The horses slow down, their flanks wet with sweat from their gallop away from the camp.

I look over at Tai Qiu in the darkness, the light of the moon the only thing lighting our path. Even with the poor light, I can see her weakened state as she leans forward in her saddle, her breath heavy with exhaustion from the ride. Her cultivation feels closer to what it should be, although still not quite as powerful as usual. Only at the level of late stage Foundation Establishment.

I dismount from my horse with worry, walking to her mare’s side. She doesn’t acknowledge me.

Her hands hold the horse’s mane tightly, whitening from her grip. Her eyes stay closed as she breathes.

I reach up, laying my hand on hers. Carefully, I make them release their grip on the hair of the horse.

She opens her eyes, her gaze softening as it lands on me.

“The horses need a break.” I say, gently rubbing my thumbs over the back of her hands. It was something my mom used to do to me to calm me down.

“We have to get back to the sect.” Tai Qiu says, “We don’t have time.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, surprised by the fear in her gaze.

Tai Qiu calms as I continue to hold her hands. “The reason they are expanding into our land, it’s to gather sacrifices. They will be using the blood of the mortals in order to summon... a- a Demon.” Fear overtakes her as she stumbles over the word, her eyes getting a faraway look. “I saw it, Junior Sister, Disciple of mine. It gorged on the flesh of our sect members with pleasure in its eyes. It delighted in the slaughter, and it was hungry for more.”

“What do you mean by demon?” I ask, surprised by the emotion in her voice. I’ve never seen her like this before. “You mean the creatures that monasteries warn of?”

Tai Qiu searches my gaze, “No. I speak of the creatures I’ve only read about in scrolls and books. Creatures I thought were mere stories. Hungry creatures that use death and blood to leach cultivation and abilities off of mortals and immortals alike.”

I pat her hand, only now noticing Shia’s tenseness at the mention of the word Demon. She couldn’t be… no, I’m confident that she is a spirit beast of some kind.

As I start to pull away, Tai Qiu reaches out, grabbing my hand. “You will know them, Jia, by their spirit. It’s filled with death and hunger.”

I nod, and she lets go.

I walk over to my horse, jumping up to mount it. “If we need to warn the sect, then we will get to the sect and warn them. I promise you, Master Tai Qiu.”

She relaxes slightly at my words, nodding.

Worry fills me at the sight of her small form on the horse. Pain fills her. Physically and mentaly, she was hurt. I can see it in her eyes and in the way she spoke of watching our sect’s people dying.

I let the horse know to continue, and we set off at a quick pace, the light of the moon being our only guide.

It should be a two day’s ride to the portal that started this mess. If we push the horses through the night, we might be able to lower it to one day’s time.

I reach over, patting the flank of my mare. I feel bad for pushing them so much.

“Shia.” I say quietly enough that the wind blocks Tai Qiu from hearing me. “What do you know about demons?”

Shia is quiet for a moment before answering.

“More than I’d like to, little one.” Shia says, not expanding on her statement.

I let it go at that, not sure how to ask her for more information.

Our ride through the night is without incident. Tai Qiu slowly regains her cultivation and sits straighter as we ride, her spirit feeling cleaner in a strange way. Now she feels somewhere in the Core Formation Realm. It’s hard to tell exactly where, since it’s hard to define another person’s cultivation when they are too far above me.

Eventually, Tai Qiu has us pull to the side of the road to rest the horses.

I get off of my horse with relief, circulating my qi to help with the soreness in my thighs. Even with my cultivation, my body isn’t used to riding a horse for days on end.

Tai Qiu has us walk off of the road and into the forest for a good while before stopping next to a stream.

While I watch the horses, she pulls something from her ring. Qi moves around us, eventually settling into a circle that surrounds all of us a few meters out.

“That should prevent anyone from finding us.” Tai Qiu says, turning towards me, her expression not showing any of the vulnerability from before. “You should take the chance to get some sleep, Disciple Lin. I’ll keep a watch.”

I consider arguing, but stop when I look into her eyes. She needs the time to herself. I look over the horses, realizing that I don’t have any sleeping pads or blankets.

With a frown, I move to the roots of a tree and curl up. I close my eyes as Shia slithers out of my robes to do her own thing.

Sleep hits me surprisingly fast, my body relaxing from the familiar presence of my master nearby.

***

Tai Qiu sits on the ground, her gaze flickering to her disciple as she writes in a flowing script on talisman paper.

Every few moments, her hand would start to tremble before she forcibly stops it.

She had never before seen the strange metal that the men used to drain her cultivation. It had been this metal, on the sword of the man she had fought, that had cost her the lives of all of the disciples of the caravan. One cut, and her strength had begun to drain, two and she dropped a whole level of cultivation.

Her hand pauses, her gaze moving to the scars on her wrist where the cuffs had cut and scraped, turning her into little more than a mortal. She had done her best to hide the scars from her disciple. Thankfully the dark had kept the sight from the young girl.

The sect will need to be warned of the strange metal, cultivation is the lifeblood of sects and when something drains cultivation like this, it is a danger beyond imagining.

She continues drawing the talisman, her hand movements carefully precise.

She didn’t believe it, when she first saw the form of her disciple, her robes covered with blood. Another trick of the demon, or of her own mind.

She hated it at first. The vision of the young girl, covered with blood. Jia Lin was meant to stay in the sect, nurtured and protected until she is old enough to face the harshness of the world. Someone so young shouldn’t have to deal with killing and death, but that’s all she got since she joined the sect.

But none of that truly mattered, the moment that her disciple held her, Tai Qiu knew, it wasn’t an illusion of the demon. It was the sacrifice of her disciple for her. Not something to be hated, but something to be grateful for.

Perhaps Jia was forced to deal with death early, but everyone will come to see death someday.

She has failed to protect her disciple from the world, but that wasn’t her place.

Tai Qiu glances over at her sleeping disciple, surprisingly relaxed after all she has been through.

Her place was to guide her disciple through the world, not protect her from it.

Her gaze moves to the formation protecting them from the searching of their enemies. The demon searches for her, she knows it. It is still weak, still vulnerable, and it knows it.

It knows that she will come for it.

She will kill it. That is certain, if it is the last thing that she does as a cultivator, she will kill the demon that took the lives of her sect’s disciples.

She finishes the talisman with a flourish. She stands up, knowing that sleep won’t come to her tonight.

Reaching into the space created by her ring, she pulls out her sword.

She throws the talisman she just created into the air, then pierces it with her sword. Qi flows through the talisman, travelling through the script written onto her sword. The script glows red with the qi, taking on a sinister glint. The qi travels through the pommel of her sword, burning symbols into her hand.

An oath is made. A promise of one’s soul and spirit.

She will kill the demon.

She will kill the men that brought it into this world to try and control it.

Her spirit changes, transforming from it’s aspect of adventure and knowledge into a sharper feeling, a promise of blood and death.

She pulls a sheathe from her ring’s storage, strapping it to her side. She looks at her sword one last time, its blade still glowing a sinister red, before putting it into the sheathe.

The horse next to her huffs and she turns to it, raising an eyebrow.

It huffs again and she chuckles, scratching it on the forehead. “I know. You’re probably hungry, aren’t you? I’m sorry, we don’t have any food, and I can’t really let you out to graze.”

The horse turns to stare at her from one eye.

“I know, I know.”

***

I wake up slowly, putting my hand in front of my eyes to block the sunlight. After a few seconds, my eyes flicker open and I sit up.

Tai Qiu leans against another tree, one of the horses calmly munching on grass next to her while the other stares at the ground, calmly flicking its tail.

Tai Qiu opens her eyes as I stand up and stretch. “Are you ready to continue?”

“Yes, Master Tai Qiu.” I answer, pausing as I move over to the mare I rode last night. “What happened to your spirit? It’s… different.”

“I made an oath using my spirit, something you will be able to do when you get farther along in the book of spirit.” She says, readying her own horse.

I nod in understanding, but the change in her spirit is still a little disorienting.

We return to the road, remounting the horses once there. Tai Qiu uses another talisman to lower our presence as we ride to the portal.

Shia remains quiet for the ride. She had returned to my robes at some point while I was asleep and appears to be sleeping herself.

Tai Qiu herself doesn’t say anything, but I can tell that she looks much better than she did last night and her cultivation is back up to what it was before leaving the sect.

It’s evening again by the time we start noticing the increase in soldiers on the road. Like a disturbed ant nest, they ride their horses up and down the road. The talisman keeps us safe from their attention, their gazes going right over us.

Before we get too close to the camp with the portal, we bring the horses into the woods to rest while we think of a way to get through.