and remember, no matter where you go, there you are

[patration]

Spring had started to fall upon Eastern Wu again, rain showers washing away the dark soot of war, weighing down clouds of smoke until they rinsed away from the banks. In its wake, grass grew tall again, stretching toward the sky above, pleasant underneath Zhuge's feet as he walked toward Zhou Yu's land, no longer a stranger. When the soft whistle

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[patration]

Her words were strangely beautiful. Not in an intellectual way, not so much with purpose, but in that the thoughts seemed to flow naturally. She wasn't weighed down by niceties, honorifics, all of that which they were taught to use as officials, members of the upper class. And while Zhuge wouldn't have followed in her footsteps, fond of the language as he was, he could admire her words for what they were. Open. Unprotected. Honest, but without any skein of logic that he could yet find.

Almost like a riddle.

Zhuge, on his part, was rather fond of riddles. His hand stroked at his beard thoughtfully as he ran through her words again. Birds didn't seem to have much to do with the core of what she had to say. Two paths, though, that was important. Here and there, all at once. An impossibility.

"But there is only one of me," he said then, tapping his thumb against his chin. "Thus, unless Tabula Rasa is now to become my home, that shouldn't be possible. I've walked many paths, but until my feet are capable of separating, I can only walk one at a time."

[endlessdel]

Del remembered the customs, traditions, greetings and niceties from each civilisation. She remembered what they called her, she remembered the ones that had prayed to her like a God and the ones that had feared her. She remembered all of that but it was hard enough staying mostly whole and sane without adding further formalities.

"There are an infinite number of you's, each following their own path and the same path at the same time though you will only ever remember the path that your feet is currently on." Del said pouting as the birds did not come to her. Pulling her hands close to her, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a sugar cube instead for the horse. Horses were much more fickle than Birds, less skittish. "When are you from? Where? I think you are further from your home then you realise."

[patration]

His fan moved, patting the side of his sleeve regularly, free hand holding loosely onto Meng Meng's reins. It was a way of keeping his thoughts flowing, as though by moving his hand, his mind would surely be processing something at all times, however subconscious. A habit he'd had since he was a child. As long as the world was moving, there was something to watch, something to learn. Gradually, he loosened his hold on the horse's reins, although Meng Meng remained hesitant about approaching the stranger, pressing her nose against Zhuge's sleeve.

"It's okay, Meng Meng," he told the horse with a smile. "Zhuge will protect you if anything should go wrong." He patted the horse's rear lightly, at which point she stepped forward at last, carefully sniffing about Del's hand.

At last, mind setting aside the riddle for a moment, Zhuge bowed deeply. "Pardon my rudeness; I am Zhuge Liang, of Shandong. And this self is from the twentieth year of Emperor Xian's reign, may he live ten thousand years." Looking up, his brow was still knit in careful consideration. "Now that I may, I believe, understand your words more thoroughly, I cannot help but wonder how this self, this one of infinite number, has come to this very moment. My feet, indeed, seem to have leaped a bit."

[endlessdel]

"Meng Meng?" Del asked, holding her palm flat out for the horse. The delicate sugar balanced on her hand for her to eat. Asher kept horses though they were not her favourite creatures, there was something too solid about horses. Del prefered the fluidity of birds and fishies.

"Zhuge Liang? Oh, oh I am Delirium of the Endless." Del replied bowing less deeply in return. He was a great man, respected but she was still of the Endless and even the Gods had bowed low to her and her siblings. "And it is now the two thousandth and eleventh year, that is one thousand, eight hundred and two years- I believe since your time during Emperor Xian's reign."

Del tilted her head, looking at him curiously.

[patration]

Perhaps she was a little mad. Crazy. Zhuge hated that explanation as it was usually applied to things or people, however, thinking it a cop-out. It didn't consider the causes of chaos, didn't remember that even cacophony came in many shades, each distinct and with its own peculiarities. But without further context, indeed that thought was what crossed Zhuge's mind first, that perhaps this woman was not operating on the same level of logic that Zhuge was himself, if indeed any at all. Because it was impossible. That Zhuge could pass through thousands of years and show up in a world so far in the future, that made no sense at all.

Her name sounded like that of a deity, better describing an idea than a person. She spoke with such frankness that Zhuge believed that she, at least, was often referred to by that name.

As Meng Meng began carefully licking at the cube in Delirium's hand, Zhuge's gaze had dropped, his fan pressing against his lip as he paced from side to side, then looked up and shook his head.

"I don't understand how that is possible."

[endlessdel]

Del watched Meng Meng, smiling like her sister-brother as he licked carefully. Delirium missed Desire, she missed the cruelty of its mouth and the heartache it inflicted. But then she missed all her siblings even if she could happily spend a hundred or more years without ever seeing them.

"Oh, it is possible. This place, it spirits us away from our homes and it brings us here for a new life in mortal bodies. I came from a year later than your own but I lived through your years and before them too." Del explained simply. "Your horse is beautiful. Like boats on the water. If I told you who my siblings were, you might believe it is possible or you might think me mad."

Which was of course true.

[patration]

Zhuge was not a religious man.

He knew that the majority of those who lived around him were. Could see them bowing down to the emperor as, indeed, a man who was attuned to the words of Heaven. But Zhuge, being the mind behind so many of the conquests that China had managed over the years, felt that the emperor was merely a face. A body to seat on the throne. That the exchange of emperors and lines was not a sign that any god or that heaven on the whole was displeased with the reign of a dynasty, but instead a sign that strength had waned and decisions had faltered.

That the woman in front of him was claiming to be older, once immortal, was something that Zhuge could not be made to understand or believe over the course of a few minutes. Experience told him, however, that respect was still key, and his head was still bowed in deference.

"The line between madness and genius is thin indeed," he said. "Perhaps I am the untalented, the inexperienced, in which case I can only hope for guidance. Most of all, I need to return home."