Calamity Mandate

Though the chief was attempting to be helpful and polite, he was definitely being pushed to the edge of his comfort zone by Char Char's probing questions. As such, he tried appealing to the Priest of Yuima once more to step into the conversation.

"We have always shown our devotion to the Goddess, praying for Her assistance." The Chief said to Char Char, "We hope that our prayers will be answered before it is too late for our small village."

"It must be hard," Char Char nodded in sympathy, "But I know Yuima's priests care greatly for Her followers. If they could provide their assistance, I'm sure they would."

Naomi avoided eye contact, her lips sealed in a strange expression as she heard those words. Aren't you calling me out with these words? You know that my instructions are to be an observer, why do you make it sound like I'm the heartless one here?

An awkward pause hung over the room as the priest didn't join in on the conversation.

"Yes, well, like I said, it has been getting worse." Kagami sighed eventually, "Therefore, our village really cannot accommodate visitors…"

Seeing that her question about Chief Kagami saying he was 'cursed' was being avoided, Char Char could only let the conversation carry on.

But of course, such limitations didn't apply to Yuzu. Golden threads shimmered in her eyes as she reached out to the chief's blackened string and started cycling through the alternate futures.

"Push him on the curse question." Yuzu silently transmitted to Char Char through her thread.

"Is it that you can't accommodate villagers because of the curse?" Char Char asked in a forward manner, catching the chief off guard.

"N-no, that doesn't have anything to do with…"

"What is the curse you're asking about, then? I have a feeling that it must have something to do with our quest."

"Yes…" The chief's nervous eyes flickered toward Naomi before he swallowed deeply, "My son… he has gone missing."

After several attempts, Yuzu withdrew her consciousness from the tapestry of fate with a deep understanding of the situation in the village. The chief's twenty-six year old son Asano was in charge of the village's mining operations, which formed Ika village's livelihood. With the sudden ramp up of intensity of the Wailing and no priest arriving to cleanse it, the village was on the verge of falling apart. At its most severe, the villagers would lose their will to eat and would starve to death. In some extreme cases they might even simply stop breathing, as if their very hearts had lost the will to pump blood.

As of this morning in the entire village, only Kagami and Asano were mentally coherent enough to take action on their own. They had gotten in an argument, where each of them held different opinions on how to solve the crisis.

Kagami felt that they needed to pray fervently to the Goddess and implore her to send the priests. This was the accepted method, which remained true to their faith in Yuima and Her ways. Asano, being younger, had different ideas.

When their group entered the village and found Kagami cursing on the edge of the cliff, the elder had just discovered that his son had slipped away and headed into the mines at the edge of the village.

This action was not just a betrayal of his father, but was directly against the will of Yuima. If his son really did carry out his plan, they might not only just be cursed by Yuima, the goddess might smite them to death as punishment!

No matter how Char Char pressed in the alternate futures, Kagami would not speak about the method that Asano wanted to use to help his fellow villagers.

But… perhaps I can figure out the answer myself… Yuzu muttered inwardly.

There was something off about the whole situation that had been bothering Yuzu since they first met the chief— Why, out of the entire village, was he (and apparently his son) unaffected by The Wailing? And furthermore, how was his daughter who was clearly affected, still able to function and serve them?

The chief and the daughter's threads were pitch black, so shouldn't they be even more deeply affected compared to the other villagers who had less corruption on their golden threads?

This question triggered a memory as she suddenly had an epiphany, remembering where she had seen something like this before. It was surprisingly similar to Devileyes, the corruption that had affected the people of Noga City. This corruption caused them to grow disembodied eyes on vines out of their bodies, affected people's golden threads in a very similar way. The energies didn't feel quite the same as Devileyes, but if the effect was similar, then…

Yuzu reached out to the Chief's thread and rubbed against his blackened thread.

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Similar to the devileye corruption, the black coating crumbled off at her touch, revealing the chief's fate thread beneath it.

As expected… Yuzu thought triumphantly. His string isn't golden, it's silver.

The village chief is an Exalted!

Rubbing the servant's string revealed a white thread underneath, confirming Yuzu's theory.

The servant's string is thinner, her Exalted energies are weaker. She must be a Candidate, and the village chief is most likely an Apprentice. Yuzu nodded inwardly. Their Exalted powers gave them the strength to fight against the corruptive energies of the Wailing and continue to function.

For Asano to also be unaffected and argue with his father he was also at the apprentice level. As for what their argument was about… Yuzu only needed to glance at the threads within the chief's manor to deduce the answer.

Catalysts.

The village's main export were crystal catalyst materials mined from within the mountains, and there was a small stash of them locked securely away in the chief's study. A pure Spirit domain energy emanated from the unpolished crystals, reminding Yuzu of the purity of energies in sarira that came directly from the bodies of deceased Exalted.

Asano's plan was to gather the crystals in the mines and strengthen everyone's spirit by turning them into Exalted.

In this way they would be strong enough to resist the Wailing and the village would be saved. At the same time, this action was against the teachings of Yuima, who not only treated the crystals as sacred, but hid their true meaning from everyone but Her priests and a select few regular citizens — such as the elders of a village and their families.

As Yuzu digested this information, the conversation with Char Char and Chief Kagami continued until the latter sighed heavily, "I'm sorry, I won't be able to help you with your quest. You may stay the night, but in the morning I will have to ask you to depart."

"It's fine." Yuzu said as Char Char looked over to her for help, "We will trouble you for the night. Thank you for your hospitality."

The conversation clearly wasn't going anywhere, and they had had a long day. Since there was nothing they could do, Yuzu was fine with calling it for the night.

Using her powers Yuzu tweaked the threads to allocate the most spacious room to herself, and have the elder provide her with a bath, fresh clothes and a simple dinner. The rest of her entourage received similar treatment.

After settling down for the night, Yuzu sat cross-legged on her bed and pulled a leather pouch from her bag. She felt the small round marbles of a few sarira through the soft leather - just a few that she had taken from the battlefield in the Reza mausoleum. Tucking the pouch into her pocket she then retrieved a small round quartz disc from her bag. The medallion felt cold and heavy in her hands.

With her preparations complete Yuzu closed her eyes and focused on the energies within the medallion.

She felt a falling sensation as her consciousness plunged into the pocket space connected to the relic.

~

Yuzu opened her eyes to see the sacred Chamber of Divine Judgement already before her. Through the medallion, her spirit and consciousness had returned to the pocket dimension of Ying Zhen. She sat atop the pedestal held by the multi-headed demon statue, surrounded by the twelve layers of saintly statues that guarded the prisoner housed within the chamber.

A thin, silver light washed down from the night sky that hung above the open ceiling, bathing the surroundings in a solemn air of mystery.

As with her previous times that she had visited the hall, she was dressed in the same clothes that she wore in the real world. Her hands reached into her pockets, but to her disappointment she found them empty.

It seems that I can't bring items from the physical world into this space… At least not with the medallion.

With a thought, Yuzu floated up from the platform and hovered down to the floor of the chamber.

"Jun Yi Kong." Yuzu said, as if she were calling on him at the front door of his home, "I have a question for you."

"This is my domain." The chamber shook with a low rumble as a deep voice snapped, "What makes you presume you can simply show up and demand an audience, child?"

"Nevermind that. I don't have time to chit-chat." Yuzu shook her head, "What do you know about countering the powers of Fate?"

"The audacity!" This time, the rumbling was strong enough to disturb the dust gathered on the higher levels. The soft patter of pebbles and dust sounded around the chamber. "Why, I should-"

"Have you heard of Yuima, the Goddess of Nature?" Yuzu continued casually, "She considers Akahi one of Her greatest enemies."

"Fate has many enemies and few friends," Jun Yi Kong snarled, "It doesn't take much to wonder why-"

"One of her priests is completely invisible to my powers." Yuzu said seriously, "Even Yuima Herself can't hide from me, but this one priest can."

The rumbling and shaking stopped at these words, and a silence fell briefly on the chamber, returning it to its previous solemn atmosphere.

Yuzu knew that she now had Jun Yi Kong's attention. This definitely wasn't the best way to deal with him, but she didn't have time to play around his ego. As with before, Fate Cycling also was of limited use with him, though a few quick attempts did tell her that no matter how she approached the conversation he couldn't help but take some verbal jabs at her.

"I am currently in Huan— the west side of the kingdom of Lao Shan in your days— We are currently resting in a village under the supervision of one of her priests." Yuzu explained.

"And you still decided to visit me." Jun Yi Kong couldn't help but chuckle as he began to understand Yuzu's situation, "A dangerous move, if She's able to notice it."

Yuzu nodded, not needing to explain further. As the owner of the medallion, Jun Yi Kong would know that Yuzu would have to enter a deep meditative state while her consciousness entered Ying Zhen. While she was here, she would be disconnected from her body, unable to react if she were put in danger.

Normally, Yuzu would be able to read the fate strings and confirm her safety, but with the Nature priest hidden from her powers, every second she was in here was fraught with danger.

If Naomi wanted to, she could walk into Yuzu's room right at this moment and kill her or capture her, and Yuzu wouldn't even realize it.

Realistically, this wasn't likely to happen. However the medallion was one of Yuzu's secrets that she did not want Yuima to be aware of. Therefore, if Yuima had a method to sense what Yuzu would doing it would give her an unnecessary edge.

"Fortunately for you, I do not think you have to worry about this." Jun Yi Kong chuckled. The room began rumbling softly as he channeled his spirituality into the surroundings. The silver light from the sky dimmed slightly, the shadows on the ground flickered from the spiritual pressure.

"If I'm not mistaken, it is not Yuima that is interfering with your abilities." Jun Yi Kong mused, "But rather, the visitor that you have unknowingly brought along with you to this space!"