by eden Hudson
Cold Sun nodded, the red-clay-smoothed ropes of his hair sliding over his shoulders. “Do you remember how it felt when you first received the lavaglass?”
“Awful,” Koida said, grimacing. Then she shook her head. “Well, no, I can’t remember the specific feeling of that pain, only my shock at how intense it was. And immediately after, it felt as if everything from my fingertips to my shoulder was stronger, fortified, as if the bones of my arm couldn’t be broken.”
“It would take a blow stronger than most men can deliver, even bolstered by the Armor of the Stone-Souled Warrior,” Cold Sun said. “Feel that sensation again, focusing on the bones of your arm. Your memory of it will help the lavaglass to remember.”
Koida took a deep breath and let it out, feeling once more the immovable power of an arm reinforced by living stone. She felt the moon broadsword shifting. She opened her eyes and the transformation faltered, stopping with her thumb midway reemerged from the blade and her elbow just beginning to reappear where the moon broadsword’s haft would have been. Quickly, she reclosed her eyes and began again. This time, when she felt her arm shifting, she kept her focus on the sensation of a whole arm.
Finally, the flesh and lavaglass stopped moving.
Koida looked.
“It worked!” She grinned, holding up her now matching hands.
Cold Sun’s lips turned up at the corner, an expression she had come to recognize in her Uktena friend as a beaming smile.
“Hold to your Stone Soul,” he cautioned her. “If you let go of it, you will lose control over your lavaglass blade.”
“But it’s still an arm,” she said, looking to him for an explanation. “I thought if you lost your emotionlessness, that meant you had dropped the Stone Soul.”
“A misassumption outsiders often make. Emotionlessness was never required for a Stone Soul, only a fact that remains unbroken in the face of those emotions, one strong enough to take refuge in from their storm. With an unbreakable fact to start from, you are free to assess the world around you with clarity and react logically no matter how distressing the situation.”
While Koida was digesting this, the underbrush rustled on the far side of the clearing. Behind her, Pernicious lurched to his vast brimstone hooves, eyes burning with fiery orange Ro, ready to attack.
Lysander stepped out of the trees. “It’s just me, you bag of rotting demon meat.”
Pernicious snorted angrily and tossed his massive midnight head.
Flitting along behind the foreigner like a flowing cape was Raijin’s enormous river ray. It worried at his shoulders and the back of his head almost playfully.
Without looking, Lysander swatted at the ray. “I haven’t got any fish. Swim off.”
The ray made a quick circle around him, then snapped its wings down and shot back up through the branches and into the sky. Leaves and a few small twigs broke off and fell on Lysander. He cursed and dusted the bark out of his close-cropped yellow hair.
Koida smirked. At least it wasn’t only her who couldn’t get along with the foreigner.
Cold Sun’s lip was twitching as well. He turned to Koida.
“This seems an appropriate place to end our training for the day,” he said.
“Thank you for the lesson, teacher.” Koida pressed her palm to her fist and bowed over them, keeping her eyes on Cold Sun’s to acknowledge his martial strength. Then she held up her blade hand and wiggled the fingers. “And the progress.”
Cold Sun returned her courtesy with the customary shallow Uktena bow.
At the center of the clearing, Lysander scraped dirt onto their fire with a stick, glancing occasionally at Hush as she flowed through the slow, deliberate techniques of her Path, Hidden Whispers.
“You two royal highnesses gather up whatever you’re taking with you,” he said, pointing the muddy stick at Koida and Cold Sun. “I want to ride out as soon as Hush is finished with her moving meditations.”
Koida raised a brow, surprised that the usually impatient Lysander was allowing Hush to finish her training. But, she supposed, no one could be rude and abrasive all the time.
“You found a ship willing to let us work for passage to the northern coast?” Cold Sun asked.
Lysander nodded. “A cargo junk headed to make port in Nishutu Iri—one whose captain doesn’t ask questions and has made it through the Seven Hells Strait at least a dozen times. Luck won’t shine on us this bright again. They sail out of Takate Iri Harbor this afternoon, so call your ram in and be ready to go.”
Cold Sun nodded and went to the edge of the clearing, clapping his huge hands in a peculiar rhythm. Somewhere in the distance, a deep trumpeting call answered.
Pernicious’s ears perked up and his nostrils flared.
“Some other day,” Koida said, vaulting onto the half-demon’s back while he was distracted. It was easier to control the destrier from on top, and she was less likely to get crushed under-hoof if she lost control when Cold Sun’s war ram rode into the clearing.
Pernicious danced and sidled, but didn’t attempt to fight her. His ears twitched and turned, and his eyes rolled with flame as he searched the tree line.
“I don’t understand how going halfway around the continent via sea is faster than making a straight line overland to the Great Library,” Koida said.
At the edge of the clearing, Hush stepped into a relaxed stance, closed her eyes, and released a long breath. When she reopened them, she bowed gratefully to Lysander.
He returned the motion. “The Great Library is surrounded by the Desert of Blushing Embers, Princess. The trip down from Nishutu Iri requires less than a day’s travel through the desert. From the southern border of the desert to the Library’s oasis, the shortest distance is still more than three days without a drop of water in sight. It’s time saved in not dying of thirst. And I think you’ll find there are a lot fewer mouths on the open sea looking to blab where the fugitive second princess went than if we cut across half your empire.”
Chapter Three
LAND OF IMMORTALS
Steady rain fell as Raijin followed Misuru through the dense forest. The ghostly pale immortal batted aside wide blue leaves and tangles of thick vine with practiced, sinuous strikes while Raijin struggled just to keep up. He was weak, slow, and clumsy in this world, his body rendered in hazy smears like blue-gray charcoal, and he moved with the same strange halting, pausing stutter as the streaky indigo raindrops.
They were traveling downhill, but to Raijin, every step felt like a battle to the death that he was losing. His chest heaved as he sucked in lungfuls of the thick smoky air, the scent of incense curling inside his nose. It was as if a boulder were sitting on his chest. His head swam at the lack of oxygen.
Ahead, Misuru hopped over a fallen tree as wide as she was tall as if it were nothing more than a twig.
Raijin reached out arms shaking with effort and grabbed the closest branch to pull himself up. It crumbled in his grasp, rotten, and he dropped onto his back on the waterlogged forest floor.
From below, wetness soaked into the material of his loose warrior artist pants. From above, fat raindrops splattered his face and chest, cooling his burning skin. He shut his eyes and listened to the tapping of the shower on the leaves. He should have called out to Misuru, but the best he could manage was to lie there gasping for air.
Footsteps whispered through the grass.
“The Mighty Thunderer at the mercy of the elements.” Misuru hopped onto the deadfall and sat with her legs dangling over its side. She put her hands on her knees and propped her chin on her fist, staring down at Raijin. The empty holes where her eyes should have been were a window to the falling rain and leafy canopy behind her. “I’m immortal, and I never thought I would live to see the day. I suppose we can take a rest. We’ve got all eternity.”
Raijin was too exhausted to respond, so he gave her a weak smile of gratitude instead.
“What colors do you see here?” Misuru asked.
It took a few moments to gather
himself enough to speak.
“Blue,” he wheezed. “Shades of...blue.”
“Everything?”
He gave a jerky nod. “Everything...but the...akane...you defeated. Red.”
“You’re still Tier 0,” Misuru explained. The rain picked up, and she had to raise her voice to be heard over the dull roar of the downpour. “About as skilled as mud. Tell me when you can see other colors. That will mean you’ve reached the primordial stage, Tier 1. Before we left, it seemed as if you were climbing, so it shouldn’t be long now.”
“How does one...climb the tiers?” Raijin asked, his chest heaving with effort.
“Your body does the majority of the work, aligning with this plane, gaining skill, training. ‘It never gets easier, you just grow stronger.’” Misuru smiled down at him. “You said that once. You gain your heavenly body at Tier 2, celestial speed at Tier 3, gravitational strength at Tier 4. All physical. Then when you reach Tier 5, your mind takes over. In a way, I suppose it’s a good thing Ha-Koi stole your memories.” She hopped to the ground and flicked Raijin on the forehead. “Until Tier 5, when you gain the Cave of Eclipsing Suns, the magnitude of your own immortality would probably rip your little mortal mind apart.”
A cloud burst overhead, and rain fell as if an ocean had been dropped on them. Frowning up at the sky, Misuru squeezed into the lee of the tree’s massive trunk.
“I forgot how much it rains when you’re here,” she said. “Make it stop. It isn’t as if the plants and trees need it. They live on the immortal energy they breathe in.”
Raijin pushed himself up and scooted into the makeshift shelter beside his ghostly pale companion.
“Apologies, immortal sister, but I did not realize I was doing it.”
She sighed. “Of course not.”
“This immortal energy you’ve spoken of...”
“The life force of the universe?” Misuru said, as if it were something he should already know. “It is intrinsic to every living thing. Don’t tell me the mortals these days are so backward that they don’t even know about cultivating immortal energy. Though I wouldn’t be surprised. Just when they begin to learn something, Ha-Koi ends the world and forces a new cycle, then they have to begin all over again.”
“They do know of immortal energy,” Raijin said. “They call it Ro now.”
Misuru waved a dismissive hand. “I can’t keep up with their words anymore.”
“You keep speaking of Koida—Ha-Koi—as a great evil...” Raijin trailed off as he remembered the princess who wanted to help the untouchables in her empire and defended him fiercely to her family. “And I have seen visions of many lifetimes where she destroyed the mortal world, but in this life, she is kind and loyal.”
“She must not remember who she is either. The Dragon is treacherous and cunning, in love with death and destruction. She’s your natural enemy.” Misuru shook her head. “If she remembered herself, then you would not be speaking so highly of her.”
“How did she come to be cast from the heavens?”
“The Great Treachery. She betrayed us all.” Seeing his question before he asked it, Misuru stopped him. “Ha-Koi broke the law, Thunderer, and if there is one thing you have always been fond of, it’s the law.”
Raijin wanted to ask more, but Misuru popped back to her feet and continued on her way.
“Let’s go,” she called back. “We’ve got a long trek ahead before we reach our destination.”
If he wanted to know more, he would just have to catch up with her.
With a groan, Raijin rolled onto his feet. Surrounded as they were by huge trees and thick undergrowth, Raijin couldn’t see any of the surrounding land or mark the distance they had come. From the corners of his eyes, he sometimes thought he saw shapes rustling the branches, but he never caught sight of other creatures or beings. The rain continued to pour down in that halting motion, and the breezes made the leaves stutter rather than sway.
“What law did she break?” he wheezed when he caught up to Misuru.
Without looking back, the eyeless woman said, “I would think you’d be more interested in where we’re going. Especially since it’s one of your favorite places.” She chuckled. “You once spent ten thousand years there.”
“Where are we going, then?” Raijin asked.
“Do you remember courses? Constructions where you train to hone your skills and grow stronger quickly in a controlled environment? Did mortals have courses in your last life?”
“I’ve read about them.” Such things had been features of the legends about wandering warrior artists that he and Master Chugi had both loved. “It is said that the ancients used them to practice their arts before war and death entered the world.”
Misuru shook her head and slapped aside a thick vine. “This is the problem with Ha-Koi putting the world through so many cycles. The mortals never advance far enough to try the methods of the ancients. Or they do, but she ends the world before they can grow any further. They stay as little children, when they should be growing into immortals like us.”
Raijin considered this as he fought to keep up with the ghostly woman. He knew humans could become immortal—the Uktena’s Great Unbreakable Truth said that they could not only do this, but continue advancing until they became gods—but the way to do so had been lost to time. Or perhaps in one of the world-ending cycles.
“You spoke of a first life and an Ascension, wise sister,” Raijin said. “How did I become an immortal? How did any of us arrive here?”
Misuru snapped out a kick, shattering a branch hanging across their path and sending it flying into the trees.
“There are only two ways to become immortal,” she said. “Consume the Ro of an immortal or Ascend after cultivating enough immortal energy and living a life of rigorous adherence to the principles of the Immortal Path.”
“Which is the Immortal Path?” Raijin asked. “In the land of the mortals, there are several, all with different core principles. For that matter, have Koida or I been back to the Land of Immortals before, or are we always reborn in the mortal world? Do we always lose our memories, or have we lived a mortal lifetime where we remembered who we were? And does—”
“Speaking is certainly coming more easily to you.” Misuru cut him off, turning back to face him. “Let’s see just how far you’ve come.”
She sank into the deep fighting stance he’d seen her practicing at the pool, feet braced far apart, one hand pressed forward, the other reaching behind her head.
Instinctively, Raijin fell into Inviting Attack. The corded muscles in his arms and shoulders trembled with exhaustion, making his hands shake, but the motion was not as severely inhibited as it had been before.
Misuru closed the distance, pulling her leg back for the same kick that had shattered the branch.
Raijin twisted his body and threw one arm down in a Ro-less block while raising the other behind his head to prepare for a strike.
It looked as if she were moving at half-speed, as if her kick were coming toward him and he had more than enough time to redirect her attack and counter. But pain bloomed in his gut and his body was thrown backward into a tree with enough force to crack the trunk. Only then did it look as if her kick snapped out.
And then without moving, she was at his side, watching him drop onto his hands and knees in the wet grass.
Raijin held the ribs the akane had broken upon his arrival in the Land of Immortals and forced himself to keep breathing past the pain.
“Still Tier 0,” Misuru said, straightening. “But you are climbing.”
“How did—” Raijin winced and stumbled to his feet. “How did you make it look as if you hadn’t struck yet?”
“Celestial speed.” She started walking again. “Like the motion of the planets, it will appear as though you are hardly moving though your speed far surpasses that of your observer’s. Something to look forward to at Tier 4.”
Putting pressure on his ribs eased a measure of the pain, so Raijin
kept one arm clamped to them as he followed after his guide. From behind, he could see through the eyeless holes in Misuru’s head. Perhaps out of deference to his weakness, she had slowed enough that he could keep up without running.
“In the Mortal Lands, demon beasts are tiered according to their strength and abilities,” Raijin said. He paused a moment to catch his breath, though inhaling too deeply still shot pain through his side. “Is this related to the way immortals are tiered?”
“To have made it this far, all immortals have to have a little demon beast in them.” Misuru cast a smile at him over her pale blue shoulder, showing rows of thin needle-like teeth. “Some of us just control it better than others.”
Chapter Four
MORTAL LANDS
Koida marveled as they rode into Takate Iri. She had never traversed the streets of a city in the middle of the day before. There were so many people that they seemed to form a frothing ocean of exotic robes and strange dialects. The scents of spices, refuse, animals, and the sharp tang of ocean salt all competed for her nose’s attention. Merchants shouted to potential customers from the doorways of their shops or haggled just inside the brightly colored curtains of their stalls.
Wetness rained onto her cheek from a clear blue sky. Koida looked up expecting to see the demon ray dripping from a swim in the sea, but found instead a woman leaning out of a high window, hanging her washing on a rope stretched across the street between the buildings.
Pernicious grumbled and sidled beneath Koida, his burning red eyes rolling angrily. Koida kept her fist twisted in his mane and her knees pressed tight to his sides. Ever since he and that ray had killed Yoichi’s enormous demon bull, the warhorse had been twice as full of himself. She doubted Pernicious saw any of these people or their livestock as worthy of fighting, but he had been eyeing Cold Sun’s enormous war ram since they had left the Uktena encampment. The ram was larger than many of the wagons they passed, with iron horns as thick as a man curling backward around its skull like a helmet from a suit of armor. That creature, Pernicious saw as a worthy adversary.