They followed the white demon in companionable silence. This time, it stopped at one of the entrances they had passed on the way up. Once more, the demon blew on the strange patterns floating like fog in the doorway, and they dissipated, allowing the group to enter.
This room was a morgue.
Five people, demons, lay in a row. A ragged scrap of fabric covered each of their faces.
The white demon appeared to converse with the demon who was examining the bodies, a short lizard-like humanoid, who moved back warily from the travellers to allow them to see the bodies.
All of the bodies were small. Each had an expertly slashed throat, but their chests were tattered with multiple uneven gashes. A faint smell of scorched flesh hung over them. The muscles in the back of Gou Dzing's neck tensed at the odour.
Gaam Yuk Ying crouched down by the first body, examining it top to bottom without touching it. Tattered, old clothing, thin muscles, small frame; it was clear that the demons were struggling in this world where nothing seemed to grow. Peeking over the top one of the demon's three clenched fists was a small piece of stone. After pointing it out to the white demon, Gaam Yuk Ying managed to extract it from the cold, stiffened hand of the demon. It was a tiny little stone figure, crudely carved.
“Some kind of artefact,” Maan Dzi King muttered from where she stood at the back of the group, her sleeve over her nose.
“It's a toy,” Gou Dzing said softly.
“Don't just assume things, child. There's is a different culture from that of humans, or loong, or any other species.”
Gaam Yuk Ying peered at the chest wounds. His eyes glowed briefly silver. “Waiting.”
“Hm? Waiting for what, Yuk Ying?”
“No. The slashes. It says, 'waiting'.”
Gong Lau Yan moved closer. “You mean the wounds form the character for 'waiting'?”
“How can you see that?” Gou Dzing asked, impressed. “It just looks like a mess to me, poor thing.”
“Isn't Little Gaam able to use Sword Eyes competently? He can read the path of metal.”
Ignoring Gou Dzing and Maan Dzi King glaring at each other, Gaam Yuk Ying moved to the next body, his eyes silvering to examine the next set of wounds.
“Yuk Ying, what is it?” Gou Dzing had noticed that the other cultivator's usually expressionless face had begun to twitch, then collapse into a furious, teeth-bared snarl. He placed his hands firmly on Gaam Yuk Ying's shoulders. “What is it?” He glanced down at the wounds himself, a frown beginning to crease his brows.
“... Handsome.”
It took all his willpower for Gou Dzing not to clench his hands in shock and anger, but he quickly took his hands away from Gaam Yuk Ying's shoulder just in case.
“What's this about?” Gong Lau Yan asked quietly.
“That... Tim Dzeung Baak. She likes to call Yuk Ying 'Little Handsome'.”
Gaam Yuk Ying stood and practically materialised beside the next body. His silver eyes swept the demon's slashed chest before he moved to the next one. And the next. And the next.
A sound at the entrance caused the loongs' heads to swivel in that direction; Gou Dzing was too focused on Gaam Yuk Ying to pay attention.
A group of demons were gathered there. They exchanged words with the white demon, before hesitantly approaching the line of bodies, eyes watching the travellers warily. One of the demons paused at the first body, lifting the tiny corpse in its four arms. The other could see now that the body had a fourth, stubby arm that had evidently not grown right. The larger demon peered intently at the corpse for a long time.
The other demons were doing the same. The similarities between those who had arrived, and the dead bodies they were holding, was clear.
“Do you think I'm assuming things if I say that these are families come to find the bodies of their dead children, Lady Maan?” Gou Dzing asked through gritted teeth. The loong looked away.
Gaam Yuk Ying held out the stone figure to the four-armed demon. After the briefest of pauses, it plucked the toy from the cultivator's hand and placed it back in the child's.
Gaam Yuk Ying knelt down on the stone floor, detaching Lou Fu Ngaan and placing it, sheathe and all, beside him. He clapped his hands together and closed his eyes.
One by one, Gou Dzing and Gong lau Yan joined him, kneeling and clapping. Maan Dzi King frowned.
“If these are children as you say, we should not be offering prayers. Only those younger can pray for the deceased.”
“You can continue following those stupid old rules if you want, Maan Dzi King,” Gong Lau Yan replied without opening her eyes. “But don't stop us.”
The three of them bowed towards the bodies. Maan Dzi King stiffly bowed too, from where she was standing. The demons watched all of this without response.
Gaam Yuk Ying turned back to the white demon, showing the pieces of Tim Dzeung Baak's picture again. He pointed to the scraps, then to the bodies. The demon repeated the gesture.
“I should have killed her before,” Gou Dzing growled. Gaam Yuk Ying gave him a wordless look, then dropped his eyes away as the demons filed out, carrying the bodies with them.
“Do you think you could have, Little Gou?” Gong Lau Yan sighed. “You're a righteous kid. No one's blaming you.”
“Master chewed me out for letting her go.”
“But she wouldn't Blame you. And now, you know better. It won't happen again, right?”
“Blame me.”
“Are you taking turns?” Gong Lau Yan asked drily of Gaam Yuk Ying.
“I met her twice. And let her go.”
“So what do we achieve if we blame you?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you asking us to blame you?” Gou Dzing demanded angrily.
“Because it's right.”
“What?”
“It's my fault.”
“No, it's not.”
“Why not?”
“What the heck is with this weird argument?” Gou Dzing muttered.
“As much as I can see you want to get to the bottom of this,” Maan Dzi King interrupted, “I believe we have something a little more pressing to deal with.”
“I hate to agree, but she's right,” Gong Lau Yan said. “What did the words say, Little Gaam?”
“..'I'm waiting, Little Handsome'.”
“That psycho killed five children and mutilated... no, mutilated and killed them, just to say that?” Gou Dzing hissed.
“Why did you say the same thing two different ways?” Gong Lau Yan asked.
“Because she slashed them first before she killed them. I could see from the wounds.”
“... I see.” A muscle in Gong Lau Yan's jaw twitched. “So she's waiting... Where?”
“There was nothing else.”
No one had noticed any other clues. They left the morgue to see the demons gathered at the base of the mountain below them.
“Maybe we can ask the demons where the bodies were found?” Gou Dzing suggested.
“And exactly how are we going to ask that when we don't even speak the same language?” Maan Dzi King remarked.
“You're the smart one.” Gaam Yuk Ying replied.
“Don't provoke me, child,” Maan Dzi King warned. She took a step towards him. Before she could even complete it, Lou Fu Ngaan was at her throat.
“What...?”
“Ah, really... Didn't you notice?” Gong Lau Yan sighed. “We're in a different realm here, Maan Dzi King. You can't just call on your powers so simply. We're no better than Third Daan-tin human cultivators, so of course Little Gaam will be faster than you as a Metal cultivator. So keep in mind, Little Gou here is likely to be stronger than you right now as well.” She turned her back. “Intelligence without awareness means nothing.” She jumped from the side of the mountain, landing on another part of the road below. Gou Dzing and Gaam Yuk Ying followed her without looking back, jumping easily down the mountainside.
They landed near the demons, who had watched their descent with apparent unease, and were now huddled closely together near the bodies. The other demons from the meeting table were there too, and around them were the foodstuffs that the travellers had brought with them, neatly laid out next to the bodies. It seemed that the white demon had not actually consumed the food that it had absorbed into its body.
When the travellers did not make any further moves, having landed on flat ground, the demons formed a large circle around the food and the bodies. They all presented their hands and hand-equivalent appendages, whether that be claws or tentacles. The black demon began to hover around the circle.
Gong Lau Yan took a sharp intake of breath.
“Lady Gong?”
“They're counting... It's the same as what I saw... They're choosing who will take what to eat.” She closed her eyes. “Including the demon corpses.”
“Shouldn't we stop it?” Gou Dzing asked, but he didn't move.
“You know as well as I that they have nothing else to eat, Little Gou. That food we brought will be gone in a few days.”
Gaam Yuk Ying approached the white demon slowly enough that although the demons all turned to watch him suspiciously, none of them moved. Once more, he produced the shredded portrait of Tim Dzeung Baak and tapped the pieces.
The white demon did not respond. Thinking that it may not have understood him, Gaam Yuk Ying thought about changing tack, but then the demon drifted away from the circle. The other demons unexpectedly paused in their counting to watch.
The white demon led the four travellers away from the mountain, to a lonely plain where a few crumbling skeletons of trees returned to the dust. Dried blood patchworked the pale, barren soil.
Having brought them to this location, the white demon performed an odd wiggle from side to side and then glided back the way it had come.
After carefully scouring the area, the group came up empty-handed. Other than the blood stains and disturbed ground, there was no sign of any other clues.
Gou Dzing threw himself on the ground with a sigh. “Now what? We go searching through the wilderness for her? If I could just use my Earth abilities I might be able to track her, but this place just...”
Gaam Yuk Ying sat down beside him and leaned his head on Gou Dzing's shoulder.
“Yuk Ying?” It wasn't that Gou Dzing wasn't happy with this turn of events, but he was confused by this sudden expression of affection.
“It just... I feel... This is the last time.”
“The last time? For what?”
“Sitting like this.”
Gou Dzing leaned his weight against Gaam Yuk Ying too. “Why do you say that?”
“I don't know.”
It was strangely peaceful there, in the dust, with the dark sky and the red sun low on the horizon, although they were thirsty and hungry now. Gou Dzing felt a profound stillness, and a profound sadness. The two loong gazed silently out across the landscape with them.
“Let's just... sit here.”
And so they sat until the bleeding sun slipped below the horizon.
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