Three colored flames floated before Yoshika. The first was a normal orange flame, flickering as any candlelight would. The second was a strange, ephemeral thing—multihued and glittering in patterns that didn't quite match a normal flame. It was the last of the three that gave Yoshika the most trouble. The ghostly green orb of soulfire was the subject of her study, and she was struggling.

No matter how much she tried to compare it to the other more natural elements of fire and plasma, she couldn’t manage to comprehend its deeper nature. The similarities between the three were mostly superficial. Fire needed physical fuel to burn, and was hot to the touch. Conversely, plasma could only burn other elements—its scintillating aura was anathema to any other manner of construct. Soulfire, on the other hand, burned away at the very soul, as the name implied. It was the source of Seong Eunae's bewitching gaze, and an element that she could wield in battle to interesting effect. But Yoshika couldn't understand what the link was between soulfire and the function of Eunae's gaze. Without understanding that, Yoshika was no closer to figuring out the nature of the geas Eunae's inner spirit had placed on her.

"You're not going to get anywhere just staring at it."

Yoshika sighed in exasperation and glared at Jianmo. Her demonic master—or at least, an image containing portions of his personality and memories—had taken up residence inside of her soulscape, and was making a nuisance of himself.

"Comments like that aren't exactly helping, you know."

Jianmo shrugged carelessly.

"Who said I was trying to help? I think you're wasting your time, trying to study an element you have no intention of using."

"Well, the least you could do is stop distracting us."

"What fun would that be? Besides, you're out of time. Someone's trying to get your attention."

Sure enough, Yoshika's concentration wavered as somebody shook her physical bodies. Blinking her eyes open, Lee Jia glanced up to meet the goat-like eyes of her little sister, Lee Narae.

"Wake up Big Sis, it's time for practice!"

Narae bobbed excitedly, eager to start her morning training. She always was, and her enthusiasm was infectious.

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Next to Jia, Eui stood up and stretched.

"You two get started without me, I'm going to check on Jung."

Just like that, the girls began their morning routine. It had only been a few days since they left Songdo, the capital of Goryeo, but they were already in Yamato territory. What should've been months of travel was made much faster through the use of Seong Misun's wind walking spell. Unfortunately, it still wasn't as fast as it could have been since they occasionally had to stop in order to accommodate Jia's sisters—Jung in particular got physically ill after each leg of travel. Without needing to stop and rest, they would've probably already arrived at their destination—as Misun constantly reminded them.

Still, they weren't in any rush, and Jia was looking forward to visiting Lady Tennin again now that they were back in the province of Noguchi.

"Why are we bringing this mortal with us again?"

Seong Misun's shrill complaints could be heard throughout their small campsite. She'd done almost nothing but complain since she was assigned to escort them as punishment for her involvement in the coup that had nearly overthrown Goryeo. Though she had been more of an unwitting pawn than an actual accomplice, it had been enough of an embarrassment that the Queen had essentially given her a soft exile.

"By the time we get to the Empire your idiot friend is going to be married and halfway through raising her second child."

Eui rolled her eyes as she completed Jung's checkup.

"Yan Yue can take care of herself. Lee Jung is coming with us because her health is half the reason for going to Qin in the first place. It's probably the only place in the world where we’ll find a better qi healer than me."

Jia ignored the argument to focus on her mock spar with Narae. Her little sister's mobility was impressive—Narae zipped through the air weightlessly with no regard for momentum or gravity. Unfortunately, her attacks also lacked any kind of force. While flying, Narae would struggle to disrupt even so much as a blade of grass or leaf on the wind. Over the last week, Jia had been working with her to practice selectively stopping and restarting the technique in order to allow her to land blows. The results were mixed.

"Ack!"

Narae tumbled through the air helplessly as Jia sidestepped an attempted strike. She'd gotten the hang of stopping her technique in order to give her blows force, but actually starting it back up again to prevent her from falling was a work in progress.

Jia moved like lightning, her steps leaving crackling sparks in her wake as she caught her little sister out of the air.

"You're getting better at that, but don't forget to plan for if your attack misses. You'll find that the ground is a much less forgiving teacher than I am."

"I would've made it."

Narae squirmed her way out of Jia's arms and took up her stance.

"Let's go again!"

"I think you’ve had enough for now. Besides, don’t you want to spend a bit of time playing with Heian before we have to leave again?"

Narae bounced up and down with excitement, her pointy ears wiggling as she responded.

"Yes yes yes! Can I?!"

Jia didn't even have to answer—the cat spirit had been listening and Jia's adopted daughter manifested next to her in human form.

"Let's go!"

The two girls ran off to play near the river that they had camped by, freeing Jia up to take care of her own business.

The camp was roughly split into three sections. Jia and her family had a small shelter—courtesy of Eui's father—for Jung and Narae to sleep in, as they were the only ones in the group who actually needed to. While resting, the girls would spend most of their time there if they weren't meditating. Rika, Eunae, and Ja Yun shared a small clearing where they would do their own training. Lastly, Seong Misun would run off somewhere to be as far away from the rest of the group as possible—at least until she found something to complain about.

Jia found Eunae and Rika chatting together over tea, and sat down to join them. Eunae began pouring another cup without prompting, and Rika flashed Jia a grin.

"Did you and the tyke have fun?"

Jia smiled gratefully at Eunae as she accepted her cup of tea before answering Rika.

"Yes, actually. She's progressing so fast that I can barely keep up! It's hard to believe she's not even eight years old yet."

Rika nodded sagely.

"Chiyo was like that too. Once she sets her mind to training there's no stopping her."

Eunae glanced behind Jia, furrowing her brow slightly.

"Is Eui not with you?"

Jia could always sense where Eui was—the two of them shared senses as long as they were within about a mile of each other. Eui was still arguing with Seong Misun, in part just to keep her from bothering anybody else.

"Still running interference with your sister."

Eunae huffed with a small frown.

"You don't have to do that, you know. I've dealt with Misun for years, I can handle her on my own."

Jia shrugged.

"Yeah, but now you don't have to. Besides, I think Eui likes having someone she can take her aggression out on."

Jia looked around the clearing, noting the absence of a certain lion girl.

"Is Ja Yun not with you?"

Rika cringed awkwardly.

"She…needed a bit of time alone. I think she’s still feeling a little bit overwhelmed after everything that happened."

Jia nodded.

"I can understand that. I know what it's like, having your entire life thrown into disarray like that. Do you think I should go talk to her?"

"Maybe? I'd probably give it a little bit more time."

Jia hummed thoughtfully, the three of them fell into a comfortable silence as they drank their tea. Eventually, it was Seong Eunae who broke the silence.

"Have you made any progress?"

Jia frowned. She knew what Eunae was referring to—it was always the same thing she asked after. She wanted to know if Jia had been able to figure out what Eunae's gaze had done to her.

"Not yet, sorry. We are still trying to figure out what soulfire even is, and how it works. I think the geas is some kind of soul damage, but I don't know how to find it. I still think this would go faster with your help, though."

Eunae visibly bristled, staring into her cup with a bitter expression.

"My 'help' is what got you into this situation in the first place. I think I've done enough damage already."

Jia and Rika exchanged a glance—it was a conversation they'd had before. Eunae felt incredibly guilty about what had happened to Jia and Eui's soul the last time they trained together, and she was terrified of a repeat.

Before Jia could protest, Eui's argument with Seong Misun came to a head and she was forced to pay closer attention.

"I'm not your ancestors-damned chauffeur! I'm only on this ridiculous mission because the Queen ordered it, and I have no intention of helping you in any way that I'm not strictly obligated to."

Eui scoffed.

"Your mission is to escort us, and that means you're obligated to take us where we want to go. If that means visiting a friend of ours in a border village, then that's what it means—you don't get to complain about it."

Misun clenched her fists and teeth angrily. Eui was having a little bit too much fun aggravating someone higher than her in status and power.

"Nice try, but I actually do have a specific route that I was given, and your detour isn't on it. So if you want to have your little visit, go ahead, but I'm staying right here—you can walk."

Eui opened her mouth to retort, but Jia took advantage of their link to close it again as she telepathically contacted her girlfriend.

"It's fine, Eui. We're close enough now that we can get there on our own—it won't even take that long."

Jia could feel Eui's desire to fight back, to win the argument and refuse to give up anything. Eui closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself before glaring back up at Seong Misun.

"Fine! But you'd better not go anywhere while we're away."

Misun waved off Eui dismissively.

"Yes, yes, I'll be here. Enjoy the little scrap of power you have over me while you can, Miss An. Just don't think I won't remember it when the tables are turned."

Eui ignored Misun's taunts and stomped off to rejoin Jia and the others. Rika waved at her as she approached.

"How did your chat with Big Sis go?"

Eui grunted noncommittally, while Eunae squirmed uncomfortably.

"I wish you would stop calling her that. It has implications about our relationship that I'm not sure I'm comfortable with."

Rika smiled awkwardly, and to Jia it looked like she was a little bit hurt.

"Yeah, sorry. I just started saying that to annoy her—I wasn't trying to make you uncomfortable or anything."

Eunae nodded.

"You're forgiven. I know you didn't mean anything by it, I'm just—I need more time to figure out what exactly our relationship is."

Jia cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but Seong Misun is insisting that we'll have to find our own way to Urayama village. I think I know the way, but…"

Rika waved her hands and shook her head urgently.

"No, no, I'll lead the way. Last time you two tried to navigate you ended up lost in the forest for two years. Lee Jung won't be able to keep up though, will she be okay here on her own for a bit?"

Eui shrugged.

"Her condition is mostly stable, and I just finished giving her a checkup. She should be okay for a few days, at least."

Jia nodded.

"And she'll have Narae for company, plus, I was thinking about asking Ja Yun to stay behind and take care of her. Although…"

Rika grimaced.

"You're right that she'd want to stay behind—she's definitely not in the mood for social visits at the moment—but I'm not sure she's going to like being given a responsibility like that, especially if it involves having to deal with Misun."

"Yeah…"

Ja Yun had been sullen and depressed ever since having her mind temporarily merged with Iseul, the slime-like mud elemental that she now carried around with her everywhere. Jia had been giving her space, but they were going to have to talk about it eventually.

With a resigned sigh, Jia stood up and brushed herself off.

"I guess I'll just have to talk to her myself, then."