“Guess who’s back?” Suwan loudly calls out while entering the mansion their group is renting. With creaky motions Twelve slowly turns her head to face the blonde.
“Querying database. Scanning appearance. Employing probability engine to attain correct answer based on available information. Result: Thou art a prostitute one amongst this group has hired.” The artificial human concludes while slamming her fist down on her open palm.
“Har har har, laugh it up Twelve. We’ll see how long you last like that.”
“Adding new information to calculations: speech of identification subject. New result: probability of past result being correct increased by seventeen point four percent.”
“Kinda chilly in here, huh. Let’s add some firewood to the hearth.” Suwan retorts while making grabby motions towards the doll. Twelve abruptly stands up and looks past Suwan.
“This one is not firewood. Accessing long range scan memory database: ‘Me? I’m Song Suwan. Now I shall motionlessly stare into the distance. Please believe I look cool. Note: I am not vain.’”
“Ah! Welcome back, Master!” Gao Mu shouts while leaping down the stairs, An dutifully following in her wake.
“‘Sup shorties?” Suwan asks with a teasing smile. Mu’s cheeks bulge in a pout as she crosses her arms and huffs. The blonde ruffles her hair and dodges past the slapping hands and protests to go hang up her hat on the nearest coat rack.
“Has Grand Master found what she is looking for?”
“Think I got something, yeah.” Suwan replies while withdrawing a weathered booklet from her spatial ring and tossing it up and down, taking a glance at her youngest disciple as she does. An visibly cringes back when laying eyes upon the ominous pamphlet. Hurriedly sending it back in, Suwan confirms her suspicions. Definitely demonic in origin and not just that, An can tell as well. “Sorry for slowing things down, An. We’ll get to Iron Hall City soon.”
“Please do not apologize, Grand Master Song. This one offers a thousand thanks for taking her selfish request into consideration.”
“Sure, feel free to start.” Suwan replies with a wink. The following silence makes her scratch the back of her head as her joke falls flat.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Sister Suwan is as witty as she is wise.”
“Shut up, Twelve.”
“Thou art not my real mother, Sister Suwan.”
“Right,” Suwan nods with a far more serious expression. “I’ll need to ask you some questions in regards to that eventually.”
“This lowly one heavily advises against doing so today.” Twelve replies after a slight delay.
“Fair enough.” Suwan shrugs as she plops down on the couch. “I’ll loosen those lips of yours eventually.” She adds with a cocky grin.
“This lowly Twelve shall eagerly await the day.”
“As much as I’d like to humor you further, there's work to be done. Argh, not a moment to rest these days.”
“Observation: Sister Suwan is currently splayed over the couch.”
“What’s your point?”
“...”
“Master! Now that you’re back can you spar with me?”
“As I said, Mu, I’m busy. I’ll make it up to you next time. For now we should get a move on, nearest city is a three day walk and I wanna make it there by dinner.”
“Huh… But Master, isn’t it already noon?”
“Consider it training.”
Mu’s eyes gleam. She clenches her fists in front of her and nods with a determined expression. Suwan has to stop her from getting a head start by asking her to fetch the others. Motioning for An to approach Suwan cracks one eye open and lowers her voice.
“An. Do you reckon you’d be able to find items with a similar aura to this book if you were within their vicinity?”
Replying with a demure nod tinged with a hint of discomfort and hesitation An bows respectfully and sets off after her master. Suwan lets out a long sigh. “So cold.”
“Ah well, no time to mope.” She adds with a shrug and pulls out the thin booklet once more. Deploying part of her spiritual palace to contain anything that may spill out she carefully opens it and begins to read.
-----
“See, that wasn’t that hard.” Suwan says cheerfully with her hands on her hips. Turning around she finds her disciples missing. Until she looks down that is. Mu is on her back and panting hard, Yating’s bent over by the side of the road retching her stomach out and An is lying face down, having passed out the moment they arrived. Squinting against the setting sun she can see Zhi in the distance, desperately trying to catch up to them.
“Now, now, we’re nearly at the gate. No laying around. We’ve only got a few days before I need to meet up with someone so let’s make the most of it.”
Mu’s upper body jerks upright and she looks to her master with interest. “One of Master’s friends? Can we meet them too?”
“Maybe in due time, wouldn't call them a friend just yet. For now I’m gonna need y’all to stick with Twelve when I go meet them, as much as I’d rather not split us up again.”
“Master…” Mu says with tears in her eyes and a hand on her chest, completely misinterpreting Suwan’s words. With a shrug the blonde decides to just roll with it. Putting the matter aside she claps her hands to have everyone gather round.
“Well, this place is pretty small so it should be fine. Right then, gonna need all of you to do something. Yating, secure us some accommodations. Preferably something subtler than the last. Or one with a pool, either works. Take Twelve with you. Twelve, don’t intervene with anything unless it seems someone’s gonna die. ”
“Ah- ahs you whish, Lady Song.” Yating pants out, hands on her knees as she tries to catch her breath. The cursed doll dolls motionlessly.
“Suwan’s fine.” The blond waves the white haired woman off before continuing. “Zhi. I’m gonna need you to make contact with the less well off ones and see if they know of anything strange happening lately. Think things like kidnappings, weird movements, people being where they usually aren’t. Stuff like that.”
“Got it, Master.”
“Good. An, you’re with me. Let’s see if we can find anything similar to this booklet here.”
An takes a glance at Mu before replying with a hesitant nod, clearly unhappy about having to leave the girl’s side.
“Lastly, Mu-”
“Yes Master!”
“...It may be a bit of a challenge but I can’t really ask anyone else to do it. It’s the most important role but you’re free to refuse if you don’t think you’re up for it.”
“I’ll get it done, Master!”
“Excellent! As expected of my first disciple.” Suwan says with a nod causing Mu’s chest to puff in pride. She hands her over several sheets of paper, a city map and an ink vial and with a quill. “I’m going to need you to map out all the alleys in this city. The small ones that aren’t on the map, the seedy ones that don’t seem to lead anywhere, the ones that are just holes in the walls of abandoned buildings. All of them. And whatever you do dontgetkidnapptedtobeusedasasacrificebyacult okay bye now.” She rattles off and grabs An before promptly vanishing.
------
“You, uh, can talk to me about anything you want to learn, you know? I can help you.” Suwan apologetically says to break the awkward atmosphere.
“Yes, Grand Master.” An replies in a curt tone. “Many thanks for your generosity.”
The blonde scratches the back of her head and lets out a long sigh, completely out of ideas on how to talk to the taciturn girl. Taking a deep breath she reminds herself nothing happens in but a single day and that trust takes time…
“Might this lowly An ask why Master Gao was given such a task.”
…and acting trustworthy, now that she thinks of it. Clearing her throat she strokes her chin and looks into the distance while squinting, her other arm folded behind her back. Letting out a contemplative hum as she considers how much to say the grandmaster’s brow furrows.
“...Gao Mu is one that thrives when faced with adversity. Put on a difficult training course she will repeat the same movements over and over again, her improvement so slow as to be miniscule. Yet when she is knocked down she rises up twice as high. Doing things halfway is not a concept she comprehends. Sink or swim. That is the only way for her to improve.”
An drops to the floor and kowtows, smashing her head against the ground three times. “This lowly one offers a thousand apologies and humbly begs for forgiveness. This lowly one doubted Grand Master’s methods despite her own ignorance and could not see despite having eyes.”
“Relax, An.” Suwan replies with an eye roll and kneels down. Lifting her back up by the shoulders she brushes the dirt off her forehead. “Stop apologizing ‘a thousand times’ for everything, one day I really will make you do it.” She adds with a wink.
“Besides, that’s hardly the only reason I sent her alone.” She continues with a chuckle. “We’ve got us a cult to catch. Twelve’s spiritual sense spreads far enough to keep an eye on her, Mu doesn’t know it but she’s in no real danger, ya know? Best of both worlds. With some luck this’ll lead us right to their base.”
Ruffling the girl’s hair she smiles kindly and pulls the booklet out of her spatial ring.
“Of course it’s never a good idea to rely on only one possibility, especially one so circumstantial. Let’s get to work as well, shall we.”
An gulps. Gazing upon the tattered cover the comforting hand on her shoulder seems like a grip holding her in place, telling her she can’t flee. The kindly smile seems to shift into a cruel, mocking motion. She shivers and quickly tears her eyes away from the horrifying work. Setting her jaw she gathers her courage and glares right back at the cover, fists clenching as she tries her best to ignore the horrifying visions that accompany it.
“Understood, Grand Master.”
EntonaVZ· Aug 5, 2022
