From atop the mountain, Ciun idly listened into the senseless babble of Illus’s lost mind. He was alone in the shed with the poems, as he had been for the past two days. When day turned to night, the fox came to boast of his victory.
He called up the mountain from the outcropping where once there had been a poem. “There will be no more for you, sorceress. Your consort has been overcome by duress.”
Nothing from Ciun in response.
This roused the fox further. “It may be rude of me to ask, but is there hopelessness behind your mask? Oh, what is another broken mind, of yet another man who pined? In words his wrath shines through, or maybe it’s all a shattered spew.” The fox cackled low to itself.
Again, Ciun had nothing to say.
The fox was growing keener to her sullen disposition. “Do not feign shame and guilt, when a crumbling tower was all you built. You have no room to show such grief, after every other life of whom twere the thief.”
The mask turned toward the fox, still silent.
It cackled, eyes not cheery, but beyond hateful. “I know you see, it’s not by me.”
She rose to her feet.
The fox grimaced at her. “My honest face you may yet banish, but your evils shall never vanish. This prison is your condemnation. Hold that thought in your lonely contemplation.”
A shimmering specter of Enae appeared where the fox stood, translucent azure cuffs chained to the mask on her face. “Sister, I beg of you to be free. Did you ever care about me?”
Ciun walked away, disappearing to where the fox could not see her. “See me not, ears yet spot. Ears plugged and eye blind, you he will not find. Offer your mask here, you have none to fear. What power is worth the peace? Can this game not finally cease? Toiled have I so long, you think I will do you wrong. I am not the evil of this game, for you I cannot say the same.”
The fox awaited a response, but nothing came.
“It’s my honest hope you will leave him alone, your misled man whose truth you will never let be shown.” The fox released his specter of Illus babbling in the shed. “How he longs to be saved, from the catacombs you braved.”
The mask locked onto the fox and Ciun took off without a beat, disappearing from the fox’s sight faster than it could track.
The fox cackled and whispered on the wind to Ciun. “Days have passed, only a miracle could last.”
----------------------------------------
Dull white noise and dripping water surrounded Illus in his tomb.
His mind had drifted, perhaps to comfort him, or perhaps because he was dying. But he wondered where he had gone? How he had gotten so lost? He wasn’t sure when he lost sight of himself. Had he? Or had this been a grave misplay in his attempt?
He found home in his mind, but nobody was there. Nobody was around. Nothing was there. It was just as dark and empty as the catacombs.
And he finally escaped his trance, the delusions he had been enraptured in. He struggled to lift his arm, to knock bones from the shelves around him as his head spun.
He tossed his arm around the floor weakly until eventually it hung in the air.
“That’s funny,” Illus’s voice popped and croaked, barely audible, “it feels like I’m floating.”
Weightless, sensation leaving his body, he seemed to levitate without reason. Cool metal scraped his chapped lips and water streamed down his parched throat.
Soft silky fabric and hair pressed against him. Warmth. Another person. Was it death, or Ciun? A hallucination, or the fox? It didn’t matter anymore. Yet still, all he knew was darkness.
The shed was illuminated by a deep violet glow when his eyes opened. Heavy-headed and weary, a salty sweet smell crept into his nostrils. A chill laced the humid air. He sat up, immediately locking eyes with Ciun’s mask on the other side of the brazier. More apparent than the woman in the shed with him, his weak and sore body burned for sustenance.
A wooden bowl sat next to his bench, some kind of soup in it. Illus stared at her, unbelieving of his eyes. Ciun seemed to spy this and tossed a wooden spoon at his chest. He didn’t react until after the dull thump against his collar bone.
His dry lips opened as if he was about to speak, then stopped, picking up the spoon like he was still unsure of what he was looking at.
“That’s a spoon,” Ciun said.
He continued to stare in disbelief, then threw the spoon back at her.
The spoon thunked against her mask and she caught it out of a spin. “Where I’m from, we use these to eat soup.”
Illus blinked several times, getting up to check the chimney cap which was wrapped in the navy blue fabric of one of Anilee’s dresses. He glanced back to Ciun, unmoving, but well within arm’s reach. As his gaze met the eyes of the mask, he noticed those same little twitches and flinches with every movement he made. He slowly held out an open palm to Ciun, who carefully gave him the spoon. With a cautious glance at the door, he sat back down on his bench.
The soup smelled like soup. It looked like soup. By all accounts, he was certain that it was soup. Illus stared into the bowl for a prolonged minute, his mouth watering, stomach aching. His nose yearned for the fishy, richly sweet aroma, then he set it back on the floor, not entirely sure that it was soup.
Ciun lowered her head. “It’s salmon, pears, potatoes, and some herbs from around the ruins.”
His raspy voice still croaked terribly. “A tasty, comfortable final meal?”
“I have no reason to poison your food, Illus.”
“You have all the reason to do so. More than the fox.”
She paused. “I do. You’re right.”
Illus furrowed his brows at her, unsure what to make of her response.
“But I…” The mask's eyes returned to him, “I’ve come to realize that I can’t stand the thought of that.”
“At this rate, you won’t have to. Leave it to the fox, it’ll do away with me.”
“You were right. My inaction caused that, Illus.” She choked on her breath for a brief moment. “I haven’t been doing all I can to protect you. But I am very glad to see you this lucid after so long.”
Illus stared emptily into the brazier. “How long?”
“Summer has just begun.”
He racked his mind, seeked out memories, parsed them from delusions. He remembered well arriving at the ruins and a few months after, right before everything became a foggy mess.
“How do you feel, Illus?”
“Like I’ve just woken up from a terrible nightmare that lasted an eternity.” Croaking, the once confident voice of Illus shook. “It would have happened at one point or another. I’m only lucky to be…” he gestured around him, “here, now, present.”
“Illus, why go to the fox after all the warnings I gave you, after all our efforts to stay away?”
He let out a low breath. “I took a gamble and nearly paid with my life. I did what I do. I jumped in head first to learn from experience.”
She clenched her fist, frustration building with every word. “You intended to go insane?”
“I told you where I was going,” he chuckled weakly, “but I thought the fox would be smarter than tossing an asset away like that.”
Ciun’s voice shook with rage, “what did you get? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“No,” a knife vibrated, lodged in the wood next to Illus’s head, “you’ll tell me now.”
He eyed the knife and sighed, his heart rate threatening to go out of control, his worries of Ciun’s deception bubbling up in the back of his head. “For you, actually. To figure out this blasted poem, to understand the core of the fox’s rhythm. It took a lot longer than I anticipated, but…” he put the journal in his back pocket, “I deciphered it. I learned more about the fox than I ever thought I would.”
She leaned back. “This is your plan with the fox, isn’t it?”
“Excuse me?” His knuckles slammed his thighs. “How do I know the past two seasons haven’t been part of your plan? I don’t even know what I did for most of that time! But it…” Red-faced and on the brink of breaking down, he clenched his whole body, “oh, it was numbly nice until that hell of darkness…” his gaze returned to Ciun, who was ready to leap away, “until you pulled me out. You saved my life, for a second time. I intend to make right by you.”
Ciun let the natural sounds of the muffled chirping crickets and frogs clear the air of the room, then set her hand on her mask, gently rubbing the soft ivory. “If it weren’t for this mask, I probably would be seated next to you. If it weren’t for this mask, I would take your hand and thank you for staying against the fox’s visions.”
“Is it the mask? Is it the reason you gave up on everyone else?” Illus retorted, recollecting himself.
She froze.
“I’m guessing that this has been playing out the same as most of the others, right?”
She lowered her hand.
“They either die to the fox like I almost did or go insane and you kill them, right?”
More silence.
“Of course. Because you’re terrified.”
She clenched her teeth and in a flash, she was kneeling directly in front of Illus, mask to face. The mask’s glowing blue eyes locked with Illus’s. Her staggered, terrified breath cascaded over his face. “They took their chances and gambled with their lives. But every chance, you’ve not taken it. Why?”
Illus stared into the eyes of the mask cautiously, noticing the mask was slightly upturned. “I’d rather not strip you of your soul despite this ringer you’ve been pulling me through. Anyway, you’re looking at my hands.” He lightly leaned his forehead against the mask, freezing in place.
Ciun’s trembling hands rapidly clutched the mask to her face, unable to speak. Her breath became more rapid, shallow. “Make your move.”
He eased his expression and stared into the mask’s eyes. “I have no reason to take your mask, yet you keep pushing it. I’m starting to think you want me to take it. You want an excuse to kill me like all the others. Takes a load off your back, doesn’t it? A return to normalcy.”
She said nothing.
Illus raised his index finger and Ciun leapt back on the instant, catching her breath. He nodded as if he expected it. “Is your little test over now? Can we get back to business, I’m growing awfully tired of this game.”
Her voice lost all tone. “Don’t act like you’re more mature than me.”
“I’m not acting like it, but how is that I’m more mature than you who’s been around for, oh… two, three thousand years? More? What’s suddenly different now? Why the change of heart? Me dying- was it just too pitiful to see?”
“I’ve been watching you try alone this whole time, and you were right, I could be doing so much more to keep you alive. I thought what if I could be your anchor into reality if the fox succeeds in breaking you, that I could lead you back into the light. I… Madness isn’t a good look on you.”
Skepticism took hold in Illus’s mind. “Who’s to say you haven’t had this conversation with every other-”
Ciun shot to her feet, a burst of long simmering shame and rage. “Because they were lost or I killed them by now, Illus!”
He pointed at her as if making a point. “But you never prevented them from getting there, did you?”
She froze.
“I realize now I made the same mistake as the others likely made, thinking you were an eternally old and wise pseudo-deity like the fox. I expected too much out of you, didn’t I? That’s why I haven’t been able to understand who to trust, because of the mysteriously humble, cheery front you put up to conceal your true identity. But it’s not a front at all. You’re not a witch or a sorceress. I reckon you know nothing about magic at all. You’re just a painter with a magic mask who never got over her fears after thousands of wasted years.”
Ciun bit her upper lip, little shivers in her chest as her jaw trembled. “It’s easier to pretend. It keeps us both safer. Which is why I am going to get you out of here alive. You don’t need to play this game anymore. Nobody does. It’s my fault that I am where I am.”
“No!” He leaned in fervently. “What’s easiest is never what’s best. That’s why I’m pressing you. Let’s end the game. Let me help you break this curse, Ciun. We can end this cycle, can’t we? After all those years you have to know a way.”
She was on the verge of leaping out the door, on her back foot. “How am I supposed to believe that after what I saw for the past-”
Illus shot up, dashing the bowl of soup across the floor, screaming in a fit of exhausted anxiety, “Again! By God, can we be past the games?! ‘I don’t trust you,’ ‘But how do I know I can trust you?!’ Every conversation, every utterance is stunted! I toil for an ounce of information from you, parsing words and picking apart the meaning because the fox is in your head worse than it’s in mine! You’re so afraid of losing that blasted mask that you won’t even accept help when it’s on a silver platter! I’m here! I’ve been offering since the beginning because my life is more at stake than yours and I don’t know how many times I have to say it before you start understanding that! I’m practically begging to help you so I can walk out of here alive! Do you get it now that I’ve been left in catacombs, soiling myself because I blindly wandered so far that I couldn’t move anymore while I was assaulted by lies in my own mind?! I followed a specter of you, Ciun! Into an underworld of bones and death! Can’t you-”
An apparition of Ciun beside him, holding him in a comforting embrace. It cooled his fiery hot head. His eyes locked with her across the brazier from him, her trembling outstretched hand casting the vision. Illus returned to sitting, unaffected by her mirage which dissipated into blue mist around him.
A darkness in his eyes overpowered all anger in him. “The fox nearly killed me because he finally used you to lure me into those catacombs. I don’t know why, I just… followed without hesitation.”
She flexed her jaw, saying nothing.
“I owe you my life twice over now. I’ve got that poem closer to figured out, and there’s still time. What say we try to free you?” Illus held his hand out to Ciun.
She stared at it. “A verbal agreement is good enough.”
“Not for me.” He smiled, standing and taking a step closer.
Ciun stayed in place, unwilling to move.
“Ciun, what more proof could you possibly want?” Illus shook his head, an astonished smile crawling up with a chuckle, “I could have easily nabbed that mask with my head somehow, possibly knocked your head and took it!” He sighed, seeing that he was getting nowhere. “What’s wrong with a simple handshake?”
“A handshake turns into a grasp, a grasp into a pull. And then you die or I die.” She clenched her fist, “How do I truly know you won’t take it? Doom me to the fox?”
He sympathetically gazed into the mask’s eyes. “I trusted a faux you enough to follow her into darkness.”
“You were insane.”
“I feel more insane trying to get you to act according to your own words. You say you would be close were it not for the mask, as if that is how you truly are. But I don’t see it. If you truly want to leave here, you’ll have to start warming up to people again.”
“I’m plenty warm, thank you.”
His hand fell slightly. The mask, the loose nightgown, long hair, all of it made reading her demeanor and expression nigh impossible. All he spotted was the hunched, reared back, and anxious posture alongside her tight-lipped, straight mouth that she so frequently displayed.
“If I believed every woman I met was like Ani, I would never care about any of them ever again. Despite how easy it would be to believe you’re a sorceress using me for her evil deeds, that you have been lying to me, I can’t stay locked in that mental prison forever, or else I will simply wither away.” Illus glanced down at the flipped bowl of soup on the floor, his thin body, his bony hands. “I’m already close. Ciun, I’m not asking you to cuddle up, I’m asking you for a handshake and that last poem. My life depends on it, and I might be able to save yours.”
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Ciun swallowed, then trepidatiously stepped one foot forward, planted like she was ready to leap away at the nearest sign of harm. She extended her trembling hand toward his, pulling her fingers in before she was close enough for a full grasp. Illus slowly, carefully reached his index finger and thumb to her hand, lightly placing them on the end of her finger. An instinctual jerk almost pulled her finger away, but she held it in place while Illus gently moved it up and down like a handshake.
After a stressful silence, he let her finger go. She clutched it near her chest, gaze locked on the spot he touched.
Illus picked up his pack with the journal and walked directly past her, so close that the breeze from his body shifted her hair and clothes. Ciun whipped wildly around and leapt into the chimney cap as he stepped out the door.
He peeked back into the shed, up to her. “A quick wash, then I’ll meet you at the top of the mountain, yeah?”
Her hands were slipping from her usual propped position. She stared silently at him with a red face, nodded, and climbed out the cap. When Illus stepped out and glanced to the roof of the shed, she was already gone.
He cleaned himself of the murky stench of the catacombs, the bile, the filth. Herbs and water could cleanse his body, but his mind felt tainted, ravaged, stained by the fox in a way that would never leave him.
The slow hike to Ciun’s domain atop the mountain took a greater toll on Illus this ascent. His muscles had deteriorated slowly over the past several months. Every movement cost double the effort it would have taken before he was trapped, but he pushed upward, taking in the calm night air, gently whistling around the mountain while he filled his belly with dry fish and fruit, drinking plenty of water. The past several months were a fleeting nightmare, bits and pieces less foggy than others, but the cipher solved nonetheless, the rhythm of the fox understood.
His weary eyes stared out at the distant stars, heavy, still somehow exhausted. Yet he saw them differently now. Every little speck shone brighter than before against the impossibly dark backdrop of night. He saw them all so much clearer, his heart and head lighter than usual. One descent could not break him. One climb would not shake him. He knew looking at those stars, that he had a chance. Unbridled happiness of being alive, breathing, seeing- it soared through him as if he was reborn anew.
A brush of cloth and Ciun stood behind him. He was hardly up the mountain, but she was already back down, a piping hot wooden bowl in her hands.
“You look unwell, Illus.” She held the bowl out to him.
He nodded, taking the bowl without touching her. “Thank you. I’ve been worse off.”
She walked behind him, closer than usual, but still out of reach. “I forgot how warm people are.”
“That long, eh?” Illus began wolfing down the soup.
She didn’t look at him. “Disenchanting, isn’t it?”
“Was I supposed to be enchanted in the first place?”
“No,” her shoulders sagged.
“I’m pulling your arm, Ciun, where’s your usual banter?”
No response.
“What’s wrong?”
She silently shook her head.
“In truth, it’s quite comforting to know you’re just a person too.”
Her somber silence was all the answer he got.
Illus slowly turned away and ate. Every time he glanced back at her, the mask stared at him, her mouth expressionless. The whirring wind chilled the mountainside, but it was welcome after spending so many hot hours in the stuffy shed, running from mirages, and dying in the catacombs. After a lengthy, silent walk, he finished eating and she took the bowl back up the mountain.
When he neared the peak, she landed in front of him, backstepping up the stairs with her eyes locked on him.
“Do I have something on my face?”
Her lips slightly pursed like she was about to say something, but silence.
“What is it?”
She lowered her gaze and returned to walking straight. With a wave of her hand, the world slowly shimmered. The mountain was yet again encased in granite tiles, no trees obstructing the view out over the colorful nighttime city of Imahken, lit by blue flames in every street and clearing.
Ciun took a heavy breath and sang a simple song that rose in the first line of each rhyme, falling in the second. A tune bouncing on each syllable like a nursery rhyme. She joined the choir on the mountain as they slowly ascended, a procession carrying unmasked Enae atop the divan.
“I’ll dream upon the comet stone,
And claim desire I’ve never known.
All that I wish granted herein,
My heart be true lest comet spin.
To build thee up or make thee whole,
Ye elder comet judge thy soul.
I’ll dream I’ll dream, oh to be free,
From suffering and misery.”
The singing halted as ringing chimes resounded throughout the city, like a symphony of shattering glass in every direction, carried upon the back of deep drum beats. Ciun stopped walking, the shade of her long-past self continued forward, no details except for the mask in her hands. Illus slowly caught up, where she joined him in silence.
A melancholy chill consumed her low voice, almost inaudible against the chimes and drums. “This is the night after Enae was unmasked. We had a plan to undermine the fox, to save Imahken. She believed in me so strongly that she carried her will with her, despite having no sense of self.”
Then the song resumed more powerfully, the entire city chanting the hauntingly cheery tune.
“But if I win the comet stone,
Splendor in the future’s sown.
So down into the maze I’ll go,
Capture the mask, follow the glow.
Together with the fox we run,
Our home is rich, a gift of one.
I’ll dream, I’ll dream upon the sky,
A wish, a love, we’ll never die.”
A blisteringly bright white light blinded Illus at the top of the mountain, and only when he covered the light with his hand did he see that it was emanating from an orb atop the fox’s nose. The entire mountaintop shone bright as daytime, like the fox held a miniature sun.
The chimes and drums died on the instant, their resounding beats dissipating into the night. The mountaintop fell still and silent as Enae rose from her divan, bright blue satin dress dragging behind her like a current. The shade of Ciun followed at an angle, clutching the mask closely.
“Enae the fair,” the fox began, tossing the stone to his paw. “Soft as air. Approach ye perfect maiden, thy worries need not leave thee laden. Take this wish and know love’s scope, the comet shall grant whatever you hope.”
She curtsied the fox, who passed the great light to her. As the comet stone raised in her hands, a blazing light shot from stone to the white comet high above, its tail a sparkling streak across the night sky. Enae glanced over her shoulder at the shade of Ciun, who nodded.
Then she said, “Kill the fox.”
A burst of light shot from comet to stone. The stone vibrated loudly in Enae’s hands, underscored by a cackle from the fox, who confidently postured as light consumed the peak of the mountain.
Illus had to close his eyes, the light threatening to scorch them even when covered by his hands.
It suddenly dimmed in Enae’s hands. Her hands- stone. As if frozen in the moment of her wish, she was entirely encased in stone.
The shade of Ciun froze in place, clutching the mask closely.
The fox cackled. “Enae never listened, for this she is christened. The comet may not kill, no intention of ill-will.” It jumped atop the shining orb and projected its maddening voice across the entire city. “The comet has spoken, our city unbroken! My power yet saves us, from meddling and chaos!”
The city screamed, a medley of chants keeping any one from being heard over the other. The fox closed its eyes to bask in the chorus, raising its arms while everyone among the procession prostrated themselves before it.
All except Ciun.
The fox’s eyes shot open when its pedestal was swept, silent and now masked Ciun swiped the orb from beneath it as the city roared too loud for anyone to hear.
She skidded to the edge of the mountain, the orb glowing more vibrant than when Enae held it.
The fox cackled, trotting confidently toward her. “Eager to be unmasked, Ciun? No will to wait for the next moon? Will you take the volley and copy her folly?” Its eyes thinned as it registered something, a plan in the eyes of the mask. The fox’s voice roared like thunder. Its pelt twisted and curled. “No desire you have will end my reign. Serve your home and bear your rightful pain!”
Then she raised the stone above her head and the fox’s eyes glimmered with power unlike what Illus had ever experienced. The prostrating procession shot up with the will of one, haze leaking from all their eyes when they charged Ciun. The fox flew forward with speed like a diving eagle, claws for Ciun’s neck. The mask’s magic propelled Ciun high into the air, fast as the fox.
From atop the statue of the fox, she uttered her desire. “Free Imahken from the fox for all eternity!”
The fox’s face contorted like Illus had never seen, shrinking to a chaotic mess of tight wrinkles like its skin was being tugged tight by fingers beneath it.
The hazy-eyed crowd trampled over each other mindlessly, climbing the statue to reach her. The air rippled. A wave of freezing white flames burst from the stone. Everyone atop the mountain blasted out into the open air, even Enae and the fox. The fox caught itself, swirling like a serpent through the air toward Ciun until the mask burst with its own power. A cloud of blue mist seeped from the eyes of the mask, forming chains binding the fox and Ciun by their heads.
Screaming erupted out of both of them, then the city followed in a haunting chorus.
The high-pitched shrieks and extreme magic whirred in a deafening explosion, growing more powerful while colors swirled. Blue haze of the mask. Black miasma from the fox. White glow of the orb searing them both into one. The two singularities clashed violently, wrestling with the chains of haze. One within Ciun, and one within the fox. Suddenly, everything went black.
Then stillness took the mountaintop. No longer was it encrusted in granite and tile, but returned to its ruinous state.
Illus’s body vibrated, his ears rang, his eyes ached, his mouth tasted of iron and he smelled burnt ozone.
Everything slowed.
Frogs croaked and crickets chirped from the forest around. A distant loon called “hoo-ooo-hoo-ooo” from the lake below, then another in response. The city was silent, its people forgotten to time, encased in foliage where homes once stood. Ciun sat staring out over the city, chin on her knees, harshly clutching her ears, hair pulled tight in her grip.
“The next thing I knew, I was in the catacombs. Lost.” She stammered through shaky breaths, fighting away tears. “I promised to free her with my request. Imahken too. I thought it would. All this time now, because of my lie, everyone-” she broke down into her knees.
Illus sat beside her in silence, wanting to offer some semblance of comfort, but afraid to get too close. “I’m right here… whenever you’re ready.”
He took out the journal and began idly staring at the pages with the deciphered poem, unable to read because his eyes kept shifting to Ciun and his mind kept wandering toward her. She showed him that for a reason. That moment seemed to create the prison around the temple, and it seemed to be the doom of Imahken. Did stealing the comet stone and imprisoning the fox cause Imahken to fall? What came after?
His eyes set on her, curled into her knees, then returned to the poem’s words, the fresh mirage still in mind.
He had cracked the cipher. He switched all instances of Ciun and the Fox, as clued in by the fox’s backwards accusations and lies. The titles of each were upside down, so he flipped the first words in the first and third lines of each stanza, and then read them both end to beginning, resulting in the following poems.
Kill
The
Fox:
Rise from death.
For mist’s stealth,
Down his breath
Ciun knows will.
Is the thrill,
Fox may kill
Top no ground.
Tis stone crowned,
‘Neath where found,
Promise
To
Ciun:
Lie all through.
You know who,
Trust I do
Trust til done.
Him I shun
Life not one
Stone he hark.
Where his ark
Maze from dark
Not every line made sense to him yet, but he had a good point to inspire some more questioning.
The turning of pages caught Ciun’s ear. “So you deciphered the poem?” She said, still looking away.
“Yes. I’m still discerning some meaning, but the cipher is undone.”
She lightly nodded, crossing her arms around her knees.
“It seems like everything is pointing to the comet stone so far, but I warrant that’s in the catacombs, in the fox’s domain.”
She averted her gaze.
“You can lead me there, can’t you?”
Ciun hesitantly nodded, like a fear surged in her. “I know them above and below, front to back.”
“Did you lose the stone down there?”
“You think I could lose such a brilliant light in that abyss?” An uncomfortable chuckle broke her angst. “It was stolen back by a plunderer and his crew who found the ruins and fell victim to the fox.”
“Ciun, will you lead me to the stone? I may be able to free you with a wish.”
“The fox will eat you alive with hallucinations and falsehoods in the catacombs.”
“Not if you’re there.”
“Even still.”
“No, I mean if you’re there to ground me in reality, to keep me from being broken by the fox. Guide me by hand and there is nothing the fox can do.”
She said nothing.
“You’re not in danger down there anyway. I couldn’t see your face even if I broke and took it. That’s why you weren’t afraid of carrying me out, right?”
She shook her head. “I pulled you along by your foot. Like a ribbon fluttering in the air behind me.”
Illus grumbled, frustrated at her dismal hopelessness. “Of course. That would require you to touch me, and you’re terrified of that.”
Ciun turned to Illus without a word, the mask’s eyes intensely glaring at him. His brows furrowed, wanting to blame her further until he saw the way her mouth lightly quivered, how she still clenched the finger he shook.
He softened his stare and held out his hand. “Little steps? The first one is always the hardest.”
She slowly reached out, lightly setting the tips of her middle and index fingers on his, carefully pressing fingertips to fingertips. Hers were scarred and rough, more so than his.
Ciun’s reflexes, her instincts, they screamed inside of her. Her hand shook terribly, breath quickening as their fingers hooked on each other. Her voice shook almost as much as her hand. “Is this truly the path you want to take?”
Illus eased the tension in his hand, letting her fingers gently rest on his. “I didn’t like the look of the other paths. And it goes against my better judgment to leave you here. You don’t have to step any closer than arm’s reach. All I need is your hand, then I’ll do the rest.”
With several deep breaths, Ciun’s shaking slowed, and her thumb reached forward to feel Illus’s fingers, brushing against their backs before retreating. She clutched her hand and meekly spoke.
“Do you really think I deserve to be free?”
“For freeing Imahken from the fox?”
“For ending everything.”
Illus thought back to the vision. “How could you have known the stone would do that? How could you have known your people would perish? Is it your fault Imahken couldn’t survive without wishes and sacrifices? It very well could have been the fox that caused the chaos which ended Imahken.”
She said nothing.
“Ask, Ciun.” Illus held his arm to the expansive forest below. “After all this time, the thousands of lifetimes you’ve lived in their stead. Ask them what would be better: ending this soul-stealing cycle for good, or returning to a world built on servitude and lies?”
She choked on her words. “I never thought the city would fall, that everyone would die and leave nothing but bones.”
“So then make right by their sacrifices. By the sacrifices of your family for generations. By your sister and all those who endured the fall of Imahken.”
Her head fell back into her knees and she pushed up quickly, turning away from Illus. He didn’t move, just kept her in his peripheral. She stayed in place for a moment, fiddling with her hands out of his sight, then turned and beckoned him to follow.
“You’ll need to be in your strongest form when we go down. Come with me.”
Illus followed Ciun to the north side of the peak, opposite where the path was. The stone surface abruptly ended and she dropped down. Beneath the outcropping of stone a mess of brush obscured a cave. Without effort, Ciun pushed a boulder from in front of an opening to a warmly lit interior chamber.
Gray, cracked and resealed granite floors spanned the interior. The walls were painted with a colorful scene of Imahken, as if each wall were a window into the past. Colorful buildings across the lake, a vast temple stretching out over the city, gardens and ponds around the chamber. Then in the middle of the room was a large circular dip filled with brush and covered in hand-woven quilts. Polished granite ceilings gave the room a bright feel, false flames illuminating the interior.
Ciun approached the far wall and began concealing blades in her gown. A few dozen knives and swords hung by a vibrant green and white handwoven tapestry with geometric designs like a mandala. Many of the blades were completely rusted while a select few retained their shine, newer and cared for. A brazier full of soup simmered over a flame which emanated no smoke. In fact, it was fueled by nothing. The wall to Illus’s right hung herbs, dried fruits and fish, cookware, and wooden utensils. The wall to his left was littered by an array of odds and ends, some of the dresses and supplies from Anilee’s bag stuffed onto the shelves in the walls. And in the corner was an incomplete mess of fabric surrounded by carefully cut textiles. It was thicker than the nightgown, a billowing robe made of Ani’s white petticoats.
She carried a wooden slab toward the door and placed it next to the boulder. “Use this door while you stay here.”
Illus skeptically stared at her.
“I’ll be sleeping elsewhere. You don’t have to worry about the fox up here.”
“I’m humbled, Ciun.”
“We have until just before the river dries for the next comet. Will you be ready then?”
“Will you?”
She hesitated by the door. “We will be.”
He nodded. “Thank you.”
She returned the nod. “You will find his carvings on the out-facing side of the boulder. And don’t fuss with the flame, ever. Goodnight. I’d love to know what they say come morning.”
“I will. Goodnight.” He lingered as she disappeared out the entrance, then stepped out and inspected the writing.
Birth of Imahken
Lovers entombed among the heavens
Distanced as to prevent any leavins
By the emptiness unimaginable,
Space untouched by mortal rabble.
And in a desperate ploy to halt his tail,
Passage twas gripped, his chest impaled
Of selfish magick masked in loving touch,
Time had come, the comet in clutch.
That lady moon wished never to flee,
No desire to explore the expanse of thee.
Magick and wander did comet believe
Saves a life from all regrets we grieve.
For he fell to sleep and dropped a gem,
Life and love he shan’t condemn.
Is in this that she made its keeper
Escape forever burdened steeper.
Stellavultus
She, beguiled and lost to her love,
Desperate she used all magick above
To touch land and mortality with a goal:
Reclaim the stone and free his soul.
Her spirit touched soil and made body,
Stolen from esprit in a fit of jealousy.
Groom she became by the lich’s power,
Preserved her blessing, twisted it dour.
In histories twas revered as the cost
A blue blood paid to be star-crossed.
Vile the moonpact, the villain’s affinity,
Curse which fed on stolen personality.
Only through thievery and deception,
Mortals gleefully made exception.
May all who read reject this task:
Free her from the prison starmask.
“This…” Illus pondered aloud, “even the vertical… it all dissuades action to free her. Who’s side are you on, Carmonia? Or can this magic not be undone?” Another thought fluttered through his mind. “No. They’re the premise and a guide… to the wish that he never made, never figured out. But they’re in here for a reason. This curse is born of a particular magic, it must be the key. So then what must I wish for, or dream for?”
Illus ventured over and held the wooden door in place before attempting to push the boulder, thinking it may have been false. It wasn’t. It was in fact, incredibly heavy, so much that he couldn’t even budge it. With that knowledge, he laid down in the soft quilts, the poems lingering in his mind. The smell from fragrant herbs beneath him plumed around the chamber, easing his mind away from the plethora of new information that seemed to say little of use. And for the first time since arriving at the ruins, Illus slept through the night.