<- Trails of Unrest (1/2) - A Season 7 - Episode 7/02 - Lost Generation (2/2) - Acropolis Mon Dieu ->
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Lost Generation
So, so you think you can tell
heaven from hell,
blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil,
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in a war for a lead-role in a cage?
How I wish,
How I wish you were here.
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here, #4, 1975
~ instrumental ~
Last Exit - Colosseum II, War Dance, #8, 1977
K'Ao Hsin looked back at the horizon from the Dragon's stern. The beach, the village and the turtleships still resting there were far away, far beyond. The wind blew in her face, as Kija approached her, »Kija, do you think it was right to leave? Leave the village and the ships there... and so many good men? And just take the Dragon and ride away?«
»The villagers... They'll need some protection there, for the time being, and they have all the time they need to make the ships seaworthy again whenever they choose to do so. It takes just a few days, and the situation hasn't changed for weeks. ... And everybody expected us to, after what had happened.« Kija looked back at the no longer unknown with determination.
K'Ao Hsin noticed the scroll in Kija's hands, »I wonder how she is...«
»If...« Kija added, as they sailed into the sun with all sails hoisted, »if, K'Ao Hsin... if.«
In a time of ancient gods ... warlords ... and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero.
She was Xena: a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle.
Starring Reneé O'Connor
The power - the passion - the danger
Her courage would change the world
Xena: Warrior Princess
Lost Generation
The gentle loving touch shook Gabrielle's head a little less gently.
»Ah, we're finally waking up. Are we well rested after these three days, my young lady?« the man said with a clear voice that was as devoid of emotion as the expression on his face. He was amused by the way the girl opened her eyes, first the left, then the right one, as if the eyelids had been pulled up by someone.
Marie Matiko
Then her head shook suddenly, as if it had been slapped. »Mmm..uh!« Life had returned to the one in chains, but not very much of it, yet.
Gabrielle heard a voice whispering in excitement, »Gabrielle! You're alive! ... I'm so glad to see you breathing again!«
Her eyes were still closed, and she frowned. She slowly rose her head to mumble, »Xena?...'s't you? ... An'... so I'm dead...? over the hills...? just a wish away...? ...huh...« Her head turned away to one side suddenly, losing its balance, »Oops..s..«
Taketoshi Naitô
as Nen Chei
»No, my lady, but you'll soon wish you were. Unless, that is, you tell me everything you know about the armies of Koryu and Chin and whoever might have joined them in the meantime. But most of all, where the empress and the queen are hiding. And if you do that, I can make the rest of your pitiable miserable life like the life of a goddess,« he held a small greyish black ball that looked much like a thimbleful of sand rolled into tar, right under her nose, »that is, if you cooperate right now.«
»Am I blind...? 's it ...dark...? ...« she slowly started to open her eyes, »Oh... Uhm...« she tried to focus her eyes on something, any one of the hazy dim colourful blotches, »Huh?... What rest of what? ... Goddesses are immortal, you talk oxdung. ... Gods, am I seasick... ick...« Gabrielle mumbled slurrily, as she somehow managed to try to do no more than hiccup, »Can't you steady the boat...?«
Anthony Wong
»Oh, that's just the ... medicine, ... on the arrow. It helps you to speak your mind... quite literally it does so. The sickness will go away. You caught the arrow instead of allowing it to hit you. You got a little too much. ... That's only your own fault, of course, not mine. I would have taken more professional care in administering the required dose and therefore can't be held responsible for your uneducated ways of self-medication.« He rose his eybrows, looking down on her in a censuring way.
Special Guest Star
Sihung Lung
as Kur Tsu
»Ahumm... not sure if I remember... could you remind me of what was I supposed to do instead? Die? ... You stink of garlic. ... You look tired. Get some sleep,« she turned her head to the left and blinked her half opened eyes several times in consternation, trying to focus on something. Then she suddenly fully opened them, »Oh! ... Xena, long time no see,« and smiled from ear to ear, although somewhat too sheepishly.
Special Guest Star
Michelle Yeoh
as Kija
The man almost lost his balance and turned around in shock and horror, but quickly relaxed as the room behind him looked as it ever had. No-one had sneaked into his hut, which only had one door, anyway. One very firmly locked door.
Xena waved at her, with her fingers only, and a confident, wide smile that covered her despair from a few moments before, just glad to see her friend alive. She was too happy to utter a word, she would have broken down in tears if she had had to right now. And first of all, she didn't want to worry Gabrielle unneccessarily right now.
»Oh, ... my, am I glad to see you. Could you please kill this... thinnnggg,« she nodded towards the man who ignored her motioning, »and untie these ...uhm... Gordian knots,... I guess...« she looked up and down and around, »there on my feet, and my legs... and, oh I can't see my arms. ... Why's that...? Uhm... Oh, ... right. Must be tied behind my back then, I s'ppose... uhm...« Still, her voice was quite slurry.
Special Guest
Whisper by
Claire Stansfield
»No, I can't Gabrielle,« Xena said with a sad and pitying voice, »I wish I could.«
He was a little annoyed, but continued patiently since he had all the time in the world, »But, there are no knots, my dear. These ...belts are just to stop you from falling and hurting youself... by accident. That would be too cruel, wouldn't it? ... And I wouldn't want to be accused of negligence, would I?«
»Oh, sorry. I forgot... sorry,« Gabrielle grinned even more sheepishly, »didn't mean to... rub it in, ...anyway. Could you... at least look around a bit to find something ...useful now? I mean, not that I could move to help, but... you'll know, I guess.«
The man was hardly distracted by her twaddle, »No, I have pretty much everything we'll need right here in front of me. If you can't see, yes, then... it was a bit too much for you. The hallucinations will soon die down, and then we'll...« he paused briefly, picked up one of his instruments and turned it to make it glint in the faint candlelight, »talk.«
»Oh,... hallucinations...? Die...? ... No, no. That's my .. friend .. over there. You must have noticed... haven't you?«
»Be assured, your friend Tsee Nah, if I got that right, is not here. It's just the two of us, and soon we'll have a very pleasant and...« he lifted his eyebrows in a scary and slightly kinky way as he checked, or for that matter enjoyed the speckless surface of his instruments, as he picked them up one by one and then returned them to the tray, even more neatly arranged than before, »...enlightening conversation about your .. other friends on the coast. Meanwhile, we have to bide a little time until you see a little clearer, my dear young lady. And, well, I'm afraid, your boyfriend is not invited at the moment, and therefore can't play the hero for you. But I'm sure, in time you will meet him.« He tightened his gloves again, a gesture he obviously liked.
»Girlfriend. .. Her.« Gabrielle purred, and put on her widest sheepish grin to emphasize her words. »It's .. her .. hmm!« she affirmed with a distinctive nod, and then turned her grin back towards Xena, who raised an eyebrow... or two, in a very positively surprised way indeed, and started to roam around the room.
»I'm sorry, at the moment I only take interest in you. But I may enjoy the company of your friend later, maybe. You will be very glad to have the chance to volunteer... to turn her in after we are through with the day's work.« His eyes seemed almost as if they had wanted to twinkle a bit, if it hadn't been for the total lack of emotions in his face.
Xena tried to pick up some of the instruments, but she reached through them as if they weren't there. To others, nothing was there, but shiny pieces of bronze.
»They won't do us any good, will they?« Gabrielle mumbled, looking towards Xena and the tray.
»Oh, but they will. And since there's all time for the two uf us...« he stated affirmingly.
»Threeeee... three of us... threeee of us...« Gabrielle interjected, half yelling and half singing. Then she started to giggle away, rocking her head from side to side a little.
Xena put her finger across her lips to tell her to shut up, but then waved her hand away, in a gesture of being annoyed by forgetting her own state of existence. She first turned away to check other parts of the room, but then returned again, to inquisitively look at the face of the man standing in front of Gabrielle. She bent down a little, since he was much shorter. Then she turned to look with a insolent grin at Gabrielle, who was following her motions closely, not quite sure about what to make of them. »Look,« she said and waved her hands in front of his eyes several times, slapped through his face, poked through his ears and finally made a beheading move through his neck, back and forth several times. He, of course didn't notice a thing, not even Xena's exaggerated displays of surprise, joy, disgust and satisfaction that went with her performance.
Instead, he said »Oh sure, my little lady. ...«
»You make me angry... you shouldn't say that being such a short man yourself, don't you think so? ... But, never mind, Xena makes fun of you as we speak.« she chuckled.
»...there are only two living things in this room, and that'll be you and me. Get that into your skull and the fogginess out of it! ... Please.« he continued almost unshaken by her telling the truth, only, and nothing but.
»Ahm, yes you're right, Xena's ... uhm, ... dead, ... actually, ... you know?«
He smiled satisfied, just a little, barely but distinctly visible even to Gabrielle in her dazedness, »Ah, we're making good progress.«
»No, you don't get it. She is dead, alright, but she's still there. As much as you and me. Right? Get it?« Gabrielle explained with an understanding, but still quite sheepish smile, sometimes still chuckling away at Xena's jokes. She pulled an invisible cloth, invisible even to Gabrielle, through his ears and whistled a tune as if she was polishing the inside. Then she flapped the otherworldly imaginary cloth and coughed as if it had become extremely dusty, as she turned to inspect other parts of the room.
»Oh, I don't have to. ... But you will.« the man answered without looking as he started to polish his instruments with a small chamois, one by one.
Xena, meanwhile walked around to look at the back of the chair. Something caught her attention, »Gabrielle, listen...«
»Yea, Xena?« she turned her head around as far as she could.
The man asked, slightly annoyed by her hallucinating, »What is it... now...?«
»Shhhh.. I can't understand her.«
He turned away without a comment, rolling his eyes.
»Gabrielle, your hands are not tied by a rope, they're handcuffed. And one is bleeding, but it's almost stopped.«
»Ah, that's that cold wet weight there,« Gabrielle finally understood, »I was wondering all the time what it was. ... She says I'm handcuffed.«
The man was visibly not excited at the news.
»Wait .. and listen carefully, this is going to be difficult,« Xena continued »take your left hand and turn it around...«
»Ah, she wants me to...«
Xena nose-dived through the chair's pedestal and popped up between Gabrielle and the man, »I said wait, Gabrielle!«
»Didn't I? ... How'd you do that?! ... Oh, oh, I see.« , sheepish grin again, »Sorry.«
The torturer decided to sit back on the small table and wait until she had lived out her hallucinations. She wouldn't tell anything useful in this state of consciousness and wouldn't ...enjoy her pain, he thought to himself, quite as much as he would.
»Never mind...« Xena said patiently, looking at the ceiling, and then turned her eyes towards Gabrielle's in a somewhat more annoyed mood to answer to the first question, »No, you're telling him every word right away.«
»Oh... I'm actually not sure whether I'm speaking at all.« she frowned in surprise.
The man yawned, »Ah, you do. A lot, my lady.«
»See?« Xena took over with a bored look as well as an idea, »Wouldn't it be much more entertaining for him if you'd keep up the suspense?«
»Ah, now I see why you answer all the time. I should have known. Must be 'cause I'm talking, of course... She wants me to keep up the suspense...«
»Oh, I am thrilled by...« he looked around to nowhere in particular, hoping for a few quieter moments before he began to play, »...uhm,... her... performance. Just do it. Go ahead.«
»Ah,... I see the bard in you, Gabrielle... don't blarb the spoilers for him, will you?«
Gabrielle looked a bit flattered, »Is it that good?«
»Oh, .. sure. ... Trust me.« Xena said with that 'the juices just got going'- look of hers slowly creeping into her eyes, »Just wait and see... have I ever disappointed you?«
»Ahm... let me think... There were a few times...«
»Thank you, Gabrielle.« Xena let go a sigh of disappointment, »Could you tell the world quickly, and without that sheepish grin, please?«
»...oh, Xena...« she continued with a sigh and a sorry expression, »...but then again, too few to mention. ...« She looked at the ceiling as if she was going to recite a very moving and romantic poem next, but suddenly frowned and turned back to Xena, »Come on, I don't have a sheepish grin, do I?«
»Yes, you do.« Xena stated dead-pan, and scratched her right ear innocently.
Gabrielle turned her head as far as she could to look past her at the man, »Hey, I don't have a sheepish grin, do I?!« She still was grinning from ear to ear, of course.
He wasn't quite sure why she would do that, leaning so far to one side, that is. In fact, he unwittingly bent a little into the same direction. »I'm sorry to inform you, my dear young lady, but unfortunately, you have.« He bowed slightly, just to stop and wonder why he did that.
»Thanks for siding with her,« she grinned sheepishly, »Thanks anyway. ... Xena?«
Xena had moved to the back of the chair and stuck her head through it to whisper into Gabrielle's ear, »Right,... uhm... now listen and .. don't .. spoil .. the surprise, will you? Promise?«
»Yep. I won't. Promise.« Gabrielle solemnly stated. She even stopped grinning, almost, well, at least for a moment or two, »I won't spoil, I will listen, that is. Just in case you thought ...well, otherwise... huh?« The grin returned promptly.
»Well,« Xena picked up where she'd left the exercise, »now turn your left hand towards the back of the chair again, slowly. Slowly... right. There's a splinter that you just might be able to reach. It's about as long as your finger, and it's the only one, so don't drop it once you have it. Turn a little bit more... more... try harder, yea, that's it. Tear it off, carefully!«
Gabrielle managed not to lose it right away, although she could touch it with her fingertips, only. It came off easily, though.
The man suddely noticed her movement, the way she stretched out as far backwards as she possibly could, »The pain in your back starts to rise? That's good. If you can feel the seat now, we shall start our little conversation soon.« With that, he started to prepare his instruments again.
»Gabrielle, hurry. ... Take the splinter and turn both of your hands the other way. The lock is a simple one, so you don't have to be Autolycus to pick it.«
»Autolycus... wonder what he's doing... ... wonder why I'm suddenly thinking of Solari...«
»Ahm, let's chat about them later... Or do you want that guy to gouge your eyes out with these ...instruments?« Xena shuddered at the thought. If Gabrielle would just concentrate and listen, for a change.
»You mean...?« The thought somehow surprised her.
»Oh sure, look at the gloves, Gabrielle.« Xena suggested as if she was pointing to a few colourful flowers by the roadside.
»That's not nice, is it?« , she frowned in disgust.
The man turned around, »Oh, but it is. It will help you to concentrate on ... the truth, you know.«
Xena pressed on, »No, it's not nice, but we've got to pick the lock first to teach him some manners.«
»Ah, I slowly get the idea, Xena. ... Uhm... So you...« Gabrielle beamed with delight.
Xena knew that it would come to this, once. It sure had taken a long time, but now there was only one way to stop her bard from singing to soon.
»... want me...«
And she had to do it. Right now. A woman's got to do what a woman's got to do... She rushed through the back of the chair's left side to face Gabrielle, who continued unshaken,
»... to pi...«
»Gabrielle.« she sighed, and slipped her right arm around her neck.
»Hu...?«
...and kissed her with all of her powerful, dangerous passion.
Gabrielle looked fairly surprised at first, her eyes staring wide open, but just as their lips started to seperate again after a pocket-scroll edition of eternity, she closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, then another... and two more, to be safe, »Pooh... ough! ... Xena! ... I... I didn't think you were .. that .. real!« she gasped again, followed by a breathless »Wow!« and a short giggle.
»Still got the splinter, Gabby?« Xena asked matter-of-factly, as she retreated through the chair.
»Yes... sure... if I didn't ram it through my hand just now...« , Gabrielle gasped again, »Pooh!«
»My dear lady, it seems to get worse before it gets better, does it?« the man turned to her as if he was turning to punish a bad dog.
»What do you mean.. worse?!« Gabrielle inquired with a very focused and slightly angry look on her face, leaning forward.
»Be patient, Gabrielle. Let's surprise him twice, what do you think?«
»Yes?« Gabrielle leant back and listened again.
»First, move the splinter to between your thumb and ... your little finger. Otherwise, you won't reach far enough. ... Right. Now, you've got to push it in... between the spring lever and the locking stops.«
»Where?!«
»Uh, wait... Up, up, ... up... to the front, no, too much. Down... on forward... drift to the right a little... got it right! ... Okay, stay there .. stop... You feel it's in there? Looks like it is. ... Can't lose it now, Gabby. ... Pooh, I .. was about to turn blue here. ... Sort of... would have been... anyway... I'm breathing again,... thanks a lot. ... Well done, Gabby. ... Now, ...next you'll push it all the way in... Wait! ... Do you feel the slit?«
»Yes?«
»Stay to the upper wall of it. Now push it all the way in. Right... Stop! Careful!« the splinter started to bend to perilously close to the breaking point, »... Remember, that's one small splinter for you, and a giant lock to pick it with.«
»Hmm...«
»Young lady, I think we better get started now. Perhaps this will help you to concentrate...« he took one of the sharply pointed needles from the tray and moved towards Gabrielle. The needle's crossbar handle showed that it was to be applied with considerable force.
She didn't notice, since all her concentration was in her hands now, »And now?«
»Wait until he's closer... the bigger's the surprise to spring, don't you think so? Think about what .. you .. would like to do with him now. Just look at him, at the tray, at what he's doing, and then think,« Xena explained from behind the chair, crouching to examine the lock, and unaware of the events on the other side, »and then ram it all the way in, straight.« She noticed some movement next to the small table, »Go on, tell him ... Now!«
The torturer had approached, and was now only inches away from Gabrielle's face. He held the instrument's business end right under her nose and poked at it with the sharpened tip, »Now, would you, first of all tell me please where the Empress of Chin and the Queen of Koryu are at the moment? And who's there exactly to protect them? Take your time to explain...« , he stared at her as blatantly as if she was a fly stuck in resin on the wall.
»Oh, but I can't talk to you right now,« Gabrielle innocently interrupted his eloquent outburst.
»And why is that, young lady?« he asked with feigned interest.
»Because I'm gonna get out of this uncomfortable chair and I'll kill you as soon as I can,« Gabrielle told the man with the most confident smile, and matter-of-factly as if she was talking about collecting firewood for the night's camp fire. Her voice still was a little slurry though.
»And just how do you think you are going to do that?«
»Kill you? Ahm, I think I'll just ram it all the way in... would you stop that poking, please, while I explain? It's annoying. You're worse than Joxer!« , to which he unexplicably obliged, »Thank you... and then maybe I knock you out cold or... I'll pepper your back with all these other instruments of... uhm, ...what's the word?«
»Torture?« he was absoultely unnerved by now.
»...or both. ... Right, clever man... torture... uhm... not nice. ... Ah, yes...« She tried to remember what she wanted to do next.
»No, I humbly meant to ask how do you think you could get out of...« he was growing ever more annoyed by her.
»The chair, just to begin with? .... Aaaaah, I see I see I see... Xena has a surprise for you!«
Gabrielle released the handcuff's right ring by pushing the splinter deep into the lock, and in getting up hit the man hard with both her hands flat on both of his ears.
He bent forward in pain, as his eardrums were blown to shreds by the blast of her palms. The left one had hit particularly hard, for it was weighted by the heavy primitive handcuffs. Their right-hand side ring hit the back of his head a split moment later. The needle had already scratched his chin in the sudden motion of the first strike, and now Gabrielle used the extra weight on her left hand to first ram the needle, still in his right hand, all the way up his nose as his hand passed by convieniently underneath it while he was moving to shield his ears. Then she rose as he stumbled backwards in spasms, and as soon as she could she added a vicious left swing, again weighted heavily by the handcuffs, that sent him tripping backwards on the small table. To Gabrielle's satisfaction, he hit the tray's edge hard, and thereby promptly catapulted most of the remaining sharp and pointed instruments straight into his own back. That ended it, and he collapsed down to his knees with an extremely surprised and shocked expression of disbelief on his face, and then fell flat on it in front of her feet, at the base of the pedestal.
»Xena, ... I think his blood fits in nicely with the stains on gloves and apron, don't you think so?«
Xena pretended to lean on the back of the chair, raising an eyebrow, only slightly troubled by her friend's frank and open comments. She knew all too well that Gabrielle could rise with a vegeance from time to time, »Uhmmm... if you think so... Uhm... I meant you'd just ram the .. splinter .. all the way into the .. lock .. but... uhm, I guess that one worked, too.«
»Oh...!« Gabrielle answered in surprise, and slightly amused by the sudden realization, »Must have gotten you wrong there, I... 'm a bit dizzy, still.« She was still tied to the chair at her ankles and knees, »Wait a moment...I'll try to get one of those.« She could turn around a little, just enough to slip off the chair's seat to one side. Then she bent down sideways, almost backwards, and tried to pluck one of the knife-like instruments out of the unexpectedly and accidentally, as it had turned out, deceased torturer's back.
»Whew! Good girl!« Xena enthused at her friend's display of acrobatics.
»Ah, Xena...« she sighed, »without you there's nothing to do in the mornings... so I have to exercise more. You've left me no choice,« she stretched to get to the knife's handle and finally got it, »but to stretch out... and press-up ... and sit-up all by myself.« She did just that and sat back on the chair one last time to cut the ropes.
»I wish I hadn't, Gabrielle...«
Gabrielle cut herself free, flung the instrument back to where she had picked it from with a vengeance, and then turned around to face Xena in agony, »I know... don't blame yourself. Sometimes, the Greater Good feels so wrong. And still,« Gabrielle sighed, »it seems to be right... I hope ... has to be...« she started to pace around the room, massageing her wrists. She discovered her weapons behind the larger table, and picked up the chakram. »Xena... Do you think it's gonna make it to the land of the Pharaos with this girl?«
»Sure Gabrielle, if there's anyone, it's you. Couldn't be in better hands,« Xena moved in closer to look at the chakram, and to embrace her friend's shoulders. She knew she would never be able to throw it again. Reflections of candlelight danced over their faces as Gabrielle moved it slightly.
»I didn't quite get the hang of it, though... yet...« Gabrielle mused as it reflected the faint candlelight into her face, »It has a mind of its own, sometimes,...« she clipped it onto its holder, »and I have a headache of my own, ... by .. the .. gods!!« she gasped, and touched her forehead with both hands, »I feel like... Xena, what do the people tell about their headache, who got stoned to death when they arrive on the other side?« she tried to chuckle.
»That the headache was the least of their problems, I guess... haven't met one yet.« Xena mused.
»Ouch! I cut my hand...somewhere, whenever.« Gabrielle noticed the bloodstain in her right palm, and that she had spread it to her forehead. She tried to rub the latter clean with her left hand while looking at the right.
»He said you caught the arrow?« Xena took her hand and opened it to take a closer look, »Doesn't look like burned by friction... more like...« she started to look around the room, and quickly found what she'd been looking for, »...look, here. These are .. poisoned .. arrows. Whatever knocked you out, it was on the arrow. They all have barbed hooks, lots of them. .. They .. did cut your hand, and you got all the poison right into your bloodstream.«
»That would explain the purple haze, too... thought it was the dim candlelight, somehow... and the sparkling stars sprangled everywhere... dancing around in the corners of my eyes... everytime I move to fast... ouch! Every single part of my body aches godsawfully, Xena...« she rubbed her neck.
»And the poison, ... that's why you were out for three days... and a half.«
»Three? .. Days?? .. I...«
»Thought it was yesterday? Half an hour ago? Sure. Here's some water...« Xena grasped through the amphora, »sorry, you'll have to help yourself... still getting the hang of this.« She was still annoyed by her self forgetting the facts of life... or death from time to time. »That'll help with the headache, and what the water can't do... Well, there's some Amphipolitan massage to ease the pain in your neck until the poison is gone completely. Siddown, Gabrielle, come on.«
»Xena, it's been a long time... a very long time...« Gabrielle sat down in the corner of the room opposed to the door as Xena started to work on her neck, »wait, I'll take...«
»You can leave your top on, Gabrielle... you can leave your top on,« Xena noticed with a slightly amused, but very pleased look on her face as her hands worked their way up and down her spine and across the shoulders.
This was the best thing that had happened to her in a very long time, indeed. Gabrielle drifted quietly into the calm meditation which accompanies a completely relaxed awareness of the body. The pool of blood around the torturer first grew and then congealed in the light of the candle which burned down quickly, as if time was moving faster outside of her mind. She rested her back lightly against Xena's thighs, who had knelt down behind her. Gabrielle closed her eyes, they didn't have to talk to share their feelings, as they knew each other well.
After some time, Gabrielle heard a noise approaching the door. She opened her eyes wide with a start. Xena was gone, again, and the dizziness had subsided. The door opened just as she jumped across the room, taking two long steps, hitting it just in time to kick it right into the face of the figure that had tried to enter. As the door sprang back and opened again to the horrors outside, she charged him who stood no chance, and ran off to the bushes to advance further, from now on by stealth. Beyond these two bodies, the trail was broken. From now on, she concealed her tracks so that none could discern them, and did so keeping silence, so that none could hear her.
Whatever had cued the masses of the grey in on her, she would not make the same mistakes again. Not until she had ended it. Thereafter... She no longer cared about what lay beyond. Loneliness, emptiness, rebirth, tartarus, or more of... it, she'd already been there. Everywhere. Nobody lives forever. First things first.
Gabrielle had waited for nightfall near the torturer's hut. There was nobody else who came to check, like the one man who was still lying in front of the door had tried to. Now, after dark, she returned to drag the body inside. There, she sat him down on the chair, and the torturer on a small stool, as if he had fallen asleep, resting his back against the edge of the small table. If someone would peek through the door, he'd be less likely to notice the demise of the two. She covered the bloodstains with sawdust from a bucket that she had found under the larger table. That's what it was there for, she realized as she went on. The one on the chair looked a little like one of the assassins, though not as ragged and neglected, ...yet, perhaps.
Gabrielle checked the room for anything that might turn out to be useful. There were a lot of ingredients, probably for the poisoned arrows, and several of those, with and without the poison. She put them into a little bag she had found, and added some half-burnt pieces of wood, charcoal and soot from a small stove. The candle had almost burned out, and so she decided to light a new one as a deception. As long as there was light inside, people would expect somebody to be there, alive, instead of some dead bodies. And, what's more, as soon as she would open the door, anybody outside would just see a back-lit silhouette leaving the hut, but she would see them more easily when she walked out as if nothing had happened at all. A deceptive sign of life and normality.
There was nothing else that would be useful. The torturer's tools were too small to be useful as weapons, except for very close combat, and she was determined to avoid that at all costs. She decided to leave, and did so, carefully keeping a vague silhouette as she passed through the door by hiding her weapons in front of her body, in the shadows. The door fell shut slowly, driven by its own weight. Once again, she merged into the forest.
After several hours, she had returned to the backpack and carefully unearthed it in the starlit night. First, she removed the dry leaves and twigs, by hand and one by one, just as she had pushed many like them away before placing each step on the way, with the tips of her boots. Next came the moister leaves, then the humus, and finally the sandy soil underneath, in which the backpack rested. Each part she heaped onto a separate little pile to restore them in their individual layers after she had retrieved what she would need now. She returned all the pebbles from the sandy layer first, and placed them on the floor of the hole right after pulling out the backpack. This way, water could drain away more easily, at least for some time until the inevitable decay would take over. Some beetles had already entered the hull of the backpack, though not the carefully wrapped pieces inside.
She wondered, why she did care at all to preserve it, as she started her preparations. She already had eaten her last supper waiting outside of the hut for nightfall. No-one had cared to remove the small bag of food from her belt, the one she had taken with her from here, last time. But then, why take people such care with burial rites, anyway? Perhaps to show to those in the next world, that they still did care about them. No-one here would care for her this way in the end, so the only thing to witness her caring would be the backpack. As the urn within already had, and was therefore left undisturbed. She had to do it all by and for herself, and herself only.
She set the thoughts aside, opened the backpack, took out a small mortar, a flask with the last drops of cooking oil, a tiny pot of lard, and a phial of skin cream, and placed them silently on the ground next to the hole, carefully separating prestle and bowl of the mortar to avoid any accidental noise. The moist leaves and the humus underneath made it easy to move in total silence. Nevertheless, she stopped from time to time to listen carefully for a while to the nightly sounds of the forest. This time, they were the same from all directions. She had picked some large green leaves from nearby ground-covering plants and had brought with her some silty clay, from a small cliff next to one of the brooks she had to cross on her way.
First, she quietly tore the leaves into small strips and pieces, carefully removed all the larger veins and the stem. The smallest pieces she ground down into a soft pulp, using the small mortar, very careful not to make scratching noises by rubbing the prestle on the bare parts of the bowl. The longer strips she carefully straightened out and put them down on one of the leaves she had left intact. Next, she mixed some of the clay with all of the skin cream, oil and lard, divided the now more viscous, sticky mass into three even parts as she poured it onto the leaf, and added some of the greenish pulp to one and some charcoal and soot to the second, and mixed them again in the mortar. After she had poured the last part of the mixture back onto the leaf, she cleaned the mortar with a finger and wiped it clean on the leaf's rim. To make use of the last bit of the mixture, and as last of the rites, before she returned it to the backpack in pristine condition. She took off all her clothes, cleanly stowed them, and the other things she had taken out earlier, into the backpack with great care and put it back to rest underground at last, after taking the last two sheets of oiled wrapping cloth out of its top lid.
Ducking for cover behind the low plants around, to avoid to betray herself by her fair skin and light blonde hair, she then covered the backpack hastily with all the layers of soil, except for the dry leaves, and continued to prepare herself by rubbing some more of the clay into the two pieces of cloth. The oil in them would make it stick on even after it had dried, and the cloth itself was of a lighter brown, already. Then she took the three portions of skin cream she had prepared, and with two fingers acting as a brush, she slowly painted and covered all of her skin and the pieces of cloth in winding stripes of the tricolour that surrounded her, greenish, blackish and pure earthy brown. To make sure she'd get all of her back covered, she wiped the remains off the leaf, using it like a towel.
The remaining soot and clay took care of her hair, darkening its colour as well as streamlining it as she ran her fingers through it, from her forehead towards the neck. Ashes to ashes. Clay to clay.
Now, everything but the white in her eyes had faded into the forest's pantones around.
At last she wrapped one of the sheets around her bosom, put on the other one as a loin-cloth, wrapping it in part around a narrow belt of leather, and tied both of them tightly. There was nothing or no-one left who she felt she had to cover herself for, as she left it all behind. She only wanted to make sure that nothing, plant or beast, could annoy or distract her in a decisive moment, simply by accidentally touching her most sensitive parts, at least not before she ended ...it.
To do just that, she strapped the katana with its already well silenced sheath across her back, fastened the small bag of arrows and the chakram with its clip to the loin-cloth's belt and stuffed strips of leaves through holes in and into the seams and folds of both pieces of cloth. Most of the strips, and the longest ones went around the chakram. The shoe-laces, especially on the outer side near the sais got the same treatment, as previously had the sheath and straps of the katana, and the tip of its handle. The strips would stop the metal from rattling and reflecting any light, as soon as the oily soot had worn off that she had covered all the shining steel with, for now. Finally, she returned the dry leaves she had removed from the site earlier. No trace of her fleeting presence remained.
With all traces gone, and only two rags, the blackened steel in her hand and dark paint on her skin to separate her from the thorns, the dirt and the creepy crawlies of this quagmire of decay, she set off to feed it plenty for one last time, to go back to the roots of it all, and sever them, once and for all.
Now it was to be done all out. No more saving for the day after, when Chin and Koryu, K'Ao Hsin and Kija, and Lin Qi, hopefully could sleep in calmer, safer nights, again. This was the last of her thoughts before they all faded behind the moment, as she left another life at the backpack's grave. Past, present and future became as one. It was time to advance.
Gabrielle had walked up close to the clearing. Around the castle, there was a diffuse activity of those greyish beings she had previously encountered as assassins in Koryu, on the coast of An Nam, and out here. In a nightmare gone bad, she would have liked to believe. Many of them littered the ground, still lying where they had fallen and died. The smell of decay drifted through the forest as did the living, though they did not move as far. Most of them stayed on the clearing, few strayed beyond its edge. What was moving them, or where to they were moving, whether there was a plan, or just chaos like that of an ant-hill, it was not apparent. But ant-hills as well as grandiose schemes meet their fate in the end.
She was now a deadly cloud of darkness floating swiftly and silently through the forest. Within sight of the end, she knelt down on both knees and then sat back on her heels, facing it as if for meditation. Then suddenly, she found herself looking at a bush, one like many others on the ground beneath the wavy sea of treetops. Its leaves and branches, the shadows and the wind, created an ephemeral play, backlit by the eerie orange flickering torchlight from the castle's inside, which was hovering in the night like a fata morgana beyond the trees. She listened to her feelings and followed them as she closed her eyes, and mouthed in complete silence, »Gabrielle, just .. be .. it.«
Then, still on her knees, she bowed forward to touch the living soil of the forest with the hands that had rested on her knees until now, and kiss life for one last time in peace. A life to life.
She sat up again and thought, '... now!' , and opened her eyes wide. The white and shining green in them reflected the fires of the castle as she rose and left the known behind for the great unknown yonder.
One with a blowpipe moved aimlessly like all the others past the rim of the forest. A branch of one of the many bushes around there slowly cut his throat with a darkened chakram, and in going down with him, or her, it wasn't clear because of the darkness as well as the state of neglect, took the blowpipe and arrows, fastened it to the shoe-laces on her left boot, added the arrows to her own, and finally wiped her weapon clean on the ground, as the fresh blood splattered onto it appeared to shine brighter than dull steel in the eerie glow of this long and reddened night.
She then crawled into the rye grass that covered most of the clearing, fading into it, slowly floating within, meandering, moving confidently and contently like a shark swimming at ease in the open waters of the oceans. Compared to the numbers wandering about, hardly any bodies were lying on her path through the clearing. But like in the forest before, very few still carried the blowpipes they had used in their lifetime, if one dared to call it that, but several still had arrows and the fluffy seeds, which she bagged to add to those she had taken from the hut. Collecting carrion.
From time to time, she surfaced in the bushes that dotted the clearing here and there, to check the movements of the living, and to take new bearings, always closing in on the castle, but never head on, zigzagging instead. This way, no-one there could look down into the rye grass where it parted over the full length of her body. Approaching from the sides, one would have almost stepped on her before being able to see her hugging the ground in the high grass.
At every stop, she used the blowpipe to take out some of the grey monsters roaming the clearing in the distance, as far as she could hit their skulls on the first try, but not much closer. Those next to her, she left to carry on with whatever they were doing, careful not to leave a trail of bodies right in her own wake. There's always a larger fish to smell the left over crumbs of the bait that got carried away.
Even if she hadn't been there, hadn't been doing what she did, there would still have been constant dying going on. On her second stop, she saw one who was walking shakily in small circles, almost pirouetting, as if he had lost all sense of direction. By the way the grass was trampled down in shifting cycles as he drifted around, which had forced her on a detour, orbiting far around him to get into the next bush, he must have been doing this for hours if not days.
There, Gabrielle was frozen by the shock of discovering one walking right on towards her, but as the she-monster, this time, was about to enter the bush, she ran her open mouth onto a stub of a dry branch, while Gabrielle very slowly tried to slide backwards into the relative safety of the sea of grass. The being continued to walk on in vain as if nothing had happenned, and despite the audible crack of a breaking jawbone, but was held dangling on the branches by what was stuck in her face. Her eyelids were flickering rapidly, showing only the white of the eyes. The bush started to quiver from the continuing onslaught.
Gabrielle retreated slowly and carefully while she was intently focused on the immediate threat, and only the small danger of being smelled above all the stench of decay stopped her stomach from emptying itself right there and then. She closed her eyes briefly and pushed the feelings away before she relieved the creature with a poisoned arrow from a greater distance, out deeper in the grass. It hit just below the other's larynx, but she did not fall, though, she was merely left dangling quietly, and only so after a while.
Gabrielle shook off the thoughts and continued on, finally even more determined. Turning back from within the next bush, she realized that she did no longer have to spare an arrow to end the endless pirouetting, too. He had already fallen without last aid.
Now she turned back again towards the levee that held the stinking muddy water surrounding the castle. There was one open crossing, a bridge that was as much in a state of decay as the castle itself, and everything else. Only two beams on both sides of the walkway were left, all the planks had been broken or had rotted away. Across both of them, a constant procession was going on, at least since she had first taken notice of it. Grey things walking in on one side, and out on the other. Some of them stood at the gate, several of those looked relatively fine, and a lot of them had jagged swords or blowpipes, mostly without the wider pipe at the end that silenced the blow. Gabrielle didn't want to find out whether they were waiting for unwelcome visitors, or just for eternity to arrive.
She would instead take the route through the back door, one of the many, that is. One of the wide open, thoroughly collapsed stretches of the castle wall. She just had to find one that was in permanent shadow, which was easy given the patchy lighting provided by too few torches, most of them somewhere on the inside. She worked her way up the levee, starting from her last bush stop. She had chosen one which stood at its base and therefore covered her. Here, she could not be spotted from the outside, through the void in the grass that was forming above her back as she toiled upwards through it. The shark was sneaking up the coral reef.
When she arrived on top of the levee, two fell from the bridge into the water in a brawl and promptly drowned one after another, after a short and half-hearted struggle to turn themselves face-up. None of the others even turned to look, much less bothered to help. There were more of them already floating on the water which came up to about one foot below the crest. On the inside, the rye grass gave way to reed, just as fine to glide through, and perfect for cover as well. Between the reed and the waterline was a shallow stretch of water, perfect to slide into it unseen. To her left, there was a thinner patch of reed, almost like a short gap in it, just wide enough to slip through without moving the stalks too much. She worked her way slowly towards it.
Sliding into the water between the levee and the reed, she clipped on the chakram and pulled the blowpipe forward to hold it underneath her body, to keep it from floating up. She turned it several times around its axis to purge it of all of the treacherous air bubbles. There were stinking bubbles of gas rising from the trench bed from time to time, but only a few, and not in a row like the air would have done in her wake. Next, she slung the katana's strap to the mouthpiece like it had been previously fixed on the shoe-laces of her left boot. She did so blindly, for she was always looking around. The wider pipe of the silencer floated between her knees. Checking everything for one last time and after taking a deep breath, she slowly pulled herself under, using the water plants on the trench bed, and helped by the weight of her weapons. She kept her eyes firmly shut until she carefully surfaced, nose and then eyes first, after turning on her back above the blowpipe, on the inner side of the trench, again covered by reed. The omnipresent stench of decay seemed to stick to the surface of the water. The body paint held, and blended in fine with the muddy water, as she slowly drifted towards the break in the wall she had previously chosen.
After a while, she had drifted past it, careful not to cause visible waves on the water. She continued on until she had seen enough of the castle's inside through that one break, to make sure there were no guards right next to it, if there were any at all. This part of the wall was completely in the shadows, which added to its deterrent dark greenish blackness, and the shadows extended almost as far down as the trench's shoreline in some places. She chose one of the darkest parts to slip out of the water and crawl through the reed and rye grass towards the wall, again trailing the blowpipe behind her left boot, and again diagonally to the slope, this time to remain unseen from the outer parts of the clearing if not from the inside, at least. Several bushes and trees had taken root at the base of the wall here, right next to the break in it. It extended about half way down the wall from its top, was marked by lighter edges, and the stones that had fallen down to leave the U-shaped gap still lay undisturbed between a smaller group of trees to her right which had grown through the mossy rubble pile of rocks.
The wind was too light to move the trees, except for the thinnest twigs. She had to climb the wall, unless she wanted to alert somebody by shaking the treetops that were well in sight of the inside, and therefore had to fix the blowpipe on her back, on the katana's strap, again. It didn't work well, and so she had to climb slowly. Even more, the blowpipe was a lot lighter in colour than the wall, even lighter than she was now, due to the body paint. But the patchy shadows would take care of that. The base of the gap was about twenty feet above the ground, and fifteen above the rubble pile, but it wasn't in the shadows. The crumbling rock had opened many gaps and footholds on the steep wall, already, but the moisture of the forest made it hard to use them safely. She had to clean each one and get rid of the debris and black slime without making any noise by dropping it. At thirty feet, she closed in sideways towards the more vertical parts of the gap. These were brighter than the outer side and loomed there like an invitingly lit gate.
From up here, she could look down into the yard, and check the far side of the gap more thoroughly than from the trench's embankment. Close to the edge, there was a wider foothold on some of the larger stones that had remained firmly seated in the wall, while the smaller ones above had dropped down. It offered some rest in the shadows, and an excellent platform to shoot her way clear into the castle, as the ragged rocks on the gap's edge offered many supports for the blowpipe's wider front end. She looked down on the wide open square on the inside, and at the busy greys inside, walking aimlessly to and fro between the remains of their own, but in general continuing the procession from the bridge into the main building, near the centre of the castle, and back again.
Then she slowly brought the blowpipe up and into position, first holding it vertically, in parallel with the outer wall, and then turning it inwards, always keeping the mouthpiece close to the outer face of the wall. The wider part of the pipe therefore slid slowly onto the jagged rocks in the gap and then turned to point downwards. The shadow barely extended far enough to cover herself on the outside, so close to the corner. The lighter brownish colour of the bamboo pipes against the sides of the gap was still fairly inconspicious, though, for there was little contrast with the cracked and less darkened limestone within the wall, which was lit by the flickering reddish light of the torches in their holders on the walls far below. The wall's outer and inner sides were almost black, stained by moss and algae.
She put the bag with the arrows and the fluffy seeds onto a rock that was a little below the mouthpiece. Two or three of the seeds at a time held the tip of the arrow in the pipe's centre and its barbed hooks at a distance from the wall. The aft end had a little cup of leather or of stiff leaves attached to it that did the same and held the pipe airtight as long as it travelled along inside of it, and then flipped back to form fins once it left the blowpipe. The wood of the conical arrows was fairly heavy, and they flew well despite their jagged outline and short length. They were a little shorter than her hands.
Now she opened the day's ration pack of death, and started to load and fire the arrows, one by one, at everything that moved on the inside, almost rhythmically. First she took out those in the corners and out of sight of most of the others, then she closed in on the centre, until she ran out of arrows. She left the blowpipe and the empty bag on the small platform's corner. The fluffy seeds were floating down around her like the first thick snowflakes in the not yet freezing air of winter.
The image of the woman she had beheaded in the dead of night, when she left the village, and thoughts of her friends probably still caught in the trap there, flashed through her mind.
The memories made her heart skip a beat, but they could not turn her back, instead they were pushing her ahead. Inwards. To the heart of the darkness. To spring her own trap. She jump-climbed the gap's edge onto the top of the wall and turned back to look down. Her eyes narrowed in determination.
Finally the confusion that had started with the first ones suddenly dropping dead so close to others in the yard, all of them with one arrow stuck in their temple, turned into wild mayhem in search of a focus. As it found none, the raging beings turned on their own grey fellows, and soon it was a ghastly rendition of every .. thing .. for itself that was unfolding on the yard below her.
It was not what Gabrielle had expected, but it was just as good, if not even better. She turned and ran towards the point of the wall that was closest to the roof of the main building, and once there, she jumped. The tiles and the rotten structure underneath crackled under the strain of the sudden impact. A row of tiles slid down noisily towards the ground, to her dismay.
Through the gap, Gabrielle finally saw the end of the procession. The row of creatures waiting in line had already shortened due to her blowpipe work outside. They all lined up in front of a pedestal. Somebody was standing on it, and he was obviously startled by the sudden noise, but unable to locate its source almost right above his head. The ragged figures that had lined up to face him submissively did not seem to care but instead started to tremble in some sort of expectation as they progressed in the queue towards him, ever more so as they approached closer. He continued to hand out something that he seemed to hold in front of their faces as each one knelt down before him to recieve it, while he was looking around, trying to do so not too obviously, but seemingly increasingly worried. Those who had recieved whatever he was giving to them walked away, and their trembling soon ceased.
But as Gabrielle turned to see where they were going, she was shocked to see them stumble and drop down one by one right where they stood, almost on a pile, with an eerily unnatural, distorted expression of joy on their faces. Their eyes were moving rapidly in all directions, as if they were staring at insects swishing by, while their jaws slowly dropped down as they lay there, salivating without discernible movement. After a while, they all seemed to fall asleep, and finally those on the far end of the pile of limbs started to rise and drift out of the hall in a wobbly way.
»Get the invader. Now. Alive,« the man suddenly commanded, raising a small something between his fingertips high above his bald head, »prove yourselves worthy to be taken yet another step closer to godhood.«
Now Gabrielle could recognize it - one of the small black balls she had first seen in Koryu. A ball of poison, but one of a kind. Powerful it was, but in more than one way.
He dropped the last ball theatrically into the mouth of the first in line, while the others standing behind started to tremble and move ever more agitatedly, and then he closed the small chest that seemed to hold the balls. He turned towards the ones standing disappointedly in line to hiss, »Get the invader first!« , and then left the room.
They raced out of the hall in unison, as if chased by a thousand swarms of angry bees.
Gabrielle worked her way across the roof while all tartarus broke loose below her. Soon, she had found a gap in the tiles large enough to slide through without risking more noise, and continued her way along the beams that supported the roof's structure. The wooden planks of the ceiling had caved in over most of the hall and some of the rooms behind the pedestal. The fires on two pillars on either side of the pedestal had almost died down, and their diminishing glow disappeared without a trace in the darkness of the roof's ancient wood.
There he was, huddled into a corner in a small room lit by a lonely candle. He looked down and held something in his hands that Gabrielle couldn't see.
She was all darkness, except for her eyes. They shone in what little light was left, like those of a hungry cat in the night, hard focused on prey. Like two emerald skies set in ivory, each centred on an all-devouring black hole, from which the flickering faint reflections of warm candlelight would never escape again.
Total silence.
She drew her sais swiftly and silently, and loosened all her muscles in a slow meandring move to get ready.
Then she jumped into the room, landing with one jarring, reverberating bang from both of her boots, less than six feet away from him. The echo was quickly drowned by the total silence inside the building and the busy but fairly muted noises of the outside world as she focused her eyes on her prey, on him.
Looks do kill.
But he was not looking, »I've been waiting for you,... perhaps,« the squat, middle-aged man said, sitting like a statue in a corner of the only room painted in lighter tones, not even raising his head. He had taken off his uniform's hat, not unlike that of the torturer, and had put it down next to the candle. The light was reflecting off his bald head, shaved meticiously except for the patch where the plait started, right above his neck. He slowly rolled the small scroll a few lines on and started to recite, mumbling on in a slow and downbeat voice, as if meditating on the meaning of every word. Only a few could be clearly understood from time to time, »... I am become death, ... the destroyer of worlds...«
»Know yourself but don't tell anybody, huh? ...And who were you before... ?« Gabrielle interrupted, slowly narrowing her eyes and lips in contempt.
»My name is Kur Tsu ... which I would like to forget, ... like myself... like yours, ... like you. ...« he returned to his scroll in silence, »I wish to... But I can't.«
»I haven't introduced myself .. so .. far.« Gabrielle flashed her teeth, as she hissed the answer at him. She felt as if his annoying calmness was either trying to lull her in all by itself, or to seduce her to kill him right away. Unintentionally, as far as he seemed to be concerned, or rather not concerned at all about the outside world, detracting her from taking to action. She was determined not to let that happen.
He did not take notice. After some time, he spoke again, as if he was talking to himself, »I presume they sent you to take care of me... kill me. ... One just as much of a metaphor as the other...«
»Nobody .. sent me. ... I came ... to .. end it,« her eyes sparkled in the dark, as her voice faded slowly to whisper the last pair of words. The only reason for restraint was now that she wanted to be perfectly sure that this would indeed mean the end, the end of the pain spreading over the outside world like oily stains. And the world inside.
»I am a prisoner here myself... like you, I can resolve to get out any time I like... but we can never leave. ...« his eyes followed the lines on the scroll, he never turned to face her.
»Wrong. You won't get out of here again. ... Leave, ... I don't care...« Gabrielle kept him firmly in her sights.
»Welcome .. fellow .. prisoner. ... You've locked your own chains long ago, I see... sealed your fate, you did... because you no longer even seem to feel them. ... Break out. Break the chains of life. ... Stay...« he rolled a black ball across the small table in front of him, without looking up.
»Nothing can chain one to oneself, and even less to those you're at one with. ... There are no strings on me... and I'm not part of the world you seem to see... the way you see it.« The ball dropped down on the far side of the table.
»You think just ... blend into the forest and away you ride like the wind... unseen? ...«
»Did .. you .. see me coming? Did you see .. it .. coming? Do you see me going, next? Have you already seen me leave?«
»No ... neither did you. ... Or did you?«
She continued as if he had not spoken at all, » ... I'm free to go... there's nothing in my way. ...Whatever I saw or not, it sufficed to know the greatest pain in the face of the world from all the others. ...«
»... Did they tell you what it would be like? To do what you will do? To one of your own? Did they say you have the right to do it... every right to do it? ... Do you .. feel .. it?«
»No. Do you? Did you? ... Did you ever feel it in the hundreds of times you did it? Out there in the hall when you put yourself on a pedestal and play great lord of them all, ... master of the ... creatures? ... Just to poison them. ... Roll a ball across the table so many times?«
»It's not poison, it's liberation. ... In the beginning it was their choice... and they knew fully well what they wanted to have.«
»But not what they would get ...and become, huh? ... You're disgusting.«
»I am. ... Maybe. ... But you are, too. ... You behave with disgusting lack of respect... respect of their own free will, and mine. ... They have become what they wanted to be... they want it to stay that way... not to change the least bit... and they want nothing else... nothing less... nevermore. ... I chose to help them, and they choose to help me each day. They had the courage to take the easy way. ... And you have ignorance to face them, impose yourself on their fate, and set about to take it away... steal it. ... Do you steal hunny from a baby's mouth, too? ... Or even the mother's milk?«
»Enough.« she said calmly, »That's it. It's over. Get up.« Gabrielle started to close in, slowly and determinatedly.
»The end? ... Just let's get it over with? ... No... My pain ends in death... like yours... so let .. my .. home be yours, too ... but ... there won't be an end beyond ours here. ... The choice is partly yours, maybe, and if you prefer to pretend it, to fool yourself, yours completely. ... This I allow you to know,... but you no longer .. need .. to .. know...« he spoke calmly, rolled another ball across the table, slower this time, and then drifted back into his scroll, »...if you'd just decide to wish instead.«
Gabrielle hesitated for a moment, thinking about putting the pinch on him to get him to talk straight, for her to learn what she needed to know, about the poison, about its powers as well as his, as suddenly the gates of the hall burst open, and the grey flood closed in once more.
This time, she immediately jumped right back into the beams of the roof, and left a warning, calmly spoken out of the dark, »I'll be back. ... This .. I .. allow you to know,« as she scurried along the beams in almost total silence, »you need to know no more, whatever you may wish to. From now on, there's death above.«
»So it was not you in the end. ... ... Then ... I .. am .. the most tragic of men,... indeed...« he sighed and continued to read.
This time, they left an open space, a bubble, too, but around Kur Tsu who sat in his corner without moving, except for what was absolutely necessary to read in the scroll. After a while, he waved his left hand, barely noticable, and the flood receded. A long while after the last one of those miserable beings had left, he got up and slowly went to another room, out of Gabrielles sight. She was still moving silently through the roof's structure. It offered many opportunities to hide, and returning to the outside would only expose her.
After a few moments, she heard his voice again from the other room, at first she thought it was him reciting again, but then there was something in the pauses between his few words that attracted her. She moved in closer, but the ceiling of the other room was still intact. The words not spoken by Kur Tsu were whispered, almost too softly to be understood. She returned to a hole in the ceiling above yet another room which was in total darkness and carefully slid down on some of the half collapsed beams to walk along the alley of columns which separated the hall at the pedestal's end from the row of smaller rooms. She took great care to check every gap between the columns as she advanced very slowly.
Kur Tsu and the mysterious voice were in the last room, some way beyond the end of the alley of columns. It was more brightly lit by torches, and the heavy door was stuck half open. It could no longer be closed as it had fallen out of its upper joints, already. She heard the whisper again, and this time she understood what was spoken, as she covered the distance along the last few columns in the darkness.
»...you read far too much, my dear Kur Tsu. It weakens your resolve,« the voice whispered.
»Reading vanquishes ignorance, conquers myths, and brings inspiration...« Kur Tsu answered calmly in resignation.
»Oh my dear, my dear... no, no. We don't conquer myths,... we .. create .. them. ... We .. will be myth and legend!« the whisper retorted, »Gimme that! ... 'I am become the destroyer of worlds...' Pah! ...Whoever came up with this had no idea... not the .. least .. bit .. of an idea. ... At least not about true power.«
Gabrielle didn't have the least bit of a clue of what the voice was talking about, or who ...or what was speaking to Kur Tsu.
»And, if the question is not to bold, forgive me, what would be your idea, then?« Kur Tsu inquired.
»Right, ... my fine eager pupil... good one... Nurture the world... feed its greed and spread it... let a thousand greedy flowers blossom... let them add their bits and crumbs happily to the great pie... encourage them to move on ever bolder on their own devices... to grow... to join... to expand... to proliferate... and then... ... chain them... with fear! ... Their own fear. .. Fear to lose. .. Fear for life. ...« the whisper became ever scarier, but then suddenly started to chuckle, »While you already eat the pie on your own when they still believe they can keep it.«
»And stick the carrot to them with the help of great Emperor Chin's little black magic secret,« Kur Tsu added, almost happily.
»Right... and you're .. so .. good at it... my little godmaker.« the whisper rejoiced.
Finally, Gabrielle thought she had seen the face of evil in Kur Tsu, as a distant rolling thunder suddenly rose, faint, from a great distance, but continuous, and it would not even begin to subside for a very long time. On the contrary, it would slowly approach and increase in intensity from time to time from now on, as if mighty armies were advancing on these remote mountains.
»Shhh.. What's that?!« , the mysterious voice whispered, in an aggressively hissing tone.
Gabrielle tried to turn as far as possible, but was not able to make out the source of the whisper without exposing herself, rendering all stealth useless. The only way to change position would have been to pass in front of the light coloured wall opposite of the door, well lit by the torches inside the room. Right under the noses of Kur Tsu, and whoever else was there, in the room beyond the columns. Gabrielle chose to stay in the shadows for now.
»No idea...« Kur Tsu stated.
»Oh yes... you .. never .. have ideas of your own, ... reading inspires, huh? ...« the voice hissed back, »But remember, I .. gave .. you the secret of Chin, not to be .. nice .. to people the way you are, but to gain access to all of what bears .. his .. name today. .. All .. of it! .. And all that lays beyond, to the far west. And if it was possible at all, even .. more! ... Would you please start to think big!? The twigs your snipping away at will fall down with the trees once you start cutting the big trunks.«
Gabrielle couldn't believe her ears, not only she couldn't imagine what could be less nice to people than what was going on outside, but there also was something about the voice itself, something ... eerie. And not unknown.
»As you wish... I am your humble servant,« he bowed to the ground, Gabrielle could tell by the way his voice faded, without being able to actually see it.
»I want all the power of the empires, all of them from Chin to Ta'Chin and from the Icy Land of Light to the tip of India, and I want it not just as soon as possible, but before yesterday. You know better than to disappoint me. ... Remember, Yodoshi only did half his petty job. Be careful not to .. disappoint .. me like he did. Get them on the ground, get them at sea, get them in the air if you find out how to get there, ...just get them! ... I've got other business to tend to now. ... Get yours done, and get on with it! .. I .. am .. history, ... for now!« the voice hissed.
There was a commotion in the room. Seconds later, a horse galopped off into the darkness.
Gabrielle rushed through the door, to Kur Tsu's sheer utter surprise. Startled, he rose slowly from his subservient position. The last one he thought he'd ever see again was this dark green apparition of anger. She thought she may have seen the reflections off horseshoes flashing in the dark, but already too far away to follow them, with no chance of catching up.
She sent him back on his knees by putting the pinch on him. »Now, who, .. and what was this all about? .. And fast, I've just cut off the flow of blood to your...«
»Rghgh... brain...« he cringed, in pain but not in fear, »a ... I ... rgh ... know... sh ... told ... me ... so it ... is you... gh ... at last... thank... you... Rgghh!«
»I'm waiting...?« Gabrielle raised her eyebrows, opened her hands, slowly gesturing at him to get to the point. The body paint had worn off inside her palms.
»Thank... y... uh ... ak .. am ... tragic ... ic ... of ... f ... men ... the horror... ... the ... ... horror ...« he collapsed, his eyes wide open. Dead, far sooner than Gabrielle could possibly have expected. This did not really bother her in itself, what really worried her were the whispered words she had heard earlier, and the enigma they had left behind.
Gabrielle left the body where he had fallen and checked first his pockets, then the room in which the mysterious conversation had taken place, but found nothing that could help to make the picture puzzle fit. She took the small scroll with her, although there were only hastily scribbled incoherent fragments of poems and prose on it. She the carefully worked her way back to the other room, the one in which she had first encountered Kur Tsu. All the others, apart from the great hall itself, apparently had been deserted for years. Thick layers of dust, rot and cobwebs where almost everywhere apart from the narrow paths Kur Tsu had used until moments ago. When she arrived, she couldn't find anything of interest there, too. The lonely candle lit the small chest filled with the black balls. It was stashed away in the corner where he had been sitting, untouched and fairly heavy. She opened it, but there was nothing in it except for the black balls, and nothing that hinted to anything being hidden within the walls themselves.
She smelled at one of the balls. It had a very unpleasant sweetish and stinging rotting smell. »Ough .. Bah!« She tossed it away, closed the chest and left the room with it.