Part 1. Wei Mansion [CONTINUES]
“What we have realized in current marriage with second prince would have been realized a decade ago, and that remains a fact, a shortcoming that is only human of me – or you! But it was all a fault of chaotic circumstances and to say that any future conduct will be the same…? My granddaughter Wei Ziya, Old Master Rong, is a very sweet child who knows her own responsibilities and had been brought up as a candidate for this very marriage since her birth. She will never overstep her boundaries!” There was a decided air to this declaration.
Old Master Wei continued as he sat down, “and no, I don’t think any refutation from your side will make that sordid event of past, any less of your family’s fault than it is, my dear lord, NO! As for your present concerns, we will fulfill our side of promise as we are expected to. That is the least we can do for our heavenly Masters and for Dajin. Second prince will be our hope, our future, our light in these murky times of darkness which knows no light – he will be the beacon of the new age that will lead us out of this mortal realm, and take our Dajin from a small place to the wider world of greatness… Hope he is to be, of the whole wide world, no doubt, yes of course!(To doubt that our Weijia, with all our humble sacrifices will hinder that, is at best preposterous!) If men knew of his future greatness, they would fall down on their knees and kiss his feet with gratitude; and being one such man in knowledge of his greatness, nothing I do will ever grieve me more than acting as a villain to his highnesses dream! The gravity of this prophecy, the voices of reason, the future, the prosperity, we at Wei house had known from the moment we came under this pact! So DON’T point fingers!”
After a zealous refutation of the most vehement kind, Lord Wei didn’t just stop there but followed with his own doubts. No one in the council was unaware of the small friction between the Wei’s and the Rongs. It was only natural that majority hesitated to meddle in this small scuffle.
“…but Master Rong, your protection of your offsprings has proven to be a clear shortcoming instead! Everyone will agree with me over this point. Your grandson was sent over to oversee a small frontier in the south – look what he had made out of this small event? Rong YuGuang’s constant championing of those barbarians right has brought us to our present dilemma. ‘What about ancestral precepts of fulfilling vows, he says, forgetting that, many souls will be embroiled in a mutiny if it happened, or eventually this small fulfilment of a mere vow will break the harmony of our great nations!” Silence followed.
“There are many who are peering at us as hungry lions, looking for a moment for us to slip and lose. A mere vow, can it replace the great duty we have to our common dream to maintain our Dajin’s destiny? Can I ask as a member of this council, how have you allowed him in his capacity and allegiance, to mix with those barbarians in the south and keep doing that, and with so much audacity? If you were not a member of this council, I would have even doubted if your intentions held more than you let on.” The heightened voice had once more regained their previous calmness. By the end of his tense question, his slovenly pronouncement even caught others off guard.
“No trouble over that – he will do as bid.” Master Rong could only promise this. The blush that reigned over his cheeks was invisible in the darkness, yet few close to him still spotted his shaking body.
“We all hope so.”
Lord Wei didn’t dwell further in pressing his long-time adversary as his mind was also clearly preoccupied with graver matters. Just like that, the friction simmered off on its own. The two gentlemen in the midst of the heady exchange settled down, while the rest murmured amongst themselves. For a while, the meeting seemed to have come to a halt. But soon, with his decided airs, and a penchant for wearing smile at odd times, Lord Wei once again tapped the table with his iron goblet, calling everyone’s attention.
He smiled to himself and begin, “Everyone here to some extant is aware that the main reason for the establishment of this council occurred due to a need to channel a legitimate sacrifice for our Master’s. At present our greatest utility lies in our being able to realize this job for our Heavenly Masters. I hereby announce, once more to the common assembly that another sacrificial ceremony for Moon Goddess will take place a year later." He announced tersely, his eyes overflowing with pride.
“What?!”
“It’s too soon, so soon! Why are they in such a hurry? It’s not even a full cycle – the stars aren’t aligned, nor the season right.”
“Are you sure Lord Wei?”
“Tell me you are kidding! By God! – we cannot do all this at once!? A war, and the sacrifice too! In the same year – by god, it seems impossible! Just don’t tell us that there is some more of this to come!”
This news finally animated the faces of all the council members. Everyone had a different reaction, but all supported a mixed kind of shock. The root of their worries being that a sacrificial ceremony of that grand scale needed elaborate preparation – the previous ones had taken half a decade if not more! And the year was soon to come to an end!
"We have been told to prepare two brides. My two granddaughters, Wei Zhiruo and Wei Lina have been prophesized as the Chosen one’s this time around. The rest will follow the arrangements of the council, as planned in previous years but we can cut out some ceremonies to hasten the preparation. But before that -”
Lord Wei looked up, taking a brief glance over the overcast heads of twelve-member elder council. Every head at this moment faced him in apprehension; disagreeable ones, irritated ones, well-spoken or soft-spoken ones, as well as those who hardly spouted a word – every eye at the moment rested on his figure with guided emotions.
“- the GODs have allowed our men to follow in a year to the lands above. Heaven… is at hand!” There was something boiling in the madness, the gravity with which he clipped those sentiments in his words. Yet, like a mirror, the same zealous emotion seized everyone in a moment – the eyes were rounded and red, the breathing struck a notch higher, the shivering’s followed and many startled out of their chairs as if to take a deeper look at the speaker.
The sunlight peaked silently through the window pane, the grey receded into foregrounds and everyone could see the echoing, reverberating dreams of each other – it was the dawn of the destiny!
“Lord Zhang, have you decided on the future candidate to be sent back to Cultivation realm?” Someone hurriedly shook master Zhang out of his stupor. “We have all made our selections – even Master Rong has started preparing for the upcoming departure – you must know, we have not much time to dwell over it. However angry you are with your youngest son; he still appears to be the best candidate in all our eyes for accompanying second prince.” Tulou Hu, the current head of Jinghai’s Yamen shook up his close friend, inadvertently arousing several disinterested heads. Even Lord Wei looked up.
“Yes, my son Zhang YuShi will follow the second prince in his quest.” Lord Zhang replied in a small voice, unclear whether with happiness or general distaste.
Following this declaration, council was once more abuzz with a pulse of general happiness. The expectation of this news was no less than the following hope they cherished in their hardened breasts, all beating with future uncertainties.
“Great! Great…we had expected something of this sort to tell you the truth–”
“Yes, a fine candidate! So, finally the last member of the expedition to ‘Heaven’ has been chosen now? When will they set-off? The date must have been determined, right, Lord Wei?”
“Two years, even less than that.” Lord Wei replied. “Great thing, you have told us Master Zhang. Several decades ago, in a battered cottage, some of us were present with our fathers, when that historical event took place.” Here in a ceremonial nostalgia, he spoke of the past, the hardships, and the toiling’s of their ventures.
“When the heavenly Master promised us a path, we had taken it as a recourse to all the exploitation that had occurred over the years, thoughtlessly. In that war plagued Dajin, in its several tribes all vying for a throne and its patched-up entity, our forefathers could only see the help of god’s as to end at that - when the first king was christened an emperor of emperor's! No one could imagine, neither us nor our fathers, that one day, that promise that vow of Gods would allow us to peer through our hazy destiny as a man and come out of this heavy chain! With him, our second prince at helms we will enter an era of influence, where we will no longer be paltry servants at call! We will be Masters of our fate, the divine will not be out of reach. To ask for a goblet of ambrosia to make us all immortals will not be a mere pipe-dream. Our world will have an heir, and we – as the supporters, will forge our paths into the heaven itself! Our dreams have brought us to this day – may our deities bless us that we succeed in saving our homes from the likes that we have seen. For Dajin, for our world’s destiny, we have reached a milestone.” Lord Wei’s resonant voice died down in a whisper as he raised a halting toast to all.
“The day we have been looking for, after so long…”
“Sigh…ah, what a time to be alive…”
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