by Claire Luana
Quitsu stood, his fur still askew. “We’re close enough that I can sense the way. Follow me.”
They moved quickly and silently through the misty woods. Kai scanned the trees nervously, keeping her senses attuned to the forest. It was still and silent but for the rustling of their feet and her mud-caked clothing.
The adrenaline of her escape from the muck died away, and she was left with only her very human sensations. Hunger, pain, fear.
“‘Go on a journey,’ they said. ‘See the seishen elder,’ they said,” Quitsu muttered under his breath as he walked beside her. Kai smiled. She had been thinking the same thing. He knew her so well, sometimes she forgot what it felt like to see her very soul personified outside her body. It was comforting, yet unsettling.
After what felt like hours, the mist began to lift.
“Are we here?” Kai asked with a hope that she tried to swallow. She couldn’t take a disappointment. If they hadn’t yet arrived, she thought she might sit down and never get up.
“We’re here,” Quitsu said.
They had reached the edge of the forest. A grassy hill stretched down to a pristine azure lake. A gentle breeze blew across the water, its crisp scent tousling her dirty hair in its caress. The island behind it, dotted with temple towers and steeples, was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
“You grew up here?” she asked. “I imagined you running around in a forest. This is much more…grand.”
“Tsuki and Taiyo blessed us with this place when they created the land. The seishen elder said it is the birthplace of the world.”
“I believe it,” Kai said. “Now we just have to see if Tsuki and Taiyo abandoned it for good.”
“Get down,” Quitsu hissed, dropping to his belly in the lush grass.
Trusting him instinctually, Kai followed suit, trying to camouflage herself amongst the green blades. “What is it?” she whispered.
“Tengu,” he said. “Pacing the edge of the water.”
Kai raised her head slightly. The demons’ cracked hides looked even more unnatural under the bright light of day. They harried the water’s edge, clearly upset, letting out whines and groans of frustration.
“I don’t think they can go in the water,” Quitsu said. “Watch how they stay back from the edge.”
“But they dearly want something in the water,” Kai said, hope welling in her. “Do you think the others made it across the lake?”
“I hope so,” Quitsu said. “But it’s the only way for us to go either way.”
“How do we get to the island?” Kai asked. “I don’t see any boat on the shore.”
“I think we’ll have to swim,” Quitsu grumbled. “I’ll give the elder hell for this.”
Kai stifled a smile. Quitsu hated water and found swimming to be beneath his dignity. But she didn’t blame him entirely. She eyed the distance from the shore to the lake. It would strain her swimming abilities on a good day. And this was not a good day. Her muscles were shaky from exhaustion and hunger.
She looked back to the edge of the forest, where mist curled and floated, and then towards the tengu circling to her right. She sighed. Nowhere to go but forward.
“Make a run for it?” she asked.
“Only honorable thing,” Quitsu said.
“Screw honor,” Kai said. “Let’s just stay alive.”
And so they stood and ran.
Their little boat ran aground on the sugary sand of the island’s shore. Colum jumped out and pulled the boat out of the water while Hiro hoisted Emi into his leaden arms.
Ryu dragged himself onto the bank and collapsed, his labored breath disturbing puffs of soft sand. The venom from the tengu’s talons was mixing with Ryu’s blood, coating his golden hindquarters with pink-tinged foam.
Hiro looked down at Emi, whose face matched the color of her silver hair. Her breath was shallow and halting. She looked worse than death. Soon, Ryu would share the same fate.
They needed to find the seishen elder.
“Lead the way,” Hiro said, hoisting Emi a bit higher and adjusting his grip.
Colum hesitated, rubbing the stubble on his jaw. “I wasn’t supposed to come back,” he said. “Maybe I’ll wait here while you go ahead.”
“Show me the way or I will boil your blood where you stand,” Hiro said, his voice like iron. He didn’t have time for this nonsense. “However angry the seishen elder was with you before, it will seem a small thing compared to his wrath after you let one of his seishen die on his shores.”
Colum glared at Hiro, his knuckles white on his staff. Finally, his shoulders sagged slightly and he started up from the water’s edge.
“Ryu, can you walk?” Hiro asked, seeing the fatigue and pain in his friend’s eyes.
“I will make it,” Ryu rumbled.
A narrow set of stairs snaked up from the lake towards the temple buildings, the stones worn in the middle from the tread of a thousand footsteps. The sight was incongruous, as Hiro somehow felt like he and Colum were the only two men who had ever set foot on this island. The stairway eventually led them through a stone archway and into a wide courtyard. Hiro couldn’t help but gasp at the scene around him. Winding vines and plants covered the walls and towers surrounding them, their tendrils finding purchase in the nooks of ancient-looking carvings and lettering. Hiro wished he had a moment to take it all in, but Emi’s heavy weight in his arms reminded him that they were already on borrowed time.
Colum looked at his open mouth and smirked. “You can see why I was drawn to this place as a young adventurer.”
Hiro stopped suddenly, breathing in the scents of fresh grass and jasmine. Before them, at the top of another staircase, was a seishen. A silver stag, small and delicate, surveying them with sharp eyes.
“You are expected,” he said. “Follow me.”
Hiro had never seen a seishen without its burner before. This one’s burner must still be too young for her abilities to have developed. So her seishen waited—here—until it was time.
They followed the seishen, who kept up a quick pace, despite his small legs. They reached an imposing double door of dark wood carved with inlays of silver and gold. The doors opened inward, and Hiro’s breath caught in his throat.
The crown jewel of the scene was clearly the tree. It rose into the air proud and strong, higher than even the tops of the temple spires surrounding it. Its white trunk was so large that Hiro guessed it would take ten men to reach around it with arms outstretched. Its silver and gold leaves fluttered in the breeze, catching the rays of the rich morning sun in a dazzling light show.
Before the tree was a still pond of sapphire blue fed by a glistening stream from the tree’s base. On the stone steps and fragrant grass around the courtyard sat seishen, their silver and gold fur glistening in the morning sun. Plumed birds, big cats, nimble squirrels, and hunched wolves all rested together on the bed of green.
But none of these extraordinary sights prepared Hiro for the seishen elder. It descended from the tree on eagle’s wings broader than a man is tall. Its fur and feathers were white, a white so pure that it hurt his eyes to look at it. It was a creature unlike any he had ever seen. It had a lion’s body—but with the head and wings of an eagle. Its front legs bore eagle’s talons, but its back had claws like Ryu’s. Hiro hardly came up to the elder’s chest.
It landed on the ground before them, the backbeats from its wings stirring dust into his eyes.
“I thought I told you never to return here, thief,” the elder said to Colum in a deep baritone, taking a menacing step towards him.
Colum, who had the wherewithal to look apologetic, bowed low, his salt-and-pepper curls falling over his weathered forehead.
“He was our guide,” Hiro said, stepping forward. “I made him cross the lake. Our friend is dying. We had no time.”
The seishen elder looked at Hiro, sizing him up with sharp eyes the color of blood. Hiro wanted to look away from the strange creature but held its gaze, feeling
his worth being measured.
“What makes you think I care about the plight of one dying moonburner?”
“You tend the seishen—you and they are tied to the burners. And this dying moonburner is one of the bravest warriors I know. She is fighting to save this world from an unspeakable evil.” Hiro’s voice grew hard. He knew he should be falling on his face to worship this ancient creature, but he was exhausted, sore, and worried sick about Kai and Emi. He didn’t have time for philosophizing. “If you deny us help, if you let this burner die, you’re handing a victory to the tengu.”
The elder’s eyes hardened, and a crest of feathers rose above its head and down its back. “Are you so young and hot-blooded that you seek to goad me with talk of those abominations? I was here when this world was formed from nothing! And I will be here when those creatures are cast back into their demon hell!”
Colum bowed low and shook his head at Hiro with a look of blind panic in his eyes.
“My apologies,” Hiro said, stilling his racing temper. “We have been through many ordeals on our way to find you. We seek a way to send the false Tsuki and Taiyo back to this demon hell you speak of and return the proper balance to this world. But we can’t do this if our friend dies, or if my seishen dies. Please help us.” He bowed as low as he could while bearing Emi’s dead weight in his arms, matching Colum’s posture.
The elder’s hackles settled back and it clacked its beak in what almost sounded like laughter.
“So you do have some humility in you,” it said. “This is a place of birth and life, not death. I will help your friend, and your seishen, of course. Give her to me.”
The elder wrapped its wings before it and Hiro transferred Emi to their feathered embrace. She had started to shiver and convulse. She didn’t have much life left in her.
The elder began to walk towards the lake. “Come, Ryu,” it said. “It is good to see you again, my child.”
Ryu limped forward, and together, the strange white seishen and Ryu walked into the crystal waters of the lake. Steam rose from Emi and Ryu as they touched the water.
The elder dipped Emi under the surface briefly, and when he lifted her up again, she gasped and tried to sit up.
The seishen elder carefully stood her on her feet in the lake.
“Woah,” she said, her eyes wide, taking in the incredible sight before her.
“Woah,” Hiro said, as he took in her form.
The wounds on her back were completely gone, though the old scars on her face remained. The lake had healed her, bringing new life and vibrancy to her cheeks.
Her hands explored the clean, pink skin of her back. “I remember…the tengu attack. I was injured.” She turned to the elder. “How is this possible?”
“These waters are sacred. Healing. It is said that the creator pulled the first sparks of life from these pristine waters.”
Emi nodded and swallowed, wading back towards the shore.
“Where’s Kai?” she asked, looking around. “And Daarco?”
A look of guilt flashed across Hiro’s face. He felt responsible for failing to keep their group together. He should have been able to protect them all.
“We don’t know,” Hiro said. “Kai ran off into the forest. We lost them in the mist.”
“You lost her?” she shrieked. “How could you lose her?”
Hiro stepped back defensively. “Magic lured her away. And you were dying; I couldn’t leave you to go after them. And the tengu attacked… Daarco made a stand so we could make it to the lake. We did what we had to.”
“Did Daarco make it?” Emi asked, her voice small.
“I…don’t know,” Hiro said.
Emi closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “You should have let me die,” Emi said. “If you had to. Kai is everything. What do you think will happen to all of us…the alliance…fighting the tengu…if she dies?”
“You don’t think I know that?” he asked, angry now. “You don’t think I’m terrified of what’s happening to her out in those woods?” His heart twisted. If I lost Kai… He shoved the thought aside. It was unthinkable. No. He refused to consider it.
Emi softened. “Of course you’re worried. I’m sorry. But we have to go find her.”
“Lay your fears to rest,” the elder said. “My children are telling me that your Kai approaches from the west. She is with her seishen and is safe.”
Emi and Hiro breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“Daarco?” Hiro asked. “Our other friend?”
“He is blocked from my sight. Still in the mist. He is on his own.”
Kai and Quitsu collapsed on the bank of the island, panting. She rolled over on her back, exhausted from their swim. At least she wasn’t covered in mud anymore.
“I…hate…swimming,” Quitsu said.
“I know,” she said, patting his damp fur. “But it’s better than facing those tengu.”
She closed her eyes, letting the warmth of the sun leech the water from her clothes.
“We need to get up at some point,” Quitsu said.
“Yes,” she said. Her body was tired, hungry, and sore. Her mind was tired of forcing her body forward. “At some point.”
“Ahem,” a small voice said behind them.
Kai rolled over on her belly and looked up at the speaker. It was a small silver seishen. A stag.
“Hello,” Kai said, dragging herself to her knees. “We are here to see the seishen elder.”
“It is expecting you,” the seishen said. “Please follow me.”
They followed the stag up the bank of the island and into the temple grounds. Kai gaped at the effortless beauty of the island.
“Quitsu, this is…”
“Amazing?” he said, a smirk on his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s one of those things you have to see for yourself.”
The island seemed untouched by the drought Kita and Miina had been suffering from for the last year. Kai’s spirit felt buoyed, light. Here in this quiet place, Kai found herself believing that they could unlock a centuries-old secret, that they could truly find a way to defeat the tengu.
The strange power she had begun to access sang to her here, as if it was stronger in this place, closer to the surface of reality. She almost reached out to touch it with her mind, to draw the sweet white nectar into her qi, but she hesitated. She still didn’t understand it, and that scared her. Perhaps the elder could help her find answers.
The little stag led them into a large room with a tall vaulted ceiling. High along the walls were open archways that let in streams of molten sunlight, trailing vines and flitting birds. In the center of the room was a low wooden table surrounded by cushions, out of proportion with the cavernous space.
“The elder will be here in a moment.”
“Thank you,” Kai said.
The stag turned to leave.
“We were traveling with some others. Sun and moonburners. A lion seishen. Did they make it here safely?”
“They are here,” the deer said simply and left them.
A tremendous tension left Kai, and the tight knots in her stomach uncoiled. Hiro…Emi… They were all right.
The walls were rough-hewn stone, flattened to uniformity in regular intervals, forming panels throughout the room. The panels bore images of humans and seishen painted in silver and gold. As they waited, Kai examined them, marveling at the intricate detail.
The first panel bore a man and woman, beautiful, sitting on thrones in the starry night sky. Like constellations, looking over a small world below them. They wore crowns on their heads, and when Kai looked carefully, she gasped.
“Another long-lost relative?” Quitsu asked, joining her in front of the panel.
She shot him a look and shoved down the worry about Chiya that bubbled to the surface. What would Kai do if Chiya really was her sister? She shook off the thought. One problem at a time.
“Look at the crowns on their heads,�
� Kai said. Quitsu jumped into her arms and they both peered at the picture.
“They’re the solar and lunar crowns,” Quitsu said. “I thought the tale about their origin was just a myth.”
“Many myths are based in truth,” a smooth voice said behind them.
Kai whirled, and Quitsu jumped from her arms, taking a defensive position in front of her.
What she saw stunned her. A great beast of the purest pearly white with a body both—lion?—and bird. And his eyes. Red eyes that seemed to pierce to her very soul. But more than that was the power that emanated from the creature. The pure white light that she had tapped before—it seemed as if this seishen was filled with it, infused with it.
Before she could ponder this strange phenomenon, her friends emerged from behind the creature. Hiro, Emi, Ryu—even Colum.
Hiro crashed into Kai, his hug rib-crushingly tight. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he whispered, his sweet breath tickling her ear.
“I’m sorry,” she said, melting into his arms.
She saw Emi next, whose grave wounds had been miraculously healed. “I’m so glad you’re all right,” Kai said, grabbing Emi tightly in a hug.
Kai next knelt down and embraced Ryu, rubbing his shaggy golden head. “Thanks for looking after him,” she whispered.
Colum stood back from their group, set apart, observing their reunion with some discomfort. His bright blue eyes were unreadable, his weathered face blank.
She went to him and embraced him, and he first started with surprise, but then returned the hug, patting her back awkwardly.
“Thank you for taking care of my friends,” she said. “For seeing them here safely.”
“You’re welcome, my lady,” he said into her ear. Before he pulled away, he whispered, “We still haven’t talked price. Two words, Queenie: hazard pay.”
Kai smiled at him, suddenly sure that she had caught a glimpse into his lonely soul. The bravado, the talk of money and treasure and caring for only profit—it was an act. At least in part.
“Where’s Daarco?” Quitsu asked. Kai flinched at her oversight. She hadn’t even noticed his absence in her excitement at the reunion.