Two Deaths and Another Chance

Iria looked in shock as she watched Cibran approach her with the bloodied dagger which dripped with dark, tainted drops. "Why, why did you do it? What have we not been through together?!" She was pushed towards the edge of the tower, her back against the railing.

"Nothing. Iria, you lied to me, to everyone. You're the daughter of that tyrannical king, sister to that bitch who will inherit the throne. It's my duty to my people to kill you. I won't let it be in vain. You'll become a martyr. You'll usher us into a new era!" Cibran reassured as he neared her and reached out a hand to touch her face. The face he saw for the first time tonight. "You look just like her..."

Iria pushed his hand aside and looked at him in disgust. "A martyr. Another tool in an endless war, you mean," she spat out and glared at him.

Cibran's gaze flinched as she repeated the words which had once tied them together as comrades and friends. "Iria," he repeated, pain and guilt clung to his voice.

She gave him a rueful smile. She had risked everything in her life for them. She could have silently brought their rebellion to an end and served her King until her dying days. She would have been hated, but she would have been alive until her hair greyed and her eyes glazed over. Instead, she let them into her heart. These idealistic rebels. She helped them strengthen themselves into a real force. A force that would overthrow the tyranny of her father's dynasty. The same dynasty which killed her mother. Maybe, she did it for revenge as well. Whatever it was. She let him closer than the others. He had a spot in her heart. And she was repaid with martyrdom. She hated it. She clenched her jaw and tasted the bitterness spread through her mouth. "You'll do it. No matter what I say or do. I die here tonight. Ushered into history as a martyr. The secret which ruined my family's era," she mumbled as blood rushed past her mouth. She slumped forwards and was held up by Cibran's arms.

"Iria!" He whispered in a broken voice as he watched her give in. "You...you were supposed to...to..."

"I was supposed to fight. Make you feel forced?" She chuckled as more blood rushed forth. "No, I'll make you remember. Use my name and story for your purpose as long as it brings peace..." she felt tears prick at her eyes. It was unfair. Nobody would remember her as the girl who loved her mother, the girl who longed for her father's praise, the teenager who was sent away, the woman who was forced to give herself up for her country. It was unfair.

"Iria," he repeated and held her close, any talk of his duties and purpose forgotten.

"Thanks for loving me for me," she mumbled, ignoring his eyes and words. "But I hate you..." 'For taking advantage of who I was. For ignoring my sacrifice for your own ends. For even falling in love with me.'

She felt the exhaustion rush up into her. Felt it consumes her thoughts. It was the end.

Cibran watched as the life faded from her eyes and her body turned slack. "My love," he mumbled and pressed a kiss to her cooling lips. "Find peace, Iria. Find a place better than this."

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"Peace. You will usher in an era of peace, my Ruirui."

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"We must leave her. We aren't strong enough to protect her against the Gong family."

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"Look it's the trash 3rd Miss of the Jin Family!"

"Do you think you can escape my Song Family!"

"You're just a scared trash that should die. Stop embarrassing the Ghost Sect's name!"

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"Is this my ending? Food for the beasts of this forest. I won't let the Song family decide my fate. Let the Spirits of my Jin family decide my fate."

Pain. There was so much pain. How was death painful?

"My name is Jin Yangrui. Can you save my family?"

Iria opened her eyes and met the scared face of a young girl. "Were those your memories?"

"Can you?"

She held out her hand to the girl and clasped her's. It was strange. The words echoed in her own head. The hopeful words of a mother to her child. A mother who sought to help usher in change. So much like her mother, Queen Dabria. She could save them. Save those precious to her and...and she could live for those precious people. People who cared about her.

"Will you?"

"Alright."

She became blinded by a rush of memories. A childhood filled with hardships and love. An academy filled with challenges and hiding. Jin Yangrui was loved deeply by her family, but despised by the children of this Song family. It confused her that nobody intervened in the bullying or retaliated for the cause of several broken bones and her crippled meridians.

Crippled meridians. Cultivation. Spirit beasts. Shit. She was in some strange new world with spotty memories from the previous Jin Yangrui. She hadn't considered further than the warm feeling in her chest.

The newly reborn girl forced open her eyes as her body awoke to painful throbs of pain radiating from her chest and spiraling outwards. She looked upwards and found the sheer side of a cliff several thousands of feet in the air. How had she survived a fall from that high? She put her concentration in her arms and was thankful to feel only a slight ache. She turned onto her side, propping herself up by the elbow. Jin Yangrui noticed that she was in the middle of a forest which had the thick scent of blood and nature. Blood. The scent was too strong to be an average forest.

Something nagged at the back of her mind as she managed to get to her knees. "Sixin Forest. The place where demonic cultivators harvested the heart core of thousands of Spirit Beasts. It has since become a breeding ground for high ranked beasts protecting the burial grounds of their ancestors."

The slow accumulation of information made her feel uneasy, but she knew that she wouldn't survive in this forest on her own.

She looked down at her clothes. A flowing loose piece of cloth that covered her bust and brushed the top of her feet. She had a coat of sorts over the outfit which had wide rippling sleeves. The material of the coat was sheer and had golden stitching of serpents which were regal against the black of the fabric. In regards to the main outfit, the fabric was black as well though she noticed a slight sparkle and lines connecting into abstract shapes. It was like she was wearing a night sky. And there was the absence of blood.

Jin Yangrui wouldn't attract the beasts any quicker than a usual intruder upon the forest. That gave her a bit of confidence as she tried to orient herself. She had been chased from the outskirts of Sun towards the west and continued in that general direction for at least two hours. It took a low level cultivator five hours to travel around the forest as the inner sanctum housed high level beasts. Even if she couldn't cultivate spirit energy, Jin Yangrui could always identify someone's rank without problem. The slight pressure she felt indicated the strongest beast in the area had been at least a rank 3 to 4. The strongest recorded beast was a rank 7. She was nearing the middle ring of the forest with that information.

It would take her sheer luck and a miracle with it to reach the outer ring unharmed and make it back to the Jin family estate. She needed to recuperate from her injuries at the very least. It was the height of the spring seasons which meant most of the beasts were finding new areas to inhabit. There should be plenty of abandoned caverns. Jin Yangrui had a goal and she turned towards the east. She would use the cliff side as an indicator and hopefully come upon an opening before Ouluoba and Kalisituo rose in the sky designating nightfall.

It was like slowly awakening from a deep sleep as she became aware of the damage to her body. Jin Yangrui was certain she broke something and would require months of bed rest without healing. She cursed the luck of her predecessor as she crept forwards. Song Family! I will repay you for all this pain! She focused her pain on the promise of revenge as she leaned against the rock wall. She was barely making any progress and any attempts to move faster caused the pain to intensify. It was looking hopeless.

Jin Yangrui closed her eyes and took stock of her current condition. She was capable of holding herself upright, but the momentum she needed to move forwards caused her too much pain. She would instinctively slow her movements which resulted in her snail-like pace. Jin Yangrui plastered herself to the rock wall and began to shimmy further down the length of the wall. It took more energy than walking would, but her progress was more significant compared to her earlier progress. "How the mighty have fallen," she scoffed in an attempt to humor herself.

The sun had moved from its highest position to a quarter away from the horizon and the faint images of the twin moons, Ouluoba and Kalisituo, were visible in the distance. Jin Yangrui had moved no further than twelve yards from her previous position when she felt eyes upon her. She spread out her awareness and was unable to sense anything. Whatever was watching her was keeping its distance. She would be unable to outrun it. She was really, truly doomed. She felt familiar tears of frustration well as she kept itching alongside the wall. She hadn't felt so useless and helpless since her people turned against her or when she watched as her King sacrificed her mother to save himself. Life was truly despicable towards people sometimes.

"I dare you to kill me!"