End of a thousand-forked road

[littlekreen]

The misbegotten nightmare landscape he'd been surviving in rocked in an impact that shuddered even that solid dreamscape. A crack that cast shadows across the multilayered reality where forces immeasurable fractured that impassable heavenly ward he'd walked through. He knew more about this world than he wanted even as inner wisdom told him he now had more questions than answers. That wisdom gained endless fighting without much rest and spilled blood. Waves of corrupted souls, demons, broken heaven servants, and the turns of some colossal abandoned machine, all threw themselves at him in every endless day. All the friends he'd come with plus many he'd gained along the way lost to those creatures. Except for one and a strange coffin as best he could tell some servant against corruption to help fight the war.

The heart yearned for home. The mind said he must beat the creatures to the breach. The soul craved a place of peace absent so many feral eyes. Moving quickly lest he is lost in the throng before he could warn others willed his hardened body to move despite the load. The memories are scant there for him until the one friend he'd kept awoke the stressed soul crying in an old market building. A soft voice he needed to keep him on his feet and to keep his soul moving forward. Perhaps not what the weapon maker had intended though he thought a gift of heaven nonetheless. Instinct clapped the sorrow from his mind at the sound of approaching sirens. He had to find a safe place. Allies. Wanrou at one side and the white marble block in a small wheeled cart taken from a hallway on the other.

Frayed bonds of trust in his soul still eyed the people that eyed him in turn. Though from under the wide brim of his hat with Wanrou hidden deep under the duster. Worried that this was another trick of that nightmare scape, he decided to keep his guard up. The long-scarred ties of trust in his soul would not allow it even if he'd tried to be at peace.

A small crystal pendant held in his free hand the man in patchwork hat and leather duster slowly moved across the city. The city sucked dry by some thin garb; its people pale and scared left him to wonder if this was yet another place that would change soon to corruption. An old coin writ with Ba-shu sat upon the pendant as it slightly listed under his muttered chant. He was looking for his own now that the divination found something.

He stood in the frame of the door as black eyes scan for familiar faces putting his pendant away. A restaurant that Ba-shu had been to? Creaky hand-truck and strapped down marble block moved toward the desk where he thought the merchant sat. One heavy boot of improvised leather after the other. In a stare of one fighting alone for a thousand miles, it took him a long moment to remember polite words. A small square-holed coin placed on the desk and shifted in one finger toward the one behind the counter. A peach-wooded hilt shone through the folds between his coat.

He said in the Ba-shu tongue in the hesitation of one for whom polite talk had aged poorly and spent his life at war, "Do you understand me? I have been under the tree a long time. Can this coin get me a meal?"

[Circe]

The man at the counter looked confused as the man offered an old coin as payment for a meal. "Eh? What's this?" He muttered squinting at the coin as he picked it up. He had barely understood the man, as much of the Ba-Shu language had been lost over the last three centuries as they moved to China and then across the vast gulf of the pacific to America. Blending in had been easy, and they had taken full advantage of two tumultuous periods of history to establish themselves. Many of the children born now spoke more English than the original Ba-Shu of their parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents. Even more of them had little idea of their heritage, and roles as Guardians, but it was only expect that their parents might protect them from such things.

They had all heard the stories growing up, terrible things beyond this plane of existence and their sad journey to a new home not just once, but twice in a lifetime for many. The loss of much of the Ba-Shu culture due to war and immigration had been devestating, but the younger generations had adapted and made their own.

"Hey boss! You might want to come see this!" He shouted back towards the kitchen of the small establishment. "Got some guy babbling about a tree and whatnot." He added motioning to the man to wait while he went to retrieve someone who could at least understand more than just a few words of what the other had said.

It didn't take long before the man returned, followed by a mildly annoyed young man with a grubby apron covering a shirt with a popular brand name written across its front.

"He said something about I think a meal and tree. Then he handed me this." He explained before handing the coin to Zhen, who in turn squinted at it and then shooed the other man off to the kitchen. "Where did you find this?" Zhen demanded. He had seen the coins before, but he had been very young when they had been forced to cross over to their new home. "Is this some sort of joke?"

[littlekreen]

Wangshu nodded at the shopkeep that, given the partly glazed and wandering expression as he talked, was partly illiterate but intelligent enough to gather his betters. Wandering eyes looked about at others in the shop as his eyes flared jade inspecting them for the aspect of corruption. While he'd escaped from the place he'd been trapped within he could not be wholly sure. A nagging feeling the world was trying to fool him again though this place seemed too at peace and covered with some death veil perhaps by heaven.

The noise of Zhen yelling to him directly shot dilating black eyes toward the emotion at first and a hand toward the peachwood handle just under his coat. As his eyes flared that green shade of stone then faded a strongly tensed hand failed to draw.

Wangshu's eyes recovered with his focus as a faint female voice whispered from beneath the duster in ba-shu, "No. I refuse."

Wanrou would not be drawn against those she sensed as uncorrupt at very least compared to the things her blade severed so very recently. Just an ordinary man speaking a language she'd only heard in one other voice. Still in her ornate scabbard, a symbol of duty for Wangshu, and now a living memory of his trials carefully cured, tended, and carved. Symbols of heaven embossed on the exposed bingtou above his hand gleams without any hint of tarnish. A sword still very much attended in service not worn down by idleness.

Wangshu's gaze broke as he looked around again with a weary voice, "Dé... I beg forgiveness but please lower your voice."

Perhaps he wasn't in the battlefield he'd taken some of it with him. It took a torqued cheek of concerted effort to get his hand to let go of Wanrou and picked a cord tied to the inside of his coat instead. He clanked the cord full of old coins threaded through their holes down upon the counter, "It is the last traveling money I had from home before I was trapped on a thousand forked road."

Stern cheeks relaxed to a bit of dark humor then deflated at a thought, "If I had humor I bled it out somewhere along the way. Though so many are unbothered here by the war. I found my way away from there at long last. Now I just want some hot food."

[Circe]

Zhen sighed and relaxed slightly, though he still seemed concerned with this new stranger. Pushing the coins back towards him, he shook his head, "Your money is no good here." Taking old Ba-Shu coins would do him no good. Surely they were good elsewhere, he wasn't sure and would have to ask his sister; she had seen infintely more of things than he had. He after all, had had little desire to travel after completion of his exams.

"But... that is indeed a very long road to follow. Come with me." He then said motioning for Wangshu to follow him to an empty back room that was occasionally set up for banquets. It would at the very least afford them some privacy from the majority of the public in the front of the establishment. "You'll be undisturbed here." He explained as he then left briefly and returned with food and tea.

Setting the items in front of Wangshu, he then sat down and poured both of them a cup of tea. "You will forgive my hostility... few speak of us anymore and believe it's just a child's bedtime story. I am suspect of anyone I have not seen in the community, especially speaking of that road."

[littlekreen]

Wangshu made a small bow and took the coins back to his coat with comfort in the obligation that got away from peering eyes that set off his nerves, "Thank you for the hospitality of your house. I welcome peace."

A firm tug and a push of one leg, the white marble block came with him by dolly as he followed Zhen into the room. Wide-brimmed hat set on the table scuffed to a stop. Black eyes flit about a place not particularly ornate as neither a hall meant to be fortified to the degree he remembered. What had happened since he had been lost? So many questions burned in his mind if not for his stomach burning hotter for something warm. Fire to cook any food he found was something he couldn't risk in that place. Here they had loud metal machines moving along the road and thundering beasts of industry hauling metal boxes. There couldn't be a lost soul all the way to the horizon. But he still eyed the dark corners and squat to look under the table before removing his coat.

Beneath the coat as clothing is little more than some disused piece of light square cloth tethered together with knots and a hole for his neck. Every exposed surface of his body is covered in dark marks where slices and piercings slowly faded their scars away. As much by his limited healing knowledge than living under the effects of that place. The sword adorning his hip held not by a strap but clung. Wangshu gingerly removed Wanrou to set the dao's scabbard tip on the floor. Released from his grip to list upright on the scabbard point between them while she pivots slowly back and forth between the exits.

Wangshu took a bit of fruit and took a small bite then said with his mouth half-full, "If my story is told to any children I expect it would only cause nightmares."

He swallowed and made a small bow, "I am Hao Wangshu. Once a Guardian Purifier-at-arms fighting the war against creatures from beyond for our homeland. Now absent without permission I expect."

"I am Wanrou.", said the Dao with fleeting disinterest just to the front left of Zhen.

The notion of Wanrou's existence certainly didn't strike Wangshu as odd in a casual sip of some tea. Slowly sipping the tea made his throat feel less dry. A healthy bitter steam flushing out the dust from his throat and sinuses.

[Circe]

Zhen nodded towards Wanrou before turning his attention back to Hao. "I mean that it is told as a story..." He sighed looking at his tea, wishing that he could find answers in it the way his sister always seemed to. But, grandmother had always claimed it wasn't fitting for a boy to learn such simple parlor tricks. "The war ended some time ago, something of a stalemate from what I've been told. I don't think there'll be much trouble.. but likely a lot of questions." He added taking a small sip of the hot liquid.

The war had been devastating, and if they were to take the time to count their losses, it would only be more so. The only thing they could do was distance themselves from such a humilitating failure, and hope that Heaven was merciful as time wore on. "Well Hao Wangshu, allow me to be the first to say welcome home, I'm Zhen Lianhua."

The Hou family had thankfully made it through most of the trials and tribulations of the war mostly intact, but like many others they had suffered their losses as much as others in the community had. But for at least one of the great houses and lineages of the Gaurdians to survive was a blessing. Albeit the Hou family likely wouldn't have said as much, given how far they had fallen and how much they had lost.

[littlekreen]

Zhen was an odd family name; his thoughts drift momentary shy away from the answer he'd been given. He could only suspect but it was another thing to know. Denial of the passage of time had long since passed him. Even as old age refused to take him as the gears of the clock seemed content to refuse that his body should change in such a way. Here, outside that place where his homeland lay, things had continued to change, hadn't they. Wangshu looked down at his cup deflated at the news that they'd not won. Plain enough at the time that war cost them too much. He'd been set out to a bramble of the tree seeking something to aid their cause. As well as pruning places where the corrupt creatures launched their attacks to keep the wasting from spreading to different branches. Was it all for nothing?

A small sip soothed his drying mouth as he absorbed the sight of calmly swirling tea then gestured with a hand, "I have my own unanswered questions in that puzzle block I dragged so long, Lianhua. The only thing worthy to carry home. Whatever is inside was not made by heaven but neither would it suffer corruption."

The black eyes close with a trembling jaw that steadied after a moment to look back to Zhen, "Then what has become of us? Is there anyone left for me to serve? I've fought for longer than I had any right to. More than two lifetimes at least. All the others that came with me are gone now. I know only war."

Twitching eyes linger on the unblemished white stone block as he thought back to a river of charnel he could not find a way around. Watching a compatriot drown in the sea from discorporating flesh leaving them to sink with a sodden gasp of tattered lungs.

[Circe]

"We were a minor family..." He muttered sensing the other's confusion. It seemed that he too had fallen to the habit of this plane's magic users at evading the truth. Safety was of the utmost importance, especially as there was still a very real possiblity of what remained of the Ba-Shu being picked off one by one by the corruption.

Zhen then frowned, unsure of how to answer. There were a lot of questions left from the war, and Heaven had not seen fit to answer them yet. To him it had all seemed like they were being used not to keep order, but to wage a war that Heaven could have avoided a long time ago. "That is truly rare indeed." He finally said to the uneasy silence between them. Any Guardian or anyone at least with some knowledge of the tree knew of the corruption that had plagued it across the gulf of time between its creation and now.

But, training for Zhen had been brief and perhaps in a lot of ways attenuated. It had been a last ditch effort to field more bodies to replace the growing number of those that they had lost. But by the time he had even managed to pass his exams, the war had been over. "I do not have the answer to that question, my friend. I am not nearly as traveled or experienced as yourself." Zhen then added, almost begging Wangshu's forgivness for not being of more help.

"There... there are still a few that serve Heaven in our tradition, I believe." He hesitated, unsure how safe it was to reveal more information. "But... it is a different war." At least that was how Xiao had described it to him when he had asked.

[littlekreen]

A wry smile at the notion that there are still a few that serve brought him out of the bloody memory. There was still hope however thin that land may be now. As long as some still stood to keep their people safe he did not have to go forward alone. Heaven was a supposed ally with inconstant support that sent him on his long journey to protect his people.

Leaning back straight the purifier-at-arms gave an open hand as Wanrou tipped then curved toward his palm. A stern female voice from it left with a faint lilt, "Are you sure we are safe here?"

The veins and skin upon his arm of tensed cords gain a faint wooden grain with a sigh and a raise of his brow, "If it is not safe, then we will make it safe, Wanrou."

The floor where the scabbard touched slowly lost the soils due to time as he channeled as much to give him something to offer future guardians of the past than his pains. As once he was taught to him at yet another silence from Heaven. Even then, many had lost too much for blind faith in Heaven's aim.

He tried to smile but it quivered at the face he saw sinking into the charnel bog, "Then I will pass on a bit of my time long past. During the war when I was first trained I was taught to find one's strength and build there a foundation. However small it may be, move if one must and build a fortress on every peak. Seek the strength in the resilience of purpose not an illusory perfection of stone to inhibit all corrupt things."

A scarred if able hand gestures to the expanding saturating color of clean floor, "The innocent when the enemy comes close turn and run to safety. Guardians must not. We must be the firm earth and metal upon which the tides of corruption will wear. As others see that ocean of gore with nothing but a heavy load on their back, and too many enemies behind, we do not drop everything and surrender hoping to mercy. We force that sea to pay for every pound of stone even if the last outcrop of a fellow sinks away. Move forward to the next peak wherever it may lie. Even if it is not safe and you do not know where it may lead."

He side-eyed Wanrou as the small clean spot grew, "A Guardian may skirt that Charnel ocean looking for more safe land where the enemy is not or even a place to build a fortress against the enemy. It is our purpose to have the wisdom to learn a block of marble floats unmarred in that charnel ocean. We find an oar to sit upon it and pass the sea."

"So I'm an oar now?", rang Wanrou with a metallic thump from within.

Wangshu's arm slowly faded to normal as he ceased the growing spotless area of floor, "A Guardian's weapon is that which moves him forward and keeps their charges safe. Just like this one to keep our guardians from turning too empty."

He raised a bit of a bun at Zhen and took a bite.


Content with this, she said no more.

[Circe]

Zhen looked at the spot on the floor with mild amusement, at least they wouldn't have to clean it for awhile, that much he was certain of. "You'll forgive me here Master Hao... but by the time I completed my training and exams the war was over." They had tried to adapt to a new and uncertain age, but ultimately it had led to failure after failure. With little contact or support from Heaven, it was difficult to stay the path set out for them. He knew some had turned their back on everything, prefering to follow the darkness that tempted all of them. Zhen did his best, but still struggled himself, especially after events that had shaken his family to its very core.

"Therefore I have very little experience compared to one such as yourself. I have never traveled one of our roads, muchless one that has a thousand forks... or dealt with talking swords." He admitted looking over at Wanrou. His sister delt with this sort of strange thing on the daily basis, he was almost certain of it. What he had managed to pry out once a week, with the promise of her favorite dumplings, worried him.

His restaurant put him in an ideal position to monitor and report back to those who could actually do something about the corruption. But lately with an increase in magical incidents across this particular plane, what few of them there were, were often overworked and too exhausted. Their numbers were small and insignificant in comparison to the task at hand. It didn't help that so few of their community didn't care to continue training and working as Guardians. Their adaption of mundane culture worried even Zhen, who admitted some amount of affinity for it himself.

"Times have changed Master Hao," He sighed druming on the table thoughtfully with his fingers. "Our numbers are small and insignificant without help from others. I fear in the next century, without anyone to assume the mantle, that there will fewer than a hundred of us."

[littlekreen]

Wangshu let go of Wanrou who simply remained upright as the purifier-at-arms stared down at the small island of purified floor, "So few? Just a mere hundred? Then I am a master only to those dead and gone. I enchanted Wanrou to judge once it became hard for me to see allies. The world itself seemed to carve the spirit in her as I kept the corruption out of it."

Eyes up with a smile still laden by the news, "At least I do not return as the last of my people even this may be our sunset. So now just call me Wangshu, a purifier-at-arms, not a master. I'm now a soldier home from a war now lost I've no right to rank here. Though if there are still those that defend this new home I am honor-bound to try and join them."

The sword's deep thunk came from her scoff as Wanrou spoke up, "You will have to find a home. I will not lay in the rain like some vagrant's walking stick."

Lack of true sleep, just cutting corners off endless hours along the road, started to weigh on him now that part of his mind accepted it could happen. The other fought with everything it had to stay awake just another hour. He took a breath to hold himself up straight in his chair then took another famished bite of the remaining food.

A single finger reaches out and spins Wanrou in place, "A needful sword. That road I was lost on contains so much misery that even a purifier's soul is sodden with woe. I do not think rain can soak me any more. So for now I want a warm place to dry my heart."

He looks over at the heavy stark white marble block strapped to a dolly and makes a small bow to Zhen, "A safe place to put my stone puzzle box. Perhaps some time to shed the road from my mind. Can you tell others I will work for shelter? It would be dishonorable of me to put upon your house's grace further."