D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

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“Let me try again to explain this then,” said Bing slowly, keeping an eye on Feng to ensure he was listening, and it at least seemed like it was. “What I am attempting to explain, is that I genuinely believe Meng would have pretended to have some other more respectable profession if we had actually been her children, or if she was able to adopt us in a more legal and ethical way. The fact we only found out due to outside factors, likely would’ve been the same. Perhaps that is na?ve of me, but I doubt it.

“So, with that added on top of what I already know of Meng, in addition to what I know of other adopted children, I think we’ve got nothing to worry about. Other adopted children treat their adopted parents as their real ones all the time, and I just don’t see how that’s any different,”

“By that logic then Bang should also count as a valid adoptive parent,” said Feng as nicely as he could. He wasn’t trying to be deliberately antagonistic right now, but he DID want to make a point.

“And he tried to kill us, so we’re disowning him,” said Bing with a slightly shaky voice. “That’s, once again, no different to if he was actually our father. Having him try to kill us is a step over the line, and at this point we can no longer accept him as our dad. Granted, Kat has probably taken him out, but if he’d lived I still would have wanted nothing to do with him ever again,”

Feng nodded, it was a reasonable argument and he could see where Bing was coming from. In fact, Bing seemed like she was having more trouble accepting her own argument then he was, but Feng didn’t want to mention that right now. He was trying not to be antagonistic. “Right, I can agree with that,”

“But you can’t agree with my feelings about Meng?” asked Bing.

Feng kept walking beside his sister, letting the sound of his leather shoes slapping the stone, and the few drips of water occupy his mind. It wasn’t an easy thing to answer. *How do I even explain? The betrayal of expectations, the fact that she is directly responsible for our real parents experiencing tragedy… the fact they were never given a choice.

.....

This isn’t a ‘normal’ adoption sis. We were essentially stolen from our real Mum and Dad, and Meng was complicit in that. She’s not even trying to pretend she had good reasons, or that she cared about us specifically at the time. Sure we’re her kids NOW but we weren’t at the start. Meng wanted an excuse to get some kids of her owns, and she took it.

That is not good, or even respectable behaviour. In fact, it’s downright villainous. Our sect has stood against such people for centuries… and now… now it’s suddenly all ok because the person committing those atrocities is our mother? Am I just supposed to set aside all of the values I’ve been taught my entire life?

I’ll at least grant that Meng didn’t push us towards her own thoughts and feelings. She taught us the philosophies of the sect, contrasted them to other schools of thought and tried to present them in a mostly equal light, while pushing us slightly towards the ones accepted by our sect. I wonder how much restraint that took from Meng… or if she thinks we’re better off with the Holy Icy Wind school of thought.

How do I explain all this to Bing though. She was always more about individuals, about people. It didn’t matter what the law said, what mattered was what the people INTENDED with their actions. Well, not completely, but more often then not certainly. To her, Meng is her mother, the person that raised her and that MEANS a lot to my sis.

To me though… Meng is someone that has broken quite possible every law the sect has. She is everything we were taught to guard against and unlike Bing, I do not think I should be making exceptions or excuses for my mother. Especially not when she isn’t actually my mother.

Though… is that really the difference? That I now feel like I have this… this rift inside of me where ‘My Mother’ and ‘Meng’ sit, and I can no longer see them both as the same person. Heck, we still don’t know what Meng really looks like, so how am I supposed to deal with the monster who wears my mother’s face… when it is my mother’s face I know the monster by, and my mother, is in many ways… faceless.*

Feng let out a loud, audible sigh. “No I suppose I can’t agree with you when it comes to the Meng we know. Sis… she’s probably broken every law we set down to protect our people, and I doubt she has any remorse about that fact,”

“Pretty sure she hasn’t broken ALL of them Feng…” said Bing as a bit of a joke.

“Ah, but I disagree. I know she has at least hit all of the big ones, such as high treason, grand fraud, murder, and rape,” said Feng with a sigh.

“Wait what? When has she ever raped anybody? Or committed high treason? I can at least understand the grand fraud… and the murder… but the others?” asked Bing with some concern.

“Well, she’s technically kidnapping the sect heirs right this moment, even if we’re agreeing to go with her. That’s if it doesn’t count as kidnapping when we were babies… as for the rape, pretending to be a man’s wife and sleeping with him definitely counts, as Meng probably did with dear old dad before he was replaced. Plus she’s probably used that tactic for other targets as well,” said Feng with a grimace.

Bing winced. “I… I suppose I hadn’t thought of it like that… but has she really done anything that bad recently?”

“Bing, we are currently being kidnapped,” said Feng bluntly.

“That doesn’t count, we want to go along,” said Bing with a dismissive wave.

“No Bing,” said Feng slightly more harshly then intended. When he saw his sister wince, Feng backed off a bit, letting himself breathe before continuing. “No Bing… you want to go along, and I feel like I have to,” Bing started to say something but Feng raised a hand to stop her, “I’m not saying that Meng is trying to force me into anything, I’m sure she’s doing what she thinks is best…

“But I’m not safe here at the sect anymore. Because of what she’s done, I’m liable to face a lifetime of imprisonment maybe slavery with mind tonnes of shock talismans or something to enforce it. I HAVE to leave now, and I don’t really want to. Thus, it is kidnapping, probably through coercion, even if unintentional. On top of that, can you honestly say that Meng hasn’t been killing people in years?”

“But… but Feng even WE kill people, sometimes as part of judgements, sometimes when they’ve attacked us out in the wild. Not often but it’s happened… so surely that pat doesn’t count…” said Bing wishfully.

“Yes but we made sure they were guilty, and those that were directly attacking us… we mostly had no choice. Meng is much stronger then she led most people to believe, and illusions are a great way to nonlethally take someone out. Instead, she’s been disguising what were probably melee attacks for years… and who knows how guilty the people she’s executed really were,” said Feng.

“But… she’s never done anything bad to us,” said Bing, with sadness lacing her tone. Bing had already started to figure out where this conversation was going, and she didn’t like it. Even still… she set things up so perfectly.

“And that was never my point,” said Feng with some force. “Just because her crimes were not committed against people we care for does not mean they weren’t crimes. This was something we were taught as young children, something we used in practice in judicial cases, even before we were in charge of judgement… we can’t go around making exceptions like this as sect heirs, not if we want to be impartial,”

Bing frowned, “Well… well what if I don’t want to be impartial? She’s my MOTHER Feng, I LOVE her. Even if you don’t appreciate that, or even if you can’t I’ll still stand up to the world and claim her as MINE. Plus… PLUS we’re not going to be sect heirs much longer. Just a family on the run… and… and then I don’t HAVE to do what is right all of the time. I can be a bit selfish if I want… and dammit Feng I want my mother to live, to be with me. To hold me at night when I’m scared,”

Feng looked at the cold, stone ceiling with tears in his eyes, “I know Bing. I know,”

The silence stretched on for minutes before Bing could answer, “I… I think I know as well,” whispered Bing, “And I wish I didn’t,”