Eternal life

Chapter 33

They got to Shaman's home. As Young Saeng went inside he was astonished with its interior. His eyes were caught by something, what Aeri earlier didn't notice. On one display were laying daggers and knifes of all kind. They had some initials as well some words engraved on them. Shaman walked in and as usual left her bag in the corner, then noticed him looking at them with amusement.

She got curious. 'Do you like them?'

Young Saeng was as in trance, when he replied in dreamy voice. 'Yeah... My father liked weapons of all kind.'

'Your... father? I thought you don't remember your past.'

He was in shock, when he noticed what he has said. This sudden information appeared in his mind. Nothing less, but the fact, that his father liked the military. 'I don't know, why I said it...'

'Maybe this place is slightly cleansing your mind. It's a shaman's home, in the end. Do you recall something more?'

He was thinking hard, but nothing came to his mind. 'No...'

She shrugged her shoulders. 'I doesn't matter. Now, sit here.' She pointed a floor beside the table. 'I will just grab some books...'

She went out. Young Saeng sat on the floor thinking about what just happened. He said it so nonchalantly... Now, when going over it, he started to feel weird about it. As the fact, that his father liked weapons frightened him. After five minutes shaman came back, holding a stack of books. They looked old and caused the dust to fell, when she put them on the table.

'Ok, I will tell you what we are going to do. Look at this.' She drew the sign which they were looking for, again omitting one line on purpose. 'This we're looking for. As I did it for Aeri, I done it also for you: I didn't draw one line, here, just for the safety. So keep that in mind. If you'll find anything, we have to burn this note. I don't want this disease to spread.'

'This will be in those books?'

'I hope so. I have more, but mostly hidden. You see, some of them are 1000 years old at least. I think that many institutions would like to own them, but thankfully they are a shaman heritage to help our work. And I hope they will. But first, do you recognise that sign?' She passed him the note. Young Saeng looked at it for a second but shook his head. 'What a pity. So let's go.'

He opened first book and was surprised. 'They are written in Chinese characters!'

'Yeah, I told you – they are old. So if you'll find something similar we'll have to translate it...'

'Translate? But I know what it says...' He started reading the story of virgin spirit haunting one villagers, which happened to be on the page he opened.

Shaman was in awe. 'You amaze me! Maybe it won't be so difficult to find it!'

With those words they got to work. Unfortunately they couldn't find anything in the books, that she brought firstly. Either in the second pile or third. They didn't want to lose hope, but it was tiring and exhausting.

It was already afternoon, when Shaman stood up and said, that she's going to prepare some food. Suddenly, some piece of paper fell as the blow of wind travelled upon the table. It landed in front of Young Saeng and he looked at it. He grabbed it and shouted.

'It's here! It's separated though... But all the lines match! Look!' He showed the sheet of paper to her.

'Yes, it might be it... Sometimes, signs wield such a power, that you can't write them directly... It's an old trick, to separate them with additional line...'

He looked at her, raising one of his brows. 'What kind of power?'

'In example, they can summon the one, to whom the sing belongs to. And people usually don't want an angry deity on their porch.' Young Saeng only nodded and the woman continued. 'That's what I also do. It's just protection. Now, tell what it says.'

He looked at the text. He had to focus, to remember those signs, that echoed somewhere in the back of his mind. He started reading and translating it into somewhat near modern language. 'Umm... It describes an unusual case... So once there was a priest in the village, commonly respected. She was, umm, helping everyone? I guess it says so...'

She interrupted him. 'Don't worry about the accuracy, tell what happened...'

He read it few times and finally gathered up right words. 'So she was a good shaman. Unfortunately the villagers angered the gods. They sent flood, but the shaman, in exchange for her legs, she pleased them. But they were still angered and sent famine. This time she pleased them with her eyes. Finally they sent plague. She fought with it, but no prayer or offering helped. She decided to scarify herself to calm the disease. The gods agreed on the deal and she herself became an offering. Plague was gone and the villagers started to pray again to gods.

The deities were pleased with it and decided to prize the shaman for such an courageous move. She was back as an immortal, a good spirit of the village. Slowly with time the prayers moved onto her, giving her strength close to goddess. She fulfilled their wishes and cared for them. But it didn't come with the approval of the higher ups. They cut her source of power, making the whole town disappear, leaving her alone in the mountain and in the middle of the forest.

The people turned on her and gods were no longer on her side. They even wanted to get rid of her, but that just angered her, changing her character. She was powerful. From a good deity she became a deceptive one. Everyone, who raised a pray to her after that, was fooled. She firstly lead them into fortune, then slowly destroyed them.'

Shaman, sitting there with Young Saeng, hit his head. 'Good job with incensing such a being. Is there something more?'

'Well it says, that upon seeing that, gods decided to seal her at one place, so not many people would fell prey to her. But it didn't stop some of them going there and raising their dreams to her. So the author warns everyone just to avoid this place as well to burn any sign of her – with time she may just vanish, as there will not be anything to scavenge on...'

'Where is this place then?'

Young Saeng scratched his head. 'Umm... I don't know this sign.'

She took a deep breath. 'You really can build the tension... Wait, I had an old map somewhere.'

Shaman stood up, accidentally knocking down the bottle of ink, which stood on the table. The lake of dark fluid started to spread upon the table, as she tried to save all the priceless books. She run to grab some kitchen towels and started to wipe it.

In some unfortunate way, part of the ink started streaming into the direction, where the yellow paper laid. The strand of the ink touched the paper and crossed the sign in exactly the place, where it shouldn't. It drew the additional line.

Both of them, Young Saeng and his helper, froze. Immediately the paper caught on fire. As the flames suddenly appeared, soon they disappeared, leaving a huge stain on the table. But when the cinder was fading, they noticed that some parts of the table were intact. They showed sequence of the numbers. Shaman looked at it.

'I guess we don't need a map anymore. Do you have a car?'

Young Saeng asked with shaky voice. 'What is that?'

'It does 'broom, broom'. A Car.'

'I know what a car is. But what is that?' He pointed the numbers in front of them.

'An old good way to give the address, the coordinates. Let's go, you have to face your destiny.'

[Box for feedback, for better neatness. Please, leave your comments here.]