Chapter 6: Nightfall_Lanterns: SectBreaker

Chapter 6: Nightfall

 Running water was a vague luxury from Xin’s childhood. He remembered the maids preparing a porcelain tub filled to the brim with scalding hot water. How much he’d taken for granted in those days.

 He studied the luxuries from within the tub, his feet propped up on the rim, his body marinating in soapy suds. The eye inscribed on the shackle attached to his right ankle glared back at him angrily, his flesh red and sore beneath.

 A paper partition separated the washtub from the rest of the space. A gas lantern hung in a corner and yet another vanity and mirror was pushed up against the adjacent wall. Even by Crown standards, it was an absurd thing to have an entire room within the house dedicated solely for bathing, but such extravagance was to be expected for the only daughter of the Red Emperor.

 It was kind of Serenity to lend it to him, but Xin suspected his stench had more to do with it than charity. He took no personal offense in it.

 Steam fogged up the mirror of Serenity’s washroom and filled the room with an unpleasant humidity. After a long soak, he dried off with a soft, fluffy towel and wiped a section of the mirror clear.

 Purple bruises dotted his body, and the serpent tattoo still sat over his heart, aching.

 “Did you do this?” Xin asked. “Is this some sort of master-disciple mark?”

 If you perceive it so, Suilin responded. We’ll have to work extensively on forging you a new body. You’re terribly scrawny. 

 Her words cut deep. It was true; he’d always been a tad undersized compared to his peers. It made brawling rather difficult and he was always the last pick for any field games. His face wasn’t particularly handsome, but he’d received compliments from time to time for looking rather boyish, whatever that meant.

 He wondered how his face would transform within the span of the next decade. Would he look pretty and refined like the pampered state-scholars, or would he look rugged and handsome like a countryside hero. Xin reddened, embarrassed at such thoughts.

 Xin pulled his gaze away from the mirror. His mood brightened upon seeing a set of clothes that’d been prepared for him atop the vanity. Serenity must’ve set them there beforehand. It was odd to think a princess would do anything for an urchin. Their worlds couldn’t have been more apart. Even some of the Crownfolk could hardly stand walking on the same path as an urchin, much less lending them clothes and a washtub.

 The clothes fit him perfectly. Almost too perfectly. Whoever they’d belonged to, it certainly wasn’t Serenity. The Western-style shirt, white with subtle ruffles at the collar, hung loosely around his slender body and paired well with the dark trousers.

 They were clean, but held the distinct scent of an old closet. Clearly, the shirt hadn’t seen much use as of late.

 Xin left the washroom and walked out into the hallway outside Serenity’s bedroom. She was fully dressed and raring to go, flowing, dark-red robes and a puffy skirt wrapped around her like the petals of a rose. Her hair was miraculously tamed—pinned up with a bone-white pin with a blood-red orchid ornament at its end.

 She was stunning, but complimenting princesses on their dresses and jewelry and pretty face didn’t fall within his wheelhouse. He was an orphan who just had to make sure she returned from an evening walk in Kunlun in one piece.

 Arguably, the most important walk of Xin’s life. And with how disastrous his morning went, he’d need a fair share of the world’s divine luck.

 The consequences of failing were unimaginable. Scratch that—very imaginable. He’d likely suffer an execution by quartering, his four limbs pulled apart from his body in four different directions by mechanical warhorses. But not before lots and lots of torture. It all turned Xin rather pale and weak in the knees.

 “Lost for words?” Serenity asked with a faint smile. She handed him a leather drawstring sack filled with his ruined clothes. “Well, I obviously can’t keep your dingy rags here. The servants would find them, and that would put me in a rather awkward position.”

 Xin took the sack and slung one of two straps over his shoulder. “You promise to heed everything I say?” he asked. “I don’t know what Kunlun is like in your books, but it can get a little wild past sundown. Promise me, princess.”

 “Naturally,” Serenity replied. “And please, call me by my name. I’ll allow it. This trip must be conducted incognito. I fail to see the point in this excursion if everyone’s going to trip over themselves to exalt my presence.”

 “Right,” Xin said. He rubbed his temples, fending off an encroaching headache. “As long as we’re clear on that.”

 The most remarkable thing about the Imperial Gardens was its sheer size. Even though Serenity called it the mere periphery of the palace, the vast swathe of carefully manicured forest could stand as a whole district on its own.

 The moon was out by the time they cut across the Gardens toward the secret passages, but Kunlun City rarely slept—there’d be plenty to do in Commerce Row even after sundown.

 Gurgling streams crisscrossed and cut the Gardens into neat sections, more of the footbridges from earlier arching over them. Glowflies lit up the space with a soft blue iridescent atmosphere; a mark upon the Gardens by the Azure Court, who’d once held the throne long before the Reds and Yellows even had the sense to unite to bring the Azure Down.

 Xin’s entire view looked as if it could''ve been ripped from the pages of a storybook. A fantastical garden, beautiful and locked-up princess, and a little orphan hero who’d stumbled upon it all by complete chance. Except what the storybooks didn’t mention were the people starving right outside the walls of such picturesque scenes.

 The Heaven-cur tiger had even tried to bound after them, but was shooed reluctantly away by Serenity. She didn’t receive any rib-cracking headbutts, just a nuzzle and flick of the tail before he was away into the underbrush like an over-excited housecat.

 “Isn’t he just adorable?” she’d asked him. “He’s such a sweetheart. I think Father had him stationed here for my own sanity’s sake rather than any real protection. The only thing I need protecting from out here is mosquitos and boredom.”

 With the novelty wearing off, Xin’s grumbling grew more frequent. He yawned between every other sentence. Serenity took no notice, too lost in her own world. For all intents and purposes, she was about to set off on the journey of a lifetime.

 Admittedly, the various secret passages within the Imperial Gardens were intriguing. Serenity shared them freely with Xin, though they must’ve passed by a dozen before she settled on something. The previous, she’d informed, would only lead to other regions of the Palace.

 After pulling the limb of a dormant humanoid construct with an eagle’s head at a certain angle, the ground slowly parted, dirt falling in tufts into a shadowed tunnel.

 “It’s a straight shot to Kunlun City,” Serenity said in a low voice. “I would’ve used it myself but I felt woefully underprepared for the realities of navigating a city. It’s an excellent thing you wandered into my manor and not the guardhouse.”

 “Indeed,” Xin said dryly, taking point into the cloistered, damp tunnel. “Do they just let you wander about like this? I’d expect a princess to maintain a retinue and a strict schedule.”

 “Father says I’m a special case,” Serenity replied. She sounded distant, as if talking about another’s set of circumstances and not her own. “They let me out for parties and such but I spend most of my time here in the Gardens. Don’t get me wrong, I get along fabulously with the rest of the Courts but it’s just safer for me here.” She blushed. “I get my exploring done mostly after sundown, and only if I know there’s no tutor waiting for me in the morning.”

 Xin didn’t pry any further.

 They reached the end of the tunnel after a long stretch of awkward silence. A sealed set of wrought-iron doors loomed over them rather imperiously, blocking their way. The insignia of the Restored Dynasty hung over the wide arch of the doors: the royal beasts of the Four Greater Courts arranged so that each faced a different cardinal direction.

 Serenity’s gaze lingered on the Vermillion Bird, the royal beast of the Red Court. She removed an amulet from around neck and plunged it into a groove in the wall beside the iron doors.

 The doors rumbled open, but Serenity merely stood at the threshold, the amulet safe around her neck again.

 “How many times I’ve stood here,” Serenity said wistfully. Her wide, dark eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “This is a bad idea, isn’t it?”

 Xin nodded. “I’ve heard saner schemes from Ash-addicts,” he admitted. “This is a bad idea. Possibly bordering on harebrained—if you’ll excuse my discourteous language.”

 Serenity took her first step into the city. “Well,” she said. “That’s that. Come now, the night is short and we only have until morning. Show me what you people do for fun around here.”Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

 Xin took in their new surroundings as the door rumbled shut behind them. They stood in a dusty little courtyard, but revelry didn’t sound far off. Somewhere in the upper crust of Commerce Row, he conjectured. Perfect for their excursion.

 They left the courtyard, and even before seeing the massive streams of pedestrians walking along the Governing Channel, Serenity looked overwhelmed. She flinched at every other odd little noise, watching the shadows warily.

 A fidgety thing, Suilin mused. Isn’t she? This may be her first time stepping foot from the Palace. 

 “If it gets too much, I can bring you right back,” Xin said. His words seemed to reassure her, because she gave him a shaky smile.

 “That won’t be necessary,” she replied, huffing. “I’m not even—”

 Her words died in her throat. Their alleyway path opened up to the rest of Commerce Row, a large Hundun-class transportation construct ambling past them, its boxy chassis carried forward by four Mechanik legs. On the exposed wagon bed, a nobleman and his scandalously clad companion sat together on curving velvet-red sofas.

 Serenity watched it march past with stars practically shining in her eyes.

 “Was that a Hundun?” she asked, turning to Xin. “The Azure Court commissions them from Kunlun’s factories. They’re supposed to be freight carriers. But it had people in the wagon. How marvelous. Is that safe? Surely that’s not up to code?”

 Xin shrugged. The Hunduns filled the void left behind by the obsoletion of horse-drawn carriages. He’d never ridden in one personally. Mono-rail tickets cost only a fraction of a single ride.

 They stepped out into the street. Serenity tensed up as a pair of guardsmen from the Civil Force came sauntering toward them, their trademark blue coats emerging from a shapeless mass of pedestrians.

 “You there,” one of the guardsmen slurred, a tall, ragged man with a coat draped carelessly over his broad shoulders, its sleeves flapping in the wind. He leaned heavily against his partner, a hapless recruit with no coat or insignia across the breast of her utilitarian blue shirt. Her dark hair was cropped short and choppy around her ears. “What in the Nine Hells are you children up to so late on this fine night? And Crownfolk too. What would your parents think?”

 “Sergeant,” the female guardsman warned in a low voice. “We need to get you back to the barracks.” She turned to Xin and Serenity with a wink. “And you kids need to run back along to the Crown District. It’s not terribly safe around these parts.”

 Xin resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. The Commerce Row hardly saw the worst of Kunlun City. The undesirable and downright criminal preferred to congregate behind the Falls, away from nosy guardsmen.

 Serenity grabbed hold of Xin’s arm. “All is well, Sir and Madam,” she said stiffly. “I am being escorted home by my brave cousin. My father would be most pleased to know you have shown us great concern. But again, all is well. We will run home. Now. Farewell.”

 Xin blanched—utterly shocked by… whatever that’d been. He was pulled along into the crowd by Serenity, leaving two very confused guardsmen behind. His cheeks flushed red as they drew eyes. It wasn’t common to see such overdressed youths alone in Commerce Row.

 Serenity finally slowed once they put a full block between them and the guardsmen. “How was that?” she asked. “Do you think we fooled them?”

 “I think a bullfrog could’ve handled that with more grace,” Xin replied with a grin. His stomach growled. His last meal had been dinner the night before. “Are you hungry? Because I know a great place. You’ll love it. Has proper cityfolk and everything.” He smiled with a smile that only a broke person with a new, very-wealthy friend could muster. “Your treat?”

 They made their way east to the Broadside Boar, a bar and restaurant rising from the center of a wide canal a stone’s throw from Union Market, the bustling heart of Commerce Row.

 The Boar was a solitary, three-storied building that rose from the dark waters of one of Kunlun City’s many artificial canals. The curving roof was missing entire sections of tiles, but the taproom was kept dry enough during the rainy seasons by an ever-changing formation of buckets and ceramic washbasins.

 True to his hazy, childhood memory, the wide, arching footbridge that connected the Boar to the street still groaned under the weight of its visitors. Serenity stepped lightly, tossing nervous glances at the murky water below.

 “Do talismans not line the banks of these rivers?” Serenity asked as they approached the doors. “I expected the rivers to flow pristine. Purification is hardly the most complicated of Sorceries.”

 “Maybe in the Crown District,” Xin retorted. “The talismans can’t keep up with the runoff from the factories. It’s a lot cheaper just to sell potable water when the Yellow Axis gets really bad.”

 “Oh,” Serenity replied, staring at the slightly-iridescent sheen of the canal’s surface. “This isn’t bad then?”

 Inside, the proprietor of the Boar, a hulking man that assumed the vague shape of a human being, squinted at them with a set of beady eyes that were nearly obscured by layers of fat. He didn’t seem to recognize Xin.

 A zither-rendition of an old country song crackled through the bell-shaped horn of an old Mechanik phonograph beside the bar counter. Couples still dusted in soot from their factory shifts danced in folk styles at the center of the Boar.

 They took a table tucked away in an isolated nook far from the carousing crowds.

 Within moments, a tired-looking serving girl made her way over to them. While she took their order, her gaze was glued to Serenity’s dress. Each of her questions had ended with a sir or madam.

 “That girl looked far too young to be working so late,” Serenity said, poking at the gas lantern hanging over their nook. “Things are bad out here, aren’t they? I suppose you can’t learn everything from books and tutors.”

 “What do they tell you?”

 “Fanciful things,” Serenity replied, resting her cheek on her palm. “Oh, I don’t know. They tell me Kunlun City is the greatest city in the world. That foreigners and the lesser dynasties look to us for inspiration, because they’re all so bloody stupid they need to buy our Sorceries and Mechaniks. They made it seem like every inch of our city was gilded in gold and even the lowliest of peasants shat silver.”

 Xin smiled. “Would’ve made our lives a whole—”

 The doors to the Boar swung open. The tawny strings of the phonograph played over a silent crowd of dancers. They shuffled their feet nervously, glancing to and from the newcomer at the doors and the proprietor.

 “I gave you a week,” the newcomer snarled. Both of his arms had been replaced by brassy Scripter-armaments—Mechanik-arms, dozens of intricate gears ratcheting within his shoulder blades. “You better have my fucking silver—you fat, worthless piece of bacon. I warned you I’m a man who upholds his promises.” He spat on the floorboards. “Well, here I fucking am for my silver.”

 “You aren’t getting shit from me!” the hulking man behind the bar counter screamed. “Now begone ‘fore I call the Civil Guard, Tie Vu!”

 In response, the thug grabbed a nearby chair, and with a shrieking hiss of the hydraulics built within his arms, threw it at the bar. The chair sailed over the heads of the crowd and crashed into a wooden plaque hung above the counter. Dancers dispersed to the edges of the room, shrieking.

 Nobody moved to stop the thug known by Tie Vu, who approached the bar with a gloating, shit-eating grin. The bar counter wasn’t nearly tall enough to obscure the quivering, orb-like figure of the proprietor.

 “Go on and do it then,” Tie Vu taunted. “See if they care. See if they have time for a pathetic, little gambler like you. I want what I’m owed.”

 Serenity glanced across the table at Xin with a lifted brow that only rose further up her pale forehead as the thug began throwing around more furniture and screaming. She cleared her throat and kicked Xin in the shin.

 “What?” Xin asked, cross. “I haven’t even eaten yet! Degenerate gamblers get what they deserve, even if they happen to cook the best pot roast on this side of the city.”

 “We can’t just stand by and watch this,” Serenity said, frowning. “Someone has to act. We need to do something.”

 Xin nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “But it won’t be a renegade princess and an orphan who has his neck out on the chopping block.”

 He returned to staring listlessly at the pockmarked surface of the table, ignoring the chaos happening across the Boar. 

 “You’re a Lantern,” Serenity said softly. “You’re sworn to fight injustice and the demonic forces of the night. The Heavens gave you the ability to process Extracts for a reason. All my life, I’ve only read about the good that unfolds in the pages of ancient tomes and novels. But now, I’m seeing it with my own eyes—and there’s something we can do. I don’t want to use a royal decree to make you act... but—”

 “You there!” Tie Vu called across the room. He was staring at Serenity, his head cocked in confusion. The features of his face were harsh and brusque, clearly a man accustomed to getting his way by bluster and threats. “What do we have here? What’s a pretty little thing like you doing in a dump like this?”

 I suppose trouble has a way of finding you, Suilin mused. Will you fight every thug in this city at the behest of our naive princess? What are we, Marchen Outlaws, countryside heroes who fight against backwater tyrants?

 Xin rose from the table, rolling up his sleeves. The branching, criss-crossing azure patterns across his forearms drew gasps and murmurs. Even Tie Vu appeared taken back, but only for a moment.

 “Stay out of this,” he warned in a low voice. “Before I beat you senseless and sell your lady friend to a brothel.”

 Xin burst into action. He moved without thinking, his arms conjuring up a specter that rushed head-first into Tie Vu, who’d raised his Mechanik-arms in a tight boxing stance. The thug grunted as the specter crashed into him and dissolved in a haze of dark smoke.

 The Boar was suspended in silence. Even the photograph cackled out its last song.

 “What the fuck was that?” Tie Vu demanded, hastily examining his body for any wounds. He shivered, sweat pouring from his brows in buckets. And while he looked a little pale, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “What did you do, you little shit?”

 “Come and find out,” Xin said. “Aren’t you a man of your word?”

 Tie Vu rushed forward, his bronze fist raised high up in the air to slam into Xin’s face. But the blow never came; the punch was diverted by an unseen force, smashing straight through his own jaw instead. The thug collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

 Xin turned to see Serenity clap in glee. Her entire face brightened up with a full-bellied laugh that somehow retained every inch of her grace. She pointed behind and shrieked: “Xin!”

 Tie Vu rose from the ground. His jaw hung open, rivulets of blood dribbling down his chin and onto the floorboards. He swung at Xin.

 Eyes wide with panic, Xin did what he knew best. He cowered. Like when Castor Lin first welcomed him into the Orphanarium with a punch, or when Madam Sparrow caned him over the ass for carving away too much potato with the skin, or the countless other times he could only watch helplessly as his life was fucked by forces beyond his control.

 But once again, the blow never came. The knuckles of Tie Vu’s Mechanik-arm phased right through Xin’s arms, which were wrapped tightly around his head.

 Xin’s body had turned spectral again, and he didn’t have the faintest clue how he’d even done it. A quick head-butt to Tie Vu’s gaping mouth did the trick, however. Deliberation of his abilities could wait until the immediate threat was dealt with.

 Tie Vu stumbled backwards, and courtesy of his heavy Scripter-armaments, crashed onto the floorboards with a resounding thud, his eyes white with unconsciousness. Xin stood over him in disbelief. The entire room must’ve felt similar sentiments, because not a single person opened their mouths or so much as raised an arm.

 “Oh fuck,” the proprietor breathed. “Oh fuck. Oh fuck. What have you done, lad? Do you have any idea who that was? That was Tie fucking Vu. Younger brother of Bulwark Le.” He clawed at his plentiful cheeks. “How the hell am I going to explain this?”

 Not the reaction you were expecting? Suilin asked. Violence never ends for those caught up within its chaotic web. If he paid up even a fraction of what was owed, perhaps the thug might’ve shown him leeway. He will be fortunate if he comes out of this mess with his restaurant intact. I dare say you might’ve just ruined this man’s life. 

 Xin nodded, numb, barely registering Serenity, who grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the Boar’s entrance. They stole away into the night under the cover of frigid darkness, their footsteps pounding away on the Broadside Boar’s bridge as Suilin’s soft, melodious laughter rang in his ear.

AliNovel

Chapter 6: Nightfall