While the spray had been stretching high up into the sky, it had now begun to lose its upward momentum, dispersing while turning an ashy gray color. This gray substance also gradually faded, and eventually turned into some sort of haze. The murky seawater in the vicinity also began to revert to its original color.
What happened? Jusetsu asked herself. Did the Owl suppress the eruption for us?
“It’s the seafaring mourner’s doing.”
Jusetsu could hear the voice of a young girl. When she turned in the direction it was coming from, she realized that Ayura had—unbeknownst to her—awoken and gotten to her feet. The young girl was gazing out to sea, the waves reflecting in her sparkling, beautiful dark eyes.
“A seafaring mourner has placated the sea god,” Ayura claimed.
“A seafaring mourner?”
“That’s what the Raven is saying.”
Jusetsu’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “You can hear the Raven’s voice?”
She clutched her chest. Jusetsu couldn’t hear the Raven, and she probably never would again. Was that because she’d been set free?
“I can hear her…”
The Hatan clan—the clan which both Ayura and Ishiha had been born into—had been the Raven’s first oracles. Was that why Ayura was able to hear her?
“What’s happened to the ao god?”
After a brief pause, Ayura slowly shook her head. “He’s far away now. The Raven is closer.”
Jusetsu tried to work out what this meant. Ayura probably worded things awkwardly because she was originally from the Hatan clan. She struggled to get across exactly what she was trying to say. Ishiha used to have the same problem.
“Are you telling me that the Raven is stronger?” Jusetsu asked.
Ayura nodded. “She always was. That’s why that other god had to use his wisdom to his advantage. But at this point, he’s no match for her. The Raven is very strong.”
The Raven is very strong.
With these words echoing in her mind, Jusetsu looked back out to sea. There was another flash of lightning and a roar of thunder. Fierce gusts of wind conjured up violent waves and sent splatters of water flying through the air. Jusetsu didn’t know how the gods were fighting, nor which was dominating the other.
The several whirlpools that had formed on the water’s surface began to dissipate one at a time. Having lost their momentum, they took turns dissipating and dissolving into the waves. There was another peal of thunder, and yet another bolt of lightning zigzagged down toward the water.
“The Raven is winning,” asserted Ayura, just as more sea spray struck against Jusetsu’s face.
Suddenly, the surface of the water began to bubble. Without warning, water began to surge into the air again. It undulated, writhing like a snake as it soared toward the shore with a tip as sharp as that of a blade.
“Niangniang, stay down,” commanded Onkei, getting Jusetsu to squat down and shielding her with his body. Tankai was already standing in front of him.
The water blade, however, was not aiming for Jusetsu. Instead, it was heading toward Ayura and Ishiha.
For the Raven and her fellow gods, their greatest fear was their oracles being murdered. Jusetsu had heard as much from Koshun. The ao god’s own oracle had been killed by the Hatan clan.
The ao god!
“Run…!” Jusetsu yelled out, but that very second, the water blade lunged at the youths.
Jusetsu had no way of stopping such an attack anymore. She clenched her fist in the sand. She could see Hakurai trying to get to his feet in spite of his injuries—but it was too late.
There was a glimmer of golden light. This time, however, it wasn’t a lightning strike. It almost looked as if a star had burst.
Shinshin flapped its wings and jumped in front of the water blade.
This drove the water blade away, and it vanished into thin air—but at that very moment, Jusetsu noticed feathers scattering down onto the beach. In reality, they weren’t just feathers—it was Shinshin’s entire body. A golden light had burst open and scattered across the ground, and the Shinshin that Jusetsu knew and recognized was gone. All that was left of Shinshin was light and light alone, fluttering weightlessly through the air, sparkling like gold dust.
“Shinshin!”
Jusetsu ran over and reached out toward the light, but it didn’t feel like anything. It had no warmth nor coldness to it—it was just there, shining brightly. Jusetsu held onto it tight.
“Why did this happen…?” whimpered Ishiha, looking on the brink of tears as he gazed into the light.
“Because we’re oracles,” said Ayura. “The Hatan people were the Raven’s first oracles… We’re very important to her… Harara knows that, so that’s why…”
Ishiha sunk his teeth deep into his bottom lip, his expression revealing that he was desperately trying not to cry. “Was that why Shinshin always stayed by my side?”
The light was fading now, and the fine, sand-like particles glistened as it quietly dissipated.
“As for the Raven…” Ayura turned toward the sea. “She’s mad. Really mad.”
The wind surged and the thunder roared in the distance. The sea was astir with small, choppy waves.
All of a sudden, light poured down from the gray sky above. In the next instant, Jusetsu and the others could hear a tremendous roar. It sounded like the entire world was tearing apart. Although it wasn’t immediately obvious, the sea had been struck by lightning.
The sea had been split. There was no other way to explain it. The waves had retreated to the left and right, leaving the seabed exposed. A tall, blue wall came into view—one that began at the shore where Jusetsu and the others stood, and it extended all the way to the distant port of Ko Province.
Silence fell. Both the sea and the wind went quiet and still, like children on their best behavior. The sound of thunder had also disappeared without a trace.
Jusetsu couldn’t tell how long things stayed that way. Eventually, the wall of water slowly began to sink, gradually covering the seabed with water. Once the bottom of the sea was no longer visible, the parted waters returned to their original state. The sound of the tide echoed through the air while the gentle wind gracefully skimmed the water’s surface, forming ripples in the sea.
The clouds that had been covering the sky drifted away in the wind and disappeared out of sight. Sunlight poured down, making the water gleam and glisten. The sea looked so calm that it was hard to imagine the eruption and the thunderstorm had happened at all.
“The White Turtle is no more—that’s what the Raven is telling me,” Ayura muttered. The dazzling sunlight reflecting on the water was making her squint.
Jusetsu shielded her eyes and gazed out at the water too. The sea was tranquil—so tranquil that it felt like the uproar that had been playing out mere moments earlier had all been in her imagination.
“Does that mean that the ao god is dead?” Jusetsu asked. She found herself doubting whether gods could ever really die—but then again, the story about the land of Sho having been formed from a god’s dead body sprung to her mind.