3: 3
3.
"Roar!"
A beast's cry tore across the sky, shaking heaven and earth.
I let go at once and looked toward it, my heart leaping.
It was my spirit beast, the Qilin! He had come to save me!
Everyone shrank back in terror. I alone rushed toward him in joy.
"I'm in here!"
Joanna's face changed, and she turned to the senior brother, wearing a wounded look.
"I was only asking Senior Sister for a treasure to save my life... surely that brute doesn't mean to kill me?"
"Don't be afraid, Joanna."
The senior brother rose, sword in hand, his face cold and hard.
"I'll kill it for you."
The Master raised his hand as well, ordering all the disciples out to help.
"Beat that cursed animal to death. Avenge Joanna!"
He paused, and his eyes settled on me, dark and heavy. "And let Evelyn Mercer see for herself. Without those precious parents of hers, she is nothing."
The sounds of slaughter began outside.
The Qilin's deep roar grew weaker and weaker, until at last it faded into a whimper.
The hope that had just flared in me collapsed into a bottomless despair.
"No! Qilin! Run! Get away!"
"Don't worry about me!"
I fought like something gone mad to reach him, but at the door I stopped, frozen stiff.
The Qilin's blood, still glowing gold, seeped in under the door,
and soaked through my thin embroidered shoes.
He had gone with me to pick out these shoes.
I was soft-natured and dull, always yielding, and I had no real friends.
The Qilin was a spirit beast, but he was also my only friend, worth far more to me than my own life.
And now he was dead.
I used to think there was nothing in this world worth refusing to bend over.
But today, his death was the one thing I would never bend on.
Joanna came up behind me and drove her foot into my back.
Caught off guard, I pitched forward into the pool of blood, my head and face wet with what I could no longer tell was blood or tears.
She only stood over me and gave a soft laugh.
"Senior Sister Mercer, you're so pitiful. So ridiculous."
"It was just a dog. How could you value it more than your own life?"
As she spoke, the mockery in her eyes turned to grief.
"Senior Sister, you'd even save a dog. So why won't you save me!"
"Tell me, aren't you stupid? Hand over the treasure and that dog never had to die."
She pointed at the lifeless Qilin on the ground and laughed softly.
"This is all your fault!"
"The dog's dead now. Crying won't do you any good!"
I stared at her, hard, and with the back of my hand wiped the blood and tears from my face.
All my life I'd had no friends, but I'd never really suffered either,
and so I had grown into someone soft, someone who scattered spirit stones around and wasted her kindness on anyone.
My parents had tried raising me hard once, and failed, and in the end they gave up and simply let me live happily.
I had played the meek one because I didn't mind having my goodwill thrown back at me,
because I didn't care how others mocked or sneered,
because I never begrudged sharing my wealth or my joy.
But that did not mean I had no limit!
In that moment hatred rose up over the instinct to appease.
"Joanna Henson..."
When I finally spoke, I realized I had screamed my voice raw.
"I'll remember what happened today. Every one of you is going to the grave with him."
Joanna arched a brow, gave a little cry, and fell back into the senior brother's arms, weeping her fake tears.
"I'm so frightened... you'll protect me, won't you?"
The senior brother patted her, all comfort.
The Master planted himself in front of the two of them and looked at me, the outsider, with cool detachment.
"The Immortal Sovereign and the Poison Physician aren't here. No one can help you."
"Once Joanna ascends, we'll tell the Immortal Sovereign you ran away from home. Not a soul will doubt it."
With that he curled his hand into a claw and seized the Qilin's soul, which had drifted up toward the sky, reaching for rescue.
One hard clench, and the Qilin's soul scattered into nothing.
But what they didn't know was that the Qilin only looked like a big dog.
His true body was a cub of the ancient divine beast, the Qilin itself!
A divine beast had died, and the very winds and clouds of heaven and earth shifted with it. My parents in the immortal realm would surely see.
The next moment, a familiar figure appeared at the edge of the sky.
I lifted my head and flew toward it, like a swallow rushing home to the woods.
