The Fallen, Sinners. The Fled, Heretics. Repent in blood, wayward souls, or suffer the Edict of the March. –Standard chant of the Sect of the War March in the Iron Wastes.

* * *

Tenri knelt next to the flowers in his garden. They were happy today, and he could almost hear their laughter as they danced in the gentle breeze. The lotuses were in full bloom. The peonies were lush and beautiful, and the azaleas had never been more vibrant. Even the Heaven’s Lilies and the Firestorm Flowers were bright, despite being trampled by a panicked and half-asleep Tsuyuki on his first day. Everything was perfect.

All the flowers were in bloom at once, which was exactly how Tenri liked it. In a normal garden, each flower would show its beauty at different times, but not here. Here, he provided each flower with the qi to live their best life and be as beautiful as they could be for the full duration of their life cycle. When they were done and had lived their lives, they told him, and he removed them to make room for the next generation of flowers. Everything was forever perfect.

At least…everything except his prize blossom. He’d picked up the seeds for a Lunafall flower on his last trip to the capital in Haishui two years ago. The perfect petals tipped with white had been a wonder to behold at the vendor, and he dreamed of making the most exquisite, qi-infused version. As soon as he’d returned home, he’d planted the seeds in his best pot, sprinkled just enough qi to help them grow without burning them, then placed them as the centerpiece of his garden. Tenri had expected them to grow just as easily as the rest of the flowers, but something was holding them back. In two years, the white had never shone through the tips of the petals. The stamen had never turned the vibrant purple they were meant to be, and they generally seemed…sad.

Tenri didn’t know what to make of it. He provided everything the flower needed. It had a whole island in the center of the koi pond with no other flowers. It could grow as wide or as far as it wanted with no competition. It always had plenty of water and the best sunshine in the garden. Tenri even provided it with more qi than any other flower, and yet, it still did not grow to its full potential. Every time he tried to commune with the bloom and ask it what it needed, it didn’t answer.

“Still trying?” Hanako asked from the door. Tenri nodded.

“It’ll reach its true potential someday,” he answered. He leaned in and stroked one of the blue petals, raising it to his lips. As he gently kissed it, qi flowed from him to the bloom, infusing it so that the petals shimmered slightly in the sunlight. Then, he stood and hopped over the koi pond and surrounding flowers.

“I should be jealous,” Hanako mused. “You don’t even kiss me that way.”

“If I kissed you that way, you might get qi fever.” His answer was dry, but his wife just laughed.

“Your mother asked again when she could expect grandchildren,” she said. “I considered telling her that they’d be growing in the garden, but instead I lied and said ‘soon.’”

Tenri grimaced. “Who has time for children? I already spend all my time settling every petty squabble in town, and that was before the town got cursed.”

No one could prove that the curse was real, but it was the prevailing belief of the townsfolk. All anyone else knew was that everyone had been the victim of one unfortunate accident or another…and, in some cases, several. No one had died, but the clinic was making a small fortune from the amount Saikan’s treasury had paid to them to handle the injuries.

In truth, Tenri didn’t think it was a curse on the town. If anything, it was a curse on a very specific person, namely Tsuyuki. After all, one does not get to be the Demon of Misfortune without reason. That said, the legends were unclear as to how he’d come to be associated with that title; something about the Ascendents who fought him facing extremely unlikely ends, but that was hardly his fault. Somehow, Tenri didn’t see the man who put his life on the line to fight an Iron and Five Bronzes as the type to put a malicious curse on the town. The only logical conclusion after that was that Tsuyuki himself was cursed and didn’t realize it, which Tenri figured must be a part of the same ritual that twisted his form during the new moon.

But all of that was, quite literally, ancient history. What was important now was the mountain of paperwork that awaited him at work. If he didn’t take care of it, the mountain would only grow. Tenri sighed and went inside to clean the soil from his hands. After cleaning up and giving Hanako a kiss on the cheek, he began his walk to the administrative building.

“Good Morning, Cousin,” he said as he passed through the door. Zumi sprang up from his desk and rushed to meet him.

“Oh, Good Morning, Cousin! You’re here, and so early, too!” Zumi wrang his hands, and Tenri frowned. He was here at the same time he always was, which by Zumi’s clock was a half hour late. Normally, his cousin told him off for his timing, not praised him for being early…

“I…hadn’t noticed?” he answered, trying to read his assistant’s worried smile.

Zumi bowed and gestured towards the door. “Since you’re up, maybe you’d like to walk around the market? Cousin Zumi can handle things just fine here, no need for you to…to…uh…help!” Had Zumi fallen ill? Never before had he suggested that Tenri take even a short break, let alone leave the building on a pleasure stroll.

“Zumi,” Tenri raised an eyebrow. “What is going on, here?”

“N-n-nothing! I just…” his eyes flicked to Tenri’s office door. “I…uh…made a mistake.”

Tenri immediately relaxed. Zumi was his younger cousin. They’d been raised practically like brothers, though a few years separated. Tenri knew that Zumi could be brash and uncooperative at times, but he only wanted to please his cousin. For him to admit to a mistake…it must be a pretty dire problem in his eyes.

That said, a dire problem in his eyes was probably a grave clerical error or fallen stack of papers. It would be a headache, for certain, but it was nothing on the level of “dire problems” that Tenri had experienced in the last two months.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure we can work it out,” Tenri reassured as he slid past his assistant to reach his office.

“Wait, Lin!”

Tenri pushed open the door, and his blood went cold. His desk had been completely cleared of the ten organized piles that he’d so painstakingly separated the night before…and, behind them, Shen Yaoxan sat in his chair. The Iron cultivator idly read through a single page Tenri recognized as his running tally of all the accidents that had happened in town since Tsuyuki’s grand escape.

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“Quite a string of misfortune,” Shen mused. “I’ve heard rumors of a curse over Saikan.” His black eyes flicked up and a shiver went down Tenri’s spine. This man was filled with malice. “You must work very hard to keep up with it all. Please, have a seat, and close the door, please.”

Tenri did as he was told, keeping his eyes lowered lest he accidentally disrespect the more powerful artist. The hierarchy of cultivation overruled the hierarchy of governance. Tenri wasn’t an administrator as far as Shen was concerned. He was only a Bronze.

“What does Master Shen wish to speak about?” Tenri asked once he was seated again.

“I’ve been doing some investigating, Tenri.” A wicked sneer was on Shen’s lips. “Are you familiar with an artist named Tsuyuki Yoru?”

What kind of question was that? If Shen had discovered his name, then he’d done enough investigating to know that Tsuyuki had been staying at Tenri’s home! Tenri couldn’t help but feel like a rabbit in a fox’s den.

“I am, sir,” was the only answer he could safely give.

“Good, good, I would hope so, since the rumors I heard said you and he are sworn brothers.” Tenri nearly choked on his own saliva. Sworn brothers?! Since when?! The bond between him and Tsuyuki was strange and mystical, but they were hardly close enough to swear themselves to one another. Besides, Tsuyuki hadn’t given him a choice in that connection. It just kind of happened.

“I don’t know what rumors you’ve heard, sir,” he began.

“Quiet.” Shen’s order left no room for argument. Tenri could feel the artist’s temper rising. It manifested as a heaviness in the air, an aura of deadly qi so thick that he could have cut it with his sword if he’d had the courage to unsheathe it. “Your voice hurts my ears, and I lack the patience today to put up with it. You will listen to this tale, and you will answer my questions with a nod.”

Tenri nodded. His hands trembled in his lap. He wasn’t like Tsuyuki, he couldn’t fight Shen. Shen had progressed to Iron. He could break Tenri’s bones like kindling.

“Good. Now, here’s how I think events played out.” Shen stood and crossed behind Tenri. “You’ve languished in the shadows, working as a lowly administrator in a backwater town with no prospects and no future of advancement. When I came for my yearly inspections, your authority here was challenged, so you thought you could work with your sworn brother to interrupt my duties and utterly humiliate me. You established your alibi as my ally on the night of the hunt, had Tsuyuki dress up as a shade, then instructed him to steal the girl before I could excise her stain from this town. How am I doing so far?”

Tenri bit his tongue. Though Shen’s guess for his motives was off, his retelling of the night’s events was very close to the truth. Anything Tenri said to correct him could just incriminate him further.

Shen leaned down over Tenri’s shoulder, whispering into his ear. “Did you think I would not find out? Did you think you and your accomplice would really escape justice?”

“You know nothing of justice.”

“What?” Shen asked. Tenri ears burned with panic and shame. The thought had popped into his head so strongly that he hadn’t caught them before they’d reached his mouth, and now he was going to pay for them.

Shen grabbed Tenri by the collar, yanking him straight from his seat and dragging him across the wooden floorboards. He crossed the waiting room where Zumi watched with horrified eyes, then Tenri was dragged down the four stone stairs outside the administration building and thrown across the square. He rolled across the ground, wheezing from the impact.

“You dare to challenge me?” Shen shouted. “Beg for mercy, Tenri Lin. Beg for my forgiveness, kowtow three times before me, and tell me where Tsuyuki Yoru is, then maybe I’ll let you live!”

Tenri pushed himself to kneeling. A small crowd of people had gathered from the shopkeepers and patrons nearby. They all looked at him with worry in their eyes. He might be an untouchable warrior as far as they were concerned, but even they knew that Shen was too strong for him to handle.

How did Tsuyuki do it? he asked himself. How did he stand up to this guy and five others as only a Bronze?

“BEG!” Shen shouted.

Tenri flinched, and his every instinct screamed to obey. The words formed in his mouth, he was ready to do it…but his eyes drifted to the people around him. The villagers he’d given up a future of cultivation to protect. Their faces were filled with worry. A few looked away or buried their faces in the shoulders of brothers and husbands. They understood that he needed to beg, they would not hold it against him. It was just saving face for the town.

Those who can must help those who cannot. Lang Tailyn had said those words. He’d died saving his daughter from the cultivator before him. Tenri had buried his body alone in the dead of night because no one else wanted to be caught by Shen favoring the father of a moon-touched child.

Something about those words and that memory made the pleas for mercy die in Tenri’s throat. He wasn’t sorry. Xinya was alive because of him and Tsuyuki. And, if Tsuyuki could stand up to this monster, then so could he.

“Go to hell,” Tenri spat, forcing himself to stand. Gasps echoed from the gathered crowd. They knew as well as he did that he would probably not survive.

“What?” Shen growled.

“You heard me!” He was fuming. “You want to know what happened!? Fine! Do you know how many years I stood by and let you ‘tax collectors’ in the Lunar Hunt murder innocent children just because they had a spark of moonlight?! I remember every name, every face! Every single one I couldn’t protect, whether from you or the monsters that stalk our town, the ones the likes of you can’t be bothered to deal with, I remember every. Single. One!”

His sword was in his hand. He might not survive, but maybe he could take Shen down with him. If he could just do that, then Zumi could publicly renounce him after his death and the town might be spared. They’d get a new administrator, one who wouldn’t be as nice as Tenri, but Saikan would survive, and they’d be free of one more goddamned Iron hurting the town.

Shen growled. “So be it.”

In a flash, Shen crossed the distance between them. Tenri swung his sword, but it cut only air. He spun, ready to swipe again at the void artist before he twisted behind him. Shen reached out, grasping his wrist and twisting it roughly behind him.

Tenri cried out. He was no martial expert like Tsuyuki, but he was a scrapper who’d fought dozens of spirit beasts. With a roar of fury, he slammed his heel into the top of Shen’s foot. It was like striking solid stone, but Shen grunted, and his grip slackened enough for Tenri to slip free. He stumbled away and spun to face his opponent.

“Savor your one good hit,” Shen said calmly.

Tenri gripped his sword. “It won’t just be one,” he snarled.

He lunged forward, aiming directly for Shen’s stomach. The blade lurched to the side just before it struck, caught in Shen’s grasp. With a squeeze, void qi swirled like smoke around the void artist’s hands. Then, the blade fell to the ground with a resounding CLANG!

Tenri looked down at the hilt in his hand. Only a few inches of metal remained attached, and something inside him seemed to cry out before it withered to silence. That was his last sword, his last hope.

“Looks like you’re out of options. No plants to save you in the middle of a town, little wood artist.” Shen’s fist slammed into Tenri’s nose, and he saw stars as he was thrown backward. He collided with the display stands of a vendor with neatly packaged rice and vegetables for sale. The sweet scent filled Tenri with one final hope.

Plants were his strength. He took a handful of rice and flung it at Shen, pouring as much qi as he could into manipulating them. They streaked towards Shen in a hail of deadly grains, but the void artist only waved his hand. Void mist dissolved the grains before they ever made their mark.

Shen lifted him by the collar and sneered at him one last time before slamming his head into the road. Tenri’s vision blurred. He felt more blows land, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t stop Shen…in the end…he’d lost.

“And let this be a lesson to all of you!” Shen shouted, spit flying with every enraged word. “I am invoking the Lunar Hunt! Tsuyuki Yoru will be found, and he will be brought before me. When he is, I will break him, take back the child he harbors, and kill it without hesitation! Anyone with information regarding his location is encouraged to step forth and give it.” His eyes narrowed and he raised his head to look down his nose at the cowering mortals. “And those who have information, and do not come forth, they will be treated as equally guilty.”