Chapter 4 – Passion and Pain, Part II

A moon rising in splendor
Is the beauty of my lovely one
Ah, the delicate yielding!
Heart's pain torments me

-Chinese Book of Songs #143

Chrono felt something on his forehead. He expected a headache, but instead, he got a gentle caress, soft as a breeze and even more peaceful. It felt like a set of fingers.

Nadia's fingers. He opened his eyes to see her bending over him, smiling from ear to ear, and giving him the same loving gaze she always gave when he was hurt.

"It's daylight, Chrono," said whispered to him. "Listen to Nadia's Bell."

"I hear nothing," Chrono managed. He closed his eyes again.

"The eastern sky glows," said Nadia. "Dawn is upon us."

"That is just moonlight, dear," said Chrono. "Let it be."

"Quickly, Chrono, you must go!"

"I mustn't," said Chrono. "I mustn't."

"You must," said Nadia. "To share a dream with you is sweet, indeed."

"I must…"

"Go."

XXX

Chrono woke to find he was alone. No Nadia. No one. Not even Disenchantment. No light, even.

He sat for a while on the cold floor of what he judged was still Jinling Caverns, listening. Hoping to hear something—anything. And for a while, all he could make out was his own breathing, which was louder than it normally would have been.

He tried shutting his eyes to go back to his dream of Nadia, but that didn't work. A painful lump on the back of his head prevented him from getting comfortable.

Where did that come from?

Chrono replayed his trip through the caves as best he could, but he just made himself bored again. He couldn't quite recall what happened before he blacked out. Something had to have hit him on the back of the head, but what? Was it what Disenchantment saw?

Or was it Disenchantment?

Nadia would never hit me, Chrono mused. Not from behind, anyway. She only hit me from the front, and then only when I deserved it. Not like Lucca, that rat.

That thought forced a small bit of warm feeling back into Chrono. He almost laughed. In fact, he actually heard a laugh.

Was that me?

"No," said someone else.

Out of nowhere, a soft, red light filled the area, which Chrono could now see was a small cell at a dead end in the caverns.

"At least, we hope you're not laughing," said the someone else again. "You're not in a position to be very happy. We made sure of that." The voice was lower and more crackly than Disenchantment's. It was also more masculine.

"Who are you?" said Chrono.

"We are here," said the voice again. "What, you want us to show ourselves?"

"If you don't mind," said Chrono.

"Cheeky one, but okay."

A snowy white outline of some sort of gremlin traced itself in front of Chrono. The fuller form of a yellow-skinned—scaled?—demon melted into existence where the outline had been, and it finally solidified into something tangible. It stood slightly shorter than Chrono, it was bipedal, and it had two wings on its back and a tuft of darker orange hair on top of its head, which it scratched with nasty-looking claws. Chrono could not tell if its eyes were pure red or simply black, reflecting the red light.

"We are here," said the creature.

Chrono's first reaction was to reach for his sword, but that did him no good, as he hadn't brought a sword with him to his wedding or to this other world. Feeling defenseless, he backed away.

"Is the human scared of us?" asked the creature. It licked its lips, or at least it licked where its lips would be if it had any.

"Not at all," Chrono lied.

"The human should fear us. All humans do, whether they know it or not."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most humans have never heard of you," said Chrono.

"Feisty again!" said the demon. "We like feisty. Tasty, feisty. Feisty, tasty. Yum. But not now, human. We will not eat you. No, we were not told to eat you. We just want to leave you hear."

"Leave me here?"

"We brought you here, didn't we?"

"What's with all the 'we' stuff, anyway?" Chrono felt a little bolder now that he decided his foe was not exactly a mental giant.

"We, because we are more than one."

"I only see one of you."

"Your eyes are worthless, are they not?" As if to emphasize the point, the demon blinked twice, causing pools of flame to well up in the middle of each. Its eyes looked as if they could swallow a man whole.

"They're good enough," said Chrono. At least I don't have Lucca's eyes. What's her prescription, anyway?

"The human thinks we are playing tricks with it, does it?" said the demon. "That is not our job, now. Our job is to maintain order."

Chrono snorted. "You maintain order by knocking me out and separating me from my guide?"

"If that's what we are told to do, yes," said the demon. "We only follow orders."

"Who would order me beaten?" Chrono asked. "Anyone I know?"

"It wasn't the human's fairy guide, if that is what the human thinks," said the demon. "Delicious fairy. Tasty fairy, but not bossy fairy. No, we have no reason to tell a human of our boss."

"You hurt Disenchantment?" Chrono again reached for his sword, and again he found that it wasn't there.

"Silly human. Tasty human. We must leave. We mustn't answer more questions. We must stick to what we do. There are more to eat, there are."

Chrono stood still, mouth agape. He watched as the demon disappeared from sight. He just about fell over when he saw the image that faded in when it was gone.

"Nadia!" Chrono shouted. "You have Nadia?"

"Silly human," said the demon's voice. "Humans never learn, whether from Pain or from Passion, do they? Despite all we do to teach them, they never learn."

Chrono lunged at the image of Nadia, but she faded from sight as his arms reached her, and Chrono tumbled forward onto the rock floor.

"Who is Nadia, anyway?" the demon taunted, its voice fading. The red light disappeared with it.

"What do you mean, 'who is Nadia?'" Chrono yelled. "If you didn't know, how could you show her to me?"

No one answered.

"Hey, ugly! I'm talking to you! Pain? Passion? What is your name?"

Chrono pounded the floor out of frustration. To his great surprise, he actually received an answer. It was not a verbal answer. It was something he saw. The floor where Chrono had hit his hand began to glow blue, just like the lighting spell Disenchantment had cast earlier. In fact, the light collected in front of Chrono's face, forming a sphere that looked exactly like Disenchantment's lighting spell.

"Disenchantment? Are you here?"

No one said anything, but the ball of blue light stayed right where it was. If nothing else, it kept Chrono company.

That was her spell. What is it doing here?

Chrono rose to his feet, and the ball of light followed him. He turned, first to his left and then to his right, and it stayed in front of him. He even tried walking forwards and backwards, and it stayed about the same distance away.

No sense in sticking around here. Better get moving. And hey, isn't that light the same color as Nadia's wedding dress? I can pretend she's the one guiding me.
Nadia, I'll get back to you, somehow.