Lucid noted that name with certainty. The Withering. The same illness that had plagued Karmen.
"Your body is beyond saving," Jing Xiu repeated. "I do not even know what the disease is, which makes it all the more difficult to treat. And you also seem to have a distinct divine flow of fate essence radiating from your inner body, though you are hollowed out, as if something has made its place there and left only echoes behind. But that is not my area of expertise. That is Destinology."
Lucid slumped his head backward touching his face after a long exhale.
Jing Xiu watched him quietly.
"Well, I came here for another purpose," Jing Xiu said. "It seems things have worsened in this town. People are selling things for absurd prices. Places I frequented are shutting down one by one. The magistrate is incompetent. And I came to see whether your condition had deteriorated further, which now seems to be the case."
He reached into his robes and pulled out a small glass vial. He tossed it to Lucid, who caught it.
"My associate, Andrew, left me this after he learned about your situation. He has since departed, but he wanted to help in some way. It seemed you were entering the Domain of Mercyros at that time, and he thought this might be useful."
Lucid held the vial up to the light. Inside was a small amount of liquid, clear but with a faint red tinge, like water that had been stained by a single drop of blood.
"This contains fragments of a rift seed stone," Jing Xiu explained. "It is not my area of expertise, but it can be helpful in resolving thread related matters. If your situation worsens, I urge you to go see a Destinologist."
Lucid stared at the vial. 'What in the hell is a Destinologist?'
"Thanks to you, my research has grown considerably," Jing Xiu added. "So do not go dying on me."
Lucid thought back to Andrew, the man they had met briefly. He had left just like that, without explanation, without warning. And now that he thought about it, Jing Xiu seemed more inviting than before. Not friendly, exactly, but more willing. The way he addressed Lucid felt distant, cold, but there was something beneath it. Something that had not been there before.
'The Domain's influence,' Lucid thought. 'It has started to affect him too.'
He sighed.
The door burst open.
Someone stood in the frame, their hand raised, holding something massive above their shoulders. The object was so large that it barely fit through the narrow doorway. Jing Xiu stepped aside with efficient grace, pressing himself against the wall. Lucid met the thing head on, stumbling backward and catching himself against the counter.
"Hey! Careful!" Lucid shouted.
It was Arthur. The thing was inside now, huge and shimmering, its scales catching the dim light of the carriage and scattering it into rainbows.
"Is that a pearly fish?" Jing Xiu muttered. His eyes widened. "Those are expensive."
He looked toward Arthur, his hands concealed within his robes.
"Did you catch that?"
Arthur marched through the door, and the fish's tail followed behind him. It was a miracle the Starlight carriage could accommodate its size. The creature's body gleamed with iridescent scales that shifted between silver and pale gold, and its fins trailed along the floor like delicate silk.
"How much are you selling it for?" Jing Xiu asked.
"Not sure. How about—"
Before Arthur could finish, Valen stirred from the floor.
"No way!" The yellow-haired boy rose as if he had never been sick at all. "You are not selling my pearly fish!"
Lucid spun around, shocked. 'What the hell? He was clearly passed out just moments ago.'
Valen moved past Jing Xiu, his steps steady, his color returned. He approached the fish and wrapped his arms around its slippery body.
"Look at her," Valen said, his voice soft with reverence. "She is so pretty."
He hugged the slimy scales. Lucid stared at him in disgust. They had been played. He thought they were just going fishing, a simple excursion to clear their heads and maybe catch dinner. But apparently Valen had other plans.
'How did Arthur even catch something like this in the first place?' Lucid wondered. He shared the same suspicion about Arthur that he held for Valen. There was no way the former knight had carried this massive creature on the flimsy little fishing boat they had rented, right after they left, and then hauled it on his shoulder all the way back to the train.
Arthur noticed Lucid's expression. He smiled.
"Well, I caught it," he said, his hands on his hips, triumphant.
Lucid nodded in confirmation. His thoughts drifted elsewhere.
'I wonder what she would say. Alice. If she were here. If she could see this absurdity.'
Jing Xiu sidestepped the pearly fish and made his way toward the door.
"Well, have a good evening," he said. "And stay vigilant. Port Vexis is not what it seems lately."
He exited the carriage. The door slid shut behind him.
Arthur moved closer to Lucid, lowering his voice.
"We should reposition the carriage soon. Before the coast guard finds us."
Lucid thought about their situation. After their encounter with Mercyros, things had spiraled out of control. The innkeepers and patrons who had frequented their usual places stopped coming. Shops closed. Businesses shuttered. Without options, they had been forced to make their way up toward the sky dock and claim they were traveling away from Port Vexis. But in reality, they had simply shifted their destination, altered the course, and landed back at the same city. They had hidden the train on a beach close to the harbor, tucked between rocky cliffs that were tall enough to conceal it from casual observers.
Lucid nodded. Their plan was shaping up nicely, moving closer to what they had been working toward. To re-enter the Domain. He had managed to briefly enter it when he stepped into the shed where the cultists had left their traces. All they needed was to sell this fish, revive their funds, and enter the Domain again. At least that was what Valen had said.
Lucid did not quite understand how a single fish could revive a market, but Valen had been dismissive about it, telling him not to worry.
He was still slightly worried anyway.
Lucid glanced around the carriage. Something was missing. Someone that would usually stay close to the windows or next to the fire pit, someone's eyes that followed every single movement. A presence you could notice from the lingering chains he had given her.
"Have you seen Ayame?" he asked.
Arthur shook his head briefly. Lucid had expected maybe she was in one of the other compartments, meditating or sharpening her blade or doing whatever she did when she withdrew into herself.
"No," Arthur said. "Not at all, I expected her to be with you... If she is still out at this hour, it could be quite dangerous."
Lucid frowned. "Why?"
Arthur's expression grew serious.
"It is the blood moon."
Lucid recalled what he had studied about the Blood Moon. The old records had never described it as openly dangerous, but its influence was far from harmless. Scholars had observed that Morwen's light altered the senses and disturbed the psyche of humans, dulling judgment and weakening one's sense of self until emotion and instinct began to take command.
The effects were even more severe in animals, whose behavior often shifted into patterns completely detached from their natural disposition. Demi-humans were said to suffer the most, especially those whose blood carried traces of lunar blessings. He remembered reading of tribes at the edges of the Scattered Realm, clans said to have inherited the favor of the Twin Moons, whose minds became unstable whenever Morwen shone in full.
Thankfully, Sellenia's presence tempered much of that influence. The scholars believed her magnetic field chipped away at Morwen's pull, weakening its effect on the living. There was even an old theological claim that Mother Alisia had placed Sellenia beside Morwen so her sister would never unleash her grief unchecked after losing her place in Celestia, and that without Sellenia's balance, Morwen's sorrow might have bled into the world and twisted all life beneath it.
"Well, it is not that dangerous," Lucid said, more to himself than to Arthur.
Arthur frowned. "For the Enlightened, yes... But for someone like Ayame, I do not know. All I can say is that she is not illuminated and…" He looked around as if what he was about to say was sensitive information.
"She is not human, that might affect her differently."
Lucid realised that since Ayame was an Oni maybe this would affect her worse. He started to worry. For a brief moment, he wondered if that was one of the hidden causes behind Port Vexis' collapse, a slow unraveling of minds beneath the red light that no one had understood until it was already too late.
"I will go out and see," Lucid said.