Lunar Shrine

Our trip to the capital continued with me in a far better mood now that I had something to look forward to. A trip to meet the Warden of the North would take us a couple of months more, but that was fine. I needed time to prepare, anyway. Perhaps I should consider speaking with Fulsi and Suiren as well. They might have interesting information, and with Yuemith accompanying me, perhaps they'd be willing to actually talk instead of attempting to murder me. Actually, how often did humans try to just speak with the Wardens? Maybe I could do it either way, and I'd been wasting time all the while because I was using conventional human thinking instead of practical, realistic thinking. Burgeoned by the thought that I could become even more practical and, by doing so, learn even more, I walked down the road toward the capital with a skip in my step. 

The next town we stayed in was small, and while I'd only passed through it twice in my life, the people who'd been there at the time remembered me. "If it isn't the little white-haired girl," one of the guards said. "What was your name? Sea?" 

"Ciel," I corrected, amazed as always that people bothered to remember the names of people they'd only met once a decade ago. 

The guard laughed and nodded, then looked at Yuemith. His expression dimmed slightly, but he swiftly recovered. "Right then, the caravan the other night told us about you two, so come on in. Mama Pie's got some rooms above the tavern if you're staying the night." 

I thanked him, and we walked through the narrow streets until we located a tavern with a sign depicting a pie hanging outside the door. I sighed. Literacy rates weren't high in small towns like this, so I supposed there wasn't much to be done about it. 

Once we'd eaten and returned to your room, Yuemith surprised me by transforming. Though he remained a reasonable size, he returned to his dark beast form and curled up by the door. 

"Yuemith?"

He lifted his head to look at me. "You remain skittish. It irritates me," he said and lowered his head once more to sleep. 

Did I? I must, if he said as much, but I couldn't fathom why that would bother him. He was the one who'd done it, after all. We set off the next day with me still mulling over that. Now that he mentioned it, I suppose I did maintain a sort of unconscious difference. It was interesting to see that I'd been doing such a thing without being aware of it, and it made me wonder what other things I might do without noticing. 

I wanted to ask him to let me know, but it occurred to me that Yuemith had no way of knowing whether I was aware of a behavior or not. I set the notion aside for later perusal when I noticed Yuemith had stopped at a path leading away from the main road.

"What's this?" he asked, gesturing toward the sign marking the path. 

'Lunar Shrine,' it read in chipped, fading letters carved out of the wood. 

I sighed, ready to dismiss it, before I thought better of it. "It's an old mine. They found something inside and had to abandon it per regulations. Come on. It's only an hour out of our way. Maybe you can tell me more about it." 

I'd visited the spot once before, on my way out to my cabin after dismissal from the capital. At the time, I'd been unable to discern anything of interest, and I'd left only after nearly a week of useless poking and prodding. It was, unfortunately, illegal to use any manner of explosive around such sites, and explosions of the sort that might penetrate the site weren't the sort of illegal activity that could be easily concealed, even out in the wilderness. 

After almost an hour of walking, we came upon a large, deep pit. I led Yuemith down into the bottom of it, following the overgrown path with only minor difficulty. I doubted anyone would be there, but there was a biennial class on ancient history held here, so it hadn't been completely abandoned. 

Yuemith stopped short of a large slab of flat, sleek metal. "This is..." 

"We know from past excavations that this is part of what appears to be some manner of container. There are records that the interior contains largely degraded items, many of them of unknown purpose and function. Sometimes they are filled with the decayed bodies of human-like creatures, sometimes they are filled with water. Often, the people who enter grow sick and die before long, leading some to suspect these containers of being ancient cursed tombs." I watched Yuemith expectantly. Did this belong to one of humanity's past cycles? If so, did he know what it was for?

Yuemith ran a hand down the middle of the metal, and I watched with surprise as his shadow seeped into a crack I hadn't been able to see. Slowly, what now appeared to be a pair of doors slid open in a shower of displaced earth. They stopped, though, after opening only a few centimeters. Yuemith's brows furrowed, and sweat beaded on his face, but though I heard a deep, echoing groan from within the structure, the doors moved no further. At last, Yuemith's shadow withdrew, and he stepped back, looking vexed. "A shelter," he said. "It was meant to protect humans from the weapons they launched against each other."

"Did it not work?" I asked. 

Yuemith considered the opening, then shrugged slightly. "It may have. That it remains largely intact suggests the construction was sound. As it's within humanity's territory, this may be one of the shelters from which the Demon Lord pulled the seeds for the next cycle."

"If I helped, could we get in?" I asked eagerly. 

Yuemith shot me an exasperated look. "Perhaps, but to what purpose? You would have us exhaust our supplies and ourselves for a chance to enter a tomb full of useless, decaying items you couldn't operate even if they weren't already long past any possibility of repair?" 

I frowned. "Anything will sound stupid if you say it in that tone of voice," I muttered. Clearly, Yuemith had no appreciation for history. 

In fairness, though, neither did I. "There aren't any clever forms of magic inside?" I checked. 

Looking like he'd rather be doing anything else, Yuemith spread his shadow out once more, long tendrils of it entering the metal shelter. I settled down to wait. I'd heard these containers could be massive in size, so it might take a while. 

More than an hour had passed by the time Yuemith opened his eyes and shook his head. "There are signs that this was created after humanity discovered magic, but it appears to have been created with a focus on preserving life rather than knowledge. There is little within that I believe would be of interest to you." 

There was every chance he was wrong. Even if he wasn't lying, who knew what might spark my interest? Even so, I accepted his words. Any adventure within this container would require extensive preparation. It wasn't something to do on a whim while traveling elsewhere. "I'll let the University know it somehow appears to have opened, and they can send someone to work on preparing it for a proper visit." They might even pay me for the information, even if I couldn't alert them to the method of its opening. 

We returned to the main road and continued on. 

"Where did dark beasts come from?" I asked one afternoon as we approached a farming village. There was no magical barrier around it, only a wooden wall. 

"The Demon Lord created us," Yuemith said. 

"Why?" 

Yuemith paused, frowning. "Why? What do you mean?" 

"I mean, most people would create life for a purpose. Sure, they might make a proof of concept just to see if they could, but making more? That'd be something they did for a reason. Resources, labor, weapons... Maybe even just to sell as pets... but they'd have a reason. So why did the Demon Lord create you?" 

To my surprise, Yuemeth appeared to be at something of a loss. "She just did," he said. He sounded oddly defensive. "She didn't need a reason." 

Ah. It clicked. Perhaps this was a bit like asking a child why their parents had them. Ideally, the child would like to believe their parents had them because they loved the idea of a child and loved the real child even more. Realistically, it was perfectly likely that the parents wanted help with the farm, hadn't intended to have a child at all, or wanted someone to take care of them in their old age. However, I'd been informed before that telling a child that was not only pointless but cruel. 

"I see," I said, biting back my own suppositions. I thought it quite probable that the Demon Lord was attempting to perfect life. Why else create dark beasts like Yuemith, who didn't reproduce at all, as well as ones that reproduced sexually? It seemed like an experiment. 

Perhaps humanity itself was just another experiment. I sat with that thought, wondering what it said that it didn't particularly bother me.

"What are you thinking about?" Yuemith asked. Presumably, I'd been quiet for too long. 

I shook my head. "Why did the Demon Lord make you a warden? The other three, up until the Hinan/Hiacine thing anyway, were all elementals. Why didn't she use an earth elemental for your border?" 

"I was the first," Yuemith said slowly, frowning in deep concentration. "The others came after... Fulsi was the first to join, since she was friends with the Demon Lord. Then the water and fire elementals were jealous of Her favoritism and argued to be given a place as well. I don't believe the earth elementals ever cared. Or at least, if they did, they didn't make a fuss about it."

I considered that. Somehow, the thought of the Demon Lord having friends was off-putting. We entered the town and were put up in a barn, where Yuemith once more transformed and kept himself far from me. I let him. "What's She like?" I asked as we lay in the dark and the hay, listening to the animals around us. 

"The Demon Lord?" Yuemith checked. I hummed in confirmation, but he remained quiet for a long while. At last, he said, "I... can't fully remember." 

"What?" 

He sounded frustrated. "Some years ago, I was instructed to remain near the border until instructed otherwise. Since then, all contact with Her has been through mental communication, and... somehow... many of my memories have faded. I can no longer recall what She looks like, and even Her voice is distorted in my memory."  He sighed. "But She is fair. She never does anything without reason. She's kind, usually, though Her kindness can be cruel at times. She can be absent-minded and blunt, but She is also reliable when it matters. She's powerful, magically, but physically weak. Against Hiacine, She won by healing Herself constantly until he'd exhausted himself."

I snorted. If I had the magic to spare, that would be how I'd win against a physically superior opponent, too. 

Yuemith's voice had a smile to it. "Yes, it was a pitiful match. Hiacine was fully disgusted by it. She doesn't care about honor. The ends justify the means, usually, though She has also warned us that sometimes the means are too terrible to justify, no matter the end." He paused. "I never understood what that meant. Perhaps, though..." 

"Perhaps what?" I prompted. 

"It's nothing." Yuemith didn't speak again that night. 

Sometimes, during the day, Yuemith attempted to point out the invisible moon. "It's further out and smaller than the others," he said. "Once, there was only one moon, I've heard, though I don't remember it. When magic developed, it altered the world's gravity and attracted additional moons." 

Try as I might, I couldn't see it, but I imagined a pale half-silver hanging above me, quietly directing my magic. 

At the next town, the last before we reached the capital, Yuemith once more transformed to sleep near the door, but this time, I stopped him. "Come here," I said. 

"What is it?" 

I sighed and slid out of the bed. I padded across the room and picked him up. In this form, he was heavy, but not so much that I couldn't carry him back with me to the bed. "It's cold. Sleep next to me and keep me warm." 

There was a moment, then Yuemith returned to Lisa's form and wrapped his limbs around me. "Very well," he murmured. 

Just as I started to fall asleep, I heard and felt a deep, rumbling purr.