Ai inhaled sharply as Ravi ran his thumb over the gashes that pitted her wrist. Though he had cauterised his own wounds, the ointment burned his hands as he applied it to her skin; he was not envious of her position.
“Be a little more careful,” she complained, badgering him at every touch. The two were sitting upon the veranda of the accommodation hall, and Ravi felt the shrine’s judgement growing with every gasp and cry.
“Sorry,” was his blunt response.
“Could you not have chosen a more delicate medicine?”
“No, there’s nothing here that would have the same healing properties. Gurumoss isn’t known for its gentleness. Have you ever heard of the practising monks in Jinha that slather themselves in it? They endure for forty days and nights with a full coating as a statement of discipline.”
“And how could you possibly know that?”
“My mother was born there, a thousand miles away. From what I’ve been told, my father was always fond of the things he shouldn’t have- Fuu’s mother was originally from Sen. I’m surprised they managed to get their hands on this stuff though, I’ve never seen it grow north of Jinha’s mainland. It must have cost a pretty price.”
“Then should we be using it? It might have been better to use something lighter after all.”
“We can try quicksilver if you like.”
“I am not an empress, nor do I wish to be poisoned, Ravi Jie.”
“Okay.”
Ai brought her face closer to Ravi’s as if to examine him; the deep, glossy scarlet of her lips contrasted alluringly against her pale complexion. His attention drifted for a moment, but he quickly fixed his attention back to dressing her wounds.
“Oh, must you be so serious?” she sighed.
“What would you have me do instead?”
“I don’t know, tell me something interesting. A tale from the world outside of the forest.”
Ravi pondered for a moment before landing on a topic, “I can tell you about my home if you’d like, it’s a nigh-impregnable fortress proved by centuries of ceaseless war. No siege has ever succeeded thanks to the Cantian Orchard- people were able to survive for years on the fruits of the ancient trees that tower over the city.” Though his eyes did not divert from his working hands, he could feel the rising excitement from the woman at his side. She had been the same before, he recalled, enraptured by the thought of a life away from her mother’s teahouse. “According to a crumbling tome that I read during my stay in the court, the only time it ever faced defeat was during the Tong period, when Han was once again unified into one nation. A creature of fiery shell and scales rampaged along the coastline, eventually storming down the estuary beside the city. The beast’s fire burned so hot that the water simply evaporated around it, and the river boiled in its wake. It took a week for the inferno of the red-lantern wharf district to subside, and many more to rebuild what was lost.” His tale finished, Ravi began to wrap Ai’s wrists in cloth. “Was that entertaining enough for you?”
“Your home sounds amazing.”
“That it is. What was it like for you, living in the teahouse?”
“Drearily familiar. My mother was rarely one for affection, but she did care for us dearly. Her family was paramount, and our greatness was her only desire. It was never what I wanted. There is so much to experience in this life. You put me through a night of hell, but you also helped me take the first step into the wider world. Tell me, how am I supposed to feel about that?”
There was nothing Ravi could say in reply. When Ai’s wounds were finally dressed, he stood from the veranda and crossed his arms.
“Couldn’t you have changed into… well, to your other form? The skin heals when you revert to normality, right?”
“When injured, my body is damaged the same as any other, and as for the transformation, the skin is merely reformed into what you saw. Any wound will remain after the fact. I cannot heal all that much faster than you would,” she explained. “You gave no answer to my question, Ravi. What am I to do with you?”
“That isn’t a question worth asking, especially not of me. You’re the only one that can make that decision. All I can offer you is another apology.”
“Fortunately for you, I don’t seem to get tired of hearing them.”
“Lucky me,” he replied with a wry smile.
They waited patiently past noon while warm currents carried fallen leaves over the mountainside. For all his searching, Ravi had no success in finding Tsuya’s elusive twin, someone sure to know the location of the medical tome her sister had spoken of. Perhaps she had picked out a more secluded spot to do her loafing, he had thought, and eventually decided to take watch until she made herself present. To his astonishment however, the girl was hidden in plain sight.
“Why.” That flat word was all he could manage. Atop the wooden rafters, snugly fitted into one of many protruding eaves of the Hall of Heavens, Ashi lay hibernating with one leg dangling below. Leaving Ai sitting on the veranda, Ravi marched himself over to her to wake her, but when she gave no response, he pointed a finger upwards and blasted a weak wave of air between the rafters, just enough to rouse her from her sleep. She flailed in surprise and, in her confusion, plummeted several metres through the air. Ravi’s arms reached out to catch the maiden, but his feeble arms couldn’t handle the girl’s momentum. They crashed messily to the ground.
“So it was you hiding away up there,” he observed. Ashi clearly harboured a complaint but appeared too bewildered to argue, so he pushed on, “I need to ask for your help, Miss Ashi. My sister is ailing and in need of a ritual to cleanse her body of the decay ess-”
“Huh?” she interrupted.
“She requires a ritual-”
“Hush.”
“Miss Ashi!”
“Listen Ravi boy, you might be a guest here, but why do you expect help from someone you just shot to the ground?” Ashi’s manner had changed completely from when they had met the day before, and bore no semblance to her sister’s dignified composure.
“I can only say that I’m sorry. It’s something I seem to be doing a lot lately.”
“If you don’t like it, don’t do it,” she replied simply. It was obviously a creed the girl would live and die by.
“Fine. I came to see you on Sio’s recommendation. She was the one that told me to find you. I need to find a medical tome, the oldest this shrine possesses.”
Ashi’s next expression was one of clarity, like an acceptance of fate before death.
“So it’s like that, is it? If it’s the wish of Lady Sio then the least I can do is take a look. I already know the book you’re asking for.”
“Just what kind of person is she to you?” Ravi asked. It was getting tiring seeing a woman of such conceit bring everyone to her heel like obedient dogs.
“She’s a symbol of the very thing that we worship. The only thing that could surpass the honour of her visit would be an audience with the Ten Heavens themselves.”
“So what, she’s some kind of religious figure?”
“Are you telling me you travelled with one of the Heavens’ Hundred without even knowing? What kind of rock do you live under?”
“Whichever suits,” he replied. “Shall we go?”
Ravi was loath to waste any more time and the girl’s patience was waning, but she gave him no further trouble. They rounded the corner of the building and headed inside. Fuu’s occasional murmurs had lost their voice. She hadn’t moved an inch. How could she, locked within her slumber like a soulless shell?
“There’s something… ravenous circulating through her body, sapping away her vitality like a parasite. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this,” Ashi described as she measured Fuu’s pulse.
“Tsuya claimed it was some kind of ‘decay essence’, she seemed to think it shouldn’t exist anymore.”
“I’ve no notion as to why. We’ve treated others that wandered here from the forest, although usually they’re wide awake. Each and every one of them died. Those in the late stages of infection often lose all sense of identity and try claiming that they’re part of some kind of huge network, a Decay Nexus, and that they have seen the First Heaven. And then they die.”
Ravi dropped to one knee, “That’ll happen to Fuu?”
“I wouldn’t get close to your sister from now on,” Ashi warned. She pointed to a small cluster of glistening black spots at the opening of Fuu’s mouth. “See that mould between her lips? She’s already become infectious, and it’ll only get worse as they continue to spread. Do not touch her, unless you’d like to share in her fate.”
With obedient reluctance, Ravi backed away from his sister. He dared not speak any further in fear that her fragile form would shatter into pieces. That small space left between them might as well have been a thousand miles.
Delaying no longer, Ashi left for the rear of the building and returned minutes later carrying an obscenely thick book in both hands. Her breath was laboured and her cheeks a tomato swell, she had to squat slightly to support its surprising weight.
“This is…” she huffed, lowering the book onto an offering table toward the back of the room, “...your medical tome, as requested.”
Brittle and yellowed like flakes of dead skin, the ancient pages threatened to crumble at Ravi’s touch as he flicked through the book’s introductory section. Isn’t this great? The paper might disintegrate before I find the right entry. Briefly scanning the list of contents however, that problem soon slipped from his mind.
“The author mentions this book as being written during the ‘Haken’ period. I’ve never heard that name before,” Ravi murmured.
Ashi leaned closer for a look at the page, “Nor have I.”
“I get the feeling that this wasn’t written around the Senma period, nor even the age before that.” Ravi’s eyes fell upon the final line. “See there, Ashi? This tome is the property of the Imperial Library of Seihito. It was written in the Dark Age of Stagnation, just before the collapse of the world’s greatest nation. This isn’t just some old book, it’s a relic of your people’s forgotten history.”
The maiden simply shook her head, “I can’t read it. How can you be sure what it says?”
“Because I can read it, courtesy of the Royal Archives back in Hanshi.”
Turning the page, a small paragraph of handwritten scrawls drew Ravi’s eye. Supplementary Notes: New Entry Regarding The First Heaven’s Scourge, The Seihito Rotfever.
“Seihito rotfever?” Ravi read aloud.
“What’s that?”
“I’ve no idea, but with a name like that, it might just be what we’re looking for.”
Flipping the delicate tome onto its front, he combed through the rearmost pages and soon overturned a collection of loose papers with a similarly handwritten title.
“Here it is. The symptoms match,” he said, running a finger along the page. “Notes on epidemiology- geographical distribution records and infectivity, as well as a brief section on containment advice. Treatment methodology...”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ashi pointed at the few lines beside Ravi’s finger, “This? Not very detailed, is it?”
“There isn’t much to detail.” The writings were scant even for an otherwise rushed report. Conventional medicines shown to be ineffective against the rapidly spreading pathogen. Applications of wolfsbane produced limited results, however the dosage required to alleviate the onset sickness induced vomiting and respiratory complications, leading to death in more than half of these instances.
“Does wolfsbane grow in this area?” The maiden shook her head. Ravi turned back to the page. “That’s probably for the best.”
Acting upon a report from the Mizūmi Prefecture, tenfold point rituals were conducted throughout Zensei under moonlight. Those suffering from the early stages of rotfever benefited greatly from these rituals, though prolonged contact with the diseased eventually has led to mass infection throughout the city’s temples.
“If we’re to believe what’s written here, Fuu can be cured through something called a tenfold point ritual. Is that something you’re capable of doing?”
“Tenfold? I’ve only ever practised that ritual with Lady Sio, and it’s been years since then. From what I remember, tiny peachwood swords are used to pierce the subject’s skin. Whoever performs the ritual uses their own magic to imbue the swords with moonlight, which draws toxins from the body… I think, at least. I’ll need to refresh my memory on the details. What about the other pages?”
Ravi had already scanned through them briefly, not lingering on their macabre contents. There were ten, maybe eleven pages, and all were filled so completely that the paper was near-black.
“They list names.”
Ashi picked out the report and examined it more closely. “Names of the infected?”
“The dead. It’s a list of identified rotfever victims that died in the academic ward of Zensei, and it looks like they ran out of space.”
“Oh,” Ashi blinked. “That’s... dark.”
“It’s done. These people suffered in a time forgotten by history. My sister is still alive.”
“She is. I’ll skim through our other books to see if I can find anything on the ritual she needs. As for the best conditions for moonlight, we might want to head up to the Summit Shrine at Hema’s peak,” she explained. Lifting the hefty tome from the table, her entire body began to tremble like a newborn deer. “You’ll need to scout ahead. Hema’s peak is deserted, dark things stalk the summit. Nobody’s visited that shrine for over a decade.”
Ravi grinned, “Whatever it takes.”
The news was enough to rekindle the hope he had refused to let go of. A solution had been found, and he would delve to the lowest depths of the Late Dark to reach it. Fists balled and jaw clenched, his walls of doubt became foundations to walk upon. Night could not come soon enough.
“You,” a woman strained to speak. It was a haggard voice, unmistakably belonging to Fuu. Ravi spun in place. Her teeth were gritted and eyes tightly shut in a pained grimace as she began to convulse where she lay. Ravi rushed over and kneeled at her side. It was then that he noticed the faint mark on her forearm. He recognised it instantly. Though the grazes were only slight, barely enough to break the skin, they were just enough for him to discern the reading of the two characters. A name had been scratched into her skin, and it was one that Ravi would have been glad to forget.
“Yu Diao,” he muttered. Even hundreds of miles away, at the end of the country, he could not escape the imperial servant’s meddling.
“Ravi Chen,” came an answer from behind over the sound of approaching footsteps. Ravi moved, but the newcomer moved faster, forcing him back onto his knees. Metal pressed sharply against his windpipe, halting his breathing. Another sleek dagger sought out the prized targets beneath his ribcage and poked into the thin skin of his chest.
“Stupid people tend to die stupid deaths. Give me my satisfaction by proving me right.”
The sight sapped the strength from Ashi’s legs, the weight of the heavy tome finally brought her to the ground. Ravi’s position wasn’t much better, any slight adjustment threatened to give the knives the last push required to pierce his vitals.
“Were you really hiding away all that time?” he asked stiffly.
“I wanted to know just what kind of mess you’ve gotten yourself into, Chen, and I want you to explain to me exactly how you managed to let the daughter of Daishun Jie get into such a sorry state,” Yu snarled, though his formal manner still remained.
“Fuu is-”
“Lady Jie,” Yu interrupted.
“Lady Fuu is suffering from a disease, Seihito rotfever, though if you truly have been listening in like a loafing roach, you know that already. She contracted it a day ago as we passed through Mogu.”
“Mogu- the forest? You’re right on the Sen border! Which part of that pathetic brain made you think that bringing our country’s heir to the enemy gates was a good idea?” he exploded, eloquently composing himself only a moment later. “You’re a sorry excuse for a bastard child. It’s a wonder the Jishu is still alive.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you. How much more of her strength did you drain by coming here?”
Yu released Ravi and shoved him away. “She carved my name of her own accord. I didn’t have a choice in coming here- you did.”
Ravi could see the man now in his blue silken shirt and trousers. Grey courtly shoes were worn on his feet and a similarly coloured cap adorned his wavy hair that was held back neatly with a clip of pinewood. As always, his beard was clean shaven, leaving only his sideburns.
Shuffling backward, Ravi rose to a low crouch, “You should’ve stayed admiring the magnolias in the court gardens. Tended to your duties. Found a new obsession. You should’ve left us alone.”
“No, Ravi. The Jishu is my only duty even hundreds of miles from home, and now she has entrusted me with righting the wrongs caused by her incompetent half-brother. I very much intend on carrying out her will,” Yu grinned, and his sooty eyes became alight with a flame that matched Ravi’s own.
The Jishun bore his teeth, “And I mine.”
It was then that the servant charged. Sparing him no opportunity, Ravi unleashed a barrage of air bullets from his fingertip. Yu was thrown across the hall, crashing into a table of burning candles and incense toward the back of the room. A mixture of ash and molten wax spilled onto the polished wooden flooring around him.
“I can see you’ve practised some little tricks of your own while you’ve been gone,” remarked Yu as he regained his footing. “I thought you found such things to be a waste of time.”
Another wave of air slammed Yu against the ground, snapping the tabletop entirely in two on his way down. His gritty choking spurred Ravi closer, index finger extended at the ready. He buffeted the man over and over, beating him senseless with the very air around him until his breath had been forced from his lungs and he lay squirming helplessly. How pathetic he looked, gasping like a stranded fish. Ravi shook his head in disgust. It was a momentary distraction occupying him just long enough for Yu to retaliate. The dagger came at him too quickly, Ravi took notice too slowly. His mind flashed with pain, and a warm wave washed over the left of his face. He had been hit. A tentative hand probed his cheek and found a freshly made gash that viciously underlined his eye. Ravi cursed loudly in a language that he wasn’t sure existed.
When he returned his attention to the table’s wreckage, the servant had already disappeared. Ravi scanned left and right for his enemy in a room of silence where religious banners and ceramic ornaments lay undisturbed. He carefully backed toward the entrance of the building with his full attention now on the closest of the room’s supporting pillars. Their wood was that of cypress trees and not particularly thick, but just enough to avoid notice.
His cheek throbbed with every beat of his heart as he stood in wait. The blade had slashed deeply, perhaps even to the bone. A gesture to be graciously repaid. Ravi’s suspicions about the closest pillar proved true and Yu leapt out, closing the distance between them in an instant.
“Try harder, Ravi.” Yu seized his neck and dragged him from the hall before hurling him down the stairs of the veranda. His body crashed painfully against the wooden slabs. “For reasons beyond me, Lady Jie seems to adore you. For her sake, I’ll give you a chance to scurry away, as befits an alley rat.”
“And I’ll cut out your whoreson’s tongue, you pompous, powdered shitheap,” Ravi spat back.
“Ah, that’s what I’ve been waiting to hear. The rough manner of a back alley child born to a lord and, the last I heard of it, an everyman’s whore. Poor choice of words, Chen.”
“Watch your mouth!”
“How many men were satisfied by your mother’s?” laughed Yu.
It was more than Ravi could handle. Vision turning red, he screamed profanities the likes of which might have surprised even himself as he ascended the steps. Such thoughts were beyond him now. All he could see was the offender before him that would soon be laying battered and broken, snivelling like a babe for mercy.
Yu acted first. A swift, straight kick struck Ravi square in the forehead and knocked him back to the ground, hard. He rolled backwards and staggered to his feet. In his careless pursuit, Yu leapt slowly and gracefully from the veranda, throwing his arms up into a shrug.
“Haven’t these two years on the run taught you anything about survival? Standing there and screaming won’t win you the fight.”
Ravi extended his arm again, sending a desperate barrage of bullets rocketing toward Yu’s centre. The servant danced around them, and chunks of gravel exploded from the floor with every shot missed. Before Ravi could re-adjust, Yu batted away his hand and twisted into a second crushing kick. The Jishun’s eyes bulged in his head. A stream of saliva shot from his mouth and he fell stunned onto his rear.
“What is it about you, Chen?” Yu lowered into a squat and yanked Ravi by his hair. “You murdered and manipulated your way through the court, and for what? To get a little closer to your daddy? Well, I’m glad to see that your course has finally been righted. You’re so far from home, and the honour of taking your wretched life has passed to me.” Yu’s face was hard now, lacking the carelessness from before. His remaining dagger rose to Ravi’s throat.
“Not likely.” Buffeted by a compressed stream of air, a cloud of gravel shards sprayed the faces of the young men, and dug like a mist of razors into the unexpecting eyes of Yu Diao. Ravi tore the servant’s hand away from his face and drove his elbow into Yu’s wide-bridged nose to a grotesque crunch. Spurting blood decorated the bare skin of Ravi’s chest.
“All the way out here, I’m growing stronger by the day. It’s what I want- what I need to happen. I’ll be returning to Hanshi sooner than you or any of those fools slumbering in the capital would like to believe, and what shall they say when I arrive with the blessing of the Ten?”
“The Mandate of Heaven?” Yu laughed spitefully, two trickles of red streaming down his face. “That’s a fancy delusion. How do you propose to gain such a prize?”
Ravi didn’t answer. He had none to give. Throughout history, the Mandate had manifested seemingly at random. The only exception to the rule was when the mark was bestowed directly by those that carried a piece of the Heavens within them, the Hundred Hosts, but most had died in ages long passed.
Most, but not Sio. His eyes widened as Ashi’s words echoed in his mind. Are you telling me you travelled with one of the Heavens’ Hundred without even knowing?
Yu sneered, “So I thought. Now, if you’re done playing around…”
“Enough,” another voice asserted, and the owner planted herself firmly in front of Ravi. “I will stand for this man.”
Yu eyed the woman cautiously. The interruption was momentary, but enough for the gathering crowd around the commotion to intervene. More stepped forward, monks and maidens alike, all eager to put an end to the unsightly spectacle.
“Why would a servant of the Heavens vouch for such scum? This traitor is Ravi Chen, although you might know him better by his father’s name, Daishun Jie. Through murder and deceit he betrayed his country and all of humanity beneath Heaven. Grant me this chance for retribution.”
“I am afraid not,” answered a monk, wide-faced and stoutly built, his eyes unmarked. “It is clear to see that the boy still lives despite the crimes you claim. We stand upon holy ground and yet the Heavens have not yet decreed his death. Would you have us believe that they have chosen you as their instrument?”
“I don’t claim any such thing,” Yu replied. The fierceness of his expression simmered away as he took in his surroundings, the mess of gravel scattered across weathered stone tiles and, in a moment of clarity, seemed to remember his servile humility. He bowed stiffly to the monk that had spoken. “It was not my intention to cause such a scene at your shrine. I apologise for the commotion and my rudeness.”
The monk nodded, “Of course. I must admit that your presence comes as a surprise, we were not expecting any more visitors. Could I trouble you for your name?”
Ai took the opportunity to steal away through the growing crowd, leading the Jishun by his arm like a disobedient child. Although the long and deep slash beneath his eye sang loudly with pain, his sister’s servant had wounded pride more than flesh. He dared not turn back. Ai spoke not a word until they had returned to their room and the sly opportunity for revenge was seized upon. The glee with which she smeared the potent spice-smelling gurumoss into his face was nothing short of sadistic. So terribly did it burn that, in closing his eyes, he could clearly visualise a fiery swarm of insects burrowing into his cheekbone.
“That wasn’t necessary.” Ravi tentatively touched his cheek after the ordeal had finally ended, stopping just short of the wound. Ai admired her handiwork with a smirk of satisfaction.
“Oh? Then why did you make no effort to stop me?”
“I thought I’d let you have your fun. It’s only fair, right?”
“Come now, don’t sit there with that defeated look, Ravi. Who was that man to bother you so deeply?”
“He’s Fuu’s personal handservant, and he’s a real asshole.”
“Why were the two of you fighting if he serves your sister?”
“Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? High treason isn’t punished with a simple beating, Ai, they ordered my living body to be carved apart like slaughtered cattle- a death of many cuts.” Ravi’s tone grew tired and wistful as he recounted the cold, hard granite walls that had confined him. “I’m alive rather than a mutilated corpse only because Fuu gave up her life in Hanshi to save me, her disgraced half brother.” Unrolling his futon, he lay on his side, his attentive stare still directed toward Ai. Resting against the door, she hugged her knee and met him with her own peculiar gaze.
“That man referred to you as Chen,” she said.
“That man finds my very existence to his distaste. It’s a surname of my mother’s, adopted after leaving Jinha. I grew up as Ravi Chen during my years in the lower districts of Hanshi, and after being taken into custody by the eunuchs of the Royal Harem, I chose to go by the name of my father, Wunei Jie. That name is my birthright.”
“Your friend doesn’t seem to agree.”
“Yu Diao’s lineage is of royal pedigree, as are almost all officials of the court. I’m just a common, half-bred bastard that wandered into their exclusive little group. They became bitter, like children forced to share their toys.”
“Or perhaps it was because you killed one of them,” Ai shrugged.
Ravi’s face hardened, “Do you think me a mindless cut-throat?” Scorn laced his words, yet there was no blame he could lay upon the woman, any would have held the same suspicions against him. “The man I killed was named Lao Xiaozi, master of eunuchs in the Royal Harem. Being removed from the carnal desires of uncut men, they make perfect candidates for tending to the women of the Harem and raising the children of the Daishun. But dear Master Xiaozi was no eunuch.”
“How can you be sure?”
“How? I’ve seen with my own eyes. He gave all of his favourites his very special attention,” he looked away, “So I’m pretty sure.”
Ravi stopped himself from speaking any further. An acidic taste welled in his mouth; he refused to continue. He turned to lay upon his back and stared hard at the floral patterns of the ceiling to hold the torrent of invasive memories at bay. When that failed him and the inevitable came, he meandered out of the room to wherever his feet would take him, hoping the tranquil basin of the shrine would occupy his mind long enough to subdue the demons of his past once more.