Chapter 126 - Red Wine

After Yuzu left the dance floor she headed towards the first level refreshments room. This room was not directly connected to the ballroom. She had to pass through a set of double doors and go a short way down a hallway. This hallway was wide enough to be a hall in itself and there were many small clusters of people standing next to an ornamental vase or underneath a painting as they talked amongst each other.

The doors into the refreshment room were open, with a sign out front clearly marking its function. The room was smaller than the other one. It only had one drinks table and one table for snacks. There were a number of people in the room but Char Char wasn’t here.

Yuzu scanned the room twice, both with her regular and spiritual vision, but was unable to find her friend. Unlike every other person at the ball, Char Char’s string was hard for Yuzu to track. It was shorter and more translucent. Because of its short length Yuzu could only read a few minutes into Char Char’s past and future.

It’s probably because she’s now part of the Chaos Domain... Yuzu theorized. Perhaps Chaos pathway Exalted are more resistant to the powers of Fate.

“A glass of water, please.” Yuzu ordered a drink from the attendant at the refreshments table. The dance had been quite vigorous, but despite it Yuzu didn’t feel tired. Normally that amount of exertion would exhaust her, causing a dizzy spell, yet she now felt completely fine. Evidently she now had a much stronger constitution, at least for normal activities.

“Yuzu, good evening.” A familiar voice called to her.

Yuzu turned around to see Sansen Zhao smiling at her warmly, looking distinguished in a black suit with fine silver embroidery. She offered a small smile as she nodded, “Good evening, Uncle.”

“Are you having a good night? I see Char Char has left you on your own.”

Yuzu had been so focused on finding Char Char that she hadn’t even noticed that she’d walked up right beside Uncle Zhao, who was also taking a moment to get a drink.

“Yes, I-” Yuzu was about to make a polite compliment about the event when her eyes suddenly noticed something very wrong about Sansen Zhao’s fate string.

Rather than grow smoky and fade into the future, it cut off abruptly halfway through the night.

Yuzu touched the string, looking into his future.

Images flashed through her mind. Sansen Zhao was standing at the balcony above the dance floor with a glass of red wine in his hand. He was delivering a speech, while the guests were all gathered below. The giant windows facing the garden outside were dark and tall behind him, reflecting the light of the bright chandeliers that hung from the vaulted ceiling.

He raised his glass to make a toast to his guests, but as he raised the glass to his lips the red liquid in it suddenly came to life. Red, glossy tentacles erupted from the glass, encircling Sansen’s head as gasps of shock echoed around the room.

The people around Sansen tried to help him as he flailed frantically to tear away the liquid, but their hands passed through the liquid uselessly.

A short man in an extra tall top hat raised his hand and projected a bubble around Sansen, and for a brief moment he was stopped in time. However after only a few seconds the bubble popped, making the intervention useless!

A maid removed a mirror from a hidden pocket in her dress and pointed it directly at Sansen. A flash of light erupted from the mirror, consuming the form of Sansen Zhao as it sucked him inside. However the red liquid around his head fought back, its tentacles clinging to the edges of the mirror as it refused to be sucked inside. The air around the mirror began to shimmer as the ground began to rumble violently.

The maid poured all of her spirituality into the mirror, sucking in the blood red tentacles with an enormous force.

Crick. Crinkle.

Tiny cracks formed on the edges of the silver mirror a split second before the entire surface shattered into pieces. An enormous explosion of light burst out, ripping off the maid’s arm and flinging her across the balcony floor as Sansen Zhao reappeared with a wretched scream.

The red tentacles wrapped tightly around Sansen’s head, enveloping his mouth in liquid. He flailed, tripping over the railing and falling to the floor below with a sickening crunch.

The liquid-like tentacles lost their shape and splashed onto the floor as pool of blood bloomed around the tycoon’s dead body, his limbs twisted in unnatural positions.

“Is everything alright?”

Yuzu suddenly snapped out of the vision to see a completely healthy Sansen Zhao looking at her with concern.

“Do you need to sit down, Yuzu?”

“Ah, I’m fine. I’m just getting a sip of water- I’ve been looking for Char Char.” Yuzu didn’t even think about what she was saying. She forced a smile as she said, “I’m actually feeling quite alright tonight, I even danced during the last song.”

“Oh really? That’s great.” Sansen smiled, the wrinkles on his eyes showing as he nodded, “I’m so happy to hear you are feeling well. Make sure you don’t push yourself too hard, though. Remember what Dr. Baolan said.”

“I know, Uncle.” Yuzu nodded, “Anyways, I think Char Char is waiting for me upstairs…”

“Go on then, enjoy the party. Let me know if you need anything at all.”

Yuzu curtsied politely and then promptly left the room. Her mind was in a panic as she followed Sansen Zhao’s string down the hall.

She hadn’t seen Sansen Zhao up until this point in the night, and with the hundreds of strings floating about she hadn’t noticed that his life was about to end so abruptly. Moreover, this wasn’t a simple death. He was about to be assassinated by Exalted powers in front of everyone at the ball!

There was no doubt in her mind that she had to stop this from happening. However she needed more information. Who was responsible for the attack? What kind of power did they have? From this room, though Yuzu was able to read Sansen Zhao’s future she could not see the strings surrounding the event. Yuzu needed to head up to the balcony to examine the strings directly. Hopefully she would be able to discover the means to stop the villain from carrying out his attack.

Yuzu had nearly reached the staircase in the hall when she noticed a set of strings start to wind around her, signifying that she was about to have an interaction. Yuzu hesitated, her lips tensing in a small frown as she touched the strings.

The four girls from before were looking for her - Victoria Shum and her groupies evidently couldn’t let go of their minor humiliation earlier in the night. The girls were chatting at the top of the stairs, keeping a close eye out on the guests passing them by.

If Yuzu went up the stairs they would stop her and waste her time with their petty demands. Yuzu came to a stop as she tried to decide what to do, and immediately the four threads stopped curling around Yuzu’s and floated lazily in place. Noticing the change Yuzu stepped forward and saw the strings start to curl around her again, reacting to her actions in real time.

“I really, really don’t have time for this…” Yuzu muttered, turned around to head back into the hall. There were two stairs that led to the upper floor in this wing of the manor, this one and the one in the ballroom hall. However the stairs in the ballroom were only accessible from the dance floor, and so Yuzu would have to wait for the current song to end before going upstairs.

Still, a few minutes wait was worth avoiding those girls completely.

Yuzu turned away from the staircase and headed back towards the ballroom hall. At that moment her spiritual intuition triggered once more. Her eyes narrowed as she stopped in place and looked around.

The golden tapestry began to shift, altering itself in subtle ways. The strings of the girls who were standing at the top of the staircase left the spot before too long. A guest that would have stopped and talked to them briefly instead started talking to someone else. A couple that were previously having a good time bumped into a waiter who dropped a platter of plates and caused a small ruckus.

The single decision not to walk up the stairs and confront the girls caused myriad tiny changes in the unfolding of events in the ball. Yuzu had seen this before on a larger scale; When she had saved all the lives in Tye-An, she had to adjust the strings constantly as the future changed due to her interference.

However this was the first time she took notice of the effect where a simple change in her own actions had on the flow of fate.

Yuzu frowned softly as she looked around at the still-shifting strings. She wasn’t worried specifically about the tapestry of fate being changed. What worried her was that her spiritual intuition had triggered, because it only warned her when something bad was about to happen.

By deciding to not go up the stairs she had changed fate. Furthermore, because she hadn’t been directly manipulating the strings, she didn’t receive a warning when she made the decision not to go up the stairs.

Yuzu began to walk towards the double doors to the ballroom as she followed her intuition. The warnings grew stronger the closer she got to the doors.

When she reached the doors two attendants opened them for her, allowing her to step inside unobstructed. The sweet sound of a romantic slow waltz filled the air as Yuzu stepped back into the hall.

Her eyes raised up to the vaulted ceiling as the golden tapestry of fate shimmered to life in her spiritual vision.

Hovering in the center of the room a thick black string was winding tight around the tapestry, forming a massive knot as a black smoky miasma was beginning to spread.

She gasped as she whispered softly, “Oh, no.”