Chapter Twelve: The Outcome Is Sealed

The Celestial Sovereign's command came down urgent as a shooting star: the letter of surrender was to be presented at once, and the princess was to be delivered to the Celestial Court together with it. Taking a secondary consort was ordinarily a far less solemn affair than a formal wedding to a principal consort — there was usually no need even to appear before the Celestial Sovereign in person; a bow to Heaven and Earth alongside the Crown Prince would have sufficed before returning to Cize Hall. But this time, since the letter of surrender was to be submitted at the same moment, the Celestial Sovereign came in person to the Lingxiao Hall to receive Hemuda there. Hemuda, standing as the Asura King's envoy, presented the letter of surrender on his behalf. The Asura King, citing the Queen's injuries and her continuing need for care, had sent his fourth son Hemuda to represent him with full authority. Anu stood behind him, then took her place at Ziyuan's side, while the assembled ministers lined the hall on either side, filing in to bear witness together to this rite of surrender and the taking of a secondary consort.

　　Today Ziyuan wore a resplendent wedding robe, so unlike the plain, understated elegance he usually favored. Gone were the warm, refined jade crown and jade hairpins; in their place he wore a crown and hairpins of gold, lavish and magnificent, lending the Crown Prince an even more commanding, exalted bearing. Threads of gold traced faint patterns through the embroidered silk, glinting in and out of view against the robe's interweave of gold, crimson, and jade-green. At his waist hung the purple sash and gold seal, and beside it a jade tablet — together, the very emblems of his rank as Crown Prince and regent of the court.

　　Had she seen Ziyuan looking so resplendent, so commanding, on any ordinary day, Anu might once have found herself lost in helpless admiration. But now her heart held nothing but humiliation and rage. This sudden, urgent decree from the Celestial Sovereign had thrown the whole Asura royal court into turmoil — they had meant to keep from her the terrible news that her three brothers had died in battle at the Celestial Court, but the decree made concealment impossible, and worse, it demanded that Anu herself be handed over into the Crown Prince's harem as secondary consort. Her father had flown into a fury; her mother, her wounds still unhealed, had wept herself into a swoon more than once, and only through Elder Mu's skilled hands had her breathing been steadied again. In this moment Anu hated Ziyuan; she hated the crimson-and-gold wedding robe with its long trailing hem that she now wore; she hated the pearl combs and dangling ornaments, the jade rings and cloud-carved hairpins crowning her head; and most of all, she hated the Celestial Sovereign, standing so grandly, so imperiously, upon the golden dais...

　　She was not Xiaoyi, of course — Xiaoyi, standing outside it all, had already grasped the expedient strategy Ziyuan was working, understood that he had chosen the gentlest possible bearing to mount the most unyielding possible challenge against his own father. Anu, caught up within the matter herself, was both bewildered and blind to it, and the uproar convulsing the whole Asura court only stirred her feelings further.

　　She had been born with a face as lovely as her mother's, but her temperament was nothing like her mother's at all — it was her father's through and through, and headstrong with youth besides, she gave no thought now to consequence or reason. All she wanted, in this moment, was to kill the Celestial Sovereign who had destroyed her family.

　　But she stood alone; even with Hemuda beside her, they were only two — and setting aside the ministers ranked on either side of the hall, even Ziyuan's presence alone would be enough to make certain she failed. Having already paid dearly once, she had learned better than to lunge at the Celestial Sovereign as recklessly as before — that path led only to certain defeat. And so she resolved, quietly, within her own heart: there was no other way now but to take the Celestial Sovereign down together with herself, though it shatter them both like jade breaking.

　　Had she not been so consumed by grief and grievance, she might have noticed that Ziyuan showed not the slightest gladness of a bridegroom on his own wedding day — that beneath his composed brow lay a deep, quiet anxiety. But some things, it seems, are simply fated: what must come cannot be evaded, and what ought never to be sought will never come to pass regardless. Just as Hemuda stepped forward to read out the letter of surrender, and every eye in the hall turned toward him, Anu suddenly seized the Qian dagger and drove it savagely toward her own heart, while in the same instant the Kun dagger streaked mercilessly toward the very spot on the Celestial Sovereign's chest where his heart lay. Before anyone could react, cries of alarm broke out on every side in ragged confusion — and then Ziyuan swept out his broad hand, pouring the whole of his deep power into the gesture, and wrenched the Kun dagger, already an instant from piercing the Celestial Sovereign's chest, forcibly aside — driving it instead into his own...

　　He knew that once the Qian dagger had been loosed, the Kun dagger would not rest until its purpose was fulfilled — that only by offering his own body in its place could he spare his father this calamity.

"Ziyuan... no..." Anu cried out in horror at the sight of the Kun dagger plunging into his chest, but by then she herself had gone utterly weak, and she collapsed to the ground, her breath fading. This was not the outcome she had wanted — however furious she was with Ziyuan, she had never wished for him to die alongside her. But she was powerless now to undo anything; her own life, too, hung by a thread.

"Anu..." Hemuda, sensing the commotion behind him, flung down the letter of surrender and rushed to Anu's fallen side, weeping as he gathered her up against him, utterly at a loss. How could things have come to this?

　　The moment Hemuda turned, Ziyuan threw up a barrier around the three of them, sealing them off from the crowd, and gripped the hilt of the Kun dagger fast in his hand. These paired daggers were no ordinary blades — they had been forged for Anu in accordance with the shifting mysteries of Heaven and Earth, yin and yang, and so could change and multiply at their bearer's will, one becoming two, two becoming three, three becoming the ten thousand things. Ziyuan understood that they worked on the same principle as the Dragon-Rider Sword's Taiji sword-spirit, and that with one blade yin and the other yang, cultivation could be transferred between them all the faster. He knew there was no time to lose — the only way to save Anu was to pour the whole of his own cultivation into her, as swiftly as possible, before his strength gave out entirely. And so, bearing down against the searing pain that wracked his whole body, he drew a deep breath and sent the full depth of his cultivation flowing out through the Kun dagger into Anu.

　　Seeing this, the Celestial Sovereign and all those gathered were seized with horror, and cast spell after spell trying to break the barrier Ziyuan had raised — but with each attempt, Ziyuan's face twisted in ever greater agony, until at last he could bear no more and collapsed.

"Everyone, stop at once! The Crown Prince has made his own body the barrier — the more we try to break it, the more it tortures him..." Among the crowd, Shenyu was the first to sense what was happening, and cried out the warning at the top of his voice.

　　At once the crowd fell back in alarm, but for all their burning anxiety, not one of them could think what else to do.

"Ziyuan... don't..." Anu's voice came weak and broken, her face streaked with tears, each cry a plea to make him stop — but Ziyuan's resolve was iron, and he showed no sign at all of relenting.

"Ziyuan, open the barrier at once..." The Celestial Sovereign rose to his feet, but his legs gave way beneath him without warning, and he tumbled from the golden dais.

　　The assembled ministers dissolved into fresh panic — some crying out for the Celestial Sovereign, others for the Crown Prince — until the whole of the Lingxiao Hall rang with anguish and confusion.

"Ziyuan... my son... open the barrier, quickly! Your father was wrong... your father should never have let his temper get the better of him with you..." In this moment the Celestial Sovereign was consumed by nothing but regret — this was the son he had treasured above all else. How could things have come to such a pass?

　　It seemed Ziyuan's scheming had reached further than even his father — he had folded himself into the reckoning as well.

　　But this foolish father of his had let a moment's anger cloud his judgment, forgetting that his son — a man whose every scheme ran flawlessly to its end — would never have stopped short at so little. Had he ever let his father's small designs succeed so easily, he would hardly have been Ziyuan at all.

　　But no measure of regret could help him now. Tears streamed unchecked down the Celestial Sovereign's aged face, and beyond watching Ziyuan's face grow ever paler, ever more racked with pain, there was nothing at all he could do.

"Your Highness..." Hemuda looked from Ziyuan to Anu and back again, equally helpless before this sight. Ziyuan was trading his own life for Anu's — to stop him now would strip Anu of even the last thread of hope for survival. And yet to stand by and watch the Crown Prince pour out the whole of his cultivation like this filled him with a despair of his own.

　　Whether he intervened or not, either way felt like a wrong.

　　Anu wept, and he wept with her.

"Hemuda..." After a long moment, Ziyuan's voice reached him, almost too faint to hear.

"Take... take... Anu... go... go find... Elder... Elder Mu..."

　　The faint, failing words had scarcely left his lips when Ziyuan's grip on the dagger hilt went slack. He turned one last, difficult glance toward Anu, then closed his eyes, and in an instant his breath was gone.

"No..." Anu shook her head, straining to crawl toward him, but her strength had failed her utterly, and all she could do was stretch her arm out as far as it would reach. Seeing this, Hemuda carried her closer, until at last her fingers barely brushed Ziyuan's hand — but in that same instant, his body dissolved suddenly into scattered motes of glimmering light, drifting away out of the Lingxiao Hall and beyond...

　　Within the hall, as Ziyuan's soul scattered and drifted away, the Kun dagger fell to the floor with a hollow clatter, and the barrier his body had raised vanished into nothingness at once. Grief-stricken as he was, Hemuda dared not linger; he gathered Anu into his arms and sped at once back toward the Asura royal court.

"Ziyuan... Ziyuan... my son... come back... come back to me..."

　　The Celestial Sovereign sank to the ground, weeping until his voice broke, grief and regret entwined; the assembled ministers knelt one after another, heads bowed to the floor, murmuring "Your Highness, Your Highness" through their own tears — and then, before the Celestial Sovereign's eyes, a letter shimmering with golden light unfolded itself into view.

"Your unfilial son Ziyuan begs Father, in his mercy, to pardon Anu and the whole Asura Clan. When a wife errs, the husband makes amends — and this Ziyuan has already atoned in his wife's place. I beg Father to let go of all enmity toward the Asura Clan, and to join hands with them in true and lasting peace, rather than leaving one side alone to bear the shame of defeat, lest fresh grievance take root once more. All this son ever wished for, his whole life through, was peace across the Three Realms, calm seas and clear rivers; I ask, too, that Father turn the love he has borne for this son outward, and cherish all beings of the Three Realms equally — for if the Three Realms know peace, then this son, too, shall know peace, wherever he may be. From this day, Ziyuan will no longer be at Father's side to pay his morning and evening respects; I beg Father to take good care of himself.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Your son, Ziyuan, bows in farewell."

　　This was a letter Ziyuan had written in advance, for he had long foreseen how this would end — it was, in truth, nothing less than his last testament, setting down his final wishes. What a son he was! He had honored the bond between father and son, the bond between husband and wife, the greater duty owed to the Three Realms — and in doing so, had he simply forgotten himself entirely?

　　Overwhelmed by a grief beyond bearing, the Celestial Sovereign felt his chest seize, the breath catching in his throat, and he fell senseless there within the Lingxiao Hall.