I notice the immediate change in her. She steps away when I meet her gaze.
She must have seen something.
I reach for the scroll in her hand and she snatches it away.
What is she hiding? What did she see?
[Totally suspicious, I agree. Would you like me to draw out possible reasons?]
"No, thank you. I can figure this out on my own.
"Let me have it". I urge gently, stretching out my palm.
She moves to tear it, but I quickly grab her wrists. I peel the paper out of her hands and read it.
---
The Summer I Died.
I looked at her with an expression of deep longing. I was never good with words, but there was never a worse time to lack words than at that moment. My fate was in the hands of...fate.
She looked at me with a stoic face, portraying a calmness that neither of us felt. It made my heart shatter even more. She wanted me to be strong, something I was not sure I knew how to do anymore.
A little figure emerged from behind her skirts. Little Xian Xian. My younger brother. My mother had died in childbirth when she had him. My father died not long after, because of grief. Somehow, it fell on me to take care of him.
Now, it fell to Yumi, my darling wife. Her belly was round with my seed, our unborn child. Nothing made me feel more manly and more terrified at the same time.
I rubbed the little boy's hair affectionately. He kept rubbing his hands together nervously. He probably wanted to give me a hug, but Yumi must have warned him not to.
Her intentions were good, but not enough. I believed it would be much easier for me if I carried the memories of a warm and emotional departure with me, than a cold, though well meant one.
I went down on one knee and gathered the boy into my arms. He began to shudder with the beginnings of a sob. I gathered him even closer.
I looked up at Yumi to see her reaction. A tear escaped the side of her eyes. The possibility that I may never see her again had had me writhing from nightmares every night I went to sleep.
I rose slowly and gathered her as well. She shook her head as her composure fell apart and she began to cry.
My eyes stung with unshed tears.
I slowly pulled away from her and smoothed a stray lock of white hair away from her beautiful face. She sniffled and slowly met my gaze.
I smoothed away her tears with the pads of my thumbs.
After mumbling some words to my unborn child, I kissed her and Xian Xian goodbye.
I left quietly, fighting the strong urge to turn back.
I walked through the portal leading to the Imperial army. Nothing about it was unfamiliar. I had been the captain of my regiment for the past four years. I saw the faces of all my warriors, but none of them seemed as familiar as they once had been.
The arrogant had become even more arrogant while the anxious were bordering on insanity.
The demons had invaded our south border and it fell on us to fight them. We might have emerged victorious, or gotten killed like lambs at the slaughter, but worse would have happened if we did nothing.
I donned on my war armour and put on the talisman of my ancestors for good fortune. We marched through the portal to the battle field. The stench of blood and burning flesh wafted to my nostrils. The people that lived at the border had all been wiped out. I turned to the leaders of other regiments.
None of them seem bothered by quiet and surreptitiously empty battle field. Where were all the demons? Only pale bodies and burnt houses were in view. The ground was covered mostly in ash.
Nani, the Captain of the White Gale regiment along with two others, sent his men forward to look around for the enemy.
I waited with my hand on the hilt of my sword.
My men looked at me with fear and alertness. We knew that something was not right.
The hairs on the back of my neck began to rise.
I immediately pulled out my sword and swung it into the mist created by the smoke. A creature emerged out of the mist and fell to the ground at my feet. Before I could look up, other creatures emerged out of the smoke mist and lunged at us. I pulled out my sword and fought alongside my men.
Nani's men had all been slaughtered, alongside the men of the other two regiments.
We had been ambushed and were now outnumbered.
The Peace corps had arrived with their white robes and awesome powers.
I instructed my men to retreat while I stayed to fend off the encroaching beasts with all the Mana I had left.
I came from a long line of Dromes. We summoned our power from the elements. Because of our entanglement with nature, we can not die of natural causes, like sickness, or old age. We are infinite beings.
As good as the Peace Corps were, they were not able to fight off the demon army.
Even their reinforcements did not do much good.
It all fell on my grim shoulders. I had to do what I had feared to do for so long. The very thing that haunted my dreams.
I stuck my sword into the rocky ground and stepped forward.
I had to sacrifice myself for the good of others. I would never see Yumi and Xian Xian again.
"Guardian of the sun, hear my plea. I give you my life in exchange for the power to destroy the demon army!"
Wind started swirling around me with swift velocity. The ground started breaking apart. Things got caught up in the powerful whirlwind swirling around me. All I could think was that the end had come. I conjured up Yumi's face clung to it as a mad man clings to the slimmest thread of sanity.
I sucked up all the energy into my core and expelled it in one huge crashing wave. My armour fell apart in the process. The power was so magnificent that everything within a ten mile radius died. As the power left me, I sank to my knees. The Peace Corps had had enough time to get through their portal before the blast. My men had made it safe, that was all that mattered.
I raised my head with all the strength I had left and looked around. Every single demon had fallen. I would die the death of a hero.
Suddenly, the heavens crackled and rain started pouring down.
I closed my eyes and surrendered myself to death.
Everything went blank for some time, then, my conciousness returned.
I still felt the heavy rain drops splashing into my face. I opened my eyes to find a woman looming over me.
She had dark waist-reaching hair and a pretty smile. Her eyes were red and blood shot from the rain. Her hair was sticking to her forehead and cheeks.
She was wearing long purple robes that were darker in colour because of the rain.
She stroked my chin softly and smiled wider.
"What is your name?" She asked me.
I couldn't help but notice how long her nails were. I should call them talons instead.
"Wen...Jiang". I whispered through cracked lips.
She smiled at me again.
"Well, Wen Jiang, how would you like to be reborn as Claw?"
Before I could grasp the meaning of her words, she sank her talons into my chest and pulled out my heart.
She rubbed my forehead and gently closed my eyes. I died instantly.
When I woke up, I found myself in another body. Somehow, I was alive again.
But, as a demon now named Claw.
My past life became a memory, which I have found time to document.
Over the millenia, I have destroyed towns and cities and claimed several territories as my own. At first, it was to please Fang, but now, it is what I live for - To invoke suffering on all ungrateful inhabitants of the Continent.
---
I look up from the scroll.
"How accurate is this account?" I ask the System.
[Every scroll stored here is original which places the accuracy at a hundred percent.]
I look back at the scroll before looking up at Arya.
I see something in her eyes as they soften. I hope it is not pity. I hate pity.
She puts her hand on my arm and I shrug it off. I realize that there are tears in my eyes. Angry tears. I had been crying. I never really knew him and Yumi had refused to talk about him after he died. I was only four years old at the time. Yumi had died in childbirth the same year. Everyone in the Clan knew she was a strong women. Grief had overcome her terribly. Being celebrated as the wife of a Hero only made her bitter. She wanted to die with him. And she finally got her wish. I was left all alone.
"You never told me you are a Drome". She says to change the atmosphere.
"You never asked". I respond coldly.
"Is that why you have lived this long?"
"What about you? Why are you still alive? You are a demon, that's why. Demons are worse than Dromes. You have no right to look down on me!"
Her eyes harden.
"I wasn't looking down on you. And so what if I'm a demon. Just like Wen Jiang-"
"Don't say his name!"
"Well, just like Claw, I wasn't really given a choice. No one was. Dromes are cursed beings, and so are Necromancers. None of us is better than the other".
"You're a Necromancer?"
"Yes. I thought you would have figured that out by now?"
"It never crossed my mind".
A strangled cough comes from the direction of my mentor. We both turn to look at him.
He struggles to sit erect.
When he finally does, he gives me an accessing glance.
"So, tell us, whose side are you now on?"