“You’ve travelled far,” Dzue Dziu Ming said, inclining his head respectfully. Yuen Muk caught the implied question in his words. “You look weary.” He offered his hand.

Envoy Laam watched closely as Cheon Maan Ging’s delicate fingers hooked into Dzue Dziu Ming’s, only dropping her eyes when she realised Gaam Yuk Ying and Yuen Muk were staring at her. Yuen Muk bowed, and she hastily bowed in response.

They watched the Cheon delegation, led by Dzue Dziu Ming, return to the party.

“This feels… like a bad omen,” Yuen Muk said.

Gaam Yuk Ying glanced at him under his eyelids.

“Do you remember that noble lady back in Dzue?”

“Mun Gong?”

“You remember.” Yuen Muk frowned. “There would only be one reason such a delicate person would be brought to a place like this. They intend to marry her off to forge ties.”

Shikladak was greeting the princess as he spoke. Chan Bik and Cheng Baak-hap, flushed with wine, stared at her unabashedly.

“I know that Lady Mun is betrothed to the Second Prince of Cheon… but Regent Dzue definitely has a soft spot for her. What a situation… Even their names are similar…”

Gaam Yuk Ying remained silent, waiting.

“Well, it’s not our place to say anything. We certainly wouldn’t understand what it’s like to rule a country,” Yuen Muk sighed. He leaned on Gaam Yuk Ying’s shoulder and looked at him appealingly. “Shall we go somewhere else?”

There was no need for clarification. They slipped away silently, hopping easily along the paths of the Ngo Mei Temple grounds towards the quarters that had been set aside for them. The sky was ever so slightly lightening, the stars above beginning to fade, but before they could reach their room, a group of people caught their attention.

Wong Tang, Gong Lau Yan, Grandmaster Luk and Mest’at were all gathered in a circle in water appeared to have once been a cultivated garden bed. There was nothing growing in there at the moment, and Mest’at was rubbing soil between her fingers. Wong Tang was silently puffing on her pipe, swirling clouds surrounding her. Gong Lau Yan waved the smoke away.

“Isn’t that a little much, Grandmother?” they heard her say. Wong Tang started, knocked the ash from her pipe and replaced it in her sleeve.

“Hey kids, heading to bed?” Gong Lau Yan had spotted them. She gave them a wicked grin.

“If you know, don’t stop us,” Gaam Yuk Ying replied, his voice so flat it was impossible to tell if he was joking. But Gong Lau Yan laughed.

“Alright, good night!”

“Wait, Lady Gong…”

Yuen Muk left a disappointed Gaam Yuk Ying behind and landed by Gong Lau Yan’s side. “Sorry to interrupt, but…” He lowered his voice. “A delegation from Cheon has arrived. They brought their princess and were very eager for Dzue Dziu Ming to meet her.”

Grimacing, Gong Lau Yan processed the information. “I see. Thanks, Little Hawk. We can handle it. Go to bed.”

He bowed to the women and rejoined Gaam Yuk Ying, continuing their interrupted journey to bed. They were barely in the door when he felt his boyfriend’s hands on his belt.

“In a hurry?”

“Is that wrong?”

“I didn’t say that.”

They tumbled back onto the simple bed, Yuen Muk almost knocking his head against the wall. He was caught in time by Gaam Yuk Ying, the latter’s reflexes stunningly fast.

“You’re getting quicker, Ah Ying. Your cultivation is improving even more.”

“So’s yours.”

Yuen Muk smiled softly as he readjusted himself more comfortably on the bed, letting Gaam Yuk Ying tuck his knees under his hips. “Well, it wouldn’t be nice if one of us left the other behind, would it?”

The expression on Gaam Yuk Ying’s face was answer enough. Yuen Muk sat up and pecked a kiss from those taut lips. “Let’s stay together for a long time, yes?”

A quick nod, then Gaam Yuk Ying pushed him back against the bed.

*

The following days passed by quickly. Cheng Baak-hap, despite nursing an enormous hangover, set off with Chan Bik, whose high cultivation allowed her to simply burn the alcohol out of her bloodstream. Gong Lau Yan went with them, half an eye towards Shikladak and Näkṣātär as she cheerly waved the rest farewell.

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Wong Tang and Yuen Muk would be diverting to Mount Faa first, while Gaam Yuk Ying would guarding the Regent and the Cheon delegation on their way back to Dzue. Yuen Muk playfully moped around Gaam Yuk Ying, hanging off his shoulders like a cloak while the later stoically dragged him around until Wong Tang sharply told them off. They pulled themselves together and watched her sweep away, puffing rapidly at her pipe, as she called over her should, “Little Gou, we’re leaving!”

“Odd,” said Gaam Yuk Ying.

“Very. I’ve never seen Master so agitated. Or so absent-minded.”

The journey on foot from Ngo Mei to Ming Yuet was long. Ngo Mei was located within Dzang, far to the north-west, while Ming Yuet sat like a pearl at the mouth of the Ming Dzue River as it spilled into the southern ocean.

“If only we could teleport,” Dzue Dziu Ming sighed conversationally to Princess Cheon. They had decided the safest place for the delicate princess would be Dzue. Once she was settled, a loong from the Palace of Tin Yeung Wong would bring Dzue Dziu Ming to the Demon Realm. “I’ll be very interested to learn how the demons created that portal. I wonder if we’ll even be able to find the words to explain such a thing…”

Cheon Maan Ging smiled sweetly. She was a soft-spoken, gentle creature that Gaam Yuk Ying judged with a single word when asked by Dzue Dziu Ming for his opinion.

“Naïve.”

The Regent had laughed, and then sighed.

They were travelling by carriage, Dzue Dziu Ming, Princess Cheon and Envoy Laam ensconced inside while the guards and Gaam Yuk Ying flitted around with hing-gong. The journey, at this speed, would take a week; Gaam Yuk Ying could have run it in less than a day.

He dodged amongst the trees by the roadside, diverting occasionally at the slightest hint of fire. But the journey was entirely peaceful, without even a sign of so much as a bandit. At one point, he even ran beside the carriage to question the Regent about the typhoon, remembering Yuen Muk’s concerns.

“We were safe.” Dzue Dziu Ming shrugged. “Gong Ming Dzue and Gong Lau Yan have extremely strong Water and Wood powers, almost as high as those of the Ng Dzueng, and they’ve guarded Dzue for over a thousand years. There was some localised flooding and a bit of damage, but it was easy enough to fix. Cheon and Sek’seun, and some of the countries to the west, were more seriously affected.” He looked to Cheong Maan Ging. “Could you tell us how Cheon fared, Your Highness?”

“Um… It rained for so long. And the wind howled so. I couldn’t go outside. Her eyelashes quivered. “My favourite garden was flooded and many of the plants died.”

“That’s unfortunate. You’ll have to see if the gardens in Dzue are to your liking.”

Cheon Maan Ging’s heavy eyes lit up at the thought.

Gaam Yuk Ying left them to it. They were nearing Ming Yuet now, having passed safely through Tsaam Lam. The guardian fox, Tsaam Lei, had appeared briefly in the corner of Gaam Yuk Ying’s vision, but he was gone without a word. The cultivator paused momentarily, watching the direction the fox had disappeared in, but soon continued following the carriage.

Not long after, he stopped following the carriage again, only this time, he also rushed away east.

Not far away, he could sense someone’s Fire energy.

“Little Handsome.”

Teem Djeung Baak looked dreadful.

Not only was she missing a hand, but parts of her skin were also shiny and red, burnt away, as were some portions of her hair. Her enormous eyes looked bigger still, ringed with dark circles, and her skin was pale, almost green. She looked ill. Still, she sat, perfectly composed and smiling her usual unsettling smile, on a blackened tree stump. Gaam Yuk Ying looked at it.

“I’ve been keeping the little fox here busy,” she said tapping the stump. “I’ve got to practice somehow, don’t I? Although I prefer moving targets. Have you come to practice with me?”

Gaam Yuk Ying barely moved aside as a ball of crackling red energy zipped past him, slamming into a tree, which exploded. He settled back. “I’ll always be faster than you.”

“True. Isn’t life unfair? I wish I was born with talent, like you.”

“You seem to have made up for it.”

“And you want to know how, don’t you?” She laughed. “I can tell. You’ve always been such a quiet type, but now you’re using such long sentences to talk to me! I’m honoured.”

Gaam Yuk Ying drew Lo Fu Ngaa.

“Such a short temper,” Teem Djeung Baak sighed. “I wanted to talk a little longer.”

Not likely. Gaam Yuk Ying shot forward, and she dived backwards, hurling herself behind a still-intact tree. He rushed around the trunk, but she was already gone.

There was something there though, a strange shimmer that was rapidly disappearing. He saw shapes, faint, like scribbles in charcoal that had long been weathered away. They looked familiar.

The portal to the Demon Realm.

As he watched, the shimmer and symbols faded.

So this was the answer. Somewhere, somehow, she had learnt to make portals.

Gaam Yuk Ying sat down on the stump that Teem Djeung Baak had abandoned, brow furrowed. He was still there when Tsaam Lei rushed over, with a blast of wind that blew Gaam Yuk Ying’s hair back.

“Where is she?” the fox demanded, catching sight of the two destroyed one trees. He touched his nose to the one that had been blasted to shreds, murmuring softly under his breath. The tree began to sprout epicormic growth.

Gaam Yuk Ying stood to allow the fox to treat the stump he sat on. “Gone.”

“I can see that, Quiet and Mysterious. How? You and I are much faster than her? How is she getting away?”

“Portals.”

“Portals? Like the one to the Demon Realm?” Tsaam Lei’s huge ears pricked up, his eyes glinting green. “How? Is she making them? How is she doing that?”

You’re asking the wrong person. Gaam Yuk Ying shrugged, glancing in the direction that the carriage had taken.

“Tell the others.”

“Of course,” Tsaam Lam huffed. Then he grinned. “How’s things with your boyfriend?”

He merely received an unimpressed look in return.

“Don’t be like that…” The fox transformed. He made a good approximation of Yuen Muk, although his eyes were green and narrow, unlike the real thing’s golden-flecked ones, and his skin was brown, rather than golden-toned. He had also neglected to clothe himself.

What was with all these people flirting with him today? Gaam Yuk Ying turned his back, disinterested.

“Wow, I’m losing my touch!” Tsaam Lei draped himself over Gaam Yuk Ying’s shoulders. “Come on, I was just having some fun.”

“Are you done?”

“Yes, yes, go on.” The fox rolled his eyes. “What are you so busy for, anyway?”

“Dzue Dziu Ming.”

“He’s back? You know, you’ve got to be the only human who’s so disrespectful to royals and nobility. You could learn a thing or two from your lover.”

Gaam Yuk Ying eyed him coolly. “So could you.”

He was gone before the fox could respond.