act23side

The nomadic city that Shifu talked about was tall and strong. I saw how the people turned back even an all-consuming Catastrophe, when they stood together with each other.

Everyone should have a place to call home.

If home lets us rest without fear of disaster or having to chase the seasons...

Then why did Shifu leave twenty years ago?

The man does not answer.

She was very ill, but she taught you kung fu?

We Anasa are gifted with strong bodies. Shifu said that when one has a home, one must learn to protect it.

We learned quickly, so that Shifu would not have to demonstrate over and over again with her sickly body.

My people thought about taking her away from the barrens to get treatment.

Shifu always answered, 'But how draining would the journey be? I would rather see how the Liedaozi I taught you to brew is coming along.'

Did you ever find a doctor?

The man shakes his head.

Not in the places I looked. I was going to look elsewhere, when I received an urgent message from Yumen.

The Shanhaizhong were wreaking havoc in Yumen. They asked me to return as soon as possible.

So Shifu's illness could not have been treated, even if she never left.

...Yes.

Shifu said that the cycle of life and death is something everyone goes through.

A little longer or shorter doesn't change anything.

What really separates us is the 'age' between life and death, and even more cruel 'illness.'

What can be seen but cannot be helped merely makes one troubled.

The first batch of Liedaozi was finished just before Shifu passed away. She drank it with us and heard us sing a song with no name.

It was an old song that the Anasa sang for our dead kin to put their souls to rest. Shifu asked what point there is in singing a song for her, if she can't hear it?

'Let me hear it while I still can.'

Good. She didn't die alone.

I was eating at the inn yesterday and saw that people were preparing to see you off.

Did you...?

Are you leaving?

It's been more than a hundred years. It's time to go.

You've been here so long. Isn't this your home?

Many people's homes are somewhere else in Yan, but they stay here to protect this city.

But where it's going, I can't go with it.

Would you have gone to look for Shifu, if she was still alive?

The spring comes and goes, leaving the autumn heart despondent.

Such is mortality.

You are like the Anasa.

Anasa. Those without roots.

(In ancient Sarkaz) ...Maybe.

The words and intonation are indistinguishable from a native.

The Anasa girl knows, however, that he is not one of her kind.

He has simply gone to many places and met many people.

Forget it. Here's your sword. I have nothing more to ask.

The man never answered any of the questions.

He neither answered, nor dodged them.

The Anasa suddenly understands how her shifu must have felt when she left.

I'm going home.

The Anasa girl falls to the ground.

She has passed out from sheer exhaustion.

Her injuries...

She pulled the sword...

The ancient sword leaves its sheath.

It looks no different, save for the vestige of an old friend, almost gone now.

The medium is the jade on her forehead...

She used to wear it, saying that it calmed her mind and warded off evil...

I see.

A move decades in the making.

But a poor one, if the sword was the only goal.

...The one in the city?

He had his eye on one corner of the board, ignoring the other.

Hah.

So this is what it is...

This is how you have fallen...

How amusing.

I want to see how you swallow it...

The shame.

'Sui?'

First the Lord Exorcist's tent, now the central room of Yumen's inner city. Have you never been taught that it is rude to come uninvited?

You?

You got your sword back.

Just now.

Looks like he has discovered your secret.

So you have met my brother...

You separate that part that belonged to It and sealed it away, while he wants to take its place.

The attitude with which the two of you treat It, what you are doing, is bold, and interesting.

But ultimately foolish and pointless.

Perhaps no more than what you are doing right now.

You're not here for the Catastrophe, for the city, or for what I hold in my hands right now.

You made all this mess just to ask for directions.

You wanted to know where the Sui is.

How dare you compare those things to It?

You are slow on the uptake.

It slipped my mind as to who would be so interested in It, other than the imperial court and my siblings.

You have forgotten what you used to be.

Only a Feranmut would seek out another.

Long time.

No see.

An utterance with a million connotations behind it.

Poignant lament, cold sarcasm, or seething anger, a thousand emotions exploded at once, then dissipated.

They dig wounds in the depths of memories immemorial.

In time beyond reckoning, It and It, They, engaged in dialogue form afar as such.

I came back to this land to settle our debts.

But what right does a fragment sealed in a trinket have to engage in dialogue with me?

I want to see you as who you truly are.

There's something I'm curious about.

You fled after the hunt, not to be heard from all these years. Why have you chosen to return to Yan at this time?

It was my brother who awakened you...

As for the Shanhaizhong that appeared with you...

They? Hah.

Just made some company on the way.

I encountered them in the desert. I shared the forming Catastrophe that I saw, and made a little show of power.

They were surprised that someone could know the Feranmuts so well. They were convinced that I was a herald of the Feranmut.