Chapter Text
“We didn’t find her until weeks later,” explains Chief. “It was scavengers who actually stumbled upon her first, curled up in the ashes. Her M-values were so low while she was sleeping that she didn’t even register on any of the scanners. At least not until she woke up and grew agitated.”
It’s an unusual thing for Chief to go out of her way to explain things, at least based on the prior experience of working together to take down the Sun Crow. Not that Du Ruo had been particularly forthright herself. Still, she glances sideways at Chief through one cracked eyelid as she’s led deep into the bowels of the MBCC compound. Chief isn’t exactly dissembling, but there’s a certain…conciliatory something about the way she speaks now, having sent an emergency summons specifically for Du Ruo to visit—and so soon on the heels after the Eastian delegation had taken their shaky leave from Dis City.
Still, Du Ruo responds. She makes haste back to the terrible city and its terrible arbiters, if only because she knows there is at least one good woman who still lives and works here.
Which is how she finds herself being guided deep into the prison system of the MBCC, accompanied only by the Chief herself and Chief’s adjutant, Nightingale. It’s unusual enough on top of everything to be truly intriguing, and perhaps marginally unsettling.
Nightingale steps forward to unlock a heavily armored door and allow them into a new chamber, far removed from the last inhabited cells or guarded positions they had passed.
“I thought it would make more sense if you saw for yourself, rather than trying to write anything down in an unsecured missive,” Chief finishes by gesturing directly in front of them.
Du Ruo looks, and feels her eyes open fully, going wide at the oh-so familiar figure in the holding cell before her.
Her heart, so long pierced by grief and loss, and only just beginning to scar over, pounds and leaps like a traitor within her chest.
Like a wild bird, crashing furiously against her ribcage.
(The metaphor—and its irony—are hardly lost on her, even in this moment of inexcusable weakness.)
For before her is a face she had long since resigned herself to never seeing again.
Xu is balled up defensively within the cell, looking not a day older than when she last walked away from Du Ruo and the rest of their people with a smile, preparing for her final, sacrificial Seeress’s dance in service to a cruel winged god. There is no smile on those high cheekbones now
Du Ruo is already taking a step forward before she catches herself. Her floating censer swings momentarily in the air, betraying her own uncertainty. She manages to relax her stance and close her eyes back to a usual half-lidded gaze, but she has to suppress the tremor that tries to run through her.
Her heart has, yet again, betrayed her with false hope.
The woman in the cell unfurls a bit at the approach of their group, hissing as a dark glare draws down her lovely features. Feathers are mixed in with her hair and sprouting along her bared shoulders; her blackened hands and feet curl into claws.
Though the body may look like Xu, it is not Xu looking back at Du Ruo through those golden, furious burning eyes.
The captive darts forward with such unexpected speed that all three of them startle when she slams up against the bars of her cell. Chief’s hand is already half raised, gathering that peculiar power of hers. She doesn’t have to release it, though.
The woman—one of Chief’s so-called “Sinners”—remains splayed against the unrelenting steel, staring at them. The temperature has noticeably increased.
It has also given Du Ruo enough time to regain a full measure of herself. Any momentary lapse has now been firmly locked away; any ache that still radiates within her chest is a distraction that can be ignored and tended to later. Now is not the time to drop her guard, no matter how genuine the Chief may be.
“I don’t understand what you brought me here for, Chief.” Du Ruo deliberately allows her brow to furrow. “This is not the Sun Crow reborn, if that was your concern.”
“I am aware. The Sun Crow is well and truly gone, thanks to your help in guiding me.”
Du Ruo brings a hand to cover her lips. She almost wishes she had brought a sandalwood fan with her, not that she is truly worried about letting anything slip by in her expression now. She tries to ignore both the subtle acknowledgement from the Chief as much as the… conundrum …she is now unexpectedly having to face.
She only partially succeeds.
“Why, then you have me at a loss. You’re the famed Chief of the MBCC, after all. And I can see you’ve already touched her with the magic of your “Shackles”. What could a simple, foreign scholar like me possibly provide that you don’t already have?”
“I can’t keep her here.”
Chief states it as though it’s the most simple conclusion in the world, and Du Ruo freezes for the second time.
Nightingale clears her throat and begins explaining.
“She may not be the Sun Crow or the Apostle of the Ashes, but the appearance and the connection is too uncanny to be disregarded.”
(Internally, Du Ruo wants to both laugh and scream. “Uncanny”? She could very well be a clone of Eastia’s beloved Seeress from ten years ago, but for those eyes of molten gold. Du Ruo’s unperturbed guise must still hold, though, because the adjutant continues without pause.)
“It’s only a matter of time until Paradeisos or someone else high enough up in Dis City knows about the full context of her existence, at which point Chief’s word and authority over Sinners won’t have much sway. Chief believes it is in her best interest if she can leave Dis City before then.”
“So, you called me?”
Of course Chief did. She is one of the few, now, after all. She’s had the visions, confirmed the history from Du Ruo’s own mouth. Du Ruo had thought this tale done, that she might finally be able to tend to the grave of her own past…
…but it seems the gods, if there truly are any, see fit to test her only more. If there is karma, Du Ruo wonders what sin from a past life she must atone for in this one.
“I can get her out of the city, but she needs someone with her, Du Ruo.” Chief pauses. “Please. It’s now or never.”
They both already know what her answer will be.
The censer expels more faint, green smoke, and the temperature cools a fraction. Du Ruo sighs.
“She doesn’t seem inclined to speak much, but she does have a name—”
Chief is cut off when the Sun Crow Sinner interrupts with a grumbling sort of growl. Clearly she’s had enough of being spoken about in front of them. The Xu who is Not Xu opens her mouth to speak. Du Ruo sees the flash of white, pointed teeth. Inhuman teeth. The woman utters but one word, the name she has given herself.
“Yao.”