Chapter 26
A thin, almost intangible whisper brushed Hoku's ear as his fingers quickly slid beneath the cloth holding the melting compass.
"Contract... fulfill, on the mural."
"Huh?" Hoku flinched, a strange sensation prickling his ear, as though the words had come from a distance—close yet somehow far, their edges frayed and faint.
The phrase sounded fragmented, like a riddle half-heard, leaving him uncertain of its meaning.
"I think he's talking about the Compass," Fleur responded to him, after having assumed he was reacting to Li's comment.
She gently stroked the reddened skin on her palm, the heat from the cloth still seeping through, leaving a sharp sting in its wake.
Hoku gritted his teeth, the sensation on his own hand growing more distinct.
"Ah, yeah, I know. What's wrong with it?" He asked, his gaze narrowing as he focused intently on the source of his discomfort.
"How should we know? It's your trinket, is it not?" asked Li, the sarcasm in his voice unmistakable.
But Hoku's patience was wearing thin. His other hand gripped his wrist, and he gradually asserted more pressure to regain focus.
The discomfort was unbearable, and the thought of merely setting it down lingered at the back of his mind. 'Would anything happen?—is that why Fleur wouldn't just throw it down?'
Hoku hesitated momentarily before lowering himself to one knee and gently placing the compass on the glowing golden path.
"What are you—?" Fleur's voice trailed off, her gaze dropping to Hoku, both concern and confusion furrowing her brow.
She watched as he lowered himself onto one knee, assuming it was an attempt to regain his composure after the discomfort had become too overwhelming.
However, when the dull 'clink' of the compass meeting the ground sounded, both Li and Abel's eyes widened.
"Hoku!" Abel shouted, his voice strained with urgency. Li wasted no time, his feet carrying him out of the corridor in a quick, decisive stride.
He tried to shove Juno, who had stood closest to him back into the corridor, but her legs resisted the abrupt action, and only her hand landed on the seam separating the gold and white foundations.
"Idiot! Don't set that on anything!"
Hoku only had enough time to raise an eyebrow in bafflement before Fleur's hand shot out, grabbing the back of his robe and pulling him roughly to his feet.
Li's warning arrived only when it was already of no consequence.
Hoku, now standing and gripping the hem of his robe, turned just in time to watch the compass begin to react.
Li's boots scraped against the path, skidding forward as he tried to slow himself to a halt.
He dropped to one knee with brutal force, his impact sending a violent ripple through the gold on the path.
Suddenly, the path cracked open beneath him, revealing an unnerving effect—a faint white hue, tinged with green, as though the stone itself had turned reflective, its surface warping into something foreign.
The crack quickly spread, delicate lines branching out from the point of impact, unfurling like the petals of a blooming flower.
Veins of light flickered through the fractures, wrapping around Li's knee and drawing intricate patterns in the path beneath them.
'Damn! What could I have done now?'
Panicked, Hoku stumbled backward and sank to the ground.
After he determined that the angle of Li's extended arm was reaching for the compass, his face lowered and he lurched toward it.
He felt strangely undaunted by the searing heat—until his hand hovered over it.
He was unexpectedly torn between instinct and dread, but before either could take hold, the golden light beneath the compass flickered and then vanished.
The light had condensed into a small orb, no larger than a clenched fist, materialized beneath the compass.
It flickered, remaining faint but steady, wielding a glow that was somehow both warm yet distant.
Then, with a sudden and violent shift, the ground beneath them gave way.
The air rushed around them as they plummeted into darkness.
The distant shouts from the others echoed as they descended, their voices swiftly swallowed by the void.
The white structures above, once looming, rapidly shrank until they were nothing more than faint silhouettes.
The only source of light now was the small orb, floating above the compass, glowing softly in the abyss.
Hoku managed to fix sight on it, the orb's light drawing him in like a magnet.
Despite the void around him stretching infinitely, the small element remained, steady and certain.
When the orb finally drifted within reach, he reached out, his fingers closing around it just before it slipped from his grasp.
He pulled it to his chest with one hand, cradling it as though it were something precious, and thus, the warmth of its light bled into him as the darkness continued to swallow everything around them.
With the compass also in Hoku's hands, the orb formed a small shell around it before, suddenly, it began to hiss, a faint sizzling sound rising from its surface.
He glanced down at it in alarm, and as if responding to his focus, a thin wisp of smoke curled from it—like fading wisps of breath after blowing out a candle.
The smoke glistened in the dim light, swirling around it in a haze of golden sparks.
It was like watching a river of starlight ripple beneath the surface of the water, reflecting constellations from below, distant yet impossibly close.
He pulled the orb away from his chest, holding it between both hands now.
He squeezed harder, pressing on both of the sides with additional force.
After the orb reached its pressure limit, the smoke shifted, and the golden light around it abruptly twisted, releasing the compass back into his palms.
Hoku's eyes followed the glowing strands that had formed in awe, watching as they subtly changed. Eventually, they no longer resembled solid ribbons but moved fluidly like strands of mist, tracing a circular pattern around his hands.
They seemed to shift and bend as though they were wilting like some charmed bloom, never quite solid, but constantly in motion—coiling, unwinding, and reappearing with each fluid motion.
Without thinking, Hoku's fingers turned the dial at the top of the compass, the motion almost automatic.
It felt like an instinct, like the compass was guiding him, and exhorting him to turn it.
As he twisted the dial, the heat from the compass surged again, flowing into his fingertips.
It was the same sharp, searing sensation as before, while this time, it carried a dreamlike quality.
He could only conceive it as though a barrier still separated the object from his skin. The pain, too, felt distant—more like someone else's, trapped in a memory.
His body tensed, but before he could fully process the sensation, the world around him had suddenly diverged from the ongoing present.
Everything just… stopped, suspending in mid-air. He was unable to move much nor could he comprehend what had happened. For a few seconds, he looked around in bewilderment.
His feet hadn't touched the ground, thus his body felt weightless—but the sensation wasn't quite fear—just confusion.
Then, a cold drop splashed against his cheek. A second later, another followed, and then more. He looked up quickly, his heart beating faster as the droplets fell around him.
It took a moment for the realization to hit: the air around him was thick with invisible raindrops as if they were hitting an unseen cover just above him.
Hoku reached out with his hands cupped, using the hazy gold to cast light forward, trying to make sense of it.
As the light dented the darkness, he saw the air ripple where the droplets hit, distorting the space around him and making the unmoored atmosphere appear to be reacting to the falling rain.
Hoku initially thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the ripples grew larger, scattering outward in concentric circles.
Much of this logic was unclear, if not entirely missing.
However, the raindrops didn't stop, and as they pelted the air, the sound intensified—depicting a storm that was gathering around him.
It was merely seconds later when the sensation vanished.
Without a forewarning, Hoku's body began another brief descent, his feet a mere instant later meeting the unforgiving ground.
The fall had been instantaneous, but not painful—more like he had been hovering inches above the ground the entire time.
Even the invisible rain stopped, and the ribbons of golden light that were spiraling around the compass as well as his hands flickered outward, scattering in all directions.
They sunk downward, and as they disappeared, the ground beneath seemed to respond, filling into small diamonds that were revealed to have been embedded within a carved mural as they set the surface he stood ablaze, before proceeding to diminish into a mild, lantern-like flame.
A few muffled thumps came from nearby.
Hoku's gaze darted in the direction of the noises, and for a juncture, he was still. Until the reality of the whole occurrence found him.
He glimpsed around—his heart shaking in his chest—though thankfully, he didn't feel any aching injuries from the fall.
Most importantly…they hadn't died. They hadn't met a worse fate. From the unfathomable height, from the weight of the fall, it should have been a much worse end.
Hoku heard a grunt and, glancing over, recognized the sound as Abel's.
He found him sitting up, rubbing his back. Given how the others were either standing or sitting upright, it seemed Abel had been the only one to land flat on his back.
As Li moved forward, Hoku needed only to turn slightly to catch his eye.
"I'm torn between apologizing and laughing at the irony of this."
A wry twist tugged at the corners of Li's mouth, and with frustration simmering beneath his words, he said sharply, "Don't start."
. . .
▄ a ▄ ▄ ▄ . . . ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ . . . ▄ ▄ f ▄ ▄ ▄
▄l▄ , o ▄ ▄ , ▄ ▄w ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ e ▄ ▄
… ▄ r ▄ , w ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ i ▄ l l. D i e ▄ ▄ ▄ b ▄ ▄ e ▄ ▄ f ▄ ▄
▄ ▄ o r ▄ e ▄ ▄ the r ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ o o t.
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