Amidst the mountain pass, a cold breeze blew through the expedition camp. Perched upon a flat rock at the camp's edge, sat Prince Jihoo Kang. Clothed only in luxurious red robes, they did little against the bite of the altitude, and he shivered faintly with each gust. Yet, he had not moved for the better part of an hour.
He felt calmer today. Perhaps it was a good night's rest, or the pleasant warmth of the Blossom Tea he'd enjoyed this morning - a fragrant brew the cook had sourced from dried petals found along the trail. Whatever the reason, the noise behind his eyes had quieted. He had emptied his mind, and in that silence, the world poured in to fill the space.
Wildflowers, he thought. The buzzing of a bee. Chirping birds. Snow turning to water. A snapping twig and footsteps. He opened his eye to see who approached him.
One of his aides approached along the narrow path, stepping carefully over roots and loose stone. The man bowed low upon reaching him, then brought a hand to his chest in formal salute.
"Lord Kang", the aide spoke, "Our scouts have identified a suitable path forward through the eastern ridgeline. Commander Lian is assembling the expedition as we speak. We are expected to move within ten minutes."
Jihoo nodded his head, rising from the rock, rolling stiffness from his shoulders, he fell into step beside the aide as they made their way back into the heart of the camp. As he walked, he spotted birds flying, picking out worms from the soft spring dirt. Though the Blossom Mountains were treacherous, they were also filled with life and a natural magical power.
Were it not for Commander Lian, the expedition would have perished from the natural hunters in this region. Even still, a few who had wandered too far away had never returned. Certainly, they had died.
House Kang had furnished the expedition generously. Over a thousand cultivating aspirants made up the column The expedition contained more than a thousand cultivating aspirants, each was strong enough to carry half their bodyweight in supplies through terrain that would break an ordinary soldier.
And the captains were stronger. when one of their mules had died of pneumonia in the cold two weeks prior, the captains had simply taken up the harnesses themselves and pulled the wagon without complaint.
Fully making their way into camp now, the troops around him straightened at his approach. Salutes rippled outward from his path like rings in water. He acknowledged them with a wave of his hand. He climbed into his personal wagon. It was warm and outfitted with the comforts one might expect from their own bedroom.
"Send for the commander." He instructed the aide.
And after a couple minutes, Lian was in the Wagon with him. The vehicle subtly tilted as the warrior climbed in. So dense was his armor, the weight of it would probably crush an aspirant to death if dropped into their hands. Lian wore it as though it were linen.
"You asked for me?" The commander's voice was even.
"Yes," Jihoo said. "I was only wondering how long until we arrive at Qingshuo City."
"A day. Perhaps less, if the eastern path holds what our scouts believe it does." Lian clasped his hands behind his back. "I've already dispatched a messenger ahead to the Meridian Cloud Sect to announce our impending arrival. They will be prepared to receive us."
Jihoo stroked his chin. "Good. I admit, these mountains have worn me down. I'm ready for civilization again."
Lian gave a small smile. "That sentiment is shared by every man in this column. But to make that arrival happen, we must move now and with full efficiency." He reached for the door handle.
"One last thing, Commander."
Lian paused, hand resting against the frame.
Jihoo composed his thoughts, thinking back to just a few minutes ago. "I may be wrong," he said carefully. "But I felt something different during my meditations this morning. Something I haven't felt before. I was hoping it might be a sign."
Lian rested a hand on Jihoo's shoulder. "The writ from Archon Kim regarding your potential was unambiguous," he said. Taking a moment to look into the prince's eyes. "Jihoo, these meditations are for your personal discipline. I do not wish you any pain, but you must quash your hopes walking along The Way."
Lians mere utterance of that term caused an imperceptible wave of power to dispel from him. It was imperceptible to Lian, but it made Jihoo flinch.
"I…" He exhaled. "I understand, Commander."
"Well. Stay positive, Prince Jihoo. Your actions in this life determine your lot in the next. That is true for all of us, whatever path we walk."
"Well said. Thank you for your kindness, Lian."
The Commander ducked out of the wagon, and Jihoo was alone. He sat still for a long moment, looking at the place where Lian had been standing. Then he reached for the book on his desk. It was a geographical and political survey of the Qingshuo Province. His family had expectations, and he would not disappoint them. His family has packed him with plentiful books, reports, and other sorts of documents about the region.
Qingshuo City was built just beyond the Blossom Mountains. Right where the rivers from the mountains flattened and enriched the earth. The city's economy was built on farming, hunting, and mining.
The Meridian Cloud Sect governed the city and province. The land had prospered quietly for generations under the governance of the Meridian Cloud Sect. The Sect provided safety, adjudicated disputes, and maintained rule of law; in return, the city's merchants and landowners paid their taxes without excessive complaint. The Sect's leader was an old master of formidable reputation who had found the province a suitable place to spend his final centuries, and the arrangement had suited everyone.
Jihoo was taking notes when he was snapped out of focus.
"Brace yourselves!" Commander Lian's shouted from afar.
He'd raised his head at the shout, when a loud crack echoed against the cabin as it was thrust over onto its side. Jihoo slammed against the walls of the cabin. Snow exploded through the windows, driven by the sheer mass of the avalanche wave, and packed itself into every available space
Jihoo lay pinned in the wreckage of his comfortable wagon, surrounded by white, and could not move.
The avalanche had swept across the entire column. Hundreds of cultivating aspirants, their captains, their Commander, and their prince were simultaneously buried beneath the rolling weight of the mountain's snow.
This was just the disaster House Kang troops thrived in. The lieutenants of the expedition, although buried, began emitting solar heat from their bodies, turning the snow around them instantly into slush.
Commander Lian himself was the brightest among them all. His radiance began working methodically through the white toward the surface, then down through the debris toward the section of the column where the prince's wagon had been.
Jihoo's breathing slowed and slowed, and the pulse of his heart came to a halt.
Weightless, surrounded by white, Jihoo emptied his mind. Freezing water soaked into his clothes, surrounding his being. A thousand stars bearing themselves against nature. The God of the Red Sun, watching closely.
The wagon was uncovered. Its door was torn from the hinges as a Captain hauled himself inside, melting the remaining snow with practiced bursts of cultivated heat. The young prince lay motionless against the wall, pale as the snow itself, and the Captain gathered him up and carried him out into the cold air.
"Commander! The Prince is wounded!"
Lian was already moving before the words finished traveling to him. In what seemed like no time at all, Jihoo was on the ground before the Commander, who dropped to one knee and ran a scanning pulse of radiant energy over the prince's body. The examination took less than three seconds. What it revealed made the Commander go pale in a way that the avalanche itself had not managed.
"No!" Lian pressed both hands hard to Jihoo's chest and drove a red pulse of concentrated life energy into him. Jihoo's body lurched upward as his heart seized back into rhythm - he gasped once, sharp and desperate, drawing in a great ragged breath - and then his eyes rolled back, and his body began to convulse with violent irregularity. Lian scanned him again, looking for the cause, finding nothing comprehensible. He set the prince down carefully and ordered those gathered to give him space.
The convulsions continued for minutes. Eventually, they diminished not because he'd recovered, but because Jihoo's body simply exhausted itself. He lay catatonic. His breathing was faint and he was unresponsive to light, sound, and even pain.
Commander Lian knelt off to the side, his head buried in his hands. In a minute, he had the prince placed back in the righted wagon, instructed his lieutenants to locate every vitalizing solution in the expedition's medical stores, and set them to administering a careful rotation of compounds to sustain Jihoo's body through whatever had taken hold of it.
Although the prince was wounded, the expedition quickly recovered. With minor repairs made and an hour lost, they were moving again towards Qingshuo City. With Jihoo's condition outside of Lian's control, he hoped that the masters of the Meridian Cloud Sect would be able to help him.
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Commander Lian led at the head of the column and did not speak much. His mind was occupied by decisions yet to be made.
The eastern path the scouts had identified proved passable, if narrow. The column threaded through it in double-file, the captains keeping the line tight and moving. Lian watched the ridgelines as they moved.
He had to do more, Lian cursed and went and called a second messenger to his side as he rode, a young cultivator of the aspirant rank who was proficient at long-distance travel. The boy walked alongside him.
"You'll run ahead of the column," Lian said, keeping his voice low beneath the sound of moving feet and wagon wheels. "Go to the Meridian Cloud Sect. Go directly to a silver or above and deliver this word exactly."
The messenger nodded, hands folded, ready.
"Tell them that the House Kang diplomatic envoy has suffered a medical emergency in the Blossom Pass. That the Scion of House Kang is gravely ill and requires immediate attention from their finest healers. Tell them…" Lian paused, and when he continued, his voice carried the careful weight of a man choosing politically precise language. "Tell them that the Prince's death, should it come to pass, would be among the most inauspicious events to befall this region in a generation."
"Yes, Commander." The messenger's face was appropriately grave.
"Go."
The boy was gone, within a few minutes, he was a distant figure cresting the path ahead and then vanishing around the mountain's shoulder. Lian returned his eyes to the road.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing Jihoo became aware of was the sound of wheels.
He lay on his back on the bench of the wagon, a folded blanket beneath his head, several more layered over him. The wagon was moving, he could feel the vibration of the path through the wood beneath him, the occasional lurch as a wheel found uneven ground.
He sat up.
The motion brought a lieutenant to the wagon door within. The man looked at him with an expression that moved rapidly through surprise, relief, and uncertainty before settling on careful composure.
"Your Grace. You're awake."
"Yes," Jihoo said hesitatingly. His own voice sounded strange to him. Quieter than usual. More considered. "How long?"
"Four hours, Your Grace."
He absorbed that. "Tell the Commander."
He sat for a moment, thoughts raced in his mind about the expedition, about Qingshuo, House Kang, and his purpose.
Commander Lian entered the wagon.
The Commander looked at him the way a man looks at something he has been afraid to hope for. He opened his mouth, and Jihoo spoke first.
"Please sit, Lian. What happened?"
Lian sat. Relief evident upon his expression.
"I sent a second messenger ahead," Lian said. "It was a request for immediate medical aide, and I took liberties to also attach a warning with the message.
Jihoo's eyes sharpened slightly. "Please recall the message."
Lian stood and bowed, "I will do so at once Jihoo."
He quickly left the wagon and barked out an order to one of his captains. Climbing back in, he took his seat and made a comment.
"There was an avalanche. Your wagon was struck. Your heart stopped and I had to revive you. But after that, your body shook and you became unresponsive."
"And then I woke up?" Jihoo said.
"That's right. And how do you feel?"
Jihoo paused, focusing on his body.
"Calibration complete. Neural handshake established."
Jihoo whipped his head around. Staring with wide eyes. "Did you hear that Lian!?"
"I heard nothing. Are you okay Jihoo? What's the matter?"
Standing up, Jihoo looked around, then sat on his bed. He rubbed at his eyeballs, shaking his head. "I swear I just heard the voice and words of a foreigner."
"Jihoo, you died four hours ago. Then you had a seizure…" Lian looked up at the ceiling of the wagon, then back at Jihoo.
"What I mean to say is, I've seen soldiers disassociate after traumatic battles. To the point where they didn't even recognize their own children. You seriously need to go to sleep and allow your body to recover.
Jihoo opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. He looked at his hands again. They were steady, which felt like it should mean something, that he was in control, but nothing could explain what he'd just heard.
"You're right," he said finally. "I'm sure you're right."
Lian watched him for a moment He reached out and gripped Jihoo's shoulder once, firm and brief.
"Sleep this off. We arrive within four hours. I'll wake you before we reach the city gates so you can compose yourself."
Jihoo nodded and lay back, pulling the blanket over him. Lian extinguished one of the two lanterns on his way out, leaving the wagon dim and warm and swaying.
He turned onto his side and watched the small lantern sway.
Outside, he could hear the column moving. The rhythm of boots on the descending path. The low exchanges of soldiers doing the unglamorous work of keeping an expedition alive and organized. Ordinary sounds.
Jihoo deliberately slowed his breath and began to mediate upon his senses.
He was asleep before the next thought could form, and the single lantern swayed above him, and the wagon rolled on down out of the mountains toward Qingshuo City.