Chapter 102: 171. Home

Lee Narae. Lee Jia told herself it didn’t mean anything—it was a common name—but her mind raced with possibilities. Yangye had felt familiar, even if she didn’t explicitly remember the people or locations. It had been about seven years since she’d left the orphanage—when she’d abandoned the unnamed little sister that Lee Jung had left in her care. Narae was about the right age. It was so unlikely as to be nearly impossible—what were the odds? Jia’s intuition was screaming at her, but she had no idea how to interpret it. Was she just being emotional? Her hesitation lasted just a moment too long, and Eui sensed Jia’s emotional turmoil, though she did well in keeping it off her face.

“Jia?”

Eui’s voice was tinged with worry. She probably understood the implications just as well. Jia shook her head, unable to give voice to her thoughts. Without words, Eui understood what Jia was thinking and in an instant, Yoshika had Eui’s detachment from the situation to balance out Jia’s emotional knee jerk reaction. She took a mental step back and thought about it rationally—it really was very unlikely that she would just happen to bump into her little sister during her travels in Goryeo, but not impossible. Besides which, that was hardly the most pressing concern about the girl at the moment, and it was simple enough to confirm her suspicion. If the girl really was her little sister, then Yoshika’s plans to deal with Lee’s gang would just have to move up on the schedule.

Lee Narae must have misinterpreted Yoshika’s silence, because her eyes began to water as she tugged her arm against Jia’s immovable grip.

“Really! I’m just Lee Narae! I’m nobody! I’m not that Hae person or whoever you said, honest! I’m sorry! I won’t do it again, please let me go! I’m sorry!”

Yoshika sighed and shook her head.

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you—though you should know better than to try to steal from a mage, shouldn’t you?”

The girl stared down at her feet and nodded miserably. Yoshika tried to smile gently, like she was talking to Haeun—though she knew that a girl like Lee Narae was probably made of sterner stuff than a sheltered princess like Haeun.

“Were you really that desperate? The fruit too—it would have been easy to get away with two or three, then you could have just come back tomorrow? Why the rush?”

Lee Narae met Yoshika’s eyes warily.

“S-shouldn’t you be telling me not to steal at all? Or getting mad at me for being inside the walls?”

Yoshika scoffed, and Narae’s eyes flicked up to Eui’s body in confusion as the gesture was matched by both of Yoshika’s bodies.

“Hardly. I used to do the same things at your age, but I was a lot more careful about it. So again, why the risk? No matter how hungry you are there’s no way you’re eating all that.”

Narae frowned, looking down at her feet as she tried to decide whether or not to answer.

“It...it’s not for me—I mean, some of it is, but it’s mostly for my mom. She’s sick.”

Yoshika felt a swell of emotion, but she clamped down on the impulse to immediately ask the girl who her mother was. One thing at a time.

“What’s wrong with her?”

Narae shrugged.

“I don’t know. She’s sick. She can’t work if she’s sick and if you don’t work you don’t eat. But how is she supposed to get better if she can’t eat? I’ve tried giving her my food, but I’m too small. She needs more.”

Yoshika’s heart ached. She’d seen it before in the orphanage that Jia grew up in. Sickness was as good as death, since you couldn’t work for your rations. Usually the older kids would pool their rations together to try to nurse younger ones back to health, but for a woman old enough to have a child of Narae's age? Who would help her? Certainly not the brothel she doubtlessly worked in—she was old, used, and damaged. Worth nothing to anybody—except poor little Narae, forced to watch on helplessly as her mother wasted away from illness.

“Then it’s even more important for you not to get caught, don’t you think?”

Narae stared at her feet again, pouting.

“I’ve never been caught before. I know how much I can pilfer, when to run, and the best ways to get away. This was the first time.”

“How?”

She shrugged with one arm.

“I just do.”

Yoshika frowned, a niggling thought in the back of her head coalescing into a theory.

“When you grabbed at my hand, you tried to take something from me—something precious. How did you know it was there? It’s a magic item that’s impossible to see, even for most mages.”

Narae shook her head.

“I don’t know. I just do things sometimes. I didn’t know you had a magic thingy, I just...did it.”

Yoshika let out a long breath of air. Intuition—latent magic sense supposedly, but between her own experiences and the evidence before her, she suspected there was far more to it than that. Yoshika’s own intuition—and particularly Lee Jia’s—had been lauded by her peers and mentors as being superlative, but if she was correct about Narae, then her intuition was on another level entirely. Was the entire incident a way to bring about this very encounter? Just how powerful a destiny did this child have?

“Lee Narae, this may seem like a strange question, but I need you to tell me—what is your mother’s name?”

Narae’s body language shifted in an instant. She had been scared, wary, but slowly opening up as Yoshika spoke to her, but now she closed herself off entirely, pursing her lips and glaring at Yoshika with eyes far too cold and hard for a seven-year-old.

“Why do you care? Who are you? Leave my mom alone!”

Lee Narae began tugging fruitlessly against Yoshika’s grip again, but she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself sooner. My name is Lee Jia. I...might know your mother.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Narae’s thrashing grew even more violent, trying to kick and bite at Yoshika in an attempt to escape.

“Liar! My mom doesn’t have any mage friends! If she did she wouldn’t be sick! We’d be rich and happy! I wouldn’t have to steal for the boss, and she wouldn’t have to work in that horrible place! You can’t trick me! Lee Jia is dead! Mom told me so!”

Yoshika felt her eyes beginning to water, it was obvious. She’d known it all along really, but she’d just needed to convince herself it was true. With one final push, she made absolutely sure.

“Narae—your mother’s name, it’s Lee Jung, isn’t it?”

To her credit, Lee Narae’s hesitation was infinitesimal. A mortal wouldn’t have even noticed it.

“No! Fuck you, let me go! You have the wrong person!”

The lie was well executed, especially for a girl so young. But Yoshika cheated. She was an immortal cultivator, and to her Lee Narae was an open book. More importantly, Lee Narae was a little sister. Yoshika swept the confused girl into a tight embrace—careful not to hurt the girl with her absurd strength. She fought and kicked, but paused when she noticed the tears running down Yoshika’s cheeks—both pairs.

“I’m so sorry, Narae. I should never have left you! I don’t expect you to ever forgive me, but please give me a chance to make things right. Could you take me to see your mother? Please?”

Lee Narae hesitated for a long moment, casting confused glances between Lee Jia’s body hugging her, and the otherwise silent An Eui who was now looking straight at her with tears running down her face.

“What? I don’t—who are you!?”

Yoshika let herself separate again. Jia didn’t need Yoshika's level headedness anymore. She needed to be herself. Tears streamed down her face and she answered Narae’s question between choked sobs.

“I told you already. I’m Lee Jia. I’m your big sister.”

 

---

 

It took some more explanation and calming down before Lee Narae was convinced of Lee Jia’s identity, during which Ja Yun caught up to them, unsure how to react to the sudden reunion. She stayed off to the side with Eui while Jia and Narae spoke. Lee Narae still eyed Jia suspiciously.

“So you’re really the same Lee Jia mom told me about?”

Jia nodded.

“I don’t know what she told you about me, but yes. Lee Jung took care of me when I was your age—she was like a big sister to me.”

“Wouldn’t that make you more like an auntie?”

Narae’s words struck Lee Jia like an arrow, hurting her on a level that transcended body or soul.

“L-let’s just go with big sister.”

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“Whatever. Why aren’t you dead? Mom said you tried to get away from the gangs and they killed you. To make an example.”

Lee Jia frowned. Had she been turned into a cautionary tale for the kids in the orphanage? ‘Don’t try to run away, or you’ll end up like Lee Jia.’ Or perhaps Lee Jung simply told the tale to Narae for her own safety. Jia felt a sick wave of melancholy at the thought that maybe Lee Jung simply thought of Jia as dead to her—a reasonable bitterness toward the ingrate that abandoned her daughter to fend for herself in Boss Lee’s orphanage.

“I got away. Got stronger.”

“And now you came back for us?”

Lee Narae stared up at Jia accusingly, the doubt plain in her eyes. Jia felt as if she saw her own childhood staring back at her, judging her every action. She knew that a lie here would do more harm than good, and shook her head.

“No. I’m here for a different reason. It was chance—or maybe even fate that we ran into each other.”

The little girl looked down and scuffed at the ground with her feet.

“Yeah, that makes sense. I would have forgotten about us too, if I’d become some rich, fancy mage person.”

“No! Narae, no, I never forgot about you. Not a day went by where I didn’t think about you and your mother. I don’t...I don’t regret leaving—but I wish I could have somehow brought you with me. Your mother too.”

Lee Narae kept her head down, and her voice was barely more than a murmur.

“Can you help her? My mom.”

Jia knelt down and put her hands on Narae’s shoulders.

“I will do everything I can to help Lee Jung. You see An Eui? The grumpy looking one with the pretty hair?”

Eui wasn’t sure whether to protest about the ‘grumpy looking’ comment or be pleased by the compliment, settling on just scowling silently and averting her eyes instead. Lee Narae nodded as Jia continued.

“She’s a healer. Even if she can’t save your mother, I’m almost certain that she can keep her alive until we find someone who can.”

Lee Narae looked between Jia and Eui—barely sparing Ja Yun a passing glance—and finally Jia could see it sinking in. Narae’s eyes started to water, and she turned away to wipe at them, sniffling once before speaking.

“O-okay. I’ll take you to mom. Just please—please save her!”

Jia took Narae’s hand and let her lead them towards Yangye’s red light district. In the meantime, Ja Yun finally found the courage to speak up.

“Uh, guys, what’s going on here? Who’s this? Where are we going? Oh ancestors, this is not a good part of town.”

Eui scoffed.

“We’ve got three cultivators here, I’m sure we’ll be okay.”

“That’s not the point! Why are we following a tiny child into the bad parts of town?”

Lee Jia sighed.

“Ja Yun, this is Lee Narae, my little sister. Narae, this is Ja Yun, her job is to keep us safe.”

Ja Yun grumbled to herself as the little girl eyed her appraisingly.

“More like keep everyone else safe from you. Can’t even do that properly, apparently—wait, sister!? You never said you had family here!”

Jia shrugged.

“I didn’t know.”

Lee Narae had regained her composure and, emboldened by the conversation, turned her attention to An Eui.

“And who are you supposed to be, anyway? Why were you crying earlier?”

Eui shrugged dismissively.

“It was a touching reunion.”

“My ass! You had the exact same expression as Lee Jia!”

Eui chuckled sardonically, but offered no further explanation. Jia sighed and filled in the gaps for her little sister.

“Eui is my partner. We have a special relationship and she can feel the same emotions as I do.”

Narae furrowed her brows and looked at Eui for confirmation, receiving a slight nod before turning back to Jia.

“That’s weird.”

Eui burst out into cackling laughter while Ja Yun grumbled under her breath.

“The kid’s not wrong.”

Starting to feel more comfortable in their company, Narae started interrogating them as only a child could.

“Are you two dating? Do you kiss and stuff?”

Eui chuckled.

“And stuff, yeah.”

Jia blushed and elbowed Eui in the side as Narae grimaced.

“Gross!”

Lee Jia had to cut off Eui’s indignant response before it began.

“She’s a kid, Eui—all relationships are gross.”

“Ah, right.”

They went on like that for a while, the denizens of Yangye’s seedier parts wisely giving them a wide berth until they arrived at their destination. Unlike the orphanage, the gang-run brothels were run entirely from within the city, existing in a quasi-legal gray area that the authorities had mostly just come to accept as an inevitable part of the city. Narae led them through an alleyway behind an ostentatious looking building to a set of shacks cleverly hidden behind the ‘enticing’ facade—the housing for the less favored ‘employees’ of the brothel.

Jia smelled the shack before she saw it. Sweat, urine, fecal matter, and other bodily fluids that she’d rather not think about, mixed with the unmistakable rank of illness. The smell was almost overpowering, and Jia had to suppress a grimace as Lee Narae opened the door and entered the shack unperturbed—no doubt already accustomed to the state of her mother.

“Hi mom, it’s me! I brought food.”

The voice that responded was weak, and lower than Jia remembered it, but unmistakable.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’ve told you before not to sneak into the city alone, it’s not sa—”

The half-hearted admonishment died on Lee Jung’s lips as her eyes settled on Lee Jia standing in the doorway. She blinked, then rubbed at her eyes before regarding Lee Jia again. Both women hesitated for a long, awkward moment, Jung’s eyes flickering about uncertainly until she finally swallowed hard and broke the silence.

“J-Jia? Is that you?”