Once, Western dragons scorched the world. Now, they’re almost extinct. But the woman who killed them? She’s here, climbing my tower.

That woman was my friend, once upon a time. Her name is Hui Long. 

I watch her now as she scales my abode. Her hair is stark white for she is now a full-fledged child of spirits and the holder of the nine Eastern dragons. She had called to me from afar earlier, waving before making the climb. My legs dangle from the bone-antler precipice of the tower. Eternally consigned to this place has driven me mad. Such is my punishment for insubordination against my clan. ‘Insubordination’. I did it for her. I stole the Dragon Blade, the Scaled Nodachi, for her to use. And use it she did, trekking across the continents after her escape from our clan, hounding the Western Dragons. And what did I get? The task of guarding our orange pillar, the daemon watchtower of Clan Adachi. Alone for fifteen years. Fifteen. Long. Years. 

Safe to say, I grew a little bitter. 

Hui reaches her hand up. I grasp it, pulling her onto the antler outlook, the wind swaying us ever-so slightly. Off-balance she stumbles into me, nearly knocking us both off had it not been for my bare feet clinging to the grooves of the antlers, keeping us steady. 

“It is good to see you Raiten,” she says. Despite all the rage swirling in my heart, her face, her smile… it melts away my bitterness for a brief moment. 

“I hear you have become quite the hero,” I say, doing my best not to return the smile. 

She shakes her head, straightening herself. “No. I have become quite the fool actually.” 

“Ah so nothing has changed.” 

“You could say that I suppose.” 

We both chuckle lightly at that notion. The sun peeks over the snow-capped mountains in the distance, the whites glistening, the gaps between the branches of Giant’s trees glowing, the horizon exploding with color and waves of light. The world itself celebrates the dawns now -- thanks again to Hui Long’s many escapades. 

“I might have the frozen dragon in my arsenal, but I still get chilly. Shall we enter your abode?” Hui asks. I nudge my head, motioning for her to follow me into the small orange house of wood and stone, magic and bone. She trails her hand along the hard grooves of the walls as I stir the stew pot over the fireplace, smelling its salts and adding more kimchi and garnish. 

“This is…” Hui trails off, looking around the interior. One futon in the corner, one stew pot held over the eternal flame, one torch stump hanging along the right wall, two windows, open and whistling with frigid air, assaulting them, assaulting me, endlessly. 

“Cozy?” I ask. 

“Horrible. What have they done to you Raiten? Why… just for helping me?” 

‘Well what did you expect? Did you expect that I would get a slap on the wrist and let off? I wasn’t born a noble little daughter like you, I was born a bastard and a concubine’s son and my mother was never married and she was killed and I was beaten broken bruised cheated mauled for my entire childhood until you, only you, stood up for me once and me and my foolish little youthful heart fell in love and whenever you talked about yourself and your dreams and your cute little aspirations of saving the world I listened and imagined a future where I went alongside you, riding horses, killing daemons and dragons but then when it came time to deliver I did my duty… I gave you everything because that sword is everything and what did you do?’ 

‘What did you do?’

“It was not so bad,” I say, my face a perfect little mask, hollow from years of cold, sunken from thousands of sleepless nights in the storms of Katal. 

“Are the elders still alive?” Long asks. Her face is colored by that stark rage I used to bear witness to in our childhood. She hated our clan leaders with a passion. Yet, that childhood anger was more wild and immature -- this seemed tempered and controlled, like that of a warrior’s determination. 

My anger to them was cold, washed with time. I knew they would die, either by my hand or old age. At which point either some new elder would renew my enslavement or I would be free, having wasted fifteen years of my youth, wandering the planes beyond my home at the ripe old age of twenty. 

“Unfortunately, yes.” I walk over to the torch stump on the wall and produce from its ashen insides a small, intricate amulet. Long looks at me, eyes focused on that red amulet. “They made me the Thunder Watcher.”

“I… do not understand.” 

“You need not understand,” I say, clutching the amulet now. It glows with essence as I begin to squeeze it. “But I shall ordain to you my purpose: I am slave to this tower; the wall against the beasts of the North. Whenever Giants or wyverns came trancing towards our clan, it fell upon me to slay them.” 

The amulet grows hot. Hui Long steps back. The fire crackles. 

I smile for once. It is not a smile Long likes. 

“Do you remember the day that we made our grand escape?” I ask. She nods slowly, fingers curling around her waist, where the Scaled Nodachi lays in its sheath. I should be hurt by this distrust, but I know it is warranted. A seasoned warrior can often feel the pervasiveness of another’s killing intent. 

“I called out to you,” I continue. “Told you to keep running. ‘Chase your dream!’ I yelled. What a fool I was. I should’ve screamed, ‘Save me! Help me!’ But for some reason, I expected you to do that anyways. I thought that much was implied.” 

“Raiten I---” 

“And you know what saddened me most?” The amulet breaks, shattering into red angel dust, covering my palm, seeping into my skin. It is the last of my supply for this month, imparted unto me as the Thunder Watcher. “It was the hope. I hoped you would return, even as the elder’s beat me. I hoped you would return, even as they killed my mother and cursed me with immortal enslavement. I hoped you would return for the first week. The first month. The first year. The first decade, even. I never faltered. I believed in you. 

“And then, a traveler comes and I let him pass. And he bade me news of your adventures. Your victories,” I spit. The angel dust sends waves of thunderous power flowing through my veins, like a tidal wave breaking, and I am unleashed once more upon this unfair world of mine. “He tells me he is your lover, your scout. That he has gone ahead and that you shall visit me soon. ‘Visit’. As if we were old friends, catching up.” 

And Hui Long is speechless. She does not even tingle her sword, for she looks to me, my sunken face and starved visage, with a horror beyond comprehension. And my smile widens as I gain some catharsis --- some petty, useless catharsis from that reaction alone. 

“I -- I did not know,” Hui Long finally says. “I did not know they killed your mother.” 

This takes me back. But only for a moment. The anger surges once more and sparks of crimson lightning begin forming around me, bouncing off my skin, playing off my glowing red veins. 

“You did not know? You truly have turned into a fool. Perhaps it is your spoiled upbringing that ingrained such ignorance as this --- for me, any slight against our clan was amplified to a criminal pedigree and our final escapade was my last straw. You have seen me steal rotten apples and be beaten bloody for it. When you pilfered wagyu, you were merely slapped. And still, you did not know?” 

Now Hui Long puts her hand on the white-leathered grip of the Nodachi, drawing it from its scabbard. Shaking, she holds it forward, a tear rolling down her face. 

“I am sorry you have suffered so. But please, we can talk---” 

“What did you do Hui? What did you when I gave you that sword?” 

“Please just --” 

“I shall impart upon you the truth: you fled.” 

“Hear me out--”

“No!” I yell, lightning bursting from my fingers and striking the wall next her, shattering it and letting through the full breadth of the cold wind, whistling. “Now is not the time for words. That was one, five, ten, fifteen years ago.” Another bolt of electricity, of angelic smite, whips from the palm of my hand, striking closer to her, grazing her flesh, eliciting a searing, burning, crackling scar across her thigh. 

She does not wince. 

“Fight!” I yell. Then, I force her hand, imbuing red lightning into my legs, exploding off the ground and soaring straight into her. 

In a panic, she extends her blade forward. Right before hitting her, I create a sword of red lightning and, with one sparking slash, parry her blade away. 

There’s a metallic ZING!!! As lightning and steel create music. 

We crash. 

We fall.