Plants are the worst kinds of monsters. One second, you think they're stationary, the next they've spawned all manner of horrors around you just to drain your qi. I tell you, more cultivators die to vicious plants than to shades or spirits. -Disciple Wu of the Eternal Forest Sect.

The temple of the Lunar Prince was connected to the surface by a single tunnel, guarded by a trap door that had long since rotted from exposure to the void. Whether by luck or the original design, the exit was on the edge of the twenty-first district, and a shimmering barrier of moonlight flickered just beyond the end of the street.

Lihua and I crept carefully between the last of the ruined buildings. The void spirits that hounded us so persistently before seemed to have turned their attentions elsewhere, leaving our final escape relatively clear. Still, despite the lack of large threats, I still kept my mind open to the sound of suffering spirits trickling back to me through the void.

Neither of us spoke a word until we'd slipped through the barrier and back into blessed light. A sigh of relief slipped from me as I felt my shoulders relax. It wasn't the same entrance we'd left, but the light welcomed us as if we were returning home. Lanterns hung from shop eaves as yokai milled about the street, going about their daily business as if nothing ever happened. A few puzzled shopkeepers glanced our way, but upon realizing that I was the same chain-bound void spirit that had been fixing up the armillary of the fourteenth, they smiled and returned to their trade.

"So, you're really going back to the Shore?" I asked Lihua.

She nodded sadly. "I need to reevaluate my dreams. The only way to do that is to return to where my last one began."

"If you need somewhere to stay, Saikan is full of friendly faces," I offered. "The apothecary there is Zhao Jaili. She's Lin's sister-in-law. If you tell her I sent you, she'll give you a place to stay."

"I'm glad you didn't suggest I go to the hornets," she answered. "I'm fairly sure they and the bees would attack me on sight."

"If you managed to live long enough to tell Queen Pharyx or Queen Pollen I sent you, I'm sure they'd back down."

A gentle laugh shook her shoulders. "That's a big if." I couldn't argue with that.

Turning to me one last time, Lihua put a hand on my shoulder. Her eyes met mine, and I spied longing there. She was lost, but she knew that it could never be.

"Until next time, my knight," she whispered. With one last smile, she tugged on one of my chains before turning and walking away. I watched her weave through the meager crowd before she finally turned a corner and disappeared from my sight.

"What a sad soul," I mused, wishing her all the fortune in whatever dream she decided to pursue.

It must have been hard, growing up as a spirit beast like her. I could only imagine what my life might have been like if I'd been born a voidspawn instead of turned into one later in life. Would the Heaven's Blade Sect have ever accepted me? And if they hadn't, would I have ever met Jinshi? Or would I have been left alone in this world? Thinking of it in those terms, it was no wonder that so many yokai were considered spirits of darkness and wickedness. In a lot of cases, it was their only option. For the rest, it was how they were created. Resentful qi is a powerful force to overcome.

Perhaps Lihua would find a better path back in the Shore. The fishermen of Saikan were always in need of a cultivator or two to keep the spirit crabs out of the reefs, and I was certain that Lihua and Pollen could be good friends if the latter gave her half a chance. The future could be bright, if Lihua made the right choices.

The same could not necessarily be said about the Black City. I believed Lihua when she said that she didn't have the core. I also believed her when she said that I would not find it simply by looking for her master. Anyone at Gemstone, who was willing to unravel their own cultivation on a whim, was not someone who would let their base be stumbled upon. No, he didn't want to be found, and thus, I would need to find an alternative solution to the hostilities between the Forgotten and the Chikara Oni clan.

Several hours had passed. I could only hope that things hadn't dissolved into violence again. That wouldn't help matters. But, Lin was watching over things, and if there was anyone who could diffuse that situation, it was him. He had plenty of experience mediating the deal between the hot-headed Queen of the Hanai Hornets and the Proud Queen of the Honey Hive, after all. Pharyx and Pollen weren't exactly the easiest to deal with, and he'd managed them just fine.

I walked down the busy evening streets. Wherever I went, shopkeepers waved, recognizing me by my species and the chains that hung about my limbs. A few even stopped me, asking if I was well, since I was limping slightly from my injuries. Their concern touched my heart, even as I waved them away and assured them I was fine. It was kind of them to worry.

Eventually, I turned onto our street. Half-Moon Harbor waited a block away at the corner. Across the street, green and black smoke poured from the windows of Miss Ishida's apothecary.

Alarm filled me as I picked up my pace. Just as I arrived at the scene, Xiaolong stumbled out of the building and onto the street. The young dragon collapsed to his knees, coughing black smoke from his lungs. I knelt next to him.

"What happened?"

His eyes fluttered as he tried to focus on my face. "Mister…Tsuyuki?" he murmured before coughing again. "Sumiko…she's…still inside…it was a void shade."

I bit my lip to keep from swearing. Xiaolong was a dragon, albeit a young one. He might not have been at the peak of his power, but his body was resilient. With a shade strong enough to knock him down with its miasma, Ishida might have a very tough fight on her hands.

However, she had often made it clear that her life meant little when compared to her ward. Dragons were not born often and had many deadly trials to overcome before they could reach adulthood. Xiaolong was precious to his people for that alone.

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I scooped the young boy into my arms, sprinting across the street to Half-Moon Harbor and setting him safely on my bed alongside the box of tablets from Heaven's Blade. Spinning on my heels, I descended the stairs three at a time, ignoring Satoro who'd somehow gotten in and was sitting with a jar of alcohol, despite the fact that Lin and Xinya hadn't gotten back yet.

"Don't think I didn't notice!" I shouted as I passed. "That's going on your tab!"

"You should lock your doors better," he answered, not even looking up from his book.

I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Kaishin Satoro, the Oni Prince of Negligence, to not only break into our inn and steal our alcohol, but also completely ignore the dire scene across the street.

"This is why we tried to overthrow you, you know," I called over my shoulder. I didn't hear his response, if he had any. Leaping down our stairs to the street in a single bound, I sprinted across the street and threw open the door to Ishida's apothecary.

Having been inside a few times before, I knew that the shopfront available to customers was actually quite small. However, the smoke was thick, and I could barely see the far wall. Glittering wood qi mingled with void and death as they drifted on the currents of air.

"Must…destroy…get…qi…" The voice echoed through the space, and I sighed. Why did Void shades always go after Ishida's shop instead of mine? It was rude to ignore me. At least the ones out in the darkness of the twenty-first had the decency to consider me the same way as any other living thing to tread into their territory.

I moved through the tiny shop with ease, hopping over the counter and pushing open the back door. The light of wood and water qi penetrated the fog enough to see as Ishida defended her garden from a twisted and malformed shade. Without any hesitation, I hurled a voidlight disk at the shade. It shrieked in surprise and backed away several paces to reevaluate the threat.

"Oh, thanks for stopping by!" Ishida called. "Will you forgive me if I don't serve tea just yet?" With a spin, she hurled a spray of thorns at the attacker. It dodged most of them, twisting into forms that no living being could sustain in order to avoid the blow. However, a few of the projectiles managed to hit their mark, and the shade hissed in anger.

"Greater void…threat to my qi…" It growled.

"You know, I was just out for a stroll and thought the smoke might be a concern," I said, closing the distance between us so that I was under the boughs of her protective tree.

"Out for a stroll? Tsuyuki, you're bleeding in a dozen places," she pointed out.

"I'm fine, I promise," I assured her. The shade lunged at me. For a brief moment, I felt vindicated that it picked me as the superior threat. Then, I actually had to deal with the strike. Dodging back, I summoned a jagged qi blade from the ground. It slammed into the shade. It scrambled back, only to for the heel of Ishida's boot to slam into its chest.

"Did Xiaolong make it out? Do you know?"

I nodded. "I put him in the inn. Satoro's over there drinking. If anything gets in and disturbs his peace, he'll deal with it." A mote of corrosive voidlight appeared in my hand and I tossed it into the air, just high enough that the disintegrating qi wouldn't ruin her plants too much, while it slowed the shade down.

"Rude bastard, not lending a hand. He gets no excuse. I know who he is and how much power he has." Ishida spared a moment to push a loose strand of hair behind her ear before resetting her defensive stance and facing the shade.

"Knowing who he is, I'm surprised that you expected him to lift a finger in the first place."

"Hmm, I'll have to tell him that the honor of being my second favorite Demon of Devastation may have to go to the Demon of Misfortune," she admitted. "At least he is neighborly."

"Second favorite?"

"I don't want to be eaten by the Demon of Cruelty."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, which only seemed to irritate the shade. It shrieked and raced directly towards us. There wasn't time to nock and fire an arrow, so I loosened the grip on the weapon, letting my hand slide to the top limb.

"Duck!" I instructed Ishida. She did so immediately, and voidlight infused end of the bow whipped around to slam into the shade's head just as Ishida's own qi exploded in wooden shrapnel around its feet.

Several splinters ripped my robes, and I hissed as new holes opened up in me, leaking blood all over my clothes.

"You'll be fine," she insisted before I had the chance to complain. "I'll patch up what I'm responsible for breaking."

"Healer's privilege?"

"Exactly." She flashed a smile at me.

The shade roiled and shrieked in anger. A dark beam of black and purple qi surged towards us, but neither of us showed any concern. A branch of the defensive tree bent downward, absorbing the blast. Leaves disintegrated, but we were left unharmed.

"Shine that light of yours brighter," Ishida instructed.

"Why?"

"I have a theory, but needed you around to prove it," she answered. "No time like the present, wouldn't you say?"

"You're entirely unconcerned about the monster trying to eat your garden?"

She shrugged. "I used to get four or five of these a week before you fixed the blackout situation. Now, it's only one or two. With Xiaolong out of harm's way, I'll be just fine."

I shook my head and did as I was told. Qi surged out of the light, and I shifted the technique from corrosion to pure light. Voidlight burned through the darkness, its greedy threads seeking out any living creature from which to extract its fortune-draining hunger.

They wrapped around the shade before scattering in every direction, fusing into the plants of Ishida's garden. When the shade lunged one final time, the boughs of the tree bent down, swinging slightly to fling the shade away. It landed in a tangle of purple vines that suddenly glowed with deep violet qi.

"Vampire plums," Ishida mused. "They're carnivorous, but its living qi they like best."

"Aren't you worried about it becoming a yokai?" I asked incredulously. She just shrugged.

"I have all sorts of plants." She smirked. "The yatong flowers are at the back, if you're interested."

I blushed. Those were dangerous flowers and definitely classified as yokai. They were sentient blossoms that had a fondness for releasing hallucinogenic pollen that could twist the mind of anyone who breathed them in. Most of the legends surrounding them involved innocents who wandered into a flower patch, and suddenly found themselves surrounded by the most beautiful men and women they'd ever laid eyes on, then being seduced and driven to madness by the images before they finally spilled their own blood on the flowers, which only served to feed it. Those I'd met in the past were more reasonable than the legends, but that didn't make them any more comfortable to be near.

"You have strange tastes if that's what you're growing here," I told the apothecary. She laughed.

"Their leaves can be combined with a wide number of other ingredients," she explained. "Some combinations yield aphrodisiacs, others yield contraceptives. I sell both to the Blushing Rose Sect and those under their protection. Just don't listen to their dating advice. They have a rather violent take on romance."

"Duly noted, and what was this theory you wanted to test?"

Ishida pointed to the vampiric plum vines. They'd started growing over the shade. Each vine struck swiftly, wrapping and knotting itself around its kin until the shade stood no chance of escape. It shrieked and howled as the plant's eerie light began to grow brighter, taking on the darker tone of the shade's qi, as well as streaks of light blue from my own.

"It's never been so fast before," Ishida explained. "Ever since you fixed the armillaries, all my plants have thrived far more than they did before."

"The district did leave them in darkness a lot. Void probably isn't good for plant growth," I pointed out.

Ishida shook her head. "While that is true, I know my plants. That's not all that's going on." Then she turned to me, "Though I don't yet know why, I am absolutely certain that your qi is helping them grow."

"That's not possible. I'm the Demon of Misfortune. My qi only brings bad luck."

A smirk crept across her face. "Only a fool ignores the evidence in front of him, Tsuyuki. There is more to your voidlight than simple misfortune. In fact, I think you might just be our good luck charm."

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