Chapter 16 – Council

Kuei's mansion stood in stark relief against the rest of the buildings on the east edge of town. While its size was not by any means imposing, it bore signs of actual aesthetic flourishes on its outside. Where other structures in the area had only bare black stone, it boasted relief carvings of a man in scaled armor standing over an image of the city, gazing off into the distance as if looking to spot danger. Much of the rock face on the sides of other buildings was rough and unpolished; not so Kuei's walls, which looked almost glossy. His was also the only building in town to have in front of it any trace of flora, in the form of several small rose bushes.

Inside, the dominant color remained black, but splotches of red interrupted it on curtains covering the windows and velvet cushions atop pedestals holding up small statues and other stonework. The whole first chamber had the air of either a museum or, thanks to the color scheme, a mausoleum. What seemed strange to Chrono was that whoever designed the place must have chosen the gloomy look out of preference, not mere for lack of resources—even the paintings on the walls comprised no more than three colors apiece, without exception black, white, and red.

Paem led the way to a set of black, stone double doors at the back of the room. She knocked on the middle of the right door three times with her staff, and then she waited until it groaned its way open. Flickering candlelight crept through as the doors swung inward, apparently the only light in the windowless next room. Paem marched in without waiting for an invitation, and Chrono and Coppelia followed.

The candlelit chamber turned out to be an anteroom, more like a hallway than a real room. The only objects inside were a few candles in wall sconces and another pair of stone doors at the back. No paintings hung on the walls. As soon as Chrono and Coppelia stepped past the radius of the doors' arcing path, the doors shut themselves behind everyone. Then the lights went out.

"What is this?" Chrono called out.

"Stay still," Paem answered. "This is just a security measure. I can get us into the next room."

"I can't move?"

"Not yet." Paem said nothing more, but Chrono could still make out a few scuffing and tapping sounds before a bright white vertical line appeared at the back end of the room. The line grew thicker until it became apparent that it was a crack in the doorway.

"Follow me now," Paem ordered.

After two dark rooms, the lack of darkness in the next room surprised Chrono, as did the lack of size. The whole room was shaped like a circle only a few yards in diameter. The walls, floor, and ceiling were as black as anything else in the building, but a columns of white light rose out of the middle of the room and stretched up to the top. Chrono squinted to avoid being blinded. "In here," said Paem. She walked into the center of the pillar and vanished. Having seen this sort of setup before, Chrono hardly hesitated before following her. His body turned weightless as the world dissolved away around him, only to reform in the next room, which looked exactly like the previous. He stepped out of the column and stood by Paem's side as he waited for Coppelia to materialize.

"We're here," said Paem, pointing to the chamber's exit. "Be polite. Those unfamiliar with this land might underestimate the importance of the man who takes up residence behind these doors."

Chrono nodded.

Paem tapped the right door three times again, and it slid to the side, revealing a room quite different from those before it.

Black and white checkered marble replaced the rough stone floors of every other room in town, and a ring of lamps around the perimeter bathed everything in a softer, more comfortable light than the candles had. Four of the lamps stood out from the rest; at the back of the room, there stood a purple lamp, a yellow lamp, a red lamp, and a blue lamp, watching over all of the others.

A conference table stretched across the middle of the room, surrounded by at least two dozen chairs. Three of the chairs at the far end were occupied, though all three people occupying them stood up when they saw Paem.

The first occupant was a tall, bald man with a rough face darkened by a tattoo in the shape of a horse. He wore nothing but a silver kilt around his waist. A large sledgehammer sat on the table in front of him. The second, sitting across from him, was a woman who looked slightly older than Chrono. Her face poked out from behind a hefty helping of fiery red hair, which ran down the length of her back and stood out against her shiny white robe and red belt. She wore sandals on her feet.

The third was a man nearly as wide as he was tall, dressed in full armor like the statue in the town square and the carvings on the outside of the building. His helmet and suit were both dark green and very, very round. Dark eyes peered out from under a scaly visor atop his forehead.

Seeing these three, Paem dropped any pretense of formality and sprinted over to the woman. She threw her arms around her neck and just barely choked out a greeting through a wave of tears.

"Sajo, Mal," she said. "You're alive!"

"Of course we are alive," the woman replied in an even voice. "Why would you think otherwise?"

"We were told something might have happened to you. I thought maybe you guys were hurt or…"

The man across the table snorted. His voice boomed out across the room: "It was a pitiful excuse for an ambush. Nothing we could not handle."

"We need to talk more about this, though," the woman added. "But first, you need to report. Who are these visitors?"

Paem took a few seconds to collect herself. Remarkably, when she regained full composure, she left no sign that she had just broken down.

"These two are friends who helped fight off Crow."

The man in scale armor spoke for the first time: "We will have formal introductions when everyone is seated. If they are your friends, then they may join us at our table. Be warned that I may dismiss them at any time."

"Yes, Kuei," Paem said. She turned to Chrono and Coppelia. "Please, have a seat. I think we all have plenty to talk about."

Chrono sat down next to the large man with the hammer, and Coppelia took a seat next to him. Paem herself sat down next to the red-haired woman. Kuei took the seat at the very head of the table.

Paem spoke first. "My lord Kuei, the young man here is named Chrono, and the young woman is named Coppelia. I met the two when they came across my shop. I found them interesting. They seemed to recognize the Dreamstone despite being obvious outworlders with no knowledge of anything around here. After a philosophical discussion, I took them to Himmelkreuz, and that's when the alarm sounded."

"You took two people you had just met to Himmelkreuz?" asked the woman. "I hope you had a good reason."

Paem nodded. "Were they spies, they would have pretended not to know what Dreamstone is. The young woman brought with her curious ideas about the art of prediction, so I decided to give the two of them a quick tour. It's not like they would be any danger to me, anyway. Chrono, Coppelia, by the way, this cynical woman here is named Sajo, and the next to you is Mal. They are my two best friends, and together we serve under Lord Kuei."

"Those are the two Crow mentioned during our fight," said Chrono. "Just before he said something about Golems."

"Correct," said Paem. "And I know I promised to tell you more about the Golems. Essentially, they are how we obtain the Dreamstone. We build them in a factory out behind the lake and near the mines, and then we ship them over to do the mining for us. It's a task much too dangerous for a person, living or dead. The Golems are just machines, so we take advantage of that."

Coppelia blinked. "If you continually manufacture more, then I assume many are destroyed in the mine. Is this correct?"

"More or less," said Paem. "Accidents are fairly rare, but the Golems do wear out after a while, so we have to keep making them. Sometimes we ship them off to other places, as well."

"And you have the key to this factory?" Chrono asked. "That's what Crow implied."

"I do," said Paem. "It's the same key I used to get us in here."

Kuei looked at Paem. "This Crow you mention, he wanted your key?"

Paem coughed. "He said so."

"I do not remember anyone named Crow," said Mal.

"I think he's new," said Paem. "In any case, I hadn't seen him before. I don't really know what he wants with the Golems, but he scares me more than a little. He might have killed us all if it weren't for Chrono."

Sajo raised an eyebrow. "Really? He's strong enough to beat even you?"

"Believe it or not," said Paem. "He was tougher even than Plum Blossom or Yu the Fisherman."

Kuei grunted and folded his hands under his chin. "These are troubling tidings you bring, Paem. The balance of this world has been upset. I may have to assume a more active role until this is resolved. Is there anything else to report?"

"I have a question," said Coppelia.

"Speak," Kuei replied.

"Do you know Miss Orchid? My purpose for being here is to locate her, and I have only one lead so far. Crow said she would soon lead an invasion of the province to the west, so Mister Chrono and I plan to travel that way to find her."

"An invasion in Qilin's land?" Kuei pondered this news. "What could be going on?"

"That's three attacks in three areas in a very small span of time," said Paem. "Three attacks, and no obvious reason behind any of them except for the one intended to distract Mal and Sajo. I never heard what happened there, either."

"Not much," said Sajo. "It was a little unexpected, fighting all those Golems, but in the end they were nothing more than a hassle. No real danger."

"Golems?" said Paem. "Weren't they supposed to be after Golems?"

"Different Golems," said Mal. "Smaller. Weaker. We crushed them."

Sajo counted off on her fingers. "Golems, imps, Crab-Flowers, assorted other monsters… We fought a horde of the things. It was tiring. In the end, we killed them all before any could get inside the factory, but I don't remember ever facing an invasion like that before. It was strange."

"Crow said he thought you would be killed," said Paem. "Yet you didn't seem to have any trouble. If he underestimated you that badly, maybe it's because he doesn't quite know what he's doing yet. This supports my hypothesis that he's a new arrival."

"Young Coppelia," Kuei said, returning to an earlier subject, "I must confess that I do not know anyone named Orchid. However, our goals may overlap. I am charged with protecting this world, and to do so I may need more information. I must learn the objective of our enemies, and if your Orchid is among them, I would like to know more about her. You previously announced your intention to search Qilin's desert for the invading Orchid, did you not? I now order Paem to accompany you and report any findings back to me. Her specialty is information, and it might be a good move to keep her away from the Golem factory for a while."

"My lord Kuei," said Paem, "if I am away, will there be sufficient defenses back home? I know I am instrumental to protecting our home from attack, and I expect more to come. I doubt our enemies will give up so easily, whatever their reasons for their assault."

Kuei stood up. His frame dwafted everyone else at the table, including Mal, who was himself a very large man. Kuei nearly blocked out the light from the four large lamps behind him. "I will take your place until you return. There will be no need to worry. I can operate Himmelkreuz, and I know I am more than a match for Plum Blossom or Yu."

"My lord," said Paem, "I will do as you say."

"Let us recap all that we know, then," said Kuei. "Paem, you were the closest to the recent attack, so please remind us all."

"Certainly," said Paem. "We know of at least three attacks. Two have happened, and one is still just a threat. One attack was to obtain the Golems, and one was the distract Mal and Sajo. The third attack, whose purpose is unknown, is to be led by someone named Orchid. A new foe named Crow headed the attack I and my friends intercepted. And I think that is all that we know for now. My task is to gather new information, and to do that, I will set off with Chrono and Coppelia while you stay behind in case Crow returns."

"That is it, I think," said Chrono. "In addition, I wish to aid Coppelia in finding her friend, and I myself wish to find a way home. We are both here, but neither of us is dead, or so I hope. Eventually, I want to return to the land of the living."

"I have already explained my mission," said Coppelia, "but it bears repeating that my primary objective is to locate Miss Orchid. Anything else is a lower priority for me."

"Very well, then," said Kuei. "The three of you about to depart are dismissed. I wish to continue council with Mal and Sajo for a bit longer. Best of luck to you, and I hope we can reach the root of this problem before it becomes unmanageable."

"We shall do our best," said Paem.