Chapter 7 – Flower from Paradise, Part I

She is a flower from paradise
Atop a hill she holds her reign
Though by the winter's chill she dies
When spring returns she's born again
For if her fate's to touch the sky
Should cyclic life make it in vain?
In vain those nights once soaked in tears
In vain her anxious gnawing fears
Her future ever doomed to pass
Beyond her, swept away by time
She sees herself, as in a glass
The image once but in her head now out
Can such a picture someday ease her doubt?

Beyond Time

Jinling Caverns did not change. The walls were as featureless as ever, the air remained uninvitingly stuffy, and the exit was still far out of reach. Disenchantment's light hovered over Chrono's head in the same manner as it had earlier. Nothing about the situation was any different, save for something abstract. Something that wasn't really there. The calculations in Coppelia's mind and Chrono's application of her observations made all the difference in the world; though everything looked precisely as it had before, that same look was somehow less bleak when seen in light of new information.

While Coppelia remained as calm and collected as anyone ever was, Chrono's heart raced, and he found himself a fair bit more loquacious than usual. "Coppelia, we have our way out. The last thing Disenchantment said to me before she disappeared was, 'Three right, two left.'"

"How did she disappear?" Coppelia asked.

"I'm not really sure about that. I got hit over the head and knocked unconscious about that time. In any case, the point is that she must have known something bad was going to happen, so she gave me this light orb as a guide to get me out of this cave. It's so simple! When it flashes three times, we should take the right fork in the path, and when it flashes twice, we should go left. I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Do you?"

"We did not notice that it only flashed at intersections, nor did we notice that the duration of its off periods was always either two or three seconds."

"Yeah, well, I would have noticed that eventually. And I did put the pieces together, didn't I?"

"That you did."

Chrono quickened his pace. "We could be out of this place soon. The riddle is solved. We aren't lost anymore."

The journey through Jinling Caverns was no longer monotonous. Previously, when each twist and turn of their path had nothing to distinguish it from the last, there was no way to tell if they had been making any sort of progress at all. Now, a fuller understanding of Disenchantment's light lifted spirits all around in several ways. Chrono no longer feared an imminent and lonely death. He also no longer suffered from a complete lack of orientation; there were right ways and wrong ways to go, and those were better for the psyche than identically wrong ways. He felt excitement at the possibility of escaping. He felt a bit of pride at being useful to his new friend. And, of course, his chances of seeing Nadia again increased substantially if he could make it out of the cave.

But nothing came easily. Disenchantment's disappearance bothered Chrono. If something prowling about were powerful enough to drive her off or even kill her, he couldn't let his guard down. The demons Passion and Pain frightened him, both because they showed every sign of being able to strike stealthily and because he had absolutely no idea what they were up to. Worse, Chrono had a feeling they weren't the most powerful foe he might find roaming about. While he wasn't sure how much to trust anything said by demons, Passion and Pain had mentioned working for someone.

And when Chrono rounded the final corner of the final intersection, he choked on his fears.

A creature—a demon, maybe—roughly the size of a small house stood in the middle of a fairly large room. A glistening shell covered the sides and back of its bulbous body. Its arms, thick and black and ending in five-fingered hands with nasty claws, stood stiffly in front of it, challenging them to step closer. The many sets of horns on its head and the set of teeth in its mouth looked nearly identical, from a safe distance. Its eyes glowed red.

The demon breathed as loudly as an average person might speak. The sound of its breath started out wheezy, but it grew raspier. The demon appeared to be salivating at the sight of its prey.

Before Chrono could react, Coppelia pulled a scarf out of her pocket and threw it over Disenchantment's light.

"What are you doing?" Chrono shouted.

"I wish to know if that monster can see us better in the dark."

"You what?" Chrono hardly had time to reply before he had to duck a flaming orange projectile from the mouth of the beast. "You want to see?"

Coppelia hopped over to Chrono's side and removed the scarf. "My judgment was poor. This monster must have the advantage in the dark if it has lived in this cave longer than we have."

Rather than listen to Coppelia, Chrono braced for another assault. It didn't come.

"Look," Coppelia said simply.

When the monster looked directly at the uncovered light, it reared its head back and roared.

"The light must hurt it," Coppelia explained.

Chrono's eyes widened. "Look out!" He dove to the side and pushed Coppelia along with him, and not a moment too soon. The floor where they had been standing seconds before exploded in a brilliant flash of light.

Coppelia shook her head. "The light! The monster absorbed the light."

"And fired it back," said Chrono. "We don't get any breaks in this fight. If it's light, it zaps us. If it's dark…"

Chrono jumped out of the way of another ball of fire. Coppelia narrowly avoided the getting ripped to shreds by the monster's claws, but she ran into the side wall.

Coppelia frowned. "It would appear that we are caught between a rock monster and a hard place."