Eventually, the general had begun searching for his wayward wife and according to the stories they'd crossed paths several times, even becoming friends, before he realized she was his missing wife. By then, the general so admired her skill and heart that he couldn't bear to force her to return to the capital with him, so he simply pretended he was still looking.
The princess, famed for her intelligence as well as her kindness, eventually learned the story of her father's loss and her marriage, but having no desire to be trapped in the life of a general's wife in the capital, did not seek him out and for many years they continued this way. As the years wore on, the general became exhausted and worn down by his emperor's constant wars and the volatile politics of the capital. A popular figure among the people and beloved by his soldiers, the general became a threat to the paranoid emperor, who sent him on a suicide mission in an effort to prevent a fictional betrayal.
The princess, upon learning that her estranged husband was being sent off to die, decided to repay the kindness he'd shown her by leaving her be and went off to save him.
As the tales go, she arrived at the pivotal hour, when the general and his most trusted soldiers had stayed to hold back the enemy and allow their beleaguered army to escape.
The princess turned the tide of the battle with a single strike from her blade, the same blade his master had gifted Yuze, and carted off her husband and his surviving men.
Where she took them varied depending on who was telling the story, but it was unlikely any of them knew for sure. The true location had been lost to time and all the stories knew for sure was that she'd nursed them back to health and allowed the rest of the world to believe they were dead.
It took nearly a year for the general and his soldiers to heal completely and by the time they had, they had all decided to remain with the princess instead of returning to the empire.
From then on, the Legend of the White Princess Yī Nuò and the Black General Haoyu became a series of short stories about those they'd helped as they travelled the rock and the adventures they'd shared.
The general, approached by many wanting to hire him, became famous for saying he would only work for someone who could defeat his wife in combat.
And no one ever could.
So, the Princess and her General husband went on with their travels, helping where they could and training together, some of his soldiers left to start their own families or to lead their own stories, but there were two written to have remained with the Princess and the General until all four of them simply faded from sight and then from memory.
The Raven and the Wolf were the only names given to the two soldiers that had followed General Haoyu from the army to wandering cultivation, but they were said to have been as devoted to each other as the general became to his cultivator wife and she to him.
None of it explained how Yuze's master had inherited the blade or why it had only become a Blooding Blade in Yuze's hands.
Maybe Eirian knew. She had her own Blooding Blade, though Yuze had yet to see her draw it.
He could feel it sometimes, the same way he could sometimes feel Huaban, but Chenzhou's blade feel nearly as violent as Eirian's.
Neither Yuze nor Chenzhou enjoyed battle, or simply fighting, but they had been skills necessary for both of them, but not something to be celebrated.
So far nothing he'd seen of Eirian suggest she shared that opinion.
As much as Yuze was starting to like Chenzhou's wife, she often carried herself like she was looking for a fight and refused to back down when she found one.
Snake was wary of her, had confided as much to Yuze in private the night before. Wary of her power, of her ambitions, of her family.
Snake didn't trust anyone, but she was an excellent judge of character.
Usually, anyway.
Fox, who's face not even Yuze had ever seen, tended to be more contemplative than judgmental, two wildly different ideologies when it came to intelligence work, but both were very successful when implemented by two skilled agents.
He wanted to get Fox's opinion on Eirian and what had been happening. Fox spent more time out among the tribes, part of the reason he guarded his face so carefully.
Five years of working together and Yuze still had no idea what he looked like.
Actually, he realized he didn't even know if Fox was really a he. He'd just assumed because of his voice and the breadth of his shoulders that he was male.
A short whistle made him turn. Fox was approaching from the east. It took a second to pick his figure out among the waist high wheat and Yuze studied him as he approached.
He had a few inches on Yuze, tall and broad and generally wearing the layers the tribes used to survive the harsh elements of the prairie. His ever-present hood and mask were in place. The mask itself was a simple brown leather mask stylized with a fox's whiskers and Yuze had no idea if he took it off on assignment or if he switched it out or what, it had always been something everyone just understood not to ask.
"Barn." Fox said when they were close enough to hear one another.
"Hen house." Yuze responded, smiling because it drove Fox mad when everyone picked code words that played on his name. "Anything?"
Fox shook his head, joining Yuze. "Doubt they'll be back this way anytime soon."
"I was thinking the same."
"Snake?"
"Should be back soon."
Fox nodded and looked around. Well, he turned his head, but Yuze couldn't see his eyes, so he didn't know for sure.
"What do you think of Eirian?"
"The Princess?"
"Yes."
"Never spoken to her."
"I'm aware. Give me your opinion anyway."
Fox cocked his head and Yuze felt like he had eyes on him. "Could burn the world down. Could save it all. Depends on how she's feeling that day."
That was…. a surprisingly accurate way of describing what Yuze had been thinking.
~ tbc