Liu-Ken cooked pasta with tuna and added red pepper for a spicy touch. It was not uncommon to hear the demon grumbling behind them, words dragging across the air, dissipating along the way. Aurora had not come near him again.

No one spoke for the whole lunch and both finished quickly. Both were miserable. Aurora had little endurance yet and Liu had not spent so much of his power in a long time. Even when he invoked Kagu, emotions had not mixed with chi itself. For that was the evil of falling into the trap that the emotions promoted; for all the extra power they could give, from anger to love, the consumption of chi was enormous. Dao, the origin of all things, living or dead, could not give without taking back. Even immortals, the cultivators beyond mere mortals, who dared to look him in the eye, to face him, to kneel before him, and then to benefit from a power beyond the imaginable, were obliged to accept and embrace such changes. They lived beyond chaos, death being but a brief glide in the face by the hand of those they dared to love in life. In return for eternal life, they had to agree to pursue an unfruitful life of happiness. It was the total commitment to a cultivator's life, the only true sacrifice.

Half the afternoon was spent sleeping. The sun was already down to half when Aurora finally woke up. Slim streams of orange lights reflected on the ground through the translucent blue paper that covered the entire window. She stretched out and got up. Outside, the flute’s sound dulled the moment. Aurora looked out the window. The only thing visible was Liu-Ken's lower right leg, the waterfall, and the small circular stream—calm as usual.

Aurora made her way to the garden. Her body had returned to its normal state and even her thoughts had calmed down. Only the idea of getting stronger had remained. Facing Yin made her realize that she still had a long way to go.

The world was full of fantastic characters and surreal adventures, everything she once thought was just myths and legends, and now she dreamed and recreated epic journeys in her head. As much as Bardolph had told her stories he said he'd heard in the cities where he used to go to sell old material in exchange for a few copper coins, he had never told her that there was any real fact in each one. He hadn't even told her about her father. Not that Aurora didn't get tired of asking about her parents, at least until she turned 15 and got tired of the same answer.

"One day we'll tell you everything."

That day never came. It was now for them that she clenched her fist on the way to the creek. For the time that had been taken away from them. But Aurora would not give up. She could not do it.

She had no family. She had no home. All she could do was dive in her adventure, on her training, in the bloody world of gods and deities, which had been awaiting her all her life.

Her fingers were already red and swollen when she walked past Liu-Ken. She nodded her head briefly and kept moving. She jumped over all the steppingstones that connected the edge of the creek to the main rock. She saw nothing else ahead but the oval monolith, with a small flat part on top, ahead of her. She climbed it on her first attempt.

The other half of the afternoon was spent meditating. Liu-Ken continued to read and reread the book and the handwritten manuscripts with the worn-out, yellow pages, and a few folded corners.

"She’s trying. Do you think she'll be able to do it in time?" Kagu asked him, his voice resounding throughout Liu’s body.

"I have no idea and it is my fault. I should have started training her earlier, but Bardolph stopped me. He said he didn't want her to have the same life that his son had had. How could I go against the wishes of her grandparents?" Liu-Ken asked Kagu, "They didn't even want to tell her that they were his real grandparents. They were ashamed of the path his son had taken and they even blamed themselves. The last time I saw them was 10 years ago and they were very explicit when they told me they wouldn't make the same mistake twice," he said.

"I understand you. You, humans, still get overwhelmed by emotions. If the boy is not ready for the bloody moon, he will die," Kagu said, the same thick voice as always. The ring shone, the purple light reflecting on Liu's white robe. "When are you going to tell her the truth?”

"When she manages to have the black chi under control and raise two or three undead."

"You have to keep her on our side. Yin cannot get her hands on her. Not after what happened last time," Kagu told him and sighed deeply, "life was easier when I lived in heaven, even if I was locked up. It’s someone's fault for invoking me a millennium ago. Ever since then. I've been bouncing from one hand to another, and, truth be told, not everyone who dared to wield me has earned my respect. But both you and Aurora's father deserved my respect. I will support the girl when the time comes. I will also die for her if needed. It doesn't mean that I support her vendetta."

"She is still young. The anger will eventually fade away. At least I believe so," Liu-Ken said and looked straight into the sun's remains. In a curved shape, a yellow light survived behind some clouds that didn't seem to bode well, "It looks like it's going to rain. Maybe tomorrow we should take the opportunity to see if she can raise one of the dead again," he said.

"You can feel it, can't you?"

"Her chi? Yes. It's growing. She's trying to contain it."

"She's doing it. That's not the problem. It is knowing whether she is relying on her good or bad thoughts. You know the difference between fighting on behalf of each one."

"Yes, I do. I've seen what anger and love do to people. Love is long-lasting, prevails to the last breath, and anger is momentary, an attack doomed to settle the battle, no matter which way it is," Liu-Ken said and looked at the ring. "You are usually not this chatty.”

"Being in that filthy casket for almost twenty years is exhausting," Kagu replied, "Even if time passes differently for me, I was made to fight. It's on the battlefield, among those who give their lives, that I was meant to be," Kagu said.

"Do you still blame yourself? I know I shouldn't ask a deity this, but I can't help but wonder how you feel about it. I blame myself for letting my partner go to the battlefield alone. I should have been there, even if it was my last day on earth," he said.

"For my mother? For burning her when I was born? I couldn't see it coming. I could not control myself. I was a passive agent in what happened. My father, Izanagi, cut me into eight pieces. Each of them became a volcano and my blood gave rise to my brothers who still patrol their areas today. That is why I always ask you not to enter into water with me. I feel watched. But that doesn't matter now. The night is coming. How long will she stay there?"

"I understand you. I'm sorry. I have no idea. But as long as she's in control, I see no problem," Liu replied.

The flute was still on the table, on the crease between two pages, now serving as a bookmark. The crickets’ whistle grew under the last flashes of light. A white dot arose amidst the nocturnal mysticism.

They did not dine. Aurora got up from the rock two hours after sunset. It was already 10 PM.

Troops marched on their way to the fishing town. The leader of the Kaji School had heard the reports firsthand and hastened to send a legion with more than a hundred Level Three soldiers. No longer would he let a necromancer survive long enough to jeopardize everything he had built and achieved. He had spent his days running around, shouting at all his subordinates, drinking alcohol until he could not stand up, and had to be carried to bed.

He still remembered what had happened last time. The secret that made his heart scarce, burning it slowly, rotting with fear that someone would discover it. The truth about how he had let his father die at the hands of the necromancer, only having intervened afterward. It was that night, the hellish night as it was known to all, that he became the leader of the Kaji School and was anointed as the necromancer's killer. Only Amaterasu, the sun goddess, knew the truth. She had backed him in his decision in exchange for a pavilion where her believers could pray and offer their sacrifices.

Exactly across the continent, a boy and a girl, both of whom had black robes covering their entire bodies and faces, departed from the temple where they had spent the last nineteen years. The cult leader had placed on their arms the mission for which they had trained all their lives; to carry the necromancer to glory by whatever means necessary.