cygna_hime | NaNo from school.

Part 7.2 of, in all likelihood, three. 690 word (1 scene; I only have half an hour here!)

“She’s waking. Lan, she’s waking up. I don’t know what to do!” Ten Kan shook her sleeping sister forcefully. “Lan, wake up! I need you!”

“Hmm…what?” Ten Lan replied groggily. “I’m sleeping, Kan. Go away.”

“I can’t!” The brunette was bouncing up and down in nervousness. “Fan’s waking up, and she’s going to be able to get out soon, and I don’t know what to do!”

Her sister was up, and apparently awake, within half a minute. “Right. Come on. I’ll show you.”

“Oh, thank you!”

In less space than it takes to draw a breath, the sisters were outside the chamber in which they had stowed Sei Fan. Looking in, it was clear that Tan Kan had been correct in her frightened appraisal; Sei Fan was stirring, and her dark hair was grown so long that it nearly reached her ears. Ten Lan nodded in assessment of the situation and beckoned to her sister.

“She will wake soon. We cannot shorten her hair again. We must hold her here until Gin comes again.”

“Well, yes, I suppose I know that, but how? Can’t she just vanish with the darkness?”

Ten Lan looked at her sister imperiously. “She must follow it. We can block her from leaving when we block it.”

“Oh, I see. Well, how?”

“Watch.” Ten Kan put her hands on each side of the door, and slowly but surely began bringing them together. Her hair, the color of all gemstones, lifted as if in a solid mass and reached down along her arms. For a moment there was no effect. Then, ever so slowly, the rock wall began to move inward. The absolute darkness that even then was beginning to curl from Sei Fan’s body recoiled as the stone crawled across the door.

With a thud that must have made Sei Fan start up in alarm from her sleep, the two sides of the door met. Ten Lan stepped back and looked at her work in satisfaction as her hair fell loose once more.

“Now you.”

“Well, I’ll try, but what do I need to do?”

“Seal the cracks.”

Something in her twin’s tone must have conveyed annoyance to her, for Ten Kan flushed and said, “Of course. Silly me, I’m sorry, Lan.”

Now it was her turn to step up to the door, or to where the door had once been. The rock was not smooth, and there were crevices all along the join. Ten Kan stood in immobile silence for a moment, and then raised her arms. Her long, loose hair fanned out behind her, calling. And she was answered. From out of the darkness came clods of earth, small ones then larger and larger, which gathered in front of her. She smiled sweetly and gestured at the door. That seemed to be all the earth needed to know, for instantly it raised itself and blanketed the wall in soil an inch deep at least, through which neither light nor shadow could hope to penetrate.

As Ten Kan finished her work and relaxed, the sisters could hear Sei Fan calling faintly from within the cell.

“Let me out, please, let me go! I do not wish to harm you; why do you keep me here?”

Ten Kan glanced at Ten Lan and, receiving unspoken permission, replied, “Well, we don’t want to particularly, but we were asked to assist someone in return for a favor.”

“But why?” Sei Fan asked, close to tears. “And who?”

Ten Kan started to speak, but her sister stopped her. “It is not for us to say. We do not break faith with they who keep it. Sleep. He will come in time. Then you will know.”

She turned on her heel and, pulling her sister after, set off back down the passage. The last words they heard as they left the chamber behind were pleas and entreaties, coupled with muffled sobs. When Ten Kan would have turned back, Ten Lan would not let her.

“We keep faith with him. It will be good for her to be alone.” And with that Ten Kan was content.

* * *

The next chapter has apparently decided to follow Pol Gin around all the time. No, I do not know why. One or two more scenes, probably, to this chapter.