I watch as Qiu Tai folds paper into the shape of a little bird. Qi surrounds her fingers as she works, entering the paper and the images she drew into it. We had found a small clearing, and Qiu Tai had set up another circle of protection. She rests on the ground, focused on the creation of her construct.

  I lean against a tree. Shia curls around one of my arms while I focus on my breathing to soothe my nerves.

  Qiu Tai smiles, pulling her hands away and setting the paper bird on her leg. The construct stands still for a moment, before it moves its head and ruffles its wings. It hops from one of her legs to the other, waiting for instructions.

  “I’m not sure how well my connection will last once it flies into the portal.” Qiu Tai says, her eyes still on the paper bird. “We have to hope it finds a member of our sect before someone else catches it.”

  “Why don’t we just use my illusions to sneak our way through?” I ask as the bird flies into the air, flitting back and forth before heading in a straight line towards the camp of soldiers that guard the portal.

  “Because they might be expecting you. I don’t know how many powerful cultivators they have, and I don’t want to fight them after they break one of your illusions.” Qiu Tai pauses, her eyes softening as she looks at me. “You’ve done more than most in your situation would or could. It’s time to call on the power of the sect now.”

  I nod, my gaze on the sky where the bird had flown off.

  “Are you alright?” Qiu Tai asks.

  I turn my attention back to her. Her gaze pierces through me.

  “What do you think happens after death?” I ask, a strange emotion filling my voice. I don’t feel sad, but more... lost. It’s the feeling I’ve been dealing with ever since I watched a man bleed out from where I stabbed him. It’s been sitting there, under the surface, as I traveled with Matu and as I rode on my own to find Qiu Tai.

  Qiu Tai looks thoughtful at my question.

  “I spoke to a monk after my mother died.” I continue, looking to her for an answer. “He said death is ‘the transition into another journey’. I think he meant reincarnation.” I stop, “I… I don’t know. I want some kind of excuse, something I can tell myself about the men and women I’ve watched die, that I’ve killed. Everything in my life seems to be trying to tell me something about death. But I still don’t get it. I still wonder why. I’m missing something, Senior Sister. It feels like I’m missing the most important piece to explain it all.”

  Now that I’ve started speaking, I can’t seem to stop, the thoughts I had been burying with my immediate tasks coming back up like a crashing wave. “Someone told me to stop fearing death and I don’t anymore. I really don’t. Still, it crushes me. The men I’ve killed appear in my illusions and in my dreams. I remember every face as I stabbed them through or watched them die. I remember seeing life in their eyes one moment, then gone the next. It’s wrong. Seeing someone without life feels so wrong!” I yell the last word, my voice breaking as I cry.

  Qiu Tai stands up, and pulls me into a hug. I stiffen, the change in her spirit from earlier today makes her feel different. But it’s still her, so I relax, burying my face into her dirty and tattered clothes.

  She stinks of death and blood. The smell is familiar to me now. I sob into her chest, letting out all of the pent up emotions from a week of bloodshed.

  Qiu Tai speaks, her tone encompassing me like a soft blanket, relaxing me. “When I was young, my home village was raided by cultivators.” She says. My sobbing starts to subside. I hiccup while she continues. “They killed the men and did unspeakable things to the women. When they were done, they killed every last mortal in the village. I was new to the sect then, just starting on my journey of cultivation.” My own thoughts get lost as my mind narrows in on her story. Her words filling the world around me. “When I found out what they’d done, I vowed vengeance. I left the sect and hunted them down. I found them, whether they were in their own sect or in the city. I found every single cultivator involved and I killed them.” Her voice fills with the first hints of hatred I’d ever heard from her. “I slit their throats, poisoned their food, drowned them. I was filled with what I thought to be a righteous fury. I still don’t believe I was wrong in killing them. They were monsters in human flesh.

  “But afterwards, I felt disgusted by myself. I had taken on some of their monstrosities in order to hunt them down. Just like you are now, I sought answers to the meaning of death. I didn’t have a mentor, and I’d left the sect, so I found a library.”

  Qiu Tai smiles, as if she were laughing at a private joke.

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  “The sad truth is, the meaning of death isn’t known. Many believe they know the answer, and I have found my own answer, but it is a question you can only answer for yourself.”

  “What is your answer?” I ask, my head still buried in her chest.

  “I believe we die, so we don’t have to stay monsters for an eternity.”

  I pull away, wiping tears away from my eyes. “That sounds pretty good.” I say, giggling.

  “You think so?” Qiu Tai laughs.

  I pull her back, squeezing her. “Thank you.”

  Qiu Tai looks like she is going to say something, but stops before she does, her head tilting as if she is listening to something. “Someone opened the construct on the other side of the portal.”

  ***

  Lai Ming sat staring at the sky, studying a storm front as it approached. The storm is an hour or so away. Not the best of omens for the day.

  Xia Jing is late as well.

  Lai Ming turns her attention to the road as the sounds of someone running through the forest reaches her.

  Xia Jing breaks into the clearing a moment later, a bloodied knife in her right hand and a piece of paper held in a vice grip in her left.

  Xia Jing smiles. “We need to run, senior sister.”

  After those words, the sounds of shouting and the auras of cultivators from behind Xia Jing hit her. “What’d you do?” Lai Ming says, standing up and creating her sword of ice in her hand.

  Xia Jing shakes her head, laughing. “They sent a message! Elder Qiu Tai and Jia are alive!”

  Lai Ming freezes at her words, her thoughts moving to a stand still as a sense of relief fills her.

  “Now run! We need to get this to the sect!” Xia Jing holds up the piece of paper in her left hand.

  Lai Ming doesn’t need to be told a third time as she breaks into a run, following behind Xia Jing as she leads her through the forest.

  The auras from the cultivators following them narrow in and Lai Ming shivers as she feels the cultivation of someone in the peak of Core Formation.

  As a sense of foreboding fills her, she picks up her pace, grabbing Xia Jing and lifting her as qi flows into her feet.

  Ice forms in front of her leading to the road and Lai Ming steps onto it, her speed increasing as she glides along the ice using the foot technique taught to her by her manual.

  Lai Ming glances down at Xia Jing who rests in her arms, a huge grin on her face.

  “Grab the talisman from my pocket!” Lai Ming yells as she glides over the ice at a speed slightly faster than a galloping horse.

  The weaker cultivators fall farther behind, but the cultivator in Core Formation is joined by another aura even more powerful. A Nascent Soul.

  Xia Jing does as she asked.

  “Break it!” Lai Ming says, her entire focus narrowing in on dodging through the trees until she reaches the road.

  Xia Jing rips the talisman apart and a burst of ethereal butterflies break out, Elder Wu Li Mei’s perfume filling the air.

  The butterflies follow them as they race through the forest, eventually reaching the road.

  Lai Ming feels a burst of qi from behind her and she swerves on her ice to avoid whatever is coming.

  Inky darkness explodes behind her, making her let go of Xia Jing as they both tumble across the ground.

  They stand up to see two men in strange armor floating in the sky above them, their gazes imperious and threatening.

  One of the men has black armor, its color taking on the same inky tone as the spell that sent them flying.

  The second man, the one in nascent soul, has red armor with strange veins flowing through it.

  Qi gathers in the hand of the man in black armor, as a ball of black forms.

  With a casual toss, the ball of blackness flies at the two girls.

  Lai Ming rushes to Xia Jing, covering her with her body, only to pause when nothing happens.

  The butterflies which had followed them through the forest flew at the points of a pentagram, pink strings of light flowing between them. Their formation creates a shield which is now dyed a translucent black from the explosion of the ball.

  The two cultivators watch as sultry laughter echoes from the forest.

  “Wonderful. It has been too long, hasn’t it?”

  “It certainly has.” A fit young man answers as he floats down from the sky, a large sword strapped to his back. “The Matriarch is a good woman, but waiting has never been my way.”

  The man is Martial Elder Li Quon, and following behind him is Elder Wu Li Mei, floating on a cloud of butterflies.

  Both of the strange men in the sky look warily at the Elders, both of whom are in the Nascent Soul realm.

  Qi flows from one of the men in the sky, back towards their base.

  “We should finish this fast, before their reinforcements get here.” Elder Li Quon says, stretching his back.

  “Be careful of their blades. They affect the qi around them in strange ways.” Elder Wu Li Mei says.

  Li Quon nods, before disappearing and reappearing in front of both men, his sword moving in a graceful arc.

  The one in red armor draws his sword. The one in black armor is slower to react and pays for it when his arm is sliced off.

  He falls back as the man in red engages with Li Quon. Their movements, enhanced by qi, become too fast for Lai Ming to follow.

  Meanwhile, Wu Li Mei watches from the ground, observing everything until the man in black gathers his qi.

  “We can’t have none of that, now can we? Let the old man have his fun.” She waves her hand and pink ribbons surround the man in black, slicing through his armor and forcing him to defend with his one good arm.

  Wu Li Mei raises an eyebrow as the sword of the man in black armor cuts through her ribbons with ease.

  Unfortunately for him, he is so focused on fighting off the ribbons, he doesn’t notice the butterfly lands on the back of his neck.

  He falls from the sky like a rock.

  Meanwhile, the two men fighting in the sky break away from each other. The man in red armor is pale, his armor repairing itself as his wounds heal at a pace visible to the naked eye.

  Li Quon laughs, cracking his neck as he takes a deep breath. “That was a good warm up. I appreciate the exercise.” Qi flows through Li Quon as his body glows with a white light. “I’m sorry it couldn’t have lasted longer.” With those words, he disappears, reappearing behind the man in red armor.

  The man in red armor falls from the sky, his head separating from the rest of his body.