Chapter Text
Chao-Xing stared up at the sky full of sparkling stars in silence.
Qiangxi sat next to her on the branch.
She had been spending more and more time with Qiangxi since… the fighting invaded her safe space. She slept at Qiangxi's house more nights that she slept at her own.
Qiangxi's parents were happy to accommodate her and open up a place in their nest for her so sleep. She always slept snuggled up to Qiangxi whenever she stayed over.
It has been nice to sleep in a full, warm nest again, she always woke up feeling more refreshed than she did when she slept at home alone, yet the scent was all wrong.
The moment she woke up, she knew it wasn't her home. Her parents had miraculously stopped their fighting and returned to the happiness they once shared, she was in Qiangxi's nest, at Qiangxi's house with Qiangxi'a parents, not her own.
It was still better than using her shades to make fakes of her parents and then wake up entirely alone the next morning.
She was thankfully for Qiangxi and her family, yet she wanted her own back to normal at the same time.
But that would never happen.
Her family broke because her sisters died, without her sisters back, she couldn't fix her family.
She'd tried, she tried so hard to fix her sisters, then to keep her family together, play the game of pretend her parents were caught up in, she was still tired of it all.
She still wanted to get away, the desire to flee sat deep within her chest, hidden from everyone, but there. The desire burned in her chest, growing stronger everyday as life became more and more unbearable.
She hadn't told a soul she felt this way, or that she had been plotting to leave, to get away from all of this once and for all and be someone new, someone ordinary, somewhere past the volcanoes around the mountain, maybe somewhere in the mainland.
"Qiangxi?" She asked softly, her voice breaking through the quiet night air.
"Mhm?"
"Do you ever think about leaving the mountain? Going somewhere else?" She wondered.
She stared out at the ocean visible past the mountains, the mainland Chenxiang lived on was out there, maybe other islands too. New places with new people and new faces where nobody knew hers.
"No…? Why would I want to?" Qiangxi asked.
She saw the other girl turn to look at her out of the corner of her eye. She didn't give her a response, she didn't even look at her, she just pulled her hand off the other girl's and tucked it against her chest.
"I-if you were to leave, which you totally won't and definitely aren't thinking about… where would you go?" Qiangxi asked her.
"Anywhere." She said quickly, almost immediately.
"As long as it's far away from here, I'd go anywhere." She would.
She really, really would, as long as it got her away from her this.
Qiangxi was silent beside her.
Neither of them said another word, they just watched the stars above them.
XXX
Chao-Xing scanned the scrolls on the shelves as she passed them, looking for anything that might be useful to her.
She needed a way to hide herself, if she just left, her dad would track her down and bring her back, and she'd never get the chance to get away from them again.
Everyone said that combined, her parents could find just about anything, but she knew when she was kidnapped by… him, that they couldn't find her.
The golden bands that kept her shadows restrained also prevented them from finding her. They were destroyed after that incident, she was hoping she could find something on how they were made in the library to use.
I might have to sneak into Lao Tzu's lab… she frowned.
She didn't want to resort to sneaking around, she'd been able to find information on necromancy in the library, surely that was way more dangerous than information on how to hide yourself from detection by very specific people.
She reached the end of the aisle and turned the corner, stumbling over the tip of a scaly green tail as she went.
"Oh, my apologies, I wasn't watching my tail."
"Nǎi nai?" Chao-Xing asked, peering around the next corner to see that it was indeed her nǎi nai who's tail she tripped over.
"Little jade, I didn't expect to see you here." Nǎi nai said, twisting her serpentine body around to properly face her.
"Neither did I." She stated honestly.
From the rumors she heard, nǎi nai didn't leave her section of heaven often these days. She'd even heard the Jade Emperor worriedly discussing something with Xiwangmu about her being gone and what it could mean.
She didn't know why nǎi nai being gone was something to be so worried about, but apparently it was.
"I thought you were gone." She said.
"Why would you think that?" Nǎi nai laughed.
"Just something I heard." She shrugged.
Nǎi nai gave her an uncertain look for a moment, before smiling.
"Well, I heard you were looking for something, and I think I can help." She said coyly.
That piqued her interest.
"You know what I'm looking for? I'm having a hard time finding it, I'd like help, if you are offering." Chao-Xing told her.
"I am offering, anything for my favorite granddaughter." Nǎi nai laughed brightly.
"Nǎi nai I'm your only granddaughter." Chao-Xing snickered.
"Come along, I've got just the thing you're looking for." Nǎi nai offered her hand, Chao-Xing took it without hesitation.
She could always trust nǎi nai was on her side.
XXX
Nǎi nai's section of heaven was as wonderful as it always was, but she'd had no idea that her nǎi nai had a secret library full of secret knowledge in her house.
Nǎi nai was compiling a couple of readings to send her on her way home with, while she messed around with some of the clay nǎi nai had left lying around. It was very ashy smelling for some reason.
She didn't try to make anything come to life, she hadn't since… and she didn't want to make a brand new creature only to abandon it when she left home.
She was going to leave soon, as soon as she had her exit strategy in place.
"Little jade, do you know the city Megapolis?x nǎi nai asked her.
"It sounds familiar, why nǎi nai?" She answered.
"I believe Chenxiang lives there, or nearby, either way, I know there's a temple there your father tries to avoid whenever he's in the area, if he's ever in the area that is." Nǎi nai said with a short laugh at the end.
"Papa doesn't like going there?" She mumbled.
"There's lots of places he doesn't like to go, a Lantern City further north, the West Sea in general, he's quite picky about where he goes." Nǎi nai confirmed.
"Does Baba go to this city Papa doesn't like?" She wondered.
"No, I think he lost a dear friend there, fallen in battle. I wasn't present when it happened so I don't know for sure. It's got a large demon population though, especially monkey demons." Nǎi nai said.
Monkey demons? Why would that be important? She frowned.
She had already decided she wasn't going to be a monkey anymore, she needed to be as far from herself as possible to stay undetected.
"What's so special about this place?" She asked, messing around with her ball of clay.
"Special? There's nothing special about it, it's simply beautiful around late summer, though it can be quite rainy in the winter." Nǎi nai told her.
"They recently tried some strange machine to control the weather, it didn't work obviously, I think they've turned it into some sort of tourist destination though." Nǎi nai continued.
She let her nǎi nai ramble on about this place and the surrounding area, it was nestled in a bay of the South Sea, and it was where her aunts Mingxia, Caihong and Zhizhu all lived.
She should have guessed that, Chenxiang had mentioned his island was near the city they lived in.
Nǎi nai slithered out of her library with a small collection of scrolls in her arms.
Must be something old. She thought.
"Here you are, little jade." Nǎi nai said, setting the scrolls on the table beside her.
"Sorry if I bored you taking so long." She told her.
"I don't mind, I like to be with you." Chao-Xing said with a smile.
It's better than being back home. It was worse than she thought it was when she was actively trying to pretend it wasn't happening. They fought so much, and Papa was barely home for more than a few days.
Sometimes he only returned home for a single day before he left again.
She had wanted to scream at him the next time he was home… but he quickly started a fight with Baba and she didn't want to listen to another fight that would inevitably repeat the same pattern as the last one-
Nǎi nai rested a gentle hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of the spiral of thoughts. Chao-Xing looked up into her wide, bright eyes, so full of concern for her. She quickly looked away.
"Are you alright, little jade, you looked so upset." Nǎi nai asked.
"I'm fine… just… rough at home… feels like everything is broken…" she muttered, squishing the ball of clay in her hands.
Nǎi nai quietly leaned over and grabbed the water pitcher off the table next to her. She watched in confusion as Nǎi nai dropped it onto the floor, letting it shatter into pieces.
Chao-Xing reflexively pulled her feet up to avoid getting hit by the shards. Nǎi nai took the ball of squished clay from her hands and mushed it around, brushing the shards into a pile with her tail at the same time.
"Many things become broken over time, little jade, but many things can be put back together." Nǎi nai said.
I tried! I tried to fix it! To fix us! She wanted to scream.
She didn't, she couldn't let anyone know her role in the disaster her family had become, her parents… they'd never forgive her… they'd hate her.
"What if they can't be? What if it's too broken to ever be fixed?" She asked quietly.
The scrape of shattered ceramic against the wood floor stopped. Then Nǎi nai slammed her tail down on the gathered shards. Then again, and again, until the largest of the shards had been broken into smaller pieces and the smaller shards were all powdery.
She knelt and rolled the ball of clay through the shattered pieces, collecting as much of it in the wet clay as possible. She swiftly worked at the clay, Nǎi nai's ability to sculpt quickly with the lifelike detail she maintained had always impressed her.
"Even that can still be useful, nothing is ever to broken to be shaped into something new." Nǎi nai said, showing her the little sculpture she had created.
It looked like a dragon snake, the little hard ceramic pieces making up the bumps along its back, and the powdered scattered through it's scales. Nǎi nai blew on it, and it came to life, the outer shell of clay cracking away as it "hatched".
The muted green and grey snake stared up at her curiously. She smiled and held her hand out for it to sniff, it's forked tongue quickly flicked in and out of its mouth.
It stretched over to her hand from nǎi nai's and slithered up her arm and neck, coiling around her forehead and peering down at her with a silly upside down snake face. She giggled and gave the new creature a few scratches on top of its head.
"See?" Nǎi nai prompted.
Chao-Xing glanced away from the snake, back to her nǎi.
"I don't think it's the same." She admitted.
Taking a broken pitcher and making it into something new was easy, how was she supposed to do that with her family? The pieces of it weren't just broken, they were missing!
"Can you fix something when it's broken and pieces are lost and you don't know how to find them?" She asked.
For a moment, a small ember of hope bloomed inside her. Maybe, maybe, she could still fix them.
Nǎi nai looked away sadly.
"Sometimes, you have to wait for things to make their way back to you, and move on with your life until they do." Nǎi nai sighed heavily.
The little ember of hope went out like a spark in the ocean. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would.
Hope is already dead.
Nǎi nai held her hand out for the snake, it nuzzled her cheek before slithering back up nǎi nai's arm, settling on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you little jade." Nǎi nai said somberly.
Chao-Xing gave her a weak smile.
"Before we part ways, I have something I'd like to gift you." Nǎi nai told her, swiftly changing the subject.
"Is it an early birthday gift?" She wondered.
She didn't want any birthday gifts, unless it was her sisters back and alive, she didn't want it.
"No, it's less of a gift, I suppose, and more of a task." Nǎi nai said seriously.
"You have a job for me?" She echoed.
"Yes, a very important job." Nǎi nai nodded, guiding her further back into her home, back towards the part of her house that was carved from stone, the oldest part of her home, before the celestial realm as she knew it was formed.
"I have only ever given such a task to my most trusted creations, and now, I am giving it to you." Nǎi nai reached into the rock wall and pulled out a shimmering yellow stone.
"This is no ordinary stone, little jade, it's a very special stone, for a very special purpose, it must never be revealed, to anyone, not even your own family. If needed, it could contain a tremendous amount of power, and I need you to guard it for me." Nǎi nai held it out to her.
The stone was so well polished, she could see her reflection in it as clear as if it were a mirror… though it didn't quite look like her… she couldn't put her finger on what was so off about it.
She couldn't look away, yet a question tickled her brain.
"Why do you need me to guard it?" She asked.
"You mustn't tell this to anyone." Nǎi nai insisted.
She nodded, still staring at the reflection of herself in the stone.
"I… am going to be leaving soon. I will not be reachable by any across all the realms." Nǎi nai said somberly.
She tore her gaze away from the stone, heart breaking as she locked eyes with her nǎi nai's regretful face.
She's leaving me too, she's going away, she won't stay!
"Y-you're leaving?" She echoed.
"W-why? Where are you going?!" Why are you leaving me now?! She asked.
Nǎi nai swept forward, enveloping her in her arms, Chao-Xing held on tightly, digging her claws into her robes as tears threatened to overwhelm her. The snake on nǎi nai's shoulder slithered down and rubbed against her cheek.
"My little jade, I won't be gone forever." Nǎi nai cooed softly.
"W-why are you leaving me now?" She sniffled.
"It is poor timing, I know, and if I could stay with you longer, I would. Believe me, I would…" nǎi nai trailed off.
"But there is a threat I must face, and I have to go beyond to protect my children."
"Threat?! Is someone trying to hurt you?!" She exclaimed, looking up at her nǎi nai in fear.
"No, no, hush, little jade, I will be fine, I will be safe. This threat is not to me, it can't hurt me, but it can hurt all my children. I must protect them." Nǎi nai assured her calmly.
"W-who's trying to hurt you, nǎi nai?" She asked, snuggling closer to her as though that would keep her from leaving.
It never worked with Papa but Nǎi nai wasn't Papa, it might work with her.
"An old enemy, nothing for you to be concerned about my little jade, I won't let you be harmed." Nǎi nai cooed.
Chao-Xing nuzzled her face into the crook of Nǎi nai's neck, holding on for dear life.
Nǎi nai held her for a few more minutes of silence before setting her down, she wanted to cry and throw herself back into Nǎi nai's arms.
"I have many children to protect, little jade, do you understand why I need to go?" Nǎi nai asked her, brushing away her tears.
Chao-Xing nodded shakily.
"And do you understand why I need you to protect this for me? Take it with you wherever you go, but don't let a soul see it." Nǎi nai asked, holding out the stone to her.
She nodded again, reaching out for it with shaky hands. Nǎi nai smiled at her, gently pressing it into her hands.
"This is a promise, I will return, my little jade." Nǎi nai assured her.
Please.
XXX
Chao-Xing did as Nǎi nai instructed her, she kept the stone hidden from Baba when she got home, it wasn't difficult, he was in his room, laying in the nest but not sleeping.
She went to her room and sealed it off from any observers before taking the stone out of her pocket, it gleamed at her, even in the dim light.
She put it in Bao's enclosure, underneath one of her hides, just for the time being. She was the only one who dug around the enclosure anyway.
With the stone hidden, she turned to the scrolls nǎi nai had given her, writings, spells, and discussions on how to cast illusions, hide magic signatures and shape shift into different forms that were undetectable to anyone.
I'll test what I learn on the stone, so no one questions it. She decided, rolling open the first old scroll.
XXX
Nuwa felt guilty as she watched her granddaughter leave her home. She felt guilty regarding a great many things with that girl.
But her guilt was unproductive, not was it useful, so she brushed it aside. Her reckoning with it would come one day, but not today.
It's necessary. I mustn't leave it undefended, and he is no longer trustworthy. She told herself.
Her granddaughter was smart, and trusted her implicitly. She would do as was asked of her, no one would know she had the stone.
Her enemies still believed the Jade Emperor held it. The diversion was necessary to advance her goals.
A thin line of golden light caught her gaze, she frowned at the offensive crack. Soon, it wouldn't be only her aware of them, and they would form in places where she could not so easily repair them.
She pinched a portion of clay off the ball she was working with and spread it over the crack. The clay glowed golden, then faded, crack mended.
The universe's balance was slipping, like a plate spinning on a stick, slowly, steadily inching towards chaos.
She could only hope to maintain the fragile state of the universe until it corrected itself.
It wouldn't be long until her granddaughter left her unhappy home, once she was gone, she could attend to the pillar, keep it together until balance was restored.
Find balance quickly, my little jade.