Yuzu stared at the emptied out table in disbelief as the ritual's aura faded from the surroundings.

Hold it! This was only supposed to be a fake ritual! How did it actually result in the offerings being spirited away? Yuzu couldn't make any sense of what had just happened, since she hadn't actually channelled any spirituality into her prayers. And to begin with, how did the ritual even succeed given that she wasn't even at a shrine? There was nothing around her to connect her to the white world, so the ritual should have completely fizzled out.

The golden threads of the offered coins and crystals had completely disappeared, offering her no clue as to where they had gone. Only the boots remained, looking completely out of place on the empty table.

Her eyes quietly flickered to Naomi as she watched the Nature Goddess' white thread around the priest slowly fade into the past.

Anger flashed in Yuzu's eyes as she suspected foul play on Yuima's part, even though the tapestry didn't show any connection between the priest, the Goddess and the offerings.

No, wait… There's still a space where the threads should be, even though I can't see them… Yuzu's eyes narrowed as she recognized a familiar void in the tapestry. Could it have been Pix?

Yuzu was about to examine the tapestry more closely when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Praise the maiden…" Firuzeh muttered a small prayer behind her.

These words pulled Yuzu back into the present as she realized the rest of the room was sitting in quiet awe. To everyone else, it appeared that the ritual had succeeded. The payment had been stolen from her, but she was still expected to deliver her services. How annoying!

Since she was sitting at the front before the table Yuzu's expressions were hidden from the room. With an ugly look on her face, Yuzu focused back on the present task and extended her spiritual awareness to the surrounding village.

The tapestry glowed around her, revealing several hundred blackened threads. As her fingers brushed over the strings of all the villagers affected by the Wailing the blackness crumbled and fell away like soot, revealing the golden colour beneath.

An inexplicable feeling washed over the group, as if a fresh breeze was washing away the gloom that was weighing their hearts down.

Naomi's eyes widened as she felt the corrupted energies in the village dissolve away, restoring balance to the surrounding area. Even in the most potent rituals that she had held in the past, she had never before seen such a quick dissolution of the Wailing.

The change was even more dramatic for Chief Kagami and his daughter who had been deeply affected by the miasma. Their hearts lightened, their eyes regained their brightness. They looked at each other as a feeling of relief and happiness began bubbling in their hearts.

Just as they were about to say something, a yell— no, a cheer, came from outside. From somewhere else in the house, laughter suddenly could be heard.

Unable to hold himself back, Chief Kagami rushed out of the room, running down the hall and flinging open the front door. He didn't stop until he reached the same fence on the cliff edge that the group had originally seen him weeping over.

Hands grasping the railing, he looked across the village below to see his fellow villagers coming out of their homes. Each person had their own reaction to the curse being lifted, some ran around to check in on their neighbors, some embraced each other and chatted lively, some simply looked up and let their face be warmed by the morning sun.

The group made their way out of the manor, joining the chief outside at the edge of the fence. The first rays of dawn peeked out from behind the mountains, though the sun had not yet touched the horizon. Even so, the dim light had a different quality to it that lifted their spirits. The energy of the village had transformed, it was as if they had exited out into a completely different village, unrecognizable from the depressed and dark place they had been greeted by just the previous day.

"Incredible." Firuzeh muttered softly to herself.

"Isn't she?" Char Char smiled.

"She." Firuzeh corrected, using the formal word reserved for goddesses, her voice chiding Char Char for being disrespectful.

"Of course, my mistake." Char Char bowed her head, if only to hide that her smile had widened.

Kai remained silent, looking down at the view, his face unreadable.

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As for Naomi, she was speechless. Extending her spiritual awareness across the village she couldn't find anything wrong with the energy of the village, no tricks or illusions that might indicate that the White Maiden's ritual hadn't simply solved the Wailing in one go.

"Satisfied?" A petulant voice came from behind her.

It was Yuzu, who had trailed behind the group and was the last to leave the Chief's house.

"I—I will have to pray to my Goddess later." Naomi said. Though she wanted to find fault in the actions of this agent of Fate before her, she was unable to help but bow her head in a small token of respect, "Where are you going?"

Yuzu didn't answer Naomi, nor did she walk up to the fence to join the others.

Now that her own ritual was taken care of, Yuzu had to take care the other ritual currently taking place in the village, one which she had been quietly keeping track of since the previous night.

Yuzu had already donned the finely crafted leather boots that had been bestowed to her through the ritual. At least Pix had the decency of leaving the boots behind, even if they were the least valuable offerings— assuming that her guess was correct and the Chaos demigod was the one that had interfered with her ritual.

With a stomp of her feet Yuzu started heading down the path around the back of the manor, giving a not-so-subtle tug on the threads of her three Chaos companions to follow her. Behind them, Naomi and Chief Kagami also followed, equal parts curious and concerned.

Though they had questions, one look at Yuzu's expression made her entourage hesitate to bother her.

Travelling down the twisting dirt road they reached the bamboo-reinforced entrance to one of the many village's mines after only a few minutes.

This was one of the old village mines, its entrance was fairly large and spacious. Decades-old columns of bound bamboo reinforced the roughly hewn walls and ceiling. The rocky floor was smooth from years of labour. Pale yellow rocks and dust were swept to the sides of the tunnel. Stacks of crates and tools were set about in an organized manner.

The tunnel descended into the earth, quickly leaving the pre-dawn light behind them. The passageway was unlit, and before long they were enshrouded in complete darkness. No sound came from below. As far as the group could tell, nobody else was in the mines at this time.

Of course, Yuzu knew better.

Though she wanted to investigate the stolen offerings immediately, that issue would have to wait. The tapestry below the mines was quivering ominously, and time was not on their side.

Yuzu followed a set of strings down into the mines, moving with a confidence that gave the impression that she knew the exact layout of the maze of tunnels. Without bothering for a light of her own she moved at a deliberate, quick pace. The tapestry flowed clearly in her eyes, the future it predicted rapidly approaching.

Behind her, the group found mining torches and lit them, following behind with quiet apprehension.

It's about time. Yuzu's eyes narrowed as the tapestry of fate began to tremble.

The Exalted behind her sensed the subtle change in their surroundings. Their bodies tensed as they extended their spiritual perception, preparing for the unseen danger.

Seeing that Yuzu was still moving forward and not talking to them, they remained silent, waiting for a cue or a hint at what they were walking into.

As Yuzu passed under another bamboo arch the walls of the tunnel gave way into the blackness of a wide, deep cavern. They had descended quite deeply into the earth, following a rough path chiselled into the rock by tools. But the floor in this space was natural and smooth. They had entered a natural cave deep in the earth.

The lights held by Char Char and Naomi seemed to shrink from the encroaching darkness, barely even lighting the floor around them. The walls of the cave were several tens of meters away from them on each side, but the back of the cave ahead could not be seen at all. The light only caught a few glistening outcroppings of stalagmites hanging from the tall ceiling above them. Their footsteps echoed down the cave, a meandering chasm that continued forward into the darkness.

In Yuzu's spiritual vision the tapestry began to squirm violently, tangling up the threads around it chaotically into a massive Knot of Fate. Yuzu had expected this, but her spiritual intuition rang out sharply as the threads in the knot ahead began to emit an evil miasma.

Everything that touched the knot was being tainted by corruption!

At that moment the scream of several people echoed from a place deep in the cavern.

"Asano!" Chief Kagami exclaimed, recognizing one of the voices as that of his son. He was about to dash ahead when Yuzu stopped him with a sharp word.

"Don't." She said, keeping him in place with a firm tug of his string.

At this point Yuzu stopped walking forward and turned around, facing the group.

"Do you know what is down there?" Yuzu looked directly at Naomi and asked her question with a calm voice. Her tone made it clear that she knew the answer to the question.

Naomi bristled at Yuzu's directness. Her eyes subconsciously flickered toward Chief Kagami as she hesitated to answer the question. It was so subtle that only Yuzu, who was looking directly at Naomi, caught it.

"I see." Yuzu said, not pressing the Priest to answer. Of course, Yuzu had already cycled through a few questions. It was clear that she couldn't rely on Yuima for help. The question was only to establish Naomi's lack of control over the situation in the present. "Naomi-shi, you're not needed here. Take the chief to safety outside."

Naomi bristled at the command. She started toward Yuzu but Firuzeh and Kai stepped between Yuzu and the nature priest, blocking her way.

Naomi's lips drew together in a bitter line. Though it was true that she should have the power to fight the four of them, she was also not in a hurry to instigate an unnecessary fight herself. A fight would not do anyone good here, especially with what was… down there.

Additionally, wasn't the purpose of Yuzu's presence here to be tested by Yuima? Though Naomi wasn't aware of the problem in the mines until now, perhaps this was simply another part of her Goddess' plans. With these thoughts the resentment in Naomi's eyes was put aside and she nodded, making a minimally respectful bow to Yuzu. "Very well."

The three Exalted watched the priest quickly depart with the village chief with confused looks on their faces.

"She definitely knows what's down there, right?" Char Char said, "It seemed like she was going to fight us for a moment, why did she suddenly change her mind?"

"It's because she knows what's down there." Kai said with a dark tone.

"Indeed." Firuzeh nodded, turning to look at Yuzu, "…do we?"

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