The Warriors Path

by Brian Thomas

  As Li Chin was absorbed into the pool of light he became aware his downward motion was being slowed and he was being drawn upwards again. Emerging from the pool into the void, he was again able to see the Tree of Futures and became aware of another presence, a dim glow of light but a slightly different colour than his previous guide. This orb seemed more intense and had a slight blue tinge to it. Given the resolve with which his guide had left, Li Chin assumed this was a different presence. Suspicious, but deciding it represented no direct threat he remained resigned. The glowing orb gently glided closer to rest on his shoulder and he was able to exchange thoughts, as he had with the previous presence. “You are not the same, you are another.” Li Chin thought to it.

  “Yes.” came back the response.

  “And how do you wish to manipulate me?” Li Chin asked, irked at his helplessness.

  “You wanted to see a parallel world. If you wish, I will show you one.” resonated back the thought.

  “And why would you do this but for your own benefit? Perhaps I have seen enough of my future and prefer to have it revealed as it should be, as and when it happens. That way, I will only be disillusioned after it has happened rather than throughout its duration.” Li Chin replied querulously.

  “If that is what you wish. This is one of those choices you have been discussing Li Chin.”

  Li Chin considered what the new presence had said. “You said parallel futures. Do you mean all of the futures are real?”

  “Oh yes, there are many Li Chin’s living their lives in their own worlds. There are even some who have died before reaching your age now. Each strand in the Tree of Futures represents “the real” world to those who live in it and any of the potential futures from your now could be your true future.”

  Li Chin thought briefly of what he had already seen with the first presence, his guide. “I have no desire to visit another desperate future for myself, or even a hopeful one if I am unable to ensure I can make it happen. If I failed in achieving it, I would know for the rest of my life a better future eluded me. The past is done and I will take my future as it comes, living it in the knowledge I was guided only by myself and not inadvertently fulfilling another’s ambiguous ambitions for me.”

  “As you wish.” the thought came back.

  “That is it? You will let me return without trying to coerce me further?” Li Chin asked suspiciously.

  “Yes.”

  “And what of your own motives for offering me this choice, approaching me with this gift?” Li Chin asked, his curiosity piqued by the orb’s reply.

  “If I am unable to convince Li Chin to visit with me, I believe I would cease to be. But as I am here, I know that you will accompany me.” The thought came back unmoved. “But it is also something I wish for you and not just for myself.”

  “So you wish to show me your future?” Li Chin asked cautiously, but his curiosity aroused again.

  “No, another’s. We would start with someone you regard with affection and who I do not know. I would take you to the same future you have just visited, to see another’s life.”

  “Why?” Li Chin countered cautiously.

  “Because you expressed a wish to see more and be better informed in making the choices you will face. Because my own future is dependent upon it and because I wish to help you in this.”

  The orb’s thoughts caressed Li Chin’s mind but he detected no sense of coercion, more a sense of inevitability. Eventually, Li Chin asked curiously, “Is there real choice in this, or is my decision already determined by fate?”

  “There is always choice and no, I do not believe it is inevitable. If you chose not to go it could be that I disappear into nothing, while you return to your own world and remain forever curious of what I would have shown you. What I do know is that my world depends upon a visit by Li Chin and that in it, he ultimately did not regret the choices he made as a result of his visit.” The orb was silent then, waiting patiently while Li Chin considered what it had said.

  Li Chin’s mind was struggling with the prospect of an infinite number of realities, the weight of countless others’ expectations on him to influence all their realities for the better and how to know who it would be better for? But how could he refuse a being whose existence might end on a decision not to follow it, especially when his own curiosity to learn more drove him to accede. With the thought he mentally frowned, speculating that whilst he might have the freedom to choose, having the insatiable sense of curiosity and thirst for knowledge that he did his choice would always be the same; perhaps. “If the fate of you and your world rests on a visit then we had best go see this old friend. But any choices I subsequently make will be mine. I will not live my life to another’s expectations and I am beginning to believe too many expect too much of me, especially when I cannot possibly know what the best course is.” he warned.

  “Let us start a short way up the Tree of Futures, a few months hence then.” stated his new guide as it dragged Li Chin forward, retracing his earlier route to plunge him back into the same glowing strand he had just left behind with his first guide. As before, they emerged from a blinding light to descend upon a tableau from above, hovering just above events which were being enacted below, the participants in it oblivious to their presence. Li Chin had already recognised the courtyard of the Wah family palace in Wing-Ho. This would now be Zu Wah’s household, following Zu Wah’s formal oaths to his uncle, the emperor. Captain Chow was leading a cavalcade through the palace gates, which from the composition appeared to be the same one where the corporeal Li Chin was frozen in time with his sword raised above the headman’s neck, presumably having returned from their expedition to the Sun Palace.

  Li Chin leaned in, curious to see Zu Wah’s new guardian and determine whether his replacement would be able to constrain Zu Wah’s penchant for violence. He had no sooner formed the thought than a premonition of what he was about to see washed over him and he braced himself in anticipation of what was to follow. A man dressed in the Temple’s simple grey robes walked beside the enclosed litter containing Zu Wah. Li Chin studied the unknown priest closely. The cavalcade continued on to an inner courtyard to disassemble and Zu Wah entered his palace through the magnificent main entrance. As previously, the tableaux of events were in an eerie silence, though he had no problem replacing the missing sounds from his own recollection of similar scenes lived many times over.

  Li Chin and his guide silently followed the cavalcade to the rear courtyard and barracks, giving him an opportunity to study his replacement from the Temple, a priest in his late thirties. The priest had a stern visage and seemed somewhat aloof from the rest of those still in the courtyard busy unpacking or in the process of returning to their own quarters. His replacement looked a capable guardian; as well he should being assigned to the emperor’s nephew, but severe and remote.

  The chamberlain entered the courtyard from the palace and spoke to Captain Chow, who saluted and called over to some of his men before marching off with them to the barracks. In the time it took for the servants to unpack and clear away the remains of the baggage, other servants from the palace had assembled a broad table, covering it with gloriously embroidered silk tapestries. The table, placed on a raised dais, boldly bore the Wah House emblem at the centre of the elaborate covers.

  Captain Chow and his men returned to the courtyard marching three bound men between their ranks, one of whom Li Chin recognised as Ling Po, Zu Wah’s old tutor and now one of his counsellors. Ling Po had served Zu Wah’s father for nearly twenty years and was probably the only remaining member of Zu Wah’s household who following Li Chin’s departure would stand up to Zu Wah. Li Chin had liked the old man. A hard taskmaster, he had masked his love and loyalty to the Wah family with his taciturn nature but was totally loyal to the Wah family House and the traditions of the Masters. To the old man Zu Wah would always be the wayward child who struggled with his lessons and harboured unhealthy appetites, which it was the old man’s duty to correct.


  The other bound men were unfamiliar to Li Chin but all three had their hands bound to a pole across their shoulders. They were forced to their knees, their arms stretched out to either side, almost causing them to fall as they were manhandled down. Zu Wah returned from the palace to sit in a chair behind the raised trestle, bathed and now in a resplendent gown which shimmered as it caught the sun. The chamberlain brought his staff down on the courtyard floor in a sharp rap before speaking to the bound men. Zu Wah made a brief statement to Ling Po and then signalled to his new guardian, who strode over to Zu Wah and bowed. The guardian walked behind Ling Po and without further preamble drew his sword, swinging it in a perfect arc to behead the old man. Moving swiftly the guardian stepped behind the second and then the last man, beheading them both in a matter of seconds.

  The guardian stooped to reach the tunic of his last victim, wiping his sword clean before sheathing it in a single practised motion, standing back to avoid the spreading pool of blood from the collapsed bodies. Zu Wah sat with a small smile of satisfaction, watching the final twitching motions of his old tutor who lay in shared carnage with the other bodies and their scattered heads.

  Business completed, Zu Wah stood and turned to his remaining councillors beside him. Their shocked faces were white and stricken. He made a brief comment, following which they all made hasty bows before he strode imperiously into his palace.

  Li Chin’s new guide dragged him reluctantly forward in time to hover as spectators over an unrelenting series of tableaux where Zu Wah presided, awarding one draconian punishment after another. New scenes quickly materialised and blurred before forming the next grisly implementation of Zu Wah’s rule over his luckless people. As the scenes flashed by they became larger in scale, the victims increasing in number at each event, with intermittent military conflicts involving many thousands of participants. The one common factor throughout was Zu Wah’s presence, orchestrating the endless series of excessive punishment and punitive campaigns.

  It was noticeable to Li Chin as the scenes flashed by that Zu Wah’s appetite for inflicting misery was growing. Li Chin found himself willing Zu Wah’s early death to end the slaughter but still it rolled on. Zu Wah’s face grew older and any attempt to conceal his depravity was now gone. It ran rampant and aided by his appointed guardian, until no longer willing to watch Li Chin turned away. “Enough!” The message was clear. He might decide not to commit an injustice himself but they would nevertheless continue without him. This had always been true, but he was confused and angry that the Temple and his brethren appeared to be underpinning the things they sought to alleviate.

  Li Chin barely noticed as his guide removed them from the scenes of carnage and back to the respite of the void. He had already started to sink into the pool of light anchoring the Tree of Futures before he felt the thoughts of his guide whisper through his mind. “Remember Li Chin, none of the things you have seen have happened yet. No one person is able to right all wrongs but those who can right some wrongs are honour bound to do so, on behalf of those who cannot.” The thoughts wormed through Li Chin’s psyche as he slipped into the blinding white pool and thankfully left the worlds of misery behind. He empathised with the bitter despair of the older version of himself in the Temple shown to him by his first guide. His older self had been demoralised and disillusioned, worn down by the scale of depredation against his people and the part he had played in it. But he baulked at the alternative implied by the thoughts of the second guide as it had disappeared into the void. It was one thing to stand aside, wash his hands of responsibility by not taking part. It was quite another to act on his own initiative, contrary to his oaths and loyalties to the Temple.

  Tormented by his dilemma, Li Chin was blissfully distracted from further agonising by the intensity of the light as he passed once more between a sea of futures and his own now.

  Chapter 3

  Li Chin emerged into the comfortable afternoon light of the village, blinking in surprise and acutely aware of small sounds. The distant chirping of a song bird and the rustle of dust and grass blown by the gentle breeze. Though his body remained motionless it felt jarred as his consciousness rejoined with it to the taut situation he had been extracted from. What had seemed a life time ago, or in fact two life times ago if he included that of Zu Wah, had all apparently occurred in less than a heartbeat?

  Blinking back his disorientation Li Chin found he was again looking into the eyes of Zu Wah. He quickly took stock of the situation, his sword poised high above Xiou’s bared neck, everyone frozen and held captive by the tension of the moment, the faint ring of his sword leaving its sheath still a memory in the air. Zu Wah made a petulant gesture with his hand before placing his fingertips together and resting his chin on the raised edges of his hands. “Come Priest, choose which it is to be. We do not have all day and our tea will become stewed.”

  Li Chin’s attention was jerked back to his dilemma. His gaze still locked on Zu Wah he was unable to shake the memory of that same face growing old as it perpetuated decades of evil carnage across the land. But had it been a dream or some aberration of his mind which had taken Li Chin to these futures of abominable misery. Or had he in reality been transported by spirits trying to influence him for their own purposes. Whichever were true, he realised the experience real or imagined had affected him deeply and had changed his outlook forever.

  Li Chin’s continued delay irritated Zu Wah further, causing the young master’s eyes to fill with the malicious glint Li Chin had come to loath while in the Tree of Futures. He heard his own reply, cold and full of conviction in response to that glint. “I choose.” He began a horizontal stroke of the blade which swept towards the kneeling headman at an ever increasing speed. Li Chin was infused with a liberating sense of empowerment as his previous impotence as a powerless spectator was dramatically stripped away in the focused fury of sudden action. The swing encapsulated all of the frustrated anger Li Chin had endured during his disembodied time with the guides. The wide staring eyes of the headman were mirrored by all those in the village as they watched the events taking place in front of them, none missing the steely intent in Li Chin’s voice to mete out death as he loosed his pent up fury in a scream to speed the blade on to its deadly work. Guiding the blade on its journey ever faster Li Chin angled it up while twisting at the waist so it passed over Xiou’s head, slicing through a few stray hairs from the old man’s plait before continuing in a perfect circle to take Zu Wah at waist height. The blade passed completely through Zu Wah, leaving a thin trail of red mist from its reverse edge as it completed its circuit and was brought to rest at its original starting position. Li Chin straightened up facing Zu Wah, bringing the sword to a guard position between them.

  Zu Wah’s expression had changed from mild anticipation of the execution to one of puzzlement the headman still retained his head and that Li Chin had missed. The look changed to one of fearful comprehension as he looked down at his own waist, his legs slowly folding from under him as his upper torso started to slide away from his waist. Dead before he fell, Zu Wah’s body completely separated as it thudded to the ground. The only sound in the tense silence was a wet gasp as Zu Wah’s internal gasses escaped.

  Still on his knees Xiou blinked, not certain whether he was dead or alive and further confused by the collapsed body of Zu Wah now laying in front of him. Everybody else’s attention had been firmly on Xiou, fully expecting to see his head fly from his shoulders in an all too familiar spectacle and only belatedly looked to Zu Wah as he slumped forward. For a few heartbeats there was a stricken silence as those watching tried to comprehend what they had seen.

  Captain Chow stared in shock at his dead master with the same bewildered expression as the rest of the soldiers and villagers. “What madness have you done, Guardian?” he whispered hoarsely, still not sure he believed what his eyes told him. Zu Wah murdered, slain by his own guardian, leaving Chow and the life guard failed in their duty to preserve their master’s life. Their lives b
efore his.

  Li Chin, still in tight control of his inner self replied evenly. “No longer guardian. I am priest!”

  Captain Chow looked up angrily, snapping out of his shock. “Guardian, priest; what does it matter! You have killed our master, governor of our province and a member of the royal family! With his murder the lives of his life guard are forfeit. Our lives before his and if he is killed we must take his killer.” Captain Chow stood stiffly to attention, shrugging off the last of his shock. “You must come with us to the Sun Palace. It is the only way if we are to recover any honour from our failure.”

  Li Chin relaxed his guard position only now thinking of the immediate consequences of his actions, wondering whether he was indeed mad as Chow had enquired. “I must continue to the Temple and warn them of events. The Sun Palace will extend its revenge beyond me and without warning there will be massacre.”

  Captain Chow snapped back angrily. “There has already been massacre and there is no doubt the Sun Palace will take its revenge but the Temple must look to itself. You must come with us and now, without any delay.”

  Li Chin looked at Chow with dawning realisation of the immediate consequences of his actions and new regret. “I am sorry old friend. I would not go for Zu Wah and I cannot go for you. My path lays a different way.”

  Captain Chow looked steadily into Li Chin’s eyes and slowly smiled. “So it is not old age or the palace executioner that will take me after all but a true warrior’s end. Or if I and my men defeat you our fame will spread through the empire like a wildfire. Either way, honour is preserved and it is better than an ignominious execution for having failed our duty.”

  Li Chin could see there was no real expectation in Chow’s mind the guard would win a battle between them but he and his men were bound by their oath to avenge their master’s slayer, or die trying. Yet Chow still relished the fight to come, even certain as he was of its outcome beforehand. The Captain gave a slight bow to Li Chin before turning to his men, most still in shock at what they had seen. Raising his sword in both salute to Li Chin and as a rally to his men he shouted, “Death or victory!”