Chapter 23: Buried Hope

  The forest thinned. The sick twilight that had coated everything, the trees, the air, and Mo Fei's skin, now peeled away like a bad memory. His face glowed when the light hit his face… Real, light, warm, comforting. He'd forgotten what warmth felt like.

  The exit. He ran toward it like a drowning man runs toward air.

  And there, at the tree line, stood Jian Yue. Lin beside him. Both of them were armed. Both of them were going to enter to search for Mo Fei.

  Jian Yue's eyes found Mo Fei first.

  “There!”

  Mo Fei burst from the trees, his breathing intense, the children stumbling behind him. But Mo Fei didn't stop until he was past the tree line, past the invisible boundary, past everything that had been trying to kill him for the past 50 minutes.

  He finally fell to his knees. The children collapsed beside him, both of them catching their breath.

  For a moment, no one spoke.

  Jian Yue reached him first. Didn't speak. Just grabbed Mo Fei's shoulder, squeezed it well hard enough to hurt, then let go. A small greeting or maybe confirmation of a promise.

  Lin arrived a step behind. Her eyes scanned him head to toe, cataloging wounds and counting costs. Then:

  “You are looking like shit.” She said, though a small sigh escaped from her lips.

  Mo Fei gasped, a small laugh not from her words but from his own state… His own recklessness. “Fifty minutes of running from ghosts. You try it, and I'll see if your precious Hanfu gets dirty.”

  “I have.” Her voice was flat. “Didn't take souvenirs, kid.” Her eyes dropped to the children. Then her gaze landed on the boy and the locket clutched in his small, dirty hands.

  The boy couldn't stop staring at the locket in his hands. Turning it over. Tracing the edges. Like he was afraid it would disappear. The star shape fascinated him.

  And the girl just stared at the forest. At the place where her sister wasn't coming back from… And would never.

  Lin's face went pale when she recognized the locket.

  “Where,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, “did you get that?”

  The boy looked up at her, then at Mo Fei, then back at the locket.

  “The…” The boy was startled by her tone. He hesitated and pointed at Mo Fei. “The one-eyed one gave it to me.” A soft chuckle escaped her mouth at his words. But as soon as it appeared, it disappeared too.

  Lin's hand moved to her chest. To the space beneath her robes. To somewhere a locket used to be.

  Mo Fei, still on his knees, still gasping for air, saw the movement. He saw her face. And understood, in a single terrible moment, that nothing in this world was a coincidence.

  Mo Fei saw it. The recognition on her face.

  “Lin… rang a bell?”

  She didn't answer. Couldn't. Just stared at the locket in the boy's hands like it was a ghost. Lin's eyes found Mo Fei's.

  For a long moment, neither spoke.

  Then Mo Fei said very quietly:

  “Don't stare like I stole it from someone; it doesn't look that expensive.” Mo Fei said Lin glared at Mo Fei, and he quickly averted his gaze.

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  “Okay, I found it... In World 2. In an empty house’s room that had a mirror. I just thought it was a dead person.”

  Lin's jaw tightened.

  “You've been carrying it like a maniac,” she said. “All this time.”

  “I didn't know.”

  “And?” Her voice was barely audible.

  “Just have it back if you are so desperate.” Lin didn't say anything afterward and looked at the boy that was staring at her face.

  The girl glanced back again, clenching her dress. She looked at the proof that the past doesn't stay buried. It just waits. To be found by someone or something.’

  Jian Yue watched Mo Fei’s eye, covered in the same cloth.

  “... Why are you covering it?” Mo Fei stood up slowly, and he dusted off his clothes.

  “... Ascension didn't heal it.”

  Jian Yue’s gaze locked into Mo Fei’s covered eye. A strip of coarse, grey-hued cloth was tied tightly around his head, completely concealing the right eye.

  The boy studied Lin's expression. He held the locket toward her. “It's yours? You want it back?” Lin's breath caught; her head shook in denial. She stared once again at the locket. Her eyes softened.

  “If you are fond of it… you can keep it, but keep it safe.” The boy nodded solemnly. Lin's focus shifted to the girl, her eyes red and puffy. Lin sat down to look at her.

  “That look doesn't suit you. What is your name?” Her hand moved to her head and ruffled the girl's head.

  The girl flinched from the sudden touch.

  “Xi… Xin Yi.”

  “Then the expression really doesn't suit you.”

  “Let's get going now.” Jian Yue's voice interrupted, his hands raised toward the kids in slow motion to get them to stand up and walk. “Zhuo is waiting.” Mo Fei's ears perked at the name, and then he sighed.

  “He is safe then.”

  Xin Yi, the one who lost her sister, finally looked away from the forest. At Mo Fei's, her hand pulled the back of his cloth.

  “Mei… is still there… What will happen?”

  Everyone went still for longer than a second; their steps stopped on the track.

  Mo Fei met her eyes. “...She… has become an angel… Yeah, she will protect you after all, right?”

  “She was scared of the dark.” The girl's voice was flat. Empty, her tears had dried up. “She always slept with the candle lit. Mother said she'd grow out of it.”

  The words stuck in Mo Fei’s throat, like a rotten lemon he couldn't swallow.

  “She didn't…” Xin Yi stopped.

  Mo Fei said nothing. There was nothing to say, or even if there was, something couldn't be said to a child.

  There were always a few things that no one could fix; grief was one of those very things.

  Mo Fei walked ahead with Jian Yue, who walked silently but with a comforting silence. But every few steps, Jian Yue glanced back at the children, and he didn't say anything. Mo Fei noticed that he was counting them, making sure no one fell behind.

  The children followed Mo Fei, staying closer to him than others. Behind him, the forest went quiet… Waiting for someone to be offered… Again.

  Lin fell into step beside Mo Fei. The world got silent; no one spoke, and no one tried to.

  Then

  A quiet whisper came from Lin.

  “It belonged to my younger brother.” Mo Fei didn't stop or ask; he kept walking. His eye looked at the ground before raising back to the path.

  He walked with questions that nobody could answer. The answers that were not yet meant to be known, though he still pursued them… To know when his fate changes.

  They kept walking. The sun rose on the horizon; the air was cold, but with every step, the sunrise brought a tentative golden warmth to their faces. A promise of another dawn.

  Then the gateway of ‘South Cleveland’ came into view. The vast metal seemed like it was covering the earth itself.

  When they got closer to it, the gate filled the air, unleashing the scent of dusty parchment and old glue, undercut with the pungent aroma of wet asphalt, vinegar, and cold iron… A smell of trapped time, or a trapped fear.

  Zhuo had been watching from the gate, waiting patiently. His ears twitched when he heard some footsteps coming towards his direction, and his eyes lightened when he saw the figures emerging from the endless runway. He rushed toward them.

  Zhuo burst from the gate entrance, his feet pounding the green ground. He didn't stop until he was beside the group, breathing hard and eyes wide.

  “You're alive,” he said. Like he hadn't quite believed it until now. Who could believe it when the first thing someone saw was ghosts that lurked around them?

  Mo Fei noticed him. His eyes met the boy who was filled with quiet enthusiasm, like a cub of a wolf. Mo Fei's eyes looked at his body; Zhuo's wounds had healed completely.

  “Yeah,” Mo Fei said. “Still working on that.”

  Zhuo's face broke into a grin. Then his eyes darted to the children. The boy with the locket. The girl was staring at nothing as if dreaming.

  “...Who are they?”

  Mo Fei opened his mouth to answer, but Zhuo had already knelt down near them. For a moment, both of the kids froze from the presence of a new person. Their figures moved closer to Mo Fei.

  Zhuo’s voice came out in a soft tone.

  “You look tired.” He said. “I'm too; I waited a long time. Are you hungry? Should I get you something? What are your names?”

  Both of their eyes stared at each other; their tensed expression gradually shifted to comfort, overwhelmed by the relentless questions, they could only tell their names.

  “Xin Yi.”

  “Hao Yu”

  Zhuo stood up with his hands locked together, and he stretched them. After a long wait.

  “When are we entering the city?” Zhuo asked.

  “Now.” Jian Yue replied.

  Zhuo nodded before turning his face toward the city.

  They approached the gate. The talismans fluttered. The view of the city opened like a mouth. Swallowed them without a sound.

  Mo Fei had imagined the gate hundreds of times in the forest, an exit, and safety. Now it loomed before him. All he felt was exhaustion.

  Behind them, the forest breathed once. A wind, heavy and unpredictable, ran through the trees with the presence of the unknown.

  And then it went still… Silent.

  The gate guards have noticed them approaching the city of hope.

  At the gate, a figure in worn leather armor stood watching. His hand rested on a blade that had seen better decades. Behind him, two more guards peered through the talismans. Their faces held expressions of tiredness from no sleep. Their steps, tripping from the late-night guarding.

  “Strangers,” one muttered.

  “With children,” another added.

  The first guard, who was older and held a scar under his left ear, shook his head, his hand raised to scratch his beard. “Not our problem. Though, how are they outside? We saw none moving out last night.”

  But he kept watching.

  The scent of the gate hardened. They reached the gateway and stopped.

  The older guard stepped forward; the wind whipped through his beard, causing it to stream behind him like smoke. His voice was tired and firm.

  “You there… Stop.”

  They had already stopped.

  He looked at them, his eyes sweeping each of them, tracking their every movement. So the one-eyed man to the woman wearing Han-Fu and her hand covered by cloth, and to the boy with the sword of a warrior, then finally to the two children.

  “No one leaves the city at night. No one enters at dawn without reason. So give me a reason.”

  Jian Yue stepped forward. His hand moved away from the hilt of his blade as a reassurance of peace.

  “We're… travelers. The children are orphans we found in the woods. We seek shelter, food, and information about the pages.”

  The guard's eyes narrowed at ‘pages.’

  “Pages cost everything; why do you seek them… An 'ascended'?"

  For a moment Jian Yue considered his words.

  “Yes, we are.”

  The guards stared for a long moment; no one spoke or breathed… Then

  The guard's laughter echoed with a dry, hollow sound.

  “I have suspected it.” He stepped aside.

  Another guard murmured; his hand closed around the spear. His head jolted from the sudden attack of sleep.

  “Be aware.”