The greatest threat on the battlefield is, of course, your adversary. But never forget the second-greatest threat: the dead. Many wars were lost because too many shades were raised in the aftermath. In the worst-case scenario, it can even raise a monster like the Slaughter Knight. – General Tekan during a lecture to his officers in the Blossom Legion

* * *

I spent the better part of the afternoon lounging against the trunk of the ancestral tree as Tenri guided its roots away from the farm. It was a long process, and one that I was in no way equipped to assist with. That was wood artist stuff. He supplemented the tree with his own aura to help it grow. Not much that I could really do besides sit, wait, and cultivate my own power.

The void circled through my body, using the existing rays of moonlight like a road to reach every inch of my body. It was wild, hungry energy, but became more and more familiar with time. I’d used similar qi in the final days of my reign. Using it now felt…strange, but not wrong.

Dark black qi drifted from my fingertips, and I studied it carefully. On the surface, it was completely black, but if I looked hard enough, I thought I might have seen tiny pinpricks of light. They were like the tiniest flicker of distant stars, there one minute and gone in the blink of an eye. The qi absorbed back into my fingers, and I studied my hand carefully.

There didn’t seem to be any physical changes this time, which I found immensely reassuring. I had no doubt that the stories of my fall from grace described me as a terrible monster, and, to an extent, that was true. This time, though, no such change took place, and I let out a sigh of relief.

By the time the sun began to set below the treetops, Tenri was barely standing. His shoulders and head drooped heavy with exhaustion. It was only when his glasses began to slide down his nose that I started to worry.

“You should rest soon,” I said as I stood and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Just a moment, we’re almost done,” he insisted. Sure enough, a minute later, he lifted his hand from the trunk and stepped back.

Already the tree seemed more vibrant. The blues of its leaves were ever so slightly deeper in color, and the silver sparkles were denser. In time, it would become an excellent resource for the town, filled with moon and wood qi.

We didn’t linger with Zhao Suyi and Zhao Mina, the former having woken from the tree’s spell after I returned from destroying the ants. They and their cousin had to pay their own atonements to the tree for trying to burn it, but they promised that they would take excellent care of it as part of their farm going forward.

We accepted the meal they provided, since I wasn’t sure that Tenri would make it back to Saikan on his own. It was simple rice balls filled with some of the freshest vegetables and chicken bits that I’d ever tasted. I savored each bite…then asked if I could take one for the road. Zhao Mina just laughed at my appetite and gave me another.

* * *

Chiho flitted around my head as we walked through the dark forest. The moon was still nearly full, and my hair was just as reflective now as it was before. Tenri had borrowed a simple bamboo hat with a wide brim before we’d left the farm. Now, it sat on my head, blocking the light from most of my long hair.

The jade crane was irritated that I had to keep my hair hidden, but we’d settled on a compromise. It could rest in my hand or on my shoulder while my hair was covered, and, in exchange, I’d find some polish and give it a nice shine. Chiho accepted the deal cheerfully.

“You’ve quite the interesting spiritual device, Tsuyuki,” Tenri noted after we’d struck our accord. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a magic hairpin before.”

“Really?” I frowned. “I don’t think it was that hard to create. Cultivators infuse all sorts of things with qi.”

“Yeah, but a hairpin? Why did you create it? What purpose does it serve?”

“Actually, Chiho was a gift,” I answered. “It’s infused with the power of the wind itself so that it could return to me whenever its creator wasn’t around.”

“You must have been very close with them,” Tenri said.

“Oh, um, yes. We were close friends,” I admitted, heat rushing to my cheeks at the implication. Of course, that implication was true. Chiho’s master was flighty, free as the wind itself, and never settled in one place for very long. The pin had been a promise that they’d return someday…

The memory struck a pang of melancholy into my heart, and I lifted my face to see the moon overhead. The great canyon still cut across the surface. My body ached in sympathy. The moon was part of me, after all, and that injury had cut more than just stone.

“Be on guard,” Tenri whispered, tension ringing clear in the night.

I refocused on the present, looking around for the threat he’d seen, but there was nothing. A cluster of fireflies sparkled nearby, and a wind drifted through the branches, but there was nothing wrong with any of that. What had he seen?

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“Listen.” His hand was on his sword, and his eyes scanned the trees relentlessly.

I did as I was told and listened. The trees rustled…but that wasn’t the only sound. Another sound drifted on the wind. It was soft, delicate, and I definitely would have missed it without his warning.

“What is it?”

Before he could answer, the light of a firefly drifted before us, bigger and brighter than any I’d seen. It was followed by another, and then another. The eerie green lights drifted lazily, like dandelion fluffs caught in a gentle breeze. They harbored no malice that I could sense, and only drifted happily.

The song grew louder, and I started to make out a voice. It was a woman, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. The melody was sweet and soft, like a mother singing her child a lullaby in the dead of the night.

“We need to go,” Tenri whispered again.

“What is it?” I repeated. Something was nagging in the back of my thoughts, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. The song gave me a strange feeling of homesickness.

Tenri took my hand and began running. “It’s one of the Four Spirits of the Shore,” he said. “The Flower Maiden does not take kindly to wandering travelers, and she’s far more powerful than we are!”

So, the music was the lure of a shade, a spirit of the dead anchored to the physical realm by the immense power or emotion they felt in life. Though they were rarely as strong as the creature had been in life, shades could be exceptionally dangerous.

That said, one that had been called “The Flower Maiden” didn’t seem like the most dangerous monster in all the land. Yet, Tenri pulled me along as if the creature behind us were a vicious man-eating monster. He knew something I didn’t, so I yielded to his judgement and ran alongside him.

The wisps, for the enormous fireflies could be nothing but the lesser signs of a shade’s power, ceased their lazy drifting. As soon as we made a move, they noticed. They zipped alongside us, angrily darting around, no doubt leading their master to us.

“Don’t attack them!” Tenri shouted. “It makes her mad! Just keep running!”

I clutched Chiho tightly as we ran. The wisps kept pace with us, but the music never changed. It never rose above a whisper, and yet I could hear it over our pounding feet and heavy breaths.

Then came her aura. The air began to thicken, and it became hard to breathe. Dark qi swirled around us, prickling at my skin even if I couldn’t see it. The Flower Maiden was behind us, and she was gaining ground…quickly.

“Don’t look back!” Tenri warned. “Don’t even look upon her! All Four Spirits can curse you with their very image!”

They must have been powerful shades being literal shadows of their former selves, they could still place curses on others with something as simple as perceiving them. However, in this case, I was more concerned with the song.

It was digging through my thoughts like a viper digging into its prey, its venom numbing my mind, making it malleable. I couldn’t stop memories of my childhood from being wrenched to the surface. Curling into my older sister’s arms after being beaten nearly senseless by other kids in town, picking flowers with my little sister for her birthday, the three of us sharing a meager meal of rice and plums.

“Ignore it!”

Despite my efforts, the memories were pulled towards the forefront of my mind. I fought to shove them aside, but the song was relentless. I stubbornly ran ahead, trusting in Tenri’s judgement.

Without warning, Chiho leapt from my hand. It zipped ahead, then turned around and raced behind me. I tried to grab it as it passed, but it was too quick.

“Chiho?! What are you doing?!” Had it fallen to the madness? It was a qi construct, and it had been designed to be immune to most qi-altering techniques. But, what other explanation was there for its strange actions?

“Leave it! It’s not worth your life!” Tenri shouted. “She’ll bleed you to water her garden! I’ve seen it!”

But…Chiho…I…

I couldn’t leave it behind. It was my oldest friend, and possibly the only thing remaining from my old life! I couldn’t just let it be kidnapped by some shade!

My pace slowed, and I turned to glance behind me. There were dozens of wisps now, and, through their haze, I caught a glimpse of a ghostly dress. Remembering Tenri’s warning, I closed my eyes immediately.

“Chiho! Come back!” I shouted. A wind passed through me, chilling me down to my very core. It knocked me off balance, and I stumbled. Before I could fall, a cold hand grasped mine in a tight hold.

The hand was soft, and it squeezed my hand gently. Such tenderness…the singing voice had stopped, choosing to hum the melody instead. She was right before me. If I opened my eyes now, I would see her, but I didn’t dare, not with my body and core restricted to Bronze.

“Tsuyuki!” shouted Tenri, but his voice was distant. I was in a sticky position. The shade herself was right before me, and Tenri was far. How would I get out of this? One wrong step or word and the shade could bleed me dry, but if she was as bad as Tenri said…

“I…uh…” I stammered. “I just wanted to rescue my friend.” It was the truth. I didn’t mean her any harm or offense.

The Flower Maiden giggled softly but said nothing. A moment later, a cold rod of stone was pressed into my hand. It vibrated happily.

“Oh, Th-thank you,” I said, bowing my head politely.

The cold hand released me, and I felt the shade’s thick aura begin to fade. Her song grew softer and softer until I was all alone. Only when I couldn’t hear it anymore did I peak open an eye. Chiho squirmed in my hand, and wrapped around the pin was the stem of a beautiful white lily.

I stared at it for a long moment. Something about it was nagging at the back of my mind, just like the song had. My heart was filled with grief and melancholy for something I had all but forgotten.

The flowers back in my palace, once upon a time, had been similar to this. They had a special property where they would glow in the presence of qi from the Celestial Cycle, and were, thus, named Heaven’s Lilies. They were my sister’s favorite, but she would always complain that they weren’t colorful enough with white and silver petals. “What if they had purple stripes? Or green ones?” she’d always said.

One year, for her birthday, I made exactly that. It was trivial, really. As an Ascendent, mine was the power to rewrite reality itself. All it had taken was a bit of thinking, a bit of moon qi, and the flowers had shifted colors. She’d been so excited to see the whole garden with a splash of purple amidst the white and silver. Seeing her so cheerful, it was one of the happiest memories I had.

But, I’d destroyed that very garden only a few years later. I knew with absolute certainty that none of the blooms survived, I’d made sure of it. And yet…the flower in my hand was a Heaven’s Lily without a doubt and streaking the distance from the center to the petals’ edges were purple stripes.