“...did I do something wrong?”

A small smile “Maybe.”

“Uh... Well I'm sorry... Ye don't have to fight m-”

“Pang Yau, I'm asking you to fight me.”

“Yuet... We've fought before.”

Sou Yuet rested the top of their head against the necromancer's chest. “Yes. And that... That was wrong. I lost myself, and attacked you. This is different. I'm perfectly calm now.

“Why do you want me to do this?”

“You'll see.”

The necromancer made a face, but he let Sou Yuet go. “Alright...So...”

“Use everything you have.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I'm not-” He reeled to one side, his cheek tingling, from where Sou Yuet's staff had scraped the skin. The monk had drawn their hairpin and transformed it in the blink of an eye.

“Pang Yau.”

“Fine.”

The tattoos on his arms writhed and crawled out from under his sleeves, sliding along the ground towards Sou Yuet like snakes. Sunny barked and growled unhappily, backing up with her head swinging.

Sou Yuet struck out with the staff. The necromancer blocked it with his forearm, sending dark shapes running up its length. He almost missed the kick that the monk aimed directly at his chin, catching that too, but the staff changed back to hairpin again, coming loose from the shadows, then was a staff again in an instant, and the end of it was rammed into his diaphragm, knocking the air from him in a rush.

And the air didn't come back easily.

It wasn't simply a matter of him being winded. Looking up, he saw the green glints in Sou Yuet's dark eyes and the strange patterns that the monk's hands made.

Still, he had endured worse.

He could hold his breath for perhaps five minutes before he passed out, so he had five minutes to fight through.

The jagged line that ran along one of his temples left his skin and lanced towards the monk, and Sou Yuet was instantly seized with an almost blinding headache that made them sway, but still they withheld the air from the necromancer's lungs. They dodge the next tattoo that flew towards them, a starburst shape from the necromancer's knee. That probably would have shattered their kneecap.

Sou Yuet slammed a foot down into the ground to try and regain concentration, leaving a depression in the stone. Brambles rose up and wrapped around the necromancer's body, and with a growl of pain he spat out the band of black that was patterned around his tongue. Sou Yuet felt a searing pain across their own tongue, releasing their hold on both the air and the brambles to direct healing energy to the injured body part.

The necromancer scrambled up, shedding blood and thorns, to find Sou Yuet's fist flying at him. It hit him square in the chest, and he felt his ribs crack along the breastbone, and he was launched into the rock behind him.

He coughed, ruefully. “Why are ye doing this, Yuet? Ye look miserable.”

The monk froze, next fist still raised, teeth bared unhappily. Unclenching their hand, they laid it on the necromancer's chest, and he felt everything knit neatly back together, the bones healing, his bruised lungs easing.

“What was that about?”

“Do you think I would die easily?” Sou Yuet muttered.

“What?”

“Every time... You always get so angry at me... Do you think I would die that easily?”

“Wait... so that was all to show how tough ye are?”

“Is it not enough?” Sou Yuet demanded. “You're always telling me not to do this and that – Do you believe in me so little? Do you think I'm weak? I'm not weak!”

“That's... I know that.”

“Then why-”

“Because...”

Because?

The necromancer slid down to sit, and held out his hands to the monk. In spite of the furious scowl on Sou Yuet's face, they instantly took those hands, and were pulled down to join the necromancer. They curled up together in a reassuring embrace.

“Don't ye get mad when I do dumb shite? When I get hurt? Even though it can't really kill me?”

“... yes... but-”

“But what?”

“It's... different.”

“How?”

The monk had no answer. They merely glared at the unoffending ground.

“Yuet, do ye think it's alright for ye to get hurt, but not me? Do ye think that nobody would care if ye got hurt?”

“But I'm fine-”

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“Even so... Ye have no idea how scary it is for me, watching ye charging off like that. Doesn't matter how strong ye are, I never know... what if that's the last time I'll see ye this side of the veil? Haven't I told ye before? Do ye not believe me?”

The cold night air of early spring had settled around them. Sunny shook herself and curled up around them to share in their body heat.

“...why?”

“Why what?”

“Why is it scary?”

“Do I really need to spell it out for ye, ye dumb monk?”

Sou Yuet looked up. Their mouth tried to form words, but it took a few moments before they said, “If... I think maybe I'm a very bad parole officer.”

“Really? I think ye're right grand. I wouldn't be wanting anyone else.”

They paused awkwardly.

“I know I'm a criminal and all, but...”

Sou Yuet very deliberately leaned in and pressed a light peck on the necromancer's lips.

“... but nevermind. Ye call that a kiss?”

“Did I do it wrong?” Sou Yuet asked, looking concerned.

“Here, let me teach ye.”

Sou Yuet was a quick student, and soon they were both warm and light-headed. The necromancer cheerfully snuggled into the crook of the monk's neck.

“Looks like all my flirting finally paid off.”

“I did wonder about that,” Sou Yuet said. “I thought you were flirting, but then nothing ever happened, so then I thought I was misunderstanding.”

“Wait... Ye knew I was flirting with ye?”

“Yes?”

A very slow, pained breath left the necromancer's lungs.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Sunny snorted.

“Yuet, I'm sorry if I made ye feel... It's nothing to do with yer abilities. I know ye could toss me over this mountain if ye wanted to. I saw what ye did to the Grey King. That air thing was a bit of a surprise though.”

“Those with Wood powers have a certain amount of control over air. Trees produce oxygen, after all.”

“So I've heard. Anyway, it's not about that. I just don't like the thought of ye getting hurt, ye understand?”

“Yes. But-”

“I'll try and calm down about it.”

“Thank you.”

“But also value yerself a little more. Don't just go chucking yerself into all kinds of situations. What happened, anyway? I got a bit... distracted before.”

“Can I distract you a bit more first?”

“Ha. What a surprise, turns out this shameless monk is some kind of kissing monster.”

“A what?”

"Are ye blushing there, monk? Is that... Ye are!" the necromancer crowed with delight. "Ha! I never thought I'd see the day when this shameless monk would blush."

"Who's shameless?" Sou Yuet muttered, covering their face with their hand.

"No hiding now. Come here." The necromancer pulled the hand back down to free Sou Yuet's mouth.

It was a few more minutes before Sou Yuet was able to speak again.

“So when are ye going to tell me what happened just now?”

“Hm? You were kis-”

“I meant, with the King Unto the Mist.”

“Ah.”

“Yuet.”

“Well-”

“There you are,” Lady Herela interrupted, frowning at them. “What? We rode up in plain view. Why do you look so surprised?”

“No reason,” the necromancer said hastily. “How far've we got to travel yet?”

“Not far.” She cast an unfathomable glance at Sou Yuet, but simply said. “We can be there before the moon is overhead if we leave now.”

Sou Yuet and the necromancer rode on Sunny down from the mountains and out to the ocean shore. The cold, black water foamed up the grey sand and hissed back down again. The black hounds gathered at the tideline and howled into the night.

In the deeper water offshore, one, two, three... several heads broke through the water's rough surface. A pod of aughisky bobbed on the water.

Sou Yuet bowed to the Hunt. “Thank you for your assistance.”

Again, that unfathomable look from Lady Herela. “Do you have no concern that now you are leaving, we will return to hunting down beings every night?”

“It sounds as though you believe I should, Lady.”

“Hmph. Worry as much as you want.”

“I will.”

Sunny left off sniffing the hounds and joined Sou Yuet and the necromancer as they waded into the shallows, the necromancer grumbling about the cold.

“Should I carry you?” Sou Yuet asked.

“Feck off.”

With the moon shining above them, the silver aughisky were sleek and smooth, the fur of their upper horse-halves merging seamlessly with their lower fish-halves. Sunny trod water until Sou Yuet summoned their leaf, lifting her into the air where she shook moisture from her thick fur. The other two climbed onto an aughisky each, and then they were off. When Sou Yuet turned back to the shore, the Hunt was already gone.

“You didn't say goodbye to them.”

“And why would I do that? It's not like any of us are going anywhere.”

Their aughisky steeds were close enough that Sou Yuet could slip a hand onto the necromancer's and squeeze it gently.

Neither of them spoke on the journey; they had to focus on withstanding the cold, and Sou Yuet additionally had to keep Sunny aloft as long as possible. Their steeds would grow tired too, so every so often there would be a change of aughisky. After almost fifty kilometres, Sou Yuet had to temporarily lower Sunny into the ocean. She whimpered pitiably in the cold water. The necromancer scratched wearily behind her tiny ears, shivering with cold himself.

It was difficult to stay alert. Sou Yuet was bundled in the fur cloak, but the monk's feet were still in the water. The necromancer slapped his own cheeks to wake himself up, tweaking Sou Yuet's ear when the monk dreamily began leaning off the aughisky they were riding.

“Hm? Ah, thanks...”

The red eyes of the aughisky blinked hungrily at them over the dark water.

“Don't ye fecking dare.” The necromancer glared ferociously at it. He nudged Sou Yuet as the monk began to nod again. “Stay awake, Yuet. Aughisky will drag ye down and eat ye if they feel like it, remember.”

Sou Yuet raised their head. The monk's eyes were glowing green, luminescent in the dark. “Have you forgotten what we did for you?”

Something shifted in the water below. The necromancer could just about see the dark shapes of some kind of flat-leafed plant.

The red eyes extinguished like water poured on embers. The aughisky whinnied nervously, slipping away from the grasping tendrils of the plants.

“No sense of gratitude,” Sou Yuet muttered.

“Gods, ye really get bad tempered when ye're tired, don't ye?”

Sou Yuet shook themselves, and raised Sunny from the water on the ginseng leaf. She crouched across several leaflets, shivering, her paws slipping through the gaps. Sou Yuet frowned.

“Why'd ye pick a ginseng leaf? There's more than one or two gaps.”

“I didn't choose it.” The monk sniffed the air suddenly. “There... land plants. We're getting close.”

“Thank the gods. I stopped feeling me face half the night ago.”

“We haven't been in the water that long.”

“Well we might as well have.”

They had to rely on Sou Yuet's sense of smell; the moon was falling, and the only things that could be seen were the glimmers of aughisky, and the occasional reflection of light off the wavelets disturbing the ocean surface.

Sou Yuet breathed out forcefully as the leaf carrying Sunny began to waver and she whimpered in panic. “Mm hou yi si, San Hei.”

“Nearly there,” the necromancer muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

They could see firelight up ahead now, tiny pinpricks of light across the cold, dark water. The aughisky were headed on a course just south of this light – evidently they didn't want to be seen either.

Keep going, keep going, the necromancer repeated silently. Sou Yuet seemed to be murmuring something in the Zhu tongue.

So muddled were they that they missed the moment when they reached land. One moment it seemed they were on the backs of the aughisky, next, the necromancer realised his face was mashed into sand and it was filling his mouth and nose. Looking around, he weakly spat and snorted out grit, to find Sou Yuet sitting vaguely upright nearby, staring blankly inland. Sunny was still on the ginseng leaf, rocking anxiously back and forth as she decided whether to jump down or not.

“Hey... Hey Yuet...”

“Hm?”

“We're... here. Ye can let Sunny down now.”

“Oh.”

The leaf came unsteadily to ground, at last allowing Sunny to tumble down. Some how, the three of them managed to drag themselves away from the beach, into the woods, too exhausted to cover their tracks. They found a hollow in the base of an enormous twisting yew tree, and throwing off their wet footwear, they fell together in an exhausted heap and were asleep instantly.