Path Choice: Hunt
||Long overdue thoughts regarding how DH obtains his paths and what it means to him. I did want to like write a drabble about it, but now have this short summary of my thoughts.
The Hunt
Initially, Dan Heng followed The Hunt because he feels like he should. Ever since he was born, he was educated of Dan Feng life and crimes (or more like drilled it into his head). Because he is Dan Feng reincarnation, Dan Heng had to bear his punishment.
By following the Path of the Hunt, the Reignbow Arbitor, Dan Heng feels that "he" (Dan Feng) can find redemption- forgiveness for his sins. That way, Dan Heng won't be haunted by that man past anymore.
There is some idea that Dan Heng met Lan in a dream before he was sentenced to banishment. Unable to recognize the vast space around him, he sees a shooting star moving too fast for his eyes to follow: Beautiful but terrifying. All he hears, as arrows of light descends toward him, are along the lines of: "A Scion of Permanence? The Azure Dragon who attempted to drag the Stars into the ancient sea. Very well. If you seek to redeem your crimes, then take my arrows and vow to annihilate all of Yaoshi spawns in your path."
Then Dan Heng wakes up, confused about his dream. He had no time to decipher it when he's escorted out of the Luofu; exiled. The first signs of Lan blessing are subtle:
The first signs of wind gathering in the palm of his hand (a gift to hide the waters running down his veins)
The confidence he feels unflinching in the face of danger as he wields his spear.
The whispers in the back of his mind (Dan Feng? Lan? Who?) that guides him how to keep his footsteps quiet, to find weaknesses against his opponents, and know when to retreat/fight.
But upon his first meeting with Blade as they clashed, Dan Heng realizes the impact of Lan blessings. The single-minded focus he had, his defenses shifting to pure offensive, and the aggressiveness in his strikes he never had before all because of Blade as his enemy. The fury and hate that tastes like bile in his throat does not belong to him.
It belongs to Lan, and it is Lan that controls him at this moment.
Dan Heng hates it. He hates it even more when he feels something else fighting within him- Permanence, Dan Feng maybe. Struggling to keep Lan power at bay, forcing Dan Heng to stagger in his movements and slow (barely avoiding the lethal strikes of Blade).
Oh, Dan Heng is sick to his core that he has no control at the moment. He hates the feeling that he is never free, even in his own body he has no autonomy.
The first time he stabs Blade in the heart, Dan Heng finally feels like himself. He throws up, the whispers in the back of his mind slowly fading. He believes it was Lan at the moment, but the many times after that...
Dan Heng only slayed Blade if the situation is necessary, and it was within his own choice. In a way, he feels like Lan is watching nearby and mocking him.
The thing is, an Aeon's blessing is also a curse for Dan Heng, he was unaware at the time that the beast he killed many times is the same man his previous incarnation, Dan Feng, dearly loves.
And remember, Lan only requirement for Dan Heng in exchange for his blessings (and allowing him to follow his path) is simple: Annihilate Yaoshi spawns in his path. :)))
Inspired by @everlastiingiimmortals and their amazing Jing Yuan Erudition Path HC's. >:333
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For years, I have dreamt of a Table of Practice. For most of those years, the design was indistinct and often looked like whatever image of something else in a book or online I had seen prior to going to bed. But little by little, specifics of the table would come forth and "lock" into place.
Now I realize this is something that will be physically made. I close my eyes and see it in front of me. I see the engravings on the rim and on the edge. I know what is on the underside and what kind of cloth it will be rested on and wrapped with when not in use. Areas that were vague and shimmery become precise and measured as I learn what those specifics are for and why they need to be like that.
These names go here and those symbols go there and little by little I start to understand how a Table of Practice is not just a "table" but it is a map and it is a beacon and it is a universe unto itself when all the pieces are assembled.
I look at the well known tables and I understand why the magician put this name here even though their peers put that name there instead. There is no universal Table of Practice. There is an idea you start out from and as you learn more, understand more, the table become personalized to the point that what makes sense and is appropriate to you is blasphemous and disastrous to another.
And I sit here, with the afterimage still obscuring my physical sight, and I want to fucking scream to any heaven that dares to witness me.
Why?
Why now?
"Why do you come to me now, when I am like this?"
Why do you tell me [redacted] and show me [static] and pour out fulfillment of the promises when the very people that were supposed to hold me in peace so I could properly mature into this role did their literal damndest to break and kill me instead?
I shiver in rage. No amount of tears wash the image of the table from my mind.
They had beaten me until my ribs cracked and called it an exorcism. They forced me to confess sins of their invention to justify snuffing the light pouring out of my mouth. If they had not worked so diligently to change the color of my skin, I would not have fled from them into the darkness that saved me.
And now. Now that I know what I was then, what I am now, and am learning what the fury of a kettle of sangre sucia can do, now I am shown this and told,
"This is yours. Learn it. Make it. Use it."
Why?
Why now?
Why do you come to me now, when I am like this?
When the oaths can't be walked back. When the covenants are irreparably broken. When the marks are there to be seen by those that can see. When the ugly fruit thrown outside the berm spawns a tree that cannot be uprooted.
The image of the Table of Practice is nearly complete. Against my will, I learn about the angels represented in the markings and the context of the rings. Despite my nature, I am promised support and assistance in collecting the knowledge I will need to not only understand the importance of the Table, but to use it without detriment to myself.
I am not Christian, I say to nothing tangible.
That was never a requirement. It's hard to reject an answer I did not hear.
Then why are you fucking with me now, I breathe through tightened lips.
Because the promises will be kept.
I close my eyes and see a Table of Practice. I can all but feel the texture of the carved and lacquered wood under my fingers. As it assembles in my mind, it feels like a seal is beginning to crumble and a strange and curious light is beginning to seep into my life.
And I weep, because it is beautiful.
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