Surrounded by more yellow paper and spirit wands than a Buddhist temple, Lu Na sat cross-legged in her room in front of her now repaired silver phoenix hairpin. It’s been over a week since the Mid-Autumn Festival and her unfortunate visit to the Wintersweet Sect. And no matter how much she prodded and poked the hairpin with all different ideas, it didn’t react.

“I told you not to activate it before the zenith. Now it’s dead and you won’t see your mother again,” her spirit said.

Lu Na picked up the hairpin, lifting it up to the sky.

“If I didn’t break it then, Wintersweet’s ancestor would have swallowed me. I doubt my mother could visit me in his stomach.”

“All you had to do was wait a few more minutes. I’m sure you could have survived in there for that long. You’re tough.”

Lu Na laughed. What a ridiculous situation for an unremarkable young miss to end up in. Having to fight the ancestor spirit of a summoner sect because of some silly prophecy.

“Well, they got their wish either way. I don’t think I can fix this hairpin. Now I’m not sure how I can help my mother.”

A maid gasped.

“Young Miss, what are you wearing?”

Lu Na looked up and realized it was morning already. For the last few weeks, she had little sleep with the nightmares of her mother being trapped in some dark place, fighting for her life, calling her name. Some nights, it’s this black void. Other, it was inside that ancestor’s stomach.

Sometimes Lu Na’s inside there too, clinging to her mother.

“Young Miss, you can’t walk about wearing a maid’s tunic,” the maid said. “It’s inappropriate. What would Cui Yi say if he saw you wearing that? He would punish us maids.”

Lu Na didn’t have the energy to roll her eyes at that name. The head servant had been insufferable ever since she came back home, bruised and battered.

“Fine, fine, I’ll change in a minute. Just leave me alone.”

“I’m sorry Young Miss, but I was sent to get you. Your brother woke up and he only asked to see you.”

Lu Na lurched up in one go and ran past the maid toward her brother’s room. She had to avoid a few maids and servants. It wasn’t until she reached her brother’s room did family guards stop her.

“Young Miss Lu Na,” the two guards said as they bowed their heads toward her. “I’m sorry, but you are supposed to be in your room. Our captain will get in trouble if they find you out again.”

“My brother asked for me. Let me in,” Lu Na said.

The guards looked at each other.

“Look, if I’m inside, then I will be somewhere you know instead of somewhere you don’t.” Lu Na reached down and touched one of her wards.

Both guards froze.

“Of course Young Miss. I will report it to the captain to assure him you’re well cared for within your brother’s room.”

Lu Na let go of her ward and walked into the room. She almost felt sorry for the guards because she had used many of them to test her new inventions.

When she walked in, there was a heavy smell of incense in her brother’s study room. Lu Na doubted that no matter how much they prayed to their ancestors, they wouldn’t be much help. But for once, she was glad that maybe their prayers were answered. She would light a stick of incense herself later to thank them.

Lu Na walked to her brother’s room and took off her shoes before entering.

Her father and Xue Ze were already there. A doctor was sitting beside her brother, feeling for his pulse.

There in bed, her brother was awake. That was the most she could say about him. He was bandaged all over his body and he smelled of herbal medicine. There were burn marks and some piercings and those were the ones that had healed enough to not require bandages.

“How is he?” Lu Na asked.

Her father, Lu Tien, and second mother, Xue Ze turned.

“You should be in your room,” came the voice beside her. It was Cui Yi, the head servant. Lu Na hadn’t even seen him hiding like a rat.

“And my brother called for me. Why are you here?” Lu Na said. She turned back and curtsied toward her father and Xue Ze. “Father, second mother, may I have permission to see my brother?”

Lu Tien stood up and brushed past her daughter without saying a word. He’d been like that toward Lu Na ever since she came back to the Lu compound.

After Lu Tien left, Xue Ze got up and lifted Lu Na from her curtsy.

“Of course you can see your brother,” Xue Ze said. Her dark round face looked especially tired today. She held Lu Na’s hand and patted her head. “Just don’t take too long. He’s still very injured and tired. He wouldn’t talk with us and just kept calling your name. That’s why your father is upset. So don’t mind him.”

“Of course, second mother.” Lu Na bowed her head.

Xue Ze left the room with Cui Yi.

“I never thought I’d see that calculating witch act so tired and concerned for you or your brother,” her spirit said. “Maybe being attacked by the Wintersweet Sect was a good thing. But of course we should still burn Cui Yi after we’ve figured out the secret of the hairpin.”

Lu Na ignored her spirit and walked up to her brother.

Lu Fengxian opened his eyes as soon as Lu Na approached.

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“Are they gone?”

“Yes, brother. How are you?” Now that Lu Na was standing closer, she could see the injuries underneath the bandages ranging from scorch marks to stitched scars.

“I’ve been better. But I needed to talk to you right away. I saw mother. I always thought that she died all those years ago when she left us. She’s still alive.”

“I know,” Lu Na said.

Lu Fengxian tried to turn his head toward Lu Na, but stopped. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment until the pain went away.

“How did you know?”

“I met her in the Spirit Realm. She pulled me in using the silver phoenix hairpin she gave me before she left.”

“Oh, that must be what happened to me as well. I thought I saw her in my dream, but I felt myself being pulled into some grassy area that reminded me of where she used to take us outside of the city.” Lu Fengxian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I remember that place. It was so fun being with her. But when I saw her, she did not look well. We have to help her.”

Lu Na reached down and held her brother’s hand. Tears ran down her face.

“I’m trying.”

“Oh Na Na, no need to cry. We’ll find her again.”

“No, it’s not mother. I’m just so happy to see that you’re alive. We all thought we lost you when they found your… What happened?”

Lu Fengxian laughed. He squeezed Lu Na’s hand.

“Don’t be like your brother. I thought I was the best duelist in the world and so I challenged one of those Wintersweet Sect disciples to a duel after you and Sun Ren escaped. I beat him bloody and I thought that would be enough to keep them away.

“Instead, it enraged them all to duel me. Something about their honor from being beaten by some untrained monkey. I was already too exhausted at that point and so were most of Sun Ren’s guards. I thought that if they beat me, they would leave us alone. I was wrong.

“And when they couldn’t win against me in single duels, they started ganging up on me. They talk about honor, but they don’t even know how to write it. And that’s when I got serious. They didn’t like that.”

“How did they do this to you? These injuries are so serious,” Lu Na said. She had seen her brother injured before in duels, but never like this.

Lu Fengxian stayed silent for a moment.

“Na Na, I almost died. It was mother’s phoenix spirit that saved me. One of Sun Ren’s guards told me that a few days after the fight, a phoenix spirit came and entered my body, healing the serious injuries that no doctor or their spirits could heal.

“Father and second mother were already preparing funeral arrangements for me.”

“That witch,” her spirit said.

Lu Na didn’t fault them. With the injuries she saw on him, now should be enough to kill a person.

“Brother, I’m sorry this happened to you. It’s my fault. They were looking for me. Maybe I should have gone with them.”

Lu Fengxian’s breath caught in his throat.

“No, Na Na. Never think that. They’re the monsters here. They’re the ones that think that they can do whatever they want. When I get better, I’m going to show them what it means to attack one of Magistrate Hu’s yamen runners.”

“I’m not sure that’s going to work. He wasn’t helpful when we went to him,” Lu Na mumbled.

“What?”

“No, nothing, brother. Just focus on getting better.” Lu Na got up to go.

“No Na Na, I called for you because I had something else to tell you. Mother told me about what she’s doing and said to help you.”

“Yeah, she told me to save her. My spirit told me she might be trapped somewhere and the hairpin has a clue. I’ve been working on it for—”

“I want you to stop.” Lu Fengxian squeezed her hand.

“What? Why? We finally saw our mother again. I can help her. Don’t you want mother back?”

“There’s nothing more that I want than to see mother again.” Lu Fengxian coughed. “Well, maybe my health. But whatever mother has gotten herself into is too dangerous for you. I don’t want to lose a mother and a sister. Maybe when I get better from this, we can go together. In fact, I feel that whatever she did to help fix me has strengthened me. Da Niu told me this.”

“You don’t have to worry. I can’t find out how to make the hairpin work again, anyway.”

Lu Fengxian pulled Lu Na down toward his face.

“Promise me you won’t just leave to find mother. And whatever you do, don’t tell father or Xue Ze.”

“I won’t tell them.” Lu Na pulled her hand back. “Get well brother. I’ll come visit you again now that you’re awake.”

Lu Fengxian nodded and closed his eyes.

Lu Na left the room and put her shoes back on. She quietly closed the doors before leaving her brother’s quarters.

“What did those Wintersweet demons do to your poor brother? Why would they go so far?” her spirit asked.

Lu Na questioned that, too. She was their target. Why did they attack her brother after she already fled?

On her way out, Lu Na saw Xue Ze and Cui Yi standing side by side, staring at her. Xue Ze said something to Cui Yi and he walked away. She was wearing white today, almost as if she was still preparing for her brother’s funeral.

“Your brother is doing better,” Xue Ze said.

Lu Na curtsied.

“Thank you for your concern, second mother. If there is nothing else, I will go back to my room.” Lu Na wanted to add “to resume her imprisonment within her own home,” but felt that it would antagonize her into making her life worse.

Xue Ze frowned.

“You and your brother are not my own, but I treat you like my own. It hurts me as much as your father that your brother is like this. And we are both glad you’re home safe. We’re only concerned for you.”

“They have a weird way of showing concern for you, though. Your father looks like he’d rather disown you now and she has you kept in your room,” Lu Na’s spirit said.

Lu Na smiled and nodded her head slightly while holding the earlier curtsy.

“Yes, second mother. I appreciate your kind words.”

“Maybe I’ll try to see if I have any young nephews that you can marry and get away from all this. That’s what I did and now I’m happy to be here with you all,” Xue Ze said.

Lu Na bowed her head deeper, hiding her grimace.

“This unfilial daughter will do whatever is requested of her.”

Lu Na didn’t want to even think about being married where this woman came from. If there were more people like her, she’d suffer more than when she was at the Wintersweet Sect.

“I’ll discuss it with your father.” Thankfully, she finally left afterwards saying nothing else.

Lu Na got up and walked toward her room.

“You better not be going along with that plan,” her spirit said. “The last thing I need is to be married off to the south.”

“Spirit, I don’t want to do that either. But that’s something to worry about in the future.” Lu Na looked around and saw no guards. “Well, no one is escorting me back to my room. This is a golden opportunity.”

“To run away from home and become a beggar?”

“No, to go visit Sun Ren. This time I get to see her instead of the other way around.”

“I agree with this. Maybe she can get her father to help you. Or better yet, maybe you could marry her brother. Then you’d be sisters. I’d be happy with that, especially with her handsome brother.”

Lu Na shook her head.

“Spirit, one of these days we’re going to have to talk about boundaries. I know that I usually let you do whatever because I didn’t know any different, but after talking with Sun Ren, you are very weird.”

“Oh, you have no idea.”

Lu Na didn’t know how, but she could feel that her spirit was smiling with all her fangs showing.