Trust is so rare among their kind. I have yet to meet even one of these “cultivators” that doesn’t sleep with one eye open, weapon in hand, with a planned escape route. And that’s in their own homes with friends and family around. -John Salzo, Merchant of the Summoned Isle

* * *

Tsuyuki fell to the ground, and Tenri’s heart leapt into his throat. What was that idiot thinking?! Wasn’t that nail meant to seal away the Darkened Moon all that time ago? If the Fury was just a manifestation of Tsuyuki’s own madness, then why on earth would pulling the nail out solve the problem?!

But, there was nothing he could do. Tenri was too far away. All he could do was watch as the nail was ripped from the Fury’s chest. Void and moon qi roiled in a wave that burst forth from the Fury like water from a cracked dam. It swept over Tsuyuki, shrouding him in darkness threaded with strands of blue light until even the shine of the Void-touched chains was completely blocked.

Tenri’s heartbeat was loud in his ears, counting the seconds that went by where he couldn’t see his friend. Was there anything he could do?

“Tsuyuki!” he called. The void roared in a whirlwind that was deafening in the oppressive silence it thrust upon the world around him. It pounded into his ears a deep pressure that was reminiscent of being underwater. He took a careful step forward, but the qi only whirled even more angrily, forcing him back.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the qi disappeared. Tenri shot forward like one of Tsuyuki’s arrows, sliding to his knees next to his friend.

Tsuyuki was kneeling, his shoulders slumped and his head forward with strands of hair falling into his face. His clothes were tattered and dirty, and the void hung off him like smoke. But…wasn’t that normal?

Tenri wasn’t sure. He called Tsuyuki’s name softly, but there was no response. He reached out, touching his hands, only to withdraw quickly as pure void qi arced between them, burning Tenri’s hands. Even after renewing his adaptation technique, the contact between them sizzled against his skin, but it was necessary.

“Tsuyuki?” he asked gingerly as he reached up to the moon artist’s face. Gently, he lifted the man’s chin, and his blood ran cold. Tsuyuki stared right through him, his eyes completely unseeing and unblinking.

Suddenly, the world around Tenri was washed out in crimson, painting the normally blue trees a bloody purple. He pulled back, casting his gaze upward to find the source of the light.

Flashbacks to a door, deep underground streaked through Tenri’s thoughts. A moon, seeping with crimson blood, in the darkest depths of cave none had seen in thousands of years…a man on his hands and knees, uttering the name of the darkest monster to ever haunt the legends of the Moon-Soaked Shore…

It’s a blood moon, he realized as he stared up at the brilliant crimson disk hanging in the sky overhead. It was full faced, despite it being a half-moon only seconds earlier. Turning back to Tsuyuki, he found the man’s eyes now featured a tiny red corona around what were normally piercing blue irises. Is he falling to darkness? What’s happening to him?

For, in Tenri’s mind, there was no doubt. Whatever was happening to the moon above…it was certainly the result of what was happening to his friend before him. He wracked his brain for anything he could do to help but came up empty.

Please…please Tsuyuki, be okay…

* * *

Darkness wrapped around me as the voices dug into my mind like a nest of hungry vipers. It filled my vision, blocking even the light of my chains, plunging me into complete blackness.

“Yoru…”

The pained voice lanced across my thoughts, thrusting me into memory. The woman was in my arms, bleeding black blood from a stab wound in her stomach as she looked up at me with the silver eyes of a Void-touched. She reached up and grabbed my collar.

“You are our leader, Yoru. Do what needs to be done. Leave your soft heart behind, show them no mercy, and... Get. Her. Back.” She leaned back, looking up at me with dull gray eyes. “Please…you have to survive…the void can help you…you have to trust in yourself.”

My heart ached, just as it had the day those words were spoken. It was the day Half-Moon Hearth was attacked. My defenses had failed, and so many had lost their lives. In the end, the city had been engulfed in the flames, its Princess Chouko stolen right from the palace, and its Prince…I’d been irrevocably set on the path to darkness.

Through it all, the woman who’d lain dying in my arms that day had faith in me. She gave everything to give me the power to defeat our enemies, to protect our people. As my most trusted advisor, she was always strict, always severe in her image and demeanor, but she always had the best interests of the nation at heart. I trusted her completely.

As the memory continued, she smiled, letting her hand fall to her chest. “You just have to trust in yourself…trust in the void…” I burned that smile into my memory, as it was one of the precious few I’d ever seen from her, despite being almost as close to me as my own sisters were. Even all these years later, I remembered that smile, despite my many attempts to forget…

In the memory, I pulled the woman close, burying my face in her shoulder to breathe in the void that seeped weakly from her hair and skin. “You were the best advisor I could ask for,” I whispered through grief-filled tears.

“Just remember me whenever you’re about to do something stupid, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I promised. I set her gently back against the wall she’d leaned against. “Goodbye, Shi Reili.”

“Goodbye, Yoru.”

Then the memory was gone, replaced again by darkness. That was a mercy as far as I was concerned. What happened next was not worth remembering, and yet, I’d relived it so many times in the Labyrinth. I’d entered seclusion to nurse my injuries from the attack and strengthen my core. I opened myself to the void, trusting Reili’s words. That was my biggest mistake.

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The voices screamed in my ears. It was a symphony of destruction, urging me to unleash the void’s power, to lay waste to the land, to leave it a pristine surface of bleached stone, like the surface of the moon itself.

“I won’t!” I shouted. “I never wanted to!”

“Now, that’s just a lie, Yoru.”

That voice. Her voice.

Suddenly, light filled my vision, and I was standing before the yawning mouth of a deep cave. Around me, the silver stones of the moon stretched as far as the eye could see.

“We both know what really happened,” Shi Reili continued as she stepped from the mouth of the cave. In a flash, the Void Ascendent was behind me, twin vipers made of void qi already wrapping around my feet as she held my shoulders firmly. She leaned in close and whispered. “We both know you enjoyed it.”

She tapped the side of my head, and suddenly, the scene shifted again. Chouko lay in my arms, her eyes staring blankly at the blisteringly bright sky above. Three ascendents, all lesser than myself, struggled to their feet, pointing weapons at me.

“Give it up, Lunar Prince!” shouted the Huntress, loading her crossbow. “Not even you can beat all of us before time runs out!”

An array pulsed with energy beneath my feet. It was the focus point of their trap. After centuries of planning, they’d finally found a way to survive the qi drought. They’d slaughtered my people, using the bodies and cores of yokai and spirit beasts alike to infuse their lands with the qi needed to restore their crops and empower their armies. Their people lived by the blood of my own, and they were intent on finishing me along with them.

Seconds remained before I was doomed along with them. Reili’s final words rang clearly in my ears: “You are our leader, Yoru. Do what needs to be done. Leave your soft heart behind, show them no mercy.”

“You think I will be so easily defeated?” I laughed. “I am more than you will ever be! You took the lives of my people. It’s time I returned the favor.”

The void whispered its guidance as I called upon my immense qi. Blue moonlight surged, and the sky shifted to a starless night sky with only the blue disk of the moon to shine above. And shine it did. Blistering voidlight rained down upon the land, erasing everything. The lesser ascendents were erased in the blink of an eye, along with every building, every road, every forest and field. Every single person who lived in their lands, who’d fed on the lifeblood of my people, they were erased by the cleansing light of the moon.

And, when it was all done, I stood on a barren stone plane, void of all life. I marveled at the beauty of it. It was a lot like the surface of the moon.

The best part? My new power had done that. Exhilaration filled me, leaving no room for anything but a giddy glee. As the memory faded, my own maniacal laugh echoed in my ears.

“Remember now?” Reili whispered. “You were thrilled to heed the call of the void. You executed your purpose brilliantly. What’s changed?”

“I came to my senses, that’s what,” I countered, bringing my foot down on her serpents. They hissed in anger, and Reili withdrew. I stumbled forward, running as far from her as I could, into the cave. She was the Hated One. Hers had been clearest among the voices urging me to destroy everything, who’d guided me to my worst deeds.

“You can’t run, Yoru! The void always finds you.”

It didn’t matter. I just needed space, room to think, to gather my senses again. Was I in the Labyrinth again? Was I free? Where was I? I didn’t know. All I knew was I needed to get away from her, and deeper into the moon where I’d be safe.

The cave wound deep into the crust of the lunar surface, twisting and turning in a path that was both foreign and familiar to me. The stones grew darker the further I descended, taking on a blue-gray hue that was a stark contrast to the sun-bleached surface. But, despite the darkness and the unfamiliarity, this was still my home. The moon was the other half of my spirit. It was the one place the Labyrinth had never shown me, the one place I was safe.

The winding tunnel opened into a large cavern filled with pulsing metallic stones. I hid amongst them, taking comfort in their power. The thrumming of the metal pushed away the voices that clamored for destruction, leaving room for the quieter ones that whispered peace and safety. Here, I was alone, isolated from harm. It was a sanctuary.

Sanctuary…Half-Moon Hearth had been a sanctuary for so many…

Before I could stop them, the gentle voices thrust another memory onto me: walking the streets of my city with Reili at my side. It was shortly after the ritual that had twisted my body with my untapped void affinity, making me Void-touched. This was my first escape from the palace since. Reili had been concerned for my health as I recovered, accompanying me everywhere, including to my favorite stew shop run by an ox yokai and his young son. Both humanoid oxen had lived in Half-Moon Hearth for a decade and were thriving thanks to the protection and patronage I’d given them.

As we approached, the proprietor shook his ears and smiled broadly.

“You’re lookin’ very yokai, your highness,” he praised as he began preparing two bowls of our usual stew. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“It’s not quite yokai,” I admitted. “I don’t have that much resentment in me, and I don’t think that human blood or qi would be very healthy for me to consume.” He laughed and nodded, handing the bowls to us.

Nearby, his son just stared in awe at the new horns that sat just under my crown. The little ox’s horns were just barely peeking through his skull, and it would still be a few years before they were full grown. I reached over and ruffled the tuft of hair on his head. He giggled before running to hide behind his father’s counter.

The proprietor pat his son’s head. “I would have to agree. You’re too nice for that kind of transition, but, if it’s not too bold, this form suits you. You really feel like the Prince of the Yokai, even if you aren’t one.”

“That’s very kind of you to say! I’m glad to have your support.”

“Mine and many others. We are proud of our Prince.”

The memory faded, leaving me in the pulsing cavern once more. My head was clearer. I could remember. I was free of the Labyrinth, even if it still clawed doggedly at my heels. I was free. The Fury, the hatred, the darkness that had manifested into the Chain-Bound Fury…I’d taken the full force of it into myself, as was my responsibility as its creator.

Now, for what seemed like the first time in millennia, I felt clear-headed. The voices hadn’t ceased, but they’d shifted their cries from destruction to protection. It was…odd. They’d never whispered such urges before…they felt more like what I’d always wished they’d be.

I curled into the silver core of steel that protected me in this lunar mind-scape, I let its power soothe me with warm thoughts, gentle thoughts.

As the mental landscape faded, and I was returned to reality, one final memory echoed in my thoughts. This time, when Reili’s voice reached me, it wasn’t bearing words of destruction and malice…instead, it was the most comforting words she’d ever given me.

“It may be easier if you closed your eyes,” Reili muttered, her words as gentle as they’d ever been as she prepared to twist my body towards the void. “Just relax. You’re in good hands.”

I looked up at her. She bit her lip in nervous anticipation, and I knew she was terrified that I wouldn’t survive the ritual. I reached out, despite my bindings, to squeeze her knee.

“I know. You know I trust you implicitly,” I reassured her. She squeezed my hand.

“You wouldn’t let me play with your cultivation like this if you didn’t. I appreciate your faith.”

Faith…I had faith in her once…

Then the memory was gone, and I woke to the sight of Tenri’s face.