Yurie had started to feel eyes on her as she walked through Allusia. This was fairly common before her change but the looks felt different now. Furtive and angry stares turning into fearful, even longing ones.

It honestly made her feel far worse. A lingering gaze makes it difficult to move around without being noticed. Even staring at the floor, Yurie couldn’t avoid the leers in her periphery.

Ah Dan had probably not done it intentionally. Yurie wasn’t even sure it mattered. However he had changed everything for her in a heartbeat and she wasn’t sure whether to thank him or avoid him. It was with grim determination, however, that she squashed the doubts and continued following the path to the Barracks. Not the road, of course, but a nearly translucent line of footprints that ran out from her position in the direction of…

Well, of Ah Dan.

Just a few days ago, Yurie would have been skipping all the way there, and her guiding light show would have told her to, but now her feet dragged. The pathway would have glittered with gold and Yurie would have been more than happy to walk it. If anything, the route she walked now was the opposite. This was not the black paths which promised doom but an empty lane amongst a world of colour.

She had never walked a path like this before. Yurie had never lived in one place so long that she remembered the architecture, let alone which routes were quieter than others. Her time in Allusia had changed Yurie in more than just her appearance. She was more cautious now, less willing to track after a path that promised excitement.

Excitement had led her to Ah Dan.

Her mind was awash with complex feelings as Yurie’s feet fell exactly where the universe told them to. She did want to see Ah Dan. She wanted to thank him, at least she thought she did. She hoped that when she was in front of him, the words would come to her mind and she would be able to say them.

The Barracks loomed over the thoroughfare, intentionally imposing in its grandness. Knowing who was inside only made it more intimidating. Yurie faltered for a while, stopping at the small baked goods stall which waited near the guard station. She took her time with the pastry she bought, picking small pieces off and chewing them slowly.

“Something on your mind, girl?”

Yurie came back to the real world, mouth half full of honey soaked bread. She swallowed it down with a cough and was shocked as the man handed her a cup of water. She looked him in the eyes. This was another difference between before her time here and now. Now, people who looked in her face were worried about what she thought of them.

She decided that she hated it.

Decisive at last, Yurie stomped towards the Barracks without answering the man. There was something on her mind and if she didn’t dispel the cloud it was leaving over her, she wouldn’t be able to set foot on another path. Her way would remain as empty as it currently was and she didn’t want that.

Putting it off no longer, she barely looked at her feet as she wandered forward. She was barely looking at anything, just giving enough attention to the curly haired guard at the door so that she wasn’t stopped before continuing into the Barracks. Each step found a heavier footfall than the next until she finally reached the floor where Dan’s cell was. He wasn’t being imprisoned any more but moving him wouldn’t help. Apparently something about the labyrinth walls made certain healing magic more powerful, which meant that the dwarf had suggested he stay here, surrounded by them.

Surrounded by more than walls it looked like. Yurie’s stomach dropped to her heels as she rounded the corner and walked directly into Fa Lian. Yurie bounced off like she’d walked into a mountain. Fa Lian herself was apologetic, saying she was distracted, but Yurie was barely listening.

Others were leaving Dan’s room behind her. He was awake.

She had known he was the moment she had seen the empty path. She had desperately hoped he wasn’t. Steeling herself, Yurie excused herself from Fa Lian’s presence. Yurie felt uncertain around the girl, younger though she was. Guan Fa Lian was a lady and she carried herself as such. Not even when Yurie bumped her did her posture change. Very proper.

Yurie felt her lope as she walked towards Dan. Xiaomei and Hyun Soon waved at her, she placed a mask over her feelings for a few minutes while they excitedly spoiled all the things she wanted to see. Dan was awake, but weak. Grier had finally roused him after a lot of hard work. He was happy to have visitors.

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“I’ll just… go see him, shall I?” Yurie asked, again hoping that there would be a barrier placed before her. Of course, she also knew that wouldn’t happen. Even standing still like this had been shown to her by the steps in her vision.

“I bet that would make him really happy.” Xiaomei answered. There was a scream inside Yurie’s chest as the words sank in. Her mask didn’t crack once. She bade goodbye to the two, saying she would meet them later. Once she was at the door she took a breath, trying to calm herself as much as possible. It wasn’t much. She realised that Dan could probably see her right now, though she wasn’t entirely sure how his ability worked.

Unwilling to look like she was stalling, Yurie opened the door.

——————

Raised heartbeat. Cold beads of sweat. Even frisson on the skin.

Dan had been worried about meeting Yurie. Others had been avoiding telling Dan what had become of her other than she was safe. Dan was grateful for that but he had come to the only conclusion he could think of.

He hadn’t done enough.

Even as Dan rested he was angry at himself for it. If he could just get up and move, he could help people again. He could fix problems. Being bound to bed rest was frustrating in a way that Dan couldn’t argue against. It had, however, given him time to think.

When they had been attacked by the siblings, Dan had let her get so badly wounded that he wasn’t sure she would recover even with his power. Throughout the fighting that followed, Dan had not had time to think about the damage that she may have been left with. Dan flinched as she entered the room, closing his eyes and instinctively pulling back from his mana. He was worried what look he might see on her face.

That could only last for a second though before it was rude.

“How are yo-” Dan started to say.

“I’m glad to se-” Yurie said at the same time. As they interrupted each other, Dan looked at her to smile away the awkwardness. Then he finally saw what he had done. It left him speechless as he thought about the ramifications of his actions.

“Are you…” This time she hadn’t spoken but Dan didn’t know what to say. He had no words. When it was obvious that she wasn’t going to interrupt again, waiting for him to finish, Dan said the only sentence he had been prepared to say. “I’m so sorry.”

That, it seemed, was not what she had been expecting. “Why?” She asked. “You not a fan of your craftsmanship? Had a thought and I’m not sure if this is what my face was going to look like. I think it is but how would you know?” After a quick burst of fast speech, Yurie stopped abruptly and her eyes went wide. “Sorry. Rambling.”

Dan didn’t give himself long to think but he did choose his words carefully. “I was scared that I hadn’t done enough to help you. I thought maybe you were still recovering and that maybe you blamed me for it. I didn’t realise I had done… this.” In his head, Dan’s mind was racing with questions. Was this okay? Yurie did look wonderful but she didn’t look like Yurie. Dan hadn’t known her long enough to know the story behind her scars but he had to hope that she was happy to be rid of them.

Yurie smiled, though it didn’t reach her newly fresh eyes. They did not hold the strange, silver half-glow which Dan’s eyes did but there was a shimmer in them that hadn’t been there before. She seemed as though she were deciding something right at that moment and then she started to speak.

“Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if you did it on purpose or not either. That magic of your’s is powerful stuff, I’d say. Strong enough to change something that I thought couldn’t be changed. Would I have asked if I thought you could? Who knows?” The next smile on her face did reach her eyes. They glittered. “Everything has changed now. You changed it for me, whether we knew it or not. All paths pointed to you doing something important, can see what it was now.”

Dan closed his eyes, letting the conversation pause for a few breaths before speaking. “You said before that all paths which led to me were…” Dan had to push past embarrassment to continue but he did. “That they were golden. Has that changed?” Dan had some understanding of the intricacies of Yurie’s power. A colour was not specifically good or bad but certain prospective paths were definitely more alluring. Gold meant excitement… or maybe change.

“Yes.” Yurie’s voice was quiet. Dan looked up to see a now ashen face. Before he could ask what was wrong she explained, her next words punching a hole in the pit of his stomach. “Every path that leads to you now is… empty.”

That word that Dan felt he had overcome hit him like he had been slapped. He couldn’t stop the tears from forming or hide them from Yurie. Still, he turned and she waited for him to calm himself. It only took a few moments but the pain of that wound, now reopened, would remain for a while. Yurie was not from the land of the Guan. She didn’t know how specific that word had been in holding Dan back before.

Dan knew though. He had overcome being “empty” before. He had pushed past “empty” and become so much more. In agreement, Dan felt a vulpine purr of agreement in the back of his mind. Still, he reeled slightly and it was noticeable. Yurie’s grave face turned regretful, eye closing in a fierce wince.

Then she opened them again and screamed. She began to hold her head, frantically looking around the room. She screamed so loud that the others came running back in. Dan had stood, bones creaking with the effort of it but he had just reached her when Fa Lian and Xiaomei burst into the room. Placing his hands onto her shoulders, Dan felt his heart leaping with fear, a mirror of the terror he saw on the girl’s face.

“What happened? What did you do?” Fa Lian was asking questions but Xiaomei was following Yurie’s eyesight.

“She’s seeing something. In her sight.” Xiaomei said with confidence. She had spent far more time with Yurie than Dan or Fa Lian had and was likely correct. Dan braced himself before syphoning some of Yurie’s mana. If Dan could see what she was, maybe he could help.

Fa Lian had managed to quieten Yurie and was now sitting with her on the bed as Shade and Hyun Soon appeared. Dan barely noticed any of it. The sight stunned Dan just the same as Yurie. Being more prepared meant that he was able to focus and explain what he was seeing to Xiaomei. He did not see whatever empty path Yurie had described but he knew this one.

“Dark, oily black paths everywhere. A glint of a violent red or caustic green in other places.” Dan was speaking quickly, just describing whatever he can. “It’s like the world is melting into death. What’s going on?” A new scream ripped through the hallway. Dan saw Shade’s eyes roll up in his head before a visible force of will from himself brought him back. His face had gone from confused to confident and then straight back through to terrified himself.

“She’s coming. Here. She’s leaving.” Shade was rambling.

“That makes no sense, Shade. What are you saying?” Fa Lian was trying her best to take control of the situation but it seemed that everyone she asked a question folded. “Who’s coming?” She asked.

With barely more than a whisper, his sword appearing in his trembling hand, Shade closed his eyes and said “My mother is coming to kill us all.”