Dwellers: Ex Adyto Cordis by OptiMoose
Index
Chapter 1: From the Bottom of the Heart (1)
Chapter 2: Ex Adyto Cordis (II)
Disclaimer: "Gensomaden Saiyuki, Saiyuki: Reload, Saiyuki: Gaiden" and all of its characters were created by Kazuya Minekura. They belong to her and were used without prior permission. No profit is made through this story.
Author's note: English isn't my first language, and this story isn't betaed. I apologize for any inconveniences caused by this.
This is an Alternate Universe for Saiyuki. Outside of Minekura-sama's Saiyuki-verse, I was inspired by the manga 'Devil & Devil' and the original 'Journey to the West' novels.
Some explanations:
- Empyrean: This is not some tweaked version of 'empire', but the highest reaches of heaven, believed by the ancients to be a realm of pure fire or light.
- Abaddon: another word for 'the bottomless pit', destruction, or hell
- Terra Firma: Latin for 'Solid Land', but in this story used for the human realm, Earth.
- Ex Adyto Cordis: Latin for 'From the Bottom of the Heart'
Constructive criticism, feedback and flames (directed at the story) are welcome. However, if you flame me as a person, I'll send Gyoukumen after you. You have been warned.
Warning: This story is not shonen-ai, Boy's Love, Yaoi or slash. It's also not a story that will lead to any of them becoming lovers. Thanks for accepting this.
Additional Warning: This story contains bad language and violence. Proceed at your own risk
Dwellers: Ex Adyto Cordis
by Lee
(c) August 2005
A shadow fell on the leaves. Like gunshots, the sharp flaps of mighty wings disrupted the peace of the moment. Wind sent ripples across the calm plain of water and an angel landed elegantly on the leaf closest to the blossoming lily stem.
His entire air screamed 'important', from the way he straightened his magnificent, bright white feathered wings; over his elaborate clothes and long, perfectly groomed silver gray hair; to the dignity his sheer presence radiated. The angel folded his wings, studied the shore with a wistful smile and counted down slowly. “...five... four... three... two..."
“Intruder!” A warning yell boomed over the battered park that surrounded the Pond, and finally the guards showed up.
“Idiot!” an older colleague scolded. “Are you blind? That's Sanzo Koumyou!”
“Fourteen seconds. Unacceptable,” Koumyou of the Toa growled instead of greeting. Band-aids and cotton bandages covering various body parts of the guards told of recent injuries, but those were no excuse for negligence in Koumyou's eyes. Devils' attacks on the hatching ponds never were an issue to be taken lightly. He briefly wondered how many angel hatchlings the Kinship of Toa had lost in the raid two days prior.
“Sanzo! Sanzo Koumyou here!”
Quickly, the shore of the pond was crowded with angels of all ages. Koumyou smiled at them, despite his annoyance over the lax security. He was one of the currently four designated Sanzos, but his exalted position had not mellowed his sharp mind.
Koumyou knelt down and gently stroked the lily bud that stretched to reach the sky. "Poor thing. You're the only one left, mhm?"
As if the flower had waited for his touch, the septals suddenly sprang open, revealing an array of pure white petals. While the petals unfolded, a soft glowing ball appeared in the center of the large blosson.
Within a few minutes, the lily was in full bloom, and the glowing ball had taken on size and shape of a newborn; in a way, Koumyou mused, it was like watching hot metal fill a form and cool down. The glow slowly died and revealed dark skin - just like humans, Dwellers came in all colors. With outermost care, Koumyou picked up the brand new angel girl and presented it to the stunned onlookers. “Grow strong, little one.”
There was a murmur of approval from the crowd when he blessed the hatchling. The angels of Toa needed a sign of hope more than anything after the devils had plundered their Ponds for the fourth time in a row. It didn't help that the lands of the Kinship were located directly at the conjunction of the Rivers Lethe and Archeron, which were two of the five border rivers between The Empyrean and Abaddion.
Alas, he had no time to waste on geographic observations. With a swift move, Koumyou rose and tapped from one lily leaf to the next until he had reached the shore. “It's very kind of you all to come here to greet me, but this isn't the time for idling. Please, return to your work, everyone.”
“You've heard the Honorable Sanzo! Let's not waste time.” The Doyen, in his function as local leader and supervisor of system of Ponds in this area, bowed deeply. He signaled the guards to usher the crowd away, and soon the two angels could talk more privately.
“I apologize for my late arrival, Doyen Yalong.” Sanzo moved his right hand to indicated a bow. “I was kept by urgent business at the Sanctuary.”
Doyen Yalong looked surprised. “To tell the truth, I had hoped you'd give us a bit more time to clean up.”
“They really left a mess this time, didn't they?” Koumyou looked around and sighed. Just like the other lakes he had passed over on his flight here, this Pond was in a desolate state. Gray and sand colored blotches in the water indicated where Sacred Water Lilies were ripped away. It was like a bleeding wound, the soil didn't settle but swirled in the current above the ruptured underwater roots. Except for the lily leaf he had had landed on, a lot of the remaining plants had suffered badly when the Toa guards had fought the thieves.
“A mess doesn't even begin to cover it.” Yalong's sorrowful expression deepened. “The devils destroyed our lily plantations.”
Koumyou had known Yalong a long time and had a hunch that this wasn't the end of the bad news. “The Ponds at River Archeron...”
“I'm afraid that the situation there's the same.” The Doyen shook his head. “They got us good this time. There are no plants within a day's flight to fill the gaps in the Ponds... and as you know, our Sacred Lilies can only be seeded when there's a Full Dragon Moon.”
Koumyou swallowed hard. It was a well-known fact that only in the plants grown at the right time a Dweller's soul merged to a physical body. How precisely this worked was unknown. Even as a Sanzo, Koumyou could only guess about the miracle that repeated with every new lily bud that bloomed.
He recalled the last Seeding Festival several weeks ago; it would be centuries before the moon moved into the proper position again.
Usually, the Ponds within a Kinship traded lily seeds or plants, but the recent attacks had cleaned out plantations in many districts. Many villages had to start from scratch, and to lose an entire plantation was a disaster.
Despite the longlivity of Dwellers, they were not immortal and the aeons of conflict had cost the angels dearly. Without new plants, the Ponds, and with them the Empyrean Dwellers, would not survive. “I'll send a request to the Sanctuary. Maybe the other Kinships can help us out.”
x
Later that day, Koumyou took a stroll along the shores of River Archeron. He had no idea what drove him there; towards evening, the air above the river was buzzing with mosquitos and other blood sucking insects. Hot wind blew over the water from the Abaddion side, carrying a foul stench with it. The distant shore looked like a fire had recently scorched away scrubs and trees, and with them every life. Even the birds had fled. Outside of the gurgling of the dark water, it was deadly quiet.
Koumyou wondered if the rumors were true that the enemy's land had been plagued with drought and disease recently — but then, Abaddion was not exactly a holiday resort to begin with.
The morose scenery wasn't doing any good to his already dark mood, either. He had thought that this short respite away from the destruction would cheer him up. Instead, the grim, heavy feeling intensified. The angel sighed. “Time to go back, huh?”
He wasn'tquite willing to walk through the mosquito-infested landscape again. The devilish creatures knew no mercy, and telling by the number of bites that covered his arms, they had found the blood of a Sanzo to be a special delicacy.
Koumyou spread his wings, flapped them a few times to shake out tense spots in the flow of soul energy, and took off. Suddenly, he heard a voice. Though faint and distant, it still called out for him.
“Hello?” he yelled, then hovered on spot and listened intensely into the quiet of dusk. When there was no answer, Koumyou shouted, “Where are you? I'm here to help!”
“...help!” a child's voice echoed. It seemed to come from somewhere across the river. Koumyou hesitated, torn between his instinct to rescue the poor soul in distress, and the mountain-size stop sign his common sense had put up. Of course, his common sense had a point; this could very well be a trap. Catching a Sanzo would be a triumph for the devils.
“Help!” the child called again, and this time Koumyou heard the voice clearly in his mind. This came as a surprise. The child must have an extraordinary strng will to survive if it could reach out to a stranger just like that. Koumyou concentrated on the source of the call until he saw a small bundle on one of the large water lily leaves that floated by in the lazy current across the stream. He noticed that the group of leaves with its cargo drifted towards a couple of dead trees that probably one of the winter floods had dumped there.
“Help me,” the child whispered, sounding desolate as if it had sensed his hesitation. The first of the lily leaves bumped into the obstacle, then another, rapidly causing a pileup. If the leaf with the child on it got caught in this barrier, it would topple over and...
“Oh, zing it!” Koumyou rolled his eyes and threw caution to the wind. Ten minutes later, he landed in the Toa village, dripping wet and clutching a shivering baby in his arms.
This didn't go unnoticed of course, and soon he was surrounded by other angels. “Honorable Sanzo!”
Some went for towels and others for dry clothes, but Koumyou ignored them. He carefully put the fever-ridden infant down on one of the blankets that were offered to him. The boy was perhaps a few weeks old at best, malnourished, weak and probably infested by parasites of all kind. His sun burnt skin was unspeakably dirty, and the tiny white wings were sticky with filth and vermin. There was no say how long he had drifted on the river; it was a miracle that the young angel had survived for so long. Koumyou frowned, wondering how high the chances were that this young angel would recover from such an ordeal. “Poor child. Did the devils dump your lily into the river?”
As if he had understood every word, the boy's lids fluttered open, revealing intense amethyst colored eyes. Brilliant blue with a tinge of black, a bad omen if Koumyou had ever seen one. He sighed. Doyen Yalong would so not be pleased about this foundling. ”Maybe I should take you with me to the Sanctuary. What do you think?”
The Sanctuary cast a long shadow over the gardens in the morning light. The early shift rushed to work; clerks, guards, cooks, cleaners – the nerve center of The Empyrean was a bustling city within Central City, active twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and fifty-two weeks per year. A maze of streets, places, parks and houses snug tightly to the outer wall of the Sanctuary grounds. Some of the office buildings could only be accessed by air, others tried to block out unwanted guests by heavy gates. However, the majority of the elegant Sanctuary buildings welcomed visitors and staff by their open design and equally open doors.
One angel had no eyes for the beauty of the city as he stumbled through the entrance gate of the Sanctuary. The youth headed for the Lower Convocation; the humble domicile was where the Sanzos lived when they were not traveling through The Empyrean, but it also served as a meeting place. Bypassing angels frowned upon the angel; the young man was clad in the tattered, blood and dirt stained remains of a plain, off-white tunic. He had wrapped himself into a shredded toga and hugged a small bundle of cloth tightly to his chest. Long, blond hair hung limply down into his pale face, and telling by the sharp stench that surrounded him no one doubted that neither his hair nor the rest of him had used soap in quite a while. From his hip dangled a Flaming Sword, but it were his spark less, amethyst eyes and black checkered wings that made the other angels give him wide berth.
However, the angels who stood guard at the Convocation's entrance weren't that easily intimidated. Patronus had watched the vagabond with a weary eye. He couldn't just let the smelly drifter wander into the halls; certainly that would cause complaints from the residents and guests. He barred the young Dweller's path with a spear. "Now, stop right there, will you!"
The stranger obeyed. "Honorable guardian," he said, and his voice was thin with exhaustion. "I need to talk the Envoy on a matter of important business."
"Why would Her Excellency want to talk to stinking runt like you?" Patronus glared at him.
"Let me talk to the Envoy." This time, it was a demand, not a request.
"And who you think you are that you think you can order me around?" Patronus growled. Flaming Sword or not, the brat was asking for a stay of the Sanctuary's dungeon.
The young angel sighed. "You know me, Patronus. I'm a disciple of the honorable Sanzo Koumyou."
"K-Koumyou?" Patronus's jaw dropped, then he gave the boy a closer look. Blond hair wasn't uncommon amongst angels, and the smudge stained, worn face didn't look familiar. Finally, it was the color of the eyes that rang a bell. "Don't tell me... Kouryuu? You're Kouryuu of the Toa!"
x
"Why are you still alive?"
The Convocation administrator's distrustful question took Kouryuu by surprise. He had expected an interrogation after two guars had set him down on a chair in one of the building's interview rooms. He had even placed his sword on the desk in front of him - not that he liked that part, but he needed to get to the Envoy as fast as possible. This, however, shot him straight out of the sky and landed him in a painful spot. "Why... am I alive?"
"Yes. There was an official announcement shortly after you left that the honorable Sanzo is missing and all his companions were slaughtered by the devils," Administrator Yaluk explained. "So, why are you still alive?"
The answer eluded Kouryuu and was the center of his nightmares. By all means, he should have died by the hands of the enemy that cursed day. 'It should have been me.' Of course, he couldn't tell this to Yaluk. "I have an important message for the Envoy that I can only deliver in person. That's all I can tell you at the moment."
"You always were a haughty little bastard," the administrator hissed. "Show me that ransom note of yours. Then I'll decide if it's fit to be delivered to the Envoy's office."
Kouryuu tensed. "You don't understand. I can only tell this to Her Excellency in person."
"Why don't you let me be the judge on that?" Yaluk placed a hand on Kouryuu's right shoulder.
Kouryuu scrambled to his feet, dashed to the sword and pulled it out of its sheathe in one swift move. "Don't touch me!" His own voice sounded shrill in his ears, as if chalk screeched over a board. The Flaming Sword hummed softly, drawing its energy directly from Kouryuu's body. "Stay away from me, or..."
Yaluks eyes went wide. "You wouldn't dare!"
The guards had reacted promptly. They shielded the administrator from any possible attack, and it was only a matter of time until backup would arrive.
"Let me talk to the Envoy." Kouryuu knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up a lengthy fight. He already felt the strain on his body; he had gone far beyond his limit too often on his journey here. "I don't want to hurt anyone but if you keep standing in my way..."
The administrator glared at him. Then, he suddenly frowned as if he had noticed something unusual. "That power... but... No way. Not even you would violate the Codex like that!"
Kouryuu blinked. "What are you talking about? I said-"
"I know what you said," Yaluk interrupted him. "Listen, you convinced me. I'll talk to the Envoy's aid and arrange a meeting."
"Meeting..." echoed Kouryuu, not sure if he should trust the sudden change of attitude.
"Yes. If this is as bad as it looks..."
The administrator wandered out of the room before Kouryuu had a chance to ask what looked bad. He sighed and sat down on the chair again, uncertain what to do next.
When the handmaids showed up to guide Kouryuu to the bath, he refused. So what if he stank worse than a skunk? The Envoy would survive a noseful or two of foul stench. Too precious was the item that Kouryuu had to deliver. No, the Pendant he could only give to the Envoy, and to the Envoy alone. It couldn't be entrusted to any other angel. Sanzo Koumyou had hammered this lession into Kouryuu's head as long as he could remember. Taking a bath sounded tempting, though; it had been a while since he had dared to dunk himself into a river, and he didn't like the unclean sensation on his skin.
x
The Envoy's Hall smelled like incense and burning candles on a warm summer night. As the administrator had instructed, Kouryuu knelt down and waited, the Flaming Sword ready at his side should the enemy attack.
The quiet and peacefulness of the large room slowly registered with Koumyou. He could almost touch the purity of the place. The dimmed down lights were meant to increase the effect, but all it did for Kouryuu was to make him itching to get away from here as fast as possible. He was acutely aware that he was a walking insult for this place, with the message of his murderous deeds spelled out on his checkered wings for everyone to see.
"Kouryuu of the Toa."
Startled when the Envoy's aid suddenly spoke up, Kouryuu jumped into a defensive position and drew his weapon almost on instinct.
"What the-!" The aid sputtered, staring wide eyed at the flaring tip of the sword Kouryuu pointed at him. The man's shock was quickly replaced by anger. "You'll hand me that disgusting weapon now."
"I'm sorry." Kouryuu stared at the angel, not quite sure at what just had happened. Did he fall asleep or had this been a sneaky devilish illusion to confuse him? Adrenaline pumped through Kouryuu's veins, blasting away the exhaustion momentarily. "I need it to protect myself."
The Envoy's aid measured him with a cold glare. "Protection? You're in the Sanctuary, and no one here is your enemy."
"Sir... I know you don't understand my reasons, but need to see the Envoy," Kouryuu ran out of patience. "I'll give you the sword after I have delivered my message."
"You mean after you have murdered Her Excellency?" The aid looked like he was about to smack Kouryuu, but it was obvious that the sword kept him on distance.
Kouryuu's jaw dropped. "Huh?"
"Don't take me for a fool, brat. I know a killer when I see him." The angel's voice trembled with loathing and anger. "Sanzo Koumyou and you disappeared two months ago in enemy land, and now you suddenly show up here, stinking of blood and your soul's tainted. You killed him, didn't you?"
"I-I-" Kouryuu gasped and his stomach cramped hard. The aid's words had hit home too close for comfort.
"That's quite enough, Jiroshin."
The Envoy, dressed in her ceremonial robes, had entered the hall. She didn't bother with materializing her wings, but still the room seemed to glow with the echo of their luxurious force. She shot her aid a significant look and he backed away from Kouryuu immediately.
"Your Excellency." The aid bowed. "If you'd just let me take care of this troublemaker for you..."
Kouryuu's sword clattered to the tiled floor as he hastened to kneel. In all the years he had lived in the Sanctuary, he had never met the Envoy or any of her kind. Only the Sanzos and the highest officials were allowed near this group of Dwellers, and it was said that they preferred not to mix with 'commoners'.
Their special status was not just curtesy. When three or more angel souls merged in a single Dweller's body, and the angel hatchling survived without going insane, they wielded soul energies that made even a Sanzo look like a shrimp. That's why they were usually only referred to as The Powers that Be. The Envoy's soul energy was vibrant, and it gave Kouryuu a taste of what to expect should he ever dare to betray her. "Your Excellency... I apologize for disturbing your schedule, but I'm here with an important message from Sanzo Koumyou."
"You're here to deliver the Pendants," she nodded. "Or rather, the one Pendant you didn't manage to lose to the enemy."
Before Kouryuu could answer, Jiroshin piped in, "So you know..."
"I know that Sanzo Koumyou is dead?" Her brilliant blue eyes filled with sadness. "Yes. I witnessed the destruction of his soul."
"And you still allow this... filth to live?" The aid's doubt filled voice cut through Kouryuu like a knife.
"That filth, as you call him, risked his soul to fulfill Sanzo Koumyou's last request and bring back the Pendant to me," the Envoy said coldly, and Jiroshin paled.
"Your Excellency." He bowed again. "Surely you took into consideration how Kouryuu of the Toa is indirectly responsible for Sanzo Koumyou's demise. If not for him..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The Envoy waved a dismissive hand. "Don't bore me with such minor details."
Kouryuu stared at her. How could she call this a minor detail? Jiroshin seemed to think the same; at least if the disdainful look he shot Kouryuu was any indicator. "Your Excellency..."
"Ah yes, the Pendant." Her long, dark hair curled when she stretched out her hand. "Give it to me."
"Of course." Kouryuu fingered with the knots of the bundle he had so fiercely protected all this time, but they wouldn't open. He knew that the Envoy's eyes lingered on him and wondered if this was how an insect felt on dissection. Nervous now, he almost dropped the valuable package to the ground when the knots suddenly gave way. Still, the Envoy said nothing, and Jiroshin obviously deemed him unworthy of another smarting comment. When the Pendant finally lay in the open, Kouryuu offered the set of cloth and jewelry to the Envoy, carefully avoiding to repeat his mistake from eight weeks ago. "Your Excellency, the Pendant."
She picked up the drop shaped silver object and studied it briefly. Then she nodded and muttered more to herself than anyone, "Just as I thought. The nerve of this brat, really!"
Kouryuu felt the exhaustion creeping back into every fiber of his being as the adrenaline began to wear off. This part of his journey was over, and he was left with nothing but unfulfilled revenge and the knowledge that he would never forgive himself for his failure.
"Your Excellency, the honorable Jiroshin was right when he said I'm the one to blame for Sanzo Koumyou death. I couldn't protect him, and I lost the second Pendant." He had no illusions to what would follow; certainly Jiroshin would demand punishment for the crimes Kouryuu had committed. "Do with me as you please."