XJ-V snuck stealthily through the Eternal Dragon commune. This was made difficult by the fact he stuck out like a sore thumb, but to the Disciples who were currently engaged in making preparations for their Planeswalker hero, he walked without leaving a trace.

“XJ-V,” Arha twittered under his arm. “Where are we –“

The excitement of her metal man throwing open the door to Feng-Lung’s chamber completely cut through the fox’s question.

“I – XJ-V!” Feng-Lung gasped. He had been dozily meditating on his bed for what must have been the whole day, his discarded meal trays tossed aside like he was a petulant little boy. “What-“

“Feng-Lung,” the Cog stated as he moved forward and closed the door behind him. “I have come to save you.”

The youthful Disciple blinked, first at him, and then at Arha who shrugged helplessly.

“Have you gone insane!?” the boy shouted. “Has that sly Mah-Jung finally distilled a Baijiu that can affect the stomach of a Cog? Explain yourself!”

XJ-V stepped forward again with the determination of an ironclad beast of the wastes. Feng-Lung had to stop himself from falling away from the Cog.

“I have come to tell you that I have found out the answer to the mystery of your heart,” he said.

Feng-Lung blushed a shade of rouge the Cog had never seen before.

“Wh-that is – XJ-V you have the wrong ide-“

The Cog pushed Arha in front of the youth’s face and brimmed with joy.

“This spirit is more powerful than we thought,” he said. “It turns out she can give us a glimpse through her eyes as though we were inhabiting her tiny body.”

While Arha complained about the reference to her tiny form, informing XJ-V that she was, in fact, perfectly well-grown for her age, Feng-Lung looked through the creature to the smiling Cog behind.

“And?” he asked.

“You are a man possessed by curiosity, Feng-Lung,” XJ-V said. “You have imagination. The fact that the Planeswalker is here right now must be filling you with such yearning to ask him questions that he will not answer. It must be driving you crazy! I have heard that humans are infected by insanity when they do not get things they wish. I finally understand why you have locked yourself away.”

The Cog nodded fervently at his own analysis, while Feng-Lung just stared blankly at him for a few moments.

Then, for the first time in the past week, he started to laugh. He laughed so much that he doubled over and fell to the floor.

He is struck by my insight, XJ-V thought as he watched the youth roll around in tears. Perhaps my entrance was too abrupt…

Meanwhile, Feng-Lung wiped the water from his eyes and couldn’t help but look endearingly at his Brother.

Oh, how someone can be so wrong and right at once! he thought. I have been a fool, XJ-V. I have made trouble for you all this time over both more, and less, than you think.

“My Brother Cog,” he finally said. “Why would this Huli’s ability change anything about tha…”

The boy stopped as the realization slowly crept up on him.

“No. You mean to…”

“Yes,” XJ-V whispered. “We shall use Arha here to spy on Longhua and Ori’un. We shall learn such secrets that no one else shall be privy to. Not even Mah-Jung.”

Feng-Lung had to admit, that did sound appealing. But the Cultivator in him displayed shock at this notion – the very idea! Betraying the trust of the Master of the Eternal Dragon? Who would dare?

“You think to lift my spirits by breaking the sacred rules of Ramor-Tai?” he asked, coming to resume his meditative state. “You think I will perk up if I know the things Ori’un says to our Master? You think my curiosity is so great that I cannot contain myself – that I cannot sleep at night without knowing things I ought not to know?”

It was now XJ-V’s turn to stare blankly at his human friend.

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“Yes,” he said. “Of course.”

After a brief period of pouting and wriggling in place, Feng-Lung then took little Arha in his hands and smiled.

“Well…you would be right.”

…

The pitter-patter of spectral paws on the stone floors of Master Longhua’s chamber went unheard by the only two men sitting across from each other in the room.

Well, the only two men physically present.

Arha found herself a small nook beside the ceiling beams of the chamber, giving her a bird’s eye view of both the venerable Cultivators currently enjoying some piping hot Longjing tea below.

“Arha is in position,” the spirit whispered.

Within the creature’s brain, two excited voices barked back at her.

Good job, Arha!

Back in Feng-Lung’s room XJ-V and his Brother sat in meditative poses, eyes closed to the world but moving behind their lids to prospect Arha’s vision of the Planeswalker and Master Longhua.

Honestly, the Huli sighed. You are like two boys peeping in a mistress’ brothel!

“Shhh!” both men whispered in her mind, forcing her to return to the sight of Longhua and Ori’un placing their empty cups down before them.

“Well?” the Planeswalker asked.

Longhua breathed in deep, craning his head to look up at the spiral-dragon fresco behind him.

“Awful,” he said. “As usual.”

Ori’un shrugged hopelessly. “It can’t be helped! No Disciple has ever made tea that can satisfy Master Longhua’s taste. Not even tea imbued with the flavor of the outside world.”

“Such flavor,” Longhua said. “Leaves a particularly bitter taste in one’s mouth.”

XJ-V registered a hint of anger burning beneath Longhua’s words. More than usual.

“Indeed,” Ori’un replied with a dry smile. “Well, some things never change.”

The men allowed a moment of silence to pass between them, before Ori’un finally threw his arms wide to take in the whole chamber.

“I remember the first time I walked through these halls,” he said. “The beating you gave me. I think I still bare the burns of your tutelage, Master Longhua. The only other strict Master that compares would be Master Amygdalis. You know that, up there in Nocturnus, he requires his newest Disciples to face eachother in mortal combat blindfolded? Such are the ways of the Waning Moon, I suppose – always walking through darkness. Isn’t it ironic, then, that they seem to see further than the rest of us?”

Longhua seemed too bored to entertain this question.

“Why have you come back?” he asked. “The year is not yet done. You were not expected.”

Ori’un was not offended by his former Master’s tone. “Master, you truly haven’t changed.”

“Do not call me ‘Master’. You forsook the right to my training when you took up the mantle of adventurer.”

“Har!” Ori’un laughed. “And such adventures I have had, my old Master! The world of the Wastes is a harsher teacher even than you. Shall I tell you of the shadows lurking in the Iron Forest? Or the three-headed Chimei that roam the mountains of Shamis? No, I see you do not care to know these things. But as I have seen – and learned – these many, many years, I hoped to return and find that you had developed in kind. Here I was thinking that you might have come to understand the need for innovation after all this time. At your gateway I met a Cog – a Cog! – who calls himself one of us. Is it true, Longhua? Have you really allowed such a being to enter our ranks?”

“He is more deserving of a place among us than you are,” Longhua replied.

XJ-V was confused by the Master’s anger, but even so, he felt his chest swell with pride.

“I’m not here to win a popularity contest,” Ori’un continued. “I’m here because, in spite of what you might think, your teachings still mean something to me.”

He pointed a pudgy finger up at the spiral of the Eternal Dragon above them, looking upon it, both XJ-V and Feng-Lung could tell, with nostalgic adoration.

“The Eternal Dragon,” he said. “You remember what you told us all? The first novices to walk through these doors? You said the dragon’s spiral form is no coincidence. The dragon’s body traces the earth and catches its tail on the other side. It does this to tell us that every journey only ends with a return.”

XJ-V was surprised to hear this. He had never heard Longhua tell this thing to any of them.

Neither have I, for that matter, Feng-Lung whispered in their shared space of Arha’s mind.

“If you have come here looking for a warm hearth to lay down your head,” Longhua said. “You have quite a way of showing it. You come before us with the symbol of another Sect, and now you wish to renounce your title which you took up against my advice and that of Master Yoma-Dur. Is it any wonder I am reticent to listen to you quote my own words back at me?”

Longhua straightened up, ready to initiate combat if need be.

“Now tell me plainly,” he said. “What do you want?”

In the encroaching darkness of Longhua’s chamber, Ori’un’s face then suddenly grew grave. Even looking at him through another pair of spectral eyes, XJ-V felt his limbs tense up to see that joyful face take on such a sudden change.

“Yes,” he said. “I bear the markings of the Waning Moon, for they were to be the second-last stop on my journey. But as I bid them a fond farewell, and went to seek out the Bending Reed, Master Amigdalis had words to impart on me.”

Here it comes, Feng-Lung muttered.

“They were words of prophecy,” Ori’un continued. “Of foretelling – for as you well know the gift of prescience is a specialty of the Waning Moon Cultivators. Master Amigdalis believed the words the Dao had gifted to him were words I was destined to hear. He did not instruct me in what to do with the information he bestowed, and so I was guided by nothing more than your words, Longhua – words that I still believe to this day. It is those words that have brought me back here, to tell you of what the Waning Moon has seen coming for us all.”

Longhua’s white brows rose, but his eyes remained narrowed.

“Well?” he asked. “You have my fleeting interest. Tell me what those of the Northern Sect speak of.”

And the words that left the Planeswalker’s lips chilled both XJ-V and Feng-Lung even from within their dream-realm:

“War, Longhua,” he said. “War.”

###

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