They moved quickly. The trees were too close to allow the use of the ginseng leaf. Instead, Sou Yuet and Sunny followed the necromancer, letting her set the pace. She clenched her jaw, trying to control the heaving of her chest. To keep her mind from the ache, she sent warning calls out to the dead that haunted the forest, and ghostly wolves and rabbits and deer scattered away from the approaching Hunt.

“Perhaps I should be running more,” she panted, pausing to lean against a dead tree, its blackened bark crumbling underhand. Sou Yuet and Sunny pulled up beside her, breathing lightly.

“Should I teach you some lightness arts?”

“D'ye really think I can learn whatever that thing is ye do? Our powers are too different, Ah Yuet.” She grunted to clear her lungs. “I'll just have to learn the hard way.”

“Learning lightness arts is hard though?”

“Shut it, smartarse.”

“Better than-”

“- being a dumbarse, yeah yeah.” She limbered her shoulders. “They're coming... It'll only be a few hours until they catch us.”

“Tell me when they're about a si... when they're about two hours away.”

“What is it ye're going to do?”

Tapping the dead tree, Sou Yuet watched as tiny green buds appeared at the base of the trunk, ready for spring to arrive. “Like I said before, the Leader... Lady Herela? She seemed to like my voice. She asked to hear more... Maybe I could talk to her.”

“Is that some kind of magic power, the Ability to Talk to People? Talk them into changing their minds? Grand.”

“Who knows. It might do something.” Sou Yuet patted Sunny. “How long has it been since the Hunt has sat down and talked to someone? Most people would run, wouldn't they? The Hunters have been running and killing and capturing all this time without any other interaction. What if I gave them something else to think about?”

A memory – the bathhouse in Yuan Wei. Caution dissolving in warm water. Anxiety dissipating in afternoon sunlight. The light touch as a comb slid through hair. The quiet snip, snip of scissors.

“Something different, ey? Yeah, perhaps. But we're getting out of there as soon as things get hairy.”

Sou Yuet blinked. “You won't be there though. You have to go ahead, I'll stay behind.”

“Feck off.”

“I can run faster than you,” the monk pointed out. “If things do go wrong, I can just run.”

“Ugh... What if they don't stop when ye meet them and come after me anyway? I might as well just stay here.”

“No.”

“Yuet, ye're a grand fighter and all, but I don't want to run away and then meet ye next time as a spirit, alright? Even if-” She raised her voice to prevent Sou Yuet from interrupting. “- it's real unlikely, I'm going to be thinking about it. Let me stay with ye, alright? No, I'm staying anyway, but at least pretend ye're fine with it.”

Sou Yuet sighed and patted the necromancer's cheek. “Alright, Pang Yau. Stay with me. But let's move first. We should try and get as far west as we can before they arrive.”

With a groan, the necromancer shook her legs and began to run again. After an hour of running, they finally slowed down, the necromancer grunting every second step.

“They're a couple of hours away now... Why are ye doing this, ye dumb monk?"

"Would it be better if I just kept trying to fight them instead?"

"That's definitely an option. Or, ye know, we could just get the hell out of here?"

"Hm? What do you think I'll say to that?"

"'Get fecked'?"

A smile. The necromancer sighed, but it was better than seeing the monk distressed. They slowed to a walk, not rushing, but not exactly idling either. The vegetation here was more dense, with signs of spring catching up to them – tiny buds on the trees, and masses of snowdrop flowers, poking from the shallow snow. Sou Yuet though they could hear the faint sound of flower fairy laughter when they brushed past the snowdrops, the bent heads rocking gently.

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"Ye're too soft," the necromancer groaned. “That's dangerous. It'll get ye killed some day."

"That's okay, you'll still be able to talk to me."

SLAM! Sou Yuet jerked in surprise as the necromancer's fist blasted a dead tree into a hundred dry splinters.

"What. Did. You. Just. Say."

"It was a joke."

"Very fecking funny."

"I'm sorry."

"So why'd ye say it in the first place?"

"Are you... upset?"

"WHAT DO YE THINK?" the necromancer roared. Sunny growled low and slunk away, her stubby tail low. The monk and the necromancer hurried to reassure her.

Sou Yuet scratched the si dzi's ears, staring at their moving fingers. "Do you really think we should just run?"

"Do what ye want, eejit."

"Pang Yau..."

The necromancer sighed again, pulling Sou Yuet into a bear hug. She could feel Sou Yuet's heart pounding as they lay against Sunny's warm flank, rising and falling with her breath.

"Shite... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare ye.”

“You didn't scare me.”

“What are ye, five years old? Ye think I'll believe a lie like that?”

“So-”

“I made a mistake, and I'm owning up to it. Don't lie just cause ye're worried about me feelings, alright?”

“... right.”

“What I wanted to say was... Ah Yuet, I'm sure ye've realised by now that I'm a selfish bastard-"

"You're not-"

"Shut it for a second, will ye? Listen, in me mind, there's only me, and the few I care about. Right now, that's you, Sunny, and me mam."

The air around them was growing tense. The Hunt was drawing near.

"When it comes down to it, the rest of the world can go get fecked, far as I care. If it's a choice between me and someone else, ye can be sure that I'll be putting meself first.

"So I'm not really understanding why ye're doing this. I mean, I know why, but I don't understand it. And I'm telling ye now, if things go bad, we're getting out of here, no questions asked, got it?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Thank nothing. Ugh, they're here."

Reluctantly, she released Sou Yuet as a black horse trotted into the clearing where they sat, its hocks guarded by shadowy, growling hounds. Sunny lowered her head to the ground, but her little black eyes remained fixed on the dogs.

The Lord of the Host laughed. She hadn't bothered to replaced her hood, and the skin stretched across her skull creaked alarmingly as her jaw moved. "Have you ceased struggling, children? Have you lost your will in fear?"

The necromancer's jaw clicked with effort.

Sou Yuet's response was to pull out the Fire dagger, and lay it on the ground. The Hunters, emerging into the clearing, looked at the small blade.

It was a little shorter than Sou Yuet's forearm, with a gleaming, narrow blade, and a glassy black hilt that shone with brilliant iridescent gleams of yellow, red, purple and green, piercing the eyes of the onlookers.

"What is this?" Lady Herela asked, with a skeletal grin, although her expression shifted to a more thoughtful one as she examined the dagger a little longer.

When Sou Yuet spoke, the monk's words were in the Yue tongue. Remembering the words of the sphynx, the necromancer let herself drift into the in-between state she adopted when speaking with the dead, and the monk's words shifted in her head.

"This dagger once belonged to the Vermilion Bird of the South, the great Lady Ling Gwong, who rules over the Fire element. The blade is made of wolfram, and the handle is made from fire obsidian. She forged it herself; no other flame could be hot enough to create it."

Lady Herela considered the dagger with more interest.

“Each direction of the world is ruled by a divine guardian. Lord Gaam Bing in the west, the great White Metal Tiger. Lady Azure Dragon, ruler of Wood, Maang Dzeung in the east. The Black Tortoise of the North, Dzap Ming, who rules Water. And the One at the Centre of All Things, the Great Goddess, Golden Dragon Wong Tang. They built the world together, founded schools of culture,and watched over it, even as other divine beings began to leave for the Heavenly Realm.”

The smile was creeping back onto Lady Herela's face.

"Around two hundred years ago, Lady Ling Gwong was captured by a town of demons, who wanted to use her as a hostage. The realm of the demons was suffering from spiritual and ecological collapse, and so they sought the resources of the mortal realm."

Lady Herela's sunken eyes were closed, savouring the rapid syllables of the Yue language.

"But her presence brought them only more trouble. Those seeking to exploit Lady Ling Gwong's powers invaded the Demon Realm, killing demons in cruel ways."

All of the Hunters were listening raptly. Even the hounds and horses had stilled.

"She was tricked into giving her knowledge, and this dagger, to one who was not worthy of her teachings."

"So how is it here?" one of the Hunters interrupted. The rest of the Hunt glared at him for breaking the flow of the story, so he tried to sidle away in embarrassment.

"The one who tricked her was eventually caught," Sou Yuet said. "Although not without great sacrifice. My si fu was entrusted with looking after it, and he gave it to me for this journey." The monk looked around at the listening Hunters. "Would you like to hear about the Great Demon War?"

The hunger in the Hunters' eyes spoke for them. And so, Sou Yuet told them stories, about the Jade Exorcist, who wielded two blades and cut down enemies in the blink of an eye. About the Twin Stars - the Fire Star, who brought to justice the one who tricked Lady Ling Gwong, and the Sage Star, who led the development of a new language to communicate with the demons, that would eventually become Xiǎng, the most widely used in the Four Kingdoms.

About Master Yuen Muk, the Eagle-Eyed. How he led the group through the trials of the Great Demon War. How he stayed behind after the rest Ascended to the Heavenly Realm.

The necromancer listened to the tender pride and gentle sorrow in Sou Yuet's voice. She wondered if she sounded the same when she spoke of her own mother.

Sou Yuet's voice was becoming as rough as the necromancer's, but they only stopped talking when Lady Herela opened her eyes.

"Where are you headed, children?"

"Íriu," Sou Yuet said.

"Home," the necromancer said.

"We will escort you westwards to the sea," said Lady Herela. "And you will tell us more stories as we go."