Hehe

Drip. Drip.

Zero sat in a room at a floor table with the three cloaked soldiers and the female leader. Her name was Daiyu. Black jade. A fitting name.

Drip.

Zero understood that he had been in the box for a week. That was strange, of course. However, he was troubled about something else. His next quest drew nearer. According to the scroll, there were five more until he ranked up. After that, who knew what. He needed to find something quick.

Sitting in a room being appraised from all sides did not help.

"For the last time, who are you boy?" Daiyu asked. She was dipping a finger into her tea cup. The steam floated up as she stirred it. She raised the finger above the cup for a while, letting it drip back in.

Zero had noticed how oddly she behaved. She was either staring emptily at something or doing the most bizarre and mundane things.

Like putting a finger in hot tea water.

Her male counterparts sat around the table sipping theirs quietly. They all kept their eyes on the boy.

"My name is Zero. I cannot remember anything else." He lied for the tenth time now. He was not worried about giving his true name. They did not seem to care either.

"You know that is not what we want to hear, do you not?"

Silence. Drip, drip.

Daiyu sighed a long and winding breath then looked up. A small smile grew on her face and her dark eyes sparkled. Zero looked back at her blankly.

"Very well then. You've qualified to come with us. I will keep an eye on you."

She turned to the men. "The roads are quite tricky to pass. Prince Qinshan is dead and the routes are crawling with imperials."

That confirmed it. Zero's face was expressionless but he was sure of it now. These were not soldiers from the capital. He sat in silence watching their conversation.

Pu'er frowned. "Dead?"

The other man sitting next to him, the man with the scar over his face stood up. "Dead. My informants say his body is still on the way to the capital. Two weeks away now. No formal action has been taken against the killer."

"Before that, a principal member of the Sukho cult was slain. Rumor is, it might be the same killer."

Pu'er scoffed. "An unknown assassin? Quite a brute. But with what motive?"

Daiyu stretched a hand over the table to the kettle in the middle. She poured herself another steaming cup of tea and proceeded to dip a hand in it. "Motive? Pieces of Sukho talismans were found at the site of the prince's death. A demon was blamed. The killer of the monk is still very much unknown, demon or human."

"You know what this will do?"

The lady dipped her hand in boiling liquid again, raised it and watched it drip. The finger was a bright hue of red. "It will provoke war. And it looks like the demons have alied themselves with the damned cult house. "

She sighed. "And all this when the balance of the realms are at stake."

Zero looked to his hands that sat in his lap. These people didn't know. The demon that was seen at prince Qinshan's camp was him. The Sukho cult had not allied themselves with any demon. Why would someone want such a misunderstanding to ensue?

For centuries, cultivators of the imperial Jin city and the demons of the labyrinths in the far south had warred. If the capital truly believed the House of Sukho had become a threat then...

He remembered the frail looking Old Bao. Was he behind this plot? But why? And using him in such a scheme?

Zero looked back up. Daiyu was staring right at him.

"Go now. Join the others in the main hall. We shall be down for a briefing in a bit. "

Zero understood the discussion was heading in a direction that was not meant for his ears. Perhaps they had forgotten he was there all this while. He rose and bowed to them respectfully.

As he left the room he heard Pu'er say to the rest, "whatever happens, we must begin the infusions."

He could not hear another word past the screen doors. For a while, he stood there hoping to catch more of their discussion, but turned away as he heard not a word more.

The young man walked slowly down the dimly lit wall. Small paper lanterns casted soft yellow light and even softer shadows over the small passage way.

Suddenly,

"Hehehe!"

Zero turned sharply hearing a giggle echo. He looked around, observing the little potted plants mounted at the corners of the corridors and the small carved statues on the polished wood walls.

He frowned. ' I must be hearing things. '

Acknowledging this, Zero walked forward, his feet making no noise against the cold floorboards.

"Hehehehe!"

This time Zero reached into the folds of his garment for his short knife. He stood still in the hallway, eyes darting both sides. For a minute, all was silent.

The light in the paper lanterns flickered wildly. There was no breeze in this passageway. He mounted his guard. He waited a while but there was no one. Was he losing his mind?

He walked faster now, heading straight to the main hall. On getting there, his lips pursed.

The entire room was bathed in blood. The six youngsters from the village lay in literal pieces. Zero blinked slowly then took a step back. He could not differentiate whose body part was whose.

"Ahheeeehheee!"

From the far end of the room, just outside the shut windows, came a loud, child like giggle. It was getting dark out, Zero could see the shadow of a moving mass. The soft light in the room flickered.

He moved forward. Squelch.

His boots squished a piece of flesh, an unwinded intestine. There was dark tufts of hair all over the place. Zero looked at all this emotionlessly, but he was filled with caution.

He drew nearer to the window, his boots crushing bone matter.

"Hehehehehhehe! More! More!!"

The moving dark mass twirled behind the window screen. With a swift move, Zero drew it open, revealing nothing but the howling snow outside. The village was quiet. He turned about, confused.

"What is wrong with you? Shut the windows, you wretched thing!" It was a girl. One of the supposed dead youngsters.

Huh. Zero glanced back out the window. Was he okay?

"Shut the windows! It's freezing!"

He did so silently and opened his mouth to apologize but was cut off. "Please sit somewhere in silence and wait for the masters to come. We understand you are mentally challenged and shall respect your disability."

It was the brave, confident boy that had gone first for the evaluations. He spoke well for a village lad, Zero noticed, ignoring the jab. It did not hurt, he told himself.

The girl shouting over the cold smugly gestured for him to sit somewhere to the corner of the room.

He smiled sullenly and moved to sit underneath a flickering lantern by the wall hoping to get some warmth.

"Hehehehehe!"

Zero perked up but by the time he blinked the scene had changed and he was sitting in a pool of blood. This time the girl was alive. She was lying not too far away, crying in pain.

Her tongue had been ripped out and a bleeding eye lay beside her head. Slashes could be seen all over her body, she was dying.

"H-hlp..."

Zero's jaw clenched. He raised his hands to his head. He was seeing things. Where was he? What was this?

"H-hlp..."

He took a breath and the stench of rusted iron hit him. His hands shook visibly, his eyes were clenched shut.

"H-hlp..."

You're seeing things.

"H-hlp..."

He could hear her choking on her own blood. He inhaled again, knowing it was a fake. He could taste the same rotten aroma of the shadowbeasts in the slavers' camp on his tongue. He spat, disgusted.

Zero's breaths were shallow, matching the wailing girl. He opened his eyes. It was the three armed woman laying there now.

Her eyes were blood shot. What remained of her head was creeping with maggots.

"Shehehehe. More! More! "

The three armed woman laid in her own blood, staring directly into Zero's widened eyes. "Did you like it? How did it feel when you bashed my head in, boy? How did it feel to kill?"

He shook his head, refusing to answer. It was a dream. He would wake up. He knew he would. He just needed to be patient.

"Answer me! You will kill all of them! You killed them! Yes! Aha! Monster. You demon. Heheheheheeee"

The woman's face morphed into tens and tens of faces, each one reminding Zero of the massacre he had committed in Feifei. His teeth clattered but it was not from the cold. It was from fear.

He blinked and he was back in the hall with a hand over the neck of the proud boy who had his sword drawn.

Daiyu and her men stood at the entrance watching him with solemn expressions.

The rest of the youths stood off to the side, watching Zero in horror. A body lay on the ground, dead. Throat ripped out.

The girl.