Yoshika was trying very hard not to look at the naked body of the gorgeous being in front of her, but there was nothing else to look at. It felt too much like an invasion of Eunae’s privacy, and it made her extremely uncomfortable. Yoshika couldn’t shake the feeling that she was not supposed to be here, wherever ‘here’ even was.

“That’s right. You’re not. And yet, you seem to have invited yourself in anyway, so here we are.”

The fox spirit spoke in Eunae’s voice, but like everything else about it it was subtly wrong. The tone, the words she used, the feeling of superiority in every phrase—she was everything Seong Eunae wasn’t.

“Tch, rude. I am part of my daughter no matter how she rejects me. Are you going to actually talk, or will you just keep badmouthing me in your head?”

Yoshika frowned.

“How are you reading my mind?”

In response, the spirit smiled sinisterly and Yoshika felt everything go fuzzy as the phantasmal grip on her soul tightened for just a moment before relaxing again.

“It’s not your mind I sense, but your soul. I’m playing nice, because my daughter cares about you and you’re interesting, but this is my domain and you are at my mercy. Remember that.”

“Um, okay. What do you want, exactly? And what should I call you?”

The fox woman rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“If you must call me something, ‘Kumiho’ will suffice. What I want is to understand what you want, kitten. Twice now you’ve tried to steal from me. Why?”

Yoshika’s brows furrowed, and she realized that whatever conceptual space she was in had her in spirit form—with only one body.

“I don’t think I was trying to steal from you. I already explained to Eunae what I was trying to do, if you’re anything like my own spirit halves, shouldn’t you know already?”

The Kumiho sighed and shook her head.

“Not exactly, no. You should remember that while I may look and talk like you humans, I am still a spirit. I understand things as spirits do.”

“But...you’re not speaking in emotional concepts like most other spirits.”

Yoshika shuddered as Kumiho showed her teeth in a way that did not at all resemble a smile.

“I’m very good at pretending. It’s what I do, and who I am. Much like it’s in your nature to steal, little cat burglar. Especially now that you’ve joined with your little rat friend—a rather strange union to say the least.”

“Okay, then why would it matter now if I repeated it? If you didn’t get it when I was talking to Eunae, why would you get it now?”

Once more, the Kumiho’s grip on Yoshika’s soul tightened.

“Because it’s not the words I’m listening for. While I have you here, at my mercy, you will tell me what you were trying to accomplish by stealing from me and my daughter. She trusts you, but I do not. Now speak.”

Despite all her best efforts and years of mental training, Ja Yun was in the midst of a full-blown panic attack. It didn’t help at all that her normal source of comfort had been the one to inflict it upon her—not that she blamed Muddy. The little elemental companion had just been the one to deliver the message. Somewhere off in the distance, Hattori Koji was trying to calm her down as she hyperventilated.

“Miss Ja Yun?! What do you mean? I need more details if I am to report this to my lady.”

Right. Of course. Ja Yun had responsibilities. She had to protect her new girlfriend’s friend’s family...and probably also her boss, and Hattori’s boss. Hayakawa Kaede was probably a good person to talk to about this. She was smart and powerful and beautiful and all the other things Ja Yun wasn’t. Unfortunately for Ja Yun, she was Ja Yun, and that meant that she currently didn’t have the capacity to do much more than continue to blubber uselessly, no matter how important all that other stuff might seem.

She wasted a lot of precious time like that. At some point she must have passed out, because she woke up on a couch with a blanket over her and a blob of transparent goop in her arms. Ja Yun hugged Muddy to her chest and said a silent apology to the thing. It probably didn’t understand what had happened to Ja Yun, having no context for emotions whatsoever. At least she understood it a bit better now.

As Ja Yun sat up, she met the amber eyes of Lee Narae, sitting across from her. The little girl shot to her feet, her goat ears wiggling excitedly.

“You’re awake! Guys, she’s awake!”

The next few moments were a bit of a blur—Ja Yun still wasn’t entirely feeling all the way present, but she wasn’t panicking anymore at least. Soon she was surrounded by An Chunhei, Hattori Koji, and Hayakawa Kaede. Ja Yun did a double take when she noticed the Yamato princess’ presence.

“W-when did you get here?”

“About an hour ago. Are you feeling better? I need you to explain what Master Hattori was talking about—something about a coup?”

Ja Yun opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly had a hard time finding the words. Was it because of her disassociation, or had communing with the elemental messed up her head somehow? Missus An ended up stepping in to rescue her from further embarrassment.

“Stop crowding the girl! She’s obviously distressed. Here, sweetie, have some tea and take a moment to compose yourself.”

Ja Yun accepted the cup of steaming hot tea that was pressed into her hands, and drank it slowly. The warmth and fragrance helped to calm her nerves—plus, she suspected, a few herbal supplements. When she was finished, she set the cup down next to Muddy and let the elemental absorb the last few drops, ignoring An Chunhei’s grimace. Ja Yun took a deep breath, then began to speak.

“I think—no, I know that the elementals are planning to take over the palace. They created Muddy—uh, the mud elemental here—as an ‘emissary’ after Yoshika yelled at them for not trying to communicate properly. I...kinda figured out how to talk to her, thanks to Hattori’s help, but the way elementals talk is weird. It’s just pure information—thoughts without any emotional or physical context.

“It’s really hard to explain, but there’s a sort of logic to it. The elementals need something—I’m...not exactly clear on what, I think it was deliberately left out—and they need the resources of Goryeo to make it happen. Demanding and bribing didn’t work, so they are just moving on unflinchingly to the next option—force.”

Hayakawa frowned deeply, crossing her arms across her chest.

“And you’re certain of this? When? How? Most importantly, why would they leave that information for us?”

Ja Yun shrugged helplessly, trying to curl up into a ball as she rested her chin on Muddy.

“I don’t know...Muddy didn’t tell me. I don’t think she can, because they didn’t tell her, either. Maybe they think we’ll help since you’re foreigners.”

“Hmm, there’s more merit to that suggestion than I’d like to admit. My first priority has to be the recovery of the Sovereign’s Tear, and if the elementals are willing to work with us to accomplish that...”

Hayakawa trailed off thoughtfully, and before Ja Yun could comment that she was still technically a Goryeon soldier she felt the familiar ping of her proximity alarms. The inner and outer alarms went off one after the other, giving her no chance to examine the images as she sat up straight.

“Intruders!”

Hayakawa was gone in an instant, and Ja Yun was left to feel as useless as ever while she worked up the wherewithal to go help. By the time she got to her feet, the brief scuffle had ended and Hayakawa returned with a horribly bloodied tiger-man on her shoulder.

“Kim Yongsun?! Oh no, Lady Hayakawa, what did you do?”

Hayakawa raised an eyebrow at Ja Yun’s outburst and shook her head.

“Nothing—he was already like this when I found him trying to break the door down. I don’t think he means us any harm.”

Kim Yongsun shook his head, coughing once as he unsteadily tried to straighten himself up.

“You—cough—you all must leave at once. Escape the city.”

Ja Yun’s eyes widened, and she felt another panic attack coming on. Oh no. It had already begun.

“Controlling divine essence without absorbing it? Why?”

Yoshika let out an exasperated sigh. The fragment of the Kumiho was not easy to talk to.

“If I create or cultivate divine essence it will force a breakthrough to the xiantian stages. Even if I survive that, I’ll be locked out of the Sovereign’s Tomb. This is something my master came up with to compromise.”

“Hmm, I suppose it could work. You’ve come to the right place—my daughter’s gaze effectively does exactly that, though she doesn’t realize it.”

“Really?! Then can you—”

The fox spirit cut Yoshika off by applying pressure to her soul—Yoshika was getting really sick of that.

“My power is for my daughter alone. I will not give you what you came here to steal.”

Yoshika shook her head.

“I don’t want your power! I have a bit of borrowed essence that I can use to practice, I just need a hint—I’ve gotten nowhere with my attempts so far.”

Kumiho hummed thoughtfully, placing a fingertip to her chin in another familiar Eunae-like gesture.

“Hmm, I see your problem. I can help, I think, but I want something from you in return.”

“What could we possibly offer you?”

Yoshika eyed the fox spirit warily as she covered her mouth with a spare tail and giggled.

“Me? Nothing. What I want is power for my daughter. The kind of power you wield—a bridge between her and me. She has stalled, delayed in her advancement because of how she rejects me. I want you to fix it. Teach her to look inward as you do, so that I might speak with her again and offer her guidance. Agree to this, and I will help you.”

It was a good deal, but that made Yoshika suspicious. She already planned to help Eunae as much as she could, and the spirit should have known that already if it was reading her mind—or her soul, whatever. She couldn’t help but feel as if there was something more, and the fact that Yoshika couldn’t read the Kumiho’s emotions the way it could hers made her nervous. Sensing her trepidation, the fox spirit waved a hand dismissively.

“You’re overthinking this, as you humans always do. Here—as a show of good faith, let me tell you that you have been approaching your task from the wrong direction. Divine essence is much more than simply a different kind of energy. You would understand immediately if you cultivated it for yourself, but as that’s not an option let me put it this way—what you are doing is like trying to see mana with your eyes.”

Yoshika blinked. That...made a terrifying amount of sense, coming from a creature with no concept of physical sight—she really was good at pretending. Mana was the loose essence found everywhere throughout the world, and it was completely invisible to mortal senses. Mages were particularly good at detecting it with their mana sense, while martial and spiritual artists had their own methods that relied more on a vague feeling. However, no matter how much she’d gotten used to ‘seeing’ and interpreting the mana within her domain, Yoshika had never actually seen mana.

She was reminded that regular houtian mages couldn’t detect the essence of her domain, nor Jianmo’s divine essence. Yoshika had assumed that the metaphysical tools that had always served her until now would continue to do so for eternity, but Elder Qin Zhao had always been quick to remind her that her ‘half step’ into the xiantian realm was still far from complete. Could it be that there was another more advanced sense that she had yet to awaken to?

“Yes, I see that’s got you thinking, but let’s focus, hm? My offer. I’ll give you the push you need to discover what it is you’re missing if you promise that my daughter will focus inward once more. I know you think you were already going to do so, but she will resist, and I want you to press the issue.”

Ah, so that was it. Yoshika shook her head.

“No. I’m not going to force or pressure Eunae into doing something she’s uncomfortable with. In fact, I’m starting to regret even asking for this in the first place. She wouldn’t have told me, but she wasn’t too pleased with the idea, was she?”

The Kumiho scowled.

“Oh please! All human relationships involve some kind of pressure. You need not force us to do anything. Just keep insisting. If it helps any, she will never control my power as long as she continues to reject me. Until she accepts that she and I are one and the same, we will continue to be at odds for eternity. Surely you don’t want that for your friend? Now, promise me, and I will give you what you need.”

Yoshika groaned in frustration. She knew that what the spirit was saying was true—she’d already experienced it with her own inner demons—and she did want to help Eunae anyway. The Kumiho was right—she was overthinking it.

“Alright, fine. I’ll help Eunae. I’ll teach her how to unify her cultivation, and I’ll be there for her while she tries to work her way through...you.”

The fox spirit smiled, and for once it actually seemed genuine.

“Good! Was that so difficult?”

A sudden searing pain struck Yoshika—a horrifyingly familiar one that she’d only felt when Yan Yue had torn her soul asunder by careless mistake years ago. Thankfully, the pain in her soul, while no less vivid, was not nearly as severe—a measured, precise cut, as opposed to the careless rending from before.

“There you go! Now you can’t break your promise.”

Though her body wasn’t physical, Yoshika nonetheless felt a cold sweat beginning to form.

“What did you just do to me?!”

The Kumiho waved her off.

“Just sealed the pact, don’t be so dramatic. This next part is going to feel much worse, I assure you. You already have the sense you need—the means to control divine essence. It was what you used to reach across my influence and invade my domain. You’ll need to focus on that part of your soul if you’re to make any progress. Luckily, I have just the trick to highlight it for you.”

Yoshika tried to take a step back as the spirit approached with pale green flames appearing over each of her nine tails. No matter how many steps she took, however, she seemed to stay locked in place.

“Wait—I think I get the gist. I’ll figure it out on my own, you don’t need to—”

The Kumiho closed the distance in an instant and silenced Yoshika with a finger against her lips.

“Shh, kitten. I insist.”

Before she could protest any further, Yoshika’s world exploded into fire and pain.