The White Death’s Consort

Chapter 1

I was minding my own business at the city park when a butterfly danced in my direction.

When I reached out a finger, it perched itself on me, and I smiled.

It was an exotic little thing – white wings, almost luminescent, esoteric patterns that seemed almost magic.

It was a meeting neither she nor I planned, but precisely because it was unplanned, it felt like fate, a pre-ordained meeting that lasted for but a few seconds, then she took flight and flitted away.

So, I too turned and walked, but the world was no longer the same.

The tall towers forged in steel were gone, and in their place was only nature.

In the horizon, a great black smoke billowed as though to corrupt the sky dyed red by the setting sun.

The air was pregnant with the scent of nature, over which was layered strongly the acrid stench of ash.

But none of the toxic fumes that usually marred city life was there.

When my feet sank, it was the moist soil that greeted the wooden chops I now wore.

And when I noted the simple tunic that covered me, I knew I had become a peasant.

Absurd, I thought, but just as one did upon awakening from a dream, I found myself increasingly tethered to the world, only it was one I did not recall.

Yet with no regards to how I felt, I soon realized that I was always of this world and never of the other.

In the modern city, I was Tyler Lin, while in this, I was known as Guo Tusheng, which meant Guo, who was born of the soil.

In the modern city, I was always a city boy, and that was all I ever was, yet here, I was a peasant, and that was all I ever was.

In the end, which was the real me? I did not know, only that I walked, and walked, and walked, for the black smoke that billowed, like a moth drawn to the flames.

And when at last I found the source, and I realized it was none other than my own village on fire, the villagers dead, I walked again.

Perhaps, if I were truly just Guo, or if I were truly just Tyler, I would have screamed or panicked or rationalized, but I was not, and in my deliriousness, I kept walking as though to follow a line, until at last, I found the sole anomaly besides me.

She was there.

Amidst the smoldering ruins of a village now barren, where charred wood crackled and ash danced.

Clad in flowing black silks darker than the billowing smoke, her hair fluttered gently, while a lone ribbon in red trailed through the strands.

An immortal fairy with skin white like jade as spoken of in tales immortal.

She was there.

Ashen eyes, moonstones, they reflected my gaunt figure as though observing a worm.

I had never fancied myself to be a flirt, but for her, my lips moved.

“Take me with you,” they wove against my knowledge.

So, a moment later, my eyes opened wide, but then another moment later, I realized that was indeed what I desired.

She looked away.

There was a sorrow to her willow brows as she observed the distance. She spoke.

“Once, this village drove my parents to their death.”

“Once, this village schemed for the inheritance bequeathed.”

“Once, this village sold me – a cauldron to a righteous sect.”

“So, I come here today, centuries later, to exact vengeance upon a people that remembers me not.”

From her waist, she drew a blade. It was more dagger than sword, but it was beautiful and majestic. A silver blade that reminded of dragons.

Her long, black hair fanned out behind. They danced in the air as she pointed her blade.

“You would’ve died regardless, but would it not have been good? To live at least a moment more, if not a few days?”

So, I replied.

“I was born of the city, and all I knew was the city, and I was sure that I would die in the city. My name was Tyler Lin.”

“I was born of the village, and all I knew was the village, and I was sure that I would die in the village. My name was Guo Tusheng.”

“Then I met a butterfly. She glowed in white and danced in the wind. On her own, she perched on my finger. On her own, she flitted away.”

And on its own, her sword hummed.

With a silver light, it shot out.

Only to slow before me and land in my hand.

Ashen eyes, moonstones, they reflected my gaunt figure as though observing a spectacle.

I was a modern man in one life, a poor peasant in another. I did not know how to use a blade, so I could only handle it poorly like a stick.

With the blade as my brush, I drew a butterfly upon the ground, stabbing its beautiful silver blade into the filthy soil, to trace the shape as I recalled it.

It was work unfit for its majesty, like the emperor tilling the fields, or a princess working the mill.

Yet she, who owned it, only watched until the butterfly sloppily took shape, then she spoke.

“To soil Tianyao Jian, the Sword of Heavenly Jade, as you have. Your insolence knows no bounds.”

“I am Bai Lei, also known as the White Death, a demonic cultivator that the 3 righteous sects have sworn to destroy. What seekest thou?”

So, I replied.

“Were it anyone else, these words would be flippant, a lie surely, but for me, in this moment, I know – they are true.”

“I was Tyler in the city, I was Guo Tusheng in the village, but now, I am neither.”

“I exist in that liminal space, a being that has yet to be born or die.”

“Thus, our meeting is fate. It is inevitable.”

“I seek you.”

So, she replied.

“If you dare, then come.”

With a hum, the Sword of Heavenly Jade left my grasp and returned to her.

I took the step.

With a silver light, my clothes tore to tatters, and the overgrown shrubbery I called my hair disintegrated.

“You are unworthy,” she declared. “So, I shall make you worthy.”

“You shall be my disciple in name, but in function, you shall be mine. I am a demonic cultivator. I care not for the ethics of the orthodox. If you accept, then prostrate yourself.”

At once, my knees dropped to the floor, and with hands flat, I pressed my forehead into the soil.

Then the Heavenly Jade fell upon my head as one would christen a knight.

“Henceforth, you shall be named Bai Shengyou, Ye Who Was Born for White.”

“By my name, Bái Lěi, once of the Azure Flames, now of the Frozen Flame. I claim this soul — Bái Shēngyǒu — this I swear before the gods, the demons, and the fate.”

“By my name, Bái Shēngyǒu, a traveler between worlds. I surrender my soul to — Bái Lěi — this I swear before the gods, the demons, and the fate.”

Whether it was from the serials in the modern world, or the tales passed down in the village, that was neither a ceremony to accept a disciple nor marry a spouse, but the heavens answered regardless.

81 times did the world flash with lightning and 81 times did the world tremble with thunder.

That day, even the most reclusive stood witness to the changes that occurred in heaven and earth.

So, be it by ship or by horse, by talisman or fey, by scroll or by jade, the word was told and retold, from the world of Ren to the world beyond, the story ever changing, never the same.

A treasure has been born! One might say. A god has been born! Another might reason. A heavenly opportunity is among us! One might extol.

But for the three great sects, the three mortal kingdoms, and the three demonic sects of the human world, also known as the Three-Leafed Clover, the letters they received turned their world upside down.

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–To the Sects, Kingdoms, and Powers Within the Clover World,

The Frozen Flame speaks.

I am Bai Lei, Thronebearer of the Frozen Flame, Keeper of the Cradle Furnace, and rightful holder of the Seat of Death.

This letter serves as formal notice: I am taking a consort.
Bai Shengyou, disciple under my direct tutelage, has been elevated by will and by rite. From this moment forward, he stands as my husband and Second Flame of the Sect.

This is not a request. It is not a matter for council, sect, or court. It is a sovereign act within sovereign lands, carried out under my name, witnessed by my Throne.

The union shall be held beneath the frozen sky of the Caldera, during the passing of the Ash Moon. Any and all who have the means to cross the tundra and the strength to withstand the Cradle’s breath and the decorum to behave themselves are permitted to attend.

Etiquette will be enforced by the Throne of Char.
Protection will be granted by the Throne of Cinders.
Hospitality, where due, will be overseen by the Throne of Smoke.
Violation of borders will be answered without hesitation.

Those who do not attend may consider this your one formal notice of succession and union.
Those who do attend may witness something few in your world will ever see.

I am not inviting you. I am informing you.

—Bai Lei
White Death,
Sovereign of the Frozen Flame
Seat of Death

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Reactions to the letter were mostly surprise followed by outrage.

A master marrying her disciple? What has the world come to? Or so, the more righteous would say, while the more objective would simply muse who could be so fortunate or unfortunate enough to gain the fancy of a woman like the White Death.

The demonic sects in particular were amused, even supportive of the letter that might as well have been a slap in the face of all righteous sects.

Especially, to the Azure Sky Pavilion who once ruled over the Azure Flame before the White Death took over it and reforged it into the Frozen Flame.

As for the mortal kingdoms, they were mortals and could only lay themselves in prostrate before the will of the mighty immortals. And among such immortals, there was no one greater than Bai Lei.

So, regardless what they thought, whether they felt shade or glee, praise or curse, whether their hearts weighed with scheme or resign, not one of them chose to ignore.

Hence, it was with convoys full of treasures, be these convoys pulled by horse or by monster, be they drawn on land or sky, that the representatives of the Clover World set out beyond the fog to trudge through the tundra and straggle for the snowy peaks, where the song of ice and fire ever sung, to attend the wedding of the White Death in the hallowed halls of the Frozen Flame.