The foal spirit trembled.

Its jaw worked side-to-side, and the necromancer was sure they would have heard teeth grinding had the foal not been insubstantial. As it was, all the witch could hear was a low wail.

"This isn't good," he murmured to the monk. "The kid's real stressed and pretty much incoherent. I'm not sure we'll find much out."

"Then let's wait a little. I'll burn some offerings first and see if it helps."

Sou Yuet stood and flowed away across the cave floor, leaving the necromancer and the kei-leon foal alone in the dark cave. The necromancer settled himself down comfortably, silent for a moment. Then he began to speak, as if to himself.

"When I was a child like you, I lived alone in a cave like this for several years."

The foal's jaw stopped moving momentarily.

"It wasn't a nice and cosy cave like this. It was very cold. There was no sweet grass to lie on. But I cried for me mam too."

The foal sank to its knees, curling sadly. But it had stopped grinding its teeth, and was clearly listening.

"I didn't understand why this had happened to me. I'd been living peacefully with Mam in our comfortable home, and suddenly I was now alone and scared. I... Why me? What had I done? I... hated the people who had done this to me. But most of all, I... wished someone would save me."

He felt the tattoos around his neck twinge, the ones at his temples tug at the flesh.

"I'm sorry."

The kei-leon foal raised its head a little. The ceaseless low wail was dying down.

"I wish I could have saved ye when ye were alive. I wish ye didn't have to feel this... The only thing I can do for ye now is find yer mam and make sure she's safe."

Mother... I.... I miss my mother.

"I... miss mine too," the necromancer whispered back. He chewed his tongue, knitting his eyebrows.

A light step, a faint green glow...

Sou Yuet lightly landed lightly beside them, their hands filled with the same sweet grasses and flowers that lay sad and dry on the floor of the cave, only these were fresh and green. They produced three sticks of incense from within their sleeves, and began to gracefully build a temporary altar with the gathered materials. The necromancer rubbed his eyes and began to help.

"Are you...?"

"I'm fine."

They began to slowly burn the plants to avoid smoking out the cave, the sweet fragrance settling around them.

Ah, ah, ah... The foal's crying was different now, no longer helplessly hysterical, but soft and bereft.

The necromancer chewed his tongue again. "I swear I will find yer Mam. I swear on me birth name I will find her."

The foal's ears flicked. Two large, dark eyes gazed at him in the blackness. He reached out his hand, and the foal came to him, pressing its head desperately against the comfort he provided.

"Please, tell me what happened, so I can find her."

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

It was the height of the day.

The heat had made the kei-leon drowsy; they yawned and curled up in the back of the cave, seeking the coolest spots.

The herd only had one foal. Kei-leon fertility is low, and it takes many years for a foal to be fully weaned. The herd guarded her jealously.

A leon near the cave entrance raised her head drowsily, feeling faintly unsettled but uncertain as to why. What... A sound...?

Suddenly she was bolt upright, barking an alarm, but it was too late - a large group of men surged into the cave bearing smoking torches, and the coughing, panicking kei-leon couldn't see, couldn't breathe. Some tried to turn towards the entrance, only to be blocked by the men, who had long, long arms, while others tried to hide further in the cave, scratching and jumping over each other in a futile attempt to escape.

The foal bleated repeatedly in the thick haze, desperately seeking her mother. Barks of alarm echoed in her ears as she caught a vague glimpse of another kei-leon being lassoed to the ground, several men rushing in to hobble him with rope.

There! Her mother! A man had partially succeeded in catching her, but the rope had slipped and instead of being around her neck, it had caught on one of her antlers, and she was now furiously swinging her head back and forth to dislodge her captor. Her foal dashed in, crying in fear and anger.

In the chaos, someone, kei-leon or... well, they were shaped like men, but were they? She couldn't tell, bowled her over, sending her tumbling and tripping to the ground. Her ears rang, there was blood coming from somewhere, but oh! Her mother! Mother! Where are you?

The kei-leon, in the last throes of desperation, began to stampede about indiscriminately. The foal tried to stand and was immediately trampled on by another kei-leon, and she felt her ribs crack under the pressure. And then another set of hooves. And another.

The constituents of the smoke seemed to change, and she felt faint, slumping back to the floor. A bright light met her eyes, so bright that she couldn't see. She knew she had to get away, go, go! Towards the back of the cave, where it was safe, where she could hide. Gods, it hurt so much, it hurts, mother, it hurts.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She had found a tiny space near the back of the cave to curl up in, and if she just slept it off, it would be fine, this would all turn out to be a nightmare, and she would wake up and it wouldn't hurt, and her mother would be there-

A figure stood before her, gangly as a scarecrow. Its arms moved. There was a loud crack as something crashed into her forehead, and her vision went black.

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"They're capturing them alive," said Sou Yuet thoughtfully. "What is this is all about...?"

The necromancer rocked back on his heels, fixing his gaze on what little he could see of the ceiling. A single glow worm winked above him. He stared at the light, imagining it growing larger and smaller as he watched.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah?" The glow worm's light became big and small, big and small...

"What's wrong?"

"Little eejit won't leave. She's worried about her mam."

"Let's help her go and rest, okay?"

The witch pulled his attention reluctantly away from the glow worm. "Little foal, we'll find yer mam and save her. Ye can rest now."

The foal hesitated. He had tried not to look at her directly, but...

Isn't this my duty? To bear witness, to see without flinching?

He looked.

Both her antlers were broken. The flesh and scales of her left ear were torn, the right ear missing altogether save for scraps of tattered flesh and exposed cartilage. He was glad she was washed of colour, because the shade of her eyes suggested the blood vessels had burst in them as she was crushed, and what could be traumatic capillary damage speckled her neck with dark spots. One of her back legs was broken. Above all, though, was the gaping hole in the left side of her chest where the trampling hooves of her kin had broken her ribs.

A thin, dark line ran between her fractured antlers, between her ruined eyes.

He breathed deep and tried not to retch.

"What is it?"

"She won't leave."

"Can I speak to her?"

"Ye can try."

Sou Yuet held out their hand. "Little one?"

A moment's breath. Then the necromancer did the same, gently stroking the kei-leon's neck and the ruined stubs of its ears. The foal stretched out to Sou Yuet's hand, close enough to touch, but never able to.

This person... they smell of healing.

Yeah, that's their job.

"I'm sorry I can't hear you, little one. Perhaps this will sound like me just rambling to myself." Sou Yuet shuffled closer, ignoring the dusty floor of the cave. "As he said, we will find your mother. We'll find her and bring her back safely. And you..." They smiled, soft and tender and bright, and held out their hands as though they could cup them gently around the foal's face. "You have been so brave."

The foal flinched and whimpered.

"You did so well. I'm proud of you. You deserve happiness, and rest."

A soft green glow was emanating from Sou Yuet's hands as they spoke, washing around the foal and smoothing away the dim greyness that pervaded her appearance. The necromancer held his breath.

Please... please save Mother.

"We will," the witch promised huskily. With only the briefest of hesitations, he moved forward and put his arms around the foal's neck, hugging her close. She whimpered and leaned against him, barely tangible.

Sou Yuet drifted the back of their hand a hair's-breadth above the foal's damaged forehead. "Good luck on the next stage of your journey, little one. May you be reborn as your mother's foal once more."

A shiver, half of fear, half of hope, passed through the foal's form, and she reached up with her nose to touch the monk's hand. For a split second, she stood there, pure white, fully intact, eyes clear and bright and body shining and unblemished, and then she was gone.

The pair sat in the breathless darkness for a long moment. The smell of the dead foal seemed to cling to them.

Sou Yuet spoke first. "Are you okay?"

"No. You?"

"... Not yet. But this feeling will pass, in time."

"Does it?"

The monk looked at him sympathetically. "You must see a lot of this."

"Ye'd think it would get easier. But it doesn't... it really doesn't..." He buried his face in his hands, body morphing as he did into the androgynous form that Sou Yuet had only ever seen them effect once before. They curled up tightly, as though by doing so they could render themselves invisible.

They felt a soft weight drape over them - Sou Yuet had taken their outer robe off and covered them.

"Humans were not made to bear such burdens."

"What if I'm no longer human?" was the hoarse reply.

"No longer human?" Sou Yuet looked thoughtful. "Of course you're human. Why else would you be feeling like this?"

"It's not that simple!" the necromancer suddenly snapped, flinging the outer robe back over the startled monk. "You... Don't people talk about yer powers all the time? Don't they see ye as... as..."

Sou Yuet peered over the hem of their robe. "As what?"

"... not... human..."

The monk carefully put their robe back on. "I'm sorry you've had to hear that from people."

"Haven't ye? Ah, I guess it's different, you and me. You heal people. I just... haunt them with the people they murdered."

"Whether I have or not isn't the point here. You have, and no one should have to hear that kind of thing." They stood and offered their hand to the crouching witch. "Let's go and rest too. You've done an amazing job today. I think you deserve some peace."

The necromancer took their hand, letting themselves be pulled upright, before stripping off their own outer robe.

They winked faintly at the confused monk. "Don't get too excited."

Sou Yuet watched as the necromancer carefully bundled the tiny body of the foal in their robe, then summoned the ginseng leaf. Neither of them said a word about the odour already creeping through the fabric.

Sou Yuet directed the leaf upwards, to the grassy meadow where they had gathered the sweet grasses earlier. Together, they dug a pit in the last orange rays of the setting sun, large enough to comfortably fit the foal's remains, still wrapped in the robe. The necromancer sat back, now in feminine form, to push a loose strand of hair back, and found a small collection of animal ghosts had gathered nearby, watching solemnly.

Then the pair carefully filled in the hole, and drifted back on the leaf to the pool where they had previously camped. It was night again when they fully settled, washed and munching on edible plants that Sou Yuet had gathered. The necromancer ate the vegetable matter gratefully.

"It doesn't really mean much, coming from you," the necromancer said suddenly.

"What doesn't?"

"That I'm definitely human. You can summon a giant leaf out of nowhere, fly, and even purify ghosts. What the heck..."

Sou Yuet smiled at the fire they were stoking. Their fingertips were a little singed; it seemed they couldn't light a fire without some collateral damage.

"Hey... monk... Yuen Sou Yuet... Did I say that right?"

"When did you... You did. What is it?"

"If... when this year's over... and I haven't been driven mad by ye..." She rubbed at her arms, and held her hands out to the fire. "Can I... Can I come back with ye? To the Yuān Wěi... Yuen Mei Temple?"

The fire popped and crackled. Without warning, Sou Yuet once again took off their outer robe and once again draped it over the witch.

"Of course."

The necromancer sighed deeply, then laughed. She stood and busily brushed the borrowed robe down. "Thanks. Thanks... I'm... um... going to sleep now."

"One thing before you go?"

The necromancer looked puzzled.

"You know I still don't know your name."

"Ah."

She sat down again heavily.

"See... the problem with Adhmaid, my language... Everything, every gods damned thing, has a gender. Even a chair is feminine and a flower is masculine, and I... well, ye've seen me. Floating here and there. So I don't... me mam gave me a birth name, of course, but she's the only one that knows it, so I just... I'm nameless. Really, like I said before, ye can call me any damned thing ye like."

"I see. Well, until you find a name that suits you, perhaps I'll just call you 'Pang Yau'."

"Pang... yau? What's that mean?"

Sou Yuet smiled. The red light of the fire caught the gold of their hair and spun a veil of shining flame around them. "It means 'friend'."

The monk hummed a little to themselves as they prodded the fire. The witch's green eyes glittered, but she rubbed at them quickly.

"Is that so? Sounds good to me."