Tales of the Spirit World: Fall of the Blue Spirit
[MATURE WARNING: Hints of activity of an intimate nature ahead. Please use your discretion]
Part XXXII: Of Resolution
Water, water, everywhere…
He drifted, a helmless bark in the world of a vast dark ocean. The pearl-moon gazed down at him from the empty sky, achingly bright and colder than ice…
Where is this place?
No wind, no waves stirred the world, and yet the water impelled him forward upon a slow, inexorable current, beneath the moon's indifferent scrutiny…
Whence do I go?
The obsidian face of the ocean did not reflect the moon's pure light, but swallowed it covetously, murmuring insensible chortles of triumph…
Why am I here?
The world pitched violently, dark arms like mountains rearing above him, snatching at the hanging moon, and he descended, falling, falling, deeper and deeper into the vast depths where no light reaches…
He screams her name as the darkness swallows him.
Yǎn-sui gasped, his eyelids snapping open. For a terrifying moment, he could not tell the waking world from the dream: water surrounded him, dark and cold, and the sky above had emptied of the moon.
"Yǎn-sui?"
The lingering fragments of dream dissolved at the sound of her voice. He lay in the shallows of her headwater, submerged to his shoulders in the liquid ice that gushed from the earth. Pre-dawn darkness, the dead quiet before sunrise, pressed in on them, wreathed in ghostly mists. Her head had lain on his chest; now, she looked at him, eye-to-eye, her black hair and white hands trailing softly over his naked hide as their legs twined gently in the ebb and flow of the pool. Her scent came to him suffused with the clean bitterness of rain and the greening of new leaves, serene, deathless. Her very presence hummed with muted power, breathtaking in its potential, intoxicating in its purity.
A sudden inexplicable desire to draw her closer, to feel the warming of her flesh as their bodies melted into each other, seized him. He thrust it away, unnerved by the strength of it.
"This is the second time you've had to save me like this," he said quietly, frantically trying to silence the insane demands of his body, or at least ignore them.
"I ordered you not to die," she replied, attempting to smile. "Tell me, do you give Agni this much trouble?"
At the sound of his master's name, his insides seemed to empty. 'Agni. I must return to my true master…'
It was possible the same realization occurred to her just then; Jiān's eyes widened and she hastily turned her head to one side.
"Jiān…" He reached for her then, but she shied away, slipping into deeper water, drawing her hair over her naked shoulders like a veil. He sat up slowly, feeling a strange, heavy ache in his chest like a wound that had refused to heal. At least the urges of lust had subsided at her rejection. "I must go… I must take care of my s… of Qiōng-míng's remains," he told her. She did not respond, did not look at him. "If I leave them where they are," he explained, almost desperately, "they will molder and turn to poison. I must go."
"Go, then," she finally answered. She kept her face averted as he rose and pulled himself out of the pool, Tiào-fěi clinking despondently in its sheath as he retrieved the swords from their place beside the headwater.
"Jiān…" Yǎn-sui turned away, cursing the bitter, hateful helplessness that overwhelmed him at the sight of her. 'What am I thinking? How can I presume to even touch her? Of course she turns away! Agni, she's the daughter of Tui, and thus…' The mists swirled around him as he stalked away, fighting the urge to run.
The smell of blood pervaded the air. He had just crossed the place where Lhamu had been felled by his spawn's sword. Her body had vanished; for a moment, he could almost convince himself that she had not really died, that perhaps Jiān had had time to draw the poison and bind the wound… but the stench of death, of flesh already turned to rot by the poison of demons' blood had insinuated itself as well, and too much blood had steeped into the yielding earth beneath his feet. Yǎn-sui knelt on one knee and scanned the ground. No scrap of horn or even a tuft of fur remained behind as a memento mori. Whoever, or whatever, had claimed Lhamu had been thorough. "In Agni's name, I commend her spirit to Death, acclaiming her a warrior, honorable and true," he intoned, scraping up a handful of moist, blood-soaked earth. He breathed on it, a slender tendril of flame snaking from his lips to engulf the offering, consuming it to ashes. He pressed the remnants to his mouth, swallowing the dust. "May your spirit imbue this unworthy one."
He proceeded down the mountain, passing Jiān's shrine without hesitation. Numbness worked its way into the corners of his mind, and as much as it reminded him of Qiōng-míng, it was easier to drift unawares than to think about anything at all. As it was, he nearly stumbled at the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley, surprised to have arrived so quickly. He stood there for several moments, staring vacantly out into the fog-enshrouded expanse, feeling the heaviness of the bond of his life-debt for the first time in many days. No, that was not right; the chains of Law were weakening every second, dissolving into the nothingness from whence Jiān had summoned it. Then what could possibly press upon him with such terrible weight?
'I do not want to go,' he realized. 'I do not want to part from her. I do not want to return to Agni and become her enemy.' He choked on the caustic laugh that bubbled up from his aching chest. 'Father, did you foresee this?' For once, Tiào-fěi was silent.
Yǎn-sui turned to the spot where his son's corpse lay, a pathetic, crumpled, blood-stained white mass. Qiōng-míng had fortunately expired on bare rock, and the mists and rains of the previous night had not been enough to wash his blood into the river. His hideous face was turned to the side, the head lolling at a bizarre angle on his broken neck and torn throat. The paws that cradled the hilt of his broken saber were frail to the point of feeble; Yǎn-sui found himself wondering just how long his son had actually trained to wield a weapon.
'Koh dispatched him with little more than his wits and an impossible mission – damn Him!' He shook his head violently; he did not feel pity for Qiōng-míng, a liar, a manipulator, and a coward. Demons fought and demons died, never by choice and always by another's design. Why should he feel sorry that his spawn happened to be the victim of Koh's machinations? That's what they all were, in the end.
He crouched beside the body and brushed his claws over Qiōng-míng's horns, abbreviated versions of his own. There would be no question of taking a trophy. Demons often took the horns of foes they had defeated in battle as a testament of prowess, but what was the point? This had been a shadow conflict, an inglorious, mad venture cut short. The idea of taking them simply to desecrate the corpse made the gorge rise in Yǎn-sui's throat, though he could not explain why.
"You used shadows and deceit as your weapons," he found himself saying to the body. "Your death is without honor… but that is not your fault. The fault lies with Him." 'One day, I will make Koh pay for this.'
"How?"
Yǎn-sui jerked his paw back, gaping in disbelief. He had heard it, clearly heard Qiōng-míng's soft, insidious voice sighing in his head.
"How will you defeat Him, father, unless you use the goddess, as I told you?" The sly, grating noise of Qiōng-míng's laughter shivered through him, raising the hairs at the nape of his neck.
"You are dead, and forever silent!" Yǎn-sui told the body. "I summon the Inferno!"
Even as blue-white flames engulfed and devoured armor, flesh, and bone, the mad cackle sounded again and again, higher and higher, reverberating in his brain until the fire ceased, leaving behind nothing but a clump of white-grey ash. Yǎn-sui swiped at them, smearing and grinding them into the wet face of the rock until the last echoes of laughter died away. His breathing was harsh in his ears, nearly drowning out the hammering of his heart. With great effort, he drew in a deep breath and got to his feet, turning his back on the place. "All those who knew you existed are dead; in time, I will forget you as well," he promised.
The demons who had terrorized Jiān's people were dead; his son's corpse was ash. Nothing remained to tie him to Jiān.
By this time tomorrow, he must consider her an enemy.
"Hey," Rinzen greeted from his seat on the shrine steps as Yǎn-sui emerged from the bamboo forest. Given that the sun had barely broached the eastern horizon, the fact that the airbender was conscious, let alone functioning, was enough to give Yǎn-sui pause. Before the demon could comment, Rinzen raised his eyebrows and rubbed his hand over the bridge of his nose. "Uh… not to presume about demon mores and things, but…" he coughed, looked away, "there's this robe I found in the shrine just now you can use if you want… seeing as you got rid of what was left of your old ones?"
Yǎn-sui tilted his head quizzically. Rinzen's bizarre speech reminded him of something. "It's too small, but I suppose it's better than returning to Angi with nothing more than Tiào-fěi in its scabbard," he said, approaching the shrine.
"What, you mean… you're really going back?" the airbender demanded, scrambling to his feet. He grabbed Yǎn-sui's arm as the demon mounted the steps. "You're just going to leave?"
Yǎn-sui halted, clenching his free paw in a fist to keep his claws from ripping the human apart. "I have no choice," he growled, staring at the half-opened door panel leading into the shrine. "What Jiān asked of me is done; my bond with her was only temporary, and now I must return to my true master."
"That's bisonshit!" Rinzen blurted, "How can you say that, after learning about your father, your son… everything? You're just going to abandon her?"
The world went red. The next thing Yǎn-sui knew, he was holding Rinzen in mid-air by his throat, the airbender struggling frantically, slicing at his face with pitiful gusts of blade-wind. Horrified, Yǎn-sui opened his grip, and Rinzen fell to the ground in a groaning heap. 'The bond has weakened so much that I can harm humans at will now?'
Rinzen gagged, coughed, and sat up, massaging his bruised throat. For the first time, Yǎn-sui noticed that there was a strange milky-whiteness clouding over the iris of Rinzen's right eye, and a thin jagged line of pink creasing the skin from the right side of his forehead to his cheekbone. "What happened to your eye? Did Qiōng-míng…?"
The airbender stared. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded hoarsely. "First you throttle me, then you ask about my eye like you actually care?"
"I told you before, Jiān's bond was temporary," Yǎn-sui explained with as much patience as he could muster. Even a former ally of circumstance should be accorded some measure of respect. "A demon without a master's restraint can act on certain impulses, and since it was her will alone that kept me from acting out against humans…"
"You can pretty much just snap at anyone who pisses you off, yeah, I'm starting to understand," Rinzen interrupted. He seemed more annoyed, disappointed even, than afraid at the idea that Yǎn-sui could kill him at the slightest whim.
"I'm glad," Yǎn-sui said curtly.
Rinzen quirked an irritated eyebrow at the demon and pushed himself up, leaning against the raised platform of the shrine for support. "As for your question, no, it wasn't him – it happened just after that big black demon grabbed you on the river. One second, everything was noise and fire and heat, the next, you were gone, vaporized for all we knew, and I couldn't see out of this eye. I thought it was blood from a cut but… guess the gods just weren't with me this time." He looked down and touched the corner of his newly-blind eye, as if trying to confirm it was really there. "Jiān did what she could, but there were others worse off: Elder Yu dying, and Lien…" Rinzen clasped his hand over his mouth and turned away, shoulders shaking.
"Was Jiān able to get to Elder Yu in time?" Yǎn-sui asked, though he knew the answer. Rinzen shook his head silently. "And Lien? What…?"
"Miscarried," Rinzen interrupted hoarsely. "We almost lost Lien as well. And Lhamu… Oh helped me take her to the mountaintop. I couldn't do anything more for her, other than offer her spirit up to the Sky-mother."
Yǎn-sui bowed his head. Rinzen sounded exhausted, emptied of spirit; he could almost sympathize. "Lhamu…"
Rinzen stiffened.
"Lhamu was a fine warrior. I will honor her memory and will keep my pledge to her," he said.
"You're right… about her being a warrior," said Rinzen with a low, bitter laugh. "She was definitely braver than me. Smarter than me, too. I don't know what I'm going to do without her."
"Whatever you do, don't die," Yǎn-sui advised. "She would be very upset with you."
Rinzen laughed, truly laughed, and faced Yǎn-sui with a wry grin. "Yeah, she would." His face fell. "Yǎn-sui, don't leave Jiān. She still needs you," he said gravely. "Besides, what if other demons attack?"
"I think that she and Oh can take care of any more interlopers for the time being. She's only scratched the surface of her true potential," Yǎn-sui replied, keeping his tone purposefully light. "But I doubt He will hesitate to use her humans against her as before. That is why I will advise her to go to the North Pole as soon as possible and rejoin her father."
"'Rejoin her father'?" Rinzen echoed, dumbfounded. "Tui? But, wouldn't that mean you would…?"
"Child of Air, it is time."
Yǎn-sui started in surprise as Oh materialized not ten paces from where he stood. For some reason, the bear-dog spirit manifested only the barest trace of her form, assuming little more than a translucent silhouette against the emerald shadows of the bamboo behind her. Rinzen, who had seemed to have expected this appearance, merely nodded once in acknowledgment before hopping up onto the shrine's platform.
"Jiān's gone on ahead, then?" he asked, pausing just outside of the sliding door.
The outline of Oh's massive shaggy head bowed in answer.
"Right. Hope she takes her time, or this is going to be awkward," said Rinzen, entering the shrine. He emerged only moments later, his flying staff in one hand, the white robe Yǎn-sui had first worn in Jiān's service in the other. "Here," he said, tossing it to the utterly bemused demon. "Wish us luck."
"What are you talking about?" Yǎn-sui asked, ignoring the robe in his paw for the moment.
"Ah, Jiān didn't tell you?" Rinzen asked, looking distinctly uncomfortable, "Well… uh… just stay here for a bit. Jiān'll be back soon, there's some important… things… she has to take care of, so…" The airbender twirled his staff nervously under Yǎn-sui's suspicious glare. "Oh can fill you in on some of it, if you ask her," he said hurriedly. He jumped down from the shrine, opening the wings of his staff as soon as he hit the ground. "Just… try to understand that this is the way things are, hard as it might be. Everything will be all right though. Be seeing you, Yǎn-sui!"
"Rinzen…!"
The airbender was swept up on a powerful gust of wind and quickly vanished over the waving tops of bamboo.
"Oh, what was he talking about? Where did Jiān go?" Yǎn-sui demanded of the Earth spirit.
Oh scrutinized him with ghostly amber eyes, antipathy clear despite her near-transparent body. "This one heard thee speak of the fallen Beast. Dost thou truly intend to stand by an oath sworn to a creature who ne'er had aught to do with thee, but for a quirk of Fate?"
"I don't see how that has anything to do with what I just asked you, but yes, I do," Yǎn-sui growled. "Now, answer my question, Spirit."
"Jiān and Rinzen face trial at the hands of humans," Oh said at last. "It is because of thee, of thy revealed form, that the humans turned upon those that hath shielded their wretched hides."
"What?" demanded Yǎn-sui, unable to believe his ears.
Oh bared her fangs. "They saw thee as thou truly art, and by Jiān's naïveté, they learned that she and the Child of Air knew all along of thy true nature. Thus they are both accused of complicity and design with the demons that thy spawn led against them."
"You can't be serious," Yǎn-sui retorted. "They think Jiān and Rinzen are somehow responsible for what Qiōng-míng did?"
"This one stands in rare agreement with thee, demon," said Oh, eying him with mordant humor. "This one, too, cannot fathom the depth of willful ignorance these wretches betray in turning upon those who have defended them with their lives."
Yǎn-sui snarled in disgust. "They're worse than panicked koala-sheep. My bond should have weakened enough to go down there to take a brace of heads, maybe that will show them the error of their ways." Tiào-fěi shivered eagerly at the promise of bloodshed.
"That thou shallt not do!" Oh snapped, her tail lashing the air.
"I've had enough of your scolding, Oh," Yǎn-sui growled, half-drawing Tiào-fěi. "Fight me or get out of the way."
"This one cannot," came the unexpected reply. Yǎn-sui cocked his head in confusion. "This one cannot stop thee," Oh repeated. "This one's totem hath been destroyed during the battle by thy spawn, who pierced it with his Abyss-born blade. But know this as well, demon, that if thou shouldst wreak massacre against the humans, thou wouldst cause Jiān much pain and shame," the spirit declared. "Canst thou truly pretend ignorance of that?"
Tiào-fěi trembled in his paw. Yǎn-sui clenched his fangs and slammed the blades home in their sheath.
"It seems that even as thy bond of life-debt weakens, other chains doth entangle thee, demon," Oh remarked, curling her lip.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Yǎn-sui ground out.
The spirit shook her head, as if astounded by Yǎn-sui's ignorance. "Would that thou hath died that first night," she said to herself. "Perhaps thou wouldst have avoided the trap of fate thou hast so violently scorned, and spared Jiān much suffering."
"Why can't you spirits ever stop yammering on about "fate" and "destiny"?" he demanded. "If you thought I was going to be so much trouble, why didn't you just kill me the moment I arrived? You had plenty of opportunity." Oh's silence was telling. "You told her to kill me, or at least let me die, didn't you?" he asked, his voice dangerously gentle.
"It was the only way thy father's horns could truly become hers," Oh replied blandly. "That is the nature of such weapons, as well thou knowest. But… she did not heed this one's words." Her form flickered like a guttering candle-flame as she coughed bitter laughter. "How could she? She possessed not even the will to slay the Beasts that fed thee upon thy waking. How she wept to ask of this one for their sacrifice! How her hands trembled to accept what they had willingly give o'er! And thou!" Rage focused her. The grasses and bamboo quailed and the earth shuddered with the waves of wrath cast from her near-solid form. "Thou, demon, taught her to wield Death! Thou hast polluted her purity with thy foul essence!"
Yǎn-sui surveyed the incensed spirit with cold eyes. "By your own admission, Jiān would have had kill someday, if only to secure the means to protect herself. It is because of your negligence, because of your selfish desire to keep her trapped in a pathetic half-life where she was ignorant of who she really was, that Jiān hesitated to kill, even at the moment of her utmost peril. Even if my kind could regret, I would not."
The earth stilled. "Of course not. Thy kind is incapable of understanding, being possessed aught of free will," she growled,. "Death and slavery is all that lies within thy purview. Dost thou even comprehend why she embraced peril, for thy sake?"
The barb struck a closer to home than he cared to admit. "I didn't ask her to!" Yǎn-sui bridled.
"No, but she would have come had thou begged her to stay away," Oh retorted.
More annoying than their fixation on Fate, Yǎn-sui decided, was an Earth spirit's dogged devotion to Truth.
"Thou dost not deny this one's words," the spirit noted condescendingly, after Yǎn-sui failed to reply. "Perhaps thou art more discerning than this one gave thee credit. But knowing this, wouldst thou with sincerity urge her to abandon her home, to take her place amongst the ranks of those who art thy master Agni's sworn enemies?"
"It has to be done," Yǎn-sui replied with forced conviction. "This island is no longer safe for her. The humans will always be her weakest point, and He will exploit it. As you are now, you can no longer help her."
Oh narrowed her eyes at him, but as he had spoken the truth, she was obliged to concede the point. "Nevertheless, what shall come upon the day that thou must face her across the battlefield?" she asked after a pause. "As thou hast awakened in her the knowledge to wreak Death, Tui will surely not shrink to appoint her a command of his armies."
"So what?" he shot back, a little too quickly. "That is the future, unknown to any of us. It may come to pass, it may not. I have only one concern now: to eliminate Him."
"Ah?" A sigh, a sound of curt dismissal. "So, thou wouldst continue to pursue that seductive chimera of power and glory, to succeed where the Gods at the Dawn of Ages failed? Demon, it will turn upon thee ere thou couldst broach the Gates upon the Godless Plain."
"I said nothing of glory or power," he growled, flexing his grip on Tiào-fěi's sheath. "You shouldn't complain: Jiān will be free to return to this island, or go wherever she wills, without fear."
"If thou art indeed able." Strangely, Oh's last remark was less cutting than the others, delivered as an afterthought rather than a retort. Her attention seemed to wander, and Yǎn-sui turned down the shrine steps, intent on leaving her inquisition behind. "Demon," she said suddenly, "dost thou love her?"
"What?" he demanded, too shocked to be angry, though anger followed quickly. "Enough of your obsession with fate, Spirit – I am not my father!"
"No, no, thou art not thy father," Oh murmured, eyes alighting on Tiào-fěi for a moment. "More is the pity. But neither is Jiān her mother. She doth love thee, with all her being. That is why this one asks: dost thou love her in return?"
Crushing heat like a dragon's talons curled around the ache in his chest, winding him. '"Love"… me? What…? Jiān… no, no, Oh must be lying! No, she can't lie. But, there's no…!'
"What is thy answer, demon?" Oh pressed, eyes gleaming with anxious eagerness.
"… No. It can't be that…" Yǎn-sui muttered, shaking his head furiously. "It can't be…!" The claws clenched tighter, and Yǎn-sui hissed in pained bewilderment.
Oh watched him with blank eyes, the outline of her twitching tail fading away as she bowed her head in resignation. "And so it is." Raising her snout to the sky, the guardian spirit loosed a high, mournful howl and vanished from sight.
The fading remnants of sunset bronzed the crumbled streamers of fiery pink and purple-blue clouds, bleeding the lilac west with phoenix fire as Night ascended the east. The headwater muttered quietly to itself, rippling darkly in reflection of the sky above.
He had tied the robe around his waist, a half-hearted reinforcement of decorum that struck him as rather pathetic. Crouched beside the headwater, Tiào-fěi across his lap, ready to be unsheathed with a split-second's notice, he surveyed the deepening gloom. This semblance of vigilance was rather pathetic as well, he had to admit; the position made the muscles in his legs and back burn as the hours came and went, and it was all for nothing anyway, since there were no enemies left to guard against.
In truth, all he could do was wait. Wait, and think. He did not even have the wherewithal to hunt, any thought of food making his empty stomach turn nauseatingly. He tried to divert himself with plans for future campaigns, ventures that had been proposed and argued over in the soaring halls of the War Council of the Heavenly Court, and now likely rendered irrelevant in his absence. A month and more had passed since Pī lì's betrayal and Huì's murder; the world outside had doubtless moved on, but he, in his isolation, had only just returned to that point. He had at least killed those responsible for the desecration of Huì's corpse, but it was a hollow victory that left the bitter taste of ash in his mouth, and he hurried to think of something else.
The problem was, there was nothing else to think about. Even thinking about Koh, bringing about his final confrontation with the puppet-master of his Race, only led to other, immediate, unwelcome thoughts, as surely as turning down the corridors of a dark labyrinth inexorably brings one to confront the monster lurking in the heart of the maze.
"Love," Oh had said. After the spirit had disappeared, Yǎn-sui had oscillated between disbelief and denial. Love, for him, had possessed Jiān? No! Granted, she had walked into Qiōng-míng's trap without hesitation, but that was only because of her inborn willfulness, her refusal to assess a situation logically rather than emotionally, not because of some strange affliction of the mind! After all, divinities did not deign to love their slaves; if anything, Jiān was guilty only of an unwise emotional attachment that would doubtless wane with time. Oh was simply mistaken, overwrought with the aftermath of battle.
There was no other explanation.
What of himself? Oh had accused him of loving Jiān in return. Love, that terrifying madness that inevitably brought low the mightiest demon: had it infected him, as it had his father? That he could not immediately dismiss the spirit's words as the fabrication of an obsessed mind disturbed him. What had Qiōng-míng called it? An "extraordinary" bond…
No! Love destroyed, annihilated, and yet… and yet…
'Jiān'. He had but to close his eyes, recall her face, the way the light in her eyes shifted like sunlight through the deep sea, and thence followed the sound of her laughter, the gentle, cooling caress of her hands, the clear, almost bitter coolness of dewed lips, her divinity-laden water smell, at times intermingled with a riot of humanity, and yet… he could not say it was unpleasant. By turns, the strange, empty ache in his chest faded and returned with a vengeance, until he very nearly let off a fire-breath in frustration. How could the mere thought of her bring such peace and such confusion and pain in the same instant? It was beyond maddening!
"Ha." Yǎn-sui shook his head ruefully, believing at last that he had set his paw on the dragon's tail. This was why demons who loved went mad. Love, in its very essence, was more chaotic and paradoxical than Chaos itself, rejuvenating and enervating in turn until the captive spirit tore itself apart under its influence. He had drawn upon her power, played at choice to stay beside her, fought against her will and found it yielding, yielded in turn when his pride demanded otherwise… and Love had slipped in under his guard. What had the Dragon God written? '"Beware the enemy that is thyself, that creeps into mind and body, unknown, unrecognized, unexorcised, for this enemy is the most fatal poison." Lord Huánglóng would laugh if he could see me now.' The desire and shame she inspired in him, the very dilemma of yearning and questioned loyalties that plagued him since waking to see her there beside him, what other proof did he need of Love's affliction?
A strange calm suffused him. He loved her, he loved Jiān. 'And what if I do? I have recognized love, seen it for what it is… all that is left is to cut it away. Other demons clung to their love, let it overshadow them – I will not repeat their mistakes. Once I am away from here, from her, there will be battles and bloodshed aplenty to wash away the memory. I will forget, and love will wither.'
'"You do know how idiotic you sound, playing these word games, yes?"'
Yǎn-sui winced and glared down at Tiào-fěi. "I have succeeded where others have failed before. Why else would you put your faith in me, if I can't overcome something like this?"
'"Overcome 'this' how, whelp?"' His father's scorn was like hot needles on his spine. '"Can you ignore what you've become because of her? Do you really think you can forget her? You fail to understand what you're dealing with, because you fear it!"'
"I understand all I need to…!" Yǎn-sui began angrily, but the stirring of the headwater and the sensation of divine presence flooding the space cut him off abruptly. He placed Tiào-fěi on the ground in front of him and pressed his browridge to the earth as Jiān emerged from the pool.
"Yǎn-sui, what…?" she gasped, as if surprised to see him there.
"Good evening, milady," Yǎn-sui greeted.
"Good eve… Yǎn-sui, stop that!" she said, exhaustion and irritation taking equal parts in her tone. "How many times have I told you to… oh, for La's sake, just stand up and talk to me normally!"
Yǎn-sui waited until he heard her alight on the ground, the whisper-hiss of her shroud over the stones indicating that her garments had reformed around her, and then stood, taking Tiào-fěi up with him and assuming the appropriately respectful stance of a slave awaiting the bidding of his master.
Jiān scrutinized him. "Did you eat something that disagreed with you?" she asked, suddenly concerned.
Yǎn-sui only just resisted the urge to cover his face with his paw. "No, milady," he replied, frustrated. It was as though this morning was forgotten, or yesterday's battles had not happened, and this evening was like so many other evenings, where she simply refused to act like the goddess she was, refused to let him take his rightful part as slave. And yet… it was so familiar now that it was almost a play between them, a comfortable, private joke. 'Don't lose your focus.' he told himself. "Milady, I…"
Jiān was not listening, or, at least, she was pretending not to. "Are you sure?" she interrupted, closing in and circling, peering at him from every angle as if searching for some symptom of illness he was hiding from her. "But then, I can't think of anything you have eaten that's given you a stomachache, you ate a whole bowl of that chili paste at that one dinner, remember? The first night of the Council in Jiāng-Huì, the one the headman organized and invited guests from the nearby villages? And you didn't so much as blink…"
"Milady…"
"… And I seem to remember you ate a skunk-bear the other day, and if something like that doesn't cause indigestion, I'd have to say demons have stomachs made of cast bronze…"
"Jiān…"
"… or it could be stress, you've had to deal with a lot the last couple of days; there's a young man from the river mouth who always gets the most terrible stomach cramps every time her hears his mother-in-law is going to visit…"
"Jiān, what happened at the trial?" he asked pointedly, having recognized Jiān's tactic of ranting nonsensically to avoid more unpleasant topics.
She stopped dead in her tracks, turning her face away from him. "Rinzen told you about it?" she asked quietly, her voice carefully devoid of emotion.
"He let it slip, yes, but Oh filled in the necessary details," he replied, trying to mimic her manner, and failing. "Why do you feel the need to subject yourself to the whims of lower beings?" he blurted, rage and disgust flaring.
"It's not like that at all!" Jiān protested, her hands fisted nervously in her sleeves. "I betrayed them!"
Yǎn-sui snorted.
"I did!" she insisted fiercely, rounding on him. "I concealed the truth from them! I thought so little of them that I forced you to wear a mask, play the part of someone, of something you're not! I've even lied to them about myself!"
"You did what was necessary to protect them," Yǎn-sui interjected, annoyed that she would defend them so determinedly.
"But I didn't!" The headwater chattered and frothed, answering her rioting emotions. "I was arrogant, I lied to them, all of them, Elder Yu, the Council, everyone! And look what happened! Qiōng-míng used that mistrust, that doubt, against us! All he had to do to throw us off balance was to strip away my glamour, and then…! If I hadn't done that, if I had just told Elder Yu what you were, I'm sure he would have helped, he would have made everyone understand, and he wouldn't have… he wouldn't be…!" She clasped her arms around her, fingernails digging into shroud and skin. "It's my fault! It's all my fault! I'm the reason the demons came in the first place! Nobody would have died if it hadn't been for me!"
Instinct moved him before he could gainsay it, opened his paw and let Tiào-fěi tumble on the ground, made him draw his arms tightly around her, to gently cradle the back of her head and twine his fingers through her damp hair. "It is past; it cannot be undone," he insisted hoarsely as her body trembled with sobs only barely restrained. Her bitter grief tinged the air, inflaming his rage. "Learn, don't regret; remember, if you must, but do not regret!"
"How can you say that!" she cried, shoving against him with her still-crossed forearms. Common sense demanded he let her go, but something else stronger urged him to hold her even closer. Jiān uttered a squeak of surprise as his arms practically crushed her against him, and, for a moment, Yǎn-sui thought she would order him to release her. Instead, she sighed wearily and rested her cool, tear-stained cheek against his chest, her shoulders slumping in resignation. "They were scared of me," she professed sorrowfully. "What I did to Punga, taking control of his blood the way I did, it terrified them. It terrifies me now, just thinking about what I did, so… it's understandable."
It was a poor attempt to convince herself that she had not been betrayed by those she had lived for for so long, but Yǎn-sui found he did not have the heart to point this out.
"It's not like there weren't people who spoke up for us, for Rinzen and me," she mentioned hurriedly, as if she knew what he was thinking. "Plenty of people did, just… not enough. Rinzen was asked to leave the island on the next merchant ship departing from the river mouth to the Continent. He said to tell you "good-bye." And then the Council… requested… that I confine myself to the shrine until they decide otherwise."
"What?" Yǎn-sui gaped down at her. "They exiled you…?"
"It's not exile, nothing as bad as that," Jiān interrupted. "It's probably only for a little while! Once everyone has had time to go back to their homes, to rebuild… they'll have time to think it over. Humans adapt quickly, they won't always be afraid of me. They'll remember how I've helped them before and forget how I wronged them, and one day, maybe, it can be like it was, don't you think…?" She buried her face in his chest as tears cascaded from her eyes, a soft, wretched keen of anguish escaping her throat.
Oh was right: he knew better than to offer to kill them all. Instead, he should be grateful to the humans, for handing him this opportunity to persuade her to leave the island all together. All he had to do was step back, tell her of his plan, let them go their separate ways, never to pay mind to the other, and yet… a traitorous part of him observed how good it felt to hold her, whispered cunningly that there were ways to erase the stench of humans from her, to turn her cries to something other than sorrow…
"Yǎn-sui, just a little while longer," she murmured to him, wending her arms around his waist even as he shuddered in dread at the direction his thoughts tempted. "Please." There was no command, no authority; the bond had already stretched to the thinnest thread of spider-silk, ready to snap, and yet…
'I shouldn't do this,' he told himself, lowering his lips to the crown of her head, inviting the myriad layers of scents, fecund divinity and human decay, green river, bitter rain, moldering leaf, and cleansing mist, to fill his nose and mouth, the strands of her hair drying as he breathed on them. 'I must not do this…' He traced the delicate outlines of her shoulder blades through the veil of her hair, her skin, soft as the first petals of spring, warming at his touch. Jiān sighed softly, contentedly, relaxing against him, completely unguarded. 'I can't…!' She turned her head ever-so-slightly upwards and his gaze moved immediately down the curve of her cheek, to her parted lips. 'I can't…!' The world tilted and spun, vertigo snatching him into the dark memory of his dream. It was with desperation that he pressed his lips against hers, wildly seeking the calm sanctuary her touch imparted.
He tasted her tears, bitter yet strangely sweet, and paused. Jiān exhaled a soft moan of protest and reached up to his shoulder, wordlessly encouraging. Her tongue brushed over his lips, teasing against one of his protruding fangs. Growling low in his chest, Yǎn-sui responded, lapping her plump lower lip with his tongue before slipping into her mouth, slowly caressing her. Jiān's mouth curved in a slight smile as she ran her fingers lightly up his ribs, over his chest, entwining at the nape of his neck to provide just enough pressure to bring him in still deeper, to open up to her as well. Yǎn-sui was nothing if not a quick learner; as Jiān arched against him, he took her weight against the length of his arm, paw reaching down and splaying over the back of her thigh, his other paw cupping the side of her face so his thumb stroked over her cheek bone. Jiān gasped as his growl became more pronounced, his lips against hers more demanding.
'I want her. I want her like I want to breathe. Give Koh the world if He must have it, only let me…!'
Cool fingers touched his lips and he drew back, startled. "Yǎn-sui…" Her eyes were half-closed, deep-sea darkness limned by glistening tears as she gazed up at him, her fingertips tracing the outline of his mouth, lingering over his fangs. "Don't do it just because I… we both know…" She bowed her head, pulled her hand away from his face, clenching it to her chest. Without warning, she slipped from his arms as easily as mist.
"Jiān…?" he whispered, the horrible emptiness in his chest gaping painfully with dread.
"Yǎn-sui, servant of the Sun God, Lord Agni," she addressed him solemnly, eyes cold and distant. "I, Jiān, Goddess of the River and Daughter of Tui, Lord of the Seas, and La of the Moon, affirm that any and all ties of contract between us are resolved in your service to me and the people of my valley. And…" her regal façade trembled, but her voice did not, "now that you are free of my bond, know that I love you and would ask of you this night, of your own free will."
The mountain might as well have rudely turned itself on its head under his feet, or a battle-ax smashed him on the skull. Even the severing of the bond had been as nothing (something of a disappointment, if he had cared to think about it) compared to her profession, uttered with the same unequivocal conviction that had first made him think her a fool. "…Jiān…?" he managed, strangely dizzy, as though soaring too high above the clouds. "Are you…?"
Jiān's proud posture wilted slightly. "Did I do that wrong? If I told you before I ended the bond, it wouldn't be fair, especially since I wanted you to have a choice in the matter!" She flustered for a moment, then collected herself. "I-I mean, is there a proper way to…?"
"No! No, no… I think you said it well enough," Yǎn-sui reassured her, wondering why his heart seemed to be pounding with joy, of all things! She wanted him to choose her, to affirm the madness they shared! He reached for anger, for sanity… but did not find it. "Do you know what you're asking?"
She looked down at her hands, clasped together in front of her, fingers twitching almost nervously. "That's why I wanted to make certain you understood you had a choice. What you told me about how He doesn't allow you to choose, how He manipulates you and even His own daughters so that there's no joy in it at all," she said quietly. "Even now, I wonder if I'm trying to do the same thing, trying to keep you here against your will, but… I don't… I can't… I want you to understand that it can mean something else entirely!"
"What do you intend it to mean?" he asked, not daring to believe that she could offer so much so fearlessly, so completely. His earlier doubts eked their cold tendrils of despair and fear into his heart. Love and lust had robbed him of his senses. He had to be mistaken, had to be mad to…!
Her shrouds fell away in a tumble of feathery whispers. Jiān stepped free, and if there was any doubt as to whether she was the daughter of La, it was banished as the dark waters of the pool and the surrounding bowing bamboo stands were bathed in the pale radiance that limned her form. She smiled shyly at him, tilting her head so that her hair fell about her like a veil.
Yǎn-sui fell to his knees.
"Yǎn-sui, what's wrong?" Jiān exclaimed, hands outstretched, "Don't tell me your wounds are…!"
"It's not that," he ground out, holding up a paw to keep her back, "I… knew you were a goddess."
"… what?" Jiān asked, confused.
"I knew you were a goddess," Yǎn-sui repeated stubbornly, thumping his fist against his knee. His breath came in gasps. "I knew from almost the beginning. But, now… seeing you this way…" 'I was doomed from the beginning, the moment you saved my life, the moment I saw you…'
"Yǎn-sui," Jiān said, gently laying her hands on either side of his face, "You couldn't possibly be making fun of me after all this, could you?"
"I wish I was," he replied in a choked voice. "Without a doubt, you are the most beautiful and desirable thing I have ever seen above or below the world, and I will slay a thousand upon thousand armies single-handedly and annihilate the Abyss itself if it will mean ending this war and returning to you."
"Well, as much as I don't appreciate being called a "thing" or the fact that you're set on mass-murder to come back to me, I suppose it's the thought that counts!" Jiān observed, laughing as tears trembled in her eyes.
Yǎn-sui slowly, carefully laid his paws over the curve of her hips, never breaking her gaze. "Jiān, if I ever cause you pain… if you feel a moment of fear, you must…"
"I won't have to," she interrupted, placing her fingers over his lips, "You won't! I trust you with my life!"
Her determined expression increased her beauty impossibly. "I believe you," Yǎn-sui said with a dark, helpless laugh, nipping delicately at her fingertips.
"Good," she said with a firm nod. "Do you have any other silly arguments?"
"None that come to mind right now, but if I think of them later, can I…?"
"Yǎn-sui. Shut. Up."
"Yes, milady."
"Do you know… I had to stop myself several times from taking advantage of you."
His mane bristled slightly under her fingers as the demon paused in the attentions he was lavishing with his lips and fangs on the curve of her hip (Jiān had wondered why her hipbones were of such interest, while Yǎn-sui countered that her fixation with his fangs could hardly be termed "normal," and each let the matter rest there). "Hrm… why didn't you?" he asked. "I am… was your slave, you're completely…"
"Tch!" Jiān lightly tweaked the point of his ear, smothering a laugh when it flicked spasmodically in response. "You're deliberately missing the point, Yǎn-sui," she accused, now engrossed in making his ear twitch like a leaf hopper on a hot stone. "It wouldn't have been right."
"If that's the standard you set for yourself," Yǎn-sui grumbled, nosing her side and making her whoop in undignified laughter as she "tried" to twist out of his arms. He grinned wickedly and pulled her on top of him, nipping at her collarbone until she clamped her legs around his torso and levered herself up with her hands splayed on his chest in order to glare at him properly.
"It is the standard I set for myself, and for you, Yǎn-sui," she said sternly, pretending not to notice his paws sliding up over her thighs. "If you love someone, you don't manipulate them, you don't hurt them, you treat them as an equal. And if you… ooo! I wasn't finished!"
"And I wasn't listening," he replied, playing his fangs over the skin of her throat as he eased into her again, growling as she sighed and shuddered against him.
"You're… terrible…" she gasped.
"Demon."
"… true."
"Jiān…"
"Mmm…?"
"Jiān, please listen to me: you can't stay on this island any longer. It doesn't matter if the humans want you back or not, He will not shrink from using them against you."
"I know." She turned over and touched her forehead to his chest. "I've thought about it ever since Hái-dǎo told us about your father. I knew that, even if we won the battle, it might not mean I still wasn't a danger to everyone." She exhaled a bitter laugh. "I knew, but I didn't want to admit it."
"I understand," Yǎn-sui replied honestly, resting his chin on her head and trailing his claws over her back. "That is why, as soon as you can, you must leave this island and go…"
"… with you to Agni's kingdom."
"Exactly, to the Nor… what?"
"I can't very well go running to my father," Jiān said, frowning up at him. "First of all, how do I get all the way to the North Pole on my own, without attracting attention or relying on others who might be attacked at any minute? Have you escort me?"
"Well…" Yǎn-sui grunted, annoyed that he had not even considered the initial flaw in his plan. Granted, water divinities knew ways of transporting themselves to the locus of their supreme leader's power as easily as they summoned their minions across leagues of separation, but Jiān had been purposefully severed from that knowledge at birth, and he, as a slave of Agni, had not the first idea about it.
"Secondly," Jiān continued, "the reason I've kept out of sight of K… of the Shadowking for so long is because both my parents gave me up for dead. Wouldn't the bargain my mother made with the Shadowking have to be fulfilled if they acknowledged me?"
Again, Yǎn-sui was forced to pause. He had studied the Law under its Keeper, Wan Shi Tong. A contract forged under the Law was as literally binding for Gods as it was for their slaves. Even Koh, the face of Chaos Incarnate, had to obey certain aspects of the Law if he wished to take advantage of any deal made with his captors, hence his lack of control over any demon outside of the Abyss. However, unless they knew the exact words of the bargain between La and Koh, Jiān might be mistaken in her hypothesis. If she was not… "I… don't know. To be certain, I would have to confer with Master Wan Shi Tong," he answered. "He knows from my father what passed between Him and La."
"I want to speak to the Spirit of Knowledge as well," Jiān said with such vehemence that Yǎn-sui looked at her in surprise. "I'm tired of having to be told things and finding out after the fact!" she exclaimed, sitting up and propping herself up on one arm, "This "Law" that orders the cosmos and makes everything go one way and not the other… it's time I knew how it works and what I can do about it!"
"I'm not sure anyone can "do" anything about the Law…" Yǎn-sui pointed out.
"Furthermore," Jiān interrupted firmly, "I'm sure you've considered that your son wasn't the only demon the Shadowking sent out to try and eat a god. The only reason he's getting away with it is because my father and Agni are keeping up this silly war, with the Shadowking egging them on. If by becoming your prisoner and presenting my case to Agni, might it not be possible that together, we can convince him to try and make peace so everyone can focus on the real threat!"
"You would… 'become my prisoner'?" Yǎn-sui echoed faintly, looking up at her.
"Well, in name only of course," Jiān explained, a trifle impatiently. "We can't very well walk hand-in-paw up the steps to Heaven's Gate like a couple visiting a shrine, so there has to be an initial appearance at first that you either captured me, or that I surrendered to you, or what-have-you." She glanced at Yǎn-sui, whose bewildered stare had hardened, and waved her hand placatingly. "I'm not asking you to deceive Agni… well, only for a little, and only because the…"
"I will not deceive Lord Agni," Yǎn-sui stated, drawing himself up and bowing his head. "Not even for you. I will explain the situation to my master. Your plan would place you in needless danger."
"… All right," Jiān relented. "But I still think Agni is my best choice. He can stop the fighting, and he has the power to redirect attention to the Shadowking. Even if I'm automatically an enemy just for who I am, doesn't the fact that I would be willing to surrender to him mean that what I have to tell him is that important?"
"More likely that you are an enemy trying to distract the Heavenly Flame from some new stratagem of the Lord of Seas," Yǎn-sui replied automatically. Jiān thinned her lips and puffed at her bangs in exasperation. "Master Wan Shi Tong is the best option, but there is little chance you can get there in a reasonable amount of time," he continued. "Perhaps… you are correct. Surrendering to Lord Agni might prove the best among poor options. My master is neither as cruel nor arbitrary as most, and he will listen if you tell him the truth without pretense." He brushed her bangs from her fang and cupped her cheek in his paw. "Just try to be a little less blunt than you are with me."
"Hm, are you actually encouraging me to be myself, General Yǎn-sui?" she asked with a sarcastic lilt before smiling and throwing her arms around his neck.
"Yes," he answered, wrapping his arms around her, etching her scent and feel into his mind. Once within the Heavenly Gates, she would be swept up into the company of Gods, where she belonged. 'I can no longer hold her… I must no longer dare to touch her. One night was enough to court the razor's edge. Once she is safe, I go to the Abyss.' His chance of survival, in defeat or victory, was slim, had always been, but now, knowing he loved her and that she returned it… for the first time, he felt a tremor in his resolve. 'Don't think about it. Don't give it a chance…' "Jiān…"
"It's time to go, I know," she said, reluctantly releasing him. She gathered up her shrouds and slipped into them. "Before we do, though, I'm going to say goodbye to Oh and Hái-dǎo," she said as she rose.
Yǎn-sui frowned. "Why?"
"It would be rude otherwise, so stop pouting," Jiān replied sternly. "I understand you don't like them, but they, especially Oh, were doing the best job they could to carry out your father's wishes."
"Good intentions like as not lose battles, especially when the reasoning behind them is lacking," Yǎn-sui grumbled, getting to his feet and re-tying the robe around his waist. He turned to find Jiān beside him, Tiào-fěi in her hands.
"I won't be long," she said, handing him the blades and standing on tiptoe to brush her lips against his. Yǎn-sui resisted the urge to grab her around the waist and "persuade" her to leave Hái-dǎo in the lurch. She turned away with a faint smile and faded into the mists that screened the summit of Hái-dǎo's mountain.
Yǎn-sui breathed out forcefully through his nose. 'Hopefully, she gets back here before Oh decides to come and scold me about spiriting her off to Agni,' he thought, wandering over to the headwater and sitting down on a comfortable boulder. 'The surest way to get down the mountain and out to sea would be the river. But then, Jiān might consider it a violation of her "agreement" with those wretched humans…' He bared his fangs and growled, the fancy of crushing some weak skulls between his jaws coming on him rather strongly. 'Focus. If she won't agree to that, then we will have to descend the mountain's western slope and come out on the cliffs below. That would be quicker, but I would have little time to gather enough speed to cross the waters, assuming the worst, that Jiān's chi can only support me on the river infused with her spirit. If we head due east, we might be able to reach the next island just past sunrise, and I can make my appeal to Agni… what is that whistling noise?'
Just as instinct had overwhelmed his reason and surrendered it to love, it now saved him as dozens of iron-headed arrows rained down from the pre-dawn sky. Even as they thudded into earth and stone like lethal hail, Yǎn-sui had already vaulted from his seat, unsheathing Tiào-fěi and slashing through the shafts as they came at him. 'Who…?'
Demonic presences. Fire. The sound of wings striking the air through the low clouds. 'Koh is already making his next attempt?' Blue flames engulfed Tiào-fěi as another shower of arrows fell around him, nipping at his heels; whoever the archer was, he clearly did not intend to kill him, but Yǎn-sui had had enough of arrow-wounds for the time being. He sprinted for the cover of the bamboo forest below, in the direction of Jiān's shrine. 'He's not alone,' Yǎn-sui deduced as the arrows ceased to fall, 'One to the left, two coming up from behind - one flanking to the right… those two have Fire. Left… Earth. I'm being herded.' He burst into the clearing immediately athwart the shrine and turned about, sweeping a swath of fire up at the first demon who burst through the trembling trunks.
"Too easy!" his pursuer crowed, dispersing the fire with a fierce yellow counter-flare of his own. "Don't be such a poor sport, General, or I won't have anything to brag about!" The stout, grey-skinned demon grinned, whipping his miaodao into a flourishing salute that Yǎn-sui did not return. The small bronze helm perched on his black mane rattled between his thick, pronged horns, an unfamiliar sigil emblazoned on its brim.
"Dōng bù, what is the meaning of this? What business does First White Division have here?" Yǎn-sui asked, not fooled by the other's effusiveness; while Dōng bù had been Huì's immediate subordinate and seemed to share some of his gregarious qualities, Yǎn-sui had made a point of never turning his back on him. 'I wouldn't put it past him to turn renegade if he thought he could win Koh's good graces…'
"We are no longer part of the First White Division," announced another voice. "We are here in the capacity of an extraordinary detachment, General." The second fire demon, black-maned, red-skinned, and lithe as Dōng bù was burly, paced into view, purposefully circling Yǎn-sui so that his attention would be divided between them. His zhanmadao flickered with contained golden fire as he saluted Yǎn-sui; the same strange design graced the iron band encircling his forehead, just below his slender upswept horns.
'What in the Abyss is he doing with a snake like Dōng bù?' "If you're here, Dié, then your partner Shān dū can't be far behind," Yǎn-sui noted lightly, raising his left blade in acknowledgment. "Where's he gone hiding?"
"Wasn't hiding, General." Yǎn-sui glanced out of the corner of his eye and nodded to the massive, scarred blue earth demon lumbering up behind him. 'Perfect triangle positioning. Dōng bù's senior, but the other two don't seem to care, and they're used to working together,' Yǎn-sui thought, quickly sizing up his options, 'Huì always said he'd hate to have to take Shān dū and Dié in a fight, Shān dū's the most lethal blighting touch out of any demon in Agni's army and Dié's no slouch with that dao. And both would likely die before they betrayed Agni; does this mean...?'
Shān dū clasped his leather-gloved fists to his breastplate but declined to bow. "You really shouldn't have run, though; it only encourages Dōng bù."
'So: Shān dū first, don't give him a chance to take off those gloves, Dōng bù will likely attack the second he thinks I'm focused on Shān dū, Dié will have to step out of his way… Why are they here, now? Who authorized their mission? And where's that wind demon gone off to? I've got to get rid of them quickly before Jiān comes back…!'
"Oi, I'm not allowed to have fun on this trip?" Dōng bù demanded petulantly. "Agni, why do the secret missions always have to be run by hard-asses!"
Yǎn-sui was about to launch himself at Shān dū when the flapping of wings and a sudden downdraft alerted him to the orange-skinned wind demon just then alighting on the roof of Jiān's shrine, the limb of his over-sized longbow clattering against the tiles. "If I'd known how much bitching would be involved in this hunt, I'd have begged Lord Táifēng to keep a hold of me," the young demon observed, tossing the long tail of his braided black mane over his shoulder. His heavy wings stretched laconically as he notched four arrows to his bow and pointed them at Yǎn-sui. "As for you, General Yǎn-sui, also called the Blue Spirit and God-killer, don't think I don't know what you're planning. I wasn't being serious before, but I'll be more than happy to demonstrate why I'm called Xiǎng mǎ of the Thousand-Slaying Arrows."
"Chaos balls, you wind demons and your nicknames," Dōng bù muttered before smirking at Yǎn-sui. "Well, there you have it. Since my esteemed colleagues seem determined to suck all the fun out of this, I'll just lay it out: Yǎn-sui, formerly Demon General of the Host of Heaven's Flame, you are declared renegade as of the preceding turn of the new moon and must hereby submit to a traitor's death, by order of Lord Agni's Grand Executor, Lord Pī lì."
Odd, how the space surrounding him seemed to empty of sound, of air - not unlike the moment between life and death upon the release of cold fire. It was not the charge, nor sentence of death, no… the name. The name of his enemy. "And he… he is here?" Yǎn-sui found himself asking the frozen nothingness pressing in on him. "Pī lì is here?"
"The Lord Executor attends to the enemy divinity he sensed upon our arrival," Dié's voice came to him from far away, a whisper lost amidst the rising roar of breaking thunder. "General Yǎn-sui, please…!"
The fire demon blinked: Yǎn-sui had vanished.
"Shit! Shān dū, behind you!" Xiǎng mǎ howled from his perch, loosing his arrows in vain at the place their quarry had stood and notching the next set.
The earth demon cast off his binding gauntlets and whirled with the speed of a cracking whip; too slow. Even as his right paw fastened around Yǎn-sui's ankle, his left arm and neck were severed by Tiào-fěi's blades. Yǎn-sui slammed to the ground as Shān dū's death spasm jerked him off-course. Dié's fire blasted over him, but Yǎn-sui was oblivious to the pain. With an impatient snarl, he hurled himself up from the ground, catching Dié's thigh between his horns and flinging him over his head in time to meet Dōng bù's assault.
"In a hurry to catch up to Lord Pī lì?" Dōng bù asked, feinting at Yǎn-sui's right. "Or are you really a traitor like he said, off to defend the water god…?" The miaodao roared with hungry flames as it hurtled down at Yǎn-sui's head.
"I invoke the Inferno." Blue flames nearly dark as midnight spiraled out of his maw, swallowing dao, fire, and wielder in one moment, reducing them to ash. Yǎn-sui side-stepped, narrowly avoiding Dié's thrust from behind.
"I never believed you to be a traitor, General!" Dié panted, yellow eyes flaring with rage as he blocked Yǎn-sui's counter slashes to his neck and side. "But I was wrong!"
"Perhaps," Yǎn-sui replied, glancing Dié's center thrust with Tiào-fěi's left blade and stepping forward to spear him through with the right. "But it no longer concerns you." Claws tore long gashes down his arm as Dié died, his eyes finally going dark even as his maw twisted in a last, defiant snarl. Yǎn-sui slid the corpse of his blade and straightened.
"You are not a fire demon," he said the wind demon behind him. "Your master is a vassal of Sangmu; you have no need to die here."
Sinew, horn, and wood strained… then relaxed. "Can't argue with that, Blue Spirit," Xiǎng mǎ laughed, brining his bow to his side and stepping off the shrine's roof. Yǎn-sui faced him, Tiào-fěi held at rest but ready. Xiǎng mǎ made as though not to notice. "As a matter of fact, I tagged along with this sorry bunch to the four corners of the world on an errand for the Serene Lady. I don't care either way if you slaves of Agni massacre each other."
Yǎn-sui cocked his head, and turned away. "Then scurry back to the East, wind demon."
"You wouldn't happen to have any idea, would you?" Xiǎng mǎ called after him as Yǎn-sui strode away up the mountain. "Where Anu of the Tempest Blades might be?"
"Dead," Yǎn-sui replied, sprinting into the bamboo.
"… Pity." Xiǎng mǎ shrugged and loosed the string from his bow.
A blast of cold fog and super-heated steam nearly sent Yǎn-sui tumbling back down the mountain as he neared the summit, the combined power of two divinities in pitched battle leveling swathes of bamboo, stunted trees, and massive boulders around him. He stumbled, the rotting poison of Shān dū's touch eating at the muscles of his leg as he strove forward and upwards. "Pī lì!" he roared into the blinding white and grey morass whirling about him, water and fire indistinguishable from each other, "PĪ LÌ!"
White fire lanced through the murk, a knife parting a veil. Jiān gaped down at him from atop an outcropping above Hái-dǎo's boulder, her hands paused in the midst of fashioning flails of water. Yǎn-sui paid her no notice, fixating on the tall, flame-enshrouded figure that stared at him with dumfounded gold eyes.
"Your lackeys are dead," Yǎn-sui snarled. "You're next."
The point of Pī lì's upraised straight sword wavered; the god's mouth tightened to a derisive line. "A slave should know his place, demon," he sneered, tucking his free hand into his flowing crimson robes. "Or do you challenge me for the sake of this goddess, for whom you've turned traitor?"
"I already told you, he's not…!" Jiān began.
"Hypocrite!" spat Yǎn-sui, his body trembling with rage. Tiào-fěi seethed and crackled with tongues of blue-black fire. "You are a stain on the honor of the Heavenly Flame!"
Pī lì's face contorted hideously, the flames surrounding him reeling out with shrieking rage to ensnare the object of his wrath. Jiān cried out, shielding her eyes, the edges of her shroud evaporating at the fire's touch. Yǎn-sui roared and charged headlong at the god, fire charring his hide, devouring his mane, but he did not care, did not feel it, there was only rage, only vengeance, only bloodlust…!
"In the name of Agni, the Heavenly Flame, before his sacred sign, KNEEL!"
Yǎn-sui's body flung itself on the ground at Pī lì's feet, Tiào-fěi's flames whisked into nothingness as the blades bit deep into the rock. "What…?"
Above him, Pī lì chuckled, the sound reverberating through his bones and veins like so many insidious worms of lightning. But he could not move! 'What is this? Lord Agni's authority? Impossible! He can't… Agni can't have…!'
"Raise your head, demon," Pī lì purred. "It's only right that I fulfill my duty properly so as to do honor to my father."
Like a puppet on a string, Yǎn-sui's head snapped up, his vision filling with Pī lì's beatifically smug face.
"You're wondering why you are compelled to obey me?" asked Pī lì, his gentle voice nearly breathless with unbridled glee. "I should thank you for the opportunity your perversity against dying quietly handed me. If not for the Blue Spirit, the Demon General himself being suspect of malfeasance and mutiny, disappearing into the ether as you did, I would never have attained my father's notice as the one who could seek out an punish a most dangerous traitor." He raised his hand into Yǎn-sui's line of sight, a thick, circular slab of pure red-gold emblazoned with the Eye of Agni balanced in his palm. "Before this mark, all who serve Agni must bow, God and Demon alike, as the Law demands," Pī lì murmured huskily, his eyes glowing with feverish elation. With a languorous turn of his wrist, he showed Yǎn-sui the obverse, engraved with the device he had seen on Dōng bù and Dié's insignia. "You don't recognize it, no, of course not… the Blue Spirit has no need to pay mind or homage to the marks of lesser gods…"
"Get away from him!" Lashes of water rent the air, but Pī lì swept up a wall of flames that easily devoured the streams.
"I will deal with you in turn, goddess," he said as the wall forced Jiān back. "Stay a while; I think you will find this… educational. You are about to witness what happens to a demon who thinks himself better than his masters."
"Pī… lì…" Yǎn-sui uttered through clenched fangs. "You won't…!"
"Oh, but I will," Pī lì averred pleasantly, tucking the seal back into his robe and sheathing his sword. He tilted his head, his lips sliding into an almost-wistful smile as his hands descended on Yǎn-sui. "You know, I've never had the privilege of removing the Fire from another's chi before… this is going to hurt you a lot, isn't it?" His right hand touched Yǎn-sui's forehead just below his crest, his left flattening against Yǎn-sui's chest.
Yǎn-sui screamed. All fire, all warmth fled his body, tearing his mind and shattering his will; the hungry darkness of the Abyss swept him under, triumphant, ecstatic, malicious. 'Mine now! Mine again! None ever escape me!'
Pī lì stumbled back as blue-hot fire erupted from the kneeling demon, surging into the one who had bid it. "You… you've wielded cold fire," he muttered, flexing his fingers and absorbing the last of the flames. "How…?" He looked beyond the wall of summoned fire, at the water goddess who even now flung water at his shield in a desperate attempt to reach him… no, to reach the demon now rendered a senseless husk. "So, you did turn traitor, after all," he concluded. "Oh, irony. As interesting as that feat might be to my father, I'm afraid I can't allow you to return to the Heavenly Court to face his judgment. The Law will just have to be satisfied with your execution." He drew his sword.
"The Law…"
Pī lì paused, amazed that the demon could still be capable of speech. "Haven't you realized? I am the right hand of Agni, the Executor of his will and the Law. Do you imagine the Law would deign to service the petty vengeance of a mere demon?" The sword lifted…
"To the Law… before One who Speaks in Its Name… I surrender myself… to Judgment. Let all who hear this plea… bear Witness," Yǎn-sui ground out, baring his fangs in sadistic glee at the confusion, realization, and terror that scrawled across Pī lì's face as his Words became clear.
"Damn you!" he hissed, as the world around them dissolved into light and wind. "Damn you!"
"Yǎn-sui!" Jiān called fearfully as she was swept away in the tide of pure spiritual energy. "Yǎn-sui, hold on!"
"You who has invoked the Name that Is, come now into this Place, and be Judged…"
Yǎn-sui surrendered to the light.
A/N: Um, so... pretty much the penultimate chapter here (excluding the Interlude that's coming up); pretty much everyone's guesses about stories connected to the main narrative will be answered in that chapter, as will the fate of the Blue Spirit. And it will be posted. Very, very, VERY SOON. ^^;