"Liuwen, hurry up. We'll just barely be back by nightfall, if we leave now." Shen Jintian called, once again at the lead tongue of the wagon. Li Liuwen waved his hand, perusing the various market stalls and inspecting any trinket that caught his fancy.
"In just a moment, friend. We have time, and therefore, I must make sure the gift I get is nothing less than perfect." He argued, picking up a set of earrings as the merchant in charge of the stall smiled. Jintian groaned, rubbing his forehead.
It had been nearly two days since they'd arrived in Chenghe. After the night drinking with Liuwen's uncle, they had explored the city, purchased the ramie thread for Jintian's mother, and then been led through a small tour of the shop Li Dongfei was in the midst of securing the rights to. Afterwards, the two of them had gone on a bit of a spree trying any restaurant that woke their appetite.
In the excitement of the city, Liuwen had nearly forgotten his secondary purpose of coming, which was to buy a courtship gift for Feng Yu. Panicked, he had led Jintian with the cart so that the two could depart once he'd picked something, but he had been flitting around the city for nearly two hours now, and had not found a gift he deemed worthy.
"You know that whatever you choose, Feng Yu will like." Jintian pointed out. "The gift isn't the important part."
Liuwen looked back at him, his mouth curving sharply downwards into a frown. "The gift is vital. I must pick something that expresses both my undying, eternal devotion to our future together, and that I am able to provide. What could be more important than that?" He rebuked, offended.
Jintian rolled his eyes, but didn't speak further. However, after nearly twenty more minutes of perusing and no more progress, he dropped the tongue and snorted. "I'm going to wander over there. You let me know when you're ready to go." He snapped, and Liuwen nodded absentmindedly.
"...Hmm? Okay, sure thing." He said, inspecting a pearl necklace. Jintian wheeled around and stalked into a direction at random, fed up. It was a few minutes before he finally looked around to see where he was going.
This corner of the market was far quieter than the others. There were only a few stalls, each of which had owners that didn't seem to care whether or not they had customers. He suddenly realized that he had left the money with Liuwen, and was just about to stomp back to his friend when he heard a voice call out.
"Dear customer, before you leave, why not have your fortune read?" The voice offered, soft and feminine yet brimming with mystical wonder. Jintian paused, turning his attention to a small tent. He couldn't see past the entrance of it, the interior dark and filled with curling smoke.
Jintian paused, before bowing slightly to the unseen figure within the tent. "My apologies, honorable madam, but I have left my coin with my friend." He said, once again beginning to turn when he heard a faint laugh.
"Well then, it must be fate that you came here. My earlier customer gave me money for an extra reading, yet had to leave before he could receive it." The voice said, and Jintian hesitated. He reached his hand up to his mother's heirloom necklace, and kissed it, before finally deciding to enter.
As he entered the tent, the smell of incense burned his nose, the interior so clouded and thick with it that he could only barely see a woman sitting down at a small table. She looked up at him, her features hidden by a veil, before gesturing for him to sit down.
He bowed, and took his seat. The woman hidden by the veil giggled, and Jintian looked at her questioningly.
"Ah, forgive me customer. It's just that I do not even need to perform a reading to know that you are upset right now." She said, waving a hand. Jintian cleared his throat awkwardly, embarrassed by the fact that he must have been scowling.
"I'm sorry, madam. My friend is just taking quite a while to purchase a gift." He said, and the woman nodded knowingly.
"For a woman, correct? As a courting gift?" She asked, and Jintian's eyes widened. He hurriedly nodded.
"That is correct, madam!" He said in wonder. The woman waved a hand dismissively.
"That is nothing to be amazed by. The Sun Dance festival is nearing, and you do not wear the clothes of Chenghe. The rest is easy to infer." She said, and Jintian coughed, embarrassed once more. Still, he sat straighter and laid his hands on the table, and she nodded to him.
"What is your name, dear customer?"
"Shen Jintian." He replied, and she gently took one of his hands into her own. After tracing his palm, she then gestured for him to lean forward. She traced her fingertips along his nose, his cheeks, his lips, and his forehead.
"Shen Jintian is a majestic name. The Profound Golden Sky?" She asked lightly, and he nodded. "But that is not your true name, is it? You bear a different one. Your blood father's family name."
He jerked away from her touch, his mouth opening in shock. The incense stung in his nose, and his eyes squinted as he tried to pierce her veil.
If she was bothered by his scrutiny, she did not show it. Instead, she reached underneath the table, and produced a small tortoise shell. She then reached her hand out, and after a moment of hesitation, he laid his hand over hers.
Faster than he could react, a needle flashed through the air, pricking the tip of his finger. He winced and tried to pull his hand back, but her grip was iron as she turned his hand over and squeezed a drop of his blood onto the tortoise shell. Something that shocked him profoundly. He could not remember the last time someone had been able to best him physically.
As his blood seeped into the shell, she only stared at him through the veil. "Your true name, dear customer." She urged. "You must speak it quickly, before the blood fades."
He hesitated for a few moments, a cold kind of fear of the woman and her mystic powers now gripping his heart. After a few moments, he gritted his teeth. "Zhao Jintian." He said, and she finally released him. In the next moment, a sharp series of cracking sounds rang through the air as the tortoise shell split into pieces, collapsing onto the table.
He waited with baited breath as her hands quickly sorted through the pieces, her head lowered. "I see… yes. I see a fire. A fire that spreads from burning through your home, to consuming your heart. Karmic destiny, delayed by your father but never halted, visits upon you. I see your rage grow, and grow. You must quell it, lest it burst forth from you and have dire consequences.
"I also see a teacher. A mentor for you that shall bring you great aid and rebirth. But you must be careful to not allow his war to become your own, or the world shall drown in a sea of blood.
"And I see… heavens!" She gasped, and Jintian's heart crawled up into his throat. Every fortune teller he had ever visited had always told him of his good fortune, but every word this woman had spoken seemed grim and dire in consequence. And now, as she put a hand to her forehead, he was just about ready to leap from his seat and flee.
"You greet death, Zhao Jintian. No, not just greet it. You command it, and it obeys your order!" She looked at him wildly, her body trembling. "You defy natural law. And the Heavens shall seek to punish you for it!"
She reached for him, and the terror he was beset by grew so great that he immediately scrambled to his feet, bursting out from the tent and escaping the woman and her thick cloud of incense. He ran, and ran, only finally coming to a stop when he spotted Li Liuwen standing by the cart.
Liuwen looked at him, smiling as he held up a crystal hair pin in the shape of a flower. "I've finally found the perfect…" He trailed off as he noticed his friend's panicked state. Quickly stowing the hairpin away, he approached him. "Jintian? Are you okay?"
Jintian took a deep breath, attempting to calm his wildly beating heart. Shaking his head, he grabbed the tongue of the wagon. "I'll tell you on the way. I want to get out of this city!" He exclaimed, and Liuwen hurriedly climbed into the cart.
Jintian felt a strange sense of anxiety. He couldn't shake the seer's words. They echoed in his mind, haunting his heart. As such, the two of them hurried through the city streets, and once they were past the city gates he dragged the cart into a run.
He heard Liuwen calling his name, but he did not dare stop. Not, at least, until he had finally reached the forest. Only when he was underneath its shadowed canopy, the sound of peaceful birdsong in the early evening soothing him, did he finally slow.
Taking gulping breaths, his lungs burning in his chest, he finally realized that Liuwen's hand was gripped tightly onto his shoulder. He wiped the sweat from his brow, and shakily turned to look at him.
"What is it, my friend?" Liuwen asked softly, and Jintian felt the terror of his flight threatening to bring stinging tears to his eyes. Hurriedly blinking them away, Jintian took another deep breath.
"... I had my fortune read." He answered, and Liuwen listened as he recounted his encounter with the fortune teller. Once he finished, his friend seemed to sink into thought for a few moments.
"I can see why that would frighten you into such a state." He finally said, nodding. "But Jintian… she sounds like a crook!"
Jintian looked at him in surprise, and Liuwen gave him a reassuring smile. "Tortoise shell readings are typically only done by seers directly employed by the Emperor's court, and only by those who are renowned for their prowess. And yet she performed just such a reading for a random boy who did not even have the money to pay for it? And what was that about you commanding death? I have never seen you do such a thing. You're a farmer, Jintian, not some immortal commander of the dead. It's all hogwash!"
Shen Jintian thought for a few moments. "But I… she knew that I had two names. And… I could not pull my hand from her." He said carefully, and Liuwen laughed.
"She knew you had two names because most boys our age have two names. After the Three States War, many boys our age were orphaned and entered into a different family. You yourself experienced how quickly she was able to guess I was getting a courting gift just based on the time of year." He said, and Jintian paused, nodding as he frowned. "And as for you not being able to pull your hand away… ai, it's because you're too nice. You've always been gentle with your strength, so as not to hurt others. You've been doing it ever since you pushed Yu'er a little too hard when we were kids."
The cart rumbled behind him as he continued to push it along, his friend offering him a reassuring smile. Finally, the anxiety Jintian had been filled with faded, and instead, his face flushed with embarrassment. Seeing the red fill his cheeks, Liuwen chuckled.
"It's no reason to feel shame, dear friend. If I had been in there and she started spouting nonsense, I might have run from the city without even coming to find you!" He confessed, and Jintian laughed shakily. He was thankful that his friend had helped him see reason.
Smiling, he shook his head. "So, what did you finally pick out for Feng Yu?" He asked, and Liuwen chuckled as he reached into his sleeve.
"Behold the might of Li Liuwen!" He exclaimed proudly, producing a sparkling hair pin in the shape of a tiger lily. Jintian looked at it, and was reluctantly impressed.
"It's very beautiful. I think she'll like it." He said, and Liuwen puffed his chest.
"Yes! You see, the tiger lily represents wealth, prosperity, and good fortune. The crystal symbolizes devotion. And she has complained to me on more than one occasion that her hair gets in her way when she passes thread through her loom, so it shows that I am attentive!" He declared triumphantly, stowing the hairpin inside of his sleeve. "With this three prong attack, she will have no choice but to accept my courtship!"
Jintian chuckled. "You know, she would have accepted your courtship regardless of what you got for her." He pointed out, and Liuwen waved a hand.
"And how many times do I have to tell you? The gift is important!" He said. Realizing how hopeless his friend was, Jintian only turned his attention back to the front. The rest of the journey was made accompanied with Liuwen's pleased humming, and Jintian settled into peace once more.
However, as night began to fall, and they emerged from the forest to travel along the countryside, Jintian froze in shock. The fortune teller's voice rang in his ears once again, and Liuwen tensed behind him as they both looked at the distant form of their home.
"Jintian…" Liuwen whispered, his voice trembling. Jintian immediately broke into a run, the wagon's wheels clattering behind him.
On the horizon, an orange glow could be seen. From their village, a large plume of smoke was billowing into the air.
Anhe village was on fire.