Chapter 2: Stone Heart, Spicy Hand (心狠手辣)
Explicit encounter on AO3
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Daiwen woke on hard sonte in cold darkness. Thin tendrils of soft gray smoke wound up over them and whorled to the temple ceiling. The roots and vines that first held the stones of the temple in a crushing chokehold had retreated to the far corners of the roof and the walls.
Daiwen pried their sticky back just enough off the floor to roll on their sticky side. The fire had burned to ashes and glowing embers, but in the lesser light, they could see all the colors of the floor's mosaic-it wasn't even as broken as it had first appeared.
Five linked rings sat within the cirle of colored stones. Each ring depicted a different element in minimalist shapes-earth, wood, water, fire, and-the priest's re-robed knee covered what should have been the ring of metal.
The priest sat on their heels, both hands limp at their sides. Their head slumped over one shoulder at the angle of a broken neck. Their hair fell in a black sheet over their face, covering all but a single eye over a sliver of moon pale skin. The eye met Daiwen's.
"I decided not to sacrifice you."
"Thank you…?" Daiwen croaked in confusion.
The words burned their throat. Their entire body ached and burned from last night's brutal sex. Their stomach growled. The priest's veil of hair shifted slightly over where their mouth would've been.
"If you can convince the gate guardian to let you through, there is a city not far away."
"I don't have any money."
They didn't have anything anymore. And their mother had even less. Daiwen could only hope she was somewhere in the Mingdao Wood as well. Life and nothing was better than going home to meet their deaths in the village.
If the city was as near as the priest suggested, maybe their mother had already made her way there. Money or not, Daiwen had to check. They crawled up onto their aching hands and knees.
The priest pointed a curved finger at the dying embers in the ashes.
"I don't have much time left. If you want to return to your world, pass through the five gates and wake the Sleeping God."
"I don't understand."
A brisk, whistling wind swept in from the hall. The ashes flew into the air. Daiwen threw their arms over their face. The wind streaked frigid soot across their skin. They shivered into the dying gust.
The ashes fell in slow spirals like soft, gray snowflakes. Daiwen looked across the falling curtain of soot. The priest had vanished.
Daiwen's skin itched and pricked with unborn sweat. A dagger of fear stabbed through their gut. They understood. By their necromancy, they'd sinned against the spirit world. As punishment, they'd been spirited away like the villain of every bedtime story.
Daiwen's throat closed up tight, blood pounding in their ears. They ran out of the empty room, each breath a new burst of fire in their lungs. Their bare feet smacked stone, picking up speed with every step. Daiwen sprinted into the gray daylight from the temple's now unbroken windows.
Heavy wooden doors, painted red, hung in the temple's doorway. Daiwen shoved at them with desperate strength. Their palms met air. The doors swung open of their own accord.
Daiwen yelped and tumbled naked down the temple stairs. They fell to the cobblestone walkway in a heap of red scrapes and purpling bruises. They couldn't catch their panting breath.
Daiwen picked themself up with a wince and shallow hiss. They pulled the black tangles of hair out of their eyes. The walkway, hedged by dark green moss on either side, led down to the same wall they'd glimpsed last night. Only now, the wall stood as tall as the trees. The sloped clay tiles that lined its top blocked out even the canopies.
Their eyes darted wildly, searching for the gateway. They spotted the name of the temple carved into the archway. New stone blocks bricked up the only exit.
"No...No!"
Daiwen staggered and ran to the end of the walkway. They slammed their palms against the stones.
"No, please, let me out!"
They screamed and pounded until their hands left red smears on the gritty stone. They drew back with a ragged breath dripping blood and sweat onto the walkway.
The gate guardian. The priest said there was a gate guardian. They hadn't come to investigate Daiwen's physical disturbance. They had to be a spirit.
"Fuck."
Daiwen's one breach into the spirit world had been through their aura, their necromancy, and pure chance. They had no idea if they could find that magic again, and even if they did, there was no guarantee that the guardian wouldn't kill them for what they were.
Daiwen looked back at the towering, empty temple. They would rather be killed swift and just than shrivel away from starvation. They placed both red palms on the gateway stones.
"Gate Guardian, come to me."
Their aura flared. Purple spirit light wreathed their body and spread through the space around them like ink spilling into the air.
The stones rumbled under their palms. Daiwen broke into a sweat but didn't draw back. They leaned into the wall.
The solid weight vanished under them. Daiwen screamed hoarse and fell into the wall. A smooth circle of stone cinched around their waist. Their arms and upper body dropped against one side of the stone wall. Their hips and knees bashed against the other.
Daiwen croaked out a pained cry. They braced their hands against the stone blocks and pushed. Their hips only banged against the bricks, their waist trapped in an unyielding grip. They couldn't move.
Daiwen screamed a rasping shriek. They kicked and pounded the wall with force fed by sheer panic. The rough bricks scraped through the skin. Their futile blows left dripping red ribbons around both sides of the hole.
The quiet green forest in front of them blurred. Burning tears fell to the mat of dead and molding leaves. At the top of their wavering gaze were the woven tips of two black silk boots. Daiwen raised their head and parted their tangles.
A warrior in armor of hardened bamboo slats woven in spidersilk stood less than arm's length away. Silk strands wrapped around and reinforced the horned ox skull that they wore as a helm. It cast all but the grim line of their mouth in shadow. Four burning pits glowed green from the back of the warrior's skull.
"I am Tushenmen (土神門), guardian of the earthen gate. What are you doing in my wall?"
"Nothing, please, I just want to get out."
"The stones do not trap the innocent."
"I know-I know I did something wrong, but I didn't mean to. It was an accident. Please, have mercy."
"What did you do?"
"I..."
Daiwen shook their head. They hadn't done anything. It wasn't their fault.
Their palms sank into the wall. Daiwen rasped out a yelp. Stone closed in tight circles around their wrists. The wall yanked both of their arms back, forcing their back into an upward curve. Their eyes met the four glowing pits in the dark of the guardian's helm. Behind the wall, their hands trembled and sweat on either side of their hips.
"What did you do?"
"I was scared. Somehow-I don't know-I accidentally stole energy from the spirit world and used it to bring my father back to life. Kind of."
"The dead can't return by accident. They are brought back with intent, necromancer," the spirit spat the word like a curse.
"No! No! I'm not a-"
The guardian's bare knuckles cracked across their cheek. Their vision blurred, tears spilling over. But the guardian was right.
Daiwen couldn't remember their fear of the bandit lord. They remembered only their anger, their hatred. Daiwen had wished death on the lord and raised their father in undeath to make that wish come true.
"I...am a necromancer."
They looked back up at the guardian, but their glowing green eyes only stared at the earth brown skin of their hand. Daiwen's cheek still burned and smarted from the blow. Daiwen raised a dark, curious brow.
"You felt something when you struck me."
"...my hand felt human."
Everything clicked. They were a spirit. Daiwen was a necromancer. They stole life to give to the dead, and what a precious gift it had to be.
"Take off your armor."
The guardian went as still as the unyielding stones. Only their four glowing eyes moved, meeting Daiwen's.
"Take off your armor, and I'll make all of you feel human again."
The guardian stared at them in silence. Daiwen's pulse pounded in their ears, their fearful breath short and shallow.
The guardian's head lowered. Their hands moved to the straps of their armor.