Voidlight Rising (A Xianxia Cultivation Adventure)

Hush child, there's nothing to worry about. The scratching is just the trees hitting the house in the wind. Go to sleep now. When you wake, the osmanthus will be harvested and we'll make a cake. -A mother to her child an hour before being eaten by a spirit tiger.

For a moment, my eyes met his. Jinshi's smile was wicked, but even that looked positively perfect as his tousled hair framed his face and his green eyes shifted in a mesmerizing aurora.

Jinshi's sect tablet and letter grew heavy against my inner robes. For the briefest, most hope filled moment since I'd stepped from the Labyrinth, I wondered if the version before me was actually real. The real Jinshi was still alive, somewhere. What if, after whatever battle he'd faced at the hands of the Mind Bender, he'd retreated to the last home we'd shared together? The last sanctuary we had known?

"Yoru?" Lin's hand was on mine, and I jerked my head away from the phantom at the end of the hall. "What is it?"

I blinked at him several times. Did he not see the man at the end of the hall? Did he not…

It clicked into place a lot more slowly than it frankly should have. Of course it wasn't Jinshi. Even on the day that he locked me in the Labyrinth, he never looked at me with so much malice and hatred, preferring to remain stoic and in control instead of giving into such dark feelings. Casting one more glance at the man, I became certain that the creature was little more than the Guardian of the Labyrinth, come to torment me now that I was in the place where it all began.

I shook my head, as if clearing out the dust and cobwebs of my trauma. Right now, I couldn't afford to fall apart. Xinya was still sobbing into my collar, and her wellbeing took a far higher priority than my own. After giving Lin a look that I'd explain the issue later, I pulled the little girl into a tight hug and buried my face in her hair.

"It's going to be fine. We'll figure it all out," I told her.

"Oh really?" the fake Jinshi laughed. "Yes, yes, it'll all be fine. That's what you said to me right before you turned yourself into a monster. How did that go for you?"

I ignored it as best I could. The Guardian of the Labyrinth couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and I knew from millennia of experience that it would only seek to hurt me.

What was it even doing here, anyway? The Labyrinth had been mostly quiet since coming to the Black City, having only reared its ugly head once or twice.

"Did you consider that I was biding my time?" said the Guardian. "After all, my little escapee is so far beyond my reach, now, but you'll never be free of me. You can't be."

I sighed and cleared my thoughts. My light is my shield. My light is my shield. I repeated the mantra of my sect over and over again, focusing on the light of my core. With gentle force, I cycled qi through my body once, not letting it rush too fast, nor move too slow. Control was critical, and the act soon drained the tension from my shoulders.

Once I was calm again, I reached down, pushing Xinya's bangs out of her eyes. She looked up at me with wide violet eyes. The look was filled with such fear that I felt a twinge of pain in my heart. She was terrified, and I wanted nothing more than to ease that pain.

"Tell you what," I began, "Shi Reili is the smartest person I know. If you're seeing her shade, then we can ask her what's going on. I'm sure she'll have a theory."

"She's not here now, though," the little girl muttered. I ran a hand through the whisps that had fallen out of her usual braids. With a single thought command, Chiho was flitting around the little girl, pulling the braids out and weaving them back together with its wind.

"But, she will be," I promised. "Reili's palace was right next to mine. We'll find her there, I'm sure of it."

Xinya didn't seem convinced and buried her face back in my collar. I gave her another squeeze while Chiho continued fixing her hair. After several long minutes of rest, Lin broke the silence.

"We should go over the plan, so Xinya knows where we're going," he said.

"You mean, we should go over the shopping list for robbing an ancient palace?" I corrected, trying to lighten the mood.

He rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. "Is it really robbing if you're the owner?"

"According to my Royal Guard Captain, yes," I mused. "He was always particular about how our wealth belonged to the people as much as to us."

"I'm not sure I've ever heard you mention a captain," he said. "Was he an Ascendent?"

I shook my head, wishing I'd never spoken. "No, just Gemstone." My Royal Guard were not good subjects of idle conversation, especially not here of all places. In a bid to change the topic, I continued. "Remember that the stone guardians attacked me just as much as they did you? I think some of the defenses will be damaged beyond the ability to recognize me as I am now."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Why would they recognize a monster? We built them to fight off things like you. Don't you remember, Yoru?" The Labyrinth Guardian whispered. I grimaced and pushed the thoughts aside.

The main defenses of Half-Moon Manor were conceived only a few years after the place was built, then slowly added to overtime. Even though I was the one who activated them in my final moments, I was not convinced that they'd recognize my qi signature. There was a chance that they'd still recognize me from my time as the Darkened Moon, but if the damage was too great, as it was with the stone guardians on the stairs, I figured it was far more likely that they'd remember only the Lunar Prince and not the far darker man I was at the end.

Lin pulled a single sheet of paper from his sleeve and handed it to me so Xinya could read it without leaving the safety of my arms. She uncurled herself only as much as was necessary to read the words within.

"Something…for Miss Ishida," she read, practicing the characters she could recognize.

"Fertilizer," I provided. "She's going to try combining my qi with the moon moths and some fertilizer so we can make the plants grow fast. Chouko kept all sorts of fertilizers in her garden, so we can find it there." She nodded and moved on to the next item.

"That word was on the Forgotten House, is this the replacement core?"

I nodded. "There's a dozen different artifacts in my palace that will probably work. We just need to take our pick." Xinya stared at the last item on the list for several moments before I realized she probably had never seen those characters before. "The last thing is to find some ward flags in the Sword Saint's home. His specialty was in qi techniques that freed him from the effects of hostile qi. So, if I do some modifications to his ward flags, then we can try banishing the void in a small area in the dark districts."

"That's so you can have space to grow food!" she finished, remembering the conversation we had with Ishida before we left. I tapped her nose playfully.

"Exactly. I told everyone that we'd find everything we need here," I insisted. "Reili's palace is between mine and Jinshi's, so we'll stop there on our way by to see her and see if she doesn't know what's going on with you. She's way smarter than me."

Xinya blinked before turning to Lin. "I think that's the first humble thing I've ever heard him say." Lin tried to restrain his laughter but failed miserably, raising his sleeve to hide his mirth even as I scowled at him.

"There's no shame in admitting that my advisor was smarter than me when it was her job to advise me," I grumbled. Lin and Xinya only continued their childish giggles. Rather than let their merriment continue, I rolled my eyes and stood. "If you both have this much energy, then it seems you've rested enough. Let's go. Xinya, you can hold onto the list."

The little girl took the list, folded it, and slipped into a small pouch around her waist. Then, she set her jaw in a determined scowl and nodded to show she was ready.

I took a deep breath of my own and turned to face the end of the hall. The wicked phantom of the Labyrinth was still standing there, visible only to me. It grinned wickedly.

"What? Do you expect me to stop you? When there's so much suffering waiting for you within these halls? No, I'm just here to watch." It stepped aside, bowing as a servant would to a master.

I ignored it. I kept my eyes ahead, not even giving it the satisfaction of meeting its gaze as it fell into step behind us. Yet, despite the strength of my resolve, I could still feel it stalking me, ready to pounce on even the smallest crack in my determination.

Rounding the corner, we continued deeper into the maze. Half-Moon Manor was built to be a somewhat confusing design for those who weren't familiar with it. Though the halls were built around small courtyards, each hall was extremely similar to every other. The same dark wood tables lined the halls to display the various trinkets and pieces of art we'd gathered over the years. Dark wood rafters hung with tattered silver and navy banners and trim.

Despite the similarities, I knew exactly where we were, having had a significant hand in building the palace. We were in the Servants Quarter, in the front palace. The front palace was the most secure and had the most traps on account of the sensitive nature of the business that used to be done there and distinct lack of Ascendents guarding them. The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Sect Affairs, Ministry of Works, and Ministry of War all held their main offices in the front palace, arranged to either side of my throne room where I held my official business. However, if all went according to plan, then we would be able to slip along the rear wall and directly into the rear palace without issue, thus avoiding most of the traps.

I led Lin and Xinya through the halls of the Servants Quarter, noting every instance where a table was missing its trinkets. I was particularly miffed upon finding a table that once held a beautiful silver crane statue. A grateful servant had given it to Jinshi and I after his retirement as a thanks for giving him meaningful employment during his younger years. I'd really liked that statue and had placed it in a place of honor in the servant quarter.

"It seems we're not the first to enter this place," I muttered upon seeing the statue missing from its place.

"Looters actually got past those dragons outside?" Lin answered, impressed. "I thought Ishida said that no one had been here in centuries?"

"It's been thirty thousand years," I pointed out. "At least a few people were bound to get lucky."

Something crunched under Lin's foot, and we each stepped back, suddenly on high alert. When no immediate threat began falling from the ceiling or appearing from the walls, I peered at the object. It was white.

"I don't think they were that lucky," Lin muttered. "That bone isn't whole."

He was right. It looked as if it was once someone's leg bone, but however they died had left the bone missing one half, leaving it with the appearance of having been melted off.

"I don't see the rest of the body," Xinya added. Glancing around, she was right.

Then, I heard the bells. Gently tinkling in the night, like chimes in a gentle breeze, a set of bells rang clearly through the hall.

"Get back!" I hissed, pushing both my companions back around the nearest corner.

"This is where things get fun. Do you think you can get past the Watchers, Dearest Monster? I think I'll enjoy watching your friends burn." The Guardian laughed with a sound that stabbed into my mind like nails, but I fought to ignore it.

Just as I passed around the corner, the one who likely had killed the bone's owner appeared to block our way.