Tooth marks peppered her shoulder like a scattered ring of carmine beetles. The wound was raw, throbbing with a tight pain, and only deepened the reluctant sense of humility she had been left with. To knowingly walk into a place such as the forest took no less than a narrow-minded fool. Through one poor decision she had ventured from Sio, the only mother she had ever known, and had wandered into the company of strangers so many miles away from home. Loneliness began to creep upon her, and she clapped her hands against her face to drive the feeling out.
A knock sounded at the shōji beside her; Lin quickly scrambled to tighten her clothes again. It slid open abruptly before she had a chance to answer and a familiar face poked through the gap. The earthy, rotten air of Mogu rushed in like a gust of wind. Sio flashed her pearly teeth.
“How’re things, Lin Ko? You haven’t eaten anything, have you?”
She pushed her way past Lin into the room and laid her steely grey slippers in the doorway. There was no sign of dirt on them, nor any mark left on her clothing by the bed of swampy sludge that she must have crossed to reach the teahouse.
“Sio! What are you doing here? How did you know where to find me? Why are you so clean?” Lin asked with a little more excitement than she’d intended.
“Easy with the questions. We were given directions to get here, remember?” Sio replied. “Now listen, have you had anything to eat or drink here?”
“No, not yet. I’ve just been trying to rest.”
“That’s some relief. It looks like you’ve already gone and gotten yourself into trouble, though.”
Lin didn’t give the woman an answer.
“You can’t hide that wound on your shoulder, Lin Ko, your bandages are steeped in blood, I can see it through your clothes. That, however…” she reached out and gently poked Lin’s forehead, “...Is the least of your problems. We aren’t in a teahouse. Nothing of the sort exists in the forest.”
Upon Sio’s touch, Lin felt as though she were looking through waking eyes.
Walls woven of papery strands entwined themselves around the husks of dead trees, and the floor beneath her was a mesh of branches and fuzzy, sticky fibres like spider’s silk. In place of the building’s sliding doors were pieces of sawn wood that were rotten to the centre and crumbling away at the edges, hardly able to support their own weight.
The room had been replaced with a nightmarish vision in an instant, and disappeared in the next when the woman drew back her finger. Lin blinked, and blinked again. Everything was as it was before, from the white paper walls and to the futons and clean tatami mats that covered the floor.
“W-what was that? What did you do to me?” she stammered.
“I just gave you a peek at the real world around you. There’s something about the air of this place that plays tricks on the mind, making you see things that aren’t there. Mix in a touch of illusory magic and you’ve got quite the recipe for delusion. I’ve seen this before- it’s the handiwork of a changeling creature that lures weary travellers, only to slowly feed on their life force and leave them as shambling husks. Whatever you think invited you in here is not so kind as appearances made out. They’re a family of living meigui.”
“Your question makes a little more sense now. If I hadn’t insisted on taking a rest, then…” Lin’s breath caught in her throat. “There were two others that came in here with me.”
Despite her concern, Sio shook her head and slid back into her slippers. She stepped back outside, and in her descent, winding vines emerged from the ground in a cloak of biting thorns. Their pointed ends folded underfoot as though they were made of rubber.
“I won’t be helping you this time, I’m afraid. I’ve already overstayed my welcome. They’ll realise something is wrong if I remain here any longer, and your new friends will be the ones to suffer if they do.”
“You’re going to leave me alone?”
“I’ll be here as long as you need. You’re strong enough to come back to me. I believe in you, Lin Ko.” Sio told her with a deep warmth. Calmness settled within Lin’s chest.
“Thank you for not forgetting about me, Sio. I’m… I’m sorry for running away alone.”
“We’ll go through all of that when you’re safe again. Come back to me, Lin Ko.” Sio smiled, and gently waved her goodbye.
Thin corridors turned into empty rooms, one after another, and each left Lin with a growing uneasiness that quickened her steps until she had broken into a dash between doorways. The images she had seen before of the squalid remains of a teahouse flashed in her mind, she had to wonder if her footsteps fell upon floorboards or the web of fibres and broken branches. There was nothing, no sign of activity in any of the bedrooms until she finally burst through a door half of the way down the last corridor, Sio’s warning hot on her tongue. Her words fell upon deaf ears.
Tongues lashed as a heated argument raged between Ravi and his attendants. Standing over his sister, the boy clutched an empty teacup tightly enough that a blue vein swelled in his hand. Fuu’s head drooped sleepily from her shoulders.
“I don’t- I don’t want-” the female attendant stuttered.
The fragile teacup finally shattered beneath Ravi’s grip as he roared blindly, “Last chance! Tell me what was in that drink or neither of you leave this room alive!”
“Decay essence, courtesy of the One that feeds upon this forest,” Kei answered simply. His voice was whimsical, though his face told another story. An animalistic hunger loomed beneath his cold stare. “Though I don’t see what good knowing will do you.”
“No good at all. What did you do to my sister? Is she going to be okay?”
“That’s the burning question, isn’t it? Will she survive?” the man spoke again, a low growl escaping his throat. “Will you live to find out?”
He rose then. Clawing with curled fingers at his frail dress, long tears in the material revealed his pronounced rib cage beneath. A pointed fingernail sank into his ribs. Small streaks of blood escaped as his finger was drawn across his chest. Wispy bristles of grey sprouted from the fresh wound. Lin observed from the doorway in disbelief, half ready to bolt the other way. Footsteps sounded behind her.
“Be calm, Kei,” said one woman, almost a mirror image of the attendant at Ravi’s side.
“Be calm,” echoed another. She was older, more closely resembling her mother.
“Enough of this. Won’t you all quieten down for me?” drawled the last of them, Mistress Mei. With a firm hand, she guided Lin into the room and ordered her daughters to surround Ravi. Lin stiffened at the touch. “One threatens my children with violence, the other converses with an uninvited stranger. After being welcomed with generosity, you would both insult me in my own home.”
Ravi scoffed, “The next time something stupid comes out of your mouth, I’ll sew it shut.”
“Rudeness seems to be in your blood, child of Han. I shall have no qualms spilling it from your throat.”
“Really, by yourself? Or do you think your numbers give you an advantage?”
“None that I would ever need,” Mei replied icily, “And, Ai?” she peered at the daughter closest to her. Ai flinched at the call. “Get out. Inexperience is no excuse for disobedience. You disgrace yourself.”
Standing with the composure of statues, her family waited patiently while the woman slinked from the room, but in that moment that the door slid shut, Kei and his sisters swept upon Ravi with eager voracity. Clawing through their own skin, they unleashed the hideous forms that resided beneath. A bristled blur of grey hair and misshapen limbs drove Ravi backwards and struck at his stomach with white, elongated nails. The boy leapt back, pressing up against the wooden wall behind him. He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, then extended his arm and index finger. A muffled fwuuun echoed throughout the room, and Kei collapsed at his feet, doubling over as if struck by some force. Another barrage of air bullets punched into the bodies of the two sisters, but their composure was soon regained.
Lin found herself unable to move as she watched in silence. She had managed to wrap her fingers around her dagger, though the decorated handle now felt nothing more than a pretty trinket in her hands. A weapon is made only by a killing intent, she assured herself, whether it’s a dagger or a flimsy nail, I can take them with ease. Mistress Mei’s attention had wandered to the struggle across the room. She was too preoccupied to notice the swinging of Lin’s blade until it had buried itself in the soft flesh between her ribs. The dagger penetrated clean and deep.
Mei staggered back, her face twisted with heated rage and disbelief, “Foolish whore.”
She had been struck with a vital blow. Years of practice against Sio’s puppets of mist made certain of it. The red outpour as she retracted the weapon only served as proof, yet the Mistress seemed to regard it as something of a minor annoyance. A hand over the wound did nothing to stop the sanguine stain from spreading through her ghostly white dress. Regardless, an opportunity had been won with that strike- an opportunity that couldn’t be wasted. Kei and his sisters were already upon Ravi, swiping and slashing in an encroaching rush of bloodletting claws. Defeat and death were seconds away. Lin couldn’t delay any longer.
Her fingers flexed outward, “Spectral reach.”
Shadowy knuckles collided with the back of a woman’s skull. The first of the sisters folded and dropped like a lifeless corpse. The second was not so oblivious. Abandoning her pursuit of Ravi, the hideous fusion of animal and insect charged across the tea room upon her six knobbled legs in an instant. Cushions and hunks of splintered wood scattered in every direction as she tore her way toward Lin, but the girl held her ground. She poised herself to strike. Her eyes flared brightly, thanks for playing along.
The living meigui lunged too late. Lin stepped aside and swung a spectral fist into the woman’s fanged maw. Something crunched. Momentum sent the monster hurtling through the delicate walls in a state of disarray.
Lin’s attention fell upon the last of Ravi’s attackers. Pinned against the matted floor by a spidery limb, Ravi flailed his free arm in a wild circle holding ceramic shards between his fingers. One of the blind swings must have met its target, as Kei erupted in a deafening roar and recoiled backwards, his clawed hand clutching a bloodied eye.
“Enough of this!” Lin ordered, “Give up the fight. You might just live to see the sunrise.”
“Not here,” croaked the guttural voice of Kei, “The sun does not shine down here.”
“Your sisters are injured, but alive. Your mother could still survive her wound if treated quickly enough.”
Kei went limp. That had been a lie, of course. She had felt the blade pass straight through the woman’s lung to pierce her heart. Whatever treatment they could manage in the midst of that stagnant forest would never be enough. Still, she can’t die yet. If she endures a few minutes more, we might just make it out of here alive.
“Well? What’s your move?” Lin challenged.
“Who might survive?” the Mistress spoke from behind. Lin whirled in place. “Venomous, hateful child. Your insolence has gone too far.” She clicked her tongue and reached for Lin’s dagger, but the girl caught Mei’s arm and drove the point through her frail wrist. Her lofty composure crumbled in an instant.
A piercing screech shook the tea room. The Mistress clawed at her face, tearing through her skin like a soft dough and shedding layers from her body like old clothes. Underneath was a monstrosity. Black, insectoid eyes devoid of emotion bulged from behind her hands. Thick silver hairs sprouted from Mei’s marred flesh, followed by large appendages like the legs of a spider that erupted from her torso and lifted her even higher from the ground. Bearing a toothy grin, she ran her tongue over the arachnoid fangs jutting from her deformed mouth. Lin stood frozen in place. Her dagger was held toward the monstrous form out of instinct, though the thought of using it was no longer a consideration. At such proximity, there was no denying the overpowering reality of the creature she faced.
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An elongated leg knocked Lin from her feet. She hit the ground hard, gasping desperately as the air rushed from her lungs. Her fingertips probed for the knife she had lost in the fall but found only the sticky fibres of the weblike floor that she had seen earlier. The illusion had been broken once more. Breathless and filled with terror, the young girl dragged herself backwards in retreat, too slowly to escape the encroaching beast that sneered at her pathetic attempts to survive.
“Does our reality frighten you, dear?” came the guttural voice of the Mistress. “Take comfort in the company of others.”
Mei struck at the weak mesh of flooring between Lin’s legs; the ground beneath her gave way and she plunged several feet into the darkness. Faint light from above illuminated the spongy cocoons that cushioned her fall, as well as the raw, pale skin that veiled the bodies of their waking inhabitants. There must have been ten or more of them in that gloomy chamber, a small swarm of stick-thin husks that grew more curious by the second. They ignored Lin’s pitiful warnings, their noses drawn to the warm blood that coursed throughout her body. She kicked and scratched at the husks with the last of her strength, still fighting to regain her breath. It was not a struggle she could maintain. A set of serrated teeth tore into her bare calf. Her face contorted with pain. She turned and twisted in a fruitless attempt to shake the creature off, aimlessly swinging a weightless fist at the dark. It connected with nothing. A second jolt of pain ran through her arm as it became the next target for the husk, eagerly biting through her bandages to gorge themselves on the fresh meat beneath. Starving, out of breath and writhing in the dirt among monsters, something in Lin’s mind switched off. She relaxed in an instant, and resigned herself to her fate.
“Lin!” a strained voice called. Lin craned her neck and met with Ravi’s golden gaze. His brow hardened. “Keep your eyes on me. See nothing else.”
She did as he asked. Not out of compliance, but because her body and mind were already numb. Droplets of blood and spittle flecked his cheeks as he struck out at the monstrosities around her. Shadows shifted across the grooves of his face as fires burned like a pyre in the illuminated chamber. His teeth pressed ever harder against each other as his eyes grew tired and his forehead became slick with sweat. He offered a shaking hand at long last, his breath heavy and hoarse. From his fingertips to his elbow, he was painted with gore. Lin clasped the hand tightly, but as soon as she moved, her wounds seared like a savage burn. A stifled whimper escaped her mouth.
“I know you’re hurting, Lin, but if you don’t make a move then we’re both going to be hurt a whole lot more,” Ravi urged as he strained to lift her from the ground. “I can’t save you without your help.”
“Are they gone?” she whispered.
“Take a look for yourself.”
“No. No, I won’t do that,” she replied, her attention still fully fixated on her saviour. “Why did you leave your sister behind? The Mitsuki siblings are still alive up there.”
Ravi glanced upward, “If they wanted her dead, they’d have killed her outright. Besides, you risked your life to save me. I couldn’t let you become a nutrient puree for these freaks.”
“A life for a life?” Lin asked dryly.
“Something like that. Would it be rude to ask for another favour?”
“Whatever could I offer you now?”
“It’s like you said, the Mitsuki siblings are still alive. I need to get my sister out of here, but I’m tired and nearing my limit. I doubt I can do it alone.”
“My body’s burning up,” Lin groaned, “But I won’t stay in this rotten hive. I’ll do whatever I can to help you save her.”
Finally finding her feet, she heaved herself out of the newly-made grave. So terrible were those monstrous dead that, for a brief moment, she had forgotten about the danger still waiting above.
By the time Ravi had hoisted himself back onto the broken floorboards and tatami matting, the tearoom had fallen into an eerie quiet. All three of the Mitsuki siblings were kneeled around their mother without a hint of anger between them, their forms already reverted and clothed by nothing other than their torn dresses. Mistress Mei had taken a pale complexion; her lifeblood soaked into the tatami flooring where she sat.
Lin took a brazen step closer to the family, “Why are you doing this? If you wanted us dead, then why not attack us in the forest?”
Mei looked with lost eyes, “You both… you murdered my servants. You’ve set my home aflame.”
“That responsibility lies with you. Answer the question,” Ravi demanded. The harshness of his tone seemed to snap the Mistress out of her daze.
“We are living meigui, children of the Xia’an Abyss. This is my family, as were the husks that you incinerated. We find those stranded in the forest, and they too become a part of our family.”
“Is that what happened to the things down in that hole?” he asked, “What about Fuu?”
“The girl carries a living substance of the forest- decay essence- within her now. It has weakened her body and spirit so that she cannot fight back. If you want her to live, she must stay with me.”
“Some life that’d be. You know that isn’t going to happen,” he replied. Never breaking his watchful gaze from the family, he shifted over to Fuu and lifted her arm over his shoulder. Her face was peaceful. Lin continued toward the Mistress, a trail of red droplets following after her.
The corners of Mei’s mouth creased slightly, “Even with the scars on your neck, you are such an adorable child. Suitors would pay a high price for a girl with your childish hair and youthful eyes. Tonight does not need such a sullen end. I would forgive you should you only stay.”
“You’re disgusting. It suits this rotting forest,” Lin uttered.
“The forest does not rot because of me, child. The great Fourth sleeps soundly below the undergrowth, the final slumber of a dying relic. Decay already courses through its veins, and the First partakes in a feast of the divines.”
“Is that a riddle, or are you just that awful at explaining things?”
A low growl escaped Kei’s throat, “Watch your tongue, the Mistress speaks the truth. Have you not seen it in your dreams? The voices that sing discordant songs of the deep, the whispers of hysteria that echo from the furthest reaches of the Late Dark? This forest is merely the beginning. An age of depravity is upon us.”
“Do you think you’re some kind of herald?” Lin sneered, “You’re a monster hiding away in a filthy pit of mould and mire.”
“None of that matters,” Ravi interrupted, retreating to the doorway. “Lin, we’re leaving.”
“That shall not stand,” Kei snarled as he rose from his mother’s side, clad only in cloth scraps. The creature’s guise of humanity hadn’t fully returned. His spidery limbs had disappeared from his back, though bony protrusions poked from beneath his new skin. Oversized fangs still hung from his jaw.
Kei charged like a rage-blind bull, Lin’s bloodied dagger in hand, closing far faster than Ravi could defend himself with Fuu held in his grasp. Lin moved first. Bearing her teeth, she splayed her hand outward, sending a fist of shadow and smoke across the man’s temple. He staggered, but Lin was not finished. In one movement, she threw her entire weight against him and managed to knock Kei off-balance, leaving him teetering beside the hole of Mei’s dead abominations. Ravi jumped on the opportunity. A single blast of air from his fingertip sent the faithful son toppling into the hungry flames below. Lin, looking worse for wear, joined them at the doorway. They exchanged an affirming nod.
Fuu let out a sharp moan from her sleep as Ravi turned to leave. He found its cause with a backward glance, then clenched his jaw tightly enough that his teeth felt as though they might shatter. Gripping the dagger lodged in his sister’s shoulder so tightly that he could have crushed stone, he returned it in a flash of deathly metal that landed squarely in the chest of her attacker. Kei’s lips spurted red saliva. Ravi’s vision took a similar shade.
“Please take Fuu outside. I’ll follow soon,” he spoke with a dangerous calm. Too tired to argue, Lin obeyed wordlessly, and Ravi was left alone with the monsters. “Jishu Fuu Jie, daughter of Daishun Wunei Jie. Next in line to the throne of Han,” he announced after a period of quiet, making his way over to the sliding doors at the far side of the tea room. “That’s the name of the woman you poisoned. My half sister, and the reason that I can still draw breath. Now tell me, what is my name?”
The Mistress’ glare cut into his back like a knife edge. Its anger seemed to carry a physical weight. Perhaps the death of her child wasn’t encouragement enough to answer my question. Placing his hand over the door’s centre, he poured heat into the wood until it began to spit with flame.
“Do you need me to repeat the question?” he asked with a smirk. Shocked exclamations rang out as he stepped aside, revealing his handiwork. Mei’s nameless daughters tried desperately to lift her from the floor. He frowned, “Leave her. If you run now, I won’t try to stop you. That much I can promise.”
His words were heard by no one. The daughters of Mogu’s abhorrent Mistress continued in vain to save the life of their inhuman mother.
Ravi shrugged, “Very well. Now, the question of my name. I mentioned it once already to Ai and Kei, but- oh, Kei’s dead, isn’t he?”
Mei’s face contorted in agony as she was carried clumsily toward the hallway. Ravi paced slowly alongside them, observing with great interest.
“I am Jishun Ravi Jie, the most notorious fugitive of Hanshi. I pleaded my innocence time and time again, but in truth it was a lie. I killed the eunuch master as sure as the sun rose that morning- Lao Xiaozi was his name, and as the killer that threw the court into an uproar, they will not forget mine for decades.”
Ravi stroked the door frame as he reached it, setting aflame the tea room’s last escape route. He sighed dramatically with relief.
“A weight off of my chest, you must understand. This is the first time I’ve shared the truth with anyone. Fortunately for me however, it doesn’t seem as though that truth will be leaving this room. Farewell.”
Wearing a wide smile of spite, Ravi made his exit, brushing his hand along the walls all the way. By the time he stepped out into the harsh air of Mogu, the Mitsuki Teahouse was a high wall of flames. Plumes of smoke gathered below the forest canopy like an impenetrable fog. Something crashed to the ground, perhaps a beam, and the terrible snapping of wood briefly drowned out the sound of crackling fire. But that was not the case. There was no teahouse, no great beams of wood nor tiled roofing. Beneath that inferno, the fiery remains reverted to a papery mess of nest fibres and rotten planks fused around the trunks of long-dead trees. Fire cleansed the illusion of the living meigui that had come so close to ensnaring them. No more. Never again would any wanderer fall victim to the family of the Mistress. The thought alone filled Ravi with a queer sense of satisfaction, but his celebratory stance faltered when he set eyes upon the lone daughter with glazed eyes. Salt lines were drawn on her face from where tears were drying up in the heat of the blaze. Ravi was grounded by shackles of guilt.
“It’ll do you no good to stay. That fire will still be burning come tomorrow.”
“How did a thing such as this happen?” Ai breathed. Her already soft voice was now less than a whisper.
“I chose the life of my sibling over yours,” he replied coldly. Scanning the tree line around them, he found firelit footprints in the thick mud that led to Lin and his sister, both resting against a bug-eaten trunk.
“Mother and the others- are they...?” she started to say, but the words were too painful to surface. “Did any of them escape?”
There would be no kindness in giving the girl false hope.
“They were trapped. Nothing could survive in that heat.”
Though Ai’s face was desolate, Ravi had the feeling that even in the inferno’s wake she didn’t truly believe him.
“Come on. There’s nothing here for you but sorrow.” He placed a hand on the small of her back. She retracted away, her elbow separating them.
“Save your pity, Ravi Jie, or whomever you claim to be. This is my home, my family, and even as ash it means everything to me.”
“Ash is ash. It’s just the memory of a fire, not of family. You carry that within yourself,” Ravi pointed out, struggling with the futility of convincing the woman from her grief. “I’m sorry. I’m not leaving you here.”
Ai’s hand was at her neck before Ravi could reach her. Beautifully maintained nails sank into pale skin and began to peel it like rind from a fruit. Ravi snatched her wrists and forced them away from her body, but sensing his weakness, she wrested an arm free and landed a blow upon his temple. Bright flashes flooded his vision. Ai’s next strike was reckless however, a mournful lash against the unfairness of the night. It was all that Ravi needed to slip past her defence. Sliding a leg behind her, he pushed forward and drove her into the damp rot of the forest floor. Black sludge seeped into Ai’s white dress as she fought back, raking her nails across the boy’s cheek. Ravi secured her wrists once more and pinned her against the ground, climbing onto her to restrain her movements.
“Enough! This is for your own good!”
“How could you know anything about me?” she wailed back, hopelessly straining against his weight. Ravi ignored her question.
“Do you have anything to tie her wrists?” he called out to Lin, but there came no answer. Craning his neck to find her, he spotted the tall silhouette of a woman making an approach. The first light of dawn was filtering through the canopy of the forest and cast upon the irises of her eyes. They shimmered like polished emeralds. Luscious, flowing hair the same shade as the pine needles around them complimented her impossibly clean ceremonial dress. Vines lifted her feet with every step. There was a smile on her teal-painted lips as she gave her introduction.
“Well met, Jishun Jie. It’s an honour to meet both you and your sister. You seem to be in a bind, or in need of one, as it were.”
Ravi’s brow creased as he fought to keep his balance.
“Where is Lin?” he asked abruptly. The woman cocked her head quizzically and vaguely pointed in the direction of the tree trunk where he had seen them before. Lin slouched against rough bark, Fuu sleeping in her arms.
“Dear Lin Ko seemed so very concerned about you when I saw her last. You must be quite the man,” she drawled, staring pointedly at the woman struggling underneath him. “Who might this be?”
“If you’ve got a point, make it,” Ravi demanded impatiently.
“Careful,” she warned, then added a wink before a swarm of vines suddenly burst from the ground, complete with a coat of cruel thorns. As they wrapped themselves around the woman’s hand, she jerked it upward and snapped the stem before tossing the remains at Ravi’s side. “If you’re truly planning on taking away the last piece of life that the girl knows, use that to bind her. If you cannot do that much, then leave her be.”
A hard lump formed in the Jishun’s throat. He looked at the thorny vines with loathing, swallowing his trepidation. Ai recoiled in fear as the boy released his grip to retrieve them. He forced her head against the dirt once more.
“Forgive me,” Ravi muttered. He cast his eyes down and began to entwine the girl’s wrists in thorns. Her pained cries did nothing to deter him until the binding was taut and his hands were wet with her blood. When the morning sky dawned bright and blue, Ai’s voice had become too hoarse to scream.