"Pang Yau..." Sou Yuet's usually placid face had a slight frown as they digested what the necromancer had told them. "Can I ask... your abilities aren't just related to necromancy, are they? I need to know so we can make a plan."

The necromancer sat on the sand, Sunny on her lap. The two of them looked as though they were engaged in a very serious staring match, piercing green meeting bulging black eyes. Sunny's bright blue tongue lolled out, ruining the image.

"... I guess I'm just like that foxy bastard after all."

"You're not a fox, though?"

"I have... some abilities..."

Sou Yuet waited, but the necromancer did not finish her sentence. "If it's hard to talk about-"

"Well it is, but we'll be needing a good idea of each other's skills to know what to do, I think."

Still, she didn't elaborate. Sunny panted in a confused sort of way.

"I have abilities to use and manipulate plants,” Sou Yuet offered. “It's been very useful when healing... And... I also have the ability to... excessively heal, you could say. I used it on Li. His left eye is damaged, that's why he hides it, and I... made extra skin grow over it."

"Sounds disgusting. Good job."

"Thank you."

"... I... can take people's pain. And... I can pass it on others, a bit."

Sou Yuet's dark eyes were irresistibly drawn to the tattoos that writhed all over the necromancer's body.

"Yeah... they turn up on me body like this." She jumped a little as a gentle finger caressed the spiral on her face, the latest mark that she had gained during her fight with Li. Sou Yuet's expression twisted.

"It's alright, monk. It doesn't hurt now..."

The monk looked away. "I'm not sure if either of us has the right skills to deal with the anqa."

"True, ye said yer old - yer Master has more experience with healing minds. This anqa's looking mentally not all there.... I could have a-"

"No."

"It was just a sugg-"

"No."

"I'll only feel it for a couple of min-"

"NO!"

They both froze. There was no response from the cave.

"Well, she probably knew that we're here already anyway."

Sou Yuet rubbed their left wrist anxiously. "We should try to talk with her. It's not polite to linger like this."

"Just be ready to make a quick escape, ye know?"

"You too."

"..."

"Right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Pang Yau..."

"I get it! I'll be ready to get out of there if I need to."

"Stay, Sunny."

The puppy whined anxiously but did as she was told, as the two humans stepped around the rocks, into full view of the cave.

The open mouth yawned huge and black before them.

All was silent.

"Greeting Lady Anqa. My name is Yuān Yì Fēng. Although humble, I have skills as healer, and I wish to ask whether there is anything that ails you, Lady."

The desert wind blew across the cave mouth, raising a eerie whistle. The darkness inside seemed to have a waiting quality.

"I've got no name," the necromancer said gruffly, "but I have skills in necromancy and... I'm accompanying Sou- Yuān Yì Fēng."

"Come closer, human children."

A voice that was not a voice rang in their minds. The necromancer shivered involuntarily. "Feck, I don't like that."

Sou Yuet stepped forward a few paces. The necromancer reluctantly followed suit.

The face in the shadows emerged.

The duo gritted their teeth and fixed their expressions.

"I hurt, human children."

"What ails you, Lady Anqa?" Sou Yuet asked again. "Can we assist you?"

She didn't respond. The beautiful face stared passively at them, where it floated in the dark void of the cave mouth.

"I hurt, human children."

"I can take it from ye, if ye want," the necromancer blurted out. Sou Yuet seized the sleeve of her robe.

"No! You can't-"

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"You cannot."

"... Lady?"

"He took them, and crushed them into blood. They were beginning to dream. Their first breaths... were their dying ones."

"Whose, Lady?"

"Take my hurt, you say? But it is all I have left. All I have left of them."

Below the immobile face, something shifted. Something opened.

"He stole my children from me and transformed them into mere piles of meat. You cannot take my hurt from me."

The face moved upwards slightly as the anqa emerged from the cave. From her feathered chest, a slavering mouth, part bird's beak, part dog's maw, opened wide.

"You cannot take my anger. It is all I have left of them."

She lunged.

Sou Yuet pushed the necromancer out of the way as they themselves sprang in the opposite direction. With a deep breath, they plunged their hands into the sand, and a huge vine exploded upwards, wrapping around the anqa's large, feathered body. Small melons scattered about as she thrashed; the necromancer recognised them as one of the fruits they had seen in the markets previously. Ah Yuet, ye've already picked up the local plants, have ye?

But the vine was breaking apart rapidly. Sou Yuet gritted their teeth. "Lady! We want to help you, please!"

The necromancer spread her senses outwards, seeking the children that the anqa had spoken of. But there was nothing beyond the dead sheep, and a few scattered scorpions. She pushed her search out further, straining to see...

"Pang Yau!"

She managed to raise her arms up just in time to block a blow from a gigantic wing. Despite her strength and sturdiness, the shock knocked her back a few paces, and her forearms buzzed with pain. She shouted at the rapidly unshackling anqa. "Where are yer children, Lady? I can help ye speak to them!"

The wing swung out again. This time, the necromancer managed to seize hold of it, temporarily controlling its movements as Sou Yuet brought more vines to wrap the limb up once more. This was clearly no a long term solution - sweat poured down the monk's face and they looked pale with the effort.

The necromancer reached out again, searching, searching. Who said this damned bird was the same height as me? Come on, kids, where are ye?

"Pang Yau, she's getting free again!"

The vines were torn apart in an instant. The anqa was on the necromancer in the blink of an eye, her great talons flashing. They sliced across the necromancer's torso like a sword through paper.

Sou Yuet arrived a blink later. They snatched the necromancer up and leapt back out of the anqa's range, half an eye to the creature, half to the tattered mess that was the necromancer's chest. The anqa's mouth howled and yattered.

"Please, Lady," the necromancer roared above the anqa's screams, above the blood pounding in her ears, above Sou Yuet's anxious voice. "I can help ye to talk to yer children, or I can take yer pain away. Just say the word! Ye just have to say it!"

The anqa's mouth closed. Sou Yuet had their hands firmly pressed down on the necromancer's wounds, and was tearing strips from their own clothing, working frantically in this brief respite. The necromancer stared doggedly into the immobile doll's face, even as it seemed that the warm desert day was getting a little... cold?

The face stared impassively down at the injured necromancer, at the monk desperately working over her, at the small si dzi puppy racing towards them. She said-

"My children are gone. Speaking to their ghosts is a cruel mockery of their lives. I will not give you my pain, human child. It is all I have left of them."

Blood seeped into the sand.

"Pang Yau! Pang Yau!"

Why the hell's yer voice so quiet, ye damned monk?

The anqa watched disinterestedly.

"So what will you do now, human child? What will you do, now I have nothing left? Only my pain for my children."

She raised her taloned foot once more.

"Tell them, I am sorry. For failing to protect them, I am so, so sorry."

The claws came down.

Sou Yuet leapt up.

From somewhere within their robes (Where? the necromancer thought dimly. Where the feck did they hide that?), they drew a long dagger. The blade flashed sharp and white, and the anqa paused, as if puzzled, looking at her now bleeding paw.

Sou Yuet landed and called up to her. "Lady, please, we don't wish to fight you! Please let us help you."

The anqa slowly turned to look at the monk. "... You cannot."

The claws flashed down again. Sou Yuet dodged, a fraction faster than she, darting back to the necromancer's side. "Pang Yau, I'll get you out of here first."

The necromancer wanted to protest, but she was just a little too tired. She tried to say this, but her tongue just didn't want to cooperate. The monk gritted their teeth.

The anqa struck again, and Sou Yuet just managed to deflect the blow, but it was clear that although the monk was speedy, they were lacking in strength in comparison to the giant creature. They turned back to the necromancer, but the anqa was on them again, and so they were forced to defend, trying at the same time to lead her away from the injured witch.

Again and again, Sou Yuet redirected blows from those huge talons, calling for the anqa to cease fighting. The dagger in their hand was sharp, and although they did not go on the offensive, the anqa's paws were slashed to ribbons.

Again and again, those bleeding paws descended on the monk, who was beginning to tire.

The necromancer blinked her eyes, almost crying with frustration. Her tongue stumbled over the words. "Let me... take it... away. Just... just say... y-yes... And... I..."

A claw caught Sou Yuet a glancing slice across the shoulder, and blood streamed from the wound. They swayed, clutching their shoulder, dark eyes moving from the necromancer, lying still and prone on the sand with Sunny frantically tugging at her arm, to the anqa, injured but persisting without any signs of tiring, back to the necromancer.

The monk clutched the dagger tightly. They bowed their head with respect as the anqa loomed above them.

"Lady... I am so very sorry we could not help you or your children... I'm sorry."

The anqa's mouth opened as she lunged downwards.

Sou Yuet leapt lightly aside, then hopped up her haunch, finding footholds in her feathers. She snapped at the monk again and again, too late, too late, and that sharp little white blade plunged deep into her neck, in and out, once, twice...

Gods, she was such a huge creature. The knife was sharp but it was so small compared to her.

Sou Yuet slashed again.

Slash.

Slash.

The anqa lay quietly down on the sand, bleeding red life.

Slash.

"I'm... I'm sorry."

Slash.

"I'm so sorry."

Slash.

Slash.

The creature's chest sank with a sigh, and did not rise again.

Sou Yuet sat numbly amongst her feathers, shining like copper in the bright sun, tousled by the hot desert breeze. They were soft to touch, glossy and smooth, a single one almost as long as Sou Yuet was tall. The eyes on the beautiful doll face had closed.

The monk slid from the anqa's back, stumbling back to the necromancer in robes stained with three kinds of blood. The dagger disappeared back into wherever it came from as Sou Yuet knelt down by the necromancer's side, automatically working. The monk's lips moved silently, their dark eyes becoming increasingly frantic. Sunny ran in circles. The necromancer grew colder.

Sou Yuet didn't dare to use their healing powers. In any case, their hei was so low now, having first tried to control the anqa, then defend against her attacks before finally being forced onto the offensive, they could probably do little good. They poured the entirety of the two healing elixirs they had left onto the necromancer's wounds, then on a tattered scrap of fabric torn from the remains of their outer robe, Sou Yuet scrawled an untidy note in blood using shaky letters from the common tongue. They could not have told you whose blood it was.

[Help.]

And handed it to Sunny, sending the puppy back to Vurdʑɕahar. Then, after dragging the necromancer into the shade and carefully laying her head on their lap, they drew out a set of silver needles. Drawing one, they held it over the necromancer's inert form.

Their hands shook.

It couldn't be done like this.

They put the needle back, and tried to wait for their hands to stop trembling.

The necromancer's breathing was shallow. Sou Yuet's stare was a thousand miles long.

Sunny returned half an hour later, a small bag tied to her like a saddle. Inside was a flask of water, a small bottle of some medicinal liquid, and a stilted note written in the common tongue.

[You our protector killed. We you not help.]