Sky Pride

“If they are targeting you, Sister, they are targeting me. They know I will not share the same sky as them. Like you said, a perfect opportunity to walk away from future troubles. Just say the word. We might not be strong enough to avenge your family now, but we have lots and lots of people who support us, and who are strong enough.”

There was another long silence. Tian thought he heard a muffled sob. An hour later, Hong started speaking in a low voice.

“We had this gate guard named Chen. He was badly burned. Really badly burned. All over his face and body. He just sat by the front gate all day, slowly drinking his poppy sap tea. He was one of the surviving caravan guards who followed us to the village. He was one of the people who raided the… the clan that lived there before.”

“What was the name of the clan?”

“Xia. An honorable name, once. Long, long ago. For generations, it was a curse. Anyway. Uncle Chen would tell me anything I wanted to know. Didn’t care that I was ‘too young’ or whatever. He said he hurt too much to think of lies. So I asked him how he got burnt. He took a big drink of his poppy sap tea, and told me.”

Hong took a long breath herself. “The Brothers slaughtered the fighters and menfolk of the Xia. Anyone carrying arms. The servants and the women were left to us. And the children. The Xia had trouble conceiving, and the few kids they did have died young. They had managed to produce an heir, technically, but he was…”

Her voice trailed off. Tian waited. Hong picked up again.

“Uncle Chen told me that my dad told him that the boy should have died in the womb. That he was twisted in body. His brain didn’t work right. He got sick all the time. Every moment of every day that boy was trapped in his bed, in a dim room, in pain. So really, killing him, letting him reincarnate into a better family, was a mercy. A cold mercy. But a mercy, and necessary for our family to be safe.”

Tian nodded. He doubted Hong saw him do it, but she carried on anyhow.

“Uncle Chen found the boy. His mother was leaning over him. She had died when they knocked down the bedroom door. She had killed his nurse and put a poison pill in the boy’s mouth. Bloody foam and vomit poured out of his mouth, covering him. He was the size of a baboon, Uncle Chen said. He looked like he had already been mummified, he was so thin. Huge eyes rolled up in hollow sockets. Uncle Chen reached out with his knife to finish the boy quickly, so he didn’t linger. And then the fire started, before he could give the kid peace. It was something in Madame Xia’s robes. It caught fire, and spread to the jars of oil in the rafters.”

Hong took a sharp breath. “I think about it all the time. He had done nothing, that boy living like a sinner in Hell. Reincarnation is supposed to wash away your sins, so why? Why give him a short life purely to suffer? His parents were doing everything, everything they could to keep him alive, hoping he would get better, and the very last things he experienced in this horrible life were his mother murdering his nurse, poisoning him, then burning him alive. That was it. That was his end. His bones were tossed in the dump, along with the bones of the rest of the Xia.”

She took a deep breath.

“Like my dads. We forted up in our manor, and they did everything they could to pressure us, break our will, make us forfeit our place in the city. They tore apart my dads’ tombs and threw their bodies to dogs in front of our gate. Mountain Gate City doesn’t have feral dogs. The bastards brought a pack of hounds into the city, starved them, then fed them my dads’ bodies!”

He could hear the sobs in her voice, hidden under the fury. He didn’t have to see her to know tears ran down her face.

“That is the Monastery to me. That is the Inner Court. I love my sisters and my brothers. They have been the best things to happen to me since I was six. And yes, I know who killed my family, and yes, I dream of slaughtering the bastards. And their backers. And beating to death every person responsible for letting things get this bad. Working all the way up to the Celestial Emperor and the Jade Court.”

“So why stick around? You could have run off ages ago, if you wanted. Five Element Courtyard would take you in a heartbeat. Hell, why not turn heretic?”