Chapter 235 - Bunch of Dots

“Let me share one more piece of information.” Finn said, “The White Maiden’s shrine has been completely cut off from the public. It is guarded by Lord Noga’s forces, who are not allowed to pray or attempt to communicate with the White Maiden. Their job is to observe and report any unnatural phenomena around the shrine. Even I can’t obtain clearance to visit the shrine.”

Finn noticed the mild touch of aggravation on Char Char’s lips and nodded, “It was noted that the White Maiden’s only request of her worshipers was for prayers. It is understood that Gods rely on prayers and offerings to maintain their powers, so cutting off prayers is an effective way of neutralizing a God’s influence.”

“But I have heard that Lord Noga’s high priests have investigated the shrine, and tried to contact the White Maiden.” Finn said.

Char Char’s brows knit together at the news, not sure if it was a good or bad thing.

 “Do you know what they discovered?” Finn asked, then smirked softly, “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“There was no response. No connection. The White Maiden is either not listening at Her shrine anymore, or she is not interested in communicating with us.” Finn shook his head, “What a mystery, isn’t it? For all Her efforts to assist the people of Noga, why would she not respond to the ruler of their people.”

At this statement Finn looked poignantly at Char Char, letting silence fall over the room as they contemplated the meaning of the White Maiden’s actions. As Char Char digested the information, she knew that Finn was waiting for to answer an unspoken question.

Did the White Maiden contact her recently?

“You know I was forbidden from praying to Her, as part of my house arrest.” Char Char said defensively, “And I really didn’t.”

Finn didn’t avert his gaze, not willing to let her avoid the question. The edge of Char Char’s lip twitched in annoyance.

“I haven’t heard from the White Maiden since that day.” Char Char answered.

What did it mean? Was she really gone? Had the White Maiden only come to Noga to stop the calamity, and now that the danger was gone she had no reason to stay, like a divine guardian angel for the city?

After all, Char Char had prayed at the shrine since she was a child, but had never been contacted by the White Maiden until her hour of need.

Char Char could almost accept this explanation, if not for the fact that her best friend was still missing.

If Char Char was a blessed of the White Maiden then Yuzu was certainly one as well, and the White Maiden had promised that Yuzu would return safely.

Then, in Char Char’s mind there was only one other explanation. The White Maiden had been weakened by her efforts to save the people of Noga from the God of Life, and she needed help.

“The White Maiden helped us so much.” Char Char’s heart fluttered as she felt a need to express her feelings, “I don’t know about all this artifact business, but the fact is without her help, so many people would have died. And yet after all she’s done for us, you stopped allowing us to pray to her.”

“Lord Noga needs prayers as well. Having the people support a second deity would be detrimental to his recovery.” Finn said, “There are rules in place for a reason.”

“Why does he need prayers? He’s not a God.” Char Char frowned, though she was not entirely sure of her statement. She had picked up from her training with the Red Lion Security Company that Lord Noga was an immortal exalted of the SpaceTime Domain, but nothing had been said about godliness.

“He isn’t- As far as I know.“ Finn said, “But he harnesses the prayer energy in the same way that Gods do.”

“You’re making that up.” Char Char said, reading the minuscule hesitation in his voice.

“Look, it’s obvious enough from his actions.” Finn said, annoyed, “You don’t have to be a scholar to read between the lines.”

“You want to read between the lines?” Char Char said, “He encouraged us to pray to the White Maiden when he needed her help. And as soon as she finished helping him he cut her off.”

“Look- I don’t make the rules.” Finn stood up with a start, his lips curled in a snarl. “I said before I don’t agree with closing the White Maiden off, but there’s only so much I can do!”

“Maybe you need to start breaking some rules then.” Char Char snuffed, looking away and crossing her arms.

“Just like you did by telling the shrine worshipers about Exalted, right?” Finn took a step toward her, “Do you know how much trouble you caused with that stunt?”

“Oh, you’re still hung up on that?” Char Char rolled her eyes.

“There’s a reason why Lord Noga has hidden the world of Exalted from people. It keeps the peace.” Finn said, “Did you know, across the sea there’s a whole continent of normal, innocent people who live in fear of Exalted. They can’t travel freely, their cities are all walled to keep out the monsters.

“Lord Noga put an end to that. He cleansed the land of monsters, he brought the Exalted population in Kumin under control, and then he restricted information about the Exalted to prevent people from being tempted to seek out those powers.”

Char Char tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with a bored expression on her face, “Are you done?”

“You really have nothing to say about this?”

“I can tell from your tone that you’re just repeating a lecture that some higher up gave to you. You probably got reamed out real hard for what I did, huh.” Char Char smirked, “That’s why you can’t let this go.”

“That’s not it at all.” Finn groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. How did it come to this? He hadn’t come here to argue with Char Char, yet he got swept up into her flow all the same. He felt his plans crumbling around him as he wondered how he was going to be able to get Char Char on his side.

As his brain raced to find a way to salvage the conversation he realized that a hush had fallen over the room. He looked up to see Char Char looking out the window with a far off look in her face.

The late morning sun shone through the leaves outside the window, casting a dappled light on Char Char’s face. Contrary to Finn’s own tension, Char Char was calm, with an elegance to her posture that spoke to a deeper maturity that was typically uncharacteristic of the teenage girl. A slight frown creased her soft lips, a frustrated dissatisfaction shimmered in her eyes.

“We need to help Her.” Char Char said at length.

“That’s why I’m here.” Finn replied.

“I thought there was ‘only so much you can do’?”

“It’s true. I have to report my actions to my superiors. I have to follow rules.” Finn said. He reached into the inner pocket of his coat, pulling out a small scroll, which he presented to Char Char.

“What’s this?” Char Char asked, turning toward Finn as she accepted the document. She unwound the string that kept the papers bound and unfurled it, revealing a rather plain map of Nian Xing.

The province of Kumin took up most of the right side of the map. To the north, was the Altic sea with a number of port cities. The Yonge mountain range formed the eastern border, beyond which was the LingNan kingdom. Running along the Yonge mountain range was an extensive dark mass which was the Chenmai Forest. Noga City was shown in vague detail, sitting on the edge of the forest in the northern part of the province. Various notable towns were connected by the major roads between them.

To the west of Kumin was the province of Huan. Huan was about half the size of Kumin, with the Altic Sea to the north and Yang Long Sea to the west. The border of the two provinces was formed from by the famous Yellow Mountain Range which dominated most of the southern half of the province. In the center of the province, nestled within the mountains was Huan’s capital city, Machi.

At the bottom of the map a fairly straight dotted line indicated the border between Nian Xing and the Fuha Wastelands.

It was a familiar map to Char Char, one that she had learned as part of her regular education. Its simple construction reminded her of cheap maps that were sold at stalls at the Tye Ann Market.

“It looks normal to me.” Char Char said.

“Really.” Finn replied. There was a smugness to his voice that irritated Char Char, as if she had just failed a test.

Then this map isn’t normal? Char Char’s eyelids flickered in excitement as she had an epiphany. A spiritual map? 

She summoned her spiritual energy, channeling it through her fingers into the map, expecting the contents to shift or for the ink to start glowing.

Curiousity turned to disappointment as she frowned at the otherwise unchanged paper. Her disappointment turned into annoyance as she saw the smugness in Finn’s eyes.

“Hmm? Do you need a hint?” Finn stepped over.

“A hint for what?” Char Char grumbled.

“Show me the map.” Finn said. 

Char Char turned the scroll over so Finn could see. He leaned over, nodding, “You did it right. It’s working. You don’t see the difference?” 

Char Char bit her tongue so as not to say some choice words to Finn. He was clearly enjoying that she was not quite discerning what he was showing her.

Having had his fun, he finally grew serious.

“These marks have appeared.” Finn pointed at a small dot that had appeared just to the northeast of Noga City within the Chenmai forest, and another in the center of the province. “There’s seven in total. If you release your spirituality they’ll disappear.”

Char Char frowned as she confirmed Finn’s statement. There were three dots in Huan, three in Kumin, and one at a city where the borders of the two provinces and Fuha met on the bottom left of the map. When she stopped injecting spirituality into the scroll, the dots disappeared.

“Just a bunch of dots?” Char Char muttered.

“I’ve marked them with a special ink that reacts to spiritual energy. It’s very subtle and in this quantity it’s basically undetectable. No one would suspect that there is anything unusual about the map.” Finn said, “The fact that the dots are difficult to notice even when activated is intentional. An Exalted looking for hidden information could very easily miss it if they weren’t specifically told what to look for.”

“Feel free to memorize it and dispose it if you like. Consider this information a token of trust and cooperation between us.” Finn said, “Also if anyone asks, I did not give this to you. I could get in some real trouble if those ‘bunch of dots’ were linked back to me. ”

Char Char raised an eyebrow as she saw that Finn was completely serious, “What do the dots mean?”

The edge of Finn’s lip curled up as he leaned in close and whispered into Char Char’s ear.

“These are historical locations of the White Maiden’s shrines.”