In Time, Death
By Alesyira
Summary: The cave was deep, dark, and dangerous, but also hid treasures beyond imagination.
Cave
- 1660 -
Kagome had experienced her share of caves in the past, but this one seemed colder than any of the others. The impenetrable darkness looming before them seemed to seep into her skin, enveloping her senses with a bone-deep chill. Shivering, she rubbed her hands over her arms for warmth and smoothed down the prickled bumps.
She dug into her pouch for her white overcoat and tugged it over her shoulders, pulling it close around her as they walked through the gloom of the cavernous entrance. She licked her lips in mild trepidation and glanced at Koenma. "So, this is another one that makes better sense to approach from the mortal realm, hm?"
He shrugged. "After the last one, did you really want to risk that kind of surprise? And anyways, if the breach is down some narrow passageway, there's the risk of ending up within solid rock."
She released a long sigh. "Any reports from the spirits that died here?"
"Unfortunately, there's nothing." He gingerly draped an arm over her shoulders.
She glanced as his hand and contemplated correcting his behavior, but she was tired and cold, and it was good to have someone she might be able to trust at her side. (Even if he had no concept of personal space.)
"I'm sorry this is taking so long," he said, sounding genuinely remorseful. "We can take a break after this one, if you'd like."
She nodded wearily, unwilling to think about what might happen if they dropped into serious danger with her running on fumes. They'd only narrowly escaped the dragon at their last stop. It wasn't too often that she worked on so little sleep. The Makai had been the most recent, but even then she'd managed to sneak in a few bits of rest.
She sighed and leaned a little into his warmth, fighting back another yawn. "How many have died here?" she asked.
"Pretty consistent numbers. A human every week or so. It's not bad, but more than the expected number of zero," he muttered. "These spirits, though," he said, a little frown marring his expression, "have seemed different than the others. It is as though they weigh more, which makes no sense because spirits float."
He rubbed the back of his neck with a look of chagrin. "Without speaking to any of the living, I'm not sure what more we can learn to get them to stop coming this way," he murmured.
She hummed in thought. They'd already looked outside of the cave entrance for any sign of where the humans had been coming from, but there had been nothing either of them could find after an hour of searching. Chasing dead ends was part of the reason Koenma was so apologetic for dragging out their 'little' field mission.
They quietly strolled through the dimly lit passageway as the light slowly faded to nothing more than vague shapes in the dark. Kagome pulled out her vesper and used the holographic display to cast a pale illumination over their path forward.
Her shoes squeaked and slipped along the damp surface of the cavern floor, and she wrinkled her nose at an overly sweet scent of rotten fruit and something pungent she couldn't quite put her finger on. She hesitated when something unexpectedly crunched under her shoes, and she glanced down to see the floor littered with tiny bones and half-eaten insects.
"This place is creepy," she breathed, glancing sidelong at Koenma. He had yet to remove his arm from her shoulders, and an answering squeeze was his only response.
The great cavern came to an end up ahead, and she could see a few narrow passageways leading further into the darkness. They paused as she reached out with her senses, looking for any clue about which way they should go.
Koenma waited quietly until she'd made a decision, then he pointed at the ground with a fingertip. "Look," he whispered. Subtle, intentional blue markings had been scratched in the rock along the path she'd selected. They exchanged a glance. "I wonder what the humans are doing down here in this particular passageway," he wondered.
The bone-chilling humidity became thick and oppressive as they squeezed into a gap that was barely wide enough for either of them. They shuffled sideways through the passageway toward the tingle Kagome could detect. Koenma flinched at the sudden rustling of wings a few feet above their heads as tiny claws scratched and scrabbled in the quiet gloom.
"It's not far now," she said, barely holding on to her calm as the walls pressed closer and closer. She pushed through the last bit and popped out into a wide space where she stopped and looked around with a breath of relief.
She heard quiet splashes of running water and a tiny breeze tickled her nose. Koenma grunted behind her, not quite able to get his torso through the last gap in the rock. She turned and grabbed his hand to tug him loose, and he stumbled to his knees with a weary chuckle. "Okay, this one may have been worth trying to arrive a little closer," he grumbled.
"Glad we don't have to find our way back out again," she said, looking around at the cavern. From the corner of her eye, she could see the hint of a blue glow, and she stuffed the vesper back into her pouch to hide the light.
They stood in the silence for a few minutes as their eyes adjusted and the natural illumination in the cavern began to shine. Tiny plants glowed along the walls and floor with a pale cerulean tint. She looked up and spotted luminescent strings of purple and green vine that draped from the ceiling into pools of water that were filled with undulating clouds of neon green.
Koenma wiped the damp muck from his palms. "This is very interesting, but I still can't figure out why the humans have to venture down here?"
She slowly shook her head, then knelt and touched a little blue flower. "I've never seen anything like this before." Her brows furrowed and she briefly glanced at Koenma with confusion. "There's magic all over the place," she said, tilting her head with interest.
She turned her attention back to the plant before her and brushed its tiny curled leaves with the soft pink glow of her magic, watching with a tiny smile as the plant swayed toward her skin. Joy sparkled through her senses at the small discovery. "I don't think any of these plants should be here," she whispered.
She stood and brushed off her hands with a thoughtful frown. Belatedly, she remembered to look for the breach and reached out for its location. She turned and walked to the left as she followed the subtle marker for a short distance, then stopped with wide eyes.
"Wait," she muttered to herself, turning around to face Koenma. She backtracked quickly toward the other side of the cavernous space.
"Having trouble?" he asked with a grin.
"No," she said after a moment. "Well, yes." She sounded unsure as she approached the breach. "It was over there a minute ago, but then the opening moved here."
"Are you certain? It makes no sense that a weakness in the spell should be able to move somewhere else," he said, quietly joining her.
"No, it doesn't." It felt like subtle chaos that the spell was behaving so strangely here and magical plants were growing where they didn't belong. She looked at him with rapidly growing curiosity. "Let's take a look, shall we?" she said, holding out her arm.
He chuckled and looped his arm through hers before walking with her through the opening.
By stark comparison, the icy plunge through the breach made the previously damp cavern chill feel like an early spring morning. She sucked in a breath, swearing to herself that she would waste at least an hour soaking in hot water at the earliest reasonable opportunity.
Kagome blinked against the surprising brightness. Once her eyes adjusted, she gasped in delight, dazzled by their surroundings.
Glowing plants on this side of the breach lined the floor with a multicolored carpet of light. The cavern ceiling was strewn with so much of the luminescent vine that it nearly resembled the midday sky. The pools of water were filled with countless little aquatic creatures that flickered like fireflies and twinkling stars.
"This is beautiful," she murmured in awe as she drank in the sparkling visage.
Koenma hummed in agreement, looking around with raised eyebrows. She leaned heavily into his side, a tiny sigh escaping her lips as her gaze drifted along the sights of the cavern.
Excuse me, a soft voice intruded on their quiet moment. Koenma turned to see a waist-high humanoid with dark violet skin looking up at him with wide, unblinking eyes.
"Yes?" he replied, glancing around to see if there were others nearby. He hadn't spent nearly enough time with the living to have seen anyone like this before.
Your friend must leave, they said. It is not safe for their kind to be here.
Alarmed, Koenma turned to look at Kagome's face as she sighed dreamily, her lids drooping as she rubbed her face on his sleeve with a wide yawn.
"What's not safe?" he asked quickly.
The plants make the humans forget themselves. They stop moving, stop breathing, and then they are no more. The short creature reached out a long-fingered hand to Kagome's wrist with a curious look. She hummed quietly and smiled down at the newcomer. Their little violet face tilted inquisitively. She is still reactive. This is unexpected. Perhaps she is in less danger than the others that came before.
"Why have others been coming here?" he asked, carefully supporting Kagome's stance as he reached down to pick up any pebbles he could find.
The plants are used in medicine, and used to be very rare. Finding a few was a skill their healers and our people treasured. Here, they have grown with great abundance, but the concentration of pollen is too strong for mortals. The humans don't mean to come here, but attempts to close the gate continue to fail.
He glanced at the short creature with narrowed eyes, then took Kagome's lax fingertips and pressed them to the stones. He wasn't sure how much she understood or if she had enough control to help him at this point, but he tried anyways. "Kagome, magic please."
The creature flinched in surprise when her light flooded Koenma's palm.
Miko, they whispered.
Koenma nodded, focusing on his rocks and the tiny spells he needed to put in place.
This must be why... they muttered quietly as thin arms crossed over their chest.
He wondered at that, but then laughed as Kagome's hand slipped into dangerous territory as she leaned more heavily against him. He saw that her attention was wide-eyed and riveted to the multitude of lights around them and realized she didn't mean anything by the gesture. He nudged her hands away and looped her arm over his shoulder. "We've been traveling to the different gates to try and stop the humans from falling through, but barring that, these are left on either side to help keep my team informed if travelers stray where they do not belong."
The little humanoid knelt to tend a young plant. You will fetch the humans that come here?
He nodded, then ducked away from Kagome's face as she turned to whisper loudly in his ear about the tiny beautiful creatures she could see frolicking in the nearby pool. The sound of her voice so close to his skin made his cheeks turn pink.
The little creature didn't seem to notice her behavior or his discomfort. This is good. It pains the young ones to see the humans die so needlessly.
"And you've been trying to close the gate?" he asked, hoping they had an idea about what must be done. Even though Kagome insisted they wouldn't be able to accomplish such a thing, he had to at least try. Kagome wanted to see less deaths, and he would give much to get the influx of paperwork to slow down.
It will not close. Instead, it moves elsewhere. We hope to move it where others cannot come through. The creature folded its arms with an irritated scowl. The gate makes the plants ill.
"Is there anything we can do to help that effort?"
She only vaguely noticed when Koenma turned to speak with someone standing nearby. Small stones were pressed to her fingers, and she wondered at the buttery smooth surface of the little rocks. His voice rumbled quietly through her shoulder, and she belatedly remembered he needed her for something.
Protection? She was good at protecting things. Her hands flared briefly with magic and someone nearby flinched away with surprise.
Protection, but there was no danger? She pulled back on the magic and reached for a better hold of his clothes, feeling unsteady. She smiled with unabated appreciation of every facet of light that shimmered through the air.
A soft sigh escaped her as she leaned against his warmth, peering up at the sparkling streamers of color that waved in the mysteriously strong breeze.
So much light, she blinked slowly, drinking in the experience. She felt like this would be the perfect place to curl up and soak in the ambiance. Maybe she could take a nap here. It seemed so pleasant. The light wasn't nearly as much of a deterrent to a good nap as the midday sun could be.
So inviting. So relaxing.
She spent a while thinking about how nice it would be to rest on the fluff of glowing mosses that surrounded her feet. She wondered if the lights in the pool made the water warmer. She contemplated if the vines would support her weight for a snooze while dangling in midair.
A strong hand tugged at her arm, drawing her attention away from the lights and back toward the warmth at her side. She squinted up at the face peering down at her, but was unable to make out what she was looking at. His glow was less colorful, less interesting. But he was warm. So warm, she sighed, leaning against him. She might just doze off right there.
Thoughts of sleepiness were doused unexpectedly when the world was plunged back into icy darkness.
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom a while later, she realized someone was talking to her.
"…everything I've seen you go through, I didn't think that these sorts of trips could be dangerous," he muttered. "I've been thinking of you as indestructible and limitless." He sighed and grumbled more to himself, "I can't believe I overlooked something like that."
She blinked sleepily and looked around with mild confusion. "Hm?" she asked, feeling like she'd woken from a dream.
"Can you hear me now?" he asked, leaning into her line of sight.
She blinked at him. "Yeah," she said, rubbing her cheek with her fingertips. Her face and fingertips felt tingly. "What…" she paused, looking around. "What happened to all of the lights?"
Koenma looked a little sheepish. "The other side turned out to be pretty dangerous for humans," he said. "You stood there like a…" he paused, searching for a good description. "Like you had far too many cups of wine. Whatever affected you has been killing the other humans that slipped through."
She rubbed her face with her hands, hoping the weird tingling would go away soon. She felt sluggish and a little dizzy.
Koenma continued with a thoughtful expression. "I had a chat with one of the residents on the other side and they explained a few things." He tossed his stones carefully around the space, aiming for some of the passageways leading elsewhere in the cave system. "Now that I know the breach is in this bigger area, we should be able to hit this spot pretty quickly."
"For rescues?" she asked, carefully climbing to her feet. She frowned at the way her right leg wobbled uncertainly.
"Yep," he said, standing with her. "The people on the other side are trying to push the gate into a cavern wall to prevent any more humans from falling through."
Kagome's eyebrows lifted. I didn't realize that was an option, she thought.
"You were out of commission for a while there. Do you feel better now?"
"How long?" she asked, patting herself to make sure everything was still in place. She wondered how much danger she'd really been in. If she couldn't remember anything from the other side, would she have been able to defend herself if something dangerous had been present?
"An hour, maybe less. I would have brought you back sooner, but your condition didn't get any worse than drunk and the little person I was speaking with had so much to say about the magic here." He looked at her with a light blush staining his cheeks, then cleared his throat and glanced away. "I might come back later with additional questions," he murmured.
A whole hour with no recollection? She eyed Koenma with some trepidation. She'd been practically incapacitated by circumstances neither of them had expected. Anything could have happened. She wasn't sure what she should think about that.
Koenma seemed almost embarrassed by whatever had happened.
"Did I do something?" she hesitantly asked.
He ducked and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Not exactly," he mumbled. "I'm just glad you're all better, now," he added on as he peeked up at her through a gap in his bangs.
She frowned in mild concern. She might want to worry about it later, but a sudden thought pushed itself to the forefront of her mind. "Wait, so if you guys can just generate a portal between these places, coming and going, then why wouldn't you guys just portal to the person that's in danger? Like when I went through the breach and ended up traipsing all over Makai? You could have just fetched me once you knew something was wrong."
He scratched his head for a moment. "Well… I'm not sure the details of your story because it hasn't happened yet. But even with these spells immediately informing me, I'd still have to send the right people for a rescue."
She turned her attention away from his still-flushed cheeks, glad for something else to take up her attention. "So, if the person in trouble doesn't stay put, then they might be gone by the time someone arrives?"
He nodded. "That sounds about right."
She bit her lip and glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "How'd you find me at that waterfall the first time you met me?"
He shrugged and looked away, turning bright red again. "I knew where you were, then. I can feel your location."
She considered him for a moment. "My location, or this?" she asked, fishing out her vesper to hold it up.
He shrugged with uncertainty, but it was the only thing that made sense. He could find her anywhere, so long as she had her device?
She wasn't sure if she should feel worried about this new development. He was awfully bad at personal space the few times she'd met him, with two surprise kisses in their past encounters. (At least… two she knew of. How many more might happen before he learned to respect boundaries?)
And then that date they'd had with Jorge playing waiter? He'd clearly had a lot more time to think about her than she'd had to think about him. If he weren't so cute, he'd be creepy.
But he'd also apparently behaved himself when she wasn't able to defend against unwanted advances, and she hadn't woken to find herself in a compromising position.
She was still a little wary of his intentions, but she realized that maybe he was someone that she could trust.
Couldn't she?
AN: I am greatly amused by this detour from the primary storyline, almost like we're running some serialized episodes midway through the main story arc that I've barely touched on... (sigh) The journey is more important than the destination lol