Skyfire Avenue

The Pharmacist nodded. “I’ve sensed it already. There’s a comfort when I’m near him, now I know why.”

The Clairvoyant then turned a warm eye upon Jun’er. “The little one has already been gifted my inheritance. She will be the future Eye of Tomorrow. Soon she will surpass even me. However, precisely because she is my successor, I cannot see what the future holds for her. Even now, with my sight at its clearest, there is nothing I can tell you. Protect her, and she will grow naturally. It’s a shame I’ll never see the things she accomplishes!”

The Pharmacist took up Jun’er’s tiny hand. She stood tall and proud. “She’s my daughter.”

The Clairvoyant smiled softly. “It’s time to bring her back home. Then, I must trouble you to return here.”

“Alright.” She didn’t question or argue. She knew by now the man must have his reasons. The two of them left for the Temple of Supreme Harmony, leaving only the Clairvoyant and Photographer conscious in the swirling sea of stars.

“Xianni, do you still blame me?” The Clairvoyant’s voice was soft and low.

The emotion behind Luo Xianni’s eyes shifted somewhat. Her warm smile faded, replaced by a rigid expression. “It’s been decades. What could I still have to blame you for?”

The old Paragon sighed. “If not for me, the two of you would have been together long ago. It was I who told him so much that was better left unsaid. I instigated that change of heart.”

Her eyes hardened the more he spoke. Her responses bore a distinct chill. “I said it’s done!”

This brought an apologetic smile to the Clairvoyant’s face. “There are many I owe an apology to in this universe. More than I can count. But of them all, you are the one who’s owed it most. My involvement made him leave.”

A secret pain surfaced behind Luo Xianni’s eyes. “Involvement? You are an instrument of chaos, Clairvoyant, but don’t delude yourself into thinking our relationship problems were all your doing. He’s always loved his freedom, that wasn’t something you made. Even if we’d never met you, it wasn’t likely we would be together long. You helped him see his own heart more clearly and fermented his fear of mediocrity. He was being true to himself when he left. I did hate you… I hated how your damn fingers were in everything. Later when I thought about it though, I questioned whether he really would have stayed otherwise. That’s when I came around, and knew there was no looking back.”

The Clairvoyant dropped his head. “There are flaws in every human. I once thought I was somehow separate. Maybe since I was such a perfectionist, I figured I must be perfect by extension. But nothing’s perfect, and even someone with a view as long as mine can’t escape fate.”

Luo Xianni took a deep breath, then turned a glare to the Paragon. “I’ve told you there’s no need for explanations. Why do you insist on bringing it up! Do you need me to hate you, just before you die? I have always looked at you like an older brother, and when I knew that you had to bear the consequences of what I did… I didn’t just leave because I was angry. I didn’t know how I could face you. So I left. I came back so that I could at least give you a happy send-off. I don’t want to rehash old times, and you are determined to open old wounds.”

The Clairvoyant was silent.

She took another breath. “Fine, if you want to talk about it then let me get a few things straight. Why did you do it? Why get involved in the relationship between me and Chi Bupang? How in the world did I offend you so deeply? You were the kindest, truest, most self-less person I’d ever known and then you stain my life for years. How?”

His face jerked as she spoke, like he was being stabbed. He winced against her cutting words. When he answered he was full of regret. “Yes, I was wrong to intrude. I knew what I was doing but I couldn’t control myself. I never saw you as my little sister.”

Luo Xianni froze, unsure of how to respond.

The Clairvoyant went on, the words hard and bitter in his mouth. “Clairvoyant, founder, Eye of Tomorrow… I had everyone’s respect. Respect, but I never had anyone’s affection. I hoped that would be different with you. I thought about you every day since the day we met. Yet, as founder there was so much to do. You were with me every day, I had hoped you understood me. All through the creation of Skyfire Avenue you and I strove side by side. I saw everything falling into place, like a stream carving out a channel to flow through for the rest of its days. It was all I’d hoped. Ultimately you and I would walk the path together. Not as my sister. As my wife.

“But then he came. At first I was overjoyed! I thought, with his support surely the Avenue would become the greatest gathering of Adepts in humanity. Soon, though, it was clear you… you liked him. I may have been kind, and I may have been self-less, but when faced with losing my one chance at love, I lost control. Jealousy took root. I couldn’t wait to see him torn to pieces. He couldn’t leave fast enough. I’d chase you right back into my arms. Because I love you.”

A pair of tears rolled down the Clairvoyant’s cheeks. Luo Xianni was stunned to silence. A million times she’d wracked her brain, trying to puzzle out why he acted the way he did. She could find no answer. Hate came then, for infecting her relationship with Bupang. That hate was a real part of her reason for staying away.

Then all of this, all these years, was the result of jealousy? He was her brother, she never looked at him any other way. She never knew, and this is where they ended up. It was like a dagger cutting at her heart, but all that resentment was bleeding away.

It took the Clairvoyant some time before he could get his emotions under control enough to go on. “I am no competition for Jue Di. Otherwise I may have actually fought him for you. Unfortunately I was never on his level. There was nothing I could do, only the stupid and desperate decision to try and break you two up. I’ve regretted it my whole life, but it hurt too much for me to confront you. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you now, at the very least because you’ve given me the chance to say sorry. If I could have a final wish, it would be to have told you this from the beginning. In the end, though, I got to tell the woman I loved, that I have loved her for my whole life.”

Luo Xianni bit her bottom lip, saying nothing.