Cold Moon, Bright Star

By bloodredrosez

November 30, 2019

A/N: I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but I have some good reasons this time—my sister got married on an African safari of all places, so we spent a lot of time preparing and then went off to Kenya and Tanzania. But I was going to post this at the beginning of October, so I'm still just horribly slow. I just hope there are some people still around to forgive me and read this.

I originally started Cold Moon, Bright Star as a one-shot story which turned into a collection of short scenes loosely filling in missing gaps in the drama. The early chapters each had an overarching theme and I tried to make them more like independent stories because of the time jumps. But from here on out, the chapters will be more like normal parts of a story.

A quick note on the translations: I still haven't found a consistent system so right now I've been using the "Wind and Cloud Decree" (Feng Yun Ling) but I translated Luo He's spy/assassin group as "Feng Yun Order" instead of Wind and Cloud Order. I've seen some places translate it as the Stormy Order but that sounds weird. I'm not going to spend too much time on translation issues right now, but I plan on going back to standardize everything when the whole story is finished. But if the terms are too confusing right now, especially for readers not familiar with Mandarin, just let me know.

Equinox Flower

Once upon a time, a young girl had fallen into a river and woken up as a slave.

This time, Chu Qiao woke up in the midst of luxury and comfort. The bed beneath her was the softest she had ever felt in her life and the blankets around her felt nearly silken. Dim sunlight filtered through the windows some distance away. She only had to take a quick glance around to see that she was in a spacious room filled with extravagant furniture.

But the delicately embroidered pillow beneath her cheek was damp with tears and the with a start, Chu Qiao recalled the nightmare that she had woken from. Her heart began to race as the dream came back to her in a rush: Yue Qi lying motionless in the snow, He Xiao trying to hold off the other Yanbei soldiers, bright red blood everywhere, everywhere—sticky on her hands, pooling on the glassy ice of the lake, blooming in brilliant crimson on Yuwen Yue's pure white clothing. Yan Xun's attacks had seemingly come from every direction and yet he had been impossible to reach, his rage and envy scorching her from far across the frozen land.

Chu Qiao clutched at the sheets beneath her as she bolted upright, the pain seizing through her body nothing compared to her panic as the rest came back to her: Yuwen Yue falling into the icy water, his entire body covered with wounds, and her desperately following him into the frozen lake.

The events were all too clear in her mind for it to have been a nightmare. Her vision blossomed with black spots as Chu Qiao gasped for air, her body reverting back to its panicked state. The last thing she remembered was how she had seen the beautiful pale blue ice of the lake above them, as she held Yuwen Yue in her arms and unleashed all the power within her.

Where was he? If she was alive, then he—surely he was still alive too?

"Yuwen Yue!" What had been meant as a scream came out as a croaked rasp. Her throat stung as if she had swallowed a mouthful of nettles. She would have tried again, but she thought better of it. It wouldn't be wise to draw attention to her before she figured out where she was and what had happened.

Where was this place? Who had dragged her out of the lake? And most importantly—where was he? Chu Qiao swung her legs to the side of the bed and tried to stand, only for her knees to buckle beneath her. She stifled a cry as she slid to the floor in a thump.

Her mind whirled furiously as she assessed herself. She didn't even have the strength to drag herself over to the door, but her movements hadn't brought any guards in yet. It felt as if every muscle and tendon in her body had been shredded and sloppily put back together again. She barely had the strength to remain sitting upright on the ground. Looking down, she saw that she was dressed in loose white underclothes and when she drew the sleeve up on one arm, her skin was so covered with bruises that her entire arm was an alarming shade of deep purplish blue. Her legs, too, were so battered that they looked barely human.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed since she had been taken from the Icy Lake. In her defenseless current state, she was also at the mercy of her savior—or potentially captor. She did not have so much as a knife on her and her sword was likely buried at the bottom of the lake. Chu Qiao could have laughed bitterly at her fate: once again, she was at her most vulnerable, having been fished out of the water. What lay in store for her—another hunting game and another lifetime as a slave? At least this time she hadn't lost her memory.

Before Chu Qiao could contemplate her next move, the doors to the room opened. Her heart leapt as she looked past the sudden flood of light, but the white robed figure was a woman, not a man. Her beautiful face and highborn manner was oddly familiar but Chu Qiao had trouble placing her identity. Her green-robed attendant quickly closed the doors and left them alone in the room.

The woman casually sat down on the bed that Chu Qiao had just vacated and did not concern herself with offering to help her up from the floor. Her position put her at a level naturally higher than Chu Qiao and though it was a deliberate move, she did not show hostility. Her eyes were lively and betrayed a sharp intelligence. More alarmingly, from her fluid movements, Chu Qiao could tell that she was a skilled fighter.

"You must be wondering what happened and who I am," said the lady in white.

Chu Qiao had no patience for games. "Where is Yuwen Yue?"

Was it a flash of jealousy that she saw, or was it some kind of anger? Whatever the emotion, it was quickly replaced with a calm expression. "I, too, would like to know. I believe he's still alive, but he is not here." She paused and then added, "I am Xiao Yu, older sister of Xiao Ce."

So this was the princess of Southern Liang! Chu Qiao knew very little about her except that Xiao Ce viewed her as a dangerous opponent rather than ally, since the siblings had grown up competing for their royal father's favor. But given what Xiao Ce was like, she knew better than to underestimate his sister.

"Is Xiao Ce the reason why you saved me from the lake? I warn you, it would be difficult to use me against him." Chu Qiao saw no reason to mince her words.

The princess laughed with what seemed like genuine surprise. "How very direct of you! I am starting to understand what charm you hold for my brother. But as a matter of fact, I came to the Icy Lake for his sake. Someone went to some great lengths to announce to the world that the heir to the Wind and Cloud Decree could be found there. I suspect it was Yuwen Yue, although he is not usually so heavy handed in his tactics. But under extreme circumstances and with little time…" she gave a graceful shrug.

It was a lot of information, but Chu Qiao only wanted to know one thing. "If you rescued me from the lake, then where is Yuwen Yue? Why don't you know where he is?"

"As I just told you, the entire Jianghu learned very recently that the missing heir would be at the Icy Lake," Xiao Yu said dryly. "And it seemed like every sect and order and independent party showed up all at the same time to snatch you from Yan Xun's clutches. Everyone was fighting everyone else. Yan Xun also tried to get the two of you, but when he realized he was outnumbered, he finally took his soldiers and retreated. In the chaos, I managed to find you in the water before anyone else did. But the person I wanted was Yuwen Yue."

There was obviously much more to the story than the princess was willing to disclose, but Chu Qiao had no means to pry it out. Xiao Yu had been careful not to say why she wanted Yuwen Yue, although it wasn't a pressing question since she didn't have him anyway. Chu Qiao did remember seeing Yan Xun's soldiers engage with shadowy figures in dark colors, right before they had fallen into the lake, so she was inclined to believe Xiao Yu's account of what had happened.

Enough was enough, though. She painfully leveraged herself back onto the bed so that she was sitting eye to eye with the other woman. "Who do you think took him? How do you know he didn't drown in the lake?"

The reply she received was sardonic. "Well, now that you are finally awake, you could ask your own people."

"What do you mean? He Xiao and the Xiuli army, they're all dead… Even Yuwen Yue's personal guards are gone." Her voice wavered as she remembered Yue Qi again and how he had always been kind to her. If Yuwen Yue were alive, he would be so devastated to know how his right hand man had died. Yue Qi was almost like his little brother.

"Maybe…or maybe not," Xiao Yu mused skeptically. "There were many missing bodies, but it remains to be see whether the lake truly swallowed them up. Your people, though—it seems there are quite a few Feng Yun Order loyalists after all, just waiting to find Luo He's missing daughter."

Chu Qiao narrowed her eyes at the princess. "And how do you know so much about the Feng Yun loyalists? What is your role in all of this?"

Xiao Yu had a small, mocking smile on her face, but Chu Qiao felt like it wasn't entirely directed at her. "That's easy enough to answer. I have you, and I want Yuwen Yue. They have him, and they want you."

"I'm not a bargaining piece," Chu Qiao retorted. "Even if you could trade me, what do you plan on doing with him?"

Xiao Yu ignored the question. "Well then, just consider me the person who saved your life. I expect you you'll have many opportunities to repay the debt in full one day." She rose in one quick motion and was halfway to the door before Chu Qiao could stop her.

"Wait! Are you just keeping me here as a prisoner?"

One slim shoulder rose up in a shrug. Xiao Yu turned back. "You could walk out of here if you chose, but I suspect your injuries are still too grave. It took a lot to bring you back from the dead, you know. The guards are for your protection, but I'm sure your Feng Yun lackeys will come for you soon enough, and then we'll see."

"But why would they take Yuwen Yue?"

"You really don't know anything, do you?" Xiao Yu looked at her with something like pity. "There were reports that you killed Yuwen Hao to avenge your mother's death, but do you even remember that?"

Chu Qiao could say nothing. Wu Daoya had told her the events of the past, but she didn't trust the Southern Liang princess enough to reveal what she knew. It would be better for her if Xiao Yu assumed that she was still missing all her memories.

The princess sighed. "Anyway, I suppose that I should remind you that the Feng Yun Order and the Eyes of God are mortal enemies. So you see, you could never have been with him any more than I can."

She swept out on that bitter note, the doors closing firmly behind her, leaving Chu Qiao fuming at the fanciful designs carved onto the wood.

* O * O * O *

Chu Qiao didn't see Xiao Yu again after that, although she had a few visits from Qing Wei, a woman around her own age who was supposedly was one of Xiao Yu's ladies in waiting. It was from Qing Wei that she learned that she was currently recovering in one of Xiao Ce's palaces, which explained why everything was so ostentatious. Chu Qiao was also sure that Qing Wei was actually a spy and an assassin, which then meant Xiao Yu was far more than merely the elder princess of Southern Liang—not that she had ever expected anything less.

Since she had little to do except rest in bed, Chu Qiao racked her memory each day to try to piece together the puzzles before her. But with so much information missing, things were still unclear. She was certain now that those early attacks she had experienced back when she had been at Qing Shan Yuan had come from Xiao Yu—which meant that the man she had killed back then had also been her subordinate. After she realized that, she analyzed her conversation with the princess over and over again, trying to see what she had missed.

Clearly Xiao Yu had some connection to Yuwen Yue, but what was it? How could that be, when they were the leaders of two opposed spy agencies? Xiao Yu had as good as admitted it, so why would she want to save her enemy? In fact, why wouldn't Xiao Yu try to kill her now and singlehandedly end the hopes of the Feng Yun Order for once and for all?

The trickle of news she got from Qing Wei each morning were just as frustrating. A temporary truce had been called between Wei and Yanbei; there was civil unrest in the Wei empire and rumors abounded that the emperor was on his deathbed. Chu Qiao hoped that the rumors were true; any new successor to the imperial throne would likely be more open to a permanent peace. Of course, that also depended greatly on whether Yan Xun would ever give up his dream of revenge, or whether he would press and press until all of his men, and himself, finally perished.

The news also drove Chu Qiao to test her own strength more than once, unable to bear the thought that while she whiled away her time in sleep and recuperation, Yuwen Yue was out there somewhere, perhaps dying. Every night was filled with nightmares and in many, she finally found out his whereabouts only to arrive a day or even hours after he died from his injuries. Again and again Chu Qiao would wake in a cold sweat, but her injuries kept her in Xiao Ce's opulent palace, which had become a prison.

She had too much to say to Yuwen Yue and she did not want to live her life full of regret like this. It was as if with the unlocking of her powers, she had also broken past a wall of denial in herself. What did it really matter, if they were on opposite sides of the same war? Or even if they were the respective heirs to two jianghu orders whose main purpose was the eradicate each other? She was ready to give it all up—Yanbei and Wei, all of the warmongering people in both nations could go to hell for all she cared. She had spent so much of her life fighting a war that she had taken as her own cause, and who had she really helped? What did she have to show for it?

Nothing but a battered body and a broken heart.

Some days she felt like she was drowning in her own bitterness and disillusionment. Her forced inactivity was a double-edged sword, leaving her with too much time to reflect on her past naivety and Yan Xun's repeated betrayals. Even as her body healed, Chu Qiao knew her mental and emotional state was deteriorating. The power of the Wind and Cloud Decree may have saved her life, but for what purpose?

Lying in bed with her eyes closed, Chu Qiao could remember the feeling of Yuwen Yue's arms around her that day they had met at the Icy Lake. She had thought she had reached the rock bottom of her faith at that time and yet he had found the only words that could comfort her, instinctively finding a way to lend her his own sense of certainty.

Rest here a while and then stand up and go on, he had told her.

The only thing now that gave her the strength to go on was the hope that he still lived.

* O * O * O *

The assassins arrived in the early hours of the night, just before dawn, and their attack was no less bloody for being anticipated. Though Chu Qiao had never made it outside of her bedroom yet, she knew from conversations she had overheard that there were always at least two guards assigned to the courtyard just outside. The stifled scream of some poor maid, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, woke her.

Chu Qiao sat up slowly in bed with her eyes closed, tracking the scene outside based on what she could hear. There were two of them—no, three. Two men, and one woman, who was considerably more skilled than them, so light on her feet that even Chu Qiao's trained ears could barely pick out her movements. The guards were dead, slain at their posts, as was the maid. As the assassins advanced toward her private chamber, the only question was whether this was all going according to Xiao Yu's plan. After all, Chu Qiao had asked for weapons several times and had been denied even so much as a basic knife. Even if she were armed, she was still far too weak to defend herself.

The men burst in first, not bothering with any attempt at discretion—the doors were flung wide open so that the woman could enter. Nothing could be seen of her features except for two pitch black eyes and a sliver of moon pale skin. The men were likewise garbed in all black robes with their faces obscured by cloth.

Chu Qiao quickly stood up to face the intruders, but in one swift motion, the woman knelt and bowed her head. The men echoed her deferential motions exactly, until they formed a triangle of perfect subservience.

"Lady Chu Qiao, we are here to escort you," the woman said. "You may not remember, but all of us here were loyal to your mother and watched you grow up. It's time to bring you back to your rightful place now that we have found you."

"You really thought it would be that easy?" a voice interrupted from the shadowy corner of the room. All of them turned to see Xiao Yu emerge from the darkness, also dressed in plain black, looking every inch like a spy rather than a princess. "I told you to bring Yuwen Yue. It appears you have failed to deliver your side of the bargain."

"The heir of the Wind and Cloud Decree shall not be traded like some common hostage," snarled the assassin. "You had your chance to kill him, but the little birds say your infatuation stayed your hand. We will not hand him over."

Chu Qiao sucked in a breath at the only confirmation she needed—that Yuwen Yue was alive and with these people, her supposed followers. But Xiao Yu's eyes narrowed in fury and she flew into an attack. She was even more skilled than Chu Qiao had suspected, easily holding off the two men while still focusing her attention on her female opponent.

The other woman parried and pushed the Da Liang princess back with a well-placed high kick to the shoulder. The fight took them clear across the room and back, the two figures hard to distinguish from each other since they were both whirling figures in black. Chu Qiao didn't have time to discover which woman came out on top, however, because one of the men grabbed her and threw her onto the other one's back.

She only had a moment to decide whether to try to get off or to hang on. Just as she wrapped her arms around the man's neck, a thick cloth bag descended over her head, smelling strongly of bitter herbs. She recognized the scent—Yuwen Yue had taught her about this specific use of nightshade—and thrashed, regretting her trust in these assassins. But it was already far too late. One breath later and she was already lightheaded, her already weak muscles losing all strength as her limbs went slack.

"Take me to Yuwen Yue," she said, or tried to say. The words came out garbled. She tried again and again to say his name. She dimly heard Xiao Yu's shrill cry of rage but it was the last thing she knew.

* O * O * O *

The air was cold, so very cold that it was painful to inhale it into her lungs. Once again, Chu Qiao found herself waking up alone in dark, unfamiliar surroundings. She was relieved to find no signs of the men who had brought her here and even more relieved when she sat up effortlessly. She felt good—no, more than that, she felt great, despite having been put into a drug-induced sleep. Her entire body seemed to be filled to bursting with energy and for the first time in weeks, she was entirely pain free from her injuries. The bone deep chill of the low temperature hurt, but in an altogether different way, similar to what she felt when she had practiced the kungfu of ice as a child.

Was it the extreme cold that gave her this sudden strength? Did it unlock some aspect of the Wind and Cloud Decree that she carried within her body, hidden in the fanciful tendrils of the equinox flower inked onto her back? Chu Qiao didn't know, but she was grateful all the same for her sharpened senses.

"Yuwen Yue?" she called out into the gloom, feeling foolish as she did so, but unable to stop herself from the attempt. There was no reply except for a forlorn echo of her voice. Why had the assassins from the Feng Yun Order left her here of all places? Had Xiao Yu caught up to them and killed them?

She was in some kind of massive ice cavern, she saw, and the faint light was actually from some kind of glowing material—plants or insects—that was embedded in the semi-translucent walls. What she had taken for stone was actually sheets of ice. The overall effect was almost mystical, as if the gods had blessed the place. But the cold was far too extreme. On the heels of that thought, she realized that the assassins had left her here because if they stayed themselves, they would all freeze to death within a half hour. As would she, Chu Qiao realized, if she couldn't channel the energy from all this ice.

She walked alongside the wall of the cavern, debating her options. In case she failed to activate the Wind and Cloud Decree again, she would have to find a way out. There was always the risk that she would end up accidentally going deeper into the cave system, because her captors had left no markers or indications of where they had gone. If the men and women had been truthful about who they were—and Xiao Yu hadn't challenged them on that—then they probably saw her as their long lost, rightful leader. After all, her mother had not only trained her from birth to eventually assume that position, but also indoctrinated her followers to accept it as Chu Qiao's birthright.

Which meant that they wouldn't have left her here to die, so why had they risked their own lives in bringing her here? Had it really been to keep her safe from Xiao Yu? But if they could tolerate the icy cave for long enough to leave her here, so could the Da Liang princess.

The only other thing she could think of was that they had deliberately left her here to activate the Wind and Cloud Decree, perhaps even as a test to see if she was worthy. She could tell that she was healing, but she had no idea how long she could endure the conditions. What other reason could they have brought her here? Unless…

Unless…

Chu Qiao's breath hitched in her throat as she remembered how she had demanded for them to take her to Yuwen Yue, how even as she had faded from consciousness, she had repeated his name. She paced the length of the cavern with frantic steps now, looking at what was either the exit or the entrance, and made up her mind.

"Yuwen Yue?" At first she thought that the air in the next cave she entered was warmer, but as she touched the frozen walls, she realized it only felt that way because her own body had cooled to nearly match the temperature of the air. Yet she hadn't felt so alive in weeks and it was as if a haze that she hadn't known was there had suddenly been lifted.

She continued calling his name as if he might answer back at any moment. Hope flickered and grew, even as she tried to remain calm. There, around the bend of the tunnel—she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, the white almost impossible to see against the softly luminescent frost, but the bright red of fresh blood was unmistakable.

Chu Qiao dropped to her knees before him, unable to hold back her tears as she took in his battered form, the ugly wounds all over his body, and his frost blue lips. He lay there with his eyes closed, encased in a clear layer of ice. While nearly a month had passed since Xiao Yu had pulled her from the lake, he looked exactly the same as she had last seen him. She had been healing, but he…he was…

"Yuwen Yue! Wake up, please—" she was sobbing nearly too hard to continue, her tears freezing as they fell. "I'm begging you, Yuwen Yue. I owe you too much, don't you remember? Wake up!"

Chu Qiao pounded a fist on the ice covering his chest and the impact formed a cracked pattern on the surface, but it still remained solid. She cupped his face with her hands, only to find that she was now just as cold as the ice and had no living warmth at all to offer. She couldn't even melt the thin layer of ice encasing him. She could hardly recognize the keening cries that came from her own throat, the whimpering sounds of pain and fear, like an animal caught in a merciless trap.

What if he had been frozen not just in time, but in death? He had been injured so severely before falling into the lake and she didn't understand the power of the Wind and Cloud Decree at all, didn't even know if she had used it correctly when she had unleashed its potential on them both. What if, beneath the ice, what was before her was truly only the empty shell of his body?

"Yuwen Yue, I swore to you that we'll live together or not at all," she whispered hoarsely. Anguish suffused every part of her body, a pain that was deep rather than sharp, as if the very marrow of her bones ached. She lost all track of how much time had passed.

Eventually Chu Qiao tried to calm herself and to call up the kungfu of ice. She sat next to him and closed her eyes, trying to reach a meditative state. The horror of it settled deep into her, until she felt as though she could even go a little mad, the reality of it all too much for her mind to accept.

The power when it finally came surged through her, perfect and unending, just like the day at the Icy Lake. Chu Qiao could have cried with relief if she had had any tears left to spare. She touched her hands to his body and tried to channel the energy through him, but the force of it slipped around and over like a river rushing around rocks. There was simply no resistance. It was as if there was nothing there to be a vessel for the energy that she tried to pour in. Again and again she tried, unable to accept that even the Wind and Cloud Decree couldn't save him, unable to accept the implications of why it couldn't.

"Wake up for me," she pleaded. "Come back to me just one more time."

Was this why the assassins had brought her to this ice cavern? To have her see him and make her peace with his death before taking her place as their leader? Or was it to break her with hopelessness?

She curled up next to him and put her head on his chest, eyes burning. She could no longer hear her own breath—the power of the Wind and Cloud Decree was so intoxicating that she wasn't even sure she was still even breathing—so the air was completely still. She could have been an ice statue next to him, just existing with him, and in that absolute silence Chu Qiao finally accepted that there was nothing more left to do or try. She had dreamed many times of finding him too injured to live and had even dreamed of finding him dead, but never once had she imagined this nightmare could happen.

"Even if you don't wake, I will never leave you again," she said into the quiet.

It would take her what, a few days at most to die? Perhaps much sooner, if she gave up the kungfu of ice in this frigid environment and let nature take its course.

Exhaustion turned into numbness, which slowly swung back to a wild and hot anger. She beat her fist against his chest again, unable to bear that he was so close and yet so impossibly distant at the same time. The ice fractured into jagged shards and she caught her breath at the sight of the damage, but aside from a patch of his clothing being exposed, nothing changed. Red slowly blossomed across the white, joining the other bloodstains from his wounds, and she stared at it in fascination before she realized that a sliver of ice had punctured deep into her hand.

Her closed fist was dripping warm and wet blood, further staining his white robe as she watched, and she couldn't even give him this last, tiny bit of dignity in his death-couldn't even give him the most basic respect of keeping his robe clean. No, she had to bleed on him. In her feverish mind, it felt suddenly like committing sacrilege against a god. Chu Qiao felt herself break down to the very last part of herself.

"I'm sorry, Yuwen Yue, I'm so sorry…" She watched helplessly as the blood continued to stain the white garment, spreading so quickly it almost seemed like it was alive and actively defying her wishes. She had drawn her fist away but the red liquid seemed to be increasing. This was impossible; she had to be hallucinating. And yet, as she watched, white continued to turn red, and then she saw that the blood was continuing to spread—underneath the melting layer of ice.

The tattoo of the equinox flower that covered her back flared painfully hot and she cried out in shock as a surge of energy ran through her body, buzzing down every artery and vein.

"Xing'er?"

* O * O * O *

A/N: Don't hate me too much for this chapter ending please! I was already at 11 pages and I had to end it somewhere. After you read the next part, you'll see why there really wasn't a good place to break up the chapter without a cliffhanger. I hope you guys are all still enjoying this, so please review and let me know your thoughts/wishes/complaints on the direction of the story.