As they entered the garden first, they came face to face with a young man. Dressed in mostly green, with his hair worn loose. It was a little unusual but not fully so. He had his back turned to them, as though he didn"t even know they were here. He held a small birdcage, even as she was wondering just how was it utilized. Other than trapping birds. Feiyu did catch her expression as odd. "Well, he traps some energy in there before releasing it."

It was a fairly odd choice, even as she wondered just how an umbrella could be used. But it wasn"t nearly as baffling as say a birdcage. "So, found anyone with a stranger object?"

"My apprentice comes somewhat close." But nowhere neat that, she doubted it was anywhere closer at all. Since a birdcage something that did not have many uses other than to cage in a bird. Which was the name thus making a lot of sense. An umbrella was something that was used to shelter people, which did make it similar to him in some way at the very least.

"What is hers?" He focused his eye onto her. It was easy enough because Feiyu did not know anyone else in the first place.

"An umbrella."

He grinned. Before standing up from his "Now that is a little strange. What"s your name?"

"Dianyu." She stood forward, deciding to do a curtsy for the moment. It will do,

"You may call me Zhixun." He closed the birdcage, and stood up.

He stepped forward without another word as Feiyu followed. This was incredibly silent. With nothing to really give her a little more clue just what was going on here. It was just kept between each other. She could guess that both didn"t speak or knew each other well enough they didn"t need so many words to do anything.

But she a.s.sumed she could ask once she stopped. Feiyu was never the type to say much, which she found more frustrating than anything. She had plenty of questions, but no answers. And as much as she pushed, there were certain things that Feiyu kept a tight lid on. And refused to tell her much.

Perhaps it will be better in person, or to know just where this was. But since Feiyu had made up her mind, Dianyu wasn"t holding it against her either. "We"re heading to the main hall, Feiyu entered through the back entrance."

Then where was the front entrance. Somewhere deep within herself she had the feeling that the main entrance was a lot more flashy, and entering through the back was a better, more discreet option. She preferred the chance to her own secrets more than being the center of attention. She liked to be noticed, but not admired or pestered.

But most importantly, she disliked being kept in the dark. Her mother never lied to her about her own ident.i.ty, but the fact that her own father was around did hurt her. That she was thought as delicate, so delicate that she could not handle the real truth. That she could not know who her father was. That people made decisions based on perceptions of her, not because they asked her. She did not like that, she wanted to make her own. The consequences were something she gladly took, to at least have a chance to make her own.

Feiyu did catch that, but hinted that she will explain more deeply later on. It will do her no good to inquire no. Which she only had a reluctant agreement to, but willing to to accommodate her. This place was mysterious, mystical even. As though she was no longer in the bustling former capital that was Chang"an, but rather to the smaller towns she was in.

But it was nowhere like home. Walking into the main hall, she found herself looking at just three of them. "Stay here, Dianyu." She nodded although Zhixun had not moved either. The two of them looked at each other.

"How did you come here?"

"Dragged here against my will. Well, my previous a.s.sociation was running a place where people went and have animals race."

"It"s gambling, isn"t it?"

He shrugged. She"ll take that as a yes.

"I ran away from a wedding."

"On the wedding day itself?" He didn"t seem all that surprised. She doubted that was easy, but she was not kept under tight watch and was with her mother who will have supported any decision she made. As long as she showed enough conviction and it wasn"t against any rules. She broke a norm, and she wasn"t bound to her husband until the wedding took place and they had paid their respects to the heavens as a couple.

So, she doubted that was breaking any law.

"No, before it."

"Is anyone after you?" Since there still was an engagement which will have bound her to him, although these were rather fluid in the first place. Engagements were easily broken, made in the whims of the family more than the reputation. She knew that sometimes they were treated as convenient alliances, if it broke than both families will go their separate ways.

Mostly because very few wished to be in a bad familial alliance, and only when it was an absolute necessity. Marriage was to bind them together, and to bring their names into close a.s.sociated with each other. The same was for her marriage, it was a deal between families who never asked what the actual bride and groom thought.

"My fiance agreed to the whole deal."

"Again, you"re fairly odd." Because most of the men that she knew will not have even taken this lightly. He wasn"t facing her, perhaps this was a fairly common story by all means.

"Says the guy who is using a birdcage."

"Well, I didn"t think that there was a guy who will do that. And Feiyu did encounter something similar." It did make a little more sense why she had stretched her hand out to her, was it pity or understanding at the end of the day. It didn"t need anything more to make any sense. Perhaps Feiyu saw something of herself in Dianyu, but it was acceptable. She was out and choosing her own choices.

People have their own secrets, she understood that. She knew that there were things she didn"t want others to know.

"He wasn"t all that older than me either." Which was a little fair, given that even he didn"t think that the marriage was such a good thing. They were barely more than kids, not enough to think that marriage was easy. Marriage was duty, a woman expected to obey her husband and put herself to the family. While a man was expected to focus on his careers.

She found it irony, that joining two people together often meant that they were going to have different interests and to be helping each other. Not completing them in their own way, but the right way. The only way that it was to be. And yet every person was different, every one of them had their own interests. She wondered what was the point of having people be unique if they were expected to all become the same thing. To reinforce the tradition that governed their world.

"Well, people are all different."

"That I agree. But what draws you here?"

He turned to look at her,

"Freedom and choice. I made my choice, thus for better or worse I will stay with it."

"You know, you have the right mind. You make your own choice, then you can"t regret, you can"t blame."

"And I don"t want to. I like my life, I like being able to choose."

"No wonder Fate hates you." It wasn"t with any dislike, more like a simple fun fact. She had the feeling that fate had the same thing in it for him too.

"What about you?"

"Fate hates me because I simply refuse to give in." He gave a grimace. Even as he didn"t say more, not that she wanted to know a little more. "I simply hope to become rich one day."

"Do you know about Feiyu?"

The man turned around in surprise, perhaps she has crossed something that she was better left alone. She didn"t want to push too much. "Actually, it is not bad in any form at all."

There was a glint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes, a little strange to have been seen at the very least. Perhaps he did like talking about such things. But she didn"t speak, preferring not to say much until she was absolutely certain.

"Do you want to know more?"

She held back for a moment. But she couldn"t deny herself the knowledge, not when she also happened to be curious. And as much as she didn"t want to admit, she knew almost nothing about Feiyu. Able to brush it all off later, but for now there was just a lot of things she wanted to know. She didn"t want to be forced into anything, and more information always helped to make a decision clearer.

"From what I know, she was meant for a life of great wealth but a tragedy." It was simple, nothing much. "You know that the previous dynasties blamed women for all their problems, suggesting that they were the cause of all evil. It is something like that."

To be a woman was to have sinned in their past lives, the words of many elders came to her. That a woman suffered many humiliations from young to old because of her gender. And her gender was a mark of her wrongdoings in her past life. A man had it much better.

"So, fate hates her…"

"Because she wanted a different end. She didn"t want to have it repeat, she didn"t want to have to see it."

Feiyu stepped out once again giving her a slight glare. The one time she didn"t see a blank expression on her face. "Don"t talk to her too much, Zhixun."

It was a silent warning, perhaps he did have a tendency to gossip. He merely glanced back without thinking twice. He walked past her. Feiyu turned back, and Dianyu knew that it was better to keep her own curiosity to herself. She might not like it.

"Tonight, she wants to see your fate. It is the best when the days are dark. The night often allows more things to be revealed than the day."

"Did you also run away from a wedding?"

She looked to her. It was an understanding that it was real. And whatever Zhixun told her was the same. "Sometimes I want to smack him, and I was planning on explaining it to you."

"Do people reveal their stories here?"

"Think of it as trust. We trust each other with our secrets, mainly the reason why we came together. It is to remind us that fate doesn"t play fairly and fate does not care what we think. We can always go through his gate again and again, giving us good lives when he feels like it and miserable ones when he don"t."

"And to begin is to accept the past and the past of everyone."

"And that the past does not define someone. It never does, people change and people can learn from their mistakes." And that it is the first towards not being like fate, fate that reincarnated many letting their future lives pay for the sins of the past. In so many ways, she knew it was wrong. It was unfair to the souls who spent lifetime after lifetime like this.

And most importantly, it was a step to make for change.

"We do this to be able to work for a better future and not to step into the mistakes of the past."

"You"ll fit in here just fine, Dianyu." Turning to the back, a rather old woman made her appearance. With a cane supporting her, her hair a head full of gray hair. But there was a vitality about her, she remained standing and unsupported. Dress in a dark brown with some red. Zhixun was standing behind the wall. "And yes we do."

"Was this all a test?"

"Think of it as more like But the next is an initiation, as I trust Feiyu"s judgment. And to see your real future and say whether you want to change it. You want to break and fully have your life in your hands. That is what it means to fight fate." The woman turned around, Dianyu got the idea that it was for her to follow.