The eternal spring of Rigani rolled on, brilliant day after brilliant day. At night, soft rain fell, the darkness whispering while Sou Yuet and the necromancer stayed warm and dry in the hut.

  But on one fragrant night, heavy with the fresh, damp scent of wildflowers, they sat in the doorway with a blanket thrown over them, the necromancer said, “I reckon we should be getting going.”

  “Yes.”

  “Ye could just stay here,” the witch said, but he had seen Sou Yuet gazing out across the verdant fields, not looking at the flowers or the distant horses cropping the grass, but to some place beyond the horizon.

  “You could just stay here.”

  “I’ll be coming with ye. Don’t try to get rid of me, now.”

  “I would never,” Sou Yuet said softly.

  The necromancer fiddled with the knuckles of Sou Yuet’s slender fingers, sliding his calloused thumbs over the skin, faintly marked with years of plunging hands into bushes seeking fruit and leaves. “Ye may not have a choice, one day.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  The necromancer rolled the knuckle of Sou Yuet’s little finger between his own fingertips. “I was a child once.”

  “Yes.”

  “And now, I’m not.”

  “Yes…?”

  “When ye Ascend, Yuet, that’s a change in ye, right? Ye change from being human to something divine.”

  “In a sense, that’s right.”

  “And then ye stop aging, or yer physical body stops aging, right?”

  A discomforted look was dawning on Sou Yuet’s face.

  “Now I’ve always been somewhat… I mean, Mam’s who she is, but me good-fer-nothing Da was a human, ye know. Maybe that’s why I’m like this.” A breath, hitching. “I think me body will just keep getting older and older until it falls apart one day, but me spirit? I…”

  Sou Yuet’s arms clamped tighter, almost squashing the air from him. “It’s just a shell, cride. We can always find another one.”

  “Who’re ye trying to convince, now? Me or you?”

  “There are ways around this. I’ll ask Si fu, and I’m sure there are disciple-brothers and sisters in the Heavenly Realm who’ll know what to do.”

  “Ye’re shaking, sprout.”

  “I… I’m a little shocked. I never thought of this before. And I’ve never had much interest in spirit conjuring and manipulation, so I don’t know… But, of course this…”

  The necromancer pulled Sou Yuet’s hands to his lips. “Thank ye.”

  “There’s nothing to thank me for. I’m about to walk into something very dangerous, and you’ve promised to come with me.”

  “Who’s the bigger eejit of us two…?”

  “You, obviously.”

  The necromancer bit Sou Yuet’s fingers.

  “You animal!”

  “I’ll be prepared this time,” he said, dropping his head onto Sou Yuet’s hands. “When I left, I was running. From what? Fecked if I could tell ye. Meself, probably. I said no goodbyes, asked for no aid… I just wanted to be gone.” With a sigh, he sat up and leaned back, his head on Sou Yuet’s shoulder. “If I’m to be taking this fool for a walk, I should be ready.”

  “Is there anyone else you wish to see before you leave?”

  “Nah, I’ve seen Mam, that’s all that matters.”

  “No friends?”

  “There’s no such thing as ‘friends’ amongst our kind. There’s family, there’s lovers, there’s enemies.”

  “That sounds… lonely.”

  “’Lonely’ doesn’t mean a damned thing either.”

  “I don’t think that’s true.”

  “Well I was never bored, that’s for damned sure. With the whispers of the restless dead in my ears, I was never alone, neither. If I needed a distraction, I’d fight. Or… feck. Best way to keep yer mind off things.”

  Sou Yuet lapsed into a silence so profound that the necromancer grew never.

  “What eejit thoughts ye thinking now?”

  “So you’ve had lovers before.”

  “Oh gods, what now?”

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  “Are you sure you don’t have a preference for –”

  “Stop. Stop right there.”

  “But –”

  “Male or female or neither or whatever, I don’t care!” The necromancer practically had Sou Yuet in a headlock. “There’s no need to be tying yerself into knots over this. I’ve got me hands full with ye, and I’m happy to keep it that way, got it?”

  He looked ready to burst a blood vessel. With their noses practically touching, Sou Yuet blinked back. “I get it. You worked out your preferences when you met me?”

  “… Hahaha… I really can’t win against ye…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Yeah, that’s right, Yuet. Ye’re me preference.” The headlock loosened and they melted against each other. “I think… If ye were ever gone, I’d be lonely. So don’t be going anywhere, ye hear?”

  “I have to go back to see The Hadyahosh…”

  “Ye know what I mean, Yuet. Stop pretending to be dumb. Come on, I need to go talk to Mam.”

  They had expected her to clap her hands joyfully, or perhaps tearfully hug them with excitement.

  Rigani stared at them with large, black eyes.

  “Uh, Mam? Say something.”

  “Child,” Rigani said softly. She was sat amidst the grass and flowers and sunshine, a flower crown askew on her soft brown hair. Around her, the members of the Hunt and their dogs were uncharacteristically romping about the meadows or arm-wrestling Bugul Noz, who looked utter miserable to whole time it was beating everyone. “You realise you’ll have to return to the cave, don’t you?”

  The cave?

  “Why?” the necromancer heard himself say, as if from a long distance.

  “Come with me. Both of you.”

  The necromancer followed his mother. His hand was clasped in Sou Yuet’s, he realised, but they didn’t look at each other as they followed Rigani to her hut.

  Inside, they sat on the floor, on the woven mats, and she looked at them silently for a moment.

  “You remember your father was a human, child?”

  “I remember ye telling me, yeah. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “What happened to you, in the cave, when you were a child… If you’d been… if your father had not been human, the things in the cave wouldn’t have taken so much from you.”

  “What d’ye mean? What else did they take from me? I thought I got everything back!”

  Rigani shook her head slowly. “The Sluagh are ruthless, child. Even the full bloods of our kind avoid them where we can.”

  The Sluagh. Sou Yuet turned the strange name over in their mind. “What are they, Mother?”

  She shook her head again. “The restless. The tormented that seek only to torment others. The ones that few will speak of. Once they get something in their teeth they are loathe to let it go, and you have been in their teeth twice, my child. If you return a third time to claim back everything you’ve lost, it’s hard to say what will happen.”

  The necromancer and Sou Yuet finally looked to each other.

  “What d’ye think?”

  “What do you want to do?”

  They spoke practically simultaneously, provoking weak laughs. With a sigh, the necromancer was the first to speak again.

  “Yuet, I’ve always felt like something was missing in me. Maybe I was feeling lonely, like ye said. And I ran around wild trying to fill that space. If I’m understanding what Mam’s saying now, the... things in the cave took something from me when I was a kid. I felt like I got some of it back when I returned there, or some memory of it. But… feck, the thought of walking back into that place on me own two feet is…”

  “Mother.” Sou Yuet looked to Rigani. “You know that her body’s aging even when the soul inside is immortal… Is that because her father was human? Would returning to the cave halt the aging of her body?”

  “It wouldn’t, child. Retrieving what was lost in the cave will return my child to the being they were before, but the fact remains that they are part-mortal. The body will continue to decay.”

  “Then there’s no question,” Sou Yuet said. “You need to gather everything you can, cride. All the parts of you that were lost, and all the new power you can draw on. We will find some way of keeping you tangible.”

  Their hand was cold in the necromancer’s, but their eyes were bright. “I’ll come with you.”

  “Take your cousins too,” Rigani said, fossicking amongst her belongings. “Lords of the dead can withstand the Sluagh for longer.”

  “Withstand?” Sou Yuet queried. “Is that all?”

  “There is no one, in any realm, who can control the unrepentant dead,” she replied, placing a vial and a cloth-wrapped object in front of Sou Yuet. “Take these. You’re the only one who can use them.”

  The vial, as far as Sou Yuet could tell, contained simple salt. Within the cloth were several long iron nails. A slight shiver passed through the necromancer when he saw them. Rigani covered her mouth and swallowed dryly. “Please cover them quickly.”

  “Iron and salt?”

  “Our kind do not enjoy their touch. The same goes for the Sluagh.”

  Sou Yuet looked at the pitiful amount of salt and thanked her.

  “You should not enter the cave, child.”

  “Why is that, Mother?” The smile on Sou Yuet’s face was a little different from usual.

  “You are like me. We are life and sunlight and the growing things. We could not be more different from what lies in the cave. You could be very badly harmed.”

  “I see.”

  “Yuet, listen to her, alright?” The necromancer’s voice was low. “I know that’s a bit rich, coming from me and all, but I’m begging ye, here.”

  A tense silence passed. The necromancer couldn’t see Sou Yuet’s expression; they had lowered their head, considering the iron nails. But after a series of breaths, Sou Yuet wrapped up the nails, lifted their head and smiled gently. “I understand.”

  “Take these, my child.” Rigani carefully tipped several blunt wooden spikes into the necromancer’s palm. Sou Yuet recognised them as the kind that the witch wore in his pierced ears. “Birch, elm, blackthorn, buckthorn, juniper. They will dampen your own power, but they’ll protect you from the malevolence of the Sluagh.”

  As the necromancer replaced several of the yew spikes in his ears with the new ones that Rigani had provided, she left the hut to speak with the Hunters outside.

  “Are you alright?” Sou Yuet asked quietly, watching the necromancer’s fingers tremble slightly as they threaded the spikes.

  “No. But this is something I have to do.”

  “Hm.” Sou Yuet drew the small dagger from their sleeve and examined it. “A pity this isn’t made of iron.”

  “Yuet, ye said ye would stay out of this,” the necromancer admonished, plucking the knife from Sou Yuet’s hand. The small dagger looked somewhat toy-like in the necromancer’s calloused palm.

  “I believe I said, ‘I understand’. Nothing else.”

  “So help me, ye eejit monk…” He turned the dagger, thumb rubbing the smooth obsidian handle. “Ye said this belonged to one of yer big spiritual guardians, no? Why is it here and not with them?”

  “It ended up with Si fu… It should have gone to his Junior Sister, the Drifting Star. She was the direct disciple of the Vermilion Bird of the South. But someone else tricked the Vermilion Bird and ended up taking the dagger, and she committed some terrible things with it, so the Drifting Star refused to take it. The Vermilion Bird abandoned it too, so it’s lain unused until now.”

  “Does it have a name?”

  “If I did, no-one remembers it. Or will say.”

  The necromancer closed his fingers around the little knife. “Can I take this? I get the feeling, somehow, that no-one’s going to be missing it any time soon.”

  “If it will help you, take it.”

  “Thanks.”

  Rigani appeared in the doorway, ducking a little to fit. “They’re ready to leave anytime, children. They will go with you.”

  The necromancer shifted, not male, not female, but a form that was both and neither at once, human and not, undefinable. They tucked the dagger into their belt. “Now. We’ll go now.”