Fanfiction3: A-Li's Three Lives, Three Worlds - Chapter 70 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)
Chapter 70
written by Ligayacroftedited by Panda & Kakashi
Year 45’200
The Second Creation
It was about 200 years after his Beloved’s exile that he was asked by his Sister to go to the hinterlands of Creation that were occupied by the members of the Horse Tribe.
The abundance of light here was a welcome respite after his years of toiling in the Underworld building his next devices. Today, the sun shone bright against the massive mountains in the background, making the glare from their snow caps shine like mirrors reflecting light. The plains where the tribe roamed freely seemed never ending, with only the mountains and the skies forming the boundaries although even those seemed so far away.
This place— as savage as it was serene, as hostile as it was beautiful — hosted Primordial Gods as adequately as if they were up in Jiuchongtian or Kunlun.
The Horse Tribe carried the honor with pride. Its people having maintained their ways from back in the First Creation, when this favored mortal race was pocketed away by his Sister, Nüwa, and was spared from the Destruction that his Beloved had wrought upon all that was created before. Now blessed to be immortals, they had preserved the story of their worship, migration, and salvation through songs that also formed part of their language and religion. Blessed by Nüwa, the earth dripped with magick wherever the Horse Tribe stayed and called home.
A barefoot toddler ran into him as he crossed the encampment. He alertly held out his hand on the child’s back to support the little boy before he toppled over.
“Mo Yuan?” He asked, instantly recognizing the resemblance to Fuxi’s black eyes. He squeezed the handsome child’s chubby cheeks between the fingers of one hand. “Look at you, you’ve grown a lot!”
The child gave him an initial inquisitive gaze then with an irritated cry, he struggled to shake free of his grasp. With an amused laugh, he set the boy free. In what looked more like an endearing waddle, Mo Yuan ran away towards the direction of a nearby well where several Horse Tribe women congregated.
“Dìdì (弟弟),what are you doing standing outside?”
He turned to see his First Brother standing at the entrance of Nüwa’s yurt.
“You’re here as well?”
“I was summoned,” Shennong said in a jovial tone although the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I see you have met our Mo Yuan. A Creator like his Mother but alas, without his twin to counterbalance his gifts, I fear he might bring this new Creation to ruin.”
“That is not a good prophecy to have.”
“The Heavens always demand balance, Dìdì,” Shennong shrugged then took a rolled up leaf from his pocket, popping it into his mouth. “Great fortune or great ruin— you can expect nothing less from the descendants of Fuxi and Nüwa.“
He looked back at Mo Yuan by the well— still very much a baby, splashing in the mud while holding a wooden horse in his grubby hands.
“Does Second Brother know?”
“Fuxi?” Shennong asked, spitting the remains of his chewed up leaf on the ground. “Of course he knew! He was there, hovering, as I prognosticated for our sister.”
Poor child, he couldn’t help but think. Knowing Fuxi, his brother would do everything to ensure Mo Yuan didn’t do exactly as was foretold. The child’s future thus looked almost assuredly bleak.
“Fuxi might argue that our worry over the imbalance that Mo Yuan’s existence could cause on this creation was all because of her.”
He turned his head to Shennong, ready to defend his Beloved, but something in Shennong’s gaze made him hold his tongue.
“But as we all already knew, if he hadn’t sentenced her, she would have been able to support the imbalance. And now this imbalance will cost us our sister—”
The expression in Shennong’s face made his own stomach drop. Their sister was gravely sick, had been since the day she repaired the pillars supporting this Creation and the events which had followed after; and if Shennong looked as serious as he did today, it could only mean one thing— time was dangerously running out for Nüwa.
With a wave of his hand, Shennong motioned for him to come inside.
Nüwa’s yurt was of modest size, as compared to the Horse Tribe’s ruler and his wives’, which was most possibly due to her preference for simplicity instead of the tribe leader’s slight. Black felt covered the wooden latticework supporting the structure while a red felt flap acted as its door. The simplicity of the yurt’s exterior hid the sumptuous decorations inside that had been accorded by the tribe to their goddess in form of silk and satin wall hangings, gold brocade drapings, and intricate paintings of Nüwa’s dragon form.
Still, he found the yurt lacking, especially in comparison to the palaces he had previously designed and created for the Dragon Clan.
A fire made of dried dung burned under a boiling pot in the middle of the confine, right under where a window had been made on top of the yurt to let the light in and the smoke out. The north side of the yurt directly opposite the door was devoid of a chair which per Horse Tribe custom was normally accorded to the owner’s husband nor were there any possessions or items of his to the left side of the hut. The other side, the east, was lavishly decorated with Nüwa’s bed, chair, trunks and other implements.
“Chao’er,” his sister called, pushing herself to sit upright in bed, as she held out a hand adorned with many bracelets. He stepped forward but maintained a healthy distance as she was still shrouded by earth magic inside a healing spell.
Enforcing the will of his Beloved, Nüwa had created an entire set of new rules for mortals, allowing them free will to change their fate, live many lives and enable their ascent to immortality. However, without a sufficient yin as counterbalance, a change as drastic as this in turn cost their Sister greatly, as evidenced by how patches of her skin over the years had turned black. It was even worse now, as revealed by her sleeveless tunic, on how much of her arms had been affected.
Nüwa, the one who had brought all five of them together at the dawn of the First Creation, was dying.
Still, her eyes held the sparkle of the bluest waters on a cloudless day.
“The Mirrors— they are finished?”
He nodded although at the question he couldn’t help but wring his fingers at the thought of his Second Brother finding out. He tried to downplay it by joking, “Xie Guchou will be inconsolable when he finds out what exactly they are for.”
“You worry about that,” First Brother snorted then continued chewing on another herb from his pouch. “I worry more about you, Dìdì. And you, Meimei, you need to reconsider. Your husband is too powerful now. He only agreed to build Diyu to satisfy your wrath in the aftermath of her disappearance. We will not be spared if you do as planned.”
“You will be alright, Dage. We all know my husband cannot touch you.” Nüwa replied with a faint smile, turning her torso as she moved her legs from the bed. “And as for you, Dìdì, I have one more favor to ask from you.”
His throat took a painful swallow, already fearful of what was to come. He held out his hands in front of him and shook his head. “Sister, I am already in too much trouble. If Second Brother finds out—”
“It has to do with her, Dìdì, so hear me out.”
***
Do you understand why you’re the only one whom I can trust with this task? Tell me you understand!
Nüwa’s words kept replaying itself over and over in his mind as he cloud jumped to the edges of the river— a distance far enough from the encampment to give him privacy yet close enough for him to go back.
Build a sanctuary for His Beloved in Kunlun. Build the 36 Heavens for the Dragon Clan. Build Diyu so mortals could work on their immortality. Build the Mirrors so Sister could…
He might have been the weakest in power among them five but the nitty gritty required by his siblings’ vision had fallen on him to execute… every time.
Now his Sister was asking him to strip off what comparatively measly powers he had.
For her.
She is too powerful, Dìdì, and too tempestuous as she was still relatively young when Fuxi cursed her. I worry for this Creation when she finds a way to break off the curse. I need you to show her all the work that we have done to set this Creation to rights, and to show her the lessons gleaned from her mortal lives.
It was a fair request but the cost. The cost! He retched by the riverbank, tears falling down his cheeks as his love for her warred with the need for self-preservation.
Sister, what you propose means I barely have my immortal life. Many immortals will have more power than I have.
Which will make it easier for you to hide from my husband. He is threatened by power and scared of vengeance; just look at how he wiped away even her children’s memories of her. A small mercy compared to death for our niece and nephew, yes, but a harsher punishment in the long run. Don’t think he hasn’t been watching you closely, Dìdì. We all know how you loved her dearly. Answer me, how far can you go for the one you love?
Sister, coming from you, that is not a fair question to ask!
Considering it came from Nüwa who loved her maybe as much as he did, considering all the things she had already done for her, had been willing to do because of her… Nüwa’s questions asked for a hard answer.
Looking at his Sister’s body slowly waste away because of the adamance to not sever whatever remaining link she had with his Beloved…
Knowing his Sister’s plan to maintain the balance and the sacrifice it required — that his unknowing toddler nephew would grow up without a mother…
Without a doubt, he loved her. But to be reduced to almost nothing— a small sacrifice in comparison to what his Sister was about to do— but without any assurance if His Beloved would ever regain her old form...
Something brushed against his cheek and on instinct, he raised his hand to catch it. The soft petals of a peach blossom ended up whole yet crumpled in the palm of his hand. A stronger breeze passed by, sending a rain of peach blossom petals his way, reminding him of the last time he had seen her before the pillars supporting the Second Creation collapsed.
You cannot come with me. And for your safety, I cannot tell you where I am going. She had said those words firmly, her mouth puckered in anger after he released her from his tight embrace.
I will wait for you to come back then, he had promised, holding tightly to her right hand for a little while longer. In his lack of understanding, he had thought it was nothing new to take a back seat to her plans and dreams. If time was the real test of love, he had always passed it consistently and with the highest marks.
Her thick lashes fluttered as her gaze on him softened. Still, she had twisted her wrist to free her hand and raised it to squeeze his arm.
Goodbye, Chao’er.
With those words, she had turned her back to him and walked away under the peach petal rain, her long, midnight blue hair swinging gently behind her back as she went.
His stomach tightened at the memory. I will wait for you to come back— did he throw away his words like chaff just like that, especially words he had spoken to her, his Beloved?
But an eternity…
Your power will not be completely gone, his Sister had promised, just moderated. As she grows in power, so will you also regain yours. That way you can meet her demands when the time comes. We have a small window to do this as I do not think I can stay here much longer. With her gone, my powers…
He followed Nüwa’s gaze to the wooden horse rocker.
The worlds tremble at the unbalance of having me without her around.
It was not just the effect her disappearance had done to Nüwa’s powers. Without a yin more powerful, Fuxi lorded it over everyone.
His anger at Fuxi once again bubbled to the surface. To their Sister, this proposal was a way to redeem everyone, even her dastardly husband, against the anticipated fury of his Beloved when she came back.
A way to preserve this Creation that they had all worked so hard on, to not let it go to waste.
Let her be the judge of that. And when the time came, he would be a sufficient yang to her yin, and together they could create a do-over if she wanted to.
He was certain she would.
With fury in his steps he traveled back to the yurt to say yes to his Sister’s plan.
Chapter 71