Calamity Mandate

"Spreading?" Char Char frowned.

"Hmm." Naomi simply nodded, not elaborating as she looked around at the group with a calm expression, "Rather than explain it myself, let me take you to the village chief. He lives on the ridge not too far from the village entrance."

She then turned and led the way forward.

The shadows grew deeper as the sun set beneath the horizon, the oranges in the sky shifted to indigo and lavender hues. As they passed by the first bamboo houses, the sounds of crying reached Char Char's ears.

The muffled cries came from within the homes. These weren't loud, nor were they full of distress or anguish, Instead, it sounded like they were grieving quietly and in solitude much like the man whom Char Char had assisted at the outskirts.

A lone lantern lit an intersection in the dirt path that lead to various parts of the village. To the left and right, the silhouettes of men and woman slouched listlessly in the falling darkness. They sobbed in the streets, as if so burdened by grief that they couldn't bear to continue down the road, but only stand and weep.

The lantern at the next intersection was unlit. A torch smouldered on the ground beneath it where it had fallen. The lamplighter leaned against the post with his head bowed below his shoulders. As they approached he slowly slid down to his knees, having lost the will to continue on.

Naomi was unmoved by the condition of the villagers, passing by without a second glance. The priest of Yuima did not appear to be in any hurry to reach their destination, even as Char Char anxiously walked beside her. The Kumin girl's heart was aching for the people, wishing that she could do something for them.

They continued along the path, heading toward the village chief's home which was at a higher elevation than the rest of the homes. The path up to it was built along the mountainside, a mix of stairs and natural ramps that wound up to a plateau.

Yuzu trailed behind near the back of the group, her eyes clouded as if deep in thought. To the others it looked like she was concerned about the condition of the villagers, or perhaps she was affected by the heavy energy dampening the spiritual energy in the surroundings.

Thinking about the quest that they had been given, the others thought the small frown on her lips meant that Yuzu was coming up with a solution. They had been told that Yuzu was to prove her mettle by solving the village's 'disease', but this wasn't just any disease. It was a unique curse that had the entire province had suffered from for hundreds of years.

Moreover, that curse was the worst that it had ever been.

Even before they'd reached the outskirts Yuzu already knew that the curse had deeply rooted itself in the village. The many golden strings in the village were tainted by corruption, with the worst of them completely blackened and oozing with an evil miasma, to the point that the natural golden colour of the strings were obscured.

In the threads she saw a village full of people who had just suddenly lost all will to live. The corruption had seeped into their bodies and was eating away at their consciousness. But contrary to what she thought she'd find, Yuzu found the miasma strangely familiar.

She had never been to Huan, much less heard of anything with effects even close to the Wailing. So where had she seen this corruption before…?

As they mounted the final stairs leading to their destination, the moaning of an old man caught their attention. A bamboo fence ran the length of the cliff edge, overlooking the twenty-some meter drop to the roofs of the villager homes below.

"Oh— Why? Why did I do it? Why am I so cursed…"

Yuzu didn't have to ask any questions to know who this elder was. She saw the future clearly in the tapestry. This was the village chief, leaning precariously over the edge of the fence while looking down at the village below. His eyes were red from tears as he bemoaned his fate

"He's going to jump-" Char Char's breath quickened as her eyes saw the situation.

The sudden noise of Char Char rushing up the last few steps drew the attention of the elder, who screeched in surprise. His subconscious reaction threw him off balance and he nearly flung himself off the railing, but in that brief span of time Char Char had already reached the fence and grabbed the back of his shirt. His arms windmilled for a brief moment as he nearly slipped off the edge, but in the next breath Kai was also at the scene and together the two Exalted lifted the chief back to safety.

The elder's screams pierced the air as he flailed in the hands of his 'saviors', struggling to escape their grasp.

"You're safe! It's okay!" Char Char tried to speak to the elder, grunting as she tried to calm him down. It wasn't that he was particularly strong, but his erratic motions made her worried that he would hurt himself in his struggles.

Gasping for breath, the chief fought for his life against his two 'assailants'. He was a mess, his square spectacles hung off one ear, his shirt had somehow half come off, with his left arm sticking out the bottom. He'd lost one of his slippers.

Stolen novel; please report.

The struggle and screaming continued as Naomi turned to Yuzu.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Yuzu frowned.

"My Goddess has asked you to come and save this village." Naomi said, "That is the village chief, if he dies it would be a tragedy."

So she's not even going to help at all? Yuzu sighed inwardly. Naomi had just as much ability to address the situation as she did, but the priest was choosing to passive aggressively call Yuzu out.

"A tragedy, certainly." Yuzu said calmly, "But Yuima didn't ask us to save the village. She asked us to cure the disease."

"Surely, then, letting the elder die would be a failure to cure his disease." Naomi replied. If she were actually concerned for the elder's well-being, Naomi didn't show it.

The pair were standing next to each other, not looking at one another. Their voices were calm as if they weren't watching an old man screaming bloody murder and trying to throw himself off a cliff.

As he flailed he kicked at Kai's shins and pulled on Char Char's hair. The pair cast angry glares at Naomi and Yuzu as they yelled in unison, "Come help already!"

"Just let him go." Yuzu sighed, seeing that Naomi had no intention of interfering, "He's not going to jump. He's just scared out of his wits."

The fighting abruptly stopped as Char Char glanced down at the elder, who stopped struggling upon hearing Yuzu's words. Char Char tentatively let him go and he straightened his spectacles as he panted and recovered his breath.

"Who are you people?" The elder rasped, "Why did you attack me?"

"Attack you?" Char Char rose up indignantly, "We were trying to stop you from jumping!"

"Why would I jump? If I jumped from here, I would die!"

"That's what I'm saying!" Char Char countered.

"Okay enough of the comedy act…" Yuzu sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose in frustration, "Just help him back to his feet."

After a moment the village chief had recovered and his arms and legs were sticking out of the correct parts of his clothing, minus one slipper which had gone missing. He quickly calmed down once he recognized Naomi standing at the back of the group. Even flustered, he managed a respectful bow and greeting to the priest.

He then turned to the rest of the group, adjusting his clothing, though his missing slipper was nowhere to be seen.

"My name is Kagami. I am the chief of Ika Village." He said with a sense of dignity that perhaps would be befitting an elder, were he not so comically disheveled. He glanced at each of them in turn, then motioned for them to follow him, "It is getting dark, please come inside and we can talk."

Their small group was soon seated in the village chief's home, sipping from small cups of tea that had been served by an old servant. While the chief seemed fairly cognizant, the daughter looked just barely able to keep herself together, as if she was about to slump down onto the floor at any moment.

"It is not often we have visitors…" The chief said, after a moment. His eyes fell on Naomi with a look of familiarity, "Naomi-shi, it has been a while. I am afraid that it is… not a good time for… outsiders."

"The Goddess has requested for me to simply observe these visitors to our land. Please, pretend I am not here." Naomi said gently in greeting, motioning to the group.

So you're not even going to give us a warm introduction? Yuzu noted with annoyance. Clearly, the Goddess had no intention of assisting them at all, but to go as far as requesting that they 'pretend' the priest wasn't even there—

The chief hesitated for a moment from the strange request, but then turned his eyes on the rest of the table. There was an expectant pause for the visiting party to introduce themselves, but an awkward silence fell over everyone. Firuzeh and Char Char glanced over to Yuzu, feeling that she was the most appropriate to speak up, while Kai simply remained stoic.

Yuzu sipped at her tea calmly, having no intention to take the lead. If Naomi wanted to make things awkward, fine! Yuzu had no problem with that.

"…I am Char Char Zhao. This is Yuzu, Firuzeh, and Kai. We've come— a long way, from Kumin, to see Ika village." Seeing how no one was taking the lead Char Char felt the need to speak up, introducing their small group. "Please accept my deepest apologies for our… misunderstanding earlier. I hope you were not hurt."

"It is nothing to worry about, I understand how it must have looked, with me looking over the ledge. It is a precarious position, even my servants tell me to be careful at times." The chief said politely, then bowed his head apologetically, "I wish I could be a better host, but I am afraid you have come at a rough period of time for us. You see, our village is in mourning. Given that night has fallen, you may stay the night here in the guest rooms, but in the morning you will have to depart the village."

Hearing the chief's words, Char Char gave a meaningful glance to Yuzu. Their group were clearly outsiders, and so 'in mourning' was a euphemism that the Chief was using as an explanation for the dejected behaviour of the villagers. Obviously they could not reveal the nature of The Wailing to strangers.

"Actually… Though we are outsiders, we are aware of The Wailing." Char Char said, noting that the Chief stiffened upon hearing the name of their affliction, "In fact, we are here on a quest from the Goddess Yuima about it."

Hearing Char Char's words, Chief Kagami stiffened in his seat. Being given a quest from the Goddess was definitely a ludicrous thing to claim, and yet Char Char had done so with a look of complete seriousness.

If they had been alone, such a claim might have been brushed off as delusional. However they conveniently had arrived with a priest of that very goddess. Yuzu had to bite her tongue to avoid having her amusement show on her face.

"A quest…?" The chief's eyes narrowed in confusion as he instinctively looked toward Naomi.

"Ahem… Yes." Naomi nodded with a strange expression. She couldn't refute the statement, but at the same time, how could she support it? She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it and simply nodded again and gestured to Char Char. "Mm."

As if not even registering how her simple statement had completely stifled the Nature priest, Char Char continued sincerely, "Chief Kagami… If it isn't too much trouble, can you please tell us a bit about how The Wailing is affecting the village? I am… surprised to see it so strong."

"Yes, well… where to start… We are deep in the mountains, and so The Wailing always comes regularly to our village, more so than others. I would say in my youth up to my middle years, we would see it occur perhaps three or four times a decade." The chief explained. "However, in the past few years the amount has slowly been increasing, and these past few months it has rapidly gotten worse. Our last weeping was only just in the spring, and now, barely into summer we are suffering from it again. Worse yet, the severity is increasing as well."

"You were saying you were cursed, outside." Char Char said.

"Yes… Well… That is hard to talk about… I was hoping that—" Kagami's eyes flickered to Naomi, "What I mean to say is, we have prayed for the Goddess to send a priest to help us."

The topic was too uncomfortable, so the Chief didn't hesitate to change it directly.