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The Crying City

The city was crying.

Heejoo stared at the the groups of dark clouds and listened to the sound of the rain pouring down. The distant cries of vendors could be heard from Holy Hall, but the nature showed them no mercy; the rain got heavier, and the wind was batting against anything on its way. It didn’t take long for thunders to begin colouring the sky. Streaks of blue and white lights dashed through the space, and the sound so thunderous that the earth shook.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around.

“Heejoo,” Madam Lo said. Her eyes were void, and so was the sound of her voice. If it wasn’t for the wrinkles on her skin and the Holy mark in the middle of her forehead, Heejoo would have taken her for something else. “Please close all the windows and draw the bind. The weather’s extremely bad today.” She sighed and darted her eyes through the window. “Lumfen hasn’t seen a day like this for many years.”

Heejoo stood on her toes and leaned forward to grab the handle before she shut the window. Raindrops fell on her sleeves, and they seeped through her cloth and touched against her skin. Even in the warm Holy Hall, the chill was still there. But the atmosphere had stilled, and there were no longer sounds of the wailing winds or raging rains.

“When was the last time it happened?” Heejoo asked after she drew the bind, closing out the last bit of light from the outside from entering the Hall.

Madam Lo contemplated a bit before she said, “Eighteen years ago.”

“Eighteen years ago…” Heejoo murmured. Then, the realization hit her. “Isn’t that—” She stopped herself from saying the words out loud, but the solemn nod from Madam Lo confirmed her guess.

The old woman placed the tips of her fingers on the Holy mark on her forehead and muttered a few words with her eyes closed. She took in a deep breath and let it out, almost sounding like she was whimpering. “With the Outer Circle sealed, there shouldn’t be any more problem. But—” she looked deep into Heejoo’s eyes “—we have to always prepare for the worst.”  

Heejoo bowed. “As what you and the other Madams have always taught us.” She felt a hand caressing her shoulder, and then footsteps echoed across the Hall. It was only when the sound had completely faded that she straightened her body again, and unlike Madam Lo, the words still hung tight in the air, unwilling to leave her.

. . .

The Hall had always been quiet. Too quiet to the point that most of the days were filled with nothingness. They were taught that demons liked the living so much, and basking in worldly pleasure was the same as presenting themselves as gifts for the demons. Isolation. Void. Nothingness. The Hall made sure that the state was maintained even after the portal to the Outer Circle was destroyed.

Signs of the living could only be seen from the flowers that were nurtured carefully, blooming freely and colouring the monotonous white theme of the Hall. They looked out of place—Madam Lo had proposed that the flowers were cut down for they were ruining the holiness of the Hall, but the other madams quickly convinced her to spare them. Even then, Madam Lo had been continuously eyeing them with displeasure.

It was tainting the Holy Hall, and Heejoo couldn’t agree more. Lady Glory would feel the same.

She shifted the potato sack from her right shoulder to her left. Her body was sore from having lifted a lot of similar sacks, but remained shut and her eyes remained empty. Hardened soils rubbed against her shirt, and she pressed her lips hard as the itchiness began crawling on her skin.

“How many more sacks do we have left?” a girl said while wiping off the sweats on her forehead.

“No idea,” another girl replied with a muffled voice. “Probably more than a dozen.”

“Good Glory!” the first girl said. “We are going to break our bones before we even start preparing for the Memorial Day tomorrow.”

“Hush!” Jooah, the other girl whispered. “Do you want to get exorcised by Madam Lo? It’s the Memorial Day, you can’t just complain about it while carrying out your service.”

Heejoo noticed the frown on Yoonji’s face, and she felt a bile rising up . But she pushed it down. Ceased the fire before it started blazing brightly. Before it destructed anything.

She was the first one to arrive at the kitchen, and she put down her sack among the many other sacks at the corner. Jooah and Yoonji arrived next and they plopped down and groaned as they placed their sacks down.

The clinking sound of the pots and cooking utensils could be heard from one of the rooms, but it died down not too long after for some reason. There was a kettle on the stove, and a tank half of Heejoo’s size on the counter. From the exposed top of the tank, steams escaped and they dissolved into the air.

Heejoo held the urge to sigh, and instead, she glanced down on her feet. The hem of her pants were soaked with mud. White was the purest colour, but at the same time it was the easiest to taint.

She bent her body and hooked her fingers around the hem and curled it up, and she did the same to the other hem. The ground was slippery due to the heavy rain a few hours ago and shallow cracks had begun collecting raindrops. She could only thank Lady Glory for making the rain stop just in time so that the carriage would be able to deliver all the vegetables for tomorrow. If it had continued raining the carriage probably would have to deliver the goods during the late evening, and the dark sky of Lumfen didn’t treat anyone well.

As she dusted off the remnants of soil on her shirt, Madam Kil stepped into the kitchen. Out of all the Madams, she was the only one who didn’t shy away from saying exactly what she had on her mind. Heejoo questioned this behaviour for the demons would have a toast for they managed to get into the mind of a Lady Glory’s follower, but she never voiced it out.

Madam Kil’s eyes zoomed in on her, and then at Jooah and Yoonji who were leaning against the sacks. They jumped onto their feet as soon as they noticed Madam Kil’s appearance, but the woman was faster and she bashed on their head using the book that she always carried with her.

“Insolent girls,” the woman hissed. “Everyone is doing their part of the service and you both dare to use the food that’s going to be prepared for the memorial as a leaning stone?” She bashed their head once again, and they cowered. “And you,” she turned to Heejoo, “go to the Glory Chamber and assist Madam Lo. She needs someone to watch over a few things.” She raised her book once again, and the two girls took a huge step back in an instant. “You both shall finish loading down the potatoes. Consider this as your punishment.”

“I’ll be there as soon as possible,” Heejoo said while bowing deeply.

She took her leave and had a quick bath before she went to the Glory Chamber and found Madam Lo sitting in the pool of water, silently muttering her prayers. Heejoo walked in and shut the door as quiet as possible, worried that she might distract the woman’s concentration.

Carefully, she climbed up the stairs and went towards the pool in the middle of the altar. She grabbed a robe that was hung on the wall and draped it on her arm as she waited next to the pool. Her eyes followed Madam Lo’s movement closely, repeating it on her mind and recounting her lessons.

The light and silky purple skirt that Madam Lo was wearing symbolized the afterlife. The number of candles represented the number of years since one’s death, and water represented purity. This ritual was performed annually during the memorial day, and Madam Lo had always been the one to do it. All the bending and muscle-straining movements that she had to do in the water were probably what kept her health and strength in check.

After a while, Madam Lo stepped out of the pool, dripping wet from head to toe but there was a certain radiance on her face that Heejoo longed to understand. She peeled off the wet clothes and let it fall around her body, and Heejoo quickly helped draping the robe on the woman’s back and then tucked her hair out of the robe before she pulled it into a bun.

“I am getting old,” the woman said.

Heejoo blew off the candles before she began collecting them and put them into the goblet at the side of the altar. “Yes, you are,” she answered while picking up the wet clothes and then dropping them into a basket. “But it comforts me, because I know that you’re not one of them.”

Madam Lo nodded. She sat on one of the benches that were facing the altar and leaned backward. “There’s so much that Lady Glory can do for us, but immortality is not one of it.” She stretched her body forward and let out a deep sigh. “When you choose something, you lose some and gain some. That is why it is important to know what you are dealing with before you take your stance.” She went silent, and the sound of the water flowing out of the pool filled the chamber. “Grab my book for me, Heejoo.”

Heejoo stepped down from the altar and headed to the shelf that was pushed against the wall. Her fingers hovered in the air, and then she grazed them against the spine of the books before she stopped and pulled out one of it. The book was in white, and the titles were carved into the book cover, making it hard to read them unless one looked closely.

She handed the book to Madam Lo and sat in front of the woman, with her thighs pressed against each other and her bottom sitting on her feet.

As if the book knew what Madam Lo was trying to find, it only had to be flipped open once before Madam Lo stopped and scanned the content.

“The existence of the Outer Circle was first realized around fifty-six years ago. It is quite recent if you think about it,” she said. “I was a child back then,” she began, “and my first encounter with a demon happened in my own home.”

“I saw with my own eyes how it the life away from both of my parents—their skin turned pale, and soon their fleshes began to rot.” Her voice didn’t waver as she recounted her tale, and Heejoo hung onto every word that escaped her lips, even though she had listened to it for far too many times. “But what terrified me the most…” the woman paused, as she always did. “Was how they made my brother one of them.”

“It wasn’t his choice.”

Madam Lo shook her head, and Heejoo thought that she noticed a bit sadness in her eyes. “No, it was not. The brother that I know would never willingly join them.”

“How did you survive?” she asked.

It was the question that she always asked whenever Madam Lo told her the story. She never got it answered.

The woman shook her head. “It is getting quite late, and you need to rest for the memorial day tomorrow.” She stood up and tightened the her robe. “Fill yourself with food and get ready for bed. Do not break your curfew, or else I am sure that Madam Kil will not hesitate to punish you.”

After giving Madam Lo a bow, she left the chamber and went straight to the dining hall to join the rest of the Holy Hall residents. When she reached the dining hall, more than half of seats was already empty and the tables were already wiped clean. Out of the five huge chandeliers that were hung from the ceiling, only two were lit.

She went to the serving table and poured herself a bowl of cold stew, and she kept her irritation to herself once she realized that there were no potatoes left. There were only small pieces of cabbages and carrots left inside. She took in a slow but deep breath before she moved to the next dish, where she was left with a fish head and two onion rings. Her grip on her tray tightened, and she scooped out the remaining of the dish onto her plate.

Just as she sat down, the bell rang, signalling that there were thirty minutes left before curfew.

As she was munching on the cold vegetables, she felt someone sitting next to her. Soon, another person took the place across hers.

“Where were you?” Yoonji asked. She didn’t bother to mask the dissatisfaction on her face.

Heejoo stopped munching and swallowed the vegetables down. “At the Glory Chamber.”

Yoonji scowled and gave her a look of contempt.

Jooah cleared . “What did you do? At the chamber, I mean.”

“Madam Lo asked for help,” was simply her answer.

Yoonji rolled her eyes. “Her favourite disciple.” She then glared at Heejoo. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you choose to stay in this place instead of leaving when we are of age. After all, you have that special place in their heart.”

“Well, that’s like five months away. Maybe Heejoo will change her mind.” Jooah gave a playful nudge to Heejoo, and Heejoo almost choked on her stew. “Anyway, the vendor’s son is quite good-looking. It’s a shame that you didn’t get to see him. I was almost worried that he was a demon,” she said while giggling.

“Oh, I don’t think that Heejoo regrets not loading down another twenty-seven sacks of potato and then was forced to take part in making dinner,” Yoonji commented with an edge of bitterness in her voice.

“Good Glory! Why are you behaving like a child?” Jooah exclaimed, and then she quickly clamped her hand over . She darted her eyes left to right, her brows furrowed in fear. When she was certain that none of the Madams were present, she heaved a sigh of relief. “If this has anything to do with the weather, I hope that we’ll get a proper amount of sunlight soon.”

“Didn’t you hear the vendor? He said that it has been raining in his city for four days. Lumfen just received its first amount of raindrops today, so it might even rain tomorrow,” Yoonji said.

Jooah laughed. “I might have been paying attention on something else.”

“Someone else,” Yoonji corrected. Then, she shifted her attention back to Heejoo. “Listen, I think that it’s unfair that you got to be sitting in a warm chamber while Jooah and I were doing the dirty work outside where it was cold. I hold that against you, just so you know.” She huffed. “We are nowhere near your level of dedication, but we don’t appreciate being treated that way.”

“I believe that that’s none of my business,” Heejoo murmured. “The Madams decide on all those things.”

Yoonji bit her lips. “You— Never mind. I can’t believe that you’re going to waste your life thinking that the Holy Hall is all there is to your life and following stupid rules and orders.”

She left the table soon after that, and Jooah trailed behind after she gave Heejoo a sheepish smile.

hi! the initial plan, which is to start updating the story at the beginning of july (hopefully), is still on haha. i'm just feeling very stressed about this story and i feel that sharing a small part of it and then reading your comments might be able to lift the stress off? anyway, i hope that you enjoyed this chapter! it's not edited yet so i'm very sorry about the funky sentences :((( thanks for reading! pls consider leaving an upvote if you enjoyed this chapter :)