Yue was doing her level best not to panic. Jia had vanished abruptly, which wasn’t necessarily cause for concern—she just did that sometimes—but shortly afterwards Yue received a visit from a rather distressed Pan Jiaying, who informed her that Li Meili had also disappeared without warning. That certainly warranted concern, but it became a full-blown emergency when Ashikaga Sae sent word through the reflecting pool that Hayakawa Kaede had met the same fate.

Naturally, Yue’s mind went to the last time Yoshika had suddenly disappeared—when she’d been slain by the demon lord, Sovereign Longyan. That had been an unmitigated disaster which nearly brought the entire nation to ruin, if not for Heian and Takeda Rika leading the effort to resurrect Yoshika through a tiny fragment of her soul that had managed to escape annihilation and find its way back to her core.

They had learned their lesson from that, however, and Yue wasn’t going to lose herself a second time. First, she focused on the spiritual thread that connected her to Yoshika—something that she’d been training for years to get better at perceiving. It was still present and healthy, which meant that Yoshika was still alive, for now.

Her next priority was to confirm the status of Yoshika’s last remaining aspect. Yue’s heart nearly stopped when she went to fetch Eui’s attunement stone for the reflecting pool, and found it shattered into a fine dust.

That was fine, Yue tried to convince herself, while it was attuned to Eui via soul resonance, it wasn’t quite the same as a spiritual jade tablet. The stone being destroyed by resonance didn’t necessarily mean that she’d died—only that her soul has experienced enormous trauma.

Yes. Much more manageable.

Evidently something was going on in Goryeo, and Yue needed to know exactly what it was as soon as possible. The obvious guess was that something had gone wrong during Seong Eunae’s tribulation, but that would likely mean an international incident, and Yue wanted to get ahead of the tidal wave that was bound to ensue.

She cast a hasty spell to deliver a summons to Hyeong Daesung and Hwang Sung, then personally made her way to the academy to meet them. To their credit, they were ready and waiting for her at the front entrance despite her haste.

Hwang Sung’s easygoing smile faded as soon as he saw her cloudy expression.

“Lady High Arbiter, is something amiss?”

Yue snapped a privacy spell into place and ushered the two mages to follow her into the academy hall.

“Yoshika has gone missing and my leading theory is that she’s been forced to pull all of her aspects to Goryeo. I want to know what’s happening in Songdo immediately.”

The mages exchanged nervous glances and Dae chuckled anxiously.

“Erm, long-range clairvoyance spells are not easy to conduct at short notice. I assume you’ve already tried the reflecting pool?”

“Eui’s stone has been rendered to sand. Something hit her, and hard. I’m not interested in excuses, Dae, I want a solution.”

Hwang Sung scratched his head, frowning.

“Even in this modern age of rapidly advancing magic, long-distance communication remains a persistent challenge. That is precisely why Jiaguo’s universal reflecting pool is such an important relic. I understand your urgency, but what you ask simply isn’t possible.”

Yue huffed. She had precious little patience for Hwang Sung’s long-winded speeches.

“You are too focused on the general cases. I do not need a method for anyone to know what is happening anywhere at any time. I need to know what is happening to Yoshika in Goryeo right now.”

Dae pursed his lips.

“It might be easier for you to simply go there yourself.”

“I am xiantian now, but I do not have Yoshika’s speed, nor do I know how to cast Seong Misun’s wind walking spell or anything equivalent. I also doubt that I have enough strength for your teleportation circle to bring me all the way...to...”

She trailed off, pausing. That was it!

“Never mind, the teleportation circle is exactly what I need, come with me.”

Yue led them to the main assembly hall, which was unfortunately in the middle of a session. Luo Mingyu paused his lecture, taking one look at Yue before going pale and turning back to his students.

“Er, that concludes today’s lesson!”

He turned back to Yue and wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.

“Lady High Arbiter, is there something I can help you with?”

Yue shook her head.

“No. Leave.”

He didn’t need to be told twice, bowing hastily before making his way out. Yue waited impatiently for the students to file out of the lecture hall, each of them bowing politely to her as they passed. She did her best to give each of them a reassuring smile, though judging from their reactions, she wasn’t at her most charming.

When they were finally gone, Yue activated a series of permanent wards, sealing the hall and preventing anyone from so much as sensing what was about to transpire within.

“Why do we have such an important piece of infrastructure hidden beneath a public building?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dae chuckled, unlocking the wards hiding the entrance to a hidden basement—cleverly worked into the regular privacy wards to avert suspicion.

“It isn’t often used, and in the event of an emergency, this lecture hall is one of the safest places for civilians to gather. Yoshika liked the idea of keeping the teleportation circle here, in case we needed to use it for an evacuation.”

“Tsk, of course she does. She is far too good for us.”

“Indeed. Now, would you care to elucidate the method by which you intend to travel all the way to Goryeo?”

Yue waved him off as they descended to the hidden formation beneath the lecture hall. A grand teleportation circle designed by Hyeong Daesung and created through the collaborative efforts of several of Yoshika’s friends and allies.

“I’m not going to Goryeo. Do you remember what we first used this circle for?”

“I could hardly forget. Pulling you all out of the Sovereign's Tomb and merging Yoshika's soul realm with the academy was the most difficult thing I've ever done.”

“Well I need you to do it in reverse. Send me back there.”

Dae's eyes widened.

“Oh! I see. That's going to be more difficult than you think. My teleportation spell shares some similarities with spirit walking, but the critical inscriptions here are focused on anchoring the spiritual realm to the physical, and reversing them isn’t trivial.”

Yue scoffed.

“I know that! Who do you think wrote those inscriptions? By the empress, it still gives me headaches when I remember Heian’s nonsensical instructions.”

Dae gave her a quizzical look.

“Did you just say—?”

“Hush! I’ll handle the spiritual parts—I believe I have a shortcut which I am uniquely capable of passing through. I just need you to operate the physical aspects of the spell to ensure that I arrive on the other side in one piece.”

“I suppose I can handle that much. What’s this shortcut?”

Yue closed her eyes for a moment and called out gently for the spirit familiar residing within her soul. No matter how she tried, the nameless moon spirit refused to anthropomorphize itself the way Iseul or Heian did. That was fine by Yue, and she was getting a little bit better at understanding it, but it did make communication with it interesting.

The formless spirit wrapped itself around Yue and shined with peace and comfort. Yue shared its comfort, but worried for Yoshika’s safety. The spirit felt her anxiety and recognized it well—it knew loneliness and solitude and shared Yue’s fear of returning to it. Yue had hope, she could feel that Yoshika was still alive, and if there was anything she could do to help, she would. The spirit understood, and it would support her.

Yue sighed. The entire exchange had taken only a moment, but spiritual communion was always raw and emotionally taxing.

“She says she’ll help me. This will work.”

Dae blinked.

“If you say so. Professor Hwang, could you help me with the calibrations? We’ll need to adjust for the fact that Miss Yan isn’t going to be moving through physical space.”

The old mage stroked his chin and nodded.

“Hrm, yes indeed. We wouldn’t want her body to end up scattered across the empress’ soul realm.”

Yue hesitated, looking askance at the professor.

“That’s not an actual risk, is it?”

“Oho, fear not, Lady High Arbiter. With a few adjustments, Dae and I can almost certainly prevent you from arriving at your destination as a fine red mist.”

“That’s a suspiciously load-bearing ‘almost,’ Magus Hwang.”

Dae chuckled.

“He’s only joking. Er, mostly. We can’t be entirely certain how your impromptu modifications will affect the spell, but it should be safe.”

“Is that supposed to be comforting? You two are awful at this.”

Yue sighed and walked into the center of the circle before she could change her mind. Her domain and the moon spirit wove their way through the formation, lighting up familiar runes that she’d written years ago, and igniting the emotions imbued in them, fresh and raw as if she’d been taken back to that very day.

Dae and Hwang Sung took their positions on opposite sides of the circle and channeled their own energy into it, controlling the parts of the formation that were beyond her understanding.

Jiaguo’s teleportation circle was a marvel of ingenuity and collaboration. Unlike the reflecting pool, its existence was a closely guarded secret, and its true nature even more so. As a blend of the normally incompatible spiritual and arcane arts, it was a one-of-a-kind wonder made possible thanks to Yoshika’s teachings.

With enough power, it could send a person anywhere they had a strong spiritual connection to. Yue didn’t pretend to understand how it worked, exactly, but she knew that it had something to do with the spirit realm’s lack of physical space.

In Yue’s case, she wasn’t going anywhere at all. Spirit walking was a paradox—the intrusion of physical existence into a world without space. Yoshika’s adorable little shadow-spirit had helped resolve that paradox early on, and after her ascension it became a simple part of her existence. Yoshika was a living aperture to the impossible space within her soul, and without that aperture, Yue needed to find another way.

The teleportation circle was one part of that. A paradox in and of itself, it had the potential to translate Yue’s physical form to the spiritual realm—but without the skills to navigate it, Yue would be stranded without a way to enter Yoshika’s soul realm.

There was, however, another way. A second aperture that anchored Yoshika’s soul realm to the physical world—one which almost nobody even knew existed. One which Yue just happened to have a rather strong spiritual connection to.

The moon.

Before Yoshika usurped it, Sovereign Chou’s tomb had been anchored to both the bottom of the ocean, and to the moon. The first anchor had been moved to Jiaguo as Yoshika herself, but the second remained untouched. For most, that was meaningless. One would have to travel to the moon itself to make use of it, and even then would need a way to spirit walk.

Not so for Yue. Her precious familiar came from the moon—even entered Yoshika’s soul realm through that very aperture—and her cultivation had always been strongly tied to her namesake. The moon was impossibly far away, but Yue wasn’t trying to move through space.

As the teleportation spell took hold, Yue’s body was carried away by her soul, and her soul was guided by the moon spirit. Within the spirit realm, the impossible distance to the moon was less than a single step, and in a bare instant Yue crossed the threshold into her destination.

When Yue opened her eyes, she was already in Yoshika’s soul realm, standing right outside the cozy little house she’d once shared with Jia and Eui, and met face to face by a giant nine-tailed fox made of brilliantly shimmering rainbow-colored flames.

Yue looked up at the fox spirit, nervous sweat beading on her forehead.

“Oh, um...hello?”

The creature lunged forward before she could react, and all Yue could do was brace herself as the vicious beast...

Curled itself around her? The fire was pleasantly warm to the touch, with a texture like velvety silk, and the fox made a strange purring noise as it nuzzled its head into her cheek. Yue was trapped in place, the spirit shifting its size at will to perfectly wrap its flexible body around her as it showered her with affection.

“What—what is happening right now?”

The moon spirit didn’t know either, but it was happy to join in, leaving a bewildered Yue stuck in the impromptu spiritual group-hug as she contemplated how bizarre her life had become.