Chapter 111 - Conversation

Yuzu hesitated, unsure how to answer the traveler. He thrust his right hand out to her in a demanding gesture as he repeated.

“Give me back the chest!”

In her spiritual vision his thread began to spasm erratically as it shifted rapidly in colour between opaline white and charcoal black. The back of his coat began bulging from within as though something were about to burst outward.

“I’ll return the chest to you!” Yuzu said quickly, her mind racing as she desperately blurted out something to stop him from completely losing control.

The words had an instant effect on the traveler as the lumps on his back calmed down and receded. The trembling in his hands steadied as he nodded to her, still obscuring his face underneath the brim of his hat.

“Yes. I can see that you brought enough money to pay down the interest for the loan.” Yuzu continued firmly as she tried to buy herself time to think. “The shop is closed but I’ll make an exception and retrieve the chest for you.”

“Thank you. Then I’ll wait out here.” The traveler said with great effort.

Yuzu nodded as she turned towards the pawn shop. She took a quick glance at the threads in the area. They were calm and took on a subtle lustre. The golden tapestry which was made up of the threads of the people who lived in the neighborhood was yet undisturbed by the presence of the traveler. Only hers and the traveler’s were vibrant and dynamic as they bound together tightly in an ever-changing knot. Yuzu cast her spiritual vision about, but this time there were no silver or other coloured threads around to save her.

Leaving the traveler behind Yuzu pulled out her keys and quietly unlocked the front door. The bells on the door jangled softly as she entered the shop. The large silhouette of a sleeping Xiang was at the counter, his head buried in his arms and the lantern beside him long burned out. Yuzu had read the threads on the way in and was not surprised or alarmed by his presence. From reading his thread she knew that he was fast asleep and wouldn’t wake from her actions.

The traveler stood under the lamp directly across the street from the shop. The rain drizzled onto his dark silhouette, motionless like a statue. Keenly aware that he was watching her, Yuzu strode purposefully to the back of the shop, squeezing behind Xiang’s massive body as she passed him behind the counter.

Only when she had passed through the fabric covered doorway into the back area did she allow herself to breathe a soft sigh of relief. She had bought herself some time and space to think, but it was fleeting. She needed to figure out something quickly, or the traveler would certainly become impatient and barge in.

Yuzu briefly considered running out through the back door. Perhaps she’d be able to survive if she ran as fast as she could… With the help of the fate threads she could easily convince Xiang to escape with her. They would have at least a few minutes head start…

In that scenario, the traveler would definitely lose control and go berserk. Many people in their neighborhood would die, Yuzu’s home and many others would be destroyed.

Still, it was an option.

Yuzu stepped into the kitchen, looking at the back door. The fate threads flickered and grew more wispy as she hesitated on the option to make a run for it. She tried checking the corrupted thread to see if she could discern what would happen. A sharp pain jolted through her fingers on contact. She bore through it but she could only perceive murky, black shapes and muddled shrieks. The blurry visions offered no answers for her.

These visions only show me what awful things could happen. Yuzu thought grumpily. Why couldn’t they tell me how to keep the disasters from happening in the first place?

She rested her hand against the countertop, tapping her finger against it irritatingly. She bit her lip and stared at the back door as she seriously contemplated making an escape. After a moment she shook her head and sighed.

“No.” She said quietly, “This isn’t right. It was my fault for taking the chest, my fault for losing it. I can’t drag other people into this.”

Stepping back into the small hallway that connected the shop and the house, Yuzu pulled out her keys to the locked storage room and entered. It was pitch black inside the room, but she reached out to the lantern hanging next to the door and lit it with her spirituality. The small, shelf-filled room lit up in a soft orange light. The spot at the bottom of the shelf that had held the ornate chest was, of course, empty.

Yuzu stared at the empty spot on the shelf for a moment before shaking her head with a sardonic grin on her lips.

“What am I even doing here, of course the chest didn’t magically appear here by itself.…” Yuzu muttered to herself. She leaned against the door frame with a sigh. “I need to find a way to distract the traveler, take him out of the city. Then at least I’ll be the only one to suffer from my mistakes.”

She didn’t want to die, but she didn’t see any way out of the situation. She could only hope to minimize damages. She lingered in the room for a few short minutes more until she thought that if she waited any longer the traveler would lose patience and barge into the shop. Then, grabbing a large black umbrella from the storage room Yuzu stepped back out into the rain.

“Let’s go pick up the chest.” She said in a decisive tone, “It’s in our secure storage. Since you seem to be in a rush let’s walk there together.”

The traveler nodded. He held out his hand towards her and she saw that he was clutching the small pouch of coins. He had apparently picked up the coins in the time that she had been inside the shop. Yuzu carefully extended her hand to receive the pouch, noticing that the tremors in the traveler’s body had ceased substantially.

Yuzu led the way, walking slow enough that the traveler could keep up with his stiff, laboured steps, but trying to keep the pace up. She didn’t know whether the traveler would reach his limit during the walk and suddenly lose control, so getting out of the city quickly was the priority. Of course, she had lied about the secure storage, they had no such location. Fortunately the traveler did not seem to notice that anything was amiss, and followed without complaint.

The traveler’s walking staff beat steadily in the night, taking on his entire weight with each step.

Yuzu didn’t have a destination in mind. Her only goal was to make it to the edge of the city as fast as possible. In the meantime, she needed to come up with a way to save herself after she brought the traveler as far away as she could.

“You look different compared to your first visit.” Yuzu said, once they had fully left her neighborhood. She spoke clearly, with the best casual tone that she could muster.

They were walking side by side along one of the short bridges that crossed the river. The rain drizzled gently onto her umbrella, whose thin fabric glowed softly from the street lamps as they passed under them. The traveler kept his head bowed as the rain dribbled off the edge of his hat. He didn’t respond to her statement.

Yuzu tried once more to get a response out of the traveler, “Since you were able to gather the funds to retrieve the chest, I guess you were able to buy what you needed at the market.”

“No.” The traveler said after a long pause, “I failed.”

“Failed?” Yuzu asked.

“I wasn’t able to save my patient.” He said in a somber, regretful tone.

They took a few more steps forward when the traveler suddenly stumbled and bent over in anguish. As he leaned heavily against his staff, the clothes on his back began to bulge. His breathing became coarse as a black miasma discharged into the air around him.

Yuzu’s eyes widened as she tried to think of something to stop him from going berserk at that moment, “P-patient? S-so you’re a doctor?”

“…A cleric.” The man said, coughing hoarsely.

“What was it that you were treating?”

“Devileyes.”

“So you used the money from the chest to buy medicine for the treatment?”

“It didn’t work” The traveler shook his head, but seemed to recall something. “The medicine wasn’t right for my patient, but in the end it saved the life of another.”

Though his replies were terse, the conversation seemed to ground him as he slowly recovered to normal. Yuzu let out a soft exhale of relief as he finally recovered his posture and began walking again.

“How far until the chest?” He asked.

“Still a bit to go…” Yuzu said hesitantly, wanting to stay away from the topic of the chest. “So you’re a cleric…”

Her eyes lit up as a connection clicked in her mind. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about Biltishroom, would you?”

“Yes.” The traveler nodded. He spoke slowly, as if he had trouble recalling the knowledge from his memory. “That’s right. I made a medicine from the fungus. I used it to save the daughter... But I was too late to save her mother. Despite everything I did, I failed her.”

This is it! Yuzu had an epiphany as she listened to the story. The traveler was resisting the corruption inside him by holding on to the promise of retrieving the chest. However, what if he had something else to hold on to? He was a cleric who clearly cared about saving others. Could she use that?

“But you saved the daughter, right?” Yuzu said, “It must be tough to lose your patient, but right now there are many people suffering from the Devileyes. They could use your help.”

The traveler didn’t respond at first, but seemed to be mulling over her words as they continued walking. After a while he replied in a heavy tone, “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t remember how to make the medicine anymore.” He spoke calmly, without emotion, “I don’t even remember my own name.”