THE FORTUNIST

47. Wuxhia

“There once was a short-lived cult that believed cryfix magic is the secondary purpose of the cryfixes — the primary purpose being as portals to another realm.”

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Wuxhia stumbles down the palace basement steps. Very few people know about the secret labyrinth of basements under the palace justifying it's old and dirty look. He goes through it blindly only looking at the limited map in his mind that would take him to the cell where he knows Feng would be.

But right now, did he even want the Fortunist anymore? From the onset, it was Fowella that had really sent him on that goose chase.

He had not meant to hurt Fowella. He had panicked. And he had always thought it was only inanimate objects Xihan could destroy with his touch. But he had been wrong about that? How many more things is he wrong about then?

If Fowella could use Bala as a pawn, what could have possibly stopped her from using him?

Getting to his body, was that truly impossible now?

Is it a fortune? Is it a riddle?

Why is he trying to fulfil it? Why not just let it fulfil itself?

'But these questions,' a voice tells him, 'only the Fortunist can answer them. Only she can answer them all."

He reaches the cell where Feng and the girl are sitting adjacent to each other. He places his hands on some of the bars and they automatically melt away. 'I can do this to a person,' he thinks 'I'm Xihan after all.'

He disintegrates three more bars. They steadily begin to reconstruct. He nods at Feng, "come out."

Feng looks momentarily confused but seeing as his chance is limited, he takes it and steps out at the last moment before the cell bars fully merge back, separating him from the girl he had spent the last three days with.

The girl's face falls. She crawls to the bars and place her hands around them as if hoping that they would somehow melt in her touch as well.

"Why?" Feng asks, his chin proudly held up as he fearlessly watches Wuxhia. Wuxhia is confident that if Feng tries to run, he can use his newly discovered affinity to shove him completely out of existence.

"The best alliances one can ever have are the ones they make with enemies."

Feng flinches. "You are my enemy, alright and I know what you want me to say. That I'll try my best and summon the Fortunist. Twenty years of ignorance and I'll figure it all out of the blue."

Wuxhia shrugs. "Is it not better than rotting away in an underground cell. Away from your family, your house and your legacy? Join and support me. Be my beggest ally and I will favour you."

Surprisingly, Feng finds it somewhere within himself to give Wuxhia a coy smile. He caresses the cell bars, his hands slipping untop the girl's fingers where they linger for a brief moment. "You say you cast a spell that makes this place adverse to animals. Did you by any chance use Lemohn's cryfix magic to cast that spell? What if I tell you I can negate Lemohn's magic? What if I tell you I am Lemohn's magic itself?"

Wuxhia frowns. "Keep dreaming."

"I'll cooperate with you," Feng says sharply, managing to look oddly aristocratic as he places his hands behind his back. "I confess that the initial shock of your revelation has worn out and I am peculiarly eager to see if I can indeed summon the Fortunist. But remember General Xihan. We are all animals."

"Do you insult me?"

Feng grins, "you said it yourself. We may be allies, but we are still enemies. Can we leave now?"

"What about me?!" The girl suddenly exclaims, her face pressed closely against the bars. "Let me out! Please."

"You are no help," Wuxhia spits. "You've been a lowly servant all your life. You never attended Albenarum nor did you ever take private tutorings. You are not lisenced to practise cryfix magic nor have you ever manifested cryfix affinity. What in the fortunes would I need you for?"

"I can give you something valuable," the girl says desperately. "Very valuable information that you can't do without. I promise you that you would love it."

"You were leaving the country. Is it not because you are useless here and that it really would make no impact on your life which country you want to live in?"

"But I was a courtmaid in the palace. I know things."

Wuxhia quirks a brow. "There's nothing you know that I don't know," he concludes dismissively.

"Oh, but I know where the Winter Solstice is."

Wuxhia freezes. Even Feng who had been listening exposes a deadpan look. Wuxhia opens the bars and the girl clambers out.

"Thank you. Thank you really," she sniffs, tears of relief in her eyes.

"Now tell me, how do you know about the Winter Solstice? How sure are you of its appearance?"

"I used to sleep with the crown prince. Then, one night he said he couldn't — wouldn't marry me so when he fell asleep, I slipped the ring out of his finger. I was going to sell it and leave the country with its proceeds. I did not yet know then that it was the Winter Solstice."

"Where… where is it?" Wuxhia grits out lifting the girl up to her feet. "Better get straight to the point."

She smiles, looking relieved, feeling accepted. "I never got to sell it," she confesses.

"Where the hell is it?"

"That… that woman you come here with. I bumped into her when I first entered Dropp. She found it on me and she knew what it was. I was scared of being tried for treason. She promised to set me free if I gave it to her."

Feng rests his hands on his knees and starts to chuckle. The girl is confused and Wuxhia cannot help but feel amused. Did she really think that she could turn him against his own mother? Or wife, in Feng's eyes?

"The woman who walks in here with me. You are sure she has the Winter Solstice."

"I swear it on the love I once had for the crown prince. She took it from me."

"It's alright, I believe you." He places his hands on the girl's cheeks. Why would he not believe her? Fowella had so far proven herself to be untrustworthy. But she is still Fowella. "I believe you. Do you want to know a secret?"

"Yes?"

"The Fortunist is a woman."

The girl's eyes widen in unpleasant surprise. She wishes she had not heard that.

SPLURT.

A mixture of blood, bone and dust as the girl's headless body slips to the ground, lifeless. "How dare you accuse my mother?!"

A horrified gasp.

Wuxhia turns just in time to see Feng running.

"You will never find your way out of here without my help!"

"I don't need your help!" Feng cries as out of every maltreated crevice in the ground, walls and ceiling pour out swarms of ants.

Wuxhia roars and throws his whole weight on Feng. They both crash to the ground. Wuxhia presses on Feng's eyes and wills destruction to happen. Feng swats his hands away as it is only the caked blood coating his palms thickly that disintegrate.

"STOP!" Feng shouts.

Wuxhia stops, his body suddenly discordant with his mind. He tries to turn his head, to raise his hands. To do something, anything as Feng slips out from under him. Feng smiles. He is a complete mess from rolling in the dust.

"Animals are never out of supply, Lord General. I meant it. You and I, we are animals. We have hearts, we eat, we breathe and we do anything to survive. Now, I command you to stay here until you are the only animal left."

Wuxhia feels the fog in his mind begin to cloud his vision. It is through a blur that he sees Feng marching away while laughing triumphantly.