Jin waited and waited. This twenty-four hours seemed longer than the usual twenty-four hours ... and he had waited many twenty-four hours before in his profession.

He wondered what Xuelei would discover. Should he hope that it was his family? If it was, then Xuelei would have a name, a real name, his real name.

At the same time although he felt ashamed for being selfish, Jin did not want it to have anything to do with Xuelei. He did not want to lose his brother.

Jin paced his small make shift camp. Time was almost up. Finally he couldn't take it any longer. He had to go after Xuelei, going back alone and waiting for Xuelei to catch up was out of the question.

It was not that he didn't trust his brother, Jin knew he could handle himself. He had completed many missions alone successfully, but the growing uneasiness was too much to bear. Jin knew to never ignore his instincts and right now they were practically screaming at him.

That did it. He broke camp.

It wouldn't hurt Xuelei if he didn't know he was being trailed, right?

Jin went into town and headed out the North gates. Information was easy to get. The locals were friendly and proved very helpful when a few coins changed hands. They remembered a noblewoman and a young fighter leaving town yesterday. They had met at the Northern Inn, spoken awhile before leaving together for the ghost town in the mountains.

In a short while, Jin had reached the ghost town. It was totally abandoned. He went in, alert for any signs of danger. There was no life here, not even a stray dog or cat. He easily found their trail, freshly turned dirt by horses' hooves were hard to miss.

He hesitated before entering the Zhen mansion. Passing through the once grand gates, he felt something was wrong. It was quiet, too quiet. Something had disturbed the place and had scared off all the animals. He moved in deeper, easily following the trail of churned dirt and trampled weeds.

A carcass. Xuelei's horse!

Jin nudged his own mount closer to the dead horse. The poor animal had bled to death. Several arrows protruded from the dead animal. Xuelei! Where was he? Jin swallowed and looked around.

He spied bodies. Human bodies.

Human bodies were sprawled everywhere. Jin counted thirteen. No Xuelei, thank God. He let out a breath of relief. He dismounted and walked slowly analysing the scene. With his experience, he could almost re-enact the fight. Judging by the fallen bodies' position and splattered blood, Xuelei had held his own until being overwhelmed.

Jin came to a large dark spot. Blood. Lots of it. Damn! Seventh brother was badly wounded.

He frowned as he crouched down to get a better look. The edges of the blood spot had half dried turning an ugly shade of brown. The centre was however still dark red and damp. There was a small hole right in the middle of the blood soaked earth. A small deep straight line about five centimetres wide, Jin inhaled sharply. It was the width of Xuelei's saber. They had impaled him with his own weapon.

How dare they!

Jin's hands shook in anger and curled into tight fists, knuckles white. Whoever had done this was going to pay a thousand fold!

Where was his body? Had Xuelei gotten away? Jin frowned, unlikely judging by the amount of blood he had lost, he would be too weak. There were also no trails of him crawling away. Maybe they were not done with Xuelei and had taken him captive for questioning. That seemed more likely.

Just to be sure, Jin did a quick check of the surrounding buildings. Nothing. The ruins were empty.

Jin stood staring at the darkening blood spot. He had to get back and report. He blinked several times, his heart felt like lead.

What was he going to tell the Mistress? How was he going to explain what had happened? How was he going to tell his brothers about Xuelei?

Hang in there Xue ... I know you are still alive. You have to be! I will find you. Jin vowed as he mounted his horse and left the ghastly scene.

---------------------------------------

Jin was still covered in travel dust and sweat as he stood silently, head bowed in front of the Master and Mistress. He had made it back in three days with minimal stops. He had ridden all day and night, pushing his horse to its limits. He was exhausted.

Everyone had assembled and was in shock. The room was as silent as a tomb after his initial report.

The Mistress's voice was high pitched as she tried to hold her emotions in check. She was physically trembling with the effort.

"Tell me again."

Jin swallowed.

"Tell me!"

Jin lifted his bowed head.

"Mistress, we went to the Lay mansion and met with Lady Ching. She confirmed that XueHua was not the person she was looking for. She was looking for a boy, sixteen years of age with Xuelei's features and mannerisms."

The Mistress made a choked sound.

Jin swallowed and continued. "She found us that evening and gave us a piece of broken jade, it fitted perfectly with the one Xuelei always wears around his neck, so he went to meet her the next day at the Northern Gate Inn."

"I ... I promised him twenty-four hours but when he failed to return, I followed him. The trail led to an abandoned half-burnt mansion near the mountains. Inside, there were signs of fighting. I found thirteen dead bodies, mercenaries hired from town by a woman matching Lady Ching's description."

The Mistress hissed.

"There was blood everywhere. I .... I couldn't find Xuelei's body," Jin's voice cracked at his brother's name. "So I came back to report."

His brothers stood like statues behind him.

The Mistress took a few steps down until she was levelled with Jin. Without warning, she slapped him hard across his face, using her inner force.

"How could you? How could you leave him?"

Jin staggered and almost lost his balance but returned to his position immediately, head bowed. Blood trickled from his mouth. The outline of her palm printed bright red on his face.

"I'm sorry Mistress. I've failed."

A myriad of expressions crossed the Mistress's face, anger, disbelief, fear and desperation.

"Shao Ling, calm down."

The Master went to his sister and took her hand. She turned into his chest finally losing control and letting her tears fall unchecked.

The six youths gaped in astonishment. They had never seen the Mistress so distraught. She had always been as cold as ice, as resolute as steel, calm and disciplined always demanding the same from them.

"Thank you, Jin. Go clean up. I will discuss this matter with your Mistress."

The Master looked at the faces of the boys before him, no, he corrected himself, young men. The young boys they had adopted and trained all these years had grown up, he thought.

They all had controlled expressionless masks, just like they had been trained to maintained, except Jin. He had always been the most emotional one and now he was failing miserably at controlling his inner turmoil. He had a tight bond with all his brothers, but was the closest to Xuelei. He was devastated at his failure to protect his younger brother.

Jin stood in front, head bowed, slouched shoulders. He let his long hair fall, covering his face but he was trembling with guilt.

"Master, I ... I want to go back to look for him," his voice was filled with anguish.

"Jin, control yourself. It is not your fault. Xuelei is his own man, if it is anyone's fault, it is his for not being more careful. Now go rest, clear your head. Wait for my summons."

"But ..."

"Dismissed."

Without another word, the Master guided his distraught sister back up the steps and out the room.

The second the Master and Mistress had left the room, the others dropped their calm façade and crowded around Jin trying to comfort him.

------------------------------------------

"He didn't want to go. I made him go because I was curious, now he is dead! It's all my fault!" Shao Ling lamented.

"She had the missing broken piece of jade! Who is she? She must have been part of the household. I must track her down and kill her before it is too late! Xuelei must never find out who he is! Never!"

"I told you to leave Shuren alone all those years ago but you didn't listen. You couldn't let him go, even after he married Xiuying. Then you had to torture yourself by raising Xuelei, watching him grow up. The boy doesn't deserve this."

"Don't say her name!"

The Master looked at his sister with pity.

"You confused the boy so much, he retreated into a shell a long time ago. We had to teach the others to control their emotions so that it will not be a weakness in battle but we never had to teach Xuelei. He already had an emotional barrier in place because of you!"

"I only wanted what was left of him."

The Master didn't let up. "You show Xuelei love and kindness when you see Shuren in him, then become cold and distant, turning on him out of spite, sending him on all those risky missions when you see his mother in him. Sometimes, even I don't know if you actually want him to come back alive. It is not fair to the boy."

"You loved Shuren not Xuelei. Xuelei is just an innocent boy. Now he may be dead because of that jade. You should have kept it or thrown it away but in your arrogance you let him keep the broken half. You even told him it was his family's, it's the only thing he has to his lost past. I don't blame him for seizing the opportunity to learn more."

"I love Xuelei too. He is mine, mine. I will not lose him." She cried, beating her fists against the low table.

"Xuelei is a person not a keepsake. You should treat him as such."

The Master drew a breath and set his jaw.

"Be very clear on this Shao Ling, Xuelei was never yours. He is more like his father than you would like to admit. Shuren was never yours and neither is Xuelei."

"It is your fault if he is dead. I hope you are happy now. Blame no one else."

He left his sister to cry it out. Only after she let the shock out of her system could they discuss the next step in solving this mess.