Worry not, young one. The moon still shines, even when it's dark. -Lan Shiyue speaking to her child on a new moon.

"Y-yoru?!" whispered Xinya as the arms which had held her tight suddenly disappeared. The night was cold and lonely, and that horrible pulse of beating wings pressed into her ears enough to make her cover her ears and sink deeper into the boat.

Chiho thudded to the bottom of the boat before rising ever so slightly. It trilled sadly as it tucked itself, not into Xinya's hair, but her sleeve. It had never done anything like that before, and Xinya didn't know what to make of it. All she knew was that Yoru had disappeared.

But, where had he gone? He'd been there just a moment ago, but now the darkness seemed even more oppressive than before. She could barely see the edge of the boat, let alone the waters beyond it. Even the light of Lin's qi barely shone through the dark, and Xinya saw nothing of Yoru's chains. Had the creature already snatched him? Could he really be taken away so easily? And…if he was gone, then what chance did she have?

Xinya felt the weight of her own decisions hanging over her like an executioner's blade. They told her to stay home. Yoru said it himself. But, she hadn't listened. The voidspawn woman told her there were things that Yoru and Lin would need to know going in, things that Xinya herself had to be there for. On her urging, she'd left the safety of home and trailed them all the way to the Forgotten House.

When Yoru had seen her there, he hadn't gotten mad. In fact, he'd gotten more upset with Crescent than with her. Xinya had hoped that was a good sign. Perhaps she was finally getting strong enough to come with her uncles on their dangerous missions. Maybe, the ancient cultivator was actually proud of his disciple.

But, what good would pride do her if she was eaten by something with great and terrible wings lurking in the dark? She'd be snatched right off the boat, and pride wouldn't delay her fate.

Maybe, she just messed up…again.

A hand settled on her shoulder and pulled her. Uncle Lin was still there. He drew her into his arms, and she felt the warmth of his qi as it seeped from the glowing veins on his skin.

"Where did he go?" she whispered frantically.

"I," his voice cracked, and he started again. "I don't know."

A deeper chill settled into the little girl's stomach. She had never seen Lin truly afraid before. Yoru was different. He wore his emotions much more clearly on his sleeve. During the blackout, he'd become so afraid, Xinya would have called him hysterical until the first wave was defeated. But Lin? In her entire life, Xinya couldn't think of a single time that she'd seen the administrator show fear. Even facing down enormous crabs in the waters, or as they'd stood on the walls of Saikan during the siege, he'd always stood tall and firm, with a certain resolution behind his spectacled gaze that reassured all those around him. As far as Xinya was concerned, she didn't think he could show fear.

But now, with Yoru gone…

She buried her face in Uncle Lin's elbow and waited for them both to be snatched off the boat. The wings drew closer, the creature shrieked in fury, the boat shook as the shockwave of the creature's terrible wingbeats upset the water around them.

Then the wingbeats retreated. Xinya raised her head, looking around in the darkness for some kind of explanation, but the shadows yielded nothing to her eyes.

"Over my dead body, you overgrown fabric eater!"

"Yoru?" she whispered.

Lin craned his neck, too. "Where?"

"I don't know. I can hear him, but I can't see him."

A cool, ashen hand rested on hers. Xinya looked up to see her mystery woman sitting just across the boat from her and Lin. She had a reassuring smile that filled Xinya with warmth.

"Do not fear, Xinya. The Prince is here," she assured her.

"Why can't I see him, then?" Xinya asked.

"Because he's protecting you," she explained. "Now, you must tell his anchor to leave. You must make haste to the palace. Shouweiye still hunts you."

"But what about Yoru? We can't leave him behind."

The woman smiled. "He is lost and confused in this state, like a child taking his first steps outside. Fear not, I will guide him, but you must hurry. He cannot remain in this state for long." She squeezed Xinya's hand one last time before disappearing in a shower of black and silver sparks.

Xinya didn't know what was going on, but the shriek of the monster somewhere in the darkness reminded her that they didn't have much time. Carefully, not wanting to let go of the comfort he gave, she peeled Lin's arm from around her shoulders.

"We have to get moving," she insisted, climbing to her feet. "Yoru will follow us."

"Xinya, who were you talking to, just now?" Lin asked. Xinya bit her lip. His voice was stern, as it always was when he got concerned for her well-being. It was a whole lot better than the fear he'd shown a moment before, but it was still distinctly uncomfortable to hear.

"I…it's…now's not really a good place for that explanation," Xinya answered as tactfully as she could. That conversation would come back and bite her soon, but she could only handle one crisis at a time. Until they reached the shore, Lin's interrogation would have to wait.

Luckily for her, he nodded in agreement. "We'll discuss it when Yoru's back. Where should I be pointing us?"

"Ahead," she said. "We have to get to the palace. The monster can't fit in the palace halls. We should be safe there."

Lin nodded and took up the pole once more. The craft lurched into motion. He put a lot more strength behind the force this time, switching from a focus on stealth to one on speed. The waters parted before their little boat, and though Xinya couldn't see beyond the bow, she had a feeling that Yoru and her mystery woman wouldn't lead them astray.

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I flipped over, split in two, and felt my body reorganize. My left arm was where my right leg should have been, yet my fingers were atop my head. Nothing made any sense, and I could barely hear anything beyond the voices of the void around me. They didn't say anything useful as I tried to fight them back, but they screamed and clawed at the fringes of my mind, begging for attention.

Part of me was injured…or at least, I thought it was. Shouweiye's lance-like legs had raked across parts of me that were both my back and also my face. I was bleeding, and yet I wasn't at the same time. After all, how could a being without a body bleed?

But, I had protected Xinya and Lin. I knew that. Though I lacked eyes with which to see, I could feel their qi. Lin's steady branches wrapped around Xinya's cold lightning. And the moth had flown away. Its qi circled elsewhere, somewhere far beyond the reach of my limited senses. It would return, but at least, for now, I had stopped its vicious hunt.

Even with that small victory, I still didn't know what to do. We were stuck on the water. It may have lost our location thanks to the shadows of my body, but it would not be fooled forever. Eventually, either it would notice the sparks of terrestrial qi through my protections, or I would dissipate entirely.

Because I could feel the void at the edges of my being. My toes were numb…or perhaps they were gone altogether, having dispersed so far beyond the central cloud of my body that they would never return. I didn't know. It was hard to tell. Much like my body, the edges of my mind were starting to fray, and it was not helped by the volume of the voices, or the constant shifting of my form into shapes I couldn't comprehend.

"Yoru." One voice singled itself out of the chaos.

"Reili?" I didn't even care if it was the friendly version or the Hated One who tried to corrupt me. It was the only stable thread of existence I had a grasp on, and I clung to it with all my being.

"Yoru, you need to calm down," she instructed. "Listen to my voice. Focus on me."

I desperately tried to focus on her, but the voices twisted and churned over and around hers like waves in the ocean. I was drowning, and I didn't know how to swim.

"Yoru, you alter reality all the time," she continued. "What is the first thing you must do in order to wield moon qi in that way?" The answer came without even a moment's hesitation.

"You must picture the outcome you wish to create."

"This is the principle of all forms of qi manipulation. You are a being of qi, now. Why would interacting in this world be any different?"

"But, I can't find you! The voices are-"

"They are just a distraction. They are a thousand voices scattered across the stars who have no bearing on the here and now. Do not give them power they do not have." As always, Shi Reili's words held wisdom. As much as I hated to admit it, she was always the smartest among the Ascendents of Lanyue. Even a genius like me had nothing on her brilliance.

I took a moment, pushed back the voices, and cycled the qi of my body outwards before returning it back to my center. It was a strange feeling, one more akin to watching ripples from a stone after it's dropped in a pool of water than blood flowing through veins. The ripples radiated outward to the edge of my being, then returned. I did it again, finding a certain sense of calm in the consistent ripples of qi. Gingerly, I tugged on the moon qi inside me. A single ripple of brilliant silver spread over the clear, still lake that was my soul, and when it returned, I pictured the reality I wanted to see.

My body was a clear lake, and on that lake, stood Reili and a far more corporeal version of me. The image began to gently take form, and I added detail after detail. The clearer the image became, the more her voice began to stand out from the dulling roar of sound that was the void's call. Her clothes were the same austere uniform she always wore, her hair was in the same tight ponytail that always made my head hurt just looking at it. Stars twinkled overhead, and my chains fell in gentle loops around my body before settling on the surface of the water.

"There, isn't that better?" she asked. "I knew you had it in you. There is no one I know with better creativity and control with their qi than you."

"A bold claim coming from the one whose creations are still saving this city to this day."

"Says the man who shifted the entire city out of sync with reality to keep it safe."

"You and I both know it was an accident. Jinshi startled me," I said, feeling heat creep into my cheeks.

"The original act, yes. But it was your idea to leave it there as a defensive mechanism. How many attacks would we have suffered if you didn't?" Reili shook her head. "You never did have enough confidence in yourself. Arrogance, you had in spades, but true confidence? In that, you are your own worst enemy."

She stepped forward, crossing the distance between us. With a gentle hand, Reili traced her hand across the chain around my left arm. Her expression was sad.

"Much of this is my fault, Yoru," she said softly. "It's my fault, and I wasn't even there to pay the price for my mistakes. You were forced to shoulder my burdens, and for that I am deeply sorry." Reili stepped back, schooled her expression and straightened her collar. "But, there will be time for all of that later. For now, you need to move forward."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know. The Lunar Prince I once was, is dead. I just don't even know who I am supposed to be, now. Am I the Darkened Moon? The Demon of Misfortune? Or something else entirely? How can I move on if I don't know where I'm going?"

"I forgot how dense you can be," she said, rubbing her temple in annoyance. "I mean you need to move forward with the boat, you idiot! Your friend in the glasses is pushing it ahead, and they'll be exposed if you don't go with them!"

"Oh." I felt more than a little silly. Being incorporeal was warping with my sense of time. That must have been it. "Uh…how do I move?"

"The same way you do everything else, Yoru," Reili answered. The glare she gave me was withering, and I quickly turned my attention back to the boat on the void river.

As Reili had said, the sources of Xinya's qi and Lin's qi were moving forward, leaving me behind. I pictured myself moving with them, as if a breeze were pushing a cloud forward. That…didn't work, and I didn't move at all. After all, there was no breeze on the silent river, save that which was stirred by the passing of the boat.

But, there was more than one way to move. The silver band around my core was still there, something that really made my mind do some mental backflips, since I wasn't even sure if my core was in its usual shape anymore. I imagined a string between us. After all, Lin was the focus point anchoring my reality in place. We were irrevocably connected, and so long as this body was alive, no matter its form, that connection would remain.

Qi tethered us together, and I felt myself get pulled along with the boat. In my mindscape, I could see Reili scowl. She'd been expecting something more, I'm sure, but even she couldn't argue that I'd achieved the desired result. The protective shroud of my body covered the people in the boat, and that was what mattered. I'd figure out more of that non-corporeal movement business another day.

With Lin's strong arms pushing us forward, the remaining distance to the Half-Moon Manor servant entrance was crossed in less than an hour. The boat bumped against the shoreline, and Lin and Xinya ducked into the guard outpost stationed at the bottom of the stairs leading up the cliff side. With great effort, and Reili's disapproving scowl as motivation, I focused my form back to the shape of my body.

I collapsed to my knees as gravity took hold once more.

"Yoru!" Lin exclaimed. Immediately, I was tackled by the unstoppable force of Xinya. She wrapped her arms around my neck and clung to me with trembling arms.

"You were very brave," I whispered in her ear. I didn't really know what happened while I was out, but I was quite certain that the words were true.

"Meet me in my palace," Reili's voice was quieter now that I was physical again. "I shall explain everything there."

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