The dumplings at the Rock Garden weren’t the best I’d ever had, but they came close. Asking for a second order may have been overkill, but with everything being offered without need for compensation it wasn’t a hard decision.
As I chewed I couldn’t help but look around the table at my companions, each engrossed in their own lunch. At our outset, I had thought that each of these men had seemed decent fellows, but I wasn’t positive that our skillsets would lend themselves to successfully accomplishing our goal. My initial impressions and reservations had been, without a doubt, erased over the last several days.
Kolya grunted and motioned for the tea kettle next to me with his chopsticks between bites. Stuffing the rest of the dumpling I was eating in my mouth, I obliged and refilled his cup.
The forest had been a close call for both of us. I had been trained not to leave a man behind but being entombed had to be a better ending than becoming a thrall to that thing. Better that one of us live than both of us becoming mindless creatures. I could have convinced myself of such, if needed, but thankfully it didn’t come to that.
Beneath our lunches and various dishes, a map of an estate was laid out. Charcoal and chalk marks, half wiped away or emphatically scribbled, littered nearly the entire parchment. We were in the middle of planning. Or attempting to plan. Our mixed skillsets naturally lead to a disagreement of tactics.
The plan’s goal was to place a painting of a woman somewhere the owner of the estate, Kodai, would see it. From that painting, the woman of the forest, the Yurei, would emerge to exact her revenge on Kodai, or so Lady Isaaru claimed. If Lady Isaaru was correct, I almost felt sorry for Kodai, even if he was the woman’s murderer. After Kolya’s and my encounter in the forest with her, I’m not sure I would wish Kodai’s soon-to-be fate on anyone. Besides, Kodai wasn’t really our problem to deal with nor our mess to clean up.
I would have declined Lady Isaaru’s offer of hospitality if doing this favor for her would not possibly aide us in our true mission. Kodai would be a major barrier if he were to remain alive and essentially running Hoseki, or so Isaaru claimed. I would have taken that gamble if she hadn’t made arrangements to do this favor for her almost immediately after we arrived with secondary arrangements to see us swiftly out of the city. We were on a time table after all.
As I finished chewing the last bit of dumpling in my mouth I cleared my throat and straightened up. I picked up a nearby piece of chalk and motioned down to the map.
“Back to it, we don’t have all day and we aren’t even close to finishing here.”