Many years later, as Chelsea looks upon the smiling tourists, she will remember that distant afternoon when Richie took her to witness demons and miracles. In those days, the country was sick, and Chang'an was still just a tiny village of twenty households, stricken with plague. Shadows woven from despair and death spread throughout the village.
The dying cried out in the village, while monsters and evil spirits roamed arrogantly beneath the shadows. The world had rotted to its core, and so much had fallen into ruin that it took imagination and memory even to speak of such things as justice, happiness, and laughter.
Richie pointed to the village, soon to be burned to the ground by the Imperial troops, and said softly to Chelsea,
