Author's Corner

Thanks again to starrat and to new reader AkatsukiShizu3 for your comments on the previous chapter. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story enough to leave a review :)

EIGHTH BLOOD

Chapter 71: Day and night

.

.

After two days of hiking through the mountains, their long and arduous journey came to an end when they arrived at some ruins.

The temple's cracked roof and crumbling walls did little to inspire confidence, but they were all too weary to complain, and thus piled in through the entrance wordlessly. The interior was just as worn and decrepit as the outside, with moss sprouting in the spaces between bricks, and there were signs of erosion everywhere. The ground floor was empty save for a half-collapsed dais that housed two stone statues. They were identical in every way except for their colours, which were off-white and dark grey. The statues were ungendered, and their heads were obscured by large hoods, leaving smooth, round faces that bore peaceful-looking expressions.

"What is this place?" Octavia asked Sesshoumaru.

"The Temple of Day and Night," he replied, joining her at the foot of the dais.

"It's in pretty rough shape. Was there some sort of battle?"

"I'm not sure. It's been this way since before I was born."

She watched the other survivors milling around in the centre of the room. "Why did you bring us here?"

He gazed through a hole in the ceiling and sighed. "I used to come here a lot when I was young. The silence helped me think. It always felt like I'd travelled to another world." He shifted his gaze from the sky and looked her in the eye. Her pulse quickened when he lowered his voice and said, "You'll be safe here. All of you."

She frowned at his wording. "What about you?"

He didn't respond.

Before she could press him for an answer, Kanetsugu wandered over to where they were standing. "Is it just me, or are they creepy as fuck?" he asked, pointing at the statues. When neither of them replied, he crossed his arms and allowed his gaze to travel to the twin staircases behind the dais. "What's the infrastructure like up there? Will it hold?"

"Yes," answered Sesshoumaru. "I sense a presence on the third floor. Lesser youkai sometimes nest in here, so it may be a mother and her eggs. Ensure that you don't disturb them."

Kanetsugu nodded. "We won't. Hey, Kairi! Get over here and help me scope out the upper levels! You, too, Ten!"

The three Daiyoukai sprinted up the weathered staircase.

A fissure in the ground caught Octavia's eye. "What's beneath us?"

"The basement," Sesshoumaru said without looking.

"Have you ever been down there?"

"No."

That didn't surprise her.

"Should we check it out?" His eyes darkened at the suggestion. "It would only be you and me," she whispered, flashing him a tiny smile. "Just like old times. You never know. We might find something worthwhile. Or a monster that can mask its scent, waiting until nightfall to crawl out of its hole and eat us. Better safe than sorry, right?"

The corners of his mouth twitched. "When you put it that way . . ."

She grinned. Truth be told, she'd just wanted an excuse to be alone with him. It had been a tedious journey, made worse by the fact that she'd gotten used to falling asleep in his arms, hidden behind the safety of the waterfall. Despite spending most of their nights in the caves together, he'd made no attempt to kiss her again. To be fair, he'd had other things on his mind. So had she, but she also craved a distraction from the pain. Anything that would stop her from agonising over Rin and the others.

Octavia left Haru and his friends with Ah-Un whilst she followed Sesshoumaru down to the basement. The descending staircases had all collapsed long ago, so they were forced to circle the perimeter until they found a chasm large enough to enter. They skidded down the rocky slope and into the dimly lit space. The deeper in they ventured, the darker it became.

Sensing Sesshoumaru's increasing restlessness, Octavia lifted her finger and drew the mark for 'fire', igniting a small purple flame that floated above her hand. The flame revealed a massive manmade cavern with a steep drop at the centre. Balancing on the edge, she peered into the seemingly bottomless pit and felt a faint draught blowing from somewhere deep underground. She became aware of a strange tugging sensation the longer she gazed into the pit, as if the darkness itself was trying to drag her down.

Come . . . Come . . .

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

Sesshoumaru arched a brow. "Hear what?"

"I thought I heard . . . Never mind."

She shifted her attention to the nearest wall. It was covered in odd drawings and excerpts that were written in the True Speech. She directed the flame closer to the wall and examined the drawings. Sesshoumaru did the same, scowling as his eyes raked across the wall.

"Didn't you say this place was called the Temple of Day and Night?"

"Yes," he said. "Why?"

She pointed to a portion of the wall that had been sectioned into two halves—one light and one dark. The former contained a painting of the sun, whereas the latter was home to the moon. "That's why."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as he studied the endless stream of symbols attached to the piece.

Octavia's stomach sank when she saw the writing beneath the first half of the painting. "Oh my god."

"What's wrong?"

Her spine tingled. "It says 'Radiant One'."

He waited for her to elaborate.

Shaking her head, she moved the flame further along the wall. "Do you remember what I said before? About how my family belonged to a secret society that worshipped an all-powerful being called the Radiant One?"

"Yes."

"Augustus told me that the Radiant One was a creature made of light," she continued, keeping her voice low. "It supposedly fought against the Shadow to prevent the world from being plunged into darkness, but none of this looks like a battle. And those statues—"

Something surged inside of her. It wasn't entirely physical, but she could feel a peculiar sort of brightness growing and spreading outwards, filling her from within.

"I don't know what's real anymore," she whispered. "To be honest, I don't believe any of it. All this talk of gods and monsters . . . It's nonsense. For argument's sake, let's say something did happen all those years ago. Maybe they were gods, and maybe they weren't. It doesn't matter what they were. The truth stopped being important when people realised they could twist and weaponize it to create a narrative."

She could feel Sesshoumaru staring at her. "In the other world, that woman called you Erem's Vessel."

"That's right."

"What does it mean?"

Octavia swallowed. There was no use hiding it from him now. Withholding the truth wasn't going to stop things from changing, nor would it alter the fact that she might very well be on the cusp of death, since the previous vessels had all died young. Regardless of the outcome, he was going to find out eventually, so she might as well just get it over with.

"According to my brother, after the Radiant One defeated the Shadow and claimed its first host, its disciples gave it a name. The name was Erem, which means 'saviour' in the True Speech. And when the first host passed away at the age of twenty-five, the other disciples assumed that would be the end of the Radiant One. But it turned out she had surrendered more than just her body. She'd signed away her entire bloodline. Which meant that a second host was soon born, then a third, and so on."

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened. "But that would make you—"

"I know. If it's true, it means I'm a monster."

"You're not a monster."

"Then what am I?"

"You're human. Nothing more, nothing less."

She turned away to hide her tears. "I should probably feel insulted, but I'm glad you think—"

"It wasn't an insult." He reached out and caught her wrist, prompting her to look at him again. "I didn't realise it before, but what humans lack in skill, they make up for in resilience. You have to work twice as hard at something, and when you fail, you fail spectacularly. But you don't give up. You keep trying until you eventually succeed, and then you move on to something else. Your kind accomplishes more in five years than mine does in fifty, because for a mortal such as yourself, time is of the essence. You do everything in your power to ensure that your existence meant something. And we hate you for it. We hate you because you believe there's a point to it all."

"There is," she murmured, dazed from his confession. "A point, I mean. At least, I hope there is. Otherwise, why bother?" She unpeeled his fingers from her wrist and cradled his hand in hers. "Unless that is the point. What if destiny has nothing to do with it? What if we come into the world untethered? Instead of being tied to others by invisible threads, what if we make the bonds ourselves? Tying and untying, over and over until we die. Maybe . . . Maybe life is just a series of choices you have to make."

He gazed at her in the low light of the cavern, his eyes half-lidded and lips parted. She lifted her free hand and used it to trace the underside of his jaw. Regardless of whether they'd wanted to or not, they had tied themselves together, and the knot was only pulling tighter.

She leaned closer and whispered, "You have two choices here. Do you know what they are?"

"No," he lied, resting his forehead against hers. "Tell me."

"I'm not gonna spell it out for you. If you don't know, that's your problem, not—"

He silenced her with a much fiercer kiss than she'd expected. Her stomach did a somersault as his lips claimed hers. She untangled her fingers from his and buried them in his hair, whilst his hands grasped her hips and squeezed. Her feet moved on their own, following his lead, and the flame above them flickered as he pressed her against the wall. She struggled to keep up with his rough kisses. His tongue curled around hers, plundering her mouth with heated strokes before he drew back to look at her, black-eyed and wanting.

"I thought Daiyoukai weren't known for their restraint," she panted.

He smirked. "We aren't."

Before she could reply, he wrapped a hand around her neck and pulled her in for another bruising kiss. She gasped against his mouth as his youki poured into her like molten lava. The brightness within her surged in response to the demonic energy pumping through her veins. He must not have been able to sense this facet of her magic – if it even was that – because he lowered his lips to her neck and planted more harsh kisses there. Shivering, she dragged her fingernails across his scalp, before yanking his head back up to cover his mouth with hers. He didn't just smell like a thunderstorm, he tasted like one, too.

High above their heads, the painting of the sun lit up, illuminating the rest of the wall. They broke away in surprise and backed away from the wall. Octavia's breathing was still laboured when her eyes landed on the painting at the centre of the wall, which depicted two hooded figures holding hands. Their resemblance to the statues was uncanny.

"What does it say?" Sesshoumaru rasped.

She couldn't decipher all of it, but it sounded a little like a poem. "Round and round they go," she read. "Chasing each other across the sky. Despite never stopping, the distance between them also never closes. Their eyes meet through the red glow of the horizon, but only their eyes. Day and night know that they can never touch, but they yearn for it anyway."

Sesshoumaru's brow crinkled as the sun shone brighter, as if in answer to the poem. The moon, however, remained dark and unresponsive. He reached for her hand and held it tight as they retraced their steps. The second they walked away, the sun stopped glowing and the wall was plunged back into darkness. Octavia beckoned her flame closer and squeezed Sesshoumaru's hand for reassurance.

"I'm sorry I made you come down here," she said. "You were right. It was a waste of time."

"I beg to differ. Besides, time spent with you is never wasted."

Her eyes blurred with tears.

"What is it?" he asked.

She stopped walking and peered up at him with watery eyes. "I don't know why, but I've got this horrible feeling that you're going to leave. I can't help thinking that I'll wake up tomorrow and you'll be gone."

"You're being irrational."

"Am I?"

He sighed. "What would you have me do instead? Live the rest of my life in hiding?"

"Would it really be so bad? I know you're used to a certain lifestyle, but at least you'd be alive." The lump in her throat grew. "Rin wouldn't care about revenge. You know she wouldn't. She'd want you to be happy."

His mouth twisted into a frown. "I didn't realise you'd given up on her."

"I haven't, it's just . . ." Octavia scrubbed the tears from her eyes and sniffed. "I miss her. I miss her so much. I just want to know where she is. Or what happened to her."

"And if she is somehow still alive? What happens then? Would you still want to run?"

"Only after we'd rescued her."

He seemed distraught. "What about the stronghold?"

"I don't care about the stronghold. Buildings can be replaced, but people can't. I won't let you kill yourself for the sake of some castle."

"Even if it's all I have to give you?"

Her pulse quickened. "I don't want it. That's not why I . . . I don't need any of that stuff, Sesshoumaru. I only need you. My home is wherever you are."

His gaze turned soft. "I wasn't prepared for you. You're more trouble than I anticipated."

The lump in her throat felt ten times thicker when he cupped her cheeks with his strong hands, before leaning in and pressing his lips to her forehead. His breath warmed her skin, reminding her that in spite of everything, the two of them were still alive. "We should hurry. The others will be getting worried—"

"Let them worry."

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. She could feel his heart beating against her cheek, firm and steady. It was as soothing as it always was. Melting into him, she closed her eyes and breathed properly for the first time in days. There was nowhere else in the world that she felt safer. But there was something different this time. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but the inkling that something was wrong was there, gnawing away at her brain.

It felt like he was saying goodbye.

.

.