Keigetsu nodded. “I believe so, but a few things might seem off. He wouldn’t be able to perceive objects without qi or the details of people’s facial features. Plus, his leg might stop working if he gets distracted.”
“He can’t perceive objects or facial features, and his leg is liable to stop working…”
Reirin mulled over the explanation, only to abruptly shut her mouth. A chill crawled down her spine as the description jogged her memory.
“Your Majesty.” She straightened her posture and asked Genyou, “Would it be all right for Lady Keigetsu to make a flame call? It’s a spell that involves talking to another person through a fire.”
“A flame call? Why?”
“The truth is, when we set out to negotiate with Your Majesty, we left my brother Kou Keikou and the captain of the Eagle Eyes back at the disaster zone. We hoped that finding the sorcerer you’re looking for, or at least a clue as to his whereabouts, might provide us a bargaining chip.”
Deeming it too risky to stake everything on Reirin’s acting, the group had decided to split into two teams. As Keikou and Shin-u were both quite light on their feet, they had been sent to scour Treacherous Tan Peak and the other disaster sites respectively, on the lookout for a blind sorcerer.
“I have an urgent matter to confirm with my brother, the one in charge of Treacherous Tan Peak.”
“Go ahead.” Genyou was surprisingly quick to grant permission, given his virulent hatred of the Daoist arts. “I will take whatever clues I can get.”
“Lady Keigetsu, connect us to Brother Senior, if you would.”
“Huh? Well, all right,” Keigetsu shakily replied. The prospect of showing off a forbidden art before the emperor nearly petrified her with fear, but when Genyou himself shot her an encouraging nod, she was reassured enough to glance around the room. She found the coals in the brazier glowing red-hot.
Lord Kou Keikou!
As she fixated on the modest fire and called out Keikou’s name in her mind, she felt her consciousness being drawn outward, and a vermillion flame flared up from the coals.
“Ooh! It connected! Wow, so this is a real flame call! It’s about time you reached out! I’ve been waiting forever!”
Kou Keikou’s face was instantly projected across the curtain of fire. Even on the other end of a flame, he was as loud and obnoxious as ever, and Keigetsu’s brow wrinkled automatically.
Meanwhile, Keikou tested the transmission by alternating between bringing his face close to the fire and backing up. As soon as he noticed Genyou standing toward the back, his expression sobered and he went down on his knees. “I, Kou Keikou, heir to the Kou clan, extend my greetings to Your Imperial Majesty.”
“No need for formalities. I have chosen to cooperate with your younger sister for the time being. Seeing as she threatened me,” said Genyou, the look on his face a deeply humorless one.
“What?! She did?! I fear my heart might explode from the shock of it all!” Keikou shamelessly replied. Before anyone could call him out on his disrespect, he opted for a change of subject. “Your Majesty’s spy over there gave us a bit of context on your situation. On that note, there is something I would like to show you. Take a look at this.”
At that, he appeared to move the candlestick or whatever else was holding the fire. His hand entered the picture, whereupon the view shifted dramatically.
A moment later, everyone gasped at the sight now reflected in the flames.
“Wait, are those…?!”
“Yes. Shriveled corpses.”
A few somethings were lying in a heap in a dark shack—and those “somethings” were several corpses deprived of their flesh and reduced to skin and bones.
“Eep!” Leelee and Keigetsu half rose to their feet, their hands flying to their mouths.
In contrast, Keikou was as blasé as could be as he crouched down and shone his candle on the bodies. “I stayed on Treacherous Tan Peak and investigated the locals again, this time focusing on those with eye conditions, but I failed to find anyone who matched our sorcerer’s description. Then I remembered that the brigands who disrupted the Congee Conferment Rite were still locked up in a shack, so I decided to check on them just in case. And this is how I found them.” He picked up one man’s arm without hesitation, waving it back and forth in front of the flame.
“St-stop! Don’t show us that!” Keigetsu hollered. “Not only is it a horrifying sight, but those men are positively brimming with impurity!”
“I have to, or this won’t be much of a report,” Keikou shot back with a shrug, moving the candle even closer to the corpses. He went on to describe the scene in greater detail, mentioning things like mottled patches on the skin and how the degree of discoloration varied from person to person, while Keigetsu shrieked her head off in the background. He concluded thus: “I can no longer identify them by their faces, but they all have dried globs of congee stuck to their sleeves and hair. It’s safe to assume they’re the same brigands we vanquished with a rain of congee the other day.”
The corpses resembled starvation victims, but no one could turn to skin and bones in such a short period of time. The arms and faces peeking out from their robes had also turned black, which further confirmed that these corpses were the result of an unnatural death—of a sorcerer sucking their life force dry.
“I believe these are the same desiccated corpses of which Your Majesty spoke. That means the sorcerer must be here on Treacherous Tan Peak.”
“Brother Senior,” Reirin cut in, voice hoarse. Her pulse quickened. She was already filled with absolute conviction. “I apologize for interrupting, but I actually initiated this flame call because I had something to ask you.”
He was the one who had decided to keep the brigands locked up before handing them off to the military officers.
“I’d appreciate it if you brought your brother along with you.”
“Was I mistaken? You will have to excuse me. You and your escort seemed close as siblings, so I jumped to conclusions.”
Even though Reirin was wearing the Shu Maiden’s face, he had presumed her and a Kou military officer to be siblings. He used the flow of qi to see, so he perceived things differently from most people.
“Due to an old wound, my leg cramps up if I spend too long in the cold.”
He had a scar that ran from the knee down, one so big that it was a wonder he could even walk at all. When he came running over, he’d stumbled over a spoon on the ground and bumped into the table. That wasn’t because he was flustered—it was because he couldn’t perceive objects that didn’t have qi flowing through them.
“Where…?” Reirin’s throat dried up, and she broke into a clammy sweat. How hadn’t she figured it out sooner? “Where is Doctor Tou, the community counselor?”
At long last, Reirin voiced the name of the man who had seemed so familiar despite it being their first meeting—the name of the sorcerer hiding in Gomei’s body.