Yūrei gives a sharp nod. “I say, let’s go and take a look. Chūnfēng, Tenjō, Father, care to join us?”
“Son, where is Einar?” Zhìhuì enquires, taking hold of his hand.
The Masked Warrior crouches down and informs his mother of what happened to his husband after he had set their children and Brynjar free. The Dreamer gives him a hug and places his left hand to side of his son’s face. “You know he is going to all right. That is what he needs to do rest.”
Raven strokes the top of his son’s head. “Your mother is right. Also we know he is in the right place to be treated and he will soon be back on his feet.”
Prince Léiyǔ grows worried and apologises, “I should not have asked him to call forth his Ink Heart. I am so sorry.”
Yūrei rises and goes to him. “Seriously it is not your fault. Einar has been in a weak state for some time. This is so him pushing himself to his limit then collapsing. What it is he does not like to show how ill he is and he never likes me to worry, so that is also why he does not tell me.”
“It also shows he loves you not wanting you to be worried about him all the time.”
“I agree. At least I know whilst he is with Wiseong he will do as he is told and remain in bed,” states the Great Warrior with a soft chuckle. “I need a Healer on hand to keep him in line.”
Wéifēng places a hand to his chest and points out, “You do realise he will know what we are doing and he could turn up.”
Jué folds his arms and suggests, “If he does we will have to get him to take a back seat.”
“We will have to sit on him,” implies Yùwàng. “Or, Mèng, you could have your army do it.”
They all laugh at the idea of twenty minions seated on the Ink Heart preventing him from doing anything and Einar not being at all pleaded about it.
“It is an idea to bear in mind. Anyway, Brynjar are you able to take us to your gate?” Yūrei asks, watching the Soul Drinker begin to feel inside the right sleeve of his Hanfu and his lips form in to a soft smile.
“I knew they would not find this,” he announces, showing it to the king.
Yūrei sees lying upon his palm is a clear stone that has a hit of blue to it. “A locking stone.”
Brynjar nods a few times. “I should have paid more attention to my dreams,” he says, taking hold of the Thorny Pixie. “Come, little one let me send you and the others home.” The Soul Drinker returns to the forest and follows the creature until they reach a small mass of thorny vines. Brynjar bows his head and apologises, “Ka ba un ra yin sa.”
The Thorny Pixies come flying out to great their master who goes on to open a portal to a dark place that is lit by glowing whiteish blue mushrooms and small rocks that emit an odd green glow. All the little creatures start to sing and each one give the Soul Drinker a small red berry before they fly home. Thorny is the last to go he flies down to the vines and makes them part to reveal a key.
Brynjar crouches down to pick it up and holds it up into the light. “Raven, come and take a look at this.”
The elder Soul Drinker walks over to him as the last Thorny Pixie returns home and the portal closes. “The Lost Tower, they got Fate to set a trap there for my son, thankfully Jué was able to help him.”
“Well, Dōngjì fēngbào helped,” reminds Jué, patting his nephew’s hand. “Thankfully he was able to read the spell that got the Ink Dragon to stop performing Gànrǎo zhòuyǔ (Disruption spell).”
Brynjar frowns and hands the key stone to Raven. “My that does not sound pleasant.”
“No, it put me out of action for a while,” informs the Great Warrior, shaking his head.
“All we can hope is they have not laid any more taps at my home. Come,” says Brynjar opening a portal to a palace like building and steps through.
Raven along with his family and Prince Léiyǔ quickly follow the Soul Drinker. The single floor building is beautifully painted with peaches and blossom. Rows of tees aline the path and the sound of waves breaking over rocks can be heard far below. Over on the far right is a stone arch gate and the incantation upon the ground is partly hidden by grass.
Raven claps his hands and gasps, “Peach Palace… my… my uncle Chūn… yuè’s home… is that right?”
Brynjar gives a sharp nod. “I knew when you saw this place our time together would come back to you.”
The elder Soul Drinker grips Brynjar’s shoulders. “You are my cousin.”
They hug and continue over to the gate. Yūrei starts to notice Chūnfēng is tilting his head to the left. “Are you seeing something?”
“I am not sure,” answers the Elemental. “Every now and then I am seeing a ripple like a drop of water is falling into a still pool.”
All the Dreamers also begin to stare at the archway. “You are right,” says Qí wàng, putting out his left hand. “I am not detecting anything.”
Yùwàng has both hands out in front of him and shakes his head. “Neither am I. Something is clearly not right.”
Raven steps forward and stands with his hands in front of his abdomen as though he is holding a ball. The bottom of his Hakama begin to flap and his long hair starts to rise as a serge of energy runs over the grass causing it to break apart. Then the elder’s right hand goes to hover for a moment in front of his left shoulder before he throws it and all of the grass and soil are blown away.
Tenjō crouches down by a stone that is lying in one of the pits near the edge of the incantation. “Red key?” He mutters hovering his hand over it. “Is that what you were sensing, Raven?”
“Yes, it is. I take it you are as well? An odd vibration?”
“Yes. It feels like a titan is humming.”
“I agree. It is clearly fused in,” informs Raven, pointing his hand to build up of rock around the key. “Chūnfēng, what do you think, shatter it?”
The Conjurer does not reply, he places his hands together as though he is about to pray, his eyes slowly close and the crystal, that is normally inside his robes comes floating out.
Zhìhuì quickly gets everyone off the incantation and informs them, “He is building up a big charge of static.”
Everyones hair starts to rise from the static electricity building in the air and as the Elemental parts his hands small bolts of lightning pass between them. Then a bolt of blue lightning across the ground, it surrounds the red gate key making it glow. The lightning continues to follow a line to the gate and makes strange symbols, that were not there before begin to glow.
“They were on the scroll,” announces Yūrei, pointing his hand at the arch.
“We have a problem,” calls Chūnfēng, “there were no symbols to close the Rift in Time. Can anyone think of anything that would close it?”
They all take a moment to think and Raven, Zhìhuì and the Great Warrior call at the same time, “Odin.”
At that very moment there is a rumbling of a portal opening and out of it steps the very Soul Drink they need. A crystal shoots over to the arch and starts to survey the symbols. “Xī hé, might be able to help. Ooh, I am not looking forward to this,” he says with a sigh.
The Masked Warrior claps his hands and calls, “I will be right back,” and jumps through a portal to the first kingdom to return a moment later with King Jīngyì who is more than happy to create a nice flurry of snow fall over Odin’s left shoulder and neck.
The Describer is a little different to Einar’s, this one is long and thin with an amber heartbeat lies in the centre. Once she has looked at each of the symbols she sets to work rescoring them. However, when she reaches the centre one she just hovers and her owner softly says, “Ah, there is the culprit. There is a gap in the Key Stone at the back that is why it is flickering.
Raven floats up to take a look and asks everyone to search something they can use to plug the gap. Yùwàng spots a narrow stone and throws it up to him and the elder Soul Drinker slams it in the gap which makes the stone stable.
“Nice one Dreamer, perfect Raven,” calls Odin, “Xī hé can carry on.”
The Describer goes on to draw the last three symbols and follows the line to the key stone, and her owner quickly says, “Chūnfēng, calm the lightning.”
The Conjurer nods and slowly brings the lightning to a stop so Xī hé can draw the contracting symbol. All the rack around the infused stone begins to crack and Raven uses his abilities to clear it away to reveal more of the key. The Describer studies the stone and the land around it before she draws four symbols, one at the top, bottom and one on either side. Then her owner holds his right hand over the key and uses his abilities to turn it counter clockwise. The glowing symbols upon the arch stones flicker and turn to dust and Odin starts to count form five backwards. Before he even says one there is rumble and for a brief moment there is a solid image within the arch of a landscape covered in snow, which shatters and turns to dust.
The next thing they all hear is soft clapping, they turn around to see it is Chaos. “Well done, the flutter is now closed. You have all officially restored time. We can all now return to our normal lives and hopefully none of you will see me again.” The higher god gives them a bow before returning to his domain.
Yūrei gives a cheer and gives his family hugs, he even gives Prince Léiyǔ. “Thanks for your help. What do you plan to do now?”
“Return home,” answers the prince, patting the king’s shoulder. “You?”
“Return to my husband and tell him the good news.”
“Sounds like a plan and you both can put your feet up and rest.”
Raven gives his son a hug. “Go, my son, go before you are called away on another mission.”
“Hopefully that will not happen for some time, Father. I will see you both later.”
Zhìhuì takes hold of his son’s hand and places it in King Jīngyì and suggests, “How’s about we all get together next full moon for dinner, what do you say?”
The elder Elemental shakes his head. “I am afraid by then I will be gone for my mission is finally complete. My husband is free and I have got to not only meet my son, I also helped him, in a small way, to accomplish his goal. I must return to my world for I have my own kingdom to run. Yǔmáo knew even though we are in love with other we could never be together forever. That is why we gave our son the Ink Dragon, so in a way a piece of me is always here.” He places his hand to the Masked Warrior’s chest. “You are everything we hoped for and more. We are so proud of you and a few days is not enough to make up for all the time I have missed. Raven, Zhìhuì, you both have done a fine job of raising him and you are Mèng’s parents. So I will say, far well for now.” Before anyone can stop him King Jīngyì vanishes.
Yūrei places his right hand to the left side of his chest and closes his eyes. “I have never felt so much regret. He was telling me within my mind that it would not matter if we had sorted things sooner, he still has to leave. He wishes he had never fell in love with Yǎmáo and had me. He also blames himself for what happened. Then he is wondering why she waited so long to plot her revenge. I guess we will never know.”
“Good point,” answers Jué, folding his arms, “it is not just because Yǎmáo chose her sister over her… something happened two centuries ago she wanted to undo and in the processes she unleashed absolute chaos.”
“You are right, it makes no sense,” expresses Brynjar.
Yūrei pats him on the arm and tells him, “We have all been saying that from the start. I guess we will never know, unless one of them caves and tells us everything. Another thing, they may not remember.”
“You’re right. Anyway, I am just glad to be finally home. To be honest I just want to put that ordeal behind me and get on with my life.”
“Same here. And on that note I am off to my husband,” says the Great Warrior and opens a portal to the land of the Healers.
Wiseong is giving Einar some soup when the door opens and Yūrei steps inside. “He said you would be back just I am serving my famous regenerative soup. Care for a bowl?”
The Great Warrior nods. “Please, I think I need some after the adventure we have had.”
The Westerner smiles. “That means you were successful?”
“You already know, so I do not need to say anything. All I want to do is this.” The Masked Warrior gives his husband a passionate kiss. “All I want to do right now is enjoy a bowl soup and be with you.”
Einar does not respond for he has been pulled into a strong vision, which makes Wiseong concerned with him still recovering. Yūrei takes the dish from his husband and holds him close. After a few minutes Einar’s eyes close and he rubs his forehead. “That made no sense, unless you have been really busy with a woman and not yet told me we are going to parents again.”
The Great Warrior’s eyes grow wide with a mix of shock and worry. “No, that is impossible when I have only been with mortal ladies, and you know that.”
The Westerner looks into his husband’s eyes. “I saw you holding a newly born baby. Wait you were wearing your full armour and the demon mask. Your armour is splashed with mud and you are holding your Black Katana. Was that a memory?”
The Healer shakes his head and takes hold of his wrist. “No, that was a strong vision. Is something going to happen to your mortal family?”
“I seriously hope not. Mud means the snow is melted, so we are talking early spring? Is that what you were seeing, my love?”
“Bright sunlight was bouncing off your armour,” responds Einar, narrowing his eyes, trying to recall the vision. “To be honest it is hard to tell, it could be a nice sunny winters days. Not too worry I am sure all will become clear soon enough.”
The Masked Warrior gives him a kiss on the cheek. “You are right, my love. Let’s just and relax.”
Wiseong hands him a bowl then leaves the couple to it. In the end Yūrei and Einar remain in South Korea for an entire week before returning to Tower Island.
The following day the Masked Warrior decides after he has had his morning blood he will go and check on his mortal family. Everyone is pleased to see him and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Before he heads back he goes for a ride on Yīnyǐng. They are riding across the fields when he sees something glowing. Yūrei is wondering what it could be and could it be another of Fate’s traps? He decides to carefully approach the glowing object and as he early mist begins to thin he notices the glowing object is dangling from the handle of a fine Katana that has been driven into the ground and in front of it is a lady who is kneeling and she appears to be weeping.
The Great Warrior is about to turn away when the lady looks up at him. She uses her hands to dry her eyes and struggles to her feet. “It is you… I cannot believe I have finally found…” then the lady collapses to ground.
The Masked Warrior dismounts all the time keeping a look out for anything which tells, it is a trap. There is nothing and the woman seems real and in a lot of distress. He goes to pull the Katana out of the ground when he notices the blade is stained with blood. This makes him sniff the air the blood is mortal and is a few days old. However, there is a fresh sent of blood coming from the lady. Yūrei gently picks her up and places her on to his horse then he tucks the girl’s Katana in the straps of his Hakama and returns to town where he goes on to take her to Doctor Okamoto.
Makoto is shocked to see the king enter holding a lady. “Here, your highness, place her here.”
“I found her in the fields, with a bloody Katana and well, certainly not dressed for winter.”
“No, she must be fro—oh, your arm, did she attack you?!”
The Great Warrior sees his right sleeve is covered in blood. “No, this is her blood.”
“Oh! Help me to undress her.”
They work together to remove the lady’s fine otaiko which makes up the back of her belt. Then they are able to remove the Kimono and two undergarments, one of which is made from red silk. Her chest is bound by wide cotton white cloth and around her torso is a bandage. The Masked Warrior helps the doctor to turn her over to discover the wound is on her back of right ribcage.
Makoto carefully cuts away the blood soaked bandage and gives the king a nudge. “Do not let the smell of this get to you.”
“Really I am fine. Besides I have had my fill of blood this morning.”
Doctor Okamoto smiles. “I am going to get some water to clean that before I redress it. Then again it might need stitches. I will now more once I am able to see it clearly. Could you just keep some pressure on it?”
“Sure,” and Yūrei, placing his hand on the cloth.
The lady begins to come around and mutters, “I need to find, the king… king of Japan.”
“Easy, you have found him. I am your king.”
The woman seems to settle for a moment then she looks up with eyes full of fear and the Masked Warrior tries to calm her, “I promise you, you are safe. This is Doctor Okamoto she is going to help you.”
“Lies still,” says Makoto in a soft voice.
The Great Warrior hands the doctor fresh cloths and the lady flinches, making him take hold her slender hand. “I am afraid it will hurt, however, in a little while it will feel much better.”
The lady squeezes his hand and seems to ask herself, “Is he really real? Or am I hallucinating again.”
“I can assure you, I am real. One hundred percent real, so please try to relax.”
Doctor Okamoto discovers the wound has been made by a dagger, she is unable to tell how deep it has gone. “We need a Healer, she could be bleeding internally or have other injuries.”
Yūrei gently places the now sleeping lady’s hand down on the bed and opens a portal. Guāngxiàn comes rushing out of his home all concerned about the blood and is relieved but still concerned when he can sense it is mortal. Once the king tells him what has happened to a young lady he quickly goes back to collect his bag and portals back with him. The doctor watches him hover his thin hands over the woman from head to toe.
“She is a young woman in her early twenties,” he says in a soft voice. “The blade from the dagger has chipped her ribs… her lug is fine. Blood loos is around two days… she has swollen ankles from riding for a long time.”
“Is she with child?” Makoto whispers.
“No… however, she will bleed soon.”
“Ah, good job I always have plenty of pads ready,” remarks the doctor with a smile.
Guāngxiàn’s hands hover over the lady’s back. “She will need also need a good hearty meal… it is looking like she also has not eaten in days. Now let me see the Katana.”
Yūrei holds it out for him and the Healer informs him, “Male blood, no idea how old he is. All I can tell you is he has an iron deficiency. The glowing bottle is filled with an organic… wait, that is Dragon…. Yuck! It is their spit, well what they bring up to get rid of bones and undigested stuff. She is not the first to gather it to illuminate there homes or in this case a small vile.”
“Ooh, I agree that is just foul. Are you able to tell which Dragon it came from?” The Great Warrior asks.
“There are fragments of river and sea fish… I would say Ryūjin. Which makes sense if the lady comes from a coastal town,” answers Guāngxiàn as he goes on to close the wound in the lady’s back. “There, make sure she has plenty to eat and drink. I would begin with something light.”
The doctor nods. “I will make her a nice chicken broth.” She watches the Healer’s face screw up. “Sorry I should not have said that out loud.”
“It is quite all right, and it will do her a world of good. Just count me out. Mèng, wherever you are planning, just be careful.”
The Great Warrior nods a few times. “I best go home and change… on second thoughts this much mortal blood could make Einar ill.”
“Come back to mine and I will give you something fresh to put on.”
“Thank you Guāngxiàn. I will be back later to see how she is doing.”
The doctor performs a shallow bow as the gods disappear through a portal.
The Healer gives the king a nice clean and warm Hanfu to put on and puts the Kimono along with the Hakama in a bowl of hot water. They both begin to think where the lady could have come from. They decide to head back to Tower Island to look at Einar’s map and it is him who starts to point his hand towards a large town. “Misaki, is the next town that is two days ride from here,” he suggests. “Or could that be the other town Izumi which is a little over two days.” He points his hand a little way up the map. “Having no name is going to be a problem.”
“It is, my love. Then again her black Kimono is very distinctive and one of her undergarment was red silk.”
“Red silk with a black Kimono?” Einar repeats, folding his arms. “She is from a noble house in Izumi. Might I suggest you go as everyone knows you?”
The Great Warrior holds his husband’s hand to his chest. “That is… Vision? You had another one?”
“No, I would have said if it was to do with that baby.”
“I understand, my love. In that case I will get changed,” says Yūrei and trots out of the room.
Guāngxiàn softly asks, “Is he putting himself in danger?”
The Westerner shakes his head. “He will be fine and hopefully return with answers.”
“Answers to what, Einar?” The Great Warrior, enquires as he puts on the helmet.
“The girl, you found.”
“I see. Right, I am off,” he says, giving them in turn a hug before he steps through a portal back to his town and returns to the doctor who helps him to place the bronze clasp that has four poles hanging off it in the side of his fringe. Then he slips the sheathed short sword into left straps of his Hakama and ties the second glowing vile, that was found on the tassel of her belt to the hilt and leaves the helmet on the floor by the bed. He gives Makoto a pat on the arm before he opens a portal and steps through to find himself in the hustle and bustle of Izumi’s famous market.
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