“May I ask the priestess’ purpose in coming to Zhongshu?” The emperor was polite, but curious.

“I came to attend the wedding,” Yuelan answered calmly. “The emperor of Longuo requested I do so and I felt that this was something I needed to do.”

“Will the Holy Lady be granting the couple your blessing?” Zhongshu’s emperor seemed both surprised and pleased.

Both Long He and Byakko were giving Yuelan advice utilizing the bond between them to speak directly to her mind, allowing her to get through the hurdles of appearing as a priestess rather than just the daughter of a prime minister. She was grateful to them, but it was starting to give her a headache already. Instead of directly answering Zongshu’s emperor’s question about giving her blessing, she smiled and remained silent.

The emperor of Zhongshu asked Yuelan several more questions before Long He stepped forward. “Our mistress has just arrived after a long and tiring journey. She even lost her carriage along the way,” the dragon informed the emperor. “The white tiger and I will be taking her back to the post house now.”

Zhongshu’s emperor frowned, but couldn’t find any reason to delay them. He turned to the mostly-ignored Guangfeng and waved a hand. “Prince Guangfeng should return as well. We will discuss the details of the wedding and the treaty tomorrow.”

Guangfeng saluted the emperor politely and turned to head out of the palace with Yuelan, Long He, and Byakko.

***

Camphor and Willow woke Yuelan early the next morning. She listened to Camphor explain that Long He and Byakko had insisted on waking her as she ate her breakfast and prepared for the day. When she’d finished she stepped out of her room in the post house and easily spotted the two spirit beasts.

“Today we’re going to one of the shrines for the dragon priestess,” Long He explained. “Byakko says your presence there is necessary and there are some things there that you’ll need to pick up anyway.”

“What things?” Yuelan asked curiously.

“Your tools. When we get there and you see them you’ll understand,” the Dragon answered.

Byakko shifted into his tiger form and Yuelan got up on his back once again. A nervous Camphor was put behind Yuelan by Long He and the tiger headed out of the post house and toward the edge of Zhongshu’s capital with the dragon easily keeping up even in his human form.

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It took almost an hour to reach the shrine, which turned out to be a large, old, worn temple. A red lacquered torii gate stood at the top of the stairs and they passed through it as they entered the grounds. The stones covering the paths were uneven and the paths themselves covered in leaves. It seemed as though people rarely came to the shrine and as nobody came to greet them, Yuelan felt that perhaps the shrine was abandoned. After six hundred years of waiting for a new priestess, Yuelan felt that wasn’t unexpected.

Byakko lowered his stomach to the ground and let Yuelan and Camphor down. Camphor’s legs were pretty shaky and she stayed further away from the white tiger than she had since meeting him. Yuelan felt that was probably the more normal reaction when compared with her own strange feeling of calm, so she didn’t mind it.

The white tiger shifted into his human form and turned to look at Yuelan. “In each shrine there is a secret room in the main building. That’s where we’re heading,” he explained before he started to walk. “There are five shrines in total, one in each country and the last under the library. The shrines are in key locations and are supposed to keep the magic in this world balanced. Unfortunately, without a priestess to care for them the magic has become out of balance. If it isn’t fixed then this world could cease to exist.”

Yuelan looked startled and turned to Long He, who nodded in confirmation. 

“Even before the world was split between your world and this one, the dragon priestess had important responsibilities,” the dragon explained.  “She is the guardian of magic. You’ve seen for yourself that this world is far behind your own, even though originally there was still magic being regularly used here. Without the priestess to keep the world’s magic balanced accessing it became more and more difficult for humans. This world is reliant on magic, and without it the humans cannot advance. As you’ve seen, technology from your world cannot function here. The energies conflict with each other, causing the devices and conveniences from your world to break when brought to this one.”

“So any advances would need magic to be what operates them?” Yuelan asked.

Long He and Byakko both nodded and the white tiger spoke once more, “Things are near to spiraling out of control. Many of the spirit beasts here in Zhongshu are starting to go mad from the magical energy here. You will need to put it back in balance by using what is found in the secret room.”

Yuelan became anxious when she heard this explanation. “But-,” she hesitated and bit her bottom lip. “I have no idea what it is I’m supposed to do.”

“That’s not an issue,” Byakko assured her. “There are ways for you to learn. For now we should find the secret room of this shrine.”

“You don’t know where it is?” Yuelan asked in surprise.

“Only that it is in the main building. Spirit beasts live longer than humans and divine beasts a bit longer than normal spirit beasts, but we still are not immortal. It was my father who assisted in building the shrine here, so I have never seen the secret room. He did tell me before he died that the priestess would be drawn to it on her own if she was needed.”

Yuelan fiddled with the earring in her right ear. “What about Long He? He knew the previous priestess and she died six hundred years ago.”

“My lifespan is unknown,” Long He answered. “Nobody has figured out why I haven’t aged or died yet. That isn’t important. Byakko said that this matter with the shrines is important and we have to work quickly.”

Yuelan nodded and started walking toward the main building of the shrine.