Swallowed by Shadow

The Crown Prince spinning around in shock and my looking down happened almost at the same instant.

In a shadow thrown by the lantern the eunuch had just set down, a pitch-black, grotesque hand had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stretched out and was gripping my ankle.

A shadow? A Geuseundae?

Before I could think any further, my body lurched hard. Dragged by the ankle, I was being sucked down into the shadow.

"…!"

I was too stunned even to scream. The Crown Prince beside me hastily seized my flailing hands.

"My lady!"

He held on and braced himself. But the pull dragging me into the shadow was so ferocious that he, too, began to be hauled forward.

"Your Highness!"

"A monster! A monster's appeared!"

Yi Yeonjo darted over and threw himself onto the Crown Prince's arm. Yi Yeonju bellowed toward the courtyard to raise the alarm, then grabbed her brother around the waist and dug in.

"Tch, to hell with this."

A curse drifted up from beneath my half-submerged body. Then, as though the games were over, a monstrous force yanked me straight down.

"My lady!"

"Your Highness!"

"Kyaaaah!"

At that pull, the Crown Prince holding me, Yi Yeonjo holding the Crown Prince, and Yi Yeonju holding Yi Yeonjo were all hauled along in a line like dried fish strung on a cord.

No!

If this keeps up, they'll all be dragged in with me!

Me, I had my protective charm, I had Seok-ran, I had the absurd backstop of Mom and Dad — but these were just ordinary human kids!

It'd be better if it just took me alone!

I desperately tried to shake off the Crown Prince's grip.

Instead, he clamped down on my wrists with a terrifying expression, as if to say he would never let go no matter what happened.

"Let go of me!"

"I will not!"

While I was wrestling with the wretched little brat, my head plunged into the shadow with a muffled plunge.

The shadow filled every direction like water, gagging my breath and giving off a strange smell — a smell that made my consciousness dim, little by little.

Damn charm — it won't trigger for a nice, polite abduction, of course it won't… aren't the conditions for it kicking in a little too strict?

The last thing I saw was the Crown Prince holding me, and the children after him, being pulled one by one into the shadow. Then I lost consciousness.

My eyes snapped open.

Overhead were rafters so rotten they looked ready to collapse at any moment.

Where am I?

The instant I tried to sit up in alarm, a voice came from somewhere far off — a voice like metal being scraped.

"I only meant to catch the child of the Seol line, yet these strange things came trailing along, one after another. Trailing along."

The voice drew closer along with a shuffling, dragging footfall.

The yokai!

It had to be the creature that had seized my ankle and carried me off.

Its identity was almost certainly a Geuseundae. Against a phoenix like Ansi it would be nothing, but by ordinary standards it was a fairly strong yokai.

If it had been strong enough to sneak in and abduct people through their shadows in broad daylight, even with rain falling, it had to be one of the more powerful of its kind.

Reflexively, I shut my eyes and feigned sleep.

"So this half-blooded Seol brat really is the one behind the fox…? Too young. Far too young. Did that Gu Jang-saeng point me at the wrong human? That Gu Jang-saeng — did he just name whatever human happened to displease his eye…?"

The repulsive voice went on muttering the same things over and over, right nearby.

But still — Gu Jang-saeng?

Isn't that the Chief State Councilor's name? That man is the one who's been unleashing a Geuseundae? Since when?

I had planted the samsichung watcher-worm and kept close watch on him, and I'd confirmed there was no sign of him pulling any schemes.

Did he do something every time I wasn't looking? No — that would mean the Councilor noticed that someone was watching him.

He noticed the samsichung? That shouldn't be possible even for a human at the level of a Gwoeryeoknansin. Short of a yokai or a stray god…

The moment I escape this place, I'm investigating him again, right away.

The Geuseundae creaked and scraped its way around the wooden maru floor. It seemed to be circling me once, all the way around.

"Hmmm, if it's real, then I take this one to Lord Dueoksini? If real? And then the mission is complete? Complete?"

…Dueoksini?

The name of that terrifying god-thing — the one Mom had told me not to worry about, so I'd pushed it from my mind — popped out of the creature's mouth all of a sudden. I fought with everything I had not to betray a reaction.

"If it's fake, my head will burst. If fake, head bursts. Must be careful…"

The Geuseundae mumbled in a frightened tone, then clapped its hands together all on its own.

"Right. First deal with the ones that came trailing along, then think it over slowly. Must be careful. Carefully."

The ones that came trailing — the little Crown Prince brat and the Uuijeong's twins? 'Deal with' them? What is this thing planning to do to those kids?

"The others are just humans, young humans. But one of them is like an Eodukseoni. A human Eodukseoni? Never seen one. First time. Gu Jang-saeng said the human Crown Prince had become an Eodukseoni — it was true. True. Why would a human become an Eodukseoni? Eodukseoni… what to do with it? Could I eat it? Is it eatable? If I can't eat it…"

The muttering, and the dragging footsteps with it, gradually faded into the distance.

What does that thing intend to do with the little Crown Prince?

I felt cold sweat break out as I waited until every trace of the Geuseundae's presence had vanished completely.

Is it gone?

There was no sound at all, but the uncertainty gnawed at me, so I recalled Gi Ho-cheol's lessons and raised my qi sense, straining to catch the slightest trace of the yokai nearby.

…What is this place?

My senses, sharpened to a razor's edge, caught nothing of the yokai. What they felt instead was the sheer wrongness of the space I was in.

I opened my eyes, rose from where I lay, and looked around.

What in the world…

I was lying on the broad wooden maru floor of a great hall, so aged that it creaked under me.

Judging by the sheer size of the maru, this mansion itself must once have been an enormous, lavish estate — but now it was so decrepit that it looked all but abandoned.

None of that was the problem, though. The problem was that beyond the floor and past the windows, the only thing to be seen was writhing, undulating shadow.

This isn't nightfall. It isn't even the darkness that falls from the Eodukseoni's sky. This is the darkness of the earth… shadow.

This vast, ruined mansion lay submerged in shadow that belonged to neither ground nor sky. When I racked my memory for what I knew of the Geuseundae, the nature of this place became clear.

Inside a Geuseundae's shadow. The trap it uses to swallow its prey — and the lair where it hides itself away.

How much shadow a Geuseundae can swallow, and how wide a span, depends on its strength and its measure of power.

If it could engulf a mansion this size wholesale — exactly how strong was this Geuseundae?

A shiver of dread ran down my spine.

The little Crown Prince! The twins!

Frankly, I wasn't all that worried about myself.

Since this place was neither upon the earth nor beneath the sky — just the inside of a Geuseundae's shadow — Mom and Dad might have trouble finding me right away, but if this thing tried to harm me, the charm would activate no matter what. And Seok-ran would come chasing after me too.

Besides, judging by what it said, its purpose is to take me there alive. Which means I'm safe at least until it tries to move me.

The one behind the fox… Dueoksini… mission complete… From all the scattered pieces, it seemed that helping Seok-juk escape after he crossed paths with Dueoksini had been the thread, and that thread had somehow led all the way to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me — the Crown Princess of Un.

This Geuseundae had come on Dueoksini's orders.

It didn't yet know who I was. Going by the circumstances, I looked suspicious in any number of ways, so it had apparently decided to investigate me first.

I'm safe for the time being. I can hold out long enough for my parents or Ansi to come rescue me.

The problem was the children who'd been dragged in here with me through no fault of their own.

It was driving me out of my mind.

A Geuseundae that wants to eat an Eodukseoni? That should be impossible normally… but the little brat is a human child.

My heart grew frantic. I rummaged haphazardly through my robes and pulled out the Eight-Jewel Bell.

"…Ah."

The bell that was linked to the treasury showed no reaction at all. I knew the reason immediately.

Because we're inside a Geuseundae's shadow.

Not the mortal realm, not the heavens, not even the netherworld — this was a hidden lair inside a yokai's shadow, and apparently the passage between the bells simply would not connect here.

Which means I can't reach Mom and Dad either. And I couldn't hold a ritual if I wanted to — there's nothing here to lay out a ritual table with in the first place.

With a heavy, tangled feeling, I stuffed the Eight-Jewel Bell back into my robes.

What was I supposed to do about this?

First… find the children. Worry about the rest after that.

Fortunately, nothing was binding me down, so I slipped quietly up from where I lay and began to move.

When I approached the corner the Geuseundae's footsteps had disappeared behind, I found a corridor leading off the great maru — a corridor packed wall to wall with rippling shadow, thick as fog, where not even a hand's breadth ahead was visible.

Walking into that shadow would be sheer suicide.

I turned back and tried the other direction instead. I circled the whole way around, opening every door that connected to the maru, and checked the corridor on the opposite side as well.

All of it was blanketed deep in that fog-like shadow.

So that's why it just dumped me here unbound, right in the middle of the maru. Every direction is sealed off with shadow.

A vast mansion drowned in shadow that allowed no sight of even the next step. The Eight-Jewel Bell refused to connect, and there was nothing with which to prepare a ritual table.

What do I do? Do I spend divine power, accepting that my heavenly body might take damage? But I can't control my divine power at all — all I can do is blast it out mindlessly through the Cheonmyeong-an!

The divine eye was only useful against humans and wicked things; in a place like this it would accomplish nothing. Inanimate objects carried neither merit nor karma to strike against.

And simply detonating divine power at random was out of the question — I had no idea where the children were, so it would be far too dangerous.

I can't even regulate how much power I release. If I mishandle it, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I could be the one who hurts those kids with my own hands… Ah!

In the middle of my anxious deliberation, something suddenly came to me.

Baek Tam-sol's shamanic lessons — the ones I'd been attending so diligently of late!

Baek Tam-sol had lifted her brush and written two characters on the paper.

"Gangsin. The art of summoning a god down into your own body — divine possession."

"Possession…"

Isn't that the thing I'm already doing, though?

I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud.