The wind picked up, spinning the dead leaves and dust on the ground. He blinked and found himself standing in the grand hall inside the palace.
The Elder Gods were seated at their mahjong table as usual.
“Greetings.” Zizi didn’t bow. Instead, he lowered his head to the two seemingly empty seats. He felt a gentle flutter of air in response. He thought he could see two faint outlines dotted with shimmering motes, but it seemed the Celestials had chosen to remain hidden from him. He shrugged away his disappointment.
Emperor-Father raised a bushy eyebrow. “Back so soon?”
“You know exactly why I’m here,” Zizi said coldly. “Where is Rui?”
“Don’t worry, the girl is still alive.” Emperor-Father tossed a tile onto the table. It sounded like a warning,for now.
Zizi flicked his wrist.
One of the silk paintings on the wall caught fire, the canvas burning so quickly it was reduced to smoke and ash in seconds.
A sinister pall fell, and the walls seemed to press in as the spiritual pressure in the room grew. Zizi anchored himself, bracing for impact. A mortal couldn’t end his existence, but a god might. Going up against the Elders was suicidal at best, but he would do it again and again if it meant he could save Rui.
Seconds passed, but there was no retaliation for his insolence. Empress-Mother drew another tile and the game went on.
Frustrated by the nonreaction, Zizi pointed his flames at the mahjong table. “Where is she? I’m not asking a third time.”
Empress-Mother tutted. “Tantrums and threats will get you nowhere, my dear boy. But if you insist.”
Her eyes turned pitch-black for a few seconds. A silver globe appeared and hovered next to her. Through the globe, Zizi saw a small figure stumbling through a misty forest.
Rui.
His rage ignited. “How could you send her to the Forest of Remembrance?”
“The realm of the dead sent her there,” Empress-Mother corrected him. “Lin Ru Yi dared to break its rules. Her soul ventured into the underworld, impersonated an attendant, and fought against the Guardians while resisting arrest. Such a punishment is not unusual.”
Zizi spun on his heel toward the exit.
“Do we have to remind you that you cannot bring her out yourself?” Empress-Mother called. “A soul can only leave the Forest by their own will.”
Cursing all the realms, Zizi turned back to the silver globe. Sick to his stomach with worry, he watched helplessly as Rui pushed farther into the trees.
The Forest of Remembrance was a macabre dreamworld that fed on grief, a liminal space that wasn’t under the Kings’ jurisdiction. In someways, it was similar to the Nothing. But a soul entering the Nothing would have already ended its mortal journey, and its body was, definitively, dead.
The souls in the Forest of Remembrance belonged to theliving.
When mortals dreamed, their souls traveled from their bodies and their connection to the realm weakened. If a soul traveled too far, they would find themselves in the Forest, trapped in its twisted dreamscape as it slowly leached their life essence. There was no telling how long each soul would take to escape, and it was an iron-clad rule that once a soul entered, they would have to weather its schemes alone.
Rui had a deep grief in her soul....Don’t lose faith in her.Zizi’s hands clenched by his sides. Rui had proven herself an extraordinary person who was brave and strong despite her fears. His job was to prepare for what came nextwhenshe made it out. He’d told her he would find the rogue talisman, and he planned to keep his word, which meant he needed to pay his own passage to the mortal realm.
“I want to make a deal,” he said.
The air around the Celestials danced with anticipation.
Emperor-Father quirked his head. “We are listening.”
“You must know about the errant talisman in the mortal realm,” Zizi said. “It needs to be destroyed.”
“Ah yes, the one that contains power from a relic. It was foolish of Ten to have made that deal with the Hybrids,” Empress-Mother chided, “and even stupider of you to yield to his demands.”
Zizi bristled. “I had no choice.”
“Of course you had a choice. You were thinking like a human, and that was the problem. But I suppose that unfortunate mess you and Ten made must be cleaned up eventually.”
