19 Another Place

Light often brought hope and warmth. This time it brought pain.

A tearing in the chest that robbed you of your breath.

Niu felt as if he was being opened up and taken a good look at. All his secrets were as an open book to this light.

His eyes opened, he could the space around him being brightened. Gazing upon the light was impossible, at first, but eventually his eyes adjusted.

He could vaguely discern a person's figure. Their body was almost as if made of pure light.

"Explain to me this, boy." A woman's inquisitive voice ended the holy ambience.

Niu was then caught up, covered in glittering dust and floating in the air.

"How is it that you can contain me?" The woman's words confused him. He was still suffering immense fatigue. Aside from that, he ached all over, felt starved of everything and had great difficulty opening his mouth to speak.

He merely stared at the light while struggling to respond.

"You were already being taken to the land of the dead. If not for the fact that other corpses had been brought to me before, I would arrive at the conclusion that you being dead allowed you to contain more spirit." She spoke, really to herself.

Niu hadn't the faintest idea what she was on about. He just knew that his condition was suddenly rapidly getting better.

"For some reason, you have an incomprehensibly massive capacity for spirit, similar to that of an immortal being. But, you aren't an immortal." The light grew increasingly dim as time passed.

With the dimming of the light, Niu's body felt better and better. He was quickly restored to his peak condition.

"I cannot allow you to return. You must stay here until I can understand you." She was hopeful, something Niu picked up on. He watched as the light finally went away. The woman then landed. He was brought back down to the ground as well.

"Then, I should try to understand you as well."

The woman stared at Niu with an unchanging expression. Her sword-like eyebrows and silver eyes permeating domineering pressure. Her height and stature came together to produce a posture and physique that boasted power and authority.

Her dress was pure white and long, so long that she trampled over it when she landed. The similar glittering dust covering her contrasted with her outward appearance and made her seem like a playful fairy.

Niu remained staring at her for quite some time before he realized his mouth was wide open.

"Understand me? Peculiar. Do you think you can?" What seemed to be a smile appeared on her face. She was amused by the idea of someone "understanding" her. Frankly, she didn't think it was possible.

"I do." Niu confidently replied, a gleam in his eye.

She chuckled. "How would you go about doing that?" Niu looked around before he responded.

The area was shrouded in mist, but the ground was either white marble or granite. He could see nothing beyond where he and the woman were.

"Before that. Where are we?" Niu watched as the woman looked around as well. She walked over in one direction and stopped before the thick mist, then walked over to another spot. She glanced around, folded her arms, massaged her temples, muttered to herself.

Finally, she turned to look at Niu, her expression somber.

"No clue." Expression blank, she stared at Niu in anticipation.

Niu was puzzled by that and also stared at her in silence. He couldn't bear to keep staring at her like that, so his eyes darted from left to right.

"That was a joke! Didn't you get it? I did all the looking around and the--then I did that--and I even-- Haha!" Almost scaring Niu half to death, the woman began shouting and broke out into uncontrollable laughter.

Her pure happiness and delight caused Niu to again stare at her in stupor. She kept laughing for a full minute before the overflowing emotions within her faded.

She returned to normal, save for the lingering smile and tears of raw joy.

"Uhh..." Niu didn't know how to react.

"Just some adult humor. You wouldn't get it." She wiped her eyes with her dress as a few loud harrumphs escaped her throat.

"Anyway, I can't tell you where we are. I can tell you where you were though." She cleared her throat one more time.

"You were brought to a secret society of spiritualist women by one of said spiritualist women."

Niu nodded with an "Oooh."

"Once you were there, the woman brought you to me. Well, more accurately, she brought you to a- uh, sort of like a door thing... Yeah so she pushed you in there and then we found each other." She seemed to have had some trouble recalling the past events.

"Yet you don't know where we are?" Niu seemed skeptical at first, but when the woman shook her head he shrugged and then went on smiling.

"What about my brothers?" At the mention of his brothers, Niu saw the woman's eyebrow twitch.

"I did not see them. You must have been brought away from them by that woman." Her face remained blank.

"And that woman. Do you mean Telavera?" The woman was about to open her mouth to say, "Uhh.." but Niu added on to what he said.

"Long red hair tied up? Dresses like a vagabond?" She nodded.

"Then I need to speak with her later. So, what's your name? I'm Niu Iste." The woman's eyes widened ever so inconspicuously and she smiled.

"Iste?" With that, her body flashed with blinding light. There was a sudden bang, temporarily deafening Niu as well as blinding him. He screamed out, instinctively shielding himself with his arms.

"Iste!" The woman shouted, this time she seemed to be to his left- and close.

He turned to the opposite direction, deciding in that moment to run away.

"Iste! It's been a while! How you've changed with the passing of a few short centuries." Niu was grabbed by the neck and was instantly unable to breathe.

He felt as if his head was already on the verge of exploding.

"That explains it! No wonder your capacity for spirit was this great! You are the Iste!" Niu struggled to even move. He found himself, helpless and scared, staring into her silver eyes.

Now he saw a ferocious rage and deep contempt. The woman glared at him as if he had done the unforgivable to her. Niu did not know what he had done, yet he felt incredible guilt and regret. However, there was conviction that overcame both.

"That we have found each other again is proof that my revenge against you was not completed. Our enmity is irreconcilable! For all of my days you shall be my worst enemy and I will not stop until I am able to kill you!"

She tightened her grip, however Niu no longer felt as though he was on death's door. Just like earlier, his condition was getting better.

He soon realized that it was because the woman was getting weaker.

"I promise you. When the spell loses its power I will tear your spirit apart and seal you within the sword." As her rage reached a climax, her strength dwindled. Niu fell from her grip, staring at her in confusion.

"I don't know you! I did nothing to you!"

She laughed.

"You can thank me for that. I tore your spirit apart before, but sadly I could not seal you within the sword thanks to the spell. Your spirit healed, but it seems your memories and abilities vanished." Niu saw her pause and seem to fall into deep thought, however she fiercely shook her head after a while.

"No. They will return. They will come back and so will the Iste I know. You cannot escape your fate!"

Niu slowly shook his head.

"I did nothing to you. I don't know who you think I am. I am Niu Iste. Son of Han the Blacksmith." The woman threw her head back in excessive laughter.

"I am sure you think you are, but you are also the Iste. The man who sealed me in this cursed sword and used my power to destroy thousands of spirits. The Great Spirits might have taken action to prevent your reincarnation from walking the same path, but now that you are here I see that that no longer matters."

"You will pay for what you have done whether or not you remember doing it!"

Niu felt overwhelmed.

The turmoil of his mind got to a chaotic boiling of thoughts and emotions that was steadily leading to him being knocked unconscious.

However, as things were about to fade into black, he saw the space around him morph into something entirely different.

The woman was gone, replaced by two wide-eyed women in long white dresses.

There was no one else in the room; candles adorned the walls.

Niu's mental plight was no more. He was now standing in the room with a narrow, long and curved black object. It seemed to be a case but there was no way to open it.

"It's him! The one Telavera pushed into the light!" The women now seemed scared, holding onto each other and preparing to run.

"He must have been possessed by the spirit! How else could take the object from the orb?" They shrieked at the thought of a possessed person and ran away with great speed.

Niu did not know what to do, so he did nothing. He sat down and gathered his thoughts.

For now, he would need to find Telavera and ask her about where he was. He also needed to find his brothers.

He could remember feeling as though he was being killed by Vaeyon, but then he remembered seeing his brothers' faces. After that, he felt as if he had closed his eyes for a few seconds before he woke up with the woman.

"What happened? Did I die?" Niu sighed and stood up again. He would simply go find Telavera and ask her about his situation and his brothers'.

He did not know that Telavera was currently in a deep sleep. Due to her having set free the power within her sword, her body now had to adapt to the raging force that it had suddenly been introduced to.

Naturally, she would not awaken for a long time. Meaning that Niu was now in a foreign place with no one that he knew.

To make matters worse, he was now going to receive a great amount of attention.