It was something new… and for the first time, Tianlan didn’t like it.

She didn’t like the way tears welled in her eyes, nor how rain poured down in her domain. She couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t control it. The dark clouds above her head cracked with lightning and boomed with thunder.

There was something stabbing into her heart. She had pulled off part of her robe, to see where she had been injured, but found only unblemished skin.

Tianlan clutched at the fabric of her clothes, as she watched through Xiaoshi’s eyes. The bodies of Chief Xin, Han, Shan, Tai, Bizhou, and Feng were cremated, using the wood of the village.

Chief Xin and his easy kindness. Han and Shan, the two constantly bickering. Their fights were the stuff of legend, as brother and sister snarked at each other. Tai and Bizhou, the doctor and his wife, the kindly couple who could never not aid somebody in need. And Feng, brave Feng, who threw himself at one of the soldiers who was trying to take Xiaoshi from behind and paid the ultimate price for it.

Her guts churned. Her body shuddered. She grit her teeth as her Qi spasmed, and she barely managed to clamp down on it, preventing Qi deviation.

Even after days, the pain was still raw. It still ached.

Sometimes, she wished she could just diffuse herself again. To let everything go, and become nothing.

Tianlan refused.

To disregard these feelings was to disregard ‘herself’. So she let herself feel the anguish, keeping an eye on her Qi. She… honestly didn’t know what she was doing. She had only instinct and a set of ‘rules’ she had to follow. This was beyond her knowledge. She didn’t know where it would lead or what would become of her. Tianlan didn’t know what she would do

She could feel the rest of herself. Distant and muted, a long way away from her “core” here.

She had concentrated her being too much. Bound it up in Xiaoshi, and now… even though she was greater as a result, much of her power was beyond her reach.

She grimaced.

And now, because of that, they had to leave Green Trees.

Part of Tianlan wanted to stand firm. To stay in this village and dare these bastards to come again. She wasn’t a fool though.While by no means weak, the captain of this group of soldiers was far, far from the strongest that they could muster, or so Xiaoshi said.

Tianlan was confident that they could win against the first few that they sent. But if the Imperial army took a real interest in them?

Wore still, to stay would be the death of even more of the people she loved. Staying could mean Xiaoshi could be lost.

And that was something Tianlan couldn’t accept.

==========================

Xiaoshi had held Linlin’s hand as the fires burned down and the funerary tablets were crafted. In his soul, the only thing that he could hear was choked and muffled sobs.

Xiaoshi himself was simply… numb. He returned to his own home, and stared out across the gentle hills.

His house looked warm and inviting. His fields were full of growing crops. His chickens clucked and hopped around in their coop, eager for another day of eating bugs.

But most of all, he looked at the shrine he had built for his parents. The shrine he had made for them, so that they could watch over him, as he accomplished his father’s dream.

For the first time since the battle, he consciously called upon his Qi. He felt Tianlan stir, as he touched their connection.

The shrine slowly sunk into the ground as earth flowed like water, until not a trace of the shrine was left.

“I’ll be back.” he promised them. “I’ll be back, and then, you’ll see this place grow once more.”

He rose, collected what he could, and then returned to the village.

Even hastened by fear, it was still slow going, packing up an entire village and leaving. But all knew that staying here was death.

Imperial Soldiers had been killed in their land. As far as anyone of the Empire would be concerned , they were rebels.

The Emperor’s soldiers were not kind to rebels and barbarians.

But what surprised Xiaoshi was when Boyi walked up, a serious look upon his face.

“…Where to, Xiaoshi?” Boyi asked, and the question cut at Xiaoshi.

Boyi would have been, should be chief. Xiaoshi should have been asking him that.

But instead, everybody was gathered around, waiting for his decision. Linlin slipped her hand into his at the hesitation.

He swallowed, and decided.

“West. Past the Cloudcatcher forest, and as close to the Mist Wall as we can get.”

There were a few intakes of breath at his proclamation, but such was the severity of the situation that nobody spoke against it.

With heavy hearts, and one last look at the ruined buildings, they set off.

================================

And thus they travelled past the enormous trees that were so tall they captured the clouds above.

On the tenth day of the second month, the trees started to thin out. The massive things that touched the heavens became normal once more, and upon cresting a final hill, they saw it.

The Mist Wall.

The Edge of the World. It was said the entirety of the Azure Hills was surrounded by it, a wall between them and the lands beyond the Emperor’s reach.

It was an unassuming thing. A bit of fog on the ground, twisting and roiling. The land beyond would become hazier until it disappeared completely. It looked like you could simply walk through it, and surely, it would eventually lift.

That could not be further from the truth. To enter the Mist Wall, to try and walk through it was death. None who had entered it had ever returned.

Some even said that demons stalked just within, and that they would steal through the night to attack people.

There was a mood of unease in the caravan as they beheld the eldritch thing, and Xiaoshi felt Tianlan’s own discomfort as she stared at it.