“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
The guardian statues seemed to watch her as she fell to her knees before the sacred rope and the box. She almost fell asleep there, descending into the cool, calm blackness of dreams, but forced herself awake.What am I going to do?A sound – a movement – and she jerked to her feet, ready to fight, only to find that it was nothing. A stray breeze along the trail. She sank to her knees again.
The god loomed behind her.
“Please,” she said. “I just want peace.”
“You will have none,” the god said. “No peace until you have paid for what you did.”
Her heart wrenched in her; her muscles cramped and seized. She crumpled. “I don’t want to kill.”
“You must.”
“No.”
“You must.”
“No!”
An explosion. A sudden movement, a burst from the trees. Rui flinched back, feeling the god in her veins, and she lashed out with her knife, and a tiny bird plummeted to earth. When she looked at what she’d done, she saw it. A small sparrow.
An innocent creature that she had decapitated mid-flight.
But the moment that she did, she could breathe again. Her heart went still. Her mind came back. The color returned to her skin, and she looked at her hands – they’d stopped shaking. The effect was immediate. Taking the sparrow’s life – small as it was – immediately gave life back to her.
“No…” she said. No.
“You must,” the spirit told her. “Your soul is cut. The longer you go, the more will die, and in the end the demons will take this one. Your body.”
“Please, Hososhi,” she said. “Show me what to do…”
“You would make a bargain for your life?” said the god.
“What would you have me do?”
“Something evil has crossed the boundary of the worlds. Help me stop it.”
Rui felt the pain in her chest again. It radiated from her heart to the tips of her fingers. She brought a hand to her sternum, rubbing it, but it never did any good.
“I’m dying,” she said. “Whatever this is… it will kill me before you get what you want…”
“To save one soul is to save the future of the worlds,” they said. “If you ask us to end the curse on your body, your spirit must pay the price.”
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Rui said, overwhelmed.
“To save one soul is to save the future of the worlds,” the god repeated. “Something is coming. A vengeful ghost, a demon dressed in white. Summoned by a curse years ago. It will come to kill him.”
“Who?”
“Your friend.You know this. You have seen it too.”
“If I help you stop it, will you let me go?”
“It is not that easy, child.”
“Then – save him,” Rui said. “Sen. At least let him be saved.”
“It is not up to me to decide a human’s fate,” said the god.
