Archive of Our Own

Twenty years ago, a child was born to a quiet seaside town, shedding a light upon it that would guarantee it to never have another day of silence again. Not to be mistaken with chaos, the peace that settled over the town and surrounding valley was of a preternatural variety. Its waters were bluer, its skies clearer, its forests always teaming with game life for hunters. The fishermen never pulled up an empty net, no one ever fell sick. The town quickly became renowned for its incredibly good luck.

As the years passed, slowly the epicenter of the miracles showed itself in the form of Yue Qi, a child born to a seemingly unremarkable family in a town that had, before his birth, been equally unremarkable. Within a few years of this discovery, people were lining up to meet him, hoping the luck would rub off on them. The family moved from their small house outside of town, into a much nicer estate in the town, which had grown by then to the point that it could be called a city. In the courtyard of the estate, Yue Qingyuan would meet visitors. At first, there were rumors that the Yue Family was exploiting their son's fame—until the miracles started happening, and people stopped caring about child exploitation.

It started out small. A visitor's achy joints vanished overnight, persistent headaches disappeared, a long-lost family ring was rediscovered. As more and more people visited, the miracles started escalating until they were completely out of control. Soon, the terminally ill were finding their deaths postponed by what would end up being a slightly longer than average lifespan, comatose patients were waking, long-lost family members were stumbling their way home, and a mythological creature was spotted in the lake after one particularly precocious child strong-armed Yue Qi into promising it would appear during a bright sunset.

No one knew that the miracles and amazing luck didn't come from Yue Qi, barring Yue Qi himself. By the time he was old enough to realize that some of that which was happening around him was a little out of the realm of ordinary, and that most of the people in his life were unhinged as hell, Yue Qi knew better than to put a crack in their perfect world. His parents' tight grip on his shoulder when they assured him that he could do it, every time it seemed a promise he made was finally, at last, far too out-landish, he knew the true meaning of the look in their eyes. They had come too far to fall now. A single failure would not just ruin them, it would send them spiraling into disaster.

Yue Qi was eighteen when he started to put the pieces together.

Adulthood had been a feather under his sash for some time, it was a sliver of freedom he'd been looking forward to, and it did not deliver its promise. Yue Qingyuan could have kicked himself for thinking anything would change. It was amazing the way family knew how to twist an invisible string and keep one bound by nothing by feelings and expectation. Of course he wouldn't abandon his parents. Of course he wouldn't leave. Of course the town wouldn't fall to ruin in his absence, for he would never be absent.

It was overwhelming. The last request he'd taken had been from a father whose child had, apparently, ran away to join Emperor Luo's harem. He hadn't had the heart to tell the old man that he'd never see that child again, and could only hope something would work out.

That lie had felt like more of a lie than any he'd ever told. He needed to get away. One thing lead to another, and Yue Qi had slipped out into the forest. Just a quick walk, he promised himself. He'd return before nightfall, but he wanted the pleasure of going somewhere unaccompanied, without someone trying to wrestle a wish out of him, even though he never made people fight for them. Everyone came expecting to be turned down.

(Admittedly, some of the extremely wild ones he turned down. One man asked to be made into a cat. Yue Qi had politely told him... no.

Another wanted his wife to smell like feet. Yue Qi had severely told the man that he did not do curses, even though he didn't really do miracles, either. The man emphatically insisted that it wasn't a curse, that he liked the smell of feet, and he definitely wanted his wife to smell like them. Yue Qi had physically thrown the man out.)

Sunlight filtered through a fresh green canopy, the forest a-glow with a faint misty haze that originated from a nearby river. Yue Qi was following a slender deer-trail, ferns curling around his legs as he went. It was, overall, a perfect afternoon. As it usually was, when Yue Qi wanted to go for a walk. All that was out of place was the lack of birdsong and insects. Usually, there was a steady hum, the steady breath of summer that only faded into autumn.

The spot of (deeply appreciated) lack of noise was not enough to make him turn back. He followed the deer trail until it came to a wide river. The shore was made of smooth stones, towering canopies hanging over it, with thin thread in the center of the river glimmered from unobstructed light. It was beautiful, but so was everything in the area around the city of Yue Qi's birth, and it was aesthetically perfect in a way that was expected. Yue Qi was half tempted to kick down a tree just to bring some variation.

Boredom propelled his hand as he threw a few perfectly-skipping-shaped rocks across the river. He wasn't trying to skip them. If he did, the rocks would probably skip to the other side of the river. Yue Qi picked up a larger rock, big and unwieldy, because he knew it wouldn't just plink gently into the water, it would actually cause waves, chaos, something other than mundane perfection.

The rock vanished before it touched the river. Yue Qi almost felt outraged, until the spot the rock vanished into started to froth. He blinked—and a man was standing there. A heavy fog rolled out over the river, originating from the point where the man stood.

Yue Qi noticed in quick succession: The man was standing on water, he was glowing, and he was injured.

Yue Qi had stumbled back when the water started bubbling. Now, he pushed further into the foliage, hoping not to be seen. Although the city had not seen a single monster attack since his birth, it stood to reason that not everything could be safe. If someone went out looking for trouble, they would find it.

Painstakingly, the man limped his way to the shoreline. His foot caught on a loose stone and he almost tipped over, barking a sharp curse that somewhat shattered the fae atmosphere. Blood stained the front of his pale green robes. He had a hand pressed to the wound, fingers covered in dark red. Yue Qi couldn't tell if the man's pallor was his natural complexion or from blood loss. The man swayed at the shore, blinking up at the canopy. Yue Qi could only imagine the number of canopies he was seeing. He eventually dropped to his knees, curling inwardly slightly, a low hiss sounding through the area.

It was the man tilting to the side so severely that he almost collapsed that prompted Yue Qi to finally show himself. This man seemed far too injured to have been any threat to him.

The man's head snapped up at the sudden movement from the forest-line. His dark brown eyes were wide, mouth dropping open. It appeared as though he was trying to force out words, until he abruptly gave up and narrowed his eyes.

"I want to help you," said Yue Qi, holding his hands out to show that he was unarmed. A closer look brought another detail to light: this man was devastatingly beautiful. Yue Qi really couldn't tell whether it was the blood or the man's face that made his mouth go dry. "If you would be willing to let me—"

The man staggered to his feet, taking a half-step back.

"Wait," said Yue Qi, a bit pitifully, wishing to reach out and take the man's arm and hold him there if necessary. "Wait, don't go—"

The man wavered unsteadily on his feet, but his gaze was entirely lucid. He seemed to be waiting for something. Yue Qi couldn't shake the feeling he was being tested. His next words would determine whether or not he was given a chance to know this man. Though they hadn't even spoken, Yue Qi desperately wanted to know this man.

"I can help you," he said, itching to move closer to the man, debating the likelihood of it pushing the man away entirely. "I haven't got any medical supplies on me now, but I can get them. We aren't too far from the city, I can get a carriage—"

Something changed in the man's expression. Yue Qi didn't see it so much as he sensed it.

"Or, or you can stay here," he said. "I'll come back to you."

The man shook his head. Yue Qi knew the man was about to leave before he had moved.

"Wait," He stumbled forward, reaching out.

"No."

The voice was low, unexpectedly soft. A rusted, broken edge to it told of having been long unused.

"But, you're injured—!"

Yue Qi's words echoed through the abruptly empty clearing. The young man had vanished so quickly, he could almost picture an afterimage where he once stood.

On the way back to the city, Yue Qi had thought of the young man's lucent body. He had practically melted back into the forest, as though he'd never existed at all. Once he was gone, the fog disappeared and the afternoon glow had returned. He was, without a doubt, the cause of the city's unnatural prosperity. Yue Qi couldn't think of any other explanation. As for why he was injured, Yue Qi received the answer to that a few days later, in the form of a letter. It was from the father of the youth who had joined Emperor Luo's harem. The youth had returned, having regretted their decision to leave home. A thousand different thank yous and forms of gratitude had flowed after that information, the father promising to always be there if the Yue Family should ever be in need of aid.

Yue Qi had dropped the letter, thinking back to the injuries, and realized that the young man must have had something to do with the youth's return. He might have even dueled Emperor Luo personally.

A creature powerful enough to fight Emperor Luo and survive lived in the forest outside the city. Yue Qi should have been afraid by that information, but on the contrary, he was fascinated. He felt as though he'd been living in a pall, just going through the motions, and in a single moment someone had breathed life into him.

The months passed quickly.

Yue Qi greeted visitors in the mornings and afternoons, and spent his evenings searching the forest. Though he never found evidence of anyone living there, Yue Qi couldn't shake the certainty that the man, when he wasn't performing miracles, was always there. It wasn't until winter that Yue Qi spotted the young man again.

It was a coincidence. Yue Qi couldn't fathom the number of times he'd just missed the young man in the woods.

The young man was simply walking through a meadow, clad in thick furs to stave off the cold. Although it was freezing, and Yue Qi's breaths clouded in the air, the same could not be said for the young man's breath. He couldn't think of a good reason for that, and simply filed it away as another oddity. Last time, the young man had all but ran away. Yue Qi wanted to approach him carefully, but the moment his eyes caught on the gleam of wintery light off his rich black hair, rationale took a hike.

"Hello!" His voice seemed obscenely loud for the tranquil meadow.

Flakes of snow drifted between them. The young man seemed less startled this time. Perhaps he had wanted Yue Qi to find him.

"I'm Yue Qi," he said, hasting to establish a connection. His mind had occasionally taken outlandish turns in the months since he'd last seen the young man. A few times, he'd even wished to find the young man trapped somewhere, so he'd have an excuse to rescue him. The fantasy had made him feel a little guilty. The guilt didn't quite outweigh the pleasure. "I'm glad I found you—I would really like to know your name."

The young man's expression was utterly blank.

"You don't have to tell me your real name," said Yue Qi, resisting the urge to cross the meadow and shake a word, a motion, out of the young man. "Something to call you by would be nice, though."

"You shouldn't be so quick to accept lies." The young man's response took Yue Qi aback.

"I also probably shouldn't be so fast to approach strangers in the forest," said Yue Qi lightly, all but floating over the moon now that he had finally gotten a reply. Now, if he could only get a name.

The young man frowned.

"Yes. That, too. You are—" his voice broke off slightly, before clearing. "You are far too reckless."

"I don't think you're a danger to me," said Yue Qi. "I would really like to know your name."

"Call me..." the young man trailed off, gaze losing focus. "Shen Jiu."

"Shen... Jiu. Jiu like—"

"Like the number nine, yes," said Shen Jiu, a bit testily, in the tone of one who was asked that many times and had gotten tired of answering it about one hundred thousand questions ago.

"It's good to meet you, Shen Jiu," said Yue Qi, unable to contain his splitting grin. He'd finally gotten a name.

The words had hardly left Yue Qi's mouth before Shen Jiu vanished again.

It took some creativity and tenacity to eventually pin down the elusive spirit within the forest, but Yue Qi was imbued with boundless reservoirs of those. Pin down naturally meant that Shen Jiu stayed in one spot long enough for Yue Qi to hold a conversation with him. Navigating those conversations was a challenge. The most innocuous word or comment would send Shen Jiu fleeing for the hills. Silence wasn't an option though; the one time Yue Qi tried to simply sit in silence, Shen Jiu had somehow worked himself into a fit, thinking Yue Qi was angry with him. Yue Qi couldn't begin to understand why he'd jump to that conclusion; they hadn't even known enough long enough to draw conclusions on the other. Thus, he concluded Shen Jiu was prickly and left it at that.

Long hours in the sun did wonders for Yue Qi's health. That was his excuse for taking long walks in the forest, getting his parents and other fretful souls off his back. As the weeks progressed, he started to worry that someone might follow him. So far, it hadn't been an issue, but Yue Qi already had roundabout paths mapped out in the event he needed to shake off a pursuer.

Shen Jiu was painfully reclusive. That was obvious almost from the first meeting, but as Yue Qi got to know him, it became evident that Shen Jiu wasn't just a loner—he outright isolated himself from all society. He didn't dare ask why. If idle comments about the caves in the mountains above the city was enough to make Shen Jiu vanish on him, he couldn't imagine what prodding over his past would do.

"I brought you sweets."

"Hm."

And that was how most of their conversations went. Until one evening, in the spring of Yue Qi's twentieth year. They were sitting by the river they'd first met in, the water babbling along, Yue Qi plucking out treats that he'd procured from the kitchens, and from vendors on his way out of the city, when Shen Jiu broke the gentle quiet between them.

"You have to stop coming out here," he said.

Yue Qi was hardly going to deign that with a response. They both knew he wouldn't stop trying to find Shen Jiu.

"It's growing dangerous," said Shen Jiu. "Your reputation has proceeded you. Stop making such grandiose promises to people."

Yue Qi observed him. He had the air of someone who'd seen everything, despite looking around Yue Qi's own age. A joke had never once escaped his lips, but Yue Qi still tried to find some sign of humor. Shen Jiu couldn't really think Yue Qi believed that he himself was responsible for the prosperity of the city.

"I've never thanked you for all that you've done," said Yue Qi, drinking in the way Shen Jiu went still, the minute changes in his expression, the way the tips of his ears went faintly pink. He was so tightly restrained, every grain of his soul gathered in a fist of control. Those moments where the facade cracked were intoxicating. "You've watched over this place for a long time, haven't you?"

"No."

"At least since I was born," said Yue Qi.

"Not so long." Shen Jiu crossed his arms over his chest. He was clad in thick fabric, a fur coat still hanging over shoulders despite the fact it was a warm spring day. It almost appeared as though he was burrowing himself in the fur. "Don't change the subject."

"I wasn't trying to, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize so easily," snapped Shen Jiu, visibly restraining himself from saying more on that matter. He closed his eyes, composing himself, long lashes fluttering over his cheeks. The anger had brought that pink from his ears to his cheeks. Yue Qi wanted to brush his hand against Shen Jiu's face, to feel the warmth he knew had to be there. "Just restrain yourself when making promises. Do nothing involving the Emperor again—you do not want to end up in his sights."

"It really was you who got that man's child back," said Yue Qi. "You fought Emperor Luo?"

"Don't say his name," said Shen Jiu.

"Alright, then—that doesn't change the fact you fought the emperor," said Yue Qi. "You're really something else, A-Jiu."

He didn't mean to let A-Jiu slip out so easily. They weren't nearly close enough, yet. But, it had been floating around in his head for so long, he'd spoken it as though he'd been doing it his whole life.

Shen Jiu shot to his feet, and Yue Qi was quick to follow, apologies already at the tip of his tongue. Before he could get a word edgewise, Shen Jiu had disappeared—all he left was a vague ripple in the air, as though reality itself was spinning from the sudden change.

Evening fell, the day growing cooler, and Yue Qi returned to the city, lamenting he'd made such an obvious and overreaching mistake. Shen Jiu had barely tolerated standing in the same forest with him, had to have any form of conversation painstakingly extracted from his mouth; Yue Qi couldn't imagine how he'd fooled himself into thinking Shen Jiu would ever be comfortable with such a level of familiarity. It was night when he turned up back at the estate, and he'd been downtrodden enough that the house staff noticed his somber mood. A few of them tried to cheer him up in a way that might have worked with other sons from other wealthy families: the news that his parents were looking for matches for him.

Long ago, Yue Qi put to rest the possibility of marriage. He didn't want to risk people thinking his "luck" was inheritable, and he also had zero inclination towards anyone, regardless of gender orientation. Some people had a wind in their sails, some had no wind in their sails, and Yue Qi thought he'd been born with no sails at all—until he'd met Shen Jiu. Maybe he still didn't have those sails, but he knew without a doubt that he loved Shen Jiu. The man was prickly, quick to leave in a huff; he was also insightful, and would do a thousand kindnesses without ever telling a soul. When they were together, a piece of Yue Qi relaxed, whispered a soft finally.

Naturally, he expected Shen Jiu to return. He just didn't anticipate that it would happen in the carriage that had been hired to take him to a potential match that his parents had arranged for him.

Yue Qi was going to politely refuse, as he had with every match before, and would until his parents were old and gray and inevitably gave up, but it was still a solid three weeks of his life he'd never get back. A week traveling, a week there, a week back. Too many weeks. But then Shen Jiu had materialized in the carriage, sitting across from him.

Shen Jiu looked different. It wasn't immediately obvious, but his eyes were rimmed in subtle red color. His lips a deeper shade of cherry. Half of the silken black hair that usually hung freely around his shoulders was pulled up, tied in place with a plain white ribbon. It wasn't much, a dusting of gold touched to already beautiful painting, but Yue Qi couldn't take his eyes off him.

"You're doing the opposite of what I told you," said Shen Jiu.

"It's not on purpose," Yue Qi admitted sheepishly. "It's just easier to let a suitor down than tell my parents no."

"You should familiarize yourself with saying no," said Shen Jiu. "It's an essential part of life."

"You haven't met my parents," said Yue Qi with a tired laugh. He glanced down at the silver chains hanging from the deep blue cloak around Shen Jiu's shoulders. It was a new one. "Are you... planning on meeting someone today?"

"I was."

"And?"

"I've just met him," said Shen Jiu, a faint smile on the edges of his lips. It was the first smile Yue Qi had ever seen him give, and Yue Qi was already dedicating himself to making sure he saw it many, many more times.

"Would it be terrible if I hoped you found him lacking?" asked Yue Qi.

"There are more terrible fates to wish on someone," said Shen Jiu, "but it would be unfortunate for you."

"Oh, you're meeting me!" said Yue Qi with feigned shock, bringing a hand to his chest. "I take it back."

Shen Jiu's smile widened a fraction, eyes glinting. It was a deadly look on him, and it took Yue Qi's breath away.

The moment passed once they entered the city Yue Qi's potential suitor lived in, but Shen Jiu didn't settle into the blankness Yue Qi had become accustomed to. Rather, his nose wrinkled in distaste.

"This cretin."

"You know Lord Jue?"

"Who?" said Shen Jiu with blatant pettiness, rolling his eyes.

The carriage bumped and rolled along the city roads. Guilt budded in Yue Qi's chest, like an old friend resting a cold arm around his neck, when he thought of their last parting.

"I want to say, before the carriage stops—"

"Hm?" Shen Jiu's eyes cut from the city to him. The red eyeliner made them look even darker.

"What I said, before you left, I overstepped," said Yue Qi. "I shouldn't have. I don't know what got into me, but I won't say it again—"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," said Shen Jiu.

Yue Qi drew short. "What?"

"This cretin is nothing, but he's still a threat. So, I'll be coming in with you."

"Oh. How should I introduce you?"

Shen Jiu twirled a lock of black hair around his fingers, before pointing languidly out the window. "See that?"

Yue Qi looked. He saw nothing but the street, vendors lined up with their goods, throngs of people walking to and from various places. A man rode on a donkey that was pulled by another man, clad entirely in white and pale blue.

He looked back. "I don't see anything—" He stopped, once again taken aback. In the time between him looking out the window and letting the curtain fall, Shen Jiu had changed again. This time, the change was dramatic. Gone were his fine clothes, his make up, his cloak. He was clad in a simple blue robe, hair pulled into a severe updo. "How?"

"Don't question it," said Shen Jiu. "And to answer your question, you'll introduce me as your servant, A-Jiu."

"A servant? A-Jiu, I can't possibly—"

"There's nothing wrong with being a servant," said Shen Jiu. "I spent a few years of my life as a servant."

"I didn't mean that there's anything wrong, I just..." He had just wanted Shen Jiu to walk in beside him, lofty and beautiful. He wanted Lord Jue to take one look and know that Yue Qi was taken by someone else. Admittedly, the fantasy had gotten a bit out of hand in his own head. "I could introduce you as a friend."

"It's better this way."

That was arguable. Yue Qi would have pushed, but the carriage came to a halt and they arrived at Lord Jue's estate. It was quite large, situated towards the center of the city itself. Their reception was befitting of the estate and the noble status of the Jue Clan, and Yue Qi had accepted a request to join Lord Jue for tea before he thought better of it. Asking for time to freshen up after the long ride to the estate would have been understandable. But he wasn't trying to impress anyone and he wanted to get it out of the way. Additionally, he didn't like the way some of the people in the estate had watched Shen Jiu, eyes skittering up and down his form. There was a distrust in those gazes, despite Shen Jiu appearing, for all intents and purposes, to be an ordinary servant.

Some attributes couldn't be entirely wiped away. Yue Qi thought of that as he came to the pavilion in which he'd greet Lord Jue. Shen Jiu was not human. Yue Qi wasn't entirely certain he was a demon, either—he was something else entirely.

To his credit, Lord Jue was polite. He was clearly after the prosperity of Yue Qi's city and not anything that Yue Qi had personally to offer, but that was to be expected. Like the rest of the estate staff and guests, his eyes kept darting to Shen Jiu. Yue Qi wondered if demons could sense something that he, a full-blooded human, could not.

"What did you say your servant's name is, again?" asked Lord Jue, after the painfully boring conversation about the economics of the city had petered out.

Yue Qi had never actually formally introduced him. "His name is Shen Jiu." He felt Shen Jiu's eyes on the back of his neck, after introducing him with his full name rather than what they'd agreed on. "He's a family servant."

"He's very willful," said Lord Jue.

"Hm?"

"Ah, but of course, he's standing behind you. He is not afraid to look," said Lord Jue. "Fret not, I won't eat your master."

By look, Yue Qi presumed he meant glare. He had to resist the urge to look back.

"How have you found the city?" And so the conversation lulled on. Yue Qi wanted to inform the demon lord as soon as possible that he wasn't interested in any kind of relationship, outside strictly professional. He somehow suspected the demon lord knew that he didn't want to discuss anything permanent or binding, as Lord Jue kept diverting the topic to something else every time Yue Qi brought it up. "Have you heard the rumors coming from the Emperor's palace?"

He had not. Lord Jue nodded, "I'm not surprised, it's been told you don't go out very often. It's all kept very hush, so it's best not to repeat it too loud—"

"If it's best not to repeat," said Shen Jiu, interrupting without warning, his tone very cold, "then perhaps you shouldn't repeat it."

Outrage gathered around Lord Jue like a cloak, his shoulders going tense. "Lord Yue, your servant—"

"He has my permission to speak freely," said Yue Qi, smiling beautifically, as if the temperature at his back wasn't plummeting to subzero. The pressure was all but palpable. "Perhaps there is something else you wished to speak about?"

"I..." The demon lord was squinting behind Yue Qi now, as though peering out over a great distance. At first, he didn't seem to realize what he was looking at. Yue Qi was really dying to look back now. He was half expecting the demon lord to start screaming in horror something (that was happened in novels during these kinds of scenes, wasn't it?) but instead he blinked and the spell seemed to break. "I..."

He looked confused. Yue Qi was almost worried. Almost.

The conversation was more or less dead after that, so Yue Qi wasn't surprised when a servant came as though summoned to extricate the demon lord from the meeting. He and Shen Jiu were escorted to guest quarters. There was a small room attached to the main quarters for Shen Jiu, in which Yue Qi had no intention of letting Shen Jiu sleep.

"He's got the good stuff." Shen Jiu's voice came from behind a row of dividers. The fabric of the dividers was thin enough that he could see Shen Jiu's silhouette behind it. As for why Shen Jiu was behind it—Yue Qi didn't know, until he stepped out, in another set of loose robes with his hair draping down his back. He was tempted to ask how many outfits Shen Jiu had, but he also wanted to ask why he'd bothered to change behind the divider if he could do so instantaneously, and he ended up saying nothing. In Shen Jiu's hands was a wooden box, gilded with gold. He was digging around in it. "No wonder he was so calm."

"What is it?" asked Yue Qi.

Shen Jiu flipped the box around in his hands, showing piles of twisting knots of greenery. ¹ They debated the merits of smoking it right then and there, before Shen Jiu stowed it away (somewhere) under the pretense of Yue Qi needing to remain lucid. Yue Qi suspected he wanted it for himself.

It was approaching late afternoon, so Yue Qi had food ordered to be taken to his rooms. A servant asked if Yue Qi would be dining with Lord Jue again, but backed off when Shen Jiu started glowering again—once again appearing like a servant.

A fairly uneventful week passed at the Jue Estate, and Yue Qi and Shen Jiu started on their way back. Yue Qi knew the demon lord wouldn't contact the Yue Estate again for another visit. He was already prepared for his parents' disapproval, but all that was faraway when he was near Shen Jiu all day. It hadn't occurred to him to wonder why Shen Jiu had stuck so closely to him the entire time until three days into the voyage back. They were waylaid, temporarily, by a group of demons and humans on horseback. There were no identifiers on them, but the organization with which they moved indicated they were probably hired mercenaries. A good ten of them had surrounded the carriage. For all of a heartbeat, Yue Qi thought it might be an issue, but then Shen Jiu had vanished from his side.

Outside, a thick fog started to roll into the area. Somewhere in the distance was a sound like thousands of hooves falling, wild screams echoing faintly. Before he could get a good look of what was happening, the curtain was snapped shut. Shen Jiu's voice, as though from a hundred li away, whispered, "Stay put." And Yue Qi, curious as he was, had only managed to obey for a few breaths. He pushed the curtain aside a sliver, peering out at the haze, where no more mercenaries were standing on the road. Occasionally, a blade glinted through the fog, like the crescent moon passing across the sky.

Before anything had even begun, it was already over. The fog dissipated in the sunlight. All that was left of the mercenaries was bones. Vines curled around the scattered bones, rich crimson mushrooms sprouting out of eye sockets and ball joints. Shen Jiu was nowhere to be seen—until he materialized back in the carriage.

Yue Qi dropped the curtain, taking note of the droplet of blood that had splashed on Shen Jiu's face. It clung to his jawline, threatening to drip onto the pale hem of his robes. He reached out and brushed the blood off Shen Jiu's face with his thumb, wiping it off on a handkerchief. Shen Jiu went stiff at the sudden touch.

"You looked." Shen Jiu sounded almost petulant.

"Just a little," said Yue Qi, "and how could I not look? I've never seen you work in person before. I can see now how you could have fought Emperor Luo."

Shen Jiu curled his upper lip and Yue Qi remembered what he'd said before about the emperor. "Don't speak his name in front of me."

"You two have a history together?"

Shen Jiu grimaced faintly. "You could say that."

He said nothing more on the topic. Extracting information from Shen Jiu was like pulling teeth sometimes. Yue Qi thought about pushing more, weighing the possibility of Shen Jiu straight up leaving. "Why have you tied yourself to the welfare of the city?" asked Yue Qi, figuring that Shen Jiu wouldn't leave if he was worried that the carriage might get attacked again. "What led you there?"

"I haven't pledged myself to the city, I don't do anything for them."

"Why are you helping us, then?" asked Yue Qi, carefully not asking, Are you doing it for me? Yue Qi hoped that was the case. It wasn't particularly noble of him to want to be the center of Shen Jiu's universe, but every tale of his nobility and grace had been vastly overblown by tearful and grateful visitors—thanking him for a service that he had never been the one to give.

"It won't feel like helping if you get much more popular," said Shen Jiu. "It's only a matter of time before you're forced to say no to the wrong person."

"Like the emperor?" said Yue Qi, watching Shen Jiu for every reaction. He was a veritable glacier, but that didn't mean he was without tells. As for why Yue Qi was so good at reading him—he had his own theories. "He injured you badly that day. Do you think he might pay a visit?"

"No, be thankful you haven't quite reached that level of infamy," said Shen Jiu. "Some strive to be immortalized, they look to people like him to make it happen. They hope that even being in the same room with him will share some of the wealth he's gained."

"I can't say I've ever wished to be well-known," said Yue Qi, thinking over the long years since he'd been a child, living in a small house outside an unremarkable town, dirt smeared on his nose.

Life was emptier in the walls of the city estate. But it wasn't as though that numbness had grown after the town discovered his "good luck." He'd almost forgotten, but it started small. He promised a girl that a toy she liked, lost in the river, would be found. It was a fool's promise, he'd known he couldn't find it, but he'd looked up and down the river with the girl all day, desperate for a friend. Some time spent together might make her want to be his friend, even if they never found the toy. Yue Qi found it, washed up on the shore and in excellent condition, as if the river had deposited it for him. It had only escalated from there, stemming from a simple desire to have a friend. Even before the "miracles," there had been an emptiness he couldn't fill.

The impulse to take Shen Jiu's hand struck him from nowhere. That pervasive numbness that Yue Qi had known almost his whole life had melted away the moment he laid eyes on Shen Jiu.

"I feel that..." he trailed off, uncertain whether or not to voice his innermost thoughts. Something that was less of a theory and more of a desperate hope had been ruminating in his mind for some time now. At first, it had felt like dreaming he was king of the world—so outlandish and overreaching that he'd tried to stamp out the idea entirely. In the way of ideas, it burned on, embers popping and crackling when he least expected. Sometimes they flared. They were flaring now. "I feel that I've known you before," he said, the words tumbling out faster than he could keep up, "I feel that I've known you all my life, and not in that you've brought so much prosperity to the city, but that, when I look at you, I... I am filled with an unbearable joy."

He risked a look at Shen Jiu and instantly knew, the way the air sometimes smelled of lightning before it struck, that Shen Jiu was going to leave. He snagged Shen Jiu's sleeve, as if his mortal hand could keep him there.

"Don't go," he said, almost pleaded. "Don't say I'm imagining it, either."

Shen Jiu put a hand, cool and dry, over Yue Qi's. The touch made Yue Qi's skin tingle. He moved Yue Qi's hand from his sleeve, but didn't let go.

"You don't know me."

And then he was gone, leaving Yue Qi reaching out to thin air. His last statement seemed to linger.

You don't know me.

Those words could be spoken until the sky dissolved and the universe collapsed, but that wouldn't make them true. In the weeks following Shen Jiu's disappearance, Yue Qi dreamed. His dreams were often bizarre and alarming, veering into downright horrifying at times, and often left him wishing he never dreamed. Sometimes, in his youth, he would dread going to sleep and being inflicted by nightmares. Eventually, he learned to bear it. He also realized that sleeping late tended to mitigate his chances of dreaming. As such, Yue Qi had been a night owl for most of his life, burning candles deep into the night as he poured over books and letters and work that his parents really should have seen to themselves. It was all too easy for him to step into the shoes of a de facto head of the family.

Despite Yue Qi's best efforts at keeping his mind occupied, dreams had been known to slip through the cracks. Haunting visions, the sort of horror that didn't become ashes at death, but clung to the soul like a scar. Yue Qi had known who the person was at a flash of skin, at the sharp absence of them at his side, had known before the awful "gift" was opened the gruesome display that lay inside it. Knowledge did little to prepare him for reality, knowledge and thoughts were just a shadow of reality, and seeing it with his own eyes had made a fragile piece of Yue Qi die, so deeply buried within him that the protective walls he'd built to protect it became its tomb. A tentative hope that one day, everything would be better.

Yue Qi woke feeling deeply unmoored, refusing himself the urge to go around his room touching and tapping solid objects for the sake of ensuring they were real, because some part of that would be an admission of fear. To fear the phantoms in his head was to give them legitimacy. Yue Qi was grappling with a veritable landslide in his head, a thought that roared but he convinced himself was a small whisper so it wouldn't lead him to fully unpack the implications of any of those dreams being real. Dread such as that wouldn't go quietly though, leaving Yue Qi standing in the window of his room, cool morning light pouring over him, in a ghostlike state of unreality where he half-expected the ground to start curling up on itself like a scroll, neatly packing away the parts of the world he didn't want to acknowledge.

The forest, a forever mysterious place with a dreamy atmosphere where the impossible was accomplished seemed the last place for him to go in his state of mind. Yue Qi sought it out anyway.

He ate breakfast with his parents that morning, for the first time in what felt like ages. The experience was bittersweet, for reasons he couldn't name, but he found himself studying their faces as though this was his final day alive. Each line, each streak of gray hair, the way they fretted and fussed and scolded; they wanted him to get married, to have children. Every word that came out was another word for "live, live, live." Live your life. As though the world was a shadow puzzle and he'd finally shifted it into the right position, he understood their meaning. He told them he was going for a walk.

To give credit where it was due, he was telling the truth. His destination being the forest and the ghost king, as Yue Qi had put those pieces together, living in there were just unmentioned details.

"Are you really going to hide from me?" Yue Qi's question was enveloped by the heavy fog that had appeared in recent weeks. He had gone deeper into the forest than ever before, where the canopies towered almost higher than human eyes could see. Shen Jiu had made this forest his own, intentionally or not, and Yue Qi knew his voice was heard, wherever Shen Jiu was hiding. "I wasn't trying to sound impressive, or mimick the poets, when I said that I had known you since before we met."

"You don't remember anything." Shen Jiu stepped out of the fog. Yue Qi knew he'd been there the whole time. "You wouldn't be—" The words were soft, but he cut himself off sharply, tone taking on a harder edge. "Why are you here?"

"The same reason as ever," said Yue Qi gently, and the flash of annoyance in Shen Jiu's eyes made him want to smile. It made Shen Jiu more than cold and aloof, than the ghost that he was—it made him alive. "Why else have I ever sought you out, time and again, even if you don't want me?"

"I have never indicated or otherwise said that you are unwanted," snapped Shen Jiu, one hand coming up to his face, a fan unfurled, the metallic tips of the spines the only glint besides Shen Jiu's eyes in the fog. "And stop playing coy."

"So, it's alright for A-Jiu to tease, but not for myself? Duly noted." Yue Qi couldn't hold back his smile anymore. It wasn't really an argument, it never had been—they were motions and Yue Qi was dancing through them. They both knew it. "A-Jiu, will you let me be with you? For good, this time."

"That's a cruel question to ask," said Shen Jiu, "do you really expected me to give the right answer? When have I ever not been selfish?"

"Selfish? A-Jiu, between the two of us, I don't believe it's you who is selfish," said Yue Qi. "And it's alright, you don't have to answer the question, I'll just go along with you anyway."

"With all your human ability and talent?" said Shen Jiu, moving his fan aside to show a corner of his taunting smirk.

"I'll just make a promise to A-Jiu," said Yue Qi, "that I will never leave him again. In this life, or the next thousand lives."

The fan snapped shut with a soft, "Oh."

Yue Qi held out his hand, palm upwards. "Please, let me keep this promise?"

And with no hesitation, Shen Jiu placed his hand in Yue Qi's.

1. Weed. Lord Jue had to go find some grass to hang onto because he couldn't tell if the murderous aura hanging around Shen Jiu was something wrong with the weed or if it was actually Shen Jiu. return to text