The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

on what has happened so far."
    Youko understood that they were to seek further instructions from Genkun about the matter. Risai, though, cast a worried look at Shouryuu.
    "Why Mt. Hou?"
    "To arrange a meeting with Genkun. Taiki's condition and that of the shirei are quite out of the ordinary. There's no telling what will happen if we are forced to push him across the distance between here and there. Whether traveling across the Kyokai is permissible in the first place. Whether we can go there and bring him back with us. None of these questions can be considered settled. We really need Genkun's opinion."
    Shouryuu's obviously hadn't calmed Risai's concerns. "But what do shoku and Hekika Genkun have to do with each other?"
    "Nothing to do with shoku specifically. Heaven has its reasons and precepts. Only Heaven can weigh the rightness or wrongness of an action. But Heaven does not touch our lives directly. The only person who can reach through that window is Genkun. I appreciate the good work Ren Taiho has put in so far, and if she would continue--"
    "Wait a second!" Risai raised her voice. "You mean to ascertain the Will of Heaven through Genkun?"
    "That would be the gist of it."
    "But--but--is there a Heaven?"
    Shouryuu nodded.
    Risai felt as if some creature were assailing her from behind. "There's a Heaven? But--then why has Heaven abandoned Tai?"
    "Risai."
    "If there is a Heaven, if there is a Divine Will, if the Gods exist, then why didn't they come to the aid of Tai faster, before all this happened? The people of Tai send their prayers to Heaven while choking on their own blood and tears."
    Terrified to be seen by Asen, wrapped in darkness, they stood before the shrine in the still of the night. Forbidden to even mention the King's name, they instead placed a keihaku flower upon the altar. Surviving the destruction and the deepening winters became more difficult with every passing year. Amidst poverty so dire that a single fruit could make the difference between life and death, a meager offering and single stick of incense had to bear the infinite weight of their pleas.
    "Not able to do anything for themselves, the people earnestly visit the shrines. And yet, as Heaven would do nothing to save them, I sought out the Royal Kei bearing sin in my heart. If Heaven and its Gods had shown us the merest glimmer of hope, I would not have crossed the sea and lost my arm in the process."
    "And you saying so changes nothing."
    "But--" Risai started to say. She faced Shouryuu and stated coldly, "Send me as well."
    "We have no time to dawdle. You need to watch your health."
    "I am healed enough," Risai shot back.
    "Can you ride a kijuu with one arm?"
    "If it's Hien, yes, I can ride."
    "Is this creature a kijuu?"
    "Hien is a tenba pegasus."
    "A tenba certainly is no slowpoke. But can you fly all the way to Mt. Hou? This will be a non-stop journey."
    "All the same to me."
    "In that case--" Shouryuu said to Risai. "Go there if you wish. This matter concerns Tai and Tai alone. Go and seize the Will of Heaven in your hand."

Chapter 40
    H aving caught a few winks of sleep, Risa and the others left Kinpa Palace in the early morning light. They spared no time loitering around Ryou'un Mountain, gulped down their breakfast, and set off across the Sea of Clouds toward Mt. Hou.
    By the time the peaks of the Adamantine Mountains encircling the Yellow Sea came into view on the third day after leaving Gyouten--having barely slept in the meantime--it became clear that Risai was slowing down their progress. As accustomed as she and Hien were to each other, riding a kijuu at a gallop with only one arm proved harder than she had anticipated. Nor was Hien as fast as the suguu that Youko and Rokuta rode.
    Nevertheless, it was equally true that if not for Hien, Risai never could have made the trip in the first place. At times like this, the sense of loss to which she had resolved herself again weighed heavily on her mind.
    Youko and Rokuta silently urged her on, and on the forth day they finally arrived at Mt. Hou. At last, she said to herself, at the same time thinking, That was easier than I'd imagined.
    She had once crossed the Yellow Sea beneath the Sea of Clouds on foot to Mt. Hou. Thinking back on how arduous that experience had been, she was struck by the difference. Flying above the Sea of Clouds made things so much more straightforward. Thinking about the price Heaven extracted from people going on the Shouzan, she couldn't help but