68 Unwilling Sacrifice

My fingers involuntarily connected with the cool brass of the incense burner, and the room dimmed.

In the dead of the night, a bald, frail old man in Taoist robes was still going about his business.

He slunk through a small courtyard decked out in fragrant fuchsia and water fountains and finally stopped at a blank wall.

The wall was clearly worn from age, marred from the furies of wind and Mother Nature. From my view at his back, the old man rested his staff against the wall and started to mumble, making mudras facing the wall.

As he chanted, a rumbling sound came an indiscernible location. At its peak, the old man tapped the tip of his staff to the middle of the wall.

A powerful shock reverberated through me, and I felt my heart beating fast. My body burned with the sting of adrenaline.

The stone mounted on his staff glowed, and the wall split open.

The old man entered a cool, dark room save for a nondescript sculpture in the middle and stopped in front of a square platform with four sides and inscriptions on its surface.

An pot, the size of a cauldron certainly, occupied the best seat on this platform. A faint light emitted where I could see from behind the old man, and the old man dug his hands into the sand before taking a deep breath.

I was all too engrossed in watching him and couldn't react quickly enough when his back stiffened and he turned around fiercely.

"You shouldn't be here, watching!" Abbot Xue shouted as he locked eyes with me. The lines on his face etched into anger, and.. was that... horror?

His robes swayed behind him, but there was no breeze. Now that he had moved to look at me, I could see clearly that the pot was actually a large incense burner.

His arms that dipped into the incense were now specked with blue-purple sand that seemed to be otherworldly.

Seeing me ignore him and gawk instead, Abbot Xue straightened his back and pointed straight at me. His pupils narrowed.

"Begone!"

"Noble Concubine Ling! Noble Concubine Ling, are you alright?" Yun asked worriedly as she propped me up.

Hmm? Why was I looking up at Yun? This vantage point was a little strange...

I was sitting on the floor, where I had evidently remained for half the night. The cold had seeped into me, and no matter how I rubbed my palms together, a chill remained in my body.

My bones and muscles ached with the poor back support that the ground provided.

"Noble Concubine Ling, how did you get on the floor?" Yun asked.

I peered at the bed almost 2 metres away dubiously, recalling the very strange dream I had last night.

"The incense..." I trailed off and stopped when I turned to the wall.

The spot where the incense burner had occupied last night was spotless. I breathed in and discovered even the slightly sweet smell that had permeated the room so strongly last night was nowhere to be found.

"What incense?" Yun asked.

"Was there ever... an incense burner?" I asked her, feeling rather ridiculous.

Yun gave me an odd look as she helped me up. "Noble Concubine Ling, this servant checked the room personally right before you entered yesterday. There is no such incense, and no one entered your room afterward." she said.

There were no medics at the temple, and I didn't dare to tell anyone what had happened either. Everything would inevitably find its ways to the ears of Abbot Xue and well...

Abbot Xue... gave me an unsettling feeling at the moment.

After Yun gave me a once over, and called in the other girls to take a look, they all proclaimed me safe and sound. We promptly got ready to go to the main temple for praying.

The main temple was an architectural feat. Set in gold, cinnabar and ember, countless fittings wound around strategic sculptures of deities long past, and the halls were spacious to the point of contention.

Gaps in the window allowed light to seep in from its vantage point on the mountain.

Having come here for a favor, we were led to the mess hall at the front of the temple for a vegetarian breakfast.

I half looked around in what I hoped was an inconspicuous manner. I had been informed that the Empress Dowager and Imperial Princess Jun were still remaining here to pray and would join us today, but we hadn't seen them at all yet. Surely they needed to eat too?

Lu Qing Yu took his seat opposite me and smiled wryly as if he read my mind.

"Mother and Jun will be here later. They're eating in their rooms. Don't worry, you'll do fine." he said.

He wasn't being very convincing. In all the period dramas, the mother in law and sister never liked the protagonist.

After the meal, we were lead to the largest ceremonial hall of the temple.

What struck me immediately was how similar the arrangement was to the dream I had last night. In the middle of the hall, a raised square platform took center stage with the clearly marked directions of north, south, east and west.

Overseeing the platform to the north was the large sculpture of a sacred deity.

A table was placed at the south of the platform, and around it surrounded 9 senior priests who seemed to be deep in concentration. A row of lanterns hung at the south side of the wall.

We were arranged to stand just behind the priests, and given few instructions other than to simply follow after their actions.

"Mother, Jun." Lu Qing Yu said as he turned behind.

They had arrived.

A small woman in sombre, dusty pink robes strode purposefully into the hall, her head raised high. Her every step was measured to perfection, her pace consistent.

Her head of hair was entirely black and bare of any ornaments beside a jade pin, and her phoenix eyes held an indiscernible gaze. Her lips were pale, and pursed as if in discontent. Her pupils were a startling purple... drawing comparisons to Abbot Xue.

With an unmistakable momentum, this could only be the Empress Dowager.

Behind her, a girl followed at a much slower pace.

With delicate features and jet black hair with side-swept bangs tucked behind her ears, Imperial Princess Jun gave the impression of a porcelain doll. However, it was clear to anyone that she was unwell.

Bags hung underneath her eyes, and her lips were dry and cracked. There was scarcely a hint of colour on her face. She was dressed in the same dusty pink as the Empress Dowager, but while the Empress Dowager gave me no notice, Imperial Princess Jun shyly peered at my direction.

Unsure of any proper etiquette, I gave a tight smile and a subtle nod in response.

Imperial Princess Jun only returned her gaze to the ground, but the tension in her shoulders seemed to have eased a little.

"Now that everyone is here, we will begin. Please take your positions and face north. Clear your heart and your mind." Abbot Xue said solemnly.

Abbot Xue took his place at the head of the table, and made mudras with his hands inside his sleeves.

The officiating priests each took out a talisman and chanted a sutra in a monotonous collective, raising their voices louder as each verse was completed.

Suddenly, the beat of drums were added to the cacophony of voices. Almost jumping out of my skin by this unexpected disruption, I inspected the room with my peripheral vision.

At some point, accompanying monks had moved 4 large drums and were playing in tandem with the chanting.

Abbot Xue picked up a small incense burner and waved it in an arc in the air, before putting it down. Then, he accompanied the officiating priests in bringing out a talisman, gripping it tightly between the index finger and thumb of his left hand, before rising to make abrupt movements.

He was acting out the actions spoken by the text that the officiating priests were reciting. At its climax, he fell prostrate in a fetal position with his arms and legs under his body, face in his hand.

A single joss stick in the incense burner on the platform suddenly lit up with a ferocious flame that jumped up to 1 metre in the air!

The flame was blue, and weaved about the room as if examining the participants closest to the platform before settling in place. The officiating priests shouted and threw the talismans in the flame, causing the flame to grow even bigger.

Terrified, I broke out of my position to look around and see if anyone found problems with this. But everyone's eyes were closed, and they were still, as if it had been a clear spring day, and nothing was out of the ordinary.

Before my eyes, the gravel in the incense burner burned until it reached the blue-purple colour I saw in my dream.

Abbot Xue dug his hands into the gravel and thrust it outward in a dramatic fashion, as if scattering ashes.

I was convinced this wasn't a simple prayer ceremony for well wishes for the new year.

We were certainly here to partake in some eerie, unseemly ritual!