Soft music whispers through the forest, so simir to a song I pyed long ago. I walk through the underbrush, pushing branches aside as I walk. The music calls to me, urging me along. The trees soon become shrouded in darkness, their branches barely visible.

  I walk into a familiar clearing, empty this time.

  The music stops.

  Fear fills me, my heart racing as my body goes still.

  I hear a sound from above, and I look up, all control of my body gone.

  Glistening green scales cover her, a crown of golden scales on her head, glowing with strange qi. She is rger in size than the trees are tall, and her body moves with elegance as she pulls her head back.

  She strikes forward, two rge fangs filling my vision as she swallows me whole.

  I wake up, gasping for breath. The inn room is dark, but I can see Matu’s dark form ying on the floor next to the bed.

  Shia unwraps herself from where she’s curled around my arm. Her head rises, her tongue tasting the air. “You smell like fear.”

  “I had a nightmare.” I respond, slipping out of the bed. A slight cramp makes me frown as I put my hand to my stomach.

  I grab my sword from beside the door as I leave the room. The inn is quiet now, early morning light just beginning to come in through the shutters.

  Asa hums to herself as she sweeps the floor of the main room, and I remember to pull the hood up on the cloak Matu leant me.

  She looks up as I walk into the room, smiling at me. I nod at her as I walk out of the inn.

  I take a breath of the cool air as I’m outside, the sun just visible on the horizon. People are just starting to wake up and the vilge almost appears empty.

  I walk around until I find a nice spot behind the inn, hidden from curious onlookers. Once I’m there, I set Shia down on the grass. She slithers off and out of sight. Once she is gone, I take my cloak off, folding it with care. I stretch my body, the sect robes easy to move in.

  As I’d advanced in cultivation, the need for my stretching had lessened, but the habit felt good and there was a sort of meditation to it.

  After I am done with my stretching, I draw my sword, entering a basic stance from The Whispers Of The Silent Raven.

  Making each movement as slow as possible, I practice the movements of the technique, gliding across the floor as I focus on my footwork.

  I complete the basic steps, pausing for a moment with my sword held out in front of me. I hum and a familiar woman appears in front of me. She has a seductive air surrounding her, and she smiles when she sees me, drawing the sword from her waist silently.

  I watch her as I keep my sword raised, pausing for breath. Then I continue to hum the tune of the third requiem.

  The murderess woman moves fast, her sword sliding through the air. I try to step back using her own technique, but faster than I can follow, she flows around me, the ft of her bde resting against my neck.

  She steps back, her sword pulling away from my neck.

  “You’re too hesitant.” She says, her voice soft.

  I stare at her, nearly stopping my humming. No one from the requiems speaks to me except for Zhu Teng.

  “And you fear the sword too much.”

  She strikes again, and I raise my sword to block. Again, her body flows around my sword. This time I copy her technique, matching her movement to block her sword.

  Her foot kicks out, sweeping my legs out from under me. I find myself staring up at the brightening sky, the ft of her bde at my neck.

  “You still do not understand.”

  Tears well up in my eyes, and I reach up to wipe them away, still humming the third requiem, despite my desire to stop.

  She releases the pressure of her sword on my throat. Her face covers my view of the sky, her dead eyes staring into mine.

  “You will begin to understand, or you and all of those around you will die.” She pauses, her gaze turning to look at something. I follow her gaze to see the body of the man she killed in my first vision of her, blood pouring from his cut neck. She turns back to look at me, a bright smile covering her face. “Do not fear death. Do not fear the sword that brings it.” She brings her lips to my ear. “It’s the fear, not the sword, that will kill you in the end.”

  The requiem ends and she disappears along with the body of her victim.

  I lie there for a moment, just breathing. What made her speak to me? Before, she would trade blows in silence, just a doll I could practice with.

  And her words… They feel like they are something I should listen to.

  I stand back up, finding the cloak Matu leant me and putting it back on. Shia will find me before we leave, so I don’t worry about her.

  ***

  We leave the inn not too long after that, Matu leading both of the horses by their reigns. As we’re leaving I see a contingent of soldiers wearing the same uniforms as the men who had ambushed the sect’s caravan. They’re speaking to the lone guardsman at the entrance to the vilge.

  Matu frowns when he sees them, hurrying our pace. I pull my hood tighter around my head.

  A qi sense brushes over me, and I do my best to hide the power of my own qi from its questioning touch.

  One of the men, wearing a bright red unlike his colleagues, turns towards us, frowning. He turns back to the guardsmen, pointing at us.

  Matu breaks into motion, grabbing me and pcing me on one of the horses, before acrobatically jumping onto the other one.

  The man in red barks orders and the soldiers break into motion, hurrying to their horses.

  “Sorry girl.” Matu says to his horse as his horse breaks into a gallop, the horse I’m on following suit.

  I hold onto my horse with a death grip, I’d ridden before, but never faster than a trot, and not since I was living with my father.

  Matu holds something up to the sky, crushing it in his hand. Qi flows from it, towards the city we’re traveling to.

  The man in red holds his hand up, qi gathering in it. A bolt of red flies from it, hitting just in front of our horses

  To my surprise, neither horse flinches, leaping over the crater created from the man in red’s qi.

  The soldiers, now on their own horses, are galloping after us.

  Matu casts a gnce behind us before yelling at me, “Can you stall them?!”

  I gnce back, seeing ten soldiers riding after us, the man in red getting on his own horse to follow.

  I don’t know. I don’t know if I can… I gnce back at Matu, concentration covering his face.

  “Yes!” I yell back at him, “But we have to stop!”

  Matu looks at me before drawing on the reins of his horse to slow down. Mine follows suit.

  I turn to look at the approaching soldiers and man in red. The horses breathe heavily as I reach into my robe and pull out my flute.I take a deep breath, and The Twelve Requiems of Illusion appears in front of me. It flips open on its own, turning to the correct page. Most of the men running to us are in the First or Second Realm of Qi Awakening, with the exception of the man in red. I’m sure I can do it.

  I put my flute to my lips, breathing softly as the world slows around me. My eyes catch the eyes of the man in red.

  His eyes are hard, with no emotion in them.

  The Sixth Requiem: The Tomb

  A long deep note pys out.

  Darkness unfolds around us, swallowing the riders and horses chasing us.

  A second deep note pys, echoing through the darkness.

  A third note pys, followed by silence.

  A scream echoes from the darkness, before it’s silenced.

  Complete silence and darkness comes from the stretch of road behind us.

  Qi bursts from the man in red, fighting against my illusion.

  I py a fourth note, the sound coming from my flute unlike anything I’ve pyed before.

  Sweat drips from my forehead as the man’s qi explodes in my illusion.

  My eyes lose focus, but I keep the illusion in pce.

  I bring my flute away from my lips as I sing.

  The words are haunting, and unmemorable, but I can only whisper them as I focus on keeping the illusion, my qi fighting a losing battle against his.

  His cultivation is in Early Foundation Establishment, but he is in my illusion, and I refuse to let him out.

  Matu breathes a sigh of relief from beside me. “They’re here, you can stop now. Jia.”

  I waver on my horse as the man breaks my illusion.

  “Jia? Jia!”

  That’s my name.

  I cough up blood as pain fills me. The world tips, and I slip from the horse.