Chapter Twenty-Five Kasu
They returned to Camellia House in silence. Kasu trailed a few steps behind Arun, lost in thought. She didn’t want to admit it, but their meeting with the Pale Lady had shaken her. A god willingly leaving the heavens to become a demon. Why? And what had she been trying to say about Lady Camellia?
It shouldn’t have been bothering her as much as it did.
Letting a demon’s lies affect her was proof of the weakness in her heart.
Why should she be so unsettled by the Pale Lady’s claim, unless, deep down, she didn’t have complete and utter faith in the Heavenly Principles?
As soon as she returned to Camellia House, she would meditate on how to be better.
Once they reached the edge of the shadow forest, Kasu parted ways with Arun and made her way up to the dormitory.
Ever since the search for Sunan had begun, she had neglected her studies of the Heavenly Principles.
She dug out the books she kept to one side in the closet, beneath the bedding.
She had picked them up from an old market stall selling junk.
They had probably been intended for kindling, but instead of using them as fuel for a fire, Kasu had read them, and they had changed her life.
After perusing the list of Heavenly Principles, she meditated.
Taking a deep breath, Kasu settled on the reed floor and pressed her back against the closet door. Ignoring the snoring of the other ghosts sharing the dorm, she closed her eyes and returned to her place of comfort. To her dream of her next life.
A small house on the edge of an apple orchard. The touch of sunlight on her skin. Someone waiting for her on the porch. Someone waiting for her to come home.
Sometimes, Kasu found herself rendered breathless by the violence of her longing.
She wanted to be reborn.
The only way to do that was to fulfil her contract with Lady Camellia and impress the heavens with her deeds. She had to prove she was no longer the same thoughtless girl who would sell her soul for a jade pendant.
Her mother’s fingers dug into Kasu’s shoulders so deep it hurt.
“Please. Do this for me. Do this for your sister. It’s the only way.”
Kasu glanced over to the mound of straw the three of them shared as a bed. There was someone lying there, limbs pale and thin.
Her sister. Kasu gasped. She remembered a small girl with dark hair and dark eyes and a smile like sunshine.
There was a corpse inside her home.
It lay on the straw bed with its eyes open, glassy and unseeing. At some point, dogs had come in through the unsecured door—
“STOP!”
Kasu surged to her feet. Her nails bit into her palms, almost drawing blood.
Someone hit her in the face with a pillow.
“Shut up, Kasu! Go have a nightmare somewhere else!”
Kasu remained standing, frozen. Though her breathing evened out, it did not calm her thundering heart.
The morning began with the usual sounds of chaos. And now I can look forward to an extra three hundred years of this. Kasu stood behind her counter, her back straight and shoulders squared like a soldier preparing for battle.
Outside, the meat marches continued past Camellia House.
Ghosts and demons of all shapes and sizes held up angry signs and yelled about the injustices of a two-tier food system as they made their way through the city.
Inside, the gamblers were more restless than usual.
Kasu dealt with their haggling and begging with fraying patience.
“Just ten more tiles! I’m going to win it big and buy my way into this month’s meat auction!”
“I was a three-time champion at Lord Onyx’s fighting pits! You should give me more than that, you little tart!”
“Another one of the Pale Lady’s actors turned up dead yesterday. I always wanted to land a leading role, but now I’m not sure. I think maybe it’s time for a career change.”
“My necklace is worth twice as many tiles, you stingy sea cow!”
Never had Kasu needed to call for Banse and Manzu’s help as much as she did this day.
An extra three hundred years. Kasu’s smile trembled underneath its own weight.
The day ended much the way it had begun – with the roars and wails of gamblers echoing through the floorboards, and more ragged patrons begging for tiles in exchange for petty trinkets.
As Kasu was ready to close up, Lady Camellia chose that moment to sweep down the stairs and into the foyer, followed by two smaller dog-headed demons carrying the train of her dress.
Red spider lilies filled Lady Camellia’s empty eye socket.
“Kasu,” she said, her voice like an iron brand.
Kasu jumped. “Y–yes?”
“Work hard.” There was a knowing glimmer in Lady Camellia’s eyes and a malicious edge to her smile.
“O–of course, my lady.” Kasu bowed so low her head hit the counter.
Lady Camellia’s smile curled like a cat’s tail. “Oh, and I’ll be heading to the theatre later tonight to have a word with the Pale Lady. Shall I give her your regards?”
Kasu didn’t dare lift her gaze.
The demon exited Camellia House. A moment later, the screams from the protestors echoed through the walls. Outside, someone – perhaps a member of staff Kasu had not noticed when Lady Camellia swept passed – banged a gong.
“All right, folks! If you don’t want to be eaten, CLEAR OFF!”
The road outside Camellia House was littered with abandoned signs and splatters of blood – the aftermath of whatever carnage Lady Camellia had inflicted upon the protestors before leaving.
After packing away the day’s trades as usual, Kasu sidled past the scene of destruction and stole around the back to grab dinner before heading into the shadow forest.
“I saw Ruo.” Arun met her in their usual spot, by the boulder where Kasu had first promised to help him. “They came to tell me that they’ll be staying away from Camellia House for the time being, but said to call if you needed them.”
Kasu stopped in her tracks. She didn’t know why the thought of Arun and Ruo speaking to one another without her felt like such a gut punch.
“For you to call or for me to call?” she managed to ask without sounding tense.
“They didn’t say.”
Arun was taking this more seriously than Kasu expected.
She had thought he would just shrug it off, that he wouldn’t care, but he’d obviously noticed how badly Ruo’s disappearance had rattled her, and it had made him hesitant and gentle.
Like he was holding a small, frightened bird in the palms of his hands.
Kasu was too preoccupied to be offended.
Ruo had said to call, but would they really come if Kasu did?
The first time they met, the cat had said they would only come if Kasu was doing something interesting.
Would Ruo come again, even if Kasu had nothing to give them?
She was so lost in thought she did not hear Arun’s question until he asked it again.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” She shrugged. Why wouldn’t she be? She’d only had three hundred years added to her contract, and the Pale Lady had chosen the under-realm over being a god in the heavens, and Lady Camellia was going to confront the Pale Lady about trying to steal her elixir.
Arun sighed, and Kasu could not help but feel she had missed a beat somewhere in their conversation.
“I’m fine,” she repeated. “I just … had a bad night.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Kasu pursed her lips for a moment. “I had a sister. I think I had a sister. And a mother. I don’t really remember.”
She didn’t want to remember. Not if all her memories were like the one that flashed through her mind last night. A corpse. Wild dogs. Her stomach gave a sickening twist.
“I brought food.” She tossed Arun a portion of her dinner.
Arun caught it with a grin and sat down by the boulder to eat.
Kasu sat next to him and nibbled on a stale sesame bun.
She wondered if she could get her hands on mangostern or whatever Arun said he had eaten in the palace.
Fruit was not popular in the under-realm.
Unless it was soaked in blood or grown from the belly of an impaled warrior, most did not bother importing it from the mortal realm.
She wondered if Arun was eating enough. Surely a prince like him was used to seven meals a day.
While he popped a piece of boiled yam into his mouth, she took the opportunity to study him closer.
Was it just her imagination or was he thinner than before?
The smell of sugar and fresh bread flooded her senses. Kasu’s head shot up so quickly she felt the bones in her neck crack.
Arun had taken off his mask.
“What are you doing?” she screeched. “Put that back on at once!”
“Can’t I have one meal without it?” he asked. “I know it looks like I’m not wearing it when I put it on, but it’s really stuffy.”
Kasu pressed her sleeve to her nose and tried to breathe through her mouth. “I told you never to take it off.”
“But there’s no one here.”
“I’m here,” said Kasu, tightly.
“And? Are you going to eat me?”
She blushed. “I am a ghost you know. I’m not … unaffected.”
A sly grin crossed Arun’s face. Gesturing for Kasu to come closer, he leaned into her ear.
“It’s fine. You can take a bite if you want.”
Kasu shoved him away.
“Don’t joke about that! Put your mask back on or I’m leaving!” she shrieked as Arun burst into peals of laughter.
“Sorry. Sorry!” He did not seem sorry at all. In fact, he was grinning the way Banse and Manzu did whenever someone gave them a tasty bit of human flesh. If Arun were a dog demon, his tail would be wagging. Kasu glowered at him some more for good measure.
“The gods would never forgive me if I ate you. I’d never forgive myself.”
“I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t mean to ruin your chances at reincarnation.” Arun’s expression was penitent as he put his mask back on.
Despite everything, Kasu felt some of the tension she had been holding all day slip away.
“It’s fine.” She wanted to lean her shoulder against his, but her heart fluttered with something she could not name.
Heavenly Principle thirty-nine popped into her head like a sudden reprimand. Refrain from indulging in unnecessary pleasures. They will erode your discipline like sand before the sea. Kasu shoved her hands into the pockets of her dress.
They should discuss what they had learned from the Pale Lady. Kasu was about to bring it up when she heard a loud rustling from the bushes.
Something was approaching.
Kasu stiffened. Though they took care not to wander too deep, she had visited the shadow forest so often now she had started to forget the rumours about things lurking beneath the trees. Things older than Camellia House and the demon lords, older than Ghost City itself.
Rising to his feet, Arun drew his sword.
“Help! Someone, help!”
A tiny imp-like demon stumbled into the clearing. He was as tall as Kasu’s knee and bleeding badly, though the blood was hard to make out against the dark red of his skin. One of his horns was cracked and there was a huge chunk missing from his tail, as if someone had taken a bite out of it.
“What happened?” Kasu rushed towards him only for Arun to hold her back.
Kasu blushed. She was always so afraid Arun would run off and get himself eaten that she had forgotten demons could trick her too. The imp looked injured, but that didn’t mean she should let her guard down. This could easily be a trap.
“Lady Camellia is what happened!” the imp squawked. “We just want to march in peace! We weren’t bothering no one!”
“You’re from the meat protest!” In Kasu’s opinion they were quite a bother. The march was so loud, she could hear them through the walls as they passed Camellia House.
“The what?” said Arun.
“W–we just want equal opportunities for all citizens! It’s not fair that the city rulers and higher demons get to have their pick of the best meat that comes to the under-realm!
” the imp squeaked as he clutched his arm.
It seemed even near-death encounters could not dampen his enthusiasm for equitable food systems.
“That’s just life, isn’t it?” said Kasu, gently. “The rich and powerful always get the best and everyone else is lumped with the leftovers.”
“Can’t relate, honestly,” Arun muttered. Kasu shot him a foul look.
“But there have always been auctions, and they’ve always been invite-only events. Why get angry about it now?” she asked.
The imp bristled. Despite the pain and the blood, a fire of rebellion still burned bright within him.
“Didn’t you hear the rumour? At the last meat auction, Lord Cobalt caught a lady from the heavens.
She wasn’t a god, but I bet she tasted divine.
” The imp was salivating. Foul-smelling drool dribbled down his chin.
“That’s what we’re missing when we are kept out of the auction.
That’s what the elites of this city are hoarding for themselves!
Even if we could never afford a single finger, just seeing her would be good enough! ”
Time seemed to slow. The trees moaned and whispered awful things. In the darkness, vine snakes slunk and slithered beneath the bushes. None of it mattered. Here, there was only herself, Arun and the awful confession released into the air.
“What did you say?” The whisper that left Arun’s lips barely disturbed the air around him.
The imp huffed and scowled. “Lord Cobalt caught this lady from the heavens and put her on the meat auction. I heard that the bidding was intense.”
“Then what happened?”
“Ha! What do you think happens at the meat auction?” he said. “Someone bought her and ate her.”