Though to say that woodland and rock were abundant in Gensokyo would be a severe understatement, the number of people living here who had studied enough architecture to build something beyond a simple wooden hut was markedly small. Mansions and villas were thus few and far between, so to see the multi-storied structure rise from amidst the shadow, imposing its presence upon the forest around it, was little short of awe-inspiring.
I remembered little about the Scarlet Devil Mansion – my memories of my time before meeting Reimu Hakurei were still foggy at best – but I knew at the very least that Eientei would not lose to the Mansion in terms of size, scale, or design. Whilst the Scarlet Devil Mansion was, to my limited knowledge, modeled in the western gothic style of architecture, which made it unique in this part of the world, Eientei was an example of the ubiquitous traditional Japanese style of construction that was more commonly seen in the many shrines and temples that dotted this realm. The walls were made primarily of wood and bamboo, and supported by pillars of stone; the windows were shuttered by more slabs of wood, though the few that were open revealed paper blinds, and beyond them, nothing but darkness.
In fact, the only reason that we did not see Eientei sooner was because all the lights inside were off. At first glance, the entire building appeared entirely uninhabited.
The entrance to the mansion was unassuming and hard to spot in the faint azure glow of the fake moon. Nestled behind the fence that surrounded the mansion were a pair of sliding doors that, when pushed open, revealed a corridor running from left to right. Miko closed the doors behind us, and the whistling breeze – along with all the other noise from without – was immediately silenced.
Small torches were placed intermittently throughout the corridors, but spaced out far enough from each other that there were large patches where little of the floor could be seen. This also had the effect of concealing the corridor's true length from us: we could not see where the corners were, as they were obscured by both dimness and distance. The corridor's walls were draped in beautiful, hand-painted paper tapestry, depicting flowers and trees and other such delightful facets of nature, but this did not help us discern any further details about the layout of the building itself. Additionally, the torchlight cast irregular shades upon the tapestry, transforming the drawings into grotesque caricatures of themselves.
"This looks like the beginning of a maze," I commented.
"That is because it is," Keine replied. "The labyrinthine network within the mansion is a source of protection in its own way. Only those who have lived here for long enough know the way through – after all, if they do not learn how to navigate the maze, they will be doomed to wander its hallways until they perish."
"How long is 'long enough'?" I felt the need to ask.
Keine looked at me and smiled, but said nothing.
"However," Miko interjected, "even if you do have a map of the maze, you still would never be able to reach your destination unless specifically authorized by the spell that has been cast upon this place."
"Why not?"
"Because the corridors are, thanks to that spell, essentially endless. You may walk for millennia and never find what you seek. What Reimu said back then was not quite correct – Princess Kaguya does not have the ability to stretch or stop time, at least not in the sense that Sakuya Izayoi can. Her magic draws its source from the spectrum of eternity – the space between the infinitesimal and the infinite. She can make things last forever, or she can make them last no time at all. That includes herself, and that includes these corridors."
Keine nodded. "That is correct. Though unless I am mistaken, you have a way to break that spell."
"In a fashion. There is a way to the top floor, if you know how." Miko withdrew her sword from its sheath and held it aloft, watching keenly as the runes etched on the blade's surface, along with the orb fixed to its pommel, were bathed in yellow light. "Come with me."
We made our way down the corridor to the left, Miko whispering to herself and nodding her head every time we passed by a torch. The presence of her glowing sword, whose light now dwarfed the torches', meant that no part of the floor that we walked over remained in the dark. I suspected that this was important in some way, or Miko would never had drawn her sword, though I could not figure out exactly why.
After a few minutes of walking, a familiar feature appeared – or rather, reappeared.
"Isn't this where we just entered through?" I asked as we stopped in front of the sliding doors that served as Eientei's sole entrance.
"Quite right." Miko cleared her throat. "Were you keeping count?"
"Keeping count? Of what?"
"Consider this a good learning opportunity," Miko chirped. "Lesson number one: always take stock of your surroundings. That includes qualitative things such as sensation or perspective, but it also includes quantitative aspects, such as the number of torches we just walked past."
"But how is that relevant?"
"As you have probably guessed by now, the spell cast over these hallways works by instantaneously sending someone from one end of the corridor to the other, meaning that if you walked in one direction, you would simply be looping through the same corridor over and over again. So, in other words…" She trailed off, clearly expecting me to finish the sentence.
"So… the spell's boundaries are situated at each end of the corridor?" I answered tentatively.
"Exactly right." Miko beamed proudly and patted my shoulder. "The torches are evenly spaced through this corridor, so in order to find out where the corridor ends – and begins – we simply have to divide the number of torches we passed by in half. I counted thirty-eight torches, so we should find the spell's source at the nineteenth torch."
And indeed, as we walked down the corridor again and came to a stop in the area between the nineteenth and twentieth torches, I noticed a miniscule crack in the floor that would have otherwise not have been seen if Miko's sword had not illuminated it, casting its outline into clear focus.
"This is where the spell bisects the endless corridor." She motioned for us to stay behind her, and then, sheathing her sword, clapped her hands together and muttered an incantation. The crack abruptly widened, sending the "other half" of the corridor shooting off into the pitch-black abyss that had been created by the gap.
Startled, I blinked quickly, and the whole corridor was immediately back to normal as if nothing had happened. Now, however, the crack was gone, and a staircase had materialized several torches away.
"All done," Miko said triumphantly. "The first step to knowing how to undo a spell is knowing exactly how it works. Remember that."
I nodded, and we quickly ascended to the next floor. The second and third floors were similarly dispatched with – though the third floor contained a few more corners and dead ends that we had to navigate – before, at last, we finally made it to the top.
As we climbed onto the fourth floor, we found that the corridor that greeted us no longer ran from left to right, as it had done on the previous levels. Instead, it led only forwards.
"At the end of this corridor is Princess Kaguya's private quarters," Keine murmured. "No spell has been cast on this floor. I suspect she will be waiting for us there, as will her bodyguards. I do not expect that she sent her entire escort out with her into the festival. She would surely have asked for some of her entourage to stay behind."
"We will find out." Miko pulled her sword out again. "Let's go."
We stepped gingerly down the hallway, our footsteps and my heartbeat the only sounds echoing in my ears. Torch after torch flickered menacingly as we advanced, but Toyosatomimi no Miko's sword guided us forwards, and I took heart from its unwavering energy.
Soon, another pair of sliding doors came into view.
"Here we are," said Miko. She eased the doors open, and we entered.
Kaguya's chambers were much larger than even the impressive exterior of Eientei suggested might be possible, no doubt due to some arcane magic that warped the matter around the room, expanding it beyond its usual magnitude. The walls appeared to be coated in some ethereal material that sucked away the light around it, yet simultaneously emitted light of its own. In fact, the room as a whole seemed to shift in and out of existence, as if it were a mirage in the desert of the void that shrouded this space.
At the center of the room was a wide tatami mat, upon which the mistress of the mansion sat, hands resting on her lap, gazing at us expectantly.
"I knew this place could not hold thee for long, Toyosatomimi no Miko," said Kaguya. "The nature of its magic is familiar to thee, as one well-versed in the infinitesimal."
"Tell us about what happened to the moon, Princess Kaguya." Miko placed her sword on the ground in front of her, in a small gesture of goodwill. "Nobody here needs to suffer harm."
"I know thou dost not desire the fight. It is not thy way. But," Kaguya lowered her voice, "more is at stake here than thou might know."
"You could tell us the reason, at least," Keine pleaded. "We are not unreasonable people. If you suffer some kind of plight, we may be able to assist you."
Kaguya's features softened as she looked away. "Thou art as kind as always, Keine Kamishirasawa. But this is a matter that pertains to me, and to my forebears. I cannot involve thee, but I also cannot lift the veil cast upon the moon before my work is done."
"Every day that the moon's light is sealed is another day that Gensokyo's denizens remain in danger." Keine sighed. "I must ask that you speak freely of your ills, or we will have to restore the moon ourselves. By force, if we must."
"That I cannot do." Kaguya closed her eyes. "If this is the path thou chooses, so be it."
"With the greatest respect, Princess Kaguya," Miko said, "I would not consider your odds of victory in battle greater than ours. We are two, and you are one."
"Thou art mistaken in that respect. I am not alone. Come forth."
The sullen air behind Kaguya shifted, and a figure emerged from the distortion.
"Eirin Yagokoro, at your service," said the red-robed maiden. "What would you have me do, Princess?"