act49side

Finally...

...Finally!

You're here.

Why are you... awake?

No... no. Your aura is almost identical to Its own, but you've appeared in that hollow visage...

The hollow visage that is also yours.

In any case, you're not awake. You're still in the dream.

Of course I'm awake... you had awakened me centuries ago, when you intruded upon my dream.

You're bluffing... I would not be standing here, if you were truly awake.

You flexed in your dream and thought you had woken up.

You, a mere dreamwalker not yet awake, dare call yourself awake?

Dreamwalker? Very well, we'll call this a journey in a dream.

But I see those games you and your siblings play with those puny humans, and your foolish, flawed, presumptuous plan to replace me.

You want to become the same as the humans, to become such fickle, puny creatures, in order to escape your fate?

How pathetic... how laughable!

You forget that these puny creatures defeated you and imprisoned you for a thousand years.

Does it matter if you're awake? You're a shadow, a reflection—a phantom questioning its own shade, a reflection in fleeting water...

Killing you will not be difficult.

Is that so?

The proxy turns around to look at the corridor that he just walked through, but finds no path.

Why are you afraid, then?

It took so long for you to get a chance to see me like this. If you are not afraid, why have you not torn me to pieces in your hatred?

Pathetic... foolish.

Watch your tongue.

Hahahahahahaha!

Didn't you want to fight me to the death?

Then come. Do what you do best.

A weiqi board appears in front of Wang, with a familiar crack on it.

Without asking, the mysterious foe takes the white stone and goes first according to tradition.

The first stone is placed in the Tianyuan position—the center of the board.

First move, Tianyuan.

Are you mocking me?

You'll find out when the game has ended.

Your turn.

He takes a black piece. The nineteen-by-nineteen board is intimately familiar to him; he has not tasted defeat in a long, long time.

Yet it seems as though his opponent sees through his every move, every thought, every emotion.

He soon finds himself at a disadvantage, even though his opponent had forfeited the opening move.

Impossible...

Why would it be?

Have you not realized that all the intricate moves that you have pondered, all your puny stratagems, are no secrets to me?

Because I am you.

Giving up already? No, no, that won't do.

You must finish the game.

So be it.

He clenches his teeth and picks up another stone.

Every move causes a splitting headache. Every move drains his spirit.

The game is finally concluded after another hundred moves or so, with all endgame plays settled. Black wins by the slimmest of margins—half a point—as the points are tallied.

The player is exhausted, at his last gasp.

(Pants feebly)

You lose.

Arrogant as ever...

Haha... hahahahaha!

Leaving aside whether this child's play even counts... do you think this is the only game between us?

The name of this game is Wang. You may have won this round, but have you any idea how insignificant it is in the big picture?

Step back. Go there and look back, and see if there is any meaning in these moves that took every last drop of your being.

Against his will, Wang gets up and takes a few steps back.

It is only a few steps, but the board that he has been seeing has shrunk to a tiny piece.

No matter how you flail and struggle, it is no more than one-twelfth of the game.

All the twists and turns of your black pieces have not determined the outcome of a single corner. Why do you think you can make me concede?

Wang forces himself to look...

It is no longer a nineteen-by-nineteen board, but hundreds of lines vertical and across. The game that he had poured his heart and soul into just to win by a hair looks utterly insignificant on the vast board.

Countless white pieces, as many as there are stars in the sky, lie beyond the board, which itself seems endless. There is no room to intervene in their formation—as immutable as Sui's anger and contempt, which have simmered for a thousand years.

You planned this...

Of course I planned this.

This plan began to take form in my countless dreams, ever since you glimpsed into my mind centuries ago.

A White would begin to lay the pieces around you, quietly and unbeknownst to you.

What you have done, he made a note of. What you did not finish, he finished for you. What you did not do, he did in your image.

He made you wary of the humans, and the humans wary of you, forcing you and your kind to return here... this source of your immortality for centuries.

Why do you care that we live?

As long as I live, you will always have a choice, the last thing that Yan wants to see—to return to my consciousness, and destroy everything that was built upon the Great Hunt.

As long as you live, I will never regain my full strength, strength that will allow me to break my shackles.

Our lives are too intertwined for peace to be a possibility... yet you would seek peace with the humans?

Yan would not abide me, who almost became their god. Why would they abide you when you replace me?

You are not worthy to play at this board... I will take your life, then the lives of your 'siblings'.

Vanish, now, as your inevitable fate—

The True Lung let Wang go to the Tomb of Sui alone...

He would not have given Wang the opportunity to tell me...

He never wanted to hurt anyone.

Words were never his strong suit. He was obsessed with victory and defeat, but cared nothing for loss and gain... the shrewdest, and the most foolish amongst us.

He saw through every scheme and treachery, but he could not do something as simple as letting those around him truly know him.

Besides... am I not the proxy that the Sui Regulator, and you, have always feared the most?

I knew. Or rather, I knew they would tell you.

I can feel it, even if you didn't say anything...

I thought I could control this power in time. Lately, though, I'm feeling less and less like myself...

My memories began to grow indistinct many years ago. In recent years, the same has happened to my emotions.

Perhaps...

There's something I want to ask you, Chun, impolite as it may be.

What did you feel when your mother died?

Underneath her thick black hair, the Elf's ears twitched.

Why do you ask?

Because there is still hope for Wang.

You're going to save him?!

As it stands, with my strength and his, I can do no more than die in his place.

What is the death of a family member like, for beings like you and me?

Why do you ask? Why do you have to open my wounds—

Suddenly, Chun understands.

Jie is asking for herself, and for Wang.

If losing a loved one is merely a little speck of sorrow in a long life, then she will choose death, and leave the insignificant sorrow to Wang, and become a loss that stings a little from time to time for her siblings.

If the pain of losing a loved one still threatens to tear one apart, even for those with lifespans far beyond the ordinary mortal, then she will choose to bear the unbearable pain, and the burden of those left behind, seeing the task of eliminating Sui through to the end.

An immortal being, facing the possibility of losing family forever for the first time.