“Why won’t you follow me, Li Wai???”

     The sixteen-year old boy gazed into her fiery eyes, his own fear reflected through it. Never before had he experienced such distress, not even when his only relative and guardian had been murdered in front of his eyes. He should have known this moment was coming but he had hoped that showing her a better path would change her mind.

     “Why don’t you follow me, Zetian? Look at all this.” He spread his arms wide, gesturing at the large green meadow and the bustling small town that lay just beyond it. “We can start a new life, free of suffering-”

     “Don’t you understand??” She hissed, her teeth bared. “I. Don’t. Want. That.”

     Thrusting the parchment in front of his face, she tapped it repeatedly. “This… this…. is a great opportunity. We fit all the requirements and enlistment starts tomorrow.”

     “The Imperial Palace is a dangerous place that shows no pity to the weak and innocent.” Li Wai swept a hand through his hair as he shook his head. “We’ve already suffered so much. Why can’t we just lead a normal life together?”

     Zetian lowered her outstretched hand. “All these years, Li Wai. All these years we’ve struggled to survive. Walking from one village to another, scavenging what we can, hiding in fear whenever we think we hear the tiniest sound…”

     The hitch in her voice followed by a short pause made Li Wai look at her with sympathy. She wasn’t like this before. The girl he had first met was innocent, kind, and curious about the world. But since they began their journey together, he had noticed the gradual change in her character. Each ordeal they  encountered, each near-death experience they came back from, the hatred in her grew. Only hope kept her going – hope that they would reach a land without war and start life anew.

     “The Tufan made us like this. And they will pay, mark my words,” she spat.

     He shuddered at the venom of her words, so strong was her desire for revenge that no amount of blood spilled could sate her soul. There was no longer hope in her for she had abandoned it after that incident which rendered them both broken.

     But try he would to make her see reason. He pleaded vehemently, “Revenge won’t get you anywhere, Zetian. Would you be satisfied only when the entire Tufan people are decimated?? They have innocent men, women, children – just like us.”

     Already she was shaking her head, refusing to accept his plea. But he pushed on. “If.. revenge is what you desire, then it has already been done. That… man is already dead-”

     “Stop it, Li Wai!” she yelled. Her bottom lip trembled. The slight glisten in her eyes forced her to blink several times. When she spoke, her voice came out as barely a whisper. “Why can’t you just… come with me?”

     He hesitated as images of blood and screaming resurfaced in his mind unbidden. Looking down at his palms, he saw the marks of dark red scratches where there were in fact none. He remembered the anger when he saw the terror in her eyes, he remembered the satisfaction when he sank his clean blade into the man’s chest, he remembered that pure animalistic instinct all too well. And it frightened him.

     Following her into the Imperial Palace meant walking down the road of bloodshed. His trembling hands reminded him of how that felt, and that was just one man. A bad man, at that. Would he be able to take the lives of many, both innocent and guilty?

     “Forget it.”

     He raised his head to see her standing ramrod straight, her gaze cold and determined. Before he could utter a word, she spun away from him and walked towards the village.

     “Zetian.”

     She paused. Turning her head sideways, she spoke quietly, her words calculated to hurt.

     “From here on, we walk our own paths for I could never walk the path of a coward.”