Unwinding the Immortal Coil

Drake's eyebrow twitched faintly as he looked toward Feng, but he said nothing despite full knowledge that this rescue mission could save Kina's life. She was too faithful to the order to give in to whatever methods the Unifiers implemented. If she survived this long without telling them to fuck off and being executed for it, she was likely already undergoing their brainwashing.

Only one person resisted that, and Drake felt certain it was due entirely to being previously brainwashed by someone much, much more thorough.

Jade herself simply stared at Feng. "If Unifiers have Hunter Kina, the results are death or a situation exactly alike to Hunter Hegga's. You are not one of mine to order or request any further than I already have in asking you to answer my questions. Whatever you decide, Lord Feng, I hope luck is with you." She closed the portal behind him.

With a deep breath, she sent a single text: "Hunter Kyoko, mobilize the intelligence branch and any assistance you require. Hunter Kina is in Unifier custody." The inherent threat of the second intelligence officer taken by their enemies was too large to describe, but too clear to require more words than already spoken.

Almost immediately, a shadow dropped from above, and Jade relayed everything she learned from Drake and Feng, then looked toward the scarred and black-clad Hunter. "Be careful. I cannot lose you as well."

The shadow faded without a word.

~*~​

Once more on Feng's napping hill, Drake watched the place the portal was for several moments before he began to walk away. He bore no hostility toward Feng, but he saw no reason to include someone unwilling, even less someone so jaded he didn't care for others beyond whether they could kill him or not.

Not his ideal ally, but assistance wouldn't hurt, though the lack of trust he held for Feng would limit...

A portal opened a dozen meters away, elliptical like Drake's, with a view of triple-stacked bunk-beds and a somber-looking man with a deep tan and blond hair. He stepped through and closed the portal, then pulled his jacket tighter about himself as he looked around—no, as his gaze darted around with wariness. He forced a deep breath, but didn't approach, and instead remained very, very still save the turning of his head to inspect the world around himself

To the other side, four more portals opened at different distances, each faced toward the forest. From each, two Hunters emerged, often in pairs of a man and a woman, and never without the long brown coats.
 
What did that woman think he could do about it? He was untrained, well, at least he was untrained now. If you don't brush up your skills for centuries, they would disappear. Even if he had his former skills, what was he compared to whatever they were. Even with his former skills he was quite certain that he would have been no match to these people, had they been fighting him.

"More of you? Terrific." Feng mumbled as portals opened. He had no clue if they were hunters or the hunters enemies, but they seemed to have about the same technology, so they were basically the same to him, just on different spectrums on the morality meter. "Try to be careful with those things in town. People don't tend to take lightly to strange phenomenons. They've burnt me on the stake at least ten times already just for healing fast." He casually warned them, though underneath there might have been a slight annoyed tone. If they drew too much attention to themselves, he would be the one who'd have to suffer for it. They could just disappear whenever, while he would be left there as an associate, and a person the town knew somewhat. Guess who would be on witch trial for that one.

"Well, this party seems fun, but I think I'll enjoy myself more in a bar, trying to get myself too drunk to remember that any of this is even happening." Not that he actually could get drunk. His body wasn't capable of getting intoxicated. Oh how he envied humans sometimes. "If it makes you feel better Drake, just think about the fact that you are better off without me rather than with me. You can't trust someone you don't know. I might betray you in a heartbeat if I were to get involved. Good luck mate."
 
Drake grunted and left with a wave, off to acquaint himself with the area. The other Hunters followed suit save the lone man that seemed unnoticed as he simply stood in place, frozen in fear until a portal opened behind him and a woman pulled him back. "Faust, you're not approved for field duty! Get back here. You can help better at home." The voice wasn't familiar to Feng, but few voices that could come through a portal would be.

With all the portals closed and Hunters gone, the hill became quiet.

The next few days, Drake and the other Hunters explored every area within the nearest five hundred miles. Once a day, a different Hunter pair came into town with a sketch of Kina to ask around, but ignored and avoided Feng, already certain he knew nothing more than he already told the blond and braided girl.

On the third day since the meeting with Jade and the beginning of the search, the Hunters stopped coming to town with their sketch, but it was posted in every alley. They included contact instructions that consisted of a meeting place and verbal call that would ensure someone arrived to answer them.

However, besides those notices, which brought some laughs from the locals, the town became quiet.
 
Feng observed as the hunters foolishly asked the townsfolk for help. As if they knew anymore than Drake did. Those two had been together for most of their time in town, at least as far as Feng had seen, so anything they knew from that time, Drake would know as well. The only reason to search like that would be if they thought she had escaped, but then why not just leave a hunter in town and wait for her in case she came back? Their way of working seemed ineffective and stupid. They probably were too idiotic to even track down a bear. At least they left him alone as he tried to poison himself to no avail.

During the fifth day, a woman approached him. She seemed awfully familiar, but he didn't think much about it. An awfully chatty one.

"Didn't your father teach you not to speak to strangers?" Feng eventually asked her, quite amused that she had been talking so freely with him even with him not responding for an hour.

"Stranger? Oh I'm sorry, I thought... Of course you don't know me, sorry. I forgot that last time was a dream." She chuckled.

"A... Dream? What are you talking about?" This felt awfully familiar. Hadn't he had this conversation before?

"Well, you see, for a couple of years now I've had these amazing dreams of... You. I have seen you almost every night, and we have talked and I know so much about you. Your love for stargazing. Your favorite horse was Albian. You had a son named Agnus." The girl just rambled on and on about things she shouldn't know... Everything she said was true but... They were things only one person could know.

"Are you okay? You're shaking. Are you cold?" She stopped herself to ask him. His hand were but a tight fist at this point, shaking tremendously.

"Get away from me." Feng almost growled as he stood up.

"Wait, what? Why? What did I do wrong?" The naive woman asked him, grabbing his arm. In return he grabbed her throat and pulled her up from the ground with a strength he did not know he possessed.

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP." He shouted at her as she suffocated. Then a glass flew into his head, thrown by a bar guest, and Feng dropped the girl whom started to cough on the ground. People were quite furious at this point, and soon he found himself hiding in an alleyway.

"Great job." He mumbled to himself as he felt his heart breaking for every breath he took. She was back, reborn once again. Why did he have to look at her again? Why couldn't she just leave him alone? Did this world truly have to torture him more than it already had?

As he leaned towards the wall, listening after angry people chasing after him, non close by so far, he noticed something hanging on the opposite wall. "Ah, this was the flier they were hanging up earlier." He mumbled. Contact info huh. For some reason, he hesitated to throw it away. "What's wrong with me?" He hit the back of his head against the wall. "This world might suck, but jumping into another one won't help in the least." He told himself. "Though I can't really be a hundred percent sure of that." He then retorted.

Either he had to move somewhere else again since he wasn't welcome here, or... No, it was ridiculous. And it wasn't like he could do anything for them either way. Or could he? A master of blending in, working out new cultures within minutes, being able to get any information he wished for, he was a great asset. At least for normal human beings. For those people? They probably had tons of those. Though, somehow he had his doubts. This poster wasn't really something that screamed 'blending in'. He could have made sure people took it seriously. Were they even trying? If they weren't, then they shouldn't even have put them up to begin with, so that probably wasn't the case.

Having convinced himself that they were a bunch of useless fools, he somehow ended up at the meeting spot. "I have a feeling I'll regret this." He mumbled before saying the words on the piece of paper.

Once someone showed up, he did not bother waiting for them to speak first. He held up their flier and spoke out his mind. "If this is your way of getting peoples attention, I feel quite sorry for that poor girl, having such incompetence searching for her. You don't even know where to look for information. Just the other day, underground Joe even bragged about how he lied straight to the weird ones faces without you even realizing it. Good job getting the most lame nickname in history by the way. I applaud your success in being the most unsuccessful chameleons throughout the ages." Feng had no clue if Joe actually knew anything, he lied about all and everything, the only time he spoke the truth was when he got the right price. The problem was, he never mentioned a price before someone offered it, until that time, he just lied pretending not to know. Though Feng did know for a fact that the little rat had been sneaking around the forest quite a lot. He hadn't been able to enter as Feng had, but there was a chance he had seen something, and these idiots would never know what it was cause they never thought of asking the right questions. How much money do you want to tell us? Was that really so hard? "Now, do you want to try again in town, in the right places and with the right questions? Or was this part of your investigation just a side hobby you didn't particularly care for?"
 
The passcode was fairly simple: "Lady of Luck and Host of Existence, I beg you come."

A portal appeared before him, not vertical, but horizontal, and Jade fell through. Dark circles under her closed eyes offered a hint of her strain, and as the chair on which she sat landed, and her rear hard atop it, and the steaming brown caffeine-source in her mug flew up and spilled over onto her bare thighs.

"Nn!" She grunted, then opened her eyes to see Feng before her instead of a Hunter. She blinked a few times as he started in about incompetence and feeling sorry for 'that poor girl'. After a few moments, his meaning clicked into place, and wide eyed narrowed. They darted first to either side, then back to Feng, down to the paper, and back up to the man. She gripped her mug tight, and her lips came together as her mind placed pieces together.

"I gave explicit orders to avoid all human settlements. This is not our doi—" her voice cut off, and she jumped suddenly as a sound came from behind. Her eyes jerked up and forward, then narrowed at Feng. "This is a trap!"

Red eyes widened, and she shoved herself from the chair. She ran around Feng and stopped briefly. Her fingers drummed her thumb, but nothing happened. Again. Again. Still nothing.

More sounds of movement came from the forest on either side of the apparent camp, and Jade bolted with a curse, scrambling on thin legs that didn't look suited even for walking leisurely through a park without having to rest.

On the back of the flier, ancient words flashed into visibility:

τηρέω Ἄλτεμις!*​
*​"Protect Altemis!"​
 
It was quite a surprise to see that woman there, if anything he had expected any of the hunters that had been around town during the last few days, but whatever. If their boss was the one who got the message it was better, she was the one who should be keeping an eye on her dogs. But something seemed to be wrong.

"Wait, you didn't.." God, he had been so stupid. He hadn't recognized a single hunter that came into town, asking questions. Of course he didn't know any of them, but he had seen all the ones that came to meet Drake. Non of them had been in town. Why get new hunters there every single day when you already had enough people that could do the interviews? Well, then came the question, why were they so stupid as to NOT ask around for more information, as the smallest thing could give them a lead. But hey, maybe it wasn't the time to talk about that.

Feng started to run shortly after the other woman, he could have outrun her at any point, she wasn't that fast. How the heck did she even stand up? Didn't look like she would make it very far. Words flashed on the piece of paper that Feng still was holding. "What the?" Greek? He hadn't read that language in a long time. "Protect Artemis? No wait... Isn't that. L? Altemis? Who's...." Suddenly Feng remembered, Kina pronounced r's weirdly sometimes. "You obnoxious woman, you have to make me go through these things, don't ya?" Protect Artemist huh. So, who was Artemis? The goddess of animals, wildlife, a goddess of hunting... Hunting... Hunters?

"Excuse me, but I've gotten some really annoying orders from your dog, so just bear with it for a while. It will go faster this way." Feng told the woman as he finally took up the speed and picked the woman up, carrying her over his shoulder. Bridal style just wasn't his thing. Just as he had thought, she wasn't that heavy, he could probably maintain his speed for at least a bit. "If we can get to the outskirt of the town, we might be able to loose them if we get down into the underground system."
 
Jade ran as hard as she could, clearly unused to it, and not accostomed to the idea that perhaps she should pace herself. As Feng caught up to her, part of the reason for her lack of speed was her arms around her chest rather than helping with balance.

Feng came into her periphery, and she watched him argue with the flier.

Altemis, he said? Kina's faked accent, and a reference to who else but the leader of the Hunters?

Worry that he was behind the attack faded, and as he babbled about dogs, orders, and going faster, the top-heavy little woman nodded rapidly. Whatever he did, as long as it got them away from the trap! She held onto him as he put her over his shoulder, and her head-sized breasts spilled over the back of it while she pulled her legs up, away from his legs to give him more freedom of motion as she panted.

Far from heavy, she weighed even less than she looked like she should: perhaps seventy pounds, if he used such a measure.

"Thank you," she forced between her heavy breaths, and then looked back. Small lips mouthed as she forced herself to usefulness. "Seven—No, eight of them. Each armed. Unifiers."

The report was small, but if she was going to be disgracefully over his shoulder, clinging and panting, she was going to be useful, especially if he was planning to carry her to safety.

Her eyes widened as a chorus of clicks came from behind. "Dive left!" Thankfully for his ears, her naturally quiet voice didn't shout loudly. "Weave! Weave and believe!"

The ground ahead, to the side, and around his feet exploded with semiautomatic fire, and Jade lowered her head as far as she could while one hand continuously drummed fingers against thumb in her desperation to keep the bullet spray away using any means she could—though even luck had its limits, and any weaving he did made her job easier. She needed him to believe in luck, or at least her, or the speeding lead would find its mark!
 
Eight huh, well they were certainly screwed. Lucky him, he couldn't get killed by bullets. Nor anything else for that matter. She one the other hand? He had no idea how much she could survive. These hunters had so far proven themselves hard to kill, but nothing seemed to attest to them being true immortals. Considering the ways one of the hunters was trying to get himself killed in, it was quite clear that they did not have the same kind of immortality. Though just because he was like that did not mean she was. Maybe she was stronger, maybe she was weaker. He actually guessed on the latter based on her body, but considering how his own body could deteriorate without him actually dying, he couldn't be absolutely sure either way.

Left she said and left he dived. Not long after, the woman was thrown of his back into both his arms instead. It was much harder to run like that, but it gave her more protection than when her head was dangling right where they aimed. "We might have to make a slight detour princess. See the creek? There's an underwater tunnel, if you can hold your breath for a minute, we can get through it and into the underground system." One minute was a lot to ask for when it was done under water. There was a risk even Feng would faint before he got all the way through. It wouldn't kill him, but he could be stuck there for quite some time if that happened. There was no time to mention that they might not actually make it to the main tunnels, because the risk of getting lost was extremely high out there. That's why his original plan had been to enter from the outskirt of town where he knew the way better.
 
The bullet spray barely missed them, and a few bullets changed course as pebbles and debris brought up by Feng's running hit them. The strain nearly made Jade pass out. He pulled her forward, into both his arms, and she shifted to keep herself as out of the way as she could, like being carried was fairly normal, and being picked up and shifted around didn't phase her. She held onto him and as he mentioned an underground tunnel and holding breath for a minute.

She could manage three or four before the burning in her lungs forced a breath whether she was ready or not.

"I am a decent swimmer and can hold my breath three minutes, but I float." She nodded and forced her breathing to become more regular, to take more in with each breath so her lungs could prepare for the big one that she would need. "If for some reason you cannot, please allow me to drag you." Her eyes looked away from him and toward the creek before she craned her neck. She could hear heavy boots behind them, but not so close as before the sudden left turn.

Drake's voice came from behind, but not near Feng or Jade, and not addressing them either—possibly unaware of their presence. "Unifiers?"

Jade calmed at the sound of his voice, then tensed as a scream came from behind, and her face scrunched tight, brows furrowed and frown deep with displeasure.

Behind them, Drake began to laugh, the sound growing rapidly demented.

"I don't know how you survived before, but you won't this time unless you have a good reason I should let you! I'll give you a hint!" He paused, and a crunch came from his direction. "A Chinese woman and a woman with a very long braid. Where are they?"

Jade's grip on Feng tightened. "Don't stop, when he gets this way—" She cut off and bit her lip.
 
Three minutes? This woman was quite something. "There's a point in which the underwater pathway splits into two, if I pass out, make sure to remember to take the left path. There is no air pockets in the right path." He warned her.

Whatever was going on behind them, Feng did not bother turning around to look. "Let me guess, I don't want to know." Was all he said. His legs were burning from the running he had become so unused to. Carrying a woman, even a very light one, did not make things better. "Ten steps, deep breath, dive." He said, keeping things short so his breathing weren't compromised this close to the dive.

Feng filled his lungs as much as humanly possible before jumping in with the woman whom hopefully had gotten her breath in time. Considering how long she could hold it, she might have been smart and not taken it in the last second as he was forced to do. Even though it was daylight, the water was quite dark. Algae was blocking most of the sun during this time of the year. He held her arm to make sure she didn't loose him in the dark, since he had no idea how good vision she had.

It only took seconds for them to swim to the cave itself, which was even darker than the creek. That wouldn't last long though, after thirty seconds of swimming, blue shimmering stones lit up the water filled cave. They weren't too far from the split, but Feng had reached his limit. He hadn't trained his lungs for years, and he probably hadn't taken a deep enough breath. Suddenly all movements stopped as he accidentally breathed in the water as a reflex. His lifeless body could do nothing but float aimlessly in that cave. If he had been alone, he might have been trapped there for hundreds or thousands of years until someone accidentally stumbled upon him and brought him up out of curiosity. Luckily, that was not the case now.
 
Her breath began several seconds before needed, and once submerged, she held. Algae blinded, but the cave's darkness brought deep drowsiness until the light of blue stones jolted her awake, and her grip tightened on Feng as she felt him grow limp beside her.

Thin legs burned as they kicked at the water, and with her natural floatation devices, her kicks also pushed at the roof of the passage. With pupils wide, she used her free hand to drag herself as she took the left passage, and at the first air pocket, she left Feng under while she took a breath.

She continued forward without further pause, thinking it a waste of time to revive Feng until they reached the end—after all, who would want to die multiple times like that?

Her legs felt heavier and heavier until she wanted only to float, but as she struggled a few moments more, they ran out of water to traverse.

It took more than the minute Feng assumed. She was decent only in that she had unique lung capacity, not strength, stamina, or speed. The sopping woman clambered out, shaking from the chill of drying water and breathing heavy as water fell down her face from her drenched hair.

Thin arms pulled Feng from the water, and she rolled him onto his stomach, head to one side before she moved beside him and pushed his knees forward, so his back was angled downward. Her eyes burned from algae and building stress. Logically, her actions made sense, but...

What came next? She'd been told during swimming lessons that because of her lung structure, she couldn't exhale oxygen-rich air. She could do compressions—She could do compressions!

The tiny woman bit both her lips as she tried to figure out the least awkward way to grab a strange and not-overly-friendly man so she could try to squeeze his ribcage with enough force to eject liquid... You know, after she already shoved his rear in the air.

A tiny whine escaped, and she looked around, as though for help that wasn't there. She tried her thumb-drumming, but that didn't work, and after a few moments, she gave up and used a tired arm to try to jar it out by hitting his back—not very effective, but at the moment, it was the best she could think up.

"Please wake soon, Lord Feng."
 
It took a while, but eventually the water started to come out. First just a little bit, but after a few more hits, a flood washed out of him and he started to cough, gurgling, and eventually breathing. "You know, drowning wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to wake up afterwards." He noted after his horrible coughing fit had ended. Drowning itself was easy. Just take a breath and you blacked out. But waking up meant suffocating all over again as your body tried to fight to get the water out of you. It was much more unpleasant.

"I've only seen the map of these caves ones, but I think I know how to get to the sewers. From there we can easily choose where we think we can safely get up." Feng told her as he took off his shirt to squeeze some water out. "Under normal circumstances I would suggest that we dry our clothes first, but I doubt we have the time for that. I hope you're not prone to colds."

He was a bit wobbly for a few seconds after standing up, but he recovered fast. What else would one expect of a person who had died hundreds or thousands of times?
 
She'd almost thought he wouldn't wake up, that by not trying to revive him at the air pocket, she'd doomed him. After the last hit, her arm rested on her back and her head on her knees as she trembled, still sodden wet. A rush of water emerged, and she suddenly gripped his shirt as his coughing surprised her. At his commentary, she simply nodded with a tiny "Mm." In the dim light, she hoped he couldn't see the difference between the water they'd swam through and the fresh that she could feel in her eyes.

It occured to a distant part of her mind that his comments were kind of hilarious given his rear in the air, but it didn't register, and as he went on, she only nodded again. Covered in algae and dripping wet, she finally noticed the chill everywhere. Her jacket was dry, but not her shorts, nor her shoes, nor her very white shirt, nor her hair or any part of her skin.

"I should... be fine, thank you, Lord Feng," she assured after a few moments before she found the strength to rise onto numb legs. Her knees almost immediately knocked together as her balance threatened to give out. "It is your... your lead."

Her loud sniffle felt more embarrassing than the fact she'd been crying over an immortal man who she'd known for all of a half hour spread out in two meetings over a month. "Sorry," she withdrew a shockingly dry tissue from her nose and blew it, then paused and offered a new one to Feng, slightly dampened in tiny dots on one corner by her fingers.

From Feng's pocket, a flash appeared, with a glow that persisted. If he fished it out to read, it was in plain English.

Feng,

If you're able to read this message, thank you. Seriously, thank you. I can't do a lot to help you right now because I'm neck-deep, have to resist brainwashing, and pretend I buy their bullshit, but I'll do what I can from here for as long as I can—and to get out as well. I do have a promise to keep, after all.

Before I forget, Lady Jade is not a Hunter, even though she is our leader. She doesn't have our healing factor: only four times that of a normal human. She's part bird, part human, and has a few minor divine traits. If she hands you a pair of jade dice, those are literally her life. I am sure she will not mind if you ask for more, and I am relieved you understood the message. It had to be a short one that could be read quickly.

Again, thank you, and I'm sorry to drag you into this.

-Kina
 
"Sorry? For what?" People were odd. Apologizing for everything without even thinking about if they had something to apologize for. Had he been like that once? Probably. But it was a far off memory he could barely reach. Before an answer could come, something started shining in his pocket. The paper piece? Feng picked it up and read it silently.

"How is that even biologically possible?" Was his first words after having read it. Half a bird? He did not want to know how that family tree looked like. The second part that was hard to comprehend was the jade dices. They were literally her life? Then why give them up to a stranger? Her not being a hunter was not much of a surprise. She looked weak and had no stamina what so ever. He wasn't sure if he should actually talk with Jade about everything in the message, or just let her personal information be a secret until she decided to bring them up.

"Kina says she'll try not to get brainwashed while figuring out a way to escape." He told the woman while putting the paper back into his wet pocket. It seemed to fair fairly well even in that moist environment, though some damage from the water had been visible.

"You aren't used to walking, right? I'll carry you. It would be bothersome if we were slowed down." It was a simple observation. Her body showed no sign of her being physically active. Just walking half an hour a day would make sure the body stayed somewhat healthy.
 
Jade didn't answer. No, the note was much more interesting. She watched in silence as he read. The cold and darkness left her mind too sluggish to think to ask if she could read it as well, and so she simply waited. Thankfully, her patience was rewarded with a summary.

"So, she is taking the infiltration route, at least as of writing that," Jade murmured and sagged with relief. Chill and darkness sapped at her ability to stay awake, and as he spoke again, she jumped and looked up. Her mouth didn't work, not immediately.

It took a few moments before she managed. "I am accustomed to walking, but at a slow pace and on a flat plane. If you do not object, to be carried would be ideal right now for the sake of speed."

She held up a hand to indicate she wasn't done talking. Even now that she caught her breath, her chest felt constricted. "However, I have a suggestion that may make the burden less troublesome for you. I do not anticipate we will be followed, so carrying me on your back may tire you less."

Her preference for being carried was being allowed to sit on a person's arm and look forward, but it took strength and height both—specifically, those of a male Hunter. They were typically six feet tall or more, and the shorter among them sometimes had to shift awkwardly with each step. On a person's back, her light weight could be shouldered with less difficulty, even if it meant smashing her breasts against him—she hoped he would understand it was not intentional.
 
"Of course. What other way did you expect me to do it? It's not as if we're in need of a fast escape because of danger down here. Believe it or not, but I don't tend to make a habit off throwing females over my shoulder when carrying them." Feng replied.

He kneeled down with his back towards her, nodding for her to get on. As he walked, carrying the woman on his back, he seemed completely unfaced by the breasts pushing against him. It probably wasn't the first time he had carried a woman like that, or maybe the female body stopped being such a flustering thing after a few thousand years.

"So, how come a weak little country pumpkin like you got yourself into such a dangerous business? Paperwork is one thing, but leading the organization? You've made yourself into a living target." While he still weren't sure exactly how their organization worked, it didn't seem to be that much differently structured than any army, police force or guard troops in history. The leader usually needed to have just as much brain as strength, since he would have to survive assassination attempts. Even with guards, there were no guarantees that one would be protected from anything at any time.

"Speaking of living targets. How come they used me to transport you here? If all that was needed was to say those words, why could they not do it themselves?" Though if they had been able to do that, then she would have been dead long ago. It was quite the curious system though. How could it work for some and not others?

(AAAAH writing on a tablet is so hard xD it tried to autocorrect Feng to Deng. What the heck even is a Deng?)
 
(( Good question! ))

"It is best not to assume," she countered with a tiny note of embarrassment. Memories of being carried upside-down, of people thinking carrying her atop their shoulders was wise, and then remembrances of people who carried her like she was in a certain Scandinavian wife-carrying race. "I have been through horrors." The joke was delivered no differently than her typical monotone, and she climbed onto his back as he presented it before her. Though she was gifted in the bust, the rest of her felt slightly bony, though her bones themselves felt very thin and round. Bare thighs rested against his sides, and her arms formed a triangle in front of his neck as her chest rested closer to his neck than his back.

Feng's following questions and commentary annoyed her, but they were legitimate and logical questions to ask at this point: why was someone so frail-seeming in charge of an organization of soldiers and why did the calling not work for the Unifiers?

"The first is a long story, and it includes some of the answer to the second. I will try to keep it short enough not to bore."

With that disclaimer out of the way, she began, voice significantly more quiet than previous as she spoke into his ear.

"The Multiverse is sentient, and it is a spirit that is passed from one host to another once the previous host becomes unsuited. They must be capable of love, curiosity, wonder, and growth. They must also have the ability to be hurt physically and emotionally. Without these, entropy would shift too far and everything would spread and become cold. I became the host when I was eight years old. When I was sixteen, a Hunter I befriended was imprisoned by the Council: the ones who ruled the Hunters at the time. I went with another to save him, and once he was safe, the shadows began to devour the Council and many Hunters. I was present, but I hardly remember it. I remember helping to free those trapped in rubble by the earthquake, and then helping put out fires. I helped until I collapsed, and I kept going, and the survivors began to call me Lady."

She huffed quietly. "I objected to becoming their superior, but they begged and thought themselves nothing more than dogs who needed to be kept to heel. It may have been pity when I finally took the position they freely gave me, but that feels a long time ago. Most times, I am kept within the Hunter compound or my own home, and no attempts have been made to infiltrate either by Unifiers."

"This attempt is a first. Typically, my Hunters have free permission to summon me with only my first name or a thought, but I have used my abilities as host to the multiverse to ensure that I hear any call of my name. Typically, I can ignore them, but the calling you did... It invoked more than my name, and it wasn't spoken by a Unifier. The spirit must have assumed urgency and sent me unknowingly into the trap without my consent, but that is merely a guess."

She closed her eyes and let her chin rest against Feng's shoulder, though only for a moment before she lifted it to speak. "Unfortunately, Unifiers have annoying technology that can cause perception disconnects for me, meaning that now I can only perceive this world until we find a way to disconnect the shield."

Her hands clenched. "I am not accustomed to it—this silence," she said. The girl buried her face against Feng's neck. She wanted to talk more, to fill the quiet, but her throat felt too tight. A tiny keening noise escaped, cut off by her own tightened throat.
 
"When I lived in a Buddhist temple thousands of years ago, there were nothing but silence. Only one monk had the authority to speak because he was the teacher of their ways. He told me that through silence and isolation, humans could learn patience and appreciation of life. There was even a rite the monks had to take in which they were to sit in a room quietly, all alone for a year. It was said that those who were truly enlightened could last the year completely without food and water through meditation. Most people ate the little food that was pushed through the opening in the door though. I was the only one who didn't. I just couldn't help it, it was too much fun messing with them." Good old times when it was still fun to travel around the world and seeing new ways of living.

"But I agree, silence is quite annoying, especially after having been stuck in a tomb together with a mummy for a few hundred years. It got real scary when the hallucinations started. At one point I even believed the pharaoh had cursed me and was going to rip out all my organs. Starving for too long isn't good for your mind nor the body." Feng didn't seem the least bit bothered by the memory. While it did still haunt him when he was trapped all alone, it had very little effect on him when he were around others or in places he knew he could get out of even if they were small or dark. The temple ceremony had happened while he still were quite traumatized from the experience. He had mainly decided to take on the challenge to get over his past and take control over his future. It was the longest year of his life, but he survived and was finally able to move on.
 
Feng seemed to pick up on the need to hear someone talking, and began a bit of story time. She relaxed against him the more he spoke, about monks and enlightenment and silence. A tiny giggle escaped as he admitted that he'd had fun with the monks in a way likely only he could. She felt for the poor monks who had been faced with an outsider outshining them, but it really was funny, and it hadn't actually hurt anyone, from the sound of it.

However, he soon agreed that silence was annoying and he'd gone through a frightening ordeal that featured it prominently.

Jade's arms tightened around him as she pressed forward, offering an awkward hug to the immortal.

"That sounds horrifying," she whispered as she imagined for a moment that she was locked away with a corpse for an unknown time, starving and imagining things and left along with her own thoughts...

A shudder of revulsion shook through the little bird, and she fell silent for several long moments as bile threatened to rise.

Finally, she swallowed and decided to speak again, in hopes to pull her mind from the subject, though the words refused to leave her lips, simply because she couldn't think of anything to say. The silence drew out further, and she curled her toes in her boots. Her fingers twined and twisted together as tension grew and grew, until she finally forced out the first thing her mind produced: a huff.

It wasn't a lot, but it freed her throat.

"You seem incredibly calm about all of what is happening. It... reassures me a little."

She wanted to tell everything: that she was eight when she was given the burden of the multiverse, that she was sixteen when the Hunters flooded to her control, that she wasn't even fifty years old, that she ruled the Hunters and the multiverse both without help, that she felt like if she didn't love both, she would have quit years ago.

But... she couldn't say it out loud. To put those words outside her own head somehow seemed like it would make them more real.
 
"Calm? I guess that's a way to look at it." Feng chuckled. "Even if I panicked, what difference would it make? After a long enough life, fear becomes a distant memory. I guess immortality also helps. At least while you have a life you're enjoying. Knowing nothing can kill you will make you do the most craziest things just because you know you won't die anyways."

What a young and innocent way of thinking. He had done things no human could have ever imagined at the time. Climbing the highest mountain in the world. Swimming across the biggest ocean. Jumping the highest cliffs. He had ben quite the daredevil once.

"But eventually the fun in the danger washes away and all that's left is pain and boredom. But fear? Can't say I even remember what it feels like. All memories disappears eventually. One day I won't know what joy feels like either, nor will I remember ever meeting you or those hunters. There will just be that feeling that I'm much older than I can remember and a question of how I can be all alone with this endless life. Being locked up like that was nothing. I will forget it completely in a few thousand years."
 
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