“I shall ask you again: your left hand, or your right?” Wunei Jie’s sonorous words broke through the roaring clamour of the crowd before him. Ravi bore his teeth in a strained grimace. He had only fear in place of strength. Deep gashes split the skin of his bare chest that now glistened red under the beating sun. No matter how desperately he struggled, he couldn’t hope to break free from the iron chains that shackled him to the stage. Growing ever impatient, the Daishun pushed the tip of his wicked carving knife beneath Ravi’s collarbone and buried it to the handle. Those cold words came again, “Your left, or your right?
“Kill me if you want me dead,” Ravi croaked with a voice worn by cries. “Finish it.”
“That time will come,” Wunei assured him, his wide eyes shining like polished gold. Ravi saw a deep fear behind them, perhaps disgust, just as there had been the day of his sentencing- a revulsion reserved entirely for him. The feeling was eagerly shared by the roaring voices of the crowd that all called his father’s name.
“I’m ready to die. It’s what these people want. Don’t keep them waiting. There’s nothing left for me here.”
The Daishun yanked his bloody knife from Ravi’s chest and pressed the point into his forehead, “And who can be blamed for that if not you? No other transgressed in your place. Trespassing above your standing, sowing discontent amid my court, beguiling your half sister, killing in the name of vanity…”
Ravi’s body tensed at the final accusation. “Vanity?” he echoed, “I killed to protect your children, and anyone else that he might corrupt with his foul touch.”
“You murdered a retainer of mine in cold blood to your own satisfaction. But even then, you could not stop there, could you? Stealing away with my daughter to escape judgement, you crossed the Lanyan Sea and fled north. Did you begin a new life there, leaving behind and learning from the mistakes of your past? Or did you repeat those mistakes anew, spreading death and despair to those that crossed your path?”
“I was out of your sight. What do you think you know about me?”
“What don’t I know, Ravi Jie?” whispered a different voice, as Wunei’s face transformed into that of a woman’s- a woman Ravi knew well, and she held him beneath a silver stare.
“Ai,” he breathed, “What…?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t be there for you at the end? I’ve come to see you out. There won’t be any funeral for you, no memorials nor a mark on your grave. Think back Ravi, has there ever been anything you’ve done to deserve such things? You’re a killer, and you will remain a killer for as long as you live. There’s no value in anything you can offer beyond the gratification given to the crowds as you are put to death,” Ai said with a voice smoother than silk. Her delicate hand wrapped around his neck. “Oh, don’t look so glum. Today you have the opportunity to finally contribute to the city that raised you.”
Ai softly brushed her thumb over Ravi’s lower lip. Long, crescent-shaped claws sprouted from her fingertips. They broke his skin with even the slightest touch.
Ravi bowed his head, “Nothing’s changed. I’m ready.”
“Then I hope your tears won’t spoil the moment,” the woman replied, and forcefully pressed two fingers against his throat. Her deadly claws passed through his flesh like tender poultry and sliced without resistance across his abdomen down to his navel. His eyes bulged from his skull as he gasped for breath, only to regurgitate a mouthful of blood as he exhaled. Before the roaring crowds of Hanshi, Ravi’s insides were laid bare. His straining heart seized as Ai plucked it from his chest and held it high for all to see. It was a black and wretched thing.
Ravi jolted awake. He’d been dreaming. The heavy rhythm of his heartbeat was like the pounding of a war drum. Lifting the bottom of his linen shirt, he probed the thin drawn skin of his abdomen where he had felt a deep gouge moments before, but of course there was nothing really there- only the ugly reddish scar left by the spear of Seki Shinohara. Still it throbbed, a deeply sharp and never-ceasing reminder of that night on Mount Hema.
Though the day had already begun to dawn, it was dark in the windowless cabin. The slow progress of the ferry toward Hanshi meant a gentle bobbing was the only indication that the Jishun and his self-appointed lover were surrounded by miles of open ocean. He looked over to his side where Ai Mitsuki lay and saw that she was already awake, watching him wearily with one eye still closed. Ravi didn’t greet her, dressing himself in a longer linen shirt and roughspun bottoms before heading out of the room. The dim hallway of the lower deck brightened at each end where flights of stairs led out into the daylight. A dozen other passengers in addition to a small crew occupied the other rooms but Ravi had neither seen nor spoken to any of them often enough to befriend them. Very few of those travelling with the continental ferry were eager to talk about the lives they were running from.
A raised hand was enough to shield the early morning light from his eyes as he emerged onto the main deck and wandered groggily until he reached the ship's bow. A blazing marigold heat set the eastern horizon aflame with the sun’s radiance, and it was beneath that blinding fire that his destination lay. Undulating shadows of dawnlit land reached from northwest to the southeast, and rising from these lands were great mist-veiled mountains from which rivers ran and fed into the Kaishui Estuary. Two of the peaks most familiar to Ravi were those that guarded the great capital. A broad wall ran between their sheer eastern faces, from the northern Mount Tiesuji to the southern Mount Yuexia, rising to nearly twenty times the height of any normal man. The city of Hanshi lay in the vast centre between that east wall and the western shore, defended from the north and south by fortified outposts scattered across the mountain slopes and their steep, rugged foothills. Ravi narrowed his eyes as he strained to see the Daishun’s court upon the lowest of those hills at the base of Tiesuji. The palace was so very far away, but shone with a brilliant red and golden glow.
“Does it excite you, being so close?” Ai whispered into his ear. Ravi flinched, though he didn’t turn. A vague sense of unease tangled itself within his stomach.
“What is there to be excited about?” he replied.
“Really, Ravi? Don’t pretend as though you haven’t been waiting for a glimpse of the capital ever since the day we left Hema. I know I have,” she said in a lighter tone, “It’s the day I get to see your home.”
Ravi pointed over the water to the distant city, “You can see it, there.”
“We didn’t come all this way to see it from a ship,” Ai laughed back.
Ravi exhaled slowly, closing his eyes. “Isn’t this enough?”
Thin hands turned him by his shoulders and thrust him against the ship’s railings. Ai’s silver eyes pierced his very spirit.
“What does that mean?”
Ravi averted his gaze. “You wanted to see Hanshi. You’ve seen Hanshi.”
“Where did you ever get the idea that I’d be satisfied by sightseeing? I told you a month ago that we would build a family together in that city. Look at me, do you now think that I’ve somehow changed my mind?” Ai asked, taking his hands and placing them on her swollen abdomen. Mere weeks had passed since Ai had imposed herself upon him on the sandy shore of Shiowa, yet somehow her buttoned cotton shirt was the only clothing she could still fit into. Ravi had tried to avoid thinking about the unborn child growing in the womb of the living meigui. He’d tried to shut out the thoughts of what monstrous form the offspring of a human and a descendant of Xia’an would take, but as each day passed and the child continued to grow at an unnatural rate, he could no longer hide from what he had helped create.
“I’m going to die here,” Ravi murmured.
Ai frowned, “And how can you know that?”
“Everyone in that city wants me dead. It isn’t difficult to judge my chances. If they don’t lynch me in the streets, I’ll be carried off by my father’s men to be executed.”
“Then why are you here?” Ai asked, “To kneel before him and die? Do you think that slinking home like a misbehaved dog will draw his eye long enough for him to see you, Ravi? The man wants you dead. Why do you desire so deeply to be recognised by him?”
A golden fire burned in Ravi’s eyes. “I didn’t come here to be killed by my father. I’ve come to break everything my enemies built. That court isn’t just my birthright. I gave everything just to take the position I held and was still seen as a witless commoner. I will retake what is mine, and I’ll make them all see the might of Jishun Ravi Jie.”
Ai leant closer and tilted her head, “So you do still have some worth. That ambition is something you’ve been lacking so sorely for so long.”
“It’s something I’ve never been without. You can ride your ambitions like a rising tsunami to reach heights that seemed impossible, but that same force can easily drag you into its depths. I want to show my father just how far I can climb through his court, and you want to raise a family in the comfort of the capital that ordered my execution. Neither of those dreams are without deadly consequence. I don’t want to see the mother of my unborn child put to death in front of me. I can’t bear something like that, so please understand that when I say I don’t want you in that city, it’s because I want to protect you. Ambition without caution is a blind leap into the unknown.”
“I don’t fear the unknown,” Ai replied with a thin smile, “Nor the dark. Certainly not the creatures we call our prey.”
“Your prey?” Ravi echoed. Ai’s smile widened into a grin as she gently traced the red line left upon his cheek by Yu Diao’s blade.
“Yes Ravi, my prey. I am one of the living meigui, a descendant of Xia’an, and I will not allow my precious quarry to be stolen from me. As a spider, I shall walk through this city of flies, spinning my web and building my hive. Who among them will be able to resist me?”
Ravi brushed Ai’s hand from his face before turning again toward the distant city. Trying to stop her now would be useless, he knew, just as it had been in Shiowa. Ai couldn’t be parted from her desires any more than a lion from its appetite, and she would do whatever she pleased in her reckless pursuit of them. The woman was a self-satisfied predator, but one that needed to be protected. After all he had done, he had to be responsible for that, at least. If she couldn’t be deprived of what she wanted, then he had no choice but to help her take it.
The east-climbing capital had come well into sight by the time the next day had dawned. Their ferry sailed into the northmost harbour shortly before noon; those further south were favourites for Hanshi’s smugglers and the organised gangs that held a dominion over the poorest areas of the city, but they were also more closely supervised by the Daishun’s military police. Entering through the wealthier northern districts was merely a matter of costs. Though they belonged to the same city, each harbour held its own trade regulations and imposed different tariffs on foreign imports, especially from nations officially at war with Han. Ravi only understood the reasoning from his time in Wunei’s court- Hanshi’s six districts were each assigned a governor by the Domestic Ministry that had some level of autonomy, though they and their offices still often found themselves being strictly controlled. The overbearing hand of the Ministry meant a building resentment between not only the governors and ministers, but also between the governors themselves as they struggled against one another over what little power they held. Their relationships were strained at best, and had been recorded to be deadly at worst. It was something that could be put to use… if they could ever reach the imperial court.
Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, Ravi closed the door to their room and began to undress.
“We have about ten, maybe fifteen minutes while the ship’s cargo is checked, and then we’ll be able to disembark. Can I borrow your spare clothes?” he asked.
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Laying upon their bed, Ai rolled onto her side. “My, you haven’t showed any interest in me since that day on the Lanyan shore, and now-”
“I don’t want your clothes for roleplaying. I need a disguise, or we won’t make it two steps into the city.”
Ai rolled back over with a drawn-out groan.
Ravi stood over her. “What’s wrong?”
Examining his naked body out of the corner of her eye, she reached out and caressed his abdomen.
“Look how you’ve grown. After all your training these last few weeks, the rewards are already beginning to show. You’ve become bigger, stronger, if only a little. It’s like you’re almost a man again.”
“Almost?”
“Almost,” she smirked, but the expression vanished a moment later. “Have you no love for me?”
Ravi stood silent as he considered an answer, then sat on the bed beside her. “I care for you more than I’m able to show. I know I’ve been distant, that I’ve treated you coldly.”
“Distant?” Ai laughed, but there was no joy in her tone. She finally sat upright. “Even when you speak to me, it’s like you can’t wait to get away again. Do you have any idea how lonely you’ve made me feel?”
Ravi sat quietly, staring blankly into her silver eyes. Even under her accusing stare, he found it hard to show any remorse. It wasn’t a lack of guilt for his actions that halted his words. With every week that passed, his chest swirled with so much anxiety, so much dread, expressing anything became impossible. Training was his sole escape from the cage he had built within his mind. He had no wish to hurt Ai, yet at the same time, he’d known exactly how she’d feel when he stepped away from her.
Of course I knew. I felt the same. Looking back, they hadn’t been together for all that long. They had met as enemies the summer before, but after his clash with Shinohara, he’d wandered the unconscious realms until winter had already arrived. In the months since then, Ai had been his only company, and he no longer knew how to be without her. Now, however, fear forced his hand, and he kept her at a distance.
“I need to be strong for your sake. For yours, and for our child’s,” he said at last. A half truth was better than a lie.
“Your body is frail,” she replied. “The same has been true since I met you. I’ve never needed you to protect me.”
Ravi smiled slightly, “I saved you on Hema’s summit.”
“So you did. Will you hold it against me?” she asked. “I’d rather have you with me than hiding away.”
“I’m here now. With you. We’ve reached the city we dreamed of, and we’ll take it together. I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did, but know that I’ll never abandon you,” he promised, brushing a lock of hair from her face. “I love you.”
Ai huffed, “How very sweet. Are you saying that so I’ll forgive you?” She turned away and stood from the bed. Pale as she was, her red blush was all the more easy to see. “My clothes, was it?”
The hemp robes had come from Shiowa. Other than some simple embroidery patterns that Ai had added herself, the clothes were plain and unremarkable. Good, he thought. Even with a disguise, it was better to avoid notice altogether.
As Ravi dressed himself, he was surprised at how well they fit him. Ai combed his hair before tying it back, then moved swiftly on to his facial hair, shaving it so closely it couldn’t be seen. She couldn’t hide her mischievous smirk as she rooted through her bag and retrieved an assortment of small tubs and boxes. Ravi didn’t know what they were, nor did he ask, instead he simply sat and waited as she gently poked, brushed and rubbed the substances onto his face. After a long wait, she held up a mirror so that Ravi could see her handiwork.
“Look, Ravi. You’re more beautiful than I.”
Ravi blinked. His face was a slightly paler complexion than before, though his cheeks and eyelids had been tinted red and black lines had been applied to his eyes. Something about the shadowing of his jaws seemed off, as if the very structure of his bones had been changed.
“I think you’re enjoying yourself a little too much with this,” he said.
“A disguise you wanted, and a disguise you now have. Nobody’s going to recognise you behind that makeup unless they’re staring you straight in the face.” She examined him smugly. “I’ve done well with you. I don’t think I’ll need to use any illusion magic after all.”
Try as he might to hold a stern expression, Ravi couldn’t help but break into a smile. “Fine, it’s nicely done. Thank you.”
“I’ll be expecting something in return. Now, Jishun Jie, what is your plan for this city? Where shall we go from here?”
That innocent question was like a sucker punch. Reality came rushing back.
Ravi grabbed his satchel and started towards the door, “Forwards. We push through district after district until we reach the Royal Harem.”
“Is that all? Have you actually thought this through?”
“In this situation, there’s a limit to planning. We can lower some of the risks, but ultimately, we’re going to have to take a gamble,” he said. “Our odds won’t improve with time. Let’s go.”
“Not yet. I want to know what exactly this gamble entails.”
“What does it matter?”
“I want to know,” Ai repeated, “And I’m not leaving until I do.”
With an exasperated sigh, Ravi paced back to where Ai sat. “Then listen closely. I was charged with murder and high treason, and the sentence was death. None of that is going away. If we’re to survive in Hanshi, I need to somehow gain more influence than those that accused me.”
“And however do you intend to do that?”
“I’ll start by visiting the Royal Harem. I know many of the people there, and some might be willing to help us. If that plan fails…” he trailed off, opening his satchel. The engraved pearl gifted to him by Sio lay alone in a space once filled with money. “Sio promised this pearl would help me escape my fate. We might soon find out if she was telling the truth.”
“A gamble it is, then,” Ai murmured. Her hand caressed the swell of her belly.
There was a healthy clamour throughout the northern harbour as Ravi and Ai prepared to disembark. Alongside domestic spices like saffron, the markets here thrived on imported goods; there was powdered cumin and turmeric and sesame oil from the north of Jinha, dried cloves and fenugreek seeds from the Kathi islands, even the leaves and pods from the hardy cragweeds that grew in Jinha’s desolate Dakshin Barrens. Their aromas- some warm and sweet, some dry and bitter, were a world apart from the thick stench of fly-covered guts among the fishing harbours to the south. From Han’s southern reaches were crates of cinnamon, cardamom, nuoc-root and star anise. Demand for spices from the Dakkan region and its capital, Phun Sakae, had certainly allowed the once-nation to recover from its annexation by Han, but the nationalistic pride of its people burned no less brightly in the two decades since. There was evidence enough in their undying cries of resistance, and in Wunei Jie’s uncompromisingly violent replies.
Imports from Won were less common, with shipments either having to cross hundreds of miles of land or to sail around Han’s entire east, south and up along much of the western coast. Such a route would pass through the Foreign Ocean, a vast stretch of sparsely chartered waters. They were the territory of Enunak, a country in the far-east continent of Kanuvik. Ravi had only ever read the name in books; to those in Sakao, the continent was more often called Quanshen or Zenshin. A nation of frost-shrouded fields, frozen lakes and sheer mountains meant the people of Enunak were hunters and raiders rather than farmers or traders, and a journey into their territory invited attacks from their roving warships.
With the apparent lack of goods from Sen, the Land of Scorching Earth somehow seemed even more distant than those across the Foreign Ocean. Ravi doubted the Traitor’s war had made much of a difference to trade between the two nations. The volcanic Kaibun Sea was relatively safe for sailors, but the perilous Jaws of the Sea guarded the east, and the Sea of Wrath birthed ceaseless tempests to the south. The smugglers’ ship had endured one such storm only two days before, a fierce rush of powerful winds, drenching rains and explosive thunder. Like many before, it had torn along the Kaishui Estuary, seeking to lay waste to homes in the capital of Han. Like many before, it could not shake those ancient foundations nor topple its steadfast walls. Nothing less could be expected from the Land of the Weathered Storm. Little remained as a reminder of its rage other than the debris littering the shore- scattered piles of driftwood, shells and seaweed, now a generous larder for the gulls that scoured the sands. The greedy eagerness with which they devoured the beached shellfish stirred Ravi’s own hunger, though after paying the smugglers their due, the wealth gifted to them by Sio had finally run dry. From here on out, he and Ai would have to find their own way to sustain themselves.
Any thoughts of food vanished from his mind the moment he stepped out onto the sand-spotted quay. He’d known at once by the way the crowds shifted aside that something was wrong. Had he understood the situation sooner, perhaps there might have been some way of escape, some method of disappearing from sight and vanishing into the city’s dense and ever-bustling streets. Perhaps… but those realisations were made at the wrong end of a guardsman’s rifle. The Daishun’s military police spilled out from the market in their columns, surrounding the docked boat in a matter of seconds. That familiar lamellar armour guarded their bodies, the rows of small steel plates glinting beneath the unclouded sun. Some guardsmen carried rifles, some brandished polearms, some were armed with nothing at all. A circle of spearheads and half-moon blades tightened around the smugglers’ ship, driving its disembarked passengers to the very edge of the quay. Glancing back, Ravi lost any hope for a retreat. Several smugglers guarded the ship’s gangway with swords in hand. The bastards sold us out.
A mother was the first of the passengers to break from the group. Clutching her suckling babe tight in her arms, she threw herself into the deadly circle with a frightful shriek. The polearms opened shallow gashes across her shoulder and back, yet she suffered not a single grievous wound. The guardsmen had shifted their weapons aside.
That sight was a spark to the trapped passengers, igniting the fear-soaked tinder within their hearts. Panic erupted. A surge of bodies rushed into the opening. Any that lost their footing were trampled or shoved aside. Ravi and Ai were swept along in the human current, unable to escape even if they had wanted to. There was not a thought among that crowd, only a common desire. Run.
In that moment, nothing was easier than following the mother through the opening. When a strike from a rifle’s butt sent her sprawling to the ground atop her infant, breaking free from the encirclement suddenly seemed foolish. The shared desire holding the group together was shattered in an instant. Some still tried to run, of course. One man caught a wooden club across his face, breaking his jaw. Another, a fat merchant, decided to try his luck against the smugglers. A sword flashed, and his bulging gut burst with red, writhing snakes. He slumped dead at the foot of the gangway.
Some tried to fight. A man that might have once been a soldier charged one of the guardsmen. He was tall and stronger than any of the other passengers, though fell just the same. A single touch from the guardsman’s empty hand seemed to send a paralysing shock through the man’s body. He seized, and then he dropped. No one else had the courage to join him. No one, except-
“Stop,” Ravi urged. Ai was just ahead of him, her crescent claws already at her throat. When she turned to look at him, the bestial hunger in her silvery stare made him shiver. He took her hand in his own. “Kill these men and more will come. We can’t fight them all.”
“What, then?” she asked.
“I’ll think of something, I just need a second. There’s a way out of this. There’s still time.” Ravi wasn’t sure how many of his thoughts managed to find a voice. His attention was elsewhere, scanning past the others in search of any possible escape. For all his searching, he found only a defeating notion. They were trapped. Even if there were some route unseen to him, there were too few remaining passengers to simply slip away unnoticed. Ai’s illusions could fool unwitting guards, but Ravi doubted their effectiveness against the vigilant eyes of the military police. These men were well-trained and on high alert. He had no wish to test their ferocity.
A heavy rattle of chains signalled the first of the arrests. Ravi debated his options frantically, but they were dwindling as quickly as Ai’s patience. Violence would be met with an overwhelming retaliation even a daughter of Xia’an could never hope to match. So what’s left? Which way leads out of this?
Ravi dipped a hand into his satchel, retrieving Sio’s pearl. His fingers closed around its engraved surface. He’d memorised the Host’s words, but trusting them was another matter entirely. When the time arrives to face the past you left behind, set alight the gift given to you and shatter the bonds of fate once forged by your mistakes. The promise was convenient enough, though hardly reliable. It didn’t take much contemplation to realise Sio had nothing to gain from helping him. Assuming that was true, what other purpose could the pearl serve? Ravi didn’t have time to contemplate the question. A well-dressed man backed into him, only to be thrown to the ground and shackled a moment later.
Unable to fight, unable to flee, only one option remained. Ravi slammed the pearl into his mouth and forced himself to swallow. His time had come to submit.
“Disappear, Ai,” he told her. “Weave your illusions. You can still escape.” The look he received was as perplexed as he’d expected.
“Alone?” she replied with more indignance than worry.
“Better alone than a slave. I’m going to buy you a chance to slip away, so please don’t waste it.”
There was unmistakable loathing in her cold stare. Ravi searched for some words of reassurance that might ease her temper, but there were none to be found. An iron cuff fastened tightly around his wrist, and he knew there would be no time for farewells.
With all his strength, Ravi threw himself against the arresting guardsman, colliding with an unmoving wall of armour and muscle. There was only the briefest of moments to reflect upon his mistake before a metal-plated fist smashed into his eyebrow. Clutching his face, Ravi staggered back. A deep, fiery pain radiated from his cheek to his forehead, yet his desperation did not allow him to feel it. Again he charged, his confession hot on his tongue.
“I am Jishun Ravi Jie!” he bellowed as his knuckles shattered against steel. “Abductor of your Jishu, usurper, slayer of Xiaozi. Hear me, servants of Wunei! I’ve come to seize your city! Heaven is with me, and I bring a season of unending storms!” Another blow forced Ravi to his knees. Still he held his head high. Regardless of whether the military police believed his raving claims, they could not deny the golden shimmer in his stare that marked him as a son of Wunei Jie.
As more guardsmen moved to subdue him, he cast a searching glance through the crowd. Ai was gone. Her escape was enough to satisfy him, and when the hail of vicious lashes and stomping kicks began to break his body, the thought of her safety was almost enough to lessen his suffering. Chained in blood and rusted iron, the Jishun cowered.
Ravi Jie was home.