The very thought of his handwriting filled her with emotion—emotions she had to bite her lip hard in order to hold back.
“There’s no point in rushing, niangniang,” Tankai said in an attempt to console her, but Jusetsu said nothing and simply stared at the smoke.
Instead, Jusetsu called out to the being inside her. “Raven, is there any way to calm the volcano?”
“It’s being caused by the anger of the sea god from the Palace of Paradise. Us meddling will only add to that anger.”
Jusetsu stayed quiet.
“Not that I’d ever lose against the White Turtle,” the Raven went on.
“Then let’s defeat the ao god,” Jusetsu suggested. “That should placate the sea god’s anger.”
“My missing half is on that island.”
“What?”
“My missing half is on that island,” repeated the Raven. “I know so.”
“So…you’re telling me that we can’t defeat him unless we go there.”
The Raven was silent for a while. She probably didn’t want to admit that defeating the ao god wouldn’t be as easy as she made it sound.
“The White Turtle probably won’t show himself now. I know what he’s like,” the Raven said at last.
“What do you mean?”
“Unless he thinks he’s going to win, he lays low. Let’s set a trap and lure him out. He’s a coward.”
Jusetsu thought that over for a moment. “That sounds more strategic than cowardly.”
The Raven fell silent again, but the star raven, who was sitting on Tankai’s shoulder, flapped its wings about. It looked like the Owl had something to say too.
“The Owl agrees with you. He says I’m just an idiot.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. The Owl is simply being rude,” Jusetsu offered.
“As expected.”
The Raven seemed to have cheered up a bit now. It was hard to know how to deal with her—probably because she wasn’t human. If you criticized her, she’d feel down—and if you defended her, she’d become cocky. She was emotionally maladjusted—quick to anger or burst into tears. It seemed like letting the Owl take the lead had been the right choice after all.
Jusetsu looked up at the smoke and began to think to herself.
“You need your missing half back,” she started. “That missing half is on Je Island. The eruption has stopped any boats from sailing there, so we can’t reach it, not even if we tried. We need to defeat the ao god in order to stop the eruption, but you need your missing half back to be able to do so… This whole thing just sends us around in circles. Until the eruption is quelled and we can travel to Je Island, there is nothing that we can do.”
“The Owl,” the Raven said.
“Excuse me?”
“The Owl says he’ll figure something out.”
Jusetsu paused. “Figure something out? Like what?”
“A way to quell the eruption. He’s smarter than me.” It seemed like the Raven was at least aware of that fact. “Not a way to quell it completely, but to contain it for a little while,” the Raven then clarified. “In the meantime, we should go across the sea.”
“I see.”
In that case, we need to find a boat that’ll take us there.
The boats that had come from the waterways were no good. The sailors on those vessels weren’t the sort who sailed over to Je Island, so they wouldn’t be able to understand the currents. Jusetsu and her group needed sailors who regularly traveled back and forth between Je Island and the mainland to help them.
“The boats that usually sail to Je Island are passenger boats, aren’t they?” asked Jusetsu, looking around at Tankai and Onkei. “The eruption is going to settle for a little while. I want to go to Je Island during that interlude. Ask the provincial governor to prepare a boat for us.”
“Understood,” the two eunuchs responded. They both bowed to her and started running back to town.
The star raven then took off and flew out to sea. Jusetsu gazed on as it disappeared into the distance.
“The governor says he cannot help you,” Onkei stated once he’d returned.
“What?”
“The boats that sail to and from the island belong to the government, or in other words, to my master. Even if we are emissaries sent directly by His Majesty, he will not risk doing anything that may damage the boats or injure those sailing them. The information you have provided simply isn’t reliable enough for him,” Onkei relayed. “It sounds like the sailors who are skilled enough to navigate between Ko Province and Je Island are invaluable assets. Once the eruption has verifiably settled and it is deemed safe to set sail once more, only then will he allow the boats out to sea.”
“I can understand his reservations… Just because someone tells you the volcano is going to settle for a time, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to believe them,” said Jusetsu.
She was sure Koshun would have trusted her, but that was just because she and Koshun had that sort of relationship.
“Not even I know how long the Owl will be able to contain the eruption for…” she continued. “There definitely is a danger here.”
What are we supposed to do?
“Tankai is now searching for sea merchants and fishermen willing to set sail for us. Those sorts of people tend to be very brave and open-minded. I am sure there will be someone who’s willing to cooperate with us.”
“Right. In that case, I’ll join the hunt too.”
“But niangniang…”
Before Onkei had a chance to stop her, Jusetsu had already started charging ahead. She had to hurry. She didn’t know when the Owl was going to manage to suppress the eruption, nor for how long he’d be able to do so.
Once she had reached the town, Tankai appeared from a side road and ran up to her.
“This isn’t going to work,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is the first time the underwater volcano has erupted. Both boats and sailors are valued commodities, so everybody’s reluctant to put them at risk…”
“I thought it was your job to convince them otherwise,” Onkei said, exasperated.
“Come on—you can’t win somebody over when they’re totally unresponsive to your arguments. Maybe if they were a little more eager, the discussions would lead somewhere, but…”
“I must say, you’ve got a real gift for coming up with excuses…” Onkei said, sighing.