The Mourning Forest at night was no different than the forest during the day. The dense weaving of branches and leaves blotted out the smallest of fragments of the astral light seeping from the dark skies, and the gentle breeze rubbing against the trees’ bark was denied entry into the solemn mausoleum. The darkness was overwhelming and the silence harrowed the mind, but the cool and moist sensation of the virgin soil underneath calmed her nerves as she paced towards the forest’s depths.
Her fingers trailed along the tips of the uprooted branches, bouncing gently from the knotted wooden surface as they rubbed in earnest. An Fei curled her lips when her gaze landed onto the dozens of branches strung from the entrance of the forest to her current position, and released an untimely sigh.
“These branches have some Sword Intent, and now I’m to obey some mystical godforsaken contract,” the young girl spat and reached for the twig under her palm.
“This is mysterious, that is sacred, what illogical, unreasonable bastards, the whole lot of them! Both you and that damned Empress, do I seem so easily manipulated by the likes of you!?”
With a feeble cry, the branch was cruelly ripped from its shelter in the earth. An Fei scoffed and hurled the twig to the ground besides her feet, and the disdain on her countenance grew as the wooden branch remained silent and deathly still. There was hardly any of the Sword Intent that Xu Lingxin desperately crowed day after day, nor did the branch transform into a gleaming, crimson longsword similar to the blade created by the Immortal. All that remained was a wry twig that had been embedded into the virgin soil, and was now cruelly ejected from its home.
“Here and there, all that matters in one’s power, is that it? What a cruel outcome, for attempting to trust in another –“
“Oh? Why throw the failures on your shoulders onto someone else?”
A languished and bored voice interrupted her thoughts, and caused An Fei’s mood to spiral into alert. The young girl spun around on her feet as she attempted to locate the source of the voice, and her right hand drifted close to the collar of the gown, resting directly above the complex network of woven strings. Pressing the faint yet cold blade of the qama against her skin forced the abrupt panic from her gaze, and she carefully surveyed her surroundings with a vigilant mind.
“Was it the wrongdoing of the Morning Star Temple to force a Soul-Binding Contract with your name, or is your fault and negligence to have fallen prey to such a ploy?”
“…what do you want? Reveal yourself!”
The relaxed and amused tone and the prominent lisp between the harsher enunciation of several words immediately threw the young girl through a loop, and her brows furrowed when she understood the trace familiarity that coursed through her heart. An Fei briefly relished in the mixture of melancholy and relief for a few breaths, until she realized the troublesome matter.
“A wooden branch is a wooden branch, not a sword, nor an object that carries Sword Intent. Sword Intent is nothing more than the delusions of one obsessed with the sword. A silly Immortal, that damned, irresponsible being– “
There wasn’t the slightest of disruption in the still depths of the forest, nor was there the telltale breeze of an object soaring through the air with great speed. Yet, the faintest thoughts of danger stabbed through her mind, and the young girl hurled her body towards the right with all of the strength her limbs could muster. The voice from afar continued to drift within her vicinity and bombard her ears with light jabs, but An Fei could only stare wide-eyed towards the upturned soil.
Just a few meters from where she now lay, and where she once confidently stood, was a wooden branch stabbed into the virgin soil. The feeble twig had rooted itself into the ground, nailing with its tip a shred of a cloth garment clearly belonging to the nightgown of a mature woman.
“–his words cannot be trusted. A silly cultivator of the sword cannot be trusted, not when her words have little logical foundations to belie themselves upon – to whose shoulders does that fall upon?”
An Fei ignored the light banter of the Immortal hidden within the forest, and instead sharpened her gaze onto the feeble twig that had been stabbed into the ground. The absolute silence in which her gown was ripped apart by the branch tossed aside by her own hands condensed into chilling drops of sweat that trickled down her back. The young girl could hardly care about the massive gap in the clothes that revealed the dense wrapping of bandages around her chest, and swore never to lose track of the innocuous branch.
“An Immortal can certainly transform a mere wooden branch into a sword, and a cultivator of the sword of many decades can certainly recognize the spirit of the sword within another’s movements. Or perhaps, everything is nothing but an illusion. But it is interesting – how could you quite possibly throw the word ‘trust’ around without batting an eye? You – of all people?”
The wooden branch threw itself from the ground and charged at the crouched young girl at the Immortal’s cue. As it silently removed itself from the moist earth, the fabric pinned underneath was ground directly into a fine white powder to be swept aside by the mocking gale, and the previously rooted tip of the branch gradually hardened and blackened to form the scorched blade in An Fei’s memories.
“When did you begin to trust in the goodwill of others? How could you even begin to trust in the words of another person?”
The hovering half branch, half sword, gently quivered a few meters from An Fei’s chest. Just as she blinked to clear away the faint blur at the corner of her vision, the wooden branch vanished.
“The cold and unfeeling An Fei. The An Fei who could never risk the chance to trust in the words of another being for fear of betrayal. You who lived at death’s door for more than three years, fleeing and hiding from the entirety of the world –
“–aaah!? Wait, what did you say – eh!?”
“–where did that An Fei wander off to, and who are you? What happened to the heightened awareness towards your surroundings? The natural scrutiny you applied to those whom you met, the ability to pick apart lie from truth?”
In just two breaths, the young girl realized that tracking the blade’s location was an impossible feat. An object that lacked any presence in sound nor sight could never be captured by the human senses, and the price of that lesson was two enormous gashes on her back. The thickening rivulets of warm yet cold blood dribbling across her skin, along with the debilitating sense of her body losing weight caused the scarlet irises to rapidly dilate and contract in alarm.
“The An Fei of just three years ago could readily anticipate the actions of Xu Lingxin and the Morning Star Temple. The An Fei of three years would have long since forced the decision of Great Yong’s Empress to land on another’s shoulders, be it through force, negotiation, or forceful negotiation.”
The two gashes were swiftly followed by a powerful thrust towards the right thigh, aiming directly for the ligaments coiled around the bone. An Fei closed her eyes and threw herself towards the left, barely avoiding the impossibly sharp edge of the blade. Nonetheless, the terror and dread of her clothes and flesh ripping apart frayed at her nerves, and the chilling and numb sensation on her back threw her heart into stateless panic.
Without hesitation, she tore at the strings holding the qama in place. With a light, solemn cry, the steel blade slashed through her left sleeve as it hastily spun through the air to land in her grasp.
“Even if you were unfamiliar with your surroundings, adapting to the changed circumstances, no matter how bizarre, was a mere triviality to the An Fei of the past – do you even remember? The An Fei of the past could survive in the cold, barren wasteland of Northern Siberia for more than a month with nothing but the clothes on her back and the lingering remnants of a military ration. Where is she now?”
The qama who could inflict death through the slightest of wounds provided little to no assistance against a lifeless enemy who was both invisible and silent. At most, it provided a slight peace of mind to An Fei – and proved to save her life as the steel blade deftly intercepted the path of the flashing wooden branch as the young girl tucked herself into a barrel roll on instinct.
“You who could easily scavenge and survive in an environment that almost everyone would describe as inhospitable under any circumstances despite not recognizing half of the plants and small creatures you ate, couldn’t realize the potential dangers of a transportation array? Mere letters and symbols, by all means, but surely characters that release light on their own accord should raise a few alarm bells in your mind – so why didn’t you move? You truly couldn’t do anything but submit under the Empress’ Soul-Binding Contract?”
The young girl pressed her right hand against her abdomen and whirled to her right with the qama’s deadly blade guarding her chest. The instant the blade had completed its transition from offense to defense – An Fei felt an enormous force crashing into the flat of the knife, overpowering both the qama and her feeble body. With a silent scream tearing apart her throat, the body was hurled across the clearing without mercy for its injuries, the qama discarded into the unknown depths of the forest.
“Your instincts that saved your life hundreds, if not thousands of times – why didn’t you lend your trust at that time? Because you believed that Wen Jiu – although you bemoan his flattering existence at every moment – would come to your rescue? Or that nothing truly terrible would result, for should there be any danger, you could flee to your precious sanctuary, where you can languish in your delusions?”
The instant the mocking voice’s final words registered in her brain, all thoughts crashed to a stumbling halt. The Immortal paid little heed to the pitiful, crumpled figure that was An Fei, but chuckled in delight at the mixture of pain, anger, and dread that had eclipsed in the young girl’s gaze.
“What a pity. The Sanctuary that you rely upon is no longer within your grasp. Wen Jiu no longer has the chance to come to your aid. Xu Lingxin will cast you away to save her people. Everything and everyone whom you could trust will no longer aid you.”
The wooden branch no longer saw the young girl worthy to conceal its presence, and discarded the thin veil that concealed its presence from the world. The jet-black sword gleamed with a forbidden brilliance stolen from the stars nested in the heavens as it hovered above An Fei’s neck.
“Yes – nobody will come to your aid, nor will anything save you, not even your own self. Farewell – I shall send you off with the wooden branch you personally have cast away with your own hands!”
The sword screeched in fury, and a dazzling crimson brilliance erupted from the blade to cover the forest enthused in darkness with the glorious blast of scarlet light. With the clarion call of a phoenix’s judgement, the jet-black sword condemned the young girl to death as it descended from the skies.
