Crimson Qi, Exiled Beautiful Lady Falls in Love with a Shy Demon

A Method to Dragons

Xi's hand hovered above the manuscript. "I am at the end, Sayewa."

For days he fought the temptation to peek at the end of the scroll like a curious child. Instead, he forced himself to assimilate the inane details of the suitable site selection, the interminable discussions on the advantages of certain materials over others for the joints, and so much more.

Sayewa rose from her cushion by the window, letting her share of scrolls snake down to the floor. "Remarkable, Xi. Let me see."

The shiver of anticipation run through him. "That's it. I can leave for the war."

"Yes." The flower-scented breath warmed his cheek, but Xi turned the faery glamour away as reflexively as she oozed it. Two weeks of working in the same room from dusk to dawn sharpened his awareness, and blocking it became trivial.

"Yes? Just 'yes', Serene Mother?" Xi spurted out a bitter laugh. "I was torn for weeks. It felt such a frivolous thing to do, studying the Celestials's texts in a quiet monastery when the noose tightens around Sutao."

She placed a calming palm on his shoulder. "We could no more afford the delay and mistakes here than your brethren do in the fighting, Xi."

How, how could he had been so blind as to take her affection for romantic! She'd always treated him like a sweet child. A salty taste of blood coated his tongue when he bit through his lip to keep his objections at bay. No matter what she thought, he was not a boy, and the sky turned black in the middle of the day with the haze of the burning countryside.

The faery's fingers kneaded his shoulders, but he sensed her unrest underneath the comforting movements. The fluffy yellow buds dropped one by one on the scroll. They bounced off the rolled paper and kept on skipping across his lap-desk's surface. Their tiny thuds all but echoed in the quiet room. The flowers had their own faint smell, not unpleasant, but it was overpowered with Sayewa's stronger jasmine scent.

"Let us see how the Ascension Forge functions," she murmured at last satisfied with his slowing heart rate.

All her earnest efforts went to waste.

He took one look - and the scroll fell out of his trembling hand. The last cursed page faced the floor, but it was no use. One glance was enough, his memory grasped every detail. He could not un-see it, could not close the eyes of his soul.

Xi did not remember tossing the desk away, only the crushing sound it made in the stillness of the monastery. Sayewa was hefty, but he pushed her aside too in his scramble to run.

The faery chased him, the scent of jasmine chased him, growing so strong that it threatened to give him a headache. A headache! He squeezed his skull to hold it together. It felt like a ripe melon, ready to crack at a single tap.

Xi's legs felt numb after bending over the scrolls for days, but soon the warm lifeblood surged through his limbs, raced past his heart, pulsed his head free of terror.

He could not unsee the things he saw, but his running made the revelation fainter. Let his calves burn, it was better than his mind exploding.

Alas, his legs could not move fast enough to outrun his thoughts.

His hisn refused to accept the truth.

"No!" he wailed, scaring away the begging refugees on the outskirts of Sutao.

"Beloved!" called the familiar voice from above.

Xi skidded to change his direction and trotted up the familiar trail. For a terrifying moment, he suspected that he had gone mad, lured away by the imaginary voices from his past.