Kode

Depths

   I clambered up the pagoda roof, peering into the breach Monkey had vanished into and darting my eyes about what lay below. Blackened wood floors, toppled stands still clutching cobweb-laced armor sets. Shredded paintings, frames mangled and depictions burned and corrupted. No Monkey. With little hesitation I dropped inside, landing on uneven wood threatening to splinter beneath my impact, not like it mattered. If Monkey was in danger I was honor-bound to help.

Stale, musty, air. Dust dancing about where sunlight filtered through ruptured ceiling. A silence, the birds and croaks leaving me in purgatory as shadows played in the corners. Folding screens, thatch-work walls, had been torn asunder. Corrupted by plant life. As I made ahead a clatter rattled through the room from a stray pot meeting my sandal.

The wind was a ghoulish whisper, moaning through every gap and entry it could infiltrate, the foundations groaning back in kind. I made towards a hallway just ahead, guarded by a screen door. My footsteps rang hollow, the floor sinking, creaking, beneath each footfall.

"Monkey?" Still no reply.

I stepped into the hall, a void staring back at me where what light had managed this far fell away into nothingness. It was an abyss that made my stomach lurch yet still I moved forwards, balling my fists tight and breathing the stale air deep and long. A massive beetle skittered across rotting walls, the wind still whispering luridly.

Just when I had reached the threshold between the dark and light a fiery, translucent, wisp burned into existence not four feet away. An energy, a warmth, played against me. The wisp floated forwards, illuminating the bowels of the building and guiding me ahead. My heart was racing, the beginnings of a cold sweat taking form within my pores. Every step forward was uncertain one. Father warned me about this. About translucent fires lurking in accursed places. Nevertheless, it was all I had to lead me forward. All I had to help find Monkey. Even though I had scarcely known him an hour a connection had taken root. Maybe I just did not want to see him come to harm.

The fire weaved me through labyrinthine corridors, debris scattered haphazardly about ranging from shattered pottery to twine and faded, moth-eaten, robes. I was being swallowed by this place, becoming more hopelessly lost by the second. My only hope was, if this spirit wisp was as benevolent as I hoped, I could find my way out once Monkey was found. A foolish hope. My regret grew.

A horrible noise rattled through the passages, sounding somewhere between a dying cow and a wildcats growl. I halted, apprehension pricking me with a thousand icy needles—daring me to press onwards. My guiding, phantasmal, light threatening to abandon me was likely the only catalyst for my pressing on. Forcing myself on, at any rate. I pictured being alone in such sheer darkness for but a moment and my feet simply moved.

The wretched bellows stirring within the rotten heart of this place tried their best to dissuade me. The musty wood walls shivered and paper lanterns, strung by fraying threads along the ceiling, violated with rips and tears, bounced about with each unearthly wail. Streams of dust were vomited from between the boards overhead, stinging at my nostrils and searing my lungs. I hacked into my sleeve, blinking the pain away and rooting my eyes on the wisp.

It had vanished.

I felt like I was going to drown. Like I was being smothered by a blanket darker than the vilest sin. I had to remember to breathe. To pace forwards off what little memory remained. My footfalls caused the floor to whine in protest, happily selling me out to whatever unseen abominations lurked in this place. I saw, at least, a faint blue glow from up ahead. Frail, but alive. I turned a corner, guiding my hand around a wall until, to my elation, the fiery wisp shimmered just ahead—illuminating a wide, lopsided, room tiled in faded rice straw mats. I entered without hesitation, choosing the wisp in exchange for the all-consuming shadow.

I somehow felt comfort as Zhin's reedy old voice echoed from the fire, "She suffers below, in the depths."

Words did not come to me.

"You're lost. Yes, indeed, you know nothing at all, boy," the wisp bellowed, "Listen!"

The word was a fist against my eardrum, jolting me backward, "Yes. Yes, I will listen."

"Good. You are Xui, yes? Young, perhaps, but duty still stirs in your heart."

"Yes sir."

"I see," the wisp drifted deeper into the depths. "Lelou sits with your stinky, disgusting, friend."

"Monkey?"

"Yes, the rude and unbecoming one with the sword worth two of him."

Despite everything, I smiled, "Goodness, sir."

"Stay focused, boy. Ignore this wise old man's well-deserved criticisms for now," Zhin hovered down another hall and candles, two rows, burned to life as though to form a path. "Go, now. Lelou is below."

The wisp guided me down the candle path until we came upon a great, splintered, hole in the floor. I peered into it, encouraged by the old Lord's presence.

Below, eight small, spectral, fires hovered just above ground, burning brilliant magenta. They formed a circle around Lelou and Monkey, who sat on either side to a flat, bamboo wood, table with teacups in hand.

"I will help him," I affirmed to myself. "I will help him and put Lelou to rest."