Caution must be taken when visiting beast kingdoms and courts. Too often, our diplomats forget that the human forms worn by spirit beasts are just that: forms they wear. The fact is that our sensibilities, standards, and instincts can be dangerous in a beast court. Show a wolf sympathy at bad news? They’ll either tear you apart for prying or practically adopt you. And the latter means they expect you to revoke your loyalties. Failure to follow through is akin to the greatest of betrayals deserving of a clan blood feud. –Diplomat Jie San of the Wind’s Word Sect

* * *

Xinya and I were both stunned speechless by the sudden appearance of the Queen next to us. Of all the outcomes I’d expected from meeting the Queen of the Spirit Bees, this was not one of them.

“Your Majesty,” said the fan-bearing twin with a sigh. “Your Majesty, this is highly inappropriate of your station.”

The Queen froze in the middle of patting Xinya’s head. There was another explosion of flower petals, and, suddenly, she was standing before us. Her cheeks were red, and her eyes were closed as she bowed slightly.

“Please forgive my outburst. I simply do not get guests often.” She was genuinely apologetic, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep the smile off my face.

“It’s fine, I guess,” Xinya answered. “But, don’t hurt him. He only kidnapped me to save me!”

“Oh? Save you from what, sweetie?” The Queen listened with rapt attention as Xinya explained the events of the other night. Her voice trembled as she described how the water cultivator had burst into their home with a spirit hound in tow. She refused to go with them when they said she had qi on her. Her father had fought back, but, in the end, they took her and stuck her in the lineup with all the other kids. Pollen examined the bruise on her cheek, nodding as she began to see the picture. Eventually, Xinya retold her perspective of the lineup. How Shen Yaoxan had tried to kill her, only to be thwarted first by her father, then by a strange monster wrapped in chains. The monster (me) beat up all the wicked cultivators, then spirited her away, even though he was injured in the battle.

“I see, so he was the artist at the Flower Shrine scaring away my workers,” Pollen mused. “But, he wasn’t the one Cherry and Rose were trying to protect you from?” Xinya nodded. “Well, that settles it! How may I address you both?” Xinya introduced us both and Pollen smiled. “Very human names! I like it! Now, I would like to apologize for the disrespect shown to you, Master Tsuyuki. Would you indulge me by allowing me to heal your injuries?”

“You honor me, Your Majesty,” I answered. Immediately, Queen Pollen turned and left. The bees that accompanied her bumbled along behind, and the twins ushered Xinya and I to follow.

The Honey Hive’s estates were vast, and it quickly became clear that we’d only seen a small portion of it from the front. It sprawled back along the edge of the lake and into the forest.

“We’ve spent years building up the estates,” Pollen explained as we walked across one of the bridges. “I’ve always dreamed of reaching out to the local humans for trade and built my palace so as to be familiar when they visit to discuss those deals. If you look towards the shore, you’ll see one of the hive houses. That one is a honey store. We keep the brood houses on the ridge above the lake, as well as in several other places scattered around my dominion.”

“It’s quite the impressive estate,” I complimented. Xinya tugged on the hem of my robes.

“How do bees build stuff like this? Even Saikan’s biggest building isn’t this grand.”

“Spirit Beasts inherit ancestral knowledge when they’re born,” I answered. “It helps them get started on their path. Through their own cultivation, they gain the intelligence to do pretty much anything a human can.”

“You’d be surprised how much carpenter bees can pick up from watching human workers,” Pollen added. “Though my main court and I are all honeybees, I have gathered a number of unique species here. Nothing aggressive, though. Those tend to gravitate towards the hornets and get killed for their efforts.”

“I’d heard that the hornets were getting more aggressive, lately,” I noted.

The Queen sighed. “Yes, they recently had a change in leadership, a duel between their old queen and a younger upstart. Ever since, they’ve been closed to negotiations, even though they’ve been pushing outward almost every day. Here we are.” Pollen opened the door to a simple guest room.

There were many flowers to decorate, but what really drew my attention was the array carved into the floor. Its design was unfamiliar to me, but a sleeping mat at the center of the circle made it clear what the design was for.

“My powers are tied to my domain, but I can draw life from the land to heal your injuries.”

So, she was a Land artist. Land was one of the six elements of the Creation cycle, alongside Ocean, Sky, Life, Death, and Creation itself. I’d never actually met a Land artist for real, as they rarely travel beyond their individual domain, but I’d done my share of reading on the subject. Land artists bound their core and their spirit to a specific dominion in the physical world, and, by cycling their qi through the land, they could gather the qi from the land to form techniques. It was a difficult art, and one that few ever mastered.

I settled myself onto the mat at the center of the array and Pollen knelt beside me. The array activated and began to glow bright with spiritual power. I felt that power slowly flow into me, numbing my limbs and making my eyes droop.

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Pollen began to hum softly. “Don’t worry. You’ll be all better soon.”

I didn’t have a choice. Pollen’s spiritual energy soothed me like a sedative. I was out before I knew it.

* * *

A cloaked figure slunk between the stone buildings. The night was dark, with only a sliver of moonlight overhead. Their footsteps did nothing to disturb the stillness of the night, for no one dared disturb the tension that clung to the air of Saikan.

“Four men dead.” The voice drifted from a window high above. On a normal night, the conversations of the occupants wouldn’t be heard. The inn was the finest the town had to offer, and, yet, none of the usual joy could be heard within. Not a soul dared make more than the slightest peep, lest they anger the wolf in their midst.

“Sir, are we going to retreat?” said another voice. “If we return, maybe your esteemed father could give us reinforcements!”

“And give my weak brother the chance to butt in and steal my hard work? I don’t think so.”

“But sir, we’ve lost four strong cultivators.” The voice paused, as if struggling to put words to the horror they’d witnessed. “It was done in broad daylight. A shade that can attack in daylight…” the voice trailed off, but the implication was clear. Such a being was well beyond them.

“Suiren was not killed by a shade. He was burned to death.”

“You think it’s working with someone?”

“Shades don’t bleed. There was fresh blood against the shrine,” the leader growled. “No, this Chain-Bound Fury is no shade.”

The cloaked figure had been listening carefully to the conversation until then. The corner of their lips tweaked upward hearing the deductions made. Of course it was no shade that attacked them, disrupted the good work of the officials, and spirited away the fugitive child. No shade would care.

Whatever the monster really was, though they suspected more and more that it was some yokai in disguise, it had stalked their fair fishing town for a while. It might have Tenri Lin fooled, but it wasn’t nearly as clever or as charming as it thought it was. Since it had come, it had started laying the groundwork for Saikan’s destruction, and thought none in town were wise to its actions. But the cloaked person had been watching closely.

They didn’t know what manner of creature it was. Yokai were varied in nature. It could be a wicked fox spirit with a hungering for the blood of innocents, or a yaksha of the depths, intent on slaughtering the entire town for its own entertainment, or any number of other wicked, cruel entities. Despite their differences, almost all yokai shared two key traits: a mysterious and sudden appearance, and the hunger for human flesh and qi. Even the tiniest child knew that much of yokai.

The inn staff made no move to stop the cloaked figure as they swooped into the building. They climbed the stairs and knocked heavily on the door. A moment later, it was opened by a man with a bronze badge tied around his left arm.

When the cloaked person spoke, it was with a clear, authoritative voice. “I have information for Master Shen regarding the identity of the Fury.”

* * *

I woke quite suddenly after dreaming that the moon had fallen right out of the sky, crushing me instantly. I shot straight upright, only to find myself in a strange room. It took a few moments to remember that I was still in Queen Pollen’s palace. Pollen, or more likely one of the twins, had exchanged my robes for a simple set of purple house clothes, and a bee was busy folding up my robes.

As soon as I swung my feet to the floor, Chiho erupted out of one of my pockets, scaring the bee before rushing to my arms. The bee buzzed a high-pitched squeal of alarm before zipping from the room in fright.

“Chiho!” I chastised. It nuzzled my cheek and flew laps around my head. “Chiho, it’s fine! I’m alright.” Sure enough, taking stock of my previous injuries found nothing wrong with me. Pollen had fished the steel pellet from my shoulder, stitched it up good as new, and even set my collarbone. I felt perfectly refreshed…or at least as refreshed as I often was after chronically fitful sleep.

I tied my hair back up with my silver ribbon, then left my room to wander the palace. The pink haze of dawn filtered through the trees, leaving me both surprised and a little disgusted that I’d woken up so early. No wonder Chiho was worried about my health.

It wasn’t long before I found Pollen, since she was one of the only human-form bees in the entire compound. She was tending to a garden of large flowers withsSpider lilies, peonies, ditch lilies, and dozens of plants I couldn’t identify. Each one shimmered with qi, and, yet, none were quite as stunning as the single blue blossom in Tenri’s garden.

“Good Morning, Master Tsuyuki,” she greeted. “I hope you don’t mind that I had your clothes changed and washed. The steel ball was difficult to remove, and they were more red than white by the end.”

“It’s fine. I’m grateful for your hospitality and care.” I bowed respectfully to her. “However, I fear that I must beg another favor of you.”

It was something I’d been toying with the entire time I’d been awake: what to do with Xinya. I couldn’t leave the nine-year-old alone, and I could hardly bring her back into town, especially with Shen Yaoxan still around. He’d snap up any opportunity to kill the little girl just to save face after his embarrassing defeat.

“Xinya is a fugitive,” Pollen said with a shake of her head. “It’s so tragic.” She paused for a long while. “I would, of course, be most pleased to host little Xinya, but you know doing so comes with something of a risk. If this Iron Master chasing you two should knock on my door, I would have to risk my domain to fend him off, and I already have my own enemies to deal with.”

“Then why don’t we do an exchange?” I offered. “I help fight your enemies, and you shelter Xinya until it’s safe for her to return or move on?”

“I am at war with both the Hanai Hornet Nest as well as the Spiders of the Black Crevice. The hornets are exceptionally strong and aggressive, and completely unwilling to negotiate until their queen emerges.” Pollen bit her lip in irritation. “And the spider’s matriarch has always been a pain to deal with. Her kin are blood thirsty and have no regard for the land.

“My hive is caught between them,” Pollen continued, kneeling down to caress a crimson corpse flower. “My land, by its very nature, is filled with natural wonder abundant in qi. My enemies want to take it and consume my kin, but we are not a violent species.”

My mind flashed back to Cherry and Rose. They seemed to get over their non-violent nature well enough to kill that artist. However, creating human spirit beasts was a difficult process, and one that required many resources to achieve. Pollen probably couldn’t afford to create any more than she already had.

I bowed before the Queen. “I would be happy to assist in bringing peace between your lands and the others.” It wasn’t like I had anything better to do. Besides, in a roundabout way, this would help Tenri get some sleep before he keeled over and died of exhaustion.

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Pollen said with a polite smile. “I was hoping you’d offer assistance. Perhaps this is the start of a prosperous friendship between my hive and your town.”

“I’m no representative of Saikan, but I would consider myself lucky to be a friend of yours.”