Chapter 38 Rui
Rui
Rui had fallen unconscious, but her body retained impressions of the car ride. It was smooth and winding, slowing down at
turns that felt too narrow to be city roads. The Exorcist Guild headquarters was in the middle of downtown. Everyone knew
that. Where Rui had woken wasn’t the headquarters.
The blond Exorcist—she’d said her name was Surin—was sitting across the metal table. Dressed in a black tank top that showed
off her impressive biceps, she was filing her nails with the blade of a large butterfly knife. From the way she handled it,
Rui guessed it was likely her spiritual weapon. It was unusual to say the least; you had to get close to a Revenant to use it. She placed Surin to be around Ash’s age. Pretty impressive to be a Captain too.
Surin smiled. White teeth. Friendly eyes. Dimples. She’d kept up a chummy attitude throughout the interrogation. Rui wasn’t
convinced.
“Anything else you’d like to add?” Surin asked.
Rui folded her arms. “No. Are we done here? Where are my friends?”
“We’ll be done once you tell me everything that happened tonight.”
“I told you everything.”
Whistling, Surin flipped her butterfly knife between her fingers, rotating the handles rapidly. The blade flashed in the light
as it moved quickly, up and down and sideways. Rui stared, entranced.
Surin’s smile deepened, a hint of bite behind it. She flicked her wrist. Her knife closed with a snap. “Maybe you told me
everything, maybe you didn’t. I’m going to go with didn’t. I’m still stuck at the part where you said you killed the Revenant by yourself. The healer said your spirit core isn’t fully
healed. No way you could’ve done that.”
Rui lifted her chin. “Hybrid. Go on, you can say it. I promise I won’t freak out.”
“Call it whatever you want. Doesn’t change what I’m saying.”
“I told you. I used magic and stabbed it with my sword.” It wasn’t technically a lie. Rui had merely left out what kind of
magic she’d used. It wasn’t like she knew the source of her blue fire anyway. Aloysius’s face flashed in her mind. The triumph
of the kill had long vanished. All she had left was a sick feeling that she might’ve killed something closer to a human than
not.
Surin tutted. “That’s the story you’re sticking with?”
“That’s the truth. There’s nothing I can do if you refuse to believe me.” Rui slumped in her chair.
Abruptly, Surin turned her head, touching the earpiece in her left ear. “Now? I’m not done yet.” A pause. “He wants to talk to her about what? Are you sure?” Surin sounded surprised. Another pause. “Fine. I’ll wrap up.” She put on her sunglasses and said to Rui,
“Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“Kids these days, always asking questions.”
“I’m not a kid,” Rui said. “I’m eighteen, and you’re not much older than me.”
Surin looked at her sideways.
“I’m eighteen,” Rui repeated, her cheeks warming.
“And I’m not interested,” Surin snickered. “Got a girlfriend already. Come along now.”
Rui got up and followed her out of the room. Everything outside was stark white. Just corridors and closed doors.
When they got into the elevator, Rui asked, “Is this the Guild’s secret facility?”
Surin slapped her thigh, laughing. “Is that rumor still going around at the Academy?”
Rui scowled at her. But it only made Surin laugh harder.
As the elevator car soared sharply, Rui’s stomach dropped. Her legs went soft, and she steadied herself against the wall. They were going up. A long way from the feel of it. Was the interrogation room underground? What would Rui find above?
The doors opened.
Craggy peaks and old pine trees greeted them. Warmth spilled from the rising sun, and the air was fresh and thin. In daylight,
the events of last night felt suddenly far away.
There was something familiar about the place, but Rui wasn’t sure what. The edge of the cliff beckoned. Curious, she walked
over and looked down.
Sprawling out in the distance was Xingshan Academy and its odd collection of buildings. Rui could see the green splotch of
the field in the middle, a smaller splotch of the secondary field, the reddish-brown ring of the running track, the gleaming
white building with the Simulator. Four years at the Academy, and she’d never paid much attention to the old mountain range
that ran to the north, the one the Academy was named after.
Xingshan: the mountain of stars.
“The secret facility is next to campus?” she said.
Surin sighed. “There’s no secret facility. This is a sacred place.”
“What do you mean?”
Before Surin could answer, Rui heard footsteps behind them.
Song Wei.
Surin acknowledged him with a bow. Rui followed suit, albeit unwillingly. He had fallen in her eyes, a false idol she no longer
worshipped.
Song Wei wasted no time for pleasantries. “We meet again, Cadet Lin. I commend you for your actions last night,” he said.
“Taking down a highly dangerous Revenant by yourself . . . impressive as always.”
Ironic how she’d spent years proving herself worthy of joining his elite ranks.
Now his praise had no effect on her at all.
Her heart pounded, but her voice rang loud and clear in the crisp mountain air.
“It wasn’t a highly dangerous Revenant. It was a Hybrid, just like the one that killed my mother four years ago. The Guild has been lying to everyone.”
Song Wei didn’t deny it. He stared at her with a shrewd expression, a powerful man with an even more powerful presence. Rui
could feel his qi, the strength of it, as if he were sucking the life from the sun above and the very mountains and trees
that rose behind him.
“Do you feel it, Rui?” he asked.
For a moment, she was confused. Then her senses focused. She could feel it.
This is a sacred place.
The qi she detected wasn’t Song Wei’s qi, but the vital force—the essence—of this place. It was full and vibrant, rolling with the breeze, leaping from the rocks and leaves and waterfalls. Unlike
the layers of magic in The Reverie pressing down like a heavy shroud, this was light.
This was life.
“You are standing in the birthplace of Exorcism,” Song Wei said, as Rui looked around in sudden awe. “Many, many years ago,
a group of individuals came together here in secret to train their minds and bodies, honing their vital energy, forging weapons
that allowed them to conduct their life force. They did all this to keep their villages safe from Revenants, and they made
a pact to defend those who were not born with the same gifts as they had. But in those days, Exorcists moved in the shadows,
no different from their enemy. Many generations ago, the Exorcists slowly moved out of the shadows, working to assimilate
into normal society. Their wish then, as is ours now, is to be accepted. You may wonder why all of this isn’t public knowledge,
why the Academy does not teach you this history. Our roots began in a secret society, and not everything is meant for the
ears and eyes of others, especially those who do not possess the same gifts as we do.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“The time is right to offer you the courtesy of knowledge, Cadet Lin. The fact remains that although we have evolved, so has
our enemy. You killed a Hybrid last night, and you did it easily. That is valuable to us. The first known encounter with a Hybrid occurred almost eighteen years ago—we don’t believe they existed before. We have been trying to study them ever since—”
“Eighteen years?” Rui shouted, voice distorted, hands shaking. “You knew for eighteen years, and you kept it from everyone?”
“To minimize the impact on society.”
She stared at the old man in horror. At its heart, the Exorcist Guild was a shady, secretive society that pretended to be
respectable. It didn’t care about others, only their own and their survival. No wonder Zizi hated them.
A dam broke. Fury gushed through her. Grief flooded her senses. The Hybrid’s face . . . His voice luring her in . . . Her mother pushing her away . . . The sudden bright flash of light . . .
Her mother was killed by a Hybrid four years ago. But the Guild had known for much longer. If only they had informed the public.
If only they’d warned everyone.
If only Rui had known.
“How about me?” she screamed. “No one believed me, no one took me seriously when I told them how my mother died!” Hot, angry tears blurred
her vision. “You were at my mother’s funeral. I saw you in your car. Why did you come? Were you feeling guilty?”
“I was not there for your mother or you,” Song Wei said without any hint of emotion. “And I will not regret a decision that
was made for the greater good. Your mother was collateral damage—”
Snarling, Rui plunged forward, fingers clawing at Song Wei’s face.
Arms wrapped around her at once, yanking her back.
Surin hissed in her ear, “Control yourself.”
Rui kicked out. “She wasn’t collateral damage—she was my mother!”
“You will come around when you understand what is at stake,” Song Wei said coolly.
A throttled cry erupted from Rui’s throat. She struggled to break free, but Surin was too strong. Helplessly, she watched
as Song Wei walked away with barely a glance at her.
The elevator doors closed, camouflaged against rock.
He was gone.
“Let go of me,” Rui said through her teeth.
“Only if you behave yourself.”
“I will.”
Surin released her, and she crumpled in a heap.
The sun shone on Rui’s back, but she was still cold, still hollow inside. She imagined herself in a white room with nothing
in it. She didn’t want to care about anything or anyone anymore. Caring brought pain and she had enough of it to last a lifetime.
After what felt like forever, she raised her head.
“When did you know about the Hybrids?”
“About three years ago,” Surin said, “when I was on track to being Captain.”
“How do you sleep at night, doing what you do? Knowing what you know?”
Surin gave her a quizzical look. “How do I sleep? Like a baby full on her mother’s milk.”
Brown skin gleaming in the sun, Surin stretched, confident and collected. This was how Rui had pictured herself in a few years’
time. A Captain. Someone strong and powerful, someone others would depend on and look up to. Once, Rui had thought herself
wise beyond her years. Now she knew it was merely youthful hubris. Maybe she wasn’t so sure what she wanted in life. Maybe
she wasn’t sure about anything at all.
Rui sank her head into her hands. “All this time I was so sure that Hybrids existed. But now that I know it’s true, why do
I feel worse?”
Surin had crouched beside her. Her warm brown eyes were frank and kind.
“Because this is how it feels when your elders turn their backs, when institutions fall from grace, when the world moves on even as you’re standing still, when something you believe in turns out to be a lie.
Because you’re no longer a child, and you’re realizing the world you live in operates in shades of gray.
Sometimes, there isn’t a right or a wrong—there’s only doing the best you can in spite of the odds stacked up against you and forgiving yourself when you fall short. ”
Rui stared back, uncertain of how to feel.
“I know you’re angry, Rui,” Surin continued. “You feel cheated, you feel wronged, even when you’ve just been proven right.
It’s the worst kind of vindication. It feels personal because it makes you question yourself, makes you wonder what you would’ve
or could’ve done differently. Your feelings are valid. But this isn’t about you or me or Master Song, or even the Guild. This
is about the bigger picture. The fight’s not over yet. I don’t know how you managed to kill that Hybrid when your spirit core
is all messed up, but you’re obviously gifted and I respect that. You can make a difference. Don’t waste your chance. Don’t let the lives that were lost be meaningless.”
Once, praise and advice from a Captain would have filled her sails. But the wind had changed Rui’s course, left her out in
open ocean with no land in sight. She nodded, but she didn’t know if she believed or agreed with Surin’s words.
“On your feet, Cadet Lin.”
Unsteadily, Rui stood.
“You need to move on from whatever’s holding you in the past,” Surin said. “The second-worst thing in life is having regrets.”
“What’s the first?”
Sadness flashed across Surin’s face, and she looked away. “I hope you’ll never find out.”
“Rui!”
Yiran was jogging toward them, a beaten-up-looking Ash following behind.
“Are you all right?” Yiran asked.
She could feel his concern. “I’m okay.” She touched his cheek gently, feeling the ridge of skin. A healer had worked on the
burn left by the Hybrid boy, but the wound remained angry and red. “Are you?”
Yiran turned his scarred cheek from her and nodded.
“Where’s my grandfather?” Ash asked Surin.
“The Guild Council is meeting inside. They’re deciding what to do about the mage.”
“Zizi?” Rui said, heartbeat tripping. “What does the Council have to decide? What’s going on?”
Yiran looked just as worried. “What’s going to happen to Zizi—and us?”
“Seems like your friend confessed to something,” Surin said. “I expect we’ll get more answers in a while.”
Rui shared a look with Yiran. He wouldn’t reveal anything she didn’t want revealed. She knew that.
In the end, out of the three of them, the wild card was Zizi.