The morning after arriving at the Cherry Blossom Kirusi Khatia awoke more refreshed than she’d been in months. Even her time at the monastery at Lian B’hir had not been as restful as this, given the intense training the monks there had put her through to teach her the summoning of their ethereal fire. But here there was nothing she needed to do, no lessons to be learned, no painstaking mental forms to master, no guard duty. Just the mellow relaxation of good food and those wonderful hot baths… the young bathman had needed to practically pour her onto her futon last night after the soak and the massage!
She’d barely had time to note the sounds of Suija moving about in the room next to her own, with only time for a brief flicker of relief, knowing she and that fool Snow Crow had returned safely, before she’d drifted off into the deepest sleep she’d enjoyed in years. Now, by the light filtering through the grilled fretwork of the windows, it must be the third hour past the dawn. She hadn’t slept this long since she was a girl!
With a luxurious stretch and a yawn that threatened to crack her jaw, Khatia rose from the futon and quickly arranged the blankets into neat, military order. Then she dressed in a simple kimono, enjoying the rare luxury of not needing to don at least a part of her usual armor. Which was, nonetheless, bundled up in the corner and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Most of the others were still gathered around the breakfast table, although they had mostly finished their meals. She piled her plate from the sideboard and sat down to listen to her companions’ desultory conversation as she ate. Eventually, once she’d satiated her initial hunger, Khatia realized that one of there number was missing.
“Is that slug Snow Crow still abed, then?” she asked, smiling as she plucked the last morsel of pork from her bowl and popped it into her mouth.
“No, I was just about to send one of the servants up to rouse him,” Edain said with a laugh. “They are about done serving for the morning, and if he doesn’t hurry I’m afraid he’ll have to wait until the midday meal to break his fast.”
But when the young maid returned a few minutes later to say that the gentleman was not upstairs, and that his futon did not appear to have been slept on, the humor around the table vanished.
“But I thought he was back last night,” Khatia said. “I heard Sujia moving about her room before I drifted off, and I assumed that meant they had both returned!”
“Sujia, what happened on your evening walk?” Edain asked, turning to the young monk. “Didn’t Snow Crow return with you?”
Sujia didn’t appear to have been paying much attention to the conversation, and it took her a moment to focus on the question. “Oh, no, I came back on my own,” she replied after a moment. “He seemed rather put out that I had accompanied him, and when we reached the edge of the hamlet he lingered. I got the impression that he was waiting for someone, and wished I would go away. Knowing his habits, I assumed he’d made an assignation with some farm girl (or boy), so I bade him good night and gave him his wish.”
“Sujia, we all heard how dangerous it is to be alone in this region! Why would you leave him?” Khatia demanded, surprised at her friend’s cavalier attitude. “And when could he have made any assignations anyway, we’d only been here a few hours?”
“Well I don’t know, do I?” Sujia replied a bit sulkily. “He seems able to seduce some people with just a glance, so maybe at one of the farms we passed that afternoon? Anyway, he made it clear he didn’t want my company. There didn’t appear to be any danger lurking around, and anyway I’m not his keeper!”
“OK, there’s nothing to be gained by finger pointing,” Edain said, looking a little surprised at Sujia’s reaction but trying to soothe her. “We’d better go and look for him… and if I find him in some hayloft having a roll, we’ll be having words!”
Viroj had taken out his moonstones while all this had been going on, and now cast them on the table. The others watched curiously as he read them and interpreted what they said about the future. After minute he smiled and gathered up the stones again, slipping them into their velvet pouch.
“If I read these aright,” he said, “there’s no significant danger ahead today for the lad.”
“Well, no offense, but you’ve been wrong before Moon Monk,” Khatia snorted. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’d better go out and find the laggard boy.”
“No offense taken,” Viroj said serenely. “The stones are never wrong, even if I don’t always understand their message properly. And I think you’re right, we need to find our wayward lad, so if I may, I shall join you.”
“I’d better come along too,” Sujia said equably enough, although she shot Viroj an annoyed look for some reason. “I can show you where I last saw him, which is the best place to start I’d think.”
By the time Khatia had donned her armor and returned to the main room Shingli had joined the expedition as well. Edain elected to stay behind in case Snow Crow wandered back on his own, and Madame Wei wished them the blessings of Kaya Kwen in their task.
• • • • •
Shingli studied the ground very closely around the spot to which Sujia had led them. He was a pretty good tracker, one of the few skills his father had actually approved of, but he was finding the signs here… disturbing. The spot was a modest glade just north of the road on the western edge of the hamlet, and the ground was perfect for reading the signs – flat, cropped turf, still damp from recent rains – yet the story it was telling…
“Something odd went on here,” he said at last, pointing out the various markers as he spoke. “See there, the troubadour’s boot prints entering the glade, and then they turn… these smaller prints I assume are Sujia’s, you see she enters the glade but not very far… then she turns and leaves. OK so far…
“But now something else is here. I’ve never seen anything like these marks, and they just seem to… well, if there were trees overhead, I said something dropped onto Snow Crow… there’s a brief scuffle, see these marks here… then something is dragged for a ways…”
He moved across the glade toward the copse of trees on its far side, intently studying the ground, then gave a cry. He darted forward and pulled a zither case from behind a low bush several yards from the edge of the trees, holding it up for the others to see.
“That is certainly the lad’s case,” Viroj said, taking it and undoing the latches. “And the zither is still within. Oh dear!”
“Yes, that’s it then,” Khatia said with a scowl. Shingli noted that she seemed to scowl a lot. “There is no way Snow Crow would leave that damn thing behind, no matter how hot the carnal temptation. Shingli, you say there was a scuffle and something was dragged away. Was it Snow Crow? And who or what was doing the dragging?”
“I can’t be certain,” the youth replied, “but the drag marks look like those of boot heels, and his are the only boot marks in the glade. The other marks… well, it was either several people walking on sharp stilts and moving in perfect unison… or it was a single large creature… with eight legs.” He stretched his arms wide to indicate the spread he was talking about.
“And to make matters worse, all the marks just vanish right here, about a yard beyond the bush where the zither was.”
“What do you mean “vanish?” Khatia demanded. “You mean they disappear going into the wood?”
“No, I mean they just stop, several yards short of the nearest trees,” Shingli insisted, flushing. He was embarrassed to have to defend an explanation that he didn’t fully understand himself. “I can’t explain it, but that’s what the markings say. Maybe whatever it was could fly, maybe it leapt all the way to the trees… I just don’t know.”
Khatia seemed as confounded as he felt, and after going over it all again had to admit there was only one thing to do. “We need to find this haunted cave that Madame Wei believes is at the center of all this. If we can’t track whatever this is, we’ll have hope we can find its lair.”
“Even loss and betrayal can bring us awakening,” Sujia intoned, evoking even more puzzled looks than her pronouncements usually did. She then volunteered to go back to the kirusi to inform Edain and Madame Wei of what they’d found, and to fetch back the Ponna Hanni. Frankly, Shingli was not sorry to see her go… she was acting even more odd than usual. Still, he didn’t know her, or really any of them, all that well yet and so kept silent.
• • • • •
Madame Wei was able to provide Edain with more detailed directions to the hermit sage’s long-abandoned cave and mid-morning was passing when the group set out at last. It took a little over an hour of brisk walking for them to arrive at the hill rising out of an encircling copse of trees that was known locally as the Spectre’s Knoll. It was maybe 50 yul high, with rough granite faces on several sides and a domed crown. The nearest farmer’s fields are a good chu away, the nearest structures perhaps twice that.
The entrance to the cave complex was about two-thirds of the way up the slope – and not quite as they’d been led to believe. Madame Wei had described it as being an opening between the roots of a great tree, reached by a narrow path between a sheer cliff and a deep sink hole. Time appeared to have changed things – the tree had fallen, and although the entrance could be seen, indeed seemed to be larger with the angled roots torn away, it was not so easily reached. The remains of the narrow trail could be seen at both ends, but a rockfall had obliterated the central portion, making it impassable.
Fortunately, the great tree had fallen downslope and across the 10 yul wide sinkhole, providing an alternate, if potentially treacherous, approach. Standing at the edge of the great hole, Viroj stared down into the dark depths and sighed. The entirety of the rocky shaft was filled with criss-crossing strands of thick webbing, layer after layer of it going down… well, who knew how far? The layers obscured his vision beyond a few yul.
“Spiders,” muttered Edain in disgust. “Why’d it have to be spiders?” Viroj knew his friend had a particular loathing, if not actual fear, of arachnids and winced in anticipation of the lad’s reaction when they met whatever monstrously large type had created these webs – and apparently stolen their companion.
At Viroj’s suggestion, they rigged a rope system along the fallen tree, for while it seemed quite broad and solid enough to bear them all across, he wasn’t willing to take any chances that could be avoided. His presentiment proved justified when, as Khatia, the last person to cross, was almost over, near disaster struck. Sujia, apparently trying to help, lost her own footing and stumbled heavily into Viroj, almost knocking him off the log. With some effort he kept his feet, but in doing so slammed into Khatia, who plummeted over the side with a yelp!
Fortunately the rope around her waist brought her up short with no more than her legs caught in the webs. “Damn, these things really are sticky,” she called up, reassuring her friends she was alright. “I can barely move my legs where they’re caught…”
“Maybe we can drop a torch down,” suggested Sujia, helpfully. “Burn away all those webs.”
“But I’m not fire-proof,” Khatia pointed out drily from where she hung. “I’d rather not go up with the webs, thank you.”
Viroj heard Sujia mutter very sotto voce “So no dragon in your future, Khatia,” which he thought rather odd, and even more obscure than usual. But he was busy pulling on the rope, along with Edain, trying to pull Khatia up and he shrugged it off. By main strength the fire-archer was able to pull her legs out of the clinging grip of the webs, and then her friends quickly hauled her back up and on to solid ground.
Viroj noted with approval that the new lad, Shingli, had positioned himself at the edge of the chasm directly above where Khatia had hung, his guandao aimed down and at the ready should any spiders of unusual size attempt to seize the prey vibrating the webs so tantalizingly. “Well done!” he said, clapping the youth on the shoulder in passing.”You show good initiative, young warrior!”
To Sujia, he mildly suggested that she be more careful in future, under such dangerous conditions, to which the young monk only said “Your worst enemy can’t hurt you as much as your own thoughts” before wandering off toward the cave mouth. He frowned after her, then shrugged in his usual bemusement at her pronouncements, and finished coiling up his rope.
Once passed the stony opening, framed by the uprooted tendrils of the fallen tree, the descending passage grew high enough to let all but the tallest of them stand upright – only Edain, bringing up the rear at Sujia’s insistence, had to stoop a bit as they wound their way down and to the right. After about 10 yul and, Viroj estimated, 8 yul in depth, the narrow entry passage opened up into a roughly kidney-shaped chamber.
It was a dozen yards on the curving long axis and about 3 to 4 yul wide, with stalactites of various sizes hanging down from a rough ceiling 3 yul overhead. But what immediately grabbed Viroj’s attention as he stepped into the cave was the spectral figure of an old man floating in the center of the area. As he came to a sudden stop, eyes wide, the figure raised its head and looked straight at him – Viroj’s blood went cold.
Then Khatia, who had been directly behind him, slammed into his back, making him stagger forward and almost into the apparition. Shingli ran into her, and Sujia in to him, – only Edain managed, barely, to avoid the pile-up. Stretching up to his full height with a groan, he started to say “What’s going on? Why did you all—“ but cut himself off as he caught sight of the faintly glowing specter.
Which was now laughing. Very hard. The otherwise dignified old man, dressed in the brown and black robes of a Zhoanzini sage, with long white hair and a flowing white beard, was bent practically in two in a fit of laughter that shook its slender form. “Oh dear, I wish you all could hear me,” the specter gasped at last, wiping a ghostly tear from its eye as it straightened itself. “I haven’t had such a laugh in decades!”
“But we can hear you,” Viroj said in puzzlement, his initial apprehension giving way to confusion at this very un-ghostly behavior. “I mean, you do sound like your voice is coming from a great distance, as if across a mountainside, but we can hear you. Or… at least I can.” He turned his head to look inquiringly at his companions.
“Oh yes, I can hear him too,” Khatia agreed, looking very curiously at the strange apparition. The others all nodded and murmured various agreements as well, and the ghost looked both startled and delighted.
“I assume you must be the ghost of the old sage who once made this cave his hermitage?” Khatia asked.
“Oh, but this is wonderful!” the image of the man exclaimed in his queer, distant voice. “The dimensional resonances must be strengthening, allowing you to hear as well as see me. But to address your assumption, young woman, I am not a ghost! Well, not technically. Although I suppose the nuances will be lost on most laymen, I am actually a physical manifestation of the consciousness of Shu Liang, scholar, sage, and sorcerer, trapped in the dimensional manifolds between my native reality (and yours, of course), and a finite, but still enormously large number of variant realities.”
“A physical manifestion?” Viroj said, passing his hand through the old man’s chest and encountering no resistance, not even the chill he’d half expected, based on the ghost stories of his childhood.
“Yes, well, my mind is physically manifest within this dimensional membrane,” Shu Liang replied, clapping his hands solidly together with the distant sound of flesh on flesh. “But while I can make myself visible in your world, I cannot otherwise interact with it – indeed, until now I haven’t even been able to make the air move enough to make myself audible… hmmm, I wonder… if this strengthening of the membrane continues, might I eventually be able to manifest fully on my native plane again?
“Well, that’s a puzzle for another time, and I’m sure of little concern to you. I assume you are heroes of some sort, and here about the damn phase spider?”
“Is that what it’s called?” Khatia said, stepping up beside Viroj. “We suspected it was an arachnid, probably of great size, but beyond that we know nothing of it. Other than that it has been terrorizing the countryside for months now, and has recently carried off one of our companions.”
“Ah, I’m very sorry to heat that,” the physically manifested consciousness of Shu Liang replied. “Although it doesn’t surprise me, for the terrible creature has laid a clutch of eggs in recent months. It is preparing its lair for their quickening, which I fear is imminent. Thus it’s hunting much further abroad than has been its wont, and bringing as much prey back to provide sustenance for its vile brood once hatched.”
“What exactly is this creature… a phase spider you called it?” Viroj demanded. “What can you tell us about it?”
“It is a creature – there is some heated debated over whether it is native to our material plane or to the ethereal plane – that can, and does, manifest itself physically, while also being able to move to the ethereal plane at will. It has a corporeal body, like any other animal, but its ability to phase that physical body out of synch with the material plane, and so exist on the ethereal plane while seeing into this plane, makes it a terrible hunter. It watches its prey while invisible and intangible, then phases into the material world to attack with utter surprise.
“I fear this particular specimen is where it is now because of me. You see, I have – had – spent my life studying the physics and metaphysics of the various planes of existence, and particularly the planes of parallel, or alternate, realities. I sought some way to see into these other realms of infinite possibility, and it was that research that led me to seclude myself in this cave complex. You see, this area already had a slight weakening of the dimensional barriers between worlds, which I was able to detect and hoped to use.
“And I succeeded, after years of effort and painstaking experimentation! I had worked out the key to peering through the dimensional walls and into worlds similar to ours, yet not the same. I prepared to make use of my techniques in a full-blown test.. and instead tore a rift open across the planes of existence.
“My body was blasted to oblivion in an instant, but my mind was caught between a thousand dimensions, somehow. Now I hover between realities, trapped, able to see into some material realities, but never able to touch or interact with them, not even with this, my native one. But the rent I tore remains, an open wound in the fabric of reality, and as long as I remain trapped it will not heal. It was this wound in space that drew the phase spider, for it makes it even easier for her to use her abilities here than in any other place.
“And now, she has mated, and after devouring her mate, has laid her clutch. If they are allowed to hatch, her brood will number in the hundreds, and they will be a blight on the land for a hundred klicks in every direction…”
Viroj had noticed that during this monologue that Shu Liang had become increasingly more translucent, and his voice more faint and distant. The old sage seemed to notice it himself, for when he spoke next it was with some urgency.
“Listen, the membrane is thinning again, I do not know how long I have to speak and be heard, nor when these conditions may exist again. I was not entirely unaware of the danger in what I was attempting, all those years ago. I took precautions… there is an amulet, and a pouch of powdered silver, on my physical remains… and a paper, describing a ritual using them… if performed at the nexus where this began, that is, my mortal remains,it will free me at last… and when I move on to wherever we go after death, the rent in reality should begin to heal…”
“Our first responsibility is to rescue our companion, if he still lives,” Kahtia said, ”and then to remove the threat this phase spicer and her brood represent to the good people hereabouts. Only then can we turn our attentions to your deliverance, Shu Liang.”
“Good enough,” said the not-ghost with a sad smile, his voice barely audible. Then, slowly, he faded away, exposition accomplished…
With the specter of the old sage gone, the Wanderers finally took a closer look around the cave. The eastern wall was open into a much larger chamber, two yul lower down and accessible by a climb down a short but steep slope. The area appeared to be open to the sinkhole above, and pale sunlight filtered through the mass of webs that filled the shaft, dimly illuminating both chambers.
Although dimmer in the smaller chamber, by this light they could see that tattered webs clung to the walls in various places, moving in a faint breeze they couldn’t feel. More disturbingly, however, were the large cocoons that gradually became visible as their eyes adjusted, hanging in nooks and alcoves in the walls.
“As I feared,” Viroj said, using his sword to cut through the fibers of the one nearest him. “These are earlier victims of the spider.” The desiccated, skeletal remains of what was once a man sagged out of the rent in its fatal cocoon, empty eye sockets staring at the monk almost accusingly.
Fearing that one of the cocoons might hold Snow Crow, the group quickly began cutting into the six other cocooned remains scattered about the cavern. They found four very old skeletal remains; two rotting corpses, no more than a few months old; and one woman dead only a tenday or so. To everyone’s relief, none of the corpses were Snow Crow’s.
Viroj, by virtue of no one else wanting to do so, searched the various bodies for clues or for anything useful. Unfortunately, the only items of interest were on the final, most recent body, everything else being either utterly mundane or too rotted to be of use. The poor woman, however, had 15 gold coins in a pouch, a silver pendant on a silver chain, and a worn deck of cards with an extra card tucked inside—the Queen of Wands from an entirely different deck. That card bore an inscription on its back in Telnori: “May fortune favor the bold.”
“Didn’t seem to favor her much, did it?” Suija sniffed when he read it aloud to the group. He shrugged and slipped the card back into the deck, stashing it with the other items in his pack.
Edain insisted on a solemn moment of silence for the dead, and then said a brief prayer. He seemed to ignore Sujia’s snappish, muttered comment that they were wasting daylight. Or maybe he just didn’t hear it. Viroj noted it, however, and by her sideways glance he thought Khatia had too. What was wrong with the girl today? She seemed uncharacteristically out of sorts, especially snapping at her beloved Pona Hanni…
• • • • •
Once Edain had finished his few words, the group made their way carefully down to the larger, lower chamber. In the better light there they could see there were no bodies stuck to the walls here, but they did find the rotted remains of a wood structure that appeared to have once been a ramp down from the “larder” as Edain had started thinking of the entry chamber and its ghastly fruit. In the center of the area was a continuation of the sinkhole above, if smaller. It too was filled with webs, but far fewer of them and less solidly packed.
“The webs aren’t too thick,” Sujia noted, peering over the edge. “I can see the bottom, maybe ten yul down? I guess we’re going to have to use the rope again, and climb down.”
She seemed strangely cheerful at the thought, Edain noticed through his own unease. He had been on edge ever since they’d come across the web-shrouded pit, and his mood hadn’t been improved by the cocooned corpses they’d had to cut down. He’d always been a little uneasy around spiders… not afraid, exactly, just uncomfortable. And that was when they were tiny and he was enormous in comparison…
Viroj was pulling out his rope again and reluctantly gauging the best spot to drop it into the pit to avoid as much webbing as possible, when Shingli called from the far side of the chamber. There was a high ledge there, about four yul up along the northeast section of wall, and another scattered pile of rotting lumber on the floor beneath it.
“I think this used to be a stair,” he said, poking at the decaying wood with his guandao. “Like the ramp from the entry. If so, there must be an exit up there, right?”
Khatia headed over to look at the remains, as the young fighter fixed his weapon across his back and began climbing the steep, but not sheer, wall beneath the ledge. Reaching the top he scanned about then pointed to the north.
“There’s a clear passage down this way. Only a small hole in the floor the other way. I think—“
Edain never learned what the warrior thought, as out of the dark recesses of the ceiling above him a huge dark shape dropped, all legs and claws and clusters of glowing eyes. The Pona Hanni cried a warning, but Shingli’s reflexes were amazing – without even looking up he ducked and rolled aside, narrowly missing the clashing mandibles that could have decapitated him!
Not wasting an instant, he continued rolling right off the side off the ledge, deftly grabbing at several handholds to slow his fall. He landed on his feet with a grunt and was pulling his guandao free before the spider had quite realized it had missed its prey.
Khatia, warned by Edain’s cry, whipped her short sword up barely in time to block an attack by a second spider. She fended off the mandibles and turned the parry into an attack of her own, but the chitinous legs managed to knock her blade aside before she could strike an eye cluster. She flowed with the block, and felt her blade slide into a leg, but was unable to block the monster’s counterstrike – she dodged back, but a claw raked down the left side of her face, opening a deep gouge in her cheek.
Edain cleared his mind and prepared to invoke the Peace of Inspiration. But just as he was about to unleash the energy to call it into being, Sujia slammed into him on his right side, and ritual fizzled out. She didn’t even seem to notice, for she was rushing forward to hurl a shuriken at the spider which had leaped down from the ledge in pursuit of Shingli. The warrior had blocked its first snapping lunge when she released her deadly star, but Edain thought the collision with him must have thrown her off, for the spinning blade missed the spider entirely.
Unfortunately, it didn’t miss Shingli, and embedded itself in his left calf. He gave a grunt of pain and staggered, but he didn’t go down, thank the Immortals! Driving back the spider with a flurry of attacks, he gained the space to reach down and pull the shuriken from his flesh, tossing it aside.
While this was happening Viroj had loosed an arrow at the spider looming over Khatia. Edain saw the shaft plunge into the “hip” joint of one of the creature’s left legs, making the beast stumble briefly. Khatia took advantage of this to slash her sword across its pale, scabrous abdomen, unfortunately opening only a shallow wound, although it did seem to give the thing pause.
Shingli had been parrying and counterattacking his foe, and Edain saw him dive in low after another missed bite, driving his guandao into the beast’s thorax. As it reared back, shrieking in pain, he instantly followed up with a thrust that drove his great blade deep into the spiders abdomen. As he ripped the blade free, the creature shuddered and collapsed in a growing pool of bluish ichor.
Edain drew his own sword and moved to support Khatia, who continued to parry and slash at her own opponent. Without the reach of a weapon like Shingli’s guandao, however, she was at a disadvantage against its long, and numerous, legs. As Edain moved forward, he noticed Sujia turn and attempt another shuriken attack, this time on Khatia’s opponent. But again her throw missed its target – and again hit friend instead of foe! The throwing star embedded itself in Khatia’s right cheek, barely missing her eye, and the fire archer went down without a sound.
Edain cried out, and Viroj launched another arrow when he saw his friend go down. Like the shuriken, it too went wild and missed its target. Fortunately it didn’t hit Khatia, instead splintering against the far wall of the cave. Viroj cursed and drew another arrow…
Shingli, his blade still dripping with ichor, charged the short distance to Khatia’s prone form. As the second spider stooped to bite its fallen prey, his swinging blade sliced clean through a claw, severing it. As the beast reared back, Shingli lunged forward and drove his weapon into its abdomen, impaling it. He braced the guandao against the ground held the spider pinned, legs thrashing, until it stilled and died.
“We are but guests, visiting this world,” Sujia muttered softly, looking sad.
Edain had little attention to spare her, however, as he rushed to Khatia’s side. Viroj was there a second later, moving Shingli gently aside so he could examine their friend’s wounds. Khatia’s face was covered in blood, although the spider claw gash was the worst of the wounds, ragged and long, if not as deep as Edain had first feared.
Kneeling next to her, with Edain cradling her head and Shingli standing guard, alert for any further arachnid attacks, Viroj attempted to invoke his Silken Wrappings of Ki ritual. It would promote clean, quick healing, but his concentration was broken by Sujia as she dropped down next to him and began trying to treat the wounds with her own healing skills.
“Void take you girl, what is wrong with you?” The Moon Monk cried, watching her clumsy attempts and distracted from his ritual. “Are you trying to give the poor woman a scar? Here, move aside, let me do that.”
Although his ritual had failed, Viroj’s physician skills were enough to clean and field suture the two wounds before a dazed Khatia began to revive. Sujia leaned in again to try and help her friend up, but Khatia pushed her away in annoyance as she staggered to her feet. Apparently she remembered well enough where the attack that had dropped her had come from.
“Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind,” Sujia said primly, backing off. Edain wondered if that was meant to be an apology, and by the look on her face Khatia was wondering the same thing.
“Well, that was horrific,” Edain said, once Khatia was back on her feet, however unsteadily. “But whatever those were, I don’t think either was the phase spider we were warned about.”
“No, both were smaller than whatever took Snow Crow,” Shingli agreed. “Maybe half the size? And they certainly didn’t use the ‘phasing’ attack the old ghost described.”
“Well, whatever they were, we seem to have cleared them out,” Viroj said. “I think we should take a rest here, give ourselves some time to recover, especially you Khatia. We can eat the nice lunch that Madame Wei packed… Shingli, will you help me drag these corpses to the far side of the room, please? Edain, if you’ll get Khatia seated on that nice flat rock and get the food out?”
• • • • •
Khatia really didn’t want to hold things up, and wanted to protest that she was fine when Viroj suggested a rest. But a wave of nausea swept over her, and she kept quiet, letting Edain help her over to that surprisingly comfortable-looking rock… her face ached, she had a headache, and as the food was spread out on a smaller rock nearby, she realized she was starving. She always was, after a fight.
While Edain was laying out the food, various dried meats and fruit, several cheeses, and two loaves of crusty white bread, Khatia eyed Sujia covertly. She didn’t really blame the girl for the wound, although they would need to have a serious talk about aiming ranged weapons into a close combat situation. But she was increasingly convinced there was something seriously wrong with her friend.
At the moment she was rummaging through her pack and muttering to herself. She pulled out her special teapot, the one Khatia knew she always used to brew that special tea that she was so close-lipped about. She then continued digging around, growing increasingly frustrated, apparently at not finding whatever she was looking for. With an angry hiss she shoved the pack away, picked up the teapot… and, in a totally unexpected fit of pique, smashed it to flinders on the stone floor!
“By the Ideal!” Edain barked out, whirling around in surprise at the sound of shattering crockery. “What is the matter with you Sujia?!”
Sujia glared at him for an instant, then seemed to shrink in on herself. Eyes suddenly downcast, she apologized, with a heavy sigh. “Please forgive me, Pona Hanni. I am… greatly distressed by the pain I have caused my friends in my futile attempts to aid them. I am afraid I channeled that distress inappropriately just now, and hope I may be excused for so forgetting my training.”
With a sigh Khatia spent several minutes helping Edain reassure the anxious monk that no one was (too) mad at her for the unfortunate incidents during the fight. Sujia seemed to accept the reassurance, and seemed much more her usual self during the ensuing meal and the brief rest that followed. By the time they were ready to resume their penetration of the phase spider lair, Khatia herself was feeling almost back to normal.
She even insisted on taking the lead as they entered the passage Shingli had discovered, and thus it was that she was the one who found Snow Crow. He was cocooned against the wall in a wide spot in the tunnel, much like the victims they had discovered in the ‘larder’ (and now that Edain had mentioned that name to her, she couldn’t get it out of her mind). Unlike those poor souls, however, he was still alive.
It took a minute for her and Viroj working together to cut him out, as the webbing was much fresher, and stronger, than the earlier cocoons. Edain caught the unconscious troubadour as the last strands gave way, and lowered him to the ground. Although he was breathing, if shallowly, no amount of shaking, face patting, or water seemed able to revive him.
Viroj, rolling Snow Crow over half way, pointed to a nasty set of puncture wounds on the back of his neck. “No doubt the venom of this bite is what keeps him unconscious. It should wear off on its own, in time. But I have no idea of how much time might be needed.”
“Now that we have him, should we carry him back to the kirusi?” Shingli asked, while keeping his eyes scanning the passage both ahead and behind.
“And leave this monstrous ‘phase spider’ to continue preying on the countryside?” snorted Khatia. “If we leave now, I suspect coming back will be much more difficult. The creature may yet be unaware of us, but that won’t be true for much longer. I say we go on and finish this.”
“Not to mention the ritual Shu Liang asked us to perform,” Viroj added in agreement.
A consensus was reached, and the remaining cocoon webbing was pulled from the wall and used to make a sort of bower for the insensate musician. Before they left Edain laid the zither case, which he’d been carrying, next to his friend. “A sort of reassurance, should he wake up before we return,” he explained at Khatia’s quizzical look.
The group then continued on down the passage as it descended, turning west and then southwest, widening and narrowing randomly. It also seemed to flicker occasionally, taking on slightly different appearances in ghostly, colorless visions of the tunnel as it might have been… or was, elsewhere. It was disorienting, and by the time they finally debouched into a new cavern and the visions ceased, everyone was shaken and a bit unnerved.
At the end of the passage was a short flight of actual stairs, carved from the living stone. These lead down into a long, narrow chamber that curved gently back to the northeast. The alcove was dominated by a roughly oval depression in the stone floor – a hollow filled with a grisly collection of molted spider exoskeletons. Khatia saw Edain shudder in disgust at the sight and, truth be told, she couldn’t blame him.
Both she and the Pona Hanni were more than willing to just bypass this charnal pit, but Viroj and Shingli felt it was worth exploring. Suija just shrugged, and joined Khatia and Edain against the wall while Shingli poked through the layers of chitinous shells with his guandao. When this revealed several glints of metal, Viroj actually hopped down into the hollow to reach them.
“Hmm, each layer of exoskeleton is larger than the one below it,” the Moon Monk noted as he scoured the shallow pit. “I guess this is where the phase spider comes to molt when she grows too big for her current shell. Interesting… I bet this top one, the latest molt, might be worth something to an alchemist. Or maybe to an armourer… might make a very tough exoskeleton for a man, eh?”
Shingli seemed particularly taken with this idea, given that he currently wore no armor himself beyond his iron half-helm and his bracers. His old, mercenary-issued armor had been left behind in the aftermath of that final, doomed battle in the high passes, and the monks of Lian B’hir had not been of a martial bent.
“Maybe we can take it on our way back,” Khatia sighed, understanding the youth’s desire but unwilling to have him burdened before a fight with unnecessary items. “Who knows, maybe we’ll have an even fresher exoskeleton by then.”
In the end, Viroj managed to scrape together 45 coins of various denominations; a plain silver ring; a wax-sealed leather vial, marked with the sigil of Inarima, containing some liquid; and a small leather pouch containing three uncut garnets. With this stashed in his pack, the group moved on…
• • • • •
Viroj was relieved to see that they only had a short way to go before the narrow passage widened out and opened into a vast chamber. The air was shimmering with an otherworldly quality, and translucent shapes flickered at the edges of his vision. At the center of the chamber, as in the ones above, was a pit, the smallest iteration yet of the sinkhole. While smaller, its opening was completely choked with layer upon layer of dense webbing, forming an almost solid mass of silk that obscured whatever lay below.
The web structure, he noted queasily, seemed to pulse with a faint, sickly pale blue luminescence. Around the perimeter tattered rags of webbing fluttered in an unfelt breeze, and scattered cocoons hung from the ceiling or were attached to the walls, while the floor was littered with bones picked clean of flesh. And still the faint shapes flickered at the edge of his sight.
“I think we must be near the heart of whatever dimensional rift Shu Liang created,” he said, trying to focus on what was real, and not the ghostly overlaps of the Ethereal Plane or the colorless echoes of the chamber existing in multiple worlds simultaneously. “It looks to me like it might be the phase spider’s lair… so let’s be especially cautious, eh?”
The others nodded as they slowly spread out to examine the large cavern, all of them clearly trying to ignore the tantalizing glimpses of other versions of reality. But for all their caution, none of them had any experience with a creature that could do what the malevolent phase spider could…
Shingli was the furthest into the cavern, on the far side of the pit from most of the others, and it was no doubt this that made him the creature’s first target. Viroj saw her flicker into existence directly behind the lad, and before he could even shout she had sunk her slavering mandibles into his left hip. He cried out in pain, and tore himself away, swinging his guandao wildly, but she faded away in an instant. Shingli staggered two steps and collapsed.
Everyone except Suija rushed toward the fallen youth. Viroj heard her muttering to herself “So that’s the mother getting revenge for her children whom you killed,” before realizing she was attempting to invoke some ritual. He dropped to his knees next to Shingli, waving off a still shaken Khatia’s attempts to render aid. His own ministrations were effective, and the fighter’s robust constitution soon brought him out of his swoon.
“I’m – I’m OK,” he said, as Edain helped him to his feet and Khatia handed him his guandao. “But why has the monster not attacked again?”
“I think we have Sujia to thank for that,” Edain said. “I know that feeling in the air, that sense of calm that comes from your ritual Song of Defense, isn’t that so, Sujia?”
“Yes, I succeeded,” the monk admitted, bowing her head – although before she did Viroj almost thought he saw a look of chagrin, not modesty, on her face. “It will be unable to attack again for a time, unless directly threatened itself.”
“That’s brilliant,” the Pona Hanni said, smiling at her. “But I’m just glad you were able to exclude the rest of us from the effects, or we might be in real trouble.”
Sujia shrugged and bobbed her head again.
Sticking close together, the group continued to search. At the southeast corner of the large chamber they found a passage, partially obscured by hanging webs, leading east and then north, at the end of which was a small alcove. Barely ten feet across, within it a human skeleton lay slumped against the far wall, dressed in the tattered remains of brown and black robes.
“I think we’ve found the remains of Shu Liang,” Khatia muttered. “Even though we haven’t really taken care of the phase spider, I suppose we might as well perform the old man’s ritual. Maybe it will make it tougher for the cursed beast to phase, or whatever.”
The sage’s bones were positioned as if he had died sitting upright, one hand outstretched toward a circle of strange symbols carved into the stone floor. The symbols still glowed with a faint, pulsing light, casting unsettling shadows across the chamber. Viroj took the lead again, and searching the mouldering remains soon found a copper amulet, incised with strange runes, a pouch full of powdered silver, and a leather-bound journal.
On the last page of the journal was the ritual, which was simple indeed. Placing the copper amulet in the center of the glowing runes (clearly his intended viewing portal, and now the focus of the tear between dimensions), Viroj sprinkled the silver powder over it while intoning the words “The door is opened, the threshold crossed, the watcher release.”
The glowing sigils flared to blue-white, then began to fade. As they did, the spectral form of the old sage appeared before them, smiling. He mouthed the words “thank you,” gestured at the small table behind his remains, then turned and quickly faded away himself.
“Well, that was… anti-climactic,” Khatia said when it was over. The carved sigils had stopped glowing, and the strange flickering images of other worlds no longer played at the edge of sight. A sense of solid reality slowly settled over the group.
“I think that last gesture of his meant we were welcome to whatever we find in that desk of his,” Viroj said, moving to search it. Even Edain didn’t object to this bit of looting, and he quickly gathered several items of interest, including Shu Liang’s spellbook, a wand of milky white quartz, an old scroll, 40 gold coins in a purse, and a silver ring engraved with arcane symbols. “I suspect this research journal of his may be worth something to other sages or the like,” he added, stuffing it atop the other items in his pack.
Moving out into the larger chamber again, Shingli took a longer look into the central pit. “Think this might be where that spider has laid her eggs… even through the webs I can see many faint glints…”
Khatia stepped forward to look for herself, Sujia close behind her, her hand on her dagger. It was clear to Viroj that the fire archer was attempting to ignite her blade with that spell she had learned, Devrik’s Brand, but was having some difficulty. Suija must have sensed it too, for she stood at her friends back, focused intently on her efforts.
Suddenly a flash of flame shot out from Khatia’s sword in a wide cone of heat and light. Fortunately, Shingli was able to leap aside quickly enough to get no more than a light singe, but almost all the webs in the pit went up like dry tinder! Exposed at the bottom, through the smoking tatters of the few surviving webs, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of glistening blue-black spheres, each one the size of a plum.
Before anyone could react, the phase spider appeared in the air directly over Khatia. She brought her blade up and rolled backward at the same instant, barely avoiding the rending claws. Viroj raced forward as Khatia swung in a fierce counterattack, only to see the spider vanish again.
But some sixth sense warned the Moon Monk, and he was prepared, already turning as the creature phased in at what it thought was his back. Instead, it found his blade slashing down and taking a deep bite out its right foreleg. With a shriek of pain and fury, the spider vanished.
“Up against the south wall,” he cried out. “Close together, so it can only attack from the front!”
Everyone moved to obey, but even as they fell in place the beast appeared above Edain. He had the Sky Blade out and tried to impale the monster, but she rolled in midair and her legs knocked the ebony blade aside. He in turn dodged her snapping mandibles, and swung his sword around to entirely sever the foreleg which Viroj had wounded. At the same time her left fore-claw snapped out and savaged Edain’s left forearm. She shrieked and he roared, both in pain, as she vanished once more.
As the group moved westward, their backs to the wall, trying to reach the exit, the phase spider appeared in front of Khatia again. She blocked the scrabbling claws and and fended off the attack, the spider fading out Shingli moved to attack from the side. In that moment Viroj had an epiphany – in this formation, they could guard each others sides, save for the ends of the line, where one side would always be vulnerable…
But surely the creature will go for any gap in the line, especially at an end, were a victim would then be isolated. Being at the right end of the line, he held himself back, opening up a space between him and Shingli. Sure enough, the phase spider appeared between them! Viroj was ready, and as she attacked he dove under her snapping jaws and slammed his blade hilt-deep into her thorax, then pulled with all his considerable strength to rip it out sideways.
The spider shrieked, shuddered and died, legs curling up around her savaged torso as her guts spilled out in a stinking rush.
• • • • •
While Viroj was busy taking the dead spider’s head, and Shingli was eyeing the arachnid’s armored carapace with calculation, Khatia was determined to destroy the vile nest of spider eggs. Given what they’d gone through to defeat just one of the tings, she shuddered to imagine how they could deal with hundreds.
She considered just dropping some torches down amongst the clustered eggs, but they looked quite moist, and she doubted that approach could destroy them all. No, in the end it would have to be hand work to ensure every last egg was destroyed. With a sigh she pulled her own coil of rope from her pack and secured it to an outcropping of rock a yul or so from the edge of the nest pit.
“You shouldn’t go down there alone,” Sujia offered up diffidently.
“Well, it would go faster with two,” Khatia agreed. “But – and no offense – you’re not really outfitted for the job.” She motioned at the monk’s sandaled feet and lone dagger.
“Well then, perhaps Shingli would suit,” Sujia suggested. “Next to you, surely he is our best warrior, and well equipped for the job?”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Viroj snorted, coming up behind Sujia, hefting the spider head in a makeshift sling of scavenged spider silk. He dropped the thing and put his hands on his hips, looking at the two women. “I’m perfectly capable of squashing a few eggs!”
“Well, of course,” Suija agreed, bowing. “I meant no offense, but just thought our two strongest men, yourself and the Pona Hanni, should remain up here and on guard, in case any spiders or other fell beasst remain.”
“But Shingli is injured,” Viroj objected. “Between his constitution and my treatments we’ve slowed the venom, but he’s still weak, and limps like—“
“I’m fine,” Shingli said sharply, having come up in time to catch the drift of the conversation. “Not, perhaps, at my very best, I admit, but certainly well enough to squash some eggs.”
“Fine,” Khatia said impatiently. “Let’s get this over with. I want to be done here, pick up Snow Crow, and be back at the Cherry Blossom Kisuri in time for supper.”
Sujia smiled, Virorj harrumphed, and Shingli just looked pale.
Khatia went first, rappelling down the vertical side of the pit. It was a bit over 8 yul to the vaguely concave floor, and she didn’t even try to avoid landing on any eggs. The quicker they get destroyed, the better – although the stench that rose from just a few crushed eggs was giving her second thoughts about the whole venture. Well, all the more reason the be quick about it!
Shingli was about halfway down the rope when his left leg buckled as he swung in – for a moment Khatia thought he was going to keep it together, but then she heard him gasp, saw his grip loosen on the rope, and he was falling. With a deeply serious curse spit out between clenched lips, she got her arms out and knees bent just in time to catch him. At the last instant he managed to snag the rope with his free hand, slowing himself enough that they both went to the ground without serious injury.
“Sorry, sorry,” he kept saying as Khatia pushed him off of her and clambered back to her feet.
“Not really your fault,” she sighed, giving him a hand up. He was limping worse than ever, but at least he seemed able to stay upright. “I shouldn’t have listened to Suija, and taken Viroj instead – you’d have been better on the guard duty. But done’s done, we’re here, so let’s get the job done and get out.”
Shingli nodded, hefted his guandao, and they set about destroying every last spider egg they could find…
• • • • •
Veroj sighed in relief when he saw that Shingli’s fall hadn’t injured either of his friends. He did think it rather pointed up the fact that he should have gone down instead of the lad, but done was done. He and Sujia watched for a few minutes as the two warriors methodically began destroying spider eggs, but the stench that was soon wafting up from below was almost overwhelming. Wondering how they could stand it, scarves over mouths or not, he decided he really should pay attention to his guard duties. Turning around, he stepped a couple yul from the pit and began scanning the dark ceiling above for any hint of movement…
He was dimly aware that Suija had remained behind, but hadn’t given it much thought. He must have been worried on some level, however, on alert for something besides spiders – or perhaps it was some subliminal sound in the air behind him. Whatever the cause, he whirled suddenly around, bringing his buckler up to defensive position just in time for it to catch the blow from Sujia’s faintly glowing Iron Hand attack!
The force of the blow was such that it actually deformed the metal slightly, shoving him backward several steps. Viroj drew his short sword, but hesitated to attack his friend – the girl had clearly gone mad! The look on her face was cold and feral, and not anything he’d ever seen there before – and her eyes were pits of madness. He had no desire to hurt her, and would fight to subdue her, knowing there were no certainties in situations like this…
He struck with the flat of his blade, but her reflexes were preternaturally fast. She knocked the blade aside, came in under his buckler, and slammed her Iron Hand into his chest. He was falling back, away from the attack even as it landed, or he thought it might have broken half his ribs. As it was, it drove the air from his lungs and sent him reeling back, stunned and gasping desperately to breathe.
Where the Void was Edain? he wondered as dark whorls swam in his vision, even as he finally managed to draw in a wheezing breath. Ah, there he was, running from the far side of the pit… but Sujia had turned toward him… she was gesturing, and waving her hands…
Suddenly Edain stopped short, clutching at his face. Viroj didn’t know what the young monk had done, but he could breath again, and he leapt forward. With her back turned and her attention focused on the Pona Hanni, he’d bring the pommel of his sword down on her head and—
Sujia whirled around just as he was in striking distance, driving her still faintily glowing fist straight at his face! He desperately twisted aside, and the blow landed on his right shoulder instead. It spun him halfway around, and the world went dark as he collapsed to the stone floor…
• • • • •
Edain had been so focused on watching for external threats that it had taken him a minute to notice what was going on across the the gap of the pit. The growing stench was forgotten as he saw, with alarm, that Sujia had summoned her mystical Iron Hand and was attacking Viroj! Had she gone mad? Was someone else controlling her? Either way, he had to stop her!
As he began running around the pit toward the combat it was obvious that Viroj was fighting at a handicap, clearly trying not to actually injure or kill their friend. Sujia showed no signs of any similar restraint. He saw the Moon Monk stagger back, clearly stunned by a blow to the chest – his gasping mouth, like a gaffed fish, might have been comical under other circumstance, Edain thought.
Suija had seen him coming, Void curse it, and she turned with a sharp gesture and a stream of musical words aimed at him… and suddenly Edain was weeping uncontrollably! In disbelief he realized his friend had invoked the Tears of the Immortal ritual against him, and he was blinded by the never-ending stream of tears pouring from his eyes. Try as he might to focus, the world was nothing but a colored blur, and he dared not move far, the edge of the pit was too near…
His only hope was to invoke his own ritual, the Peace of Inspiration, which might keep her from fighting. Of course he’d tried to use it twice already today, without success – maybe the third time would be the charm? He never got the change to find out, as halfway through the invocation something – he assumed it was Sujia by the size and the scent – slammed into him, stealing his breathe and bending him over.
The next thing he knew he was slung over her shoulder, bouncing as she ran, gasping and half staggering, toward the exit passage. Or so he presumed, he still couldn’t see a thing.
“Void curse you Suija,” he grunted, “what do you think you’re doing! Put me down, blast it!”
“Not until you are safe, blessed Pona Hanni,” she gasped out.
How the Void was this 5’ 6”, 130 pound girl running with his 5’10”, 180 pound body over her shoulder?! he wondered. “Sujia, I am perfectly safe! Why have you attacked our friends—“
“They are no friends of ours, blessed one… they have been plotting against you… from the beginning… they were going to kill you… I had to protect you…” her words were coming in gasping bursts, but she continued to stagger on. She was clearly delusional, and he had to stop this. With all his strength he wrenched himself out of her grip and flung himself to the side.
She gave a cry of despair as he pushed away from her, and then a shriek of fear – he barely had time to wonder why as his foot came down on nothing, and he fell. Question asked and answered!
Shit! They must have been at the narrowest stretch of floor between cave wall and pit… he flailed wildly and his hand caught a tattered remnant of web and clutched… it ripped away, but had slowed him a bit… another tatter, this time it held longer… and then he hit someone’s outstretched arms, followed by the ground…
• • • • •
Khatia heard the yelling and confusion above them, but when no one answered her and Shingli’s questioning calls, she’d headed back to the rope, the other fighter on her heels… only to find it drawn up! The sound of Edain yelling something unintelligible led them back to the other side of the pit. Slipping and sliding on the slime of hundreds of smashed spider eggs, they barely made it in time for Kahtia to catch Edain as he tumbled into the pit, clutching at webs as he fell.
Picking herself back up, Khatia looked up to see Sujia peering down at them, her face such a rictus of fear and rage that it froze Khatia’s blood. Then the young monk was leaping down the sheer wall of the pit with an agility and speed so unbelievable it momentarily stunned the fire archer. But when she saw the girls fist begin to glow, years of battle instincts kicked in.
Sujia leaped from the wall directly at her, empowered fist raise for a killing strike, but Khatia dodged under the blow, and drove her sword up with all the power of her considerable strength straight into the monk’s breastbone. Pommel first, fortunately for them both. This time it was Suija who had the breathe knocked out of her, and she was slammed back by the force of the blow into the stony wall. Her head snapped back against the stone, and she crumpled, unconscious at Khatia’s feet.
Staring down at the crumpled form, Shingli shook his head and said “ I’m starting to think that shuriken in my calf wasn’t an accident…”
• • • • •
It took no little time for the group to get itself together, but eventually Viroj recovered consciousness and was able to toss the rope back down to the others; they were able to haul the limp form of Suija out of the pit, followed by Shingli, who was unable to climb; they pieced together what had happened, and realized Sujia had been going slowly wrong for some days, although they still had no idea why; they recovered Snow Crow, who was beginning to come out of his venom-induced stupor just enough to stumble along, with some help, back to the surface; Viroj was able to secure a cart and horse from the nearest farm house, allowing Snow Crow (once again out of it), Sujia (still out of it), and a protesting (but not very hard) Shingli to ride the six or seven chu back to their kirusi.
It was deep in the gloaming before the Wanderers arrived back at the Cherry Blossom Kirusi, the first stars gleaming in the purple-blue vault of heaven. Madame Wei was waiting for them at the open doors, warm light streaming through them and several strong houseboys standing ready with stretchers for the injured. Edain was too exhausted and deeply worried to wonder how she had known what they needed, and was simply grateful for it.
She herself saw to the injured, and her tender ministrations soon had the two unconscious companions awake and sitting up, although both were strongly admonished not to leave their beds for a day, at least. Shingli she suggested needed at least two days of bed rest, after which he would be fit to begin gradually exercising the wounded hip and leg. After giving each invalid a draught to help them a restful and healing sleep, she invited the remaining three companions to join her in her private sitting room to discuss the situation.
“For your young friend the troubadour I have no worries. Although he took a larger dose of the spider’s poison than the young warrior, it was never a killing toxin, but one meant to paralyze and incapacitate… such creatures want their victims alive when thy begin to devour them. He will be himself in a day or two.”
“Oh dear, I was hoping we might see an improvement,” sighed Khatia, at which Madame Wei raised an eyebrow. Khatia blushed and bent over her tea cup. Madame Wei smiled benignly and went on.
“The young warrior will also be whole and well again, but it might take a bit longer – he got a small dose of the poison, and with your help, demon hunter, his powerful constitution threw it off quite quickly. Mostly. But the bite on his hip damaged muscle, and that will take a while to heal. Between the two of us, however, he should be back in fighting form in a tenday, maybe less.
“It is your friend Suija that concerns me most deeply, however, and there the news is not good. I recognized a darkness within her when you arrived, but its nature was obscure to me. Now I think I have a better idea of what has cast this pall over her soul. I have examined the shards of her teapot, which you collected and brought back, Khatia, and the traces in the wrapping papers found in her pack, in which you say she kept her “special” tea. Even from its residue I recognize this mixture.
“I know it best as Soulsbane, although it has other names, in other times and other places. It is a drug forbidden in every civilized society, and even the barbarian nations generally eschew it. For it is a terrible thing, addicting the user after just a single use, in many cases, and weakening their will, leaving the victim open to suggestion and manipulation in ways only a powerful psychic might otherwise achieve.
“It also degrades the mind over time, eventually driving the victim to insanity and complete mental collapse… but in the meantime, they are the helpless tools of any who know of the addiction and use it to implant suggestions and commands. It is almost impossible for someone to accidentally become an addict, as the herb is extremely rare and its effective preparation suppressed by church and state. Have you any idea how Sujia came to this sad state?”
“But you say that special tea of hers was actually this Solusbane?” Edain asked, looking bewildered. “That seems impossible, it was given to her by our Abbas, Fyang Yu, himself. He has long been her mentor, since rescuing her from some dire situation in her childhood, and this tea was a ritual they shared together for years. Are you saying that he’s an addict too?”
“That seems very unlikely,” Madame Wei replied gravely. “It is far more probable that he was the one who addicted her, and sought to control her. I suspect we will find, if we can clear the poor girl’s mind, that he in fact never drank the “special tea” at all, but only commanded her to believe that he did. But clearing her mind is the problem. As long as the supply of drug is steady, the victim can last years, even decades with little effect to their minds. But if it is withdrawn, they grow paranoid, delusional, and in all too short a time insane.
“You say, Khatia, that you believe she ran out of her tea about a tenday past, yes? Well, her recent actions are in keeping with the timeline I would expect… which means we have little time left if we are to save her mind.”
“How can we save her,” Khatia demanded. “Is there some cure you have? Or if it’s not here is there some way we can procure it?”
“There are two other herbs, both rather rare themselves, that when prepared in combination can wean the addict from the influence of Soulsbane. I know the preparation of this counter-drug, as it happens, but I do not posses the ingredients. I do not know if it is even possible to find them in the time we have…”
“How much time is that?” Edain asked, his face pale. He still couldn’t believe that Fyang Yu could be so evil – or that he himself had been so blind to that evil, if it was true…
“Another tenday, at the most,” Madame Wei replied sadly. “And that only if I keep her asleep with my own special draught for 18 hours out of each day. If I let her wake and sleep normally, then three days, perhaps four. I’m sorry.”
“But I think we should let her wake,” Viroj said suddenly, sitting up straight from the slump he had assumed at the terrible news. “You are very wise, Madame Wei, but there are things about us of which you may not know. I believe there is a way around this dilemma, but it will require Sujia to act, and of her own volition.”
Madame looked dubious, but when she learned there were dragons involved… she smiled knowingly and agreed to the experiment…
• • • • •
Sujia awakened slowly the next morning. She had only dim, fragmentary memories of the last several days, and she did her best to suppress even those. At least she seemed to have slept through a night without the terrible nightmares… for the first time in a tenday or more…
After she’d picked listlessly at her breakfast tray, there was a knock at her door and Madame Wei, Khatia, Viroj, and the Pona Hanni had entered. They gathered around her bedside, and after a few consoling words from her friends… wait, were they still her friends? She seemed to remember… no, she remembered nothing! After the others spoke, and she hardly heard them, the old lady began to talk… and her words locked Sujia’s attention utterly.
And when the old crone was done, Sujia had denied it all! It was impossible that her special tea had been some terrible drug, and that her beloved, respected Fyang Yu had used it to bind and twist her soul. They were all out to get her… even the Pona Hanni… Fyang Yu had been right about him, he was a false avatar, no true incarnation of the god at all… she should have killed him, not wasted her time on all the others… how blind she had been!
She was so lost in her furious thoughts that she hardly noticed when Viroj bent over her and slipped an earring into one of her lobes. As he leaned back, looking intently at her, suddenly her mind became clearer. The terrible thoughts were still there, but they seemed smaller now, and she could look at them critically… yes, they were absurd, why had she ever thought they were reasonable?
“I have given you my Fortress of Will earring,” Viroj said as her face cleared. “It should help you resist the mental control you’ve been under, and the delusions the drug fostered.”
“We’re doing this,” the Pona Hanni said, leaning forward, taking her hands, and looking deep into her eyes, “because we want you to use one of the applications of the Pearl of Healing which the dragons gifted to you – use it on yourself, to cure yourself of this terrible addiction. If you don’t I’m afraid your mind, even buttressed by the earring, will eventually… disintegrate.”
Sujia looked back at the avatar of her beloved god, and saw only love, concern and acceptance. Truly, he must be divine, if he could look at her like that after what she had done… for under the will-boosting power of the earring she remembered it all, and all too clearly. But then she looked at Khatia, and at Viroj, and saw the same loving concern in their eyes! Maybe she wan’t so unworthy after all…
“If you are still willing to aid me after all the harm I have caused, I will steel my mind to endure.”
With a delighted smile, Khatia handed her the enormous pearl, which Sujia realized her friend must have taken from the hidden compartment in her pack earlier. The gem was cool in her hand and the eight sigils glowed faintly. She ran a finger over each one, considering. She would not, of course, use the larger sigil, that of Inarima, the Immortal Goddess of Healing, for that one only might bring back a single soul from the dead. She might be in bad shape, but she wasn’t dead yet. Of the seven smaller sigils, she chose that of the Guardian Dragon of the East, for her long lost home in the east of the land.
Closing her eyes, Sujia pressed her finger firmly on the sigil and said aloud the great dragon’s name, “Azquin’long.” The etched symbol flared blue beneath her finger, and she felt a pleasant warmth spread throughout her body. She was only aware of the terrible effects of the Soulsbane on her body, and especially on her brain, as they vanished, like morning mist in the heat of the sun. She knew, absolutely, that she was now in perfect health, the addiction erased, her mind healed. Her soul, of course was another matter…
“I appreciate the loan of your earring,” she said to Viroj, pulling the bit of jewelry from her ear and handing it back to him with a shy smile. “It helped, for without it I don’t know if I would have had the strength to use the pearl.”
Khatia, with a glad smile, handed her a glass of water and Sujia drank it down in one go… she was ferociously thirsty, she found. As she set the cup down she noticed a bead of water on her finger, and held it up close so she could examine it.
“ In one drop of water are found all the secrets of the oceans,” she said in wonder.
“Well, I’m glad some things haven’t changed,” Khatia said, laughing happily. The others joined in, and after a moment, so did Sujia.