(3) Chaos in the Royal Court

Shenya's letter of accusation set the Asura royal court ablaze the moment it arrived. The Asura clan too had those among them of great spiritual power — a calm, careful inquiry would soon reveal whether the contents of the letter were true or false, and who had actually written it hardly mattered anymore. The Asura King flew into a towering rage, and ordered Hemuda to go to the Mist Forest and bring Anu and Xing'er back to the royal court to answer for themselves.

　　Xing'er knew that the truth could no longer be kept wrapped in paper — it had already come to light. She knelt before the Asura King, forehead pressed to the ground, not daring to raise her head, her whole body trembling.

　　"What did I tell you two? How could you let it go in one ear and out the other, as if I were talking to the wind?"

　　In his fury, the Asura King lashed out with a kick; what little reason he had left steered it away from Anu, but it sent Xing'er sprawling, flung clear across the floor.

　　"Father! Father! Please, no!" Xing'er let out a scream of pain, coughing up blood, too badly hurt to move. Anu flung herself forward and threw her arms around the Asura King's legs, terrified that another kick or two might well cost Xing'er her life.

　　"Father, if you must kick someone, kick me — this has nothing to do with anyone else. And besides, Ziyuan and I have done nothing improper — it's simply that he happened to save me twice, and so we grew familiar with each other. That's all there is to it."

　　"Calling each other by name so intimately, and off to Yan City together for days on end, morning and night — and you call that nothing?" The Asura King tried to wrench himself free of Anu's grip, and with that single effort, Anu was thrown to the ground as well, bringing Geluqi, E'na, Wurui, and Hemuda all rushing over to help her up, Geluqi even dropping to his knees and spreading his arms wide as a shield.

　　"Father, don't hurt Anu — kick me instead. I'm strong and sturdy; a few kicks from you would keep me down for two days at most. How could Anu's slight little frame ever withstand a single kick from you?"

　　"And me too..." E'na and Wurui both dropped to their knees as well, forming, along with Geluqi, a human wall between the Asura King and Anu, while Hemuda wrapped his arms around Anu and pulled her protectively against his chest.

　　"Me too..." Hemuda added, half a beat behind the others.

　　"And me as well." A voice came from beyond the hall — soft, yet unyielding — and a woman entered on light, hurried steps, graceful still despite her haste, moving with an elegance all her own. She wore a robe of pure white, her hair gathered into a simple knot fastened with a single five-colored jeweled hairpin, which only set off all the more the fine beauty and dignified bearing of her face. Her skirts and sleeves drifted gently with each light step; though no longer young, she showed not the slightest trace of age.

　　Entering the hall, the woman knelt beside the brothers, her violet eyes fixed steadily on the Asura King.

　　"Mother..." Seeing the Queen kneel as well, the brothers grew alarmed, each moving to help her up, only to have their hands brushed away.

　　"If Your Majesty dares lay so much as another finger on Anu, I will take her and vanish from your sight this instant, and you will never lay eyes on either of us again."

　　"I... I never kicked Anu... truly... I was only trying to shake her off..." Seeing this, the Asura King hurried to explain. Whatever fire burned in that quick temper of his, it guttered out the moment he saw the Queen's face. This wife of his had been won only after years of anxious, heartfelt pursuit; he had none of the fine, handsome looks the men of the Celestial Clan possessed, and to call himself manly and rugged was purely a comfort he told himself — set the two side by side, and he came off looking wretched by comparison. And the Queen, for her part, was of such rare, unearthly beauty, surpassing all others, that when she had chosen him over the Celestial Sovereign himself all those years ago, it had moved him to tears — how could he possibly not hold her closest to his heart? It was only fortunate that the Queen was gentle and mild by nature, rarely contending with him, or else it might well have become common knowledge that he was, in truth, thoroughly henpecked — a state of affairs sorely at odds with his tall, imposing image.

　　"And you're not to kick Xing'er either. If she hadn't been there with Anu, and you'd simply abandoned the girl in the Mist Forest, what would Anu have done? How many days did you actually fulfill your duty as a father in all that time? You ought to be thanking her, not kicking her!" The Queen glared furiously at the Asura King. "I have no objection when you kick your sons on ordinary days — their hides are thick, they can take it. But what business have you kicking these two young girls?"

　　"This mess wasn't the boys' doing — why would I kick them?" The Asura King reached out to help the Queen to her feet, only to have his hand swatted away again.

　　"So what Your Majesty means is that you insist on kicking Xing'er instead?" The Queen frowned, her face full of displeasure.

　　"That's not..." The Asura King was thoroughly exasperated, but with the Queen now involved, he had nowhere left to vent his anger, his face flushing dark red with frustration. "There's nothing but trouble to be had from that Celestial Court. Years ago the father stole my bride from under my nose, and now the son is stealing my daughter from me... just how much do we Asura owe them? Always scheming after our Asura women."

　　Unable to kick Xing'er any longer, the Asura King vented his fury on a nearby table and chairs instead, kicking them to splinters with a thunderous crash. Fearing the flying debris might strike Xing'er, the Queen rushed over and shielded her with her own body. Without warning, one of the broken table legs went flying straight at the back of the Queen's head; the father and his four sons all cast spells at once to deflect it, but with five different powers colliding against one another, the table leg struck home regardless, catching the Queen squarely at the back of the skull.

　　"Ah..." A cry of shock went up from everyone present. The Queen crumpled, unconscious, and the Asura King, sick with fury and remorse both, knew well enough that though it was his own hand that had struck the blow, the debt of it belonged squarely to the Celestial Court.

　　"Fourth Brother, go fetch Elder Mu at once. Geluqi, take up the tiger tally and the general's seal without delay. E'na, you are named Grand General; Wurui, vanguard commander. Muster the troops — we march on the Celestial Court."

　　Each of them took up his charge and set off to see it done. The Asura King gathered the Queen up in his arms and flew, wracked with guilt and fury both, toward the sleeping quarters. Anu, still reeling with shock, roused herself and ran to Xing'er's side, helping her up. "Xing'er, are you all right? If you can still manage it, let's go and see how Mother is!"

　　"I can manage..." Every part of Xing'er ached, but the Queen had been struck down shielding her — she could not simply stay behind now.

　　"Let's go." Anu supported Xing'er, and together they made their slow way toward the King and Queen's sleeping quarters.

　　Before long, the sound of horns came drifting from the distance, and Anu's heart clenched with dread. How had things spiraled so suddenly, so completely out of control? Her mother lay injured and unconscious, her eldest brother was mustering troops to march on the Celestial Court, and she herself had already resolved to let go of Ziyuan — so why was everything still spinning further and further beyond anyone's control?

　　Hemuda rushed at breakneck speed all the way to the Langhuan Immortal Abode on Mount Kunlun and dragged Elder Mu back to the Asura royal court. Elder Mu's face was thick with displeasure as he looked upon the Asura King — what manner of man was he, to beat his own wife into such a state? He examined the Queen's wound, took her pulse, and drew from the boundless space within his sleeve a dark-red pill, which he gave the Queen to swallow; then, at the table, he wrote out the names of several medicinal herbs for Hemuda to take to Mu Two.

　　"This pill will dissolve the bruising and reduce the swelling. Once she's taken it, she should regain consciousness. But she mustn't be moved after she wakes — she may still feel dizzy and disoriented — and she'll need several more doses of medicine before she's fully recovered."

　　Hearing Elder Mu's words, the four people present all let out a breath of relief.

　　"You stubborn old fool, with that fiery temper of yours — I've told you time and again to change your ways, and you never listen; I've told you not to go against the will of heaven, and still you won't heed me. See if I come to your aid the next time you're in trouble." Elder Mu fumed, his beard bristling with fury, while the Asura King stood beside him, eyes lowered, accepting the scolding without a word of protest.

　　It was not, strictly speaking, he himself who had struck his wife down, but the fault was certainly, unmistakably, his own doing. He was already sick with grief over it, cursing himself a thousand times over in his own heart — how could he possibly dare argue back in front of Elder Mu now?

　　"I warned you back then — a girl is a girl; keep her raised at your own side, and if the Celestial Court comes demanding her, you refuse, and there's nothing more to it. Besides, this girl's fate has always been bound up with the Celestial Court — however hard you try to dodge it, you can never truly escape it. And still you wouldn't listen to reason — you cast her aside and left the rest of us to stage this whole charade for you, and now here you are, blaming the girl and beating your own wife besides. You're hardly fit to call yourself a father, let alone a husband." Elder Mu's anger only mounted as he spoke, for it was this same stubborn, pig-headed old fool who had cost him so much trouble and effort, forcing him to take on yet another disciple besides. Xiaoyi had proven himself quite capable, and Elder Mu was well satisfied with him, but the boy's heart was simple and pure, filled entirely with thoughts of Anu, and it was a great pity that fate had bound him to her without granting them any true match — in the end he could hardly help but be left quietly heartbroken, and Elder Mu felt for him no small measure of regret.

　　"The Celestial Court keeps three thousand beauties in its harem — how could any daughter of the Asura clan ever consent to share a husband with others? My girl could never bear to be treated so cheaply. What good is fate, if it comes to that? A man of the Celestial Court is simply out of the question. You know what kind of temperament my girl has — share a husband with other women, and she'd sooner tear the whole Celestial Court down around their ears."

　　As the two of them went back and forth, the Queen slowly stirred back to consciousness.

　　"You're awake?" Seeing the Queen wake, the Asura King rushed at once to sit at her bedside, taking her hand. "Elder Mu says you mustn't move about. This is all my fault — once you've recovered, you may beat me all you like, and I won't lift a hand against you."

　　Still seething, the Queen showed him not the slightest gratitude, and swatted his hand away again.

　　"Old sir... you've come..." the Queen called out weakly.

　　"Ah..." Elder Mu came to her bedside and spoke gently. "Once Fourth Brother returns with the medicine from Mu Two, you'll take it and be back to your usual self in no time. For now, just lie still and rest, keep your spirits calm, and don't let yourself grow angry."

　　"I'm grateful for your trouble, old sir."

　　"Indeed, I've gone to quite a bit of trouble, playing along with all this scheming and mischief of yours. If I hadn't believed, in the beginning, that the girl's fate lay with the Celestial Sovereign, I would never have agreed to go against the will of heaven alongside you all. That man's got more than his share of wives already, taking a fancy to every pretty face he sees — never mind the rest of you, even I had no wish to see Anu drawn into that harem of his. But now that everything has come to light, the girl and Crown Prince Ziyuan — that is a bond from a former life. I even made a special trip to Yan City myself, old man that I am, just to take the measure of this Crown Prince the common people hold in such high regard. Any future grandson-in-law of mine has to pass my judgment first, and I'll say this much — that boy is truly fine stock. Kind-hearted and generous, with the wellbeing of all under heaven close to his heart, both brave and shrewd, and without a trace of that Celestial royal habit of keeping a houseful of consorts besides... I couldn't be more pleased with him if I tried."

　　Elder Mu paused, then turned and shot the Asura King a glare. "The two of you old fools — you and the Celestial Sovereign both — put together, you still don't measure up to that boy. All eight hundred of your combined little schemes together aren't worth mentioning next to what he's got."

　　As he spoke, Elder Mu caught sight, from the corner of his eye, of Anu standing off to one side with her head bowed, thoroughly mortified. He looked from her to the Asura King before him — father and daughter, at this moment, might as well have been cut from the same cloth.

　　Elder Mu found himself recalling that final night in Yan City, the two of them at their game of chess.

　　Ziyuan's play that night had been bold and expansive throughout, never once resorting to petty tricks or hidden schemes, meeting every attack directly and countering every threat in kind. That the match had ended seven times in a draw was not for any lack of ruthless, decisive skill on his part — he had simply chosen, again and again, not to strike the killing blow, his heart full of compassion and generosity, seeking always a victory that both sides could share.

　　A man of such character, should he one day come to rule the Celestial Clan, would surely be a blessing to all beneath heaven; and that such a man should hold Anu dear in his heart was surely Anu's own blessing as well.