In which we learn the difference between an evil curse and a bad spell
The sounds echoed through the darkness, raw and unmistakeable. Long, low moans – almost animalistic in nature – were broken only by sudden sharp cries and the occasional harsh, panting breath. If there was a line between pleasure and pain, they straddled it. The sounds went on and on, until the listeners could scarcely bear it anymore.
Further down the tomb corridor, where they were sitting on their packs and trying not to listen or make eye contact with each other, Su Wan shifted uncomfortably as one particularly intense groan reached his ears. “Maybe I should go help him?” he ventured, in the voice of someone whose other Deeply Intelligent Suggestions had been previously shot down.
“Do you really think he wants you to see him like this?” snapped Li Cu. If Su Wan was bothered by the noise, Li Cu was doubly so. He was the one who had organized the expedition, after all, never imagining it could lead to something as terrible as this. “It’s not like he’s ever – do you think he wants you in there helping him though it?!”
“No.” Su Wan sounded forlorn. “I guess not.” In the light of the flashlight, he doodled a fidgety arabesque in the dust of the tunnel floor with the toe of his boot.
Li Cue resisted the urge to cover his ears as there was another dragging gasp from the darkness beyond the open doorway, followed by a deep, shaky moan. Bad enough that the tomb was too dangerous to go out of earshot and leave Yang Hao alone in this state. If he came out of it and realized they’d watched? Embarrassment didn’t even begin to cover it. Wincing at an especially pained-sounding shriek, Li Cu glanced at his watch. It had been over an hour now… how long was it humanly possible to keep -
“Still, at least we had what he needed?” said Su Wan broke into his thoughts, as if his continued attempts at conversation were going to do anything to improve the situation. “I didn’t know if I’d have any time alone to, y’know, blow it, but I thought just in case… and aren’t we lucky I did?”
“Yeah,” Li Cu echoed. “Lucky. That’s definitely what I’m feeling right now.”
“It’s funny, though,” Su Wan persisted. “You never think of our ancestors making something like a spelling mistake in a mural. I wonder if shifu knows of any other –“
“If you breath one word of this to anybody who knows Wu Xie,” Li Cu gritted out, “I will personally hunt down a giant snake just to feed you to it.”
“Oh.” Su Wan subsided, momentarily abashed. “Okay. Right.” He wrapped his arms around his knees and sighed, lapsing into the closest thing to silence they could find right now.
And from the cursed chamber beyond, where Yang Hao struggled with his basest urges, the saxophone wailed.
