Xui died quietly in the afternoon.

The entire nation was in shock. Even though news had long since spread that the Empress was sick, no one really believed she’d die. The Emperor and Empress had been counted immortals, and that immortality made the people feel their nation was better than others. So not only were citizens sad, they were also uneasy… their Immortal Empress had died. What did it mean? But they would never get the answer they were looking for and, with time, the question faded from their minds as new problems distracted them.

As for Shu Fu Jing, he grieved deeply for the death of his beloved fairy wife. Though he continued on as the Emperor even after she’d died, he lost his zeal for life and only worked to distract himself. His sorrow made him numb and it was as though his heart wilted. In many ways he became cold, mechanical, and ruthless.

Xui’s spirit did not dissipate into the void, but floated aimlessly for quite some time in the Palace, weak and senseless. She was shaped liked an invisible cloud. Neither her husband or son could see or feel her. Everything about herself, she’d forgotten.

There were no feelings of regret or sorrow because there were no thoughts to attach such feelings to. The dissipated spirit she had become just had a deep sense of tiredness and needing to find a place to rest.

The first fairy Xui created, simply named Fa, was still awake. He followed Crown Prince Shu Lan Jing around, quietly waiting for an order. Unfortunately, Lan had stopped believing in fairies, so he never noticed him despite still being able to see him.

Lan had become the Crown Prince the nation so desperately desired, and in so doing ignored his Mother’s earnest final attempt to get him to believe in fairies. He did not even believe half of the letter his Mother had written, seeing it as the sad ramblings of a sick and confused woman on her deathbed.

Of course he didn’t show his Father that letter, and instead tucked it away. The only time Jing seemed normal was when he talked to Lan. If his Father knew of the things his beloved Imperial Mother had written… he might break. And the nation couldn’t afford a broken Emperor just then.

Fairy Fa saw Xui’s shapeless form by chance one day and, for the first time, did something of his own initiative. He approached the spirit cloud known as Xui. Perhaps because they were made of the same stuff, Xui was attracted to the fairy and followed him without much prompting.

The fairy brought Xui to the farthest end of the Imperial Palace. There was a sizable tree there. It was out-of-season, so there were no flowers on it. But when it was in bloom, the flowers were blue. Despite it’s beauty, few knew about it, due it being off the beaten path.

Xui felt an immediate attraction to it, and to the surrounding area by proxy. She felt comfortable there, though she did not even know to ask why. Her spirit seemed to sigh in relief and descended into the ground, resting there in peace.

After a while Lan happened upon the tree again. The story of his Mother’s tree gift was famous and he remembered it. Thinking it would help his Father, he dragged Jing to it one night when it was in full bloom and gave him a prodigious amount of alcohol to loosen the man’s now chronically stony exterior. They both got extremely drunk. And for just a little bit, they were their old selves again: loud and bickering endlessly.

The experience was good for both of them, so they made it habit during the spring when the tree was in bloom. Every year, for many years, they would both sit under the moonlight, with the scent of the tree flowers hovering over them, and drink outrageous amounts of high end liquor and argue noisily. During that time they couldn’t be said to be happy, but they were at the very least content.

Then, one year, Jing did not come. Neither did Jing come the following years after that. The tree was sad, though it did not know why. That it even noticed people at all enough to miss anyone was beyond it’s understanding. It’s flowers no longer glowed, and it’s blooming season shortened.

Lan still came. First in frustration and anger, then grief, and then in quiet contemplation. Lan never brought anyone with him when he drank under the blossoms during the spring and he rarely talked. This upset the tree. The tree thought it would be nice if Lan talked more about himself, even though it didn’t know why.

Emperor Shu Lan Jing grew old but didn’t age. And as he grew older, his human appearance began to fad and was replaced with something… otherworldly. It was as if his fairy spirit became stronger than his human body. He became very beautiful to look at and extremely powerful. Like his parents before him, he was considered an Immortal, and was both loved and feared by his people.

The tree liked Lan. It couldn’t remember why, but it knew Lan was very important to it. So it always waited and bloomed just for him. It could not glow, but it would always bloom for Lan. For a long while, that was the routine for the tree: wait for important man to come and bloom vigorously.

The tree thought it’s blossoms matched especially well with Lan’s now ridiculously handsome face. Sometimes Lan would complain about finding flower petals in places they should not have been, which amused the tree endlessly too. Even though it was a tree, humor and beauty was still very important to it.

Hm? What was beauty? What was humor? It counted Lan as beautiful and funny, but why? Even though it was very slow, such questions began to crop up again and again in the trees mind.

And then one day the tree remembered something important: It had walked once and it had come from very far away. This place was not it’s home. What was “home” anyway? Hadn’t it always lived in a garden, even if it wasn’t this one particularly? But no matter how hard it tried, it could not recall.

The tree grew very old and very large. The Palace Garden it’d originally been planted in had long since disappeared back into the ground. The Palace itself was but rubble and dirt. The tree didn’t particularly mind, as the Palace had become ugly in it’s old age and the tree disliked ugly things.

The real problem was that Lan had stopped visiting. It knew Lan was out there somewhere, though how it knew it could not explain. It was just that the young man no longer came to see it. For the first time, the tree felt genuinely alone and it stopped blooming in it’s sadness.

More time passed like that. The tree felt the air, breathed in the sun, drank up the earth, all the while wondering about the world and itself. Questions began to rise up in it’s mind constantly: What happened to the Palace? Why had people let everything get so ugly? Why did it even care if things were ugly? Where did all the people go? Was it normal for a tree to wonder these things? Was it normal for a tree to think at all? Why was it thinking anyway?

But no matter how many questions it asked, there was no one to answer.

Then, one day, a person appeared. Not only that, the person came right up to the tree to examine it, much to the tree’s delight. No one had visited it specifically in a very long time!

And what a strange visitor had come calling! Why, this visitor was somehow more beautiful than Lan, and Lan had been shockingly lovely. And where this visitor walked, grass grew vibrant and green, even flowering! The tree had never seen anything like that. It could feel the surrounding vegetation practically quiver in delight at the sudden exposure to such pure, unadulterated spiritual energy.

“So it’s true. You really have been here this whole time.” Said the visitor after scrutinizing it from the top of it’s leaf to the bottom of it’s trunk. The tree realized the visitor was, in fact, a man.

Was that really alright, to be that beautiful and be a man? The Tree thought, focusing on the wrong thing completely. Why, this visitor was so amazing looking, that even the tree’s best blooming season wouldn’t match him. He was literally better looking than a flower, and that just couldn’t be right!

The beautiful man suddenly reached out and touched the tree’s trunk. It’s whole body shuddered as it was filled with his divine energy. If it could have, it would have shied away, as such bottomless power was intimidating. But it was a tree and it couldn’t move, so it could only complain bitterly to itself about the visitor being so thoughtless.

Even though it was overwhelming, the man kept pushing more of that heavenly power into the tree. More and more he poured in and the tree wondered if the man was trying to drown it via energy over-saturation.

Of course that would difficult to do, if that was his goal, for the tree was old and it’s spirit was much older still. It would take a very long time for the man to come even close to filling up the spirit inside the tree. It was only a husk of it’s former self and to be properly revived would require a mountain of energy. Or just a mountain.

Oh. But how did the tree know that?

As the man poured his energy into the tree, hazy thoughts and feelings began to sharpen. Memories and knowledge long lost returned in a jumble, making the tree feel dizzy. It wished the man would let go, would let it organize itself a bit, too much was happening all at once!

But the visitor would not let go, would not stop. Not even as the very last leaf and the very last tip of the very last root was drenched in his spiritual energy. Still he kept going.

And then a very curious thing happened: The tree’s form changed.

It had finally remembered who it really was and with that memory an image of what it should look like appeared in it’s mind. It’s body, now overflowing with excess power, instinctively shifted to the form the tree was most familiar with: a human woman with long black hair, pale white skin, and sharp brown eyes.

Only when it was fully formed into the woman, did the man release his grip.

The recently transformed woman lifted up a hand to the sky in wonderment. She was naked and sitting in the vibrant green grass, her hair draping over her body like a black waterfall. She didn’t realize it, but her beauty now rivaled that of the visitor who’d rudely stuffed her with divine power.

After several minutes of amazement at having a human body again, the tree spirit remembered that someone else was there. He was currently stroking her hair and appeared immensely pleased with himself.

Looking up at him, she smiled politely and removed his wandering hand from her head. Rearranging herself to sit in a more graceful position, she introduced herself with a bow, “Thank you for your help. I’ve been stuck in that tree for a very long time. I have gone by other names in the past but since I count you my savior, you may call me Xui.”

“I know.” He replied.

She blinked. “You do? I beg your pardon, but have we met somewhere before?”

“Do you not recognize me?”

Xui looked closely at his face again. Now that she had eyes and a clear mind, he did indeed look familiar to her.

“I do feel as though I’ve seen you before somewhere but…”

He impudently put his hand back on her head, “Come back to the Blue Flower Mountains, to your rightful home, Xuiying.”

“What?” Xui frowned, wondering if she should slap his hand. They really must know each other, for him to know that she came from the mountain and act so familiar besides. “I can’t. My Brother will kill everyone if I do.”

“It’s alright. Your Brother is now properly repentant for his actions. He won’t go through with his threat.”

“Oh? But as a spirit he can’t—”

“His path was not so different from yours.”

This gave her pause. She thought for a moment and looked at him in disbelief. “You mean to say he turned himself human!?”

“Yes, exactly.”

She burst out laughing, “Goodness! All those years of being stubborn and he did the same thing as I did in the end! We really are related!”

The man chuckled. "You are very alike in that sense."

Xui stared at him for a long moment. When he laughed, he looked even more like someone she knew. It vexed her that she could not place his face. Usually she was good at remembering people.

“Are you Little Lan?” She finally asked. Lan had been with her the longest and this man did resemble him, though very distantly.

The man’s body went rigid in anger while he pointed at her accusingly, “You—— how dare you think I’m that little rascal! How dare you mistake me for him! Did he spend a life time wandering the earth in sorrow for you? Did he go through trials and tribulations for you? Did he live a thousand years and ascend to the heavens to plead your case before the Jade Emperor? Did he learn under the Goddess Nuwa to find your cure? Don't think because you've been stuck in a tree for millennium, I'm letting you get away with that! If I have to take you right here to make you remember, Xui, I'll do it!"

Xui’s eyes widened. It had been a long time since she’d been lectured with such unbridled passion. The way he frowned, that pointing figure, the tone of voice, and even how he’d persistently touched her hair… it could only be one person!

"Jing!" She cried out in joyous recognition as she jumped up and kissed him soundly.

He blinked and then smiled, wrapping his arms around her new, divine form.

As he kissed her back, she glowed.