Dan awoke to Hyun Soon holding him down, a scared look in his eye. Relief replaced the fright once Dan asked him what was wrong. Hyun had looked at him like he was crazy.
“You were screaming and started throwing yourself around,” Hyun said plainly, “I jumped on you to stop you from hurting yourself. Having a nightmare?”
Dan didn’t know. All he could remember was the feeling of fear. If anything, the embarrassment of his friends staring, worried eyes was far worse on his psyche, so he gladly took a drink from the unending flask of water, took a bun from the strange bag of fresh pastries Guan Fa Lian carried. He moved to the thin hallway they had arrived from, and with the walls close on each side, Dan tried to meditate.
He felt it more clearly as he awoke, but the sensation was now fading. There was a strangeness within his mana. As it moved through his channels, it didn’t feel any different, but it was as though there was a shadow on the water. The flowing river of power within seemed darker. It was worrying, but the longer he tried to inspect the problem, the less clear it became until he was no longer certain there was a change at all.
It was impossible to ignore the worried glances of Xiaomei and Hyun Soon, nor the exasperated eye rolls and sighs from Fa Lian, once his mana began to flow. With the walls themselves rejecting the touch of his mana, Dan found it harder to keep his sight from everything else. While it would probably be a boon in combat, right now Dan would have preferred to think he was alone.
“Are you feeling alright, Dan?” Xiaomei had made her way slowly over, inching towards his small hiding spot via stretches and pretending to wander aimlessly. Dan tried and failed not to let her concern cause him guilt, but he had no defence against the worries of others. It still shocked him that Hyun and Xiaomei genuinely cared about him.
“Sorry for worrying you, Xiaomei. Actually,” Dan stood, rolling his shoulders and neck, “I feel… fantastic?” It was true. As though the previous day’s battling had not taken place, Dan felt good. Good enough that he had forgotten his definitely broken ribs and cracked wrist. There was a strange sense of nostalgia as he thought about broken bones, but it faded away like he was trying to catch mist.
“You look like we do after you heal us. I thought you couldn’t do that?” There was nothing accusatory in her tone, but Dan felt like he was hiding a secret for some reason.
“I can’t. I’ve tried, and it’s never worked.”
“Maybe something happened while you were asleep?”
“Nothing happened!” Dan shouted. There was shock on Xiaomei’s face, mirroring Dan’s own. She blinked hard a few times before turning on her heel and walking away. Dan couldn’t find the air to apologise, his throat felt as though it had simply closed. Instead, he punched the wall closest to himself, splitting his knuckles on the rock.
Dan already knew he couldn’t do it, but he channelled his mana into his healing technique. The mana churned through his channels as he pushed his intention into the energy. Without someone to push the mana into, Dan knew, nothing could occur. With frustration, he tried again. And again. He pushed and boiled the mana within himself, frustration and confusion bubbling over into actual anger. Everything was confusing, and it seemed that every new turn or day would bring another question or mystery.
“Dan?” Hyun Soon had almost whispered his name but his voice still made Dan jump, tense as he was. As though he was dealing with a wounded animal, the taller boy softened his voice even more. “Talk to me? What’s wrong?”
“Everything” felt like the wrong answer, and even in his current state Dan knew it would be a lie. Instead, he shrugged as though that could be answer enough. The pained look on his friend's face made him turn away, but Dan himself didn’t have an answer. He let the mana in his hands calm down and fizzle away like foam on a wave.
“Everything, obviously.” Guan Fa Lian had no such compunction to remain quiet. Her long black hair was still unnaturally well kept, given the stresses of the recent days. She wasn’t looking at the boys, or Xiaomei either. She was looking at the middle door in the room, the sharp black one. “We can’t go back the way we came, and as we already saw the labyrinth is dangerous. Maybe we can handle it. Apparently that’s how the demons train their young.”
“And how the empire punishes criminals, right?” Xiaomei had seated herself by the rightmost door. The metallic flowers above her head jangled as she stood, using the door as leverage. “What are you trying to say?”
“What I am saying is that being up there,” Fa Lian gestured vaguely upwards, “isn’t much better than down here. My brother is in this labyrinth somewhere, if we can find him we’ll be safer than anywhere.”
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“But we don’t have any idea where he is, right?” Hyun Soon asked and then clearly wished he didn’t. The glare from Fa Lian was expected, but Xiaomei also looked as though she wished her eyes were daggers for a moment. He flinched back towards Dan, but Dan was walking forward.
“So, what are you thinking then?” Dan asked as he closed the distance between them. “Hyun is right, we don’t know where Yo Shen is, do we?” Dan’s soul stone was pointedly quiet as he asked the question, no pulsing or direction being given. There was a tickle in the back of Dan’s mind, like words on the tip of his tongue which he had forgotten.
“We keep forging forward. We have nothing else to do.” Fa Lian turned around now, facing the group for the first time and looking away from the door. Now she looked at Hyun Soon, her sharp green eyes analytical. “You took Rise and Ruin, right?”
“Well,” Hyun shifted his weight uncomfortably, “everything was going to be destroyed anyway…”
“I don’t care about that, stupid.” Fa Lian held up her hands as Xiaomei and Dan began to feel outrage fester. Before they could defend Hyun Soon, she quickly continued speaking, hands raised in a gesture of surrender. Her next words were slower as she tried to keep the conversation on the right track. “Sorry, sorry. It was a good thing you… decided to bring the knuckle dusters. This door, here? It looks like the same metal.”
“So?” Hyun Soon asked, clearly surly and upset at being called stupid.
“So,” Fa Lian spoke through nearly clenched teeth, “this is a dwarven door. Those are dwarven made, too.”
For more than a few moments, there was silence. Fa Lian was looking increasingly upset, and was just opening her mouth when Xiaomei gasped. Fa Lian’s frustration turned into a faux look of intrigue. “Yes, Xiaomei?” She asked, making sure to put emphasis on the name as though proving she knew it. “Did you figure something out, Xiaomei?”
A stubbornness flashed through Xiaomei and for a moment, Dan thought she would not share the revelation that she had had. After a second of frigid silence, Xiaomei turned to the two boys. “Dwarven smithing is special.” The way she said it was reminiscent of a frustrated student answering a rhetorical question, a roll of her eyes being expressed with her tone.
“Good!” Fa Lian replied, the mocking tone in her voice apparent. Clearly she had felt the same way Xiaomei did, but was leaning into the role of arrogant teacher. “And what might that mean?”
“Enough,” Dan cut in, “stop it. Being antagonistic isn’t going to help.” Before Fa Lian could take offence and hurl it back in response, Dan continued. “Dwarves can channel their magic into crafting. Most enchanted items come from their lands, or from people trained in their ways.”
Dan had known all of this, but was too busy looking forward and panicking to remember his time with Park Man-Shik. The massive, hairy, stoic man had taken Dan in and for years, tortured him and called it training. Dan smirked a little as he remembered that time, and his own hyperbole about his treatment. He missed Park Man-Shik now. His guidance would be better than the memory in Dan’s mind.
“Sorry but… how does that help, then?” Hyun Soon was now the only one who seemed as though he was not privy to the answers which the other three had written. The black metal of Rise and Ruin was sitting comfortably on his hands, looking as though they were made specifically for him.
“When dwarven metal meets dwarven metal, hidden magic can be unlocked.” You had to be careful around it, Dan knew. Sometimes a dwarven miner pulled the dense ore from the ground, only to accidentally imbue it with some of his own potent mana. When that ore was later struck by another dwarf’s mana, or a hammer of dwarven make carrying their enchantments, chaotic bursts of magic could occur. Dan explained what he knew, and Fa Lian brought the train of thought into the station.
“So, we might be able to open this door. All you need to do is knock.”
“Simple.” Dan finished, unintentionally quoting his mentor’s favourite sentence. There was every chance it wouldn’t work, and there was no real reason for them to focus on this door specifically, or any door at all. However, without a clear direction there was no reason to stay either. All things being equal, Dan decided that he would prefer momentum. The only reason they had stopped was to rest and now, through whatever strange magic had occurred in Dan, and his own ability to keep his friends in top shape, they could instead move on.
Hyun looked to Xiaomei, who shrugged and nodded. He walked slowly, as though each step asked permission and invited someone to interrupt him. When no one did, he inevitably reached the door. With a shake of his head and a puffing of his chest, Hyun Soon reached forward and rapped the metal door with Rise. A satisfying clunk rang out, echoing easily in the enclosed space. Hyun flinched a little, the noise far louder than he expected.
The sound became imperceptible before there was any other change. Dan leapt forward, the first to notice a shift in the room. To his natural senses, there was nearly no chance, except a small breeze starting. His mana, however, was being sent haywire. There was an energy behind the door the likes of which Dan had never seen, and he quickly hauled Hyun Soon away from it with all of his strength.
As though it was being ignited by lightning, Dan felt a scorch run straight through the mana collected in the air, and a phantom pain lashed out at him. He separated himself from the rest of his mana, leaving him as blind as the other to whatever was coming through the door. This was a mistake, Dan realised in horror.
Before he could form the words of warning he wanted to shout, the door began to rumble against the floor. It scraped with an agonising screech against the stone of the labyrinth, though there were no scratch marks left behind as it did. As the group all grasped at their ears to protect them, the breeze became a draught, chilling the room around them.
With a heavy thud, a frosty boot stepped from the door, followed by another. A stout figure stepped through the door and stamped twice. The room shook with the force of it, causing the unbalanced Dan, still holding Hyun Soon, to fall to his knees. Momentum and anticipation had Hyun scrambling back too, so his fall was just as graceless. Quickly, without a word, Fa Lian stepped forward and placed herself in front of the fallen Dan and Hyun.
“Who are you?” She asked, her voice far more confident than her slightly shivering posture suggested. The figure stamped again, this time also shaking themselves. White snow and frost fell from them, dusting the floor with quickly liquifying crystals. Still cautious, Dan stood, Hyun Soon following suit and Xiaomei filling in behind them.
“Ih’s raight bludeh culd, yuu beh bangen un me duhr an’ yehs ask me? Eweryu?” The figure was short, only taller than Xiaomei because of the large hood they were wearing. Now that the snow had been brushed off, or melted, Dan saw that they were clad in thick leathers and furs, the browns and whites now able to be told apart. The voice was gravel itself. Dan expected it would be hard to understand even if it wasn’t speaking another language. After a few moments of hesitant quiet, Fa Lian turned back to Dan and the others, her face a mask of pure confusion.
“We’re… sorry? Do you speak the language of Guan? The Shin empire?” Dan offered hopefully, saying the words slowly. There was another slow, drawn out quiet for a handful of moments before the warm clothed individual spoke again. This time, their words were also slow and Dan listened with a growing horror.
“Ah (I) yam (am) speekin’ (speaking) Shen (Shin).”