The atmosphere was thick with an air of unavoidable reckoning as Su Vaen walked towards the inner courtyard of the Su Clan estate.
The soft light of lanterns and weathered stone walls of the compound bore mute testament to centuries of ambition, betrayal, and corroding honor.
This evening, his footsteps echoed with a heavy purpose—a resolve to face the man who had once been his anchor, now darkened by ambition and moral decay.
Su Vaen's heart pounded not only with the weight of his own torn emotions but also with the bitter recollections of his mother—a gentle soul who had fought for the people. She died protecting for the people she loved more than she loved.
That heritage, which had once been a beacon of hope, had become a cursed chain.
And now, as he walked toward the gathering hall where his father awaited him, that chain constricted.
Inside the hall, there was tension in the air.
The group was small—a small circle of influential members of the clan.
His father, a man whose once warm eyes had grown cold and calculating, sat at the center.
He was not the present head of the clan, but one of the rivals in the fierce battle for leadership.
His demeanor exuded power, and every measured movement implied the great ambition that had alienated him from the humane principles of his own mother.
As Su Vaen entered, the hum of conversation fell to a whisper.
His father's black, mournful eyes met him for an instant of thick, charged silence.
For a long time, there was no word spoken—only the unspoken lexicon of disappointment and regret. Then his father's voice, controlled but sharpened with ambition, at last shattered the silence.
"Vaen," he began, "I've heard rumors. Whispers that you've been questioning the methods of our clan, that you've been probing secrets that are best left buried."
There was a note of accusation mixed with concern in his tone, as though he wished to salvage what remained of the old ways even as he sought to ascend to power.
Su Vaen's tone was low and even. "I have known things, Father—things that stain our honor. The experiments, the sacrifices… They contradict the true honor that must characterize our family. You and others have allowed greed to soil what was once noble."
A flash of anger crossed his father's face, immediately replaced by a cold veneer.
"You speak as if you know all the answers. Our clan is not short on ambition, Vaen. In a world where power reigns, sacrifice has to be paid. The commoners, the weak—those are the casualties in our quest for greatness."
And with that, something in Su Vaen shifted.
He recalled the gentle words of his mother, the sympathetic battles she had fought for the cause of those who had no voice.
His sore heart already dried up with sorrow now raged with an unseen, unbending fury.
It was not so much the savagery of the tests that bothered him—it was the violation of ideals.
The mere mention of the word "Su" was a testament to everything that was wrong: the ceaseless cycle of motive that drained humanity.
"I can't believe that," Su Vaen said, his voice steadying.
"To call the suffering of innocent lives necessary is to betray everything I ever held true. We were to protect, to lift up. And instead, our avarice has wrought cruelty and devastation. I will not remain silent while our own blood falls into such corruption."
His eyes lit up with his father's, the room heavy with air.
"You're young and new, Vaen. The world is cruel and weakness is a luxury we can't afford. If you're going to change things, you must know that power is reality. Our destiny is written in strength."
It was then that a whisper of disapproval and unease arose from the crowd—a mixture of disappointment and shock.
Su Vaen felt the bitter sting of isolation.
Here, in the midst of the clan, the very people he was born among did not believe there was anything wrong with selling honor for greed.
Their acceptance of his father's cruel philosophy was a sour vindication of all that he had long been taught.
Silence fell heavily for a few moments.
Su Vaen's mind reeled with conflict within. There was still that voice of him that wanted to preserve his legacy, to continue the honorable tradition of selflessness left by his mother.
But fact was inescapable: the Su Clan had fallen into a sea of selfishness, and the rot it presented did not guarantee a future for itself alone, but perhaps for the very people it served to keep safe and advance.
Su Vaen took a deep breath and looked at his father,
thought but did not utter a word.
"I have come to realize that I can no longer be an unseen guardian of this legacy. If we carry on in this manner, then we will merely be following a cycle of agony.
I need to uproot this corruption, even if it means taking on the very family that gave birth to me. I cannot—won't—stand by while the destiny of our clan is formed in blood and selfish desires."
Then said,
"I shall not patrol the jungle anymore. Let someone else do the job. Your wish comes true. Everybody from now on can refer to me as not Su."
The words hung there, heavy and irrevocable. His father's face darkened, a mixture of sorrow, anger, and something like reluctant admiration flickering in his eyes.
"So you would turn your back on all that we have created?"
he asked, voice trembling with the weight of the moment.
Su Vaen's expression was stern and reflective but did not speak it aloud,
"I do it not out of malice, but out of duty. Our lineage is tainted, and if I don't cleanse it, who would? I might not be culpable for our clan's ruin. I have to do what I have to do, whether that makes me the executioner of our own kin."
There was a whisper of amazement from the gathered members.
His father's eyes snapped narrow as he drank in the magnitude of Su Vaen's words.
The room seemed to close in, tension so tight that even the distant creaking of a midnight wind was drowned out in the urgency of confrontation.
And then his father's voice was heard through the silence, low and measured,
"Then you have made your choice, Vaen. Be warned that once this door is opened there can be no turning back. The Su Clan will be changed forever, and so will you. But, you will not be part of our greatness".
And so a stern resolve settled over Su Vaen.
Every word, every bitter reality he had known all these years now came together into one stiff determination.
He would oppose the corruption, uncover the brutality, and if necessary, bring down the clan which had once held out the promise of honor to him but which had become an exemplar of greed.
The weight of his decision upon him, he turned away from the gathering and left behind in the hall the unhappy muttering and resignation swirling there.
The next step he took was firm—he had to go to the quarters of his father and present himself before his father in order to better see how deep this corruption went and to make a stronger commitment on his part to root out the karma of the Su Clan.
As he walked through the dark corridors of his house, memories of his mother's gentle voice and the moral values she stood for whirled in his mind.
Her compassion, her willingness to sacrifice for others less fortunate, now stood irresistibly contrasted with the brutal ambitions revealed by the people around him.
Su Vaen felt a profound sadness and also a seething determination.
It was time to break this cruel cycle. It was time to reclaim the heritage that had been tainted with greed.
He went toward his father's private quarters—a sturdy wooden door with faded emblems of honor and tradition etched into the wood.
His hand trembled ever so slightly as he closed his hand on the handle, knowing that within this door stood not just his father, but the confirmation of all that he had struggled against for so very long.
There was incense and regret inside, his father standing in a single room, its walls faintly lit by the dying light of the sun as it set, his face strained and haggard, evidence of the battle for dominance inscribed deeply within his face.
The two stood there, clinging to one another for a moment. The past, where both hope and deceit had balanced in the scales, hovered between them like an unconsummated dream.
In that nerve-taut silence, Su Vaen's resolve strengthened. Regardless of what the future would bring, he would not fail.
The time for action was at hand. The fate of the Su Clan—and the honor of those who had suffered—hung in the balance.