One fateful meeting on a lone raining day will change Yezun's life completely. Not only he meet with his long-lost brother, but also finds out a secret running through their family. There, in between white roses and blood, he finds answers to his lo...
„Ah, here we are," Mr. Zhao announced. The car pulled to a short stop in front of a massive gate. The driver rolled down his window and started a rather long procedure in a card scan, face recognition and an iris scan, before a voice asked from the speaker why he wanted to enter the premises.
„I am here with Mr. Zhao to drive him home."
The gate opened and the car drove inside. It took them a few minutes to pass the forest. Once the view cleared, Yezun saw a huge mansion on top of a cliff. He never saw such a big house, not one someone actually lives in that's it.
The car parked in an inside parking slot and after coming through a security check, Yezun was allowed to enter the building. The interior was modern and sleek, made in brown and blue colors. To Yezun's surprise it emitted warmth, not cold and chills as he would imagine from the way the building looked on the outside.
They passed by a few people and Yezun noticed they were all quite shocked to see him. Some of them put a hand in front of their mouth to cover their surprise. Others radiated dangerous emotions. Only after he and Mr. Zhao entered an elevator, which later on turned out to be the elevator to Mr. Zhao's office, Yezun could shook of the gazes of others.
„Please sit down. I will call for a coffee and then we can talk." Yezun was motioned towards an armchair in front of a warm fireplace. He was attracted to the place like a moth. His coat was wet, he smelled of sweat and for sure did not look a bit attractive or neat. He stood in front of the fire, basking in its warmness.
An assistant came in and out, bringing a tray with heavenly smelling coffee, some cookies and other small boxes. Mr. Zhao sat into one of the armchairs, the brown leather cracked underneath him. He watched Yezun for a long time, thinking and evaluating before speaking up.
„Why don't you take off your coat and glasses? Here, drink your coffee. I believe you need to warm up from the inside as well."
Yezun contemplated for a while, but then came to the conclusion he has nowhere to run. Despite the fact Mr. Zhao was not a kind-looking man he did not do anything to hurt Yezun. Not yet. So Yezun decided to cautiously sit down and reach for the cup.
He sipped a bit and the aroma hit his nose and evaded his lungs with homey feeling. The taste was extraordinary and he realized how hungry he was, but he had to keep his appetite on the bridle as there were simply to many questions he needed an answer to.
„How is Shen Wei?"
„I believe it will take him some time, but he will recover for sure. Your brother has a very strong will."
Yezun sighed in a huge relief. "Can I go and see him?"
"I am afraid, right now, only a few highly experienced people can take care of him. He will be fine, do not worry."
„....How do you know he is my brother?"
„As I said, I know more about you than you know about yourself," Mr. Zhao leaned over and took out a file. He opened it and read a few facts from Yezun's life, such as date of birth, place of residence, names of parents...
„Anyone could trace this information," Yezun was not fooled. „Why did you want me to go with you?"
„And did you not want to go with me? To know more about your brother whom..." He glanced to the file again. „Whom you last saw on your high school graduation ceremony, am I right? After that, you were not in contact."
Yezun's mouth was dry. He remembered that day clearly. They both dressed up. Wei was smiling and he seemed so happy when Yezun got down from the podium with a fresh high school diploma. They hugged and then run out of the auditorium into the rainy football field. It was there where he saw Wei for the last time before he disappeared to study away from home.
"If you want to talk about the past, just leave it, I am not interested," Yezun stood up, the painful memories making him more miserable. "Will you please drive me back to my brother?"
„I know even more," Mr. Zhao closed his file. "And I am sure you have a lot of questions after yesterday's funeral," Mr. Zhao paused in thoughts. „Or shall we call it a resurrection ceremony?"
Yezun felt his hair standing up. „R-Resurrection?"
„Yes."
„Look, I don't even know you and this whole thing does not make any sense. Why don't you just give me a contact to my brother and leave me alone?"
„I am afraid I cannot do that, Mr. Shen."
Yezun gulped.
„Let me introduce myself again," Mr. Zhao leaned to the front. „My name is Zhao Xinchi. The man you saw in the coffin yesterday was, is, my son Zhao Yunlan. Our family is guarding the Envoys for centuries. We dedicate our lives to protect the ones with the infinite powers."
Yezun blinked. A mere day ago if anyone told him there were people with supernatural powers, he would laugh at them. But now he was not so sure. He did see his brother using some powers and even thought he did not witness him using any on him, the feeling he still had in his chest was a peculiar one. Thoughtlessly he touched his sternum.
Mr. Zhao continued in his speech. „The Envoys are born with powers no human can imagine. There is a certain pattern as to when a new gifted person will be born. We knew your mother will give birth to a new Envoy. What no one could predict was that she was going to have twins."
Yezun whispered: „But I have no powers..."
"Not anymore... I suppose." Mr. Zhao locked his gaze with Yezun and saw the rising wave of anger.
"How can I believe anything you are telling me?" Yezun came a bit closer to Mr. Zhao. "You are guarding my brother? Why?" Anger took over his voice for a while. "How can I even trust you when you say you have been spying on my family? All I want is for my brother to get better. I do not need to listen to your stories."
The older man bend and took out a big photo album. „I see you need some proofs. If the terrible pain in your body and the fact my dead son is now lying in the hospital with a pulse is not enough for you." He handed Yezun the chunky book. „See for yourself. These are the past Envoys. You will notice we never had a twin case before, so we stayed back and observed the both of you. We watched how, for the first time, the power was split between two people," Mr. Zhao rested his back on the soft material of the armchair and watched Yezun flipping thru the book. Between the hard pages were photos with notes. Photos of the Envoys his family protected for centuries. And towards the end, there were pictures of Yezun and Shen Wei as well as a family photo with their parents.
Yezun's hands started to tremble upon seeing the long-lost memories of his childhood. Their parents died a long time ago. It was strange seeing them on the paper, looking young and bright. Even his brother was smiling happily on the photo. His brother...
+++
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Author's note:
I apologize for later update my internet connection crashed and it took a while to get a new one. In the past few months we are experiencing internet connection problems all over the country :/
Dictionary:
"Envoy" is someone who poses a special power. This power (or powers) is hereditary, but it does not appears in all people within one family line. There is a pattern the power "follows" as to which descendant will be born with the power which enables the organization to trace the next Envoy, usually before they are even born. Envoy's are protected by the organization in secrecy to ensure they are safe as there are many people wanting the Envoys dead or to use them for further research or their own plans.
