Chapter 181 - 182: The Chain of Unity

Chapter 181: Chapter 182: The Chain of Unity

The Mistwood began at the north gate of the guild, and it began without any ceremony at all.

There was a stone arch. Behind the arch was a wall of white fog. Somewhere inside the fog was a forest, and somewhere inside the forest, according to a very small plaque, was a mountain.

Thirty-three teams of three stood in a loose line along the treeline, bleary in the dawn light. Each had been handed a sealed scroll and a small wooden crate. The rules had been explained by Examiner Qin in a tone of weary courtesy.

"One objective per team. One resource per team. One day, until sunset. The top twenty teams to complete their objective will advance. Non-lethal interference between teams is permitted. Heaven’s Domain is not responsible for hurt feelings."

Daniel stood with his scroll in one hand and his crate under his arm and looked at his teammates.

On his left, Yun Xi sat on a rock with her legs crossed, a bag of dumplings in her lap, looking at the sky.

On his right, Long Tian Zhao stood with his arms folded, in plain grey training clothes, his gold armor stripped away. A thin iron clasp glimmered at his belt, the doubled handicap seal, and the aura that had crushed an arena was now no more than a faint, sullen warmth. His cheeks were still faintly red.

Neither of them had said a word in ten minutes.

"So," said Daniel, brightly. "Team Seven. Great turnout."

Silence.

"I thought we might introduce ourselves."

"We have met," said Long Tian.

"I’ve slapped you twice, it’s true. But I think we can put that behind us."

"I would sooner put you in the ground."

"I’m very flexible about the order."

Yun Xi popped a dumpling in her mouth and chewed. "He is loud," she said, to the sky.

"I’m *friendly*."

"Same thing," said Long Tian, and then stopped, as if he had bitten his own tongue.

Daniel stared at him.

"Did you just..."

"No."

"You said ’same thing.’"

"I said nothing."

"That’s my line."

"It is a common phrase."

"It’s my *line*."

"Open the scroll," said Yun Xi, quietly, before the argument could go any further.

---

Daniel cracked the seal.

The paper unrolled with a faint hiss. Three lines of neat black script marched across it.

**TEAM SEVEN.**

**OBJECTIVE: RETRIEVE THE LANTERN OF DAWN FROM THE SUMMIT OF MIST PEAK. RETURN IT TO THE NORTH GATE BEFORE SUNSET.**

**RESOURCE: THE CHAIN OF UNITY. OPEN THE CRATE.**

"The chain of what?" said Daniel.

He opened the crate.

Inside, coiled on a bed of straw, lay a heavy chain of dull black iron. It was about ten meters long. At each end was a thick manacle, and a third manacle was welded in the middle, glinting in the morning light.

The three of them looked at it for a long moment.

"Oh," said Daniel. "No."

"We cannot," said Long Tian.

"It is a metaphor," said Yun Xi.

"It is a *chain*."

"All three must wear it," Examiner Qin said, drifting up behind them with a clipboard, with no visible sign of pleasure. "At all times. Until the objective is complete. The chain is bound to the test formation. It cannot be broken, cut, or unlocked by force. Any attempt will be recorded as a forfeit."

"Can we at least choose the order?" said Daniel.

"Participant Long Tian will wear the north end. Participant Yun Xi, the south. Participant Black, the middle." Qin’s mouth twitched. "The lot has spoken."

"I am in the *middle*."

"I am aware."

"That is the worst place."

"That is why it was assigned."

Daniel looked at the chain. He looked at Long Tian, who was staring at the middle manacle as though it might bite. He looked at Yun Xi, who had finished her dumpling and was gazing at the three iron cuffs with her head slightly tilted.

"Mm," said Yun Xi. "It is quite short."

"It is ten meters!"

"For three people." She stood, brushed off her robe, and held out her left hand. "Put it on."

---

The first thing they learned was that the chain did not like being pulled.

The second thing they learned was that Yun Xi did not walk like other people.

She set off at an ordinary pace, hands tucked into her sleeves, bare feet padding along the forest path. The chain went taut. Daniel, in the middle, was yanked forward so hard that he stumbled, and Long Tian, at the far end, was jerked off his feet entirely and dragged three meters through the leaves.

"WAIT!" shouted Daniel.

"I am walking."

"You are walking *fast*!"

"I am walking at a normal speed."

"You have been walking at a normal speed for *eighteen meters* and we are running!"

"Mm." She slowed, with visible reluctance. The chain went slack. Daniel and Long Tian staggered to a halt, panting. Long Tian was covered in leaves.

"This," said Long Tian, through his teeth, "is humiliating."

"You’ll adjust."

"I will not adjust."

"You’ll adjust, or you’ll be dragged."

He opened his mouth to retort. Then he looked at Yun Xi, who was waiting, hands in her sleeves, with an air of faint, polite impatience. And something strange crossed his face.

"You," he said slowly. "At the first test. Three minutes. Forty-one seconds."

"Yes."

"How?"

"I asked."

Long Tian stared at her. "That is not an answer."

"It is the only one I have."

He looked at her for a long, unreadable moment. Then he turned and walked forward in silence, matching her pace, and Daniel, who had never seen the heir of the Golden Dragon Clan keep his mouth shut for more than thirty seconds, decided not to say anything at all.

---

The Whispering Fog began around the second kilometer.

It rolled in without warning, thick and pale and strangely warm, until the trees vanished and the path vanished and the only thing left in the world was the black chain, sagging between three hands. Sound went flat. The leaves stopped rustling. Daniel could feel his own heartbeat.

"Stay close," he murmured. "Don’t break the chain."

"I can see you perfectly well," said Long Tian.

"That’s what worries me."

A voice drifted out of the fog.

It was soft, and clear, and unmistakable. A woman’s voice, singing, off to the left, the same lullaby Daniel’s mother had hummed to him as a boy.

He stopped walking.

"Daniel," the voice called. "Daniel, sweetheart, you’re late for dinner."

His mouth went dry.

*No,* he thought, with the part of his mind that was still working. *No. That can’t be.*

"Come home, Daniel."

The chain jerked.

Daniel found he had taken a step toward the voice without deciding to. Long Tian had grabbed the chain with both hands and was hauling back with all his weak, sealed strength, and Yun Xi had planted her feet in the dirt.

"It is a trick," said Long Tian, through his teeth. "The fog speaks what you want to hear."

"It’s my mother."

"It is a *fog*."

"It *sounds* like her."

"Then you are an idiot." The voice was fierce and rough. "She is not here. She cannot be here. You know that."

Daniel blinked. The song faded. The warmth went out of the air, and he was standing in a field of white with his hand clenched on the chain and tears on his face.

"I’m sorry," he said.

"Do not apologize," said Long Tian, a bit stiffly. "It is not a weakness. Everybody hears something."

"What did you hear?"

Long Tian’s jaw tightened.

"*I accept,*" he said, flatly. "In a woman’s voice. Over and over."

A long silence. Daniel opened his mouth, closed it, and found he had no joke.

"That’s actually quite unpleasant."

"I am aware."

In the white, Yun Xi had not spoken. She stood at the south end of the chain with her head slightly bowed and her eyes closed. Her shoulders were very still.

"Yun Xi?" said Daniel.

She did not answer.

From somewhere in the fog, thin and sweet and very far away, a girl’s voice began to hum. It was a simple tune, three notes rising and falling. A child’s voice. A little sister’s voice.

*Sister,* it whispered. *Sister, I’m awake.*

Yun Xi’s hands closed into fists.

"Yun Xi," said Daniel, quietly. "Hey. It might not be..."

"It is not her," said Yun Xi.

Her voice was perfectly steady. Her eyes were still closed.

"She has not spoken in eleven years," she said. "She does not know how her voice sounds now. This is a voice I imagined for a very long time." She took a slow breath. "This is only me."

She opened her eyes.

They were wet. But they were clear.

"Thank you for catching me," she said, to nobody.

"Anytime," said Daniel.

"I was speaking to the chain."

"I’ll take it."

The corner of her mouth lifted, very slightly, and she started walking again.

---

They came out of the fog at noon, onto the lip of a ravine.

A rope bridge crossed it, old and creaking, swaying in a thin wind. On the far side, a path wound up toward a distant peak, black against the sky. And on the near side, scattered over a dozen boulders, were five empty bowls, a pile of ashes from a small fire, and a heap of supplies in oiled cloth that looked, to Daniel’s eyes, a great deal like an invitation.

He stopped at the edge of the bridge.

"Everybody quiet," he said.

Long Tian did not argue. He looked at the bowls, the ashes, and the unattended pile of supplies, and his eyes narrowed.

"It is a trap."

"A very obvious one."

"Team Eight," said Yun Xi.

"How do you know?"

"I can hear them breathing."

Daniel’s Keen Sense had already picked them up. Four heat signatures behind the boulders on the near side, crouched low, quiet, with weapons drawn. One was huge, and one was shaking with suppressed laughter.

"Heng Bao," Daniel murmured. "And at least two of your clan’s retainers."

"Of course," said Long Tian, very softly.

"They think I’ll walk onto the bridge, and they’ll cut it."

"With the chain on you? They would pull all three of us in."

"They’re counting on the three of us breaking the formation."

"Then we shall break something else," said Yun Xi.

Daniel turned and looked at her. She was looking at the bridge, and at the supplies, with the faint, thoughtful expression of a cat watching a bird.

"Go on," he said.

"I will walk across the bridge," she said. "Alone."

"The chain..."

"It will stretch. Ten meters is enough to reach the middle." She looked at Daniel. "You will hold the south end. Long Tian will hold the north. When they cut the rope, I will not fall."

"Why not?"

"Because I never do."

She said it with such calm, plain certainty that neither of them argued. She stepped onto the bridge. The planks creaked under her bare feet. The wind plucked at her grey robe.

She walked.

She reached the middle in a few steps. The bridge swayed. A sharp metal *snick* rang from the boulders, and the ropes on both ends of the span parted at once. The whole bridge dropped away into the ravine.

Yun Xi did not fall.

She hung in the air, one bare foot on a plank that was no longer attached to anything, her hands tucked into her sleeves. The chain stretched taut between her wrist and the other two, humming. Daniel and Long Tian leaned back against it with everything they had.

"Pull," she said.

They pulled.

Yun Xi walked across the air as if it were a staircase, one patient step at a time, and stepped onto the far edge of the ravine without so much as a hair out of place.

Behind the boulders, Team Eight made a noise like a flock of geese being strangled.

"HOW!" bellowed Heng Bao, bursting out of his hiding place with an axe in his hands. "HOW IS THAT *POSSIBLE*!"

"Hello," said Daniel pleasantly.

Heng Bao spun.

Daniel was standing five meters away, one pistol raised, the other hand resting casually on the chain. Long Tian stood behind him, arms folded, with an expression of grim pleasure. In front of them lay four very surprised men in gold-trimmed robes.

"The chain," said Daniel, "is ten meters long. Yun Xi is at one end. I’m in the middle. And Long Tian here is..." He tilted his head. "Well, he’s not really an *end*, is he? He’s more of a centerpiece."

"I’ll kill..."

"Sure Shot."

The bullet clipped Heng Bao’s axe haft and spun it out of his hand. It flew across the clearing and stuck, quivering, in a tree.

"That one," Daniel said, "was for the iron door."

"I’ll... we’ll..."

"Gentlemen." Long Tian stepped forward.

Heng Bao and the retainers snapped to attention so quickly that two of them tripped over their own feet. The Golden Dragon disciples dropped to one knee in the dirt, heads bowed.

"Young master!"

"Rise," said Long Tian.

They rose.

He looked at them for a long moment. His face did not move. His voice, when it came, was flat and cold and perfectly quiet.

"You will give my team your supplies."

The silence was absolute.

"Young master?" said one of the retainers, faintly.

"All of them. The food, the water, the rope, the lantern oil." Long Tian’s eyes slid sideways. "Do it now."

"But... the clan... your honor..."

"My honor," said Long Tian, "is mine to spend."

The retainers glanced at each other. One began, with shaking hands, to unpack the oiled cloth.

Heng Bao’s jaw was hanging open.

"You’re *helping* him?" he said.

"I am being practical." Long Tian’s voice was iron. "You attacked my team. You failed. I am your heir. Therefore you pay a forfeit."

"But he *hit* you!"

"Twice," said Long Tian, "and I will remember it until I die." He smiled thinly, and it was the first honest smile Daniel had seen from him. "But I am chained to him. And if I am to be dragged up a mountain, I intend to be fed."

Daniel burst out laughing.

He could not help it. It was a helpless, delighted, full-chested laugh, and it rang across the ravine. Even Yun Xi, standing on the far side with her hands in her sleeves, had a tiny curve at the corner of her mouth.

"You," Daniel gasped, "are *wonderful*."

"I am not."

"You are the *worst*."

"I am aware."

"Thank you for the lantern oil."

"Do not mention it."

"Seriously, thank you."

"If you say that one more time," said Long Tian, "I will push you into the ravine."

"The chain would take you with me."

"I am prepared to accept that."

---

They crossed on a new rope bridge, borrowed from Team Eight’s supplies, which Heng Bao’s men rigged in a furious silence. By the time the three of them reached the far side, with a sack of rations and four flasks of oil, the sun was past noon and the black peak looked a little nearer.

"Four hours," said Daniel, looking at the sky. "We might make it."

"We will make it," said Long Tian.

"You sound confident."

"I have no choice."

"You could have been less rude to me in the beginning."

"I could have been dead in a gutter," said Long Tian. "A great many things *could* have happened."

Daniel grinned. He did not say anything else.

They climbed.

The path wound upward through twisting pine and black rock, cold now, a thin wind pulling at their sleeves. The chain clinked softly between them. Nobody spoke. The silence was not exactly comfortable, but it was no longer hostile.

They came to the last gate near sunset.

It was the smallest one Daniel had seen. A pair of weathered stone pillars stood at the edge of the summit, with a low wall of black rock behind them. Beyond the wall, in a hollow of stone, a single small lantern burned on a pedestal, flickering with a pale gold flame.

The Lantern of Dawn.

It was right there. Ten meters away. Close enough to touch.

A plaque stood in front of the pillars. Daniel read it aloud.

"’THE LANTERN MAY BE CARRIED BY TWO. THE THIRD MUST REMAIN AT THE GATE. WHO SHALL STAY?’"

The wind dropped.

Nobody said anything.

Daniel looked at the chain, still clasped around his wrist. He looked at Yun Xi, who was gazing at the lantern with an unreadable expression. He looked at Long Tian, whose eyes had narrowed, and whose face, for the first time, held something that was not hatred.

It was calculation.

"Well," said Long Tian, softly, and the corner of his mouth lifted. "Isn’t this interesting."