*Warning: Description of punishment about midway through this chapter. You can skip to the end if you're sensitive. The rest of the book is not this distressing 😬*

֎֎֎֎֎

The sun hung like a bloodied orb in the crimson sky. The once green waters below her feet and the cliffs on either side of her were bathed in an ominous shade of red.

Like the past iterations of this nightmare, Snow was looking at the legion of celestial soldiers before her through another person's eyes. She wondered why so many men in full gold-plated armor, wielding both swords and spears, were required to subdue her.

"It's you again!" said the red-caped captain, his nostrils flaring above his black beard.

Snow heard herself scoff. The voice and words were not hers, neither were they within her control. With a half-smirk on her lips, she said, "How's your leg, Captain? Is it better since the last time I smashed it to pieces?"

The captain's face contorted in anger at her mocking tone. "Remove the barrier and step aside," he ordered.

Snow turned to look behind her at the cave mouth that was blocked by a pulsating wall of blue light.

She needs more time, this person had thought, though she did not know what he meant. As she slowly turned back to face the soldiers, she drew a halberd with a spear tip and twin crescent moon blades out of thin air.

Her voice came out low and menacing. "What if I don't want to?"

The soldiers nearest to her pointed their weapons at her, ready to advance.

"Seize him!" shouted the captain.

With a tremendous roar, wave after wave of soldiers attacked on three sides. This body she was inhabiting had fought fiercely; she, or rather he, sliced and stabbed furiously with his weapon, drawing blood and screams.

He twisted and turned swiftly, catching blades and spear tips between the crescent blades and the shaft of his weapon and pulling swords and spears out of soldiers' hands. Summoning a gust of wind beneath his feet, he propelled forward and slashed across the next wave of advancing soldiers, shattering their swords and turning their spears to splinters. He dodged blows and counter attacked, and when he had the chance, thrust out his palm, blasting soldiers back with strong gusts of wind.

All the while, he kept glancing at the cave, even as he swung the halberd around his torso, the blades carving armor and flesh like they were made of soft clay. When a soldier slipped past his defense and tried to breach the barrier he had created, he grabbed a spear out of another soldier's hands and hurled it at the soldier, striking him between the shoulder blades. He spun around, and more soldiers came charging at him, baying for his blood.

The sound of metal clashing against metal and howling men echoed all around the rocky cliffs covered in verdant vegetation and cherry blossom trees. Before long, the river was filled with blood and the bodies of fallen soldiers.

Cherry blossom petals borne on the wind fluttered onto the darkening waters and the dead in their suits of gold.

He panted heavily as he eyed the remaining soldiers floating in mid-air around him. His pristine white clothes had been sprayed red, and a crimson line ran from a wound on his thigh down his trousers and white boot.

The captain, floating high in the sky with the sun at his back, surveyed the carnage around him.

"You rabid dog, you will suffer for this," he hissed.

"Bring it on," Snow heard herself reply through bared teeth. She lunged forward for another attack - this time at the captain, who remained stock still in the air with a maniacal look in his eyes.

Suddenly, golden chains flew from four directions towards her. Before she could evade them, they encircled her arms and torso in a death grip, and sent a searing jolt of electricity through her body. She cried out from the shock and the pain, as her weapon slipped out of her grasp.

She twisted in the air, but was unable to stop herself from plunging into the river. As she sank through the bloodied water, she saw the sun shimmering above her through a rippling layer of red.

And then the world dimmed.

The next thing she knew, she was being dragged across a square courtyard by the manacles around her wrists and the chains around her waist. The chains attached to her shackled ankles clinked against the courtyard tiles as she was forced to stagger forward.

She tried to pull back with all her strength, but she was no match for the ten men holding the ends of the chains. As she neared the center of the courtyard, she saw another ten soldiers holding up thick iron rods, the tips glinting in the sun. They stood around a low wooden frame on the ground.

No! Not this! Fear clutched at her heart at the sight of those rods and the frame, and she struggled against her chains but to no avail. The captain stood nearby with his hands behind his back and a sneer on his face. With one hard yank on her manacles and a push from behind, she came crashing down onto the frame.

The chains around her waist were removed, and the shackles at her wrists and ankles were secured to the frame, rendering her immobile. At the captain's command, the rod-wielding soldiers took their positions beside her, five on each side.

She could hear a heavenly official announcing the charges against her and the punishment to be meted out, but her mind could not process anything. Instead, she kept her head down, and her face shielded by her hair. She did not want the captain to have the pleasure of seeing the tears forming in her eyes.

"Ready!" the captain shouted.

Resting her forehead in the crook of her arm, she gripped the edges of the frame beneath her trembling fingers and tensed her body in anticipation of the hurt to come.

Wake up, wake up! she told herself. This was the part of the nightmare that she dreaded the most.

"Strike!"

Oh no, too late! She held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

There was a whistling in the air before the rods slammed down across her back and legs with a deafening crack. A moan of pain escaped her lips as her body jerked involuntarily against her bonds.

"Ten."

More blows ensued.

"Twenty."

She tried desperately not to cry out as the beatings continued, but the pain coursing through her was too much for her to bear. Each subsequent round brought more shattering pain, and by the time the captain counted to a hundred, she had lost all self-restraint. She wondered who was screaming in her ear, before she realized it was herself.

"My love, wake up. Please wake up," she heard a voice say over the tortured cries tearing from her throat.

Snow felt a warm hand on her cheek and she opened her eyes to see Erden peering down at her with concern in his eyes. The light from the fireplace in the middle of their yurt reflected in his irises and lit them like golden amber.

"Is it that dream again?" he asked, his voice husky with sleep.

She nodded, tears flowing from the corners of her eyes. Upon seeing her tears, he wiped them away with his fingers. His long hair spilled over the side of his face and brushed against hers as he bent down to kiss her forehead. After he laid back down on his side, he gently pulled her to his chest under the blanket they shared.

"It's all right, my love, I'm here. I won't let anything harm you," he whispered as he stroked her hair and back. She held him tightly, feeling his strong heart beating underneath her cheek while her own heart hammered beneath her ribs.

It's just a dream. It's just a nightmare, she told herself as she took deep breaths, calmed by Erden's steady breathing and loving embrace.

The question she had to ask herself though, was, why are the nightmares getting more vivid? And just who is this poor, tormented soul?

Author's notes:

What do you guys think of this opening chapter? Let out your screams here.

To recap from the first book, we left this character to face a mysterious threat, but now we know what happened to him D:

Here's a photo of a double crescent halberd or a fang tian ji:

In the next chapter we're heading to the steppes for horse racing and archery. It's going to be fun, I promise you that!