"What would you do if your thread of fate with her worsened after you asked? In my humble opinion, it would be better...if you didn't ask." – Stone of Destiny fairy, Pillow Book 2, chapter 16

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She only had a few minutes to mull over what sort of tasks or official position would be interesting and challenging enough for Gungun. She was mulling over the idea of throwing the throne of this Eastern Realm she ruled to Gungun, but soon discarded it.

Her son, and soon her daughter's, official rank and positions were complicated. As the son of Dong Hua Dijun, by the laws of Jiuchongtian Gungun was an Imperial Prince, and addressed as such. But he was also her son, a prince of Qing Qiu and thus eligible to rule the throne of the Eastern Realm, which she often forgot was unofficially the Imperial seat of the Kingdom of Qing Qiu.

As a result she really could not throw the position of Ruler of the Eastern Wilderness to Gungun so easily, not without causing a mess with her sons official rank and position in Jiuchongtian, and probably a major diplomatic problem. She'd just finished sighing loudly about the whole mess when Mi Hu entered the room.

"Young Hi-," Mi Gi began to say before he self corrected, "Ah! I mean my Queen, your meal and medicine is ready.", Mi Gu finished speaking as he came over to the table she was sitting at.

She was sure Mi Gu would be rubbing the back of his head awkwardly at his slip of the tongue if he hadn't been carrying the tray. Secretly, she enjoyed that Mi Gu still thought of her as 'Young Highness', it was endearing.

Gungun had vehemently disliked being referred to as 'young highness' and ten thousand years ago started to ask everyone to call him 'highness'. He thought himself much too old and mature to be referred to as such. Little did he realise that his request to be referred to in a more adult manner only made it more obvious how young he was. But still, everyone indulged him and did not appellate 'young' onto his title when addressing him.

Mi Gu came over to place the meal and medicine on the table; she thanked him and moved to start eating. But there was something very strange about this scene; she paused midway from removing the soup lid. It took her a few moments to figure out and she nearly dropped the lid in surprise.

"Since when did you go anywhere near a cooking fire?", she asked, confused.

"Ah, Dijun made this for me, the fire does not burn me now." Mi Gu replied as he took something off from around his neck.

She put the soup lid down and took the proffered pendant.

It was grey, cool to the touch and lighter than she expected. She looked more closely and realised it was a leaf from one of Mi Gu's branches, turned into stone. Well, almost stone, she saw that the veins on the leaf were red and glowing ever so softly, like banked coals. She rubbed her thumb over the veins, half expecting heat, but it was as cold as the rest of the leaf. Curious she used her power to probe the leaf. She was no artificer, and she could only tell that it was complex, a confusing jumble of spells, intent and power she could not begin to make sense of. Dong Hua always did enjoy making things are horrifically complicated as he could, just because it gave him something to do and it passed the time.

What she did feel was its purpose, and it was as Mi Gu said, it protected against flame and heat, but was so powerful that it likely rendered the wearer immune to all forms of flame, including ones produced by extremely powerful divine beings. She thought it was a bit scandalous that it was being used to protect against mundane cooking flames.

Was this what Dong Hua had been doing while she had been spending time with Gungun?

Only he would create an extremely powerful artefact for the sole purpose of making sure she was not inconvenienced for a few days. As if having to cook or brew her own tea even if she did not feel like it was worth such a fuss. But he had fussed, and she loved him for his thoughtfulness, even if Mi Gu was now carrying something that lesser clans would wage war to obtain.

"It's very pretty" She said, as she handed the pendant back to Mi Gu, who reclaimed it with a happy smile, quickly tucking it back into his robe. Dong Hua had likely told him to keep it hidden; good. She'd be put out if it actually started a war.

"After I've eaten, could you bring me any missives I've missed since last week?" She asked as she picked up the spoon to begin eating.

"Of course! Afterwards I was thinking of going to the market to pick up ingredients to try and make cakes!" Mi Gu declared, clearly not able to contain his glee, that he did not have to fear fire anymore.

"Do you even know how to bake?" She asked, sceptical.

"No," he replied with a cheerful grin, "but I am happy to try."

"You might be immune to fire now, but the Fox Den isn't. I'll come and supervise after I've read the missives." She stated.

"Then I will go to the market now, if that's acceptable?" He asked.

"Of course! Shoo Shoo!" She used her spoon to motion him off, and then happily started to eat the now pleasantly warm soup once he had left.

She had the feeling that it was going to be hard to pull Mi Gu away from the cooking fire. Ah well, if she gained a bit more weight in the next few days she could always blame it on the baby.

So long as the Fox Den did not turn into the Fire Den.

The next morning she was going to supervise breakfast, but Mi Gu seemed a bit hurt that she did not trust him, so she left him to it. He was handling the fire perfectly, and in any case there was not much in the Fox Den that could realistically catch fire. After breakfast, she finished off the last of the red bean cakes they'd made the night before, and answered the remaining missives.

After that was done, and with nothing pressing to do, she decided to write to her father and ask if he and mother wanted to visit. She made it sound like she would be unavailable until after Dong Hua was to return three days from now. It never hurt to be careful. Both her parent's respected and loved Dong Hua now, the earlier animosity surrounding the turbulent start their to the relationship had vanished ages ago. But they were still her parents, and they would likely disapprove if they came to find out she'd been 'abandoned' while pregnant, even if it was for noble world-peace related reasons.

Letter in hand she found Mi Gu replacing the used candles from last night with fresh ones.

"Mi Gu, could you send this to my father when you get a moment?"

"Oh, of course, I'll do it right away!"

"There's no rush, it's not urgent".

The familiar feeling of living in the Fox Den, with just Mi Gu around for the most part was bringing forward so many memories. When she'd visited her Eastern Realm of Qing Qiu in the past, it was almost always for a serious or time critical matter that needed her attention. She rarely had the time to just wander and walk around like used to, but now she had the time, and the urge was strong.

It felt strange to not have her bells jingling at her ankle, but the past month had made her ankles swell uncomfortably. She was not prepared to alter the strings on the bell so she kept them safe on her dressing table. She always tapped it with her finger in the morning to make it jingle as an apology for not wearing them.

"I'm going for a walk, I'll be back before evening," she saw Mi Gu open his mouth to ask where she'd be, and she continued before he could ask, "I'll be staying in Qing Qiu, to the south and elsewhere, and maybe I'll visit Zhe Yan and Uncle Bai Zhen later in the afternoon." She mused.

"Of course, I'll have dinner prepared for when your back." Mi Gu stated with far more excitement than she'd ever expected. At this rate, she might just have a rival in the kitchen in a few hundred years.

"You can mirror me if any urgent matters arise." Not that crises' happened regularly in the Eastern Realm. If she'd been given the rule of any other area of Qinqiu she would not have been able to live in Taichen Palace so leisurely.

Well except maybe her Uncle Bai Zhen's Northern Realm, which aside from Li Yuan's uprising thirty thousand years ago, had never had any issues or problems he'd had to solve. It meant her Uncle was free to lounge about in Zhe Yan's peach forest as much as he liked without it being a detriment to the land he ruled.

The mirrors had allowed Mi Gu to contact her if there was an urgent message or supplicant issue that needed her to be present. She had another mirror she always carried that connected to one Dong Hua also carried. But as they were rarely apart for any length of time, it was rarely used.

With that she teleported to the Southern Realm to stretch her legs. Being able to teleport was surely the best perk that had come from her ascension to High Immortal, no more cloud flying needed for her.

A moment later she appeared in the Southern Realm where her uncle Bai Xuan ruled. If she was adhering to courtesy, she should go and say hello to him and little Mei. But she'd always found her eldest uncle Bai Xuan to be just a bit....boring. Plus, she'd seen them just a few days ago with Gungun, so she felt entitled to this unannounced jaunt.

She arrived at her favourite waterfall in all of the Kingdom of Qinqiu. It was not massive, as far as waterfalls went, but she loved how it nestled into the mountain. The air was warm but the water was cold as the water rushed down from the high frozen peaks. Many colourful birds were perched on branches, watching and chirping.

West of the mountains was as verdant as anywhere else in Qinqiu. But east of the mountains it quickly became a desert as the mountains blocked moisture from falling on the other side. She loved the duality of it, to be able to travel only a few miles and be in a desert from this tropical paradise. She let out a sigh of contentment as she sat by the waterfall, and happily let her mind wander in memories.

She remembered bringing Dong Hua here when she was showing him her favourite places growing up. She'd teased and boasted about how he had only a single waterfall in Taichen Palace, while she had many to enjoy in Qing Qiu.

One day not long after Dong Hua had taken her to one of the least used garden areas in Taichen and she found it had changed dramatically. Where once there had been a slow meandering stream, there was now a rather impressive waterfall. It was much larger than the one in his garden quarters; its pool could fit fifty swimmers comfortably.

It quickly became her favourite place in Taichen Palace. Soon enough everyone knew if they could not find her in the inner rooms, main hall, courtyards, or the lotus pool they would find her leaning against her tree in the waterfall garden.

There were trees planted around the field, each of them offered a different and perfect view of the fall. Her favourite was one of the furthest from the fall, sat on a small mound. It was not flat enough for a picnic, but it was perfect for two people to sit and enjoy the scenery. Dong Hua often came to join her when they were both free. Fengjiu blushed as she remembered a night roughly three years ago where Dong Hua had joined her for a late night swim. The baby growing inside her now had very likely been conceived that night.

The flame of her cheeks brought her back to the present. She realised she'd been sitting and reminiscing for a few hours, and it was mid-afternoon already. She stretched and rose, then wondered where to go next. She wanted to go to the desert only a few miles east, but she had no water containers, and could not be bothered to go back to the Fox Den quite yet.

She was still pondering when she looked up and saw the snow shining brightly on the mountain. Another memory stirred, of a snow covered birch forest, and a snowball fight. Well, it wasn't much of a fight. If she remembered correctly she'd thrown a single snowball at Dong Hua and had spent the next hour dashing around the place giggling like a madwoman as he rained snowy hell upon her. She'd been thankful for the many birch trees that were available to hide behind.

It was early summer, so there would be no snow now, but she decided to revisit it anyway. In her summer dress she wasn't quite dressed for snow, and her baby daughter might start kicking if she got too cold. Destination decided she spent another moment stretching before she teleported to the Western Realm of Qing Qiu.

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Ghost Realm, Woods bordering Qinqius Western Realm. - Unammed Ghost Band

Wei Gang was irritated. The man he'd sent to scout the forest to ensure the border was clear for crossing came back with frustrating, if interesting news. The border was clear to cross, save for a single woman walking in the woods on the Qinqiu side. Not one to take chances he took four others with him to double check the information.

Sure enough, there was a beautiful woman, some deity or other by the look of her clothing. She was in the way of where he'd wanted to cross the border. There had been a reason the traitors had chosen this path. It was secluded and the border markings were unclear.

"Instead of avoiding her, why don't we take her?" Came the glee-tinged suggestion from Ju Li. She was one of only three women in his merry band, and by far the most bloodthirsty.

"The boss might overlook the fact the traitors were from our band if we bring him such a pretty plaything." Was the response from the scout, Wei Gang had never bothered to remember his name.

"So long as we bring him the traitors' heads too, that's what we are here for." Wei Gang reminded, aware that the traitors were only a few miles over the border, quick to capture, but more risky the further they moved into Qinqiu territory.

"I ain't comfy fightin' out'a our land." That was a surprisingly skittish, but unsurprisingly dumb statement from Cang Fu.

Ju Li saved him from having to respond. "It's not Kunlun or Heaven, you idiot." Came her vitriolic statement.

Cang Fu looked ready to strike her, and he really could not be bothered to deal with them fighting again.

"There is nothing in Qing Qiu that suppresses magic, just like the Four Seas." He said, inserting himself back into the conversation.

"That means she cn' use magic too." Cang Fu replied.

"They'll be twenty of us, and one unwarmed woman. Don't be such a fucking coward."Ju Li responded scathingly before he had the chance to respond. One of her grandparents had been of the shark tribe, and she was always happy to see someone of the deity race suffer.

He'd had enough of their arguing. "Shut up. The more you talk, the further away the traitors get. We'll capture her, take five traitor heads and be home before nightfall." He turned to the scout, "Go and get everyone else."

The scout nodded, took the shape of a bird and left.

"If we capture her, our excuse of being refugees if we're caught goes out the window." Ju Li pointed out.

"Thought Green 'ill don' have n' army, who's goin' to catch us?" It was a fair point, and a surprisingly smart observation from Cang Fu.

Ju Li shrugged and started studying her long knives, pointedly ignoring Cang Fu.

"Ready your weapons, Ju Li, you'll be using your barrier spell with the others, we're going as soon as the others get here." He ordered.

"Why?" Ju Li asked with her customary acerbity.

He could understand her confusion; she was one of the best fighters in the group.

"Because if your blades give her even a papercut she'll die. Or are we not capturing her after all?" he responded with his tone as saccharinely sweet as he could manage.

Ju Li did not say anything, but she angrily sheathed her blades.

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Fengjiu was enjoying her walk in the woods, happily reminiscing. It was early evening now, and the sun was blushing red as it sank into the east. The light hit the white bark of the birch trees that surrounded her, making them look like pillars of flame. She should go and visit the Peach Forest before she headed back to the Fox Den, she had a sudden craving for peach jam.

The only warning she had that something was wrong was the sudden complete silence from the wind and birds around her. Black clad figures were suddenly rushing from all directions. She was surrounded.

They were Ghost Tribe members, and certainly did not look like refugees, unless refugees were now far more militant looking than she remembered. How dare they trespass in Qing Qiu?

"What are yo-" She did not have time to finish her demand for an explanation, as she had to dodge a sudden binding spell. Hyper aware of her pregnant state Fengjiu immediately went to teleport away only to realise that it was not working, there was a barrier preventing it.

Quickly she raised her hand and dispelled the barrier, only to realise there was more than a single barrier active.

She did not have the time to stand and break them all, as five ghosts rushed toward her.

"You don't wan-" She tried to warn them against doing...whatever it was they were doing, trying to capture her most likely. Else they would have just attempted to kill her.

She deflected a binding spell with her magic, and jumped away from another.

Well then.

She summoned her Taozhu sword and got to work teaching the ghosts why you should never try to capture a Nine Tailed Fox.

Especially not a pregnant one.

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To say Wei Gang was surprised when the woman summoned a sword and proceeded to use the blade and magic to kill five of his band in an instant was an understatement. His resolve to capture her increased as he realised she had to be someone extremely important if she had such skill.

He had always thought better than he fought. Using their clan's private tongue so the woman would not understand, he quickly yelled out his orders.

"Push her to the Ghost Realm! Pressure her from the front; leave the back open for her to retreat! And keep those barriers on her!" If she was of the deity race, her power would be negated as soon as she entered the Ghost Realm, and they'd capture her easily in there. What a prize. He might not even need to bring the traitors heads to his boss at this rate.

He quickly changed his mind when five more of his ghost tribesmen died when they went to pressure her to fall back. Always one to balance risk and reward, it was now too dangerous to continue trying to capture the woman.

His decision to kill and not capture was not quick enough to save Cang Fu as the woman's sword sliced through the tall ghost's spear and cut him cleanly in half.

"Just kill her! Push her back and kill her!" He shouted as he readied his own blade, just in case she came for him.

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She was able to dodge a spell fired from the far right in such a way that it hit one of the ghosts attempting to pressure her back-left position. She immediately spun and slashed the spell-frozen ghost's throat, the blade that had been poised to strike her arm fell to the floor as the unlucky woman dissipated.

Was that her eleventh kill, or twelfth?

The half second of breathing space the death brought her to try and teleport again, but it seemed they were reapplying the barriers when she moved.

Aside from the barriers her assailants seemed relatively uncoordinated. Though they were seemingly still trying to capture rather than kill her, which was giving her a massive advantage. They were also panicking slightly, if all the haphazard magic being thrown around was any indication. Likely not expecting the prey to become the predator.

Still she also had her own worries; she was not as focused on the fight as she could be. She was using every spare moment she bought herself with each kill to try and teleport, rather than using those moments to pressure her opponents.

She realised her mistake once she used her magic to help her jump back and gain space, only to realise with sudden horror that she'd been pushed into the Ghost Realm as she felt her power suppressed. Her lack of pressure on her enemies had meant they had pressured her back in turn, and now she would not be able to use magic or teleport unless she crossed back into Qing Qiu. She was now in a rocky plain, and there were no trees she could use to help stagger their advance and how many she fought at once.

She heard something shouted by the short haired man she assumed was the leader, though she could not understand what he was saying. She soon got the message as binding spells were replaced with swords rushing at her with killing intent.

She could no longer use magic to create sword light to kill multiple enemies at the same time, so she switched her tactics. As one of the ghosts charged her with a spear she dodged it by a hairsbreadth, while pulling his arm and body to the right. Half a second later she knew it had paid off as a wet gurgle issued from behind her, the spear had found it's mark in the unlucky ghost that had attempted to strike her from behind. She quickly spun in a half circle, blade high and killed the spear-wielder by removing his head.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ghosts that had been putting up the barriers were now moving quickly toward her. Ah, of course, why did they need barriers now that she could not use magic anyway?

She needed to finish off the ghost in front of her quickly, before the others arrived. Unfortunately for her this one was noticeably better than most of the others. it was a number of traded blows, parries and thrusts before she landed a hit.

In her haste the ghost managed to get a shallow cut on her arm, but she'd sliced his clean off in the same moment and he fell to the floor grasping at his new stump in agony. She was moving to finish him off when a sudden blur on from her left caused her to turn, step back and parry in an unconscious action.

She was thankful for the reflex action, her blade had blocked a knife, and her back step had caused the other knife to miss her torso. She quickly made a promise to never complain about sword drills to Dong Hua ever again. But then she had no time to think as the ghost woman in front of her attacked her in a burst of flurried movement.

The rapid pace of her retreat meant that the other two ghosts that had come down with the woman were stuck trying to keep up and looking for opportunities to strike. In the split seconds she gained by retreating Fengjiu had kept an eye on the rest of her enemies, and noticed that the leader was not far away now on her right.

As she stutter stepped back once more Fengjiu realised that she was getting used to the rapid attacks from her opponent. And was beginning to recognise the patterns of attack the woman was using. One of them in particular involved a short double thrust that left her open to a counter attack, or it would if the woman was not so damn fast with those blades.

But she had an idea. Now more used to the attack patterns it was easier to deflect the blows, and she deliberately did not retreat as quickly as before. This allowed the two ghosts that had been following her to finally gain a good position behind her to attack from. One of them saw the seeming opening to attack and took it. The timing could not have been better.

As the ghost behind her went for a downward swing she moved, and used the momentum of the swing to pull the man forward as she stepped to the side. She'd pulled him into the woman's forward double thrust, both blades lodged themselves deep into the man's ribcage.

She was now standing to the side of both of the ghosts and she had only a second to move before the man dissipated. Fengjiu had no time to aim her swing as she saw the man return to nothing, Taozhu flew wildly, but it struck true. The awkward angle meant she did not sever the woman's leg, but the tendon was surely cut.

She moved out of knife range as the woman screamed in pain and moved a hand to cover the bleeding wound.

She used the second of space to take stock of where her enemies were.

The woman was three yards away, but hamstrung and unable to fight.

There was a single man less than ten yards away, it would take a second or two for him to close the gap and engage her.

She quickly flicked her eyes around the battlefield and took stock of everyone else.

The man whose arm she had cut off earlier had returned. But he was seventy yards away, and not approaching. The short haired leader was around thirty yards away, she could likely finish off the man in front of her before he reached her position, even if he started running now.

The analysis had taken her only a second, she quickly moved toward the closest threat ten yards away.

And paused as the man she had been moving toward dropped his sword.

What was he doing?

The ghost was now kneeling on the ground.

Wait, was he really surrendering? Really?

There was a sudden sharp pain, and her left leg nearly gave way.

The woman had crawled close enough with one knife in hand to get a decent cut to her left calf. Fengjiu saw from the corner of her eye the leader running to take advantage, but he was just in her line of vision.

Furious, though mostly at herself for her inattentiveness, Fengjiu moved and kicked the knife from the woman's hand, wincing as it flew and grazed her right ankle. Off balance from her awkward spin and wounded calf, her sword plunged into the woman's shoulder, rather than her heart.

Aware the leader was approaching and ready for his attack Fengjiu quickly removed Taozhu from the woman's shoulder, earning her another scream. She used that momentum to deflect the rushed overhead swing, pushing his sword to the side and left his torso wide open. Her own sword was only an inch away from his sternum and she used both hands to shove Taozhu straight through him.

He died quickly and she stepped through where he had been a moment before, stepping on the clothes and past the sword that were all that remained. She wanted to put as much distance between her and the woman behind her as possible, even without a weapon and unable to walk, an enemy was still dangerous. She was exhausted, and taking massive gasps of air to try and stabilise herself, the people that said they battled for days on end were obviously lying. Or maybe she'd not be so tired if she was not breathing for two.

Her move away from the woman meant she was now walking somewhat clumsily toward the man who had seemingly surrendered. She must have made an impression, because a second later he turned into a bird and flew off, sword still on the ground where he had placed it.

Fengjiu had almost forgotten that unlike her own, the ghost tribe's powers were not suppressed here. She saw the one armed man she'd fought earlier still hovering in the distance, when she turned to look at him he raised his arms in surrender. Well, with one arm being a stump below the elbow, it looked more like he was waving. It was an amusing sight, and she managed some semblance of a smile at the silliness of it. Her smile must have been a bit terrifying, because the ghost immediately turned and started running away.

Fengjiu saw that the ghost woman had crawled away in the few seconds of time that had passed. The woman was laying a ways off, alive and attempting to stem the bleeding at her shoulder and leg simultaneously. Fengjiu started to move toward the woman to finish her off, but then the woman did something odd. She smiled, and it was a cruel and strangely victorious smile. Fengjiu was still moving toward the woman when she suddenly transformed into a bird.

She watched as the woman haphazardly took to the sky, flying far into the Ghost Realm, blood dripping as she flew.

With no immediate danger to worry about Fengjiu became aware of her daughter's frantic movements. Her child was kicking and twitching in a way she had never felt before, clearly distressed. She moved a hand to her belly to check what was wrong.

The same hand had protected her belly as a moment later she found herself lying on the floor. Taozhu was still gripped tightly in her other hand, but in a thankful stroke of luck and she had not skewered herself on it. She'd fallen because she could not feel her legs. She managed to sit up enough to move the skirt of her dress to bare them.

Green tinged black veins greeted her. In strange humour, she thought they looked like very ominous noodles. She had taken a cut to her left calf during the fight, but it appeared when she had kicked the knife from the woman's hand it had sliced her right ankle, that blade had clearly been poisoned. No wonder she had been able to move to well even with a gash in her calf and a cut on her ankle, the poison had quickly numbed the pain.

She had been fighting; her heart had been beating frantically, pushing the poisoned blood around her body, directly into her daughter. That was why her daughter was so distressed, she was dying, her baby was dying.

Panic struck her at the thought, and with Taozhu still held tightly in her hand she scrambled to try and pull herself to safety with her arms. It was less than one hundred yards and she would be out of the Ghost Realm, regain her magic and contact Dong Hua with the copper mirror.

She could do it.

Long moments of harsh struggle later, she had barely crawled three yards before she collapsed in exhaustion. As she lay motionless, panting heavily into the yellowed grass, she realised that she could not feel her daughter moving in her belly any more.

She would die here, Fengjiu realised. She was in fact already dead, if she thought about it. Even if Zhe Yan appeared over the mountain side at this moment, he would not be able to reverse the poisons course quickly enough to save her.

That thought should have terrified her, but she was strangely calm and filled with clarity of purpose.

She would die, but her daughter would not. She would not!

She had seen the act performed a few times in the human world. The mothers there would die frequently during childbirth, and the womb was opened to see if the child could be saved. Once she had even witnessed a mother beg the doctor to save the child, even though it meant cutting the child from her living womb, guaranteeing her death. She knew the mechanics of that desperate act.

She moved as fast as her limbs allowed. Taozhu moved swiftly and she sliced her dress, exposing her belly to the blade. With her spare hand she felt where the baby was positioned within her, and readied the blade in the other. When she started to carefully cut into her belly, she was relieved that she could feel the pain of it, if dimly, it mean the poison had not spread too deeply in her upper half yet.

The blood coming from the cut was darker than she expected, and tinged the same black-green sheen as the poison. She moved as quickly and carefully as she could, she did not want to cut her baby. Skin, fat and muscle parted swiftly, she could not see her womb from where she was sitting, so she used her hands to guide the blade, the blood made everything slippery. But there was no pain anymore, and she saw the poisonous veins creeping past her bellybutton. She dropped Taozhu and used both hands to try and free her baby.

At last she managed to grasp a tiny arm near the shoulder and pulled the child from her womb. She let loose a tiny sob of relief that the task was done, but it lasted only a moment. Half the cord her daughter was attached to was black. She realised her baby was not crying, she frantically checked if her daughter was breathing. Mercifully she was, tiny stuttering breaths, struggling, but alive.

She picked up the Taozhu sword from where she had dropped it, and cut a thin strip from her dress. She tied it tightly around the cord close to the child, picked up the sword and cut the cord above the cloth strip. She placed her daughter against her chest and wrapped her as securely as she could, using some of the many strips of her dress to do so.

Her daughter as safe as she could be, Fengjiu switched her priority to herself. Looking down she saw the poison had climbed under her dress, beyond her sight. She could feel her shoulders and arms becoming numb. Quickly she moved her dress back over her open belly, and used another strip to bind it as best she could.

She was dying, but at least she might last a minute longer this way, and no one would need to see the red ruin she'd made of herself. That was her, always making such a mess of things, Dong Hua and Gungun were the tidy ones.

Only High Gods could manifest magic and divine energy in the Ghost Realm, and she was not one of those. But she was a nine-tailed fox, and she had a divinity of her own. If she could make it across the border a hundred yards away, she could use the copper mirror to contact Dong Hua.

With numb hands she claimed the Taozhu sword for what was likely the last time. The energy of the Ghost Realm was oppressive. It should not have been possible for her to manifest her tails, she was no High God. But with determination born of pure need, she willed it. Every fabric of her being was focused on this one goal, and with nothing to lose she threw her very soul to the purpose.

A familiar feeling enveloped her, and with relief she realised she had managed it.

She had only manifested a single tail, but that was all she needed.

Due to the numbness overtaking her arms, she could not apply the swift hard pressure needed to neatly sever it. It was the work of a few seconds before she felt the sword meet air, and saw her tail drop to the ground. There was none of the blinding agony that she expected from the action. Oh, of course not, the poison.

Her mind was already slowing.

There was no time.

The Taozhu sword fell from her numbing fingers, and she moved to clumsily grasp the severed tail lying next to it. She looked down, relieved that her other hand was still helping to support her little daughter in the folds of her dress, she could barely sense them now.

Her mind was muddled, and she had no clear picture in mind of what she wanted to create, but she had a goal. She never thought she'd need to use the great power of one of her tails to travel less than a hundred yards. But life was strange like that, and death too, she supposed.

Her tail was more resting on her hand now than being gripped, as she lost the last vestiges of feeling in her fingers. Still, she focused on her tail, and the goal she had in mind and pushed the thought forward into the red furred appendage. She hardly noticed as she fell backwards, having lost most of the sense of her own body.

But she saw the bright flash of light from her hand expanding into incandescence, and closed her eyes against it. Moments later the light she saw through her eyelids had dimmed, and she opened them to a strange sight.

Her mind was sluggish and it took her a few seconds to recognise what she was seeing. A wheel was spinning in front of her eyes, and it looked to be made of golden flame, but she could not feel any heat. Belatedly she realised that she was lying on the bed of a chariot. She attempted to move her head to see if anything was pulling it, but she could not manage it.

She wondered if it was a horse or maybe a fox, but who had ever seen a golden horse? She imagined Hao De would ride one if it existed, tacky as he was, she attempted to laugh at the strange image, but no sound came. Or maybe she did not hear it, everything sounded far away now. She prayed that her daughter would cry, so she could know she still was alive. The sky was getting dark despite the chariots flame, or was it just her eyesight dimming? Either way the darkness felt calming.

And welcoming.

If she could move, she would have jolted awake as the familiar feel of her divine power returned, instead she merely returned to consciousness. The task she had created the chariot for was complete and she was lowered to the floor as it slowly turned back into her tail. It might have fallen behind her, or perhaps she was lying on it, she could not feel anything anymore. She had only a pitiful amount of power left, but there was just enough to summon the mirror. The mirror rested under her cheek, and she focused her thought on it and sprang to life with the familiar teal glow.

She spoke Dong Hua's name, or hoped she did, she could no longer feel her face to tell if it had made the movements.

Everything was so tiring; she closed her eyes for a moment.

She woke, or did she? She must have slept, because her head was full of strange thoughts, they floated by, like dreams. Perhaps she had dreamt Dong Hua's voice, for from the corner of her eye she saw that the mirror was dark. It took her a moment to realise it was dark because there was blood on it, black blood, hers.

She didn't think she'd had any more to lose.

A jumble of strange thoughts flitted past quickly now, like swift little birds; she could not focus on one before another caught her attention.

By now Mi Gu had likely sent the letter she'd written to her parents. What a waste of paper, the poor tree died for nothing.

Ah, not nothing. Her parents would come for her funeral, of course. Who knew she'd written a letter of invitation to her own funeral. That was quite funny.

Oh! She'd better get her bells back.

It was Gungun's birthday in three months, she hoped he liked the calligraphy brush she'd made him. She's spent years plucking only the longest, pure white hairs from the end of her tails to make the blue, and the silver filigree along the handle had been hard to get right.

She'd be buried in the Sea of Innocence. She'd said to Dong Hua that it was better to be in a place meant for sadness, than ruin some happy place.

Dong Hua... she'd never be able to make him sweet and sour fish again.

She wondered if her daughter would be good at cooking without her there to teach her.

Her thoughts were slowing, and she could not remember what she'd thought about a moment ago.

Had she closed that book she was reading in Taichen Palace before she'd left?

Everything was silent now, she could not feel her heart beating.

Was this death? If so, it was peaceful.

The world was black, conscious thought was fleeing from her, scattering in the wind like Zhe Yan's peach blossoms.

Then, as if from afar a strange not-sensation, swept over her slowly, delicately, comfortingly. She felt as if she were falling up and down all at once, she was everywhere and nowhere, she was everything and everyone and nothing.

And then she caught the scent of red spider lilies and sandalwood, it smelled like her husband, like love and safety, comfort and joy.

She smiled.

Death was kind.