Chapter Twenty
OuroborosChapter Twenty
Much like it had for a couple of days the sun shined the next morning after an evening and night of rain, the morning bringing in a beautiful bright day to the highlands of Scotland. Waking up in the humid and a little chilly castle guest beds were four ladies, all of them sprawled together in the double sized bed and the mattresses that had been brought in to accommodate the sudden influx of guests.
The first one up was Jihyo, careful not to make a lot of sound as not to wake up the exhausted Jeongyeon and Momo from their travel, nor her new acquaintance Irene who they had introduced as The Lock. Jeongyeon and Momo were sleeping in the bed while Irene and Jihyo had volunteered to sleep on the mattresses on the floor. Even with the most careful of steps some of the floorboards creaked under her step and before she could open the door she heard a whisper behind her.
“Good morning Jihyo. Going down for breakfast?”
She turned around to see Irene’s eyes wide open looking at her from under her sheet.
“Ah, good morning. Yeah, I’m an early riser,” Jihyo smiled as Irene got up from her mattress peeking over the bed to see the tangled and sleeping pile that was Jeongyeon and Momo, the latter’s legs sprawled around Jeongyeon’s stomach latching around it. Jeongyeon’s hand had found its way over Momo’s neck but wasn’t heavy enough to constrict her breathing.
“Let’s let them sleep,” Irene smiled as she got up in her pyjamas and led Jihyo downstairs to the dining room.
They peeked into the kitchen and found that a fresh pot of filter coffee had been made, the elderly couple already up early in the morning going about their business. Irene had told them that there was no need to make anything for them in the morning as they would sleep late and could cook for themselves or have some of the toast and cereal available.
For starters they poured themselves a cup each and putting on their jackets Irene guided Jihyo out into the parapets of the wall to the place that Alec had shown her. Sitting down and taking in the views they sat quietly for a moment, enjoying the freshness of the air and the feeling of freedom brought in by their current location, as the hot cup of coffee kept their hands pleasantly warm.
“So…” Jihyo started, but found herself stuck at figuring out what to ask first. She had so many questions, she was certain, but at this moment all of them seemed to have run into hiding as she searched the dark crevices of her mind to pull them out, finally finding one. “Irene is your real name?”
“Yes, in this li-” Irene paused for a moment as she wasn’t certain how much Jihyo knew of everything, or if she even believed any of it. “Before that how much do you know of, well, us?”
“The Eternal Ladies? Well, I know you are reincarnating souls in new bodies and new regions every couple hundred years or so. And that there are seven Sisters of which Jeongyeon and Momo are two, and that you are The Lock; the soul that seals the powers of The Door away to prevent the ritual from completing.”
Irene blinked a couple times as she stared at Jihyo taking a sip of coffee. The breadth of knowledge she already had of them and their situation had caught her off guard. Momo and Jeongyeon must have shared a huge amount of information with her.
“Well then, that’s a good start,” Irene chuckled, taking a sip of her own drink. “Yes, my name is Irene in this life.”
“But the couple, Alec and Eyleen, they called you Meilin, what's that name? Also, both Momo and Jeongyeon have been calling you Iva when they have been talking about you, while you called them Móna and Jannah.”
“Ah, Meilin is a fake identity I had to start using after some early troubles with the Cult. I’ll explain more once the other two wake up. Iva however is my name in the previous Cycle, and as you know Móna and Jannah are Momo’s and Jeongyeon’s names in the same last Cycle.”
“So around Alec and Eyleen we should call you Meilin?”
“Yes that would be the best,” Irene replied before asking, “You believe all of this then?”
Looking back out into the sea there was a short pause in the conversation as the sea breeze washed over them and they shivered a little, trying to find warmth in their jackets and the warm coffee in their hands.
“I do,” Jihyo finally replied, turning back to look at Irene, “I’ve heard and witnessed so many things by now travelling with the two and with each day that passes it’s confirmed everything more and more. I’ve even seen the ritual to locate another Eternal Lady and witnessed the physical consequences of reciting part of a curse I… What else can I do but believe?”
Her big round eyes twinkled in the early morning sun and Irene found herself surprised and awed with the confidence of this woman who had accepted this new reality so quickly and confidently. She accepted it as truth as new evidence revealed that whatever world she had thought she was living in before was not the whole story.
“There you two are! What are you all doing here?”
Jihyo and Irene turned to look to their left where Momo was approaching them in her pajamas, still rubbing her sleepy and crusty eyes.
“Jeongyeon’s making breakfast; you two haven’t eaten yet have you?” Momo asked as she got next to the two.
“Not yet,” Irene replied, noticing Momo staring out over the wall to the loch and the sea.
“Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen this view,” Momo said in daze, open agape in wonder at seeing a familiar and favourite view of hers once more. “I used to come here a lot actually. I even scribbled a very important secret message close by.”
“I know,” Irene said looking at Momo with a snarky smile. “The toilet has been unclogged.”
“Oh? You read it?” Momo said with a smile before bursting out into a fit of laughter. “Did you think it was a very important message?”
“Well obviously! You had written it in our code, what else should I expect!” Irene said a little flustered giving Momo’s shoulder a shove.
“I’m sorry not sorry cause it was funny, right?” Momo poked Irene back with her finger a few times in a row before the latter relented.
“It was funny, yes,” Irene relented, cracking a proper smile as Jihyo watched the two in silence and confused wonder. The familiarity with which they all joked and talked proved more and more that they really were telling the truth. This same feeling would probably return once more when more of the Sisters would arrive.
They followed Momo back into the warmth of the dining room where they could smell the cooking coming from the kitchen and upon walking in found Jeongyeon in an apron frying up some eggs and toast by the stove. They all pitched in to help set the table and ready breakfast, enjoying each other's company as they sat down to start their day fresh.
In the time the first bite of a toast was taken to the last scraping of egg yolk off their plates, Irene had recounted her misadventures since her soul had woken up and shared the identity of Adhabu. Both Momo and Jeongyeon lamented at her misfortune of having her twin brother in this life be The Door, but were overjoyed that she had managed to get all the way here to Scotland, as the first person no less, even though she had to travel illegally with fabricated identification.
Ever since her soul was woken her existence as Irene The Lock had been nothing but survival so far, so she apologized she hadn’t had a chance to contribute to solving much of their problem as of yet, although on the positive side they knew exactly who their enemy was right from the start; an extremely rare treat.
Momo and Jeongyeon reassured her that her safety was a priority and they were overjoyed she was safe. After their arrival the night before it had been revealed to each of them that none of the three had been the originators of the secret message that had called them to gather here and had spread like wildfire across the globe; they would have to wait for the rest to gather before they could find out.
The two also recounted their tale and adventures in Istanbul and in Bağırkanlı where they met Mustafa and his father, the descendents of Murat. Irene was happy for Jannah, as although she hadn’t met her old family she had met descendents of someone who was almost as close to family as they could get.
Out of their rucksacks the research from their old hideout in Istanbul was brought to light and Irene was amazed that it had been saved. They had done so much work on trying to unravel the secrets of the Cycle but didn’t have time to finish it back then. Of course they remembered portions of what they had learned, but to have all the research, leads and information available in writing was an even greater boon.
After finishing their eating and cleaning the table, they decided that after a tour of the castle and grounds they would start going through the material and photographing all of the papers to store it online for safekeeping, in case something happened to the physical copies. Once this was done they could with eased minds begin shifting through the data to start up their research once again, to hopefully get closer than they had ever been to ending the Cycle.
On their way out to have a look at the castle they met Alec and Eyleen once again, exchanged their pleasantries and asked for permission to take a look at the castle. With that Irene first began showing places around until they were out of sight from the elder couple, after which Momo took over. It was her old home after all, although a lot of places had changed since, so together with Irene the two walked about the castle, Momo talking about all the oldest sections of the castle while Irene explained about the newer buildings and the castles history since their life as Highlanders, information she had learned from Alec.
Momo shared small tales of her growing up, and in particular of all the pranks she pulled before she was old enough to be dragged into politics by her family. A time before she was dragged into battle to fight in skirmishes and wars in Ireland, Scotland and even over the southern border to England. It really was a miracle and blessing that she survived all of those encounters before awakening, and then after that as well.
Jihyo found it incredible to think that Momo had ever been a battle hardened soldier and had killed countless people in fights. The soft and kind Momo she knew didn’t fit the image at all. Jeongyeon and Irene consoled her that Momo’s personality as it was now, was pretty much how it had always been. Even as a hardened warrior who knew death she had always been soft and kind and forgiving.
Her friends' disbelief spurred Momo to showcase her ability, and picking up a stick from the edge of the forest as they walked along the banks of the loch she demonstrated the sword fighting techniques she knew. They were vast and varied, and in return she forced Jeongyeon and Irene to spar with her with their own sticks, each of them bringing a different style to the table from all the different ages and cultures they had fought in.
As silly as it may have looked, three grown women waving sticks at each other to play fight, for anyone standing close enough the intensity and purpose behind each move and strike was evident. The moment they began sparring the aloofness of their faces changed and they focused like Jihyo had never seen before. Momo was a changed woman the instant she engaged the other two Eternal Ladies with her stick and it convinced Jihyo further of the situation and predicament they were in, of the real danger they were facing and trying to solve.
After their stroll around the grounds and outside the castle they returned for some lunch with the Ronalds, before requesting if they could spend this last afternoon in the Great Hall to study their papers before they would move to the Bed and Breakfast lodging a little ways out from the castle, a place they had booked rooms from for the foreseeable future, until they had all gathered. They knew that they couldn’t stay in the castle to wait for all the Eternal Ladies to arrive, it would have been too many guests and Irene already felt like she was stretching their hospitality.
For the Ronald’s it was a non-issue and they happily let the ladies sit in the Grand Hall to go through their research and hoped they would at the very least stay for dinner before they left for their lodges. Irene had informed Alec and Eyleen of the possibility of more of her friends arriving at the castle as it had been set as the meeting point and hoped they could guide and point these people to the new lodgings.
After lunch they pulled out the research papers from Istanbul to begin scanning them into their phones for safekeeping as well as catching up on what they had researched so far. Jeongyeon pulled out the weird symbols on the paper they had discovered from the abandoned old warehouse which had once been a Cult hideout.
“I really can’t tell you what its final meaning is,” Irene sighed.
“Yeah I know, neither could we,” Jeongyeon said as she stared at the symbol.
“If only Wera was already here, or even Trudi. She was Wera’s best student in these symbols taking after her in that regard,” Momo once again sighed.
“I’m sure they’ll get here soon. In the meanwhile let’s just work with what we got because it is a lot,” Irene said looking at the stack of old research papers that Momo and Jeongyeon had brought with them from their old hideout in Istanbul.
“You heard the lady, let’s get cracking!” Jihyo piped from her seat as she began to unroll and lay some of the papers out on the table for them to scan them in.
-----
The digging hadn’t found her even though they had moved a boat load of sand and rubble from the tunnel with their emergency travel shovels. By now the tunnel that had collapsed behind them was clear enough to move back through it and they had even dug into the soft sandy ground that seemed to give way further, but nothing was revealing from under it. Luckily anybody that they had been scared of chasing them in the tunnels hadn’t heard their digging; they had run far enough from them before the collapse.
Clearing the tunnel route they had used thankfully meant that she hadn’t been caught by the falling rubble off the roof, but they had no clue if she was further down the hole. They had been digging for hours now and nothing in sight, no sign of Mina. In their hearts they hoped that this was a good sign, that she had hopefully fallen deeper into some safe tunnel underneath that they couldn’t access, but until they saw this for themselves or heard Mina’s voice they couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t just stuck deeper in a whole with rubble all over her. They weren’t about to give up yet either.
It was their first break since the disappearance of Mina and all of them were dusty, dirty, and tired, the sand and dust sticking to their sweat and tear covered faces as they had furiously tried to dig. It was about three in the morning by now and none of them had slept at all and had shovelled for four hours straight. Exhausted and hungry, they took their food and drink break in silence, the first one for their night.
“We should go ask for more help, we aren’t digging fast enough,” Wendy muttered in between her sandwich bites, munching and nibbling it with a heavy disheartened heart.
“We can’t stop digging,” Joy said, swallowing the tears and lump in , doing her best to put on a brave face. Tzuyu and Wendy could see the distress in her eyes, they knew what this feeling was and how it felt. It wasn’t their first time they had had to dig a loved one from rubble.
“We’re not stopping, just one of us can go search for more help. I’m sure they have people for this kind of situation,” Wendy consoled Joy. The feeling of helplessness when they didn’t even know if Mina was fine or not was absolutely horrifying and heartbreaking.
Tzuyu pulled out the map of the catacombs they had and pointed to one of the marked spots on the map. “There is a possible exit a little further in this way, it was in quite a few of the maps that we layered together so I’m pretty confident that it’s at least partially open still. Or at the very least it’ll allow us to get closer to the surface for our phones to work so we can call for help.”
Joy nodded, wiping away the tears that had escaped her eyes and patted herself on the cheeks. Her appetite was all but gone and she had barely had any of her sandwiches, which she promptly packed back in her backpack for safe keeping. “Alright, I’ll keep digging. One of you go.”
Picking up her shovel Joy shuffled over to the hole they had begun digging, the location they suspected was the sinkhole that Mina had fallen through.
“I’ll go; I can speak French better than you after all. Also…” Tzuyu eyed over at the tirelessly working Joy, “You should stay with your friend and help console her and reassure her.”
“Alright, you get out there and call for help.”
“She’s going to be alright,” Tzuyu said to Wendy cupping her elder Sister’s face in her hands softly before wiping the stragglers of tears in the corner of her eyes.
Wendy stared at Tzuyu for a moment, sniffled and nodded with a faint smile as Tzuyu let her go and she joined Joy at the hole to help dig, reassuring her friend that Mina will be alright.
Prepared for confusing winding tunnels they had brought little cheap reflectors with them, she could use this to know which way she had gone by dropping one at each intersection she took. With her headlamp on and map out Tzuyu began trekking through the tunnels on her own into the opposite direction from which they had come from, further in.
The exit mark on the map was slightly closer than the one they had used to get in, however they had decided not to use that entrance at first because the route there appeared more precarious. The sections of tunnels in this area were mapped differently in many of the different maps, and there were marked collapsed tunnels and possibly weak sections. It was a lot more dangerous to go through here but alone and with her gentle sneaking steps she had a good chance of making it through.
As the sounds of Joy and Wendy digging faded far into the background before she no longer heard them, she was weirdly comfortable in the eerie complete silent darkness. There was a certain safety in the knowledge that she was absolutely alone and there was nobody around her. Who was there to be scared of if she was all alone, but herself?
It hadn’t always been like this, for a long time in her life she had been deathly afraid of being alone and in tiny cramped dark spaces. Tzuyu figured it probably had something to do with what their Mother had done and possibly the fact that she had been so young when it all had happened, but for the longest time her isolation from her Sisters at the beginning of every new Cycle was absolutely crippling and haunting for her. Whenever her soul had reawoken at the beginning of a new Cycle and the memories of her Sisters entered her, an overbearing sense of loneliness always fell upon her as her mind realized that in that moment of waking up she was all alone against the world and the Cult. That until she met her Sister’s and The Lock, there was nobody to understand her or defend her.
It was one particular moment in time that had changed this. At that moment she had for the first time suddenly felt completely at peace with being in a dark and cramped space all alone, a moment in which her loneliness no longer felt overbearing; in fact she hadn’t felt a single ounce of loneliness just as she wasn’t feeling it now. She was at peace. In real time it was thousands of years ago and even in her awakened soul memory it was getting close to one hundred years when this happened.
As the tunnel winded and dust crumbled at her side, as she had to snake through tight corridors of partially collapsed sections she was reminded how she had been trapped in a mine, all alone without food or water. In that life her family had been forced into labour by the particularly cruel and tyrannical local ruler, forcing them into copper mines to supplement and boost his arms for war, wars that he was waging on all fronts against all neighbours. He was hated by his people as well as all his neighbouring regions, but it was all the more reason for him to extort his people to make sure he had the military might to keep himself in power and everyone else in check.
It was under this slave laboured extortion in which her family had been forced into the mines. With trumped up charges of breaking the law and disproportionate punishments for said minor fake crimes they had been stuffed away into the dark and dusty caves. Only oil lamps as their light, no protection for breathing or their eyes, the small fires that illuminated their picks and chisels eating up the same oxygen they required to breath. A hellish hole of despair.
It was that hole that had collapsed, where her friends and family and everyone around her were crushed under the rock and rubble, under the copper ore their leader forced them to dig. It was there that upon coming to consciousness after being knocked unconscious by an errant boulder that Tzuyu found herself all alone in the dark, her soul having woken up as she slept unconscious in the dark collapsed copper mines. She was truly alone now and trapped.
Maybe it had been the sense of immediate hopelessness that had allowed her to move on, but she somehow immediately accepted her fate and that she was likely going to die in that Cycle very soon. With that acceptance she found peace and while sitting underground in complete isolation from everything she began to meditate to find out where her fellow Sisters and The Lock were.
In her meditation she was able to leave her body behind to float in the ethereal reality of the world and found the soul essences of her fellow Eternal Ladies floating around the world as beacons as they always. As the light of their soul shined bright she realized that no matter how deep or dark the location she physically was in, she was always connected to her Eternal Ladies, that she was never fully and truly alone.
Deep underground trapped in the copper mine, Tzuyu had lingered in the comforting glow of their souls until her oxygen had run out and her body lay to a quiet and comforting rest in the company of her Soul Sisters glow, a peaceful smile on her face. She would have to pass on this Cycle, she would meet them next time.
As this distant memory and thought of a past life and Cycle whisked through her mind while she trekked further in the Paris catacombs tunnels, a tear escaped her with a smile; even now she wasn’t alone. The Eternal Ladies were always there in soul and always watching over her and she knew that as the youngest Sister they were especially caring and attentive to her. She had never felt anything but love and care from the Eternal Ladies.
The tunnels had been slowly but steadily sloping up towards the surface and she was getting close to the exit. In a moment she would find out if it was still open, or even if the exit had been boarded closed she could probably break through it. In case she couldn’t get through and out into the city however, she hoped that at the very least her phone could get a signal so she could call for help.
As Tzuyu closed in towards the exit she took her phone out and watched for the signal bars to appear and soon enough the first ones popped up telling her that she had a connection to the outside world, to civilization. Along with the signal she received a text message and a few missed phone calls.
Tzuyu stopped in her tracks as she read the message and who it was from.
“I’m okay, I found what we were looking for. You guys are really going to want to see it. I also found a way out of the catacombs and I’m back on the surface. Call me.
Mina. Sent 2.04am.”
Immediately stopping and dropping all else Tzuyu pressed to call the sender.
“Tzuyu?”
“Mina! You’re safe? I’m so happy!” Tzuyu almost shouted with joy into the receiver. “We’ve been digging where you disappeared for hours and feared the worst.”
“I’m safe and outside. Go tell the others and come out of the catacombs. There is something I need to show you all and which you will really want to see.”
----
“Thank you so much for your hospitality this past week. It was most gracious and kind of you both.”
“Thank you for keeping us old folks company and helping around the house. You certainly earned your keep,” Alec said as he and Eyleen escorted the four ladies towards the front gate of the castle.
After a day of shifting through their old research and photographing it for future safekeeping Irene enjoyed her final evening and dinner with the Ronald’s couple, the three new guests Jeongyeon, Momo and Jihyo joining them. After a delicious dinner and some light drinks to end the night off, the four departed the castle with farewells and wishes for them to at least drop by before they leave Scotland. They all promised to do so, given that there were still a few people to arrive who would definitely want to see the castle itself and would most likely arrive to the castle asking after them.
Their time collecting and researching had revealed to them a few promising leads, trails that they had been following in their previous Cycle before it ended. These were suggested locations of where to find more information about a time before the Cycle began, of a time before they were born. If they were correct they could find ruins in which there would be information on the powers that be before their Mother, before she attempted to destroy all evidence and knowledge of anything other than herself. The fact that she went through the effort to erase history had to mean that there was something there that was threatening to her.
Alec and Eyleen had arranged for a Bed and Breakfast lodging for the four of them which wasn’t too far away from the castle by car. It was situated right close to the train station that Irene had arrived at before her long walk towards the castle. It was in an older estate home that had been refurbished by the owners and with plenty of rooms to spare they ran a quaint little stay-in for travellers in the area as a way to keep them busy.
It was late at night by the time they left and all light, even the stars and moon in the sky, were hidden by clouds swallowing the landscape in pitch black. The only light was the headlights of their car that showed the road that they were on. Even the river and streams to their right were not visible; they couldn’t even see a metre ahead without a flashlight.
They were halfway out the gravel road leading from the castle to the main road when lights flashed up ahead in between the bends and trees. The further they drove they noticed that it was the headlights of a car that was going in the direction they were coming from; to the castle. The gravel road was rather narrow, only one and a half car lengths wide, so they would have to slow down and drive a little off road to let one another through.
At a straight section of the road where the sides of the road were flattened so you wouldn’t dip into a ditch, Jeongyeon slowed the car down to make the passing in this location while the car ahead closed in. Soon behind the turn ahead the other car came on the straight stretch and seeing Jeongyeon’s car slowly drifting just at the edge of the road it also slowed down to pass carefully through.
As they were passing the headlights rolled over and through the windshield of both cars, Jeongyeon nodded a greeting and thanked the driver of the passing car as she saw their face. Just as their cars passed Jeongyeon’s eyes welled up immediately. She stopped the car and leapt out in a flash.
“Jeongyeon?” Momo asked worried as the three looked out with curiosity.
The other car had similarly stopped all of a sudden and the driver had equally gotten out of their seat as Jeongyeon began taking big strides eventually jogging towards the person, the latter reciprocating this move.
“Christine!” Jeongyeon screeched in happiness as she engulfed the driver of the other car into a deep embrace lifting her off her feet, her eyes full of tears.
“Jannah…” the muffled voice of Chaeyoung sobbing into Jeongyeon’s shoulder. She had been utterly shocked to have recognized Jeongyeon’s soul as their eyes met while their cars passed. Her voice and body trembled, the relief of more of her Sisters being alive and well washing over her.
The rest of the troupe had now gotten out of their respective cars and of the two car’s different passengers Irene, Momo, and Dahyun raced to where Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon were embracing each other, a flurry of hugs and tears and happy laughs and cries.
Jihyo had walked a little closer to the happening still staying behind the group when she noticed that equally on the other side of the other car there were three figures standing separately on their own, not engaged in this reunion. She slowly drifted over the side of the car to these people as the first of the three noticed her and she gave a curt little bow greeting in Korean as a test.
“Hello, I’m Jihyo. Can I assume you aren’t part of this group of Soul Sisters?”
“Hi, you assume correctly, us three are just friends who got dragged in. I’m Nayeon; I guess you’re in our situation too, huh?” Nayeon replied with a bow as Yeri and Sana noticed Jihyo’s presence.
“Hello, I’m Yeri.”
“Sana.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Jihyo.”
The four stood in silence a little awkwardly as they watched the Eternal Ladies; the Daughter’s and The Lock, get reacquainted with each other for a moment.
"Ice cream?” Jihyo’s eyes refocused to her right where she saw a box of mini chocolate ice-creams being offered by Yeri.
“Oh, thank you,” Jihyo took one as Yeri shared the rest with Nayeon and Sana and the four non-eternal souls watched the happy reunion unfold, munching on their ice creams in the darkness of the Scottish Highlands with naught but the beams of their cars to illuminate them.
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