She summoned qì, gathering it in the soles of her feet. Then she took off, propelling herself upward leap by long leap. In this manner, the ascent passed by relatively quickly, the wind whistling in her ears. Soon, the ground was sloping gently, the junipers and larches thinning out as the stony earth was covered in a blanket of snow. Fog began to creep through the trees, rendering everything in shadows. Up here, the air was near-frigid; Lan’s breaths came in clouds.
Lan slowed on the snow-dusted steps. The mist had grown so thick that she could feel the wetness seeping into her clothes—she must be so high that she was amongst the clouds. So thorough was the silence that she felt she’d entered anotherworld. There was something different to the qì up here…something she couldn’t quite place.
In the fog, someone began to sing. The song was unlike anything Lan had heard before: a monotonous, rhythmic chanting. She followed it.
More stone steps appeared before her, ones she could swear had not been there before. Deep blue Yuè script gleamed on them like lapis lazuli.
Lan climbed up the steps, and the world shifted. The fog around her dispersed, and it was as though someone had pulled back silk curtains and opened a set of shutters into another realm. The moon had been shining as brightly as a silver coin; now daylight poured like molten honey onto a resplendent palace of jade and pale stone. Peach blossoms, orchids, and magnolia trees swayed in a gentle breeze, filling the air with their fragrance. The place appeared utterly empty.
In her short time at the School of the White Pines, Lan had heard of remarkable Gate Seals that did not just transport one to a different location but actually changed reality. This one was an enchantment the likes of which she had never come across. As she made for the palace doors, a bell chimed somewhere, its sound carrying in the silence. A wind rose, scattering the clouds to reveal two stone pillars on either side of the entryway, each with figures wrought in lapis, jade, rubies, and other precious stones—the same twirling figures she’d seen in the murals in the cavern. Above the entryway hung a sign of faded gold inlaid with jeweled Yuè characters. Lan crossed the threshold, passing the pillars, whose inlaid figures were now life-sized. Whether it was the fog or her imagination, Lan thought their eyes gleamed, following her.
She was in a long hallway that shimmered as though in a dream. As she walked forward, her surroundings settled,growing more and more solid. Alabaster walls lined with pillars, ceilings filled with those painted figures on clouds, a gold-threaded carpet that unfurled with each step that she took.
Mist still swirled around her, yet within it, shadows began to move. Silk-clad figures knelt, hands clasped, their whispers stirring the air. Whenever Lan tried to look directly at them, they vanished.
A woman appeared before her, dressed in cross-collar robes of deep cerulean, their gold stitching glittering like shards of sunlight on fresh river waters. Sashes trailed her, rippling in a whispering breeze. Her hair was gathered in an elaborate bun, ornaments gleaming with sapphires, jade, rubies, and gold. The most striking feature was her eyes: pure white, like starlight.
Immortal,Lan thought. Or the ghost of one, if the innkeeper’s tale was to be trusted. Whatever this was—illusion, imagination, dream, or traces of history—clearly the fabled immortals of the Yuè clan had not disappeared entirely.
Lan inclined her head and brought her fist to her palm in a salute. “Venerable master,” she said politely.
“Our kind is not to be venerated, nor are we masters,”came the reply, echoing gently through the hall. The woman’s lips had not moved; she only continued to gaze down at Lan serenely, as though nothing in this world might perturb her.“Rise, child.”
Lan did as the immortal bade her. She took in her surroundings: the unearthly whispers, the billowing clouds, the banners shifting in that errant breeze. “Where am I?”
“You have crossed a boundary of sorts,”came the reply after a pause.“A Boundary Seal woven of the qì of souls, which preserves all that was once our kingdom.”
“The qì of souls?” Lan knew souls to have qì, for Tai could hear the imprints left behind by them. She herself had metghosts drifting through this world and had even stepped into a scene from the past once before. But she had never heard of a Seal woven by the qì of souls.
“The qì of souls, of ghosts, of all those who should have passed into the otherworld beyond the River of Forgotten Death. It is an ancient branch of practitioning forgotten since our disappearance. Yet there are ways for those who once tread this world to walk again, for secrets lost to be found. The souls of immortals remain after our physical bodies are gone, guarding all the truths of your world and the next. When the yin of the moon is strongest, this realm of the past that is preserved within the boundary appears in your world.”
All the truths of your world,Lan thought. “Is this the Temple of Truths?” she asked.
“It once was.”The immortal waited, watching Lan.
Lan dipped her head. “Then, please, help me find the path to Shaklahira.”
The immortal said nothing. She seemed to be expecting more.
Lan swallowed. “I seek the Godslayer, to destroy the Demon Gods.”
“Destroy.”The immortal closed her eyes, and she spoke her word with a slow flick of her tongue, as though tasting memories of ashes and war in it.“Why?”
Lan thought of all she had heard of the Demon Gods. Of the Order of Ten Thousand Flowers, her mother and father risking their lives for this cause and passing the duty to her with their dying breaths. Anger sparked in her. “The Demon Gods are the reason behind all the war and death and destruction my kingdom has seen,” she said. “Since the first shaman practitioners bound them, countless battles have been fought over their power, and so much blood has been shed over them. So many innocent lives lost.” The Elantian Central Outpost, Zen’s blank, broken gaze in the aftermath. “They’redangerous. We, the practitioners, are the binders, but…they are really the ones in power.”
The immortal watched her impassively.“Are they the reason behind the war and bloodshed of this world?”
“They corrupted the imperial family. They drove the Nightslayer—Xan Tolürigin—to madness, to slaying entire cities of innocents. Of course they’re the reason.”
The immortal was silent for a long time. When she spoke again, it was with resignation.“Make northwest to the spring of a crescent moon. When the stars burn, you will see the path to the city carved in its waters.”
The path to Shaklahira.
Somewhere, a bell began to toll.
The temple filled with a great rushing sound like water. The carpet and marble floors beneath her turned to shimmering silver luminescence. The domed ceilings were disappearing, their jeweled flying figures—glittering just moments ago—fading into mist. A rising wind began to lift the immortal’s robes, the sashes draped across her arms. It was impossible to read anything from her gaze as she said,“The Godslayer will not work for you unless you understand the truth—the whole truth.”
“The truth?” Lan repeated. “What do you mean?”
