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Shadowfist fiction: Critical shift- Zheng Yi Quan
Another one of the post-critical shift stories.
This one was to answer the big questions about how the Dragons winning the pulp juncture could actually work, and it does, although I'm not convinced anybody but me can actually see it. :)
Since it directly mentions the events of the TFT finale, I was waiting to post it until the TFT story was finished.
Once, there had been a village here, but the tides of war had passed this way too many times, and now little remained, save for a long-neglected shrine.
A man stepped through the doorway. If he was glad to escape the incessant rain outside, he displayed no sign.
Dropping his sodden cloak, he sat down before the altar, and bowed his head.
He was fit and muscular. Though his hair was beginning to grey, he was by no means old, but he was bent like an old man, or as if he carried the weight of the world upon his shoulders.
After a long silence, he began to speak, the first words he had spoken in months.
"Master Kar?"
"Master Kar, I need your advice. I can no longer see the path."
"Since you took me as your student, I have tried to do what is right, to hold to the principles you tought me."
"...Even if you did not always do so yourself."
"Since your death, I have done my best to lead in your place. There are others better suited, but they follow me. I think they only follow me because they once followed you."
"It is a great responsibility, but I hope that I have not disappointed you. When you taught me to continue the fight, you taught me well."
"...but you never taught me how to win."
"The war continues, as it always will, but we have won an unimaginable victory. All this time's chi flows through me."
"I fear that it will destroy me, and everything we fought for. I have seen what power does to those who hold it, and I fear that it will happen to me. I did not seek this power, but does it matter? The world caters to my desires -- how can I avoid being corrupted by them?"
"What do I do now?"
If the Great Grand Master of Furious Tiger Kung Fu, once the last living master of the Shadowfist, had any words of advice for his student, they went unheard.
After a long time of meditation, Zheng Yi Quan at last fell asleep.
He was awakened by cries of fear from outside. He emerged into the sunlight to see a mother and her son being accosted by a dozen soldiers.
It was over in seconds, the soldiers fallen or fleeing. She stepped back, still afraid, but the boy looked up at him with awe. He met the boy's eyes, and smiled.
No words were spoken, but somehow, he knew that this boy would some day follow in his footsteps.
It was not an answer to his question, but it was a start.
This one was to answer the big questions about how the Dragons winning the pulp juncture could actually work, and it does, although I'm not convinced anybody but me can actually see it. :)
Since it directly mentions the events of the TFT finale, I was waiting to post it until the TFT story was finished.
Once, there had been a village here, but the tides of war had passed this way too many times, and now little remained, save for a long-neglected shrine.A man stepped through the doorway. If he was glad to escape the incessant rain outside, he displayed no sign.
Dropping his sodden cloak, he sat down before the altar, and bowed his head.
He was fit and muscular. Though his hair was beginning to grey, he was by no means old, but he was bent like an old man, or as if he carried the weight of the world upon his shoulders.
After a long silence, he began to speak, the first words he had spoken in months.
"Master Kar?"
"Master Kar, I need your advice. I can no longer see the path."
"Since you took me as your student, I have tried to do what is right, to hold to the principles you tought me."
"...Even if you did not always do so yourself."
"Since your death, I have done my best to lead in your place. There are others better suited, but they follow me. I think they only follow me because they once followed you."
"It is a great responsibility, but I hope that I have not disappointed you. When you taught me to continue the fight, you taught me well."
"...but you never taught me how to win."
"The war continues, as it always will, but we have won an unimaginable victory. All this time's chi flows through me."
"I fear that it will destroy me, and everything we fought for. I have seen what power does to those who hold it, and I fear that it will happen to me. I did not seek this power, but does it matter? The world caters to my desires -- how can I avoid being corrupted by them?"
"What do I do now?"
If the Great Grand Master of Furious Tiger Kung Fu, once the last living master of the Shadowfist, had any words of advice for his student, they went unheard.
After a long time of meditation, Zheng Yi Quan at last fell asleep.
He was awakened by cries of fear from outside. He emerged into the sunlight to see a mother and her son being accosted by a dozen soldiers.It was over in seconds, the soldiers fallen or fleeing. She stepped back, still afraid, but the boy looked up at him with awe. He met the boy's eyes, and smiled.
No words were spoken, but somehow, he knew that this boy would some day follow in his footsteps.
It was not an answer to his question, but it was a start.