the pin in her hand, he did notice her foot edge out from under her bottom seconds before he sent another burst only this time he disappeared from view only to reappear behind her the moment his energy reached her.