I look at the old man on his deathbed, his disciples gathered around him. My mind feels empty.

  Zhu Teng’s spirit sits next to me, the both of us witnessing the scene that occurs every time I py the Fifth Requiem.

  “I feel lost.” I say, looking down at my hands.

  Zhu Teng stays quiet. Despite knowing that he is an illusion, his presence feels solid beside me.

  “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do…” I pause, thinking over my words, “There must be some greater purpose to everything. I just can’t see it.”

  “Hm.” Zhu Teng makes a noise, bringing my full attention to him. “Life is strange, little one. Sometimes it acts without purpose.” He smiles slightly at his words. “And then, you are the one who has to find the purpose in it.”

  I frown, annoyed with his words. They sound wise, but they don’t help me. He offers false ptitudes for something horrible. Anger rises up in me at the small smile on his face and the way he dismisses what I am going through.

  “Your words are ridiculous.” I say, “ What purpose am I supposed to find in the murder of my friends? There is no purpose there! Only cruelty and tragedy!” I stand up, my fists clenched as I shout at him. “Don’t try to excuse murder! You live so much in death you forget how horrible it is when your bde swipes through a man’s neck. As you watch his blood fall to the ground. His eyes staring at you as he wants to scream, but can’t because of the gaping hole in his neck. You-, you-, you can’t excuse that! You can’t ignore it as if it never happened!”

  I gasp for air, my voice sore from the qi I’d unconsciously put into my voice. My heart beats fast as my stomach twists from the images stuck in my head.

  A sad look crosses over his face as he watches me, and I turn away so I don’t have to look at him.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

  I turn away even more, trying to hide the fact that I want to cry.

  I cry too much already. I’m not a child anymore.

  “It was horrible.” I continue in a hushed tone. “So horrible. Some of them screamed as I cut them down. Some… didn’t”

  A hand rests on my shoulder. “You have a home, and friends waiting for you there. Don’t forget that.”

  I nod, wiping away tears with the back of my hand.

  I get rid of the illusion and the world shifts back to the clearing Matu and I met in. The comforting weight of Zhu Teng’s hand disappears with the illusion.

  I look up at the stars in the sky, different from the stars of my home.

  The soft snoring of Matu brings my attention back to him where he sleeps on his cloak. He’d given his bedroll to me and I appreciate his kindness.

  Soon we’ll arrive at the city. From there, I can figure out how I am supposed to get to the other side of the portal.

  I want to go home.

  Lai Ming

  Lai Ming looks over her room one more time, making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. She won’t be able to return until they’ve found Lin Jia. The sect won’t let them sneak out a second time.

  Confident she has everything, she leaves the room.

  Lai Ming stiffens as she comes face to face with Elder Wu Li Mei.

  “Elder-” She starts.

  The Elder raises a finger, shushing her disciple.

  The Elder removes her veil, revealing horrible scars covering the entire lower half of her face. She smiles at her disciple’s shocked expression, then motions her closer.

  Lai Ming obliges, stepping closer to her. The Elder reaches up, pcing her hands on Lai Ming’s head. With the elegance she uses for every action, Elder Wu stands on her toes and brings Lai Ming’s forehead down, kissing it. Qi flows from Elder Wu, marking where she kissed.

  “Stay safe, disciple of mine.”

  With that said, she pces her veil back on and turns around to walk away.

  Lai Ming bows to her back. “I will, Elder Wu.”

  Lai Ming waits until Elder Wu is out of sight before rising from her bow and hurrying to the stairs where Xia Jing is waiting. Xia Jing’s foot taps with impatience as she watches Lai Ming approach, a small bag strapped to her back.

  As soon as Lai Ming reaches her, she turns around and hurries down the steps. “The longer we wait, the harder it’ll be to find any clues.”

  Lai Ming follows her, their pace increasing as they leave the sect and enter the surrounding forest.

  Xia Jing walks in front of Lai Ming as they travel along the road. Xia Jing doesn’t say anything as they walk, keeping unusually quiet.

  “What do we do if she’s dead?” Xia Jing says, her tone cking its usual pyfulness.

  Lai Ming keeps quiet. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge the possibility and to be honest… she doesn’t know what they’re supposed to do if she did die.

  She hadn’t thought any of this through. She just knows that the sect will take too long to search for any survivors. If anyone is going to be found alive, they will have to find them.

  “Then we kill whoever did this to her and our fellow disciples.” Lai Ming responds, her resolve hardening.

  Xia Jing stops, turning to look at her fellow disciple. Her expression is darker than Lai Ming had ever seen it, missing the pyful smile she usually carries. Xia Jing looks away before nodding.

  ***

  Three days pass as they travel nonstop through the forest, following the trail of the caravan.

  On the evening of the third day, Xia Jing stops on the road, her eyes scanning the forest.

  She raises her finger to her lips, motioning for Lai Ming to be quiet.

  Lai Ming nods, and Xia Jing steps off of the path, her presence disappearing into the trees.

  Lai Ming closes her eyes, taking deep breaths as she waits for her friend to return. After a few minutes, Xia Jing steps out of the trees and motions for Lai Ming to follow her.

  Xia Jing grabs the other girl’s hand and her presence melts into the forest. Without the feeling of her hand, Lai Ming wouldn’t know that she stands right next to her.

  Lai Ming holds out her free hand, ice forming into a sharp bde. Being silent isn’t her specialty, but she does her best to have her qi match Xia Jing’s in order to conceal herself.

  Xia Jing slows to a stop, then motions towards a tree looking over the road they had been traveling on. It takes her a moment, but Lai Ming picks out the silhouette of a man in the branches of the tree.

  He holds a bow at the ready, watching the road with narrowed eyes. His clothes are made of a strange material that helps him blend into the tree. Xia Jing motions to another tree where another man also waits with his bow strung.

  They don’t hail from any sect Lai Ming recognizes, and The Flowing River Sect doesn’t have anyone like them watching the roads. That means they are either bandits, or with the people who ambushed the caravan.

  Holding up her hand, Xia Jing counts down, letting go of Ming’s hand to fade into the trees.

  Lai Ming watches her fingers until she is gone, continuing the count in her head once she can’t see the other disciple.

  Five. Four. Three. Two.

  On one, Lai Ming shapes her ice into a spear and throws it at the man closest to her. His head whips around as he raises his bow to block the spear at the st second.

  The force of the blow knocks him out of the tree and into the road.

  The muffled screaming of the other man echoes out as Xia Jing deals with him.

  The man Lai Ming had attacked stands up, pulling the spear out of his shoulder while cursing.

  The qi she had imbued in her spear spreads through his body, turning the skin around it a pale blue.

  She steps out of the forest. Her spear melts away into water, only to reform itself in her hand as a sword.

  The man throws away his broken bow, pulling a curved sword from his waist. She doesn’t recognize the sword he wields, which means he isn’t someone from the Shi Empire.

  The man pauses when he sees Lai Ming fully.

  “Do you recognize my robes?” She asks, ice spreading out from where she stands, covering the road.

  He doesn’t answer, instead raising his weapon.

  “Have you perhaps seen simir robes recently?” She asks again, her qi resting in his wound going wild with her emotions as it starts to freeze him from the inside out.

  His arm shakes, his teeth chattering.

  “Answer me.” She says, stepping into the range of his sword.

  He swings, but his movement is sloppy and slowed. She easily deflects his blow, causing his sword to fall to the ground. His body falls moments ter, shivering as he turns a deeper blue.

  “Be useful before you die.” She looks down on him, her emotions dark.

  “You will die. Just as they did.” He says, his voice shaking from the cold.

  Her arm moves, cutting through his neck and severing his head in one blow.

  “We’ll see about that.” She says to his headless corpse.

  “S-sister Lai?” Xia Jing says, stepping out of the forest carrying the other man’s dead body. “C-could you withdraw your qi? I-it's really cold.”

  Lai Ming looks at her darkly before her mind clears. She withdraws her qi. “Sorry.”

  “No harm was done.” Xia Jing throws the man she killed next to the one frozen on the road.

  “You seem awfully calm about this.” Lai Ming says, surprised at the nonchant way the other girl carried the dead body.

  Xia Jing looks at Lai Ming, her eyes darkening before her expression shifts into a smile. “We all have our secrets.“

  She leaves it at that, looking back at the men we’d killed.

  “They aren’t from the empire.” Lai Ming tells her.

  “No. They aren’t.” Xia Jing leans down, pulling up the cloth on one of the dead bodies. “I’ve never seen this stitching before, and the weapons they use are strange.”

  “What are they doing here?” Lai Ming asks out loud, not expecting an answer.

  “I have no idea.” The other girl shrugs, her hands moving to check the pockets of both bodies. “We should move off the road, there might be more ambushes, and I won’t be able to detect them all. “

  Lai Ming nods in agreement.

  Xia Jing pulls a piece of cloth from the pockets of one of the men, but nothing from the other.

  What were these men waiting for? Only those traveling to or from the sect use these roads. Were they scouts?

  Lai Ming closes her eyes, unable to come up with an answer. She reopens them to follow Xia Jing into the forest.