They came back to a full house of people eating steamed buns and happily talking with one another. Granny Nuo Nuying was making sure that no one was left without a bun to eat and when she saw Nikola she ran up to him and gave him a bun.

“Saffron was the cure all along! You eat now so you won’t get sick.” Nikola took the bun, which was still warm, and then he spoke.

“Granny, I didn’t do this. It was all Wei Caihong. He performed a ritual in the woods. Didn’t you notice the rain and the earthquake? Saffron doesn’t do that.”

Granny Nuo Nuying looked like she didn’t believe him and then she turned towards Wei Caihong.

“But he barely examined the sick! And he kept hiding throughout the day! And what if he could do some tricks? This was Trojan medicine that healed everyone, not vile Atlantean enchantment.”

Some of the people who were listening in agreed with the elderly woman and Nikola looked at Wei Caihong. Why was the noble so disliked?

“My beloved speaks the truth. I stopped the plague. I can make rain to prove it to you all.” Said Wei Caihong and he whispered the same incantation Bjorn had screamed as his new body was created. Then Wei Caihong paled and he swayed on his feet. Nikola supported him and soon the telltale pitter-patter on the roof was heard.

“A miracle…”

“We will never have a drought again…”

“We were so wrong, Wei Caihong, forgive us…”

The villagers begun to speak one over the other and to crowd Wei Caihong.

“How do I stop the rain?” Wei Caihong whispered to Nikola. He didn’t want to create a flood or fail the crops with too much rain.

“You can’t.” Answered Nikola. “But you didn’t put all that much power behind the incantation. It will stop this time tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Just how much power did he pump into the spell?

“What was that, Wei Caihong? What are you whispering?” Asked granny Nuo Nuying who was still looking suspiciously at the noble.

“I was just telling Nikola that I love him.” Said Wei Caihong and he gave the old woman a kind smile, although her eyes didn’t soften at it.

“The Emperor won’t like this. He will take our Wei Caihong away!” Screamed a man in despair, as if he wasn’t one of the nonbelievers just a few seconds ago. Wei Caihong inhaled sharply. He hadn’t thought of that. Practicing magic was only sanctioned by the court and he didn’t have a diploma allowing him to use spells even for something as noble as stopping a plague. Wei Caihong could already hear the accusations. See the detectives who would be send here to get the truth of him on whatever or not this was the first time he had used magic. And he could feel the cool metal of the execution saber on his skin.

“Good people, must the Emperor know?” Asked Nikola and confused silence followed his proclamation. “We can claim that this was an isolated outbreak and that Saffron was indeed used to cure the plague. It won’t appear again, Wei Caihong had assured me. So what is a little white lie to protect an upstanding citizen of our community?”

“What indeed?” Added Azazel, whose hand was trying to hold Bjorn’s but it looked awkward in the air. “Are you all so craven that you won’t return the gesture of this kind man?”

Everyone then looked at Bjorn, waiting for him to add something too. He raised his hand to his face and coughed in it as if to say: don’t look at me. The villagers huddled into a pile and begun to loudly discuss Wei Caihong’s future. Shouts of him going to court to get him back for past taxes reached his ears and the noble paled. But then granny Nuo Nuying took a stool from somewhere and she climbed on it so everyone could see her.

“For shame! He used Atlantean crafts to save us from the Emerald Emperor’s last curse! And you all want to have him carted to the executioner’s blade over coppers he took to fix the village school years ago? Shame!”

Well, Wei Caihong had indeed fixed the school. But with the bigger part of the money he bought rare potion ingredients. He had only fixed the school up when he needed to be seen using the money gathered for a year doing something for the good of the people. But said people didn’t need to know that.

“Your ancestors won’t welcome you in your family tombs when your time comes! Your oxen will take sick and die! The rice in the fields will rot, the paddies will turn to swamps and wolves will descend on the village! All this and more if Wei Caihong dies or is betrayed!”

People were clutching their heads as if granny Nuo Nuying was cursing them or seeing the future. Mei Ying moved forward, a bun in her hand and the rice farmer who wanted to propose to her by her side.

“I say the Saffron was what helped me, not magic! And who gave the idea for the Saffron? Nikola of Troy!”

Everyone looked at her. This was perfect for them. It would be an open secret that Wei Caihong had healed them and his lover would be able to accept the gift the Emperor would have given Wei Caihong if the man had indeed healed them with Saffron. It all tied up neatly.

“Yes, I felt better immediately after the Saffron bun!”

“Magic? What magic? Wei Caihong is speaking nonsense trying to gather attention. It was going to rain today anyway!”

“Nikola of Troy saved us! Health and glory to him!”

People were winking as they kept insulting Wei Caihong and praising Nikola. But people were rummaging in their pockets and taking out small keepsakes and leaving them at Wei Caihong’s feet, bowing down in respect even as they mocked him. By the time they managed to heard everyone out of the door, even granny Nuo Nuying who had extracted the promise from Nikola that he would come help her knit dough like he had promised as soon as he got some rest, all four men were looking bothered.

“You still ended up getting the praise you deserved, my Emerald.” Said Wei Caihong who looked at all the useless knickknacks on the floor. “We will need to clean this.”

“Sugar puff, clean this.” Said Bjorn and when nothing happened he huffed. “It would have been good if I could do the trick too.” He whined and Azazel attempted to embrace him only to be stopped by the same invisible force as before.

“Will you talk dirty to me if I do?” Asked the angel hopefully and he received he middle finger for his words. But the force let up and he finally managed to hug his husband who, even though he had a frown on his face, didn’t do anything to brake off the embrace.

“Maybe afterwards. And it all depends on how fast you put everything in place.” Said Bjorn and Azazel let go of him as if burned and he begun to pick the keepsakes from the floor and to rush to the rafts to place them as if they were lined up soldiers for inspection.

“So I do have the power to get him to do what I want.” Said Bjorn, hands crossed over his chest. Then he bend down and begun to pick the items too. Nikola and Wei Caihong soon joined him and the walls became decorated with all kinds of small items. When they were finished the shop looked fuller, somehow.

“I’ll be opening shop tomorrow.” Said Nikola as he stared at the cluttered walls. “But today I have dough to knit. Make sure you don’t kill each other.” He said pointedly at Bjorn and Azazel. Azazel looked insulted while Bjorn looked like he had been considering it. Wei Caihong moved to follow Nikola who turned back at him.

“Where do you think you are going?” He asked and Wei Caihong pointed at the door.

“With you. To knit dough the entire day. And tomorrow I’ll be manning the store by your side.” He said it with such a finality that Nikola couldn’t help but point at the noble’s hands.

“Do you even know how to knit dough?”

Wei Caihong looked sheepishly down at his feet but he still made a step towards the door.

“You or that old harpy Nuo Nuying can teach me.”

They were opening the door and there were people still near their house, looking at them expectantly. Nikola shuddered when an arm wrapped around his and then they were walking towards granny’s house.

Wei Caihong was enjoying this, Nikola could tell. People were waving at them. Coming to them to shake their hands, some even stopping them in order to kowtow to them. This was the most attention the noble has gotten from his former subjects ever. Of that Nikola was sure.

When they finally made it to granny Nuo Nuying’s house there were people outside of it and a…priest? Nikola looked towards Wei Caihong as if to ask him if he had anything to do with this but the noble shook his head. Granny walked out with a waddle and pointed at the priest.

“You two can’t remain together without a marriage! Your ancestors will rage and put a curse on you for the dishonor that will bring! I don’t know how it is like in Troy but here in China we stand for what is proper. Now, Nikola of Troy, in the house so that you will change into the ivory silks I had the seamstress make you when you dragged this pampered no good noble from his palace. And you, groom, are you getting married in this? Back to where you came from and come back and come to the temple with your best silks and accessories!”

“And don’t forget to bring your bride a gift!” Screamed Mei Ying who was clutching the happy rice farmer’s hand in excitement. “You already has his dowry in the form of living in his house!”

Nikola was shaking his head as he was pushed inside the house and the last thing he saw of the outside world was Wei Caihong being chased off and herded back.

Wei Caihong was being complimented in a strange way.

“You lucky dog get to have a flower from a faraway valley!” Said a man who was tugging at his robe and leaving dirty handprints. The man had short hair and his front tooth was missing. Right in the middle of his mouth. How did even such a person got to talk to him? He wanted to snap at the villager when a buxom woman clapped him on the back.

“We all know to value your bride.” She said with a wink, clearly having heard of the village’s new secret. “And you were a shit magistrate. You better be a better husband!” Just as Wei Caihong was going to tell her to mind her own business she was replaced by an old man who was holding himself up with a cane. The man gripped Wei Caihong’s arm with shaking hands, there were tears in his eyes.

“My two granddaughters were among the sick. The rest may play this act but I thank you…”

“Grandpa Cao! The Emperor might hear!” Said the dirty man with the missing front tooth who was still clutching on Wei Caihong’s other arm.

“Don’t you interrupt me, young man! Why, when I was your age we knew to respect our elders. Now, young Wei Caihong, when your bride appears in front of you smile. And mean it! He will look a vision but don’t faint! I fainted when I first saw my wife and she misunderstood it! I can still hear her screaming at me that it took her hours to do her hair and face.”

Wei Caihong imagined what Nikola would do if he fainted. Laugh his ass off and claim that this was reason enough to ditch him at the altar. Wei Caihong tried to fastened his pace. He was getting soaked and he didn’t know how he would make it back to the house of Nuo Nuying dry with his fresh robes. To get married. Nikola wouldn’t be able to weasel out of this. The whole village wanted them together: The brave foreigner who eased their suffering and the noble former magistrate who healed them with magic. Wei Caihong smiled despite the rain and the people crowding him. When someone tried to replace grandfather Cao by his side Wei Caihong stopped it by gripping the old man’s arm. That meant that Mister toothless got replaced. By a small child who was eating a steamed bun. The child didn’t speak. Wei Caihong decided to do his best to keep the little boy by his side.

The new magistrate was waiting by the house, his servant holding an umbrella over his head. Wei Caihong was in such a good mood from all the talking he had done with grandfather Cao that he smiled brightly at his replacement, who looked taken aback at that.

“Wei Caihong. I will bless your union today. But you better not spread any more lies about magic ever again. Think of your own good health, man.”

The magistrate, who was fat as one can be and looked old enough to be Wei Caihong’s father, was winking at him with a silly grin on his face. Wei Caihong winked back, just to see what would happen, and then the magistrate clapped him on the shoulder and let him get back in his house. Which proved to be hard since the door was locked and neither Azazel nor Bjorn seemed to be willing to let him in.

People begun to mutter as Wei Caihong tried to remembered what Azazel’s new name was. Something with a B, stolen from a Greek king. Ah, yes! Basil! Wei Caihong knocked on the door three times, screaming the name, and the small window in it opened and from the other side came Bjorn’s face.

“Where is Niki?” They had agreed that Bjorn couldn’t call his grandfather by his title so they had made a compromise and decided to shorten Nikola’s name for the purpose instead.

“He is getting dressed up for the wedding. Won’t you two let me in so that I could do the same?” He was proud of himself. This wasn’t even his doing and yet he was still getting Nikola all to himself.

“What wedding? He never even married Pen! And he loves Pen!” They had also agreed to shorten the angel’s names too. Just to be safe. People begun to mutter about Nikola’s other love in Troy and how it wasn’t proper to have two lovers. No, there must be a wedding, everyone agreed on it. Nikola of Troy had to become an honest man!

Wei Caihong didn’t know who said that but he found himself nodding to the wisdom. His marriage would last at least nine hundred years. Some marriages didn’t even last a year!

“This was Nuo Nuying’s doing. And I am in full support of it. It is not proper to be with someone without the intentions of a marriage!” Grandpa Cao hit his cane on the ground and Bjorn groaned.

“You are twisting Niki’s arm in this and using the villagers to help you. I will not stand for it! As his friend I will keep you out of the house!” There were some similarities between Bjorn and Nikola, namely the eye color. But while Nikola’s features were soft Bjorn was all high cheekbones and muscle. So they passed him off as the husband to Nikola’s uncle. Which was sort of true. Apart from the fact that Azazel, or rather Basil, wasn’t Nikola’s uncle.

“Quite right. Quite right. I’ll give my nephew away and something tells me that the sun will break through the clouds for the wedding.” Came Azazel’s muffled voice from within at the same time. He tried to open the door but Bjorn kept him at an arm’s length.

“Precious, just open the door already! Let Wei Caihong become a part of the family! Pen doesn’t deserve our dear Niki! She left him!”

Azazel’s voice turned high pitched and then he released a girlish scream. Wei Caihong could make out a spider, a big forest one, being dangled in front of the angel.

“Lemon cake open the door at your own peril! I will be throwing this at you as you do!” Threatened Bjorn and he extended his hand towards Azazel who begun to back away until he was no longer seen on the door. Then Bjorn was back to the window on the door.

“I’ll be fair. Give me three reasons why I should let my nephew marry you. Start.”

Wei Caihong blinked. He had a chance?

“I love him enough to change for him.” Many of the village folk begun to list his past transgression against them and then to reassure Bjorn that Wei Caihong had indeed changed. Wei Caihong turned to glare at the smiling crowd. The child by his side tugged at his sleeve.

“Two more reasons, Gege! I believe in you.”

What a lovely child. Wei Caihong had to remember to comment his parents on the wonderful job they did with raising him. He looked back at Bjorn who was holding his arm outstretched as if the ward Azazel off and stilled his resolve.

“I was by his side in his dark moments.” Bjorn nodded at that, imagining how hard it must have been for his grandfather to wake up and find out that a hundred years have passed him by.

“One more, Wei Caihong.” Said Bjorn and then he suddenly jerked his hand violently and Azazel let out a high pitch scream.

“I’d live for him.” And Bjorn opened the door and everyone begun to enter the place.

“I would have gone out to sock you in the face if you have said you’d die for him.” Said Bjorn as he threw the spider in Azazel’s direction who screamed. The spider begun to chase the angel and Wei Caihong begun to have his doubts as to whatever this was a true animal.

“I would never. Dying is easy. Struggling for the one you love is what counts.” Said Wei Caihong and Bjorn clapped him on the shoulder. The blonde looked in his thirties and Wei Caihong suddenly felt uneasy to have known that the man had taken his life so young. Bjorn then stepped aside and let the procession to take Wei Caihong to the bedroom.

Meanwhile granny Nuo Nuying was talking Nikola into the marriage. The man stubbornly refusing to take off his yellow silks and change into the wedding robes.

“Granny, we are perfectly happy as we are.” Said Nikola for what felt like the hundredth time. This was his answer to all of the questions of Nuo Nuying. What was Wei Caihong doing now? Probably skipping puddles in joy talking everyone’s ears off about how he was going to marry Nikola.

“No, you are not! There is a slight coldness between you two! What are you going to do? Wait for your lover from Troy forever? You are young, my boy. But if even your uncle can come here faster than your lady Pen then that doesn’t speak well for her!” Nikola had explained to granny Nuo Nuying all about his uncle and his husband and how they had gotten the word about them coming and so they had to come to the woods. He had also told the granny that the two newcomers were eyewitnesses to Wei Caihong healing the plague. Nuo Nuying still thought that Saffron was the hero of the day, even though she had played along.

“Pen will come or I will go to her…”

Granny Nuo Nuying took her waddle and she hit Nikola with it.

“And you will get to play with both her and Wei Caihong? Shame on you! I thought you were better than this!”

Nikola lowered his head as if in shame but his brain was trying to make something from this situation. Granny was not going to let up and there were women behind the door to his former room listening in and commenting about his loose moral. He recognized some of the voices from his time as a fortune teller. Granny Nuo Nuying took his hand. Her old wrinkled one, marked by a lifetime of hard work, was in stark contrast to his soft, young one.

“You have to do the right thing, child. Wei Caihong would never leave you like Pen did. Get in your robes already or I will let all the Jiejies inside and they will force you.”

Nikola turned pale at the door which creaked open and a woman to whom he had predicted once would have ten sons showed her face. She had an evil grin on her face and she waved at him. Nikola stood up and shut the door in her face then he leaned on it as if to barricade it.

“Stubborn mule! You get dressed already!”

“We will tickle you as we dress you and then when your husband comes to claim you, you will have the loveliest blush on your cheeks!”

“Nuo Nuying! You hit him with the waddle again! On his feet so that no one sees the marks!”

These women were vicious, Nikola was trying to stop the door from opening but he found he barely could. And then Nuo Nuying was raising her waddle at his legs and Nikola groaned.

“Fine! Fine, you harpies! I’ll get dressed and get married. God forbid that someone is happy in this village without marriage.”

The women begun to congratulate themselves but the waddle still made it’s journey to Nikola’s feet.

“What was that for?” He snapped at the old woman who was pushing him towards a chest.

“You made me bend over. Do you know how hard that was on my old bones? Now get dressed already!”

Nikola dressed quickly and then he looked down at himself. There were pearls in his robe. Just how did granny afford this?

“I know what you are thinking.” Said the old woman as he pointed at the robes. “I used the money you earned me. I was going to give them back to you anyway in case your shop didn’t go smoothly. But then you caught yourself a wealthy noble and then I figured that I can at least send you off in the splendor you deserve. I still remember your rich garbs, Nikola of Troy.”

“You were kind to a stranger back then…” There was a lump in Nikola’s throat. Granny behaved like she was his grandmother. Giving him a roof over his head, feeding him, giving him something to fill his days with. Had it not been for her he would have wallowed in self-pity.

“I am good at gathering karma, aren’t I?” Said the grandmother smugly. “Now let us go outside. I can no longer hear the rain. You make a lovely bride, Nikola of Troy.”

Granny Nuo Nuying opened the door and the women fell in. They were all looking at him with adoration and trying to touch the pearls on his robes. Granny Nuo Nuying brandished the waddle like a weapon and begun to attack the women with it.

“Back, all of you! If even a single pearl falls down I will have your hides!”

The women scattered in horror and made a line in the corridor. Nikola looked back at Nuo Nuying, unsure. This was big for him. He had brought forward the issue of marriage to Penemue more than once but the angel had kept insisting that Nikola had to stay single in case a superpower appeared and he needed to sue for peace through marriage. Nikola had cried and raged the first time he heard this excuse but by the hundredth time he heard it he no longer cared. And now he was going to get the marriage he wanted so badly. Just not with Penemue.

Would it be so bad if he married Wei Caihong? He’ll give him nine lifetimes and then…would he be able to leave his husband for his lover? Had Maria not died during the famine he would have never taken up Penemue’s offer, no matter how much he desired him. But Maria had died, secretly giving her rations to her two children while suckling a third one and ultimately clamming an illness so Nikola wouldn’t look into the heart of the matter. And then Penemue, breathtaking Penemue, had come to him in his grief as he wondered if his small infant daughter won’t survive much longer since wet nurses were so scares. As he feared that his two sons would become skin and bones just like their mother. That he won’t hold much longer himself, as he had done the same as Maria expect his parents always gave him extra as he needed to hunt in the forests and so needed his strength. Had Maria survived then Nikola would now be a footnote in the history of Atlantis. A long forgotten King. And now he was getting married again. He was promising love and loyalty again.

“Granny Nuo Nuying, how do I know if Wei Caihong loves me?” He asked and his voice broke at the end. Because he knew he wouldn’t have ordered Azazel not to kill Wei Caihong if there weren’t feelings on his part. And that terrified him. Granny placed the waddle under her chin and adopted a thinking expression.

“Well, would you like me to tell you how he was before?” Said the old woman and Nikola nodded as the women in the corridor craned their necks so that they would listen in better.

“He was a nightmare.” Said the old woman and Nikola raised his eyebrow. Sure Wei Caihong had his moments of cruelty but it was of the petty kind. Apart from that one time he had seen him skinning the prisoner whose heart the noble later ate. Ok, maybe granny was onto something. “He’d raise our taxes and then give us the barest minimum in return. He’d be sarcastic with us when we go to air our grievances at him. He had no mercy when dealing even with those who did something such as stealing bread and rice to feed their starving children. He had no love for us, even though we were his people. Entrusted to him by the Emperor. He hated us and we hated him right back.”

Nikola noted granny’s stern look as she said the last part. He nodded at her, showing her he understood. Then she continued.

“There were so many rumors. Of him torturing people in his dungeon and of him brewing vile potions from long forgotten Atlantean books. And now that he healed the sick with magic the rumors have just been confirmed. Unless it was Saffron after all?”

Nikola tried to smile but Nuo Nuying’s face was so full of hope that his face fell. Still, he persisted with the lie.

“No. He did it. A good deed and…”

“I know.” And Nuo Nuying sounded tired at the admittance. “Now do you want me to tell you how he is now?” Nikola knew how Wei Caihong was now. But he wanted to hear another’s viewpoint anyway. He wanted to give Wei Caihong a chance to raise in his eyes, and he wanted to keep lying to himself that he didn’t know why.

“He changed.” Said Nuo Nuying and Nikola’s breath hitched in his throat. “He started to buy steamed buns for the poorer villagers. Normally my normal customers can’t even get one. Have you noticed?”

“I haven’t, since when?” Asked Nikola. Why hadn’t he ever seen Wei Caihong do such a thing?

“Since he moved in with you. That is two months’ worth of me working overtime to feed truly hungry bellies. I have never been more proud of my work.” The old lady was tearing up and Nikola rushed to hug her.

“You stay back!” She said, hitting him with the waddle gently. “I’ll get your robes dirty.”

“How else did Wei Caihong change?” Asked Nikola as he clutched at the woman. She sniffled and returned the hug, the waddle falling to the ground.

“He is good with medicine, your Wei Caihong. He was our only doctor here in this forgotten valley. Not just for our village but for the rest too. But we had to grovel and beg for his help before. No longer. He doesn’t even ask for payment.”

Nikola couldn’t imagine why the noble had kept it hidden. Just when did he take the time to help all these people?

“Granny, when did Wei Caihong do all this?” He said and the woman buried her face in his chest.

“During the day, when you were with me. He spread the word in the village that everyone who is hungry should first come to him for a copper and then to my stall. That they should ask you for their fortune. Then one brave man carried his son to Wei Caihong and your lover made him tea and herbal paste for his fever. That saved the boy’s life and as a parting gift to the man Wei Caihong told him to spread the word that he would heal all comers as long as they were willing to shop for their herbs themselves. In exchange he told everyone to not tell you. He paid for the public baths to accept the poor so that illnesses stopped spreading in this village. He is paying your seamstress to clothe orphans in cotton. And I heard he is now negotiating with the magistrate for an orphanage to be build that is half on his expense, half on the state. You made him into a good man. And that only after a month. Don’t let him become a cruel wretch again.”

The women shouted their agreements and Nikola stared at granny Nuo Nuying’s white hair in wonder. Wei Caihong sounded like a kind hearted man. Everyone would be happy to have him. But why…

“Why didn’t he want me to know. All these things are good. I would have helped him.”

“That was his own redemption, Nikola the Emerald.” Said granny Nuo Nuying and Nikola stiffened in her arms. “You had yours when you decided to slave away for an old crone and to live like an upstanding citizen. And you may slip, for you must if our loved ones are healthy again, but you must continue to walk your path of redemption. No matter the cost.”

Granny knew! Nikola turned to look at the other women who just looked confused. Then he stared back at the woman in his arms.

“You talk in your sleep.” She told him. “You are lucky I am such an understanding person and willing to give second chances. Troy, pha.”

Nikola smiled then. This here was a woman who knew who he was and yet still cared for him. Maybe Wei Caihong and he weren’t all that different, if they were both toiling away for redemption in secret.