Zone returned with a baffled look on his face.
"I scouted this whole side of the mountain but I haven't seen a single soul," he said, panting.
"But we keep hearing people," John disagreed.
"Yeah, I heard them too. There were sounds of activity even on the far side of the village," said Zone.
Those who were looking in John and Zone's direction saw the light dimmed around them. They felt the light being pulled like a blanket. They physically felt the sensation of it brushing against their skin.
The light particles all went towards John and as soon as they hit him, he knelt as if feeling the weight of this bending of physical laws.
"Good afternoon, child," he said to no one.
"Good afternoon, sir," came the ghostly reply.
"Can you let us pass?" asked John.
"No one is stopping you." Again, the disembodied voice.
"I can see the locked gate behind you. You have...you ARE the key. We are still locked outside. We need to get past here," John appealed to the voice.
"But the gate is not locked. I can freely come and go," said the unseen child.
"How…?"
Silence was the answer.
Ora summoned Rai.
"You already know my answer. I am a slave to the system. My role is to be a guide not your Google," Rai said tartly.
"Then guide us," Vince said, annoyed.
"A guide can show the way when the way is obscured and can provide insights on a better way to proceed whenever the path gets too difficult. There is nothing in my mandate that said make them more intelligent when they are being stupid," she shot back.
"Annoying sprite, 1. Annoying wetpants, zero," said Ash who is leaning relaxed against a big rock.
Both subjects of her tirade looked at her darkly.
"What do you mean, honey?" Ora diverted Rai's attention.
"I can not help you when it's not the outside forces that prevents you from moving but your own inability to see or act," explained Rai.
"Like I said before, your growth depends on you. Until you fully understand that, you will stay where you are. That part, I cannot do for you. You already have the key. You just have to use it."
With that, she vanished again like she always did after she thought her work was done.
A bell tinkled and they all looked in Ash's direction.
A cat lithely strolled out from behind the rock.
"Hello all," greeted Xien.
"Oh, hello sidekick cat," Ash greeted back.
"I am not a sidekick. I could not kick, even if I wanted to...and I very much want to kick you for calling me that," she hissed at Ash.
"You are quite the literal one, ain't you?" Ash patted Xien's head and the cat immediately assumed a contented expression.
"Stop that!" she tried sounding stern but Ash scratched her belly and she rolled on her back.
"Oh, the humiliation," she said but nothing in her voice or posture suggested she is embarrassed. She could have stayed there forever if not for John who stopped Ash.
Xien bared her claw at him.
"Easy there, tiger," placated John.
"I am not a tiger, either," Xien said but she seemed pleased to be called a tiger.
"To what do we owe this visit?" Ora asked.
"I actually came with Rai but there are some things you have to know that she couldn't tell you that I can. So I stayed," she said.
"So does that mean you are higher on the ladder than her?" Vince asked.
"I could climb higher if that is what you ask but I don't see the relevance, wetpants," she shot Vince a baffled look.
"Someday, I will get you for that," he gritted his teeth at Ash.
"For what?" Ash managed to look innocent.
"How come that you are able to do what she can't?" Ora waved for them to stay silent.
"It is the Architect's design," she looked at John when she said that. That sideways glance did not escape Ora's notice.
"I keep hearing about this architect. What can you tell us about him or her?" Vince asked.
"It's a him," Xien answered.
"That's not very helpful," Vince scratched his chin.
"If you bothered to look at your menu, you would have seen everyone's job label or function. Rai is the guide and the designer and I am a high merchant," she said with pride.
"That didn't answer any of our questions," Vince pointed out.
"A stupid person wouldn't know a diamond's worth over a pebble. A wise person doesn't let the difference between the two matter," Xien said seriously.
"Talking cat, 1. Talking wetpants, still zero," Ash announced.
Vince's nose flared but Ash looked at him in a bored expression as she ran her fingers idly on the handle of her sword.
Whatever retort Vince had, he decided to let it go.
"What do we have to pay for the information you have?" John decided to go straight to the point.
"You catch on quick my middle-aged friend," Xien grinned.
"I can do without the 'middle-aged' jab," John muttered.
"You have to admit, it is easier on the tongue than 'older than dirt'," Ash grinned.
John ignored that.
"Information is one of the most expensive commodities but just this once, I will offer it as a bonus. Only if you spend above my quota," Xien offered.
"I have a feeling that we are in for the fleecing of our lives," John glanced at his companions.
"Hey, I might be a cat, but I have feelings too. I don't swindle. I trade!" Xien declared indignantly.
"Let's see your wares, then," John cuts her off before she goes off tangent again.
"You make it sound like I sell pots and pans," she said as she handed them flyers listing her items.
"Hmmm...you have precious few," John studied the list.
"You are right about one thing, they are all precious," she countered.
"They are all expensive, though," he observed.
"Those are the ones I think are within your range. I have more but you might not be able to afford them even if you stayed in the game for a million years," she said.
John bought a gun peculiarly called the Sword of Indarapatra.
Ora got an armor imbued with gravity magic. It is called the Alunsina's Cape.
"Zone, get the Buntot Pagi. Grace, take the Balete Branch," Ash instructed.
"Why?" asked Zone.
"Because I said so." The look she directed at him could have withered trees. Grace prudently did as instructed.
"What should I get?" Ice asked Ash.
"Why don't you ask the Second?" Ash turned to the list.
"Get the Heart of Calabash," a voice whispered. Ice saw no one but she knew whose it was.
"I wanna get something cool but I don't have any money!" complained Vince.
"Who was it that spent all his money on that rickety armor when I said it was a stupid purchase?" said Ash peering at the blade edge of a throwing dagger.
"Well, I thought that was just you being...you," Vince said tonelessly.
"No, it was me saying something useful and that was you assuming something stupid. To which I can't say anything more because it was so in character," she said and threw the dagger beside Vince. A mark resembling the cicada appeared where the dagger hit.
"What's that dagger called?" asked the crestfallen Vince.
"The Blade of Sisilim", she said and stepped over to retrieve the dagger.
"What does it do?" Zone asked.
"Oh, you use it as a microphone," Ash said sweetly.
"Is she always like this?" Zone asked Vince.
"Worse," he answered and flinched when Ash fake threw the dagger at him.
"Alright, missy, did our purchase amount to what you can call satisfactory?" John asked the merchant cat.
"Adequate. Now...as for your bonus, Ice, read what's on the gate. It's there if you just simply look at it and not try to find it. Ciao!" she said and vanished with the tinkle of a bell.
John turned to where he saw a massive gate and everyone followed suit.
"Clever," said Ora admiringly.
"Can you all see it? I don't see anything," complained Vince.
"You heard what she said. Do not try to find it. Simply look," Grace reminded him.
It was dim at first but when Vince relaxed and simply looked at the scenery, the outline of an archway appeared before him. Soon after, children playing appeared near the gate. One of them is standing near John, watching them.
"You are nearly there," the child who appeared to be a girl said to them.
The gate is now in full view and the village seemed more real.
"Ice, if you would," John nudged Ice.
"To see heaven in a wildflower, one must not know what heaven is.
To gain the world is to not know eternity in a kiss.
To remember and to forget is just a price to pay.
For knowing that tomorrow is no different from today."
"I hate riddles," Zone grimaced.
"You wrote this?" John asked the little girl.
"At some point in my life, I did," said the girl, suddenly sounding older than she looked.
"By what Rai said to us, am I correct in deducing that we also know what this means?"
"You all did, once upon a time," the girl answered. She now appears to be a teenager.
The Eye of Bathala took over and all of them shared what the little girl saw.
The gate is not a gate. It is a terrible monster. The children playing are not children at all. They are knives and arrows hitting a small tree. The village was suddenly covered in boiling magma and the laughter became wails of agony and terror.
For a moment they were empaths of the highest grade. This horrific scenery brought them to their knees.
Grace and Ice are weeping uncontrollably while Ash holds them.
Vince and Zone are hugging each other fiercely while also crying.
Ora is cradling John who is the worst of them all. He is crying blood.
With inhuman effort, John let the grief run through him in waves until he was drowning in it. Then when it was a flood, a torrent so overwhelming, he just floated and in his mind, gathered everyone to his side. He calmed them and led them ashore where the emotions were dissipating.
They got up and faced the teenager who now looks like Samiweng.
She is smiling at them but her eyes showed she knew what they went through. It was her emotions, afterall.
The monster is now shrinking, changing, transforming from a hellish image into one like that of a child's drawing.
It is now a rainbow made by crayons. The children are now just colors representing summer. Reds and bright yellows and orange and blue and radiant green chased each other in the meadow.
The village is a kingdom radiating warmth and protection.
Dragonflies and dandelions filled the air.
The children's laughter became music.
The gate opened.
Samiweng watched them as they paid the price for her awareness that the world can be evil and scary. They too gave up their innocence and regained them by hoping that all can be changed.
She sent them her prayers as she also waited for her brother to come to her side once more.