Chapter Two: Sanctuary
"Don't they at least have something once in a while? Groceries, or I hear the Angel Fish makes a killer shisu, and they deliver."
Norris glanced back at the stairs that led to Astana Base and shrugged. "They're thaumaturgists, aren't they? Expect they're so busy working out things they forget about eating."
His fellow soldier Pasho gaped and nearly dropped his pike. "The Emperor dead and the gods gone and they're busy working out things as usual?"
"They could be working out why the gods're gone, you know," said Norris, a shade reproachfully.
"Sorry." They watched the people mill outside. "Everyone was so cheerful in the old days," Pasho ventured after a time. "I kind of wish we were back at war, don't you? Least people were happy then."
"What with the Emperor dead and the gods gone, they're not going to be celebrating in the streets, are they?" He was right, though - at least during the war everyone in the city was bustling about, united with purpose, doing all they could for the Empire.
Now… some had questioned whether there was really much of an Empire anymore. The general reassuring hubbub of Astana had become subdued, the average tone of voice a whisper. Lord Yuna and his assistants were holed up in Astana Base, which reassured no one, and even the recent repair of the Causeway was seen by many as a gate to foreign invasion. At least they still said good day to soldiers on duty.
"Yes, that's my point. When we were at war we still had 'em, didn't we?" More watchful silence. "Say, Norris, there's a rumor going around-"
"Spit it out, then."
"They're saying - on the street, I mean, certainly not my opinion -"
"I said, spit it out!"
"I mean… they're saying Lord Yuna's done something to make the gods go away. Him being a thaumaturgist and all."
After a time, he rediscovered his tongue. "I didn't hear that, Pasho."
"I did say it wasn't my opinion."
When Nina had woken up she'd seen Ryu wearing the gold bell on a cord around his neck. Scias inquired about it at breakfast.
"This?" Ryu's hand went to the bell, picked it up and gave it a few rattles. "To remind me. That's all."
"There it is," he was calling now, as he indicated the entrance to the Sanctum.
"We're making good time," said Cray. "We should get to the village before nightfall."
They walked through in a rough formation. Ryu and Cray led, Ershin and Scias took the rear, and Nina walked sandwiched between the two rows. She held back a shudder when she entered. She had never liked caves; few in Wyndia did. At least the Sonne Sanctum wasn't as twisted and mazy as some of those she had encountered on their journey. It was mainly a place to pass through, half-holding your breath and listening to the beat of the group's footsteps.
As they moved further in the colors reverse-faded, growing deeper and darker. Cray's straw-colored and Ryu's blue hair became the same in shadow, the only differences in color hinted at by the glow of her staff. The last time they had come through Ursula lit the way by aiming sparkler fire into the ceiling at intervals, though she had stopped when Scias questioned the stability of the cave ceilings after being shot at repeatedly. Instead she used her incendiary magic to create a small flame that hovered before them - a kind of woodless torch. Now that Ursula was back in Chedo and Deis's magic was lost, that comfort had gone. Periodically she glanced back, convinced something followed. Once she caught Scias and Ershin doing the same.
As they rounded a corner one set of feet abruptly sped, and as it did those of everyone else stopped. Nina quickly ruled out Ershin and Scias, as neither had passed her, and Cray's shout of "Hey! Ryu! What the -" confirmed it. As if on a signal, the beat began again, sped up to match Ryu's pace, and they burst out onto the other side of the Sanctum in a jumble.
Nina wasn't sure what she had expected to see, but she knew she hadn't expected Ryu to be standing there, trembling and staring at a patch of grass, utterly alone.
"I told it to stop," he said as he looked up at Nina. "'Hold. Enow.' That means stop, doesn't it? Maybe it didn't understand me."
"What? What didn't? Ryu, what's the matter?"
"The stone in front -" He gestured at the entrance. "It said you had to have a sacrifice to get in. But that was just talk, wasn't it? Typical mystic jabber. I could've blown it out of the way, like the one in Mt. Yogy."
Nina glanced around at the others; Scias and Cray shrugged with their eyes wide (at least, she assumed Scias would be if she could see them) and Ershin said, "Deis says do not ask her."
"But it kept on running and slamming and slamming and slamming and then the stone was out of the way and it fell over and the bloody head oh so much blood… I defeated it, you know. Before it happened. It was so tall -" Here he waved a hand vaguely in midair. "Scared the villagers. And after I did it shrunk, got to be a baby again." This time his hand moved around knee level. "Only a baby. A baby killed itself for me. Should I be flattered?"
"Ryu?" she tried again. "I'm sorry - don't know what you mean."
He blinked rapidly. "Don't know?"
"I don't-" She swallowed. "I don't remember anything like that happening when we were here. Nothing like that."
"I… I d-don't remember anything l-like that either," Scias offered.
Cray shook his head. "Neither do I."
"Deis says she does not recall this incident."
Ryu looked at the grass, then back at her. "It didn't happen - not to me. Did it? Then it happened to… Fou-Lu…"
The group looked about. First at each other, then a quick glance at him, then back at each other again, scrambling for words. In the trees birds called.
"Okay, then," said Ryu. "Let's get to Sonne." He stood straight, chin up, but Nina couldn't help but think that it was far too rigid for true confidence. "I'm looking forward to it." His sword hand still trembled.
"Come in. It's nice to see a new face."
The stranger whispered thanks and half-tripped over the threshold. He was bleeding from a number of wounds, likely inflicted by the wildlife of the Kasq woods, and the Oracle of Wind found herself supporting him to the carpet - she'd never thought she would have to do such ever since she'd grown old. He flopped onto it like a rag doll, his wings jutting out.
"I don't get many visitors," she said as she bandaged him. "I think you've found out why. May I ask your name?"
"Certainly."
Awkward silence. "Then, what is your name?"
"P'ung Ryong."
"Ah, it's you." She remembered that case. Eager parents had decided the best way to express their hopes for their firstborn was to name him after the Wind Dragon. The child had not been so eager about it once he had been old enough to be teased. He had come to her for guidance, she'd given it, and the last she heard he was a fairly prosperous merchant with three children, none of them a P'ung Ryong, Jr. "It's been a long time."
He smiled. "Verily, it hath been a truly long time, lady Oracle."
"Let me get you something to drink."
He smiled. "Thou'rt too kind, lady Oracle. I thank thee."
She dug up some apple juice, as the teakettle was in hiding, and placed the full cup in his hands. "Are your children doing well?"
For a moment he seemed befuddled, but he rallied. "We didst- I didst hope to discover the condition of the rest after I visited thee, lady Oracle." He took a sip and his eyes widened as if she'd poured him the strongest alcohol. "They hath been away for such a span," he continued after he recovered.
The oldest of his children was ten, and he hadn't spoken in such a way when she had known him. Something was up. "I'm not quite sure I follow."
He clutched the cup of juice. "I, too, lady Oracle, wonder if perhaps thou hast mistaken us - me - for another."
They stared at one another for a moment.
"P'ung Ryong?"
The Wind Dragon nodded. "Apologies for my imposition, lady Oracle."
"Oh, do stop it. I thought you'd gone away, with the rest. Tarhn sent a bird."
"Tarhn would be the priestess of the golden plains, would she not?"
"Oh, yes. We keep in touch. Shouldn't you be - well, gone, then?"
"We hath been given mortal bodies by the Yorae Dragon, as there art no longer Endless upon this world and my former body wouldst attract undue attention."
"So it would. You said you're going to Wyndia, if I heard you correctly?"
"Thou hast a differing proposal?"
"Oh, no. It sounds like an excellent idea. I'll come with you. You'll probably need some support if you plan to reveal yourself. And you'll need a weapon to get back through these woods. I'm sure a good stout stick will do in a pinch, and I'm not a bad hand with a wind spell if I do say so myself."
"'Tis fortunate indeed that the Yorae Dragon saw fit to provide raiment as well."
"Yes. Fortunate. Is something wrong with the juice?"
"Nay, lady Oracle. I have simply become unaccustomed to such drink."
"Ah. Well, until you get accustomed again, I suppose you'd better stay away from the strong stuff."
He choked. "This - this is weak?"
It was a one-room house, separated from the rest of Astana Base by a passage through underhalls swarmed with a thousand flies and then up what had once been a long stairway but was now packed with rotting meat that had once been the organs of an Endless. The smell drove most of the assistants away; the prospect of climbing up through the stuff drove away the rest. Someday it would have to be cleared out, but until then everyone was staying away from it in favor of the new project.
This was fine with Yuna, as it afforded him quiet and he could bypass it all with some simple teleportation.
The Woren had been neat if nothing else. The half of her body that still resembled what she had been was severed from the rest, leaving a slash in the white sheet from the blade of Dragonslayer, and the entire job was covered with the blanket that Yuna had removed before his hasty retreat from the enraged Woren. He had pulled it back up to observe, and after he had taken the samples and disposed of the modified half had spread it out from her neck to where stumps poked out from under it.
She was protected from all decay; her wide-open eyes, though blank, lacked the glaze of death. Even dead Endless never rotted; they only burned, or were perhaps taken apart for good luck charms. Yuna had observed this phenomenon on his first posthumous visit; it had given him satisfaction to know that his creation mimicked the original Endless in this aspect. He frowned at it now. What did this mean now that the Endless had been cast out, and their powers with them? And what did it mean when one considered the chamber packed full of decaying organs, which he had passed by?
He remembered seeing, the first and till now last visit, that the cutoff had been at the waist - the last point visually unaffected by the transformations. So there would, logically, be no stumps to show. Unless they had grown. Yuna reached for the illogical things; his hand was stopped a half-inch away. A barrier. Very sensible measure for healing magics - it kept people from poking their fingers in or some fool thing and getting stuck in the regenerating flesh.
Regenerating flesh…?
He pulled back the blanket. He'd cut out pieces of bone and tissue for analysis by some of his assistants; now the cuts had all vanished. He looked again at her eyes, still wide and clear. He held his hand over her face, felt a slight tickle of exhaled breath, and understood.
"Well!"
Yuna sat down and began to note this latest development.