Qingyun Moutain, behind the Firebird Palace

Present: Late Spring, 1472

Instinctively both Mu Shan and Bai Xie An avoided the main audience hall, neither of them willing to relive old memories still painfully filled with Hong Yi's absence. Instead they headed through a side hall.

But when they arrived at what should have been the sealed bronze doors of the ancestral hall, they were horrified to find that the doors have been ripped off their hinges, the area blackened by fire. The soot darkened entrance gaped at them, like a massive black mouth opened in a jagged scream.

Mu Shan closed his eyes and bit his lip, feeling like he'd sob out loud if he didn't do something to stop it. Bai Xie An looked grim, but faintly curious. He moved closer to examine the charred areas.

"That's odd. I can't tell if someone broke in or something broke out," he said, crouching down to wipe a finger through the ash on the threshold. Gesturing, he condensed an orb of light at his fingertips and then sent it into the hall to illuminate the way.

Inside, the altar was undamaged except for a few singe marks. It appeared that only the door had been tampered with. Mu Shan sighed in relief, lips moving as he read the names of all the Firebird guardians of the South who had come before...a noble line that had died out with their mistress.

"Is that where you left the feather?" Bai asked, nodding toward a burn mark on one of the lower parts of the altar. "Dammit! Mistress's tablet is burnt to ash..."

Mu Shan's expression was awful. Defiling an ancestral hall was an unforgivable crime.

"Yes. It was right there, sealed with a protection spell to preserve it. The area is burnt to a crisp, which means the spell was forcibly broken, but I don't understand. If someone came here to break the spell, then why burn only her tablet? If it was something truly evil, the whole altar should have burnt with it."

Mu Shan frowned and waved a hand over the area.

"There's no demonic aura..." he confirmed. His thoughts rolled back and forth.

The Southern guardian god's primary element is fire. They die in fire...but they're also born in fire...reborn...? Perhaps it's not a desecration of a sacred place, but something else..?

"I don't how to feel about this. Are you sure Hong Yi's reincarnation is impossible?" Bai pressed. An unreasonable hope was stirring inside him.

Mu Shan narrowed his eyes.

"Bai Xie An...both of us know that the ancestors of the four guardian gods rose out of the abyss with mysterious origins. How am I supposed to know if Hong Yi can reincarnate? Based on the fact that her original soul was shattered, and the pieces used to seal Akuma, I would say it's impossible. As much as I want it, it's impossible for her to return. She's not some phoenix..."

"And yet that soul shard appeared on your daughter. Can't you look?"

Mu Shan groaned in frustration.

"That...Just because I have foresight showing me a multitude of possible futures, doesn't mean I can predict everything. You know the consequences of my former arrogance; I won't look into the future unless I'm forced to it."

Even though he recognized the stubborn set of Mu's jaw, Bai felt like he was avoiding the answer. The idea that Mu Shan was running away again enraged him.

"Mu Shan...is our Mistress coming back or not?" Bai demanded.

"I don't know! Stop asking!" the other man hissed.

Bai sighed. After an awkward pause, he said:

"I'm sorry. I was too impatient."

"You're always so stubborn and persistent. I hate that about you," Mu Shan gritted, sounding sulkier than he had intended. Embarrassed, he looked down.

"You're right," Bai agreed, dropping his shoulders.

Mu Shan looked up, surprise crossing his face.

"What? You don't think I can admit my mistakes?" Bai snorted, raising an eyebrow.

Mu Shan huffed air out his nose, but his eyes seemed softer under the mask.

"No...I never thought that. It's just been a long time since you've admitted such a thing to me though."

Bai felt a faint tickle at the bottom of his heart, but Mu Shan had already turned away from him again. Without turning back, Mu Shan asked: "But from this, it seems that the seal in Shuto has finally reached its limit."

Bai nodded.

"It's only a matter of time before Akuma completely takes over the vessel that was prepared for him, and the red thread that is tied to that vessel also gets clearer every day. Just based on the colour, I imagine your little sparrow will arrive in Shuto very soon."

That damned red thread again...thought Mu Shan, irritably.

"We should prepare ourselves..." Mu Shan sighed aloud.

Bai turned to him.

"Well...it's actually very simple. If the second Prince of Shobu consumes her heart then the seal will be renewed."

Mu Shan's gaze became sharp with ice. He didn't like the look on Bai Xie An's face.

"It's not that simple and you know it! What have you done?" he snarled, jerking the other man by the collar.

Instead of being intimidated, he gave a low laugh in answer, infuriating Mu Shan even more.

"Calm down. You know that I don't interfere with things that must run their own course..."

"As celestial beings, the amount that we can interfere in the mortal realm is limited and has its own repercussions. Do you really know the cost if you get it wrong?"

"I do know," Bai Xie An responded, working his fingers around the hand clutching his clothes.

Mu Shan loosened his grip with a snort of disgust.

Is he provoking me deliberately?

"Then speak: what are you hiding?" he demanded.

Bai Xie An laughed again, but there was the slightest hint of bitterness.

"I'm not...but there's nothing more mysterious than the human heart. Perhaps your daughter and the second Prince of Shobu will show us something we couldn't have imagined."

"My daughter would never willing rip her heart out for anyone. Nor would I allow it," said Mu Shan coldly.

"Well...that may not be the only way..." his companion smiled. "Let's tidy up here and go. There's nothing more to see for now."

Mu Shan nodded but was startled when Bai Xie An leaned in to brush his fingers over Mu Shan's cheek.

"You have ash on your face," he explained, still smiling.

How undignified...Mu Shan thought.

"Thank you..." he mumbled. Forgetting he was a demi-god who could perform high level spells, he rushed out of the hall to find cleaning cloths.

Chapter Note:

An ancestral hall or shrine is used for the worship of ancestors/family lineage. It usually has an altar and ancestral tablets where deceased family members names are noted (usually in order of seniority).