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“Settle down. Let him go!” Suddenly, the ghosts parted for a black-clad man wearing a white mask over his face, and his crow daemon.
“Waning Moon Officers!” the ghosts cried.
The crow daemon, who was slightly larger than the glossy black crow that Naili seemed to favor, turned her head to look at the ghosts as she and her human passed. Her bearing was of a queen among her people, looking down with aloof dignity. Unlike Naili, who was striking with her feathers that shone blue and purple and green in the sunlight, her feathers had a faint silver shimmer; around her throat, her dark feathers turned into splashes of white, like a collar.
“What is this?” the crow daemon asked, and Xie Lian realized that she had been the voice that they had heard. “Who is causing such trouble?” From the way the ghosts backed away from her and her human, they were someone of great importance and Xie Lian’s stomach sank.
“Taizi dianxia,” the man, the Waning Moon Officer, said. “Hua Chengzhu is ready to see you. Will you follow us?”
There was a great murmur among the ghosts. “Hua Chengzhu?” they whispered. “This troublemaker is a guest of Hua Chengzhu?”
Xie Lian’s face flushed bright red. Some guest he was, if the Waning Moon Officer’s words were to be believed—already he had been a participant in two different brawls. Not to mention, he was supposed to be spying on Hua Cheng for Jun Wu. What a mess.
The crow daemon turned to look at the ghosts who were most vocal about their displeasure. “Do you doubt our word?” she asked, her voice sharp. “Or do you have a problem with Hua Chengzhu’s invitation?”
It seemed that it was a regular occurrence for the crow daemon to speak to others, because they did not seem shocked, just fearful of her words and the authority they carried. All of the ghosts bowed, though they seemed confused—likely by Xie Lian’s presence more than anything else.
“If there is nothing else?” the crow daemon asked archly. “Or do you have matters to bring before Hua Chengzhu’s attention? Or mine?”
The Waning Moon Officer looked around at the damaged stalls and then up at the crow daemon perched on his shoulder. “Yueshi,” he said. “Stay here. I am sure there is much to be discussed.”
Yueshi, the crow daemon, clicked her beak in displeasure. Immediately, one of the ghosts scrambled to a stall and found a standing perch which she flapped to. “Taizi dianxia,” she said, turning to speak to Xie Lian directly. “I will handle affairs here, so you need not worry.” Unlike when she spoke to the ghosts, her voice took on a slightly softer tone, brisk but almost gentle.
“Taizi dianxia,” the Waning Moon Officer said with a bow. “If you will follow me, I will take you to Hua Chengzhu.”
Xie Lian realized that Yueshi and the Waning Moon Officer had to be human, or at least a ghost powerful enough to create a daemon. Since Yueshi’s feathers seemed almost perfect at first glance, he had to be human—otherwise, Xie Lian had met yet another Ghost King. The thought made his head spin.
However, remembering his conversation with Hua Cheng after the incident at Banyue Kingdom, he realized that it was unlikely that the Waning Moon Officer was a Ghost King. For one, he wouldn’t have such a title as “Waning Moon Officer”; he’d use his poetic name, or his title as Ghost King. For another, the Waning Moon Officer would not act as if he had to answer to Hua Cheng—if anything, they would be equals, as they were both of the same rank among ghosts.
So who was the Waning Moon Officer? The thought intrigued him.
“Thank you,” he said hesitantly.
With one last look at Yueshi the crow daemon, Xie Lian followed the Waning Moon Officer. He led the way confidently down the streets, where the ghosts all made way for him—and by extension Xie Lian.
Xie Lian heard the ghosts whispering, and tried to keep the blush from his face. They spoke of his robes, wondered if they would be able to purchase his body after Hua Chengzhu killed him, talked about how he was the one that had caused such a disturbance at the Gambler’s Den.
“Where is the Waxing Moon Officer?” he heard a ghost ask. “It is rare to see them apart!”
Xie Lian wondered if it was Yueshi’s official title—however odd it was to see a daemon hold a title separate from their human’s—or if it was an affectionate name for her. If the one before him was the Waning Moon Officer, then would it not make sense that his complement would be the Waxing Moon Officer?
Behind him, there was a cry among the ghosts and Xie Lian turned in alarm, but he only saw a form flapping through the air toward them. The Waning Moon Officer didn’t turn as Yueshi landed on his shoulder.
“Are you done, then?” he asked her. She clicked her beak, and that was seemingly enough of an answer for him. As Xie Lian watched, the Waning Moon Officer lifted a hand to stroke his daemon’s wing and with the motion, his sleeve shifted, revealing a very familiar, black cursed circle.
A cursed shackle?
Then this was a god —a banished god, not a human or powerful ghost! Xie Lian’s mind spun.
Yueshi turned to look at Xie Lian. “Taizi dianxia,” she said in that brisk tone of hers. “Please follow closely—you don’t want to get lost.”
“Ah,” Xie Lian said, realizing that he had stopped walking. “Forgive me.”
The Waning Moon Officer waited patiently for him and continued leading the way to an enormous manor that loomed ahead. “This is Paradise Manor,” Yueshi said to Xie Lian. “The residence of Hua Chengzhu, the Crimson Rain Sought Flower.”
“Wow,” Xie Lian said, properly awed. “Manor” didn’t quite describe it—it more resembled a great palace of a high-ranking lord.
“Hua Chengzhu asked us to lead you here,” Yueshi said in a very careful way that Xie Lian took to mean that Hua Cheng had asked them to make sure that he wasn’t molested along the way. “He invites dianxia, if he has the time, to call upon him at any time.”
From the way the Waning Moon Officer rolled the shoulder that Yueshi was perched on—making her spread her wings to keep her balance—she probably wasn’t supposed to say such things. Clicking her beak, Yueshi tugged on a piece of the Waning Moon Officer’s hair but said nothing else.
“Thank you, Waning Moon Officers,” Xie Lian said carefully.
Yueshi clicked her beak as the Waning Moon Officer led him through the gates and into the great manor. “It is our honor,” she said.
It was peculiar to see Hua Cheng without Naili, but then he realized that either she was away—as they apparently did not have a range, not being “tied” as tightly as humans and gods were to their daemons—or she had taken on a small form and was hiding.
“He suspects something is wrong,” Mantou whispered to Xie Lian as he curled around Xie Lian’s neck. The tip of his tail tapped against the fine chain around his neck, and Xie Lian absently moved it away.
If Naili was hiding, then Hua Cheng knew that something was wrong; if she was simply away, then there was no confirming whether Hua Cheng had any suspicions about Xie Lian and Mantou’s sudden visit. Then again, he would need to be a fool to not find it odd that Xie Lian arrived with a troublemaker of a god like Lang Qianqiu and his golden tiger daemon.
And, of all the things he had heard of Hua Cheng, he knew that the Ghost King was not a fool.
“What a mess,” Mantou muttered.
Hua Cheng smiled. “Is there something wrong, gege?”
With a disgruntled humph , Mantou leaped off of Xie Lian’s shoulder and darted over the table before he could stop him. Hua Cheng leaned politely closer as Mantou skidded to a stop in front of the Ghost King. Rearing on his hind legs, Mantou squinted into Hua Cheng’s face as Xie Lian covered his face in mortification.
“We don’t want to lie to you,” Mantou told Hua Cheng. “We have already told you that we are fond of you, so there is no point in lying. Unfortunately, we are not here to make social calls.”
In the corner, Xie Lian could see Shi Qingxuan, disguised as a serving girl, blanch in horror. When they had arrived, her daemon Yan had disguised himself in the form of a serpent that had been tucked into her robes; now, given the revealing nature of the clothes she wore, Xie Lian wondered where Yan had hidden himself.
“Gege is always welcome,” Hua Cheng told Mantou. “You—” here, he used the plural form to include Xie Lian and Mantou, “—are welcome to arrive unannounced, or for a planned visit. And should you arrive on official business, who is this humble one to stand in your way?”
Mantou wrung his paws and looked back at Xie Lian. Then he steeled himself and turned back to Hua Cheng. “We received a report of the Ascending Fire Dragon Spell being used at the edges of Ghost City,” he said somberly.
“And since it is used as a last resort for Heavenly Officials in grave danger, you were of course alarmed,” Hua Cheng said smoothly. “And given it was found at the edge of Ghost City, gege naturally suspected me.”
If he was upset by such a thing, he gave no sign of it.
“No!” Xie Lian blurted. “We didn’t suspect you, but…” Hua Cheng looked patiently at him, but he didn’t seem particularly displeased, simply resigned. “We volunteered,” he admitted. “Because we wanted to see you again and…”
“We knew that the other gods are afraid of you,” Mantou said. “But we are not.”
Hua Cheng propped his chin on the heel of his palm as he looked at the stoat daemon in front of him. “You aren’t afraid that I would hurt you?”
“No,” Mantou said firmly. “You had plenty of opportunities before. We knew that unless we did something drastic, you would give us more than fair treatment. I’m afraid that we took advantage of that.”
“Perhaps gege did,” Hua Cheng said almost lazily. “But he has that advantage over this humble servant, so he should of course use that. Does gege want to question this one, then?”
“Do you know of the Ascending Fire Dragon Spell?” Xie Lian asked.
“I know of it,” Hua Cheng said. “And I saw it in the distance, but I am not the direct cause of it.”
Mantou and Xie Lian exchanged glances. “Do you know who had used it?”
“Ming Yi,” Hua Cheng answered. “The Earth Master.” Shi Qingxuan couldn’t help his gasp, and Hua Cheng lazily turned to look at him. He didn’t seem surprised, and Xie Lian tried not to feel as disappointed that Hua Cheng had so clearly figured everything out very quickly.
Xie Lian looked down at his bowl, which he still held cupped in his palms. “Do you know where Earth Master is now?”
“He is in Paradise Manor,” Hua Cheng said. “In the dungeons. He was spying on me for the Heavenly Emperor.”
“Wait!” Shi Qingxuan blurted. “You said that you weren’t the cause of the Ascending Fire Dragon Spell!”
Hua Cheng didn’t look away from Mantou when he said, “I was not.”
“If he had been captured and left in the dungeons, then surely he would have used it!” Shi Qingxuan exclaimed. “So why are you lying?”
“Does gege not believe me?” Hua Cheng asked, looking first at Mantou then at Xie Lian.
Xie Lian thought carefully. No matter how he answered, he must do so carefully. “It seems wild to believe,” he said slowly. “When did you capture Earth Master? Before or after the Ascending Fire Dragon Spell?”
Hua Cheng smiled, his eye crescent-shaped with amusement. “A clever question,” he said. “I found him after the spell.”
“Are you hiding something else?” Mantou asked.
“I am.” Shi Qingxuan sputtered in outrage but Mantou laughed with a slight edge of hysteria. “Does this upset you, gege?”
“We are all entitled to our secrets,” Xie Lian said carefully. “But…”
Hua Cheng looked at Xie Lian, the amusement fading from his face. He looked very serious, but Xie Lian didn’t think he looked dangerous just yet. “I saw the Ascending Fire Dragon Spell,” he said. “And sent the Waxing Moon Officer to investigate. She found evidence of an attack at the edge of Ghost City; the Waning Moon Officer found Earth Master Yi in disguise in Paradise Manor.”
“Suspicious!” Shi Qingxuan snapped. “You must be lying.”
Mantou looked at Xie Lian and both had the same thought: how they both regretted bringing along such hot-headed companions!
“Does gege think I’m lying?” Hua Cheng asked.
“No,” Mantou said, and Shi Qingxuan made an outraged noise. “Because it is too peculiar. If San Lang wanted to lie, he would have said something more convincing.”
Shi Qingxuan’s daemon poked his head out from the back of her robes. “It is too ridiculous to be true, and too ridiculous to be a lie,” he grumbled. “I don’t like it.”
“I demand to see him,” Shi Qingxuan said. “Ming-xiong is my friend!”
Hua Cheng didn’t move from his lazy pose. “Gege?” he asked.
“It would be rude to demand things from our gracious host,” Xie Lian said carefully.
Hua Cheng gave him a peculiar smile. “Nonsense,” he said. “Gege can ask anything of this humble servant.” Very carefully, Xie Lian and Mantou didn’t look at Shi Qingxuan, who was likely looking very intently at them. “If you wish to see Earth Master, then gege needs only asked. However…” his easygoing demeanor shifted to something cool and aloof, very much the Ghost King that everyone feared. “I must insist that he not leave. After all, I caught him spying in my residence.”
“He is a Heavenly Official!” Shi Qingxuan snapped. “You can’t hold him!”
“I am a Ghost King,” Hua Cheng said coldly, turning to fully face Shi Qingxuan for the first time. “And he is in my territory, invading my home, at the behest of your Heavenly Emperor. It is well within my right to… dispose of him properly.”
Xie Lian and Mantou carefully kept their mouths shut. What a terrible position , Mantou said silently to Xie Lian.
No matter how they turned, they would betray one person: by inaction or siding with Hua Cheng, they would betray Shi Qingxuan and the Heavenly Realm, but by siding with Shi Qingxuan, he would potentially make an enemy of a Ghost King whom all gods feared.
Bad luck , Xie Lian thought, remembering the fortune shaker and its prediction of terrible luck in any direction. Bad luck .
“I didn’t mean to,” Shi Qingxuan said miserably.
Xie Lian said nothing and Mantou, turned grey from the billowing smoke that had risen from Paradise Manor, curled miserably in his robes. He wondered if Naili was somewhere in the Manor, if she was affected by the fire that was devouring everything in sight.
He wondered when Hua Cheng would chase after him to demand reparations.
He wondered when the Crimson Rain Sought Flower would declare war on the heavens for such an insult.
“Dianxia,” Shi Qingxuan said. “Please believe me.”
“I believe you,” Xie Lian said through numb lips.
Fortunately, Shi Qingxuan seemed to understand that he should say nothing more as they arrived in the Heavenly Capital. His daemon transformed back into his usual form, a perching duck in brilliant shades of orange, iridescent purple, and deep blue. Immediately, Shi Qingxuan held him close with one arm while he supported Ming Yi with the other.
Wordlessly, Xie Lian took Ming Yi’s other side, lifting the weight off Shi Qingxuan so he could hug his daemon close. Lang Qianqiu, who had grabbed the small cage that held Ming Yi’s kingfisher daemon, fiddled with the clasp and opened the door.
“Thank you,” the daemon said politely to Lang Qianqiu and fluttered to Ming Yi’s shoulder. She found a perch in Ming Yi’s hair, the safest place to sit and not risk being touched as Xie Lian carefully helped Ming Yi down the gilded roads of the Heavenly Capital.
Lang Qianqiu’s golden tiger daemon growled, shaking out her fur. She was also marked with soot and ash, and a shallow gash over her shoulder that still oozed blood. Hua Cheng’s cursed scimitar, E’ming, had grazed her before Xie Lian had stopped it.
Reminded of his own injury, Xie Lian felt it throb in pain before he ignored it again.
“If you return,” Shi Qingxuan’s duck daemon said softly. “He will kill you.”
Xie Lian and Mantou said nothing, but to his surprise, Lang Qianqiu’s tiger daemon said, “We are lucky enough that we got out unscathed. You accuse us of being too quick to action, and yet by your own you made a powerful enemy.”
“There are other things to focus on,” Lang Qianqiu said in a strangely clipped voice. “First, we must see the Heavenly Emperor.”
The kingfisher daemon on Ming Yi’s head humph ed but said nothing. Despite her bright feathers, she seemed less inclined to be as active as her coloration would typically imply. Bright-colored daemons for dynamic individuals; dark and drab daemons for less-interesting people. It was enough of a trend that most made the assumption upon seeing a daemon’s settled form.
Ming Yi’s daemon seemed to be an exception to the rule. Frankly, Xie Lian would rather focus on that instead of thinking about Hua Cheng’s inevitable revenge. Of how he may have ruined any kind of friendship—or whatever they had—with the infamous Ghost King.
“I can hear you thinking,” the kingfisher daemon said in a low voice. “It smells like burning.”
“Are you sure that’s not the smell of Paradise Manor burning down?” Xie Lian asked before he could stop himself.
The kingfisher daemon made a low sound like a choked laugh. “He will not kill you,” she said. “So stop worrying.”
Xie Lian didn’t know what to make of that so he said nothing. Ahead of them, the Great Martial Hall loomed.
There was a cat sleeping outside of Puqi Shrine, curled in a sunbeam.
Hearing him approach, it rolled over and turned into a large dog. “Gege!” Naili cried and stretched. Tail wagging, she trotted down the path to the gate and paused, tilting her head to the side as her nose twitched. “You smell like smoke. Is something wrong, gege?”
“Did San Lang not tell you?” Mantou asked quietly.
Naili cocked her head to the side and stepped aside as Xie Lian walked down the path toward the door of the shrine. “He said that something had happened in Ghost City,” she said. “But I was away at the time. I haven’t heard anything else. Gege, what happened?”
“We burned down Paradise Manor.”
Her front paws on the porch of the shrine, Naili paused and watched as Xie Lian opened the doors. “Oh,” she said. “Is…is gege alright?”
“Why are you here, Naili?” Xie Lian asked tiredly. Mantou refused to come out of his robes and he lifted a hand to stroke the little lump he formed over his sash.
For a long moment, Hua Cheng’s daemon didn’t answer. When he turned to look at her, he found that she had slunk backwards, was crouched in the middle of the path, her ears drooping and her eyes downturned. “Have I displeased you, gege?” she asked. “Do…something must have happened. This one apologizes, gege, for her assumption. We just…wanted to be sure you were well.”
“San Lang sent you?” Xie Lian asked and the Ghost King’s name felt like ashes on his tongue.
Naili flinched. “He said that you were injured,” she said, her voice small in a way that Xie Lian had never expected to hear from the daemon of someone as powerful as Hua Cheng. “And that he wanted to be sure that you were well. When I heard that something had happened, I wanted to be sure as well. But gege…if this unworthy one is not welcome here, then say the word and she will leave.”
“Did he not send you to demand repayment?” Xie Lian asked.
“Repayment for what, gege?” Naili asked, not looking at him.
Mantou shifted in his robes and clambered out. “ We burned down his home! ”
Slowly, Naili looked up. “Paradise Manor is a residence,” she said, with the air of quoting someone. Xie Lian wondered if she was speaking directly with Hua Cheng and translating his response. “Gege…it is a residence, a place that he amuses himself building in his spare time, not a home. Hua Cheng does not care if it stands or falls or is swept away. If gege is concerned about such trivial things, he should let his mind be at ease, for Paradise Manor is not something he needs to worry about.”
Exchanging looks, Mantou jumped down and galloped over to Naili who flinched back as if expecting to be bitten. Mantou immediately stopped. “Do you think I will hurt you?” he cried.
“This unworthy one does not know why gege is angry,” she said, which wasn’t quite an answer.
Mantou turned back to Xie Lian who looked away. “Naili,” he said. “Come inside. I’m tired—we can…we can discuss this while I make us something to eat.”
When she didn’t move, Mantou galloped closer and pressed his nose against hers. “We weren’t sure of your motives for being here,” Mantou told her. “Forgive our suspicions, Naili; how can we not think that San Lang would demand repayment for the damage and trouble we caused him?”
Naili’s tail wagged tentatively, though she still seemed strangely skittish. Mantou scrambled to perch on her back and she stood, carefully walking into the shrine after Xie Lian. “Anything belonging to Hua Cheng is gege’s,” she said. “You only need to ask.”
“You shouldn’t promise such things,” Mantou scolded.
“But it’s true,” Naili said. “Everything he is, everything he has, he will give to gege in a heartbeat.”
Xie Lian looked at Naili, absently noting that she had referred to Hua Cheng as if he was a separate entity, as if she wasn’t his daemon. “Even knowing that I betrayed his trust? Even knowing that I used our friendship to get close and steal the Earth Master from him?”
Naili gave him an odd look. “Gege,” she said carefully. “You have this advantage over us. Use it.”
Something occurred to Mantou and he climbed over her neck to look down into her eyes. “Naili,” he said. “Were we allowed to leave?”
“Gege can come and go as he pleases,” Naili said carefully.
Xie Lian frowned. “Was it planned?”
A strange expression crossed Naili’s face. “Gege, please don’t make this unworthy one lie,” she said softly.
“San Lang said that he was hiding something else,” Xie Lian said. “Is this related to that?”
“Yes,” Naili said, looking uncomfortable.
Xie Lian pursed his lips. “Naili,” he said carefully and she looked away, her ears lowering again. “I have great respect for you and San Lang, I hope you know this. However, I must also do my duty. I beg that you at least answer this question honestly: whatever is being hidden, will it affect the heavens as a whole? Or individuals?”
Naili looked almost comically relieved. “Individuals,” she said. “No more than five.”
“Is it mischief?” Mantou asked.
“Revenge,” Naili replied. “Please don’t make this unworthy one say any more.”
Xie Lian held up a hand. “One more question, Naili,” he said. “Is it to overthrow the Heavenly Emperor or a similar such plot?”
Strangely, Naili’s ears pinned flat and she bared her teeth before she got a hold of herself once more. It was such a sudden and violent expression on a daemon that was normally so playful and full of good humor that Xie Lian was momentarily startled. Then again, when he had first met them, San Lang had said that he thought that Jun Wu hated Xie Lian. Perhaps Naili thought something similar.
“No,” Naili said, her voice deliberately even. “Not for that.”
Suddenly tired, Xie Lian sat down heavily in the chair. “Come inside, Naili,” he heard Mantou say, and then he heard the sound of Naili’s claws on the wooden floor as she approached.
“Do you need anything else?” Mantou asked.
“This one is just here to make sure you are well,” Naili said softly. “If gege wants, this unworthy one can leave.”
Xie Lian sighed. “I’m tired,” he admitted reluctantly. “But I don’t want to send Naili away. We…we missed you.”
A soft look crossed Naili’s face. “Gege,” she said softly. “It is wonderful to see you again. If you will be comforted by it, please go to sleep; I will be here when you wake.”
“It would be improper,” Xie Lian murmured, but the straw mat in the corner looked increasingly inviting.
Naili changed into a monkey and spread out the straw mat, brushing off dust, and laying out a blanket over it. “Sleep,” she said. “Gege deserves rest; he’s been through a lot.”
“Thank you,” Mantou said. “Xie Lian, come on.”
Looking at Naili, Xie Lian smiled. “I feel like a terrible host,” he admitted. “But I feel too tired to resist. Thank you, Naili.”
“Gege is always welcome,” she said, and became a dog, curling up beside the mat.
Only bothering to take off his sash and outer robe, Xie Lian stretched out on the straw mat and closed his eyes, immediately falling asleep.
