Amidst all the excitement following what people were already calling ‘the battle at Kucheon,’ one man sat forgotten. Not that he could really blame them—Jiaguo’s citizenry, especially in its eponymous capital, could be almost religiously zealous in their support of the empress, and a great victory against no less than the mighty empire of Qin earned that enthusiasm. Still, Zheng Long did worry.

  He had heard the news. After all, people did talk to him. In fact, he was treated exceptionally well as an honored guest of the crown. So he knew that Yan De had been defeated, but not necessarily what that meant. Was he dead? What of Yan Ren? Had he put contingencies in place for his subordinates to carry out his will? He had so many questions, but neither Yue nor any of Yoshika’s aspects had visited him, and while they treated him as a guest, he didn’t think he was able to simply demand their attention.

  So he waited nervously, until at last the visitor came—and it was not who he expected. Zheng Long answered his door to find a plain looking girl from Qin. Light brown hair and eyes, medium length hair tied into buns, and slightly tanned skin that placed her as a lower class member of the southern provinces. If he hadn’t seen her before, Zheng Long would have thought that Li Meili was the most unremarkable young woman he’d ever met—though he supposed that was the point. He had met her before, though, and he knew that she was, in fact, the civilian identity of Empress Yoshika.

  “Miss Li, hello. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of entertaining you...specifically, before. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  He wondered if it was meant as a slight of some sort, or if she hoped to keep the meeting secret. Li Meili bowed as she greeted him.

  “I’m pleased you remember me, Zheng Long, even after all these years. May I come in? I had hoped to speak with you in a private setting.”

  Secret, then. He ushered her inside, curious about the subterfuge. Once inside, Yoshika dropped most of the pretense, helping herself to his kitchen and beginning to prepare some tea as she spoke.

  “I’m sorry it took so long for me to get to you. It was actually quite high on my list of priorities, but there have been quite a few matters since the battle that required my full attention.”

  She brought the tea out to his sitting room and began serving them both as though she were the one receiving him. Then again, the estate she’d lent him was technically hers. She had made herself so at home that it somehow wrapped around from rudeness to become polite again as she humbly hosted him in his own house.

  Baffling.

  “I understand entirely, Your Majesty, and thank you for seeing me so promptly in spite of your other obligations.”

  Li Meili wrinkled her nose as he took a seat across from her and accepted a cup.

  “Just Meili. I may be here on the crown’s business, but I still don’t like the title. I wouldn’t have come in this form at all, but the rest of us can’t so much as sneeze without them throwing us a parade.”

  “You have engendered an impressive level of enthusiasm from your people.”

  He took a sip of his tea and raised his eyebrows. Almost anyone above the second stage could rapidly brew tea, but to do so without burning it took incredible precision and a lot of practice. Yoshika had done it perfectly, and as easily as breathing.

  She noticed his surprise and smiled.

  “Yue spared no effort teaching us how to brew tea properly—and that was before we gained Eunae’s expertise.”

  “I see. It’s quite impressive, thank you.”

  The silence grew awkward as they drank their tea and Zheng Long realized that he didn’t really know Yoshika. He had no idea what to say, or how to broach the subject on his mind, but the one thing he remembered is that she appreciated a more straightforward attitude, so he decided to just go for it directly.

  “Has there been any word about my family?”

  The empress sighed.

  “No, and while Yue has inherited the Awakening Dragon, I don’t trust Yan Ren and I could absolutely see Yan De doing something as petty as arranging for a contingency. Maybe not, though—that would require him to acknowledge the possibility that he could ever be defeated.”

  “Did you defeat him? I can still scarcely believe it.”

  Meili pursed her lips and took a long sip of tea before shaking her head.

  “No. I didn’t.”

  Zheng Long’s eyes felt like they were trying to bug out of his head. His question had been rhetorical, and that was an incredibly dangerous answer for her to give him.

  “I...don’t think you should have told me that.”

  “You deserve to know. Yan De is still alive, and while he’s trapped, he might one day escape. I couldn’t defeat him—can’t, as I am. Should he ever return, we’ll be at a stalemate.”

  “I see. That is disheartening, but I thank you for doing everything you could to help me. It was more than I deserve.”

  He began to bow, but the expression on her face gave him pause. She looked at him with uncharacteristically urbane amusement.

  “I haven’t done everything, and it isn’t over. Not yet. I told you that I have a lot of issues that need my full attention, and this is one of them.”

  Zheng Long blinked.

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “Yue has nominal control over the Great Awakening Dragon sect, but as someone who has personally conquered two nations, I understand that power and loyalty don’t work that way. It will take time to gain actual control over the sect, with Yan Ren and Yan Hao fighting us every step of the way. I don’t trust them, and I need to be able to trust you, so we’re making sure your family is safe. Right now.”

  “Right—what?! How?”

  She shrugged and finished her tea.

  “We’ll fly there. I know we said that was impossible before but I think I should be able to do it now. I could bring them back with us too, but for now I think we should just go make sure they’re still safe.”

  “You...really? I didn’t miss that you said this takes your full attention, and crossing the continent is no small feat, even for you.”

  “I promised that I would keep your people safe, Zheng Long, and I keep my promises.”

  Zheng Long hesitated. He knew these things, and while he’d only approached Yoshika for aid as an act of desperation, he did trust her word. Why, then, was he still so shocked at how she committed to helping him?

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  The answer came to him in the emotions her statement invoked. Relief and anticipation, certainly, but above all else he felt shame. Shame, because if the positions were reversed, even with how much Zheng Long had grown, he wasn’t confident he would do the same. To the letter of his obligation, perhaps, but not the spirit. If he could have even brought himself to make the promise in the first place.

  “Are you ready?”

  Her voice brought him out of his reverie, and he looked askance at her.

  “For what?”

  “To go. This is still going to take a while, and I have a lot of other things to do.”

  “Oh! Yes, of course. Please, lead the way.”

  Li Meili stood up, and he rose to follow her, but she simply walked up to Zheng Long and tapped him on the shoulder. He felt a sudden lurch, but the feeling passed quickly and nothing had changed except that he felt as though he was somewhere else. The essence around them was exactly as it had been, but the air was unnaturally still, and he felt oddly detached from his own body, as if in a dream.

  Anyone else might not have even noticed, but Zheng Long was still a xiantian cultivator and he’d been here once before—though it was different, then.

  “Is this your soul realm? I thought it was difficult to transport xiantian cultivators within it.”

  Meili chuckled and shook her head.

  “Not within Jiaguo, and not anymore.”

  Zheng Long noticed another change, though not in the world around them. Meili herself now had a tiny red jewel embedded in her collarbone, shaped like a teardrop. Though he’d never seen it in person, Zheng Long immediately recognized it.

  “It’s impolite to stare, Zheng Long. Aren’t you a married man?”

  He blushed and snapped his eyes up to meet her playful expression.

  “My apologies! I didn’t mean to—is that really it?”

  She nodded.

  “It is. I can still only appear as my true body within my soul realm, and the Sovereign’s Tear is part of me, now—for better or worse. I can draw a lot more power from it than before, but it’s dangerous.”

  “How so? Does the essence overwhelm or corrupt you? Cause heart demons?”

  Meili snorted and shook her head.

  “Nothing like that, no. But any essence I draw from the Tear is created. I...am technically accelerating the downfall of our world just by existing, now.”

  “Miss Li, I can’t help but feel that you’re being a bit too forthcoming with me.”

  She winced.

  “Yeah...Meili is like that, hold on.”

  A soft glow enveloped her body, and when it faded she was a blazing spirit of rainbow colored fire, emanating such power that he felt an impulse to drop to his knees and swear his eternal loyalty. Only the realization that she didn’t want that stopped him. She was not a being of dominion, though she did rule. What she wanted was cooperation and friendship.

  Unity.

  “Empress Yoshika, Your Majesty, please take this in the spirit that it is intended, but you may well be the...second most beautiful being I have ever laid eyes upon.”

  Yoshika laughed, and her flaming eyes twinkled like the night sky as she smiled at him.

  “I’m flattered, Zheng Long, and I accept the sentiment in good faith. I’m also pleased that you had the wherewithal to place your wife above me. I’d have had to slap you if you forgot her.”

  “I don’t think I’d have survived your wrath—or hers.”

  “I look forward to meeting her. Have you ever spirit walked before?”

  Zheng Long shook his head uncertainly.

  “I can’t say that I have, unless you count the grand formation which fused your soul realm to Jiaguo.”

  “That’s a pretty good foundation, actually. I recall you helped provide some of the spiritual aspects of that formation, didn’t you?”

  He waved his hands and shook his head, demurring.

  “Hardly! That was mostly Yue, with the cooperation of your familiar—er, daughter, I mean. Anyway, I don’t know the first thing about spirit-walking. I thought you said we’d be flying?”

  “We are. As we speak, in fact, but it will make things easier if you can cover at least the spiritual part of the journey on your own.”

  “How do I do that?”

  Yoshika turned to walk away, beckoning him to follow, and then suddenly they stood at the peak of the Forbidden Mountain, overseeing Jiaguo City.

  “The spirit realm doesn’t follow the same rules as the physical one. Within my soul realm, I copy some of those rules as a matter of comfort, but once we move further away, things will get more confusing. Look north and tell me what you see.”

  Zheng Long did as she asked and gazed out over the rolling fields in the distance. The mountain range was enormous, but Geumji’s peak was so tall that he could see for miles across what he realized was technically Qin. It was easy to forget, with the mountain in the way, how close Jiaguo’s capital was to the border.

  “I see the border between nations. Nature undisturbed, beneath the shadow of the world’s greatest mountain. More mundanely, quite a lot of grass and rock—perhaps a forest of bamboo in the distance.”

  “How does it make you feel?”

  “Hmm...nostalgic? I’ve been here before, a long time ago. I remember this view, though it didn’t move me, then. I was...more inwardly focused then. Shame, at the memory of what I did here.”

  Yoshika smiled sympathetically.

  “You were young, and raised to think that what you were doing was right.”

  He shook his head. Maybe it wasn’t the best time, but he couldn’t keep the words from spilling out of his chest.

  “I knew it was wrong. I knew, and all I could think about was how lucky I was. How fortunate that I could gain such prestige for something as simple as killing a child with no attachments. I didn’t see it as a test of my character, or a challenge to my morals. It was a gift. Proof that I was blessed by fate.”

  Yoshika looked at him, but when she didn’t say anything, Zheng Long continued, filling the silence with the confession that he’d never truly even admitted to himself.

  “I personally witnessed you return from the dead to lay me low—children, not even at the third stage yet. You humbled me, then, but rather than reflect on my actions, I was insulted. I went on to—to bully you, like some kind of common thug. Ineffectually, I might add! And still, I kept telling myself that it was your fault, somehow.

  “I owe you so much. For saving my life, for saving me from myself, for all the horrible things I did to you—by the emperor, I murdered you. How...how can you forgive all of that and still help me?”

  She stared at him, and it felt as though her gaze pierced straight through his soul. After a long moment, she sighed.

  “Hold that feeling in your heart. All that shame and regret. Remember how it felt when you realized it, how much it hurt to acknowledge. Think about how mired down you were by those demons, and remember who it was that extended a hand when you needed it.”

  A face came to Zheng Long’s mind immediately, but it was not Yoshika or any of her aspects. A young girl on the cusp of adulthood with eyes far too old for someone her age. She’d stormed into his life with the youthful energy of someone who didn’t know when to quit, and the maturity that could only come from someone who knew exactly what he was going through. Someone who’d waded through that same muck of regret and self-loathing, only to come out the other side and never look back, even as she carried the stains of that quagmire with her.

  Then, the face grew older, became an adult in truth as her body caught up with her soul. She had pulled him out of the swamp of his past and showed him a way forward. That face was the most beautiful being he’d ever laid eyes on. Fang Xiu, the love of his life, and the mother of his child.

  Zheng Long opened his eyes, and found himself in that cabin they’d built together, on the edge of the village. Yoshika’s smile reminded him of Xiu’s face—the younger one, with eyes that belied her youth and saw too much for such a brief existence.

  “That’s how you spirit walk, Zheng Long. And the answer to your question. I forgive your past because I see the potential in your future. The Zheng Long who hurt us is gone, and you’re the one who killed him.”

  “Even—”

  He had to pause a moment to compose himself, the emotions he’d been channeling were still so overwhelming that he almost had no room for more.

  “Even so, why do so much for me? Why put in so much effort without asking anything in return?”

  She rolled her eyes and laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Because that’s what friends do.”

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