Disasters. Floods and fires, drought and the tremors of the earth. The Empire has brought the ire of the Gods and dragons alike down onto us. So the Gods remind us of the Red Emperor’s hubris with catastrophe.
Do we kowtow to the Prince who only wants more of the same simply because we fear for our lives?
No! I remind you that we tried to have him see reason but he has shown us his true nature. The Massacre of Kamisukawa is just the beginning!
How many more lives must be lost before we put our differences aside and kill the tiger's cub before it grows?
How many more catastrophes must we suffer before we put a stop to the cause?
— Copy of the Frozen Saint's proclamation to each of the Free Cities, preserved at the Fallen Star Pavilion
With the spirit phoenix as his only companion and the divine rain falling around them, Molam made his way out of the Forest. It wasn't until he breached the treeline that he felt the sinking feeling in his navel go away, but he did not look back.
He had little desire to know the source of his sense of unease. The Fallen Star Pavilion had recorded the last awakening of the Slumbering Forest many decades ago and Molam did not want to be the one to stir it.
The road back to YiZhi Mountain stretched out into the murky torrent of rain with only the mountain's shadow serving as a guide, and Molam wished he could physically reinforce his body the way those soldiers could with aura. Part of him wondered if it was hypocritical of him to say he had long accepted his condition when he still found himself with these futile desires. He was auraless, and wishing otherwise wouldn't change anything.
But it wasn't just physical strength that he desired as he carried the phoenix's egg with him on the road. The spirit rode on his shoulder, a warm presence that kept the divine rain at bay. It had been uncharacteristically silent as it took in all of the surroundings on their journey, refamiliarizing itself with the world after it had been locked away for many years. In some ways, Molam could sympathize with the spirit's present condition, remembering his feelings when returning to the human realm after more than a decade in the Castle in the Sky. But if what the spirit had said was true, then it had been locked away for more than half a millenia. If the world had changed much for Molam, how had it changed for the spirit?
"Won't you attract attention, riding on my shoulder like that? Back to the egg with you. I don't think you should be out even after we reach ZhiXia."
How uneducated. This rain provides all the cover I need.
"It was just a concern." Molam continued his walk in the torrential Storm. The phoenix's sphere of heat held strong against the downpour, and it was only under the cover of its protection that Molam could continue his journey with confidence. "With such an… announced presence, I don't want us to attract any undue attention before I make it back to Sanctuary."
And the warning is appreciated. Do not worry — I am paying attention to our surroundings.
They came across a flooded piece of farmland. Or at least, Molam suspected it was farmland — the ground had been tilled into rows. Molam surveyed the surroundings as much as he could through the torrential sheets of divine rain, barely registering the phoenix's ramblings as he looked to navigate around the flood.
Though it stayed on his shoulder to keep him dry, it perpetually looked about their surroundings as it swayed alongside his gait. Molam guessed that it was Seeing and wistfully wondered what sort of experience that was like. RainBringer's daughter had once described it as akin to seeing the world in more colors. But then, she had also said that it gave her a headache.
I see the leylines are faring better than I thought despite DuskWing's demise.
"During my time in the Castle, RainBringer spent most of her time and effort maintaining the leylines."
Ever the responsible one. I wonder if the others of my kind have been helping her.
The farmland had given way to an abandoned village, one much like the one he had once grown up in. The divine rain coalesced into rivulets that followed the path of the beaten road, and Molam was forced to climb the rooftops and walls of the village as he moved about to avoid walking through the floating debris.
This village. It seems familiar, based on your memories.
The spirit's observation made him stop so he could survey his surroundings. Despite the crumbled buildings, the brickwork was not yet dilapidated and the spirits of nature had yet to reclaim the area. The stonework was a dark gray in the rain, and the meager midday light filtering through the clouds that followed in RainBringer's wake did little to illuminate his surroundings.
His breath caught as recognition crept into his mind and his eyes darted around wildly. He had memories of this place. It was one of the first villages he had seen after descending back down from the Castle.
Molam dashed through the rain in the direction of a building he knew should be in the area. The phoenix's dome of protection shielded him from the rain but did nothing about the muddy ground and he almost slipped on some smooth pavement as he rounded a corner, but Molam found his bearings and continued towards where the Shrine should be. The village's close proximity to Sanctuary meant that they had been charged by the Oracle with the care of some orphans. The meager Shrine had been managed by a particularly patient Priestess named Komura who had been willing to instruct Molam in the manners of the world.
It wasn't until he saw the Shrine's dark gray silhouette through the rain that he slowed down. The village had been kind enough to let him stay after the Oracle dropped him in their midsts with hardly any announcement, but it was really the Shrine he cared about. He was grateful that the Shrine was still there.
But the people were not. He glanced around at his surroundings. All of the village's buildings were still here, even if they were not occupied. Nothing was destroyed, and though the drought that lasted throughout Summer's Warmth must have brought a poor harvest, Sanctuary would have provided for their needs if necessary. There was no sign this village had suffered catastrophe.
What happened to this village?
What indeed? Molam continued surveying his surroundings with a sense of unease, questions running through his head. Where had the people gone? What could have caused them to abandon their home?
The answer occurred to him then as he voiced his answer to the spirit's question. "Based on the location and the state of the buildings — I suspect they were fleeing war."
Feasible. The phoenix dipped its head as it looked about with him, the divine rain obscuring only parts of the village. But disconcerting.
"Yes." Molam took one last look at the Shrine and felt as though he could hear the delighted shouts of the orphans through the rain. But the village echoed nothing aside from the ghosts of his memories, its presence muted through the divine rain that fell all around him as he resumed his journey. "A village this close to Sanctuary … only the Red Army could make them abandon it."
You seem indifferent. Did you not spend time here? The Priestess. The fat one that loved sweets. The short one that wanted to learn alchemy. The —
"I don't appreciate you using my memories to guilt me." Molam clambered up a wall and over a roof, taking great care to not slip on its surface. Part of him wished he could confirm his guess by tracking where the Red Army went, but the Storm worked against him as much as it worked in his favor, no doubt already covering any signs of the Red Army's passing. He caught his own thoughts and tried to shake them off. "I'm going home. None of this affects me. Not anymore."
Do you really think returning to the Castle will insulate you from what happens in the human realm? The Red Emperor has been dead for two centuries, yet the Prince has not given up on opening the Stairs.
"The Empire of the Sun hasn't succeeded. Not now, not ever." Molam replied in a flat tone. "The Red Emperor suffered his Eight Defeats and the Bloody Prince has never made a serious attempt at attacking Sanctuary. The Free Cities wouldn't tolerate an attack on the Oracle either."
The Prince is nothing if not determined.
He barely recognized the perimeter of the ruined village as he came upon the edge, but the bank of the River Jiang came to view on his right side. Here, he turned around to look at the abandoned village and for a brief moment, the ghostly silhouettes he could see through the veil of warmth reminded him of a village that he had once belonged to.
A village that had made a decision.
"So many suffer because one man wants to become a God."
The moment passed. Molam turned his back to the abandoned village, and continued on his way.
***
RainBringer's Storm threatened to flood the Central Valley for two days. Perhaps the scholars at the Fallen Star Pavilion would consider it a catastrophe, but Molam could only feel a sense of gratitude as it meant that the soldiers of the Red Army could not pursue him. The Storm petered away when he walked within the vicinity of YiZhi Mountain and he relaxed, knowing that the Red Army would not dare enter the territory around the Mountain.
"I'm about to enter the city. Do you mind returning to the egg?"
You would deny these humans the grace of my presence?
"Yes, very regal indeed. I'm trying to get home without any other problems and I can't exactly walk into a human establishment with a phoenix on my shoulder."
The phoenix gave him a reproachful look, then raised its wings and shrugged, shifting in colors and size upon his shoulder until it became a small hawk.
This will allow you to masquerade as an anima.
"The auramasters with animal bonds?" Molam frowned. "Do any of them befriend birds?"
The hawk shifted around to stare at him with piercing red eyes. A similar form allows me to have a better sense of my bearings.
"I don't think it helps me avoid attention at all. An anima is rare enough without you being a hawk. Can't you be something more...normal? Might I suggest a pigeon?"
A wing beat twice against his ear, but it was more sound than touch. This form is already insulting enough.
Molam winced on instinct, a hand reaching up instinctively but he stopped short of grabbing at the spirit. "Don't draw attention to yourself then. What anima gets hit by their own bond?"
One that has no control over their bond. The spirit's voice seemed almost smug in his head. Or one with less aura.
Swallowing a pithy response, Molam chose to not answer instead. The city's borders loomed ahead of him and it was time to enter. He had accomplished the task RainBringer had set out for him, and all that was left was for him to report his success to the Oracle. Once that was done, he could go home and RainBringer would be more amenable to granting his request.
***
According to the history scrolls at the Fallen Star Pavilion, YiZhi Mountain had another name in the Old Tongue, roughly translating to The Solitary Finger, though some scholars argued that a more appropriate translation would be The Finger Holding Up the Sky. Molam had no strong feelings about either translation, though he considered both appropriate since the mountain looked exactly like a clenched fist with an extended index finger pointing to the sky, with the fingertip eternally obscured by the clouds that surrounded the Castle in the Sky. Trees did not dot the mountain and its surface was a purplish-gray, a color he hadn’t seen anywhere else in his travels.
The ancients had carved Sanctuary into the base of YiZhi Mountain, where the palm of the enclosed fist would be. ZhiXia City, also known as the City Without Borders, had sprung up outside of it over the ages. Perhaps it was initially named so because it was the only city without walls, or maybe it was named so because it was the only neutral city that accepted all without question.
Looking at it from afar, Molam saw the view of a sprawling group of buildings neatly arranged down several streets that led straight to Sanctuary, with smaller buildings that fanned out in tighter alleyways. The entire structure of the city looked like an opened folding fan, with Sanctuary itself acting as the head and the buildings masquerading as the leaves.
The main streets themselves were crowded with those on a pilgrimage to Sanctuary, walking up and down the street in orderly lines as Molam slipped into the crowd. Though the main entrance of Sanctuary was available for those that wished to burn incense and kneel in prayer to the Gods, all that made the pilgrimage hoped to be granted an audience with the Oracle. Despite the Oracle's infamous reclusiveness, many made the journey whenever they could, hoping to receive divine guidance or even just to be accepted as one worthy enough to serve Sanctuary.
The residents of ZhiXia City itself plied their trade and followed the rules set by Sanctuary, including paying their own tribute to Sanctuary in the form of a protection fee. The protection fee levied by Sanctuary may be greater than the taxes of any Free City or the Empire, but for some people, what price was too high for peace?
Fascinating, his companion's fiery eyes did not move so much as the head rotated, turning left and right as its head bobbed up and down to counteract the shifting of Molam's gait. It stared at the decorations outside each of the shops and businesses of the city. Auric bubbles maintaining a form with residual aura. Quite the delicate work, to ensure they shimmer like that in the light.
"If you say so," Molam squeezed himself to the side of the road so that the bird on his shoulder was separated from the crowd. "They say the Whale of ZhiXia creates them himself. It would make sense for a Titled One to have that level of control."
"Hey! Hey you, the anima with the handsome hawk bond! Would you like to buy some duck skewers? Maybe your hawk would like it?"
Molam wanted to ignore it as he had with the other stall owners, but the spirit shifted on his shoulder. Handsome? A pity most humans cannot See. He should see me in my true glory.
Molam turned his attention to the street stall, its sizzling scents permeating the air nearby. The young man tending to the open grill waved cheerfully, his suntanned face breaking into a brilliant smile while he gestured at some skewers to the side. For the past two days, he had finished the food that had been ruined by the divine rain and now his stomach grumbled when he sniffed the mouthwatering scent of melted duck fat, melded together with the tingling spices. The stall's selection of spices blended with the gamey scent of duck and seduced him by scent alone.
A quick exchange of coins later, Molam found himself waiting for the skewers to be grilled.
"Are you here on a pilgrimage too?" The stall owner struck up conversation as he slowly turned the wooden sticks atop the flames. Molam wondered if the owner's rather large nose was a boon or hindrance for work that involved standing in front of an open flame.
"You can say that," Molam tore his eyes away from the shimmering bubble near the stall. The peculiar shape of the bubble looked like a fish, and he had heard it was the symbol of the elusive Titled One that protected Sanctuary. "I am here to see the Oracle."
The stall owner smiled encouragingly, "Many are, but few get to see her. I've lived here all my life and even I have never met anyone permitted to enter the Inner Sanctum. I hope no one filled your head with thoughts of coming to ZhiXia on a pilgrimage and being granted an audience with the Oracle!"
"I'll keep that in mind," Molam accepted the skewers. Thanking the owner, Molam walked to the side of the street and huddled up against the cold wall, ensuring that no one could bump into him whilst he had the skewer in his mouth before he eagerly bit into the still-piping-hot meat. Almost immediately, he let go and flicked his tongue between his lips as he winced at the hot morsel, huffing and puffing through the cold air.
An eager tongue only invites trouble.
"Perhaps some fowl should learn that advice too." Molam huffed at the hawk. "Might be how humans got this one, you think?" He waved the skewer of duck meat at the hawk as it regarded him with fiery red eyes. "It was constantly so loud a hunter could shoot it in the dark?"
Once upon a time, merely basking in my presence would render a human to tears, much less having me sit upon their shoulder. Yet here I settle, doomed to endure your heathenish disrespect simply because I rely on you to bring my egg back to Sanctuary.
"Yes, yes," Molam bit into the meat, chewing fully for several moments before swallowing it down. "You are the great almighty bird and I am forevermore grateful to have you by my side. Oh great almighty bird, is it because you require tribute?" Molam offered the skewer to the spirit. "All I have are these duck skewers."
Spirits have no need for physical sustenance. You might not be able to feel it, but the aura coalescing in Sanctuary is quite nourishing.
"Mhm," Molam acknowledged it with a full mouth as they made their way through the city.
As they followed the line to Sanctuary, Molam bought various foods he thought would hold a dragon's fancy until his pack was full to the brim. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that their winding path ended at the crowded entrance to Sanctuary.
Sanctuary itself seemed to be a relatively modest temple on the outside, roughly chiseled out of the mountain's base. Seven pillars held up the entrance, each carved with a depiction of one of the Seven Gods. The pillars were laid out in symmetrical order, with one at the middle of the entrance. It was in front of each of these pillars that worshippers walked up and prayed to before moving on.
Beyond the pillars, in front of the entrance into Sanctuary itself stood two Priestesses, marked by their robes of pure white. Though many of the worshippers craned their necks in vain attempts to look past the Priestesses and into Sanctuary, none dared enter Sanctuary itself without permission.
There is no Mursa here to help you sneak in like you did in Crimson City's Palace. The hawk preened itself in a bored manner as Molam stood at the outskirts of the entrance into Sanctuary. Surely you had a plan to meet the Oracle when you returned?
Molam kept observing the entrance and the line of worshippers as they passed by the entrance. A lengthy time passed before he saw the Priestesses step forward to beckon at a worshiper and the chosen woman eagerly stepped forward, almost in a daze. She fell onto a knee and kowtowed to the statues before getting up on her feet and approached Sanctuary's stone entrance. After a brief exchange with the Priestesses, they directed the woman inside.
The whole ordeal confused him for he saw nothing that marked the woman apart from the rest, yet she had clearly been selected out of the endless throng of worshipers. "Was there anything special about that woman?"
Nothing that would have piqued my interest.
"Useless," Molam murmured as he fell in line with the worshippers. Time to test his theory: the Priestesses chose whom to enter according to some criteria they could both determine, yet was unavailable to others, Molam included. In his mind, that could only narrow the possibilities down to one thing: the Priestesses could See aura. Or at least, the ones at the entrance could. Though he had no aura of his own, the Oracle had seen fit to give him her protection before she sent him out to fulfill his task five years ago. If the Oracle's protection had been the same thing the spirit recognized when they met, then…
The line moved at a steady pace, and soon it was Molam's turn to pass the entrance to Sanctuary. The pressure and weight of testing his own theory coupled with his self-doubt made his knees lock and his feet drag, turning the two steps of walking forward into something akin to a drunken stagger. The frustration reached a breaking point and he flushed at his inability to move as normal.
The tension of testing his theory almost made him flinch as the people around him gasped — he looked around and realized the two Priestesses had walked right to the edge of the platform, one on each side of a stone pillar, their pure white robes billowing behind them. The one on the right pointed at him and then beckoned with the same finger.
"So I was right." Molam murmured to himself, just loudly enough that the spirit could hear.
***
"I am here to see the Oracle." Molam told them as soon as he stepped past the entrance into Sanctuary. It was immediately darker, but lit by candlelight in the alcoves carved into the walls as the afternoon's Sunlight did not pass the stone walls.
"We were waiting." The younger looking Priestess looked at him with solemn, big brown eyes that twinkled in the candlelight. "The Oracle informed us you had entered the city earlier."
Molam frowned. "Did she? How did she know?"
The two Priestesses exchanged a look of confusion, before the older one looked back to Molam, her green eyes betraying little of her thoughts. "You are within her Domain. Please, follow us."
They fell back into silence, and Molam was content with following them deeper into Sanctuary as he took the chance to look at his surroundings. The Oracle had sent him directly to the abandoned village the first time he departed, so Molam took a good glance around the polished halls of Sanctuary as he followed the two Priestesses. The halls of Sanctuary were artfully carved out of the mountain, but as they went deeper, Molam saw that the walls themselves had murals etched into them or were covered with tapestries. Much of history was preserved here, something he knew a certain scholar friend at the Fallen Star Pavilion would lament; the Oracle's refusal to allow the Pavilion scholars entry into Sanctuary for study served as a continuous source of contention between them.
They stopped in the middle of the hallway in front of an unmarked door. Before he could ask, the older-looking Priestess stood to the side and bowed to him, and the younger one quickly followed suit.
"Only those granted an audience are allowed in," the older Priestess gestured towards the door. Her reverential behavior left no doubt that behind this door lay the Inner Sanctum where he first met the Oracle. Molam contemplated it briefly: the unassuming door piqued no interest for anyone who was simply passing by and looking at the murals and tapestries. A far cry from the ostentatious doors he had seen City Lords and rich merchants use to announce their own importance.
The younger Priestess also gestured at the door, signaling an end to their conversation, before the two of them left in the direction they came from. It was not until they had turned the corner out of sight that Molam turned back to the door and exhaled.
Well, what are you waiting for?
"I don't know," Molam admitted, taking a deep breath before he closed his eyes and reached for the door. "It felt as though I spent so long thinking about home that I no longer remembered what that even meant."
He grasped the door’s handle and opened the door into the Inner Sanctum.
