He had been in such places before. The strange tiered cities burrowing into the ground, or sometimes strange structures of clutching coral and bedrock. But every one he had been in had been long abandoned. The coral lamps were snuffed. The temperature so cold that frost formed on empty windows and crumbling ground. There were libraries. All the cities of Fish People had libraries. But they were always empty. When they had fled, they took everything. There was not a scrap of paper left. There was no laundry forgotten. No grain of rice or speck of barley. Even the doors were removed to buildings. Everything would be hollow. Everything would be dark. Like the deepest depths of the ocean.

But not this city.

There was still life.

Yet where? He could not hear anything besides Ji Ying and Bo arguing nearby while Li Baobao tried to calm them both, Rui Yifu was staring into the tiers as the lift slowly clanked downwards. Ji Ying, as obnoxious as she was, had been right. It was strange nobody was coming and yet he could feel there were still people around. If he had not destroyed the mirror he used to talk with him, he would have asked the Jade Prince about it. He was the only one who seemed marginally unbothered by the existence of Fish People, but Liu Xie doubted he would get a straight answer from him. He felt his hands begin to clench up.

He had known. He had known that the Lady of Calm Waters had been stealing faces and decided to not do anything! He was always like this! Playing his stupid games and then feigning offense when others got caught up in it. He knew, and he still let the Lady of Calm Waters be the one to carve the oaths into his back.

"Don't break the railing," Rui Yifu's voice pulled him from his thoughts and he looked down. His hands were wrapped around the railing, the metal having folded under his squeezing fingers.

"Is it always this empty?" Liu Xie asked as casually as he could. He rubbed his arm, it ached although he was not sure why.

Rui Yifu sighed softly, "it's been like this for as long as I've been around at least. People still come through, but nobody lives here."

"It's strange, it still feels like people are here," Liu Xie looked into one tier the lift slowly descended past. There were buildings there, with doors. The lights of the coral lanterns illuminated the windows, glances of sparse furnishings coated in dust. "I've been to... a few cities. All empty. No scrap of paper in the libraries, or hints of food in homes."

"Libraries..." Rui Yifu muttered. "Ah, it's on the same tier as the gates."

"What?"

"I need to go find a book," Rui Yifu replied. "The library here hasn't been removed. People still come to take or leave books. If I'm lucky, the book I want will still be in there."

Liu Xie frowned, "do we actually have time for that?" He wanted to get Idony, and going through stacks of books did not seem particularly helpful in that.

"The gate I know will take us right to the place the village should be. If we're really lucky it'll be right on the river. If not, it should be nearby."

"How do you know this?"

"I used to work for the Northern Kingdom as an official," Rui Yifu answered, a wistful look came over his face. "Part of the exams involved studying all the arable land locations known in the kingdom."

"An official?" Li Baobao seemed to have sprouted out the floor beside them. "H-how? Isn't the Northern Kingdom really good at detecting Fish People? When we entered the Western Kingdom we had to-"

Rui Yifu laughed, it sounded like a weird sharp snorting chuckle. "Who do you think came up with those?" He asked. "We don't actually need to be regularly dipped in water," he then held up the flask as Li Baobao began to open his mouth. "I need this because I'm ill. If I was a hundred years younger or in a new body I wouldn't need it."

"W-what are you sick with?" Li Baobao asked, more meekly and apologetic now. Liu Xie almost wanted to reach out and pat the curly haired young man and assure him it was fine to ask questions.

"Old age and curses," Rui Yifu answered before he looked over the railing, "also we'll be approaching the tier very soon. We'll need to jump."

"It won't stop?" Liu Xie looked upwards. The place they had come for had long disappeared into the darkness.

"No, not without someone else operating it," Rui Yifu shrugged. "There used to be a mechanism that did it by itself, but someone stole that."

Liu Xie sighed before giving some of his attention to the two squabblers who stood face to face with each other yelling. "Hey! Children! We'll need to jump off soon."

"THAT'S GREAT I THINK SHE SHOULD JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE GROUND," Bo yelled, red faced.

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"I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME!" Ji Ying screeched back. Bo immediately socked her in the face, her nose loudly crunching beneath his fist. Like a well trained soldier she retaliated quickly, launching a boot straight between Bo's legs.

"P-please stop fighting," Li Baobao whimpered.

Liu Xie had been paying absolutely no attention to Ji Ying or Bo and did not know what they were arguing and now fighting about, but he knew it was in no way important to getting Idony back and decided he had no patience for it. He walked over to them both and, grabbing them by the back of their clothes, physically pulled them apart. "You two can kill each other later," he said sternly. "Ji Ying, I'm thankful that Lady Gu thought to send help but if you want to stay you cannot get into fights with everyone." He could not believe the words coming out of his own mouth. Was this what being a parent felt like? He was beginning to sympathize with his mother. It was not a good feeling.

"Why not?" She asked through the blood pouring down her nose, "not like any of you are great people."

"Jump!" Rui Yifu shouted.

Bo pulled himself free of Liu Xie's grip, grabbing Bo and hurling them both off the lift. Liu Xie let go of Ji Ying to follow, spryly leaping from the lift onto cold marble tiled ground and stirring up dust, managing to avoid landing feet first on Bo's leg by a finger's width. Rui Yifu appeared next, staggering a few steps before righting himself, and then came Ji Ying whose bloody face was still twisted with anger.

The level they had landed on was just as quiet and as empty as the ones they had passed. All the buildings seemed to be natural growths from the ceiling or the floor, with the doors and windows simply carved on. Closer now one could see the delicate carvings on some of the buildings. In the shapes of fish of all sorts, grand geometric designs, maidens. As Liu Xie got closer to one building, he could see the dim remnants of red and green paint on one carved relief's form.

The floor, besides the coat of dust on it, also showed occasional patterning. Darker pieces of marble set into whiter ones to create careful shapes of long sinuous dark forms under grey and white waves, pierced through by smaller lines of grey stone that had a channel in it as wide as a finger.

"Hey!" Bo's voice unsettled the strange quiet of the empty city. "Rui! What is this stuff?"

Liu Xie spotted Bo crouched down with Li Baobao and Ji Ying both on either side of them, also looking down. He sighed, Idony was so close but people kept getting distracted. He was strongly considering walking off, but seeing the blood on Ji Ying and Bo's clothes and faces reminded him that he was now functioning as a father for multiple people.

He walked over to stand behind Bo and look over him, finding the young man's eyes were firmly focused on a thick pearlescent liquid that was slowly creeping through one of the grey channels. A stirring of exhaustion and relief filled him. But it was not his own.

His eyes followed the channel, which moved all the way to the end of the tier, going over the side towards the light below.

"Bo, don't eat it."

Rui Yifu had walked up beside Li Baobao, leaning slightly to look down at Bo.

"I'm not," Bo said, his hand hovering right above the liquid. "I'm just going to touch it, what is it anyway?"

"What do you think it is?" Liu Xie asked, glancing back at Rui Yifu who gave him a curious shrug.

Bo immediately jabbed a finger into the liquid and shuddered, pulling it back and getting up. "Fuck!" He was wiping his finger but there was nothing to remove.

"Is it hot?" Ji Ying asked.

"No! It... it doesn't really feel like hot or cold but," Bo was struggling to put his words together and Liu Xie could see the shock and horror in the man's face. "But it's... it's someone."

"It's numerous souls," Rui Yifu pointed to a windowless building that several of the channels emerged from. The channel they were standing around was one of them. Of all the buildings, it looked most like it had been recently used. There was a footpath through the dust that led into it, but none that came out of it, yet the building felt dense with life. "People go in to die."

"Die? So is that what happens to the old here?" Bo asked, as though hopeful for a confirmation.

"No," Rui Yifu answered flatly.

Liu Xie turned away, "we should find those gates you talked about Rui."

"First we need to stop by the library."

"Fine, library and then-"

"I want to see what's inside," Bo said.

Liu Xie blinked, "what?" he said, surprised to hear Rui Yifu say the exact same word at the same time.

"I want to see inside," Bo said again, "if... if... my family. My family were part of your kind, Rui Yifu. I want to know..." his voice trailed off. His features softened and Liu Xie saw not the scrappy young man he knew but a small sad boy. "I just want to see what happens."

Rui Yifu stared at Bo for a long time, the silence rising up around them again like the tide. Then Rui Yifu looked over at Liu Xie, "you're his teacher right? What do you think?"

Liu Xie continued to stare at Bo. The young man looked back at him, somewhere between pleading and grief. The young man he met in that alleyway who wanted revenge now wanted answers. "If he wants to know, he should be allowed to see," Liu Xie finally answered, hoping Bo would not regret his decision.

"You heard what your teacher said, go look," Rui Yifu pointed to the door of the building.

Bo immediately walked to the door, stiff legged, and Liu Xie followed him. The door easily opened and the strong stench of fish guts and rot immediately swept over them both and Liu Xie decided he was happy to not have a stomach. Bo bent over and gagged.

"I'm gonna vomit," Ji Ying announced behind them.

"Please don't," Rui Yifu sounded disgusted.

Li Baobao's voice was a faint moan of revulsion.

Liu Xie stood beside Bo at the entrance of the building, ready to pull the gagging man back to his feet if he needed it. But gradually Bo stopped choking on the stench and pushed on inside. Liu Xie followed him into a well-lit chamber, which was almost dazzling in its brightness compared to the dingy outside. Above were shapes of sea vegetation cast in glass, light pouring out from them. The ceiling had been painted with scenes of great towering mountains and entrancing ocean depths. Inside of the chamber itself were rows of coral slabs, with an odd wriggling texture to them, piles of wet moldering cracked bones and rotting cloth on either side. Old layers of blood had congealed, dried, moistened, congealed, dried again on their numerous grooves, which left streaks going down their sides and onto the ground. On each slab was a single hole, which had a groove deeper than the others that went downwards, sloping into the floor, where they all joined together in the middle of the room where a handful of pearls sat in a small well, bobbing up and down in pearlescent liquid.

It was a room to die in.