The Storyteller

Trials

Initially, news of the War Gods sudden return was kept very low key and only for those who needed to know so that Di Jun, Lord Pua and Haode could thoroughly question him first, before deciding whether a trial was appropriate.  Though this did not happen until Mo Yuan had been allowed to recover which saw him going into seclusion on Kunlun Mountain.

The look of relief and then tears as he was led back onto his mountain was what met him as he stood unmoving at the entrance just revelling in the higher energy his body so seriously lacked.  He had regained only half of his cultivation from his barrier which was enough to heal the last of his wounds, and with the balms that the medicine king gave him along with Di Juns assistance, he also gained a little more of his sight which the medicine king said would come back to him as long as he went into seclusion and increased his cultivation which his oldest Disciple guided him into.

What reunion they could have had, was quietly set aside, as his men took over his care.  Though the sight of a blinded Shifu did initially shock them, even more than the enormous weight loss and unshaven appearance, which none of them had ever seen before, because Mo Yuan had always been meticulous about his health, appearance and even hygiene.  She may have washed him daily, but even by a common mans standards, he looked unkempt and therefore dirty, which had Die Feng insisting that he bathe before secluding himself.

And it was only once he was in his cave and surrounded by the silence he had once sought daily, that Mo Yuans mind finally dwelled on what he had just left behind.  He had asked Di Jun for her identity, but was informed most formally that her friend was also a close friend of her fathers, and depending on how his trial went, it was best that he did not see her again, much less seek her out.

Di Jun may not have told him in so many words, but the warning was clear.  Mo Yuan was about to face a trial that could potentially see him labelled a criminal and punished severely.  He didn't need anyone to explain to him what that would mean for those he called friends, especially a young woman who would not only be vilified as immoral and indecent having cared for him alone in a cave in a way that none would see as appropriate, but she would also be blamed for the deaths of thousands, just by being associated with him along with anyone else who stood by his side.  It was unfair and unjust, but that was how it was in a world prone to spreading vicious gossip, and the higher one stood, the more vile it could be. 

Now in his meditation cave and quietly trying his best to let her go, Mo Yuans mind struggled to close down.   In fact, the silence that he had once craved and relished in, was now pounding into his head with a vengeance.  Her voice had become such an ingrained part of his life, that being in that dark silent cave only intensified the apprehension of the unknown that he had returned to.  He couldn't remember a single time when he had not wanted the peace that only silence could give him until then.

Only now, it was insufferable and suffocating, that several times he rose to walk about the grounds just to hear the birds, or the owls at night, or even the wind just to fill the silence with anything other than his breath.  It was inconceivable that she would have such an enormous affect on him, that barely a second passed when she wasn't in his thoughts.  

Even his own cave reminded him of her and so he was forced to meditate outside in the lotus pond area where the sounds of his men practicing in the day, and the night creatures at night kept the silence at bay.

The first two weeks were so unsettling, that Mo Yuan barely managed to get through each day, though this was due to his sight which he was now struggling with.  He still had the welfare of his students to think about and every day, Die Feng would stop by to discuss their progress since the war.  Many had been injured and one severely, but they were all alive and regaining their strength though they did want to sit and talk to him about the gossip that was currently swirling.