29.i The Hall of Perfect Light

~ Sun Ritsu ~

As the spider and monkey made their way inside the maw of purple mist, the former asked Ritsu if he and Ham Song had caught the name of the organization that funded the construction of the bridge.

Ritsu thought hard about it before shaking his head. “No. The dog spirit who talked to us just said that the organization was a pretty big deal and that there would be more bridges like that one.”

Anari seemed to hesitate before she admitted, “What you saw at that bridge… It's called an untethering. I’ve only seen it happen one other time.”

Sun Ritsu filed the information away for later. “Is there anything that can be done to fix it?”

Anari shrugged. “Pure Luck.” A grimace tugged at her lips. “But what spirits do you know are willing to put all of their Luck together for a good cause?”

Ritsu started to wonder exactly how much Luck Ham Song could hold at any given time. He told himself that he would ask the pig the next chance he got.

The spider and the monkey were almost through the purple mist. They slowed their walk as they entered the interior of the fun house.

As it turned out, Dear Traveler, the monkey’s feet did in fact lead him to the right place. This was the legendary Hall of Perfect Light. And what a sight it was to behold, even if it was somewhat dilapidated. But Sun Ritsu was too wrapped up in his thoughts of untetherings and… other things that had been weighing on his chest.

The sun clone had been very good at ignoring these burdensome thoughts, but they were becoming too loud and obvious to pretend like they didn’t exist.

“Sun!”

Ritsu jumped at the sound of Anari calling his name.

“Why are you just standing there?” She placed her hand on her hip. “Come help me look for this staff.”

Ritsu came out of his daydream and finally registered the chamber’s interior.

The walls were slightly concave and mostly made up of stained glass. The ceiling was broken in many places, but the light overhead was interrupted by overgrown vines. Parts of the wall were made from plaster. They had once been covered in a layer of green paint reminiscent of jade stone, but most of it had peeled off.

Ritsu looked down and realized that there was hardly anywhere he could step without crunching down on something. Broken jade stems were scattered everywhere. At least, Ritsu thought they were stems. It was hard to tell because they had no flowers.

When the monkey looked up, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Anari moving about the space without disturbing a single ornament shard. Not wanting to risk the glass piercing through his sneakers, Ritsu adopted a shuffling method to get around. He kept his soles to the ground, shifting the broken glass to the left and right before moving forward along the clearer path.

While Anari checked the perimeter, Ritsu made his way towards a small table at the center. An upturned vase balanced on top. Like the ornaments around the room, it was made from jade. As Ritsu came closer, he noticed the complex patchwork of cracks streaking across the surface of the vase like a million veins.

“Have you noticed the images depicted on the windows?” Anari asked from the other end of the hall. “They’re all phoenixes.”

Ritsu turned away from the jade vase and fixed her with a blank look.

Anari sighed. “Phoenixes were immortal beings like the dragons. No one has seen one in ages.” She noticed where Ritsu was standing and pointed at the table. “I didn’t see that when we came in. What did you find?”

Ritsu looked back at the table and scrutinized the tiny gold plaque fastened to the wood.

Slowly, he read aloud, “A green jade pot of a thousand flowers.”

Dear Traveler, don’t get offended, but I’m going to assume that you have never felt a drop of spiritual energy in your whole lifetime. Remember how I said earlier that Anari and Sun Ritsu felt a strong concentration of energy at the entrance? Well, after Ritsu read the description off that plaque, a new mist settled in the chamber. This one wasn’t quite like the one from before. This was a holy mist. And holy mists could only be generated by one kind of spirit.

An immortal.

Now this sudden weight of spirit energy was so intense that Anari and Sun Ritsu feared that they might be crushed by it.

That’s right, Dear Reader. Crushed.

Now, shut up and let me tell you what happened next.

“It’s a trap,” Anari gasped. “There’s got to be some kind of riddle that we can figure out.”

“Anari, look at the floor!”

All of the jade stems were vibrating on their own. They sounded like a rain shower as they rattled against the dusty tiles. The spiritual pressure was only getting worse and worse.

“Start gathering the flower stems, Sun,” Anari shouted as she knelt to the floor. “As many as you can! Then meet me at the vase.”

Ritsu got to it. The two of them did their best not to trample on the remaining stems as they gathered up the pieces and brought them to the delicate jade vase at the center of the room. To the relief of both spirits, they found that the more stems they added to the vase, the more the spirit pressure lifted.

By the time the vase was upright and full, Anari and Sun Ritsu could properly breathe. The holy mist occupying the chamber was still thick and heavy, but it no longer felt so suffocating.

Then, Dear Traveler, Ritsu and Anari jumped at the sound of the vase cracking as golden blossoms suddenly erupted at the end of the broken stems. When each flower was in full bloom, they all caught the sun rays at once and then… perfect light was cast throughout the hall.

This light was so perfect in fact that it lifted Anari and Ritsu’s glamour and illuminated them in a completely new way.