The Southern Expedition
Contents
7th Day of Ascending Fire: Journals of Li Jin[edit]
Arrived in Timberline at dusk, quickly found that the people were resistant to Kitaru’s teaching. Strong ancestor cults. Ghosts warned villagers of our coming; Arrested at nightfall by mayor and thugs.
In the jail cell, Cat-Eyed Dream told us that the mayor was a nemissary, to proceed with caution. Murinada suggested waiting till change of guards and facing him in private. Broke out at midnight, but mayor had escaped with his men. Not before torching the fields. And poisoning the well. We’ve sent a request for water elementals to purify well and grain for emergency relief and replanting. Haven’t slept in three days. Maybe tonight.
22nd Day of Ascending Fire: The Death of Murinada[edit]
“How could this happen?” Cat-Eyed Dream looked in horror at her still form. She remained as she had when she went to sleep at his side, only now her lips had grown pale blue, and her rosy cheeks had turned ashen. He called the sight of the unseen to his eyes. “Tell me, who killed you?”
Murinada leaned over her lover and ran her fingers through his hair; the immaterial form of her higher soul did not stir a single lock. “I was strangled while you slept, dear Dream, and I did not see him.”
“Gods, it’s too much for me to bear! Stay but a moment, and I will join you!” He lifted his head and whispered through taught lips to her vanishing form, seeing her wearing the kimono he had given her three days before they had left for the south. “Damn the cycle, and damn the mission!”
“Good bye, Dream, I promise you I’ll find you again, but not in this form...”
As she faded, he shook his head ruefully. “Oh Murinada, you were supposed to tend to our wounds, but when you needed us... needed me... I failed you.”
1st Day of Resplendent Fire: Just Another Night[edit]
"I'll kill him myself."
Kitaru rolled over in his bedroll. "He's just coping in the only way that he knows how. We're all feeling the strain."
Li Jin shook the tent poles and shouted, "Shut up, you son of a whore!"
"He's..."
"I know what he's doing, and I don't care! This is the first chance we've had to sleep in a week!"
"Have some compassion. After what he's been through, he should be strapped to a bed in the Retreat for the rest of his life. We all should."
"I hate him."
Outside the team's tent, in the driving rain, Cat-Eyed Dream screamed at the black sky.
10th Day of Resplendent Fire: Journals of Li Jin[edit]
...over and over I swore to them it was an accident, but from the way they looked at me, I could tell they were all asking the same question in their hearts. I know because I can't stop asking it of myself. When I saw him lying on the groud before me while the rest of the mob scattered, the bleeding hole where my fist had been in his back, I knew I had messed up. Sure they were lead by a nemissary, but they didn't know it. Sure they had started the fight, but they broke and ran as soon as I began using celestial martial arts. One of them just didn't run fast enough.
Am I a monster now? Over and over I think back to the moment before I struck, when I saw his face turn white with fear, when I saw him turning away. I remember the first thought that came to my head, the thought that drove my fist through his spine.
"Who cares."
He's dead now, but I might as well be. How can I face my masters once again, after what I have done, knowing what I have become? How can I return to my father with pride?
I suppose it doesn't matter, in the end. We'll all share Murinada's fate, eventually. Then I won't have to answer for my crimes... at least not to the living.
19th Day of Descending Fire: The End and the Beginning[edit]
The door opened.
"It is finished."
Li Jin coughed a laugh. "They will never bow to you, never compromise. They are..."
"Your loyalty is sorcerous, and will be broken through like means. Listen, do not speak."
He closed his mouth.
"Do not worry; you will return to your homeland in due time, and your allies will be at your side. Though they cast aside their tools, I will redeem them and return them, stronger than ever."
The door closed. The darkness was complete. Li Jin shrank back from the bars and huddled in the corner, clutching his knees to his chest. To the darkness he coughed again through cracked lips, and his coughing turned into hysterical giggles. "You may break me, but I am not afraid. Today they've beaten you, no matter how you console yourself with this petty vengeance. They will save me!"
Three days later, a rat carcass was thrown into the cage. In a handful of seconds it disappeared, and with the strength it gave him he whispered, "They will save me..."
