Chenzhou watched the wheat field where his mother had disappeared until the sun started to rise. A handful of other villagers made it out, fleeing into the fields as the fire overtook the entire village. Parts of the stone wall exploded from the heat, buildings collapsed, and the bodies of the villagers and the tribesmen that didn't burn started to bloat.
The tribes had lost more men than anyone had realized in the attack, thanks to the ghosts of Tira-Lian and Fox and Yuze had quietly discussed the effects of that as they watched the remainder of the attack. The tribes had even left their dead behind, which wasn't normal behavior for them, but Yuze and Fox attributed it to the ghosts and the fear the tribes still had towards Tira-Lian.
Zhao Mingzhe had come to find them not long after Chenzhou's mother had reached the wheat field and was fascinated by the story.
Snake had brought Lord Yin and Lady Yang to them just before daybreak, but Marian and Anna had stayed outside the gate with the remaining guards, too afraid to enter.
Lady Yang and Lord Yin had studied the bodies until they faded away in the daylight, looking for their own blood. Zhao Mingzhe seemed to be the only one without a strong tie to the village.
Before they left, Chenzhou paused to say a prayer where his mother's house had stood before finally allowing himself to be pulled away.
As they rejoined the group outside the gate and started the walk back to the water hole, Finn recovered some of his energy. "I've never heard of anything like that! Do you think it was like the ghost armies from the Age of Warfare? Or is it a curse?"
"Maybe it's the village's memory?" Patrick brightened. "It just relives it over and over."
"Whatever it is, it's terribly sad," Anna said, tucking herself under Chenzhou's arm as they made their way through the wheat. "All those poor people."
"Everything about that place is sad." Lady Yang agreed. "There are few places so filled with tragedy."
"And to think it all started with Song Rui." Finn turned to Eirian. "Do you think if she and Tan Suk had been able to be together and happy, that it would have ended differently?"
Eirian scoffed. "No."
"No?"
"I don't think one relationship would be enough to change the fate of a place."
Finn blinked. "But your relationship with Chenzhou changed the fate of the Camelia! If he hadn't married you and brought you there, we never would have found out about the miasma."
Eirian scowled as the rest of the group chuckled and nodded.
"Fair point," Yuze smirked, ignoring Eirian's dirty look.
"I'm hardly anything like Song Rui," Eirian growled.
"Does that mean you're comparing yourself to Song Ran?" Chenzhou asked innocently and then ducked and laughed when flames burst to life around Eirian.
"They're both terrible people, and I'm nothing like either of them." Eirian declared, reigning her magic and her temper back in.
"But Song Rui was a good person." Finn insisted. "She was kind and gentle, and she played the harp for the villagers! Song Ran was the one who ran around blackmailing and poisoning people."
Eirian waved a dismissive hand. "So, they're equally horrible." Finn's face twisted with disbelief. "Song Ran was a terrible person who wanted desperately to be loved. Song Rui was a nice person, but a bigot."
"What?" Finn and Patrick both looked ready to jump to the ghost's defense.
"Think about it," Eirian held up a finger. "Even if she was really as good as the stories say, the only reason she and Tan Suk didn't get married was because they didn't think they were good enough for her."
"But everybody thought that."
"Then why did her father have no issue with Song Ran marrying Tan Suk?" Finn and Patrick fell silent at her words. "None of the stories you told me says anything about anyone but Song Rui and Tan Suk thinking he wasn't good enough for her. And there's no mention of Song Rui's father having any issue with Song Ran's marriage. Didn't you say Tan Suk was one of his favorites?" Reluctantly, they nodded. "So, Song Ran was definitely not a good person, but all of that misery really started because Song Rui didn't think the man she apparently loved was good enough for her."
The group fell silent at Eirian's words.
"That's…That makes the story of Tira-Lian even sadder." One of Li's guards muttered.
"More believable than a tragic love story, though." Her companion shrugged.
"All love stories are tragic," Eirian pointed out.
"Not all of them!" Finn instantly argued. "There are some happy ones! Like Queen Helia and King Leander."
"Queen Helia left her first love to marry Leander. I don't think their story had a happy ending for him." Eirian argued, enjoying how spun up Finn was getting.
"But that wasn't his love story." Finn was turning red. "He must have had his own after she left."
"Or he died of a broken heart." Chenzhou didn't sound happy to suggest it.
"Or he turned evil," Yuze added, sounding much more amused as Finn glared at both of them.
"Either way," Eirian broke in. "Both the Song sisters got what they deserved, and they ended up dragging Tira-Lian down with them."
Chenzhou's face darkened at the reminder.
"All those poor innocents," Anna murmured, rubbing his arm.
"At least we tracked down Lord Ye's mother." Lord Yin seemed to be trying to raise the mood back up. "And we have discovered answers to one of the great mysteries of the borderlands."
Lady Yang nodded in agreement. "Someday, Tira-Lian may even be rebuilt."
"Might have to do something about the ghosts first." Eirian pointed out.
Finn and Patrick shared an excited look. "Like an exorcism?"
"Why are you idiots so excited?" Emmy sighed. "They don't seem like they'd go quietly."
Eirian changed the subject. "We learned something else, too." When Chenzhou glanced over at her, confused, she said: "Your mother didn't have the pendant."
Chenzhou stopped, thinking back. His mother had been wearing what was probably a rice sack as a dress. She hadn't had any shoes…or any jewelry.
"I didn't see it on her parents' bodies either," Eirian added.
They'd already been dead, bloody and disfigured, but as she said it, Chenzhou realized he hadn't seen any obvious jewelry on them either. "She didn't take anything from their bodies."
Eirian nodded.
"She might have come back later." Yuze looked thoughtful.
"The village would have burned for days." Fox shook his head. "Why starve out in the fields just to try and go back?"
"The fire would have spread to the fields at some point, too." Snake stepped in between Yuze and Fox. "She would have had to flee to avoid it."
"So, it's unlikely she ever came back." Eirian decided. "And since we know the pendant was in the vault at the Camelia for some time-"
"She got the pendant after arriving at the Camelia." Chenzhou finished, mind reeling.
"That seems like quite a leap." Lady Yang frowned. "She lived for many years before she met Lord Ye on the battlefield."
"It's probably somewhere in the Inventories, right? Who took the pendant out of the vault?" Finn perked up. "We could find out when we get back!"
"If she got the pendant at the Camelia, that probably means it was already poisoned." Chenzhou, in anguish. "Whoever gave it to her knew that."
"Which means whoever it was is the one who tried to destroy the Camelia." Yuze, angry.
"Who's probably still trying." Eirian corrected. "They're not going to stop after all that effort."
~ tbc