Yurie had never seen anything like it. The explosion of colour that Guan Ah Dan released once the door opened was indescribable. The wash of footprints which guided her way suddenly became intricate, more confusing to follow but at the same time…
“Wow.”
The boy stood to his full height and smiled at Yurie. She had never seen eyes as wonderful before in her whole life, like the moon had become full and decided to plant itself in his face. She forgot what she had just asked as her eyes fell upon the knobbly scars around his own and felt a camaraderie she didn’t expect. She had dragged him from this room a few days prior but when he had looked at her disfigurement she had looked away.
Now she wished she hadn’t.
“Uhhh, we need to move?” His voice was just on the edge of deep, like he raised the pitch to be a little less gruff. She shook herself from her stupor and blamed it on the sudden rush of information from her sight. There was a strange aspect to his movement, a grace so delicate that it could only be borne of seeing all his surroundings. He stepped around her and stood in the now open doorway, looking back at her with those wondrous eyes. “Come on.”
Without letting her eyes leave him, she followed. For the first time in recent and not so recent memory, Yurie did not follow the specific path laid out for her. Ah Dan had a different way of being than she did and it was immediately evident, though Yurie could not articulate why it made her heart sing so loudly.
“How did you get those scars?” The question she had been asked a thousand times but never asked herself. It was flowing from her lips before she even knew it and she was mortified as soon as the question was asked. How much she hated being asked that question, never giving a straight answer because no one really wanted to hear her side of the story.
“Oh, I let my guard down.” Ah Dan looked back at Yurie and gave her a smile which made the kaleidoscope of colour, her paths, pulse and shift. She liked that. Dan said something else but Yurie wasn’t brave enough to ask him to repeat it. She might have to explain why she was getting so distracted.
Enough. He just said he let his guard down and it got him hurt. Yurie admonished herself in her thoughts and focused. This was a dangerous situation and she was not going to let it go badly because of her. Positioning herself in front of Dan, she asked him to keep his ears out for anyone coming while she concentrated. He accepted her task quietly and closed her eyes while Yurie scanned the ground.
Not all colours are shaded the same. A red footprint might lead to violence but a crimson one almost always leads to blood. To that end, Yurie knew it was important which path she took and was scanning the shifting colours to find the optimal. Waiting for the future to make sense never worked so after a few moments she had to lurch forward and hope that Ah Dan kept pace.
Of course, he did.
“Where is Fa Lian?” He asked. The only member of their group that Yurie had not met yet, though she did know where she was being held. For half a moment Yurie was tempted to lie, though she had no clue why. She continued moving along the path she had chosen at random, feeling much more herself now that she was back on a path, even if she had needed to choose a grey path.
Grey was a colour that meant nothing at all. It meant not knowing what was coming next. Normally Yurie would avoid one and look for something more fun but considering her vision kept washing with deep crimson, she could not afford to be picky. Bloodshed seemed to be more and more likely with each passing day in Allusia.
“She’s in the cell on the roof.” Like a zit on a face, there was a lump at the top of the Barracks. Yurie had been told to take food up a few times but she was sure none of it was being eaten. From hearing Xiaomei’s description of the flames which Fa Lian had exploded into, only she could be the source of the heat atop the Barracks. All paths were leading that way, so there was no doubt, though Yurie hadn’t been certain before. “Before we continue, there’s likely to be a fight of some kind when we get up there.”
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“I was thinking the same thing.” Dan said, looking at his own flimsy clothing and general unpreparedness and grimacing. Yurie didn’t belabour the point, although she was a little more certain than just a hunch. Almost every pathway was suggesting bloodshed at this point, but there was a murkiness to the colour that Yurie didn’t understand. “Do you mind if I try something?”
Yurie stopped and tilted her head. The world again lit up in gold for a moment, all signs leading towards excitement. She nodded and watched as Dan took a deep breath. She was just about to ask what Dan was going to do when her words caught in her throat. The colours.
How are you absorbing the colours? Instead of asking, Yurie just watched. The world dimmed as it lost colour. Yurie wondered if the walls were always grey or if it was a result of Dan’s technique, but she was too tongue tied to ask. The thousand question on her lips could wait. She was enraptured. If all the colours were flowing into Dan, then all paths lead to him. Dan lifted a hand towards her and Yurie felt a bundle of moths explode in her stomach, fluttery and fluffy twitches.
He hesitated for a moment, his hand hovering. Yurie realised it was because he didn’t know where to touch her, so she took the initiative. There were no hidden footsteps to tell her how to manoeuvre so she did what came as instinct. The purest she had. How could she help herself when the boy lit up like a rainbow, a firework display the likes of which she had never seen? The most gorgeous nebula. She leaned in and closed her eyes, ignoring the hand for the much more alluring lips beyond.
Dan pulled away, the look of shock on his face not displeasing, the slight half-smile on his confused face only made it better. “Um… okay.” Dan cleared his throat and looked around in an obvious panic. There was no one around on the top floor, just a final set of stairs just ahead of them leading to the roof. “Why did you-? I wasn’t- or that is to say.”
Yurie laughed and shook her head. Boys. “Did it work?” At her question, Dan looked even more confused and flustered, if possible. Yurie had to stifle the howl that her giggle was threatening to become. “For whatever you were doing? Did it work?”
“Oh! Actually…” Dan returned his attention to the situation at hand, suddenly looking all around with a wide eyed glee. It reminded Yurie of a child looking through a window at expensive sweets. “It did! Do you always see everything like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“The colours everywhere? I took a small piece of your mana and it lets me use your techniques. I didn’t think they were actually footprints!”
“You can see the paths?” Yurie didn’t think that was possible. There was a sudden filling feeling within her, camaraderie she never knew she needed blooming an overwhelming flower. Yurie was quickly bitterly regretful of the kiss she had stolen, hoping it wouldn’t push away this person who could see like she did. Someone who might understand.
“Well, it won’t last forever, and I’m not sure if it’s exactly like your vision, but I see a lot of red footprints and a few white ones?” Dan was now fully smiling, getting lost in the wash of possibilities laid out before him. When he looked at Yurie she realised why his gaze was so piercing. “How do you choose which to follow? I feel like I can barely move.”
“Standing still is choosing, too.” Yurie answered and nodded to Dan’s feet where a growing chaos of brown and black ink blots on the world were forming. If Dan could see as she did, she should at least give him a crash course in it. “The world itself doesn’t like it when we sit still when we shouldn’t. This is definitely one of those times.”
“Right. Fa Lian.” Yurie watched as Dan looked around with more intent, happy to let him decide the next move. She remembered how arresting the feeling of choosing the wrong path could be. Dan surprised her yet again by setting his jaw and hopping on one leg around the corner and up the stairs. Yurie understood why, but seeing someone else dance to the whims of the paths was absolutely something she could get used to.
At the same time, she could also see what she looked from the outside. If you added her scars to the picture, Dan would look much less humorous, she imagined. Her fingers reached towards the knots on her face and her mood soured back down to serious. “You don’t have to do that, just generally follow the path and it will keep appearing.”
“Oh,” Dan gave an awkward full toothed smile and took the rest of the stairs normally, “ah I see now. That makes sense. You wouldn’t want to look like that walking down the main road, I suppose.”
“No. Suppose not.”
The rooftop of the Barracks had a genuinely lovely view of Allusia’s strange collection of buildings, though the panorama was marred by the lump in the middle. The strange rounded walls of the cell matched the rest of the Barracks, the whole thing looking at though it were pulled from whatever material that comprised the labyrinth, when it was still pliable. The people below looked like beetles from all the way up here.
“How do we get in?” Dan asked, looking at the door on the lumpy cell.
“I don’t think we have to.” Dan couldn’t read the colours like Yurie could so he could see. The footprints were disappearing, but the colour wasn’t. “I don’t think anything we do is going to change what happens now.”
“What does tha- GET DOWN.”
SSSSRAKRACKOOM
The rooftop of the Barracks exploded with force. Something crashed into the cell and ricocheted away, colliding with a wall and kicking up dust as it stopped. From the direction of the projectile came four more, less destructive in their landing but just as quick in the air. Dan had jumped to cover Yurie, at the same time she had tried to protect him.
The result was them essentially clutching each other while the dust cleared.
“Oh, looks like our family reunion has guests! Wonderful.” A voice like honey came from one of the two dust clouds. “Shade, introduce us.”