Heaven's Golden Finger

The Eye of the Beholder

Shirong felt a bit like he'd wandered into a video game. One of the open world ones, with impossibly huge cities in equally improbable places. This one hung upside down and sideways inside a stony chasm. The whole place was carved from the living stone, spires of polished stone connected by gemstone bridges. A sphere hung from the central spire on a chain of rainbow shards, its soft glow changing color slowly.

Shirong wanted to ask if someone had borrowed this from that old D&D module, but there weren't any spiders in sight. Besides, he didn't want to annoy his Shixiong with his foolish references to things Shu Shun had no way of knowing.

Instead he asked, "You know this place?" Shun Shixiong's expression was shocked but not surprised. The cavern was familiar to him, that much was certain.

"It's my mother's kingdom. I'm sure of it."

If so, demons had taste. The buildings looked elegant and delicate and precisely the sort of place a rich noble would kill to own. "Then that's her palace?" He pointed at the central spire.

"I'm not sure. I've only ever dreamed of this place. Never thought it was real." Shun Shixiong moved forward slowly. Stood at the pathway edge, far too close for Shirong's comfort. Then he stepped back hurriedly, just as something huge glided slowly upwards. "Never thought those were real, either."

The thing was beautiful in a terrifying sort of way. A bit like a sting ray in shape, but covered in a delicate pattern of scales and feathers. A long tail, coming to a sharp point, flicked lazily behind it as it soared and turned. It called out as it passed, low and deep, like a humpback whales, only sweeter.

"That'll eat us, won't it," Shirong asked. Anything that beautiful couldn't possibly be safe.

"I don't know if we'd be big enough." Shun Shixiong considered the thing and another rising out of the depths from the other end of the chasm. "And right now I think they're mating."

It'd be easy to just stand around and stare at everything in this place. There was just so much to look at. So much to try and comprehend. But that'd take time Shirong suspected they didn't have. "What do you want to do, Shixiong?"

Shun Shixiong watched the two beasts dancing together in slow motion, treating air like it was water. Then, regretfully, turned away. "We need to find our way back to the human world. I'm almost sure there'll be a portal in my mother's palace. And, while we're there, I should probably pay my respects."

That was right. Shun Shixiong's mother had been trapped upon her throne, or so Master Qiong had told Shirong. "Do you want to free her?"

"I should if I can, but.... I'm not Master Qiong's match." Shun Shixiong sounded tired. "And you should be trying to stop me, anyway."

No. That's the one thing Shirong would never do. Both this life and the one he'd lived in the future he'd had no parents. Admittedly, he'd had Master Qiong this life but that had never felt like a true parental relationship. Besides, Shirong suspected his adopted father's motives. Suspected what'd happened to Shun Shixiong's parents had more to do with Master Qiong's ego and desire than anything else.

"I'll help you."

A slight wry chuckle. "My thanks, Shidi, but for all your gains you're not strong enough. The two of us together can't beat Master Qiong's work. Besides, he's liable to be coming after me, next."

Shun Shixiong was probably right. "I won't let him touch you." He didn't need to repeat what he'd already promised all those weeks back. Their fates were one and they'd deal with it together.

#

The path to the palace was a long and winding one. It was also made more difficult by the energies filling this place. Shirong could deal with them by simply holding on and letting them move past. Shun Shixiong, however, had more difficulty. His demonic heritage came into play, meaning every wisp of magical energy they encountered tried to attach itself to him.