Chapter Text
PART ONE: THE DARKNESS IN THE FOREST
Xie Lian couldn't feel his legs.
As he advanced through the forest, sweat wetting his face and soaking his back, the long, disorderly steps of his legs sent waves of pain through his entire body. He felt on fire, his joints aching and his muscles throbbing in pain, but he needed to continue. There was no way he could stop, give up or succumb to pain and tiredness.
The forest was dark around him, the shadows threatening to swallow him more and more as he went further into its interiors. Sometimes he felt tugs on his robe, and he feared he was being chased by the creatures of the Night. Myths and tales, stories of hauntings and folklore placed the Night and its vile, hideous, and dangerous creatures as true monsters to anyone who dared to face them.
But Xie Lian would not fall into Her hands until he got what he wanted. He sucked in a breath and dodged a large seemingly old tree, its trunk blemished by an intrinsic brown tangle and full of disordered tracks, like deep scars on skin; or marks left by hungry and deteriorating claws.
He didn't want to look back, so he kept his eyes fixed on the unknown path ahead.
He knew what was behind him, beyond the limits of the forest, away from the darkness of the trees and the whitish mist all around him. Xie Lian didn't even have to turn his face to feel the heat of the fire on his skin again, to hear the desperate screams of people and the blood spraying everywhere, staining walls and clothes in an anguished frenzy.
The kingdom of Xian Le was experiencing chaos.
Treacherous and mysterious, an epidemic had broken out in a small village on the outskirts of the city. Soon, it had spread like red-hot fire, staining the surrounding villages and, consequently, like ink spilled on paper, it had reached the edges: the Royal Capital. People died, screamed in pain, and crawled in front of the palace seeking help, food, and protection.
The epidemic consumed them. The disease, identified as TianHua, was considered to be the curse of heaven itself. The reddish spots that appeared on the skin, like small scarlet shoots, caused frisson and agony in the population, who cried out for help.
Help from the king. Help from the ministers.
The Prince's help.
But Xie Lian couldn't do anything. As the Crown Prince, he tried to fight the revolt and calm the temper of the population, but everything seemed to make them even more angry and sick. Not every matter could be solved with just words, he realized, when he was slapped on the street once.
Words moved the world, but only actions managed to save it.
Xie Lian, the Crown Prince, felt like the very disease that was corrupting his country.
He staggered down a small slope and gasped as he tripped and fell, with his hands on the damp black earth. Pain and tiredness spread through his leg joints, almost making him lean against the ground. He grunted, swallowing his saliva and feeling the unpleasant metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
Xie Lian needed to keep going and reach the four big statues — tall stone buildings that represented Xian Le's ancient gods.
It was a myth. The existence of those buildings should have been erased millennia ago, but communities and small traders said there was a chance that they would still be there after so long. Manuscripts in the Royal Library and small fragments of foreign researchers indicated that, however small the possibilities, they could have survived the inclement weather of nature and prejudice.
Xie Lian didn't know what he was doing, of course. He didn't know who was going to show up, if there was someone to show up, or if he would be able to even find the place. But everything hurt so much. His body, his throat, his state-of-mind, and, above all, his ego. He was not doing it just for his people. The prince, in a selfish thought that crawled inside him like a cold snake, just wanted everything to be over.
The disease had become less dangerous and they had already managed to control it somewhat, but what about the ones who died? What about the helpless families? And the destroyed capital? He received those questions every day, but he didn't even have a simple attempt at an answer in his mind.
Xie Lian stood up, his legs screaming with the effort. He was so exhausted, but he couldn't stop for a minute. He couldn't let the Night consume him, grabbing and swallowing him alive while he sat and watched. He needed to escape the darkness of his own mind and do something.
He would do anything.
He would give anything, and he knew it.
The more he walked, the trees around him became even bigger and older, their roots gradually creeping into the soil and making their way out into the open. Xie Lian was careful not to trip and twist his foot, as he did not need another obstacle in his life.
The only light that prevailed on his journey was the moon, silver and bright against the darkness of the forest. The wind stirred the leaves, making them rustle in a grotesque howling. Curious eyes of animals and bushes fluttered as he passed by, as if he were in a kind of nightmare. He ran and ran, just wanting to get to the hope that bloomed in his heart for weeks.
Xie Lian wanted to go home, but it was no longer a safe place.
He didn't even know if, in the end, there would still be a Xian Le kingdom to rule. He ran his hand over his face, spreading both sweat and blood mixed in his palm. An open wound on his forehead dripped an incessant and pulsating red, sending waves of pain with each breath he took. It even felt as if thinking hurt, and he had been doing that a lot lately.
Xie Lian took another step, feeling the trees spread apart, indicating that a clearing was close. A warm sensation unfurled through his chest, like the hot sun on his face or the wind bouncing off his long brown hair on a summer day.
Hope.
There was hope for his people. For his life.
Xie Lian grinned as he saw the rocks in the distance, covered with moss and partially hidden in the shadows by labyrinthine branches on their rocky surface. They stood next to each other, almost resembling monstrous and giant gods, their grandeur hightened by the weather.
Xie Lian almost fell to his knees when he heard a whispered voice. Old.
“I wouldn't do that if I were you.”
Xie Lian stifled a cry and turned, only to find darkness and trees partially lit by the moonlight. The silvery glow illuminated their thick brown branches, while the greenish-colored bushes, almost black with darkness, shifted like mischievous children. He felt his heart beating in his chest, reverberating in his ears as he clenched his fists in a defensive stance, even though he knew he stood no chance against anything that inhabited the Night.
Despite all his training with swords, bows and arrows, and combat, he was just a human being, after all. What would he do against the prestige of the unknown?
“Who's there?” He managed to keep the fear out of his voice. “Answer.”
A low, grave laugh echoed through the forest as if it were on every leaf and trunk present. The sound stirred Xie Lian's insides in fear and nervousness, and he clutched his knuckles with such force that he feared he would break his own hand.
“Now, it seems that at last, we have a brave one. Others would already be on their knees begging for mercy,” the thing said, its voice coming from everywhere and nowhere. It sounded thick and masculine. Powerful. “But I must admit that you have courage, in fact. You almost set foot on a certain death.”
A shiver ran down Xie Lian's spine, and he felt every hair on his body stand up. He lifted his chin into the shadows, trying to ignore the fact that he could see nothing but the dancing leaves and silver strands of the stars above.
“What are you talking about?”
A long pause followed, and he feared for a moment that the voice had simply disappeared into the darkness, left him alone with the whisper of the leaves and the fear that consumed his whole body.
But then the voice continued.
“The instant you had stepped on that place, you would have been dead.”
"This is a fallacy," Xie Lian shook his head. “I read the old manuscripts, I researched. These gods have helped our people in the past. Why would they do me any harm now?”
“Good thing you know how to conjugate verbs,” the creature laughed, and there was a tone of sarcasm so heavy in his voice that Xie Lian felt his anger rising. “I came across a few princes, but none ever managed to even speak. They were already on their knees, crying and screaming for something. You have some credit.”
Xie Lian felt his throat close and swallowed hard. That was exactly what he would have done; his body was gradually giving up on standing, and he would have easily given in to the eternal Night had it not been for that voice teasing him. Insulting him, penetrating his thoughts and his turbulent heart.
Urging him to speak.
“I'm not any prince,” Xie Lian lifted his chin again, and this time tried to demonstrate to the Night that he still could act like one. “I am Xie Lian, Crown Prince of the kingdom of Xian Le. The king's firstborn, and future ruler of the nation.”
A muffled laugh broke through the leaves, but it could have come from anywhere.
“How ignorant. You speak with such conviction that you will be a ruler, but will you have a kingdom to govern?”
Xie Lian felt the bile in his throat, and for a moment, he felt his knees go weak. His mind screamed for him to give up, and his muscles protested agonizingly in his body, but he remained standing. He ignored his throbbing forehead wound result of a stone thrown at him, his nails full of dirt and blood, and his clothes that smelled of smoke.
He had survived things more terrible than the Night.
“That is why I came here. I am here to ask the gods to help me. They need to help me, I…” He sighed. “I need to come back with a solution. I promised my people that I would come back with a way to fix everything.”
Xie Lian could hardly breathe; he was in agony and feeling the air condensing around him in some way he did not understand. A way to choke him, probably. Hang him alive while reveling in his despair.
“You still don't understand that the gods will not help you?” The voice asked. “Those stones right there are nothing more than arrogant lusts, holed up in their very existence, fleeing whatever obligation they promised when ascending to the heavens. There is nothing there that can help you, prince.”
Xie Lian tried to control the sound that came out of his mouth, but as the words sank in, his sobbing echoed through the treetops like the yelp from a wounded animal. He shook his head furiously, turning to look at the stones again. They looked so old, worn out, and... useless.
No. This is a trick of the Night.
“No… You're lying. It's not possible. I…” He tried to suck air into his body, but all he did was shrink more. “I went all this way, left my kingdom behind so I could find a way and... N-no…”
He couldn't help himself. The pain slammed his body, full and victorious, and then his knees hit the damp earth, and at that moment he knew he had given up. When he felt his heavy, tense shoulders and a thread of agony running through his entire body, he understood that the creature had taken away his only hope.
Xie Lian groaned, feeling his legs give even more, and the pain made him see stars when he dropped to the ground. His cheek felt damp from the floor, the icy sensation making his body crawl. The dirt was spreading across his face, and some tears were falling from his eyes, mixing with the terrain.
He was a worthless prince. He had given up with so little. Some miserable words.
Perhaps words did have more power than actions. Just not Xie Lian's.
He was almost closing his eyes when the voice spoke again:
“I said that the gods would not help you. But I'm here.” An extraordinary force pulled Xie Lian up, but when he tried to see what it was, he only found the darkness of the Night. Black-shadowed hands, clinging to the darkness like a sheet. “I can give you anything you want.”
Xie Lian felt his chest ache and his hands went deeper into the ground, but somehow, he found his voice to ask:
“Are you a god? Can you help me?”
The shadows stirred, and laughter hit Xie Lian right in his confused and frightened face.
“A god? No, dear.” And then the shadows condensed around something, stretching in black strands of darkness, revealing a face. It was a smiling one, eyes as red as pure crimson, and a sharp jaw that showed the banality of his face. Its thick, trimmed eyebrows gave it the most beautiful face Xie Lian had ever seen, but his beauty was something demonic. When it spoke again, its voice now had a fleshy red mouth to say: “I am no god, prince. I am the one they despise the most, and I came from where you have always feared to arrive.”
Xie Lian stepped away, finding strength in his weak legs, until his back hit a tree with a mossy surface, sliding through his clothes. The voice - now a man - laughed again. His face now connected to a neck of the same pale skin, which showed the existence of shoulders and the imminence of a wide chest. But it stopped there. The rest of him was shrouded in shadows, so dark and hideous, that Xie Lian feared looking for a long time.
Staring at an abyss for too long was dangerous.
Instead, he focused on his scarlet eyes. They shone in different shades of orange, carmine, and purple, and there, in the darkness of the forest, they seemed to want to murder him. Devour Xie Lian and his whole soul. Consume him as yet another helpless and naive creature.
“Are you a creature of the Night?” He managed to ask, his voice a mere whisper between his dry lips.
The man grinned, and in his malevolent expression, Xie Lian almost identified amusement in his gaze.
“Darling” His red eyes pulsed with power, and the shadows that made up his hair and the rest of his body fluttered like a black veil. “I am the Night Itself.”
Xie Lian felt a guttural fear spread through his body, and if he could have merged with the tree, he would have done it. His muscles petrified in place, and his heart thundered in his ears like a disorderly orchestra, but the prince couldn't take his eyes off the man: he was both mysterious and handsome in a dangerous way.
His eyes mesmerized him with their beauty, but Xie Lian gave up on that thought when the man's deep, deep voice, sharp as a sword, spoke again.
“Everything you see, from the darkness around you, the rustle of leaves and even…” The man raised a hand from the shadows, completely black, the tendrils of power flying over his palm and the tips of his fingers. He blew on them, and a wave of morbid tranquility filled Xie Lian's heart. “That. That feeling that you felt, that peace... I give it to everyone. Death is not the end, prince. It's just another way.”
“Where are you trying to get with all this?” Xie Lian barked.
The man smiled, and his long fingers fluttered in the air, sucking in the morbid calming feeling from Xie Lian's body. The pain returned to his heart, and the imminence of revolt, death, and fire returned to his memory with the weight of a hammer on his thoughts.
“Here. I can give you what you want,” the man said. “But you also need to give me something in exchange. It is a bargain. An agreement.”
Xie Lian tensed.
“Never! A deal with you would be like signing my own death sentence. I would go to hell, and then…”
“You would be my favorite little prince in hell, dear.”
Despite the situation, Xie Lian felt his cheeks heat up. He pulled his legs closer to his chest, pulling them towards him as if he could protect himself from that man. From the shadows he emanated and the tempting proposal that hung in his words like a lover's whisper in the ear.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Which one?”
“All of it!” Xie Lian shouted, his voice echoing through the forest air, reaching the leaves and making his fingers stick more in the damp earth. His anguish seemed to satisfy even more the shadows that surrounded the man. “You destroyed my expectations, and now you're saying that I... that I could make a deal with you? In what world do you live in? And don't you dare make a joke out of it too, you bastard.”
For a moment, the man looked almost sad, but then the smile on his lips indicated that all his emotions were lies. As false as Xie Lian's hopes.
“I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice. You are here, while your people are dying. Your food reserves are running out, no foreign country wants to help you and, above all, the water in the stream is contaminated,” The Night listed the situations, and it was as if every word was piercing Xie Lian's flesh. “Your father is perishing in bed, and it's up to you and your stupid ministers to take care of everything. But you are only a 20-year-old prince. What could you even do? Ah, I know! Abandon your people, run into a forest and beg for the mercy of the gods…”
“Stop!” Xie Lian begged, feeling the tears running down his cheeks. “Please stop…”
His voice was weak, summed up to a fraction of the imposing tone he had been using so much these days to give orders and comfort people, all in vain. Xie Lian was not a good prince, he knew that, but nothing had prepared him for the citizens' rejection of his help. Nothing helped him to understand why so many hated him just because he was part of the nobility.
But there was a solution in front of him, and after having so many facts thrown in his face, all he wanted to do was get it over with. End the pain, wail, and agony of his thoughts and heart.
He had come here for a reason and wouldn't leave without it.
The means didn't matter.
“What do you want?” Xie Lian asked, resentful. His pride was hurt, trampled, and nonexistent. But was it worth resisting? Fighting? “Tell me what you want in exchange for helping me.”
The shadows around the man stirred once again, and in his red orbs, Xie Lian clearly saw a glimpse of delight. His sharp expression wore a winning smile, and the tendrils of power surrounded him danced as if they were celebrating Xie Lian's words. His words of defeat. The man held out his hand, black and covered with darkness.
“Tell me what you want first, Your Highness.”
Xie Lian bit his tongue inside his mouth, but his willpower was not enough. It would never be enough, apparently. He stared at the outstretched hand and extended his own, watching the long sleeves slide down his arm and show the pallor of his skin, now stained with dirt and blood.
“I want to become an example to the people. I want them to look at me and see the prince they always wanted, and then... I might be able to overcome this crisis. Help my people and calm them down.”
He didn't believe a word he’d said, but the flaming eyes of the Night in front of him showed the opposite. When their hands touched, the man intertwined his fingers with Xie Lian's, and the small waves of power tickled his skin as if they were enjoying the chills that ran down his arm and the base of his spine.
“I will grant you that. In return, you'll give me a little something,” the man said, and held out his other hand, raising his index finger. “Once a month, I will visit you. Every 6th day, I will appear for you, and you will have to go out with me.”
Xie Lian almost pulled his hand back, but their fingers felt too intertwined. Almost intrinsically connected.
“What? Are you insane?!”
The man smiled.
“That's the price, prince. Would you prefer it if I asked for your soul? Years of your life? What do you think is a better exchange? Your youth or your incomparable beauty?”
Xie Lian tried to think of something, but his mind was a fog of hazy thoughts. He couldn't focus on anything with that man's hand touching his, the power radiating even in his breath. He was power, darkness, and a multitude of other things.
“I don't even know your name. How should I call you?” Xie Lian whispered, looking into the red eyes of someone who was about to seal a deal with him.
The shadows around the man throbbed with excitement and he approached a few inches, his hot, heavy breath chilling Xie Lian's skin when he spoke in such a low voice, as if only he deserved to hear it.
“Call me Hua Cheng. Scum of the skies, Ghost King, and one of the four calamities that strike the world. Shadow of Knight, and your appointment a month from now.” He smiled, and raised his other hand to touch Xie Lian's face in a strangely gentle way. “Do we have a deal?”
Xie Lian swallowed, feeling his heart crushed inside his chest. The forest did not even seem important anymore, and all thoughts of his kingdom were wrapped in the charm of that man - Hua Cheng.
“Yes.”
Hua Cheng grinned, and then moved forward smoothly and determinedly. Xie Lian didn't have time to react before the man pressed his lips to his, and a burst of energy pulsed around them: black as the night, but full of red threads. Red stars that flickered in the small space between them, melting into smoke in the darkness.
The kiss lasted only half a second, and when they parted, Hua Cheng's deep, whispered voice said:
“It's done. See you on the 6th, Your Highness.”
Suddenly, he fell apart in shadows and remains of power, leaving Xie Lian alone in the forest, the silver moon shining above him. In the distance, an orange glow enveloped Xian Le, burning and in revolt, waiting for the prince who had promised a solution and would return forever marked by an agreement reached in the dark and agitated forest.
Ignoring the heart pounding in his chest, the dirt in his hands and the shame of what he had just done, Xie Lian picked himself up, and then ran through the forest, feeling his muscles burn. He feared being swallowed up by the endless shadows and that, now vulnerable, Hua Cheng would regret the deal and take his soul right there, with the moonlight as the only witness.
But this time, he could have sworn that the darkness was opening up for him while that small red stars shone in the night sky.