It was strange.

The farther out she ran, the less people she saw.

Ji Ying stood in the tattered scrubland, some thin trees breaking up the monotony of the yellowing plains around her. At one point, a very long time ago, the area had been a forest of some sort. Some of the ancient rotting trunks still stood if she looked hard enough. Worn down dirt roads snaked around but there were no more travelers upon them. She had run as fast as she could, of course, fleeing the burning city in the direction where Lady Gu's disciples came from. She could run for much faster and much longer than any real human could but even now she found it strange that there was just... no one.

It was not just the people missing either. There were no birds, or snakes on the ground. She had not spotted a single ox, or plains deer. She could not recall even seeing a single grasshopper! Even with a civil war going on that did not explain the vanishing of wildlife.

She straightened up as turned her gaze up towards the sky. The sun was already dimming as it set, and the moon sat bright an heavy in its place in the heavens. The moon had always been a weird place as far as she knew. It was ruled by a rabbit and maid and was also a house of solitude, but not for them.

She had never been told much.

It was not her job to know much.

Or to even think.

She felt a spark in her chest, an unpleasant but invigorating heat.

A few centuries of being a pig had not changed her perspective, but it had given her a friend.

She began walking again. The memory of screams was at her tail and she picked back up into a run. She had a general sense of where Lady Gu's Mountain stood. It was like how one might sense a faint breeze. A small thing pulling at her senses in a particular direction. It was a dense but still distant collection of pure energy, one that could dispell plague and incinerate lesser demons.

Lady Gu was the foremost expert in many things, and if she could 'find a stone with a single drop of blood at the bottom of the ocean' then she could definitely find a little girl all stuffed full on white flame.

Ji Ying's tireless run took her away from the sparse plains and then into a more fertile small valley with a village of a handful of buildings and a ribbon of a river between two equally small mountains. Their tops did not even touch the clouds, and plant life had climbed halfway up them, Ji Ying thought briefly that calling them 'hills' probably would have been more accurate but she guessed that whatever earth gods had taken up residence in them would have been offended. She approached the outer boundaries of the village expecting to find oxen, donkeys, and pigs...

but there were none.

The village was quiet as well. There was no sign of the two princes war having swept in. The houses were in good condition still. She slowed her step and peered inside one home's uncovered window. There was a nice set of furniture still sitting inside, untouched. Had they been forcibly conscripted then? She wondered. Would an army conscript an entire village of people? Even the smallest baby and the frailest old man?

A soft whine came from the courtyard of one house and she perked up. A dog! She left the house she was peeping into and followed the soft whining sound down a short path to another home.This one had an open gate into the courtyard, where a shriveled dog tied to a pole sat. Ji Ying's eyes widened at the poor thing and she leapt over the gate to run to the creature, getting to her knees next to the dog. The dog did not even have the energy to lift its head, only whimpering a little louder as she approached and wagging its tail twice against the ground. "Oh no," she said gently, reaching out to the pup. Her hands slowly moved under its cold heavy head and its eyes rolled in their sockets. Ji Ying's sense of something off came far too late as she tried to move backwards. The dog's flesh tore open, splattering her with rotting fluids and organs as thick roots wrapped around her hands. "Damn it!" She hissed, yanking. The dog's corpse moved slightly, revealing much larger and thicker roots buried into the ground.

"There you are," a pleasantly friendly voice said. "You run so much we were worried we had already missed you."

"Who the hell is 'we'?" Ji Ying snarled, still yanking her hands even as the vines tightened around them, white flowers blooming upon the green. At the gate was a friendly faced man with a smile that looked like it had been etched into his face from birth, and beside him was a beautiful woman in black and jade. Ji Ying instantly recognized the woman. "...What?" Was all she could muster in confusion. What was the Lady of Calm Waters doing here? There was a third presence too, but barely coherent. Ji Ying could only percieve it as a barely visible warping of darkness, a shade that clung near the robes of the other two, a single eye staring out. Ji Ying focused her attention back on the man. "Who are you?"

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"My name is Wang Huaqing," the man said in that infuriating friendly tone. "This is the Lady of Calm Waters," he gestured to the woman, bowing in her direction. "That is a friend of ours," he pointed down at the swirling cold little vortex that bubbled with envy.

"I don't care WHO you are!" Ji Ying snapped.

The Lady of Calm Waters stepped towards her with a smile on her face. She stopped just a foot away from Ji Ying. As close as she was now, Ji Ying could see something was strange. Her skin seemed to be too stiff and there were little tears running from her hands up to her arms, like how an insect's old skin might begin to fall off. Small trickles of thin blood oozed out. Her eyes burned with a cold pallid aura. Something was very wrong, Ji Ying realized.

But the Lady of Calm Waters did not show sharp teeth or razor sharp nails. Instead she smiled still and spoke softly, "would you like to be free?"

Free.

The word was strange, foreign even and yet suddenly it had sunk its claws into her heart. To be a person, to be away from all the heavens and their rules. To decide things on her own...

"I will help you, Ji Ying. You just need to do something for me," the Lady of Calm Waters continued. "I want you to join us, and to do a very important task."

"What?"

The Lady of Calm Waters leaned towards her, until she was only a few inches away. Ji Ying wanted those eyes to look away from her. But they were focused on her, bearing down into her being and the amber core that functioned as her 'spirit'. For Ji Ying was not a human or a demon or anything of the sort. She was simply a celestial servant, a doll that spoke. That was all she was. So long as the Heavens still stood, her truth would always be that. The eyes burned at her. It burned at her desire of finding her friend, it burned as she found herself remembering that broken tea cup that had started it all. She was a product of error. A thing that could not accomplish its meaning. Her sole function was to be beautiful and serve tea. To stand forever blank. But she was flawed. Angry tears, liquid amber flowed over her cheeks as she gritted her teeth. Why was she just a doll? Why was her sole purpose to just serve tea? She did not want to go back to that existence!

"I want my child," the Lady of Calm Waters voice was like a soothing balm. A pale blanket that snuffed the burning sensation in her body. Ji Ying's chest felt like it was freezing, as though all the fire within had been sucked out as the Lady of Calm Waters placed a delicate hand against her face. "You already know her, Ji Ying. You want the best for her too, yes? Then bring little Idony to me, Ji Ying, and I will free you from your task."

"HEY!"

Ji Ying's attention snapped back. The sky was turning purple and they were trudging beside a thick river of black water. The reedy ground under their feet was extremely marshy, frogs leapt away at their less than graceful passage through. Bo was looking back at her with concern. "What?" She snapped, still mentally getting her bearings. How long had she been all wrapped up in her own thoughts?

"Just checking on you," Bo said. "You were being so quiet back there I was beginning to think you had slipped onto the water and drowned."

"Well thank you for your concern but I can promise you I have far better swimming skills than whatever incestous backwater you stumbled out of," Ji Ying sneered.

Bo blankly stared at her and after a moment Ji Ying wondered if Bo even knew what the word 'incestous' meant. Then he sighed tiredly, turned around, and kept walking forward.

Ji Ying felt a little better and picked up her pace. Frogs croaked and red fireflies buzzed slowly over the waters. Ahead she saw Rui Yifu and Liu Xie talking quietly to each other, with Liu Xie cradling a sleeping Zhu'er in his arms. She set her jaw with frustration. Why did he have to start caring about her so much all of a sudden? He was a terrible parent! She then glanced over at Li Chunning. Or what was pretending to be him at any rate. He was bristling with the white flame, and was much too pale. Her stomach twisted, did those two just not trust her enough? So they had to make a meat puppet to come watch over her and make sure she did what they wanted her to do? Or was he there for another reason? Whatever it was, she thought, it better not hurt Zhu'er.

"How much longer until we get there boss?" Bo asked.

"We'll get there when we get there," Liu Xie replied. "And not so loud, she's finally asleep."

"Hmm," Rui Yifu was looking down to the ground. "It seems the floodwaters here receded only fairly recently. There's still some damp mud clining to some of the reeds, and there's some dead fish further outwards."

"How can you tell? 'Li Chunning' asked.

"I can smell them."

Ji Ying closed the gap between herself and them, inserting herself into the conversation as she looked over at Bo and 'Li Chunning'. "Are you two hungry, huh? Maybe we can have some roast rotted fish."

"Gross!"

Ji Ying laughed, "nothing wrong with a bit of decay in your stuff, you know. How else would we get alcohol? It's all rotted stuff!"

Rui Yifu sighed loudly, tapping the bridge of his nose with his fan, "it's not 'rotting stuff', you're over simpliflying things just to scare those two. Can't you go back to being quiet and broody? You were much more tolerable then."