Chapter 42: A Dance with Demons

The Jade Warden, Jun Mi, stood lost in Rial's thick cropping of trees. She tried not to let it bother her, but worried about the time she wasted and the dragon boy she left behind. This was the only way she could contact Chiaki, but she didn't want that to mean Shuraat might die.

His blood would be on her hands.

She decided to take him with her when he came to their office, sure that his pilgrimage would be safer by her side. She was only gathering information, after all, but as they followed Yuzuko to Rial and uncovered a meeting of three cardinals, it became too big to simply write a report. Too big to favor one life. It hurt her to be so coldly calculating, but the black sleeves of her uniform meant she had to do it. Hair black and neck length, eyes dark and piercing. On the outside, she was the perfect monument of a high-ranking Jade Warden, but on the inside, she whirled chaotically. She took her job too seriously to shirk her responsibilities, but that didn't make sacrifices easy to bare. There wasn't a vacation long enough for her to recover if the boy died. Still, she had to leave him, because she had to be truly lost for this to work. After being lost for a day she could ring the bell, and then she could rush back with the allies she gathered.

The bell was a pale blue piece made of glass, wrapped around its handle with a long thin leaf. She rang it and a breeze carried the sound through the forest, making the branches vibrate a throaty hum. Something was coming. She could feel it in the air and like a pulse beneath her feet. There was nothing in front of her for a long moment, and then a moose filled the spot between the trees. Its pelt was pale and shone like moonlight. Six eyes sat upon its face, thickly blue in an ink-like way. Transparent horns turned green as they reflected leaves, and the moose looked at the woman, waiting.

"Could you take me to Chiaki?" She asked. It stamped and the ground softened under its hoof. A puddle filled the footprint. The Moose Spirit turned and faded into the forest, leaving only puddles in its wake.

Jun Mi followed, noting as the trees transformed and day changed to night. The Moose's footprints were a bridge across the world, taking her to a two-story traveler's house that moved on spider legs. It rested in an open field. The moose did not go further than the line of the trees, but Jun Mi did, going over to knock on the door.

“Come in.” A woman answered.

She did and found her in a familiar hallway.

It was from thirteen years ago when she was only twelve. It was five floors above where she lived in a housing tower, one floor above the highest in the building. She and her friends went there one day, determined to explore when the adults said it didn't exist. She lost track of them after that, and then time, as she searched and searched for the door that'd let her free. It felt like hours, but later she'd learn it was days of a girl trying to find her way home. She had to mark the doors just to keep track of them, but the last one seemed to push her back, forbidding her to open it. Warning her, again and again, promising that she'd find horror instead of freedom. Turn back. Check your marks. Check every door but this one. Jun Mi was back there, and while a part of her was scared, another pushed against it and watched the walls fall. She was not on the non-existent floor of a Housing Tower. She was in Chiaki’s traveler’s house, looking upon a small group in the front room.

Her brow furrowed.

“Oh my, she pushed through.” A lilting male voice hissed through a smirk.

“L’vay, what did you do?” A woman’s hand fell to a sword at her side.

"I merely tested her, Chiaki. Is this not what you wanted me to do?"

“You do not act without my order, do you understand me?”

“Of course, Chiaki. My apologies.”

Jun Mi gave the room a proper look.

There were four people inside.

Drawing her eyes first was Chiaki, sitting at a table with a leg on her knee. Even had she not been named it would have been hard to miss the Spirit Guard's uniform. The top was dark with an insignia on it, a circle with arms crossing at the forearms. The white trousers were not unlike Jun Mi's uniform, light and straight fitting, allowing movement and images of order. Then there was the silver pauldron upon her right shoulder, letting anyone ignorant know that she was a captain. Chiaki's hair was shorter than Jun Mi's, not a bob, nor long enough to fall past her ears. This woman had to be nearly twice her age, but despite her profession, she aged with grace. There was a dangerous look in her eyes, focused on the man she spoke to.

Man? No. While that word wasn't precisely wrong, it felt out of place on what stood against the wall. It was a lanky figure, but no taller than six feet. His hair was long and night purple, falling in shining silk down to his waist. Contrasting its darkness his clothes were loud, a frilly pink shirt, tucked into thin lilac slacks. This was not a man, however, but a Faerie, with shimmering blue butterfly wings folded against his back. Jun Mi almost asked why this Faerie seemed subservient, until she saw the scars on his wrist, breathing out almost invisible handcuffs. Still, it raised a question.

“How is there a Faerie here?” Not that she was complaining. This room was supposed to be filled with Chiaki’s allies, and that made him one of them. Or maybe he was a prisoner.

"He's the contingency plan." Said a figure that demanded her attention. It was almost hard to believe he escaped her notice, but Jun Mi was certain the Faerie had seized her gaze. This other man could not disappear for long, however. Standing at seven feet tall, his slender body was covered in chitinous blue skin, lending itself to a moth-like quality in his appearance. Orange hair grew down his head and over his shoulders. Flat antennae rose and flopped back.

Despite round black eyes, however, his face was distinctively human-like. He was Afelin. She had never seen one in real life, but this Dark Land native was a testament to how strange they were.

"You are…" She didn't know how to say it. A surprise? A shock? A story about the life Chiaki must have led?

“Yes! It is as you suspect! I am indeed the renown genius, Syd Blaek.” The Afelin bowed dramatically. A laugh bubbled out of the last person in the room.

She was a young teenage girl sitting on a couch, brown-skinned and almost human, but closer to Syd in a Dark Land way. She was mostly human, face freckled, eyes green, straw-colored hair falling around her head. But humanity made room for antennae like Syd's, and luminescent swirls on the back of her arms. In her short yellow dress, she looked almost like a pixie but did not make the eyes linger in that Faefolk way. Still, Jun Mi did not know what she was. As if he picked up on that, Syd rose behind the girl and gestured down.

“This is Hokee.” He smiled and nodded. Hokee mimicked. “She is an Orean girl, one of the lost people of Darshaln!” His eyes shined and Hokee beamed.

The Dark Land’s lost people were one of its many mysteries, but seeing a bit of Shuraat in Hokee, Jun Mi found herself more concerned than intrigued. Chiaki seemed to pick up on her emotions next, for the woman stood and introduced her lot properly.

“L’vay is our contingency plan in case I get too exhausted during this battle. He’ll be allowed to fight in a restrained capacity until the time limit is up. Syd will be providing back up.” She paused giving the Afelin the chance to twirl.

"Yes! With my remote souls, we'll face this threat in a way they can't expect!" Wisps rose from his right hand as he turned his palm upward. Chiaki smiled and gestured to Hokee.

“And Hokee will be our conductor. She’ll make sure we don’t get overwhelmed.”

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Jun Mi gaped. This girl was a Conductor at so young an age? It was not an impossible feat, but doing so took a level of skill few people could reach. Conductors did not stand with every force, nor were they ever easy to find. If you could find a good one though, there was little your opponent could do. Conductors controlled the rhythm of the battle. Hokee must have seen the realization in Jun Mi's eyes because she swayed happily. It made her smile and settle down, allowing a bit of peace as Chiaki motioned to a chair.

"I would like to say I'm sure Kado told you about me, but I suspect he did not. I am Chiaki, of course. I'm a Spirit Guard Captain who took to traveling to help areas outside the Spirit Circle. My goal is to share in our training and create better systems around the world, but I also get involved with Spirit Domains. That brings us to our meeting."

“Yes,” Jun Mi nodded as she took a seat. “My name is Jun Mi. I’m a high ranking Jade Warden serving under the Magic Councilor, Dae-Hyun. My job is to monitor the actions of the Yoshiki Sect Cardinal, Yoshiki Yuzuko. In general, the Sect has been making big moves, and their most recent one led to three Cardinals meeting in the Calm Lands.”

“Who are these Cardinals?” Chiaki asked.

“They’re the leaders of the Yoshiki Sect, serving under High Priest Gan. There’s Saheed, their Demonic Tool Maker. Baroq, their Pugilistic Guardian. Shiomi, their hitman Swordsmaiden. And then the three we have to worry about. Yuzuko, Miki, and Ayaka.”

“No special designations for them?” Syd raised his hand.

“Not in the same way as the other three, no. Saheed, Baroq, and Shiomi are the most visible threats of the Sect, doing the most to keep them in control of their territory. Because of his demonic tools, Saheed has some spotlight, but he and Yuzuko play a role behind the scenes. Miki and Ayaka are newer cardinals, so we know the least about them.”

“What about the Yoshiki Sect’s Demonic Influence. How does it manifest?”

Jun Mi tried not to be surprised that Syd asked the question, but it wasn’t often people named their power like that. It wasn’t often that foreigners found themselves in battles with demons, and when they did, survival mattered more than understanding supernatural mechanics. Magic was magic. Power was power. People did not need to know about dragon fire to know they’d be burned, but being able to ask that question upped your chances of survival. Maybe he was a genius, even if she could not say he was renowned.

“Transmutative Sorcery.” She answered. Syd nodded frantically.

“Curious, curious! Oh my, demonic tools built off of transmutation. I suspect the tools completely transmute the aura to create a facsimile of influences. You essentially have a bunch of false demons running around!”

“Too excited, Syd.” Hokee chuckled.

“Right, right. Go on.” Syd nodded to Jun Mi.

Chiaki offered a route, “Specifically, what can you tell us about Yuzuko?”

“As matters have it, she can remove the false from the Saheed situation. Yuzuko is strange in that she’s not just sensitive to Magyeon. She’s sensitive to Mana and Reiki as well. Through her influence, she’s able to transmute both of them into Magyeon, and was till recently known to do so with installation gems.”

L’vay laughed and it sounded too honey smooth for how derisive it was. It unnerved the Warden, and she suspected he knew it. “Can she be faulted for leveling the field with your organization? As I once heard, you seal demon souls within you to use magyeon yourself.” There was something about the way he used that word that sounded like a curse.

“We only do that with vanquished demons.” She kept her voice leveled.

“I suppose it’s only a coincidence that slaying demons with this power makes you stronger?”

Jun Mi felt her brow furrow before she noticed the change in her emotions. This Faerie may have been restrained, but even common words dripped with magic.

"I still remember when I first started hearing about you Wardens." L'vay chuckled. Faeries were immortal, but none were known to be active in the Serpent Dynasty. None were known to care enough about human conflicts to tell stories of them. She wondered, what did that say about this one?

“Enough, L’vay.” Chiaki warned him. L’vay raised placating hands and fell back against the wall.

Syd brought his fingers to his chin as if he had a beard to stroke. “Yuzuko sounds like a Panetheral. Tell me something, why are they in Rial specifically?”

“We only know that they’ve been entering domains, so far.”

Syd began to pace. “Well, I have a theory. Between Saheed and Yuzuko, this Yoshiki Sect is able to turn normal people into demons, but not in a thorough way. Installation Gems aren’t particularly popular in the triumvirate, are they? And if you break a demonic tool, the person loses their power. But what if you were to use Reiki instead of Mana. Spirits are more common place than mana fonts, and while it’s rarer to find a spiritualist, reiki doesn’t need a casting structure to affect people.” He paused and turned. “If her transmutation is precise enough, Yuzuko could theoretically create a source or elixir that triggers demonic metamorphosis!”

Chiaki asked, "But wouldn't that still require sensitivity to Reiki or Magyeon? She can't be able to use it regularly."

"They could if they add a competent of life magic, but we're talking a level not even an Ufanyn can achieve. Still, make a mixture that's one part reiki and one part magyeon, then use life magic to give it an inoculating quality. With a Panethereal it's possible, they would just need a component mage. New Question! What made the Yoshiki Sect go from defending territory to branching out?"

"An attempted summoning." Jun Mi recalled. "It was shortly after Ayaka was named their sixth cardinal, it put us wardens on high alert. When they had six cardinals before, they tried to use a demon-sealing ground to summon Yoshiki Hanzo back into this realm. This time, we knew which grounds they would use and launched a counterattack. They still managed to complete the ritual, but it didn't connect them to the Maelstrom. We were able to interrupt it before it was completed, but they did make contact with something.”

“And that something likely kicked off this change.” Chiaki nodded. “Syd, thoughts?”

“I suspect it was a Rare Convergence Event. The six cardinals use their transmutative powers differently, and this affected errant energy. If we assume the Yoshiki Sect tried to alter how much the Maelstrom interacts with the Mortal Realm, we could say their idea is to find points of intense magyeon and amplify it. However, the point they found was a mix between two different energies, and with the Panethereal there, they couldn’t help but amplify both.”

“But you don’t think it was a failure?”

“Not entirely. I think they headed to Rial to trigger that event again. The thing they summoned likely suggested using Reiki instead of Mana, and now they’re trying to summon it again to see what else they can learn.” Syd nodded as if it made perfect sense. Despite herself, Jun Mi couldn’t say it didn’t. But…

“That only covers one part of what they’re doing there. Baroq, Saheed, and Shiomi have been seen running solo operations in foreign lands too, and Yuzuko is the only Panethereal among them.”

“But they don’t need Yuzuko if they’re only there to gather Reiki.” Chiaki offered.

Jun Mi frowned. She didn't know why it hadn't struck her before, but what they suggested made perfect sense. The Sect stayed in the domains to gather a lot of Reiki, but what for? Did she want to know? Would knowing change how they prepared for the long-term plan? She shook her head. One step at a time. It'd lead to a battle either way, and that battle started today.

“When should we attack?” She asked.

"Right now," Chiaki answered. "There's no reason to give them more time than we already have. Everyone prepare. I'll call upon the spirit to transport us." She stood and most of the others headed for the door. Jun Mi was in tow, but she stopped as Syd did, bringing his fingers to his chin again.

“Is there something else?” She asked.

"Not about the Yoshiki sect. I'm just wondering. Didn't the Harrabaren also go to Rial?" His dark eyes turned on her. She nodded but shook her head afterward.

"If I knew why, I don't think I could tell you." She didn't work with the woman and thought only one Magic Councilor might know.

Syd nodded. "I did not suspect you could, but now I'm concerned. I think this might affect the battle we're walking into. You might learn something, Jun Mi, that puts you in the Harrabaren's line of sight." He continued, and Jun Mi swallowed that, wondering if it might endanger Shuraat as well…

[Chapter 42 ends…]