Chapter 172 Mercy Has a Heartbeat

Chapter 172: Chapter 173: Mercy Has a Heartbeat

"No," Lyra said.

"I haven’t said anything," said Daniel.

"You were about to say, ’Let’s all be friends.’"

"I was about to say, ’Let’s all move quickly, because a hundred runners are two minutes behind us.’"

"That’s the same sentence."

"It has a very different tone."

Lyra holstered one pistol. She kept the other pointed at the ground, which was a polite way of keeping it pointed at Su Wan. The golden-armored guard stood with her arms crossed and her chin high, looking like a statue of a woman who had never once been embarrassed.

"I am not part of your group," Su Wan said.

"Great," said Daniel.

"I am going to the fifth gate alone."

"Also great."

"I am simply... going to be there at the same time as you."

"Perfect. Very efficient."

"Is she coming with us?" Brick Head asked. "I like her armor."

Su Wan looked at Brick Head. Brick Head smiled at her like a happy dog. Something in her expression wavered, as if she’d been bracing for a punch and been handed a biscuit.

"...Do not touch it," she said.

"I won’t!"

"Do not even look at it."

"I’m looking at the *ground*," Brick Head said proudly, and stared at the dirt with such intensity that Paul had to turn away.

"Fine," Lyra said, in a tone that suggested it was anything but. "She walks with us. But if she touches his hand again, I’m putting a bullet in her armor."

"It was the *gate*," said Daniel and Su Wan together.

They looked at each other. Lyra’s eyebrow rose a quarter inch.

Paul started to laugh and turned it into a cough.

"Let’s go," Daniel said, and walked very quickly toward the mist.

---

The fifth gate was the largest yet.

It rose out of the fog like a cliff, an arch of grey stone as wide as a house, and beneath it lay something enormous. At first Daniel took it for a fallen boulder. Then it breathed.

It was a guardian made of stone, shaped like a bear, bigger than a cart, curled up across the path. Chains of black iron ran from its limbs to rings set into the walls of the gorge. Cracks ran across its body, deep ones, from shoulder to hip. In the middle of its chest, where a heart would be, a crystal the color of dull amber pulsed weakly, flickering on and off.

A plaque stood at the base of the arch.

THE GUARDIAN SUFFERS. THE ROAD IS WON BY MERCY, NOT FORCE.

"Mercy," Paul read. He looked at the stone bear, then at the plaque. "That’s... different."

"It’s *hurt*," Lyra said, surprised.

"It’s a rock," said Su Wan.

"A rock that’s breathing."

"A rock that is *trapped*," Daniel said quietly. He stepped closer, studying the cracks. "Look at the chains. They aren’t decorative. Someone chained it here."

"Who cares?" Su Wan said. "It’s in our way. Break the chain, kill the bear."

"The plaque says no force."

"The plaque is a test. Everyone knows the test is to see if you’re stupid enough to fight. Cut it down, and the gate opens."

Lyra frowned. Daniel could see her thinking about it.

"Let me try something," she said, and raised a pistol.

"Lyra—"

"Just a warning shot."

She fired.

The bullet punched into the bear’s shoulder with a sound like a hammer on an anvil. For a moment nothing happened. Then the stone bear shuddered, the crystal flared bright red, and a ripple of force exploded out from its chest. Lyra flew backward into Paul. Both of them hit the ground in a tangle. The arch above them rang like a struck bell.

"FORCE DETECTED," said the gate. "THE ROAD IS CLOSED."

A heavy slab of stone dropped across the path with a crash. The bear’s chest pulsed once, painfully. Its eyes, two dull chips of stone, slid shut.

"Told you," Daniel said.

"You said nothing!" Lyra snapped, rubbing her elbow.

"I thought it very loudly."

Paul picked himself up. "Wind could cut the chains."

"Force," said Daniel.

"Technically it’s wind."

"The gate will say it’s force."

"Fine," Paul said, throwing up his hands. "Then what do we do? Talk it into submission?"

Daniel opened his mouth.

"I’ll do it," said Brick Head.

---

POV Switch: Brick Head

Brick Head did not understand the gate, or the plaque, or why everyone was shouting.

But he understood the bear.

It was big, and it hurt, and it looked very, very sad. When he looked at it, something in his chest went tight and warm, the same feeling he had when he saw a puppy get kicked or a baby bird fall out of a tree. He had never had a word for it. He just knew that when something was sad, you went to it.

So he went.

"Brick Head, don’t," Paul said from behind him. "It might attack you."

"It won’t."

"How do you know?"

"It’s *sad*."

He walked right up to the bear. Its stone body was cold under his palm and rough as a riverbank. He sat down beside its head and looked up at the cracked crystal heart, pulsing slowly like a tired candle.

"Hello," he said.

The bear did not move.

"My name is Brick Head. Everybody laughs when I say that. I don’t know why." He pulled a wrapped chicken leg out of his tunic and held it out with both hands. "I brought you food. I don’t know if you eat. But I always feel better when somebody gives me chicken."

The bear’s eyelid twitched.

"You must be lonely," Brick Head said. "Being chained up. Nobody visits. I know how that is. When I was little, I lived in a barn, and the only person who talked to me was the horse." He sniffed. "He was a good horse."

The crystal flickered. A little stronger this time.

"Can I give you a hug?" Brick Head asked. "I’m a very good hugger. I don’t squeeze too hard. Mostly."

He didn’t wait for an answer. He wrapped both arms around the stone bear’s muzzle and pressed his forehead against it, closing his eyes.

The gorge was silent.

---

POV Switch: Daniel

Daniel watched the stone crack.

Not the way it had cracked before, with the sound of something breaking. This crack was soft, a sigh of dust, and thin golden light began to leak through the fissures in the bear’s chest. The amber crystal pulsed brighter, once, twice, and settled into a steady, gentle glow.

The bear’s eyes opened.

They were old eyes, tired and gentle, the color of river water. They fixed on Brick Head’s face for a long moment. Then the great head dipped slowly, and the stone bear pressed its nose into Brick Head’s shoulder, as softly as a kitten.

Brick Head burst into tears.

"It likes me," he sobbed. "It *likes* me!"

"Oh my god," said Paul. He was rubbing his eyes with the back of his wrist. "I’m not crying. There’s dust."

"There’s no dust," said Lyra, blowing her nose.

"It’s a very *small* amount of dust."

Daniel looked at Su Wan.

She was standing very straight, her arms at her sides, her eyes fixed on the bear. Her jaw was tight in a way he was starting to recognize. It was the look she wore when she was fighting something she didn’t want to feel.

"The clan teaches that mercy is a debt," she said, very quietly. "Every kindness is a hook. Every gift is a chain."

"That sounds exhausting," said Daniel.

"It’s how I survived."

"I know." He kept his voice low. "But the bear doesn’t look like it’s collecting."

Su Wan said nothing for a long moment. Then, slowly, she stepped forward, unclasped the black cloak at her shoulders, and walked to the bear’s side. The great creature turned its head, its eyes tracking her. She hesitated.

Then she laid the cloak gently over the deepest crack in its chest, as if she were tucking in a child.

"It’s cold," she muttered, not looking at anyone. "That’s all."

[Affection Level: Su Wan: -27%]

Daniel carefully did not look at her.

The chains around the bear’s limbs shivered and then, one by one, crumbled into rust. The great stone creature rose to its feet with a groan like a mountain stretching, shook itself, and padded aside from the path with surprising gentleness. As it passed Brick Head, it nudged him once with its snout, nearly knocking him over.

The gate above them rang, softly, like a bell at dusk.

"MERCY," it said. "THE ROAD IS OPEN."

"Did we win?" Brick Head asked, wiping his nose.

"You did," Daniel said. He put a hand on the big man’s shoulder and squeezed. "You really did."

Brick Head beamed so brightly it hurt to look at him.

They passed through the arch together, and Daniel glanced at the plaque as they went. He nearly missed it, because he was already smiling.

1. Yun Xi. 00:00:03. Method: Walked past. The Guardian stood and bowed.

Daniel stopped.

"It *bowed*?" he said.

"What?" Paul asked.

"Look at this." He pointed. "She didn’t help it. She didn’t fight it. She just walked by, and it stood up and bowed."

"That’s not possible," Su Wan said, reading over his shoulder. "The Guardian of the Fifth Gate has been chained for two hundred years. It bows to no one."

"Then who is she?"

"I don’t know." Su Wan’s voice was very quiet. "But I don’t think she’s a person."

A cold silence followed. Even Brick Head went quiet.

"Don’t say things like that," Paul muttered. "I have to sleep tonight."

"I wasn’t joking."

"That’s what scares me."

They stood there for a moment at the threshold of the sixth gate, with the mist moving slowly around their feet, none of them saying a word.

"WELL," said a voice above them. "THAT WAS TOUCHING."

---

They all looked up.

A man sat on top of the fifth gate’s arch, one leg drawn up, an arm resting casually on his knee. He had been there for a while. Daniel could tell by the way he sat, like someone who had settled into the stone.

He was tall and lean, in golden armor trimmed with crimson, and a crest of gold feathers rose from his shoulder. His hair was black and swept back from a sharp, handsome face. His eyes were the same shade as Su Wan’s, cold river water, but there was no ice in them. There was only a bored, pleasant kind of amusement, like a man watching ants carry crumbs.

"Long Tian," Su Wan said, and her whole body went rigid.

"Su Wan." He smiled. "You look well. A little ragged. You’re missing your cloak."

"What are you doing here? You started four minutes before us. You should be at the eighth gate."

"I was." He dropped from the arch. He landed without a sound, without a stir of dust, and the air itself seemed to bend around him. "But I heard the young master had been eliminated. And I thought, what a shame. So I stopped to wait."

"For what?"

"For you." He tilted his head. "The clan has decided that you are mine now. A guard should serve the strongest heir available, and I’m afraid Hao was not very strong." He extended a gloved hand. "Come. We have a race to win."

Su Wan did not move.

Daniel saw her hand twitch toward her hilt, saw the muscles in her jaw jump, saw something terrible and desperate pass over her face. She had been raised to obey. She had been taught that debts must be paid. And this man in golden armor was the embodiment of every debt she had ever owed.

Daniel stepped in front of her.

"Hi," he said brightly. "I’m Daniel. I put your cousin in a tree."

Long Tian’s eyes slid to him. "Ah. The seven."

"Daniel Black. Seventh place. Napper. Pleasure to meet you."

"The one who tricked a boy out of his card with a children’s game." Long Tian smiled, and it was somehow more unpleasant than a scowl would have been. "I’ve heard stories. I had hoped you would be taller."

"I get that a lot."

"Step aside."

"Counteroffer," said Daniel. "She walks with us. And you buy me dinner for being so charming."

The smile flickered.

"Dinner," Long Tian said slowly. "I will buy you a coffin."

Then the world went heavy.

It happened all at once. A pressure fell on the gorge like a mountain dropping onto their shoulders. Daniel’s knees buckled. He caught himself on one palm, gasping, his Keen Sense screaming in his skull like a fire bell. Beside him, Lyra went down hard on one knee, her pistols trembling in her hands. Paul gasped and clutched his chest. Brick Head sat down heavily, looking confused.

Only Su Wan, who had felt this pressure all her life, stayed standing. Her face was white as paper.

Long Tian had not moved. He had not lifted a finger. He simply stood there, hands loose at his sides, golden light flickering at the edges of his armor like a banked fire.

"Stage four," Paul whispered, hoarse. "He’s at stage four."

Daniel looked up through the weight of it, his teeth bared, and found himself staring into Long Tian’s pleasant, empty eyes. He was at stage three. A whole realm below. A whole realm.

And yet, impossibly, Daniel started to grin.

[Warning: Hostile presence detected. Level gap: significant.]

"Oh," Daniel breathed. "You’re *good*."

Long Tian’s smile finally reached his eyes.

"Let us find out," he said, "how good you are."