Chapter 28: Chapter 26: The Temple In A Questionable City

When he had first seen it, he wanted to immediately go inside. But with the group it would have looked odd and provoked questions from all sides. It was bad enough he was going to have to use one of his old aliases as a ‘true identity’. So he had waited until they had set up at an inn and then, after sternly telling Idony to stay in the room he had bought for them all to share, left to go see the strange temple.

Before he even entered he heard a rush of whispers, they filled his head and his body, igniting tiny fires somewhere distant within him. He had grown so used to ignoring such things that it was nearly disorienting.

It was a susurration, the rise and fall of waves. The waves were words and feelings, fear, anger, dreams and nightmares.

The building itself was rather dark, likely for some form of anonymity, people huddling together in prayer in the meager light of lanterns. It was one floor, but the ceiling was tall to accommodate the large statue of a headless god, a sword in one hand and a decapitated head held by its hair in the other hand. At its feet was another much smaller statue on its hands and knees, and behind that statue was an altar, piled with offerings in the form of jars of alcohol, little mock ups of various weapons in clay or wood, iron nails, and human figures made of straw. In the middle of the room was a brazier welded to look as though the coals were sitting in the grasp of a particularly wicked looking willow tree. The walls themselves were blank except for soot and some barely visible strange red lines, only the width of a finger, that raced along the wall to the floor before curling to disappear beneath the brazier. They vaguely reminded him of how his back looked after the Lady of Calm Waters got through with carving in the various restrictions he willingly took on. The memory gave him a sour taste in his mouth.

There were a few incense burners scattered about, but it did little to hide the acrid scent of burning hair that came from the brazier.

There was a tradition that upon oaths for honor or revenge to cut one’s hair and burn it as an offering to the Headless God, the one who oversaw those dark matters and others and would allow those who had stained their hands with blood to wash their hands in the White River if their cause was just or would put in a good word with the Empress of Hell.

So it was a temple to himself, not one that was merely an accessory to his mother’s in his aspect as a gatekeeper who kept the dead and the living separated. He took a deep breath.

Being inside, feeding upon the prayers of those at worship and the chanting of the monks.

He honestly felt better than he had since he started this whole trip. As though some long forgotten strength had returned to tired limbs. If he had a heart, he imagined it’d probably be pounding in eagerness to go do something. Yet he still felt the dullness of his shape, the heavy false mortal bonds that restrained him. He could squirm within the vessel all he wanted like a maggot, he could cut off his limbs and feed upon the prayers and ambient energy in the surroundings to grow replacements, and yet he was still beholden to the oaths he took, which had been carved deep into him.

As he thought, he felt his back stiffen strangely, like flesh drying.

Liu Xie’s eyes then moved to the unfamiliar statue. It had been a very long time since he had been in a temple devoted to him alone, he had long doubted any still stood, so he had no idea what the new trends were.

He turned to one monk that was carefully brushing some of the ash that had escaped the brazier, giving the man a short bow. “Excuse me, friend, you couldn’t tell me how old this temple is, could you?”

The monk nearly dropped his broom in surprise, looking up at him with wide eyes. He likely spent most of his day watching scummy sorts coming in and praying for revenge this, restoring honor that. Instead a clean and lovely young man with an apathetic gaze was staring down at him, like a dim light in endless black. Although Liu Xie thought another reason for the wide eyes was that he was dressed like a well off corpse. Or maybe it was just that his hair was loose except for a ribbon at the very end tying the ends together? His uncle had lectured him before on how inappropriate and disrespectful it was to him.

He never really cared much for others opinion though, so he stood still and stared at the monk until he got an answer.

“Are you new to the city, sir? This temple is thirty years old, give or take,” the monk answered. Liu Xie made a soft ‘ah’ noise. It took time for a temple to gather enough presence to reach the gods if not built on auspicious dates, plots of land, and with their doors in certain directions. “It was founded by two of the most prominent families as a place to put grudges so they would no longer litter the streets, but it’s mostly maintained by the Lu clan… or what’s left of them anyway.”

Liu Xie felt a twinge of amusement, “oh? There’s a lot of grudges?”

The monk nodded, “a Free City is frequently awash in either blood or grudges between prominent families. Usually both. The cursed objects and small shrines are an eyesore, but people need to feel that there’s some sort of backing for their honor duels or forgiveness from the Heavens for revenge.”

“So they’re hoping that the god-” he motioned to the statue of himself, “will absolve them of their crimes?”

“That, or guide their blade swiftly into the heart of their enemy. It makes no difference to some of them I think,” the monk nodded. “Nobody comes here for help breaking a cycle, after all, not one for revenge or one of rebirth. Right now, I believe most people want vengeance.”

“What an evil god!” Liu Xie could not help but laugh.

“Humans make the definitions of good and evil, don’t they? The Headless God is only doing what he’s supposed to do. It would be like saying the Empress of Hell is evil. The Celestial Sister of Black is not, mortals will inevitably die after all and someone has to rule the realm of the dead. Someone has to create and enforce the rules for those who pass away. It’s easy to forget that she is also responsible for the earth gods, the gods of grain. The pitch black soil that gives life. Everyone loves the Jade Prince because he inspires art and helps fishermen, but he’ll also allow his House to drown cities and create terrible storms to amuse themselves,” the monk went back to brushing a bit more ash into a pan. “In the end, the gods only do what they’re supposed to do, and it is humans who define it as ‘good’ or ‘evil’ depending on how it benefits them at that moment.”

Liu Xie tipped his head at the monk. In truth he was a bit surprised by how clear and rooted the monk was in his world view. “Ah, ah, did they teach you all this?”

The monk shook his head, “no sir, I once trained to become a Plum Tree Sage. But I failed, and came here. I maintain the temple and when I have nothing else to do, I meditate on the nature of the White Flame. I know, quite a bit different from being a student of the Plum Tree, isn’t it?”

“What happened?” It was not often someone would admit to failing to become such a respected figure.

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“My brother wanted to be a Peach Tree Sage, and I did not want to have to fight him. So I failed a test and came here,” the monk did not sound the least bit upset and in fact seemed totally at peace. “It’s better, I think. Even with the violence here, I feel more human than I did back then.”

Liu Xie nodded even though he doubted the monk could see his head move, then he looked back at the statues. His eyes focused on the prostrating statue, “one final question. What is that statue there?”

The monk stood back up, bits of ash turning his sleeves a grey white. “Oh that’s a new one. It was placed there a few days ago. A donation from some sculptor who claimed he saw it in a dream. The head priest couldn’t say no.”

“Thank you,” Liu Xie bowed lightly to the monk and then went to go inspect the statue closely.

The statue was strange. It was of someone in foreign clothing, with delicate wavy hair spilling from its head onto its back and around its face. Instantly Liu Xie had the creeping feeling he knew exactly whose face it had. There was a feeling of a curtain being drawn around him, his presence obscured to other's eyes.

As he looked down, a set of exquisitely fine shoes stepped into his view and were quickly obscured by robes in various shades of jade.

“Do you like it? I made sure it looked as much like her as possible,” a friendly coy voice spoke above him.

“Why are you here?”

“So rude!” The Jade Prince laughed, clapping his hands together. “Look I made you a statue of your beloved and you treat me with such contempt. Won’t even put my hair up!”

“It’s not your hair,” Liu Xie looked up finally. The face looking at him was exactly like his except for the constant smile that did not quite reach the eyes. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to say hello to you, of course!” The Jade Prince replied. “You rarely speak to me, even though I’ve done so much for you! I gave you that body, I taught you swordplay, I made this statue to your beloved. Yet you’re so unfriendly. You rarely come to gatherings, you curse and you swear if you haven’t slaked your bloodlust. Y-”

Liu Xie ignored his uncle’s continued complaints to stare down at the statue. He placed one hand on its head as though to comfort the stone. “Why is she prostrating, Uncle?”

“Hm?” The Jade Prince looked a bit confused, “what do you mean?”

“This, why did you have her like this?”

“Oh, I just thought it’s a natural pose for her is all,” the Jade Prince replied flippantly.

The entire temple was full of thunder as, by the perspective of all the mortals present, the kneeling statue had abruptly exploded.

“Who placed that statue there!? How disrespectful!” Someone yelled. Other people fled. The monk from earlier shook his head and went to sweeping up the pieces of stone.

Liu Xie kicked away a chunk of stone without looking at it. “Fuck you! Fuck you! How dare you show her like this!” He yelled. All he could do was yell, really. Which boiled the sap in his body in rage. If only he could wring that slender neck of his uncle! He would make him kneel one thousand times to her! The anger, which had been a dull ember sitting inside of him for so long, exploded. It was as if he had been waiting for something like this to occur just so he could finally and truly yell. “If you want to make me happy then don’t show her like this! Fuck you! You knew this would piss me off! You always play these games and pretend to be fucking shocked when I get angry, you keep doing it because you know I can’t do anything about it! Fuck you! She’s not one of your cast offs! She’s Eona! SHE’S EONA! Fuck you!”

The Jade Prince blinked rapidly, placing a hand over where a heart would be on his chest. “So angry, please stop making my face look like that! You’re making me look like some sort of demon!”

The rage in Liu Xie’s body was snuffed like a candle flame by the Jade Prince’s reaction. “...Good bye, Uncle Jade.” He turned around.

“Wait! Wait, I have something to warn you a-”

“Good bye, Uncle Jade,” Liu Xie refused to dignify him with any further words and left the temple and its still yelling occupants behind.

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