The soldiers lifted Aijin, and the woman thrashed herself. The moment she saw her daughter, she gasped. “Sweetie, why are you here?!”

Neha stomped her right foot. “Mom! I was worried! What are you doing in the temple?!”

“What am I doing... exactly what?” Aijin growled and clenched her teeth. “They lied to me! Serial liars, they are ruining our lives! They killed my husband, Yesun, and no wonder he is gone since then! They are responsible for his demise, and I must slaughter every single one of them! Die die die!”

From the door, the clergyman frowned. “How dare you say that? There is no concrete evidence that your husband has been murdered!”

“Shut the hell up! You arrested my husband for a crime, and sentenced him to execution in the desert, where by now, his body is buried under the dunes! Why do you have to kill such a man?!”

“I do not have any knowledge of that, nor was I involved in that case. But it is clear that you are insane.”

“Insane?” The mother chuckled, and she clicked her tongue. “I wouldn’t be like this if my husband had came back. Just look at my poor daughter right here, alone and fragile, for I have provided her nothing but suffering! And what is the reason for you being here Neha? Didn’t I tell you to sleep in my bedroom? Naughty girl, go away! I command you!”

Her words made Neha quiver. “I was afraid that you got hurt, since you were out for a long while. But for you to try to hurt this person, I cannot accept it. However, please come home with me mommy! I don’t want you to do this anymore! You can tell me more about dad!”

“I cannot come home, for I feel immense shame. I am sorry.” As she finished her words, a soldier slapped her. Her cheek bones cracked. Aijin welled up in tears, and she wailed.

The soldiers shoved the woman to the stage area. Bringing her next to the jade statue, they interrogated her a lot of questions that she might or might not understand, each with a progression of difficulty that the woman could barely answer. Aijin hissed and snarled. Her glare stabbed their faces, and it put the soldiers in astonishment. They then decided to transport her to prison in a matter of hours, so that she would be gone for good.

The clergyman came forth to Neha. He smirked.

“Such an unfortunate one you are. You must have been suffering under the wrath and madness of your own mother. And still, you are here for her in spite of that. Is it that you are blinded by parental love? Or it must be that you are desperate to come here and make a fool of yourself? Hurry up and get out of here now, little one.” A company of abbots and clergymen came to the man’s aid, and they yelled as soon as they saw his blood darkening the cloth. “Don’t worry about it fellas, it’s going away in no time. At least the ludicrous woman over there didn’t stab my heart, haha!” His fellow men laughed, and then they strolled to the left side of the stage.

Butterflies flew in Neha’s stomach. She dashed to her mother’s side and wrapped her arms around her. With her strength, she started to pull her away.

“Neha, what in God’s name are you doing?”

“I’m trying to save you from them! Let’s go home together, please!”

“What did I say? I cannot do so. I have committed a crime, and I will pay for it.”

“Even so, I have to help you!”

Neha could not get an inch of her mother’s body towards her space. Aijin glued herself, and it frustrated the girl. Then in awareness of her efforts, the soldiers huddled to the opposite side of Aijin and snagged her arm. Neha grounded her feet, she hardened her hands and squeezed Aijin’s wrists and veins. With the collective power of the men, they yanked the woman without a bit of sweat on their faces. In such a contest, a network of nerves was pinched on Neha’s elbows; her arms convulsed. Without composure, she fell to the floor. The troops fished Aijin, and they giggled like schoolboys.

As it happened in an instant, one grunt ambled to the girl and aimed his rifle. He scoffed upon the innocent eyes of the young one, and said that the child did not deserve to live any longer. Aijin bellowed.

“Stop! Don’t you even point that piece of junk at my daughter! Stop it!” She got up and knocked the grunt with her handcuffs. The group again was able to wrangle the woman, despite her being still livid. “If you kill her, then I shall curse you in the afterlife! Neha my darling, please run off. It’s not worth staying here!”

“But mom-”

“You don’t love me do you? So love me at this time, and listen to me for once. Go away. You don’t need to deal with this.”

“This is my problem okay?! You have done so much for me—and I have to repay you back! Let us forget all of this, and I want to be by your side!” Neha blamed herself that she should have been attentive and warm towards her parent, the one who cared for her, the one that loved her child no matter how heavy her burdens were. She believed it was not too late for the both of them to reclaim each other. Yet, the situation right now became too much to handle. With all her heart could Neha only cry and lament.

Groaning from the woman’s sudden attack, the grunt massaged his back. With his rifle, he jabbed the barrel to Neha’s forehead. He laughed and slapped his knees; he fired insults about her parents, and the man said that her father would feel much humiliation if he were alive. Neha grimaced, she almost considered to break the person’s weapon. The grunt held his finger close to the trigger, he grinned and hacked a ball of saliva. From the barrel of the rifle, chills funneled upon Neha’s forehead. It left her defenseless, thus she shut her eyes and prayed for some miracle to get herself and her parent out of this as soon as possible.

She then heard nothing. It seemed as though the commotion of the people was gone. The chills from the rifle disappeared, it could be that the gods and the angels had finally came to the child’s aid. But in reality, that thought begged nothing but desperation.

It couldn’t be anymore surprising at this point in time, as the heavens had revolved the doors of fate. It just so happened that the quietness of the air fell apart. The grunt clammed and groaned, he bumped his firearm against his sides and withdrew it.

“What’s going on?” Neha opened her eyes. In front of her, the soldier scowled towards somebody at the entrance. Everybody upon the stage went quiet. A couple of footsteps breached the aisles, and two people arrived.

Yebuka and Tulisen was here. The latter narrowed his eyelids.

“Woe to the gods, what is going on here? One minute, I was trying to take a stroll with this candid man, and the next minute, I have received a call from a guard that there is trouble here! Why, can’t I get any rest? And is there a reason that this little one is here, late at night?”

The clergyman with the wound replied, “My Lord, the girl burst into the temple and went to the meeting place without permission. She was trying to take away her mother, who had attempted to murder me.”

Yebuka nodded. He chewed his lips and relaxed his gaze, and it made everybody uncertain of his next move. He sauntered past Neha and approached Aijin. He muttered something to her ears, something along the lines of repent and confessions. Aijin screeched, she almost bit his cheeks. The soldiers apologized for not controlling the woman enough with their strength, but the Lama pardoned them. Meanwhile, Tulisen came to Neha and stroked her head. The child blushed.

“Did your mom take the medicine?”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Only one pill a day, I have to remind you. Since I cannot afford to give allowance to her, she might have to tolerate her condition. She also needs to preserve her medicine, so as to not abuse it so much.”

“I know...”

“You should go home,” Tulisen said. “You know it’s not good to stay up at night for too long. You don’t want to get caught by the soldiers on the streets, although there are a sparse number of them this night.”

Neha vaulted from him. “I just can’t leave her here! I have to take her home, no matter what. I have to.”

“But your mother tried to kill somebody. We cannot let her go that easily. We must give her punishment in accordance to the law.”

“No no no, it should not be like this. I want her back, right now.” The girl turned herself away and reddened her face even more. When Tulisen grabbed her hands, she squirmed to the floor. “I’m not going without mommy! No way can I leave her like this! She is sick, and I must take care of her!”

“Don’t be so stubborn-”

“If you lock her up, then I will run away from the village! I swear to myself that I will!”

“Neha.” Tulisen brought his hands over her shoulders. “Don’t say such ridiculous things. I know that you are frustrated, and since you must be tired, you need a good rest for the night. Don’t worry about this anymore, I beg you.”

To Neha, Tulisen could coat his words with gentleness all he wanted; it changed little of the fact that her parent was suffering through her troubles. The child fell into contemplation of what would have passed on from here if Aijin had not been ill for so long, if she was by her daughter’s side. They would have been together for as long as possible, they would have showered each other with happiness. But those things came only as a dream. Amidst Tulisen cradling her, Neha could not relinquish her anguish.

At this time, Yebuka gathered his posse. Right away did he verse his words. “My fellow ones in the dominion of salvation, we have just witnessed a crime, a terrible one, that could have threatened the stability and prosperity of the temple. This woman, as far as I heard from one of my men, had almost killed a clergyman with a knife. Although he ended up with a deep wound on his hand, this does not change the madness of the woman before us. She is, according to my eyes, a person that is full of insanity, more so than a blind lion. So I heard that this woman did such a thing because of her husband, which I happen to not have much information right now. But your husband was a good man at heart, and there is no reason to why you tried to hurt my men.”

Aijin glared at the Lama, she felt at once an outrage from hearing nonsense. She snarled.

“Because you murdered him.”