Her eyes were impossibly blue and her pitch-black hair, despite how wild and unkept it was, he could tell would be soft and shiny. She was unlike most other woman Byakuya had seen in his measly seventy thousand years of living. The immortal women in the nine heavens, the earth immortals of Qing Qiu and even the mortal women in the land of the living usually wore their hair long as was the standard for high class feminine beauty. Long hair was necessary for them to decorate themselves with all kinds of hairpins and jewels to try and catch the eyes of men. Even men like Byakuya himself kept their hair neat and long as the social standard for nobility demanded. This woman was unusual, she was uncommonly beautiful, and she was lifting his small feathered body closer to her eyes to closer inspect his injuries.

Unfortunately, he wasn't in the best of shape at the moment to impress her, but despite the injuries he obtained from his unfortunate encounter with the rebel demon lord Nodt, his feathers all shone in their light ashen-sliver brilliance, and the tendril on his head and among his tail feathers all curled majestically to maintain what little dignity he had left after losing the fight and resorting to laying low in his beast form until the threat finally passed.

"Oh! Aren't you a gorgeous little cockatiel? But you are hurt so badly, you poor little thing… Don't you worry! I help all kinds of injured critters all the time, I'll get you fixed up as good as new until you can spread your wings again." She promised Byakuya, and placed him into the bird cage she had used to ensnare a small golden finch, who seemed awfully upset that his place as her companion had been stolen from him, but flew off none the less. He never how animals could tolerate living with humans, but even if the feeling was fleeting, he understood their sentiment.

It was kind of the beauty to offer to take care of him, but it wasn't as if he wouldn't heal naturally withing a few days without her help, and if he didn't he could always send for the medicine king who would heal him at all costs on the stake of his immortal life.

The woman finally entered an old hut and placed the cage down gently on the table by the window. As she said, there were many little objects and natural herbs she had scavenged from the forest laying on the table along with small twigs and scraps of threadbare linin she must have used for bandaging small animals.

"Here," she said, and placed a handful of dirty seeds in front of his tiny clawed feet, "go on and eat up! You must be hungry, and if you want to get better the first thing, we need to work on is making sure you get a decent amount of nutrition." She placed a few small berries beside the seeds and watched him expectantly.

He was the grandson of the heavenly lord Ginrei, and the crowned prince of the nine heavens! She would dare to feed him bitter wild berries and seed as if he were some common house pet? Then he remembered that she had called him a cockatiel back in the cave where she had found him, and with his current size he couldn't blame her if he didn't come off as an almighty phoenix god who strikes fear and respect into the hearts of all living beings.

Byakuya clawed at his food dejectedly. It would be so much simpler if he could change back into his human form, but he lost too much of his spiritual power to Nodt and couldn't take on his human form to scare her if he wanted to. Besides, as he looked into her large emotional blue eyes, he decided that he didn't really want to scare her, but he would try to humour her to ease her worried mind.

He picked up a couple of the berries in his long, sharp beak, and made an excellent show of swallowing them right in front of her. Something he had planned to continue doing until she wasn't looking so that she could spit them all out somewhere before he lost his sense of taste for the rest of his immortal life.

She smiled brilliantly at him and stroked his head with a finger, making his tendril bounce back into place on his head. The action divided his attention too long for him to prepare for or avoid what happened immediately after. Her petal pink, satin soft lips pressed against his forehead. How dare she! The berries he had never meant to swallow slid down his gullet unnaturally fast. He coughed and choked for a moment before he stumbled toward the water dish.

"There's a good boy! I need to mix some herbs together for your ointment before I bandage you up. Be a good boy and eat. There's plenty more if you're still hungry."

That night when the woman went to bed, she didn't leave him in his cage to rest, or escape as he had planned. She had sprinted and bandaged his broken wing tightly against his body after applying ointment that was meant to heal his injuries. He was no medicine king, but from the burning and increased aching he was positive that the so-called healing ointment was going to leave him even worse for wear. Still, she took him straight into her bed with her, dashing all his plans of escape. He fought her weakly by shaking his head and flapping his uninjured wing between them to create distance, but she would have none of that.

After they bother settled on her bed with her one arm cradling him as if he were a pet chicken, and the other arm secured around him where she attempted to soothe him by stroking his back, he finally gave up his plans for escape and tucked his head under his wing to try and get some sleep. Only one of his moonlit silver eyes peeked over his wing at her sleeping form where he took a moment to admire her, and chided her for allowing a man into her bed when she was clearly still a maiden. Somehow his exhaustion overcame him. When he woke it was still nightfall, but he could finally take on his human form.

His plan was to rest for a while and escape while she slept, but her small hands had latched onto her black robes while she slept, and one of her legs had snuck between his own as she turned to him for warmth. He swallowed thickly as the moonlight lit her face. It would have been so simple for him cast a sleeping spell on her and leave right then. He could even erase her memory of finding him to avoid her needless worry over him. Instead, he kept his eyes wide open and watched her as she slept. There was nothing between them, nor could there ever be, but this was the closest he had ever been to another person in his entire life. Not even his mother held him when he was a new born baby. A had in heaven was a year in the world of the living, so in what seemed to be in the blink of an eye, the first rays of light entered the old hut, and instead of leaving to return home and be treated by a professional, he quickly turned back into his small beast form when she gave the first signs of waking, and he continued to watch her with interest. Somehow over just a few hours, this insignificant human girl had become part of his every waking thought. He didn't want any unanswered questions about her. He wanted to know everything. And since he couldn't ask her any of them in the stake, he was in…he would have to stay with her a while longer and observe her for himself.

Byakuya never realised she had snuck inside his ice cold heart, but by the time she fully awoke and he saw the beautiful deep blue of her eyes, their fates were already sealed.

Siegrain was prince Bai De Gun's star lord. His majesty spent most of his time governing Qing Qiu ever since Dong Hua Dijun and his wife Queen Dowager Bai Feng Jiu retired to live at Bihai Cangling. His majesty was only a fifteen thousand year old child, yet when his mother became ill and needed to go into seclusion almost three thousand years ago, he took the thrown of Eastern Qing Qiu to await her return. Siegrain didn't worry too much about him because he knew how Qing Qiu took care of their own, still, the star palace was rather boring without anyone to serve which was why he submerged himself in his work.

Si Ming, Siegrain's senior star lord who worked under his majesty's father often came to keep him company, and advised him whenever he struck a particularly difficult problem on the mortal fates, he was responsible for writing.

"Siegrain, I have a job for you." Si Ming said as he entered Siegrain's study. Greeting and bows were pretty much irrelevant to them as they worked the same field, but as Si Ming was his mentor so he stood and bowed to him out of respect.

"No need for that. We have an anomaly in the mortal realm that I need you to check out for me." Si Ming said, cutting straight to the issue at hand. It was quite unlike him which meant it could be related to one issue.

"Is this related to the Qing Qiu's royal family's mysterious disappearances?"

"It is. Perhaps you should inform his majesty Bai De Gun too, after all, she is his aunt."

"Aunt? You mean it's not Si Yin and Mo Yuan?" Siegrain asked suspiciously. As far as he knew her royal highness Bai Feng Jiu only had one aunt and no cousins or siblings, and while he knew a great deal of Qing Qiu's secrets, including the fact that Si Yin was actually high god Bai Qian, and that she and Mo Yuan were currently laying low in Qing Qi after she fled Kunlun mountain with his comatose body over seventy thousand years ago. What other 'aunt' could this be? Could it perhaps be his majesty's mother in disguise?

"No, we still have no trace of them, though," Si Ming said contemplatively, with a gossip fire burning in his dark eyes, "I have a feeling their whereabouts aren't entirely 'unknown', are they?" Siegrain smiled and shrugged his shoulders innocently. They both know he knew something, but Si Ming also knew that if he couldn't tell him it was obviously for a good reason, besides, there was nothing Dong Hua Dijun didn't know. If he wanted Si Ming to know and risk the information being leaked, the he could tell him himself. Siegrain might not have heard from his master in many years, but that didn't mean his number one loyalty would ever change.

"Forget it, forget it," Si Ming dismissed, and tapped Siegrain's shoulder to get his full attention, "this lead is on her majesty Bai Qian. It was said that she disappeared after the battle a Roushi river over seventy thousand years ago when she and her older brother high god King of northern Qing Qiu, Bai Zhen fought in the battle. We feared that she was already lost, probably swallowed by the bell of the East Emperor, but suddenly we received a faint sign of her divine breath in the world of the living! This is not my jurisdiction so I cannot follow this lead; which is why I have come to you."

Nothing star lord Si Ming said made a lick of sense to Siegrain. It wasn't impossible for Bai Qian to have left Qing Qiu for a short while, but she wouldn't leave Mo Yuan's body for a second for the last seventy thousand years, so why would she do it now? Unless he woke up? No. Siegrain dismissed that idea because if he had awoken the bell of Kunlun would have rang to signal his return to the living.

Siegrain finally understood how lost and confused people felt over the Si Yin incident now, the only difference was that he was one of the few who knew that Si Yin and Bai Qian were one and the same.

Siegrain immediately turned to leave for heavens gates.

"Are you going to tell your young master?" Si Ming asked and Siegrain shook his head. How could he? Similar divine breathe to Bai Qian could only mean it was his majesty's mother, and until he was certain about her identity it would be pointless to tell him only to get his hopes up and diminish his long upholding faith in his star lord.

"I will investigate this matter by myself. We don't know if this really is Bai Qian or not. There is no need to disrupt the peace in Qing Qiu for another dead end, is there?"

"Wise." Si Ming complimented and handed him the scroll before he cloudrode to the exact designation of the disturbance.

As he expected, there was nothing there. His long blue hair billowed around him as he surveyed the carnage left behind from a pillaged village. Rosemary village, if the scroll was correct. There were bodies littered through the streets and spawled through the doorways of their homes. Some of the burnt down homes were still smoking, but it had already been at least a day after the siege.

Siegrain decided that it wouldn't do him any harm to see if the mysterious entity was still nearby, so he searched the village anyway. These kinds of calamities were what he wrote about on occasion, so it didn't really shock or disturb him. It was just apart of human life. Who was he to judge?

The cries of a young child under the debris of the inn beside him caught his attention. He watched the place beside him which thankfully hid the child's face. It was their fate to die there, and if it wasn't then they would live through this or someone else would come along to save them. He began walking away and a broken piece of porcelain shattered under his boot.

"Hello? Please, help me! I know someone's there! Please don't leave me! Please?" The little voice stopped him in his tracks. More a moment he felt afraid and even guilty. Instead of helping her he asked her a question.

"Are you afraid of dying little one?" Their crying had ceased, and they sniffled under the debris.

"I'm not afraid of dying sir, but my family will be terribly sad if I leave them. I still haven't met my brother. I… I can't die without first meeting my brother!" They sobbed. Siegrain smiled. Not afraid of death, huh? Such wisdom from such a young child. His mind wondered about her situation until the child began sobbing again.

"Sir? Sir, are you still there?" Siegrain sighed and reluctantly walked over to the pile of wood and stone. He crouched beside it and touched it comfortingly as if it were part of the child it hid.

"Weren't you with your family when this inn was sieged?" He asked them, and then added, "you realise that your family has already most likely passed on, right?"

"No! My mother and father left me to wait here for them because they wanted to know how things were at home first before they introduced me to the rest of the family. My parents aren't dead! My daddy is so strong that he can protect us from anything!" They declared confidently.

"Then where is he now?" Siegrain asked without thinking, and cringed as the child began bawling once again. Now he felt as though he had to help her somehow. If he didn't, then karma would surely come to find him when it was time for his high god ascension, but how could he help her? To him it sounded more like she had been dumped by her parents because they were expecting another child soon and couldn't afford two children, especially since they seemed to believe the unborn child to be a boy. This child was probably a very unlucky little girl. Still…how could he change her fate by helping her? Perhaps if he read her fate first…

"Hey, kid? What's your name?" He asked them but was met by silence.

"Child?" He urged. Perhaps she had succumbed to injury…

"I don't have a name yet. Father was meant to name me after I was born but he said he needed longer to think about it and mother agreed." They said to his displeasure. He couldn't check her fate without her name…

"How about your parents names? Who are they?"

"Mama is Mama, and Daddy is Father." They replied innocently. Siegrain muttered complaints under his breath as he began clearing away the debris. He knew better to use magic in the world of the living, but he could only imagine how disappointed in him Si Ming would be when he would out. If, if he found out, Siegrain reminded himself, besides, if he didn't tell anyone then who would? The child? He scoffed at the absurdity of that ever happening. They didn't even know his name, and he would be damned if he told them the only thing they needed to under the most unlikely of circumstances, rat him out.

Before he could clear away a heavy board it was shoved back at him with such force that it hit him in the face and knocked him back onto his butt. He grunted and the energetic child, now clearly a girl, sprang to her feet enthusiastically and looked at him in embarrassment.

"Oh sir! I'm sorry, I didn't know you were so close! Are you alright?" She asked him, but he sat there stunned as he looked at her most unbelievably red hair.

"Are you an immortal child?"

"What that?" She asked him innocently. He regarded her for a moment before she seemed to realise something important and bowed lowly to him.

"This little fox thanks…what is your name, sir?" She asked him, lifting her face to peek up at his. 'Little fox'? She was definitely an immortal then, and a very young one if he were to guess. Perhaps he didn't break the law by helping her then, but all the same he didn't want any rumours about this incident to reach the nine heavens or Qing Qiu where most foxes lived, including the royal Bai family that he served.

"Sir?" She asked again, but lowered her head and tugged at the bottom of his pants.

"Er…Je- Jellal?" It was the name of the last person whose fate he had written, but it was the first name that had popped into his poor scrambled brain. He looked at the odd little girl with the most brilliant scarlet hair. Whoever she was she would have many suiters when she matured. He couldn't remember meeting any earth immortals with red hair either, so her identity would remain a mystery to him.

"Jellal! Thank you for saving me! My father would be most grateful, I'm sure he will give you any reward you would ask for." She promised on her father's behalf.

"That's alright." He said, as he stood and dusted himself clean. He spent too long there already for nothing. Though he doubted Si Ming would have had enough time to finish his tea back in the nine heavens. He had to return quickly.

"Wait! Where are you going? Are you going to leave me here? Don't you want a reward for saving me, Jellal?"

"There is no need."

"But you saved my life! I have to repay this debt." She fretted. He didn't pay her any mind as he left her there and returned to the nine heavens. Little did he know, the list of names he always kept to pair the souls whose fate he entwined had fallen out from his pocket, and right in front of the awed little girls feet.