1058 Chapter 1058 Shatter the World
It was hard to keep track of time when everything was dark and Lian wasn’t interested in talking. It was made worse by the pain Lily experienced when she tried to do a bit of training with her spells. *Yup. Ok, you win body. I won’t cast anything until I stop hurting. Pain is your body telling you that you’ve fucked up somewhat and I should respect that. As much as I want new magic and feel the need to be stronger… it’s not worth crippling myself over. Which, could very much be on the table. I didn’t know what I did was a bad idea… now I have to hope it wasn’t a catastrophic one… or if it is, Nira can fix it.*
Eventually though, Lian had too many questions in her mind to avoid Lily forever. So she crawled over to the Memphis and asked, “Ok… I… I’m still not entirely comfortable, or… I haven’t really dealt with the whole ‘Fake Meng’ issue but… can you just go over it again? One more time… just… as dull and clinical as you can be?”
“Sure… um… just let me…” mumbled Lily as she transformed for vocal cords and readied herself. Lily spent a minute getting the wording right and then let it flow, “To the best of our knowledge the original Meng was replaced by the current Meng within days or weeks of the twins’ birth. After that, Bang was replaced in short order and since then they have both continued to run the sect as best they could without letting people figure out that Meng and Bang have been replaced.
“Meng was chosen for this assignment both for her name, her loyalty, and her affinity which happens to be illusions. Something their parent organisation did not account for however, is that Meng, despite their training, still has one desire above all others and that was for children. So now that they are at risk, and Kat has called her out on being a fake, Meng had a bit of a breakdown, and we are now working together to try and get the best result for everyone involved while keeping Bodeir safe, as Kat, Sue and I MUST do,”
Lian let out a long breath of air, “So I’ve never known the original?”
Lily shook her head, “No. Based on when Meng was replaced there was no way for you to ever meet the original Meng,”
“Is the original Meng alive?” asked Lian.
“I don’t know, and Meng doesn’t either,” answered Lily.
“I… is there anything else you feel I should know?” asked Lian.
.....
“Um… hmm… well… maybe? Meng, the current one that is, said a lot of things and Kat relayed most of that to me while I was dreaming. One of them is that she understands you. As a cultivator with a talent for illusions she understands you a lot better then Feng and Bing and has claimed you as her daughter as well… so… if Bing and Feng do run away, Meng isn’t just going to leave you here,” said Lily.
“Ah” said Lian voice breaking as tears leaked from her eyes. She didn’t know how to feel about that. So much of her was screaming that it was wrong, that she shouldn’t be happy to hear that some assassin liked her on any level… but just as Meng wanted nothing more than children, Lian wanted parents that didn’t hate her. Meng had already been that substitute so to hear that Lian was just as precious to Meng as her own children meant a lot. This fact further cemented itself in Lian’s mind because technically speaking Feng and Bing were adopted as well.
Lily awkwardly pulled herself to her feet and did a few stretches as Lian went silent. The pain was lessening somewhat, but Lily suspected it had more to do with getting used to it then a true reduction in pain. Perhaps it would be a good reason not to try untested techniques with her spells. In the end, after a few stretched Lily just occupied herself with drawing shapes in the dirt on the ground. No sense interrupting Lian as her whole world gets destroyed.
Still, trapped as they were, Lian eventually had to speak, even if just to get her thoughts in order. “God this is such a mess. I don’t know what Bing is going to think when she finds out. I really wish I could be there for her… but I don’t know what sort of timeline we’re working on and the transport array should be unusable because of us. So I can’t even go through to help them.
“I still feel like shit. Not from the news, but I’m not exactly topped up on qi and I don’t know how long it takes to recover from extreme blood loss so I’m a bit dizzy. I’ve got food and water in my storage ring so I’m not going to die, it just isn’t a fun experience. The real problem? I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with this information you’ve given me. I was working myself right up you know?
“I’m sure you and Kat figured it out but I was pretty set to die on this mission. I was expecting to be left behind, captured, and then executed unless you managed to free me. Then I would be branded a traitor and hunted for the rest of my likely short life. I knew that going in and I didn’t regret it for a second. If that’s what it took to make sure Bing was safe? That was all worth it to me. If Meng was found and rescued as well? That was a bonus.
“Now however, I find out that the ‘real’ Meng has been an imposter for years and apparently nobody noticed. I also know that she loves me and frankly I don’t know how to deal with that either. It was a lot easier when Meng was just ‘My best friend’s Mom’ you know? It was a simple relationship, and I probably still leaned on her for affection and affirmation more than I should have as just my friend’s mom… but she isn’t that is she?
“Well now I’m still alive, and pretty safe, albeit quite lost. The Meng I thought I knew was a just a mask, but likely one with more truth then the spy using it would be comfortable with. I have a home to go back to, but not for long because the Mountain Shaker sect knows that Meng is a spy. Which is annoying, despite it being true… and I just don’t really know what to do Lily…”
“Um… what was that about being lost?” asked Lily with a wince.
“Ooh… right…” Lian shared Lily’s wince though with nothing to provide the pair neither noticed. “So… I was pretty close to falling over while I was trekking through the snow, but I made it to the cave I thought was nearby, and I just sort of… kept walking till I passed out? I was however, more than a bit delirious the whole time I was walking and now I’m awake my memories of walking through the caves have all sort of blurred together. Now I don’t know how deep we are, how many alternate paths there are, if we got turned around at all. Frankly, we’re lost,”
Lily let out an exaggerated groan, “Ugh, that means we’re probably stuck down here then? Kat should be able to fine me eventually once things calm down… but we’re stuck here by ourselves until then… why were you paying such little attention? Surely you didn’t want to be trapped here forever?”
Lian folder her arms over her chest and glared at Lily, though the darkness really killed the effect, “Yes Lily, I am aware that I made a rooky mistake now that I’m not suffering from exhaustion and blood loss. No ‘Thanks for landing the plane’ or ‘sorry I passed out on your first despite knowing you were missing most of your blood’ just ‘how could you not manage to remember a labyrinth while moments away from collapse?'”
Lily winced, apparently Lian had taken her mostly joking tone as true recrimination. “Lian it’s fine really, I wasn’t seriously complaining, or well, I was complaining and I was serious that it’s a problem but I don’t blame you for it, not really. I’m more annoyed you thought doing so much damage to yourself was an acceptable trade, but that’s not really what we’re talking about right now…”
“Well what else could I have done? We didn’t know Meng wasn’t going to hurt Bing! I had a choice between wasting time figuring more of the array out, or just sacrificing something decently significant. What would you have done if it was Kat that was in danger?” retorted Lian.
Lily hissed as she wrapped Lian up into a tight hug. “A gallon of blood is a cheap price,”
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