Duty is a Chain. Carnage is freedom. The world burns to feed its embers. – Philosopher Hiro in the Dawn Empire

* * *

The shade flung forth his hand and the thousand wisps floating around suddenly shot towards me. I ducked, letting the majority of them fly straight over my head. The shade growled and gurgled in frustration when I stood and fixed him with a cool stare.

“The family you butchered might not have fought back,” I said coldly, “but I assure you that I will prove a more difficult quarry to kill.”

I raised my hand out of habit, ready to summon forth a thousand blades of moonlight to shred the shade and dissipate his spirit, but I stopped myself. From the top of the lighthouse, I could see Saikan. Any bright flashes of light would be seen in the town below, giving away my true identity.

How irritating…once again, I was foiled by the stupidity of the region’s laws. I really would have to have a chat with Tenri at some point. Whatever silly fears formed the foundations of such a law were beyond foolish. There were no more issues with practicing the lunar arts than those of the sun or earth. All that law served to do was shackle my strength.

But, no matter. I would treat this as another training exercise in the use of void techniques. Perhaps there was something to learn here.

The shade took advantage of my moment of hesitation to launch itself forward. It clawed at my face with water-soaked fingers drenched in death qi. I darted to the side. I reached forward and tapped its side. Void qi surged forward, overshadowing my inner light and leaping to my enemy as soon as I made contact with the translucent form.

It howled in anger before seeming to disperse in a cloud of dust. I blinked in surprise. That couldn’t possibly be it…

This spirit was bound to the mortal world by an anger which transcended the boundaries between the spirit realm and mortal world. It had festered for at least three months, though I suspected more, and had drawn enough vital energy from the world around it to decay every floor of the lighthouse into a state of complete disrepair. No way it would be dispersed by a such a small expenditure of qi.

But, there wasn’t much room for the spirit to go. It couldn’t leave the spire, so where had it gone?

I waited, listening as the waves lapped at the cliffs below. It would strike, and I would be ready when it did…

A shift in the malevolent aura behind me warned me just in time. The shade lashed out, trying to claw my scalp from my skull. I ducked, grinning as Chiho removed itself from my hair and zipped into action. It took personal offence to anything that would damage my hair.

Chiho pecked and spun around the shade’s wrist, trying to separate the hand from the rest of its arm. The shade shrieked and swiped at the annoying hairpin. Thanks to Chiho’s distraction, I lunged forward, this time diving down to plunge void qi into the creature’s left leg.

It howled and dispersed again.

“Nice work, Chiho,” I praised as the pin returned to my hair. It vibrated happily, glad to be of assistance.

The ghostly wisps streaked towards me like a thousand grains of sand. I dodged backward, avoiding them so narrowly that they clipped the edges of my sleeves. Just as it did, a vision from Flash Forward warned me of the danger behind me.

I bent myself backward, letting my momentum carry me. The shade appeared, just as my vision had shown, to my right. His death fueled swipe sailed straight over my neck, and my hands reached the ground. I shifted my weight and used the momentum of my dodge to slam my foot into the shade’s head.

As a shade, his form was made entirely of qi. If a normal mortal had kicked him in the head, he probably wouldn’t have even felt it. A cultivator, though? My body was fused with the meridians of my core. Lunar and Void qi flowed through my every limb like blood carrying oxygen. It was my very source of my life and power, and so when I kicked the shade in the jaw, he felt it.

My attack carried me further back, and I righted myself on the outer edge of the lighthouse’s catwalk. The shade groaned and nursed its aching jaw. The wisps, however, were not dissuaded. They streaked towards me, radiating death as they tried to draw blood anywhere they could. I ducked down and to the left, letting them sail clean off the tower.

It was time to finish this. I gathered my strength, summoning my void qi to try something a little bit new. Using moon qi, I could create disks of moonlight which would rend my enemies asunder. Based on what I knew of the destructive nature of the void, I didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t do something similar, only with void qi instead.

The void gathered in my hand, a dark orb of destructive energy that writhed and pulsed with power. As soon as it was the size of a plum, I hurled it at the ghost.

It…wasn’t quite there. The trajectory was wrong as soon as it left my hand, sailing too far to the left. Instead of hitting the ghost, it would hit the mirrors of the lantern instead. I sighed, but then something strange happened.

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The shade stepped into the attack. The sphere of void slammed into its chest, squarely dissipating it again.

Why would it do that? It could have struck back, or dodged, or laughed, or done any number of safer things that wouldn’t have dissipated it so easily. Instead, it chose to step into the blast…

Why?

Could it be…that it was protecting the lantern? But the light wasn’t on! The mechanisms and mirrors were shattered beyond simple repair, and who knew how many pieces had been blown off the edge by a stray breeze? Why would it protect the lantern?

Flash Forward warned me of the shade’s next attack, but I was too wrapped up in thought to register it until it was too late. The shade howled and materialized right in front of me. It lunged forward with its putrid claws, trying to plunge them deep into my throat. I pulled away just in time, and it only managed to gouge my shoulder instead of my throat.

Chiho trilled angrily.

“I know, I know!” I rolled my eyes. The meaning was clear. I had to keep my head in the fight, no matter how much stronger I felt I was compared to my enemy.

Death qi festered on my wound, already trying to blacken the skin around the cut. I had to act quickly. Purging that kind of qi was simple enough, but it required focus. I needed to subdue the shade first, then deal with the injury.

“Chiho! With me!” I called, a plan forming in my mind. Chiho leapt from its place, hovering right by my head as I sprinted across the platform to the edge.

I turned at the landward side of the lighthouse just in time to see another wave of deathly wisps streaking towards me. Dodging them was simple, but, this time, I stepped back and to the side. My foot slipped, and my balance wavered. I cried out in alarm as I tumbled over the side.

“No!” the shade shouted, and my theories were confirmed. I threw my hand up to wrap around Chiho. Though the pin wasn’t strong enough to lift me completely, it could slow my descent. I angled my body and curled into a ball to break through a window halfway up the tower.

I tumbled into the building, slamming into the rotting floorboards. The wind was briefly knocked out of me before I shook my head and righted myself.

“Hey, Shade!” I called. “I’m down here, and I know who you are!”

I could hear its shrieks of rage from the top of the lighthouse. It would soon descend. In the end, Xinya had been right all along, but there was more to the story than that.

“You’re an old keeper of this lighthouse, aren’t you?” I called. “I’m guessing you died a few hundred years ago, if the decay on your body and the building are any indication. Was the current decoration inside the tower too new for you?” I heard a growl, but it wasn’t time to stop my speech. “Who else but a keeper would go to such lengths to defend the lantern from my attacks? But then, how did you die? You’re waterlogged, so you must have died or fallen into the water below. Tell me, was it a storm? Did you fall from the light room like I did?”

The malevolent aura grew stronger, and the floorboards around me began to visibly deteriorate. Mold grew up the walls at an alarming rate, and the shade itself manifested before me.

“You know NOTHING!” it shrieked.

“Don’t I? Look around you!” I gestured to the shattered room. It was the desecrated shrine, its idol blackened and destroyed beyond recognition. “This was for you, wasn’t it? It was a way to appease you because your body was never recovered for burial.”

The shade looked around, confusion briefly replacing the anger in its heart. It was working!

“What I don’t understand, though,” I continued, “is why did you kill the family that lived here? They were fulfilling your duty after you could not!”

“Fulfilling…” A look of recognition flashed across the shade’s face before it was replaced again by anger. “They’re the ones who shirked my duty! The keeper was so busy with his family that he forgot everything else!” He spit the word family as if he were talking about vermin. “He let the stores run dry! HE LET THE LIGHT GO OUT!” Red hot anger flashed in his eyes, and the death qi around him surged. “Twenty years I devoted to keeping the light lit! Even on the day I died, in the depths of a hurricane, I lit the lantern so that ships at sea could find their way! The winds blew me over the side, but I DID MY DUTY!”

“And he didn’t,” I finished.

“He was too busy with his wife to notice the stores were empty! Then, when I warned him, he blew it off and broke the mirrors! Said he didn’t want to be keeper anymore!”

The death qi was intense. I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve again, but, even then, I felt the itch of infection in my lungs. The shade was empowered by the spiritual offerings made over the years to his lost spirit. That power mixed in with the raw hatred he felt to produce a truly impressive display of might.

The floorboards were starting to disintegrate into dust, and I didn’t dare touch any of the walls for fear of what was growing on it. There were two ways to stop this shade, now that I knew his tale. I could fight it…or…

“What if I relit the lantern?” I said. Immediately, the decay slowed to a crawl. The shade stared at me in shock.

“You’re not a sailor, what do you care?”

“You’re right.” I shrugged and smiled. “I can’t even swim! But, it’s important to you, and to the town. It can’t be that hard to fix, right?”

“But…without a keeper…”

“I’ll find you a new keeper to tend the house,” I promised.

The shade looked around, suddenly unsure of the power that surrounded him. He studied me up and down. I lowered my hand from my face. He was trying to see if I was capable of all I claimed. In the end, he didn’t seem convinced, and I didn’t fully blame him. I had proven myself a capable warrior, but warriors don’t necessarily make good artisans.

I stepped forward, ignoring the creaking boards beneath my feet. I reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I will see this lantern lit again,” I promised. “I swear it by the moon above.”

It was as if a great storm had been blown away with a single gust of wind. The hatred melted from his eyes, leaving behind the peaceful blue of a placated spirit. All the malice that twisted his face vanished, revealing a calm, but resolute man.

“What’s your name, friend?” I asked softly.

“Sai Lyn,” he answered. “I was the keeper here six generations ago.”

“Well, Sai Lyn, why don’t we see about fixing the mirrors, hmm?” A pang of pain stabbed through my shoulder, and I looked down to see the festering wound still radiated death qi.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

I shook my head. “It’s no problem. I’ll recover. Just give me a few moments to purge the taint, then we can take a look above.”