Janna saw Shishio strike Sunwhisper down, and she rushed to try to knock the instructor away from her friend. She called on the strength of the earth, and covered her right hand in a glove of stone, intending to land a blow on the back of Shishio’s skull. The instructor felt her coming, and turned to meet her with a sneer. She adjusted her aim, feinting a kick before following up with a wide swing to his square jaw.

He didn’t even move, and her stone gauntlet cracked when it impacted on an invisible barrier an inch from his face.

“Trying to protect your brother?” He grabbed her arm, twisting it until it snapped. “Family loyalty is admirable, but this farce ends now.”

Janna gritted her teeth against the pain, brought up her knee to his stomach and hit the same kind of barrier that had protected his face. With her free hand, she snatched the metal rod from her hip, a weapon Sunwhisper had loaned her. She couldn’t extend it into a spear with one hand, so she used it to try to batter the side of his head. He threw her to the ground, and suddenly, his bull had its hoof on her chest, and was lowering its horned head with a threatening snort. It looked to have fully recovered from its scuffle with Sunwhisper, and was more than willing to take out its frustrations on her.

Empiti appeared beside her, and for a foolish moment, she dreamed that he was there to help.

“Would you like me to finish her, master?”

Janna felt hot anger burning in her heart. She had begun to think of Empiti as a friend, and here he was asking if he could kill her for extra credit.

Shishio knelt beside Sunwhisper, who was unconscious, not bothering to look at Empiti. “So good of you to offer help, now that none is necessary.”

Empiti reddened. “I didn’t think it proper to interrupt a master exacting discipline on a dog, elder.”

“Master Furui will decide what to do with her.” Shishio raised his voice. “The rest of you, stop gaping. Let this be a lesson for you. We still have Yosei to catch, and essences to extract.”

There was a chorus of agreement from the other students, who shortly set about the task of hunting Snow Flowers. Shishio lifted the scarf from under Sunwhisper’s robes, and pulled the soft material over one of his hands. Irritation colored his expression, as his already thin lips stretched in annoyance.

He said a word only Janna could hear.

“Yuyu.”

Whatever else he was looking for from Sunwhisper, he did not find it, and as he continued to search him his frustration visibly increased. He took the remaining spear, removed a small box from the inside pocket of Sunwhisper’s robes, and executed a thorough pat down.

“Tell me how he did it.” He said, not bothering to look at Janna.

“Did what?”

“He used a technique that was neither flesh nor metal, an attack of the spirit. It nearly overcame my beast.”

“No.” Janna said.

“What?” Shishio glared at her. “You defy me?”

“I will tell you nothing,” she said more firmly. It was a petty resistance, but as she had already attacked her teacher, the punishment for refusing to speak could not be much worse. After coming so far, Janna hated being made to feel weak again. It was worse than when Father Gomen had attacked them in the Soma fields, the difference in their strength was that great. Sunwhisper had been stronger than her too, but he hadn’t stood a chance.

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“There is no one for you to protect, girl. You may as well speak.”

“What are you saying?”

“He’s dead.” Shishio patted Sunwhisper’s chest, his irritation fading in the pleasure of delivering the news. “His heart has stopped, his core is empty, and his second core was so thoroughly ruined I cannot even see it any longer. Not surprising, considering what he is. Was this abomination ever your brother, or was that another lie concocted by your mistress?”

Janna said nothing. Could Sunwhisper die so easily? It was an impossible suggestion, given what he had shown himself to be capable of. And what was that about his second core, where had the Red Spider gone? Abomination was an unusual word for the instructor to use, it was not a term typically associated with demons.

“What…who do you think he is?” She asked carefully.

Shishio shrugged. “A zaibatsu experiment. Metal and flesh. I should have guessed. He wasn’t even human anymore.” He held up the scarf. “Do you see this? A treasure, a gift from my hand to your mistress long ago. She sent it as a message, a receipt.” He shook his head. “Yuyu is beyond reason, but she is also of my family, and our patriarch seems to indulge her. But none of this explains what he did. A third kind of technique. What do you know about it, Jin Janna?”

Janna turned her face away.

“Very well,” Shishio rose from his crouch,”you will have time enough to think about your choices in the dungeons.”

Everything had come undone so quickly. Why had Sunwhisper chosen this moment to attack their instructor? It was not what they had planned at all. What did her future look like now? She was a debt slave to Yuyu, and now that she had failed her benefactress, if Yuyu did not kill her herself, it was likely that the debt would be renegotiated with the school as an apology for her actions. She could be passed from one service to another, and this time she would be alone.

Sunwhisper was dead? He had been a demon, but he had also been her friend. Generous, thoughtful. He had come for her when she was a prisoner of the Azai, and though she had resented his talent, his seemingly endless litany of advantages, when she had seen him locked in a struggle with their instructor, she had known that she would have tried to help him even if Yuyu’s desires had not figured into the equation at all.

The other students were not her friends. They did not even look at her as she lay on the ground beneath the hoof of a sacred beast. They were intent only on their own advancement.

Shishio collected the Yosei his students caught in a storage crystal, and informed them that the instruction on essence extraction would begin soon after they returned to the academy. Janna would not be a part of it. Empiti offered to escort her down the mountain, and Shishio acquiesced, seeming to dismiss her from his mind entirely.

Ken stood over Sunwhisper’s body with a strange look on his face. Janna had found him insufferable at first, a typical brash young master out to prove his superiority in everything to everyone. One day, his attitude had shifted, he had become more reserved, less volatile, and she had no idea what had brought about the change. Perhaps he had offended an instructor and been shown the error of his ways.

“Master, shall I carry him down?”

Shishio dismissed the request with a wave of his hand.

“Leave him to the mountain,” he said. “He is not one of us. Let his mana fertilize the soil for next season’s harvest.”

The journey down the mountain was nothing like the mad rush to reach its peak. Empiti held her by her unbroken arm, setting a pace just a hair slower than that of the other students.

“Your brother was a strange one,” he said. “What was he thinking?”

“He is none of your concern,” Janna said. It was a question she would have liked to have been able to answer for herself, but she wasn’t interested in musing over the possibilities with someone she now knew to be a snake.

“He was strong,” Empiti said, as if there was no enmity between them. “I have a nose for talent, and I respected his. But challenging an instructor is suicide. You are lucky Master Makoto honors family ties the way he does. Someone else might have killed you regardless of your motivations.”

“I am as good as dead already.”

Empiti laughed at her. “You must not have as many brothers as I do. The loss of one is not so great.”

Janna thought of her true brothers, and what Kuei had claimed had become of them. She noted that Karasu was not returning with the students.The raven had flown just ahead of her on the journey up, but she hadn’t seen her since joining the fight with Shishio. Maybe Karasu had decided that with Sunwhisper gone, there was no reason for her to remain with Janna. Certainly, they would not be bonded now.

The rest of the journey was spent in silence.