Chapter 84: TO SET OFF

CHAPTER

84

TO SET OFF

JIEYUAN

—∞—

“All right,” Jieyuan said, “here’s how we’re doing this.”

The wall of the Dome was right in front of him, just one step away.

Jieyuan turned back.

Daojue stood behind him, looking on stoically. He was wearing new robes now—though, like Meiyao, he hadn’t changed into inner disciple robes, but instead had on the plain, black robes he’d worn way back in the entrance trial of the Gleaming Stone Sect.

Jieyuan had changed too, but into his old red outer disciple robes. Unlike the other two, he hadn’t thought to pack anything other than sect wear.

There was a breeze going, and their robes swayed slightly along with the mist.

Beside Daojue was Maeva, standing with her arms crossed—though only Jieyuan could see her. Her white lab coat and yellow sundress also moved with the breeze, but that was of her own doing.

They’d already been there for two days—or thereabouts, as there was no real way to tell—and Jieyuan had managed to recover enough chroma to use Absolute Will Command and start figuring out the viridian mist.

He’d have liked to have Meiyao for this, but…

He glanced over at her.

She was sitting beneath the only visible tree, eyes closed, meditating. That was how she always was, nowadays. He could count on one hand the number of words she’d said so far. The only silver lining was that all the cuts he could see were already gone. He’d taken some healing pills himself, but even his smaller cuts hadn’t fully faded yet.

She looked good as new, really. Though he didn’t know about her more serious injuries. He’d have asked, but the few times he’d tried to reach out so far she’d ignored him.

He wasn’t sure giving her space was the best thing to do right now, but he didn’t know what else to do, and Meiyao didn’t seem inclined to talk, either. This whole emotions business had never been his strong suit.

He knew how to deal with his own, sure. He hadn’t had any other choice, being a Firesoul. His old man had seen to it personally that he could keep himself in check. Had made him hone his discipline and self-control over the years. Quite literally beaten them into him.

But helping others work through theirs? That hadn’t been nearly as much of a priority, as far as his old man had been concerned. Manipulating others, certainly. Helping others? Not much profit in that.

His experiences as Amyas didn’t help any, either. Amyas’s parents had been distant at best, and Maeva—who’d picked up his parents’ slack—might have done her best, but she’d been a young adult herself, and not a particularly mature one at that. She had never needed to be—society gave geniuses like her a pass for that kind of thing.

“Amyas?” Maeva said, softly.

Jieyuan looked away from Meiyao.

“Right,” he said. “We’ll be trying what happened last time again.” He nodded toward the wall of the Dome. “If this happens like last time, I’ll turn around and walk in the other direction. Don’t stop me until I’m all the way across.”

And to Maeva, he said, in his thoughts, Stop me the moment I turn around.

The real purpose of this test wasn’t really to repeat what had happened last time—but to figure out whether Maeva would be able to tell something was off and stop him. Whether he could use Absolute Will Command to get around the mist’s effect, or if somebody else was really needed.

He faced the wall of the Dome again—that vast, marble-smooth glowing expanse of deep green—steeled himself, and took a small step forward.

Now he as was close as he could get. His vision grew unfocused, blurred by the lack of distance—though it didn’t change much when all you could see was solid color.

He’d already tested whether mind-link artifacts worked. They didn’t. It wasn’t that he’d tried contacting anyone outside—the distance alone would’ve made it impossible. Instead, he’d tried Daojue’s cipher.

Had it worked, it’d have given them some options. But no luck. It wasn’t that Daojue had refused the connection. The mind-link hadn’t even started. Didn’t take. He’d tried it with Meiyao, too. Also nothing.

Other artifacts seemed to work properly—no issues using the Shifting Feathers’ gear-skill—but mind-links were blocked, somehow.

He was hoping for better luck with this next test.

He took another step forward, into the green—

A hand jerked him back. Jieyuan blinked, and realized the mist in front of him was slightly hazier, no longer as solid. Still thick enough it was impossible to tell what was behind it, but it lacked that smooth, sleek quality of the wall of the Dome.

He turned back and saw that, just like last time, he was now on the other side of their little bubble of fainter mist, directly opposite of where he’d been. Where he should’ve been.

Even though he’d already expected it—even though he’d braced himself for it—he still couldn’t help the creeping chill he felt, his heart giving a little skip.

Jieyuan nodded at Daojue, who pulled his hand back. He then glanced over at Maeva, questioningly.

Her eyes were widened. Looking around, like she wasn’t sure where she was. Then she focused back on him, and frowned. “I’m sorry. I— I couldn’t catch it.” Her frown deepened.

Jieyuan sighed. That was one avenue closed. It’s fine. We knew this could happen. No matter how independent Maeva seemed, how real, she was still a product of his own mind under the effects of Absolute Will Command. Everything she sensed came from him. If his perception was being altered, odds were she’d be affected, too. Still, it’d been worth a shot.

But no matter. There were other things they could try.

“Let’s switch,” he said, stepping away from the edge. “You try to leave this time—and I’ll hold you back.”

Daojue didn’t reply, only turned around and set off toward the wall of the Dome. Jieyuan followed, keeping close.

Daojue didn’t stop upon reaching the wall—he kept going, no hesitation whatsoever. The moment Daojue was about to step through, though, he grew totally still—then, slowly, turned around, and began walking in the other direction, retreading his steps.

His expression was blank—but that wasn’t saying much, given this was Daojue.

Daojue was midway through the clearing when Jieyuan grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back.

Daojue went completely still. A beat, two, three… Daojue still wasn’t moving.

Jieyuan frowned. “Daojue?”

Daojue turned around—and Jieyuan saw he was frowning, a heavy crease drawn across his forehead, an intense look in his eye. Then Daojue pushed off and set off toward the Dome wall again, wordlessly. Stalked towards it, really.

Again Jieyuan followed, and just like last time, when Daojue was about to step through the Dome, he went still, turned around and set off in the opposite direction at a much slower pace. His frown remained—but there was something frozen about his expression.

Jieyuan grabbed him again.

Daojue stopped. Turned back around. Glared at the wall of the Dome. But he stayed put.

Well. That was that for the Daojue immunity theory.

He also turned to regard the Dome wall. He’d confirmed that an outside observer could stop someone from heading deeper into the mist, but that didn’t help much. They needed to force their way back, somehow. Trying to go in together probably wouldn’t help—they’d just both get caught—but…

Maybe if one of them pushed the other—

“No,” Maeva said. She was still frowning, but she looked thoughtful rather than disturbed now. “Start smaller. Try throwing something into it first.”

Good idea.

Jieyuan reached into his glyph-stretch pouch and fished out a prism. He pulled his arm back and then pitched it forward.

It flew toward the Dome wall—and went through it.

He blinked. It worked—

But then he realized the Dome wall looked way closer than it should’ve been. And that it wasn’t the Dome wall at all that he was looking at.

He turned around. There it was, the Dome wall. Behind him. He’d thrown the prism in the opposite direction.

“Ah,” Maeva said, quietly.

“Daojue,” Jieyuan said, his voice tight despite his best efforts, “tell me what I just did?”

Daojue just stared back at him.

Jieyuan got the message just fine, though.

He bit his lip. It really was a good thing Maeva had warned him. Shoving someone inside would’ve probably had the same effect. They’d have both been taken.

Any ideas? Jieyuan sent to Maeva.

She didn’t reply, just kept staring at the Dome wall.

That’d be a no, then.

He was getting really good at interpreting silence.

“Nothing will work.”

Jieyuan turned.

Meiyao had stood up, and was looking at them from beneath the tree.

“Meiyao?”

She didn’t meet his eyes, looking away, deeper into the Dome. She had a strange, distant look on her face. “Nothing can leave. The mist only allows one direction. Forward.”

Jieyuan would’ve been glad she was speaking again, but her words were more important right now. “How do you—”

“It doesn’t matter,” she cut him off. “We can only head deeper.”

Head deeper. That was just about the last thing he wanted to do. But he didn’t see some other way out. So it was either that or staying here.

He weighed the two options.

They hadn’t been attacked yet. There were definitely chromal beasts inside the Dome—that wave of flying beasts that had come at them, earlier, had come from inside the Dome—but it seemed like this place was mostly free of them. Staying here would be safer. But if they went deeper…

“Deeper…” he murmured. “Is there any way we can make it all the way across?”

The Viridian Dome was massive, spanning more than half the Incandescent Serenity Island—which, as far as he could tell, was bigger than most continents back on Earth. On a cloudcraft, it probably wouldn’t take much time, but he had a suspicion the airspace of the Dome wasn’t exactly safe.

On foot… Especially if they were careful about it, not running… That kind of trek could take years. But it was better than nothing.

“No,” Meiyao said. “It only leads to the center.”

There was an ominous finality to the way she said that.

“The center,” Jieyuan said, his full attention on Meiyao, tensing. She still had that odd, faraway look, like she was only half-there. He didn’t like it any. “And do you know what’s there?”

Meiyao didn’t reply for a long time. She closed her eyes, frowning, like she was trying to listen to something. Jieyuan watched her, uneasy.

Then she opened her eyes again, her expression clearing, and focused on him. “A way out.”

“Right,” Jieyuan said, slowly. He trusted Meiyao, he really did, but he wasn’t sure she should be trusting herself right now. “That’s nice. But a little vague. Do you know what, exactly—”

“No,” she said, frowning. She cocked her head, suddenly looking distant again, before she frowned.

“No,” she repeated. And before he could get a word in, she said, “We should go.”

“Go?”

“Yes.” And then, acting more like herself again, like the Meiyao he knew, she quirked an eyebrow. “Unless you’d rather stay here forever?”

Jieyuan felt a spark of relief—but his unease lingered. “No. We should leave, I agree. But maybe we can stay a bit longer, recover some more—”

“We’ll take breaks,” Meiyao said. “Like we did in the Gleamstone Valley. It’s a long journey. The sooner we get started, the better. And the sooner we can return.”

Something dark and heavy flickered across her expression. Dark and heavy and murderous.

That was probably the only time so far Jieyuan felt they were on the same page. Vengeance. Jieyuan was behind Meiyao in that, all the way. But that didn’t change the whole situation.

“Well, yes,” Jieyuan said. Times really were odd when it fell to a Firesoul to be the voice of reason. “But your injuries—”

“I’m fine.”

He glanced down at the side of her hip. She was standing upright without a problem, he’d give her that, but he really didn’t think—

She sighed, then slammed a fist into her waist, hard. She didn’t so much as wince. She gave him a look that said, See?

Jieyuan saw, all right. He just didn’t understand it. Then again, Meiyao’s miraculous recovery rate might just be the least odd thing about this whole situation. Seemed like he’d done all that worrying for nothing, too.

Well. Caution clearly wasn’t finding any foothold here. There was just one last thing he needed to confirm, though.

“And the beasts?”

“I’ll handle it,” Meiyao said, simply. “We’re agreed, then?”

Jieyuan recalled how she’d warded off the swarm of flying beasts during their escape. This one claim, at least, he was inclined to believe.

There was something going on with Meiyao and the mist, no doubt about that. Something odd. But she seemed to know what she was doing, and that was more than he could say about himself.

He shrugged. Might as well roll with the punches. “Sure.” He glanced over at Daojue. “You all right with that?’

Daojue just stared. Jieyuan would take that as a yes.

He turned back to Meiyao, nodding. “I take it you’ll be leading?”

“Yes,” she said. “Also, when go through, we need to be in contact…” She trailed off. “Unless…”

Wordlessly, she reached into her glyph-stretch pouch, and took out a second glyph-stretch pouch. She drew this second one open, stuffed her arm inside, and then whipped it out, holding a… robe?

A dark green robe, similar to the one she was wearing.

She slung it across her shoulder, and took out another one, this one red and diamond-patterned. An outer disciple robe. She piled it on top of the first and took out a third, this one green again. The fourth, she threw at him.

Jieyuan caught it out of the air.

In contact…He had an idea of where this was going.

She took out another two robes, which she also threw over to him, before she put the glyph-stretch pouch away inside the first.

“Rope?” Jieyuan said.

“Rope.” Meiyao grabbed one of the robes on her shoulder and began twisting it.

Jieyuan did the same, before grabbing the other one, and tying them together, end to end. And then he got started with the third.

Meiyao was particularly tall for a woman, and the robes she wore reflected that. Soon he had about eighteen feet worth of makeshift rope in his hands. Meiyao, another eighteen feet.

He passed one end to Daojue, who wordlessly tied it around his waist. The wrist or ankle would’ve been better to save up on length, but they’d be more restrictive, movement-wise. Jieyuan followed suit.

Soon they were all tied together. Him to Meiyao, and Daojue to him.

Meiyao gave the length of rope between them some tugs, then nodded approvingly.

Jieyuan double-checked his own work too. “We get split up if we’re not in contact?”

“Yes,” Meiyao said. She nodded toward the denser stretch of mist ahead. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

She walked off into the mist.

Jieyuan unsheathed the Shifting Feathers, and followed.