“Explain that again.” Guan Fa Lian found herself looking upwards into the eyes of Guan Ah Dan. She was sure that she had been taller when they last met in the Sasin forest. She was also sure that his eyes had been dark then, not the near-silver that now felt like it ran her through as even now he was flinching from her.
The four of them had found a lavish set of furniture to lounge upon. Likely it had some strange effect, knowing her family, but Lian had never seen the soft, deep maroon three piece suite before so she wasn’t sure. She was sitting, back straight as an arrow, legs and arms crossed tighter than a bowstring, on the immaculate armchair. The fat boy and the midget girl were sitting on either seat of a two seater and Ah Dan with his terrible eyes was alone in the middle of the largest seat.
“What Dan means-”
“If I wanted your explanation, I’d have looked at you, Chunk.” While she could see her words had ill effect, that had been her intent. It was fine if people didn’t like you, they just needed to know you were in control. She turned back to Ah Dan. “My grandmother said what?”
“As I said,” the boy put a little trickle of anger into his tone, “Elder Yaya told us that you were prepared. That when we found you, we would leave. Though why would we come to a vault when we’re trying to leave? I would hope you’d know.”
She did not answer the boy’s question, no matter how much his eyes tried to force her to. Granny Ai must have known she couldn’t open the way to the labyrinth. So, while her grandmother had agreed, she had sent help in the form of these outsiders. “So, you’re here to deliver the message that I need to evacuate? Well, consider it delivered.” Knowledge of the labyrinth was closely guarded, Lian herself wasn’t confident she should even accept help to get the door open. It was strange that her grandmother had sent these three.
Not only that, the impulsive old bat had gone over her father’s orders and relinquished her soul stone. The implications of that were staggering, but most prominent on Lian’s mind was the fact that Ah Dan hadn’t used it yet. Did he not know the value, or was he intimidated into sensibility?
“We’re coming with you, wherever it is.”
“You’re awfully confident to think you can tell me what will or won’t happen.” A strange battle was occurring within Lian. Well, two battles if she were being honest, but her own personal struggle was against pride. The twitching within her core was a separate matter.
“Whether we want to or not,” her speech was fast and her voice too high, Lian thought when she heard Xiaomei speak, “we have no choice now, there’s war out there. Your cousins, Po Daiyu and her brother, Po Kahn tried to kill us. They tried to kill me, twice.”
“If Po Daiyu tried to kill you, you’d be dead.” Po Kahn would give them even less chance, there was just no way. She could believe that there was some chaos, there was always some chaos within the politicking of the Guan family but all out war? That would explain her grandmother’s actions with her soul stone. Her uncle had done it then. Accepting that, Lian said, “even if it were true, why give you her soul stone? Why not just come herself?”
“I admit, I do not know the answer to that. I didn’t think to ask about her motives, we didn’t have the time.” Why did his answers infuriate her so much? She rolled her head around her neck, her eyes closed. “I’m sorry if that upsets you,” he said, reacting to her reaction, “but it’s all true. Sitting here talking about it won’t help anything.” The situation felt like it was escaping from Lian, being commandeered by Ah Dan and his arrogant confidence. The other two looked at him hopefully as he rose from his seat. “Where is this door?”
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Competitive surredness surged through Lian and her lower jaw jutted forward slightly. “I’ll show you where the door is.” Did this boy really think he could open it where she could not? She would probably enjoy the sight of him struggling against it, so she extended her arm, standing herself, bowed slightly and said “after you. You were sent here, after all.”
Without the soul stone, he would have no chance. Yo Shen was a monster, even without one, so it was no surprise that he had cleared this obstacle alone. When Dan saw the great stone slabs, his eyes widened with appropriate awe and Lian felt a little smug knowing that it was obviously too much for him. She took a drink from her flask, enjoying the cooling sensation and allowing it to calm her. The twin bunned girl looked at her with a tilted head, but focused back onto Dan and his impossible attempt.
When a few minutes had passed with nothing said, Lian’s anticipation had not been fulfilled and she asked what was taking so long. Her frustration mounted as the tall boy and the girl looked at her, but Dan did not. Now she wanted his eyes? Everything had become so confusing since they arrived.
“Do you know what the story is here, Fa Lian?” When he turned, his silver eyes were so full of true joy and wonder that the angry part of Lian broke. It fell away like an icicle and shattered on a floor of surprise. As though the melted icicle had filled her throat, she sputtered before she could reply.
“That,” she said when she regained composure, “is the story of the Guan family. The great flame rose from my ancestor, took on life of its own and laid waste to the enemies at our door.” She hadn’t ever believed in it, but she enjoyed the story all the same. Without much more prompting she told the tale in full.
Guan Xaihou Shen, the first patriarch of what would become the true Guan main family, had tamed a power no one else had. It was shown here in the form of a spear, but the actual shape of the weapon wasn’t truly known. The theory was that it was a soul relic, something much like a soul stone but rarer, and incredibly more potent. The superpowers of the world vied for ownership of the soul relics but they were elusive, legendary and if Lian hadn’t met the emperor and felt the presence of it, she might not have believed they were real.
Whether the Guan soul relic had ever truly existed or not, they didn’t have one now. It meant that in terms of political power, theGuan family needed a higher power than themselves to stake their claim on anything. The emperor, Shin Ri Hon, was a childhood friend of her father’s, and a defensive pact had only been signed in the previous few generations. Again, Fa Lian was not an expert of history by any means, but she told the tale and its context as well as she could.
Once she was finished speaking effusively about her family history, she realised that she was being stared at and became instantly shy. “What?” She asked, hiding behind her hair. She had pulled the small ribbon from it, and now it fell about her in a mess.
“That was… really interesting.” The tall boy said simply.
“Pretty much,” the small girl agreed.
“Honestly,” Dan said, those silver eyes looking right into Lian’s own, “I was enraptured.”
That was all more praise than Lian normally received in a year, and she had absolutely no mechanisms for which to process the emotions slamming into her heart from all sides. Instead, she remained hidden, looking away. “None of that will help open the door to the labyrinth.”
“Well, maybe not, but it could help us understand what’s inside. You said it was dangerous?” Dan was looking at her seriously. She hadn’t considered that, and she would normally think he was making fun of her, but that didn’t seem to be his way. Instead he was actually trying to help.
“There… can’t be a soul relic down there.” Though there definitely could. That would be why Yo Shen had gone, but if there were a soul relic in the labyrinth then surely her father would have found it long ago? “But yes, it’s dangerous. Where are you going?”
Dan had started walking away without another word. Upon hearing her question, he spun on a heel, walking backwards now. “We’ll probably need more than just the rope that Xiaomei picked up then if we want to stay alive down there. The others convinced me.”
“Convince you of what?” Lian asked.
“Convinced me that we should probably take anything that looks useful before moving onwards.”
“You can’t just steal from the Guan vault.” Lian was aghast. Shen had taken the slipstream robes, but they were basically his anyway. Even she had only taken a small oddity or two to stay alive. To actually take an important artefact would be… Her mind flashed to a specific display, one that taunted her when she paced the room and thought, taking a break from trying to pry open the unassailable door.
“Do you know what any of these things do?” Ask Dan, as casual as if he was asking the weather, and not the properties of some of the most valuable items in the world. Lian did know what nearly everything did, both from years of wandering the vault on occasion, and from the view that her soul stone gave her.
“I do. While I could tell you,” Lian paused, biting her lip. This was a big decision, that Lian realised that Dan didn’t know he had to make, “you could see them for yourself too.”
“What does that mean?”
Taking a deep breath, finally listening to the buzz in her core, Fa Lian explained to Dan what it meant to hold a soul stone and cursed her grandmother for making her the bearer of such bad news.