Page 40 of Between Ghosts and Gods

Sure enough, the door was ever so slightly askew. It was short work to jimmy it open.

Kasu noticed Ruo hesitating at the threshold. There would be no easy escape for them while inside Camellia House. The enclosed space meant Ruo would not be able to teleport away should trouble arise.

“Ruo, keep watch outside,” she said.

The curse harrumphed. “I’m coming! You can’t have all the fun by yourself!”

Kasu smiled. “All right. Stick close to me.”

It was dark inside. Everything from the walls to the chandeliers looked strangely unfamiliar without the warm glow of lantern light to illuminate them. The sound of a ticking clock echoed through the hallway as she gestured for Arun and Ruo to follow her.

The doors leading to Lady Camellia’s private chambers were shut tight. They loomed from floor to ceiling, painted a deep, violent red and carved with camellias and roses and blooming peonies. On either side of the double doors stood a statue – on the left a tiger, on the right a dragon. The tiger sat on its hind legs, mouth open mid-roar. A roulette wheel etched with strange symbols lay at its feet.

Arun tried the door handles first. When the doors did not open, he slammed his shoulder into the wood. They still did not budge.

“You’ll never get in like that.” Kasu intervened before he could break any bones. She turned to the tiger statue, reached into its open mouth and pulled out a small glass marble.

“What’s that for?” Arun eyed the marble as though he expected it to explode at any moment.

“How good is your luck?”

“What?”

“The wheel in front of the tiger’s feet.” Kasu gestured to the statue. “Drop the ball onto the track and give the wheel a spin. Luck will determine where we end up.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Arun’s expression crumpled in confusion, and Kasu had to remind herself that patience was a virtue. Perhaps the reason there were so many Heavenly Principles pertaining to it was because it was so hard to maintain.

“No matter what you do to it, the door won’t open until you spin the wheel. Whatever awaits us on the other side will be decided by where the ball lands.”

Arun wrinkled his nose. “How does Lady Camellia get anywhere?”

“These are her chambers. She can go where she likes, as she likes.” If any ghost or demon had a complaint about the gambling parlour, the staff were instructed to send them to Lady Camellia’s chambers. Kasu was not exactly sure what happened to them afterwards. She supposed the lucky ones got to leave with their lives.

She did not know where the unlucky ones ended up.

“I would consider myself only moderately lucky. How about you?” Kasu asked.

“Let me roll the ball!” Ruo placed their paws in front of the statue.

“You’re a curse,” said Kasu. Curses had the worst luck.

“You also don’t have opposable thumbs.” Arun took the marble from Kasu’s hand with all the gravity of a king accepting a crown. He pointedly ignored the way Ruo flattened their ears and hissed at him. “I’m lucky,” he said, though it sounded rather like he was trying to convince himself of that fact.

Don’t mess this up, Kasu wanted to say, though perhaps that was too harsh. If General Shusa or some other god was here, they would smile and say something comforting and encouraging like “Don’t worry” or “Do your best”.

“Don’t do your best.” The words tumbled out of her, a jumble. Kasu slapped her hands over her mouth as Arun shot her an annoyed look.

“Yeah, break a skull, human!” Ruo chimed in, always intent on making things worse.

Without another word, Arun gave the wheel a spin and tossed the ball in. The etchings on the side of the roulette blurred together as they whirled, slowing, slowing, until the glass marble came to a stop on a section of the wheel with a picture that looked like a pack of playing cards.

Before anyone could speak, the doors slid open to reveal a long corridor lined with paper doors. Each one was painted a different colour and marked with a different number of dots and symbols. The door to Kasu’s right had two red dots and two Xs with the painting of a deer in the middle. To her left, another door bore four black dots and a drawing of a bird. The line continued for at least ten feet, each door bearing a different symbol and painting until the corridor came to a dead end.

“Look up.” Ruo nudged the back of Kasu’s knee.

More doors. Level after level of them all stacked upon the first, extending all the way into the darkness. Kasu had no idea how to reach them. There were no stairs that she could see, no ladders to climb or pulleys to ride.

“I guess we choose a door and go in?” said Arun.