Rowan → Ethan Nakamura ✔

Promise

It was hot. Billie's breath hung in sweltering air before falling limply to the ground, observed by the beady eyes of the stars above. She blinked. The cloudy realm where they had been seconds before had seemingly dispersed, leaving them in front of the opening to a forest rather than the stone houses they had previously faced.

"Where are we?"

"My dream." Rowan said. The older girl turned to face the sandy path that split the trees in two, and Billie couldn't help but admire the stateliness with which she did so. "I was here in my dream that made us come here in the first place."

"So we're close then," Ethan glanced at the path. They couldn't see the end; it was doused in both distance and darkness. "I'm guessing the Emperor is down there."

Rowan nodded soundlessly. She began to walk tentatively, and the others followed. They were all unnerved by the silence. No birds or scurrying creatures could be heard in the bushes. Billie had never heard a night so still; back at Camp Half-Blood, there was the rustle of her siblings who tossed around in bunks above and beside her. As elated as she had been to leave and go on a quest, Billie couldn't deny that she didn't miss her brothers and sisters. Bringing up the rear now, with Rowan and Ethan in the front and Nico and Will in the middle, she had never been so aware of how everyone was paired except for her.

"Where are the men shen?" Nico asked. His palm rested on the handle of his sword. Billie admired that weapon too, although it did frighten her a little.

"They've told us all we needed to know." Rowan said. "And they know our intentions to free the Jade Emperor."

"Hold on," Will said. "Should we free the Emperor?"

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked. "It's the only way to restore balance."

"Well, he seems like a pretty bad guy from what we just saw. It feels like he'd just make balance worse, if you ask me."

"We are not meddling with the system of Heaven's government," Rowan said firmly. "Just because you'd like a democracy does not mean we are going to let the ruler of the gods remain trapped in a well."

"Will has a point." Nico spoke up. Billie noted the look of gratitude Will shot his boyfriend. "So did Mazu, Guan Yu and Jim."

"It's none of our business. We're not the rulers of Heaven, are we?"

"Neither is the Jade Emperor right now."

"We're getting closer to his prison," Ethan interjected. "Maybe save the treasonous words for later."

Billie noted with surprise that they were. Half-listening to the argument that raged on, she was beginning to see the faint outline of a cluster of trees that marked the end of the path. And although nobody else had realized, despite Will and Nico's apprehension, their feet were moving almost as if they were on auto-pilot, drawing them closer. They were in too deep to stop now, and in that moment, Billie understood that they couldn't have kept the Jade Emperor imprisoned even if they wanted to. The very air itself hummed with an energy that grew stronger, causing her bones to shake and her mind to reject all notions of turning away. What were they to do once they had reached the mouth of the well, then? What were they to do if still divided on whether to restore balance but cause more traitorous, never-ending resentment?

Her father's face appeared in her head. Ng Chun Hing was a kind man. He had to be, having come to America on a scholarship for biochemistry at university despite speaking not a word of English. Reading and writing it was different from speaking it, and even after 20 years, he still bore an accent. In the beginning, he had told her, his kindness was what made him respectable. It was his ability to understand other people and convince them the same way he could convince a dying flower to bloom again.