「Broken Compass」The Fallen Mural

Chapter 26

Hoku's hand moved decisively, sweeping the cloth into his grasp.

Fleur held a worried gaze as she stroked the reddened surface of her palm.

The heat from the cloth still seeped through, leaving a sharp sting in its wake. 

Hoku gritted his teeth.

"What's wrong with it?" He asked, focusing intently on the compass' condition.

"How should we know? It's your trinket, is it not?" Li retorted.

Hoku paid him no mind, locking his empty hand around his wrist as he exhaled a shaky breath.

The discomfort was unbearable, and simply setting it down made him doubtful of the consequences, 'Would anything happen?—is that why Fleur wouldn't just throw it down?'

He hesitated for a moment, then slowly knelt, setting the compass on the glowing golden path.

"What are you—?" Fleur's voice trailed off, as her gaze fell onto Hoku.

She furrowed her brow as he arranged his posture, assuming he wanted to regain his composure from the heat.

However, when the compass met the ground with a muffled 'clink', the expressions of everyone changed. 

"Hoku!" Abel shouted, his voice straining with urgency.

Li wasted no time, his feet carrying him out of the corridor in a quick, assertive stride.

He tried to shove Juno, who had stood closest to him back into the corridor, but her legs resisted and only her hand landed on the seam separating the gold and white foundations.

"Idiot! Pick it up!" 

Hoku only had enough time to raise an eyebrow in confusion before Fleur's hand grasped the back of his robe and pulled him roughly to his feet.

Li's warning arrived only when it was already of no consequence.

Hoku, now standing and gripping the hem of his robe, turned just in time to watch it begin to react. 

Li's boots scraped against the path, skidding forward as he tried to slow himself to a halt. 

He dropped to one knee with brutal force, his impact sending a violent ripple through the gold on the path. 

Suddenly, the path cracked open beneath him, revealing an unnerving effect—a faint white hue, tinged with green, as though the stone itself had turned reflective, its surface warping into something foreign.

The crack quickly spread, delicate lines branching out from the point of impact, unfurling like the petals of a blooming flower. 

Veins of light flickered through the fractures, wrapping around Li's knee and drawing intricate patterns in the path beneath them.

'Damn! What could I have done now?'

Panicked, Hoku stumbled backward and sank to the ground. 

After he determined that the angle of Li's extended arm was reaching for the compass, his face lowered and he lurched toward it.

He felt strangely undaunted by the searing heat—until his hand hovered over it.

However, before either could take hold, the golden light beneath the compass flickered and vanished.

The light had condensed into a small orb, no larger than a clenched fist, materialized beneath the compass. 

With a sudden and violent shift, the ground beneath them gave way.

Air rushed around them as they swooped into darkness. 

The distant yells from the others echoed as they descended, and the white structures above, shrank rapidly until they were nothing more than faint silhouettes. 

The only source of light now was the small orb, floating above the compass, as it glowed softly in the chasm.

Hoku managed to fix sight on it, the orb's light drawing him in like a magnet. 

When the orb finally drifted within reach, he reached out, his fingers closing around it just before it slipped from his grasp. 

He pulled it to his chest with one hand, cradling it as though it were something precious, and thus, the warmth of its light bled into him as the darkness continued to swallow everything around them.

With the compass also in Hoku's hands, the orb formed a small shell around it before, suddenly, it began to hiss, a faint sizzling sound rising from its surface. 

He glanced down at it in alarm, and as if responding to his focus, a thin wisp of smoke curled from it—like fading wisps of breath after blowing out a candle. 

The smoke glistened in the dim light, swirling around it in a haze of golden sparks. 

It was like watching a river of starlight ripple beneath the surface of the water, reflecting constellations from below, distant yet impossibly close.

He pulled the orb away from his chest, holding it between both hands now. 

He squeezed harder, pressing on both of the sides with additional force. 

After the orb reached its pressure limit, the smoke shifted, and the golden light around it abruptly twisted, releasing the compass back into his palms. 

Hoku's eyes followed the glowing strands that had formed in awe, watching as they subtly changed. Eventually, they no longer resembled solid ribbons but moved fluidly like strands of mist, tracing a circular pattern around his hands.

They seemed to shift and bend as though they were wilting like some charmed bloom, never quite solid, but constantly in motion—coiling, unwinding, and reappearing with each fluid motion.

Without thinking, Hoku's fingers turned the dial at the top of the compass, the motion almost automatic. 

It felt like an instinct, like the compass was guiding him, and exhorting him to turn it.

As he twisted the dial, the heat from the compass surged again, flowing into his fingertips. 

It was the same sharp, searing sensation as before, while this time, it carried a dreamlike quality. 

He could only conceive it as though a barrier still separated the object from his skin. The pain, too, felt distant—more like someone else's, trapped in a memory.

His body tensed, but before he could fully process the sensation, the world around him had suddenly diverged from the ongoing present.

Everything just… stopped, suspending in mid-air. He was unable to move much nor could he comprehend what had happened. For a few seconds, he looked around in bewilderment. 

His feet hadn't touched the ground, thus his body felt weightless—but the sensation wasn't quite fear—just confusion.

Then, a cold drop splashed against his cheek. A second later, another followed, and then more. He looked up quickly, his heart beating faster as the droplets fell around him.

 It took a moment for the realization to hit: the air around him was thick with invisible raindrops as if they were hitting an unseen cover just above him. 

Hoku reached out with his hands cupped, using the hazy gold to cast light forward, trying to make sense of it. 

As the light dented the darkness, he saw the air ripple where the droplets hit, distorting the space around him and making the unmoored atmosphere appear to be reacting to the falling rain.

Hoku initially thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the ripples grew larger, scattering outward in concentric circles.

Much of this logic was unclear, if not entirely missing.

However, the raindrops didn't stop, and as they pelted the air, the sound intensified—depicting a storm that was gathering around him.

It was merely seconds later when the sensation vanished. 

Without a forewarning, Hoku's body began another brief descent, his feet a mere instant later meeting the unforgiving ground. 

The fall had been instantaneous, but not painful—more like he had been hovering inches above the ground the entire time. 

Even the invisible rain stopped, and the ribbons of golden light that were spiraling around the compass as well as his hands flickered outward, scattering in all directions. 

They sunk downward, and as they disappeared, the ground beneath seemed to respond, filling into small diamonds that were revealed to have been embedded within a carved mural as they set the surface he stood ablaze, before proceeding to diminish into a mild, lantern-like flame.

A few muffled thumps came from nearby. 

Hoku's gaze darted in the direction of the noises, and for a juncture, he was still. Until the reality of the whole occurrence found him. 

He glimpsed around—his heart shaking in his chest—though thankfully, he didn't feel any aching injuries from the fall. 

Most importantly…they hadn't died. They hadn't met a worse fate. From the unfathomable height, from the weight of the fall, it should have been a much worse end.

Hoku heard a grunt and, glancing over, recognized the sound as Abel's. 

He found him sitting up, rubbing his back. Given how the others were either standing or sitting upright, it seemed Abel had been the only one to land flat on his back.

As Li moved forward, Hoku needed only to turn slightly to catch his eye.

"I'm torn between apologizing and laughing at the irony of this." 

A wry twist tugged at the corners of Li's mouth, and with frustration simmering beneath his words, he said sharply, "Don't start."

. . .

▄ a ▄ ▄ ▄ . . . ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ . . . ▄ ▄ f ▄ ▄ ▄

▄l▄ , o ▄ ▄ , ▄ ▄w ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ e ▄ ▄

 … ▄ r ▄ , w ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ i ▄ l l. D i e ▄ ▄ ▄ b ▄ ▄ e ▄ ▄ f ▄ ▄ 

▄ ▄ o r ▄ e ▄ ▄ the r ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ o o t.

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