Sword of the Missed (SOTM) - 1. Chapter 1

In the halls of the West Palace, where dozens of officials and generals roamed and discussed in an environment of sound, the silence was deafening.

It wasn’t the grim silence of death, or the tense silence of fear, but that of absence. The festival of the new Dragon Guard had drawn away all the people in a time of celebration and wonder, and there was no reason for any to remain behind.

And yet, there was one who had.

Mu Sile stood alone in a small room, the existence of which had been kept from all but a select few. It had been hidden from public knowledge, and the only way to access it was to descend through a trap door covered by an ornate rug in the Maps Room.

The decorations within were sparse, with only an ancestral plaque hung on the wall behind an altar. The characters for a forgotten name were etched onto the tablet, and a bare sword rested upon the altar, the blade formed of the purest steel. The handle was wrapped in white cloth, and a gold tassel swung from it’s pommel.

Stepping forwards, Mu Sile gazed reverently at the sword, taking a deep breath and letting it go. Reaching out, his hand closed around the hilt, trembling slightly as he lifted it from the altar.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment, his dark eyes practically burning a whole into the blade as he stared at it. But the moment was broken as the bright steel began to turn the deep crimson of blood, and he knew in an instant that the sword had not chosen him.

His heart plunged to his feet, as the weight of several years of hope crushed him down into the fiery pits of failure. How foolish he had been! If his Senior could see him now, there was no doubt he would kill Mu Sile himself to spare him from the disaster he had just caused.

The torches on the walls flickered even though there was no breeze, and in the next instant the flames turned a dark cyan color, bathing the room in an eerie light.

Struck with a sense of urgency, Mu Sile spun on his heel, rushing towards the ladder and climbing back up. If the torches in this room had already turned, then every torch in the Empire had now turned, which meant everyone who knew about the existence of the room was gathering guards and officials to cut off his escape.

Scrambling to slam the trapdoor shut and throw the rug back over it, he dashed out of the room, the sword still clenched in his grasp. The sounds of running footsteps echoed behind him, and Mu Sile wasted no time in running through the long corridors, ignoring the shouts as he was spotted.

But as he turned into the last hall that led to the west exit, twin swords crossed before his eyes, and he only managed to avoid them at the last second by leaning back, sliding underneath them on his knees.

“Mu! Si! Le!” A feminine voice growled behind him, and he jumped to his feet, spinning to see the Jade Twins uncrossing their swords to point them at his neck. The one who had spoken, Yu Xuan, was the elder of the two, and generally of a gruff disposition. The younger, Yu Xiu, was usually the water to her sister’s fire, but today there was an angry expression upon both their faces.

Yu Xuan’s eyes widened when she saw what Mu Sile held, and the color drained from her face. “Ben dan! What have you done?!”

The ordinarily quiet and pleasant Yu Xiu swore when she saw the sword, and her hand trembled upon her own. The cyan flames cast sinister shadows upon their faces, washing their violet hanfu’s marking them as Generals in unnatural light.

Shouts and clangs of approaching guards made the Twins glance behind them for a second, but that second was all Mu Sile needed. Swinging the sword in an upward arc, he knocked their own aside, turning to sprint towards the large double doors of the west exit.

Pushing them open with his shoulder, he heard the sisters exclaim behind him, and he picked up the pace, running out into the night. Panting with exertion, he shrugged off the heavy black robes, leaving them behind as he continued in his underclothes.

He made it about twenty steps from the door before he drew to an abrupt stop, careening his arms wildly as he tried to regain his balance. Ahead of him stretched the edge of the cliff towering high above the river he forgot the name of, successfully cutting off his escape route.

Sighing, Mu Sile turned to face the Twins and the guards forming a half circle around him, the tips of their swords barely three feet away as they hovered uneasily.

“I do not wish to fight you,” he began, but Yu Xuan cut him off.

“Spare us your lies,” she hissed, betrayal written all over her face. “We trusted you, but now you have shown your true colors.”

Sadness bloomed in his heart, but he could not refute her words, only tightening his grip on the sword. Even if they could understand, he would rather face a hundred years of their animosity than a single moment of their pity.

“Will you kill me?” He had thought the sisters would say yes immediately, but to his surprise they both hesitated, sharing a glance before looking back to him. As Yu Xiu opened her mouth to speak, however, a figure moved behind them, and a chain whip lashed out from between the Twins to strike Mu Sile. Each of the links of the chain were crafted to resemble small blades, and they showed no mercy as they tore into the sensitive skin of his eyelids, cutting a red gash as he jerked away.

Yelling in excruciating pain, blinded by blood, he tripped as he backed away, and Mu Sile fell from the cliff, hundreds of feet down to the river below. His hair loosened from when the pin holding it up fell, and the screams of the Twins reverberated in his ears as the crimson sword dropped from his hand.

.・゜゜・✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *: ﾟ･✧* : ﾟ･✧・゜゜・．

“Chou Yan, Chou Yan, Chou Yan!”

The high pitched voices of the children rang in Yan Rui’s ears as they chanted, throwing mud and rocks and whatever else they could get their grimy hands on. With each dull thud and resulting pain, he found himself withdrawing further and further into his mind, scrubbing the bottom of his foot until he was no longer listening to them.

It was no secret that he was ugly. Madam Fei of the Tao Hua House claimed he had been born that way, conceived by one of her courtesans but thrown out to the streets as soon as they looked upon him. His mother had even wanted to kill him so no one would have to suffer when they saw him, but her fellow prostitutes convinced her otherwise. Some may have considered that a fate worse than death, but Yan Rui was eternally thankful for a chance at life, even if he grew uglier as he progressed into his late teens.

His nose was crooked from healing incorrectly after it had been broken, and his eyes were a mottled green the color of cat vomit. His pockmarked face was riddled with acne scars and a few pimples, and his black hair hung lank like greasy strings down to his shoulders. Rags barely covered his bony frame, and his fingers were cracked and raw from mistreatment, a huge brown birthmark covering his left hand like a piece of shit.

And yet, Yan Rui wouldn’t have traded his life for anything. Why should he, when he has a beating heart and limbs that can move?

At last, the final layer of grime caking his foot was scrubbed off, and he saw the splinter of wood that had been bothering him for the last few days. Using the tips of his stiff fingers, he twisted and worked at it until it slid out, the whole inch of the wood covered in his own blood. Pain branched from the small wound, which was already ripe with infection, the rough skin turning a collection of purples, greens and yellows around the edges.

Yan Rui didn’t even flinch as he packed some fresh mud onto the wound as a makeshift bandage, standing up and brushing his hands off. It wasn’t a problem; he had faced worse wounds than this. It wouldn’t kill him.

As he brought his senses back to his surroundings, he realized he really couldn’t hear the children chanting anymore, because they had moved down the street. Yan Rui could see them whispering and pointing at something in a side alley, and despite the rumble of hunger in his empty stomach begging for nourishment, he crept down after them to see what they were so fascinated by.

They were so engrossed with the object of their attention that they didn’t even notice as he walked up beside them, stepping around them to get a full view of the alley. Almost immediately, a figure stumbled out, causing the children to scatter with squeals of fright as they fell straight onto the nearest person - Yan Rui.

“Umph!” he grunted, as the weight of the person forced him to stagger and fall right onto his rear.

Yan Rui sat stunned for a moment, before realizing that the person wasn’t moving. “Are you alright?” Concerned, he pushed the person’s head back from where their forehead was resting on his shoulder, and gasped in shock.

This person… had no eyes?!