Chapter 200 - Tricks and Tests

The temple doors opened with the heavy scraping of stone upon stone, revealing a dark, unlit space within. Two things immediately became apparent to Yuzu as Li Ru led the way in. First, the doors were very rarely used, evident by the roughness of the rock floor which showed little sign of wear and tear. Second, Li Ru was exceptionally physically strong, able to open the heavy stone doors as easily as any regular door.

Li Ru held the door open as Yuzu walked in, then pushed the door shut.

The light from the outside world dimmed to nothing as Yuzu found herself in complete darkness. The stone floor was rough under Yuzu’s feet, and the air was cold and smelled softly of incense.

In the midst of the darkness, Yuzu observed the black and white threads from Li Ru and herself pass through the space ahead.

The temple is bigger than it looked from the outside. Yuzu noted to herself, touching the strings to try to get a better understanding of the temple. Her brows knit in concern as she realized she couldn’t read the future on the strings within this space. Furthermore, the strings barely extended more than a meter in front of her before disappearing from sight. Aside from the time in the Great Library where the strings had completely disappeared, this was the weakest link she’d ever had with the fate threads.

She felt like the very air was pressing down on her, interfering with her abilities.

Their footsteps echoed across the chamber, which was silent and still as a mausoleum. The empty space, devoid of furniture, filled Yuzu with an uneasy feeling. Didn’t he say that this was his home? Why is it so empty…

“You must forgive my lack of decor.” Li Ru said casually, taking the lead once again as he continued forward into the darkness, “I haven’t had visitors here since…”

He paused, chuckling to himself, “Well, I suppose that’s not important.”

At the other end of the room, a set of curved staircases led the way up to the next floor. Li Ru led the way without breaking his stride, heading up the staircases at a steady pace. 

Yuzu hesitated as she neared the stairs. Although she could tell the general location from the threads, the vision of the future didn’t help her with locating the steps in real time. She inched her feet forward carefully until they bumped into the side of the first step, then gingerly made her way up, taking care not to misstep.

Li Ru made it to the second floor, but rather than continuing on he stopped and waited patiently for her without saying anything.

He’s testing me. Yuzu bit her lip in aggravation. She had concealed her lack of dark vision by relying on the strings, but the curved steps made her abilities clear. She couldn’t do anything but carefully climb to the second floor.

As Yuzu mounted the final step she expected her host to make a comment. However he simply continued on as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

This time as Li Ru took off she couldn’t hear his footsteps at all, or even the sound of his robes. In fact, in the pitch darkness without the use of the threads she wouldn’t even know that he had continued walking.

More tests? He wants to see what my capabilities are, my limitations… Yuzu hid the urge to show a sour look on her face as she realized that there was nothing she could do but continue forward. 

The feeling of isolation and solitude only grew stronger as she continued across the floor alone, with only the scratch of her shoes on the floor to break the silence.

After ten paces her white string suddenly diverged from the black string. Rather than continuing straight across the room to follow the black thread, her white string dropped down through the floor. Yuzu hesitated, stopping in place as she tried to understand why her white string was acting this way.

As soon as she stopped Li Ru called to her with a casual tone, “Is something the matter?”

“…” Yuzu resisted saying the first words that came to mind, instead replying, “Are you testing me?”

“No, of course not.” Li Ru said, before stating, “Wait, could it be that you can’t see in the dark?”

“No.” Yuzu replied curtly.

“How silly of me, I assumed-“ Li Ru chuckled to himself as if deriding himself for the oversight, “What a horrible host you must think I am.”

The room was filled with the bright light of day as a number of curtains spontaneously shuffled around the room and exposed the round windows behind them.

Yuzu’s eyes squinted as her eyes adjusted to the light. An empty circular room with stone flooring and smooth plaster walls revealed itself to her, devoid of furnishings or decorations. At the far side of the room a curved staircase led up to the third floor.

Directly in front of Yuzu was a large circular hole in the floor that was open to the first level. She was standing at the edge of the hole, just a single step away from falling down.

A shiver traveled down Yuzu’s spine as she instinctively took a step away from the hole, her eyes shooting across the room to Li Ru who was standing on the other side of the hole with an subtly amused grin on his face.

“You are either an excellent actor, or you are telling the truth about receiving your abilities just a week ago…” Li Ru chuckled.

“Were you going to let me cripple myself if I fell?” Yuzu frowned, not amused at all.

“What do you mean, Yuzu?” Li Ru stroked his beard, “This is the aetheric plane, not the physical world. Such a fall wouldn’t even hurt you… But surely you should know this, if you really are the White Maiden.”

“Enough games.” Yuzu’s lips twitched as she grew more aggravated by his accusation, “I didn’t come here to be tested or ridiculed.” 

“Yes, I agree. Forgive me for my indulgences.” Li Ru replied, the grin fading from his face, “I simply wanted to see whether you still had the ability to use your abilities within the temple.”

He knew I was reading our conversations? Yuzu realized with a start.

Li Ru’s eyes grew dark as he nodded in response to the subtle shock in her expression. He looked at her from across the hole in the floor with a sagely look. “Yes. The meddling of fate is a subtle but unique sensation… It’s been a long time since I’d felt its influence.”

“It seems, though, that in the center of my Divine Kingdom your powers are  almost fully suppressed.” 

In other words, I’m completely at his mercy. Yuzu clenched her fists at her side as she glared back at him. He’s gloating.

“Perhaps it is because you are so young, but you should know that any sufficiently powerful Exalted would be able to tell when you meddle with their fate.” Li Ru said, “Well, I suppose if you came across an Exalted who had never dealt with fate before, you might be able to trick a low rank immortal for a while… But I would be very careful about any sort of trickery around Arbiters or Angels… Especially for someone at your level.”

“It’s, how should I say it politely…?” He paused, looking down his nose at her, “Incredibly, foolishly rude.”

Seeing that Yuzu had no response, he sighed, shaking his head. He folded his arms behind his back in a relaxed pose as he turned toward the stairs, “Come, I have space for us to sit on the upper floor.”

Yuzu dug her nails into her palms as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She felt indignant, helpless, and a little ashamed. She had thought that she had the situation under control, with her ability to read ahead and gather information from Li Ru. The truth was that he had been testing her from the start. 

She reluctantly followed him up to the third floor.

Once again Li Ru was waiting for her at the top of the stairs. This floor was different from the others, though. A circular rug with intricate designs occupied the center of the room, upon which rested two cushions. A small knee-height cabinet with closed drawers stood against the far wall, topped with a silver incense dish. Thick white curtains had been drawn across three of four of the windows in the room. The curtains for the final window were partially drawn, thus keeping the room dimly lit.

The first of the two cushions was plump and silky, with soft tassles on each corner. The second was the same, however it was completely worn out and frayed. There was hardly any stuffing in the cushion, which lay flat against the floor, barely providing any purpose at all.

“Please, take a seat.” Li Ru said, gesturing toward the plump cushion.

This time he let Yuzu walk ahead of him as he calmly walked over to the cabinet, pulling open one of its small drawers and retrieving a long stick of incense. He lit the incense between his thumb and forefinger and placed it in the dish.

Yuzu sat on her knees on the cushion, watching Li Ru as he carried the incense dish over and sat down on the worn out cushion cover. 

“You’re quite impolite, aren’t you.” Li Ru said, placing the incense in the center of the floor between them, “Haven’t you been taught not to stare at your elders?”

“What can I say, I must be incredibly, foolishly rude.” Yuzu replied spitefully, not averting her eyes.

The edge of Li Ru’s lips curled up subconsciously as he nodded thoughtfully, “Yes, I suppose that is true.”

He watched her for a moment, contemplating something silently to himself, “That is true… Certainly, you were not who I expected at all.”

“And who were you expecting?” Yuzu asked.

“An Exalted of Fate, for sure… But not a mortal.” Li Ru said, “I am very, very curious to hear how you came across your powers, and how you’ve accomplished what you have, seemingly without any help.”

“But, that’s getting ahead of myself.” Li Ru said, shaking his head, “I’ve come to a realization. An epiphany, just now. And I’ve made a decision.”

“Miss White Maiden, I want to help you.”