They were completely out of paints and charcoal, and they were filling in lines with dusty fingers and colored claws. Still, it was enough to see the outline of several winged xiyi figures, and bring out details of a few of the rectangles behind them, which were easily recognizable once they had depth and color.

“So the hoyi didn’t create the alcoves where they keep the eggs,” Kaz said, using his finger to smudge the charcoal into a shadow cast by an egg. His fur was dirty and colored in every shade, but he hadn’t been able to resist filling in the shapes at least a little bit.

Li was equally splattered in paint, having discovered that she could hold the metal tubes in her mouth, then dip a claw into the contents in order to trace the carvings. Of course, she’d accidentally punctured more than one of those tubes in the process, and hadn’t paid attention to what color she used for what part of the picture, so there were purple and blue xiyi and bright yellow eggs, but she was proud of herself for helping, so Kaz wasn’t about to complain.

Li agreed, looking at the rows of familiar alcoves behind the reptilian figures. The xiyi were placing, turning, and watching over the eggs in both the top row of alcoves and the bottom row, but the eggs themselves were distinctly different. The eggs on the bottom looked exactly like the ones Li and her siblings had hatched from - albeit more colorful - while the ones on top were smaller and longer, almost like cylinders with rounded ends.

“And when the xiyi abandoned this place, the hoyi moved in,” Kaz finished.

Li stretched out her neck, staring down into the pit. It was obvious she wanted to go investigate right now, but Kaz had one more thing to do.

“They might be,” Kaz said. “If they were forgotten as thoroughly as this place. On the other paw, we might just find ourselves in a den of lopo or binyi.” He felt her impatience rising and added, “We’ll go, but I want to check out the rooms first.” Li had been quite satisfied by peering in to see large, empty tables and chairs, but there were parts of the rooms hidden by those same items, and Kaz wanted to search them.

The dragon sighed but nodded. she said, moving into the closest room.

Kaz did the same, quickly examining the long table that had been carved directly into the stone wall. There were only a few ki-crystals here, probably for light, and most of them had cracked at some point in the last thousand years. Their dim glow and Kaz’s small ki-light were enough to reveal that the table was indeed nothing more than rock, with no hidden carvings or compartments, and there were no conveniently dropped items tucked between the chairs for Kaz to find.

Li’s room was equally uninteresting, so they each moved around the circle to the next open doorway. Kaz checked this room even more carefully than the last, while Li only glanced around hers before coming to join him.

Li demanded, almost dancing with impatience. Kaz sighed and sat on the closest chair, feeling like he was still missing something. As he did, he absently noted that while the chair appeared to be perfectly flat, in fact it had a small slope along one side which gave his tail room to hang behind him, rather than being forced awkwardly out of the way. That must be because these were made for xiyi, whose tails tended to be thicker and even less flexible than those of his people.

Slowly, he swept a hand over the surface of the table, wondering what it was meant to be used for. Had xiyi come together in these rooms to talk? Or were the tables a place to keep eggs or other items while they were sorted or processed in some way? If this place had ever really been used, there might be some marks, stains, or gouges to offer him a clue, but as it was-

His hand paused as it passed over the table’s surface. He had touched the previous one, of course, in hopes that it might have the beginnings of more carvings, but once he realized that it was perfectly smooth, he’d stopped there. But there was definitely something about this one that was…different.

Laying his palms down flat in front of him, Kaz pushed a brief pulse of ki into the stone. There was no immediate reaction, but there was still something lurking at the edges of his awareness. What was that? He sent more ki out into the table, then followed it with just a little of each individual type of ki. When he reached Water, the entire surface of the table flickered, briefly revealing something lying beneath.

Li asked, suddenly much more interested.

Rather than answering, Kaz gave the table more black ki, this time holding the connection for a little longer, rather than withdrawing immediately. The surface shivered again, then vanished, revealing apparently empty space within.

Kaz’s eyes quickly began to ache from staring at it, and then the flat depths rippled, and he realized he was looking at water. Moreover, the water was very, very occupied, and he saw a head lift from the surface, a vast mouth opening to reveal what seemed like far more teeth than any creature could possibly need. It looked a little like Heishe, with a long, flat snout and a split tongue, but in spite of the fact that it seemed so small, he was certain it was in fact enormous. Beside it, more and more heads appeared, each identical to the first, and all of them were looking-

He yanked his hands back, breaking the connection, and the plain surface of the table reappeared in front of him. Realizing that he was panting, he struggled to get his breathing back under control. Li leaned against him, her own body shivering in instinctive fear.

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she said, and Kaz nodded immediately. He had no idea what that thing was, but he was absolutely certain he never wanted to meet it in person. There at the end, he would have sworn it was looking straight at him, and was reaching out with power that rivaled his own.

“Do you think the other tables are like this one? Did the xiyi just sit here and watch that thing?” he asked.

Li shuddered. she asked, sounding almost timid for once.

Finally feeling like his paws would support him, Kaz stood, turned, and embraced her. “No, I don’t. I’m not even sure those things are supposed to be there. They may have moved in after the xiyi were driven out, just like the hoyi.”

Li was right beside him as he headed for the door, but stopped while he turned to the right. Re-entering the first room he’d searched, Kaz sat down at the table there, laying his hands flat out ahead of him.

Li demanded, hurrying toward him as if to knock his hands away.

Kaz lifted one hand and stroked his fingers along her neck when she got close enough. “Trust me. No black ki this time.” Reluctantly, Li settled down, but it was clear that she didn’t like it.

Quickly, Kaz offered the table blue ki, then red, and finally yellow. As soon as the yellow ki touched it, the surface vanished into an image that both Kaz and Li instantly recognized. “The hoyi egg room. Or rooms, I suppose,” Kaz said.

Indeed, it was clear that they had only seen part of the long, alcove-lined cavern. It had seven arms stretching out from a central point that Kaz suspected might contain the platform they’d used to come down here, though it was so small he couldn’t be certain. Each of the long arms contained seemingly identical spaces, though hoyi could only be seen moving through three of them. The other four were dim, barely visible in the soft natural light of mosses and lichens.

Cautiously, Kaz lifted one hand, though he continued feeding the table more Earth ki through the other. Tracing one of the dark sections, he said, “It looks like whatever makes the alcoves work - whatever it is that they do - has broken down in these areas. There don’t even seem to be any ki-crystals in the walls.”

Li nodded, leaning forward until her nose was almost touching the now-invisible surface of the table.

“It makes sense,” Kaz agreed. “I don’t know how many xiyi there were, but they couldn’t be everywhere. It’s certainly easier to have a few sit and keep watch, then send others out if there was trouble.”

Together, they went to the third room, where Kaz offered the table pure blue ki, and it responded with an image of the yumi fields. Even the dead pools were visible, and they could make out Vek’s den, with mingled kobold and mosui pups playing nearby.

Li asked, pointing a claw at a small but sharp image of a kobold with bright orange fur.

“I think so,” Kaz agreed, his tail wagging. “Everything looks fine there.” That was a great relief. They’d only left a day or so ago, but Kaz couldn’t help but worry for Vek and what he’d built. The other male had taken on a dangerous role, trying to convince both the other kobolds and the husede to accept his authority, and it would be far too easy for someone to attack him in a den filled with puppies.

Together, Kaz and Li watched for several minutes, enjoying the antics of the puppies, as well as the calm, orderly way in which the yumi was gathered in the sprawling cavern system. Finally, however, Kaz lifted his hands and sat back with a sigh.

Li said, and dashed back out of the room again before Kaz could even stand up.

When Kaz entered the next room, he found Li awkwardly draped across one of the chairs, with her two front paws spread on the table. She wasn’t as good as he was at separating the colors of ki, but it was apparently good enough, because as she flooded the table with mostly Fire ki, the surface faded into a cloudy gray fog. Through that fog, they could see another of the seven-armed caverns, lined with more of the alcoves. All of these were dark, however, and nothing moved in the still, silent spaces.

Li asked, her voice soft.

“I don’t know,” Kaz said with equal solemnity. “But I don’t think the xiyi used all of theirs, so maybe the dragons didn’t either. It makes sense to me to build as many as you think you might ever need, and then you don’t have to worry about running out of space.”

Li said, then leaned forward, staring at a particularly shadowy section of the image.

Reaching out, Kaz laid a hand beside her paw, offering the table pure red ki. The fog cleared, and they could both tell what the thing was Li had been staring at: a skeleton. Specifically, a dragon skeleton, very much like Qiangde’s, though this one was probably quite a bit smaller, and the bones had fallen into mounds.

Li pulled back, and Kaz released his hold on the ki as well. Li was puffing out small clouds of vapor that hung in the air, obscuring her face, though it didn’t cover the clicks and whistles she was making. Kaz held her until she regained her composure, then asked, “Are you going to be all right? If that is what waits for us down below?”

Li’s voice was small.

Kaz had no rebuttal. It was not only possible but likely that at least some members of Qiangde’s court had been relatively blameless, especially those who’d simply been born here. They never would have known anything different, and certainly wouldn’t be strong enough to change anything, even if they disagreed with Qiangde’s actions.

“It happened a long time ago,” he finally offered. It was so little consolation, but it was also the only thing that really helped him when he thought about what had been done to his own ancestors. Everyone involved was long dead, except Nucai and Zhangwo, and even Zhangwo had now paid for his atrocities. There was nothing Kaz could do to help them, and the living descendants of the xiyi and mosui were no more responsible for what happened then than the kobolds were.

Li nodded.

Something plucked at Kaz, reaching out and through him, and he said, “We’re going to make sure nothing like it happens again. You and I, together.”

His dragon pulled back, whirling golden eyes catching his, and then she nodded. she agreed.