“This is The Vidyadhara High Elder of the Xianzhou Yaoqing to any high-ranking Xianzhou Luofu members — return to the command room. I repeat, return to the command room.”

The Master Diviner of the Xianzhou Luofu’s Divination Commission barely registered the command to recall her back to the command room, so busy was she in staring at a bloodied weapon resting in her palm, enduring a sensation of iron-heavy nausea in her stomach.

It was only a prized possession that was given to you upon your promotion as a Cloud Knight Officer by General Jing Yuan, triple the size of her hand yet surprisingly light enough for her to wield it, made of a high-carbon alloy with wood and leather for its handle, wrought iron for the crossguard and a steel of a material to constitute its pommel.

It was quiet where she was, inside a room which had designated her divination medium. With the other Cloud Knight soldiers funnelling directly towards the steps descending into the battlefield of the Denizens of Abundance army, it left her in a strange state of further nausea where she could stare at the bloodied weapon and wonder...just how many Xianzhou forces had been struck by The Reignbow Arbiter’s Lux Arrow cutting through the skies? Had they escaped prior to her sending a SOS signal to the last observed location of THEIR arrow? Why had her omniscia and matrix fail to predict the outcome of the battlefield and your health? Why had it let her down when she needed it the most?

She had heard chatter of medical aid ships being launched at blistering speeds somewhere at the end of THEIR Lux Arrow raining down; she didn’t know if the talk was true, but she hoped…she prayed that they were carrying you to somewhere safe. That there were little to no injuries from the Hunt and destruction.

If she were to be asked later, her answer would be that she did not know why she brought the handle near her face and pressed a loving kiss against it. Maybe it was a reminder of how unpredictable the future was, the disgusting reality of war…how it never changes, of how she was a slave to destiny, eschewing predestination for free-will. Maybe it was a strange form of physical proof that, again, no divination could be entirely accurate and that her teacher was never right, but simply a person who believed in predetermined destiny.

Or maybe it was to serve as a reminder of The Third Abundance War, of the divinations she thought would predict less casualties...and her part in it. The guilt chewing at her heart, embodied in that weapon.

Fu Xuan swallowed thickly as she rested the weapon back on the table so it was nice and secure in its place, and forced herself to return to the present to where you were supposedly located. General Jing Yuan had not instantly responded to the Vidyadhara High Elder of the Xianzhou Yaoqing’s recall order to the command room, so as dictated by the chain of command the duty to respond fell to her. “This is Master Diviner Fu Xuan — understood, I will return in a few moments. I have to visit someone important to me.”

Suffice to say: you felt like you had seen better days. Your muscles felt achingly sore and overworked — particularly your arms and thighs. A quick assessment of your face revealed bruising to go with the ones on your chest and back. Your joints were stiff and clunky, and your wrists felt that if you were to have moved them a little, it would be too soon and way too painful.

Not to mention the throbbing ache in your head. You felt a hand enclose itself around your right. Slowly you tore your gaze away from the horrific bruises and toward the face of The Master Diviner, who looked at you with a mix of pity, sympathy, horror and utter incomprehension.

“Do you ever wonder if all this is just part of a written calculation? A system that we cannot escape from, bound by an Aeon. I thought I was outside this system…but today, I was proven so wrong.” Fu Xuan mused out loud. “You shouldn’t have almost died. The Matrix showed a probability of a clean victory and a few casualties on our side. Yet, I didn’t want to lose you.”