It was a dragon skin.

Even the necromancer knew what this was. What else shimmered so brightly, was that size, could bring such a profound silence to a huge group of people?

The silence didn't last long. A huge roar shook the hall, sending people flat to the floor with their ears clapped over their hands. All at once, an enormous shape rose out of the upper rows, twisting as it grew.

This dragon was very much alive.

Panic immediately hit the audience. People were darting left and right in fear, trampling on each other in their haste to escape. As much as it disgusted her, the necromancer seized Spideóg and shoved him roughly under his seat, then quickly followed suit before either of them were crushed by the panicking crowd. The roars of the dragon merged with screams of terror and splintering wood. The necromancer had reckoned that the trajectory the dragon would take to the stage would not cross their path, so she stayed still while Spideóg wailed fearfully.

Nearby, she felt something spark her consciousness like a dark light.

Someone had died.

She reached out quickly in her mind, addressing the spirit before it escaped. "Hey, sorry to bother ye, but can ye help me?"

The response was simply incoherent screaming, which was the normal response. The necromancer didn't really have time for it though. "SHUT UP for a second. Don't ye want to get out of here? Do ye want your spirit to haunt this place?"

The screaming stopped abruptly.

That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Fuck, what kind of weirdo had she found?

"Excuse me? I can let ye out of here-"

No, I think I'm happy here. The voice seemed somewhat hysterical. Crushed to death? I'll let everyone who comes here experience it, and I'll-

The necromancer withdrew with a groan. Above her, the screams and scrambling continued, although the sounds now seemed to be concentrated near the exit. She squirmed uncomfortably out from under her seat and stood.

"Pang Yau!"

Am I hallucinating?

A moment later, a figure dropped out of the sky almost into her arms.

Sou Yuet patted her all over anxiously. The si dzi puppy poked her head out from the monk's robes and licked the necromancer's face.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. This place is absolutely fecked though. The si dzi are here, and probably a bunch of other things."

"Behind the stage?" Sou Yuet's hands still held the necromancer's shoulders, but they now peered down at the scene below. The live dragon had smashed their way down almost to the stage and was being nervously confronted by some guards who looked like they were not being paid enough to deal with this situation.

In addition, the strange woman they had seen before at the seaside, talking to herself, was also down there, dressed as a demon noble and armed now with two stolen swords that she was wielding very competently.

You truly can't judge by appearances.

Sou Yuet summoned their ginseng leaf right under both of their feet and, rising above the chaos, soared quickly to the stage. Dodging into the wings, they found themselves face to face with assistants racing about, trying to move the goods away.

In the middle of it all was Lí. He seemed remarkably calm given the situation, and he was directing the staff carefully. The woman he had brought on stage previously was still there, her chains held tight in his hand.

The necromancer cracked her knuckles. Sou Yuet rolled up their sleeves. Lí caught sight of them, and sighed. "Really, not much has been going my way recently."

With a movement they could barely catch, he had snatched the chained woman up and was gone, deeper into the building. The necromancer was going to follow when someone else dashed past, a beautiful woman she had not seen before, an elaborate sword held in one hand. The woman turned an enchanting but cold face towards her.

"Stay. I go," she said, her tongue stumbling on the common language words. Then she was gone.

Sou Yuet had already begun breaking the legendary creatures from their captivity. Not only were the si dzi there, but also the kei-leon in a large enclosure, apparently kept alive to provide a continual supply of antlers, as well as some strange horses that the necromancer recognised as aughisky in a tank of water and a giant snake, curled in a cage that was really too small for it.

The guards seemed to be hired mercenaries. With expressions that indicated that they thought that this matter was not covered by their contracts, they fled, while the monk and the necromancer broke the cages open and generally trashed the place. Soon, legendary creatures were running amok in the hall itself.

The necromancer extracted a sad little box from the debris. "There's some people waiting for this." She held it out to the monk.

"...Why are you giving it to me?"

"I'm not good with this kind of thing!"

"Practise?"

"... just take it."

Sou Yuet took the box back out to the hall to find the Santhal dog-people, and return their mother's teeth. The necromancer kept sifting through the rubble. There were all kinds of additional things, parts of animals that made her heart clench and a red mist rise in her vision. Fangs, bones, skins, even eyes and blood. She forcefully broke open one well-hidden box to find it contained the skins of eight cats, all preserved perfectly and shining with a remarkable lustre. The last skin in the box had belonged to a tiny kitten, barely a few weeks old. She shut the box with a snap and placed it carefully in a space clear of damage, biting her lip until it bled.

Sou Yuet returned, empty-handed, to help out. "It's all over out there," they said softly as they worked. "It seems that the loong... the dragon skin belonged to that other loong's elder sister."

The necromancer's mouth twitched, but she said nothing.

"It seems... this Lí person has made himself a lot of enemies."

The stack of items grew higher.

They worked until the pile was wider than the necromancer was tall, and almost her height. It took several hours, by which time the beautiful cold-eyed woman returned, bringing with her the tan-skinned lady who had followed Lí on and off the stage. Previously, the latter had stared into middle-distance, dead-eyed, but now her narrow golden eyes were boyishly bright and fierce, and she led the cold woman hand-in-hand. The sword was gone and they both looked tired and a little bruised.

Sou Yuet greeted them politely from where they stood with the necromancer, documenting the pile of counterfeit items. The woman with the golden eyes grinned back, her canine teeth sharp. She was around the same height as Sou Yuet, and when she spoke, it was in a language from over the eastern sea. Sou Yuet knew it called was Yamato-go, but had no idea how to speak it. The woman's cold companion had to translate in broken Common Tongue.

The slim woman with the golden eyes was Eitsu. Her beautiful, cold companion was Tsubaki. Tsubaki wrote the characters for their names in the dust at their feet for Sou Yuet to read, who wrote their own name in return as they translated for the bemused necromancer.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Tsubaki tried to speak. "Good... You tired?"

"No, no, we're not tired," Sou Yuet replied with a smile.

The two women looked a little confused. At last, Tsubaki said, "We look... You find... a thing?"

"What thing?"

"Cat thing."

Sou Yuet looked at the necromancer, who replied tersely, "One."

"We look? Um... We want..."

The woman Eitsu disappeared, and in her place sat a small black cat amongst a pool of clothing.

There was a particular sheen to her fur, similar to the impression the necromancer had been given of the furs she had seen in the box. With a nod of understanding, she found the container and brought it out, hesitating before holding it out to Tsubaki. The cat suddenly transformed back into a (very much naked) woman, and seized the box.

The necromancer coughed and looked away. Sou Yuet looked quizzically at her. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong? She's naked."

"... But you're often naked in front of m-"

The necromancer quickly covered Sou Yuet's mouth with a scarred hand. The women watched with apparent amusement for a moment, but their attention quickly turned to the box, and their expressions dropped. Tsubaki's beautiful face pinched even more and she looked away. With a twitch of her jaw, Eitsu opened the box.

The necromancer gestured with her head to Sou Yuet that they should leave. As the pair made their way back towards the stage, they came across another heavy scene.

With her face buried into the loong skin was a slender woman, nearly as tall as the necromancer, with the barest hint of green-brown scales across her sun-kissed skin. She clutched the loong pelt desperately, but with a kind of hesitation as if she were afraid of damaging it. Nearby, the young woman whom they had seen earlier, talking to herself by the ocean, was sobbing alone. Sou Yuet and the necromancer exchanged a look, then walked over.

"Miss, are you alright?"

She looked up, with an expression that was both surprised and a little ashamed, and quickly wiped away her tears. Seeing her closer, the monk and the witch could see that she had a lovely and honest face in spite of her demonic garb, but the pale skin was streaked with fine silvery scars. The necromancer fell behind Sou Yuet and looked away.

"I... I'll be okay,” the woman said. “Thank you. Please don't bother yourself, my friend here will look after me."

"Friend?" The necromancer looked around warily. Who was she talking about? The other woman suffering over there?

Sou Yuet smiled at her. "I know some medicine, may I at least check your pulse?"

"Oh... thank you, but I... Dzue Yi-sang...?" A look, sickened by horror, crept over the woman's face. She suddenly scanned the hall frantically, then jumped upright. The witch wondered for a second if this was another person that she had imagined, but the woman suddenly shouted with a surprising lung capacity.

"Yi-sang! DZUE YI-SANG!"

"Miss?" Sou Yuet tried to calm the shouting woman.

"There was a doctor travelling with us... Where... where is she?"

"When was the last time you saw her?" The slender woman stood up with skin in her hands. Her eyes were reddened and swollen, but her irises were the grey-brown of a slow river.

"She was there when... I saw her as you were heading to the stage."

Sou Yuet laid a pair of reassuring hands on the scarred woman's shoulders and sent a little healing hei through her. "We can help look for her. What does she look like?"

"Um... a little shorter than you, silver hair... she was disguised as a poisoner..."

The monk and the necromancer would have been surprised by this display of trust had the scarred woman's shivering not become worse. They thought she might faint at any moment.

"You need treatment," Sou Yuet advised. "May I...?" Seeing the woman's small nod, they checked her pulse carefully.

The pulse was erratic, racing at times then dropping away to odd slowness. The woman's breathing was shallow and high in her chest, her fingers cold. The muscles in her wrist felt frozen, as if cramped for a long time. And under it all, spikes of demonic energy leapt up and were flattened down by spiritual power. The strange spiking confirmed that this woman was not truly a demon, despite her outfit.

"You have a serious case of qì deviation," Sou Yuet said quietly, falling into the Xiǎng language. "I only know some basic treatments. Otherwise, I only know of my shī fu who can provide a full treatment."

"Your shī fu?"

"The Grandmaster of the Yuān Wěi School of Healing, Yuān Mù Shī fu."

To their surprise, a dawning look of familiarity appeared in the woman's dark eyes. "Yuān Mù Shī fu? Is he tall, has gold and black eyes?" she asked urgently.

"You know him?"

"I... When I was a young girl in the Chūn Kingdom, I used to spend time in the Yuān Wěi Temple there... I thought... The temple burnt down over a century ago!"

A memory of the crematorium at Yuen Mei crossed the monk's and the witch's minds simultaneously. Sou Yuet bowed respectfully.

"Greeting Shī jiě. This humble cultivator is Yuen Sou Yuet, courtesy name Yuān Yì Fēng, Head Disciple. Yuān Mù Shī fu is now Master of the Yuān Wěi School of Healing in the Huáng Kingdom... My companion here does not have a name."

The necromancer grunted awkwardly. She felt a little embarrassed meeting her... well, Sou Yuet's senior sister.

This senior sister's name was Zéyì. Before she could introduce her companion, the loong spoke.

"Yuen Muk..." She was gazing towards the shadowy wings of the stage, distracted. "I seem to remember than name, somehow..." Then her grey-brown eyes slid over to the bodies scattered throughout the hall and shook a little. "... the ones that died here..."

"Other than the ones that Shī jiě dealt with personally, there were a couple of smugglers that also died in the stampede," Sou Yuet assured her. "As far as we can tell, there were no innocent lives lost. I am certain your doctor is not among them."

So the necromancer had told them. Still, everyone's thoughts were heavy.

The loong's eyes were dark with dehydration. In the dim light, it seemed as though a little dried blood crusted her lips as well. Sou Yuet could tell that here was another one who was not well, which would make sense for them to be travelling with a doctor. Zéyì Shī jiě tried to offer her some water, but the loong turned away.

The monk and the witch exchanged another look and decided not to ask. Instead Sou Yuet said, "I'm sorry we can't take you to Yuān Wěi ourselves, but we've been tasked with an investigative mission and must be going. Here, I'll draw you a rough map and give you the location."

If they had lost their doctor, it was vital that they got help as soon as possible. The monk produced one of the pieces of paper they had brought to send messages back to Yuen Mei, and quickly sketched the route back to the temple. The necromancer kept one eye on them and one eye on the still unnamed loong staring behind the stage. There was an odd atmosphere surrounding them all, but one that the witch thought that perhaps she was familiar with.

Sou Yuet handed the map to their Shī jiě. "We'll help you look for your companion for a day before we have to leave. We might have a good chance of finding her."

The necromancer immediately closed her eyes and reached out to the dead around her once more, finding a cowering pig demon lamenting that his greed had trapped him in a dark place for the rest of eternity. She offered to help him out if he searched for the silver-haired doctor and he accepted immediately, disappearing from the hall. She opened her eyes as Zéyì Shī jiě was speaking. "I'll go where you go, Gong Dze. Wherever you choose, I'll help you."

The loong, Miss Gong, looked irritated, and the roughness of her voice belied an anger that was hiding behind her emotionless expression. "Help? Can't you think for yourself for once?"

The necromancer winced. Oh yes, she knew this alright. That uncontrollable desire to lash out when there is nowhere else to turn. This person might not be human, but she held in her hands the flayed skin of her sister, had lost a travelling companion, and had caused a riot that could have killed innocent people. Her heart had to be overflowing with emotions.

"Don't take your anger out on others," she snapped, irritated by the familiarity. Miss Gong glared at her, a green spark lighting in her eyes, and although it made her tremble a little inside, the witch glared steadfastly back, determined not to be intimidated.

"Are you saying I shouldn't be angry?" the loong hissed.

"Of course you should be angry." Zéyì Shī jiě glared at the necromancer, who felt this was all very unfair. Sou Yuet! Stand up for me! "Your dze dze-"

The loong rounded on her again. "Stop! Just stop... Go and get treated, Zéyì. You can't... you can't help me."

In seconds, they were fighting with anxious words. Sou Yuet and the necromancer awkwardly tried to pretend they were part of the scenery.

"He's not real, Zéyì!"

At last, the argument ground to a halt. “Who's she talking about?” the necromancer muttered in Sou Yuet's ear.

"... what?" Zéyì Shī jiě asked faintly.

Miss Gong was speechless now. She clearly had not intended to say anything, but the words had sprung forth unconsciously. "A Yì... there's no one there. You've been talking to yourself for the past few months."

"But... but you talked him too!"

"Sometimes you would... your voice would change. Your whole body language would change... You would say things that didn't sound like the usual you..."

Zéyì Shī jiě turned to look at the empty space where she had sat before, her eyes desperately questioning, as if she saw something there. She turned from the monk and the witch to the loong, as if hoping they would admit they were playing a joke on her. This only seemed to make Miss Gong even more angry and a torrent of cutting words words poured out.

All of a sudden, she stopped. The necromancer had been about intervene again, but wondered if she had regained control of herself. Instead, the loong began to mutter to herself as if she had worked something out. She looked up.

"A Yì..." she said slowly. "You should go and get treated."

"But-" Zéyì Shī jiě wanted to protest, but she was pale and shaking and her mind was clearly a mess.

Sou Yuet interrupted quietly, jumbling Common Tongue and Dzue and Xiǎng together. "I'm sorry, Shī jiě, but I agree with Lady Gong. To be in such a state of hei deviation that your demonic side appears to be manifesting as an entity that you can see and talk to... It's far too dangerous, for everyone. We released the si dzi earlier, and rescued their child, I'm sure they would be quite willing to guide you safely to Yuān Wěi."

Their Shī jiě looked back and forth, completely lost. Then, with a supreme effort, she pulled herself together and bowed deeply to the loong.

The necromancer turned her face away. A hand patted her elbow, and Sou Yuet's face peered up into hers gently. The witch rubbed her thumb over that hand and they stood in silence together.

The loong walked away without looking back at the woman who seemed to be breaking apart behind her, and two people exchanged uncomfortable looks.