Chapter Thirteen
OuroborosChapter Thirteen
“Scotland?”
Mina questioned the two Sister’s who had just finished decrypting the message. Exhausted from the nonstop brainwork Wendy slid down her chair almost falling off while Tzuyu rested her head on the stacks of papers they had spread on the desk.
That morning Wendy had been the first one to wake up and had made her way down to the kitchen to brew some coffee for the lot and boil some eggs for breakfast. Browsing through the news on her phone she had all but choked on her hot tea, almost spilling it when she saw the symbols of her ancient mother tongue. Waking up Tzuyu from her slumber, still groggy the two set upon decrypting the message immediately. Soon after Mina and Joy had woken up to find the two women in their pyjamas, furiously shifting through stacks of paper and writing odd symbols down.
After a brief explanation of the situation, Wendy and Tzuyu continued their rapid decrypting while Joy and Mina waited anxiously to find out what the message was. This was a sudden unexpected turn of events for them all. One of the other Sister’s that they had yet to meet had sent a message.
Joy was progressively more and more excited about everything as the more information they uncovered, more amazing things were revealed. Ancient languages and symbols, reincarnating lives and worldwide hacking of news websites; it was the big story she had been waiting for her whole life, her big break. On the other hand Mina was more reserved than Joy about all of this, as neither of them wholeheartedly believed all that was going on. They let things and explanations be and go without questioning the validity of each and every piece of information, as doing so would have taken way too much effort in their current situation. There was still plenty of doubt in their heart.
Finally after a good hour of figuring it out they had the message.
“Why Scotland? How does that sentence relate to it?” Joy asked as her and Mina scooted over next to Wendy and Tzuyu by the study table.
Straightening herself in her chair Wendy cleared . “The phrase ‘There can be only one’ is a Scottish clan’s private motto. Particularly, it’s the motto of a rich Highlands clan to which one of our Sister’s Móna was born into back in a previous life.”
“So that’s why you need to go to Scotland, to this old home of your Sister’s?”
“Yeah we need to gather. Leaving location names in code is pretty standard fare for us,” Wendy said looking over at the rest of the group. “Especially in more olden times it was really necessary to leave messages etched in stone, usually onto a prominent building of a town or city like the church, graveyard, family tombs, the city hall or the town’s biggest inn or hotel.”
“How soon do we need to leave?” Mina asked having gotten up to go fetch another round of tea and biscuits for the exhausted researchers. It was almost lunch time as well so it was a good natural time to have a break, although Mina and Joy had barely done anything this morning but watch and wait.
“Well, I’d say we should arrive there as soon as possible preferably within a week, right Tzuyu?”
“Yeah, but since there is so much research to do here I think we can push it back a little. I also need to drop by at home to get some stuff. We can drive to my home from here and then up to Scotland since I came with a car.”
“Oh right, cause you live in… Brighton?” Wendy questioned.
“Bristol, dear Sister, Bristol. West of England by the border of Wales.”
“Oh right right, Bristol. Yeah could do. It’s essentially a days drive including the English Channel crossing right?”
“Yeah one day is enough to get there. Then maybe a day or two to get to Móna’s old castle, depending on the urgency and speed of our travel.”
“It’s a castle?!” Joy exclaimed with excitement almost flying off her seat. “That is so cool. I’ve always wanted to visit an old medieval castle, especially in a location like the UK.”
“Well yeah, but not like the super massive kind mind you. It is pretty dope to be honest, although I do wonder what kind of condition it is in,” Wendy smiled as Mina brought in a little drink and nibbles. “It’s been over 700 years since we last saw it. If Móna’s family moved or lost their land it could be in pretty bad condition. Castle maintenance is expensive.”
“Well if past lives are any indication Móna should have enough funds to fix it up,” Tzuyu laughed Wendy chuckling along. Tzuyu searched online to see if there was any information on the castle. “Well, if the internet is to be believed it's all restored and liveable, and still owned by the clan.”
“Well would you look at that. This makes things a lot simpler,” Wendy said staring at Tzuyu’s laptops screen.
A sense of levity and relief permeated through the room like a warm comforting blanket. The potential future meet up with all of their Sister’s that this message promised filled them with hope, and in their bones the two Sisters felt excited and giddy to see them all again. Even if in reality to their old souls they had barely been a couple of weeks apart, there was always a huge risk involved every time they were awoken in a new Cycle and gathering together was never an easy and self-assured task. These turn of events were one huge step closer to actualizing it.
“Well, if we ever plan to leave here we should eat some lunch and dive into the research to get as much done as we can,” Wendy said heading off to the kitchen to recharge their energies before diving back into the thick stacks of books and letters. Tzuyu followed soon after leaving Mina and Joy into the study.
Watching the two leave the room and assuming they were out of earshot; Mina approached Joy and pulled her aside.
“Hey, we haven’t really talked about what we are going to do. What do you make of this?”
“We are following them to Scotland, right?” Joy asked.
“Are we?”
There was a pause as Joy realized that they were not on the same page on things, probably reasonably so. Joy had gotten so excited about the prospect of her story and all that was going on that she had forgotten to really stop and think about what made sense and what they could do. Mina’s suspicion and questioning was reasonable.
“I mean, it sounds super exciting sure and I would love to go to Scotland, but can we really follow Wendy off into this weird goose chase? Do you believe all this?”
As much as Mina was a close friend to Wendy and how fascinating she found all of this there was still disbelief in her heart, rightfully and logically so. Whatever they were suggesting sounded insane no matter how many times it was uttered and even with all the evidence they had shown there was still a chance that it was all a fabrication and a carefully planned con. For what reason they would want to deceive them like this she had no clue, but it wasn’t impossible.
Of course that was at the crux of them believing, the fact that how unreasonable it would be to do a joke or fabricating a story like this would be. That any sane person wouldn’t go to these kinds of lengths to pull it off. It really left Mina with one of two choices; either they were speaking the truth and were sane or Wendy and Tzuyu had gone completely insane and had some serious mental issues that require professional help. And as crazy as all of this sounded she didn’t want to believe that Wendy had lost it. She wanted to trust her co-worker, her friend.
The only concrete and real saving grace for Mina right now was that it had been Joy who had pulled those original journal pages out of an unrelated bystander’s box, and that Joy herself was so ready to follow this through. She knew her friend had an extremely sharp mind and was very intelligent, so if she was willing to suspend her disbelief for a little to follow this through maybe Mina could as well. If Wendy, Tzuyu, and whoever else was in on this big fancy joke actually managed to set it all up so Joy found those specific papers and came to Wendy with them, then Mina and Joy deserved to get fooled. That would have been some impressive prep work.
All that being said, it was still a lot to swallow.
“I mean… I don’t know if I believe it all to be completely honest. However, even if it isn’t true there is still an amazing story in all of this. If it is an elaborate prank, the lengths that these two are going for it is in itself worth an article. Besides, you’ve known and know Wendy right?” Joy said, pulling Mina further into the opposite end of the room to make sure their discussion didn’t echo into the kitchen.
“Well I thought I did…”
“Either way, as much as you knew Wendy I don’t think a prank of this magnitude was ever in the radar for her right?”
“True. In all honesty she was the one more likely to be fooled than her fooling others,” Mina laughed, thinking about all the times that they had pranked Wendy at work, convinced her of weird historical events and facts that never were true. There had even been a time they wrote a whole abstract for a journal article of a bogus research just to fool her since she had gotten better at not getting tricked by her friends.
“If you truly think we shouldn’t go any further I’m with you. We will cut the trip short and fly back home when you feel that this is too much. You still have over a week of your holiday left right? So we can go as far as that if you’re okay with it?” Joy said with a bright smile causing her eyes to disappear into their characteristic tiny slivers.
“Alright,” Mina smiled before shyly looking away from Joy’s smile, a small smile creeping onto her own lips. “We’ll go so you can see some castles.”
“Yay!” Joy jumped up and down with excitement grabbing Mina along into her little excited jumping dance before giving her a hug and dragging her towards the kitchen. “Now to eat!”
----
Stepping out from the shade of the cable car station and gift shop into the burning sunlight Irene winced as her eyes adjusted to the cloudless sunny weather. Although her wide brimmed sun hat and chic umbrella blocked the direct light from above, the reflections off the whitened stone path surface were extremely strong even through her sunglasses.
It was almost noon so she would have to pick up her pace on the way up to the meeting spot; there would be time to admire the surroundings and sights on her way back down to the cable car. The place was packed with tourists from all over the world and with her hat, glasses and umbrella she blended in with the fine chic crowd of ladies that could be spotted around the courtyard. She was just another Korean tourist visiting Hong Kong.
Her arrival in Hong Kong a few days earlier had been tense and a little harrowing. Extremely hungry and thirsty after three days of only the little snacks she had packed with her, she had been worried about passing out in the process of getting out of the docks. Most of her thought process had gone into figuring out how to get out of the docks without going through immigration.
She couldn’t hide in the shipping containers as they were bolt sealed and any tampering would be noticed the moment they began to unload the container and she would be revealed. Alternatively she could also just attempt to pass through with her passport, but she didn’t have anything identifying her as a worker so she would get questioned. Her only real option was to wait for the dead of night and sneak out of the place illegally. She had the skills but with her reduced strength due to hunger and thirst, she would have to be careful to not end up in an engagement.
It was fortunate that the ship arrived in Hong Kong in the evening so she didn’t have to wait too long for night to arrive. At first sneaking off the boat as it was being unloaded she managed to get out without much trouble. With the visibility vest and helmet she stolen back in Korea she blended in with the other workers on the ship. The moment that an opportunity arose and she was out of direct eyesight of anyone she darted into the shadows of the docks, stalking the guards and scouting for a location to cross.
A section of the docks to the north had low fences next to high containers that lead to a parking lot. Attempting to the climb on top of the containers she had slipped twice as her weakened grip wasn’t strong enough to hold her.
Twice she fell and twice workers came over to look at what the issue was. Each time Irene flattened herself on the container while nursing the pain of her legs and hips that had taken the brunt of her falls. With enough waiting the coast was clear for her to cross over the fence. Leaping over the tops of the containers onto the edge of a fence she almost fell off it managing to catch her balance enough to leap onto her feat instead of falling flat on her face. The rattling of the fence had caused a few people to become curious, but by the time they came to inspect the noise Irene had long slinked away in the shadows out into the city night.
The first thing she did was find a place to eat that was still open and find some cheap lodging to stay in while she figured out her next move. She had made it out of Korea into Hong Kong and could now feel a little safer knowing that her existence here was a mystery. To keep it so she needed to get new identification, a new passport and persona.
This was the meeting Irene was making her way to, winding through the slow moving crowds that filled the main path up she quickly made it to the bottom of the stairs of the Tian Tan Buddha. She was to meet her contact behind the statue on the viewing platform close up against the stairs at the back. Folding up her sunshade she made the climb up the steps reaching the top and rounding to the other side of the statue to where the views of the mountains and sea opened up. Luckily the sun although almost vertical, was off at a slight angle enough to cast a shadow where she was waiting which would give her some relief from the heat.
Passing her time by the stairs she took her phone out to take some pictures, both for herself to admire later as well as to seem more like any other tourist. While doing this the news widget on her phone popped a notification on her screen; Huge news website hack leaves everyone bewildered.
“Huh, that sounds interes-” Irene felt a presence approaching her from behind and instinctively locked her phone screen.
“Meilin? Is it really you?”
Turning around Irene saw a lady dressed in similar attire; fashionable clothing, high heels and all the necessary precautions to avoid getting a tan and keeping their skin white. Her massive sunglasses hid half her face while a cute animal mask hid . The lady had used the call sign name that Irene had provided for this meeting. This was her contact.
“Yes, it’s me,” Irene said with a little apprehension before breaking into a fake smile as the lady leaned in to give her a friendly hug. She had been told that ‘an old friend’ would meet her for the exchange; she figured this meant that the transfer would happen this way.
“Oh we need to take a selfie together it’s been so long,” the lady said releasing from the hug and wrapping her arm behind Irene. She lifted her phone up as if to take a picture but instead of a camera open on the phone there was a message; ‘Pass the donation’.
Irene wrapped her other arm instinctively behind the lady finding her hand and passing off an envelope.
“That was a good one,” the lady chimed happily laughing, “We have to take a few more!”
Continuing to pose for the pictures this time she felt the arm handing something back to her, a plastic sealable bag thick with what felt like paper. Quickly wrapping her fingers around it firmly she pulled the plastic bag into her grasp, slipping it into her open handbag.
“Oh, how wonderful it was to see you. I’ll send you these pictures,” the lady said as she stopped posing and turned around to look at Irene as a farewell.
“It was great indeed. You know that if anything is wrong, or goes wrong I will find you,” Irene said with a lovable smile. “Hiding won’t be necessary, I’ll be there.”
A little surprised at the veiled threat that Irene gave the woman quickly returned to a smile and cocked a sideways grin. “Of course dear, we will find each other.”
With that said they waved goodbye and the lady that had appeared so quietly and suddenly, her contact, had now disappeared back into the crowd and Irene was left with her plastic bag by the platform. She turned around to hide her hands and look in her handbag to open the plastic bag she had received and see if it really was all there; one fake Hong Kong resident passport along with a few other identifications to help with her new life.
With her new identification in order she could start looking to fly to Europe to meet the Sister’s. Most of her money was gone by now for all these purchases so she would only be able to find a cheap flight and she should do it soon; the longer she stayed the more expensive her hostel stay would become. Istanbul seemed like the logical place to start as it had been their previous headquarters. Hopefully the flights were cheap enough for that.
Satisfied with the results she slowly drifted her way down back towards the cable cars taking her time to admire the buildings and all the cute little knick knacks that lined the stores. She could play tourist for a while and had the time to spare today.
Closer down to the cable cars there were a few restaurants and she chose one to have lunch in, sitting inside the air conditioned space by the window to admire the beautiful day. While waiting for her food she fished out her phone to have a look at flight prices and times. With her limited finances she would have to take a flight path with multiple layovers and many hours of travel, but right now cost was priority and she could spare the extra flight hours. If she could meet up with one of the Sisters she wouldn’t have to worry about finances; unless she met Jeongyeon, she seemed to have the worst luck to always be reborn poor.
Ordering her food she was browsing through flights and prices when she remembered the interesting news article she had been about to read before the transaction earlier. Opening up the article she saw the news websites hacked front pages with the unknown symbols; the native writing of the Sister’s on display for the whole world to see. Her mind froze and all thought and actions she was considering to do just vanished. It had to be a secret message to them.
“Excuse me.”
“Huh?” Irene’s head spun violently to the source of the sound, snapping out of her reverie she dropped her phone on the table in her little shock and knocked her glass over. Luckily it was empty and only a dribble of leftover water spilled on the table as Irene realized once again where she was.
“I’m so sorry, sorry,” Irene apologized lifting the glass up and dabbing her napkin onto the little water that dribbled. The waiter had arrived with her lunch and helped move some stuff out of the way before placing the food down on the table.
Apologizing once more and thanking her waiter, Irene picked her phone up from the table and looked at the image a second time. It really was the old mother tongue; it had to be a message from one of the Sister’s. She had to decode it immediately.
For the next hour she furiously worked on decoding the message, looking around her every now and then to make sure nobody was paying any particular attention or keeping tabs on her. The food she had ordered got cold and her water warmed up in the glass but with the experience of one who had decoded the messages many times before she cracked it rather quickly.
There can be only one. Scotland.
If this message was pointing her there she would forgo travelling to Istanbul and go straight to Scotland instead. She was certain that the Sisters would all have decoded the message too and make their way there next.
Feeling the hunger finally rumble her stomach, she ate as she searched for flights to Scotland, ones that would get her as close as possible to her destination up north in the Highlands. Luckily there were flights within her budget that would get her all the way to Inverness. The next problem was to get out from there to the remote Highland castle of Móna’s clan. She wouldn’t have enough money to hire a cab or car for certain; however the train seemed to go all the way to Lochailort. From there it would be a thirty kilometre hike to the castle, bit of a distance but very much doable.
A quick search online also showed that there was still a working address at the castle. So it was either still in use or the address was a remnant that wasn’t purged from the postal databases. Either way this was good news to her, she could send a packaged letter to that location with her contact details in case there were any complications with her reaching there.
Finishing up her lunch and ordering some coffee and desert to extend her time at the place Irene began crafting a simple message that consisted of only her email address as the content, which she encoded in the same fashion to send to the meet up location. Since she had already solved all the variables to decode the message writing this new one took less time and she was off from Tian Tan Buddha back towards the centre of town within the hour.
By the time she reached town the streets were packed with people leaving work or heading out for dinner filling it to the brim with chatter and bumping shoulders, just the way she liked it. It was easy to disappear into the crowd this way and keep herself unknown. She knew that there had to be agents of the Cult here in Hong Kong and they knew what she looked like so she wasn’t scot free, however with sunglasses and a hat it in this mass of people it was highly unlikely that she would be recognized and caught. Seven million people were a good cover.
The city was slowly beginning to sparkle with the millions of city lights reflected in the Kowloon bay and she was rushing to a DHL office before it closed for the day. The message she had written was hastily scrawled and encoded but she had managed to scribble one in time to send it out this evening, or so she hoped. Her flights to Inverness were booked for the next day, so at worst she could send it early in the morning tomorrow instead.
If things went according to plan and without problems she would arrive there before her package would. It was convenient that she had received her new credentials today; this allowed her to send this package under her new fake name reducing the risks even further. Irene suspected she might be the first one there even though she was travelling from the other side of the world and the rest were in Europe. She was under great pressure to travel away from here fast while all of the Sisters weren’t under the same pressure, or so she hoped, so she prayed.
Arriving in time to drop off her packaged message she lounged back towards the waterfront by the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Crowds had gathered by the shore and on platforms and benches, all the attention towards the other side of the bay. The first flashes of light across the waters got the crowd excited and Irene sat back on a ledge to gaze at the daily Hong Kong light show; A Symphony of Lights. The bright neon lights flashing in beat with the music, weaving a colourful story and lighting the dark sky. A smile spread on Irene’s lips. Things may look dark but there was always light and it could pierce the dark. It would be okay, she would be okay.
----
The river water lapped against the rocks as another boat ferried across with a jovial group of tourists atop it. The sun had just set below the horizon its rays of orange and red reflected gently against the water. The riverside was beginning to fill with people, evening revellers and picnic goers beginning to arrive to spend a night of drink and food, orders of fried chicken and ramen being prepared and consumed.
“They were rescued before we could confirm if they were the Daughter’s. We are still searching for them, however the trail has gone cold for now,” an elderly gentleman said as he arrived by the side of a much younger man standing by the shoreline watching the sunset. He lit a cigarette, dragging long breaths of his smoke before he pulled out a little circular disk, one that resembled a very flat compass. He offered it to the young man.
Taking the offered device into his hand the man observed its construction. It was about a centimetre thick and five across in diameter. The frame was made from wood and it had a recess in the centre that almost encompassed the whole radius, leaving a little of the frame to create the edge. In this recess was a rather flat piece of glass that had a few droplets of red liquid inside it.
“How many so far?” The man asked as he pocketed the device.
“Hundred fifty-two. We have another three blood rituals planned this coming week to make it one hundred fifty-five Divination Compasses.”
“Good. We need all capture teams across the world to have a Divination Compass with them. Any news on Irene or Seulgi? Are they still in the country?”
“Unclear, still searching,” the older gentleman said his voice barely betraying the hint of nervousness in it. Bringing unfavourable news was never pleasant, although he was fairly certain someone as high up and useful as him wouldn’t be at risk to be wiped out that easily.
“We had two of them in our grasp and potentially two more, all slipped away now,” finally for the first time the young man turned to face his speaker. “Chief Eonyeong, I think it is time we activate all the resources in Europe. It seems the Daughters are gathering there. Try to cover as many border choke points with someone who has one of the Divination Compasses.”
“Certainly. Do we keep following the two that escaped?”
“Share images of their faces to everyone and keep on alert. They are most likely still in Italy. However, they might not be related after all so don’t sink all the resources on them. We’ll focus on finding the two confirmed first.”
“Yes sir.”
“Chief, chief, how many times have I told you, just Adhabu is fine.”
“Understood, Adhabu.”
A grin spread on Adhabu’s face. Although Irene and Seulgi had slipped away from them when they were within reach, they at least knew their names and faces and everything about them from the very start of this new Cycle. They had a leg up in the game and he was fairly certain they wouldn’t be able to leave the country, at least easily.
Given the ease with which modern technology allowed people to communicate and travel it was very reasonable for the Daughters to travel to their old stomping grounds in Europe to gather and join forces before returning here to finish their job. However, this also meant that he and the Cult had an even larger global network to access and use to capture them than ever before, as well as even more people to perform the needed blood rituals to find the Daughters of his horrible patron and bind them for good.
“Good work, Chief,” Adhabu said as he tapped on the Chiefs shoulder. He then turned back away from him to focus on the river once again enjoying the slow lapping of the water in an evening sunset. Taking this as his cue to leave Chief Eonyeong bowed and walked off without a word.
The final lights in the sky had all but faded and the night skyline reflected in the water. He would have to earnestly start searching for the coalescence point. With how quickly things progressed in this modern world of technology the Daughters of the Void Mother, the Eternal Ladies, would quickly gather and when they did it would be an easy task for them to pinpoint the location of the final ritual. They had the advantage in numbers when it came to eternal soul beings attuned to the ether, he however had the numbers advantage in allies and minions.
Adhabu took the Divination Compass out of his pocket and flipped it in the air a couple of times. “Irene, Irene, Irene. Where did you run off to?”
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