Chương 67: Chapter 64 - Jade Beauty

Song sat on Mae's bed, within the makeshift walls of her fortress against the world. They were tall and imposing, made of fine threads of lambswool, painstakingly woven together by the young women of the Lees over many generations. Yet they paled to the walls that Mae had placed around her heart. Song held Mae while she wept, but no tears fell from her face made of blank jade stone, instead, they dripped out under her chin, from the same joint in her shell where the ribbon had slipped through.

Her body was jagged and uncomfortable, and he felt the juts of stone near her left elbow piercing into his skin. But he didn't complain and he didn't move. He continued to stroke her forehead the way she always liked, though she oft complained when he did it these days, claiming she wasn't a baby anymore. She didn't complain now. She wept and raged against the world. Against fate. Against the Immortals who had failed to look over her.

The stone claws that were her hands tore at the jade armor, trying to remove it, to feel something, anything. But it remained as impassive and uncaring as the Great One whose cast-off qi had made her that way. It was something that Song knew quite well. He too had felt that bite in the fields the day he'd fled Juwon's tent alone. So even though his skin chaffed and bled. He didn't let Mae go. He'd needed to be alone, but Mae needed someone who understood.

Now he knew why Juwon had been so quiet, and why his brother had said that Mae needed him. Because he was the only one who truly understood how she was feeling right now. She didn't need a mother to tell her it would be alright, or an elder brother to tell her he would protect her. She needed someone who'd been broken just as thoroughly, yet somehow managed to put things back together. He waited until her crying had ceased, before he asked quietly, "What did Physician Minsu say?" Mae sniffed.

"He said that my qi is all tangled up and my meridians have been reshaped. He said… he said –" she sobbed again, "that I'm a Demonic Cultivator."

"Oh," Song rubbed the back of his head.

"How did you stand it, Cousin Song?" Mae sniffed.

"Now I'll never be able to get my horns, or join one of the Orthodox Sects!" Song very expressly did not point out that neither had been likely in Mae's case. Her martial arts skills had never been promising enough to warrant a cultivation ritual. Though she may've married into a clan that would grant it to her as a gift for her marriage, much as Mother and Auntie had. Refinement level cultivators were thought to birth stronger children, though they were less fertile as a result.

Even then, her future would not be the grand adventure in the Gangho that Mae had dreamed of, but one of raising the next generation of cultivators. But now…

"I don't see why you'd need to join a sect, you're already stronger than me," Song complained, rubbing his arm where her stones had scratched him.

"Look."

"Oh.. I'm sorry. Are you hurt?" Mae leaned in to get a closer look.

"Can you see through that? Is it armour, or is it just your skin now?" Song asked, knocking on her shoulder.

"It's pretty tough." Mae touched the jade where her face should be.

"It's… like looking through smokey glass. It's been like this since I woke up. Elder Minsu says it's a technique. But I don't even know any techniques," Mae shook her tiny fists, finally sounding a bit like her old self. She flexed a stone bicep, looking just like Song had a lifetime ago before his ritual.

"But if I did, this would be a neat one. I bet even cousin Wook couldn't break through!" Song sat up cross-legged on the bed, helping Mae right herself as well.

"My Master says that Demonic Cultivators have their own techniques they can use instinctively, like Demonic Beasts. It makes them strong right away, it's just harder for them to break through to the next level." Impossible, according to Master Crane, without learning a new Name, or eating the hearts of other cultivators, but he wouldn't tell her that.

"But Demons are evil!" Mae's voice became teary once more.

"I'm not evil! You believe me, right Cousin Song?"

"Mmm… Master says that he met a true Demon once, and it wasn't something that was part of this world. You don't feel like that to me. You feel like Mae, but with a bit too much of the Golden Emperor's qi."

"Really?" Mae swept a stone arm across a blank face, trying to wipe tears that weren't there.

"Your Core level master?"

"Actually… want to know a secret?" Song leaned close, so his head was right by Mae. He whispered, "My Master actually is a Demon." This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"What!" Mae jumped from the bed, then lowered herself back on. It shuddered under the weight of her stone. She had the eagerness of a child learning a tasty secret, and Song really really hoped he wasn't making a mistake.

"Mhm," Song nodded.

"He's a Core level Demonic Beast, who learned to cultivate from the stars. He's old and wise, and nothing at all a monster like the grasswolves or Kkongi. He tells jokes, likes to dance, and has a funny laugh."

"Oh, Kkongi isn't that bad. He just doesn't like you," Mae huffed.

"Because you're always nervous around him." Of course I'm always nervous around him. He bites. Song thought, but didn't say. Mae was still processing.

"But if your Master is a Demonic Beast… Master Crane! Is he a crane!?" Song nodded. Mae burst into peals of laughter.

"And he named you Haksaekki because you're his little chick! Ahahahaha!" Song's lips thinned.

"Do you think he can help me?" Mae suddenly asked.

"If he's a Demonic – oh, I mean, if he's as wise and old as you say?"

"Maybe?" Song pursed his lips.

"But I think he would just say something like, 'what's wrong with being what you are, I'm a crane and you don't see me complaining." Mae laughed again. She laughed for a long time, until she once again collapsed on the bed, her head on Song's lap.

"What was it like?" Song asked when she finally quieted down.

"It was scary. And dark. Like I was buried underground. I could hear the earthworms digging and the clatter of horse hooves overhead. It sounded like the earth was talking to me. Telling me to come and be with it." Mae shivered, and Song could feel it even through the stone.

"It was dark for me too," Song reminisced.

"I was all alone in the Void. But I couldn't hear or see anything, like I didn't even exist. The only thing that kept me from losing myself was remembering my family. You. My brothers. And mother's meat buns. It helped me stay grounded, and to build my meridians. Without the meat buns, I don't think I would've made it."

"Meat buns!?" Mae giggled.

"You were saved by meat buns!?"

"Hey! I didn't laugh at you!" Song swatted at Mae, but only served to bruise his knuckles.

"Ow!"

"I'm sorry for laughing, Cousin Song," Mae said, suddenly quiet.

"Was there anything like that for you?" Song asked, matching her tone.

"I didn't know how to shape my meridians. Nobody ever taught me anything," Mae whimpered. She hid her blank face in Song's lap.

"The only thing I had was Boram. She was there with me, underground."

"The doll I gave you?" Song was surprised, looking around. The porcelain doll lay in pride of place at the head of the bed on Mae's unused pillow, its black hair well combed and its beautiful red dress laid out flat.

"Mhm. I held her tight, and she kept the earth away as it tried to swallow me up," Mae reached out towards the doll, then stopped, her clawed stone fingers a handsbreadth away. Her fingers shook, and her hand withdrew.

"But I'm afraid I'll break her if I pick her up now. I broke mommy's teacup." Song didn't know what to say to that. He clutched Mae tight to his chest, ignoring the sharp rocks as they dug into his ribs. ["Poor thing,"] Cyrus murmured. ["Not now Cyrus,"] Song shot back, angry at being interrupted. ["No, it's… there was a person in my world. Well, a story of a person. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I remember that he was a man who became stone, after an accident."] ["I thought you didn't have qi."] ["It's a story, okay? Anyway, he became stone, and hated who he'd become. People called him The Thing because he was so repulsive."] ["Not helping."] ["No, but see, he still went on to be a hero. He fought to save people even as they reviled him. And he eventually came to accept who and what he'd become, because what defined him wasn't what he looked like, but what he was. And that was a hero."] Song thought about that. It… sounded wise. Spirit Guides were meant to dispense wisdom right?

Not that Cyrus dispensed much beyond witty commentary, and the occasional fact about lacrosse. He thought about the Dao, and how his own Dao was taking shape. But how could he relate that confusing jumble of information to Mae?

"Mae?" He eventually asked.

"Am I still Cousin Song?" Mae gave a head tilt.

"What??"

"Even though I don't have horns. And my body is full of Void qi. And I deviated, and my Master is a Demon? Am I still your Cousin Song?" Mae let out a snort.

"Of course, silly."

"Exactly. I still play the topshur, ride horses, and spend too much time practicing my martial arts in the yard… and you're still Mae. The one who sings that annoying little song. And keeps bursting into my room unannounced. Who laughs and plays and wants to show off her new doll Boram to Soram. The one who wants to be a hero of the Gangho."

"My friend's name is Sarang, cousin Song. She'd be angry if you called her Soram," Mae chided.

"Little Song! Little Song! Come on won't you –""– Sing along!" Song finished, giving her a knuckle rub on the forehead. Not that she felt it.

"So, just as I'm still Song after deviating, you're still Mae. Unless you're just an inner demon trying to trick me," Song leaned back, giving the little girl a suspicious look. Mae crossed her arms, huffing, "I don't have an inner demon!" ["But you do!"] Cyrus chuckled darkly. ["Oh, now you admit you're an inner demon?"] Song shot back sardonically. ["Touche."] Mae sat quietly, considering. Slowly, her hand reached out to Boram once more.

With trembling delicate fingers, she cupped the doll in her hand and held it to her rocky chest. She lay her head on Song's lap once more.

"Cousin Song? Will you stay with me?" She asked, her voice quiet as a whisper.

"For as long as you need." Mae nodded. She continued to clutch the doll tightly, even as her panicked breathing evened out to the deep breaths of sleep. Slowly, like a cicada molting its shell, the dark green jade armour that surrounded her flaked away, scattering into sparks of golden Earth qi. Song's breath caught in his throat. The face that was revealed beneath the armor was clearly Mae's, but not quite. Gone were the pink cheeks and black hair done up in buns.

Her skin was the shade and shine of porcelain, and her bunched up hair and fluttering eyelashes looked to be made of the same dark green jade as her previous armour. Her lips were a dark hue of red, like rubies buried beneath the earth. Flecks of jade and gold peeked out of her cheeks like freckles, and her fingers and toes remained sharp talons made of the same dark-green sharp jade. She looked like her little Boram. A doll of living stone.