Kunlun Mountain Part 4 - The Return

Chapter 8 - Final Days of Learning

The Demon Realm

Silently, the old woman inched closer to the little Temple with a small posy of flowers in her hand.  No one but the two maids had the privilege of setting foot through the large heavy oak doors, but that did not stop her from laying her small posy down below the one heavily draped window.  

She had never seen the inside, but it didn't matter, she needed only to bring back the memories to her mind and sit quietly outside to find solace and comfort in the tablet that lay within.

There had once been a time, when he would come daily.  He would kneel for hours in that little Temple, sometimes with the door ajar but usually closed to all outsiders.  He never made a sound, nor did he speak, but they all knew he cried.  And when the visit was over, she would watch him walk the cobblestone path back to the Palace with his head down and his shoulders slumped.  His long hair was always unbound and left to fall across his eyes.  Eyes that had once sparkled with joy.

But after a while, the visits began to lessen to a few a week and then weekly before they stopped altogether.  It was as if, he had given up on the Temple even though the maids continued to keep it clean.  And it was all because of that woman.

A woman who not only took him from the Temple, she took his heart and claimed it, he no longer cared for the one who had once made his eyes sparkle and dance.  Instead he gave his heart to a woman who brought death to their land and tears of pain to his heart.  

She heard him sometimes calling her name in the dead of night from dreams that would chase him through the darkness until the sun rose again.  He didn't know his cries carried through the open doors and were picked up by the wind for all ears to hear, but they all heard him, and they all knew, that place in his heart that had once been full, was empty again.

Of course she could say nothing except watch on in sorrow as he waited day after day for her return.  A Fox Queen who cared nothing for the pain she had caused, a woman who loved only one man, one she also remembered from a time long ago.  A man who had been the cause for the Temples presence in the first place.

She didn't know much about how fate worked, but what she did know, was her Overlord was a broken man all over again.

Laying the posy of flowers she had just picked, flowers that had suddenly come back again having been destroyed after the Palace Harem had been emptied, she stopped to offer a small prayer, before once more slinking away into the thick foliage until the next day.

Silence was the only sound behind the solid oak doors.  But as she disappeared behind the trees, another burst of light flared through the tablet, lighting up the inscription etched into its flecked surface.

_________________________________________________________________

Kunlun Mountain.

It was still hours away before Dawn, but the sound of footsteps outside his chamber door had Zhe Yan awake instantly.  Straining to hear the soft noise that had dragged him from a dream he had yet to let go of, the footsteps seemed to stop outside his door and for the longest moment he waited for the door to open.  

Dong Hua Di Jun had already returned to the Palace and being the only other guest that shared the guest wing with him, he knew it wasn't him, though he had said he would return when Zhe Yans turn to stay was over, but that was at least a week away .  He was planning on returning to the Peach Tree Woods, there were still many scrolls and books he had yet to get through, some that might hold the answers to the one question that had plagued them both for over 300 years.  

Not even Di Juns enormous library held anything remotely useful, yet neither of them had given up on saving him.  Though with the disappearance of the Crown Prince and Xiao Wu, their time had been spent on research and searching, so much so, his wine cellar was near depleted having had no time to restock it.  In all the years he had owned the Peach Tree Woods, it was the first time his cellar had reached such a critical level.