Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The ritual, part 1
It seemed that even here, on the edge of the empire, Wei Caihong's post had always been shaky.
The noble had moved in with Nikola, and the order for him to leave the palace came faster than the furniture from his estate in the capital.
And to think that the order for the furniture had been sent a whole week before the letter of resignation.
Nikola enjoyed having a bed again. And chairs. The furniture, all in a dark wood, fit well with the complete feel of the house. Nikola still bought some things from the local carpenter.
The fresh wood was in stark contrast with the older pieces of furniture, and yet it all fit together somehow. He hosted a party, late at night so that Wei Caihong could go outside if he needed, and invited all of his new neighbors as well as granny Nuo Nuying.
She had tried to talk him into dancing as well, but Wei Caihong had been hovering over Nikola's shoulder the entire time, and he set his foot down. Refusing for anyone else to be seduced by Nikola's dancing.
The general opinion was that this was a love story coming straight out of a poem. The lost prince of a barbaric land, and that was how everyone regarded Nikola, not having forgotten that he came to their village decked in gold, finds the noble magistrate who has fallen from grace.
The magistrate has a bad reputation, but the lost prince melts his heart, and he forgets all about his foulness.
This silly story, which circulated around the village, gave hope to many women that they could do the same as Nikola.
Nikola pitied their naivety.
"What are you thinking of again?" Wei Caihong asked from his place down on the ground, slowly drawing symbols on the wooden floor.
"That the villagers are rather strange. Just yesterday, a young girl asked me how to turn the troublemaker of the village into an upstanding citizen. I asked her not to bother, but she kept insisting he was of a good family and that made him a good match."
Wei Caihong snorted at that, and he squeezed the wound on his wrist so more dark blood could drip out.
"You should have told her to sleep with him. It worked for me," he said, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
Nikola kept dusting the counter. There was a closed sign on the shop, so he didn't know why he bothered. Still, it was good to have something to do.
"Can you come over here and check if I'm writing what you showed me or nonsense?" Wei Caihong said next. He found the symbols hard to draw. Used to the Chinese way of writing as he was, he found these to be a bit strange.
Nikola sighed.
The drawing was right next to Wei Caihong, and yet, the man used any excuse he could to get Nikola to be close to him. Still, he went to him and then took the brush from his hand and curved one of the symbols a little.
"I swear; you are doing this deliberately," Nikola said as he inspected the rest of the symbols.
He corrected mistakes as he went. It was important that the one who was going to perform the ritual paint the symbols, but if Nikola left them like this, then Wei Caihong would be left without toes as well as get boils on his ass.
"There. All done. Have you worked on your chant?" Nikola asked for what felt like the 100th time in the past hour alone. He simply refused to leave anything to chance.
Penemue was on the line.
Wei Caihong rolled his eyes and begun to chant in perfect Sumerian. Nikola had found early on that making all the rituals in the language of the angels was taxing.
Using Atlantean was almost as taxing, and so he kept it for his more power heavy rituals. But for something as simple as finding a teleportation point?
Why, Sumerian was enough.
And since the Abyss was somewhere among the stars, this language, sipped with mystery and the occult, was perfect for the task. Wei Caihong grinned for a second, and then his face fell. And so, did Nikola's a few seconds afterward.
"What is it? What did you see?" Nikola couldn't hold back his excitement. Had Wei Caihong seen Penemue there?
"I nearly died! I felt like the life was being squeezed out of me, and I was merely at the borders of the Abyss. Not even there in truth. I am not going there!"
Had Nikola been in love, truly in love, he would have embraced his lover. He would have told him he was enough. His heart still belonged to Penemue, Wei Caihong could be perfect, but he would never be enough.
The realization dawned on Nikola, and rage replaced the peace which had ruled for the past couple of hours.
Golden chains made of light appeared around Wei Caihong and begun to choke him. He tugged at them, but they burned his hand. He stared at Nikola, who regarded him with blazing eyes.
"I'll die if I return. Have mercy, my Emerald. We can get him out some other way. Maybe create a portal for him instead?" The chains disappeared just as they have appeared, and Nikola's face softened.
Wei Caihong would find another way, Nikola knew. The man was crafty.
"I can't ask you to lay down your life," the former emperor said, although he looked as if he wanted to ask just that of the noble. "But a portal would require many tributes. And even then, that stubborn mule Penemue could refuse to cross it."
"I know where he is now and how to get to him," Wei Caihong said quickly, and when no chains appeared, he continued. "And there is a bandit group in the mountains. We can use them. But for us to travel that far, I'll need to walk into the sunlight…"
Nikola massaged his temples. He had forgotten about this, so used to the noble being self-sufficient and not leaving the house. He racked his brain for the legend of the original Lamia.
She had insomnia, but he didn't remember her ever fearing the sun. Something had to change in Wei Caihong's curse for this to work.
"We need to speak with Azazel," it left a sour taste in his mouth, for he could already hear what the fallen angel would demand of him, but it had to be done.
For Penemue, for a good life.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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Just a quick status update:
I have edited up to chapter 39 (which is actually chapter 26 of draft 3, and, if memory serves, for the first draft has long since been lost to a laptop which gave up the ghost on me, chapter… 9 of the first draft. Yep, chapter 9. I have no idea where I got my energy from back then. Writing 5k word chapters per day, sometimes two in the same day…XD).
Just so you know, this book is complete, and will not be dropped.
Happy reading!
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