Xuelei lay in bed wide awake and tense. Something had woken him up. He lay quietly in his dim room, listening, trying to ascertain what had caused the disturbance. All was quiet, he turned his head and caught a faint scent of flowers. He sat up startled, Mei Ling had been here. Owww! The sudden movement stretched his healing wounds and tore at the scabs. He winced at the sullen throbbing.

He eased his position to a more comfortable one, propping pillows and leaning back. He couldn't go back to sleep, he was too wide awake now.

It was the perfect time to sort some things out. Xuelei had noted that the Master and Mistress had not asked him about his rescuer. It was almost as if they were afraid of the conclusions they might come to from his report. Did they know the man? Did they think it was more than one person?

Thinking about the mysterious man his mind went automatically to the man's sword practice. He closed his eyes and replayed the steps in his mind. As soon as he was well enough, he would try it out. He couldn't wait.

Xuelei frowned. He had gone through the 59 steps of the swordman's dance. Some thing was not right at the 23rd step. Why would he swing the blade in an attack leaving his left exposed, almost as if inviting the unseen enemy to attack? The position would render him vulnerable as he would not be able to reverse his blade in time to defend himself. It was the same on the 47th step. He retraced the steps in his head, going over it slowly, analysing the sequence. He was positive he remembered it correctly. Perhaps he would find the answer when he could actually physically practice it.

He got up from the bed and staggered over to the table. His body was still weak, he barely had control over his limbs. He had just reached it and held on for support when a horrified voice called out at him.

"What do you think you are doing? Get back into bed!"

Xuelei froze.

Mei Ling stood at the threshold of his room, hands on her hips, a vexed expression on her face. She looked very fierce.

"I said get back into bed. You are not well enough to be wondering about."

"I just ... wanted to sit here for a bit," he said and sat down at the table defiantly before she could protest.

Mei Ling opened her mouth to berate him some more. He glared back at her mentally preparing for a verbal assault.

But she surprised him when she suddenly rushed to him and burst into sobs. He caught her almost toppling over from the stool himself. She knelt at him and hugged his waist, her tears soaking his light cotton undershirt. She was shaking uncontrollably.

For a moment he was confused, taken off guard. The intense verbal assault he was expecting from Mei Ling did not materialize. Instead, she had crumbled in front of him turning from a fierce tigress ready to fight to a helpless sobbing kitten. She hung onto him desperately, like he might disappear at any time. She was shaking him urgently but couldn't say a word through her tears.

He patted her shoulder and stroked her hair, trying to calm her down. His brows knitted together. Who had made his precious sister cry?

"Hey, what's wrong? Mei Ling...?" Xuelei asked gently. "Who bullied you? Was it Jin? Did he tease you again?"

"N-no ... "

"No? Did Dao make you practice knives for hours until your hands hurt? Or was it Li? Who made you cry? Tell me, I will make him suffer."

She mumbled something into his chest.

"Huh?"

She looked up with a tear strained face and jabbed a finger at him.

"Owww, stop that."

"It's you, YOU, you stupid jerk!"

"Me? What did I do?" he asked dumbfounded.

"You almost died! That's what! They wouldn't let me in to see you and then they wouldn't tell me anything. They said you had lost a lot of blood and they didn't know if you would make it."

Mei Ling had been truly terrified that she would really lose one of her beloved brothers this time, and Xuelei at that. Her voice trembled as she continued recounting the past few days.

"So I waited outside. I saw the water they used to wash you. It came out red with your blood. The bandages they brought out were, were, were ..." she sniffed unable to continue. She thought of the disgusting soiled bandages, soaked with congealed dark reddish brown blood and thick yellow pus. She shuddered.

"When they finally let me in to see you, you were laying there like a corpse, pale and unmoving, even when I poked you."

"You poked me?" There was a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "I will get you for that."

"It's not funny, Xue! I thought ... I thought you would not open your eyes ever again." Tears leaked from her luminous eyes, down her soft cheeks and dripped onto her pastel coloured robes.

"I'm sorry, mei mei (little sister)."

He hugged her close and held her until her trembling ceased.

"I promise I'll be okay. I swear I'll never die until you give me permission to. Okay?"

"Then I'll never, ever, ever going to give you permission. You cannot die, ever!" she said fiercely. After a moment she sighed, "You can't promise the impossible, silly."

"Please don't cry, my heart hurts to see you so sad." He wiped the tears gently from his sister's face. "Get up Mei Ling, I'm better already. No need to worry."

He smiled at her, "I'm sorry, I didn't bring back any gifts for you this time." A gift would definitely cheer her up.

"I've decided I don't want any more presents from any of you. I just want all of you to come home safe and sound every time you go out on missions. I couldn't bear to lose any of you. All of you coming home safe is the greatest gift you could give me."

She sniffed, tears still streaming down her face. Xuelei wiped his sister's wet face. She was growing up so fast.

"Stop crying Mei Ling, you will get snot all over him," Dao called from the door.

Hastily she let go of Xuelei, wiping her face with her long sleeves and got up from the floor. She sat meekly next to him. Dao came in with Qian. They were both grinning. Mei blushed and lowered her gaze.

"So, you decided to come back to the living, huh?"

Qian thumped Xuelei on the back making him wince. "Opps, sorry, forgot about your back."

'It's not that bad. I'm much better."

"Not that bad, he says." Dao rolled his eyes. "Why do you think Mei Ling here is crying her eyes out over you? It's been three whole days, Xue. We are practically going to order a nice pine coffin for you and break out the white funeral papers to cover the place to mourn your passing."

"Three days?" Xuelei's dark elegant eyebrows lifted in disbelief.

"Yup, the trip back was rough. Too bad you recovered." Qian turned to look mournfully at him, "I was going to claim your saber for myself and Jin wanted your bow. The others were going to throw dice for your knives. Now I will have to contend myself with just this old thing." Qian touched the coiled leather whip that was hanging at his belt.

"You guys are so mean!" Mei Ling cried and hit Qian who was nearer to her. He jumped back grinning.

Xuelei smiled and patted Mei Ling's hand. "It's okay, they are just teasing me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"We came to see if you are up. Since you are, you are to get dressed, the Mistress has summoned you."

"What? Is Aunt crazy? He just recovered. Just tell her he is not up yet," she said.

"No, I will go. She must have something important to say or she wouldn't have summoned me."

"Yeah, right." Mei Ling rolled her eyes.

"Mei Ling, do not be disrespectful. She is your aunt and our Mistress." He looked at his brothers meaningfully. They all shared a similar fate, they had all been saved from certain death and life on the streets by the Mistress. They owed her their lives.

"I will go," he said decisively. With that he shooed them all out to prepare to meet the Mistress.