Sorrow In Autumn

Chapter 25 Dragon pool, Tiger Cave

Sorry for the long delay! There were power outages recently and life got in the way. :) This chapter  combines three versions and so is a little long...

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As the moon rose to her full glory, Shen Wei sat back and dropped the red stained cloth into the bowl beside him.

With the first and second parts of the ritual behind them, Shen Wei had ordered that they move Kunlun to another location, away from the mess of sand and the wreckage of the room.

Jie Ming had followed him and watched fascinated as Shen Wei had used dark energy to heal all of Zhao Yunlan's injuries, before taking the bowl one of the servants had provided, to clean the blood and sand away. The Emperor ignored everyone else and focused on Zhao Yunlan completely, going as far as expertly dripping water into his mouth and ordering another servant, to ask the kitchen to make a weak congee.

Every motion sparked old memories. There had always been care in their love. Sheltered from prying, judging eyes they had gently taken care of each other, even without the excuse of exhaustion or injury. For him, it was something he learned from Yunlan.

It allowed him to become someone separate from the General, Prince or Envoy, carving out a space for Shen Wei to exist in the middle of the carnage. To become more than his bloodthirsty reputation or the symbol of cold, highly focused leadership.

For a moment he was back in time, hours after a battle, sitting beside Kunlun who had painstakingly washed Shen Wei's skin free of blood and dirt, piecing him together with deft hands and foxfire eyes. Making him want with all of his black heart to mold himself into someone Zhao Yunlan would want to keep.

They never spoke of victory or failure and Shen Wei learned to relax, to give himself what would become precious memories in the future. Aware they were too battle-worn to think of new plans and the full weight of their losses.

They were young leaders holding up more than their armies. They were the morale of their nations and the only defense against invasion, fighting against a people more advanced, better funded and generally larger than either of theirs. Southern Haixing had an empire back then, but they had wit and a rebellion strong enough to win.

In these stolen snatches of time, they could focus on something that was not the hardships they overcame, the public face they offered their forces or the next strategy. Shen Wei learned that sometimes the best part about surviving, was simply to lean into the one who loves you and breathe, to feel their warmth and know in every fiber of your being that it was over.

The younger him would have called it a brief reprieve, but that version of himself would have eroded completely without his foxfire eyed Chieftain. The war was killing him as surely as a festering wound would have.

Sometimes he wondered if those quiet moments were what carried him through the war, allowing him to be the man he was today. The man who found it within himself to lead a nation, who knew how to smile. The man who loved his child and while he could find no contentment in life without Zhao Yunlan, he had found his peace with the past. Because the tenderness and love Zhao Yunlan gave him was the very reason, Shen Wei didn't lose himself completely.

This righteous hero and the owner of his heart was resting on another daybed in the Meng Clan's Room of Solitude now, the pale blue curtains closed tightly, with only Jie Ming to see him gently washing Kunlun's skin. They had brought the others here too and Shen Wei looked at them now.

Sang Zan had no visible wounds and that was suspicious to Shen Wei's jaded mind but Jie Ming had been tending to Da Qing, wrapping the injuries neither of them could heal. Unlike Kunlun, Da Qing's face was lined with stress and his hands flexed restlessly against the daybed.