On the misty plains of He-Yue village, in a lone cabin…

  Grandpa Xu held out his hand as a soft light formed around it, while the insect-like beast thrashed madly around the cage. Xu could feel the sheer.... life flowing from this odd creature, the echo of all it had absorbed. Xu concentrated, feeling something akin to a small silk thread forming between himself and the beast. The hunters watched with astonishment, unsure as to what was exactly going on.

  In a moment, Xu and the creature were within a new space, or so it seemed to them. Like a small island on the seething, rippling, chaotic flow of the river of the Way. This was another old trick of Xu's, an accomplishment only a master of Ki cultivation could produce. The beast, or rather, the echo of the creature within the Way, momentarily thrashed about. The connection Xu has established, naturally, was two way. Just as Xu could understand the experiences this creature had felt during its short lifespan, so could Tong feel the sheer enormity of Xu's old age, the deep wellspring of knowledge and experience he'd accumulated. For Tong, it was like standing ankle deep at the edge of a vast ocean. But, it was also the start of a slight understanding. A transfer of knowledge into Tong.

  "I see..." Said Tong, in a buzzing, quiet voice. Like the sound of wings fluttering together, transferred into something approximating speech. Xu was unsure if the creature actually had vocal cords on its physical body, but it could speak within the Way, at least.

  "You're a creature of Ki, little one. Well, all creatures are ultimately formed of Ki, but you are closer to the Way than I. A rare little gift." Xu said, gently. Tong noted that, unlike the wrinkled, old creature he'd seen earlier, this thing, this... human, was like a shadow of light, a mere echo. Xu could not enter the Way like Tong could, but was able to allow his spirit to reside there.

  "A... gift..." Tong didn't truly understand the foreign words at first, but it was as if alongside them came a trickle of knowledge. The beast calmed. Tong had always been more intelligent than a mere animal, but now it was learning the ability to express, to control itself. Patience, understanding, empathy. All of these traits blossomed within the insect’s head, though the Ki-beast was still a largely untamed being.

  Xu turned his head, and both of them saw another thing within the Way. The figure of a female human, with black hair and wearing a dress of chains, was staring at them and watching from a distance with a shocked expression. The entire surface of the Way around them roiled and rippled, nearly threatening to consume the two of them within the endless, seething currents of all-existence. To enter the Way was to expose one’s self to its power, but that also allowed for others to intrude if they had the ability to do so.

  “Ah, we should go.” Said Xu. “The oracle might tell those louts in the mountains what I’m doing…” And with that, the connection shattered, both beings suddenly thrust back to the world of flesh and bone.

  Xu was sweating heavily, and immediately turned and poured several ladlefuls of cold soup into his mouth. The hunters watching had only experienced a short moment of Xu with his eyes closed, groaning and focusing hard. Had the old man been in his prime and not been interrupted, this whole process could have gone much more smoothly.

  “Bah!” He shakily said, chugging down more soup. “Things didn’t go as planned. Deng, I’ll need you to get the local lord. Now. Don’t wait!”

  Deng stared in shock. Then, when Xu yelled, he dashed out of the house and into the night.

  Meanwhile, high in the mountains…

  The oracle gasped sharply, awakening from a deep trance. She glanced around furtively, but most of her attendants were away or asleep. She thought on what she had seen. The Ki-beast was well defined within the Way, a truly beautiful and terrifying creature. And what of that man? Another cultivator? She had sensed the presence of another occasionally while meditating, but hadn’t seen him so blatantly before. She thought on this strange sighting, and what to do about it. Then she called to for an attendant, and whispered something into her ear.

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  In the morning, in the city surrounding the Cloud Palace of Surrat.

  Cooking-fires spread their smoke, and people bustled about, careful not to bump into the Nama that had decided to grace their presence. Yui Goto rolled her eyes slightly, purposefully smiling and waving at excited children, even casually buying some flowers from a deeply shocked street vendor. The old fellow gazed at the gold coin in his palm reverently, as if he’d been gifted by a goddess. Yui sometimes wished she could be among the “rabble”. They seemed to live much more happy lives than those within the palace despite their frequent poverty. Being kind to them was Yui’s way of living up to the ideals most of her noble kin had forgotten. Although, there was another noble she knew who still held similar beliefs, and did not ignore those in need.

  Lord Ko, always looking respectable in his full armor, like a ninth rank Garakata should, was sweeping the front of a small store run by an old commoner woman. The woman openly wept, astounded that someone as lowly as her would receive such help. When Yui walked up with her own broom and placed the flowers in an old vase near the woman’s door, she stumbled inside with a shriek and nearly fainted.

  “Lord Ko.” Yui said, starting to sweep firmly. Ko didn’t respond, slow and careful in his efforts. Yui herself was wearing simple garb today, although she’d wrapped her herald’s sign around her neck, as she was supposed to.

  “I know you’ve been doing this as penance.” Yui said softly. Ko stopped sweeping, but didn’t look towards her.

  “You’ve been at this for a while, according to those foolish gossip-birds. I approve of you trying to help others, but you can’t keep burdening yourself. I did my duty, and failed. The fact you encouraged me to send that order doesn’t mean you need to suffer as well.”

  Ko remained silent for a time. They quickly finished sweeping, placed the brooms on the windowsill, and Yui adjusted one of the wood shutters, fixing it from creaking. When Ko started walking away, she followed.

  ”On the night we learned of the failed scouting party, the oracle mentioned something else. ‘New life’ in that same forest. I’m not sure if the events are related, but it was left out of the official accounts.” Ko said, whispering so only they could hear. “The path there isn’t easy, but there is a settlement of lowlanders on the other side of that forest. It’s not in the control of the Yaum’ana, never has been. We’ve never needed to claim a place so far from the mountains.”

  Yui nodded. She’d heard of the small village, called He-Yue. A bunch of country bumpkins, simple farmer lowlanders who didn’t understand the glory of the Survivor. There were records that some monks sent to the region were treated kindly, but otherwise there’d been little contact between the Yaum’ana and that particular village.

  “At the same forest those scouts were in? I went to the oracle myself, and she said my scouts disobeyed orders and went deep within Ao forest, not around it. Maybe this ‘new life’ is related somehow. Distracted them? It’s worth taking a look, if we can get permission.”

  Ko looked surprised when Yui revealed she had talked to the oracle. But his expression quickly became firm. “Yui. I would not usually advise this, but you are a Nama, and I’m two ranks higher. It’s better for us to beg a higher lord for forgiveness than ask permission right now. If you want to go, we go. Tonight, even. No following squad of guards, no scrolls written up. By the time they figure out we’re gone, they’ll just berate us when we get back. If we don’t do this way, we’ll never get permission to leave after the last expedition failed.”

  Yui looked conflicted on this, unsure. But then, she nodded softly.

  “I understand. I’ll pack tonight.”

  Deep within the forest of Ao, there was a lake. It had formed untold eons ago, even prior to the forest around it, created by the forces of the world itself. This great kingdom of water had housed countless generations of life, death, struggles and victories, all unknown to the stories of humankind. Sure, occasionally men had dipped their fishing-line and nets into the water, greedily taking some of its bounty, but this was a mere footnote in the long history of the Great Lake of Ao. And unknown to even the most learned of scholars or the cleverest of cultivators, the kingdom was home to a lord.

  In the deepest part of the lake, that vast darkness where the sun’s light could not reach beneath the water, a huge serpentine figure stirred. A great beast, the Lord of the Waters, opened its eyes. As it shook its head, lazily, working off ages of tiredness, one thought echoed through the mind of the creature. A thought so loud, it echoed through the Way itself. A mighty, all-encompassing hunger.

  Next time: An unexpected visit, a demonstration of power, and the meeting of two councils of rulers. The world turns towards to a new dawn…