The Tyranny of Monsters is a rule that applies to all, even heights of Gemstone. It is simply a fact that monsters have too massive an advantage with their bodies, qi capacity, and innate affinities, which makes it impossible for any artist of equal rank to match their sheer power. -Guard Captain Hua Lao

* * *

Without any further warning, I lunged at Kansi. She yelped in surprise, but I wasn’t aiming for her. Instead, I grabbed at her waist and yanked at Eclipse’s hilt.

“Hey! What are you-” she cried.

The blade came free immediately. It shone in the darkness, giving off its own light as it thrummed with power.

Kansi stared at the blade in awe. “I…it’s…you drew the blade?!” Her gaze turned to me. “How did you do that?”

“It’s just a sword, right?” I smiled to hide that even saying such a thing about the blade I spent decades forging caused me physical pain.

“No, it’s not,” she answered. “I cannot pull that blade. Even my master could not. It refused to let anyone draw it. My master once said that it would only wake for its true master.”

I flinched. There it was. If she didn’t catch on after this…

I cleared my throat. “If that impressed you, then you’ll really like my next trick.” I placed my fingers between my lips and whistled a high-pitched note. “Razor Wind, awaken!” It was a gamble. The odds were good that Jinshi had revoked my command over his blade after my defeat, but a small part of me hoped that he’d forgotten.

The blade trembled in its sheath before breaking free of Kansi’s bindings. Blade and sheath leapt into my hand, and my heart swelled with warmth. Razor Wind still recognized me as one of its masters. For a moment, I hesitated. Sharing command was very intimate, but we didn’t have much of a choice. I tossed the sheath to Lin, who caught it in trembling hands.

“Razor Wind, for the coming battle, I authorize Tenri Lin as your master. Listen to his commands as you would Jinshi’s,” I instructed. The blade thrummed in acceptance, and several threads of qi formed between the sword and its new wielder.

“Yoru, I…this is…”

“The sword of Iru’e Jinshi, General of Hongyue and the Sword Saint? And?”

Lin looked at the blade as if he were holding the emperor’s infant. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“You’re supposed to use it to fly.”

“What?! Why?!”

I rolled my eyes. “Because Eclipse has never listened to anyone but me, and Razor Wind is the only other sword here! Now, draw the blade and mount up!”

Eclipse fell from my hand, only to float just behind me as I manipulated the moon qi within the blade. It was the finest blade ever constructed with the moon’s energies. With a core made from a dragon’s horn, and the strongest lunar steel the moon has to offer, no other blade would ever compare, especially not in my eyes. It was my match, my perfect tool.

“When this is done, you’re going to explain to me who exactly you are, Tsuyuki Yoru,” Kansi muttered darkly. She stepped onto her sword.

“Razor Wind, what did you and Jinshi teach this poor disciple that she hasn’t put it together yet?” I called. The blade didn’t answer, not that I expected it to. Unlike Chiho and Eclipse, Razor Wind was extremely stoic and rarely reacted to anything.

“My master was an extremely private person. He didn’t even tell me who I was meant to look for, only that there would be ‘none other like him in all the world,’” she explained.

A soft, sad smile crept onto my face. That Jinshi would describe me that way, even after all these years, and all the lives he’d lived, it was sweet.

“What a charmer he was.” I stepped onto Eclipse’s shining blade. At my current strength, I couldn’t draw out much of the blade’s strength, but flight required very little. I leaned forward, refamiliarizing myself with the technique. “Now, Lin, get on the sword. I’m a little rusty, given my recent incarceration, but it’s very simple. You’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure.”

Lin mounted Razor Wind very carefully, but it was clear just how nervous he was. I gently walked him through how to command the blade. For the most part, it was simple. Sword flying was just qi manipulation, something Lin was already familiar with from manipulating plants and seeds with high precision. Now, he just had to apply that to Razor Wind. He would never be as skilled with Jinshi’s sword as its master was, as their qi were inherently incompatible, but for now, it would suffice.

“As long as you lean into your turns, you should be fine.” I spun quickly about his head to demonstrate. “Razor Wind, try to bring him back in one piece, please. Now, let’s go. You can practice during the flyover.”

Kansi, Lin, and I took off. Lian promised to meet us back at the lighthouse, as he would need several minutes to summon the Fengmori. While he was preparing, we circled around to the docks.

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“I’ll take the North side!” Kansi called. We nodded, and the group split.

After a brief stop at the Lang residence to retrieve my bow and Lin’s sword, we began to fly over the southern stretch. The water had already left the docks entirely dry, and parts of the reef were beginning to show. If we didn’t act, Saikan would be on the receiving end of one hell of a tidal wave.

“Run north!” I shouted to the first group of festival goers I found. They were huddled under an awning to get out of the rain. “Quickly! There’s a group gathering at the North gate to get to safety!”

The command of an Iron Artist, especially one known to be close with the town administration, was more than enough for them to begin running. We swept through the city, calling warnings to everyone we met, telling them to pass the word to their friends and neighbors, and carry those who were too drunk or tired to stand.

“Master Tsuyuki! Master Tenri!” The voice was from below. I swooped down, hopping off my sword and jogging up to Zhao Pu, the new Caravan Master of the Feng trading company, as they were still deciding if they wanted to keep the name or not.

“You and your brothers and sisters need to flee,” I told him. He bowed deeply to me.

“We are forever in your debt. Though I don’t know the crisis, is there some way we can assist?” His words were sincere, and I saw nothing but a firm resolve in the eyes of the other six apprentices who stood behind him. I nodded.

“You know the roads, and you know how to travel as a group. Help the civilians, and keep them together,” I instructed. “At the North Gate, you’ll find Queen Pollen of the Spirit Beehive. She is taking everyone to her dominion, which should be safer than staying here while we try to fell the beast causing this.”

“We are always ready to travel, you’ll have use of our wagons,” he promised. Then, he turned to his fellow apprentices. “You heard him! Get to your wagons and head to the north gates!”

“Tell Pollen I sent you!” I called as I ran off. A moment later, I jumped, and Eclipse darted under my feet, catching me and carrying me forward.

In that moment, my heart soared as I flew over the town. Even as I was shouting warnings of disaster to the people below, I felt as if a piece of myself had been returned. The way Eclipse and I worked together…we were one entity, artist and blade. Nothing could sever that connection, not even a hundred-thousand years locked beneath the earth.

I zipped through the streets. Everywhere I passed, the flow of people turned towards the north. Eventually, I met back with Lin, who was already bleeding from his hand.

“Did you slip?” I asked, gesturing to the injury. He looked away.

“You made me learn to fly, then handed me the sharpest sword on the face of the earth. What did you think was going to happen?” he grumbled.

“Oh, it’s not so bad! Razor Wind is taking care of you,” I teased. Lin was wobbling on the blade, but Razor Wind was making small adjustments to compensate, keeping the wood artist safely in the air.

“It’s doing most of the work,” he admitted. “I have serious concerns about doing this over open waters.”

“You’ll be fine! Or, if you like, you can stay behind with the evacuation team.”

Lin shook his head adamantly. “It’s my job to take care of the monsters that threaten Saikan. I have to help.” I darted around him, poking at his stance and posture to help him stay aloft.

“Just relax. As Jinshi used to say, just feel the flow of the wind,” I answered. “I promise the faster you go, the more relaxed you are, the easier it becomes.”

“Wasn’t the Sword Saint a Wind artist? That’s like me telling you that you just need to feel the needs of the flowers and they’ll grow beautiful,” he complained. I stuck out my tongue.

“You look like you’re enjoying yourselves,” Kansi called as she joined us. “I got the north end and the docks.”

“I got the western markets, residences, and the administrative district.” Lin’s nose twitched. “I asked the Spirit Caller Sect for their help, too.”

“And?”

He snorted. “They said it wasn’t their problem.”

“So much for being a branch sect of the ‘Storm Chaser Sect, Disaster Resolution Extraordinaires.’” Kansi’s scorn was thick. They must have been another big name in the larger world beyond the Moon-Soaked Shore.

“Even the virtuous sects don’t like meddling in business outside of their purview Too much risk,” I said, as we began to fly back to the Lighthouse.

“Still, three Irons and a Silver aren’t good odds.” Lin sighed. “I wish I knew how Madame Lang did it, but she took that information to her grave.”

“Whatever she did, it cost her everything. I’d rather not pay that price if we don’t have to.” Xinya needed us. The last thing I wanted was to let the Tide Serpent, and by extension Shen Tori, take even more from that little girl. She deserved happiness, and yet, fate seemed to have it out for her, throwing tragedy after tragedy her way.

Some of us are just destined for strife, I thought. Both to cause it and experience it.

We returned to the Lighthouse to find Lian flapping his arms at a pair of fengmori. The tiny imp-like creatures watched him, cackling from wide beaks and clacking their claws together. I…had no idea what he was doing, but whatever it was, it seemed to please them? He spun around and hopped in the air, then saw us streaking towards him. The red of his ears was visible even in the darkness as we came to land next to him.

He coughed into his fist. “And I presume that was enough to serve as payment?”

The fengmori cackled several more times before answering in yokai. “Bad outsiders! Ruining everything! We’re teaching him to fly! He’s improved so much! Go away. Let us have fun without you!”

Lian nodded and turned back to the rest of us. “They have agreed to the contract.” I narrowed my eyes at him. That didn’t seem like what had just taken place, but I was the only one here who spoke the language of the yokai. I decided not to comment, just to give the poor summoner some face. I bowed to the two yokai.

“Come find me when he learns. I’d love to see it,” I answered in yokai. Lian’s eyes widened in surprise, but I just shrugged. “I ruled a nation of yokai for almost two millennia. Did you think I wasn’t fluent in their language?” He looked away. “Well, they’ve accepted, so just one more thing to do.” I walked over to where Xi Qian was standing in the Lighthouse doorway.

He bowed sharply. “Master Tsuyuki. I am at your command.”

“Good man,” I praised. “Now, you keep that lighthouse going, okay? No matter how strong the storm, you keep that lighthouse lit.”

“Yes, sir.” His eyes were firm. He of all people knew the importance of the light. He, Lin, and Xinya’s father had been caught in a storm earlier that year and had only survived thanks to my repairs to the lantern. “Nothing will prevent me from fulfilling my duty.”

“Sai Lyn would be proud to have you as his successor.”

A roar shook the ground, resonating across the waters from the glowing eye of the storm. Even now, we were all soaked to the bone by the cold rain. It would be a long night.

“Mount up, everyone. We have a Serpent to slay.”