But under this sky,

Are there still rooftops we haven't stood on together?

In our dreams, are there still

Oceans we haven't sailed across?

I am the moon behind the mask tonight.

- INCHAOS, Bering Sea

----------------------------------------

They entered the palace, still hand-in-hand, walking along crumbling paths until they finally stepped into one of the tall ruins, grimy light filtering through the dry air to barely brighten the interior.

“It's the Heavenly Dragon Hall.”

The hall was lined with images of Dzue Regents. Zéyì walked down the hall, glancing left and right, hating herself as she did. She stopped at the last painting.

There was a man in the painting, dressed in the striking black and yellow robes of a Dzue Regent, with a high embroidered collar, wide sleeves, and a long hemline that brushed the ground. The colours didn't really suit him. He had soft eyebrows, heavy eyelids and unusually full lips, and his long dark hair was bound in an ornate golden crown on the top of his head.

Damn him. Every Immortal in the Heavenly Realm, damn him. I really do look like him.

He was formally holding the hand of a woman, also in black and yellow robes, no real intimacy in the gesture. Most of the paint that rendered her face had dried and fallen away. However, she was clearly not Man Jiang.

“I don't want to know,” Zéyì said, before Gong Lau Yan could speak. With almost callous indifference, she tapped experimentally at the mural. The paint crumbled, dry flakes clinging to the tip of her finger. “If only it were so easy,” she murmured.

They drifted from room to room, taking in the eerie atmosphere. Objects lay where they had been dropped, or were placed out as though someone were about to use them, except they were coated in a thick layer of dust.

Curiously, she brushed away the dust from a shape on a table to find a scattered pile of gold coins. She picked one up, turning it in her hand. One side showed the image of a protective loong, an orb in every clawed foot. The other side showed a shi zi, looked down on cub below one of its front paws.

“What were these for?”

“They were... to commemorate the Queen's first pregnancy.”

Zéyì laughed, and dropped the coin immediately. It hit the others with a dull clink. “I don't know how to feel about this place.”

“Well, we came here to rebuild...”

“Where would we even start? Do you even know how to break the curse here, Gong Dze?”

Gong Lau Yan picked up one of the medallions, staring at the side that bore the loong. “Can I tell you something, Zéyì?”

“What is it... Lau Yan?”

“I... don't know if I can bring myself to rebuild.”

This admission shocked a truth from Zéyì's mouth. “I don't know if I want to either.”

They looked at each other.

“Why are we doing this? Why are we here?” Zéyì sighed. “Lau Yan?”

“Yes?”

“I want you to be healthy. If that means restoring Dzue, then so be it. But I don't want to be a Queen, or a Regent. I just want to live peacefully. I want to make up for all those years at the bottom of the lake. Do we... Do you think there's some way... What am I even saying...?”

Gong Lau Yan sat down on the collapsed table, her hands trembling slightly. “Thank you.”

“For... what?”

“I was afraid you would try to encourage me to restore Dzue.”

Zéyì shook her head. “In honesty, I don't want that either. This place... How could I call it my home? My country? I barely remember it. And this...” She gestured at the medallions, and in her mind crowded the images of the King who looked so much like her, and the Queen whose face she did not know, and of Man Jiang, somewhere in the prisons of Tin Yeung Wong's palace.

“Too much has happened here for us. Maybe one day, in the distant future, someone will come to this place and make it a kingdom once more, and hoard gold and power and loyal subjects. But I don't... I don't want that.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The loong began to laugh helplessly.

“What is it?”

“Have you ever wondered why my aunt has barely done anything after what happened?”

“I did wonder a few times,” Zéyì replied, “but I wasn't sure I could ask. The investigation of what happened here was carried out by her army, correct? But it seemed to me that it was just you alone running around trying to find Dzu- find Haat Ngan Wan, and uncover the full truth of what happened here.”

“We were all so tired after the Great Demon War,” Gong Lau Yan said. “I considered leaving back then too, going with my grandmother to the Immortal Realm. We all thought about it. Some of us went. The ones that stayed... struggled, I think. I know Yuan Mu does. My aunt did too.

“Dze-dze tried so hard to make a place where we could rest, when it was all over. Those who stayed. And then she was gone...” Her voice changed. “And it was all because...”

“... Man Jiang.”

“Well, yes. But... The woman she wrote about in her journals.”

“The one who taught her how to use Fire energy? Who was she? A demon?”

“No. No, she was... Maybe I'll tell you about her, one day. But she hurt many people. Humans, demons, Immortals. Sometimes I think back on it and I'm amazed at what she managed. It makes sense that she continues to hurt us, long after she died.”

Zéyì looked around at the once magnificent room, at the coins of gold, the paintings, the statues.

“I think my aunt just... had enough. She just stayed in her palace, and smiled at me when I shouted at her for being so... inert. But I think I get it now. Some things just hurt too much.”

“Some things need to be gently mourned, and let go.” Zéyì bent and gently embraced the loong. “And maybe one day, we'll get there.”

“Is there anything else you want to see here? Anything you want to take? Keep?”

“No, nothing. Just you.”

Gong Lau Yan laughed softly at this, and leaned into Zéyì's body. “Then I think I know what to do.”

----------------------------------------

The coastline of Dzue was a mix of pale sand beaches, granite cliffs, and progressively smaller islands disappearing into the ocean. The ocean water did not ebb and flow as was natural. It hit a point on the beach, or the cliffs, and simply evaporated.

Gong Lau Yan was starting to look a bit green again, but when they wandered down to the water and she waded up to her knees in the ocean, she regained some colour. “Zéyì, this might take some time. You shouldn't stay here. Why not go back to Shisuan? We only saw Yuhai. You could go to Mount Hua.”

Zéyì contemplated the water. “Could I not come with you?”

“I... Well... Yes. I thought maybe you would be uncomfortable.”

“I think I'll be okay.” Zéyì waded into the water beside Gong Lau Yan, her robes drifting around her. “My time in the lake was very peaceful, really. And I'll be with you this time. I'm not alone.”

She ducked her head under the surface, pushing away the water with her qi, separating out the oxygen so she could breathe. She glanced sideways to find that Gong Lau Yan had joined her, her face already rippling with green-bronze scales.

They swam away from the shore, Zéyì holding carefully onto Gong Lau Yan's antlers as the loong snaked her way deeper and deeper. The grey-green water rushed past them until Zéyì could see a faint light ahead.

Tin Yeung Wong's palace, the Water Crystal Palace, as it was known, was formed entirely from crystals and corals. It gleamed and winked through the water as they approached, light shining from large luminescent pearls.

Several loong came to greet them. Zéyì tried to see if she recognised the beautiful blue-eyed woman who had once been Gong Lau Yan's lover in any of these dragons, but she was unable to tell.

The loong seemed to converse, telepathically, it seemed, as Zéyì heard nothing, then they all proceeded together down to the palace buildings.

Entering, Zéyì found they were in an air pocket, and with the ease of seals sliding into water, the loong glided inside, transforming into humanoid forms mid-step. Immediately, dozens of curious eyes fell upon her. She calmly drew the water from her clothes into the air and flicked it back into the ocean behind her.

“Where is my aunt?” Gong Lau Yan asked, also back in human form. Her clothing, however, was no longer the short adventurer's garb she usually wore, but longer robes of emerald green and sea blue that matched those of the loong around her.

“In the Coral Garden,” came the response.

Offering her elbow to Zéyì, Gong Lau Yan led the way to the Coral Garden, loong watching them go avidly. Zéyì suppressed the urge to giggle, feeling a little light-headed.

“You okay?”

“Yes, yes. It just seems so silly.”

“It is. They don't get as much entertainment these days, and every year there are less and less of us. They keep leaving for the Heavenly Realm,” Gong Lau Yan explained, when Zéyì looked questioning.

“I see. I... can't imagine a world without loong.”

Gong Lau Yan smiled ruefully. “One day, you might not have to imagine.”

The Water Crystal Palace was exceptionally beautiful, particularly after the dry ruins of Ming Yuet. Like the palaces in Qiānbàn, there were multiple gardens dispersed in and around the Water Crystal Palace, but Gong Lau Yan walked unerringly to one near the centre of the palace complex.

They slipped back into the seawater, approaching a woman tenderly tweaking tips from some brilliantly-coloured coral. She straightened as they approached, her eyes pale and glowing as pearls.

Tin Yeung Wong was tall and willowy like Gong Lau Yan, but she had a large blue-green fin either side of her head, strung with pearls, like an organic crown. Similarly coloured scales spread across the tops of her cheeks.

“Lau Yan.”

“Aunt.”

“And who is this?”

Zéyì and Gong Lau Yan paused and looked at each other, but before they could speak, Tin Yeung Wong peered closely at Zéyì's face.

“You... You look... I see.”

“I am Zéyì, Your Majesty.” She bowed. “I have no family name.”

“You could take Lau Yan's.”

Zéyì almost choked on her tongue. “Th-that-!”

“We'll get there,” Gong Lau Yan laughed, then blushed.

“Have you dealt with Maan Dzi King yet?”

The smile disappeared from Gong Lau Yan's face. “I've made things very clear to her.”

“So, why have you come to visit me, my niece?” Tin Yeung Wong resumed pruning corals and seagrasses leisurely.

“I... We... have a request.”

“If I can assist, I will do so. What is it?”

Gong Lau Yan stared aimlessly at the ground. Her hair and robes drifted around her.

Tin Yeung Wong did not press the point, calmly continuing her gardening. Zéyì watched her slim hands deftly move.

Gong Lau Yan sighed. “I want to flood Dzue.”