"NO, gods damn it, we want TWO rooms!"

"How could you leave your pretty wife in a room alone? One room with a nice bed. You'll save money as well."

"They're not... Monk! Say something!"

Sou Yuet smiled blankly, as if their brain had turned completely smooth.

"Here you go, the key to your room."

The necromancer snatched the key in despair as Sou Yuet paid the innkeeper with some of the money they had brought from the Yuen Mei. He began to march up the stairs but realised the monk had not followed.

"I don't think I can climb those stairs," Sou Yuet explained meekly.

The necromancer stomped back, threw Sou Yuet over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and climbed the stairs as noisily as possible. The audience that had gathered in the foyer of the inn watched with a mixture of alarm and amusement.

"Disciple Yuān?" This particular bystander sounded very concerned. As the necromancer was unlocking the door of their room, the bhard Spideóg was just stepping out of his own, a few doors away.

The witch glowered at him. Sou Yuet bowed politely, as best they could while slung over someone's shoulder. "Bhard Spideóg, how are you?"

"Fine... are ye... okay?"

"Yes, yes, just a little tired. My friend here is kindly giving me a lift into our room."

"'Our'...? Uh... I see."

"Let's trade some information this evening. Will you be available?" Sou Yuet ignored the necromancer's hissed protestations against this idea.

"Certainly... uh, let's have dinner. I hear the lamb stew is excellent."

"Sounds goo-"

"Goodbye." The necromancer shut the door with a slam that shook the building.

"Pang Yau, we don't have enough money to pay for the repairs if you destroy the inn."

Without a word, the necromancer carefully sat them on the bed. Then he knelt on the floor as if waiting to receive punishment.

"Pang Yau?"

"I'm sorry," he said gruffly. "Did I hurt ye?"

"Not at all." Sou Yuet smiled cheerfully. "I think I could do with a nap though. Oh, is that our bath?"

There was a knock at the door, and when the witch opened it, two strong men brought in a tub for bathing and proceeded to fill it with buckets of hot water. Once they were done, the necromancer left the room and sat in the corridor.

As if by coincidence, his arm shot out and grabbed Spideóg as the bhard tried to tiptoe surreptitiously past.

"You. What do ye know about fox spirits?" he asked. Spideóg lay face down on the floor, his ankle in the necromancer's grip.

"I- I know a few things. But I can't just give ye information for free!"

"Fecking rat. There's an ownerless stash of jade near here. Tell me everything ye know and I'll tell ye where it is."

Spideóg's blue eyes lit up. "How can I trust ye?" He flinched as the necromancer grabbed his collar and pulled him forwards.

"Ye can't," the necromancer growled. "Except that I promise ye if ye refuse to help me, I'll show ye exactly how long I can make a man survive with his lungs outside his body. Ye can trust that."

Information poured forth from Spideóg like a spring of water.

"Fox spirits around here are known as hú li jīng. In the land east of the sea, Yamato, they're called kitsune-"

"I don't care about what they're called, what can they do?"

"Uh... usually they have some kind of nature-related powers. And they can transform between fox form or human, usually taking the shape of a beautiful man or woman-"

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The necromancer made an ambiguous noise.

"... They also have powers over nightmares, it's said. They can control or deliver them, and perhaps even travel long distances by hopping from nightmare to nightmare. They're highly intelligent, and apparently able to possess people, although there are also stories of them being fiercely loyal. The most powerful ones have nine tails. Those are supposedly a thousand years old."

"Fantastic. Tell me about the Dzue Kingdom."

"Zhū? What about it? It's an evil place."

"I'll become evil in a moment. What's the deal with it?"

"About one hundred and fifty years ago, the Kingdom collapsed. The place had been oddly prosperous for a thousand years before that, and it seemed that they'd been colluding with demons. Eventually it came back to bite them, and the country imploded. It's just a wasteland now."

"So that's why no-one uses the language anymore? Because Dzue was full of demon-worshippers?"

"Yes... and no..."

"Well which is it?"

"The Xiăng language was actually developed to assist communication with the demons."

"What?"

"Demons around here cause no end of trouble, but at the time it's said they were fleeing from their own collapsing world. Xiăng was developed for the purposes of negotiation."

"So no-one speaks Dzue because the people of Dzue were making deals with demons, but everyone now speaks Xiăng, which was made to talk with demons?"

"Y... Yes. Hm."

"Have ye never thought this was weird before?"

"I've got a lot on me mind, alright? Why are ye asking about Zhū anyway?" the bhard asked suspiciously.

"None of yer business."

"So... the stash?"

The necromancer closed his eyes. "Take the road up towards the Sanctuary. Ye'll see a goat track on your left. Follow it until ye come across a rock with a short and twisty dead tree on it. The stash is behind there. Now feck off."

"Uh... one last thing..."

The necromancer raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Well... you and Sir... Lady... the monk are looking into missing legendary creatures, correct?"

He was answered by a non-committal grunt.

"About Zhū... the place was teeming with legendary creatures."

The necromancer made no indication as to his thoughts on this.

"One of the creatures was reputedly a one thousand year-old, nine-tailed fox."

Oh.

After a moment, the necromancer said suspiciously, "So what do ye want for that extra bit of information?"

"Nothing right now. I just want ye to owe me a favour!" Spideóg sprinted away down the corridor before the necromancer could grab him again and shake him.

"Wait."

"Ye expect me to actually wait?" the bhard pointed out, reaching the top of the stairs.

"Ye have a knife, right?"

The bhard stopped. "Ye... don't want that as well?"

The necromancer gave him a withering look. "What would I need that for?"

"..."

"Ye'll need it to get the stash. A goat ate it and died because the loops of the pouch caught around its tongue. Ye'll have to cut the goat open."

"..."

"Now I don't owe ye a favour."

"Ye should have told me that information from the beginning!"

"Do ye hear yerself, ye fecking hypocrite? I asked ye about Dzue and ye deliberately held back on me!"

The bhard retreated down the stairs to the foyer, muttering profanities.

"Was that Bhard Spideóg?" Sou Yuet emerged from the room, looking tired but a little more refreshed and clean. Their pale golden hair lay long and loose along their back and shoulders. The necromancer stared, a little dazed, but shook himself together.

"Done? Can I go in now?"

"All done. Thank you for letting me go first."

The necromancer entered back into the room but stopped when he saw that Sou Yuet was following him back in. "I'm going to bathe now."

"Yes?"

"So... would... uh... maybe ye could..."

Sou Yuet smiled with cheerful incomprehension.

"Are ye not going to wait outside?"

"Why? ... I've seen everything before?"

The necromancer sincerely wished to have the power of time travel rather than speaking with the dead, so he could beat his past self up.

"I'll make some tea," Sou Yuet said, turning their back to begin preparations. The necromancer hurriedly disrobed and sat in the tub. Once the important parts of his body were hidden by the water, his brain started working again.

"Why are ye so insistent about seeing me naked again?" he asked, partially re-emerging from the water to smile winningly at the monk. His sharp teeth made the smile a little alarming.

"I heard a little of what you were talking about with Bhard Spideóg. Can you fill me in?"

The witch slumped grumpily back into the water. "A lot of it ye probably know. Did ye know about a cursed kingdom nearby?"

"The Dzue Kingdom. Si fu was from there."

"... Of course he was."

"What is it about the Dzue Kingdom?"

"Did yer Master ever say anything about a one thousand year-old fox spirit living there?"

"Not to my memory." Sou Yuet handed over a tea cup and sat by the tub. "That's a useful piece of information our friend gave us. There aren't too many nine-tailed foxes in the world."

"Since when was he yer friend?"

"Since he proved his usefulness."

"Does that mean I'm only yer friend because I'm useful?" the necromancer grumbled. Sou Yuet patted his head peaceably but didn't answer.

"HEY!"

"Hm?"

"Don't 'hm' me, ye damned -"

Sou Yuet laughed. "Enjoy your bath. I need to sleep."

The necromancer suppressed the urge to dump the entire tub over Sou Yuet's head and ducked himself under the water as best he could, given the tub's size in comparison to his body.

The sun set relatively early at that time of year, and with mountains all around, the day faded quickly. After waiting for ten minutes, which was as long as his impatient nature would allow, the necromancer was up and dressed, tiptoeing to the room door. To his annoyance, his body shifted into feminine form as he was halfway along the corridor. Luckily, no-one was around, so she pulled a cloth over the lower half of her face, rearranged her clothing a little and let her hair loose, hoping to avoid awkward questions as to where a tall woman who looked oddly similar to the male necromancer had come from.

It worked. She stepped from the inn without being stopped and looked up through the fading twilight towards the high eyrie of the Sanctuary, torches already burning orange in the dark.

Her green eyes narrowed.

"I hope I run into ye tonight, Mr Fox. I want to know all about ye."