Chapter 10

Ayasse swayed as he knocked at Master Thane’s door. Three long raps and six short ones. He caught himself on the doorframe and rubbed his eyes. Of course, there was no answer. She was an expert on poison and subterfuge so she wouldn’t just open the door. Arriving unannounced was always dangerous though. Master Thane hated uninvited guests, and Ayasse needed to let her know it was him, before going to the real entrance around the back and hidden in the yellow stone.

It had been years since he’d walked to the three-storied dome-like house. He usually used the shadows to skip the maze and appear in the garden; they were his alone and she couldn’t stop him from using them. She warded the house, though. This time he was exhausted and sat down on the large stone to the side of the door. He had to go down a confusing set of back allies and gutters to get here. In addition, Master had charms that would divert your mind, turn you around, or shove you into the sewer if you stared long enough. There was no map of this place. If you knew what to look for you would find the signs placed around the alley. He’d trained here for years and still got lost at times. He would have gotten stuck in the gutter without the key he carried around his neck to defuse the charms.

After leaving Sam, Ayasse skipped through as many shadows as he could in four days before his mana gave out. When he had exhausted his last reserves outside the city, he had to drag himself to his Master’s door on foot.

If he didn’t take a break from the shadows to recover, they would swallow him whole one day. Even now he felt eyes watching him whenever he entered. He feared that the day was coming soon when he wouldn’t come out of them. He saw little signs out of the corner of his eyes, black spots that were growing bigger. Sam’s condition couldn’t wait for him to ride to the city. This was his fault. He needed to get the Master Pill now before she got worse.

He hated leaving her, but there was no other option. He wanted to wake her but one of the side effects of Butterfly was insomnia. After slipping something into her food to help her sleep, he’d left a note saying: “Please head for the Demon King’s castle. I will meet you there once I get the antidote.” Ayasse hoped she had believed him. It was a gamble, especially if the Demon King was dead. If he knew where she was going it would make her easier to find. He had used her shadow to travel many times these last few weeks and could track her. It only lasted for a few days, but it should give him enough time to meet up with her again.

“What does my good-for-nothing student want coming here this early in the morning?” Ayasse jolted. An old woman holding a cracked wine jug stood at the alley exit. He bowed, straightened up, and stared at her outfit. A grungy shawl covered her face allowing some dark grey hair to poke out. She wore dingy, mismatched brown rags, like the other beggars on the street. Her hands were wrapped in grimy bandages completing the outfit.

Even with all his training, he still couldn’t match her skills.

“Are you wearing the newest makeup, Master Thane? The one you received from Hakata, across the sea?”

“Yes. You recommended it so, I wanted to test it. What do you think?” She uncovered her face and let Ayasse admire her handiwork. It was such a mess of wrinkles and boils he could hardly make out the features. She looked like she had no teeth; her lips and gums came together in a flat line. Her eyes were covered in so many wrinkles, that they looked as if someone had crushed a paper ball and then spread it out. The smell of a dead, pissed-on cat completed the ensemble.

“It looks good, Master. Nobody would look at you twice.”

“You didn’t when you passed by me in the square. I’ve never seen you in such a hurry before. Usually, you pop out near here. Didn’t you get lost twice?” Ayasse heard her hips pop back into place as she straightened her back. She stumbled and caught herself on the side stone wall.

“You take the disguise too far Master. One of these days you won’t be able to put your bones back.”

“Let it go, Aya. I don’t want to hear it,” she grumbled. When she used his nickname, he knew she was in a positive mood. This might be easier than he thought. “Come, let’s go in the other way.”

They both went into the alley, and she pushed the knothole that released the secret lock that led into her house. He always missed it the first time around. The seam between the two was perfect. Stepping into the fragrant room covered up her smell and he breathed a sigh of relief. Looking around the room Ayasse furrowed his brows. “Everything is different, why?”

“I’ve got a new student. She’s about the same age you were when I found you and she needs to learn where everything is quickly. If she can’t stop giving herself the runs, I may have to fail her,” she chuckled. Ayasse remembered his training and his master’s sick sense of humour.

“Why are you here?” She sat down in a chair with a sigh and began removing the wrinkles. “The Hero came back a few weeks ago, while you were nowhere to be found. I was getting worried about you. Besides, he hasn’t paid me yet. I thought you were going to take care of that.”

“That was my mistake.” Ayasse pulled a bag from the shadows around his body and placed it on the table. “Akira gave me the money for his debt before the battle, in case he died.” He stepped back, but she didn’t take the money.

“I see.” She continued to remove her makeup. “Tell me what happened.”

“I was with one of the party, Samantha, I told you about her. She was poisoned with ‘Dragonfly.’ I’d already used it once on the Demon King, so she got a minor dose.” Ayasse swallowed. He was walking a dangerous road here.

“And how did that happen?” Ayasse cringed at her tone. One of the cardinal sins of her teaching was losing control of poisons. It was said she had killed her last student for getting involved with the Black Suns gang, just before Ayasse started learning with her. When Thane found out everyone involved was dead and nobody would touch her.

Ayasse didn’t know if it was true, but it was how he had gotten out of the slave pens. When he had asked her how he died, all Master Thane said was, “He’d made a mistake.” It made his early years as her student very stressful.

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“After the battle with the Demon King, I was unconscious, and Akira stole my knife. He used it on Sam before I woke.” He swallowed and peeked at her through his bangs. She had taken off most of the make-up, and he could see a younger face underneath. She wasn’t what you would call beautiful, but she made a person feel comfortable and relaxed. The natural laugh lines around her eyes and slightly wide nose disarmed her target and allowed her to get in closer without setting off a danger reflex.

“I see. What did you do about it?” Her tone drilled into Ayasse.

“I found her and gave her the counter agent, but she had already started seeing visions. The counter only slowed it down. What’s more, she’s not native to this world so her physiology was different from ours. I thought we had time to get here, however there were too many guards in the forest. When she started getting worse, I left her and travelled here by shadow.” Ayasse hadn’t spoken that much in a long time. He gulped for breath and raised his head.

She hadn’t moved. “Not native to this world? She’s a Realmwalker? Are you sure? When was she summoned here?”

Thinking for a moment, “I believe she’s been here about a year. She said so, and she is a match for the Demon King in terms of strength. She doesn’t have any mana, so I have no idea where her power comes from,” he said.

“If she is this far under the influence of Dragonfly, how did you get her to wait for you?” She continued moving, wiping the dye from her hair.

“I needed to move, and she needed rest. Midnight is the easiest time for me to travel through shadows, and it takes me time to gather the necessary energy. When I was ready, she had already fallen asleep. I slipped something to help her with that. I left a note and jumped.” When he said that Thane stopped moving and her gaze drilled into him.

“What?” Ayasse began to shake. The last time she looked at him like this he’d messed up and killed the wrong person.

She sighed. “I can’t believe I’ve raised such an imbecile. Where did I go so wrong? She’s not from this world, right?”

Ayasse nodded, eyebrows drawing together in confusion.

“What makes you so sure she can read our language? Besides that, with Dragonfly she would be growing more paranoid, what possessed you to think that the Demon Lord’s castle was a good place to go? You used the poison on him as well, right?”

Ayasse sat and stared at his master’s face. His mouth gaped as he realized what she meant. “But she was always looking at books … no there were pictures. At restaurants, she always asks what the specials are, she never looks at the menu,” Ayasse’s thoughts trailed off as he realized all the things that pointed to her lack of ability. He just assumed she could read like the rest of Akira’s party.

“What have I done? She won’t think to head for the castle, it’s too dangerous. I’ve killed her.” He placed his face in his hands and let out a gut-wrenching sob. He had no problems killing people, it was how he was raised. When it came to children, and the people who protected them, that was a line he never crossed, no matter what.

His master let him cry while she finished wiping off the rest of the makeup. “Maybe you did. If she makes it there, the demons may just kill her for her part in the death of their king. Are you positive you used Dragonfly?”

“Yes,” Ayasse sobbed. “I made sure it was at full strength.” He didn’t know what demon medicine was like. Rumours said they were able to bring a person back from death. He didn’t want to send her there, but there was no other option. If he sent her anywhere else, the Relancia army would catch her.

“Enough with the sob story.” Thane put down the towel she was using and glared at Ayasse. Those eyes had haunted his childhood and sent goosebumps running down his arms. “The Master Pill you’re looking for is here. You have one favour left you can ask of me. You can use it for forgiveness for yourself. Or, if you wish to use it for this woman, so be it.”

“I wish to use it for Sam.” There was no hesitation in Ayasse’s voice.

Thane nodded and pointed to the jars on the table “If you can find it, take it to her, and flush the poison from her system.” Ayasse raised his head and stared at his master. “You get one chance to set this right. If you fail, don’t bother coming back or … well, you know how I deal with disappointment.”

“Yes, Master.” Ayasse stood up and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

The Master Pill was perfect for ridding the body of all toxins. It bound itself to any poison or curse and sweated it out of the body. All a person had to do was suffer the pain of the poison leaving. The worse the poison, the greater the pain.

“This is a test, isn’t it?” he groaned. Every day was a new one.

She nodded but said nothing. Her silence told him everything.

He had to find it. The only problem was, he’d never seen the Master Pill before. Ayasse stared at the containers and jars in the room. They were all in sealed glass bottles, big enough to wrap his hand around. The glass was murky, cheap and hard to break, but it was enough. He bent down and stared at the poisons. Thanks to Master Thane’s training he had no trouble picking out the standard herbs, and unprocessed poisons and ignoring them. Some of the bottles were too opaque to make out what was inside. Those he had to set aside and consider separately. When she said he had one chance, she meant it. He could only pick one. He hated her tests.

From what he knew of the Master Pill it was small and compact. It took several years to create even one. It was a mix of several of the deadliest poisons together. The jar itself should be sealed with wax to keep air out. Once exposed, the pills would soon become useless.

He felt the sweat drip into his eyes as the poisons mixed in his brain. Which one? It was here, and she wouldn’t lie. Ayasse glanced at his master, but she was silent. There would be no help there. Her gaze gave nothing away as she watched him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, remembering where the poisons were the last time he was here.

“I think I know what order you’re using. This is the Maxlock method of arrangement.” Still silence, but he heard a slight intake of breath. He was onto something. With Maxlock, the movement was prearranged and predictable. If he could account for the previous pills, the one containing the Master pills wouldn’t have been there.

There were three choices. One jar had a leaf, and he dismissed it. The second one had four pills in the jar but were pink in colour. That was too many for such a difficult pill. He reached out a hand and closed it around one small jar containing two black pills. “This one.” He opened his eyes and turned to his master.

“Is that your final choice?”

“Yes.” He waited, counting his heartbeats for her confirmation. At a hundred he started to sweat. What if I made a mistake?

“Trust yourself. You did well, Aya.” Ayasse let out a sigh of relief. “Take the jar. There are two there. If as you say she is this far gone she may need both of them.”

“Thank you, Master.” Ayasse put the jar into his shadow. It was strong glass, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

“I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you don’t make it back to her in time, do I?” She held no hint of humour.

“No. I will help her or die trying.”

“You’re right about that. If you had chosen forgiveness I would never have trusted you again.” Master Thane didn’t have to say anything else. Ayasse knew what would happen if he failed.

“One more thing,” Thane said, glaring at him. “Rumour has it the Demon King survived his assassination, so he may have been able to beat the Dragonfly. If that’s the case, she might still be headed there. You’d better hurry though. King Eon’s army is preparing to move out and attack his castle.”

Master Thane stood up and handed him the bag of money. “Give this back to Akira when you see him. He has to pay me, not you.”

Ayasse bowed to his Master in thanks and prepared to leave. He still needed to recover his mana to travel to the shadows again. Midnight was the best time to enter. He would go as far as possible before then. He bowed again and left without looking back.