When the world finally started coming back together for Sen, it didn’t do it all at once. It was more like a patchwork of sensory information that came and went for a while before it finally, almost unwillingly, reassembled into something he could recognize. Even then, it was disorienting. Night had truly fallen. Beneath the canopy of the massive trees in the deep wilds, that meant it was almost lightless at ground level. It wasn’t as bad for Sen as it would have been for other people with his body cultivation enhanced vision. Of course, that enhanced vision did depend on there being some light around. Right at first, though, he felt like he’d slipped into some nether-realm consumed by darkness. He supposed it was a good thing that it took a little longer to regain control of his body or he might have done something foolish.

By the time he felt his control over his arms and legs come back, he’d had a little time to acclimate to the intense darkness. While part of him knew that he couldn’t rush the process, it still galled him. Anything could have happened, could be happening, back at the galehouse. He didn’t know if the fox could kill Laughing River. With a sigh, he recognized that he really should have asked for that fox’s name instead of being intentionally obnoxious. A little too clever for your own good there, Sen, he thought. It had seemed like a winning strategy or at least a strategy less likely to automatically end in violence. Not that he thought that he could avoid all violence. The world had taught him better than that, but he could recognize that his actions sometimes invited it. Now, that stranger was just going to remain a nebulous entity he knew as that fox or that stranger. Granted, they could have just lied to him, but he doubted they came up with a fake name for every person they met. It would have been a clue if nothing else.

Even so, he couldn’t help but worry. He had visions of getting back to the galehouse and finding Laughing River and Li Yi Nuo dead. Worse still, he imagined getting back and finding nothing but a bloody scene with no bodies. With bodies, he would at least know they were dead. Without bodies, it would remain an open question. Even if the fox couldn’t kill Laughing River, they absolutely could kill Li Yi Nuo. She wouldn’t stand any kind of a chance against those kinds of illusions. He’d only gotten by because he could throw around so many kinds of qi, and he’d still lost in the end. When the expected sense of dread didn’t manifest, Sen examined his heart. He should be dead. Any cultivator would have killed him the moment they had that kind of advantage. He would have killed him in that situation. That proximity to death should be enough to evoke an emotional response in him. However, it seemed that he’d simply crossed some threshold where coming close to death just didn’t bother him as it once had. Sen considered it a dubious achievement.

Pushing himself up to a sitting position, he looked around himself and frowned. The fox hadn’t simply left him out there to live or die based on pure chance and the whims of the local spirit beasts. There was a formation around him. It was a strange formation, based on principles he didn’t know, and using a combination of qi he didn’t have time to untangle. Strange as it was, though, he could get a feel for what it did. It was an obscuring formation. Well, damn, that complicates things, he complained to himself. He was very sure that the fox was going to interpret all of this as Sen owing them at least one favor if not two. He wasn’t even sure that he could disagree. He was still alive. As much as he wanted to stay and dissect the workings of the formation, his curiosity would have to wait. He only stopped long enough to pluck the formation flags from the ground and drop them in a storage ring for later examination. If he was lucky, he might be able to learn something from them.

Making his way back to the galehouse in the dark wasn’t as slow as he’d feared it might be. While his spiritual sense wasn’t exactly a replacement for daylight, it was enough in combination with his enhanced eyesight to let him avoid most problems. He tripped a couple of times over dead branches he missed. He accidentally ran into… He didn’t know exactly what it was. It had been too dark and chaotic for any kind of real assessment. It was some kind of spirit beast that he simply cut down with a flurry of cuts from his jian. He’d put that corpse in a storage ring, too. He figured that he’d probably get a beast core out of it, as long as he remembered the thing later. When he got back to the galehouse, though, he hesitated. He remembered how utterly real the fox’s illusions had been. He could walk in there and not even know if the fox was in the place.

He examined the formations. They seemed to be intact. They shouldn’t have let the fox through, but he was woefully limited in his understanding of what they could and couldn’t do with their illusions. Could the fox have simply walked right through the formations without triggering them? Sen simply didn’t know. He did the best examination of the ground as he could. There were no obvious signs of violence, but he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t simply looking at another illusion. As his entirely justifiable paranoia grew, he started to understand just why it was that foxes and nine-tailed foxes in particular were feared. If you couldn’t trust anything you saw, heard, or even touched, how far off could a descent into madness really be?Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

In the end, though, he couldn’t just stand around outside the galehouse. He’d have to go in sooner or later and hope that he wasn’t being deceived. Bracing himself, Sen opened the door and walked into the galehouse. After evaluating what he saw, he was fairly certain that he wasn’t looking at an illusion. After all, there wouldn’t be much point in showing him the scene he was looking at before him. There was food scattered across the table and floor. A broken teapot that made him clench his fists in anger. That was his teapot. The one he’d left for the others in the morning as a vague act of kindness. Sure, he had other teapots, but he’d used that one the most because he liked it. There were also splashes of blood here and there, although less than he might have expected. The most telling sign that it was real, in his opinion, was the fact that Laughing River was still there and looking none too dignified.

The elder fox was sitting in a chair but didn’t look comfortable. He had one arm pulled in close to rest across his chest. There was a makeshift bandage wound around the fox’s head. His robes were in complete tatters. Sen hesitated at that sight, second-guessing his initial assessment. Healing pills and elixirs didn’t work instantly but it looked like all of the violence had taken place at least a few hours before. Long enough that the fox should have been able to take something to speed along the healing process. Sen’s hand fell to his jian as he focused on the person who might or might not be Laughing River. The fox gave him a smile that was a pale echo of the cheerful ones Sen had seen on that face before.

“You’re wondering if it’s really me or if this is all just an elaborate ruse meant to trick you.”

“Something like that?”

The fox nodded, winced, and said, “That’s the smart way to handle it. There’s no way to be absolutely certain, but you can try asking me questions. Things you think only I’ll be able to answer.”

Sen agreed that it was a poor test. Laughing River had shown a rather formidable amount of knowledge that Sen wouldn’t have thought he could have. It would only stand to reason that the other fox would have similar abilities. Still, it was probably the best of some very poor solutions to his problem.

“Where did we meet?”

“Up on old thunder spear’s mountain.”

“And what did you help me do?”

“I helped you find that flower for Caihong.”

Sen kept his face neutral as the fox answered. No need to provide information if it was the stranger.

“What did she give you when you came for our New Year celebration that year?”

“Nothing. I wasn’t there.”

There hadn’t been any of the kind of hesitation he’d have expected from someone trying to remember information they’d gotten second-hand.

“What did you say to me at the time about the favor I owed you?”

The fox snickered, which triggered a grimace. “Something about how much fun it would be collecting on it.”

“Why aren’t you healing?”

The fox shifted in his seat, which made Sen almost pull his jian free. The fox noticed and held up a hand.

“Easy now. I am healing. It’s just not as fast as you think it should be because it’s mighty hard to find healing aids that work on something as powerful as me. On the flip side, I’m still dying. So, that process is interfering with my healing. It’s a disgrace that my magnificence has been marred like this.”

“Where is Li Yi Nuo?” asked Sen.

He didn’t feel any particular loyalty to her, but Sen had wanted to at least get her back to her sect in one piece as a way to help manage the politics. If she was here, he’d have thought she’d be out and making a fuss already. The fox’s expression soured like he’d bitten into something rotten before saying what Sen knew he was going to say.

“She was taken.”

“Oh, of course she was. Because that was just what this little adventure needed. A hostage situation. I assume that other fox intends to trade Li Yi Nuo for your death or simply getting me not to participate.”

Laughing River gave a desultory nod. “Yes, I expect it’ll be something along those lines.”

“I suppose that was Plan B since the last thing they said to me was that they were coming here to murder you. I don’t suppose you’d care to explain why another fox is so bent on seeing you die? Or is that normal for foxes?”

“It’s about as normal as cultivators trying to kill each other,” said Laughing River. “As for why that particular fox wants me dead, well, that’s a rather complicated story.”

“Is it a complicated story? Or is it just a story you’d prefer not to tell.”

The fox thought those questions over before he said, “It’s actually complicated. I just also happen to not want to tell it.”

“Can you at least tell me who they are? I didn’t even get a name.”

“She’s my granddaughter. Great-granddaughter? Great-great-granddaughter?” Laughing River asked himself as his face scrunched up. “You start losing track of the family tree after a while. Let that be a lesson to you.”

“To keep track of the family tree?” Sen asked in confusion.

“No. Don’t have kids.”

“Ah,” said Sen noncommittally.

“Her name is Misty Peak, but she’ll probably stab you if you call her that. She goes by Sun Linglu,” said Laughing River before he gave Sen a thoughtful look. “Just how did you escape her?”

“Escape? I didn’t.”

“Then, you should be dead.”

Sen nodded his agreement. “She said I was ‘too damned pretty to murder.’”

Laughing River rolled his eyes. “Kids these days. No sense of priorities.”