Sinner's weight in gold

And I sunned it with smiles and with soft deceitful wiles

Xuan was the third in a family of four brothers. His memories of parents blurred but he remembers being thrown at the skies by a bespectacled man with a scratchy stubble and the smell of tea that lingered on his mother's clothes. The four Jin children were each named to bring a part of joy to the family. Wei, was named to be their protector, who was older than Xuan by four years. Ning was to bring peace and tranquility, born two years before him but that was shattered three years after Xuan's birth. "Ning broke his back, never opened his eyes again. He never had a still moment." Wei had described to him and Xuan vaguely recalled someone constantly pinching his cheeks. It must have been Ning.

Xuan was given his name to mean 'fine jade', his family's prayer to make their next child a girl, however, there he was, a chubby baby boy. Then the youngest arrived two years after him, his baby brother, Ju, named to gather the family together and never to part. None of their names proved what their parents wanted. Ju was the least lucky, before his third birthday their parents were gone. "Bandits." Wei had said, blocking their view of the scene inside. Ju cried while Xuan held him and Wei took over the role as 'adult' to remaining two.

Wei lived up to his name of their protector, his morals were high and righteous but Xuan was different. He didn't want to go to an orphanage, faced with the possibility of losing another part of his family, he chose to brave the streets instead and dip his fingers into the velvet pockets of any passersby. He learned to look innocent dressed in stolen clothes, wear a happy mask of a child without problems when the people screamed out for a thief. Wei hated it and refused to take what he had brought back at first. Eventually though, the seldom coin from a kind hand was not enough to support the growing of three kids and he relented. There were times when Xuan was caught, nothing good ever came of it.

Their shelter was made beneath a pile of wooden boards. Little bits of magic and knowledge passed down etched into dirt with a stick, taught by a patient Wei. His eldest brother began to take on odd jobs after three winters, leaving Xuan to look after Ju, keeping him away from stealing on the streets. He learned to slowly to cook and clean; boiled broth with an addition of stolen bread was the first dish he served to an ever-hungry Ju and a tired Wei.

Wei came back with a Helios Knights emblem when Xuan was fourteen. The three of them celebrated with a bottle of apple juice and carrot cake, he had never seen his brother so happy. "A better future." Wei had toasted, Xuan smiled until his cheeks hurt, he believed those words, he truly did. They only lasted a few months before that peace broke.

Wei returned one night, like broken porcelain, to them, without a familiar, thrown from his coven and accompanied by a bill for treatment and prosthetics they couldn't pay. "People in the slums should stay in the slums." The Helios Knight that delivered the message glanced around disdainfully before flinging the letter at them. Xuan struggled not to slam the door after him.

"Eat." Xuan had commanded before leaving the small warmth of his home into the dark winter night. His blood felt like freezing ice but he was boiling inside, he needed someone to pay. The Helios Knight was the perfect target accompanied by the the perfect setting; a snowy night, silent, deadly and he never felt so satisfied to hear screams.

Eight years passed since that night, the same night he had met Adoniya Guerra, the man who swooped in like a vulture upon the scene. "Power", Guerra, had told him, "was the axis that made the world spin around." It was because they were powerless that they were used and discarded as if they nothing more than a mere tool that had already served its purpose. A devil's pact was made and Xuan became the watchful eyes and ears of Guerra. A better neighbourhood, nourishing food on their plates, Wei's and Ju's expenses all looked after. Then, Ju disappeared.

Suspicion, paranoia. His brother, his baby brother was gone, his didi. Nights after Wei had gone asleep, he searched; Ju's favourite places, their childhood home, everywhere he thought Ju might have gone. Still nothing. Sometimes when Wei was tittered on reality he'd asked where Ju went. "Out playing with friends. He's at that age after all." The lie was repeated again and again, it got easier each time.

Each year on Ju's birthday, a peach cake was made. He would wait until dawn the next morning before finally allowing tears to come. He joined Silvertongue not long after, Guerra was displeased but allowed it, the old demon was getting sloppy. It wouldn't be long until his end.

After Guerra's death, it was time to reap the remaining members of Guerra's little group, Kasimir Burovski among them. Slowly building up power little by little, stepping on the path created by the fallen, day by day, year by year until he had it all.