Star Crossed In Time - Chapter 190

Bolin and Xia walk into the grand white and golden room, bowing to the old man with white hair. The old man swipes his hand over the water in the golden bowl before saying “What did you find?” Bolin steps forward and says “The woman from the prophecy isn’t dead. She’s back and by his side. He turned her into a deity…”

The old man looks surprised before frowning and saying “So she’s alive after all… Just her? There were two deity births.” Bolin shakes his head and says “We checked but only saw her. Do you think her return has anything to do with the strange deaths in the lower realms?”

The old man strokes his long white beard in deep thought as he says “Only time will tell for sure but I feel like we may have to become involved this time. If the other deity birth wasn’t by Bai Lei… Someone else is involved. Has there been any changes in Lady Mei?”

Bolin and Xia shake their heads as Bolin says “There haven’t been any changes with her but… the tree has started to lose its leaves.” The old man’s face shows his worry as he tries to understand what’s happening.

He slowly stands from his golden chair as he says “I feel like we should talk with this woman from another world.” Bolin quickly straightens as he says “Let me go, my Lord. I’m somewhat familiar with her.” The old man thinks for a moment before nodding his head and saying “Go, I will go visit Lady Mei.” Bolin bows and disappears, leaving Xai alone in the white room. With a ‘Tsk’ and a sneer, she quickly disappears with white mist.

~~~~~~

“Is it always dark here?” I ask looking up to the night sky filled with bright stars. Bai Lei chuckles and says “Yes, but it’s not really dark. See?” I look around the bright courtyard with a smile saying “You know what I mean.”

He takes my hand and leads me to a large garden with a familiar setting. A large gazebo sits in the middle of a large pond with several large weeping willows leaning over the edges and into the water. Excitement fills me as I quickly walk over to the bridge leading over to the gazebo.

Bai Lei watches me with a smile as I look down into the dark water with awe. Large koi fish lazily swim in the dark water filled with what looked like millions of stars. I thought it was beautiful before… but this… this was like magic.

Even though the water was dark, it was crystal clear, allowing you to see all the koi inside without a problem. The weeping willows lightly sway above the water, giving off a very subtle glow as tiny orbs of lights blink and dance in and around the air over the water, much like the fireflies did.

I look at everything with a loss of words. I slowly turn to find Bai Lei watching me with a warm smile, filled with love. “Did you make this?” I ask with disbelief. His smile grows as he wraps his arms around me from behind and says “I know how much you enjoyed the last one so I wanted to make one for you here. Do you like it?”

He leans down and places his cheek next to mine as I smile and say “I love it… it’s beautiful.” I feel him pause before slowly standing. He turns and looks behind us asking “Is there something else you need Bolin?”

I turn and see Bolin bow before saying “My apologies, my Lord but I would like to speak with Nova.” Bai Lei turns to look at Bolin with a cold look, asking “What is it?” Bolin knows better than to hide things or lie in front of this man so he honestly says “It’s about the strange killings down in the lower realms and her connection with Lady Mei.”

Bai Lei’s face hardens as he quickly says “That no longer concerns her. Take your problems…” I cut Bai Lei off and say “What strange killings? Is Lady Mei someone you know?” Bei lei grits his teeth in irritation but I ignore him and say “I would like to talk as well.”

Bolin looks to Bai Lei for a second but when he doesn’t say anything, he turns back to me and says “Very well. Is there somewhere you’d like to go?” I look to Bai Lei and he quickly says “Just speak here.” I give him a knowing smile and turn back to Bolin, asking “I want to know about the strange killings you were talking about first.”

Bolin nods his head and says “We’ve seen death numbers climb over the last few months and when we went down to investigate, entire villages and towns were completely empty. Not a soul was left but the scent of death and evil was heavy in the surrounding area.”

An image of the creepy man in the mask quickly comes to mind before I shake it off and say “So you don’t know what actually happened, just that people are disappearing. Is that why you are asking about my strange connection to Lady Mei? Is this woman alive?”

Bolin nods his head and says “I was wanting to know if you knew of anything or if she had shown you something. Lady Mei… she’s not dead but she’s not really alive either.” I frown at him in confusion as I ask “What does that mean?”

Bolin quickly shakes his head and says “I’ll explain more of that later but has she shown you anything since you’ve returned?” Bai Lei’s irritation was bleeding into anger but I ignore him as I quickly tell Bolin what I saw.

Bolin loses himself deep in thought before saying “Another deity was born and it wasn’t created by us. I fear someone else is playing with something they shouldn’t.” This time, Bai Lei turns to look at him with a frown. He felt the other deity being born but he figured it was them. They’re always creating new deities.

If it wasn’t them… and not him… who the hell created a deity? That’s not something just anyone can do!

I watch Bai Lei’s reaction and know without a doubt something is off. I turn back to Bolin and ask “Which was the last village or town that was hit? Can we go check it out?” Bolin goes to say something but Bai Lei quickly cuts him off saying “I think that’s enough. As I’ve said before, it’s no longer Nova’s problem.”

I go to say something but he quickly cuts me off while saying “Leave” to Bolin. Bolin clearly sees that Bai Lei has had enough so all he can do is bow and leave. I watch Bolin disappear with white mist and turn to glare at Bai Lei.

Bai Lei stands his ground and says “No more. You are just a newborn deity. You need to work on becoming stronger, not running off to your death.” I scoff at him and say “That’s a little extreme. I’m not running off to my death. I want to find out what’s happening and if it’s something I can put a stop to, I need to do just that.”

Bai Lei stares into my bright green eyes and says “No. You’ll stay here with everyone and continue to cultivate. End of story.” I sigh and decide to let it go for now. My disappearance is still very raw for him right now so I shouldn’t push too hard.

Hopefully, the others will be able to put a stop to the masked man. I step up to Bai Lei and wrap my arms around him, burying my face into his chest as I say “Fine” His arms wrap around me as he pulls me close, placing a kiss on the top of my head as he says “Just stay where it’s safe, please.”

I nod my head and the two of us stand, watching the fireflies dancing above the water before I feel myself growing tired. Bai Lei scoops me up as our surroundings quickly change. He walks us over to a large bed and lays me down while saying “A lot happened today so get some sleep.”

I grab his sleeve and ask “Are you not going to stay?” He gives me a warm smile, leaning down to kiss me before saying “I have a few things I need to do and then I’ll be back. I won’t take long, I promise.”

I release his sleeve and nod as I pull the soft black covers over me. Bai Lei waves his hand, causing everything to grow darker but when I look up, I see an endless night sky. I blink in surprise and quickly ask “Is there no ceiling!?” Bai Lei chuckles and says “There’s a ceiling, little star. I just didn’t want you to feel alone while I was gone.”

I smile and nod my head as he quickly disappears. I look back up to the ceiling full of stars and think about have far I’ve come and how much I’ve changed. I even came from a city, never really seeing stars but now I’m sleeping under a canvas of them. Was this really my life now?