The striped horse with its red mane charges through the pouring rain, carrying Bessmert.
All the way, it runs with wild abandon, as if afraid of possible pursuers behind them, and perhaps to prevent the person on its back from jumping off should it slow down.
Bessmert: Halt ... Halt!
Bessmert: Do you hear me?
The horse runs onward still, even striding several shallow depressions with ease before continuing forward.
Seeing her words taking little effect, Bessmert attempts to slow it down using her prior experience with horses.
Bessmert: deep breaths
As she releases her breath, she lets go of the mane and replaces one hand in front of the creature's neck, while the other hand caresses the fur on both sides, adjusting to match the rhythm of its gallop.
Bessmert: Easy ... easy now ...
Bessmert: Good child ...
Bessmert: deep breaths
After taking another deep breath, she seizes the opportunity to vault herself off the horse and tumble down in a quick movement.
Bessmert falls into the shallows, just as she intended.
Bessmert: Ugh!
Striped Horse?: neighs
Bessmert: Hiss ...
Striped Horse?: neighs
The horse stops not far from where she lands and turns back.
Ignoring the accumulated pain of new and old injuries, Bessmert clambers out of the water, but her hands sink into the soft mud along the shallow shore.
Though not as sticky as the swamp, for a while, she finds it impossible to stand.
Striped Horse?: Madam!
Bessmert: What ...
Bessmert: Is it you, Yenisei?
Bessmert: Where are you?
The familiar voice is certainly within earshot, but Bessmert cannot place its direction, no matter how hard she strains.
She struggles to lift herself out of the mud and falls again.
Yenisei: I'm sorry. Are you hurt?
Yenisei: I was so anxious. We must not let them catch us ...
Bessmert: I'm alright. I'm good ... How did you ...
Yenisei: I am talking to you through the water. Please hurry up and get back on me!
Bessmert: You've turned into a striped horse, too?!
Bessmert: Or, is this your arcane skill? ...
Yenisei: I am not a striped horse, Madam. I'm a Lùshǔ! Both of them are arcane creatures, but not the same kind ... And yes, that's my arcane skill.
Yenisei: I can show images and diffuse sounds through water. I cast it once when we passed by the swamp in Tula, remember?
Bessmert: What about the "Lùshǔ"? What are they? Did Gětiān take you away and turn you into this?
That strange term she heard before all this began suddenly reappears in her mind. Bessmert quickly associates it with her current situation.
Yenisei: The rain is making too much noise. I can't hear you or the surroundings ...
Yenisei: Get on my back! I'm not sure how far they are from us.
Bessmert: ...
Bessmert: I don't hear any footsteps from grown men. Come here, child. Help me up.
Yenisei then steps closer and scoops Bessmert out of the sinking shallows.
Bessmert: Thank you. So ... What happened? The situation is getting trickier and trickier.
Yenisei: We made a mistake. Gětiān didn't turn me into a horse. On the contrary, he saved my life.
Bessmert: Then who was it? Who did this to you?
Yenisei: You didn't drink any water last night, did you? But I did, quite a lot. After you went into the room, Jiǔ Niángzǐ and I had a chat downstairs, and she gave me the water.
Yenisei: This is the difference. Gětiān said her arcane skill was cast through liquids like water and liquor.
Bessmert: My poor child ...
Yenisei: I went upstairs after the chat. You must have been too tired to notice me at the time. I stayed in the room but couldn't sleep at all, so I went downstairs again.
Yenisei: That was when I heard someone singing.
Yenisei: That song ... I'd never heard it before, and I had no idea what the lyrics were about. All I remember is that the melody was soft and a bit unusual ...
Yenisei: Then I found that "someone" was a group of wooden dolls. They were small and would melt when they touched liquor.
Yenisei extracts the frightening journey from her mind, trying as best she can to narrate it back in a calm tone.
Yenisei: And there were horses in the yard, also humming the melody. They had red manes and red tails, just like what I look like now.
Yenisei: I didn't know they were Lùshǔs until now. Their stripes glowed under the moon.
Bessmert: But didn't you have a closer look at the Lùshǔ last night?
Yenisei: I had no time to see it clearly, to be honest. Anyway, that chat I had with Jiǔ Niángzǐ was ... quite good. Everything felt so comforting at the time, so I don't understand ...
Bessmert: Then, why are you different from the animals turned from Mr. Jurien and the others? You told me they only have stripes on them, right?
Yenisei: Yes. I have an assumption about that, but I can't verify it now.
Bessmert: What is it?
Yenisei falls into silent reflection for a moment before answering Bessmert.
Yenisei: Remember the river our team found? Perhaps that was the lower course of the main river, and it included Jiǔ Niángzǐ's arcane power because the stream across her yard is near one of its branches. The running water might have diluted the arcane power in there.
Yenisei: Usually, a stream of running water is like an independent settlement. It rejects outsiders by nature. Even I have been rejected more than once.
Yenisei: The striped horses our teammates turned into could be an accident caused by an incomplete arcane skill.
Bessmert: Those other striped horses in the Zhící, are they too ...
Yenisei: Perhaps Jiǔ Niángzǐ had no idea at all that she somehow leaked her arcane skill into the river.
Yenisei: As for the water I had, she must have made it on purpose ...
Both of them sink into a silence made awkward by the revelation.
Bessmert: sighs Then, how did Gětiān get involved in all this?
Yenisei: Last night, after he saved me from the wooden dolls ...
The topic of their recollections, only just resumed, is again interrupted, this time by the sudden stopping of the rain. Yenisei looks up as if to confirm it has really ended.
If the rain has stopped for good, this also means they'll need to keep moving to avoid being found.
Yenisei: The rain has stopped.
Yenisei: We need to find shelter, Madam.
Bessmert: No, child. I don't see why he had to take you away. What if I was there with you?
Yenisei: All I know is, he was there to take us out of the danger.
Yenisei: And he's injured now. When we confronted the people at the Zhící, he didn't fight back at all. I think he didn't hurt them for a reason.
Yenisei: If he really meant to help us, we must go save him.
Bessmert: ... Child.
Bessmert: All of a sudden, you seem to trust this creature entirely. Did he do anything else for you?
Bessmert: Based on what we know, Gětiān, Lǐzhèng, and Jiǔ Niángzǐ ... they all seem strange.
Yenisei: Please trust me, Madam. I used to think this way, too. "Maybe he's fooling us with a fake rescue."
Yenisei: But he's not. He even showed me his arcane skill to win my trust. Yes, he read my bones.
Bessmert: ...!
Yenisei: Can you imagine that? He gained information by reading my bones, and then he actually told me something I didn't even know about myself.
