Shuli Go Stories Vol. 2: A Large Debt

Part 6

Not all of the prisoners escaped the Chongqing jail, but most did, skittering like mice as they exited, casting a dozen different trails for the city guard to track down. Lian dropped the iron rod just outside the gate, dripping with the blood of two more guards, grabbed onto Mei's arm and followed him through the labyrinth of Chongqing's crowded streets. Somewhere along the way, Mei had grabbed her Shuli Go sword and handed it to her as they ran. For the first few blocks her heart was pounding as every set of eyes fell on her, each pair casting a thick weight of guilt, as if they knew the exact weight of the betrayal she had committed against her oaths and her order.

Eventually their run turned into a walk and their infamy into obscurity – just two more poor lovers making their way through the city. It was in the quiet thrum of the city's background noise that Lian finally thought to ask, "Do you know where you're going?"

"Where we're going?" Mei replied, turning back to her and flashing another grin. In her shame that smile had lost any effect on her. She didn't respond. "Yes," he continued, "I have a place we can hide for tonight."

It was almost night, and while Lian was glad she could see at least a sliver of the sun before it disappeared, the place Mei took her to hide from the guard was little better than the cell she'd left behind.

"A gambling den?"

Mei just smiled.

The owner of the den owed Mei a favor. Or more accurately, Mei owed the man money and a man trapped in the city dungeons was not likely to pay back any debts. Mei convinced the owner to keep them in the basement – a tiny room with a small fireplace and another makeshift bed. They roasted some meat of an indecipherable animal and ate a small bowl of rice together, but Lian didn't taste any of it. Even the fire provided no warmth. She kept replaying the escape in her mind, wondering if there could have been a way to avoid injuring the jailer. If escape was even the best approach.

"I'm sorry for making you hit him."

Lian just stared at Mei for a moment. She didn't blame him, even if he had prodded her. All her life she'd been taught that decisions are the one thing a person can own, and she'd made her decision. That it hung around her neck, seeming to grow ever-tighter, wasn't his fault or problem. It was hers.

"You're being too harsh on yourself."

"You would say that," she whispered. "Whatever cult or order you learned your magic from probably doesn't care much about a code, or duty."

"Your order doesn't exist anymore."

"That doesn't change the oaths I took. To uphold the law above all else."

Mei chuckled the chuckle of someone who knew far more than the other partner in a conversation. That, finally, broke Lian out of her laconic spell and into anger.

"You couldn't possibly understand. They weren't just oaths, they were my entire way of life."

"Ok..." he began, taking a deep breath before beginning his tirade. "Two points against that. First, again, your way of life was taken away from you by the Emperor. So maybe you should have re-evaluated that four years ago when the decree was issued."

Lian was about to interrupt but Mei held up a hand with two fingers extended.

"And two. Have you ever wondered if that's part of the reason the Shuli Go were disbanded in the first place?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your unwavering dedication to the law," his voice was loaded with sarcasm. "You know how many people the Shuli Go have killed? How many good people? Good people who were driven to do bad things, and were punished too harshly by the law? You ever think that maybe that's why places like Chongqing don't welcome any former Shuli Go? You think that's why there were riots and massacres at the schools afterwards? Because people were tired of a simplistic code that didn't leave any room for the realities of the world?"