The Cat Left Behind

Chapter Four

About four hours later, they were back in the circular room with all their hostages. Riddle glanced at the diamond, and read out the next line of instructions, "Aurum, Lignum, Aquae, Ignis, Terra...damages the symmetry..."

They were quiet for a long time. At last, Chihiro thought of it, "I know! The shape that the doors form is not perfect...The door that makes it not perfect is the key to finding the enchanted diamonds!"

"The point is, my dear Yuki-Onna, We will never find that door, unless we can see the room from above!"Desdemona snapped, clearly still angry from Chihiro's "outburst".

"Which we can." smiled Riddle serenely.

"Huh? Oh!"

Pointing her wand at him, Chihiro concentrated with all her might, and cried, "SURSUM!"

Riddle was lifted off his feet, and carried into the air abruptly. "Do you see it?" Chihiro yelled up at him.

"Wait...yeah! I do! It's that silver one...no, not that...it's the one right next to that gold one with the rose on the handle...yeah! That's it!"

Steve ran, excited, towards the door at full speed. Grabbing the handle, he swung it open.

A man with long, flowing back hair worn in a bun at the top of his head, and was dressed in a long indigo robe stood there, speaking as if Steve did not exist, "The diamonds will be given when you can see ze bi wu ti..."

"I understand. We shall enter now." Riddle has sat up from the floor, where Chihiro had lowered him on his head for a joke.

Desdemona shoved Steve in, before kicking Riddle, butting Chihiro, and jumping in herself.

They were standing on a long, cobbled China street, facing a wooden door. Steve reached for the handle, before yelping and flying out, finally landing with a deep thud and a loud ow!

"Are you okay?" Desdemona immediately went to pull him to his feet.

But Riddle was looking at the words carved into the door, smoothed so much it as hardly readable, by wind, dust and age.

"Ze bei yi wei ping xiang ming, bi yan shu qing wu zhi ying. Wu you fan nao yi wu bei, ti yi zi yu ru zhi ding... Ze...bi...wu...ti...Ze bi wu ti!"

As Riddle spoke the words, the doors magically melted away, revealing a small glass case. Five beautiful diamonds sat inside, each one mounted on its own little stand. Desdemona and Steve gathered around to look. "Wow...it's...beautiful!" Chihiro marvelled.

"This mission turns out to be way easier than proposed," Steve said.

"No," Riddle said, "we cannot simply assume that the final mission, to collect the Oath of the Vows, whatever that is, from where the demons hide would be easy."

"Riddle's right, " said Chihiro, "We cannot assume anything from this point."

"Let's go back."

And they all leapt into the swirling vortex that opened up moments before.

"Where the D, E, M, O, N, S hide...I don't get it this time." Chihiro muttered.

Meanwhile, Riddle was repeating over and over again, "Belladonna Wright, Cecelia Lestat, Elizabeth Rathmore, Ophelia Black, Yin Ling, Severina Willow...DEMONS... Oath of the Vows...BellaDonna, CecElia, RathMore, Ophelia, LiNg, Severina..."

And it hit Chihiro. She ran towards Severina, who she was master, and yelled, "What is the Oath of the Vows?"

"My master...tis a moste deep infection of the heart, one that possessors of the sins alone can feel, and only six possessors together would be able to create."

"And how do you create it?"

"Master, allow me to explain...one would need the five enchanted diamonds, bind them about the throat of five sin possessors, and have the sixth kiss all of them. Then, a ball of light would erupt, and shape itself into the Oath of the Vows."

"What does it look like?"

"Ah...tis I do not know, for it takes the shape of the deepest desire of the purest heart, and that, although I do not know for sure, is always changing."

And they set to work. It was fairly easy, and they soon had a ball of light in the purest white. It evolved around in Chihiro's hands, and that was when the scene started to change again.

They were in a magnificent hall, facing Meganne, who was sitting on a throne-like chair in the middle of the hall on a raised platform of white marble, with the seat melting smoothly into the platform. Skye and three other young women, one with reddish-blonde hair and green eyes, one with mild brown hair and eyes, and another with long, silky curtains of inky black hair and magnificent midnight blue eyes sat on seats like Meganne's, but in black marble, in a half-ring around Meganne.

Meganne was smiling once more, and the deep, mild blue irises looked like sapphires gleaming in the bright golden rays of the sun once more. "I told you," said Skye to Meganne, "I told you they would be up for it!"

"And indeed they were." smiled Meganne.

"You-you can't do this!" Steve suddenly yelled. He was shaking uncontrollably, "You can't do this to us! Hanging execution over our heads! Not specifying what you were doing! Destroying, or almost destroying our soul, our hope, our willingness to live..."

"Steve...calm down..." the young woman, or what had thought of her to be, with silky black hair raised her head, and they immediately realised that she was not much older than they were. Chihiro guessed, about fourteen or thirteen. "The tasks were part of Meganne's test to you, and you wouldn't have shown nearly as much courage, teamwork, and the bond of friendship among yourselves. Meganne needed to know how much potential each of you has, and whether you would be up to the journey we are about to go on, to find the ingredient we are missing for The Potion of Eternity."

Chihiro jumped at the sound of the new noun, and asked, "What is The Potion of Eternity?"

"It is the potion required to destroy the Cursed Ghost."

"Meganne," Skye suddenly interrupted, "There is no time for us to keep babbling. We have got to go. We'll split into four teams, you can stay here."

Meganne nodded, gesturing for the others to bring Yuki-Onna and the others off, as her chair slowly sunk out of sight.

Hi, so I have written this story up to the climax in the two months which I just vanished. Anyway, the rest is still not done, but never mind that. Updates will become slower as I only have about three more chapters done, the build-up needs fixing and that's that.

Character fact:

Inku is the only kitten from the last litter of Chihiro's mom, Minako's cat that lived. All the rest died mysteriously.