The old folk tell of an ancient tale in China, of the era of myths, when a man and a woman wished to be married. But they were also a brother and sister, and as such they felt ashamed and did not know what to do. And so they went up to the great mountains and prayed for guidance from the heavens...
Two days after the wedding, a strange weather phenomenon was reported in the Valley of Peace. Fog, even the thick kind, was not unheard of down there among the citizens, a common enough of an occurrence, but this particular one seemed something very different indeed. For one thing, it came from absolutely nowhere: the night had been clear and fine, the sky cloudless and the stars perfectly visible, only to be all consumed by mist not a minute later. For another, it was incredibly deep and thick: its density was such that a man could walk on the street and hit his head against a wall almost without noticing. The visibility was so poor that were one to extend his hand fully in front of him, he would not see to the end of it.
Some people thought it a curse, others preached of ill omen. Very few indeed thought it to be a good thing or a blessing, and fewer still dared to suggest a natural explanation, that there was nothing wrong or magical in this. Virtually everybody closed their shops and other establishment and locked themselves firmly indoors until the fog went away. Most children obeyed their parents and did so as well, though a few most rambunctious ones dared to go outside nonetheless, playing in the mist. They would tell stories of monsters residing in the fog and eating unaware children who went too far away from their parents, but nothing such was ever reported and no child or adult was deemed missing afterwards.
The Jade Palace was also engulfed by the everhungry haze, equally thick and allowing none to see through it. Even the vast mountaintops atop the Palace were not spared, and the farms at the edges of the Valley likewise put under. Later it would be heard that everything and everyone in a radius of fifty miles was completely surrounded by the strange clouds.
And there atop the Palace, at the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, unseen by all, unheard by all but one other person, a cautious male voice uttered:
"So... you guys think it's okay, then?"