Nothing is more precious than our disciples. That so many were lost today is beyond tragic. Though their bodies may have been lost, their spirits live on. Today, we hang their tablets on the memorial wall, so that their sect ancestors will recognize their names and welcome them with open arms to the afterlife. -Sect Leader Feng Qiao of the Teeming Waters Sect after a disaster that claimed the lives of 6 disciples

Air which had not seen the surface in untold ages met my nose with the moldering staleness of a dark and desiccated tomb. If there was an exit, it was far from the entrance. No air moved, save that which was stirred by Chiho's wind and our passage, and every single step upturned a layer of dust which clung to every surface.

"Who do you think lived here?" Lihua wondered softly as she stepped through the passage. Her foot kicked against something which clattered against the floor. With a yelp, she latched onto my arm with trembling hands.

I took a deep breath. It was going to be a long journey out.

After a moment in which she realized that no monster was set to attack us, she coughed lightly and stepped back from me. "It's fine. J-just slipped. Two legs are difficult to manage when you're used to eight."

It was an excuse. I could hear it in her voice. She was still shaken from our hasty flight through the darkened district. Even after she spoke, she still stayed close to my back, as if expecting me to be the knight she so desperately wanted me to be.

Rather than indulge or deny her, though, I simply knelt. The object she'd kicked glistened in the light of my qi. It was silver, inlaid with some kind of white jade emblem that I couldn't make out. Gingerly, I picked it up and brought it closer.

"What is it?" Lihua asked as I stood.

"I'm not sure, perhaps an old sect treasure?"

It was a bracelet, the sort that a young mistress might wear, with a silver band inlaid with white jade. After blowing off the dust, I could see the tell-tale etchings in the silver along which qi would once have flowed. The jade itself was polished but cracked at the same place where the silver dented inward. Now, the piece was marred and useless, its qi having long faded with time.

"Whomever this was, they were no small sect," I mused. Something about this was off to me. The cracked jade reminded me of something, but I just couldn't put my finger on what it might be.

Lihua pressed herself against my back. "Maybe we sh-should…" she cleared her throat to speak more clearly. "We should keep going."

I nodded and continued further into the darkness. The corridor was tight, but it soon opened out to a large hall with cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.

"Just like your home," I offered. Lihua folded her fan and smacked me on the shoulder. "Hey! What was that for?"

"I don't like being reminded of my old form," she stated simply.

I sighed. How was I supposed to know that? She was just cracking jokes about being the expert in wall cracks and being clumsy on two legs, and yet, now she couldn't stand the reminder that she used to be a spider? What was the difference?

With a shake of my head, I pushed the thought away. It would be better for everyone if we didn't fight. I still needed the location of the Forgotten array core from her, and she needed me to help her get out of this mess. For now, I would just pretend that we were amicable, like if I was speaking to Pollen or Kansi Ren.

Much like the other rooms we'd passed through in the basement, this was a storage room. However, unlike those rooms, the contents here were considerably more valuable…or at least, they once had been. My light shone on shelves crammed full of books and scrolls, alongside weapon racks stacked with fine steel. One or two of those weapons even lay locked behind woven chains.

"It's their vault," I said.

Carefully, I picked through the chamber. Places like these often had traps which would only be deactivated if someone opened the door properly. Though I saw no qi flowing through the dust covered floor tiles, it was still distinctly possible that some remained.

"Cold Star," I read from a tag on one of the swords. "Master Wen Wuyao's blade."

"Does the name mean something to you?" Lihua asked. I shook my head.

"No."

I continued reading the names. Sky Rend, Blue Moon, Silver Crescent, Sun Cleave, each one was an exquisitely crafted blade. On the next wall, other types of blades rested in their own rack. Short Blades and daggers rested above a trio of glaives that supposedly belonged to a set of sect siblings known as 'The Starlight Triplets.'

"Tsuyuki?" Lihua called. "Can you bring the light this way?"

I left the weapons where they were and joined her at the far wall. Her attention was on a chest filled with white jade tablets. As I lowered the light to them, I immediately recognized their purpose.

"They're membership plaques," I said.

"What are they for?" she asked. I looked at her incredulously, and she scowled at me. "Some of us have met very few cultivators in our time, unlike the 'venerable ancestor,' here. Kindly grant this humble disciple your wisdom."

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Though her tone was anything but humble, I realized she had a point. Not everyone grew up in a sect that used tablets identical to these. I shouldn't have been so hard on her.

"They're a sort of census system," I explained. "Each member has their name carved into two matching tablets. One stays with them wherever they go as a form of identification, while the other remains with the sect. Some sects infuse the copy with a life link array to help track their disciples. While that disciple lives, the tablet will glow. When they die, it goes dark."

I picked up a tablet with a reverent hand. At one time, it belonged to someone named Hua Ling. Now, though, the characters were dark and likely had been for some time. I murmured a quick prayer, hoping that they had made it safely to the spirit realm.

Without warning, Lihua shoved her hand into the chest. Alarm shot up my spine. These were the last remnants of lives lost! It was disrespectful to treat them so callously!

"I see that look in your eyes," she said before I could protest. "I thought I saw something."

I bit my lip and let her continue. She dumped tokens on the ground. I caught only a few names as they flashed past: Qi Simei, Zhao Shenqiu, Li Meihua. None of them were names that I knew, but I muttered a few prayers for their safe passage all the same.

Finally, from near the very bottom of the chest, Lihua pulled out her prize. "Ha! I got it!" With a finger, she dusted off the name to read the glowing text more clearly. She froze.

"What is it?" I asked, curiosity burning a hole in my being.

"I…I know this name," she breathed in awe.

"Who is it?"

Lihua turned to me, her eyes wide in the qi light. "It's you. Tsuyuki Yoru."

My blood froze, and the light in my hand flickered as panic filled me. There was only one sect who would have my membership tablet.

Glancing around the room, the pieces started falling into place. A sect in the Black City, my city, who'd been lost to time, whose members all wielded blades and named those blades after celestial bodies? Was I really standing in the forgotten corpse of the Heaven's Blade Sect?

"Tsuyuki, how could your tablet be here?" Lihua asked. "Everything here is dust, and you're not strong enough to fake that." Her voice trailed off. "Unless, you're older than you let on."

"Lihua," I said sternly. "You said earlier you don't like talking about being a spider." She flinched but didn't interrupt. "Well, I'd rather not talk about my age."

I stood, and she continued to grumble. "Vanity isn't a good trait in a knight."

"Well, I hate to disappoint," I shot back. "Now, put all those tablets back in the chest. I'm taking them with me." I moved to walk away, taking the light with me, but Lihua sat straighter.

"Wait, I thought I saw another light in here."

My heart skipped a beat. Another light amongst the tablets…I might not have known the names of many of the owners, but I knew the sect they were from. That sect died out millennia ago at least, likely after the fall of their most prominent member at the hands of their second most prominent member. Somehow, I doubted that the sect would have gotten many more applicants after I became the Darkened Moon and was locked away by the Sword Saint.

But, for one of the members to still live? That would be incredible. No doubt they were a master, to have lived this long. Perhaps I had known them? Or perhaps, I hadn't but they knew the generation of disciples accepted into the sect during my final years in power?

My hands trembled as I turned back, lowering the light for Lihua. She began to sift through the tablets once more, until this time, she pulled out a single tablet that barely glowed at all. I even dimmed my qi light just to check to make sure that it actually glowed in the darkness.

"I don't know the character for the clan name," Lihua admitted. "It doesn't seem to be a modern one." She passed it to me.

I nearly dropped it. My hands shook, and I fell to my knees amidst the rest of the pearly white tablets. Black ink painted into carved characters, one of which was not in the traditional compendium of Pearlescent Valley characters, glowed dimly.

"What does it say? Do you know them?" she asked.

"It's not possible." I said.

"Why?"

"This person is dead. I know they're dead." I fought back tears. "It reads: Iru'e Jinshi."

Lihua rubbed her chin. "Don't I know that name? Where do I know that name?"

I didn't answer. My mind was far too busy desperately trying to interpret the meaning of the tablet to give any coherent response.

How was it possible? Life link arrays were a time-honored tradition, perfected generations before even I was born. Though a dozen different variants existed, some to help parents watch over their children, some to ensure the proper chains of inheritance, and even some used by rich families to track the family pet, those used by the Heaven's Blade Sect were very specific. They tracked an individual's qi. So long as the source of the qi still existed somewhere in the world, then the tablet would never go dark.

Jinshi's was dim, but it still held some glow. I didn't understand enough about arrays to know what situations could produce that effect, but that didn't stop my mind from conjuring scenarios. What if he was injured somewhere, broken so badly that his core was on the edge of failure? What if he needed help? What if…

What if…

"Tsuyuki, are you alright?" Her fingers brushed a tear from my cheek that I didn't even realize had fallen.

Her touch snapped me back to reality. There was nothing I could do for Jinshi until we made it back to the fourteenth district. I wiped my eyes clear and tucked the tablet into my lapel, just next to Jinshi's final letter, for safe keeping.

"Let's get these back in the box," I murmured. Lihua didn't protest, which was good because I really didn't want to argue with her in that moment. The sound of clattering jade tablets echoed in the empty vault. Once they were all tucked away, I closed and latched the lid before pulling the box under my arm. "We should go."

Lihua nodded and we continued further into the vault. Most of the treasures were void of qi, leaving them as little more than pretty trinkets. I pocketed a few of them. A little extra gold in one's pocket never went amiss. Their age alone would make them prized antiquities to the right merchant. I also picked up a simple white jade earring for Xinya and a matching bracelet I hoped to one day give to Kansi Ren. It was only right that they each have a piece of the sect they technically belonged to as mine and Jinshi's disciples.

As we approached the back wall of the vault, my mind returned to thoughts of Jinshi. My heart ached for him in a dull throb. He was like the phantom pain of a lost limb. I had given up hope that the empty space he left inside me would ever be filled again. Now, I wasn't sure anymore, which only opened the wound fully again.

So consumed was I, that I ran straight into Lihua.

"Oww! Watch where you're going!" she snapped.

"Don't stop in the middle of the walkway!"

"I just thought you'd want to look up," she answered. "I didn't realize that you would associate with this sect."

This sect? I thought, turning my head upward. Above my head, visible only now that we'd approached the back wall, was a black banner with a white circle at its center. A jagged slash of navy cut across the circle.

It was a symbol I recognized, and not from the Heaven's Blade Sect.

That was the mark of the Shattered Moon.

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