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Fushigi Yuugi and all characters are property of Watase Yuu.
SI::SCENE IV
Shan
The Mountains
Chiao Tsan arrives at the inn accompanied by his small military transport.
Yin Tian Cloudy
After I left Tomo I rode as quickly as I could away from the city and its smell of fear. I had known that type of fear before, all around me, in the haunted eyes of the girls I worked with, in the dirt and grime of the place where we lived. It was a second layer of dirtiness on my skin, and no matter how hard or how long I scrubbed, it would never come off.
Until he saved me.
The landscape began to change gradually from the dark green vegetation of forests and plains to the more scrubby, dry mountain plants that populated the foothills of Kutou. The trail wound up and down sloping hillsides and I slowed to avoid my horse tripping on any loose rocks. A stone in the hoof right now was not a good idea.
Overhead, the sky darkened. If it rained now I would be drenched before I could find shelter, and there was no forest to cover me this time.
But it did not rain, simply clouded and covered the sun. The trail I was following now was no more than a beaten footpath, overrun by dying weeds and the occasional skeleton of a long dead animal. I felt the fear again, crowding behind me, around me. I imagined voices, ghostly, at the edge of my consciousness.
Brave girl.
Who are you?
Turn back. Turn back before it's too late.
I blinked. No, I wasn't imagining…there really were voices. My horse chomped at the bit, gait slowing, and I pushed it onward.
You don't belong here.
Or do you?
Are you one of us?
I felt icy fingers on my cheeks and suppressed a shudder. My horse shied and I kicked it hard in the sides. I couldn't have it stopping on me now. If I was to get there to meet Tomo in three days, I needed the fastest transportation I could find.
What are you, girl?
Who are you?
What are you doing here?
You are different.
Damn right I was different. I could see faintly wisps of…something in the air now. The sky was darkening quickly and I could see flashing lights around me.
Lost souls. Nakago had spoken of lost souls, but had glossed over it quickly as if it were nothing. Perhaps thinking I could handle a few lost souls without any problem?
If that was the case, I wouldn't disappoint him.
Another cold icy finger brushed me, and it felt like my cheek had been numbed.
"Leave me alone!" I said into the eerie silence, and I heard invisible laughter.
She wants us to leave her alone.
Do you know where you are headed?
You are headed towards death.
"I know that," I growled through gritted teeth. I focused my eyes on the road straight ahead. If I veered off the path now, who knew what horrors awaited me? Swallowing, I suppressed the urge to flee. I was not afraid of a few lost souls.
She's not afraid.
How noble of her.
What do you want, girl?
"I am Seiryuu shichi seishi Soi," I said, jerking the horse to a stop on the road. It reared up on its hind legs slightly, but I kept my balance, my hand on my dagger.
"I seek the Seiryuu shichi seishi Miboshi."
The voices laughed.
Zhao Searching
It was not until I had ridden up into the true foothills that I felt the first disturbances.
It was not chi, exactly. More like vestiges of chi, places where it had been but was now not, empty shells in which the chi had once resided. Frustrated, I tried to pin it down but to no avail.
It was getting dark, and my night senses were stirring. There were dancing lights in front of me, tiny lights that looked like miniature lamps, in front, behind, all around.
Unnatural.
My hand grasped the shin in the pocket of my traveling cloak, and I narrowed my eyes, seeking. I couldn't feel any chi, just the strange dampened almost-chi that kept eluding my grasp.
Who are you?
My head jerked up at that.
A voice?
Who are you?
You do not fear us.
Voices…voices from the mist that had closed in around me without noticing. I kept my head high, my gaze narrow.
The almost-chi…these were spirits?
We fear you.
You are different.
Who are you?
What are you?
Who do you seek?
Undercurrents of fear in the ghostly voices. I understood the threads of chi that ran through them, thin as gossamer and just as fragile. Ghosts but not ghosts…living souls trapped in the dead world of the Kutou foothills, waiting for…
What?
"What is your business with me?" I said into the darkness and mist. The horse's hooves echoed with a dead thudding noise.
We watched you coming.
We have seen you for many days.
You seek one of us.
Who is it?
Who are you?
"I will tell you nothing," I said calmly, "Until I find the one I seek." My voice sounded odd, as if muffled. The air was thick and wet.
Then how will you know who you seek?
If you do not ask us.
People have died here.
As will you.
"I do not plan on dying," I said. My horse's ears were laid back flat against its head, and I could feel its tense gait jarring my body on the dirt path which I could barely even see. "Begone! I have no business with you. Only with your master."
He seeks the master.
Brave man.
Many have sought the master.
None have survived.
"Oh?" I wondered softly, baring my teeth in the dancing lights of the spirits, bringing my shin up out of my pocket opened, releasing its power without any visible illusion. It was enough. The voices wavered at the edge of my conciousness and then retreated. The almost-chi vanished and I was alone.
"Then," I said to the heavy silence, "I shall be the first."
Ting Listening
I had given up trying to make my horse go any faster and had finally dismounted, leading the recalcitrant animal by the bridle and trying to keep my footing on the dirt path that had suddenly become slick and unnavigable . All around me the lights floated, but the voices were gone. I had felt a sudden surge of familiar power before they disappeared. Tomo?
I couldn't tell. It was best not to rely on false hope. Two days left to reach the mountains, and at this pace I would be lucky if I could make it in three.
I could only hope Tomo would know how to find me.
It was fully dark now, and I could hear strange noises from the sides of the road in the grasses and the marshy areas further on. The lights were more numerous now, seeming to increase with each step I took. The horse shied again and stopped. I tugged at the bridle but it stood firm, eyes rolling.
"Stupid horse," I mumbled, placing a hand on its head and feeling the chi inside the animal, trying to grasp the strands that would enable me to control it.
A noise from the marshes broke my concentration. A low rumble. The ground shook. The horse reared, snorting in fear, taking me with it.
For a long, sick frightening moment I hung between sky and earth, grabbing onto the bridle and shouting at the top of my lungs, and then the animal hit the ground with a jarring crash which shook loose my grasp on its bridle. It reared once more and then swung around, breaking into a full gallop back down the path from which we had come.
I stood, too tired to shout after it. I should have guessed it would bolt sooner or later. If only all my supplies hadn't been in the saddlebags.
If only Tomo hadn't agreed to my plan to travel apart. I had underestimated the enemy, and it was all my fault.
All your fault.
I froze. The voices again.
Are you lost?
Lost your way?
Come with us.
We will show you where to go.
The dancing lights appeared in front of me, coalescing into an iridescent ball of glowing, moving particles.
Come.
I couldn't look away. It was so beautiful…so beautiful.
Come with us.
Of course I would go with them. It was the only solution, after all.
I reached out a hand to touch the glowing ball but it moved further down the path and I followed, feeling like I was floating on air. How strange. How wonderful.
Like magic…
Come. Don't be afraid.
Afraid? I wasn't afraid.
Not afraid? Good.
Of course not. Who did they think I was? I was a Seiryuu seishi.
Seiryuu…
I felt like a string had snapped and I stumbled, falling face down on the dirt path, blinking my eyes to get rid of the light's afterimage. What had I just done? Fallen for the world's oldest trap. Surely, surely I had not been that stupid!
We have her.
It's too late.
The voices laughed, first a breathy whisper, rising to a shriek, whistling past my ears until it was not laughter anymore but screaming, screaming of terror and pure fear and the cries of the undead. I pressed my hands to my ears to block out the sound, but it penetrated through my skull, shaking me, blocking my own senses to anything but the pain of the endless screaming of despair.
And then it ended.
I drew a deep, shuddering breath. The light was gone too, but there was a strange misty sort of blue light all around me.
I looked up.
I was no longer in the foothills. These were the mountains of Kutou, and there before me yawned wide the gate of what looked like an ancient castle.
I could feel the evil in this place.
Looking for something?
This voice was different. It had substance, quality, life. It rang with mockery. I pushed myself to my hands and knees, then stood unsteadily, staring into the open gate beyond which only darkness lay.
"I am Seiryuu shichi seishi Soi," I said. "I have come for you."
And then the ground erupted under me and I screamed, and then there was nothing else.
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