Dr Chiasa could barely stand and Tsubasa wasn’t much better off. The moment he saw her broken skin, he dropped down to the ground, eyes fixed on the bruises. Tayo clambered up his back and nuzzled his cheek as the boy shivered. The grass rustled with the wind and I shifted around, looking for any sign of the swordsmen. Who knew what a racket the spell had made? We should get out of here.

The others must’ve thought the same. Ahio and Maya held Dr Chiasa steady while Daisuke and I helped Tsubasa up. A glance at his compass later, Daisuke guided us toward the river. I kept one hand wrapped around a knife. If she came back and threw another net over me, I would rip it apart.

The rushing sound grew louder with every step. Before long, the river spread out before us, the other end blending into the night sky. Stars glinted back on its surface, rippling with its current. It had to be a hundred meters across at least. And after that, Mori Chuo’s province. I gulped. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.

The other two stood on their own now and helped us shove our possessions into waterproof bags. I’d hoped to never use them back when I first bought the standard swordsmen tool kit. While we stripped down to our underwear, Tsubasa bandaged Dr Chiasa’s wounds, mumbling an apology with every breath though she reassured him each time. Daisuke tore up one of the bags and handed them to the other boy. That’d keep the water from soaking into the wounds.

Ahio jumped in first, splashing across the river faster than I ever could.

The first step raised goosebumps on my skin. With a deep breath, I dove in, water clouding my vision. The current pulled me off to my left, but I thrusted my limbs against it, keeping sight of the shore whenever I came up to breathe. Here and there, I could see the others, their bodies hitting onto mine on the way.

A few minutes later, I clambered onto the shore, shivering as the wind bit into me. Maya was out too, putting on her clothes while Ahio was already dressed, his hair hanging limply over his eyes. I helped Daisuke up before I took out my bag. Tayo came out next, giving us a mini shower with a shake of its fur, then Tsubasa, and finally, Dr Chiasa.

As we set up camp, a little light broke through the darkness on the other side of the river. I smiled and a rush of triumph ran through my veins. For now, we were safe.

***

June 21. Fourteen going on fifteen years old. Saishuu Riku.

For the first time in days, there were houses on the horizon. Dilapidated red roofs struck out from the cloudy sky, signalling a village close by. Sure enough, a row of white stones spanned across the grassy meadow.

‘Should we go around it?’ I turned to Dr Chiasa. But then again, we weren’t in Heikisato’s territory anymore, so we were unlikely to be caught. Mori Chuo, the city of lumber, wasn’t known for its swordsmen. And Minister Banji wouldn’t want to publicize the search too much. I hoped.

Dr Chiasa’s expression darkened as she gazed at the buildings ahead. ‘Not this one, no one comes through here. We should be safe.’

‘Sakashi,’ said Daisuke, skimming across a book. ‘It says it used to be a middleman to a gem trade from Genkoushi territory. Used to? What...oh! There was a disaster— it doesn't say what— and no one lives there now.’

A chill ran through my spine. The Sakashi incident. My heart raced. What was the disaster? The buildings took on a macabre tone as we approached the village, the windows hiding secrets within them. Sharp winds blew around us the closer we got, bringing with them a frosty cold air. My gut screamed out to me that something was wrong, unnatural about the place.

We entered the town through an alleyway between two run-down houses, their gardens overflowing with twisting weeds. The air grew more biting, and I shoved my hands in my pockets. I hadn’t watched many horror movies, but none of this was a good sign.

‘Why is it so cold here?’ asked Ahio, glaring at the surroundings as if to force it to grow warm.

‘You’ll see soon,’ Dr Chiasa said as we turned around a corner, entering the main village square.

Or at least, what should’ve been the square. Instead, a hole broke through the cobblestone ground, several meters into the dirt and rocks underneath. Cracks ran from it and onto the road, with some of the pavement hanging precariously over the edge. Visions of the cracks spreading and swallowing us into the hole flashed before my eyes. I shivered, this time not from the cold, and stood firm on my spot. I wasn’t going near that thing.

Dr Chiasa strode forward, peering over the edge. ‘They had their spirit absorber taken.’

We’d learned a bit about them in geography class back at the academy. Saishuu Riku hadn’t always had such great weather. In fact, it was known for frigid temperatures and rocky waves few could cross. But the first immigrants, who were mostly mages, had an idea. After conquering the seas, they sought to tame the land to suit them. Much of the weather was caused by the ups and downs of the inner spirit of the elements; air; water; earth; and fire, and in a great show of solidarity, witches and elementalists came together to build spirit absorbers. They were devices that kept the levels of elementary inner spirit within an area constant, thereby keeping the weather constant. Each town had one.

Why would anyone remove that?

‘Are you sure it’s safe to stay here?’ Daisuke rolled a pen around his fingers, gaze shifting from one house to the next.

‘Don’t worry about the weather. The spirit absorbers from the surrounding villages wouldn’t let it get much worse than this.’ Stepping back from the hole, Dr Chiasa walked toward a nearby house, pushing open its creaky wooden door. ‘Coming?’

We followed her in. A musty smell filled the hall and cobwebs spanned across every surface. I gulped as a spider, with dark legs as long as my fist, scuttled over a greyed-out sofa. Maybe camping out is a better idea.

‘You’ve been here before,’ Daisuke said, dusting off a wooden chair by the dining table.

‘Yes,’ Dr Chiasa sighed, wincing when her bruised arm knocked against the table as she sat down. ‘I was called in after the disaster, purely on a medical capacity. Well, my history as an assassin would’ve helped the selection.’

My heart banged against my ribs. ‘What...what happened?’ I sat down, trying to make myself small and keep from squashing any spider.

Dr Chiasa leaned forward, running her fingers in circles over the dirt atop the table. ‘No one really knows yet,’ she said after a while. ‘We were called in to treat any survivors after a merchant passing through saw the bodies, but really, all we did was pronounce them dead. Everyone.’

‘How did they die?’ Ahio whispered.

‘Some were stabbed in the throat or the heart with knives from their own kitchens, others were crushed beneath heavy furniture and still more were beaten to death with household objects.’ She paused, clenching her jaw. ‘But the weirdest were the babies. All dead in their cots with no sign of any harm.’

A shiver rippled across my body.

Just twenty-one stones until the Sakashi incident repeats itself.

A massacre. Twenty-one stones till a massacre.

‘All the gems were taken, and so was the spirit absorber.’ She leaned back on her chair, licking her bust lip. ‘For a while, they kept looking, but with no leads, they stopped and I heard it’s a cold case. It’s been fourteen years. They didn’t publicise it much, though the papers ran pieces on the incident for a few months. It’s the swordsmen's biggest failure and embarrassment.’

I placed all the facts I knew in order as we had dinner in that dingy house. The witch wanted twenty-one stones, and Genkoushi was giving them to her. When she got them, something like this would happen again— another village would die. The ministers are trying to get the stones before this, to stop this, though their goals with possibly releasing the elemental spirits were unclear. Or what they did with the kidnapped kids.

The way the babies died... my hands trembled as I bit into my sandwich. Wasn’t that how Hana died?

It must’ve been the witch. She must be collecting inner spirit, and maybe took the spirit absorber to siphon out what it held. But why?

Questions rolling around in my mind, I wandered off into the village while the others did their own thing. I imagined an old lady in a nearby vegetable shop, its shelves empty and filled with cobwebs. She smiled at me, her face crinkling, and offered me a carrot. A few steps ahead was a school, its sign hanging askew from a nail that had long rusted away. Imaginary children rushed out, skipping to their homes and waving their friends goodbye with bright grins. As I passed by a dusty window, inside was a little crib from which a baby’s laugh would've travelled onto the street.

The village of fourteen years ago flashed before my eyes with every step, only to be replaced by the rusty, battered reality.

Just twenty-one stones until the Sakashi incident repeats itself.