Return to the Martagdsan
Unexpectedly the woman clenching Khachi by the neck disposes of him as she tosses him to the side. As he falls, he lands hard on the table that they were eating on earlier, utterly destroying it into pieces.
Horrendous cackling fills their ears as the woman slings herself onto the bed Khachi was once under. She rips through the thin mattress and creates a crater in it only to pull out a lava rock that appears to be encased in a thin layer of ice.
As the eerie two-tone laughing continues and the woman is momentarily distracted, Khachi pulls Okin out from under the bed and carries him toward the door. He catches a glimpse of the two bags the two had when they entered, sitting just within reach, and he tosses them to Okin. But, just as Khachi throws the backpack and satchel in Okin's direction, the masked woman whips around and grabs Khachi by the arm.
Her long, sharp nails dig into his arm as she pulls his face to hers. Horror shakes his fleeting heart as his eyes land on endless black ones. The woman's eyes are dark and not just in the color of the iris, but as in they lack in white. Almost like a black marble being used instead of a pair of eyes.
Through the thin slits of the mask, the eyes seem to reflect light, moving as if she is trying to annalize Khachi's facial features. Finding them unusually familiar to her.
Just as Okin considers separating the two, Lin Hui comes into view. Her expression, as always, is emotionless and unchanging.
"Put it back!" Lin Hui sternly yells.
The woman's mask-covered face snaps in her direction. Her laughing only evolves into a mocking one.
"You want this?" The two voices sneer through the horror-stricken mask as they proudly hold up the lava rock and, with her other one releasing Khachi from her grasp. "No!" This time the high-pitched voice snaps. "I've put too much time into collecting this,"
As the words leave her mouth, Khaliun rounds the yurt to stand at its threshold. "So, it was you that turned the dead into oreks."
Khachi takes his chance to escape and runs to the door where the others stood.
"Hahahahahaha! Did you like the show? Was it fun? Yes? No?" The woman asks. Khaliun's typically graceful face holds a severe expression. "Huh… It was to me," A hissing laugh echoes through the yurt.
Lin Hui dashes toward the woman before another exchange of words can occur. Her speed is so fast that it takes Khachi a moment to realize she has moved.
A flash of light explodes through the yurt, knocking the two back. Yet, to both of the boys' surprise, they fall onto a soft bed of snow.
"Hurry! Move!" Khaliun urges them. She helps them up, pulling them further back from the fight between the other two. When at a safe enough distance, a glare of bright light blue light blinds them as she builds a sheet of ice around them. "Stay here. Out of the way,"
Once the last words leave her mouth, she runs back to Lin Hui to help.
The ice distorts the fighting scene between the three making it hard to follow. At most, the two can only make out the women's silhouettes by the power they produce. Lin Hui seems to carry most of the fights as red, green, or sometimes white flashes of light rattle the ground as she goes all out. Not much of the white and arctic blue the two observed from Khaliun seems to take play during the battle. Even more shocking to the two is that neither of them could guess which attacks were the woman's or if she had any.
It is almost like she is purposely avoiding the fight entirely.
On the other side of the ice, Lin Hui proceeds to aim rapped fire on the unknown woman. Her blasts create small earthquakes as prickly
The masked woman dodges each attack as if Lin Hui's attacks are nothing but playing with a child. Her lighting speed teleporting her around Lin Hui's strikes.
Khaliun storms the woman with a glacial blast of ice from the side. Sharp thin, long spikes of ice mix with Lin Hui's attacks.
Bang. Like a bomb being dropped, the light from the yurt ceases to exist. It crashes to the ground from their conflicting forces. Dust and dirt generate a sheet of fog separating the woman from Lin Hui and Khaliun long enough for the woman to disappear.
Everything, including the night air, seems to freeze.
The battle between the three does not last long, and before the sheet of ice around Khachi and Okin could begin to melt, or before the two could feel the chilling temperature that ice surrounds itself in to reach out to them, everything stops. In a matter of a few seconds to a minute, the tremors and the intense beams of lights stop, dissolving into complete darkness. Pitch blackness engulfs them. The noise of the structure in front of them falling is the last sound to hang in the air.
What little light that shines from the moon reflects off of the ice. A few moments pass before the field of ice around them melts into a puddle at their feet, and Khaliun steps over it to reach them.
"We need to leave. Now," The assertive tone in her voice holds a warning.
Khaliun holds out her hand to point at a nearby wagon, urging them to hurry. The three dash over to it just as Lin Hui joins them with a brown stallion on her heel.
The cart has two large wooden wagon wheels and a bow supporting a dome-like cover. The top is also rigid and is open on all sides.
At lightning speed, Lin Hui ties the horse to the cart. Lifting up the wooden poles and the cart onto the horse on her own. She turns toward Khaliun once done, "Take them. I'll move the tribe."
Khaliun nods, and Lin Hui places her forehead to hers. Both of their eyes close as they silently send reassuring energy to each other before pulling away. Khaliun stares at Lin Hui's fleeting back for a few more seconds.
Turning her attention back to the two, she mounts the front of the cart and reaches out to grab the long reins. Just as Khachi gives a hand to pull Okin in, Khaliun takes off without warning. Nearly knocking both of the men off.
A mumble of an apology leaves her mouth, barely audible.
Once situated, Okin hands Khachi the bag he was carrying. Khachi thanks him as he takes the satchel and places it in his lap, turning to look at Khaliun's back in front of him.
"What happened?" Okin voices for Khachi.
But what they meet is silence as Khaliun stares forward, hesitating to speak.
❄❄❄❄
"Sorry about your yurt," Khachi sincerely apologies after about an hour has passed.
They have been traveling on an open grassy plain in stillness. Nothing but the sounds of heavy breathing of the stallion as it pulls the cart. Every once in a while, the wagon wheels would hit a rock just right, jolting them into the air, briefly.
"It's fine. We were going to move soon anyway," Khaliun gently answers. These are her first words since they left where the tribe of Aldsan is and was currently stationed.
"But yurts normally are moved along with you. Now, you don't have one," Khachi points out melancholy.
"That is true, but…." Her voice fades for a moment as she decides what to say next. "Aldsan is constantly on Mongke's radar. It wouldn't be the first time we would have to rebuild a yurt,"
"
"It's the clan that rules our domain in the Spectral Domains," She explains to them.
"Then isn't Aldsan, a tribe under Mongke's care?" Khachi asks.
"Sure. But, even those under someone's care can be mistreated. Besides, history can be tainting and create grudges. We're a sore eye, so even in this day and age, we still live like nomads and constantly move to avoid the capital's harassment," Khaliun clarifies for them as she turns around to look back at them.
"Is that what that was? A Kingdom picking on its own people?" Okin's contemptuous tone hangs heavily in the air.
"No, not entirely," Khaliun states, seeming lost in thought. "At least, it is not their normal persecution,"
"She seemed like she came seeking for that stone object she stole," Okin mentions. Their thoughts go back to earlier's events and the masked woman's primary objective.
"She did. Which is why we weren't sure to stay or go. But, regardless, in seeking safety it's much easier to flee," She says sternly as if regardless of who or what it was, that was always their plan. One as solid as stone.
"But fleeing doesn't solve anything," Khachi sighs. His tone carries a pragmatic manner.
"It does if it is unexpected or inevitable," She replies back, turning back toward the direction in front of them.
But judging from your words, this one might have been unexpected but running away isn't. Then the real question would be, "Why?" Why continue to move every time?
Khachi's thoughts hang at the tip of his tongue as he stops himself from pushing the issue. He senses from Khaliun that this is something she also wants to avoid.
"What was it that she came for?" Khachi's inquiries as he leads the topic back to the woman and away from Aldsan's history with abandoning and its conflict with Mongke.
"Nothing important enough to risk us staying," She answers, dodging the question. "Currently, the best course of action at the moment is to take you two to Martagdsan as you asked. I was interrupted earlier, but I was going to give you my word to take you back where both of you were found," Her words are vital as if something about this was hard for her at the moment.
Khachi found something off about her words.
Why separate from the tribe at such a crucial time for two people she just met?
Based on what Khachi has observed over the past day, Khaliun's character and actions told him she has some authority in Aldsan, high enough to be chief. Next is Lin Hui, and though she probably has it in her, her quiet and preserved behavior didn't seem to place her above Khaliun.
A chief abandoning and leaving the tribe to someone else to oversee is uncanny.
Khachi feels like there must be another reason Khaliun was willing to lead them back to Martagdsan, personally. For them to be so persistent that there was no way back to the mortal domains, what was in Martagdsan worth making an effort to prove something?
"What was the woman?" Okin inquires, pulling Khachi from his deep thoughts.
Khaliun laughs. Her mood lightens up now that the topic wasn't so heavy. "I'm surprised you're curious about just her," She looks back at the two and smiles. "This entire time after everything you've seen and that we've told you. You've never asked about us,"
"As our lifesavers, it would have been rude to call you out and making assumptions," Khachi explains though deep down, he had already begun to conclude his own guesses of what they are.
"So, two strangers save you, and suddenly any possibility of them being threats fly into the wind?" Her smile grows as a laugh escapes her mouth. "I appreciate it, but I must warn you trust isn't something you should give lightly around here. And besides, it's not rude to know the creatures around you. Curiosity leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to knowing how to keep yourself safe. Especially in a domain where anything can hurt you," she explains. "Ask me anything. As long as I seek it appropriate for you, I'll answer,"
Meaning anything but the topic between Aldsan and Mongke.
"Okay then," Okin says with a bit of excitement. Khaliun's invitation to answer specific questions about the world they are stuck in brought him a new kind of thrill. "What are you?"
"I'm a neme," She grins proudly. "In a way, I'm kind of like a western elf. But I'm a bit of a special case. Most hold abilities over nature, like flora. I can't control plants, but I can ice and snow,"
Khachi listens silently, glad to have confirmed his original thoughts.
"That's why you have pointed ears!" Okin blurts. His exuberant tone makes Khaliun laugh, her smile growing.
"Not exactly, but sure. Though I might have pointy ears and indeed can be a sign of a neme or elf, we aren't the only ones with pointed ears. Most demons belonging to Chinese mythology have long ears," Khaliun explains. "Take Lin Hui for example,"
The mention of her companion brings both of the men's full attention back to her.
"She has pointed ears. Yet she's not a neme, well… not fully," Khaliun points out.
"A demon?!" Okin guesses, his eyes widening.
Khaliun nods. She notices Okin's worried expression and continues, "A demon is different from what you imagine but also the same. Like most creatures of lore and myths, there are different versions. Lin Hui has never and would never cause harm like one would expect of a demon. But I must point another thing out. She comes from a line of demons from the domain under Chinese myths, but she has no marks like most because she was born only half,"
This caught Khachi's attention. In a way, this helps explain Lin Hui's hair, retractable nails, and abilities.
"She's half-demon and half-neme. Her gift in flora is from her neme side, while her stamina and agility reside from her demon side. Normal nemes like myself can't hold out long in a fight. That isn't what our powers were meant for. Sure, small tricks here and there are normal, but a full-on fight? We wouldn't last long," She continues to clarify.
"Then what about the woman?" Okin probes, going back to his original question.
Khaliun pauses. Her mind falls deep into thought.
As they wait for her answer, Khachi starts to become aware of the approaching thick line of trees. Something he seems to have missed while listening deeply to Khaliun's words. It wouldn't be that weird if it isn't for the fact that in an equivalent world, there would only be spares trees, if there are any at all. Within the generous layer of trees is an incline of elevation. Comparing it to the Dari Ovoo, it is about three times higher.
Yet, Khachi has a strange feeling it is the Dari Ovoo's equivalent.
"I'm not really sure. At first glance, she seems to be a
"Talking about me?" Two-tone voices ring through the covers of the night in every direction. They bring the stallion to a stop, too afraid to continue on.
"Speak of the devil, and it shows up," Khaliun's usually sweet, and clam personality quickly turns cold.
"Awww….I didn't realize you think of me so much?" The voices giggle, sending unsettling shocks down their spines.
"What do you want? You already got the
"Yes…I did. Thank you for the gift," the woman's words make Khaliun's jaw clench tight. "But there appears to be something else I'm currently curious about,"
Her words make Khaliun's eyes widen, and she turns around to face the two. She grabs ahold of Khachi's arm, causing Khachi to flinch as she touches the same spot the woman dug into earlier.
"Run! Just head up the hill. You're not far from Martagdsan. You'll know you're there when you see it," Her words come out in a low rush. She pushes them off the side of the wagon before turning around and stepping out onto the front, where she was previously sitting.
In a beam of light, she sends out a spiral of thin shards of ice in every direction, careful not to hit Khachi or Okin.
The sounds of shattering ice fill the air as they hit everything but their target.
A set of clapping surrounds them as the mask-woman slowly reveals herself in front of them. Her long nails and slender fingers hit each other forcefully.
"Impressive. That's more than what I saw earlier," Even with the mask plastered to her face, they can still hear the mocking grin on the woman's face.
The woman now in front of them and distracted by Khaliun, Khachi takes this chance to push Okin to escape.
Noticing this, the woman starts to chase, but a shield of ice stops her. A hiss of annoyance leaves her mouth.
Leaving Khaliun behind, the two start to make their way up. The elevation quickly shifts upward, making it harder to climb. Okin's feet slip out from under him as they get tangled up in the dense layer of foliage. Khachi reaches out to catch him, grabbing him by the arm to support him.
Several minutes pass while the two struggle to ascend up the hillside. The two often would look back to see white-blue light filling up the night sky behind them before pushing themselves on.
"Khachi," Okin whispers, his voice out of breath. His body hanging on a tree for support.
Even though they haven't been traveling long, the altitude quickly starts to take a toll on them. Both of them begin to grow tired from the walk. Khachi is used to climbing tall volcanoes as it is his career, but his new injuries were getting to him. Making what is ordinarily easy for him excruciatingly difficult.
Khachi looks ahead of them, noticing an edge where the ground momentarily levels out. Reaching out, he touches Okin to point at the cliff. Seeing what he is pointing out, Okin slightly nods with lacking energy and starts to drag himself towards it.
Just as the two make it to the edge, Khachi hears a noise behind him.
In trying to help Okin, both fail to realize the fight below has grown silent.
Out of the cover of darkness, a sheet of white comes darting in Khachi's direction.
Again!?
Shoving himself onto the ground, Khachi rushes to get back to his feet to get away, but before he can, the woman is right on top of him. She stands above him, fixing to reach out to seize him.
Unexpectedly a flash of silver flies through the air and across the woman's hand, cutting it. Withdrawing her hand, she looks behind Khachi.
The masked woman seems to back up with hesitation as if scared of something.
Without another thought, she disappears back below. Escaping and descending down the mountain.
Okin lets out a sigh of relief beside Khachi, pulling him out of the moment. Quickly Khachi snaps his head in the direction behind him. Seeking out the person or thing that threw the silver blade.
But all his eyes met with is a field of darkness and an outline of a cave entrance.
Okin starts to wonder inside before Khachi can stop him. Pushing himself off of the ground, he follows the younger boy in. Grabbing onto the boy's arm, he stops him and, in the darkness, reaches into the bag on the boy's back.
He searches around in the large pocket for a flashlight but comes across nothing.
"I think we lost the flashlight when we first arrived," Okin mouths, stopping Khachi from looking much further.
"Well, we can't continue to walk on without seeing what is in front of us," Khachi states. Just as the last word leaves his mouth, a line of torches burst into light as they set themselves on fire. One by one, creating a trail in front of them.
Shock runs across both of their faces. They look at each other in confusion, unsure to follow.
"No. Nope. Not going to happen. I don't do magic. I've seen enough already today," Okin declares. He steps back and waves his hands frantically in the air making Khachi laugh.
Khachi is the first to move again, making his way through the cave.
A few spots in the cave narrow out, only wide enough for one person to walk through at a time. Yet, the narrow path does not last long before it widens out, showing a cavern so vast that certain parts are still covered in shadows.
Stalactites with an icicle shape hang up high above them from the ceiling. Pools of water run along the ground as a lake rest in the center. Shadows dance around the cavern from the light of the torches.
Upon entering, Khachi freezes, causing Okin to run into him from behind. Stabilizing himself, Okin walks around Khachi to see what stopped him in his tracks.
In front of them stands a stone statue of a person. The size is reasonably similar to the height of a human. The body is wrapped in a stone design that looks like a strange mixture of deel and something belonging to the Han dynasty.
Yet, the clothing style isn't what has Khachi frozen in place. It is the facial features of the person.
"They look a lot like you," Okin observes as he takes a closer look at the statue.
This pulls Khachi out of his trance. He examines the statue.
It has similar facial aspects, but time has slowly eaten away at the original design. Now only certain parts vaguely carry a resemblance to him.
Just then, a strong yet lightly spoken pensive voice echoes through the cavern into their ears.
"It's interestingly uncanny, isn't it?"