Chapter Thirty Kasu
A familiar booming voice echoed through the air.
Kasu pressed a cheek against the bars and craned her head as far as she could to get a glimpse of the Sage of a Thousand Faces.
A red mask with a thunderous expression was tied securely over the demon’s face.
His pounding footsteps shook the ground as he marched towards the line of cages, searching for someone – searching for her.
“Oi! Who are you, demon? What are you doing here? Don’t you know Lord Cobalt will—”
Their captor’s furious yell was cut short.
The Sage wrapped his thin, elongated fingers around the ghost’s middle, and lifted him kicking and screaming into the air.
Another hand wrapped around the top of the ghost’s head.
Kasu looked away but couldn’t avoid the awful cracking, squelching sound that followed.
“Kasu! Hey Kasu!” A voice behind her hissed.
“Ruo? What’s going on?” Kasu turned around to see the cat crouching close, belly pressed flat to the floor. Relief and fear warred inside her. Relief that Ruo was all right. Fear that they might both be ripped apart by a demon out for Kasu’s blood.
“I heard you call, but you were inside a building and I couldn’t teleport to you so I decided to get someone who could break in,” Ruo whispered as the Sage howled and raged.
Another of their captors tried running, but the Sage seized him as well.
Kasu flinched as the ghost’s head sailed through the air and rolled past her.
“Help? You call this help?”
The Sage swept through the rows of cages, throwing them aside without a thought and trampling on the incense burner. There was a loud bang and Huina, the spider lady who had fought Kasu and Arun, burst through a door hidden away in the far corner of the room.
“OUT OF MY WAY!” The Sage flung himself at the spider.
As the two demons battled, Ruo slunk around the side of Kasu’s cage.
“Wait here,” they murmured before creeping to where the Sage had flung Kasu’s captor.
From between the folds of the ghost’s clothes, Ruo grabbed a metal ring with a small iron key attached. The master key for all the cages. Hurrying back, the cat deposited it in front of Kasu.
It was difficult to undo the lock from behind. Kasu could barely see what she was doing, and there was not a lot of room to manoeuvre her wrist, but eventually she heard the click of the latch coming undone.
Kasu kicked the door open and rushed to Arun’s cage. She felt more awake than ever. In fact, she noticed that the smell of incense was fading away. The other ghosts and demons were beginning to stir too, though Arun remained slumped against the bars.
“Wake up!” Kasu unlocked his cage. She almost dropped him as he staggered forward and leaned all his considerable weight against her.
“Let me.” Ruo sank their fangs into his arm.
Arun screamed and stood bolt upright.
Ruo grinned at him.
Another shriek pierced the air. Kasu whipped round just in time to see the Sage step over the spider lady’s body and make his slow way towards them.
Arun grabbed the iron key Kasu had left in the lock to his cage and held it above his head, as if he thought stabbing the Sage with it might do anything at all.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Kasu grabbed his arm.
They were not going to fight the Sage. They would all die if they tried.
“O Great and Glorious Sage of a Thousand Faces!” She bowed as the demon approached.
“Please, have mercy! If you would only be patient, I promise that we will pay you back for the aura mask tenfold.”
The Sage of a Thousand Faces reached into his bag and switched his mask to one with furrowed eyebrows and a sneering smile.
“So, you wish to bargain still? Return my mask to me and then I will decide what your punishment will be.”
Kasu glanced at Arun. When someone had the aura mask on, it disguised itself and concealed the wearer’s true nature. It seemed the mask hid itself even from its own creator.
“O–O Great Sage—”
“That was my last aura mask. It’s not easy to make more, and I have plenty of interested customers wanting to buy it. Demons and kings and gods all clamouring for my work.”
“Gods too?” Kasu found that hard to believe. What use would a god have for an aura mask? Why would they need to hide who they were?
“Even the gods want to have fun in the under-realm from time to time,” the Sage sneered.
That was ridiculous. The gods were good and just. What reason would they have to step foot in the under-realm? Kasu would have argued were it not for the Sage towering over her with the promise of violence. He was already reaching into his bag for his red-faced mask.
“Here.” Arun lifted his mask. With a silver shimmer, it appeared in his hand and he tossed it at the Sage’s feet. “Take it back.”
The sweet smell of burnt sugar and fresh bread flooded the room. She gasped and quickly closed her mouth to stop it from watering. Her hunger reared its head like a tiger ready to pounce. It was all Kasu could do to keep it leashed.
The Sage stepped back. His mouth watered too, but he did not lunge at Arun as Kasu expected. His eyes shone with a different kind of hunger.
“Human! Oh, I know exactly what I want as payment!” The Sage switched to a mask with a smile frozen in gleeful excitement.
Oh no. No. Kasu knew what the Sage wanted and she was not going to let that happen.
“I was the one who committed the offence. I will be the one to pay the price,” she insisted.
“Can we settle on payment later?” said Arun, surprisingly calm for one surrounded by a demon, a ghost and a curse while smelling like the most delicious meal any of them had eaten in an eternity. “How much would it cost to borrow the mask?”
The Sage’s hair fell to the ground like a waterfall as he stooped down to come face to face with Arun.
“You want the mask so that the demons and ghosts who roam the city will not try to eat you,” he said. “In that case, I have an elegant solution. One that fixes your problem and satisfies my wrath.”
“And what’s that?”
“Your mortality. I can extract it with one of my tools. Give it to me and you’ll become a ghost. No need for hiding, no need to pretend. Give it to me, and I will consider it suitable payment for the offences this girl has committed against me.”
It was everything Kasu feared. If Arun gave up his mortality, he would not be able to return home. He would fall outside the cycle of souls and become a ghost like her.
“Arun, don’t—”
“Done.”
“I will pay the price!” Kasu shouted. Maintain your voice at an appropriate level at all times, and do not raise it more than is polite. She didn’t care. She grabbed Arun’s arm, hoping to shake some sense into him, but he remained stone-faced and determined to be as much of an idiot as possible.
Kasu turned to the Sage instead. Squaring up to the demon, she cried, “This is my price to pay. Take an arm, a leg, take my eyes, take whatever you want!”
“Little ghost.” The Sage stooped down even further, almost pressing the edge of his mask against her face. His voice was thick with vicious glee. “You wish you were worth as much.”
She drew back, wondering if punching the Sage would change his mind.
Violence is but a tool to be employed sparingly when no other options allow.
“This will keep you safe, won’t it? If the Sage is appeased, he won’t come after you any more,” said Arun.
“I don’t want the weight of your life on my conscience!”
“I’m doing this because I want to. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
Kasu spluttered. How could it not have anything to do with her? She couldn’t just turn a blind eye when Arun was quite literally ready to throw his life away.
For me. Kasu did not want to confront the uncomfortable cocktail of guilt and anxiety churning around inside her.
She did not want to admit that a part of her was flattered that Arun was doing such a reckless thing on her behalf.
It was for her. When was the last time anyone had done something for her?
Arun pushed Kasu behind him as the demon took another step towards them.
The Sage of a Thousand Faces dug his hands into his satchel and pulled out what looked like a long needle.
Ruo hissed and backed away, pressing their ears flat against their head.
Even Arun balked at the sight. For a moment, Kasu was sure he would change his mind, but then he squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and nodded.
It happened too quickly for Kasu to catch.
One moment the Sage was holding the needle-like instrument in his hand, the next it was plunged into Arun’s heart.
In a blink, the Sage retracted the needle, which was now glowing a soft white and humming with power, and quickly dropped it into his satchel.
“Always a pleasure.” The eyeholes of the Sage’s mask were two perfect, mirthful crescents.
Arun nodded. There was no blood on his chest, no sign that he had been stabbed anywhere at all, but he kept his jaw clenched and his hands were shaking slightly with the weight of what he had lost.
His mortality was gone. He was dead.
He was a ghost.