Chapter Text
“So, we’re basically trapped in here?” Pigsy asked, his gruff voice clearly showing his agitation.
Tang and the monk had just finished explaining to everyone what they had discovered earlier that day. The fact that they were unable to leave the house’s perimeter had reduced the once jovial atmosphere to nothing; everyone was too held down by the tension to even think about bouncing back.
“As far as we’re aware, yes.” The monk confirmed- Tripitaka, Yellowtusk recalled, “At least until the woman that brought us here shows us what she wishes to.”
“Well, that is just perfect! So, are we just supposed to sit around until the little witch decides to let us go?” Bull King growled, forcing himself to take a few deep breaths as steam began to billow from his nostrils.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Bull King, I’m sure we’ll think of something!” Sandy promised. The river demon laid a hand on the demon’s shoulder, smiling encouragingly as the bull took a few more breaths.
“He is correct. We cannot be sure that the woman will be true to her word in letting us leave. However,” Azure began, rising gracefully from his chair, “There is always a way to escape. I’m sure that if we work together, we will be able to destroy the barrier!”
Wasn’t he part of the reason why we’re trapped here? A few people thought, but did not voice.
“But, where are we even supposed to start?! Macaque has been throwing himself at that thing for ages, and there hasn’t been any sign of it going down anytime soon.” Peng scoffed.
Those at the table sat in silence for a long moment. None of them had encountered such magic before. Were they just meant to abide by the whims of the woman that brought them there? To fulfill her wishes until her end of the deal had been met? They did not know. The silence continued to drag on.
However, before long, the voice of MK rose from inside the fridge.
“Mayyybeee we’re not supposed to break down the barrier?”
Their voice had cut through the tension like butter, turning all eyes on the staff-wielder.
“What do you mean, child?” Wujing asked.
The mortal paused for a second, then placed a container on a fridge shelf before turning towards the group.
“Well, I mean… in the stories, people couldn’t destroy the things they were trapped in from the inside. Unless they, like, tricked the people who trapped them to let them out or they found something inside of the thing that let them out. Didn’t that happen in the Journey to the West, Mr. Tang?”
The scholar choked on his food for a second, not expecting to be addressed so suddenly.
“Y-yes, it did! Monkey King had been trapped inside of the calabash and he had to trick the demon brothers so he could escape! However, there are multiple kinds of artifacts that can trap things inside of them, so the means of escaping could change.”
Both the brotherhood and the pilgrims looked surprised at this. Of course they weren’t surprised by the fact that the king had gotten into more trouble, but it was still surprising to hear a story that hadn’t even happened yet in their time.
The pilgrims were especially intrigued by this. While Tripitaka contemplated on how he could help his Monkey King avoid the situation in the future, Zhu Bajie laughed at his sworn brother’s expense. The simian did not join them for their dinner, so the pig demon’s laughter only grew.
Azure stared with a calculative look on his face for a few seconds before his face lit up.
“So all we need to do is figure out what artifact we are trapped in!” Azure quickly looked towards his sworn brother, “Yellowtusk, I’ll need you to go into the library and find everything you can about artifacts and spells. Will you be able to do that for us, brother?”
Yellowtusk stared at his younger sworn-brother for a few moments. Would it truly be wise to find a way to leave? To back out of a deal that they had personally agreed to? Of course, he wasn't the one that agreed to any of this. But, none of them had objected or fought against it either. In fact, he doubted that anyone even considered what Pangie wanted to get out of all of this before accepting her deal.
A war continued to be fought inside of the elephant demon's head. Eventually, his violet eyes met Azure's own once more; determination set deep in Yellowtusk's features as his mind finally reached a conclusion.
“Of course. I will do everything I can.”
-
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
That was the only sound that echoed throughout the dark space. Two clock hands grinding on polished marble, the only proof that time was even passing in the library at all. Another time, Yellowtusk would have marveled at the complex machinery that had come from the distant future. But not now.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Now, the soft ticking of each passing moment grated on the tired elephant’s nerves. Each tick a reminder of his failure.
Nothing.
Tick.
Nothing.
Tick.
NOTHING!
Hours of research and he had found absolutely nothing.
Nothing about the person that trapped them all in the house. Nothing about the spell that she had used. He couldn’t even find anything about the journey that the monk and his disciples had gone on! Here he was, the great “Yellowtusk The Wise”, struggling to find even a shred of information!
The tired demon let out an earth shuddering sigh, his hands pressing hard on his eye sockets. Stars were erupting behind ivory eyelids, yet no amount of pressure could relieve the deep-seated migraine that began to set in.
If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that everything here was fabricated. That it was all personally created by the blue haired sorceress to keep them all from getting bored. However, as thanks for helping him avoid Liu'er, the future Monkey King had personally checked with his gold sight to make sure they were all real.
There were multitudes of stories in this library, written in multitudes of languages, and put on multitudes of material. Be it paper, bamboo, and even stone . Yellowtusk had practically read every book he thought would be useful, yet nothing he found could help him. There was a clear void of knowledge in between his time and the "present".
The library seemed to have been scrubbed clean of anything written during and/or about that millennium of lost time; and it was absolutely destroying Yellowtusk.
When it felt like his eyes wouldn’t explode from reading another sentence, the elephant slowly dragged his hands down his face.
And immediately froze.
Where he had expected to see a pile of dusty books and scrolls, a pair of heavy, black boots stood instead. Yellowtusk stifled a gasp as he met the piercing blue eyes of their host; the height of the table easily brought the woman face to face with the elephant.
“Heya, big guy! Ain’t it a bit late to be hitting the books?”
“Ah, Miss Pangie, I did not expect to see you again so soon!” Yellowtusk nervously shuffled the currently blank paper he brought for notes. The woman frowned for a second before carefully sitting on the edge of the table.
“That’s not an answer, bud.” Pangie brushed off the elephant’s statement, her eyes scanning the area around them, “Nice spot you found here, though.”
The table they were sitting at was situated in the back near one of the windows. It was far from the entrance and was blocked by many bookcases; completely secluded in its own little cubby of isolation. After the group was done with dinner, Azure had pulled Yellowtusk aside and told him to make sure that he found a spot where the woman wouldn’t be able to stumble upon what the group was planning.
I certainly did a great job of that, Yellowtusk sarcastically thought.
The elephant grappled for a second about what he should tell the woman. He certainly couldn’t tell her that they were finding a way to escape. However- aside from Mr. Tang- Pangie was the only one here that would be able to provide them with the information they needed. The elephant took a breath before catching the woman’s attention.
“I apologize, miss. I just wanted to catch up on the time that the monk and his disciples came from. It seems to be quite important to the timeline that we are currently reacting to, but I can’t find anything from that era.”
The sorceress picked up a bamboo scroll that the elephant hadn’t opened yet and began to speak.
“Ohhh, yeah, that. I had to hide those because the Pilgrims are here. All of those books were almost entirely related to their time, and I don’t want them to get spoiled. I know I brought y’all here just to do that, but their case is… special.”
Yellowtusk nodded slowly as his suspicions were confirmed. Of course the woman would personally pick out just what could and could not be in the library. The elephant sighed, pondering on just how he could get the blue-haired magic user to give him access to the knowledge he needed. A minute of silence passed before the woman spoke again.
“...I could… show you guys if you want? The journey that the pilgrims took, I mean. I only have time to show you that, sadly. ” Pangie tentatively asked, softly lowering the scroll onto her lap.
Yellowtusk’s head shot up quickly, the whiplash forcing himself out of his thoughts.
It was that easy??
“I…Are you sure that is alright? I thought you said you wouldn’t be able to show the…pilgrims their future?” Yellowtusk questioned.
“Oh, I can’t. However, I can show you and the brotherhood. You lot are the only ones I can show. Those from the present already know this story inside and out, and I already told you about the pilgrims. So? How about it?”
The elephant stared at the woman’s outstretched hand, his mind running a mile a minute. This could possibly be a trick, of course, but none of them had even been tricked by this woman yet. The whole reason why Azure had asked him to look for an escape was just in case the woman had tricked them. There was no evidence that this sorceress even had malicious intentions.
And yet…
“May I…talk with my brothers about this? I do not want to make a deal without consulting them first.”
Pangie stared at him for a moment, eyebrow raised.
“Even though Azure didn’t speak with you guys first about coming here? I feel like it’s only fair that you get to make a deal like that, too.”
A feeling of discomfort wriggled in the back of the elephant’s brain at the reminder.
“I trust that Azure had a reason for doing that. I doubt that he would have acted on such a rash decision if he had the choice.”
Yellowtusk felt his breath hitch, but he stood his ground. If the woman noticed the small dig at her, she did not make a show of it. She simply shrugged and turned towards the window.
“Eh, whatever. Welp, I’m only offering this now, so you better go find your brothers. They should all be awake. Peng and Azure should be in their rooms, while Bull King should be in the hot springs. Macaque is in the kitchen. I wouldn’t bother him, though. Wukong and him are…busy at the moment.”
The demon was halfway through the library when he suddenly stopped, a sense of foreboding digging its way deep in his bones.
“How did you know where they all were?”
The woman was still looking out the window. Her eyes were staring intently at where the moon once shined before being blocked completely by the clouds. The only light she was illuminated by was the few candles that the elephant had lit. Despite that, the woman still seemed to glow brighter than she should have been able to.
“I have my ways.”
Just what else did she know?
Yellowtusk quickly left after that, completely missing Pangie hide the scroll in her pocket.