“Tell me,” Tanya began, “have you heard of the Kotoamatsukami?”

Zuken’s mind shifted into overdrive. As an Heir to the Banksi Throne, he had been instructed in the ways of the Nobility, which included a thorough understanding of the social hierarchy that existed in the Empire, and a healthy bout of fear about the real Demons out there. The ones that, if they had the chance, would turn their prosperous Empire into a blaze of devastation and chaos.

The Demonic Serpent that slumbered in the Great Deeps.

The Monkey Sage trapped within Five Palm Mountain.

The One-Eyed Crippled Wargod lost in the North.

The Nameless locked in the catacombs of Aerie.

The Three Legendary Kami of the Seventh Heaven. The Masters of the Ikai World. The Kotoamatsukami.

The Accursed Five. Those held at bay by the powers of the Great Goddess Amaterasu and her divine siblings.

“What about them?”

Tanya stared at her. Zuken had seen statues that indicated their desires more strongly.

“What do you know about them?” she asked.

“Not much,” he admitted, as the discomfort slowly twisted and turned within him. “Only that they’re…” He closed his eyes, but the feeling did not die. “Only that they’re that composed of three demon— DEITIES—”

The last word was practically dragged out of him as if something within him would not allow him to speak ill of them. Even Avriel, ever the patient kami, was restless and utterly shaken.

“That’s your kami reacting to those names,” Tanya replied. Her expression showed that she had anticipated such a reaction from him. No, it was like she was eagerly expecting it. “You cannot bear a Bond with your kami and choose to reject the Rules that define its existence.”

“I… see.”

“Three deities,” Tanya began, “The Lord of the War and Lightning, Raijin. The Lord of the Storm and Sky, Fujin, and finally, the Lord of the Volcanoes and Devastation, Kagutsuchi.”

As each name was uttered, Zuken felt Avriel’s power resonate. The power that allowed him to manipulate the terrain around him wanted him to bow down before it. To bow to an existence so profound and ancient that the Asukan World had forgotten about it. A power that demanded his respect, his adoration, his abject terror.

And suddenly, Zuken understood what was happening.

“Avriel is reacting to those names,” he murmured. “But such a thing is impossible. The Ikai world can’t influence ours. The Eternal Light of the Great Goddess prevents that.”

Tanya arched an eyebrow but said nothing.

“And yet it is,” he whispered. An Asukan Noble who wielded a kami like a tool, and here he was bowing before the same deities that his kami revered. As if— as if he and Avriel were—

Zuken narrowed his eyes. “What happened?”

Tanya bit her lip. “A miscalculation. Something I did not anticipate.”

“Explain.”

“Do you know what tempests are?”

Zuken rubbed the tip of his nose. “Spirits of the Storm. Ridiculously powerful kami that are immune to the Shikigami Ritual. They were supposed to be a lethal force during the Asuka-Yokai War. It took the Great God Susanoo to join the fight to counter them.”

Tanya bobbed her head slowly. “Our presence in the borderland attracted the attention of one of them.”

“A tempest,” Zuken replied hollowly. “You’re telling me that your mere entry into that realm attracted a tempest?”

Tanya looked uncertain. “I thought it was odd as well. Tempests are known to be the Eyes of the Kotoamatsukami. To see one in its pure form is to invite its wrath, specifically the Lord of the Storm.”

That same feeling with him rose with a vengeance. Which was odd, since he had never felt this pressure even while talking about the Asukan Pantheon in less than glorious tones.

“It was hiding within the clouds. We thought it was just intimidating us, or maybe we were just in a delicate location.”

“I imagine Aguilar’s battle didn’t help matters. He’s not really known for being discreet.”

“That he doesn’t.” She chuckled, before the grin vanished, possibly from the thoughts about her missing partner. That or whatever he had done afterwards. Zuken could never be sure when it came to the Outsider. Aguilar was practically the word ‘unpredictable’ made manifest.

“The battle didn’t help, yes, but things hadn’t devolved until the very end. Even after Lukas managed to tame the Ifrit with the Ritual, the Circle remained active and focused on the other spirit within its reach.”

Zuken's face turned ashen. “He didn’t.”

Tanya sighed. “He did. I don’t know if it was the addition of the ifrit or faith in his own prowess that made him challenge such a creature, but he did. The tempest responded accordingly.”

“By Earth,” he muttered, “this man will be the death of me.”

“Of all of us,” she snorted. “I couldn't help him. I don’t have enough soul capacity to manifest Ezzeron at full strength, not like the Wind King could. And even if I could, it would’ve made no difference. The Wind cannot face the Eye of the Storm God.”

Zuken closed his eyes in resignation. “And then?”

“He took it upon himself and raced into the Mists, and the tempest followed him inside. He told me he would find a way out.”

“Find a way out?” Zuken asked, incredulous. “This is the first time he’s been there.”

Tanya gave him a dry look as if saying ‘you try telling him that’.

“I took the collector and brought her back to the safety of the Keep. We waited for over two weeks before giving up on him returning. That’s when I received your missive.”

Zuken tilted his head. “And the deities? The resonance?”

Tanya looked a little shifty. “Ever since then, things have been different. Back in Baramunz, they have an old legend. Have you heard of The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons?”

Zuken nodded. “Elena told me about it. End-of-the-World type stuff. I thought she was talking to the wrong sort of people trying to con her back then.”

“Well, they mention the boundaries between this world and the Other thinning down. And to be honest, that is what’s happening. The entry into the Other World has never been easier.”

“That’s because Oumagatoki is near.”

“Precisely. The prophecies all center around Oumagatoki. When the boundaries between the worlds are at its thinnest. And now, look at this. Kami reacting oddly. A freaking anomaly, Potential itself, in a Desert that hates Potential, and now—”

“The presence of an Outsider,” Zuken sighed. “Never thought you’d be the one to place faith in such things. Still, I think you are wrong.”

“Do you have a better argument?” she challenged.

“Why yes of course. Now that I have all the facts, it does explain some things.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

Zuken yanked his right hand up.

Tanya couldn’t believe her eyes.

With a mere yanking of his arm, Zuken had raised an earthen contraption, easily the size of a bed, from underneath the floor. That wasn’t the surprising bit.

Lying within it, with a dozen tendrils dug into his body, constantly pulsating with power, was Lukas Aguilar. Asleep. Much like how he’d been right after she rescued his unconscious form after the destruction of the underground anomaly.

But that wasn’t all there was to it.

There was an odd energy about him. She didn’t have to touch him to sense it. It was cold, dark, and negative. the kind of lingering aura that made people and animals avoid a place without giving much consideration as to why. The kind that exuded the spooky possibility that something bad might happen to you if you didn’t desert it immediately.

The kind of aura exuded by the Desert of Namzuuhuu.

Only this was far more potent. Tanya had experienced her own share of negative energies over the years. Her own Everfrost exuded an almost carnal feeling of hunger. Of passion. Of consumption and the relish that came with the slow devouring of something bright and lively. She had sensed the level aromatic presence that came with a water kami, felt the tough and battered feel from Zuken’s Avriel and the weird, twisting presence she got from Joey. She had sensed the dazzling, burning power infused in the Eternal Light of the Great Goddess, illuminating the World day after day, every day. She’d felt the silent, whispery power that accompanied the Mists, promising her things that were best left undisclosed.

Each of them had made her feel something. But the aura exuding out of Lukas? It didn’t fill the room. Rather, it emptied it out in a way she couldn’t describe. Utter stillness spread out from him— not peace, as that would have been something tranquil, accepting. This stillness was a horrible, hungry emptiness, something that took its power from being not.

And it was powerful.

“You sense it too, don’t you?” Zuken softly asked.

“You— how— I mean—” Tanya didn’t know what to say.

“Don’t worry. The poisonous energy, it’s coming from him. It’s… something else. Something he barely grazed by. A residual impression, of sorts.”

“You’re telling me that an energy this strong and pungent is residue?”

“Yes, and it’s decreasing in potency. This contraption is specifically designed to store energy, which is what I’ve been doing over the last five days since he arrived here.”

Tanya stood up, not believing her ears. “You’re telling me that Lukas came to your place? He doesn’t even know where you live.”

“Would you believe me if I told you he erupted out of the Banksi Well of Kami?”

She opened her mouth to deny it, but then thought better. “I… would, actually.”

He blinked. “Oh. Well, he did indeed burst out of our Well of Kami five days ago. With electrical sparks erupting out of his person at random, stammering blankly about a place that doesn’t exist and an individual only talked about in myths and tales of old.”

Tanya narrowed her eyes. “Who are you talking about?”

Zuken met her eyes with a scrutinizing stare. “Tell me, are you acquainted with the myth of the Nine-Tailed Fox?”