The warm day was winding down as the necromancer left the tent. The si dzi puppy trotted at his heels, bright blue tongue drawing attention from passers-by, but the necromancer's glares quickly sent that attention elsewhere. Through the crowd ahead, he could see a moving gap between the people, as if they were avoiding someone of short stature. Picking up the puppy, he increased his speed until he finally caught up to Sou Yuet.

They walked in silence, the noise and smells of the city washing over them. The necromancer was beginning to feel claustrophobic, but he kept his eyes on the monk until they both reached the city gates and spilled out into the countryside with merchants and travellers and city folk.

Sou Yuet halted at a large rock by the side of the road, and sat down. "Are you okay?"

"Me? Not too shabby. What about you?" The necromancer sat down too and placed the puppy on Sou Yuet's lap. She happily and fastidiously began to wash the monk's face.

"I'm... alright."

"Look me in the eye and say that, why don't ye?"

"I'm..."

They stared directly at each other. Sou Yuet bit their lip and looked away almost immediately.

"Are ye angry at me, monk? It's fine, I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't be," Sou Yuet snapped. "How could they treat you like this?"

"I'm a criminal, monk. Did ye forget? Hey..." His hand, he realised, was now tightly held between both of Sou Yuet's. "Ha, small hands... Come on now, this is where ye say that I'm just uselessly big, and-"

"Why? What is it that you did that was so wrong?"

The si dzi puppy whined. The necromancer stared at the pale golden crown of Sou Yuet's head, since it was all he could see.

A warm little breeze, left over from the heat of the day, whirled sand around them. People passed on the road, chattering in a hundred different languages. Planning. Arguing. Laughing.

The necromancer put his other hand on top of Sou Yuet's. "I did some things, back home. When I was a kid, there were some people who... treated me and Mam a bit bad. I... did some things back. And then when their families came a-crying for explanations, I... uh... 'explained' by raising the ghosts of their relatives to scare them some. Well, scared them a lot. They ran off to the Aiteann Court for protection. Me and Mam dodged them for a bit but... it's hard for a single woman and her brat to live a straight life. I stole stuff sometimes, sold me skills when I got older, mostly doing bodyguard work. People get... leery when they find out I can raise the dead, though. After a while, the way they look at me... It ain't good. So I move on pretty quick. I stopped going round with me mam too, she's doing better without me."

Sou Yuet's hair was flaming gold in the orange last light.

"It's not so bad," the necromancer continued dreamily. "When they arrested me... well, I've had worse. And anyway, I got to meet... I got to meet you... Hey, Ah Yuet... ye're not.... crying, are ye?"

His hand felt a little damp. Sou Yuet's were trembling, very slightly.

"Come on, monk. It's nothing. I'm fine, right? I'll just do me time and then it'll be over."

In response, Sou Yuet sighed, released his hands, and picked up the si dzi puppy. They pressed their face into the lion dog's soft belly. "I've got a name for her."

"Yeah? Tell me."

"San Hei. It means 'happiness'."

"There's a word in the common language that sounds a bit like that, right? 'Sunny'?"

"Sunny... that's good. I like it. What do you think, Sunny?"

Sunny panted happily.

"Are ye alright now?"

"Me?" Sou Yuet's placid smile showed no indication of their previous agitation. "Of course. What's important now is coming up with a plan to find out what happened with the anqa. And to get your things back."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"... Thanks."

"Well... it's not right. These things that have happened-"

The necromancer pulled Sou Yuet close, and hugged them tightly, one calloused hand on the back of their head. Sunny squeaked in protest, squashed between the two of them.

It was dark now, and the desert night air was cooling rapidly around them. The necromancer let go and stood quickly. "I suppose we should go bother that daft old merchant for a place to sleep. If we're helping him out, it's only right to give us a bed."

"A bed would be good."

"Just the one?"

"...?"

"Never mind."

Alam Wesa did, in fact, provide them with comfortable lodgings, including not just one, but two beds, with wooden frames and comfortable mattresses stuffed with straw and expensive feathers. The necromancer lay staring up at the ceiling of the mud brick house, and felt his body shift, unbidden, into female form. She sighed and rolled onto her side so that she could dimly see the form of Sou Yuet laying on the bed against the opposite wall. Outside, the sounds of the city continued to hum.

"Hey... are ye awake?"

"What is it, Pang Yau?"

"I was just wondering... What's yer story? Ye... ye don't have to tell me if ye don't want to. I'd... just like to know ye a little more..."

The monk was quiet for so long that the necromancer turned back and wrapped an arm around Sunny, who was curled up on the bed next to her. "Well, good ni-"

"My father was from Zhàng."

Ah... the colour of their hair. Like the silvergrass. The necromancer listened silently. If she spoke, she thought she might break whatever spell had Sou Yuet talking.

"My mother was from Chūn. It was... The story I've been told is that my father came to Chūn looking for work. They met, had me... I wasn't really planned. They parted ways a few years later, and I was picked up by Si fu not long after."

The silence returned. The necromancer sat up, holding the sleeping Sunny. "What were yer parents like?"

"I don't really remember."

"That old man, yer Master... Ye see him like yer dad, don't ye?"

"Yuen Muk Si fu is... yes. Yes." Sou Yuet's voice trembled. "... Pang Yau, what...?"

"Sunny feels cold. I'm just trying to keep her warm," the necromancer said, climbing nonchalantly into Sou Yuet's bed with the sleeping si dzi puppy clutched like a thin excuse. "Budge over."

She wrapped an arm around Sou Yuet, creating a cocoon with Sunny in the middle.

The silence stretched out between them. Voices rose and fell outside.

"It's good, ye know."

"What is?"

"That ye've got a dad in that old geezer. It's good having at least one someone like that."

"Like your mother?"

"Like Mam, yeah. Having her means a lot to me... I'm glad yer Master was looking out for ye. It's... not right for a kid to be left alone." She felt a hand squeeze hers, and Sou Yuet drew a long, shuddering sigh.

They didn't speak again that night.

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

"Here." The young boy pointed to a narrow trail leading between the rocks. "Anqa, here."

They stood in the rocky hills overlooking the city, Sou Yuet and the necromancer having been led there by the boy they had seen at Alam Wesa's tea shop. Sou Yuet thanked him, and give him a little picture they had drawn of Sunny. Eyes shining, the boy bowed them goodbye and ran off to show his prize to his friends back in town.

"Little brat," the necromancer laughed, wrapped in some borrowed cloths to keep the sun from burning her pale skin. She followed Sunny through the rocky terrain as the puppy sniffed energetically. Sou Yuet caught her elbow. "Are you ready for this?"

"Of course. Are ye doubting me?"

"No! No, it's not that-"

"Don't be fretting, monk. I'll be fine. We'll be fine."

Sunny had slowed. She crawled forward on her belly and the two humans lowered their voices.

"It must be near."

"Wait, let me scout."

Sou Yuet quietly called Sunny back, while the necromancer cast out her senses, searching. She almost immediately came across the bones of a sheep, the half-devoured carcass rotting in the hot sun. The sheep spirit meekly raised its head when the necromancer called.

"Can I borrow yer eyes, friend?"

Docile, the sheep spirit stood up out of its corpse, and turned about, facing the yawning entrance of a huge cave that gaped behind it, just out of sight around the rocks from where Sou Yuet and the necromancer stood.

After giving itself a little shake, the sheep spirit trotted forward into the gloom. At first, the necromancer was relieved that she had found a sheep. They had good vision in the dark, so they wouldn't have to stumble around in the cave. Using the sheep's eyes, she easily picked up the shape of rocks, then bones, then-

Suddenly-

A face.

The necromancer almost dispossessed the sheep in shock. The face loomed before her out of the darkness. A woman's face - no, it couldn't be called that. Perhaps a doll's face? A mask? Inhumanly beautiful without a single flaw, a local poet looking on would have ecstatically described her with all the flowery language that existed for female beauty of that region. Pale brown skin smooth as porcelain, a wide forehead and straight nose, and perfectly almond-shaped, kohl-rimmed black eyes, with long, silken lashes. Those beautiful eyes were as flat as those of the dead.

A single beauty spot lay demurely above the right side of her upper lip. The witch had the strangest feeling that those perfect red lips never opened, would never open. Not to talk. Not to eat.

When she devours, it is not the mouth on the face that opens.

The sheep spirit was frozen in place. She could feel its rising terror threatening to overwhelm her.

"Ye can go now, thanks," the necromancer whispered, withdrawing. It was unsettling to come to in the bright sunlight with Sou Yuet and Sunny pressed anxiously against her.

"Pang Yau, your hands are cold."

The necromancer let out a steadying breath. "That bloody merchant's right. There's something a bit weird going on here."