[Voice] Imagination 22

[ayao]

[He is tired and sad and more beside himself than he would like to admit.]

Xue Yang, answer me.

[That isn't how he wants to begin this broadcast, so he breathes in...and out.]

Has anyone seen Chifeng-Zun? I cannot find him and I know of no ill that has befallen him.

[Now, the part that really hurts.]

Huaisang, Zewu-Jun, I have failed you in not protecting him. I tried.

Comments

[ayao]

Thank you for giving me some hope. [That hope is what he clings to with all of his might and sanity. Without it, he feels like he has been torn to pieces and left to drift in the wind.]

My father has never accepted me. I am his bastard - one of many - and he left me to be raised in a brothel alongside my mother. He won't even give me his name. When I went to see him after her death, he blamed me for interrupting my brother's birthday celebration and kicked me down a long flight of stairs.

I could barely stand. Nie Mingjue took me under his wing then - he did not have to - and I have been loyal to him since. However if my father required something of me...

Something that would mean he would accept me...

I can see why I would be tempted.

[so_dark_a_road]

Where love and loyalty are concerned, hope is essential. You are very welcome, and if there is anything else I can do, just let me know.

Your father doesn't sound like a very compassionate man!

Yes, I can see how you would feel gratitude towards Nie Mingjue.

And I can see how you might, in your future, be tempted to accede to your father's request if that meant he would acknowledge you as his son and give you the acceptance and social position that being his son would entail. As I said, that relationship is complex and compelling, and a son can never really shut his heart to his father.

[ayao]

Thank you again, Lord Curufin. I offer you the same. [Though he feels useless at the moment.]

I do not think he ever knew compassion. [Jin Guangshan is one of the most selfish men in existence.] Nie Mingjue was his opposite. Is...his opposite.

But I must shut him out. For the safety of those around me. His influence over me is perilous and if I give into it, Nie Mingjue will die.