“Really?” Ada’s eyes sparkled. “That’s incredible. The Exorcists could use someone like you on their Hunts, Yiran.”
Yiran laughed nervously, but his shield remained bright and strong. “I’m not sure about that. I’ve only done a giant shield once.”
“Practice makes perfect,” Teshin said. “Think of what else you could do when Tesha gets the second glove ready.”
“You’re not usually this modest, Yiran.” Mai laughed. “You’re sustaining this shield so effortlessly; I can’t believe everyone thought you were a normie just months ago. How did they miss your potential with that spirit core of yours and all the energy swirling inside?”
A small, surprised sound escaped Rui as a sudden realization hit her in the gut.
“I—I have to go—remembered something—” she said. Heart pounding, she spun around and ran across the field.
“Rui? Rui!”
She heard Ada calling out, but she ignored her best friend and kept running.
Rui slammed the door to her dorm room shut and locked it. Her pulse was still racing, and she had a stitch in her side. Shakily, she sat on the floor and pulled out the shard of glass Nikai had given her.
All you need to do is say my name.
Rui had not used the mirror before. Would it work?
“Nikai? Nikai, are you there?” she whispered. “It’s Rui.”
The glass shimmered like liquid mercury, turning black and then clear again.
The Reaper appeared.
Rui was relieved the mirror had worked, but Nikai’s hair was disheveled, his tie crooked, and he seemed out of breath.
“Is everything all right in the underworld?” Never in a million yearsdid Rui think she would ever ask a question like that.
“Hello, Rui. And yes—well, actually no. It’s a mess, everything’s a mess.” Nikai batted at something above him, outside of the screen. “The Tenth Court’s still standing—thank goddess—but the Nothing appeared in the outskirts of the Third Court yesterday. We’ve lost two towns to it and hundreds of souls.” He looked at her, suddenly hopeful. “Do you have good news? Is that why you’re contacting me? How is the search going?”
“It’s not going. They’ve been keeping us on the island ever since the Hybrid ambush, so I can’t leave campus. I’ve been researching vessels in the library, though, but nothing has come up so far.”
Nikai’s face fell. “I see.”
“I contacted you because I have a question.” Rui hesitated.
With all that spiritual energy, Mochi’s spirit core should’ve burned out, but it didn’t. Look at him, he’s perfectly fine.
How did they miss your potential with that spirit core of yours and all the energy swirling inside?
The only person Rui had ever felt a connection with was Yiran. She’d dismissed it, assumed it was the effect of the spiritual energy transfer from Zizi’s spell. But that was only because Yiran had told her he was born with an ordinary spirit core.
What if he was wrong?
After all, he’d been training hard, refining the yangqi inside him and using it for magic. An ordinary core wouldn’t allow for all that, would it? Tonight, she’d seen him cast a high-level defensive shield effortlessly. He’d been doing all this with his supposedly ordinary spirit core, and it was still intact. It made no sense. But itwouldmake sense if Rui cast aside all assumptions and came to one logical conclusion:Song Yiran always had an extraordinary spirit core.
That was why he could hold Rui’s spiritual energy in the first place, and why he’d absorbed all of hers. That was why, despite everything, he was still alive. And if Yiran could hold energy thatwasn’t his, if he couldstoreit, could he have some kind of ability like that of a vessel?
You will be able to sense him.
What if the connection between them was due to something other than the spiritual energy transfer?
“Rui?”
She startled.
