(2) Your Home, My Home

"Will you drink? It's the custom of hospitality in your household." Seeing that Anu was still sulking a good while later, Ziyuan conjured a cup of "sweet dew" in his palm.

　　"Are you trying to coax me like a child?" Seeing this, Anu felt distinctly wronged. She clearly wanted to drink it — but wasn't she supposed to still be angry at the shameless flirt? And here was Ziyuan, sly as ever, choosing this exact moment to tempt her with "sweet dew" — it really was too much to ask of her.

　　To drink or not to drink, that was the question.

　　No wonder Ziyuan said she was foolish.

　　"You are a little girl, after all!" Ziyuan's eyes crinkled with laughter as he watched her, holding the cup of "sweet dew" up high. "May I come over now?"

　　Though she had no wish to pay him any mind, Anu found herself, thanks to the laughter in Ziyuan's eyes and the cup in his hand, damnably abandoning the last shred of her resolve.

　　"Well... fine, then!" Anu let out a nearly inaudible sigh, then brightened at once — after all, this was her own household's unique custom of hospitality, and only a great fool would refuse to drink it. She took the cup and gulped it down in great greedy swallows, not leaving a single drop, and drank so hastily that she ended up choking and coughing.

　　"Slow down! No one's fighting you for it." Seeing her choke, Ziyuan murmured as he patted her back to help ease her breathing.

　　"As if a ghost were chasing me!"

　　"I'm not afraid of ghosts..." Anu argued back between coughs, thinking to herself — how could even someone as clever as Ziyuan say something so foolish? She was, after all, a proud daughter of the Asura Clan — why on earth would she be afraid of ghosts? That business before, when she'd gotten trapped by a ghost, had been nothing but an accident — how did that make her afraid of ghosts?

　　"Yes, yes, yes... my little girl fears neither heaven nor earth, a true and mighty woman among women!"

　　"That's exactly right." Anu shot Ziyuan a defiant look, unwilling to concede the point. Then something seemed to strike her as not quite right; she gave a soft huff and said, "My household is my household, and your household is your household — who said anything about being your household's little girl?"

　　Indeed — her household was her household, and his was his. But because of this one careless remark, spoken without much thought yet heard by both with rather more, the mood between them suddenly turned heavy.

　　One household belonged to the Asura Court, the other to the Celestial Court — of all possible pairs of households in the world that might one day merge into one, these two, tangled as they were in layer upon layer of ancient grievance and enmity, were surely the least likely ever to become a single family.

　　Snowflakes drifted down in their sixfold petals, the north wind howling keen and cold; the chill air lingered between the two of them for who knew how long, before at last Anu, in a low, subdued voice, said: "Actually, when I heard that Ziyuan had been whipped and hurt, I truly wanted to go to the Celestial Court to see you — not knowing how badly you were injured weighed on my heart. But I couldn't go, because my father..." As she spoke, her head sank lower and lower.

　　"The Asura Clan and the Celestial Clan are sworn enemies — that's why my father and mother hid me away here in the Mist Forest. I can't even go home to my own family, so how could I ever go to yours? Much less ever become a little girl of your household..."

　　Anu's dejected words fell one by one into Ziyuan's ears, cutting far deeper than those two strokes of the whip ever had; he understood well enough, of course, the difficult position they were both in — which was exactly why he had always trodden so carefully, dreading that the slightest disturbance might set off consequences beyond all recall.

　　"Ziyuan, you're so clever — you managed to defuse, with such ease, a crisis between the Celestial Clan and the demon clan that was on the very edge of war. Can't you help resolve the enmity between our own two clans as well, and bring our fathers to lay down their arms and make peace? I want so badly to go home to the Asura Court openly, in the light of day, without having to hide away like this anymore." As Anu spoke, her heart ached, and thinking of the hardships of her fated lot, sorrow welled up within her; before long, tears the size of beans had gathered again at the corners of her eyes, and soon enough they came tumbling down, one racing after another.

　　"I know all of it. Don't cry, Anu." Seeing her grow more and more distressed the longer she spoke, Ziyuan quickly gathered her once more into his arms, murmuring soft comfort, and found, along with it, a faint ache rising in his own throat.

　　"Even if I had never known you, the trouble between the Celestial Clan and the Asura Clan would still need resolving someday — this has long been a wish close to my own heart. Only, the difficulties between our two clans run far deeper than those between the demon clan and the Celestial Clan; there's little hope of any quick and easy fix. I have always kept this matter close to my heart, and now, with you in my life, it is all the more my responsibility to see it through. But you must understand, Anu — the greater the difficulty of a thing, the higher the price is likely to be in resolving it, quite possibly far beyond anything we could now foresee. Do you understand?"

　　"Even Ziyuan, who plans for everything and leaves nothing to chance, finds this difficult?" Anu did not fully grasp it, but if even Ziyuan found the matter thorny, then surely it was a problem next to impossible to solve.

　　"Then what price would there be to pay?" Anu, not understanding what this steep price might mean, lifted her head to ask Ziyuan.

　　"Even I cannot say for certain just now. All things in this world depend on the coming together of countless causes and conditions, and circumstances are forever shifting — there is little use worrying too far ahead of time. Often all one can do is take it step by step, and see."

　　Ziyuan answered her earnestly and gravely, then took up the handkerchief once more to wipe away her tears.

　　"In any case, this is not something that needs troubling you right now." Because the subject weighed so heavily, Ziyuan could not help but treat it with the utmost seriousness — yet, just as he had said, it was not a matter to be resolved in this moment, and so setting the feeling aside for now seemed the most pressing task at hand.

　　"Think, instead, of anything you might want to do right now. While I'm here, perhaps I can keep you company."

　　It had to be said, Ziyuan's mind worked quickly. Anu, cooped up in the Mist Forest for over a year without once stepping outside, had thought of going out a hundred times, a thousand times over; hearing now that Ziyuan meant to accompany her, whatever gloom had settled over her vanished at once, swept clean away.

　　"You... could you... could you... come with me?" Still sniffling and hiccupping through her tears, Anu nonetheless looked up at Ziyuan with an expression full of eager interest.

　　"I've told them I'm resting and recovering from the whip wounds in my chamber. I've placed a binding seal myself outside the door, and left Changxiu behind in the Celestial Court to manage things in my stead — so besides Father, no one can cross that threshold. Father is currently in council with several of the Star Lords over important matters; he may come to look in on me after that, but I'll be back at the Celestial Court well before then."

　　"So what you mean is, you can stay down here in the mortal realm a few days longer?"

　　Seeing the light return to Anu's eyes, her face breaking once more into a smile, the knot in Ziyuan's chest eased a little as well.

　　"Yes." He nodded, gently stroking her hair.

　　"I haven't seen Manchun in over a year now — I wonder how she's getting on in Yan City." Anu looked up at Ziyuan, her expression earnest.

　　"Could you come with me to see her?"

　　"Manchun?" Ziyuan looked puzzled. "The mortal girl from Clearstream Town? Why would she be in Yan City?"

　　"That's a long story — anyway, she got married, and went to live with her husband in Yan City. It was actually at their wedding that I drank a cup of wine, and the next day my head was all muddled and I felt weak all over, which is how I ended up wandering straight into that netherworld formation..." Bringing this up, Anu felt a flush of embarrassment — it was hardly a proud episode, having nearly lost her life over it; if Ziyuan hadn't come to save her in time, she certainly wouldn't be here now, lively and well.

　　"Ah, so that's how it happened." Ziyuan gave a small laugh of understanding.

　　"With you along, who's going to worry about me losing my way? Let alone any petty troublemakers giving me grief." As Anu spoke, she lifted her chin with no small measure of pride.

　　"I've actually only been there once myself, and something went wrong on the way back, so I've always felt a shadow hanging over the thought of going to Yan City. Now that someone's volunteered to come along, of course I'll jump at the chance."

　　"As you wish." Ziyuan nodded, answering Anu with a faint smile.

　　"Wait a moment..." Ziyuan let go of Anu, whom he had been holding, and was about to take her hand to set off together, when Anu suddenly remembered something and stopped, turning back the way she'd come.

　　"There's still Xing'er... she's back there brewing wine..."

　　Hearing that Anu meant to bring Xing'er along as well, Ziyuan stopped her at once.

　　What a heedless little thing she truly was — he had gone to such trouble to arrange even this small stretch of time alone with her, and here she was, not the least bit perceptive of it?

　　"Knowing full well you can't drink, and brewing wine anyway — that girl has no sense of proper conduct at all! Just let her stay home and keep brewing as punishment; she doesn't need to come along this time. I'll send word to her by voice across a thousand miles — you needn't trouble yourself going to find her." Without waiting for Anu to react, Ziyuan promptly took her hand and, invoking his power of Divine Feet, whisked her away toward Yan City.