In the hills just south of the capital, near Diyuu Prison
A hazel-eyed, honey-haired girl sat outside the opening flap of a tent, her hair fluttering loose in the wind. She hadn’t bothered to braid it in weeks.
Besides the tent she sat limply outside of, there was only one other tent nearby — two lone tents in a sea of hills and swaying grass, cloaked by night and twinkling stars all around. There was a pointed chill in the night-time early winter air, but Finley, with only her thin pale inner robes fluttering around her, either didn’t notice or didn’t care. She gazed into the distance, eyes sharp and melancholy. Her thoughts were unfathomable; but she must have thought of something infuriating, because as she sat, her eyebrows contorted, and rage flashed through her eyes, quickly passing and returning to melancholy.
“Hey, you.” A light-haired man with a gleaming grin and sparkling blue eyes sat down next to her, having just fumbled out of the other tent after a nap. It was Sir Niklas. His always-shining grin seemed a little off. It flashed quickly, before straightening into a more grim line.
Finley didn’t answer him, continuing to stare out over the hills in thought. Niklas cleared his throat and pulled a folded paper from his pocket.
“Big Go-Go — ” he coughed, “Bi Gho sent me a message. About Abrial.”
Finley’s head whipped around to stare at him. Her eyes blinked expectantly, and Niklas almost fell backwards at the sudden movement.
“Read it,” Finley commanded. With a tone of voice that that, who could defy her?
Niklas coughed again, suppressing an ill-timed laugh. On the search for Abrial, Finley had hardly spoken a word once, always miring in furious or anxious thought. But whenever he mentioned new information on Abrial…it was like she’d just heard the heavens had opened and the immortals had descended to slaughter everyone on a whim. In other words, she perked up at the speed of light, seeming panicked.
“Uh…Well, maybe I should just summarize it. There’s a lot in here — ”
“No. Read it.”
“Ah, all right…How can I refuse such insistence? Heh…Hold on…” He took a moment to unfold the paper, which had appeared to him in a whirl of Bi Gho’s signature peach petals about half an hour ago in his tent. After clearing his throat, he began, in a light voice that was somehow reminiscent of Bi Gho’s flowery tones:
As poetic as I am, I’ll skip the greetings for the sake of saving paper. I’ll greet you when I see you, you drunkard moron.
At camp, things are still difficult and in upheaval. More on that later.
I hope the following information will aid the two of you with your rescue. It is not much, but this is all that I have heard lately on Abrial’s whereabouts and doings:
As you both know, she has been held at the Diyuu Prison for over a month now, likely undergoing…ahem, severe torture. As we were able to determine that the imperial decree called for her to be tortured for three months before death, she should have had two months of life left before her execution, leaving you both enough time to work through the Emperor’s barriers surrounding the prison. However, as I recently have heard:
This past morning, a strange event occurred at the Diyuu Prison. You may make sense of it yourselves, but I think it holds implications for where Abrial might be now, and for what state she is in.
The Diyuu prison went up in flames today, eventually burning to the ground. Normally, if a fire of such magnitude was not able to be quenched, guards from Diyuu would have been sent back to the capital or to a nearby station to notify of the issue. However, rumors in the region are all saying that the prison was seen burning from noon to night, and it is still smoking now. When guards were finally sent to investigate, they found something very gruesome, which you ought not to read to Finley if you’re reading aloud to her, so you had better skip this part, you absolute idiot ass…
“Haaa…” Niklas glanced up at Finley, scratching his head. “Looks like I should skip this part — ”
“Read it.” Finley’s eyes flashed dangerously.
“H-Haa, all right, all right! Don’t give me that death stare, I feel like I might spit my eyeballs out, whew! All right…You had better brace yourself.” His face grew grim as he continued:
..Every single guard of the fifty who had been assigned to Diyuu Prison lay mangled on the ground outside the prison. They had various injuries: some had their hearts cut out and strewn by their feet, others had their bodies burned so badly that their bones showed, and still others had been decapitated or torn apart. Almost all of them had had their internal organs melted, seemingly by an internal fire.
The worst off of the group was the Imperial General, who was present on the night of your raid at Hwayeom Prison in the East. Not only were his organs decimated, but also every one of his fingers and toes seemed to have been sliced off one by one, he had multiple badly burned brands, and his eyeballs had been stabbed out, only to be found inside of his mouth like he had eaten them! He was barely recognizable! What a horrid appearance, I must say! I should use that in a theatrical piece some day. What a fearsome display…
Anywho, I am sure my best student Finley can infer what happened from this situation. I wish you swift luck with this rescue, though I urge you both to consider the growing danger of the situation and whether it is safe to continue your search. If Finley is adamant, you will not be able to stop her, so it’s best for you to go with her.
More on the others participating in the same mission later. They are all doing well…as is your Wei Guang…More on him later. Signed illustriously and poetically by Bi Gho.
Niklas shuddered, lowering the letter. He scratched his head in confusion.
“Huh — strange, isn’t it? But lucky, too! Whoever attacked the Diyuu Prison decided to take Abrial away, or just to not kill her with the rest…”
“Are you…truly an idiot?” Finley deadpanned expressionlessly, seeming to feel this was a very valid and relevant question to ask. Niklas dramatically put a hand to his chest in offense, both acting and actually acutely offended.
“Me, the handsome, talented, strong, and witty Sir Niklas Braun, an idiot? Whyever would you ask such a thing?”
Finley hugged her knees, staring off over the hills once again. “Because it is obvious that Abrial wasn’t killed.”
Niklas frowned, puzzled. “...Well, I figured. She wasn’t among the dead.”
“Instead…she was the killer.”
Niklas blinked gasping dramatically and genuinely choking at the same time. “Excuse me?!”
“...Do I have to explain? You are one of the camp’s leaders, are you not? Were you not informed about Abrial’s heartstone?”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“What? Of course I was! I’m not that unimportant!” Niklas huffed, crossing his arms grumpily, though it was clear he wasn’t really bothered. What an unserious man…How he’d survived to this day in such a dangerous Empire was a mystery.
“Mm, I figured. Well, , under weeks of…of torture…” Finley bit her lip, seeming to not notice that she had bit it hard enough to draw a drop of blood. “...she must have suffered immensely. I could tell in the messages I sent her through dreams. I told you, after that first message — ” Finley’s cheeks flushed as she remembered what she had done in that exchange, but the change of color went unnoticed in the night. Whether it was from embarrassment, shame, or something else, it was impossible to tell. Maybe it was all three. “ — after that, it was always harder and harder to reach her, like shouting through a fog. She stopped answering me. When someone has given up on the hope of living, or given up on the hope of living as they would want to…they may do all sorts of things. Abrial must have found a way to get rid of her tattoo, thereby releasing her overwhelming powers in shadow magic. From there…
“She would’ve taken revenge,” Niklas nodded, rubbing his chin in realization. “I see.” He glanced at Finley from the corner of his gaze, eyes twinkling. “I guessed you’d know more than me. What else can be expected from Abrial’s passionate, fated, romantic lover — ” Finley shot him a cold glare, and he quickly corrected himself, sweating, “ — lover of the magical arts, haha! What else is more passionate and romantic than magic? Aha ha ha ha…Hold on a second. The danger Bi Go-Go mentioned—what exactly is she referring to, then. Could it be…?”
Finley hugged her knees closer, looking so melancholy that Niklas felt several pangs of infective sadness just looking at her. “You must know that the power of a heartstone is consuming, both mentally and spiritually. Allowing it to run rampant through Abrial’s body could cause her to lose her sanity…if…if she hasn’t already.”
In the silence that followed, grass rustled and faraway crickets chirped. Finley looked so cold and ashamed, curled up into herself like that, that Niklas thought he should pat her shoulder. He could hardly imagine what she felt. Or, he could, somewhat…but, it was different. The pain was not the same.
Just as he lifted his hand to comfort her, Finley swept to her feet like a phoenix suddenly rising rapidly from a pile of ash.
“Let us pack and go.”
Niklas blinked in disbelief. “Huh?! But we just set up camp! No matter how much you want to find her, we both still have to sleep!”
Finley had already pulled all of the stakes out of her tent and was watching it collapse in on itself, expressionless aside from the sharpness in her hazel eyes.
“We must leave now and meet up with the others. I know where Abrial will end up…eventually.”
“Ah?! How?! You two must be the closest couple I’ve ever seen, for you to just know — ah, don’t look at me like that! What I mean is, you two must be close, very close! Heh. Wait for me! I need to pack up, too! Where are we going, anyways? Finley Fellner, how can you not be inclined to answer these good looks and this dazzling smile?! My ego is bruised!”
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Over the next few weeks, rumors and hearsay flamed across the empire of Gongkua like fire along rivers of oil.
“Eah, did you hear? There’s a maniac on the loose! And it’s a woman!”
“A female maniac?! Aish, what a scary thing! What’s she done?”
“Haven’t you heard? The rumors are everywhere, it’s the hottest gossip right now!”
“Ah, just tell me already and don’t beat around the bush!”
“All right, all right! Listen—she’s a magician, of course, so she’s already suspicious. But do you know what else she did? She tortured and killed at least five hundred of His Divine Majesty’s guards, and set a whole region of Gongkua on fire, right by the sacred imperial capital! They say she’s on the move, burning prisons and murdering imperial guards every day. What’s even scarier is the ways she murders. There is a method to it! When the bodies are retrieved, they always have their fingers cut off, burns all over, and their hearts cut out! They’re calling the madwoman the Heartless Heart-Eating Demon after the legend of the demon who devoured human hearts to make up for not having one. All the men in the Emperor’s regiments are applying to return home so they don’t get gutted inside-out by her!”
“Aish, why are you saying all this like you’re excited? That’s terrifying! She better not start burning down villages and cutting out our hearts, too!!!”
“Ah, lighten up, eonnie! Come on, isn’t it a little exciting? She isn’t going after common people, so what’s there to worry about? Innkeeper Myunghee will be worried, though…I forgot her husband is in the guard…How unfortunate!”
“Ah, wipe that smile off your face! Why is that something to be happy about? Her husband could have his heart cut right out!”
“Mm, yes, but innkeeper Myung-hee is really such a cruel and arrogant woman. Just seeing her a little shaken up will be fun, I’m not saying I’m waiting for something to happen to her husband…”
Among the common people, this sort of gossip could be heard left and right, in every village from the shadows of the northern mountains to the desert in the south. In the Imperial Capital, gossip of this Heartless Heart-Eating Demon buzzed like the sound of a thousand cicadas in mating season. It was all anyone could talk about. Nothing so strange and terrifying had happened in Gongkua in living memory, after all!
It had gotten to the point that the rumors started to twist and become mythical and inflated like fried pieces of dough in sparking oil, fluffing up and burning. People started gossiping things like this:
“I believed in ghosts, but I thought demons were long eradicated from the world. But I’m sure that that woman who everyone says is crazy is actually a real demon from the Ghost Realm, here to terrorize us and overthrow His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Everyone, I heard we should paint our doors with sheep blood to keep that heart-eating demon away. Demons hate sheep! Don’t ask where I heard that, it was from a reliable source, trust me, trust me!”
“Have you not heard? The Heartless Heart-Eating Demon is the reincarnation of the previous ancient Queen of Gongkua, who everyone knows died while giving birth. She must have finally come back as a vengeful ghost to destroy the Empire that replaced her son’s throne!”
“My cousin is a fortune-teller, and she says the Heart-Eating Demon is fated to bring down His Divine Majesty the Emperor! She might even be an evil immortal goddess in disguise!”
“The era of Gongkua as an Empire must be coming to an end! Is the Emperor no longer blessed as a Son of Heaven? Is the cycle truly shifting? Ah, why must we live in a dangerous time like this?”
As you can see, the rumors snowballed into the idea that Abrial was a vengeful, heart-eating ghost demon (and/or possibly an evil goddess) who had come to destroy the Emperor’s rule and take over Gongkua. An unease and nervousness spread all throughout the kingdom, along with a hushed excitement. While many guards shook in their boots as the number of guards slaughtered by this terrifying demon increased daily by the dozens and even hundreds, the common people weren’t afraid of being harmed. They clearly weren’t the target. Instead, they felt that something rare was going to happen. Before their eyes, the Gongkuan dynasty might change. Maybe, great and godly as he was, the Emperor had fallen out of favor with Heaven, and it was time to make way for the next line of rulers. Such things did happen in history, after all. As tragic as it was, who could defy the will of heaven—or the will of a power-hungry goddess?
You can imagine how this went over with the Emperor himself.
In a few words — not well.
Shortly after the gossip exploded, a new imperial decree was sent out all over the empire:
“Any public mention of the Heartless Heart-Eating Demon and events connected with her will be considered treason against His Divine Immortal Majesty, the High Emperor of Gongkua. An appropriate and wise punishment of twenty years in prison or execution will be carried out for any found committing such an act.”
That shut people up, for the most part. Instead of loudly proclaiming gossip with excitement in the markets and inns, people instead had to whisper about it behind hands and closed doors, careful of the Emperor’s guards who patrolled the streets. Guards were even sent out to the villages between cities to stake out and catch public gossipers sowing dissent.
Slowly, a seed of discontent that had not appeared for four hundred years in the empire — except among magicians, that is — began to spread. Where every word spoken by the common people about the Emperor was once reverent, awed, and gushing with admiration, now threads of suspicion began to weave. Behind their hands at inns, patrons would murmur that maybe the Emperor was flawed after all, making people stop talking just because the rumors involved him. He had never done such a thing before; perhaps he was losing his strong and wise touch, and entering an era of arrogance. Merchants in the markets would sit and mutter to each other over food during slow hours, saying that the Emperor must not be all that divine if he was willing to kill off the common people just over some gossip. Guards in guard houses whispered drunkenly when they had had too many beers that, if the Emperor was as all-powerful as it was said, why hadn’t he done anything to protect them from the Heart-Eating Demon yet?
The whole Empire of Gongkua seemed to tremble, its foundations shaking . If things kept going like this…
The rumors might actually come true.
The end of the Divine Emperor’s reign might be just around the corner…at the hands of this crazy demon who had appeared out of thin air, and who had a blood-chilling fondness for cutting out people’s hearts like paper crafts.
What a strange way for a dynasty to change…