Hou’yi of Sh’e’sh’ou

Angel followed Hou'yi along the long crystal hallways, up a staircase with blue Stone torches holding fire until the two reached a doorway which Hou'yi went through, Angel following expectantly after him. 

Inside, he saw that the interiors of the room were completely different from how they had looked on the outside, before realising that he hadn't thought or seen the insides of the room at all, even despite his enhanced sensitivity and perception due to the Thread of Melody being one of his foundations. 

'What is it?' 

Hou'yi tilted his head, a confused look on his face. 'What is what?' 

Angel looked towards the archway, seeing that he could perfectly sense and feel what was outside, and be aware of it. 'What threads did a spellweaver weave to make the viewer unable to sense and detect what was inside, and even more unable to even comprehend that they are not noticing what is inside the room?' 

'Ah, that.' Hou'yi smiled at Angel, before turning his eyes to the doorway. 'If I may ask for your opinion as to how it was woven first?' 

Angel nodded, and staring at the doorway, said: 'I felt nothing on my skin nor anything with my senses as I walked through, meaning that it is most likely that instead of weaving threads through the air inside the archway, the threads were actually woven through the pillars, ensuring that all which looked directly at the doorway would be unable to think of what was inside, see what was inside, and have their senses blocked so that you wouldn't even be able to feel that anything was wrong at all. However, this comes with a drawback, which is the fact that by not looking directly at the pillars with the threads woven throughout, you would still be able to see inside, albeit not as clearly or concentrated.' 

He saw Hou'yi's eyebrows raise, before dropping, along with the smile. 

'That is why this room is built on a staircase, as everything is going further up and up in a cycle, so you wouldn't even be able to see what is inside the room even if you didn't look directly at it.' 

There was a silence, and Angel turned back to face Hou'yi, who chuckled slightly before beckoning for the two to sit down on a pair of chairs. 

'You still haven't answered the question, which was how it was woven?' 

Angel frowned. 'You had to grow it in specially conditioned soil and had the stone's threads slowly grown until it reached the effect it has now.' 

Hou'yi nodded. 'That is no doubt the answer you would receive as you read about it in a public library. However, that is merely for those who constantly search for answers, and such an outdated method: the named families like mine have long stopped using such techniques to grow Stone.' 

'Then how do you do it?'Angel pressed on, his eyes wide as he pressed his pen to the page of his notebook. 

'We simply weave threads across the surface area of the stone,'Hou'yi said, smiling faintly at Angel, who looked slightly blank. 

Angel sat back, his unmoving eyes staring at Hou'yi. 

Theoretically, what Hou'yi had said was very doable, as unlike creating a different type of stone, they were only manipulating the sight of the person viewing the stones, and weaving threads throughout the stone would actually prove useless since the looker would never see the insides of the doorway. It was similar in theory to the core of Jess Queen—a very plausible, very sensible thing to do, however, had become almost an unknown idea since all spellweavers were accustomed to weaving their Tapestries in a different method to the one of Jess Queen with a core empowering the rest of the threads, that expanded instead of layering on top of each other in bases. 

However, the method Hou'yi had explained also had a severe drawback: if the Stone was chipped in some way or damaged, then its effect would be a lot easier to counter, as unlike before where there were no mistakes, there would be one now, and one vulnerability oftentimes led to more being found and uprooted. 

Essentially, it was a sensible thing to do, but also inconvenient. 

Angel decided to ask Hou'yi what he was confused about, since he could think of no solution. 'Then if the outside of the stone is damaged, doesn't that mean that part of the threads are ripped?' 

Hou'yi was silent for a moment, before smiling and saying: 'Repair is easy enough, and damage done is little, amounting to in most cases no damage done at all most years.' 

'That is understandable,'Angel said, nodding, before looking expectantly at the doorway. 'You said that we would be retrieving food.' 

'Ah…Angel, I am sorry to inform you that you cannot currently retrieve food.' 

Angel frowned. 'Why not?' Staring at Hou'yi, he once again realised that they were alone, in a room where no-one would be able to glance inside and remain aware. Hou'yi was also an archer, a sort of guard, and although had no sword, was surely still prominent in strength due to needing to draw back the string for Chang'e with enough nots, as well as having hunted creatures from the depths of Stone. 

'What I truly wanted to tell you is that you have been thought to be the next evil, the one whose fate is set in stone.' Hou'yi smiled curiously at this, before continuing. 'And the dance you witnessed just earlier being a judgement to decide wether or not you are the evil.' He carefully monitored Angel's expression before speaking again. 'Of course, if you were judged to be the evil, the crystal would have shone and you would have been imprisoned under me—the Sh'e'sh'ou who brought you in.' 

Angel showed no negative response at this, instead seeming to become excited because of something, making Hou'yi frown. 

'Would you still have helped me?' 

Hou'yi raised an eyebrow. 'Helped you do what?' 

'Escape from here—see the Sky; break the screen.' 

Hou'yi's frown deepened, before he nodded. 'I have no problems helping you do any of that.' 

Angel smiled brightly. 'Wonderful. Then what will you do now, that I am deemed not the evil? Will you continue on with what you cannot change and obey?' 

The archer was silent for a while, before laughing. 'You heard my conversation with Vinculorum.' Then his laughter diminishing, his eyes narrowed. 'Pledge to me your allegiance and I help you do anything in my power. Of course, even if you refuse, I shall still help you find a core, simply that I will do no further.' 

'You demand and expect a lot,'Angel said coldly. 

Hou'yi's eyes flared, and he smiled calmly at the boy. 'That is the point.' Then he leaned forwards, staring into Angel's black eyes with a blue rim. 'Perhaps you will understand if you hear about what I am to do.'