Taiki lay awake, pain stabbing through him. He'd smacked hard against several large rocks on his way down, and the remaining climb to the top of the mountain hadn't improved the pain. Neither had his own sense of helplessness, slowing down the rescue effort when he should be flying up the mountain under his own power. He knew Risai knew it, as well. He could see the looks she gave him. They were just like the ones the nyousen had first given him on Mount Hou, after he confessed that he had no idea how to turn into a kirin.
Except back then, he didn't know what was wrong. Now he knew, and that didn't help in the slightest. He couldn't just re-grow his horn. He wanted that so badly that if wanting could mae it so, it would have been the truth long ago.
His knee pounded with agony, and Taiki gritted his teeth. The worst part about his injury, though he couldn't share such information with Risai, was that it was his fault. He'd lost his concentration. For a moment, just a moment, he'd been sure he heard his master's voice, calling to him from a dark, faraway place.
He'd faltered, his foot turning a sliver of an inch towards the voice, because he had to obey his master's voice, had to come when his master called. He'd broken that promise for six years, with disastrous results. He wasn't ever going to break it again.
But then he'd fallen, and the voice had been gone. Perhaps it was something in the wind, sighing mournfully through jagged peaks of crystal all around.
He closed his eyes, determined to sleep despite the pain.
Kouri.
The voice was faint, hardly there, but Taiki heard it nonetheless. He shot up from his bedroll, bitter wind biting into his skin, his hair, his eyes as he scanned the horizon.
"Master?" he whispered, and the wind ripped the words from his lips.
Kouri.
Just that word, just the one word, but Taiki knew it for the summons it was. Come to me, that word said. I, your Lord, command you. I, who named you, who hold the strings of your soul, who serve you all my life as surely as you do for yours, summon you.
Come to me.
Taiki was scrambling over the mountainside, leaving the plateau behind before he'd made a conscious decision to do so. Part of his waking brain told him to go back to camp, at least wake Risai and tell her where he was going, but his soul was telling him there was no time.
He half-ran, half-crawled up the rest of the mountain, paying no attention to the cuts in his hands, the bruises on his knees. His heart told him he had to go, had to go now.
Blinding pain shot through his forehead, and he fell to his knees, clapping his hands over his face. It felt as if someone was driving a knife into him, and he gasped, ragged breathing all he could do until the throbbing pain subsided.
It went away after a few moments, and Taiki climbed unsteadily back to his feet. His vision swam with the aftershocks of the pain, and he shook his head to try and clear it. He strained, trying to hear that voice again on the southern wind, trying to hear his real name just one more time.
"Taiki? What are you doing up here?" Risai asked, sword in hand, looking warily around. She'd apparently climbed up after him, leaving her sleep behind without a moment's hesitation. "Is there something wrong? Do you sense danger?"
"No," Taiki said, swallowing around a lump in his throat. "I don't sense anything."
The wind was silent.
