Chapter 56 - Leap of Faith

Edwin headed for the exterior staircase that led up to the rooms on the second floor of the guest house. As he passed by the back door on the first floor he saw the silhouette of Finn standing in the hallway. The ash-blond officer had a concerned, thoughtful expression on his face as he looked down the hall towards the front entrance.

“Officer Finn?” Edwin asked, “Are you alright?”

Finn frowned as he looked over to Edwin, casting a final glance down the front hall before he turned and walked over. “I saw someone just now.”

“Do you know them?” Edwin took a peek down the hall but didn’t see anyone there.

“No, but she reminded me of someone I’ve heard about.” Finn said. In fact, he had only seen the woman from behind, but she had a dark braided hair that was reminiscent of thick plant vines. He looked back at Edwin and in a moment deduced that something was bothering the monk. “What’s wrong?”

“My master came to me in spirit form and told me that I have to leave right away.” Edwin said, lowering his voice. “He said something is happening tonight, we might not be able to leave tomorrow.”

“Something?” Finn muttered, “Did he say what?”

He wanted to ask what Edwin meant by ‘spirit form’, but it would destroy his image as a knowledgeable superior. Thus, he could only pretend like the method of contact was unsurprising.

Edwin shook his head, “He didn’t say. He just told me to wait for the sun to set and then to leave in secret by the west gate.”
 
“Alright.” Finn said, taking another glance at the entrance hall. He briefly considered going out to tail the mysterious woman, but decided against it.  “Let’s stay in our rooms and then leave once it gets dark.”

“Okay.” Edwin said, bowing to Finn before making his way up the stairs to his room.

Finn hung around in the hallway for a moment longer, watching the entrance with a quiet expression. Then he turned and walked up the staircase as well. He passed by Edwin’s door and continued past the door to his room, casually walking to the next door over. He tried to open it, but found that it had been locked. Unperturbed, he pulled out a small set of leather-wrapped tools from his inner jacket pocket. This was his lock picking set that he had brought with him. It was a personal hobby of his that came in handy every so often, one that he had picked up due to his aspirations to be a detective.

The lock clicked quietly as the tumblers were deftly popped into place. It was a simple lock that only took him a few seconds to open. He opened the door and walked in without further ceremony.

Inside was a modest room without many furnishings, much like his own. There were two beds that had recently been used. Several suitcases were in various states of packed and unpacked, with clothes and other items strewn about on the table and the beds. 

He did a quick survey of the room, coming to several conclusions.

There were two guests that stayed in the room, both female. They did not have many clothes but most of them had been folded in a dresser that looked out of place in the bare room. He surmised that the occupants had specially brought it in for their own use. He deduced that these guests traveled light, not often staying in one place, but that they had been staying at the monastery for several months. 

There were several sets of clothes, of various styles, but several pieces in particular caught his attention. They were made of reptilian leather and rough fabric made from dyed green and brown thread. The style of clothing, which was revealing and flowing, was common of people from the Fuha Wetlands. 

His eyes narrowed as he reevaluated his original hypothesis for the case. Initially, his theory was that the Cloud Peak Monastery was aware of the unnatural events occurring in the mountains and was trying to cover it up. However, after spotting the strange hairstyle of the other guest just now, his suspicions had deepened. The style of her hair matched reports of the Exalted cultist known as Medusa. His intuition bothered him enough that he decided to take action and abandon his role as a respectable guest. 

 As he walked quietly around the room careful to not disturbing anything, his eyes landed on a small item on the table tucked partially underneath a folded set of robes. After a moment’s deliberation he reached out to this single item and picked it up. It was a leather wristband with several thin strips of leather hanging off if it with wooden beads at their ends. In the center of the wristband an emblem of a ring of thorns had been branded into it.

The presence of this item confirmed his suspicions. The emblem was the symbol of the cult group known as the Marked Devout, who were suspected to be one of the chief groups responsible for the turmoil in the province. This meant that the Cloud Peak Monastery was not only aware of the unnatural events in the region, but was actively supporting them! 

Finn pocketed the wristband and scanned the room quickly once more before leaving. It had been less than three minutes since he had entered the room, but he didn’t dare to stay longer in case that person came back. Though he had not discovered more than evidence of the Monastery’s cooperation with the Marked Devout, it would have to do. With Edwin’s Master’s warning he didn’t believe that it would be safe to stay the night. 

As Finn slipped out the door he closed it quietly, confirming that the door was locked as he went back to his assigned room.

A little less than an hour later as he leaned his ear against his door, Finn heard Edwin’s door open quietly. Checking that the leather band was still in his pocket Finn stepped outside. A pitch black night greeted him. There were no sources of light immediately around the guest house, and there were very few lanterns lit around the monastery, mostly only around the walls near the gates. 

As for his direct surroundings, Finn was completely blind. The moonless night sky despite being filled with stars, did not provide any light at all. He couldn’t even see his own hand as he directly waved it in front of his own face. Finn shut his door quietly as he found the handrail just opposite it. He slowly made his way in the direction of Edwin’s room as he reached out into the darkness to find the monk.

His hands touched fabric as he whispered, “I can’t see a thing.”

From a few feet away, Edwin whispered, “Me neither. How are we supposed to get to the gate?”

Wait, a few feet away? Finn frowned as his hands reached up to touch the figure beside him. His heart beat rapidly as his hands revealed a figure that was shorter than he remembered Edwin being. With a concerned expression he reached up to the head of the figure, feeling around the chin, nose and eyebrows of the unseen, unmoving person until he reached the scalp. He felt short bristles of hair that were much too long to be the shaved head of his companion.

“E-Edwin?” He called into the darkness.

The figure shook his head as he said, “No, it’s me, Banmi.”

“Banmi! What are you doing out here!” Edwin whispered in surprise. Finn felt Edwin bump into the figure whose head was cupped in his hand.

“Um.. I...” Banmi shrunk down a bit, “I overheard you talking to the police man... I came to help you escape.”

Finn pulled at the ear of the monk, “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“S-sorry!” The unseen Banmi cringed. 

“You’re helping us?” Edwin asked.

“Yes... But we need to get out of the grounds quickly.” Banmi said, “I have the place memorized, so just hold onto my robe and follow me quietly.”

Finn heard the shuffling of Edwin he came around to Finn’s side, grabbing onto Finn’s uniform.

“Don’t worry, you can trust me.” Banmi said quietly from ahead.

“I’m worried, but there’s nothing we can do at this point, trust or not.” Finn muttered. 

They took off through the darkness, their footsteps sounding a bit too loud on the wood to Finn as they walked down the stairs and into the garden. The soft crunch of grass and the taps of their feet on paving stones seemed to call out their position in the darkness no matter how quietly they tried to walk. Finn’s leather boots were the noisiest, while Banmi barely made a sound.

Before long they reached the side of a cool stone wall and followed it for a while. Its surface was relatively smooth, except for indentations that had been carved into the wall at regular intervals. They were relatively shallow in nature and polished smooth.

Their entire journey was made completely in darkness, staying well away from any of the lights from buildings. Occasionally Banmi would lead them away from the wall, skirting around a small building, trees or other feature. He moved slowly, but confidently, as if he’d made this blind trip many times before. After ten minutes, Banmi stopped in place.

“We’re at the stairs that go up on the wall.” He whispered. “This is the trickiest part. The gatehouse is not far from here and if we make too much noise, they will come out with lanterns and find us.”

“Once we get to the top of the stairs, we need to cross to the far side of the wall and go a bit closer to the gate house. Once we reach the right place we need to jump down. The ground below is grass, so just make sure you roll when you hit the ground and then quietly keep going away from the wall until you get into the bushes.”

“That doesn’t sound too hard.” Finn muttered sarcastically. Though he couldn’t see the wall in the darkness, he knew from his previous observations that it was at least three metres high. He wasn’t thrilled at the idea of blindly jumping into the darkness from the top of it.

“Make sure you jump some distance away so you don’t fall into the bushes next to the wall and make a lot of noise. Also, don’t jump too far to the right of that spot because you’ll fall off the cliff.” Banmi said, “Oh, and don’t jump too far to the left because there are some piles of spikes that we left there from the renovations.”

“Why are there spikes??” Finn hissed.

“Okay, let’s go.” Banmi didn’t respond to Finn’s complaint as he started leading the way up the stairs.

Finn reluctantly followed the monk up the stairs. The solid stone construction of the wall kept their footsteps quiet as they proceeded at an even slower pace than before. They made it to the other side on the top of the wall where the railing was just over waist height. Finn’s heart was out of control in his chest. He touched his chest with his hand as if to calm it, which is when he realized that his shirt was damp with nervous sweat.

In the darkness in front of them, the faint outline of a window glowed from the orange flames within the gatehouse. Below it the flames of lanterns flickered as they illuminated the walk leading up to the path. The light was mostly obscured by the gatehouse structure and did not reach far. 

At a certain point Banmi stopped and Finn felt him climb up onto the wall. Finn let go of the monk and shortly after heard a slight tumble from below as the monk hit the ground. He hadn’t even heard Banmi jump off!

Finn’s whole body tensed up as he pulled on Edwin’s arm to shuffle the other monk forward. You first. He said in his mind. Edwin didn’t object and climbed up onto the wall. Moments later, he heard the faintest of tumbles on the ground.

Finn reached out at the railing and confirmed that no one was there. He swallowed hard, straining his eyes to peer out into the darkness.

This is insane! This is impossible! 

His entire body ached as his survival instinct fired off warning alarms at full volume in his mind. His mind recoiled as he put his feet up on the ledge. He couldn’t stop trembling as he peered out into the featureless blackness.

He couldn’t remember where exactly Banmi or Edwin had jumped off of. Was it more to the left? Or maybe to the right? He reached out with his hand into the darkness, but of course there was nothing there.

How could he even judge how far he had fallen, and when to start the roll? Images of his legs shattering as soon as he hit the ground played across his mind. Images of him unknowingly spinning in midair and landing on his neck. Images of him careening off the edge of the cliff, and just never hitting the ground until his instant death on the rocks below. Images of him being impaled on spikes and bleeding out in agonizing pain!

He half considered walking over to the gatehouse and just asking to be let out. But of course that wouldn’t happen.

Finn cursed to himself under his breath as he forced all his hesitations out of his mind for a split second.

Without further delay he jumped into the void.