Only a fool is calm before the battle.
-A proverb from ancient times.
“For the record, I believe this is a terrible idea,” I muttered to Hei Shenshou as we walked up the steps to the Domain of Blood, home of the Blood Stalking Demon Sect. Five other disciples of the Fate’s Eclipse Sect followed dutifully after the two of us, flanking such that, including Hei Shenshou, three disciples stood to either side of me.
“Sect Leader Xue Bashi is known for his vanity and greed, but what he wants above all else is power,” the kitsune answered softly. “Whether you like it or not, highness, you represent significant power within this city.”
“That presumes they actually believe my claims.”
Not everyone was as eager to welcome my return as the Fate’s Eclipse Sect was. In fact, the entire reason Fate’s Eclipse was born was due to a schism within the Shattered Moon Sect over whether to brand me as a savior or a heretic of the highest order, even when I didn’t want either title. While Shattered Moon had dissolved into civil war after civil war between groups who wanted me dead and those who just wanted to take advantage of the situation, the vast majority of the Black City had chosen to ignore me until such a time as I proved my claims truthful. When the truth came out, they could fawn at my feet and claim that they believed it all along, but until then, they would stay carefully neutral. If a stray arrow from whichever Shattered Moon splinter faction got their act together first ended me before my identity was confirmed, then the rest of the city could go back to business as usual and pretend I never existed in the first place.
However, that situation only lasted as long as I kept my head down in the Fourteenth Armillary District. The Shattered Moon branch there had largely become Fate’s Eclipse, and all the other major factions, clans, and sects in the district were already on my side. Blood Stalking Demon, Stormchaser, Spirit Caller—none of those sects cared what happened in the Fourteenth, so long as it didn’t bother them. Walking up to the Domain of Blood changed all of that. They couldn’t ignore me if I was on their doorstep.
“Xue Bashi won’t risk slighting an Ascendant, especially not one with a reputation like yours,” Hei Shenshou said, trying to ease my fears. “He’ll listen, and if he’s smart, he’ll do so politely.”
“Hei, he’s Salt,” I answered incredulously. “What could we possibly do to him in retribution if he forgets his manners?”
“Actually, I heard a rumor that he reached Quartz by using his deceased father to fuel his cultivation.”
I stopped walking to stare at the kitsune. He spoke with such calm that he may as well have been discussing the weather rather than the leader of one of the most wicked sects in the Black City.
“You didn’t think that worth mentioning until we were walking into the wolf’s den?” I hissed.
He shrugged. “Salt or Quartz, what does it matter? The politics are the same. You’re one of the Demons of Devastation. Whether he believes it or not, he won’t risk angering you, lest you rain misfortune down upon his head.”
“Shenshou,” I scolded, and he flinched at the use of his given name alone. “Has it occurred to you that, though I may be the Darkened Moon and Demon of Misfortune, currently I am only Gold? A Quartz artist could end me in an instant, and all the sacrifices I made to escape my prison will be for nothing.”
A sly smile crossed the fox’s lips. “I do. But Xue Bashi doesn’t.”
“He’ll see through the bluff immediately. I lack the qi of an Ascendant.”
“Cultivators suppress their rank all the time for a wide variety of reasons, your highness, especially in this city where an Ascendant’s power would unravel the fabric of the city.”
I hated that he was somewhat right. It was hardly the first time a more powerful artist had weakened themselves just to enter the city. The city was fragile in its current state. Armillaries were broken, the master array was malfunctioning, and the gates to and from the mortal realm were unreliable at best. The fabric of reality could only hold the power of a Quartz artist without becoming unstable and falling apart. Xue Bashi was at the apex of what he could achieve here in the Black City, and as I was, I was only two ranks behind.
Fighting someone one advancement higher than myself was difficult but doable. Someone two advancements above would be nigh impossible, but if the goal was simply to survive the encounter and provide a distraction…then that was more feasible.
“This plan of yours is still terrible,” I muttered again.
“Let’s see how it pans out, shall we?” The fox smiled and batted his golden eyes at me. I just rolled my own before turning and climbing the rest of the stairs to the gates of the Domain of Blood.
The gates to the Blood Stalking Demon Sect were ostentatious to the point of being tasteless. Built out of red wood, the gates were carved to appear as if rivulets of blood were cascading down the door itself. On either side, the estate walls were decorated with red and pink tendrils that I hoped weren’t the entrails of some poor creature. Even the stones beneath our feet were marbled white and pink, as if they’d been purest white once, and years of use had stained them their current shade.
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Yet, despite the gory aesthetic, the signs of wealth were clear, as well. The gate’s knocker was made of solid gold, not that anyone would ever use it with the two hooded disciples standing to either side. Those two disciples wore fine armors under their silk capes and hoods, and every aspect of their attire matched, with a black base and red embroidery in various designs of blood splatter.
“State your business,” the first disciple growled menacingly.
I stood back and sighed internally. Hei Shenshou was playing the game of sect politics with only half the pieces. Yet, despite the complete lack of resources behind him, he was determined to bluff his way to victory.
I have to hand it to him, the fox has stones, I admitted to myself before putting on a mask of superior indifference, as was expected of a higher ranked master.
Since it was beneath both Hei Shenshou and myself to speak to such a meager disciple of a rival sect, one of the younger yokai in our cohort stepped forward and bowed to the blood disciple who’d spoken.
“His Royal Highness, the Darkened Moon and Sect Leader Hei of the Fate’s Eclipse Sect have arrived to speak with Sect Leader Xue.”
“Is it time yet?” Xinya asked.
“No more than it was when you asked five minutes ago,” answered Chikara Erisa. The older oni was always the voice of reason when it came to full expeditions. No one else in their number could be trusted to actually fulfill such a responsibility, especially not where their leader was concerned.
Xinya returned to pacing. She knew the plan, and she knew that her uncles were the most skilled cultivators in the city, even if they weren’t the highest ranked. They’d been on dozens of missions, some of which were far more dangerous by her estimations. Walking into a nest full of spiders, flying over stormy waters to fight a giant serpent, diving into an ancient palace filled with traps and monsters. Every one of them was far more harrowing than stealing a sacred artifact from one of the most powerful sects in the Black City.
Yet, despite all the examples of their success, she still worried. Uncle Yoru and Uncle Lin would be fine in their roles, but what about her? What if she messed everything up?
This wasn’t the first time she led a mission. As Chieftess of the Chikara Oni, she was well used to leading the yokai under her command. In fact, when she turned thirteen, she made a point to start leading her own missions from the front lines, without any of the Chikara Grandmasters helping her. Satoro, Lin, and Yoru all had better things to do than keep her out of trouble, and Xinya was more than capable of dealing with things on her own.
So, why was she so nervous about this one?
“Grandmasters Tsuyuki and Tenri will be fine,” Shion assured her.
He beckoned Xinya to sit, which she did. An instant later, he wrapped a crimson hand around her shoulder, and she could feel his fiery qi radiating from him. It soothed her nerves slightly.
“How much longer until we go?” she asked Erisa.
“The Moon Moth and Sect Leader Hei should be in the audience by now. In fifteen minutes, we will be allowed to strike.”
It wasn’t the most honorable tactic. While Yoru was with Sect Leader Xue, Xinya and the Chikara were waiting to strike the outer edges of their compound. Their attack, plus Yoru’s audience, would both serve as the distraction to draw the sect disciples away from the shrine where they kept the artifact so that Lin and Hua Zhen could sneak in and steal it.
Something about it didn’t sit right, and yet she didn’t know why. She loved clever solutions that skirted around the edge of the law—or that would skirt around the edge, if there was much of a law to begin with in the Black City. This job was going to change the way the Black City operated, bringing light to districts that would otherwise be oppressed under the constant threat of the blackouts. That was a good thing, a righteous goal no matter how you sliced it.
So, why did the lightning churn inside her core? Why did she feel as if it might strike her at any moment, like a wolf with its fangs bared to rip her throat out?
Xinya stood and continued pacing. “Is it time yet?”
Erisa sighed. “The more you ask, the more miserable you will be. Fifteen minutes is not long to wait, Chieftess.”
Fifteen minutes…it may as well have been an eternity.
“His highness should be on his way,” Hua Zhen reported. “We’re right on schedule.”
Lin nodded in agreement. He could feel Yoru’s tension through the bond they shared. It was a mild, ethereal sort of feeling, like smoke drifting where there was no fire. He could experience the feeling, but knew that its source was far from him. It took him years to realize that it was Yoru’s own feelings translating back through the Void to him, and he was quite sure that Yoru didn’t know the connection went both ways.
He was oblivious to things like that. First with his chains, now with his own emotions, Yoru never seemed to notice anything that pertained to him specifically, as if his mind was intentionally filtering all the details that made his life better. Five years had done a lot for his recovery, but it hadn’t fixed the personal blind spot in his awareness.
Thus, it was one of the many things that Lin looked after for him. It was the role of a good administrator—and the role of a good husband as Hanako used to say—to be aware of others’ needs and work to fill them. Yoru’s connection to the Void allowed him extreme empathy for others, but much like he couldn’t be trusted not to burn food or balance the ledgers with all the proper notation, he couldn’t be trusted to be aware enough of his own emotional needs to fill them.
Maybe it was presumptuous of him. Lin didn’t feel that he was particularly qualified to worry over the emotions of an ancient deity, but the anchor that kept Yoru in this world was nailed into his core. No one else was tied so inextricably to the Avatar of the Moon.
“How is he?” Hua Zhen asked softly.
“Tense.”
Hua Zhen nodded sagely. After Lin had noticed his newfound ability to read Yoru’s emotions, the ancient shade had taken precisely a week to notice the change in Lin’s behavior. At that time, the Forgotten spirit had joined in the effort to monitor his lord’s wellbeing, claiming that he’d never been formally discharged from his duties as Yoru’s loyal retainer.
“We should work quickly, then,” he said. “The sooner we have what we need, the sooner we can get out, and he won’t have to worry about us.”
“He should be more worried about himself,” Lin muttered. “We’re not the ones facing the sect leader.”
Hua Zhen shrugged. “He hasn’t changed at all in thirty thousand years. It falls to us to worry about him, since he refuses to do so himself.”
“I gave him a few pouches of seeds. With those and his blooded techniques he should be fine.”
“If he remembers to use them.”
Lin just rolled his eyes. “I’ll consider it a miracle if he does. Come on, let’s get our part done.”
The shade let out a soft laugh. Lin took a deep breath, steadying himself as the shade offered his hand. As soon as he took it, Hua Zhen pulled him towards a nearby tree, and the two vanished into thin air.
