Fates Parallel Chapter 263 - Stabilize (Patreon)

“We are dying.”

The white cat speaks flippantly, grooming herself by the pale green flame of the stove. Her partner scoffs, the rat’s beady red eyes reflecting her own golden gaze.

“And who’s fault is that? I warned against allowing too many into our hearts. You have nobody to blame but yourself.”

The cat does not respond at first, staring into the fire to gather her thoughts. She spares a glance for their daughter curled up in the corner, exhausted from the day’s exertion and resting in anticipation of what is to come—assuming they survive. Finally, she turns back to her partner and speaks.

“They are family. If we cannot protect them, then what is our power for?”

“We are a family. This is what we must protect, but you would endanger it for others.”

The rat’s response is swift and scathing, but the cat does not back down.

“I would. And I do not regret it. If I must, I will do it again.”

The cat sits proudly, no longer a mere fragment of a greater being passed down through the generations. From the right angle, one can see in her the bright-eyed young woman, fierce and determined. She has been changed by her vessel, and the vessel changed in turn.

The rat narrows her eyes.

“Then you would place Family before Unity? Put them before us?”

“To me, they are one and the same. I ask the same of you. Would you risk our harmony just to feed your Hunger?”

Silence falls on the cramped living space. A reflection of the one place where they have ever felt at home. A tiny little dormitory apartment with only three rooms, one for living, one for washing, and one in which to sleep. From a time when it was just the two of them—before Heian, or Yan Yue, or any of the others who they would come to call family.

The rat is ashamed, but stubborn. She has always survived by taking whatever measure was necessary, no matter the cost.

The cat is proud, and refuses to compromise on her ideals. There are lines that she cannot cross, even at her own expense.

The impasse strains their bond as they struggle to reconcile their differences. They have kept each other in check until now, but with the balance between them disrupted they struggle against each other, each vying for more influence over the other.

“We are dying.”

The white cat repeats herself, causing the rat to turn away and scowl. In her, one can see the stubborn, angry young woman whose rage against the world is tempered only by her love for those select few she holds dear. Like her partner, she has come to reflect her host.

“And I am the one who has to pay for it?! Simply because I’m stronger?”

The cat frowns, struggling against her urge to accept her partner’s complaints and give up her own strength instead.

“There is no you or I. We are one. If you pay, I pay. If you suffer, I suffer. Was it not you who grasped the flames? This is a sacrifice we make together.”

“And yet it was you who forced my hand! I was against it!”

“If I had not, it would have destroyed us, even if we survived. It may destroy us yet, if we do not tread carefully. I ask you again—would you put our Unity at risk for the sake of your Hunger?”

The rat clenches her teeth.

“This is not fair.”

The cat nods in agreement.

“No, it isn’t. I’m sorry.”

Without another word, the rat approaches the stove and prepares to quench the flames. The cat’s heart aches—she hates herself for causing her partner such anguish. Padding over to her sleeping daughter, she gently nudges the kitten awake.

“Heian, darling, wake up. We’re not done yet, sweetheart—they still need us.”

Heian grumbles irritably, but slowly stirs awake and prepares to take action. The rat steels herself for what she must do.

“I hope you understand that I am only doing this because I love you, Jia.”

The cat nods sadly.

“I know. I love you too, Eui. I’m sorry.”

The rat squints her eyes shut and throws herself on the fire.

—-

Yoshika woke with a start, gasping for air and getting only pain for her trouble. The soulfire still burned, demanding every ounce of her concentration. On top of that, deviations ravaged both of her bodies as her essence rampaged out of control—her demon and tennin cores remaining unusually silent through it all.

Pushing herself to the limit, Yoshika forced her mind to crystalize the moment into Absolute Awareness. She recalled her dream, pushing that recollection into the same mental snapshot—it seemed important. As if in response to her recollection, her cores pulsed—a flood of Destruction essence poured from Eui’s core, quelling the flames engulfing her, but stirring up the deviations even further.

At the same time, Jia’s core erupted in purifying Lightning, cleansing Eui’s rampaging Destruction essence until only a pleasant Warmth was left behind. That left only a roiling mass of uncontrolled Lightning, scourging its way through Jia’s meridians and threatening to disrupt the spiritual core within her dantian.

Yoshika focused her own efforts on getting that deviation under control. She could guess what had caused it—the conflict between her aspects had left her disturbed and unbalanced. Unity was her primary domain, and such conflict was anathema to her.

Without resolving that conflict, the only thing Yoshika could do in the moment was isolate the rampaging essence, force it into a stable form, then set it aside. Except she already had a core of crystalized essence. Unlike Eui’s core, which would greedily slurp up any out of control essence, Jia’s was more passive—Yoshika would have to force it to take in the deviation.

Without the Soulfire or Eui’s deviation to distract her, Yoshika took hold of her emotions with practiced ease, meditating calmly through the pain to isolate the stray energy and carefully herd it towards her core without causing any further damage. Once in place, she compressed it down until it integrated into the tennin core, finally stabilizing Yoshika’s cultivation once more—for the time being.

She allowed herself a moment to relax. That had been close. By far the worst deviation she’d ever experienced, and far more of a threat to her than the Soulfire had been. She knew without a doubt that she’d come within a hair’s breadth of destroying her entire cultivation—possibly lethally.

That her demon and tennin cores had acted in tandem to help quash it was a good sign. She could only hope that with her cores back in balance, she’d be able to avoid another scare like that in the future.

Blinking her eyes open, Yoshika was met with two different scenes in two different worlds. With Jia’s body, in the physical realm, Jung and Narae were watching her with a mixture of terror and concern. Scorch marks marred the forest clearing all around them where Seong Misun’s spell had pierced through the boundary, but her family was safe.

Meanwhile, in the world of shadow, her friends were gathered around Eui’s body and waiting patiently for her to wake up. Master Ienaga was the first to notice.

“She’s up. An, are you alright?”

Yoshika nodded, then paused and shook her head.

“No, not really. But we’re not in any more danger. What happened? How long have we been out?”

“Just a few minutes. The darkness fled as soon as you fell unconscious. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up to take us back.”

Seong Misun tutted sharply.

“Speak for yourself. I’ve been working on my own way out. There’s quite a bit of Void essence in this place—perfect for a transportation spell.”

Yoshika frowned at that—she was extremely upset with Misun, but she was distracted by a flying tackle hug from Narae.

“Big sis! You’re okay! I knew you’d save us! Thank you, thank you!”

Yoshika patted her little sister on the back comfortingly.

“Hey there Narae. Sorry that things got so scary there.”

“I—I never doubted you!”

Yoshika smiled, letting the white lie slide. She didn’t blame her little apprentsis for being scared. She’d been scared too.

“Why do you think the shades ran off, anyway?”

Rika’s question brought Yoshika’s attention back to the world of shadows. Misun was quick to offer her own opinion.

“Obviously they fled after a demonstration of my power. None of them were able to withstand my spell.”

Yoshika’s eyebrow twitched, and she scowled up at the princess.

“You! We should leave you here, you—you witch!”

The insult felt strangely hollow—Yoshika knew she could do better than that, but something held her back. As angry as she was, she didn’t want to hurt Misun—even the threat to leave her behind was an idle one. Clearly Misun knew it, because she scoffed dismissively.

“You wouldn’t dare. You still need me. Besides, your stupid little stunt was your own fault. Had you just stayed out of my way, there would have been no danger. Ienaga Yumi was more than capable of resisting such an attack, and I’m sure she could have protected your precious mortals as well.”

Master Ienaga frowned, and Yoshika felt a twinge of uncertainty from her, but she didn’t deny the princess’ words. Instead, Rika stepped between Yoshika and Misun, shaking her head.

“Look, we can talk about this later, yeah? Why don’t we start by getting out of here—this place gives me the creeps. You can do that, right?”

Yoshika nodded hesitantly.

“O-of course we can. Probably.”

That earned her glares from everyone, so she hurriedly reached out to Heian. The cat spirit had been ready, and Yoshika was immediately met with a small but steady stream of Heian’s Shadowflame.

She could remember how to use it from her time as Lee Hei, but there was only enough for one trip—Heian was almost entirely spent, and Yoshika herself was still reeling a bit from the deviations.

“Everyone hang on to me.”

Her friends gathered around, reaching out to hold onto her hands and arms. Misun placed a hand right on top of her head, which annoyed Yoshika, but not enough to ask her to move it. With a moment of careful concentration, Yoshika allowed the Shadowflame to mix with Jia’s Lightning, transmogrifying it into the strange black lightning that allowed her to move through shadows. Then, she drew it through her domain and into Eui’s body, where it spread to the others.

They dropped unceremoniously through the shadows, landing in a pile in the realm of the physical and causing Lee Jung to jump in fright.

“Oh! They’re back—that scared me. I thought it was those imperial sorcerers coming back to investigate.”

Yoshika winced.

“Sorry. I should have warned you.”

Master Ienaga didn’t waste any time rallying the group now that the danger had passed and they were all back together.

“We don’t have any time to waste. They’re going to be on high alert after all that, and we need to move. We’re going to be going double time the rest of the way.”

There were a few exhausted groans, but nobody questioned her. Rika hesitated in front of Misun, more uncomfortable around the Princess after her earlier outburst and demonstration of power. Yoshika felt for her, so she stepped in to offer an alternative.

“We can carry Seong Misun this time. I’m sure you two would both like a bit of space from each other, right?”

Misun didn’t respond except to raise an eyebrow, but Rika furrowed her brows.

“Uh, what happened to being too short to carry her?”

“We can probably figure something out between the two of us. Four hands are better than two!”

“Right...and what about your little sister?”

The obvious answer was that Rika would take her, but the more Yoshika thought about it, her friend deserved a break and they were about to be running at a full sprint.

“She’s not that heavy. We’ll take her too.”

Rika’s eyes widened, some kind of realization dawning on her face.

“Ooookay, nope! Not entertaining that. You guys are acting weird. We’re sticking to what we were doing before and that’s final.”

Yoshika opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it—if that’s what Rika wanted, who was she to second guess it?

Then it clicked—Rika was right. Something was off. She wasn’t acting like herself. Was it the Kumiho again? Some sneaky impulse seared into her while she was doused in Soulfire? Yoshika urgently inspected herselves for anything amiss, and the answer came to her in an instant.

Jia’s tennin core had grown, its smooth bluish purple surface now protruding from her skin, just below the collarbone. She hadn’t restored the balance between her cores at all—she’d flipped it.