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Isla searched the crowd for her sister, but her mind was elsewhere, racing through one plan after another. Of course it would come to this. Who was she fooling, trying to do things the right way? It always came down to how many schemes she had up her sleeve.

She had followed the rules, not done a thing out of line—at least, not yet. She never even had the chance. All she did was befriend another halfborn like her, and already trouble found them.

All for the crime of being who we are.

She did not choose to be halfblood. Neither did Taeichi, nor her sister. None of them asked to be born with theurgy, but the gods gave it to them anyway. Now fanatics claim their existence to be blasphemous?

I'm going to spend the rest of my life running. The realisation filled her with despair.

She could handle it, barely, but what of Tam Mai?

Taeichi might for now turn suspicion away from them, but his life was still forfeit. If it came down to it ... would he really keep her and Tam Mai safe?

Would you leave him to die for your mistake?

No. Isla bit back the guilt. She could not think like that. It was not her who forced him to break his oath. That had come out of him in anger. Perhaps he too, had grown tired of hiding; it had not taken much for him to slip.

Isla caught Tam Mai's tired face between a row of women. They had not moved too far up the line. She pushed through and grabbed her sister's arm. 'We need to go.'

'Eldest!' Tam Mai's cry rang in unison with her voice in Isla's head: "What's wrong?"

Nothing, Tamma. We just need to lie low for a few days.

'What happened?' Yui startled.

'Nothing.' Isla took a moment to breathe. 'Is the Emperor still inside? I just need to keep Tam Mai out of the castle for a while.'

'The Emperor will be in there the whole day. Why? What's going on? Has something happened to Eshe?'

Eshe.

As if she did not have enough to worry about. Isla looked around. 'She's still not here.'

Yui shook her head. Even she looked concerned. 'Maybe she's ill.'

Isla doubted that. She had not forgotten Taeichi's ominous message. Eshe's uncharacteristic absence only cemented her fears, but what was she to do about it? What could she do that would not jeopardise Tam Mai's safety? 'I must at least check on her.'

'I don't mind. This line is going nowhere. We can come back later.'

'No, I'll go alone. You don't have the permits to enter the second enclosure, and I don't want to spoil the day for you. Stay here with Tamma, enjoy the rest of the festival. A few more hours will make no difference.'

She needed space to think, besides. How was she to get Eshe out of the damned city?

After today, her services may no longer be required.

What else could that possibly mean? And Taeichi ... how could she ever hope to sneak two people out of the castle?

Her head pounded. Isla leaned against the terrace railing, shutting back the tears that threatened to come. She did not know what to do. How could one day, one small thing, completely upend everything?

Yui's hand was on her shoulder. 'It's all right. I'll bring Tamma-uchi back to the hokkan. Just take it one step at a time.'

One step at a time.

Isla drew a long breath. 'You're right. For now, I need to find Eshe and make sure she's fine. If she's in trouble, I only need to alert the Emperor's children. Yes, that's it. Fukuhei-himi would never let anything happen to her, and Hanjou Fukuse is old enough to intervene.'

Tam Mai reared back. 'Why would Eshe be in trouble?'

'I only meant if she has taken gravely ill, or if she's been waylaid on her walk here. It's not like her to stand us up like this.' Isla felt Tam Mai creeping against her mental walls, trying to get a read on her. At least Eshe had taught her some discretion, though she could do with the practice.

'Then let me come.'

'Absolutely not. If she's ill, it might be catching.'

Tam Mai sniffed. 'You're always like this! Going off doing your own thing! I'm not a child who needs a child-minder all the time!'

People peered back to see the source of the commotion. Yui waved them away with apologies.

'Now is not the time,' said Isla between grit teeth. 'I'm not wandering around having a picnic, Tam Mai. We'll talk about this when I get back.'

'It's all right, isn't it, Tamma-uchi?' Yui pulled Tam Mai by the hips. 'We'll be waiting at the hokkan.'

'I'll be back by nightfall.' Isla gave Yui a quick nod and left, her mental walls blocking Tam Mai's objections.

Her sister was a priority, but Eshe had helped them far too much for Isla to simply abandon once more. If she had to leave Tsunai, if Eshe would not accept her help, at the very least she would bid her farewells properly this time.

She could swear a blood-oath, as Taeichi had done.

But would the Emperor accept such an exchange for her freedom, especially once he heard of Taeichi's betrayal?

Ifrit burn that woman! If she had only taken the senandu!

People yelped and cursed as Isla tore through the crowd, down the approach path, out the temple gates.

She was deep in the sugi grove when the first tremor hit.

It caught her mid-run; a rumble that started deep below her feet before exploding to the surface. Isla stumbled off the path, tripped over a stone lantern, and crashed into the brush. She lay there, dazed, watching the boughs shake high above her.

The earth thundered in the distance. A branch cracked. Isla rolled to her feet just moments before it would hit her.

There was no time to think. She should get to open air, but the trees were tight around the path. She hurried along, avoiding smaller branches that scattered from the canopy.

The earthquake stopped just as the trees cleared. People streamed in and out through the northern gate in a tumult. Its guards had descended from the parapets to inspect the damage. A chunk of the crenellation had fallen, but beyond that, no one seemed injured.

Isla passed into the bamboo forest unnoticed, following the trail that would take her to the second enclosure.

Hopefully the quake had not triggered one of Tam Mai's episodes; even Yui would struggle to handle that.

She heard Ikidojja's guards long before she saw them. The second enclosure had been hit harder. A crack ran deep under the gates, stretching out from the commune. One of the guards recognised her face. He waved her to a stop, speaking in the common tongue, 'It's not yet safe to go in. We're still checking the damage.'

'Is it that bad?'

He looked back and nodded at his men, who put their shoulders against the gate and pushed. The wood groaned and slowly opened. Its pulleys were broken; the fissure had run straight beneath the large mechanism, now the chain dangled uselessly on the other side.

Isla stopped just below the gatehouse and covered her mouth with the sleeve of her jin-sang. Dust was still settling within the enclosure, the air stale with the taste of dry earth and stone. A street lantern had collapsed onto the roof of a building and more cracks weaved between compounds, but for the most part, the houses themselves seemed unaffected.

She stepped gingerly over a fissure, followed its path with her eyes. They all pointed to the same direction; like crooked rays bursting from the same sun. Northward, where Eshe's residence just so happens to be.

The Emperor's clan breeds the world's most powerful terrakin.

These were not the work of a volcano hundreds of miles away.

'Eshe.' She turned to the guard. 'I need to check on my friend.'

She ran before any of them could stop her. Only their shouts followed from behind, but none gave chase. Isla trailed the fissures in the earth. Deeper they led her through the enclosure. She passed more guards in the midst of assisting people out of their residences. Gate frames had come loose, tiles shattered from older rooftops; a man held a cloth against his bleeding head.

Isla had never seen so many people in Ikidojja before. Apparently it took a disaster to herd them out of their nests. They all stood, stunned under the open sky. No one paid her any mind as she zipped through the streets.

The damage only intensified the further north she went. A beam had collapsed onto the outer wall of a residence, now mounds of stone littered the area. Isla slowed to a jog, peering through the gap in the wall. It was one of the empty units. In fact a quick glance around revealed that all the residences here were vacant. The streets were empty, no frantic voices came from behind the walls.

Why had the Emperor placed Eshe in an unoccupied part of the commune?

Isla reached into the breast lining of her jin-sang and held onto her bloodrune dagger.

Another tremor shook the earth. Harder, this time. Much more so than she had ever felt before. Isla yelped. Another section of the outer wall collapsed with a loud rumble. She stumbled away, dust and powder spraying the air. She coughed through the cloud. There was a clatter as roof tiles came loose and shattered. Still the quake did not stop.

What is happening?

The ground ahead of her growled and split like a hungry beast, jaws gaping open. Isla jumped clear of it, stumbling forward, following its fault line. Lantern posts swayed violently, one plummeted as the earth around it cracked. Glass shattered, ifrit fume drifted into the air.

Isla pulled her handkerchief and stuffed it against her nose, breathing in Pepper's woody scent. Her eyes watered from all the dirt and debris, but she was trapped in the maze with only one way to go.

Finally the earth quieted. The air settled. Isla took in her surroundings through teary eyes. Trees and beams caved out sections of wall. Gatehouses stood over stone mounds that once enclosed its residence. Half the buildings around her tilted at odd angles. Isla's legs shook as she walked, struggling to bear her weight.

Thank the gods Tamma isn't here to see this.

Images flashed before her—Eshe's residence stripped down to its very foundation; her friend buried in its depths.

Isla steadied her breathing; her chest was pounding far too fast for her to follow. Now her hands were shaking, too. She would be of no use to anyone in this condition. She shut her eyes, hoping the temple had not suffered as greatly. Hoping Tam Mai and Yui had not been at the elevators when the quake hit—

One step at a time.

There was no use imagining the worst. Isla repeated Yui's words and stepped one foot at a time.

She turned a corner and there it was, seemingly unharmed. The perimeter wall was still standing, its gatehouse as robust and stubborn as ever. Isla sighed in relief. She ran to the gate, but nobody answered when she knocked. She mustered her core, reached through the wood and stone, and sensed not a single presence in the gatehouse.

Where are her guards? Her gate-keeper?

She walked along the perimeter, stretching her mind across the wall as she passed, trying to get a glimmer of any living being. The entire outer courtyard was abandoned; the rest was too far for her to sense. Had they evacuated the residence? Somehow she doubted that. All the fissures led back to Eshe's home, and it had not been a minute since the last quake.

The fissures. Isla scanned the ground, found a deep crack that jagged into a small alley between Eshe's residence and a neighbouring compound, now near flattened to the ground but for the wall that surrounded it. She followed the fissure into the alley; walls framed either side of her, leaving barely enough room to stretch. If another quake hit, she was done for.

A wall had collapsed midway into the alley, tumbling against the neighbouring fence and obstructing her path. Isla thanked Fjōr for her luck. She clambered over the heap, peered through the crack right into the western wing of Eshe's residence.

The floor panels toward the centre of the hall were broken; indented in a circular pattern. One of the beams was crooked, cracking through the middle. The hall was empty, or had been emptied following the quakes. Sounds flitted in and out from the courtyard beyond. She recognised Eshe's accented voice, loud and angry.

Isla squeezed through the gap and crept across the hall. She noticed then the runes splayed around the depression on the floor. Five metal glyphs, and at its apex a pedestal that had toppled over in the quake. An object lay across the fallen plinth, right in Isla's path.

A pair of hoops. She bent to inspect it. As wide as a circlet—large enough to comfortably hold—and two fingers thick. One a vibrant blue, the other a lavish violet; both cold to the touch. When she lifted them close to her eyes, she spotted tiny intersecting inclusions deep in the rings; thin and curled like the scripts of a rune.

Another yell from the courtyard. Louder this time, and much closer.

Isla flinched at the sound, seconds from dropping the hoops. She darted behind the pillars, edging toward the massive door. It had splintered close to its hinges, allowing a slit through which Isla could peer.

Five people were gathered in Eshe's sparse courtyard. Two soldiers stood guard before the southern hall, right by the archway that led to the outer courtyard, obstructing any hope for escape. Eshe was on the gravel, an adolescent boy standing behind her. He was dishevelled: black hair all at odd angles, robes torn, yi-sang coming loose and lop-sided. He cried and cried, eyes swollen and red from tears. Eshe struggled to her feet and covered him from the man across the square.

He stepped closer to Eshe, and Isla bit back a gasp.

☆ this chapter is dedicated to simple_ryam ☆

Video: Ambient music is off the soundtrack of the game, Life is Strange
Image: Image of the bamboo forest and Ikidojja gates by unknown artist

Uhh ... looks like Isla's come right in time for whatever's about to go down. How do you think they're going to get out of this one?

If you're one of my older readers, you might have noticed some big changes on my profile page, including huge changes to this series name! I know, we all hate change ... but hopefully this is one you can get used to. In any case, let me know what you think!
You can read the full, detailed information in the link provided in the inline comment, or by clicking on the "External Link". Thanks all, and see you next time!