As she walked, the road thinned under her feet till it was no more than an untrodden path covered in bushes, with laurel canopies shading the pathway underneath it. Shrubberies started thickening a lot, while tall poplars, ginkgo and wild tallows appeared with more verdant leaves rustling in the breeze. Pushing past wildly growing branches, she blindly walked ahead till she reached a shore. In front of her eyes was a misty pond. At that instant, a gust of wind hit her face playfully, then bristling across, it hid amidst rustling golden reeds growing lushly by the shore.
Watching the rippling blue water, she leaned against a willow.
"Splash!"
That monster was here, hiding like a seasoned predator that it was—that Seithe.
Wei Zhiruo took a deep breath, took out a few clumps of purple grass from her sleeves. She rubbed them in her palm, crushing the leaves to get a gooey juice out then scattered the rest of the leaves around herself—the aromatic Fevergrass was enough to override all sorts of heavy smells clinging to her. And because she really didn't want to alert it before she was perfectly sure about her countermeasures, she carefully tucked a few clumps behind her ears as well.
It was funny though. Not even a day had passed since she woke up in this new world; sometimes she still fell down on her knees shivering with cold and hunger that stemmed from her soul. Bigger questions still remained a mystery—how did she come here, or who brought her to this place? She didn't know. And the real Wei Zhiruo—did she really die, disappearing forever?
She thought she had time to slowly deal with all that. There were many traces of the original 'Wei Zhiruo', some hidden, some visible—a child without a mother, an ill omen despised by masters of the family and servants alike. Friends, if she had any, didn't come to check on her all morning as she stayed in her room. Eventually, she went out to investigate for herself, but it was too hard to go unnoticed. The mansion had welcomed several guests from outside, and everyone looked quite alert and inquisitive. She decided to return to her courtyard and rest when things took a turn for the worse.
Porcelain started breaking, windowpanes shook and shut on their own. The temperature of the room just abruptly fell to the lowest degree, then mist started filling her room. And then those provocations began.
***
She was sitting alone, combing her hair, when the door suddenly opened on its own. At that time, she thought it was a maid, so she didn't turn, keeping her head down while counting the soft footsteps, and screeches of nails rubbing against wood. Tap, tap, tap, the visitor came closer to her, then stopped abruptly. It was already too late when she noticed the utter silence elsewhere, and hundreds of voices—mutterings and cold disheartening insults, curses and ridicule— suddenly bursting into her ears.
In the vision she saw herself in a garden, standing alone, facing a child.
"Wei Zhiruo! Do you think you are any different?!" A slap landed on her face, but it was the perpetrator who cried louder than her, standing in front of her, yelling at her, digging finger in her chest. "Guess why those young ladies would let you play with them? I know you know. If they wish to insult me for being so useless, a legitimate daughter who is no better than a concubine born, unable to even afford good food—what do you think you bring on the table for them?! Ha! You are nothing more than a plaything, no even worse than that—they see you as a monster!! Don't you dare look at me with those pitying eyes."
The scene changed. She was in a pavilion this time, standing alone, waiting for someone. A few giggles broke this silent picture, a young lady dragged her long trailing skirt, followed by her maids and friends, laughing like she'd never heard a more ridiculous proposition than what she was hearing at that moment.
"Haaha! Wei Zhiruo? That fool? What do you mean stop bullying her because she's the legitimate daughter of Wei house? What are you even afraid of? She is nothing more than a plague!! You wouldn't believe how many relatives she has already killed! Instead, I feel the Wei House would be pleased to know we are keeping her bad influence in check! That Lone star reputation, do you think it's not real? Her mother, grandmother, even Count Boyi, died because of her! I kid you not when I say she's alive just because Count Boyi left her that land deed—if she wasn't the heir of Silver Brook Valley, do you think she'd have lived this long? Don't kid me! And it's fun, right? Watching the beloved sister of Wei Ziya being pushed into a corner…don't say you don't enjoy that."
Fear, panic, hatred…whispers, whispers and so many misty faces kept whispering together at her. However, this extent of trouble wasn't enough to daunt her. She knew she wasn't Wei Zhiruo, she wasn't the perpetrator who killed her either…the illusion faded away on its own. By then, Wei Zhiruo was aware she was facing a monster.
"How do you like your new face?"
Out of nowhere the figure of Original Wei Zhiruo revealed herself. She walked up to her, leaned against her back, and started peering into the mirror. Their eyes met over a bright bronze surface reflecting them both in the dying candlelight: their two identical faces had completely different auras—one maliciously jeering, the other indifferent. That monster might've noticed she wasn't panicked at all, so she goaded her again.
"Beautiful, right? I had my eyes set on this thing for many years! You could even say I've watched her grow up. All bones and skin she is now—what a perfect silhouette of a sick beauty! You add a strange temperament to this face though. But I preferred her timidness. Hmmm…I remember how tortured her soul was, how raw were emotions held within her breast. Right, you just saw some of that too. So, do you feel guilty? Do you feel sorry for taking the life of this wretched little girl who has never done any wrong in all her life?"
Her fingers tried to touch Wei Zhiruo's lips, but got swatted away.
"Why would this matter to you? I cannot imagine you had any good intentions regarding her either." Wei Zhiruo asked, but she continued combing her black hair, disentangling them slowly, caressingly, each strand at a time.
She didn't miss the flicker of surprise in Seithe's face, or when it snorted mockingly, "You made me miss a juicy desert, you know! It's a great loss to me that I cannot eat her anymore, and after all that pining too! Tsk. What a great loss! It still makes me want to scratch your face."
"How boring…I thought you'd be at least afraid of me. Or this face. Or you ghosts no longer feel ashamed of stealing someone else's body? How shameless!" It immediately turned away from her. It picked up a porcelain vessel with white face paint inside it, where it dipped its long black nails, sniffing the powder it continued, "Not a sliver of fear…But what are you going to do now? How will you compensate me for losing a prey? Don't tell me you didn't know about it laa! Hmm, ignorance isn't going to save you."
Slamming the vessel, Seithe turned back to her. While caressing her neck it whispered into her ears, "Days and nights I have pined for that aching soul! That love deprived, betrayed, innocent clueless little girl. Bearing torture and pain so great none of her age or even some adults couldn't dream of bearing in her place! All while foolishly seeking warmth from her enemies. Yet…you stole her. Such an aching soul—"
"—I know what you want from me." Wei Zhiruo tucked away her hair, and faced it. "Are you sure you want to do this, though? Take me as her substitute? Feel it. Can you really bite such a strong soul as mine? I am not easy to kill. You cannot swallow me, you won't dare."
"But I feel if you are willing to give me a part of your soul, there wouldn't be an issue, right?" Seithe smiled mischievously.
"The anguish in your heart…it is infinite times more alluring to me. So much so that I can do anything to taste a little bit of it! And after thinking deeply, I realized the debt between us needs to be settled somehow and you must want to do your things freely too, without me hindering you at every step to settle a score—so I thought, why don't I come and propose a deal to you?! You give me a taste, I will leave you alone. Otherwise, with my illusions, I can easily keep haunting you, or make you unable to live even a minute in peace!! Such a simple wish to settle a grudge. Isn't that a steal?"
With undisguised malice, it looked at her with a face contorted into an unreadable smile. "What do you think?"
"I refuse, I don't believe you won't kill me. A river monster like you, once I am inside your den, how can I come out safely?"
"You know quite a bit about my lot." Seithe said coldly. The monster suddenly looked menacingly into her eyes and said, "But it doesn't matter, does it, laa? Do you think you have a choice? If I want you to come, you have to. I have a hundred ways to make you submit. It's just that this method was the easiest. What can you do to save yourself? Go on, tell me. Don't forget, you are just a human now."
"I can keep you waiting."
Surprisingly, it fell silent.
"What if I take an oath?" With malice shimmering in its eyes, it chose to propose another deal. "To heaven. A ghost like you should know, creatures like us cannot go against the heavenly oath. I am ready to promise I will take a bit of your soul, an insignificant portion, so little you won't even notice and I won't kill you myself. What about now—you ready to make this deal?"
***
Wei Zhiruo knew the Seithe was bound to her hunting ground. There was no way it would show up alone in her chamber. The original Wei Zhiruo was just an illusory fragment it had used to trouble her.
After all, amongst the myriad strange creatures born to the Realm in Between, Seithe's had always ranked the best at wielding the power of illusion. Although they were also easiest to kill because of their weak physique, escaping from their clutches was harder than escaping death. Tracking, enticing, mental attacks ranging from the use of illusion to direct invasion of souls, these chimera type beasts born from the combination of resentful ghosts and spirits, could use all kinds of methods to hunt. They didn't hesitate in playing dirty. She knew they liked to feed on human flesh and soul the most, but she also knew they didn't desist hunting any living creature that they could lay their hands on. Always fearing the strong and going after the weakest.
The only good news was that she wasn't facing a mature Seithe—it was just a fledgling still learning to control its innate powers. Wei Zhiruo wouldn't have started pursuing it otherwise. No, she wasn't feeling suicidal.
Looking past her own reflection in the water dyed red by the setting sun, rippling with specks of gold, she covertly scanned her surroundings. The pond itself was fine, not too deep or shallow, however there were too many roots of weeds and lotuses and water plants entangled into a mess. A perfect hunting ground.
Wei Zhiruo closed her eyes.
'Don't rush.'
***
The perfect hour arrived. It was precisely twelve in the night—she began the ritual.
Her shallow blue irises froze like faults of ice in snow-covered mountains, veiled behind a mysterious gauze-like mistiness. She stood up slowly, gently like a crane rising its head. Then flinging both her hands wide like she was going to embrace something, she gently, rhythmically twist her hands into seals, a few swifter seals formed, a swifter pace followed and soon, she was moving like a butterfly.
Something deeper shifted around her as those sealing gestures successfully materialized. A giant door appeared. This was the door leading to the World in Between —the realm where souls and spirits thrived, where everything left traces, and ghosts reveled day and night.
'Creaak—!"
Two double panels full of ancient enchantments slowly opened precisely in her mind's eyes, sucking her inside. Without wait, the surroundings took a bizarre turn. Uncountable, listless looking golden threads fluttered in the wind; the ones connected to herself, and the ones tied on others all appeared like gossamers, frantically spun, delicate and easily breakable yet morbidly beautiful. Karmic ties of cause and effect, and the threads of contracts between creatures and heavenly laws, interweaved.
She started calculating for that small chance she needed, she picked one of the threads and with a snip, she'd snapped it into two. With this done, she wouldn't incur the backlash before she got rid of the trouble completely. She picked the thread, and started rune casting.
Biting at the ends of all of her ten fingers, she watched them bead into drops of glistening red. Directing her spiritual senses she weaved them into a chaotic shape. Evoking spirits, she twisted her hands above to form another seal with the thread in her palms, her head snapped back, her voice echoed as she chanted the mantra—
"For the abundance of grace, for the nurturing you gave, for all that is true, rise stars, the moons and sun tonight, bless me! Appear, seioph, beloved. Appear neimis, beloved…"
She was still chanting, when a storm erupted. Her ten drops of red blood disappeared, absorbed by the thread that hung in front of her. Bit by bit a Rune revealed its true form. When it got forged completely, it turned ablaze in a violent flames. Its flames billowed so furiously and became so huge that their height turned her tiny figure into an insignificant dust in front of them. They raged till they died down on their own. A moment later, from outright nothing, an ancient bow appeared.
The summoning ritual was a success.
A moment later, she walked ahead languidly, heading towards the water. She waded up to the boat floating just around the periphery, wetting more than just the hem of her skirt in the process. She lightly jumped over it, took hold of its wooden oars heavier than herself, and started rowing. As the boat moved, her muscles grew stiffer with fatigue, each stroke tore into her tender muscles and an urge to take a long, worriless nap grew like tendrils, seducing her to leave. She gripped the oars, clenched her teeth instead.
'Go back? Where? To a cold chamber of four walls with nothing but woods and stones, and clutter of somebody who used to be there—isn't this much better?'
The night sky wasn't visible; the breeze had died. However, that flat-bottomed pleasure boat made its way into mistier parts of the pond easily, cutting into the thickets of impenetrable fog.
Now she just had to wait.
***
That Seithe didn't appear immediately. It might have noticed the intruder, but it was still weighing her up. She heard it making softer sounds as it slithered around like a swift eel propelling its tail against water.
"You are here. I thought you wouldn't trade. You are quite brave." It was using its own voice.
"It's just a piece of my soul." Wei Zhiruo kept her voice down, just a slight whisper. "If you leave me alone after this, I don't feel bad giving a little bit to you."
"Oh, then don't worry. I might not be good, but Heaven's oath—haven't I pledged it already?" The Seithe still didn't reveal itself to her, but Wei Zhiruo knew it was swimming right underneath her, closely watching her move. "Just let me ease you into it—you wouldn't even feel the loss! Just a little process…nothing more. Remember, don't struggle too much."
"You promised—," Wei Zhiruo suddenly reminded the monster, "—You promised you won't kill me. You pledged to heaven, don't forget that."
"I know, I know, stop talking."
Soon a black viscous fluid surrounded her like tentacles. One of them successfully poured into her ears, heading directly into her brain, corrupting everything it touched. Something buzzed, her mind felt swollen.
A memory unveiled.
The sound, the color faded.
Faint ache, slight discomfort filled her beating heart. She wondered what this feeling was…betrayal? Or losing hope?
Someone whispered softly—
"Is this to be my will, father? Living like a tool in someone else's hand? Is this what you said I was born for?"
"Will it as you ought, Amaranthus. As our future queen, no, rather, as the last seed of our waning bloodline, you cannot have it your way. You cannot be free from others, if that is your wish. What people have bestowed upon you is their faith and what they desire, is your compliance—don't be ignorant and ungrateful!! Think of our land, of our people and blood and honor. Greater things are at stake and you're destined to do much greater things! There isn't a worthier candidate than you who can bring us the destined age of magic, or who can genuinely claim inheritance from our Bloodclan ancestors. I know I ask a lot of you, but this is a truth I wish you can realize sooner than later."
Like a competent monarch, her father had immediately stifled her rising protest.
"Why me?"
"Because of the prophecy!" He then repeated like all the times he had done before, sonorously remembering a dream many had weaved.
"After the seal was put upon our Cuiping, it sealed away magic sources and turned our world into a pathetic mortal realm! Although our mighty Archmages of the Aeon of Desolation chose this method to stop the cracking of the surface world, they weren't successful in undoing it. They were too bruised and too few. Moreover, no worthy Areme remained. All of them died in the Hundred Year Battle of Tellore, I hope you remember this part of the clan's history. Of course, those mages left a way out for us! Hundred years went past into nurturing mages to their peak power, but then it was found no Areme was inheriting the same level of blood anymore! Imagine how hopeless our ancestors must have felt! It was vain to hope. But then you awakened. Your blood is purer than any Areme's ever recorded, purer than those of our First elders and their ancestors too! What else could it be but a sign? So you must learn magic and concentrate on learning it whole heartedly."
"You're being deceived." She sounded furious, "Deceived by others, father. No one else knows this, but don't tell me you don't! I don't have a mana bead. Your genius daughter was born disabled! I cannot be a mage. Ever. Not at all. And, you cannot be serious in thinking that the whole world needs a mere child to look forward to its future. That's wishful, that's unpretentiously irresponsible— there are no such people like heaven's chosen ones, father. You're being delusional if you think otherwise."
But he just walked away. Without listening to a word she said.
Mist swallowed everything.
Scenes changed, like rising smoke. In them she saw memories of her disjointed past. Time spent with her loyal friends, with her family. And carnage too…Red blood covered the land, and the red moon engulfed the sky.
Suddenly, a much warmer image of herself jumped up.
She was sitting on a terrace basking in the sunlight of a clear autumn day, brushing her fingers in white fur…a leaf fell, and she looked up and someone close to her asked — "And what about tea? Won't you have some of that?"
She couldn't recall if she had agreed or not, or just sat there lingering in the soft sunlight, and let that peace fill her up to her brims. The scene stuck for so long that she even forgot how to breathe.
"Cough- cough- cough!!"
Wei Zhiruo, having lost control, didn't notice Seithe's smile.
"I promised I won't kill," it muttered coldly to its deaf prey, "But I didn't promise I won't let you die. As a human child, how long can you survive without breathing in this pond? I bet you wouldn't have thought of that, old ghost. Serves you right for stealing my food!!"
"Swoosh—!" A huge fish-like shadow approached and swam directly under her boat, circling round her. Then it hit the sides. Wei Zhiruo lost her balance, falling headfirst into water.
"Splash-!"
Bitter memories choked her, as did the water.
How did she turn into this mess? This question haunted her again. She was drowning, wasn't she? Why did this feel so familiar—? Oh, she knew this suffocating feeling, this burning in her lungs and ache in her heart — just a day ago, wasn't she struggling under that cursed altar, just like this? In the sacred pond, golden chains with tiny spikes chained her to its center; each pull would muddy the water with her blood. For three months she'd been struggling there like a ghost.
The empire had finally caught her, so how could it let her die so easily? The witch that burned their dreams, the witch that destroyed their ambition to bring back magic. How could they not watch her suffer? The Holy Empires Queen was dead; the holy Priest was dead, the generals, princes and lofty princesses, all dead. Cuiping was left with no good leader and every kingdom burned with war and turmoil—all because of her!
They weren't ready to kill her easily. Hunger, starvation and pain had filled her senseless mind in her last moments, as she watched vitality dry up from her body. She felt those chains around her ankles and wrist and neck again, phantom chains clutching her, suffocating her, dragging her down to drown in that water like some senseless beast ready to be slaughtered while the men and women cheered and sang the songs of victory— as if she was the greatest scourge they had ever slain!
Any struggle was pointless.
The scene shifted. The chains vanished.
She was young again, kneeling down in her thirteen-years-old body, begging her mother to save her clansmen. There was blood splashed all over her body and soaking the ground she knelt on, her forehead bled. A scorching red dripped over the snow, blooming like a decadent rose. In the midst of such carnage, she heard her human mother say again—
"But Amaranthus, this is what they deserve." The newly crowned Holy Queen waved her hands and men came to drag Amaranthus away into prison. "This is what you deserve, or anyone else deserves for not being a human. For all those ages of suppression, shouldn't you pay the price? Now finally, we humans are the one ruling you. Shouldn't you suffer the pains your ancestors made us go through?"
'What suppression...of whom? Your lust and greed? Or your thirst for supremacy—? For ages humans lived in their own small kingdoms, we lived in ours. How did this become us ill treating them?'
However, she couldn't make a noise. Her throat was already muted with her mother's overbearing magic. She struggled, choked and gripped her throat. Nothing worked and it felt as if nothing ever would...she felt hopeless—
'Hopeless?'
Two bloodshot eyes jumped open. Wei Zhiruo raised her left hand holding the ancient bow, pulled its string and released an arrow.
"Woosh—!"
The arrow travelled hurtling through the murky water, its golden streaks leaving a trail of thunderbolt flashing behind. A strange symbol jumped out of its arrowhead looking like two concentric circles forming a ring-shaped dial, carved with several oblong, mystical words fitted within. With a snap, the arrow pierced deeply into the thick and hideous muscles knotted together shielding the heart of the Seithe.
"Crackle!"
"Roaaar!!! What did you do? Impossible—! You are a cultivator?!"
The ring enlarged. Inside, hundreds of thunderbolts kept flashing and hitting the monster's head, making it writhe like a wriggling snake.
"Don't pretend you didn't want to kill me first!" Wei Zhiruo yelled back, choking on the dirty water, struggling to surface.
She actually knew how they hunted beforehand. Always preferring their prey lost their mind in a burst of resentment. They stimulated nightmares and memories, flaming desires and resentment, pushing them to recall what they feared the most, abhorred the most or felt the most agitated with, stifling them with emotions and sensations, suspending their belief and in turn, stifling any desire to struggle from within! Only then, they would come closer, and take a bite— tasting the freshly brewed resentment like tasting aged wine.
How could she let it succeed? She just wavered for a moment…it was good now. She was finally back in control of her mind, there was no way she'd let it influence her again.
"Agghh!! Stop! I know I lied to you but I am begging you, please stop! I just got greedy for a moment. You cannot kill me for such a small thing!"
"You broke your oath. You know what you wanted to do to me, so don't pretend! I already warned you, but you didn't take the hint." Wei Zhiruo shouted back as she swam against the waves to rise up. Her spiritual senses tracked the Seithe. Whenever she felt it rising up, she kept shooting at it. Arrows shot down in droves till the water burned aflame like an inferno, finally revealing the Seithe's true appearance.
"Okay, okay, I know you mean business laaa! Call these back. Stop attacking immediately! I am ready to grovel down on my knees!!"
It begged and fought—it's jagged teeth, two yellow eyeballs were flushed with anger and fear, growing with black slits like those of a feline placed directly over a face like that of a snake's. Yet underneath there was a female torso with human limbs. Waist down there was even an ugly fish tail. The monster screeched with both ends of its mouth almost splitting to its ears, splitting its mandible and the rest of its face into two separate disjointed parts.
"Stop, stooop—! I shouldn't have targeted you, I apologize. I was wrong! I just heard you were going away tomorrow and couldn't wait to taste your soul! I told you, you are so alluring to me, I just lost control!! You are so powerful, why do you want to kill a mere resentful spirit? If you stop, I can lead you to my hidden treasures. You can have monster orbs, magical artifacts...anything, anything you desire! I am even ready to be your slave!! Or do you want real inheritances? I know where those cultivators hide their good stuff!" It was furiously biting and scratching the rune-circle as it begged.
It was still not enough. Wei Zhiruo frowned.
Arching her body into a slightly more effective posture, Wei Zhiruo desperately released several more shots. The arrows pierced into several vulnerable spots.
"No, I don't believe you. I gave you a chance, you didn't appreciate it. Who knows what you will end up doing to me next?"
"You—!!"
Hurriedly dodging, the Seithe escaped the barricade of runes, swam deeper and deeper wailing angrily like a ghost, but the arrow streaks kept chasing behind it. As if grasping it couldn't survive, it promptly turned back. This time it really wanted to rush desperately into Wei Zhiruo, wishing to blow itself into smithereens along with her!
'It is preparing to blow up!'
She met its engorged eyes filled with hatred.
"Roaaar –!!! Okay! Don't you want to die? Then let me fulfill your death wish!!"
But Wei Zhiruo didn't allow it to. She pulled the strings and released another arrow, watching it piercing through the black water, hitting the Seithe directly between its forehead.
"Hisssrrr- Roarrr—!!"
Seithe's body stilled, then melted away into a sludge. Resentment rose up like a dark cloud rushing to escape, but Wei Zhiruo was already on the lookout for it. She pulled the strings and another two shots of arrows shot into the thickets of that brown-gray substance. Droplets, perfectly round little black orbs, scattered everywhere, then ignited. Whatever the thunderbolt touched, it set aflame. It seemed as if the whole pond had caught fire at one point.
A couple minutes later, the raging waves settled down.
***
Wei Zhiruo swam up to her boat, watching the fire sizzle beneath the water. Vapor rose like angry fumes. As the chaos settled down, she watched three souls surface from the bottom. Fire purified their resentment and the souls changed back to their origin; they hovered gently, then started dissipating into the darkness.
One of those ghostly orbs however, didn't vanish instantly.
The soul tentatively approached her, and when Wei Zhiruo didn't show any intention to stop it, it swiftly flew up to her forehead, touching it as if giving her a parting kiss. A vision of a woman smiling at her broke through her hazy mind, dark brown eyes fell on her face, full of gratitude.
"Thank you, mistress Zhiruo."
However, Wei Zhiruo didn't hear her farewell. She was already in a strange trance after being kissed. A vision came broken, intermittent yet, awfully like an instruction. It was still the Wei mansion, the roads looked uncannily familiar too.
A faceless creature holding a candle in the dark, moved like a ghost in the night till she'd walked a great distance on the same path Wei Zhiruo took a while ago. When she stopped, it was beside a ghostly courtyard. She raised her candle, and then entered a courtyard door. A few more unremarkable corridors, chambers, pillars and walls flashed past, when finally she walked into a hall. At the center of the hall stood a circular stone. And over that stone, there were strange etchings, flashing weirdly in the flickering candlelight.
Here however, the vision abruptly stopped.
"What is this? What do you want me to do—"
Wei Zhiruo turned to ask the soul but there was no one there. The wind was surging strangely, and out of nowhere, a strange spirit-song raptured the night wind, playing amongst the grasses by the shore like it was its lute, and by the leaning willow's tresses as if resounding with her wandering thoughts.
She hoisted herself silently, then collapsed on the boat. The aftereffects of using her Vital force overtook faster, then the backlash caught up as well. Before she could fully realize what was happening, she lost consciousness.