Story:Rain's Ascent/Chapter 2

"Killing things is not so hard, it’s hurting that’s the hardest part."

The sound of bells ring lightly across the dawn. I wake at first slowly, tiredly, as if I shouldn’t be doing so at all. Whenever I am, it’s very poorly lit, save for a few weak beams of light poking cautiously inward through what must be a wall of steel bars. What happened, and where am I?

A sharp crack rings out as I sit up suddenly and smash my left elbow against stone.

"Oww!" The shout rings around the walls and through the one side of the room with the bars and a locked door, and from that direction, a voice echoes sleepily:

"…Mau?"

“Who’s there?” I ask, afraid. The voice is female and non-threatening, but I feel weak and vulnerable in a shadowy cell – and feeling behind me for the case, no crossbow. It probably wouldn’t have helped much anyway.

“Just me. I’m in a cell like you are. So no need to worry.” As my eyes adjust to my surroundings, I can tell that there is a hallway separating our two cells, and that the meager light in the room flows from three tiny windows: one in her cell, one in mine, and one from a door at the end of the hallway. It’s enough to be able to see the speaker, a rather short woman dressed mostly in stuffy black clothing covered by silver pieces of armor that look more rubbery than metallic, whose brown eyes are barely visible underneath a silver hood… A hood?

“You!” It sounds almost accusatory, not the feeling I had in mind! “You’re wearing a hood… did you…?” The sentence drifts off hopefully, gratefully.

She flips off the hood behind her head, revealing a slightly round face framed by straight black hair. “What?”

“Last night, or whenever… someone in a hood saved me as I fell… and then I ended up here. I’m so grateful-“

“Ummm, no, not me. You were brought in by two men, one of which walked with a quirky shuffling gait, and the other like someone who is trying very hard not to step on another’s toes.”

I look at her blankly.

“The point is,” she continues, waving her hand airily, “is that I would recognize their feet if they came back. Oh, less importantly, that I didn’t save you from falling. I hate falling. I also don’t have experience with saving people. There are a lot of people in Mindanao who wear hoods, like to fall, and like saving people. Well, their own people.”

“Oh… you’re from Mindanao?” The continent to the northeast… I know a lot of them are nonbelievers… and now that this woman says she hasn’t saved me… but someone in a hood did save me, so they can’t all be bad…

She points to her hood. “We all wear hoods to shield ourselves from the rain. You don’t get out much, do you? That’s okay, I didn’t either until I ended up here. I’m Riyoku, and I wish we could have met under better circumstances, or not met at all.”

Perhaps all Mindanoans are… like this? I feel like laughing at myself for not knowing how to respond. “Nice to meet you, Riyoku. I’m Noa… do you know where we are?”

“We are in a crudely crafted jail cell awkwardly positioned at the base of Mt. Kailas and occupied by a retreating group of Luzon soldiers who are in the business of Annoying the Priests.” She tilts her head as chanting flows in throw the tiny windows – the daily morning Troparion. “Priests!” I say. “…Perhaps we can convince them to let us go? I’m not sure why I’m here in the first place… I-I mean, I’m very grateful to be alive, but I don’t know where my father and Cleric Stern are…”

“Neither do I! Um… sorry. Well, I think I know why I’m here, although it might just be because I’m a Mindanoan, which is kind of shallow, to be honest.”

“Oh…” I don’t know enough about Riyoku or the land she hails from to say anything constructive, so I just don’t say anything. I hum along absently, knowing each note (though slipping off-key) as footsteps approach from the hallway entrance.

Riyoku tilts her head. “That isn’t either of the people from before. I hate meeting new people.”

The man who enters doesn’t look too pleased to see us, either. He lights an oil lamp near the doorway that sharply outlines his features and the rest of the room. I surmise that he is an officer from the bronze, almost circular pauldrons, but it’s odd to see an officer so young and in such casual wear. I had imagined the Luzon army to be stocked full of scary-looking men with oversized beards and clanky armor. The officer’s short, slicked back hair is nearly the same color as the pauldrons, and he is wearing a sleeveless red top that somehow support them. His belt seems to be overlarge, with a buckle that resembles the pauldrons. It doesn’t seem very comfortable to me, but I wear two pairs of pants, so who am I to say? I’ll leave it to Xen to judge, but I think he has better things to do.

I wait for the man to speak, for I am neither in a time nor a place to make demands. He glances quickly around the room and then extinguishes the lamp as quickly as he lit it.

“Keep quiet,” he whispers, and I can see his silhouette at my cell door. I whisper in return: “Why…?”

“I haven’t been told why I’ve been keeping a kid and a lady in here for two days, so why not?”

“What!? Two days! You didn’t say that!” I squeak. I gape in the direction of Riyoku, aghast. “I missed out on a whole day’s worth of prayers…”

The officer raises an eyebrow at me. “I could just leave you in here if you wanted. I don’t think the priests would have any problem with it.”

“Er… no… I want to get out, please. What do you mean by the priests wanting to keep us imprisoned? That’s… er, that doesn’t sound like something they would…”

The cell door swings open, and the officer holds it with a loose grip, threatening to shut it again. “Look, kid, take my word for it or take your chances in here.” I scoot out of the cell before he changes his mind.

Riyoku’s door is unlocked next. “Well, it was an experience meeting you both, but I’m going to be…” More footsteps echo down the hall, and she holds up a finger as she exits the cell. “The shuffly gait man again!”

Light licks the prison walls as the oil lamp flickers on once more. The soldier that enters is wearing a plainer uniform than the officer and is harboring a frown underneath a mass of badly kempt facial hair. “What are you up to, Saint?” The tone in his voice implies he knows exactly what’s happening.

“Klose? What are you – you sneaky little…”

“Yeah, yeah. What matters is that you’re letting the prisoners go.”

“Chain of command, Klose. I’m the sergeant, and-“

“Yeah, that’s not gonna be your title after the priests get wind of this,” sneers the grunt. I think it is very bold of him to address someone of higher rank so forwardly.

“Calm down and step down,” begins Saint, receiving a scoff for his troubles.

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll beat you down, you little shit. That’s an order-“

“To hell with your orders!” The bearded man brandishes his sword and dashes forward, but the officer parries with a low sweeping move, and I realize the oversized buckle is a shield connected to two twisted steel prongs poking out on opposite sides. A scream rips through the crowded jail, followed by a shrill crash as a glass wall at the end of the room opposite the doorway explodes. A whirring sound slices through the air and ends with a thump, and the man slumps over, reddish blooms sprouting on his forehead and legs.

“You killed him!” yells Saint, as a bladed pole levitates back to Riyoku’s hand. She catches it and then shows him the bloodied handle; the blade itself is clean.

“You didn’t kill him!” she accuses in return.

“You both hurt him!” My voice is flat compared to theirs, and I move towards the downed soldier, who is stirring very feebly. Riyoku interrupts my attempts to cover his wounds, dragging me towards the door. She joins Saint as he rummages through the broken glass and gathers what must be her belongings and mine. He is muttering repeated violations of the Sixth Precept under his breath, and I resolve to say a few extra prayers for him should we have the good fortune to escape this place. “This isn’t worth my job…” I can hear him mutter as he reattaches his weapon to his waist and grabs a pack from the wall. I start to approach Klose again, but Riyoku tosses a piece of glass at my feet.

“We don’t have time for him – take your shinies and let’s go!” She throws me my crossbow holder and satchel belt, and the three of us barge out the doorway into a long stone hallway lit callously by a single lamp at the other end.

“You can make your weapon float?” I tell her as our footsteps echo frantically on the cobblestones. “Um… why didn’t you do that earlier, to get us out of prison?”

She shrugs as we reach the door. “I wasn’t allowed to.”

“I’m allowing you both to get out of here before any other grunts show up and start asking questions!” shouts Saint as he throws the door open. We rush outside amongst the chilly slopes of Mount Kailas, our gazes drawn immediately upwards, for the sky is aflame.