Yamato was less of a nation, and more of a loosely interconnected set of protectorate states subject to the Shogun’s rule. As such, its politics were a constantly shifting web of alliances, feuds, and territorial disputes. Which province was aligned with which, and where their borders lay, was something that could shift within months or even weeks as the feudal lords struggled against each other for power.

It was the country’s greatest weakness, but also one of its strengths. The constant infighting meant that they had the most experienced armies on the continent, and that experience could make the difference when Yamato had occasion to band together against foreign assault.

It also made discreet travel through the country a gigantic pain in the ass! Who would be friendly? Who was in the middle of a war with their neighbors? Which roads were safe to travel? Takeda Rika hadn’t been back home in years, and the country had changed significantly in that time.

The first time she’d traveled abroad and back again, she’d been escorted by Master Ienaga Yumi along with the rest of the academy students, and the second time, it had been with Hayakawa Kaede.

They had always known exactly which roads to take and which lords would be receptive, and Rika had really taken it for granted.

Without up-to-date knowledge of the entire political situation, Rika’s travel had been painfully slow, with most of her team’s time being spent gathering information. Luckily, Harada Jun and Ishihara Nao had become experts at doing exactly that during their time in Goryeo.

Rika yawned as she met the two boys at their inn. She’d apparently become somewhat famous during her time abroad, and while most people didn’t know her face, she avoided going out into town just to be safe. She could still explore with her simulacra, but staying inside all the time gave her bad memories of when she’d locked herself in her room after she thought Yoshika had died.

“Please tell me you two have some good news. I’m dying to get back on the road—we’re so close!”

After almost a year on the road, they’d nearly arrived in what would theoretically be Ienaga’s land, assuming that the borders hadn’t shifted too much in her absence. That also meant that they were pretty close to the Takeda family home—Rika was looking forward to seeing them again.

Harada Jun was the first to deliver his report, not that Rika expected much from him. Jun was muscle, and while he was a pretty formidable fighter who could punch well above his weight with powerful magma techniques, he wasn’t exactly subtle.

He did have a way with military men, though.

“I met with a few soldiers last night. A lot of tension and rumors, but it doesn’t seem like there are any open conflicts nearby, and they don’t seem worried that they’ll be pulled into active combat any time soon.”

“Oh, you sly dog! Having a bit of fun on the job?”

Harada blushed and shook his head.

“I-it wasn’t like that! I just had a few drinks with them—perfectly professional, I swear.”

“Uh huh, sure. I’m not going to be mad if you take a guy to bed, Jun—hell, you’d probably get even more info that way.”

“I will bear that in mind, thank you.”

Rika snickered and turned away—Harada always wore his feelings on his sleeve, and it made him a blast to tease. Ishihara Nao, on the other hand, was not so open a book.

Her other traveling partner was practically Jun’s opposite. He was a slender, delicate looking man with a face so beautiful that it was easy to mistake him for a woman at first glance. If only he wasn’t a guy—but Rika reminded herself that she already had two amazing women in her life, no need to be greedy.

Nao wasn’t much of a fighter, but he was the definition of subtle. He was Yan Yue’s disciple, and shared her signature technique—the Melody of the Dreaming Moon. And as terrifying as Yue’s total sensory illusions and body-snatching could be, Rika thought Nao was even scarier.

Ishihara’s Melody could put people to sleep, read their dreams, and even manipulate their memories to a limited degree. Anyone who didn’t already know him tended to forget his face and name entirely after he spoke to them, and he could delve into a person’s deepest secrets without them ever even realizing.

He was an ideal spy, but also just a little bit spooky to be around.

“Ienaga’s been gathering support behind the scenes. Officially, they support Hayakawa as a vassal after he defeated them for control of the shogunate, but everyone knows they’re still political rivals. Hayakawa’s pushing the rumor that Master Ienaga killed his daughter, but it’s been slow to gain traction, as she still has a lot of popular support.”

That had been a major source of controversy in the years immediately following the power struggle. Some people thought that Hayakawa’s choice to attack while Master Ienaga was busy with the academy was cowardly. Others thought that Ienaga Yumi’s choice to leave the country when the tensions were so high was a deliberate message—a statement of neutrality in the internal power struggles, and a commitment to her role as the nation’s greatest defender.

Either way, it wasn’t a great look for Shogun Hayakawa, and Master Ienaga Yumi remained a huge thorn in his side. On one hand, she was his greatest military asset, but on the other, he didn’t control her, she was the heir to his main rival, and the people loved her.

Yamato was no democracy, but even a warlord like Hayakawa Takeo knew how much popular support mattered.

The shogunate was at its strongest when there was an external threat to combat. Hayakawa knew that, and had been seeking to engineer a war to solidify his power ever since he’d taken control of the nation—but instead, Kaede had managed to secure an alliance with Goryeo and even strengthen relations with Qin through the coalition force sent to oust the demonic enclave from what was now Jiaguo.

“Alright—that’s good news, at least. War’s not just going to break out around us, but what about travel into Ienaga’s land?”

Nao pursed his lips.

“That’s where things get a bit complicated, I’m afraid. The local lord is an ally of Ienaga, but he’s playing both sides. There’s no indication that it will happen soon, but he’s prepared to publicly condemn Ienaga Yumi for the death of Hayakawa Kaede when the time comes. The roads to Ienaga province are also being closely monitored, with regular reports being sent to the shogun.”

Harada Jun shook his head in disbelief.

“I still don’t understand how you manage to get so much information so quickly.”

“It’s simple enough. I seduced a castle maid, then the lady’s handmaiden, then the lady. It’s just a matter of finding the right links.”

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Rika nearly choked.

“You what? Please tell me you didn’t sleep with the lord’s wife. I know I was just teasing Harada, but that’s...”

He shook his head, frowning.

“Of course not—what do you take me for? Once I have what I need, I leave them with nothing but the vague recollection of a pleasant dream. I know that my technique is unpleasant, but unlike my master, I have my scruples when it comes to respecting bodily autonomy.”

“I’m gonna tell Yue you said that.”

His eyes widened in horror.

“Please don’t! That’s a very touchy subject for her, and she’s terrifying when she’s angry.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m her friend, idiot. So don’t say stuff like that behind her back, understood?”

Rika only just barely held herself back from saying ‘even if it’s true.’ She was serious about being Yue’s friend, but the woman’s bad reputation was well-earned.

Ishihara bowed.

“Point taken—my apologies.”

“I’m not the one you owe an apology to. Alright, let’s figure out a plan to get around that checkpoint. I don’t want the shogun to know we’re here.”

Rika fiddled idly with the communication stone in her pocket—still inert. She hoped that Dae could get it working in time. Things were peaceful for now, but she could feel the tension in the air—war was coming.

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

Yan Yue shuddered. She couldn’t shake the sense that somebody was talking about her. The nearby moon spirit wrapped itself around her in what she could only assume was an attempt to be comforting.

It was still as formless as it had been when Yoshika first discovered it—a living moonbeam with a strange affinity for Yue. It had stowed away with them when they’d escaped from Sovereign Chou’s realm, and Yoshika simply let it stay.

They’d been suspicious of it at first, but as powerful as it was, it seemed quite harmless, and eventually Yoshika decided it wasn’t worth the effort trying to keep it entirely confined within her soul realm.

So now it was Yue’s problem.

She wasn’t sure what it wanted, or why it was so fond of her. Do Hye had insinuated something about her reminding it of its old master, but given what they now knew about him, she had no idea what to do with that information.

Did it want to be her familiar? Or her, its? It was, after all, an extremely powerful spirit—far beyond what anything she could currently match—but that wasn’t necessarily unusual for bonded spirits. Murayoshi’s Forge massively outclassed the surly old blacksmith himself, and at the rate she was going, Iseul was likely to surpass Ja Yun in the near future.

Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to communicate with the thing. Even for a spirit, it was impossibly detached from anything resembling human thought, and direct communion of the soul was overwhelming enough with Heian or Yoshika, much less something as alien as the moon spirit.

Nevertheless, Yue had grown fond of the thing, and so she allowed a tiny fraction of her aura to brush up against its essence, attempting to express her thanks.

The flash of emotion she received in response gave her a brief dizzy spell, and she had no idea what any of it meant. She took a moment to compose herself before getting back to work, knocking on the door to Magus Hyeong’s office.

His muffled voice came through a moment later.

“Come in!”

Yue stepped inside and slid the door closed behind her. Hyeong Daesung's office was in the main academy building—formerly the central lecture hall and currently an administrative building hiding the core of the most important formation in the nation beneath its foundations.

Though he was theoretically a member of Jiaguo’s upper court first, Dae was more comfortable presenting himself as an academic—to the surprise of nobody—and spent most of his time managing the school. Yoshika was the headmistress by name, but it was Dae who ran the academy.

The office was neatly organized, but nevertheless crowded with talismans, formations, and active magical experiments. Some of which, she hoped, had to do with the reason for her visit.

“Good afternoon, Magus Hyeong. I hope this isn’t a bad time.”

“Not at all, Lady Prime Minister, though I once again must remind you that ‘Magus’ is a Goryeon title, and one which I no longer hold on account of my citizenship being revoked.”

“Of course. What should I call you, then? Professor? Minister?”

He smiled weakly.

“My friends just call me ‘Dae.’”

Yue returned the smile.

“Indeed.”

An awkward silence stretched between them. Yue had never really gotten along with Hyeong Daesung, not that she had anything against him. If not for their mutual association with Yoshika and the fact that they were both government officials of Jiaguo, she doubted she’d even bother speaking with him.

They just didn’t quite fit together.

But he was a colleague, and Yue respected him, even if she didn’t like him. Besides, she owed it to Yoshika not to be a complete shrew to her other friends.

“Dae, it’s been several months now since Takeda Rika left for Yamato. Have you made any progress on reverse-engineering the reflecting pools?”

He grimaced.

“Ah. Not exactly, no. Here, come take a look and I’ll explain.”

Yue suppressed a sigh. Dae had a tendency to ramble his way up to and then well past the point of whatever he was trying to describe. She followed him over to a small formation upon which rested a small, shallow dish of water, heavily inscribed. Above the dish, a smooth round piece of white jade floated gently—Yue recognized it as a speaking stone.

“What’s this?”

“This is our current prototype—based on my understanding of the designs, some of my master’s old notes, and Yoshika’s descriptions.”

“I was under the impression that they were much bigger.”

Dae nodded.

“Well, yes. This is just a small scale proof-of-concept. I’ve managed to dramatically improve the range of a standard speaking stone, but even if I scale this up it won’t be nearly enough. Something is missing, and I’m afraid I’ve been stuck on it for some time now.”

Yue frowned at the thing, biting her thumbnail. The arcane arts were not her strong suit, so she doubted that there was much she could contribute, but she remembered the strange, multi-faceted formation that they’d drawn to merge Yoshika’s soul realm with Jiaguo’s shield formation.

That had contained spiritual components, some of which Yue herself had drawn, following Heian’s instructions to just “draw whatever felt right.” Magic could go much deeper than the simple manipulation of local essence.

As she scrutinized the formation—learning nothing—the moon spirit swirled around her and expressed what Yue could only assume was something akin to curiosity.

Dae looked up as if noticing the spirit for the first time, his eyes glowing with the tell-tale sign of his soul-sight technique.

“She’s still bothering you?”

Yue shrugged.

“It’s been following me around like a lost puppy ever since Yoshika let it loose. I thought it would get bored by now, but apparently I’m stuck with it. It’s not bad company once you get past the fact that it’s an alien being utterly incapable of human interaction.”

The spirit flowed around the two of them for a moment before tracing the lines of Dae’s formation, following the flow of essence and suffusing the water in the dish.

Dae blinked at the formation as the surface of the tiny pool began to ripple.

“What is it doing?”

“I have no idea—should we get Yoshika before it—?”

Before Yue could finish, the ripples stopped, and the surface of the water became perfectly still. On the surface of the water, the reflection shimmered and shifted until it resolved into the image of a brightly lit barren gray surface with a pitch-black sky. Hanging low in the sky was a beautiful blue and white orb, like nothing Yue had ever seen.

“Dae...are we looking at what I think we are?”

“I...I need to confirm that this is an actual image and not just a memory or—”

“Never mind that! Is this or is this not a picture of the moon’s surface?”

The mage swallowed nervously, then nodded.

“It seems that way, yes.”

“And that strange blue star in the sky...”

“Would be us. Our world, as seen from above the sky itself.”

Yue stared at the image, enraptured. That was quite a bit further than they needed.