Warrior(The Dragon King Chronicles)(36)

They walked past the haetae and into the land of the shadows. Kira was shocked to find that she was shaking with cold. They'd left their physical bodies behind so they shouldn't feel anything. But upon entering, she felt cold and empty.

"Where do we go now?" Taejo asked.

Kira took a moment to take in their surroundings. They were in a vast cavern, at the end of which were a series of tunnels. She watched as the shade of an elderly man seemed to be pulled through the cavern and into a tunnel at the far right. It was as if the tunnels were sucking the shades down various paths.

Terrible frustration rose in her. How in heaven's name were they to find the dagger? They didn't even know what it really looked like. One thing she knew: she didn't want to get sucked down a tunnel randomly, without knowing where it went. There had to be a way of knowing where everyone was going. Many shades were milling around the middle of the cavern. Perhaps she could question them.

"Excuse me." Kira gestured to the shade of a young girl. "Where are you going?"

The girl turned to face them, and Taejo wheeled back in alarm. Half her face was missing, as if bitten off. She looked at them with dead eyes before floating off.

Kira wished she was anywhere but here in this ungodly land of the dead. She pushed her way through the crowd of shades, her essence passing right through theirs. But they didn't like it, moving out of her way with muttered curses and groans of dismay. For Kira, it felt odd, almost invasive, but it got her through the crowd, Taejo kept close behind her.

Moments later, they found themselves before a grouping of six stone statues of men. She was shocked to see the statues moving as if alive. Each shade passed through a statue before heading down a tunnel. She realized this was a way for her to gain some information.

"I think we must enter one of these guardians, just like the shades are doing," she said.

Staring at the statues, she discerned that each wore a very different expression on its stone face. The first looked fierce and angry, his gray stone eyes seemed to glow with a never-ending fury. The second statue was one of a tortured being of such suffering, Kira could only stare in horrified sympathy. If she had to guess what the next three statues represented, they would be ignorance, greed, and pride, so fitting were the expressions on their stone faces. But it was the sixth statue that Kira gravitated toward. Its calm face looked on the verge of asking a question, filled with a doubtful inquisitiveness that seemed so human to her. Not many shades passed through the fifth and sixth statues. The fifth statue seemed on its surface, the happiest of them all. But it was such a prideful happiness that it intimidated Kira. As if she was unworthy of attaining such happiness.

They moved before the sixth statue and waited.

"Kira," Taejo whispered. "The statue is staring at us."

She looked up to find the statues stone eyes boring into hers. Bowing before it, she began to speak, when she was rapidly sucked into the statue. It was suffocating. And then she felt the mind of the stone statue prod through her own, questioning her place there. It was not painful but it was very heavy, as if a weight was pressing down on her brain. It tired her and made her feel sluggish.

Where is my cousin? Kira screamed the thought in her head.

He is safe, do not fear, the statue said. But neither of you are dead. I can feel your connection to your bodies. Why are you here?

I seek the jeweled dagger, she thought to the statue.

The stone man was silent for a long while, picking at certain memories in her head that she could sense by the flash of memory before her eyes.

Why do you seek the Dragon King's treasure? he asked.

To fight the Demon Lord.

The stone man seemed to be mulling over her response.

I can't help you find it but I can give you a clue. What you seek is hidden and yet in plain view. You must be careful to recognize truth from lies and follow your heart in order to obtain it.                       
       
           



       

Who has it? Kira asked.

The stone man remained quiet.

Can you at least direct me to the right way?

You chose me for a reason. Follow that reasoning and choose your course.

Kira stepped out of the stone man and faced the tunnels directly behind them. Taejo floated up to her.

"What happened? You were in there for so long! I was worried," he said.

She nodded absently, still looking at the tunnels. "He said to follow my reasoning. I chose him because he seemed the most human." She looked at the tunnels.

"What do you mean?" Taejo asked.

"He seemed curious. Even when he was picking through my thoughts, he was very interested in me," she said.

She looked at the tunnel entrances before them. There were six total, in all, and very different. One gleamed red and pulsed with heat, while another shown with a shimmering golden light. The others were various degrees of darkness, but the last one was placed high above the others. It was no lighter or darker than any of the other tunnel entrances, and yet it had a harder pathway to it. It made her curious.

"I think that's the one," she said.

Nodding, she waved at Taejo. "Come on, let's go!"





28





The tunnel took them into what looked like a large assembly room filled with low desks placed on straw mats. On each desk was a scroll, calligraphy brushes, and a silver ink stone. Most of the desks had a white-robed student sitting cross-legged before it, practicing their brushstrokes. At the front of the room there was a large papered wall where hanja characters appeared mysteriously.

"‘I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge,'" Kira read aloud.

"Confucius," Taejo said.

Kira nodded, watching the careful brushstrokes of the students at their desks. But where was the instructor? She walked the length of the room but could find no doorway. Puzzled, she wondered what she was missing. Looking to the front of the room, she watched as the writing on the wall disappeared, erased by an invisible hand.

A new poem appeared, each brushstroke made by a master hand.

Starlight asked Non-entity,

"Master, do you exist or do you not exist?"

He got no answer to his question, however,

and looked steadfastly to the appearance of the other,

which was that of a deep void.

All day long he looked to it, but could see nothing;

he listened for it, but could hear nothing;

he clutched at it, but got hold of nothing.

Starlight then said,

"Perfect! Who can attain to this?

I can conceive the ideas of existence and non-existence,

but I cannot conceive the ideas of non-existing non-existence,

and still there be a nonexisting existence.

How is it possible to reach to this?"


"What does that mean?" Taejo asked.

Kira shook her head. She didn't know this poem, but it seemed vaguely familiar to her. A philosophical conundrum like the type her father would pose to her during her studies.

"It doesn't make sense. A non-entity is a non-being and there is no non-being, only the absence of being," Taejo said. "So how can there be an absence of nothing? It's a contradiction."

"It is the message within the confusion that we must decipher," Kira said. "The absence of nothing, the nonentity. They are both labels which should be meaningless but have somehow been given meaning within the confines of this poem."

At her words, all the people who had been busy writing on their scrolls turned their heads toward her. Their brushes poised in the air as they waited for her to continue. Unnerved by their dark, unwavering gazes, Kira paused to think carefully. She somehow knew that what she said next would be of grave importance.

"What is reality? Is a non-entity reality? Or is it a false construct? Made into being by a meaningless label?" Kira mused to herself. "Starlight has created a Non-entity simply by calling it such, thereby bringing into existence that which did not exist. But there lies the problem. Just because something is labeled does not mean it is real. Therefore we must beware of the false construct."

A loud sigh filled the room. The students nodded and returned their attention to their scrolls. The poem on the wall vanished. In its place, a door appeared and opened.

Calling Taejo to follow her, Kira rushed for the door.

"I don't understand," Taejo said. "Why did your words open this door?"

"Because it was the answer they were waiting to hear," she said. "It's a message to us to beware that all is not what it seems here."

"Because we are in the land of shadows?"

"Exactly."

The door led down a hallway similar to that of Wando palace. A wind blew loudly, sending vivid silk curtains of red and yellow billowing all about them.

Abruptly, the wind died and the curtains parted to reveal two different passageways. Both were well lit, but the passage on the left was noisy with laughter and the sound of voices.

Then they heard her voice. It was the queen, Taejo's mother, calling to both of them.

Before Taejo could move, Kira spoke sharply to him. "No, I can't allow you to go this way. You and I both know that she is dead. We won't find her here. She is in heaven with our ancestors."

"But what if she's here?" Taejo said. "What if her spirit was cursed here? We have to know!"