>You make your way toward Hakugyokurou, retracing your steps from the Scarlet Weather incident. You travel through the Forest of Magic, heading north from the latter toward human town. You see that wolf has moved on from the lakeshore to sniffing about the S-bend in the road where Letty had passed out. You pass through human town, noting that school has ended early, and there are a few children playing in the streets. With your Pair of Dark Glasses in place, they do not go out of their way to avoid you You feel much less out of place than usual. You continue northward, past Shou's Clothes and the Byakuren's Tent, and leave behind the town entirely. You pass by empty farm fields, and into the northern plains where few people live, then past the Lily Hill where Medicine lingers. At the right spot, you turn east and head for the mountains. Following them for a short distance, you find a small pass, thankfully shielded from the snow by the mountains, and head into it. Following it for nearly a mile, you come to a small valley where four columns stretch upwards toward the heavens. You walk between the columns, and find a stairway leading upwards into the mountains.
>You feel a sort of electric tingle run over your skin as you start up the stairs. It is dark within the shadow of the mountain, and it grows darker still as you ascend the stairs. Soon, the sides of the mountain give way to a rolling field. Above, the sky is full of dark clouds, so gray as to be almost black. Despite the darkness, you can see rather well here. Barren, leafless trees are everywhere, so many that you'd get lost among them as easily as most would in the bamboo forest. Snow is piled thickly everywhere save for the stairway, easily thick enough to reach past your knees. The air is especially chilly here; you can feel it seeping through your clothes. Ghosts fly about everywhere, attending to their spectral business. Up ahead, you can see the outer walls of the palace of the dead. Obvious exits are north, south, east, and west.
>_
