Page 16 of Between Ghosts and Gods

Arun stared at her for a moment before bursting into peals of laughter. “I admit, until now a part of me thought this was some elaborate trick so you could eat me or something. Now I realize I was wrong. You’re not trying to deceive me, you’re just weird.”

“What’s so weird about dedicating yourself to a noble and upright life?” Kasu scowled.

“Do you just stand here all day? Don’t you have a chair?”

“Lady Camellia never provided me with one.” Truthfully, Kasu had never thought to ask. Perhaps her demon mistress would give her a chair if she wanted, but minor discomforts were sometimes good. “Small sufferings are the furnace in which the strength of one’s character is forged.”

“And needless suffering is the foundry in which you’ll develop a lifetime of joint pain and back aches.”

Kasu opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn’t think of a response. Arun clasped the gambling tiles in his hands and, with a playful grin, made his way into the building.

“Wait!” she called after him. “Your sword. Weapons aren’t allowed in Camellia House. You’ll have to leave it here with me.”

His smile vanished. “You want me to enter a den of demons unarmed?”

“If you step into any of the halls with that thing, you’ll be thrown out.”

“I’d like to see them try. I’m not afraid of a few measly demons.” Arun had all the bluster of a gambler convinced he would hit the jackpot in just a few tosses of the dice. Kasu had seen plenty of those types of people crushed beneath the cruel hand of reality.

“And after you’ve defeated them, do you think they’ll let you sit down and play cards? Give me your sword. I’ll keep it safe.”

Arun’s hand tightened around the hilt of his weapon. For all his teasing, he still didn’t trust her.

He didn’t trust her because he didn’t know her. If she offered something up about herself, something raw and honest, would he understand how serious she was about helping him?

An equal trade. Kasu was good at those.

“A small house on the edge of an apple orchard,” she said, as Arun’s expression shifted from suspicion to confusion. “Trees in full bloom and the smell of blossom in the air. When the wind blows, the petals fall like snow. There’s someone waiting for you on the porch of your house. Someone waiting for you to come home.”

When Kasu closed her eyes, she could hear the rustle of wind through the leaves, could smell the fragrant scent of apples. It was a longing she must have carried since her days as a mortal human. At times, it felt so big her chest ached from the strain of containing it.

“That’s the life that I want when I’m reborn. Once my contract is over, I will go to the heavens and show them all the good deeds I have done. I’ll tell them how I’ve obeyed all six hundred and fifty-seven Heavenly Principles and they will let me be reincarnated. I’ll be reborn, and I’ll live the kind of life I’ve always dreamed of. I’ll have a house next to an apple orchard. I’ll meet someone who cares for me. If you don’t let me help you, the heavens will never forgive me. So, for my sake and yours, trust me when I say your sword is safe with me.”

There was a moment of silence.

Then Arun smirked.

“So you have fallen for me.”

“You fu—!”

She snapped her mouth shut. She would be calm and collected. Like a lotus on a pond. Like the serene faces of the gods in her imagination. Anger was a failing. She would be calm…

Arun’s laughter was wild and delirious as he unhooked his sword and placed it on the counter.

It rang in Kasu’s ears as he left.

Perhaps, Kasu reasoned, this was a test. The heavens had sent Arun not just to challenge her ability to keep him safe but the strength of her character as well. The reason Arun was such an ungrateful pest, why he grinned and smirked and seemed to push all her buttons, was to assess how she would react. In that case, Kasu planned to show Arun, the gods and all who might bear witness that she was not going to be easily swayed from the noble path.

By following the Heavenly Principles, she would one day return to the mortal realm – she was sure of it. Back into the comforting cycle of souls, living and dying and being reborn.

“A small house on the edge of an apple orchard.”

Whenever she was weighed down by feelings too heavy to understand, she would repeat her dream over and over again. It soothed her. Reminded her to stay focused on what was important.

Kasu picked up Arun’s sword.

It was heavier than she expected.