by Claire Luana
Chiya’s seishen, Tanu, had found his mistress’s side and was burying his furry silver face in the crook of Chiya’s neck.
Kai knew she shouldn’t move her, but Chiya couldn’t stay here, exposed. “I’m going to get you somewhere safe,” Kai said, sheathing her sword and heaving Chiya up by her armpits. Tanu backed up to give her room. The woman was heavy.
“Let me,” a voice said, and Kai turned as Hiro knelt beside her, his face streaked with blood, both black and red. Gratitude blossomed in Kai’s chest as she quickly moved to Chiya’s feet, lifting her together with Hiro. They carried Chiya though the doors of the great hall before lowering her gently to the floor.
Chiya’s eyes fluttered and opened as they settled her down. She reached out one hand to Tanu, who pressed against her hip, whimpering softly.
As Kai knelt down beside Chiya, her eye caught sight of a broken body across the great hall, still in a pool of dark blood. Silver hair stained red.
“Who is that?” Kai whispered.
“Leilu,” Hiro said, the word an apology.
Kai squeezed her eyes closed, images of the first night she had met her friend swimming into view. Sitting at a table in the Fox and Fiddle with Maaya and Emi and Stela and Leilu. Leilu’s mischievous smile as she ordered another plate of noodles and a second bottle of sake. Flirting with Stela’s friends and feeling carefree and alive and welcomed amongst these women, who’d taken her in as one of their own.
“Oh, Leilu.” Kai keened, her heart splintering at the loss of another friend.
Chiya coughed and Kai opened her eyes, struggling to shift from one sorrow to another.
“Don’t move,” Kai said. “I think your ribs are broken. We’ll send a burner to guard you.”
Chiya gripped her hand as Kai turned to stand. “On the island,” Chiya said. She coughed, and blood flecked on her lips.
“Don’t try to talk,” Kai said.
Chiya’s grip tightened as she ignored Kai’s instructions. “On the island…I was hurt. I said things I didn’t mean.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to tell me this after the battle,” Kai said. “When you’ve healed.”
“There may be no…after the battle.” Chiya coughed again.
Kai looked at Hiro and saw her reluctant assessment mirrored on his face. Chiya’s condition was grave.
“…Proud to be your sister.”
“I’m proud to be your sister, too,” Kai said. Chiya’s words were a balm to her wounded spirit, her grief, her anger and disappointment at herself. “There’s no one I’d rather have as part of my family. After this is all over, I’ll tell you everything about our father, all his annoying traits. He would whistle this horrible song…” Kai trailed off as Chiya smiled, her teeth coated in crimson blood.
“He would have loved you so much,” Kai said, tears pricking in her eyes. “You would have driven each other crazy, of course. Stubborn as mules, the both of you.”
“You’re…one to talk,” Chiya managed as a triumphant demon cry sounded from the courtyard outside.
“Kai.” Hiro laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “We have to go. I think something’s happening. I’ve found a burner to guard Chiya.”
A burner Kai recognized from the citadel stood behind him, two short swords bloody in her hands.
“We’ll talk about all of this after the battle,” Kai said to Chiya, trying to stand. “Catch up on everything.”
Chiya pulled at Kai’s hand, not letting her go. “You’re…a good queen. I’ve always…thought so.”
“Thank you,” Kai whispered.
She stood as Chiya’s hand fell from her grip.
Hiro ushered her out through the doors, and as Kai looked back at her sister, she couldn’t help the feeling that she was seeing her for the last time.
Though the battle was still raging fiercely, it had taken a turn. Somehow, Yukina had wounded Tsuki, and blood now poured from a wound in the goddess’s shoulder.
Yukina howled in triumph and redoubled its efforts, slashing at Tsuki with a long, thin dagger in one hand and gouts of flame from the other.
The goddess stumbled backwards and looked as if she would fall.
“Tsuki!” Kai screamed, pulling white light into her qi to burn Yukina out of this world.
But it was too late. Yukina’s blade buried itself in the goddess’s chest to the hilt. When the tengu pulled the sword out, the goddess fell to the stones in a shower of silver blood.
The moon, hanging low in the sky, winked out.
Kai stood still as a statue, the life drained out of her. Leilu was dead. Chiya was dying. And the moon was gone. Gone.
It was Nanase who broke first from the daze and disbelief that had struck the moonburners. “Keep fighting,” she screamed, felling an Order member who ventured too close to the arc of her swinging sword.
The others followed suit, throwing themselves back into the fray, weapons slashing, hacking at tengu and masked Order members. Hiro dashed across the courtyard to take on one of the huge tengu that was being harried by multiple burners and was ripe for attack.
But Kai couldn’t move. They had lost. Tsuki and Taiyo were dead. All light and life in this world was gone. What was the point of going on?
“Kai!” Quitsu screamed at her from below, appearing through the mass of booted feet and scratching claws.
Yukina, freed from its fight with the goddess, was now prowling the battlefield. The massive demon stalked towards Kai, the dagger in its hand, still dripping with Tsuki’s blood.
Kai looked on, soaking in the violence and bloodshed that she had caused like salt rubbed in a wound. Chiya may have said Kai was a good queen, but it was a lie. Kai had set them on this path. It had been her idea to free Tsuki and Taiyo. She had caused this. Let the Order fool her into handing over the gods. Handing over her world. Her people. It was time she paid for what she did.
Yukina stopped before Kai, a deep chuckle emanating from the demon’s throat.
Kai didn’t care that the demon was mocking her. None of it mattered anymore. She had been a child playing at being queen. And she had destroyed everything.
As Yukina drew back to strike, a flash of white crashed into her, toppling the tengu onto her back. The tengu fell with a thunderous boom and an immense white form clawed at it, ripping its face and body with sharp talons.
It was the seishen elder, pure white against the blackness.
It leaped from Yukina’s prone form and landed in front of Kai, a fearsome sight with red eyes and glorious outstretched wings. “I told you to let them be,” it shouted at Kai.
Tears sprang to her eyes as shame welled up inside of her. She hadn’t listened. She deserved whatever punishment it had come to bestow upon her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “For everything.”
“Don’t be sorry,” it said. “Make it right.”
It reached out an eagle-like arm and pinned her against the wall. It was going to kill her. And she probably deserved it. She had destroyed its world.
But when its talons made contact with the handprint on Kai’s chest, they didn’t dig into her flesh. Instead, a white light burst out from her chest and enveloped her and the elder.
Kai gasped in surprise, and with a swift motion, the elder reached out with its other arm and poured a vial of liquid down her throat. Pure sweet water. From the lake that had healed Emi. It had to be.
For as soon as the water passed her lips, Kai’s vision exploded into bright white. Images and memories flashed before her. The creator. Sitting with him on this very rooftop, looking at the sea. And then she was him, seeing through his eyes. The beginning of the world. How he’d formed the universe into three realms, banishing the tengu to the demon realm, sealing it off. Then the spirit realm. Creating the sun and the moon, setting them in the sky, bright and cheerful to give life and light to the world he had created. And then the mortal world, shaping mountains, dotting the land with green, washing the earth with blue seas. The first seishen, gu
ardians of the mortal realm, colossal majestic beings that walked the earth and soared through the sky and swam the seas with their burners at their sides. She saw all of it. Knew all of it.
The world she saw when she opened her eyes was painful, wrong. Discordant. It grieved her. Burners bleeding and dying under a moonless sky. Tengu feasting on their flesh.
The tears in her eyes now fell for a different reason. Anger. She met the eye of the seishen elder, and understanding passed between them. Make it right.
The roar of the battle was quiet around her as time seemed to slow. Kai stooped down and caressed Quitsu’s soft head, filling him with the magic she had seen, the magic of creation that held the seed of what his ancestors had once been.
Quitsu burst with brilliant radiance and grew in size, transforming before her eyes into a creature of alabaster white that stood taller than she. His teeth and claws shone wickedly, and hard muscle rippled under his snowy fur.
Quitsu adjusted to his new form quickly, diving at a tengu and ripping its head from its body with one jerk of his powerful jaws.
Iska swooped past Kai’s outstretched hand and with a touch burgeoned into the size of a roc, a massive mythical bird of old.
The seishen ran to her, understanding though not understanding the power that had transformed Quitsu and Iska. First Ryu, then Kuma, the seishen swelled into beautiful, fearsome versions of themselves that turned on the tengu with a powerful fury.
Blood poured from a slice in Hiro’s thigh where a tengu had slipped through his guard. But he wasn’t done fighting. In one hand, he gripped his sword and in the other, the tiny vial of light Taiyo had given him. This could be the only sunlight left in the world.
He had seen so many impossible sights that day that he felt little shock when a strange light began to pour from the handprint on Kai’s chest, casting a luminous white across the carnage of the courtyard.
The light pulsed from her, filling her, pouring out of her ears and mouth and fingertips. Her eyes were two fissures of glowing white. And then—she did the impossible. He watched as she transformed Quitsu with a touch into a creature of legend, towering and deadly. He watched as the other seishen flocked to her, his voice sticking in his throat as his Ryu went too. Hiro wanted to call him back, to selfishly protect him from this strange transformation he didn’t understand.
But it was Kai. Even if he didn’t understand what had changed or understand this mystical power she seemed to wield…he trusted her. Loved her. And her power was helping their cause. As long as she stayed alive. Which she seemed utterly unconcerned with. Her sword had fallen from her outstretched hand. Were her eyes even open?
“Protect Kai,” Hiro shouted, dashing towards her, taking out a tengu with horns like a bull on his way.
Colum fell in on the other side of Kai, his tanned face smeared with blood, his curly hair wild in Kai’s light. Hiro nodded at him gratefully.
As the newly transformed seishen attacked, Yukina and Hiei snarled in rage, sending their tengu into the fray.
The mythical seishen clashed with the massive black demons, meeting with fearsome screams and flashing teeth and claws. Iska grappled with one in the air while Kuma and Quitsu snarled and snapped at the bull-headed beast, sending it to the ground. The burners fought furiously against the smaller tengu, Emi and Daarco standing back to back, weapons swinging deadly glory. Even the elder joined in, ripping and rending tengu flesh with his beak and talons.
But Kai continued to stand still, staring through luminous eyes at Tsuki’s crumpled form.
Hiro slashed at a tengu that came slavering towards Kai, taking its jaw off with his sword, as Colum speared one coming from the right. She moved forward towards Tsuki’s body.
“Kai, what are you doing?” Hiro said, gripping her arm. She shrugged him off without looking at him.
“Look out,” Colum shouted.
Hiro whirled around to meet the newest threat. Geisa stood behind them, her face twisted in hatred, her sword whistling down towards Kai’s head.
But Geisa’s blade didn’t find its target. Colum managed to get the staff of his spear up in time, parrying her blow at the last second.
As her steel glanced off his wooden stave, Colum shoved in front of Kai, facing off against Geisa.
“Mesilla?” Colum said, his voice choked. He lowered his weapon, reaching out a hand towards her, the blood draining from his face.
“Colum!” Hiro cried.
Geisa made to swing, taking advantage of Colum’s open guard, but faltered. Her face transformed. Shock, confusion, recognition. “Colum?” she asked.
“Mesilla! It’s really you!” he said. “I never stopped lookin’ for you…I never gave up hope!”
What? Hiro thought.
“That’s not my name anymore,” Geisa said, shaking her head in disbelief. Her sword dropped from her outstretched hand and clattered to the stones. She backed up slowly. “Mesilla is dead.” She turned and ran. Sprinted away from Colum, away from the battle.
He ran after her. “Mesilla!”
Hiro turned from the strange scene to find that Kai had fallen to her knees beside Tsuki. He drew close and stood over her in a defensive stance. What the hell was she doing? She still glowed with an unnatural light.
Kai closed her eyes and put her hands on Tsuki’s wound.
Hiro squinted as her form grew brighter, casting white light across the garish scene of the courtyard. Was she trying to heal Tsuki?
Hiro turned his head from the glare and surveyed the courtyard, trying to identify who was still standing. Daarco and Emi. Ipan. He couldn’t see Stela or Nanase. Bodies littered the ground.
With a heavy sigh, Kai lifted her hands from Tsuki’s still body, the light around her dimming once again.
The moon burst back into existence, hanging low and bright in the sky as if wanting to embrace its weary children.
Tsuki’s eyes fluttered open.
Hiro’s jaw dropped. Kai had healed the goddess. She had set the moon back in the sky.
The moonburners let out raucous cheers and sobs of relief as they threw themselves back into the battle, burning lightning and fire into the attacking tengu, driving them back. He thought the burners outnumbered the tengu now, three of the largest tengu laying still, their bodies broken on the stones. The seishen harried the fourth. It wouldn’t last long. Hiei and Yukina still stood.
Hiei launched himself at Kai, his sword held in both huge hands, but he was knocked sideways by a powerful blow from Quitsu.
Kai stood and turned, gliding like a sleepwalker towards Taiyo. Hiro pulled Tsuki up, supporting her with one arm as he flanked Kai. More burners fell in around Kai now as they realized what she was doing, protecting her as she moved. She stepped over dead and dying on her way to kneel before Taiyo’s body and turned to her task of restoring the sun.
When Taiyo’s eyes snapped open, Hiro let out a shuddering breath of relief. The feeling of sunlight, liquid heat and fire raging over the next horizon, flooded back into him. He wanted to weep with joy, to pull Kai into his arms and kiss her for the miracle.
But Kai wasn’t herself. She stood and turned back to Yukina and Hiei. The two had drawn together, backing up slowly against the far wall of the courtyard. Their robes were torn and Yukina had long, raking wounds down her face and chest. The rest of their tengu army had been dispatched, black bodies lying broken and mangled on the stones.
“You do not belong here,” Kai shouted, her voice echoing through the night with the force of eons.
Yukina turned and seemed to tear the air behind them, ripping the fabric of the mortal world to form a yawning opening. The air around the demons crackled with energy.
“This is not the end, burner,” Hiei snarled. The two demons turned and leaped into the blackness of the rift, disappearing.
Kai started forward after them. Was she crazy?
“Wait!” Hiro grabbed her hand. “What are you doing? You don’t know what’s in there. It could be a trap!”
Kai turned back and shook her head sadly, her eyes glowing with the raw magic of creation. “It’s my path. You have to let me go.”
Hiro hesitated…and dropped her hand.
She leaped into the darkness.
She was gone.
Kai found herself in the upper courtyard at Yoshai, a cool breeze rustling her hair. The courtyard was empty of burners and tengu and bodies. She was in the spirit world. Alone.
She turned back to the rift the tengu had torn, using the creator’s fingers to feel the torn fabric of the seal between worlds. She summoned the pure white power of creation, the sweet nectar that she had come to understand through her visions. She had watched as the creator built the first walls between the realms. She had seen it. She had done it herself. She knew the magic by heart. And so she pulled the threads of the universe together, binding them into a barrier so secure and indestructible that the tengu could never pass. Stronger than last time.
“Kai!” a voice screamed at her.
Kai opened her eyes to see Hiei’s sword swinging at her neck. Kai flickered out of existence as it swung through where she stood, rematerializing a step away. Thanks to the knowledge the seishen elder had imparted, she finally understood the rules of this place. She was the master of this world.
The warning had come from Hamaio, who stood at the far side of the courtyard, her lovely features tight with worry.
Hiei and Yukina faced off against Kai now, bellowing. They attacked in tandem, striking at her with deadly weapons and savage fists.
Each blow, Kai simply avoided, flitting about the courtyard like a hummingbird, too fast for them to catch.
The demons howled in frustration.
“You don’t belong here,” Kai said, furrowing her brow. “You have terrorized this realm for too long.”
She took a breath, and with it seemed to grow until she stood even with the two tengu, tall and strong, looking into their strange faces. She reared back and with a mighty blow, hammered the heel of her hands directly into their chests.