Halfway to Heaven [Cheng Qi]

[Liu Bei]

Liu Bei shuffled uncomfortably in his robes. He glanced down at the table that lay before him. On one side of the table was a teakettle filled with tea brewed in a particular fashion that gave it a nice bitter taste. Liu Bei looked to the opposite of that kettle--another kettle. He had brewed this tea using honey, a much sweeter brew. In the middle of the table lay his cup, unfilled. He frowned, eyes shifting from one teakettle to another.

After giving up on the decision, Liu Bei placed a hand on his knee and rose. The surroundings around him were rather dark. He stood in the middle of a grand hall. Or he suspected what used to be a grand hall. Most of the Temple grounds were ruins. The Temple of Water was found, mostly intact, during the beginning of the Han dynasty. Some ancient Chinese ancestry had built this Temple of Water, it was called such because of marvelous water clock that stood at the base of the temple. It almost looked like it meld right into the Temple's foundation.

It was grand, and right now it told him that he should be going. The sun would set soon.

Liu Bei advanced to a part of the stone wall that was left completely open, meant as a window. At this altitude, such a window was not practical at all. It had left a streak of snow across the hall, for the wind had been blowing in that direction. Liu Bei glanced outside. It was as if he was halfway on Earth, and halfway to Heaven. There were clouds beneath him, and an ethereal fog above him. It snowed constantly here. He looked towards the back of the ruins, the compound was vast, but some of it had been completely frozen and destroyed. Certain compartments had succumb to the weight of snow. An entire wing was missing as it had just separated from the temple and fell down the mountain. Age did that to some places.

Sighing, Liu Bei resigned back to his table, he sat with his back to the great water clock, and his eyes on his empty cup.

[Cheng Qi]

Finding himsefl halfway between life and death he stood, waiting for something he did not know. His right hand was planted firmly on what was at one point a window slit, but the times had wore what remained of this structure and now this particular window spot was useless, it's purpose defeated. Blown out, it's bounderies thrown to the wind.

The wind was particulary chilling, it seemed to swirl around the ruin, looking out from where the window had been, he could see very little of the landscape. Only a swirling blizzard, that seemed to a create a sense of the unknown. The world around him was a wasteland, he hadn't heard a bird chirp for days, nor a wolf howl. And yet here he stood, adrift time.

"It would seem we are alone Lord Liu. Nothing here," he turned away from the gloomful surrounding and wandered over to where the King of Shu was situating hismelf. "Nothing here but us, the two most unsuiting of companions that could have graced this land." He shook the snow off a solitary stool by a window that still stood, and drew it up to the table, and sat upon it.

The steam rose from the kettle of wine, but he didn't care for a drink, he cared for nothing sweet, for there was nothing sweet about this frozen hell, in the middle of only the gods know where. "Like this stool, we once had four limbs, where are they now I wonder?"

[Liu Bei]

Liu Bei had finally decided on the tea had brewed with honey and gently poured himself a cup. He hadn't noticed the other man in the hall but as he tilted his head upwards to drink the tea, he saw the man looking out the same window Liu Bei had just been to. Liu Bei placed his cup of tea back down on the table and inspected the man, he wasn't sure who this person was, but he felt an odd type of connection. It was as if they both needed to be here at this very time.

Behind him, one of the buoys dropped further on the water clock, signaling that their time was becoming shorter. As Cheng Qi moved away from the window the faint orange of twilight bled through and solemnly illuminated the hall. Hieroglyphics of an older civilization told myths and legends. Brave heroes and scheming strategists lived and died in these walls.

"Nothing here but us, the two most unsuiting of companions that could have graced this land." Cheng Qi said as he took a seat opposite of Liu Bei on a stool. Liu Bei had never met Cheng Qi, and at first he felt embarrassed to not have known him name. But in some supernatural fashion, a face suddenly clicked with a name.

"I do not suspect so Cheng Qi, I think we are both here for a reason. If not to teach each other a lesson of life, then to die together mayhaps."

Liu Bei had remembered this Temple of Water from his childhood, it was much prettier then, and less destroyed. Even then, the Temple above the mountains did not venture above the clouds on any regular occasion. He had heard legends about the Temple and its wanderers. Liu Bei knew that when the Temple soared above the clouds it was on its way to heaven, transporting what souls that lingered inside to meet their makers.

Liu Bei was prepared to meet his maker, was his maker prepared to meet him?

He kept this information from Cheng Qi, wondering what the politician thought of this place. "Like this stool, we once had four limbs, where are they now I wonder?"

Liu Bei smiled, a fake smile really, "Perhaps we exist without them now, or perhaps the other way around, they exist without us."

It was a ponderous question. Liu Bei stood and inspected the water clock, it was enormous, having many more buoys than the normal water clock. It neared the half-way mark, and as another buoy dropped a full twilight entered the room. Liu Bei looked upwards as the new light illuminated even more hieroglyphics. Above them on the ceiling a battlefield was etched. Warriors of every race, creed and size battled in an eternal war.

"Tell me Cheng Qi, what do you know of Water Clocks?"

[Cheng Qi]

Cheng Qi barely acknowledged the man opposite him, as he waited for, and then used the steaming hot kettle pot, pouring himself a cup of the honey wine. Time was seemingly running out, if this was a dream, then fine, if not what was going to become of these two men, and the world? The sun was setting, and it was not to rise for many more hours, that was to say that this wasn't the final sunrise he would see from the land of the living.As the final rays of the sun danced by the ever changing patterns of the clouds around them, many things were revealed. Ancient texts of unknown propechy perhaps, images of many things, many battles. Were these clues? Images of times he knew, or perhaps would know? Prophetical instances were never clear, yet man always seemed eager to discover the meaning of such things.

Light would see alude them, tis high in the mountains, and Cheng Qi took out a lit match from his sleeve, how he did not know, but then again very little of this scenario made sense to him, as a man anyway. He put the light to a conviniently placed candle on the table. Illuminating the table before the two men at least.

He knew who sat before him, he knew him to begin with, but more was seemingly revealed, he knew the man. Raising his cup from the table, he leant back in his seat. "I would not like to die here, there are ways I would prefer. In my own bed, at the ripe old age of one-hundred perhaps. Having done all I care to do in life. No regrets." He took a sip of the wine, and cringed at the sweetness of it - at first. This place felt very unreal to him.

He looked to the huge water clock, and considered Liu Bei's question with a favourable stroke of his beard. "Very little if truth be told Xuande. I never cared much for the sciences. Or rather, I don't," he corrected himself. He didn't believe he was dead, not yet. "All I know is that they aren't very accurate, especially when running low. Like this one seems to be." He turned his posture towards the clock, leaning his arm on the table. "I wonder what it has in store for us, when it runs out?"

[Liu Bei]

Liu Bei answered Cheng Qi's questions with a ponderous hum as he inspected the intricacies of the multiple designs on the grand water clock. The twilight the had entered the room dissipated as fast as it came, and Cheng Qi had foreseen the imminent darkness and lit a well-placed candle.

Another buoy slowly dropped.

He tried not to let Cheng Qi see his face harden when he said that he would not like to die here. Liu Bei pretended the clear his throat and seemed interested in a design on the clock that looked like the moon out-shining the sun.

"Not very accurate," Liu Bei repeated quietely.

Cheng Qi then asked Liu Bei what he thought would happen to them when the clock reached its end. Liu Bei turned to face Cheng Qi, but didn't answer his quesion. Instead, he returned to an earlier sentence of his, about having no regrets.

"I have lived half a hundred years Cheng Qi, men like us always have regrets. But I can live with myself. Do you think when I executed Liu Zhang it did not hurt?" There was a tangible emotional pain showing on his face.

Then he repeated, "Men like us always have regrets, I wish that my dagger had not missed on that day, and that I could've driven it deep into Cao Cao's black and beating heart. And I would've looked into his eyes and see his soul fade from the world."

Much like ours are in the process of doing, Liu Bei mused to himself.

Liu Bei grabbed an unlit torch from its perch on the wall next to the water clock. Had it always been there? Who knew, but now it seemed there were such placements for torches scattered across the hall. Liu Bei placed the torch slightly above the lit candle and it caught flame instantly.

"I would have to agree however," Liu Bei said while lighting torches around the room with his, "I would rather not die here, although I do have some great company with me if I do," that was half-comical and half-serious, "The light will be gone soon, and so should we be going if we want to escape this Temple."

As Liu Bei stopped at what would be the entrance, two very large wood doors that look fit for a palace. One would assume that this was the most likely way out. As Liu Bei took the handle in his hand and pulled, he sensed a weight on the other side. Then he pulled harder the door finally burst open. The threshold was filled with snow to the brim, and now it flooded half the room. Liu bei sidesteped to avoid it.

"Well, thats not an option." Liu Bei walked back over towards the water clock. There were two doors on either side. Both made of wood and they looked extremely old. Still, one door was locked and Liu Bei didn't care to break it down. He walked over to the next and opened it. Ahead of him lay a darkened hallway, he could see where a portion had fallen out of the temple. Strong moonlight came from that area, but still Liu Bei could not see the end of the hallway.

"Tell me Cheng Qi, are you ready for what could be your last adventure?" Liu Bei turned his head towards the man, "You may want to grab a torch, its a dark path ahead."

[Cheng Qi]

Cheng Qi smiled at Liu Bei's only regret, and held back a chuckle. "Would that you could Imperial Uncle. But many men like you have tried, and all have failed." As he raised to his feet to make after Liu Bei, he continued, "Had you succeeded, what would you have done? You would have just killed the ruling power in the central plains, the Emperor's sworn protector, the only man upholding order in the Han court. What would you have done when all of those loyal to him turned on you in their anger? Would you truly think you had saved the Han?"

Cheng Qi followed the lead of Liu Bei. "Yet this makes me think. If we are truly in passing, why is it that we are only two? Where is the 'great traitor' in all this? Still pursuing his goals, while your legacy remains incomplete." Even seemingly trapped in the confining grip of death, he was still a smartass. The two men drew up to two large doors, "An unlikely couple to enter the world beyond side-by-side I'll give you that, Lord Liu."

The route through the door proved impassable when the gale brought the blizzard tearing into the hall, the ambitious Liu Bei ever keen to survive and push on, led them onto another door. Cheng was playing merely the formal role of a companion, it was best to leave Liu Bei to his own devices. If it meant they'd escape this place and yet live on, then power to him. If not, then one more perspective on the emotional drive and resolve of Liu Bei of Shu would be a decent enough pay-off.

He took a torch from a wall near them and lit it with Liu's own. He sighed with a sad sort of smile, "Every adventure a man goes on could be his last. We have both been on many, and both of us have always soldiered on for more - let's just make this another one of those, my lord." He took the first step into the long hallway.

[Liu Bei]

Liu Bei listened dutifully as Cheng Qi defended his lord. Cao Cao would be well defended with schemers like Cheng Qi at his side, Liu Bei mused. He glanced back at Cheng Qi as they walked, he was sly with his words and such a man was dangerous.

Still, in their predicament, Liu Bei considered Cheng Qi a dear ally.

He started to stride down the long black hallway, periodically there were more unlit torches that Liu Bei had took the time to light. The hallway was quite narrow, and true to the name of the Temple of Water, moisture wet the air. Droplets of water fell from the ceiling, and alongside the bottom of the two walls were small canals of water that ran the entire distance of the hallway.

Soon however, they came to an area that had a spot of bad luck. Part of the hallway had deteriorated to the point where a section had fell off and down onto the mountain and through the mist. Snow piled on either side of the broken pathway, cold air mixed with the moisture instead, and icicles formed from the edge of the broken ceiling.

There were no stars in the sky, as Liu Bei could view anyway, the sky was clouded with what seemed to be an odd mist. Nothing of Earth, and reeking of a supernatural presence. It was the purple elephant in the room. Stranger still, it seemed the weather resembled what these two were used to in winter in the north. Large snowflakes fell lazily across horizon. From that gap, it seemed as if the hallway led into a larger compound, a seperate wing of the Temple that was built on a small plateau on an adjacent side of the mountain.

The gap wasn't that narrow though, Liu Bei cleared it in a solid leap, his feet landing in snow on the other end. He immediately lit another walled torch on the other side of the hallway. As he turned back however, he noticed something awry. The torches he had lit at the beginning of his journey into the hallway had inexplicably become unlit.

Nevertheless, "Well hop to it Cheng Qi! I suspect we have little time to sight-see."