A Trial by Halves

One Piece at a Time

Quietly Er Li stole passed his mothers old chamber where she had been taken to rest.  She may have been injured and forced into a deep sleep but he wasn't taking any chances at allowing her to feel his energy moving about the halls in the dead of night.  Not when he faced his uncles wrath if he woke her.  And as he slipped quietly into the meditation cave where his fathers body was laid out, the sight of his uncle sitting quietly beside him with his uncle Zhe Yan who was lightly dozing, soon had his small feet running to join them.

"Er Li there is no need to for you to be here.  Your duties to your father are done with now." Mo Yuan lightly chastised him and wanting him to rest.  There was plenty of time for him to spend with his father, but having given so much of himself already, Mo Yuan and Zhe Yan felt he was more than entitled to a break seeing as he'd not had one for some time.

But he sat down anyway before gently laying his head against his knees to look down at his fathers face.  The first time he had seen him, his heart almost exploded from his chest and had his uncle not been there to calm him down, he may have actually fainted.  Joy and awe mingled along with a very large dose of fear.  He might be young, but he knew what the repercussions would be if those in the Celestial Heavens knew that his fathers body was there on Kunlun Mountain.

But to see that likeness to his uncle he had heard so much about had his head swimming.  He had never seen twins before, there were so few of them in his world, but still, the likeness of the man beside him to the man on the dais was remarkably close with or without the facial hair and for a moment, he had looked at this uncle of his and in a moment of clarity, he got a deeper understanding of why he was just as hell bent on bringing him back to life as he had been.

For Er Li, he had solely given up the time and effort to smooth out the small lines around his mothers eyes, to see her smile without the lingering sadness that never went away no matter how happy she was.  But for his uncle there was something far deeper and far more meaningful than just wanting his twin brother alive.   And he may not have had any siblings of his own to understand this, but having worked heavily in spirit form, he understood all too well the bonding of two souls.  He had keeny felt with his fathers soul pieces the moment his father stopped fighting and began to pay attention to him.

The recognition between them had been exceptionally powerful and for a few moments before he had taken off at break neck speed to find more pieces, he had felt the full twenty five thousand years of loss pass between them as his father soul had clung then embraced him.  His uncle had told him that there were no boundaries when in soul form and he would know when his father became aware of him, only he had not really been prepared for how exceptionally exalting yet painful that feeling would be.  

Now turning his head to look at his uncle who had given up on trying to send him back to bed, he couldn't help but feel that same connection with him.  There was something to be said for blood being thicker than water, but soul connection ran even deeper and the look on his uncles face said his own soul was just as much in turmoil as his was.

And it was.  Mo Yuans mind had taken him back to the day his father had gifted him the Golden Lotus and the promise he had made to keep him safe.  Only back then, he had seen it as one more duty to perform which he had dutifully carried out by gifting this brother of his, daily energy boosts to keep him safe.  And so it had remained this way for centuries until one day, a little girl dressed as a boy arrived and awoke his sleeping spirit.

That had been the very first time he had felt the first stirrings of a soul connection.  Up until that point, he had been merely protecting a brother he hoped to one day meet.  And as his spirit fired into life, that connection grew a little more each day until he had found the excitement at his possible birth, while also understanding his own fathers disappointment at not being there to see it.  But the real soul bonding came not long after he had scattered himself in the chaos.