13 Deadly Deals

Departure 5: Assiah

     "You are determined for me to die in the most unimpressive, most mundane way possible." Mafuyu winced while snatching another pricker thorn from his bushy tail. He figured it was probably a bad idea to let Chiyo take the lead to guide them from the ruins. And he was only disastrously correct when the boar triggered every trap under the sun. Least of all a pit of pricker bushes she so graciously decided to drag him in as she fell. "What kind of madman even comes up with a trap on par with death by papercuts...?"

     Chiyo snorted and he ignored her response to take in a huge breath of fresh air, gag, then flopped on the grass to bask in the warm sun. The underground ruins had been a treacherous labyrinthine trek of them blindingly fumbling around and nonstop jibber-jabber from his unexpected tag-along. So of course, relief hit him like a wave once the last grand stairway led them out from murky green stones to lush woods and open air.

     Mafuyu wasn't quite sure what he'd expected the world to look like. He hadn't really had the time, given the circumstances. And so, the fox curiously focused on his surroundings and not the chatterbox oinking behind him.

     It was like looking at the world with the key details inverted; like a waking dream where things were just off enough to notice. The waves of purple grass he'd grown up with were now deep greens mixing with the muddy browns of the ground. There was no perpetual twilight, no second moon bleeding mystical orchids and violets through the sky. The crystalline cliffs could not shine in the sun when they were made of stone solid and gray.

     And of course a whiff of the air exposed it to be nearly devoid of magic...

     "Goodness, you clam up tighter than a pickle jar sometimes, Fu-Fu."

     Mafuyu still had no idea what to do about her, though. Figuring out the double-edged sword following him was like trying to stomp a square peg down a very small, very round hole. On one paw, he agreed to take her up on her offer to help. He had no other idea what to do, and not having his magic just made that worse. On the other paw...

     "Why bother? You seem fine doing enough talking for the both of us." Mafuyu said, "And I thought your home was nearby." The fox gazed out at a horizon choked off by trees and overgrowth. Woods as far as the eye could see, like an open-air version of the ruins as he followed the boar.

     "Can't really just sashay into this town. At least, not without one of these." Chiyo pulled a key from her bag. It was bronze and pronged on both sides. Like the door down in the ruins, a gentle scent of magic wafted from it, something mechanical like the toy automatons his mistress was so fond of.

     The boar literally sank the key into the air when she finally stopped. A flicker of light and a loud click later and the trees around them suddenly melted away. It was a glamour, the fox suspected. A visual trick that traded the trees for a towering terra-cotta gate too high for him to just barely see the top of.

     "Not every town can protect itself from demons." Chiyo said, "This barrier is how we do it here." She beckoned for him to follow her through the towering wooden doors that swung open slowly to greet them.

     Drakelily was a completely different beast compared to the Sapphire City. King Yama's city was like a starched perfection of alabaster and jeweled blue. Everything moved obsessively and compulsively, like regal clockwork wound extremely tight.

     This town dismantled any semblance of clockwork beneath explosive pinks, blinding whites, and an urban planning that turned everything into a terra-cotta nightmare. Sweeping towers and memorials were instead clusters of shops, fountains, and wooden bridges. Cobbled paths snaked wildly through homes of wood and stone, stacked at uneven heights and packed way too close. And petals, pink from the high arching trees planted here and there, fell like snow flurries over the gorgeous, sparkling lake stamped at the heart of it all.