Ours is one of many worlds. In the space beyond the moon and the sun, I have seen vast emptiness dotted with tiny sparks of light and life. But, the further you go, the thicker the darkness, and the more it tries to kill you. I swear, something’s out there, and I really don’t want to find out what. -Shen Min, Last Master of the Void Storm Sect

  “Yoru! This way!” Lin shouted. I followed his voice through the moths, scrambling back to my feet and sprinting with as much speed as I could muster. Xinya and Lin were ten steps ahead of me as we raced for the gate.

  Moon Moths clung to me as I rounded the corner. Lin held the door wide.

  “Just a little farther!” he shouted. “If we can make it to the Sanctuary, we can rest and wait for it to move on before getting back into the front palace!”

  Doubt seeped into the edges of my thoughts. Waiting for Shouweiye to pass hadn’t worked the first time. It was smart enough to deduce where we would go and lay a trap for us there. What was stopping it from waiting at the guardhouse? Or from ambushing us as we descended the stairs or sailed the river back to the Fourteenth? If it caught us there, would we even be able to flee again?

  The alternative was equally grim. Shouweiye was massive and had gorged itself on qi for centuries. It was hard to tell what advancement it truly was, but it was at least as powerful as the Tide Serpent. However, unlike the Tide Serpent, this monster would be resistant to all my void techniques. Did we stand any chance of defeating it with the meager strength we had at our disposal?

  “Behind you!” Xinya called. The warning was followed a moment later by a flash of lightning arcing from the little girl’s fingertips. Shouweiye’s shriek of anger confirmed a clean hit, though I considered it unlikely that an Iron’s bolt would cause much damage.

  On the off chance that it did hurt the beast, I put on a burst of speed, letting the Void fill my limbs. Space warped around me, increasing the distance I covered with each step. As I passed him, I latched onto Lin’s hand, trying to pull him with me as the Void hastened my steps.

  “Will rip you to shreds!” Shouweiye screamed. Its great wings beat the air.

  Flash Forward flickered through my mind’s eye, and I immediately released Lin’s hand. He protested only once as the spacial warping of my qi left him behind.

  Dirt exploded at my heels as two of Shouweiye’s lance-like forearms pierced the earth. Had Lin and I still been together, it might have killed us both. Instead, the force of the impact knocked us to our knees.

  The enormous moth turned its beady eyes on me. “Feast…consume…give me qi!”

  “Flattered to be your highest priority,” I grumbled. I scrambled back to my feet, only to throw myself back to the ground as it swiped its enormous feelers across the field.

  “Won’t escape! I consume!”

  “Lin!” I shouted. “I’m going to distract it!”

  What he did with that warning was up to him. I could hope that he would take Xinya and flee Half-Moon Manor altogether. However, knowing him, it was unlikely.

  I split off, letting the Void flow through me again. Shouweiye shrieked, and I sensed the disturbance of Void qi that accompanied its disappearing act. The covered bridge across the lake was only a few dozen yards away, but Shouweiye was clever. It was not going to fall for the same trick twice. It would strike before I reached the bridge, of that, I was certain. Thanks to Flash Forward, I soon became certain of its method, as well.

  Shouweiye appeared in an explosion of Void dust between me and the bridge, but I did not stop. In fact, I let the void flow faster in my veins. There was so much excess qi in the air, it was like a drop in an ocean, and I drew it in just as fast as I spent it.

  The moth bowed its head to catch me in its feelers. I let my feet slide out from under me to slide along the grass. There was only a small space between Shouweiye’s body and the ground, and certainly not enough for a man to pass through. I gritted my teeth and summoned forth the feeling of my body shattering, of every limb and cell dissolving until there was only smoke.

  My body split, and my vision was reduced to the strange half-sense that resulted from dissolving one’s eyes. However, that vision was enough to see Shouweiye’s darkness. It’s qi was strong, steeped in the Void for so long that it was like a beacon of destruction to me. My momentum in spirit form carried my smoke cleanly beneath its enormous bulk.

  “No! Get back! Kill! Consume!” Shouweiye growled in frustration, its voice echoing at ten times the volume without ears to dampen its fury.

  By the time it beat its wings and spun around, I was already on the bridge, skidding across the floor and trying desperately to reform myself. My body stitched itself back together, leaving me rolling across the walkway until gravity and friction finally reasserted their hold on me and I came to a stop. For a moment, I just lay still. The nausea that always seemed to accompany my transformation into a formless bit of Void smoke made the roof above me spin and stretch. The worst of it passed quickly. I forced myself to my knees with a groan, crawling ahead several paces before I regained the ability to walk. With a hand on the railing, I pushed myself ahead.

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  To my surprise, the nausea seemed shorter-lived than it had always been before, which was good because Shouweiye was not going to wait. Dust cascaded around the bridge and into the water below. It spread around corners, consuming the paths ahead and behind. The Void itched painfully across my skin, even with my resistances. I grit my teeth and broke into a run. The less time spent on this bridge, the better.

  “No! Stay away! The gate is mine!” Shouweiye shrieked the moment I set foot on the island at the center.

  The Void was so thick there that it was difficult to breathe, and I started to wonder what actually lay beyond the closed doors of the small building that once held the master controls for the city’s defenses. What was this gate that Shouweiye was so keen on protecting? Was it connected to the giant moth’s power?

  There was only one way to find out. Drawing an arrow from my quiver, I released Eclipse from its sheath to hover beside me. With a deep breath, I sprinted forward, leaving the relative safety of the covered bridge.

  Shouweiye landed with a thump. At my command, Eclipse leapt into action, deflecting one of the monster’s limbs before it could skewer me. I darted back, firing a lunar-infused arrow straight at Shouweiye’s eyes. It ducked, batting the arrow aside with its feelers before lunging forward.

  Eclipse parried another strike before lashing out at the offending limb. In the same moment, two arrows were drawn back and fired. This time, one of them landed true. Shouweiye shrieked in pain as black blood seeped from its right eye.

  “Die!” it howled, disappearing in a cloud of dust-filled smoke that descended upon the island. With the density of Void qi in the air, I coughed, backing away from the cloud before it could burn me further.

  Flash Forward warned me of the monster’s next attack, but there was nowhere to flee on the island. Shouweiye emerged from the Void with its feelers right over my head. I was trapped between the moth and the inky black waters below. It swung the vicious Void-coated antennae down at me. Eclipse blocked, but the force of Shouweiye’s blow was incredible. I was forced to shoulder my bow to put both hands on the blade.

  Voidlight sparked against pure Void as I poured qi into Eclipse. Shouweiye pressed down on me, fury and hunger clear in its eyes. Its tongue unfurled from the depths of its dark head, ready to feast on my qi.

  “No escape this time! Tiny spirit, lesser spirit! The gate is mine!” it chattered.

  I poured more qi into the blade. The steel shone as if it were made of pure light, and even the tassel at the end of the hilt seemed to take on the color of shimmering voidlight. Meanwhile, I gritted my teeth and resisted with all the strength I could muster. Sweat coalesced on my brow.

  Green flashed, and a hail of seeds fell on Shouweiye like rain. Before the monster had a chance to react, Lin descended, falling like an immortal from heaven, with Moon Rose gleaming in his hand. Wood qi surged in an arc before him slicing a path with an edge that was as fine as a blade of grass, but with the bite of sharpened steel.

  The moth screamed as its left wing was severed from its body. In its confusion, I shoved upward with all my strength. Shouweiye stumbled, trying to beat its one remaining wing and rise from the ground. As it reared back, I lunged forward, jamming Eclipse into its underbelly and cutting a trail from its head to its hind.

  Meanwhile, Lin carved into the moth from the top. Where his blade cut through the chitinous hide, seeds found purchase and began to grow. Shouweiye, the hunter who was so eager to feast on my qi, found itself being consumed by Lin’s plants from the inside out.

  “No! I cannot… my feast! The gate! It…it’s all…mine,” Shouweiye’s cries faded into the Void, and the monster fell still. The light left its beady eyes, and its body quickly began to crumble into smoke and dust.

  “You have excellent timing,” I gasped, still trying not to breathe too heavily. The Void was still thick, even with Shouweiye’s defeat.

  “I figured you’d sooner let the thing eat you than escape into the water,” he teased.

  “I doubt you want to teach me to swim here,” I countered.

  He laughed heartily as he cleaned the sweat from his glasses. “No, but when we get back to the Fourteenth, I’m sure the Forgotten will let us use their river.”

  “You’ll forgive me if I’m not jumping with joy,” I answered, but an adrenaline-induced smile crept to my face anyway.

  Even with the moth gone, though, our work was not yet complete. I patted Lin on the shoulder before crossing to the door. The Void was thick, and whatever was on the inside of these doors was something Shouweiye valued enough to defend it with its life. I pushed open the doors.

  My blood froze in my veins. A gaping Void tear, big enough for me to walk through without issue, hung in the air over a flickering silver array carved into the floor.

  “That is much bigger than the tears around the armillary,” Lin noted. He didn’t dare enter, even with his adaptation. Frankly, I didn’t blame him. It was hard enough for me to stand so close.

  The voices of the Void became a chorus in my mind. They were many, and as the blackness of the tear consumed my attention, I listened to their song.

  “Yoru?”

  It was a curious song. Elements of harmony and disharmony wove together to somehow form harmony once more. Some voices sang of destruction, while others spoke of safety and communication. I listened closer, feeling like there was something profound waiting for me if I could just find it.

  “Yoru!”

  A hand grasped my wrist, jerking my attention back from the empty hole in reality. Without having realized it, I’d entered the room. I was only a few steps from the gate.

  “No wonder Shouweiye wanted this,” I breathed in awe. “It’s incredible.”

  “It’s a Void tear. It’s dangerous,” Lin said. “You’ve seen Void tears before. Let’s close it and go.”

  For a moment, I couldn’t believe my ears. He wanted to close the only access to such a beautiful song? For the first time, the voices were in such an unusual harmony, one which I was sure held hidden truths of the void if I could just hear them, and he wanted to silence them?

  I turned, ready to object, but the words died in my throat. His skin was blistered, and blood was dripping from his nose, but even as the Void qi in the room ate at him, he still held firm to my wrist.

  Looking down, even my ashen skin was starting to turn black. It itched and burned, and if I stayed much longer, I would be no better than Lin.

  “Are you okay?” he whispered.

  With a deep breath, I nodded. The tear was dangerous. I flicked my wrist, using the last scraps of my qi to summon a large mote of voidlight. It flapped and fluttered, taking the form of a large moth before entering the tear. It dissolved into threads of voidlight which stitched themselves across the tear, closing the hole in reality until nothing remained.