In a way, the Palace of the Body and the Palace of the Mind were like twins who were born identical but developed their own differences as they matured.
The Palace of the Mind had remained largely unchanged since its construction thousands of years ago, aside from the expansion of the library and the construction of the tomb. Since Hei Nuwang took up residence in the Palace of the Body, the massive building had gone through some significant alterations. The bathhouse had been converted into the main entrance to the network of abandoned mines that made up the deepest parts of the castle, with part of the armoury becoming the bathhouse instead.
Part of the prison was turned into Sutoraiki's laboratory, so the hornet would have instant access to new guinea pigs, and most of the guest rooms had been turned into storerooms and small libraries where Hei Nuwang kept her deepest, darkest secrets. It was in one of these rooms that Hei Nuwang was currently resting in a hardwood chair, exhausted in more ways than one.
She had just returned from the prison where she had failed to make Mengxiang understand why her actions were for the good of the world their mother had created. She winced as she recalled her sister's words after she did her best to persuade her.
"Why did you do it, Hei?"
"You will have to be more specific."
"Yujin. Why would you want to kill her?"
"You know why. She is a traitor to our race. I did it to keep her from interfering with my plans."
"And the fact that she had a child with a mortal had nothing to do with it."
"I couldn't let a creature like that continue to exist. You felt the same, did you not?"
"NO! I did feel revulsion, true... but I never wanted the child dead! The child was innocent, just like mother is innocent. Let her go!"
"Sister, you know why I can't do that."
"Don't call me that. You are no sister of mine."
"... Mengxiang..."
"Get out. I will have no further role in this madness."
"What will you do? Where will you go? When Yujin finds out that you had a hand in her suffering, she will be out for your blood. I can protect you from her if only you would come back to my side."
"No. I am not hiding anymore. Besides, it's what we deserve. I told you to leave."
The rejection had cut Hei Nuwang so deeply that she couldn't bring herself to go see the little girl, who was currently sedated on an exquisitely carved table in the throne room. Mother had died nine hundred years ago. Yujin had turned traitor. The rest of her siblings had gone to the Spirit Realm and left her. And now Mengxiang had openly disowned her. Hei Nuwang didn't think she could go on much longer without going completely off the deep end. The only thing keeping her going was how close she was to fulfilling her plans. It was all she had left now.
That and one other thing.
There was a knock of the door. Hei Nuwang granted permission to enter, and in walked Izumi. Speak of the devil.
"Izumi." Hei Nuwang said, smiling for the first time in days. "I need you to find our masked friend and tell him to meet me here as soon as..." She trailed off and stood up when she saw the look of pure sorrow in Izumi's eyes. "Izumi... what happened?"
Izumi took a deep, shuddering breath. "Sutoraiki is dead."
"... What?"
"I found him in the laboratory, next to the bodies of the soldiers guarding the door. He's dead."
"How can this be?"
"I don't know. I swear I don't know. When I found him, half his body was gone... I couldn't find his abdomen... I couldn't find..." Izumi covered her face. Her friendship with the hornet had been stronger than Hei Nuwang had thought.
Hei Nuwang crossed the room and embraced the smaller cat. "I'm sorry, Izumi."
Izumi didn't start crying, but all the same she wiped her eyes before continuing her report. "Whoever did it broke into Sutoraiki's stores. More than a dozen samples of chi are gone."
Hell. "Is the poison safe?"
"It is untouched."
"Good. It is essential to our plans for the future." Hei Nuwang released Izumi. "Now is not the time to mourn. Sutoraiki's killer may still be in the building. Once you've told our masked friend I want to see him, take a small team and track down whoever did this." When Izumi hissed, Hei Nuwang gripped her shoulders. "I appreciate that you wish to avenge the hornet, but do not engage. I am not losing any more of my allies. Find him. Identify him. Report straight to me."
"'Him?' You don't think it's Ember?" Izumi asked, her voice thick.
"It's not how she or the creature kills." Hei Nuwang said. "Be careful. When you go to find me, check the prison first. I'm going to personally check on our prisoners."
Without a window, Tigress had no perception of time. For all she knew she could have been here for weeks. Not that she wanted to be here in the first place, in the exact same cell she had escaped from the last time she had been captured.
Not to mention they'd taken extra precautions to make sure she wouldn't escape again. They'd not only put chains on her wrists, they'd put a great big manacle on her waist, chained to three of the four corners of the cell. She could do nothing but sit in the centre of the room, meditating when she wasn't thinking up possibilities of escape. On the plus side, her ribs didn't hurt anymore.
Tigress supposed that her short-lived freedom hadn't been a total waste. She'd seen Monkey, Crane and Mantis, alive and well, and overheard Sao saying that Viper was alive, too. Even better was overhearing the report that Shifu had been spotted in the Mystic Mountains. The confirmation that he had also survived the valley's invasion had been music to her ears. Best of all was spotting Po in the prison, even if she had been unable to get to him, and knowing that he was also out of the Children of Nuwa's clutches. What she wouldn't give to be with him again, so they could finish what they started.
The door on the other side of the thick black bars opened, and Hei Nuwang stepped inside. Though she was smirking, Tigress sensed that she was tired. "Lady Hei Nuwang. Do what do I owe the displeasure?"
"Just a little chat." Hei Nuwang unlocked the door in the bars and entered Tigress's side of the cell. She loomed over Tigress and crossed her arms. "How are you enjoying our prison?"
Tigress shrugged. "I've been in better."
"Sure you have." Hei Nuwang said, ignoring the slight. "Sutoraiki had been found dead in his workplace. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
"Sutoraiki's dead? What a tragedy."
"He had been torn in half."
Then it's definitely not one of my friends. "First I've heard of it. Perhaps this place isn't as secure as you think it is."
Hei Nuwang brought her dark furred face closer. "Taunt me all you want, you little cub. You should know who you're dealing with by now."
Tigress's eyes narrowed. "I've swatted bugs scarier than you. One way or another you're going to pay for what you've done."
Hei Nuwang chuckled humourlessly. "Oh... not before Oogway pays for what he's done to my family."
Tigress frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Hei Nuwang's fangs flashed in the torchlight. "Your beloved grandmaster is the reason my family fell apart. Ever since he came along, the people I have loved have been leaving me. Mother died protecting you pathetic mortals while Oogway stood by and did nothing. Then Ember broke away from the family and joined his side. And now even Mengxiang has left me!"
"Was that before or after you tricked her into helping you commit mass murder?" Tigress replied, her voice and face as cold as the cell.
Hei Nuwang blinked several times. "How did you know?"
"She came to me in a dream before you used the dagger on her. She told me everything." Tigress was telling the truth. She'd been meditating when the pheasant had contacted her yesterday. She said she'd told her because she wanted someone other than Shifu to know the truth about Ember. That she wasn't the true monster here. "First off, you're the most disgusting person I have ever faced. Also, you're wrong about Master Oogway."
"I am not interested in the opinion of a mortal." Hei Nuwang said, though the look in her eyes said otherwise. "Also, it is you who is wrong about Oogway! None of this would have happened had he not come here!"
Tigress had heard enough. "Before you continuing vilifying Master Oogway, have you stopped to consider that the problem wasn't him, but you?"
Hei Nuwang stiffened. "What did you just say?"
The chains clinked as Tigress brought herself a little higher. The chains kept her from getting up off her knees. "Yujin severed ties with you to start a new life with people who actually care about how she feels. Mengxiang also severed ties after you talked her into betraying her sister. And now your dead mother has come back as a monster dead set on destroying everything you've worked for." Tigress looked the Hei Nuwang in the eye. The panther was as silent as a tombstone. "Perhaps, my Lady, you should take a long look in that mirror you're always carrying and ask yourself why? Why is your own family turning against you?"
Hei Nuwang's purple eyes flashed like sharp steel. She tilted her head slightly before her fist came rushing at the prisoner's face like a cannonball.
Tigress fell back and hit the floor so hard she banged her head. She lay stunned, her vision blurry, amazed at how strong the madwoman was.
Something strange was happening to the wall above her head. The black stone was turning purple and growing hundreds of evil looking spikes. More purple was covering the cuffs and manacle, crushing the metal and causing it to fall off her limbs and torso. Hei Nuwang appeared, standing over Tigress's dazed form, her eyes wide and her mouth a thin sharp slit of cold fury. She reached down and her paw clamped around Tigress's neck. Tigress choked as she was slowly lifted off her feet. Her paws wrapped around Hei Nuwang's wrist, but she couldn't free herself. Hei Nuwang said nothing. She merely glared at Tigress with murderous hatred as she inched the gasping feline towards the wall of purple spikes.
Tigress realised her gruesome intention and struggled harder, but it was no use. There was no breaking the panther's grip. Children of Nuwa were said to be as strong as elephants, if not more so.
Wait... I'm strong, too.
Tigress lessened her struggles to focus on staying conscious, but it wasn't easy. The pressure on her windpipe was torture, and the primal terror of being unable to breathe was getting stronger by the second. As Hei Nuwang brought her closer to the wall of purple death, as Po would have called it, she flailed her arm behind her. Her fingers closed around one of the spikes. Hei Nuwang was too intent on torturing Tigress to notice as she pulled. The spike broke off just as she was feeling dozens of pinpricks on her back. Not wasting a second, she jammed it into Hei Nuwang's wrist.
The amethyst spike did not pierce the skin, but the pain of a sharp object pressing into Hei Nuwang's flesh was enough to make her let go with a shout. Tigress gasped once before sending the panther flying back with a kick. She hit the bars with a resounding clang and fell to the floor in a heap. Tigress took several deep breaths before taking off out the door in her second bid for freedom.
The former one-armed rhino turned the corner just in time to catch a glimpse of orange disappearing through a door farther down the corridor. He sensed others. Two pandas sharing a cell two floors down. A pheasant with chi much like Hei Nuwang's in a larger cell on the same floor. Hei Nuwang getting to her feet in another cell nearby, snarling curse after curse. They weren't who he was looking for. It was the woman in orange and black he wanted. The witch who took his arm and his sanity.
"Found you..." He growled and he followed.
