Cerina Polya 9 - Mountain Bell Flashback Part 2, Turn 15 - The Eye and Unwanted Allies
Branches whipped at Cerina's face, golden leaves tearing free and trailing behind her. For several hours now she had been running away, making a frantic path northeast to try and catch up with the rest of the refugees. Her flight had been haunted by long, dreadful silences gazing into the dark for any sign of unseen monsters. Several times that silence had been broken, ripped apart by the ground shaking detonations of Expert combat, but the silence and panicked anticipation always returned.
The children had become dead weight in Cerina's arms, dazed and exhausted, a weight she cradled carefully as she hurried away as fast as she could. Making one more leap, Cerina shot out of the trees and landed on the top of a ridge jutting out from the lower slopes of the eastern mountains. She almost slumped face first onto the rocks in front of her, knees shaking and breath heaving after landing. Some of the pain in her chest unknotted, a chunk of her agitated Qi and muscles relaxing in exhausted relief. She coughed, and spat out a small glob of blood, filling her tongue with bitterness. She probably had fractured ribs and bruised innards from being caught up in that absurd attack, going by how her chest ached every time she breathed.
She was close to being tapped out completely, but her sheer stubbornness kept her limbs moving. Holding the children close, she shuffled forward and crouched down amongst the rocks. Careful not to jostle her charges, she peered into the fire-lit darkness below. Far beneath her on the valley floor, she could still see the embers of the town burning, multiple pillars of smoke lit from below by the burning wreckage. The fire had spread to the forest as well, carving a swathe of ash and fallen trees to the south. It seemed to be burning out.
There also hadn't been any sounds of battle for several hours now, she thought. She was really hoping they had left.
Where was she going from here? High above her head and behind her the shadowed bulk of the mountains rose, the fire in the valley illuminating the swirling clouds at their peaks with a fel light. Somewhere on the other side of them was a modicum of safety. With a little bit of searching, she found a rocky goat path that wound its way along the ridge she now stood on. It probably met up with the eastern pass at some point, and that was good enough for her. Wrapping one arm around the unconscious teens, she began to climb.
She did not track the progress of the climb, too sweaty, aching, and terrified to pay attention to anything but where to next place her limbs. Eventually the pace shifted from climbing to walking and sliding down the slopes, as the goat path descended from the forested heights and met up with a cobbled road winding its way through the mountains. There was no sign of the other refugees, though this did not surprise her.
"Keep going, I guess…," she muttered to herself.
Cerina wasn't sure how long she had to walk before she finally caught up and saw the refugees. The sky was beginning to brighten in the east when she finally arrived. She found herself at the edge of their camp, blinking in confusion and rubbing sweat from her eye. A call went up from the nearest fire and people rushed towards her.
Before she knew it she was surrounded by the villagers and almost bowled over, their happy cries unintelligible in the face of her fatigue. The kids were removed from her unresisting limbs, both of them waking up in surprise, frightened expressions quickly becoming shocked and then elated. With the children retrieved, the crowd quickly pulled away from her and let Cerina collapse onto a stone to sit and catch her breath.
The camp itself was about a hundred strong and had been built to one side of the road, a little ways up the forested mountain slope. There were no tents, but she saw multiple communal meals being cooked over fires dotted throughout the area, and people had taken blankets and branches to make basic lean-tos for shelter against the wind. The people near her spot kept looking her way as they talked, and if she strained her ears she could hear snatches of conversation from the children as they regaled the people with what had happened.
But she didn't bother to pay much attention to that, instead scanning the crowd for Lin Po. The tall young man wasn't particularly difficult to find, his robed form moving between various huddles of refugees to check on them, as he made his way towards her resting spot. They locked eyes as he finally walked up to her and stopped a few paces away.
Looking up at him she didn't see any significant injuries on him, and his expression was thoughtful. "Are you well?" He asked carefully.
She didn't really want to talk to him, but her legs also didn't want to move. With a huge sigh that pulled painfully at her injured ribs, she shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Just tired." Much like everyone else, she was also covered head to toe in road dust, scrapes, and probably had leaves in her hair.
Lin Po nodded and folded his hands into his sleeves. He gave her a small bow of acknowledgement. "Thank you for your help, Miss Polya," He said gravely. "Several people here would not be without your aid."
His thanks caught her by surprise, leaving her blinking in confusion all over again.
After a second of her mouth hanging open too long, she remembered herself and bowed back. "You give me generous face, Sir Lin." They both remained bowed for a moment more, and then straightened.
"Will you be traveling with us, miss?" The Strength Purity cultivator asked.
Cerina shook her head and pointed north. "I need to return to my people," she told him frankly. She wanted to get as far from this scary place as possible.
He seemed to accept that declaration. "Then we will part ways here. I will be sure to tell my Big Bro Lin Shang about you, Cerina of the Golden Devils," Lin Po said quietly.
Cerina almost flinched at the mention of Lin Shang, but strangled it under a chuckle. "The good regard of a Righteous Expert? You really are generous Lin Po." She said. She couldn't leave him hanging however, so she wracked her brain for something to give back to him in exchange.
"If you keep heading east you should reach one of the primary evacuation paths my people have set up; Look for symbols of scorpions, they'll point your way. With some luck you may meet up with Mountain Bell Sect members."
The Strength Purity man didn't smile, but his eyes brightened and he gave her a deeper nod. "Thank you. I wish you safe travels."
That brought a small smile to her face.
"Safe travels to you Lin Po," Cerina said as she stood up, some of the crowd turning to watch her go. With a wave to the other cultivator, she turned away from the camp and started her trek north.
***
Several hours later, Cerina woke up in the hollow trunk of a long dead oak tree. She had crawled into this hollow shortly after leaving the refugees, and slept from dawn until dusk. She stretched, joints popping all across her chest and back for a long moment. "Errrgh… owie," she muttered as she rubbed at her right side. Her ribs still weren't completely healed on that side.
Like a small and furtive woodland creature, Cerina peered up over the lip of her hollow. Her large blue eye scanned for threats beneath the trees and saw nothing amiss. Above the trees? Nothing there as well. The woods moved around her as they should, big blue birds sitting and singing in the branches, a distant deer nibbling on a berry bush off to her left, and a plump squirrel scampering around the base of her tree. Fixing her gaze on it, Cerina leaned out of her tree and slowly reached for the fuzzy creature.
It didn't notice her as she stalked down the trunk.
Closer.
Closer still.
With a snap and a crunch, the fuzzy critter was snatched up in one long limb and swallowed whole. Cerina sat crouched at the base of the tree, still and unblinking like an overly large lizard. When nothing jumped out to start attacking her with spears or humongous blasts of water she smiled. Her luck was still looking up!
She sprung to her feet and got moving. She was still heading north and would have to stay on that course for a couple of weeks at her current pace before she would reach a river valley that could take her west. And then, eventually, south towards the mustering grounds and Southern Rendezvous Point in Great Bear lands.
Cerina's path took her through a land of gradually rising slopes and twisted game paths, thick with bramble and low lying lichen and ferns growing on fallen logs and rocks, sheltered beneath the expanding canopies of the trees. As she climbed into the mountains, sprawling giants of oak and maple shaded the forest floor in gloom. The forest was also filled with signs of life. Birds chirped, animals scurried, leaves rustled in the wind, and she hunted deer and more squirrels for food freely. There was no sign of the two Experts throughout the day, to her great relief.
When she stopped at a stream in the afternoon, she sank into it with a grateful sigh, washing off her face and body and clothes of all the road gunk she'd so far acquired. There were bags under her eye and healing scrapes spread across her face. Her smile in her reflection was fragile and small, and her eye carried a haunted look to it, but she knew she had to keep going.
She spent a long time in that stream, slowly remembering how to relax again. She stayed in the stream until the sun had set completely.
When she opened her eye from her meditation she beheld a star speckled darkness, and as she prepared to leave Cerina noticed a diffuse blue glow somewhere ahead of her. It was so faint as to be barely visible even to her magical vision, more like a figment in her mind than actual light. Gathering her things and leaving the stream cautiously, she made her way towards it. It stayed faint and ethereal for what must have been an hour, but felt like a minute, a stretching of her perception with an almost dream-like quality. Even bluer than the clear desert sky, the faint light still pierced effortlessly through the leaves and trunks of the trees.
An itching sensation crawling across her skin heralded the light brightening. It dug into her, making her flesh twitch and her blood chill as it slipped through skin and muscle and even bone to mingle amongst her Qi. Cerina wasn't sure what she was feeling, and kept her Qi cautiously cycling according to her Clan training to try and protect herself. Her Qi senses were not well refined, but as she walked and breathed and stared into the distant light, she saw that the light seemed to do nothing.
Each breath did exactly what it should, her Qi moving through her dantian smoothly. The itching intensified, causing her blood to warm unpleasantly and her bones to shiver as she rounded a wide trunk and saw a huge clearing spreading out before her. She felt almost energized as she stumbled into the hip high grass, and she realized her legs were shaking and her breaths were coming hard. Like she had been sprinting, or fighting. Her side hurt too.
She turned, surveying the clearing in slowly rising concern and curiosity. The light was all around her now, diffuse and only visible out of the corner of her eye. The clearing was a sprawling mass of hip high green grass, dewed and slightly pearlescent under the starlight as it filled a deep depression in the land. The grass hissed against her legs, pulling at her cloak and clothing like hundreds of fingers. She thought the depression might have once been forest too, but…
Cerina's gaze swung to the east and she saw something that froze her in place in shock. At one end of the clearing was a gargantuan corpse's head, framed by the forest behind it. Laying on its side, the head was at least a dozen times her own height. More like a hill than something that had once been a person. The most confusing feature besides its immense size was that it bore a single emptied eye socket, much like her own cyclopean gaze. She had never seen another being with a similar appearance to her and yet here was… this.
Cerina moved closer, her curiosity and reverence rapidly pushing aside her concern and caution.
The first thing she noticed was that the itching got stronger, almost unpleasantly so, as she approached. The soft illumination revealed many things about the head as well. The head had womanly features: graceful cheekbones and round lips, all the flesh discolored green and gray by time and the skin pulled taught against the bones beneath. Roots and grasses spilled from its lips and Cerina saw mosses growing from the grooves decay had left in its cheeks. Crowning the head were the remnants of a few long red hairs, a vibrant color that seemed so far untouched by time. It was like the head was slowly consumed whole by the clearing and the land, over eons she had no reference to understand.
And then there was the dark pit of the Eye. Empty and yawning open like a mouth or cleft in the earth.
Cerina could not help but approach at the implicit invitation of the corpse. It took only a few moments to find herself before the Eye of this woman's face. The black pit towered before her, impenetrable and dominating her vision. It made her feel like a child again. Insignificant and small, someone whose concerns and worries were irrelevant. Shivering, Cerina reached up towards the eye, grasping the face of the corpse and leaning closer.
Trying to see into the blackness.
The corpse-flesh was hot beneath her touch, almost burning her hand. Before she could do anything else, she was suddenly blinded by a blossoming flower of blue light. An Eye of phantasmal flame burst into being and then enveloped her. The light washed out everything, visible even as she slammed her hands over her eye, burning brighter than the sun and blasting every thought from her mind. She screamed in pain, her physical body stumbling back and collapsing before the corpse.
In her soul Cerina fell through a void seething with the blue fire of the Eye. It smelled of rotting anise and flesh, like a tomb, and its chill burned a thousand times worse than the desert. It invaded her mind from every corner and tainted every thought of escape, twisting everything towards
pain. Cerina screamed and prayed to the Imperator, giving voice to a frantic animal hope that maybe she had some chance to survive this if it ended soon.
Her desperate prayers were punctuated by a sudden impact shaking her down to her bones. The pain did not abate, but the impact returned to her an awareness of her body and strangled her screams; peeling open her eye, she found herself sprawled out on lifeless gray ash which glittered beneath a sky of roiling blue energy. She could barely move under the weakness the light forced upon her, and with a Herculean effort she was able to lift herself onto her hands and knees. As she lifted her head, she realized she was not alone in this place.
A woman like a tower sat before her. Dominating the field of ash, the Red-Headed Woman seemed as large as the Dawn Fortress to Cerina. Her body was bare and decorated with imagery of a forest, rendered onto her pale freckled flesh with sweeping blue tattoos and strange symbols, a forest inhabited by beautiful chimeric beings Cerina had never seen. The Woman wore a plain black shawl around her shoulders and one hand rested loosely in her lap, while the other held a bronze-headed spear the size of a massive tree against her shoulder. Around her neck she wore a necklace of sea-shells, each shell at least ten feet across. Her hair was a thick red mane that spilled towards her lap, strung through with dozens of iron beads marked by yet more symbols.
Cerina tried to pull her gaze up towards the Woman's face and found it impossible to look upon, her Eye the source of the terrible light. The ephemeral fire of decay emerged from the Eye and emanated in every direction from the Woman's skull, swallowing everything above their heads with its power. And without even looking at her, this thing, this vision was quickly killing her. She was completely at the mercy of this wellspring of power. Cerina curled in around the agony in her dantian, trying to make herself as small as possible to escape the pain.
But there was no escape, nor purpose to this display. There was no Will, and no greater direction behind the power blasting into Cerina. Like water flowing towards the lowest point, it simply took the path of least resistance that she provided to it and escaped into her body and soul.
She was nothing but a worm before the presence of the Red-Headed Woman. Cerina clawed at the ash and pressed her face into its bitter grains, trying to hide as every thought in her head was crushed down into a single point of raw suffering. As she scrabbled at the dirt, the vision continued without a care for her; Slowly, the head of the Woman tilted to look at the insect writhing in front of her.
The horrifying energy of her Eye swept over the girl, sweeping away the ash into nothingness as it plucked Cerina up and tossed her away like an errant leaf on the wind. In the first moment Cerina's body was aged and eroded, almost mummified by the withering power. In the next, her feeble mortal body was stripped away entirely and her soul was bathed in the merciless passage of time.
In the final moments of the vision, Cerina should have died, her very soul snuffed out all at once. But some quirk of Fate, a flickering understanding of the great Dao buried in her soul, grasped the power before her and turned it aside. The terrible flow twisted, curving upon itself into a storm of power that bubbled beneath the surface of her spiritual flesh. With this miniscule grasp on life, Cerina began to claw her way back to waking reality.
***
The girl laid in the clearing, her body writhing in a nightmare as the dreadful skull loomed above her. The sun had risen seven times while she fought for her life within her soul. Any witnesses who might have observed her ordeal would have seen a number of strange symptoms:
On the first two days, her body was caught in the grip of a supernatural fever. Glowing from beneath her own flesh, she sweated out impurities and clawed at her body uncontrollably. Her blood seemed to shimmer with strange iridescent colors when her nails pulled open her skin.
On the third, fourth, and fifth day, the energy sunk deeply enough into her body that her bones began to glow through her flesh. The grass around her went yellow from the heat, some of it even crumbling away into ash as it touched her cursed flesh.
On the sixth day her fever peaked and blue phantom flame swallowed her body; her flesh was burnt away and the flame left behind to mimic the shape and wave limbs of fire. It reached for the sky, clawed across the ground, and shook in the wind it no longer had the substance to feel. And yet the flesh that had been burned away inevitably returned, first dimming the blue with a shadow of its presence. In fits and starts this evil flame was swallowed in turn, shadow-flesh thickening into realness. Her body would return with a gasp, blue shining terrifically through the thin barrier of flesh, before the cycle would start again.
Her fragile flesh acted as a barrier between two competing truths. The truth of withering wished to impress itself into the world and turn her surroundings into a wasteland, while the truth that was Cerina wished to continue; to continue to change and meddle with the course of the world.
On the afternoon of the seventh day, as sunset neared, the cycle abated and her fever broke. Cerina's body solidified and the truths within her settled into a new equilibrium. Deep inside of her soul, the withering curse slid into place as a new piece of
her, subjugated by her fragile grasp of greater understanding. She woke coughing and gasping, dazed and covered in sweat amidst a heap of yellowed grass and ash.
Cerina sat up and tried to get her bearings. She was still mostly blinded by the tall grass around her, and carefully stood on shaky legs. Once standing, she saw the clearing spread out before her. Something was strange with her sight and she rubbed at her face, only to find that her eye was still closed. Confused, she opened it and looked out over the clearing again.
As far as her eye could see, the grass
withered. In a spreading wave of erosion and decay, the grass yellowed and twisted, collapsing into more of that familiar lifeless gray ash. A flock of birds leapt up from the grass in distress and to Cerina's shock she saw them fall again to the ash a moment later, flapping and kicking helplessly. Their red feathers lost their luster and fell away, their beautiful cries became wet and ugly croaks, and then their flesh and bones rotted away into yet more of the ash and dust.
In seconds the entire clearing was laid to waste and as she watched the wind picked up the ash and flung it up into the beginning of a dust storm. Grass, animals, trees, everything withered before the power of her Eye. Snapping her Eye shut and holding a hand over her face she stumbled back and bumped into something. She froze as she realized she had bumped into the corpse-head. Turning slowly, horror climbing up her spine, she looked at the corpse-head and kept her Eye firmly closed.
She could still see perfectly and before her the corpse-head laid unmoving. It was still and dead and cold. There was nothing left inside of the shell. Cerina's fear faded away; this ancient thing wouldn't hurt her anymore. At this realization her soul surged and she laughed, still weak and dazed by her ordeal. Relief blew through her like a storm as she cackled.
"Fuck you, you monster! I lived!" She shouted, putting words to her relief, her hands smacking into the giant head repeatedly. Everything that had happened rushed back to her; the fight with Lin Po, the town and the monsters, the run and this terrible curse she had stumbled into. All of it had nearly broken her, and it had shaken her to her foundations.
But she had lived, and intuitively she knew that she had grasped something, some fundamental piece of understanding that she would carry with her forever. As the memories settled in her mind, Cerina's laughter slowed and then finally stopped. Staring through her eyelid at the looming corpse-head she saw that it was changing: it was decaying rapidly and collapsing into itself.
Cerina stepped back, clasping her hands in a warding prayer and wished whatever this being had been onto a swift reincarnation. Hopefully nothing would haunt her once she left this place.
In moments, the graceful features of the woman eroded away, and a featureless pile of dust was all that was left. The wind caught this pile of debris and carried it away. It ran through Cerina's hand like sand, until a thin red lock of hair caught on her hands. This piece remained for a moment more, and then it too crumbled into nothing.
Cerina looked up. All around her was a field of ash and dust, slowly blowing away in the wind. Still confused and weakened, Cerina started walking again. What Cerina did not realize as she stumbled away in a daze was that her path was taking her towards yet more danger and adventure.
***
Cerina traveled west for several days, her mornings thankfully uneventful and her nights plagued by the fact she couldn't sleep. Because her Eye could see through her eyelid, she was forced to see everything every second of every day and could no longer
close her eye in any meaningful sense. This constant sensory input made it difficult to sleep, forcing her to burn Qi and her emergency store of Spirit Stones to keep herself going. Blindfolds also didn't help. Trying to make one out of her mundane cloak did nothing to obscure her vision, probably because it didn't have enough Qi in its construction.
So, she encountered the next problem on her trip with her mind fizzing and buzzing from Qi overuse. Trudging through the forest of centennial oaks, she was caught unawares as a monster found her. The first sign of its presence was a sudden pressure crushing her head in a vise and making her heart rate triple. Fear-memories in her bones made her bolt, ducking around a tree and diving into a bramble filled ditch to futilely try and escape the monster.
Leaves crunched on the path she had just abandoned, a
tink-tink of metal on stone following the soft steps. "Golden devil girl, you are in danger. We must leave this place immediately," the Expert said, restrained emotion heavy in his voice. Cerina recognized that voice, held back from being a terrifying blade in intensity. Peering out of the ditch towards the path confirmed it. Lin Shang stood right there, golden staff held carefully at his side, wrapped with talismans and dripping with the strange waters he commanded as Expert Wavepuncher.
She was in danger alright, from this asshole.
Cerina stayed as still as she could, holding her breath and hoping this man would leave her alone. She watched in fear as he turned in a circle, looking around carefully. Her attempts at hiding were apparently futile as his gaze quickly landed on her hiding place, a cold sweat running down her neck as their gazes met. He holstered his staff on his back and its magic faded away. He raised his hands, his expression becoming gentle. "I am sorry for frightening you, Miss Polya." Cerina's gaze stayed fixed on that staff.
But he didn't stop speaking there. "I apologize for surprising you like this, but I do not wish for you to be harmed. Please, we must leave," he said, his voice soft. The intensity she knew he was capable of was being restrained. Meanwhile, her fizzing brain was trying to work through why he wasn't killing her; it wasn't like her Clan would be able to punish him after the fact. She'd just disappear out here if he decided to do it.
He knew her name.
… had Lin Po really said something good about her? Was this the gratitude of a Righteous Path Expert? Still terrified and also deeply confused, Cerina tried to think quickly. The fuzz in her head was making everything sticky and hard to parse, rapidly increasing her frustration. If Lin Po hadn't, what? Was this guy playing with her? Lin Shang kept looking at her, no killing intent being sent her way. Realizing that, Cerina also noticed that the pressure which had slammed into her a moment ago was completely absent, and it had been absent for this entire brief conversation.
He was trying to speak with her on her level.
So, if he had spoken to his little brother, who held a generally good impression of her she thought. And he acted this way he… It was weird to wrap her head around him not being hostile. At this point her confusion, sleep deprivation, and inaction tripped her training: he was from an allied faction, his stated goal was to protect her, and he was acting peacefully. Training told her to come out and get this over with, regardless of previous incidents. Carefully, ready to bolt at a moment's notice (even though that probably wouldn't help much), Cerina crawled out of the brambles she was in. Shaking her head, she pulled out the thorns that remained in her hair and stood before Lin Shang, arms slightly raised and ready.
He nodded, acknowledging her. "Thank you. I swear on my honor I mean no harm, young one. Shall we go?" He asked her. A sense of impatience hung around him, but if they were both in danger because that monster was here, well. She'd still blame him for scaring the shit out of her, but she was listening.
"Where are we going?" She asked him curtly, getting ready to move. Her ability to be polite had been left behind somewhere with the giant corpse-head and her ability to sleep.
He started walking, looking left and right, scanning for danger. "To my Little Bro. He's holed up in a safe cave a little ways from here."
Cerina sighed, struggling to catch up with his pace. "Fine! Let's get this over with, I guess..."
She followed Lin Shang, pouting silently and trotting behind him at first. It did not take long for the graceful man to start moving much faster, forcing her to run and climb and leap as they turned off the paths and headed directly into the deep forest. Embarrassingly, and frighteningly, the Expert ended up grabbing her and pulling her along with him once it became apparent she could not keep up. Cerina very quickly became extremely lost as the terrain shot past her in an autumn colored blur, trying not to start screaming again.
Blessedly, the trip was short and she was promptly deposited on her feet in front of a cave. Shuddering and fighting dizziness, the inhumanly tall girl shook herself and stood there in front of the cave entrance regaining her bearings. Lin Shang stood off to one side and when she looked at him warily, he nodded respectfully and spoke. "Goodbye for now, Miss Polya."
"...Goodbye," she said, reserved and still somewhat terrified. With that there was a loud thump and he disappeared, moving far faster than she could track. Turning away from where he had been, Cerina ducked under the lip of the cave and stomped inside, trying to get as far away from Lin Shang as possible.
The cave dug its way into a rocky hillside, almost like the open mouth to a barrow-mound, with large boulders serving as earthen fangs. She huffed irritably at herself: Yes she was in a terrible situation, but she was also being morbid and it was distracting when she was tired and her brain was trying to fizz out of her ears. Instead, she went back to the much more practical task of paying attention to the space around her. The Expert wasn't following her, thank the Imperator, and she could see the flickering light of a fire from around a pile of rocks up ahead.
As she walked up to the curve, another someone she recognized spoke up. "Big Bro, is that you?" Lin Po asked curiously, something metal clanking as he spoke. Cerina rounded the corner and beheld the small camp set up in the heart of the cave.
Lin Po was seated at a fire pit surrounded by rough stones, a skillet with a bubbling brown-red meat sauce within. He was clothed in wide hemmed black pants and a long sleeved tan tunic, his black hair bound in a short casual braid. The oblong chamber he sat in was a small space perhaps twenty paces across on its longest axis and two thirds that on the shortest. The walls had dozens of talismans placed onto the dirt and adhered with Qi: a quick scan identified them as Righteous versions of concealment and safety, in the majority. She would never be able to find this camp from the outside if she left, more than likely. There were two bedrolls placed beside the fire, one of them still rolled up, and a set of packs and a cloak sat hanging on a frame by one wall.
Lin Po's eyes widened as he saw her and he stood up, nearly dropping his wooden spoon in shock. "Why are you here?" He asked in shock.
Cerina grunted and flopped down to one side of the entrance, sitting and laying her head on her knees. "Your brother found me…" she mumbled. Maybe if she curled up tight enough and stared at her knees she could finally fall asleep.
"Excuse me?" Lin Po asked, still very confused. There was a clack as he set the spoon down, presumably, and a shifting of cloth as he turned to look at her. Cerina lifted her head enough to peek at him tiredly. When Cerina didn't answer after a long and awkward moment, Lin Po clapped his hands and asked again. "Miss Polya, what is going on?" He asked, sounding frustrated now.
Cerina put her hands around her head and groaned, almost pulling at her hair, before dropping her hands to the dirt and resting her chin on her knees so she could look at the man. "Your brother found me and decided I needed to be here, instead of out there," she explained again, waving her arm towards the entrance tunnel to her immediate left.
Lin Po's expression fell and he let out a very long, very aggrieved sigh. "I… I see," he said. She watched him turn back to his food and half-heartedly poked at the sauce for another minute or so, lips twisting angrily as he muttered silently. This distraction did not last, however, and he shortly pulled the sauce away and put the lid on the skillet. With the skillet deposited on a hot rock he set it aside and turned to look at her again.
"Well, I invite you into our camp, Miss Polya. Do you need a place to sleep?" He asked her.
She huffed, chuckling in amusement. "I can't sleep, much to my regret."
That brought him up short again, as she often seemed to in their conversations. She could say he did the same to her, so her tired mind called it even.
"Oh." Lin Po looked at her, his frown growing as he examined her. He settled back and spoke again, evidently trying to start over. "Thank you for sharing your circumstances. As your host, is there anything I
can do to help you?"
She tried to listen. His words still nearly slipped through one ear and out the other. Her face slumped onto her knees again, picking out the individual shades of each strand of linen that went into her cloak. She reached for a pocket and pulled out a thumb sized spirit stone. Swallowing it down like a pill, another shot of energy fizzed through her. "Do you have a little food to spare?" She asked.
Truth be told the room smelt like a heavenly blend of cumin and curry spices, the air thick with a citrus tang, so it was the first thing that popped to mind.
He actually brightened a little and nodded. "Some stuff. I was just finishing up a meal. Let's break bread?" He said, gesturing for her to come closer.
Not caring that much about her dignity, Cerina shuffled over on her knees and sat across the fire from Lin Po. With deft hands, the Strength Purity cultivator quickly picked back up his sauce. "Fish, and some of my personal curry mix. Do you eat much fish in the desert?" He asked. He actually sounded genuinely curious.
Cerina considered the question; it was one she hadn't thought on in a while, given her altered eating habits. "To a point we cultivators do, but it is something of a delicacy and luxury item depending on where you go. Water and rivers do still exist in the Organ-Meat Desert. I was born in a place at the confluence of three rivers, so I've eaten a lot in my time." She smiled fondly, sharp teeth flashing in the fire-light.
"Good! Good then, here is your serving. I expected only myself, so the sauce may be a bit sparse for the vegetables," he warned her, as he finished loading up a bowl with the meat sauce, which turned out to also have mushrooms and green onions in it along with the fish. A generous helping of rendered down meat provided the stock, making it a thin sort of sauce. It smelled quite good over a bed of asparagus, herbs, and forest greenery that she thought Lin Po had likely harvested from the surrounding area.
The first bite off her wooden spoon made an aching tension fall out of her, releasing a grateful sigh that echoed through the cavern. The sauce was indeed sparse for the vegetables, and the vegetables themselves weren't that great, being rather bitter. But it was still good enough and she needed that right now.
"Thank you for this meal Lin Po," Cerina said formally, raising the bowl back towards him after she finished.
"You are welcome, Miss Polya," he answered, accepting her bowl and setting it aside with his own.
The cavern settled into an uncomfortable silence, with Cerina trying to relax through meditation - which had also become more difficult now that she couldn't stop looking at things. Breathing slowly, she settled into silently reciting mantras of her past actions on a loop in her head as she stared at the ceiling. The fact she'd saved those two children gave her a little bump of pride every time she cycled through the short list. Her new Eye concerned her, and so far had largely been an inconvenience, but she still remembered that tiny seed of understanding cradled to her mind and the sheer power it had within itself. It caused an idle kind of amusement to realize that she was almost certainly more powerful than Lin Po now, injury or no.
Lin Po simply tended to the camp, cleaning out the dishes he used with some water and sand before stowing them back into the packs which hung from the rack. After that he also settled into his own meditation. Neither of them was properly cultivating, they weren't safe enough to do that, but there were more things to do with meditation than cultivation. As she watched, he too seemed to be trying to relax.
Or perhaps put himself into the right mindset for a difficult task, based on what he did after several minutes of silence in the camp. "This is long in coming, I believe," he began, then cleared his throat and bowed towards her.
"I'm sorry for my actions, on the mountain, Miss Polya," he said quietly, opening his eyes and staring at her over the fire.
She snorted in surprise, doubt and spite flaring brightly. "Are you…?" She asked, flat-footed. "I thought this was behind us. Did my actions in the town cause this, Lin Po?"
He shook his head, some of his anger returning. "No. I had meant to before all of that but…" he waved his arm and shrugged uncomfortably.
That killed her petty spite and the silence stretched for a very long and uncomfortable moment. Unpleasant emotions welled up in Cerina's throat.
"I'm sorry for not trusting your apology," she said lamely. Lin Po looked as surprised as she felt, eyes wide like a deer in the lantern light. "What happened after we fought?" She thought to ask. Apparently something important had happened to this young man after their encounter, if this was the result.
"I spoke with my Big Bro about you a bit, and he helped me learn something," Lin Po explained to her. "I can recognize when someone is absolutely
done with a job, if I am reminded…"
So…, if she understood correctly, she could lay the sudden change in behavior Lin Po had at the feet of his brother, who had not yet met her at the time. … Wow. Maybe she had misjudged these men.
This mission really had messed with her head.
She sighed, long and low. "Yeah. I'm glad to be heading home."
"I think I understand. I do have some good news to share, however," he said, his small smile brightening the somber scene.
Cerina looked at him, eyebrow quirking. "Those refugees are safe. I managed to get them attached to a caravan heading to safety."
She puffed out a small laugh, her smile expanding as she relaxed further. "Thank you, Lin Po. That is good to hear."
The lingering hostility and tension had been cleared from the air, leaving it amiable. Maybe they weren't quite friends. But empathy and understanding? They had that in spades. The two cultivators rested in the cave and waited, Cerina swallowing down more spirit stones to stay awake and Lin Po pulling out a small patch of cloth and beginning to sew. A long familiar action to Cerina; most people in her village spent their spare time making clothing out of necessity. Though as a cultivator, the scion likely didn't need it, so it must be a hobby.
Cerina's fingers ached for her brushes and easel, but those were back at the muster point and she had nothing to work with in terms of finger painting unless she wanted to try meat sauce on stone. So with nothing better to do, she watched him and immersed herself into the thousand hues of color found in his simple thread and the flick of his needle in the fire-light.
They waited there for what must have been several hours, occasionally exchanging a word or two. Both of them had interest in the flora and fauna of the Mountain Bell Lands, though Lin Po particularly enjoyed speaking on the flora while Cerina took a wider interest. They whiled away the time until that damnable pressure flickered through the cave, signaling Lin Shang's return.
There was a heavy footfall, and Cerina's keen ears picked up on an unsteady step as rocks bounced across the stone loudly. She got up, arms rising defensively. She really needed a new staff, but she put that flickering thought aside. Lin Po had also stood, and stepped towards the entrance, and he met his brother at the tunnel.
Lin Po gasped. Lin Shang had been injured; his robe was torn on his left side and bound around his left arm, which was clearly broken and had bled into his clothing. The Expert raised his hand however. "Ah, I took a blow but I am still well brother, Miss Polya. Please do not concern yourselves," he reassured them and Cerina could see how he moved easily and without significant pain. Carefully she sat, tucking herself into a nook of stone across the fire from the two brothers to give them space. Lin Shang sat easily beside his brother and Lin Po quickly set about fussing over his elder, pulling a medical kit from his packs and then helping his brother remove the bandages.
The injury revealed was bad; Lin Shang's arm was punctured in two places on his upper arm, and his forearm and wrist were obviously twisted and broken. It was, however, untouched by Blood Path magic, undrained and still whole. The two brothers examined it critically for a long moment - Lin Shang could amazingly still move and clench his fingers, though his arm was too wrecked to move properly. Cerina judged that he'd be able to heal it in time, though he might not regain full use of it for many years. A significant injury that hampered his fighting power now, but not permanently crippling. As they looked it over Lin Shang began to explain what happened.
"I caught the spearman near the lair of a Three-Headed Bear. She apparently had cubs," he smirked at this comment, demeanor heavy with self-deprecation. "Our fight came too close and the mother objected. In our final clash of blows, she struck away the Blood Path Expert shortly after he struck me." He glanced at Cerina. "The Three Color Salt Foundation provided what I needed to escape, and burnt him for trying to feed. The distraction of the bear let me break contact."
"Then this was a draw?" Lin Po asked, his tone slightly star struck, as little brothers usually are by their elder siblings.
Lin Shang nodded, then frowned. "I believe so, but this man has lived a long life and is quite experienced. He might still have more tricks than I do, and he stands two small realms above me at the Fourth Pillar regardless."
So far Cerina had been listening to the conversation, waiting. This moment slid into place with a
click and a deep impulse pushed her to speak. "May the Golden Devils offer assistance to you esteemed and generous scions of Strength Purity?" She asked formally.
The two men turned to look at her. Lin Po schooled his expression well, perhaps he was getting used to her, while Lin Shang's mask slipped. The Expert's eyebrows shot up and his eyes darkened with intensity. She almost shrunk back a little, but her memories of the tower and what she had achieved propped her up.
"You speak boldly, young woman. Why?" Lin Shang asked. He sounded concerned, and intent, and somewhat dismissive.
"My Dao," she answered automatically. It was the truth.
Lin Shang's eyebrow rose even higher, as Lin Po's face cracked into another confused frown. "I see. What do you propose? I would not waste the life of one in the First Heavenstage," he stated bluntly.
"I have within me a withering curse. I could use it to weaken the monster you face," she explained succinctly.
Lin Shang's expression smoothed. "Truly? Is it safe to demonstrate this power to me?" He asked.
She'd clearly hooked his interest. She nodded and gestured at Lin Po. "Yes. Shall we go outside?" She asked.
He nodded, acquiescing. At a tap on the side from his big brother, Lin Po helped Lin Shang bind his arm again and then the three of them made their way out of the cave. Cerina looked over at the two brothers. In the sunlight they looked quite similar in the face; Lin Shang's was less rounded and clean shaven, and his hair shimmered with steely highlights as it hung much longer than his little brother's, but their expressions of curiosity were near identical. "Stay back for this," she warned. They both nodded and settled in to wait.
Cerina turned, heart thudding with nerves. Grasping that in a mental hand she selected a wide trunked oak tree, at least sixty feet tall. With a small indrawn breath, she opened her Eye, and exhaled. The effect was immediate: everything in her cone of vision began to crumple and rot away. Color leached first, and then grass became sand and ash, the bushes breaking apart and eroding away. The massive tree sagged and rotted into a pillar of sludge, the branches drooping and then falling off to become drifts of ash, and then the entire trunk collapsed inwards and the whole thing fell over.
The curse spread and spread as she stood, barely using Qi. The implications made her heart beat even faster with exhilaration. The forest was swept up into her wave of destruction and as the obstacles withered into dust, more and more was revealed to the curse. Trees fell, animals collapsed and died, the air becoming thick with the scents of decay and dry ash. Anything that did not flee from the destruction ceased to be in moments.
Satisfied, Cerina closed her Eye. Only a few seconds had passed, and she'd carved a swathe through the forest several hundred feet long and wide. A wound which would only slowly be recovered she imagined, as even the seedlings and saplings had been destroyed. "By the stars. That was very impressive, Miss Polya," Lin Shang said, his tone now intrigued, even hopeful.
"An extremely powerful effect, and it cost you very little, didn't it?"
She nodded in response, staring at the two of them impassively through her eyelid. She noted that Lin Po looked green and gray around the face. Oops, she might have spooked him. She smirked slightly as she caught his eyes.
Lin Shang nodded. "Well then, I would gladly accept your help, Golden Devil, on the behalf of our Strength Purity Sect." The older man nodded to her respectfully.
Her smile had a feral cast. Now she had a chance at murdering that asshole Blood Path Expert. Seeing him dead would be so satisfying. "Shall we go now, Expert Wavepuncher?" Cerina asked, offering her hand to him.
Lin Shang smiled. "Yes," he said, and grasped her hand.
Part 2 of the Mountain Bell Flashback Arc.
@Quest
[Word Count: 8303]
