Chapter 5: Under a Glass Moon

Chapter Five: Under a Glass Moon

            It’s been three days since I arrived in Tamaji. From the moment I arrived, I’ve been gathering information. I came here by sea, of course, taking one of the regular passenger ships that travel between Arlia and Tamaji every now and then. It’s been a little over two weeks since I originally received my orders and left Arlia. My current location is the village of Zenia. It is nighttime.

            Zenia is a small village on the outskirts of a larger town. There really isn’t much here to see or do. There’s a market in the center of the village, with people selling produce and meat and all kinds of things, a section of the village set aside for rows of houses and farmland, and a shrine that rests atop a grassy hill on the far side of town.

            That very shrine is the location of my mission objective; I was sent here to obtain something from there, and tonight is the night I’ll do it.

            I don’t expect this mission to be much of a challenge, however. I’m well suited to this sort of work. I already have my escape route planned out as well. Zenia boarders the eastern side of the Tamajian landmass, so I’ve prepared a small boat to use in order to escape to the port town down the coast from here. Of course, I shouldn’t be focusing on my escape when I haven’t even completed the mission yet.

            The moon is full tonight, and the sky is alight with shooting stars of every color, just as it is every night. I hide crouching on the roof of a building in town, staring through a pair of binoculars at the shrine on top of the hill. These binoculars in addition to my superior vision allow me to see what’s happening at the shrine with relative ease.

The shrine is a three-story building, with a high wall surrounding the grounds. For each level of the building, there is a balcony that extends all the way around, with a few guards on each floor. The outer wall also has a few guards surveying the premises. Their security doesn’t seem terrible, but I don’t expect much trouble either. It would take a lot more than this to stop me. Even so, I should be cautious. There’s no way to know from here whether or not they have Psychics among their guards’ ranks. If so, things could get troublesome.

“It’s time to go,” I say quietly to myself. I pull my mask up, covering my face from just under my eyes and down. The mask is connected to the skintight black bodysuit I am wearing. My long black hair should suffice to conceal my eyes considering it is already past dark. Over the bodysuit, I wear a dark jacket and dark pants, the pockets of which serve to conceal small weapons and other useful tools. Two short swords are strapped to my belt, one at either side of my waist. I’m all set to begin the mission.

I stand up from my crouching position and focus myself. I feel that the change has been made, my power has activated. With all my preparations in order, I begin running at full speed, and once at the edge of the roof, I leap into the air.

I lend myself to the night as my black wings carry me towards my prey.

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 “High Priestess Sumi, please stay in your chambers, our Psychic guards have detected an intruder,” the priestess’s caretaker warned her. There were about ten guards in the priestess’s chambers alone, while many more were scampering about the shrine grounds looking for the aforementioned intruder. The Psychics among the shrine’s guardians had detected the intruder, but for some reason were unable to discern his or her exact location. Whatever the case, the intruder would have to come up to the third floor to reach the priestess’s chambers, and it was very unlikely they could survive that long.

The chamber was dark, since the candles had been put out, and the moonlight coming through the windows was not enough to illuminate the room.

“Yes, Miira, I will do as you instruct,” the priestess, Sumi, responded calmly. She sat on the floor with legs tucked underneath her, as was customary in Tamaji, with her hands folded neatly in her lap. Her posture was elegant, and her manner poised. It was hard to believe the young girl had just turned fourteen less than three weeks ago.

Sumi wore the long, flowing, and colorful traditional robes of a Tamajian priestess. Her hair was also indicative of her role; it was dark and long, with parts of the hair wrapped in holy ribbons. As an important part of the country’s religion, priestesses in Tamaji were highly respected and heavily guarded. This was even more true when the priestess also happened to be a Psychic, like in Sumi’s case.

There was a sudden crashing sound from outside the priestess’s chamber, followed by men’s screams that were cut short. The guards in Sumi’s room all exchanged quick looks before sending two men to guard the door, one on either side. It was the only way into the room, and if the the intruder came through there, he would be immediately be skewered by the long silver blades on the end of their spears. The two men remained steadfast; determined to perform their duty to protect Sumi.

The remaining eight men stood guard in a semicircular formation around Sumi and her caretaker. They all appeared nervous but maintained their focus. They were professionals after all; it didn’t matter how fierce their opponent was, their job was to guard the priestess with their lives, and that was exactly what they were prepared to do.

But Sumi knew what all the guards had been thinking when they exchanged looks earlier: How did the intruder get up here so fast? How could they have made such short work of all the other guards? Sumi wondered if the intruder had somehow managed to sneak passed everyone on the way up here.

Suddenly, the door blew apart into bits and pieces as flame and smoke obscured the view of the two men standing by it for a moment. In that one moment, someone entered the room and quickly incapacitate them both. It had happened so fast no one could even react at first. Fire and smoke were now spreading rapidly throughout the room, completely obscuring the doorway and making it impossible to tell where the intruder was.

“There he is! Attack that shadow!” one of the guards yelled.

Two of the men who had been guarding Sumi charged towards where the door had been, swinging their spears wildly at the flames, but Sumi could not see what they were attacking. Something seemed very off to her. The two men kept frantically swinging away at the fire and thick smoke, but they did not seem to be fighting anything. The sound of clashing weapons was absent; it was as if they were attacking nothing. She focused her eyes, and suddenly it made sense to her. They were hallucinating! Before she could call out to them, the flames engulfed the two guards, for they had ventured too deep into the fire.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. Sumi could feel a strange presence in the room; there was definitely something in here with them, but she had no clue where. She was having trouble breathing, but she wasn’t sure if it was due to the smoke and fire, or due to the presence she was sensing. It was as if the shadow of an evil entity were filling up the room, enveloping everything, yet lingering just beyond normal sight.   Despite finding it hard to breathe, Sumi was not actually coughing or choking on the smoke. Conversely, the others in the room were coughing and choking as one would expect during a fire.

While Sumi was still trying to grasp the situation, four of the guards surrounding her fell to the ground instantly, with the last two guards ducking for cover at the last moment to avoid whatever had taken down their comrades. One of the guards had grabbed Sumi as he dove behind a table in the room. He quickly kicked it over onto its side so that they could hide behind it. The other guard had made a dash for the window on the opposite side of the room from the door. He forced it open, allowing some of the smoke to blow outside, and turned towards the others.

“Priestess Sumi! Please, escape through he--” his words fell to the ground mid-sentence, along with his body. In the moonlight from the open window, it was easy to see a ralai, a Tamajian throwing knife, sticking out of his neck as blood began to spill from the wound.

Sumi’s caretaker Miira, who had taken to cowering against a wall in the back of the room, began to scream hysterically. Sumi and her guard looked to see what she was screaming at, when they finally saw it.

In the center of the burning room, stood a sole dark figure. He wore a sleek black helmet that seemed to have a wing design sticking up off of either side. His body was clad in a black skintight bodysuit from head to toe. Even the bottom half of his face, which was not hidden by the helmet, was covered in the same material as the bodysuit. Between the bodysuit and the helmet, no aspect of the man’s skin could be seen. The only identifiable trait uncovered by the strange costume was his long, black hair.  In his hands were two short swords, each drawn and ready to kill. This creature certainly resembled a man, but then again, Sumi was not so sure it was one.

The last remaining guard stood up from behind the table. He turned to look at Sumi. He had the look of someone who knew he was going to die. Nevertheless, he remained calm.

“Priestess, please escape for the balcony through the open window. There isn’t much time; this room is full of fire. I’ll distract the intruder. Now go!”

Before Sumi could object, the guard took off running for the intruder, raising his spear high in preparation for the attack.  He was closing in on his target, but his opponent made no moves to defend himself.

The guard had finally closed the distance, and swung his weapon at the intruder, only to find that the creature had suddenly disappeared. The guard, thrown off balance by both the missed attack and the surprise of having his target disappear, stumbled forward a bit. By the time he had regained his balance, the intruder had reappeared behind him. The man promptly chopped the guard across the back of the neck with his hand, rendering him unconscious.

Sumi just realized that she should have been running, but had nowhere to run to. The guard had not succeeded in luring the intruder away from the window for her to escape through. Instead, the enemy was now a direct obstacle between Sumi and the window. A quick glance at the caretaker Miira revealed that the poor woman had fainted somehow; probably from shock and fear. Sumi was the only one left.

The intruder had sheathed his swords and walked calmly over to Sumi. The fire and smoke had disappeared, but the door was still in pieces, and there were unconscious guards all over the room. From the looks of it, none of them were dead. Even the blood that Sumi had seen before was gone. Finally she understood what was going on.

Sumi stood up calmly as the intruder approached her. He was much taller than her, and looking into the jet black visor of his helmet did not reveal any details of his face. Not even his eyes showed through the sleek headgear.  

“I’ve come here under Walter Windsong’s orders, High Priestess,” the man said. By his voice, Sumi could guess that he was a young adult, probably in his early twenties.

“Please, just call me Sumi; I’m no longer the priestess of this village,” Sumi told him. “And your name is?”

“You may call me Crow. Let’s get going, I’d hate for the guards from downstairs to come up here. The obstacles I placed on the way up here won’t hold them off forever.”

Sumi gestured to the fallen guards. “You didn’t kill them; you have my thanks. I realize it must have made things more difficult for you this way.”

“You have no idea. I don’t know why you included a condition like that for this sort of mission. I had to use illusory techniques to avoid taking lives. I’m exhausted now, thanks to your naïve request,” Crow said, though he didn’t sound particularly angry. Sumi was having a hard time reading this man. She was also very curious about his powers; they seemed far different than what Psychics are normally capable of, but she supposed she would have to wait until a more opportune time to make such inquiries.

“My apologies, Master Crow. I will try my best to refrain from such naïve requests in the future,” Sumi said with a pleasant smile. She extended a hand for Crow to shake, but instead of shaking it, he pulled her to him and swept her up into his arms.

“I told you there isn’t much time. We’re leaving now. I hope you aren’t afraid of heights,” he said has he jumped through the open window. They were now on the balcony of the third story of the shrine.

“Why do you say that?” Sumi asked.

“Because we’re going to fly.”

“What!?”

Without another word, Crow leapt off the top of the shrine.

Author's Note

Here is chapter 5, introducing two new characters! Expect Chapter 6 sometime, and please check out Lotus Eaters, a related novel also posted on this site!