A spectral woman stood in socks and sandals upon a stone overlooking a gentle brook, red dawn lips reflected in her silvery flute.
I had lost something. Something crucial. Why was I here? Her melody, yes. Sweet like fresh sugarcane, refreshing as spotless waters. My legs ached and my head throbbed. Rest. I needed rest.
The woman's oily black hair cascaded down from a lopsided straw hat that cast a shadow across her eyes. Porcelain flesh, delicate hands. Her robe, long and traditional and silky, depicted nightshade. "What brings you to these forests?" Came her voice, smooth and flowing as her attire.
"I am on a journey," I said, "an important journey."
She grinned, "You should tell me about it."
"I cannot," I wanted to tell her. Why was I unable? I had to tell her. I had to.
"Why?"
"Father."
She giggled a dainty giggle, floating down from her perch like a dandelion seed on a lazy breeze. She stood taller than me, but I couldn't be more at-peace—a faint ember in my soul as warm sapphire light pulsed from her ethereal body.
"You can tell me, I'm good at keeping secrets," She said. "How has your journey been through these forests?"
"They are tranquil, I like them."
"I'm glad you do." She cupped her hand against my cheek. It felt cool. Mist steamed off her flesh. "What is your name?"
"What is yours?" I stepped back. Her hand drifted to her side. Her flute melted away into the mist. Never give your true name to outsiders first. Father was absolute.
"I'm Lelou, and I live in the palace at the end of the brook," the woman said. "It's really nice there."
"My name is Kode," It was okay now. "I live in a temple."
"A temple?" She floated forwards, so little I scarcely noticed. The warm glow burned stronger. "There are few temples near this place. Why are you so far from home, young one?"
"I..." No thoughts. Mist everywhere. I could hear the brook but not see it. Something was wrong, but it could not be. "I cannot say," I stumbled backwards without knowing why. The mists began to lift. "I should be going." I did not want to be going. I did not want to leave Lelou at all, but I had to. Needed to.
She soared through the air once more, her body's outline trailing behind like candle smoke as she weaved a gentle, silken, arm behind my back and looked down upon me, eyes still hiding in her hat, "Come, join me for tea Kode," she said, "Zhin returns from the battle today. The battle at the Heron." An upwards crease set across her cherry red lips. From this close a distance I saw them in more detail. They were wrong, the unabashed scarlet spread unevenly above, below, her mouth if in only the subtlest ways, as though the cherry they resembled had bled its juices across them. Bled. Bleeding. Harm. Danger.
Fear struck like a lightning bolt and I nearly tripped over myself escaping her embrace, "I must be going, I will have tea with you later."
Her body fell away into mist. I paced backwards, tracing it gliding over forest soil, over the leaves, loose sticks, and branches. My foot caught on one. I crumbled onto my back to see the mists swirl themselves back into Lelou.
"I don't want you to go," Lelou said, lifting her straw hat, which billowed away into a pastel brown fog. No eyes. Cold, sunken, voids darker than pitch where two small fires no larger than candle flames flickered a ghoulish topaz. The cherry red from her lips dribbled around the sockets like tears. "I've been alone, my husband has been gone so long." Her voice quivered, as though she were about to cry. "Surely you will not leave me, Kode?"
I screamed, scrambling back to my feet and blasting off them in no direction other than away. The mist choked me, filling my lungs with a frigid, horrible, ice. Silence. There were only my sandals pattering off soil, snapping through twigs and crunching through leaves. Trees flew by, thin-trunked, with strands of gnarled moss clinging to skeletal branches upon which spectral blue fires burned. They weren't burning the branches, simply levitating just above them. They watched me. I did not know how, but restless eyes lurked within.
Lelou giggled. It echoed through the wood from every direction, but none. Fear infested me, piercing the misty veil. It strangled me with unseen tendrils and grasped my heart with a bony hand, squeezing it faster and faster until it would surely burst. Father's teachings called to me somewhere. I wanted to hear them, know what to do again, but I could not think. Somewhere he was calling me a coward, striking me to the ground and ordering me to try again. Somewhere was my training and how to escape this nightmare, but I could not find it.
Three knives bit into my back, white hot fire screaming where they raked across flesh. Something warm and wet trickled over my spine, but the hand gripping my heart squeezed faster. Harder. No more pain. No thoughts. Action.
Stone steps, lorded over by faded wood archways, led up a short hill in the distance. I ran to them, stone firm beneath me and the arches, paired pine logs jutting to meet each other in a flipped 'V' stood watch with rope binding their peaks and rust-worn chimes ringing idly. They were familiar. They symbolized something—suggested a harmony between man and nature. Yes, these arches led to a shrine. A Xui shrine where I would find safety from this evil.
I felt the phantom behind me. I could feel her frigid breath at my nape, disturbed air close to my back. I felt her knives rip at my silken robe, grazing flesh as the warmness spread further. Hot, yet icy. It spurred me forwards like a whip, my body and soul both wholly concentrated on running faster. Escaping this danger. Ahead, past the wiry trees, the winding stone steps, and the moss-laced arches, the shrine beckoned. Old, fashioned from stone chipped away by the elements. A wicker basket rested on a flat stone where shadows pooled under the roof. Candles, flames absent, flanked the basket to either side.
I threw myself towards this altar and fell into the past as my hand touched cool, grounding, rock. To when the straw doll brewed with smoke and embers in my palms.
I remembered.