Tim Dzeung Baak was found sooner than anyone expected.

Two days after the reinforcements arrived, Gou Dzing was seated in the shadow of the big mountain, exchanging drawings with a couple of demons. So far, they had been exchanging simple concepts, and he had begun learning some of the demons' names, but little other progress had been made. He sighed and hoped Cheng Baak-hap would rejoin them soon.

“Gou Si hing? Gou Si hing!”

Turning, he saw a group rushing towards him, human disciples and loong soldiers alike. Weren't they the ones who had gone with Yuk Ying? “What is it?”

“Gaam Si hing's injured!”

Tossing aside the stick he had been using to draw in the dust, Gou Dzing rushed from the shadow of the mountain, pale-faced.

Gaam Yuk Ying lay quietly on a stretcher carried between two soldiers. How, Gou Dzing wasn't sure. All of his skin was blistered and peeling, some of it coming away in large sheets, charred or reduced to white ash in some places. Half of his hair had burnt away. Those disciples with healing skills rushed forwards.

Gou Dzing stood in shock.

A part of his mind was running over treatments for burns (application of cool water, willow bark-infused oil, ointment of rhubarb, goldenthread, sophora...) but it was a part that seemed to be disconnected from his hands and feet. As much as his mind suggested medicines, his body did not move.

Gaam Yuk Ying's half-lidded eyes were unfocused, glowing faintly silver. His damaged lips moved slightly.

Oh. He's reciting meditations. He's using his cultivation to numb the pain.

“He has to be taken back to the mortal realm for immediate treatment,” one of the disciples said, turning to Gou Dzing as the most senior there. Gou Dzing was about to answer when he saw another disciple reaching to peel back the fabric that covered Gaam Yuk Ying's torso.

“STOP!”

The disciple leapt back hastily. “Ah! S-sorry, Gou Si hing.”

“You could cause even more damage by just pulling things,” the disciple who had spoken to Gou Dzing scolded.

Gaam Yuk Ying's eyes flickered towards Gou Dzing. His lips moved again. A raw hand twitched in his direction.

It's okay.

Gou Dzing knelt down. “Are you sure?” he whispered.

I... I want to live. If it means... they find out... then they find out.

“You, go report to the Grandmaster,” Gou Dzing ordered immediately, straightening up. “You and you, bring Gaam Yuk Ying to the Ming Yuet Palace as soon as possible. Are there any loong soldiers who are willing to go with them?”

Three soldiers stepped forwards, one offering to go ahead to prepare the palace for the arrival of the patient.

They were organised and gone within a few moments. Gong Lau Yan arrived, out of breath, to see them disappear over the horizon.

“Little Gaam?”

“... burnt. Badly.” Gou Dzing's hands were shaking. His folded his arms to contain them and turned to those who had been assigned to Gaam Yuk Ying's team. “Report!”

“Gou Si hing.” A disciple stepped forwards and bowed. He was covered in ash, and had some light burns on his hands. In fact, most of the group were in a similar state, but none so hurt as Gaam Yuk Ying. “We came upon the target, Tim Dzeung Baak, a day in that direction.” He pointed. Given the haziness of the sky, it was impossible to identify conventions such as the cardinal directions, and compasses didn't work here. “She seemed to be waiting for us.”

“She laid a trap?”

“Not at all. She stood in the open and ignored everyone except Gaam Si hing. We tried asking questions but she wouldn't answer any of them. She made some comments about... well, we're not sure who she was referring to, exactly. Something about a little girl being very disappointed. She laughed a lot about it.”

Gou Dzing's fingers curled. “And then?”

“Gaam Si hing told her she had to return with us, and we would use force if she resisted... And she...” The disciple seemed a bit stunned.

Shock, perhaps. Gou Dzing had them all sit down, and one of the loong soldiers, an officer called Dzit Dzan Fan continued, “Tim Dzeung Baak is very fast. Her Fire powers... If we were in the mortal realm, we would be able to deal with her much more easily. But here...” Officer Dzit, a rare male loong, couldn't continue, apparently silence by enraged bafflement.

Another disciple picked up the report. “It was too fast for us to see. Tim Dzeung Baak launched a... well, it was fire, but... it... was dense. Like a sticky liquid rather than a flame. Gaam Si hing was the only one fast enough to react to it. He caught the force of it, giving us time to raise an earthen barricade... We...” She hung her head. “We were so unprepared. What were we doing?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“You've never been n a real battle.” The loong soldier who had spoken before shook her head. “We have, and we were still made a fool of by that woman... and our leader harmed at the same time.” Swallowing, she bowed low before Gong Lau Yan. The other soldiers followed her lead. “Lady... Your judgement.”

So far, Gong Lau Yan had been silent, her arms crossed, a finger tapping her elbow. The cool brown of her eyes had darkened, the colour of deep floodwaters. However, she merely said, “Little Gaam is a capable individual, but not a commander. I will take over his role. We will not pursue Tim Dzeung Baak any further until we have several plans for dealing with her. In the meantime, we will have patrols and guards. All of you, come with me. I need to hear everything in fine detail.”

The soldiers and disciples bowed and shuffled away towards their base of operations, a collection of tents located a few kilometres away from the mountain. Gong Lau Yan patted Gou Dzing firmly on the shoulder.

“He'll be alright. And I'm not just saying that. Little Gaam is tough.”

Gou Dzing was going to say something about how badly Gaam Yuk Ying had been burnt, but instead, he said, “They'll find out.”

“What did Little Gaam say?”

“That... he wanted to live. Even if they find out.”

“Good. And you?”

“Of course I want him to live!”

“That's not what I mean.”

“I... Yuk Ying is Yuk Ying. Whoever he is, or looks like... I just want him to be okay...”

“Good.” A ghost of a grin flitted across Gong Lau Yan's face. “Little Gou, hold on to that.” Her brows drew together. “It's going to get harder from now on. Like A-po said, you can't be children forever. We can't always have what we want, or even what we need.”

“The last conversation I had with Yuk Ying, I hadn't accepted... I let him go without reassurance...”

“Could you have reassured him if you weren't ready? Could you really be so disingenuous, Little Gou?”

“I suppose not.”

“No, I don't think so either. Now, let's go. We need to reassess the situation.”

*

An hour before.

Gaam Yuk Ying sped lightly across the red dust of that damaged world, the loong soldiers providing a link between him and the Way of the Mountain disciples struggling to keep up. Ahead, a stand of dead trees formed the only landmark nearby.

His eyes flashed silver and he changed trajectory slightly, racing to the trees and drawing abruptly to a halt.

Tim Dzeung Baak sat lightly in one of the trees.

She smiled widely at Gaam Yuk Ying, narrowing one huge eye and miming drawing a bow and arrow. Aiming directly at Gaam Yuk Ying's forehead, she mimed letting go of a bowstring, complete with an unpleasant whistling sound, then a thunk with her tongue.

Gaam Yuk Ying's eyes narrowed. Tim Dzeung Baak cackled.

The disciples and soldiers spread into a defensive formation, wary. They slowly began to circle behind Tim Dzeung Baak, but she ignored them, smiling at Gaam Yuk Ying.

“Little Handsome, have you finally decided to become my husband?”

“You have a husband.”

“I do?”

“A warm jail cell. He'll hold you tight.”

Tim Dzeung Baak giggled. “I love a man with a sense of humour.”

“Tim Dzeung Baak,” called the most senior loong soldier, an officer called Dzit Dzan Fan, a rare male loong, “we will be bringing you back with us to face the consequences of your crimes. If you resist, we will not go easy on you.”

“Crimes?” She fluttered her eyelashes at Gaam Yuk Ying. “You mean stealing that little girl's teacher? She must be so very disappointed.”

They moved simultaneously, so fast that only the loong, with their supernatural vision, could see their actions. Gaam Yuk Ying drew Lou Fu Ngan in a single, fluid movement, and Tim Dzeung Baak pressed to fingers to her lips, and blew through the gap between them.

A stream of thick fire poured towards the disciples beside Gaam Yuk Ying. He jumped before them, spinning Lou Fu Ngan to dispel as much of the fire as possible. It dripped from the blade, clung to his robes and seeped up through the fabric, reaching the skin within a few breaths. A moment later, earthen barriers slammed into place around them, and hands pulled him to the ground, rolling him in an attempt to put out the fire.

The loong soldiers rounded the barriers, but Tim Dzeung Baak was already gone.

The sticky fire had caught Gaam Yuk Ying's hair and face, and he snarled and flinched in pain. The party was in disarray. Almost beside himself with disbelief, Officer Dzit rushed wildly around the grove of dead trees, hunting for Tim Dzeung Baak. Some of the disciples simply sat in shock, staring at the fire that was crawling around Gaam Yuk Ying. Others smothered his body in dirt, their hands scorched by the flames. Eventually, the fire went out, but when they pulled the soil back, some of the onlookers had to flee, covering their mouths. For the loong, to whom water was their spirit and their blood, desiccation and burning were the opposite of their very being. They shivered in sickened horror at the sight of the scorched, gasping Gaam Yuk Ying, whose fingers scraped repeatedly at the soil and whose eyes darted back and forth rapidly, but completely unfocused.

“We have to get him treated.” Office Dzit returned, having pulled himself together enough to make orders. “As fast as we can. Soldiers at the rear. If any disciple falls behind, carry them.” His words stumbled to a halt, as his shame and anger rendered him speechless. Still, it was enough. Two soldiers made a makeshift stretcher from a robe and two spears, laid Gaam Yuk Ying on it as carefully as they could, and began the anxious race back to base.

Gaam Yuk Ying stared at the sky, and scratched at the fabric of the stretcher with his fingers, his mind singing with pain. Words from the Manual of Reflective Arts drifted across his mind, and he followed them soundlessly with his lips, willing them to cut through the pain.

For ten years, I have polished this sword... It's frosted edge has not once been tested... Today I hold it out to show you... asking... who suffers from injustice?

Over and over, he followed the words, followed the energy circling wildly through his body, up and down, his Metal-aligned spirit struggling to push back against the fire that engulfed him.

Fire melts Metal. The Metal grows soft, distorts, but can be reformed and strengthened if the Fire is put out. Water quenches Fire. Earth smothers Fire.

Gou Dzing's face appeared in his shaking vision. He looked worried.

Gaam Yuk Ying realised, dimly, that someone had tried to begin removing his clothing. His lips moved soundlessly, the passages of the Manual of Reflective Arts, and his own thoughts, melting and swirling together.

Is he worried?

Remember that the sword is a cursed thing...

It's okay, don't worry about me.

… that a wise person will only use...

I... I want to live. If it means... they find out... then they find out.

… if they must.

Thank you.