A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 69: A Life

Xue Lan came out of the prison chamber. He entered the courtyard and found Yin chatting with others.

Yin turned toward him, stopping his conversation. Beside him was another royal guard, a woman with long ash-colored hair, with deep yellow eyes that seemed to reflect the sunlight.

The woman also stopped to look at him, a grin tugging at her lips. ”Look, who decided to show up?”

Xue Lan ignored her existence as he walked past them with his casual expression. The woman crossed her hands together and glanced at Yin. ”What’s wrong with your brother today? He has been acting unusually since he returned.”

Yin watched Xue Lan’s figure disappearing in the corridor. ”He is maybe tired.”

”Argh, I hate that arrogant face sometimes, but I kind of am missing his playful self. It cannot be simple exhaustion.” The woman’s eyes lingered on Xue Lan before focusing back on Yin.

”What if it was just the meeting with the Overseer?” Yin whispered as if he feared that walls would grow ears to hear him, and what was not possible in dreams?

The woman’s expression flickered in understanding, then with a sigh. ”That man... I can’t predict what the Overseer’s plan is, but he doesn’t seem pleased by the information.”

”Mhm... I should keep an eye on my brother; you should go now, Ferra.” Yin went to follow Xue Lan.

Ferra was left behind; she put both of her hands on her hips, thinking of something in her mind. ”I still can’t understand him, even after so many years working together. That distant bitch.” She humphed, pouting mildly before turning away to walk for her duties.

Xue Lan walked through the corridors of the palace. His footsteps were calm; his gaze found the windows. Snowfall, collection on the sills, silent piles. The gaze was still there; he knew that he could be looking at him or maybe not.

The palace corridor stretched ahead, before him, lined with tapestries depicting the Overseer’s victories. Each one showed his defier kneeling against him. Various maps of countries were marked with mutilated cuts, proving how many lands the Overseer had conquered.

The mirrors showed his reflection, a shape with ice freezing the mirror from the edges, slowly reaching toward the reflection’s chest.

He entered his room; the various stars hanging on the windows fluttered with the soft blows of wind. He curled his hand around the handle and shut the door, then moved toward the window. He looked outside from the highest point of the palace. A cold world where snow never stopped falling for decades, since the Overseer ruled the continent. But he wasn’t the only one to blame; the people of the Trasia were nobles; they chose their master.

The difference between them and slaves was that one chain was made of metal and the other was golden. One was forced; the other chose the slaver.

Xue Lan quietly shut the windows and lay down on his warm, comfortable bed.

Yin was outside the doors. From the hole he looked inside, but Xue Lan was just lying. He heaved a sigh and stepped back. ”Okay, he was actually just tired; he just needs sleep.”

***

Five days later.

In the Spirit World.

The chaos between the spirits had increased further. The serpent’s body was still curled around Mo Fei, who didn’t open his eyes.

The spirits of the ascenders hadn’t returned yet. The Divine Serpent only hissed, waiting patiently for the go-return.

The realm’s broken pillar had begun to crumble into dust, and that flew around the air, sticking to the thick mist.

The mist traveled toward the white Serpent, slowly, it reached toward Mo Fei and touched his dead body. The mist warmed up, forging a cloud that merged with the other clouds in the endless sky.

The grey clouds in the endless sky made a thunderous roar. A large lightning bolt struck another broken pillar with a loud slam, turning it into a debris of dust again.

Another thunder shape formed in the sky; with a loud noise, it launched toward Mo Fei, but the Serpent moved towered over his body before it could land. The lightning hit his pale scales and scattered around the realm. The Serpent only hissed at the clouds, but it did nothing to move them away.

Finally, the beam came down at two of the seats.

Two men sat across the realm, clenching something in their hands. They both put the objects on the table and bowed down toward the Serpent. ”We managed to get these artifacts.”

Then the ancient voice of the Serpent echoed under the grey sky; with every word, the lightning struck the surrounding ground. ”You’ve been great devotees of my lord, in the return... Great master grants you a temporary body to walk on the earth once again, for the next three days.”

Both of the men’s voices grew joyful at its words as they put their hands on their chests and bowed even further. ”We have been blessed to praise the Lord.”

With a hiss, the Serpent nodded and allowed them to go.

It slowly reached out its tail toward the artifact; one was a cup crafted in the shape of hands, holding a stone heart in the center. Around it was a wave that flooded toward the heart. Four mirrors hung outside that reflected nothing.

At the top of the heart was a hole and a needle embedded in the center.

Its tail curled around it and pulled it toward Mo Fei and put it on the ground.

The second artifact was the Lantern of Unending Light, adorned with pale crystals, delicate as snowflakes. In the center, a blue flame that burnt from the first sunrise of the first world until this day.

The Serpent’s tail touched the lantern. ”This lantern,” the Serpent examined. ”Illuminates the path between death and life.”

It turned its face toward Mo Fei and plucked out the fabric of his clothes with its fangs. It curled the piece into a thread with its tail, then pulled the needle out of the cup by its mouth. At that moment the flames of the lantern ignited further, reaching the top to escape.

The Serpent’s body shrank to perform the ritual conveniently.

Its eyes glowed with pale blue light, and the threads wrapped themselves around the cup. One of them picked the fabric and covered the needle, only letting the clothes shape a candlestick. Then, the Serpent held the needle to move it near the lantern’s flames; it began to burn the fabric as he put the needle back in the cup.

The waves that had been frozen there slowly started to fill the cup with water. It circled, creating a small whirlpool, and reached at the top toward the flame.

Shhh

The water extinguished the fire. With that, the lantern of the unending light began to tremble uncontrollably, and its own flames began to burn itself.

Within a few minutes, it turned into ash. The Serpent plucked another small piece of fabric from Mo Fei’s clothes and lifted the ashes to pour them into the whirlpool in the cup.

It looked at Mo Fei’s body that began to rot. The bones emerged and fell to the ground with a clatter. In the next few seconds, the bones also turned into ashes and flew toward the whirlpool. ”52 days.”

The Serpent’s voice echoed in the Spirit World. All the spirits’ attention shifted to the Serpent, fifty-two days... They stared at the Serpent with hope in their hollow eyes. They had stopped eating each other and shrunk down in the well.

***

Back in the afterlife.

Mo Fei’s eyes were closed, sleeping while leaning against the blossom tree.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. There were no sunflowers anymore; it was a dark field now. A long path led to the dark, and he noticed a lantern put beside him. ”What is going on... am I going to hell?”

He picked up the lantern and stood up to watch the dark surroundings. It was pitch black with no light; the flames illuminated the path leading to somewhere.

A bell rang.

He looked back toward the lantern; smoke came out that shaped a few words. ”Walk, fifty-two days of travel. You have been called to the human world again. My duty is to bring you there; go straight without stopping.”

Mo Fei gulped slightly at the darkness looming ahead. There was not a single thing he could see; the shadows were too thick, yet he took steps forward toward the darkness. The lantern’s blue flame guided him; every step sent a tremor through his feet.

He inhaled a long breath and continued walking toward the darkness. He looked back but found only dark. ”That’s not the best thing to see...”

Ahead of him, the pathway stretched. ”Fifty-two days... how am I going to walk that much?” Then the flute music came from the darkness. Mo Fei’s ears perked up at the sound; he had heard that before, but as soon as he heard it, the music disappeared. Then a sound of walking came ahead of him, and a shadow of a jester’s cap swirled, and then it disappeared too.