Attachments are a double-edged sword. They can drive us forward, they can drag us under. Losing them can fuel or shatter us. If you intend to reach the heights of power choose them carefully and do not let us old masters foist them upon you. -Elder Song of the Ni-Lan Clan

* * *

“Tsuyuki!” A soft smile spread across Tenri’s face. His shoulders relaxed as he sat back on his knees.

I glanced around, my mind still reeling from the voices of the void that battered against my mental defenses. The madness of the Chain-Bound Fury still echoed in the darkest recesses of my thoughts, but it was slowly fading. Like all the other voices, it faded to a dull roar, one that I could easily tune out.

The moon shone overhead, painting the world with brilliant blue-silver voidlight. As I watched in confusion, the phase visibly shifted, reverting to the slightly more than half disk that it was supposed to be at this time of the month.

“Am I hallucinating? The moon just changed,” I rasped, my voice coming out a lot drier and hoarser than I had expected.

“You should have seen it a few moments ago,” Tenri answered. He helped me sit up before piling my chains in my lap. As he did so, he described the nightmarish ambiance that had befallen the land since the fight ended. “You were staring straight ahead, and even your eyes were red,” he described. “Then, it was as if it had never been there at all, and the moon returned to normal.”

I cast a wary look upward. That moon was not normal. Normal moonlight is silver, but this was an eerie, baleful blue. It was the kind of light that was produced when my moon qi was infused with void. Even now, I could see threads of blue-silver light drifting around the clearing.

“You might want to activate your adaptation,” I warned. Tenri cocked his head in confusion.

I didn’t want to admit it. It was a conclusion too ridiculous and impossible for any reasonable person to believe, but that didn’t stop a kernel of worry from embedding into my heart. That light, the voidlight, had seemingly sapped people’s luck in the past, with often horrific results. If this light was the same…and it was shining down on the entire land…

I held out my hand, summoning forth a tiny orb of moon qi. It was colored with the void, and I held it out to Tenri.

“This light will sap your fortune,” I admitted. “You should try and ward against it. Did you touch me at all?”

“What?” Tenri’s face was filled with alarm.

“Did you touch me while I was out of it?!” I repeated with a scowl. “I don’t know how, but sometimes the bad luck rubs off when I touch people.” I looked down at the ground. “It’s why the stone ox broke your arm during the siege.”

Tenri stared at me for a long moment. With every moment that passed, my heart crept further into my throat until I finally looked at him with my best pleading look.

“I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t know at the time, and I can’t control it, yet. I’m just a walking disaster.” I stared into that light, but soon Tenri put his hand on my shoulder. I flinched. “Were you not listening?” I scolded. “Don’t touch me, for your own safety!” But, Tenri just smiled, as if he knew something I didn’t. “What’s so funny?”

“You.”

“I’m being serious!”

“Fine then. Let’s see this cursed qi.” Tenri pulled my hand closer and began examining the orb in great detail. He squinted, then pulled his glasses off and cleaned them. As he replaced them on his nose, he bit his lip in contemplation. “Your qi is extremely potent. It’s hard to really understand.” Then he looked around. “But, what I can tell you is that it’s not everywhere. Whatever is coloring the moon, it’s not actually spreading this qi as far as I can tell.”

I let myself relax a little. Now that he’d mentioned it, I couldn’t see it either, not as qi in the environment. If there was anywhere that moon qi would be influenced by my powers, it would be the Moon-Soaked Shore. If we didn’t see signs here, perhaps he was right and there was nothing to worry about after all…at least, for now.

“Look, the color is already shifting back.”

Following his gaze, I looked back up at the moon. Sure enough, it was slowly returning to its normal silver.

But, why would it look that way in the first place? The question settled in my mind and began to nag at me.

The moon overhead was connected to my spirit. It was the other half of my soul, and, so long as we both lived, we were irrevocably linked. When I’d first broken out of my prison, the moon had shone brightly, indicating the resurgence of my influence on the world. Now, the moon turned red, then shone with voidlight. The logical conclusion was that my precious moon was reacting to my condition.

By absorbing the Chain-Bound Fury, I was temporarily at the mercy of his madness, fighting through a mire of insanities I’d long thought I’d left behind. Did that mean the voidlight moon was just showing another state of being? One more connected to the void?

I looked down at myself. My chains shone with pure moonlight, unaltered by the void, but the rest of me was still the deathly visage of a void spirit. It was an unnatural state, one that was heralded as a monster even worse than any yokai.

Am I really a monster? I wondered. All the memories dredged up by the Fury’s madness were fresh in my mind. The ritual that had turned me this way, the woman who’d done the deed…

There was a time when I was excited to become Void-touched. Shi Reili had spoken of a world in the blackness beyond the reach of our sun and moon, a place between the stars where she was from before she’d been orphaned and stranded on this world. Knowing how much power there was beyond our world, how much void qi could be used to combat the qi drought and save my people from strife…who wouldn’t be interested in harnessing it? I’d trusted her so completely that I’d let her play with my cultivation, something I’d never even trusted Jinshi or Chouko to do.

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And yet…would I have been less eager to follow the void’s wishes if she hadn’t instructed me to listen? Would I have been so willing to listen to the version of my advisor who whispered of death and destruction from inside my own head? Thinking back on it, that was when my opinion of her had changed…going from adopted sister and trusted advisor to reviled monster.

As I stared up at the moon, I caught myself wondering if the Hated One was really Shi Reili at all, or just a figment of my imagination no more real than the Labyrinth’s impersonation of Jinshi. Was the madness inside me her doing? Or had it been inside me all along, just waiting for the right chance to strike?

“Awwww, look at you two.”

I snapped out of my thoughts, shoving them aside at the sound of my sister’s voice. Chouko stood nearby, leaning against a tree and grinning in that way that only a mischievous little sister could do. Looking around, I realized that Tenri and I were seated next to each other, staring up at the moon together. In an instant, I was on my feet and glaring at Chouko, who only giggled to herself.

“It’s nothing like that,” I hissed.

“Nothing like what?” she mocked. “What do you think I saw, Brother Dearest?”

“What you saw was perfectly innocent,” I insisted. “Scrub your mind clean.”

Chouko stuck out her tongue. “Scrub yours! Don’t forget that I’m the purest spirit amongst the Tsuyuki children, according to the legends.”

“But not the most humble, I see. Don’t forget, the legends don’t even remember you exist anymore, apparently,” I countered.

“At least I haven’t been reduced to a disembodied moon spirit instead of a real person.”

“Says the disembodied spirit!”

Chouko rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Bold talk from the…what did that cultivator call you back at the camp? A walking ball of qi with delusions of being a man?”

“At least I’m still breathing.”

“Enough to get a deep smell of Tenri’s flowers, I’m sure.”

Heat born of fury rushed to my cheeks. Without any further hesitation, a flat disk of moonlight formed in my hand before zipping off in her direction. She nimbly twisted out of the disk’s path before disappearing and reappearing just behind my left arm.

“Such violence, Brother Dearest,” she mocked.

Before she could say anything else, I flung the end of my chain in her direction. She ducked under it, and we continued trading blows in quick succession. However, after several minutes of this, my chains tugged me back. Thick vines had wrapped around them, holding them tightly. Chouko found herself similarly restrained by several vines around her wrists.

“Lady Tsuyuki,” Tenri began. “I don’t actually hold any real hope of holding you back, but I believe there is still work to be done tonight, yes? Evidence or some such?” My ears grew hot with embarrassment, and I glared at Chouko.

She stuck her tongue out at me before nodding at Tenri. “Yes, if you’ll follow me? There’s a small roadside shrine of mine not far.” Tenri and I followed after her as she walked off into the forest, leaving no trace of her passing.

“Sorry you had to see that,” I muttered. “She’s always been a bit wild.”

“It must run in the family,” Tenri answered.

“Nonsense, my other sister is the picture of a perfect woman. Any man should be lucky to attract her eye, and none are good enough for her.” I raised my voice just loud enough for Chouko to hear. “Unlike someone, who could attract any man with her charm, only to send them fleeing with her tongue. Instead, she’d be lucky if she could keep the ants in her garden, let alone a man in her home.”

“No, no, the ants are horribly rude,” she mused loudly. “But, I do hear that a certain handsome hornet has a crush on you, Yoru. Why, just the other day, he was asking me about you and what sort of things you do in your free time. Who’s the one attracting insects?”

I didn’t have an answer. My whole face was flush with embarrassment. It had been a thousand thousand moons since Chouko and I had bickered. Despite my utter defeat, I couldn’t help but enjoy it.

* * *

Tenri and I stood before the grave that stood next to my sister’s shrine. It was a grim sight, but one that had taken place years and years ago to the point where the body was little more than bones.

“Is this proof enough?” Chouko asked. “If not, I’ll take matters into my own hands. I have plenty of witnesses among the yokai and spirit beasts.”

“To kill a child in such a way,” Tenri shook his head. “But it’s not definitive. This could be anyone’s fault.”

I knelt and examined the body more carefully. They must have been around Xinya’s age, maybe a little older. Several bones were splintered. If Chouko’s description was accurate, then they were inflicted prior to the child’s death.

I’d already had a poor opinion of Master Feng. After seeing this, I completely believed him capable of such things. He was callous and wicked, with no regard for others. But, for Tenri to have a legal grounds to take him down, we needed something to tie him to the body left in a shallow grave so many years ago.

“I know three yokai who saw it happen. One kitsune, a lurking hopper, and a two headed crow,” Chouko continued. “But, I doubt any of their testimonies are submissible in human towns.”

“How about this?” I said, pulling a dirt-covered ring from the body. It bore the same symbol as the caravans we’d been protecting. I tossed it to Tenri. “Do you think the kid managed to pull it off his hand before they died?”

Tenri silently rubbed the ring clean, then he nodded. “Good enough for me.” He turned to Chouko. “Lady Tsuyuki, it would be my honor to carry out your request and bring this man to justice. You have my word it shall be done.”

“And, as a favor to my brother, I will be dropping my grudge against you for your years as a bystander to wickedness,” she answered. Both parties bowed to one another respectfully.

* * *

Once the body was buried once more, and we were on our way back to the main road, Chouko stretched. “And so, my work here is done for the season.”

“You going to sleep the winter away?” I asked jokingly. She nodded.

“It saves qi, but I’ll be back in the Spring,” she said. “There are still flowers to grow, and the blood of the abusive is always ready to flow here on the Shore. Thank you for saving Xinya, Yoru. She was the ward of mine with the biggest lunar spark in quite some time. With her safe, I can focus my efforts elsewhere in the springtime.”

“I’ll keep her safe and sound, I promise.”

“Good!” She winked at me. “Because I’d hate to have to haunt you specifically if you fail her!” Chouko’s form began to fade, and her wisps began to wink out one by one. But, before she went, she cast a look at Tenri. “Thank you for taking care of my brother. Goodness knows he can’t do it himself.”

He bowed. “Lady Tsuyuki honors me with her praise.”

Then she was gone. For a moment, my heart ached as it did the day I’d last held her in my arms. It soon passed with the reminder that she would be back soon.

“Come on, I can’t wait for Hanako’s welcome home meal,” Tenri said with a gentle nudge. “You and Xinya are both invited!”

“Well, who can say no to Hanako’s cooking? Certainly not me.”

“Just a little longer, and we’ll be able to have as much as we want.”

I grinned at him. “My mouth is watering already.”