Sha Yan Shi and the Long Dark Night
Exhausted though he was, Nameless Ravine raced through the dying day, galloping north. Even in the no-man’s land, where the Dragon-lines were twisted and shattered, the twilight sun warmed the Solar’s face and renewed his pools of essence. By the time the moon rose high in the Eastern sky, he had more than enough resources to power his armor’s auxiliary functions. Battered though it was, the Most Merciful Armor of the Wood Dragon was built to the finest first-age standards. With the Astrological Occlusion Field engaged and the Essence Dampening Field leeching what little mana in from the landscape, the Dawn Caste warrior was as invisible to charms as a Night Caste shadowstalker. No Exalted eyes would mark his passage, save perhaps the Wayward Eye of Ma-Ha-Suchi.
The deepest depths of night found him perhaps two hours’ ride away from White Bluff, which was visible on the horizon as a smudge looming above the plains. “Perhaps Sha Yan Shi found her way back to the abandoned town,” he thought. Nameless Ravine was about to turn towards the village, when a windchime sounded in his ear. He snapped his armor’s visor down over his head, and watched as the armor’s sensor matrix illuminated a small shadowland straight ahead. “That’s odd,” he thought, “this wasn’t here two days ago.”
Another windchime sounded, repeated, insistent; he dropped the armor’s ethereal shroud and refocused the energy into the Awareness Array, and the night illuminated bright as day to his eyes. “There she is, right in the center of that hell-hole. Poor thing, she’s stuck until morning.”
Nameless Ravine dismounted at the threshold where no-man’s-land ended and darkness began. “Go,” he told his steed; “Fly to Hiparkes; a shadowland is no place for you.” The horse turned and galloped away, and the solar plunged into the heart of darkness. Sha Yan Shi hardly reacted to his arrival. Her fur was matted with dirt and blood, and her face was streaked with dried tears. Her sword hung limply from her hand as she stared at the two formless mounds of fur and flesh on the ground in front of her. He walked up beside her and waited.
“They just keep getting up”, she sniffled. She fought back tears; there was no way she would let herself cry in front of him. “See? That one twitched again. How many times to I have to kill them before they stay dead?” She wearily raised her sword. “Where’s that exorcist monk when you need him?”
Nameless Ravine sighed. “Soho? He tried to put an arrow through my head.”
“Oh.” She paused. “What about the tree-girl, she can fight spirits, right? Where’s she?”
Another sigh. “Shai Mei threw herself in front of the arrow. She may not live to see the morning.”
“Oh. ” Another pause, this one longer. “Well, couldn’t that soldier go get another exorcist?”
Another sigh. “Amilar Agathon is busy throwing Soho in prison and finding a healer for Shai Mei.”
“Oh. So… it’s just us, then, stuck here.” Nameless Ravine braced himself for the inevitable lecherous followup remark, but none came. She didn’t even look at him.
At length, the corpses started to regenerate and thrash about. Sha Yan Shi had cut out their eyes, but their wild flailings could still entangle and maim. Sha Yan Shi started growling half-heartedly; Nameless Ravine got up, hurled the one corpse atop the other, and skewered them both to the ground with The Promise. “That should hold them until morning; once the sun is up we can take them out of the shadowland and give them a proper burial, with rites-”
“Pyre,” she interjected. “They need a funeral pyre, not a burial.”
“What makes you say that?”
“They were Lunar Exalted. They were my friends. That one was Unfettered Moon, who was very mighty. And that other one was Deadly Mountain Rat, who was very clever… or… is it the other way around? There’s so little left, I just can’t tell which was which. Not that it matters, now.”
“I’m so sorry, Sha Yan Shi.”
“Yeah, me too.”
He sat down on a large rock; she sat down next to him, bone-tired, and rested her head on his shoulder. There they sat, side-by-side, awaiting the coming of the dawn.
