The days following the ‘kidnapping incident’ were surprisingly quiet. Kaede was upset, but it was more resigned frustration than actual anger. She assured Jia and Eui that covering up something like an escaped princess was a perfectly mundane thing for royalty. The rumors would just be a small additional difficulty compared to the monumental task of getting the Goryeon nobility on their side. It was nearly a week later before they finally returned to the palace for their first meeting with the nobility.

The Kim family was at least a familiar name to Yoshika. She had known and closely worked with Kim Yongsun—Eunae’s cousin on her father’s side—to form a plan for Heian’s education. It was his family that they were now meeting at the palace. From what she could remember, the Kim family had strong ties to the Seongs, and tended to follow their lead. If they could convince the Seong clan, then Kim should be fairly simple.

That was the theory, anyway. In practice, the descent had shaken many of the power structures in Goryeo, and it was hard to predict how anybody would react. All of the high noble houses had taken the elementals in as guests, and while they weren’t certain of their motives, Kaede had chosen to assume that the elementals themselves were adversarial. Yoshika wasn’t really interested in any of that, but she joined her friends anyway in order to lend credibility as a bridge between their nations.

With her were Rika and Kaede, representing their country, as well as Heian sullenly trudging along by her side. Ever since the incident with Haeun, the little cat spirit had been ‘grounded.’ Since her favorite pastime was napping in Yoshika’s soulscape, they’d had to get a bit more creative with the nature of the punishment—Heian was to remain manifested in human form, and banned from using her powers as a spirit. No retreating to the soulscape, no teleporting by manifesting herself somewhere else within Yoshika’s domain, no communicating with pure thought. She had to pretend to be a human.

The group arrived at their quarters early in order to prepare for their guests, and they had just finished setting up when Yoshika sensed the Kim family representatives approaching. A powerful xiantian aura swept over them, causing an involuntary shiver before it retracted again. The domain had felt like none of the others she had experienced. Normally she felt only vague impressions from other domains—glimpses of the concepts that the cultivator embodied—but this one was raw and unfiltered. Cold. Freezing. Elemental ice distilled down to the very core of its essence. As soon as the Kim representatives entered, she immediately understood its meaning.

There were three of them. One was a tall man with hair as white as Jia’s, and the black-striped ears of a white tiger. His eyes were a deep blue, and he was quite muscularly built for a mage. He had a xiantian aura, but kept it restrained as Yoshika had found most cultivators in polite society did. With him was the familiar sight of Kim Yongsun, his features unmistakable for anyone else. Kim Yongsun’s bloodline was so strong that he resembled a walking tiger, and Yoshika had never seen anyone else with such extensive spiritual expressions.

The last figure, however, made Kim Yongsun look like a perfectly normal human by comparison. It—or perhaps she—had only a passing resemblance to a human, as if something that had never seen a human had recreated one from a description. Too tall and too thin, with extremities that tapered into points far too thin to support the human frame. It had perfectly smooth, crystalline skin that glittered as it caught the light, with shifting white patterns visible beneath it, like freshly fallen snow caught in the wind. The face was like a delicately carved ice sculpture with a subtle wrongness to it that Yoshika couldn’t quite place, and long, light blue hair that fluttered gently despite the still air. Its ‘clothing’ protruded seamlessly from the skin—a pale blue gossamer dress that fluttered just like its hair.

Every one of the creature’s movements caused a light tinkling sound, as though it was made of ice that was being shattered and reformed with each motion. The feminine silhouette and the strange alien grace with which it moved gave Yoshika the impression that it was female, but it was so bizarre and inhuman that she wasn’t sure that such a label could even apply to it. Glowing within the center of its torso was a bright blue core that Yoshika knew would be its true body. The being was an elemental unlike any she’d ever seen.

Belatedly, Yoshika realized she’d been staring, and that Kaede had already begun her introductions. She tuned in just in time to hear Kim Yongsun offering his reply.

“It is good to meet you again, Lady Hayakawa. I am surprised to see you in the company of Miss Lee and Miss An. Magus Ambassador, I’m pleased to see that your familiar has developed so well.”

Just like Yoshika remembered, Kim Yongsun had a strange, affectless way of speaking. Yoshika offered him a polite bow, and Heian simply waved. Kim Yongsun returned the bow, then turned to gesture at those with him.

“Allow me to introduce my father, High Magus Kim Wonshik, the patriarch of our clan.”

Kim Wonshik bowed politely, meeting them with a smile.

“It is good to finally meet you. I’ve heard many things about the Yamato delegate and our new ambassadors—you’ve created quite a stir!”

Kaede kept her face neutral as she responded.

“Thank you, High Magus. Please, come inside and make yourself at home. Will you be introducing your...unusual companion?”

The high magus glanced over his shoulder at the elemental and scoffed.

“Ah, don’t mind her. She’s just one of the guests that showed up during all that fuss a couple of years ago. She asked to come along and I saw no reason to deny her. Is this the first time you’ve met one of the guests?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Kim Wonshik chuckled lightly and shrugged.

“They’re rather strange. I don’t think this one even has a name. She doesn’t talk much, except to Yongsun here. He gets along with them quite well, strangely enough.”

After moving into the sitting room, the discussions began, but Yoshika couldn’t take her eyes off of the elemental. It stood awkwardly off to the side when everyone else took their seats, standing eerily still and staring off into space. It was oddly beautiful, despite its alien features, but everything else about it set Yoshika on edge. Not the least of which was the fact that it was easily the most powerful being in the room. Could Wonshik not sense it? He should have been better able to tell than her, but he seemed completely at ease in its presence. It just stood there, seemingly uninterested in the entire conversation until it suddenly turned its head to stare intently at Kaede, forcing Yoshika to tune back into the conversation as Kim Wonshik spoke.

“An artifact?”

Kaede nodded.

“I can’t disclose the full details, but I believe that the Qin Empire has set its sights on the tomb of an ancient cultivator, which houses an artifact of unimaginable power. Should they acquire that artifact, it will be the end of both of our nations.”

The high magus hummed thoughtfully.

“Hrm, that’s a rather far-fetched notion, but let us say that I grant what you are saying is true—do you suggest we engage Qin in a war of aggression to stop them? And if we do, then what’s to be done about the demonic threat occupying Geumji?”

“The demons are also after the artifact. And should they get their hands on it, the results will be just as bad if not worse. Make no mistake, Patriarch Kim, this is an existential threat to all of us. Just ask your ‘guest’ over there.”

All eyes fell on the elemental, which still stared intently at Hayakawa Kaede. After a pregnant pause, Kim Yongsun broke the silence.

“Do you know anything about this, Miss Ice Elemental?”

With a quiet tinkling noise, the elemental slowly turned to look at Kim Yongsun. When it opened its mouth to speak, the sound had an airy, ethereal quality.

“Yes.”

Rather than wait for it to elaborate, the tiger-headed man immediately pressed on.

“Is there anything you are willing to disclose about this artifact?”

A brief pause, the elemental as still as a statue before it responded.

“No.”

Kim Wonshik jerked back in surprise.

“No?! Can you at least confirm whether this story is true?”

“No. It is unnecessary.”

“Unnecessary?”

The elemental didn’t respond this time, simply staring at the Kim patriarch in silence. Yoshika took the opportunity to interject.

“Miss...um, do you mind if we just call you ‘Ice’? Miss Ice, when you say ‘unnecessary’ what do you mean by that? Unnecessary for what?”

The elemental turned to look at Yoshika, and this time she could feel its domain press into her own and felt its gaze directly on her soul rather than on either of her bodies. It still didn’t respond. Kim Yongsun shook his head.

“I’m afraid you won’t get very far with that line of questioning, Magus Ambassador. If the guests don’t wish to answer a question, they simply do not. They are extremely guarded about information.”

Rika scoffed irritably.

“How can you trust anything they say at all, then?”

Kim Wonshik smiled wryly.

“Because as far as we can tell, they never actually lie, and the things they do tell us are quite valuable indeed. Lady Hayakawa, you’ve given us much to consider, and I think I’d like to try conferring with my guest in private in order to see just how much she can verify.”

The ice elemental was still staring intently at Yoshika as Rika and Kaede bid the Kims farewell, and Yoshika stared right back at it. Just as they were about to leave, Yoshika suddenly felt the elemental’s domain slam down against hers. Heian cried out in pain and clutched Jia’s robes as Yoshika desperately struggled to hold off the implacable force of the elemental’s domain. Frost began to form on her skin as her sweat froze, then as suddenly as it had begun, the assault stopped.

Both of Yoshika’s bodies doubled over to catch their breath as the others scrambled to react. The Kim patriarch was apologizing to Kaede for his guest’s rudeness, Takeda was yelling something, and Kim Yongsun was staring impassively at the elemental. Yoshika didn’t care about any of it—the only thing she was paying attention to was the elemental, which continued to stare at her with those strange, empty eyes without any hint of what might lay behind them.

Without another word, the elemental turned and left, the Kims following quickly behind it as Wonshik fruitlessly demanded explanations. Kaede and Takeda turned their attention to Yoshika once the guests had left, making sure she was alright after the attack but Yoshika just brushed them off.

That hadn’t been an attack, not really. She could feel the elemental’s intent as its domain bore down on her. If it had wanted to kill her, it would have done so, of that she had no doubt. No, it had just been probing, examining her, searching for something. She suspected that she knew exactly what it was. Yoshika picked up Heian and held her close—until recently, she had been the one holding the mote of divine essence from Jianmo. Manifested as she was, Heian had taken the brunt of the elemental’s attack, and had Yoshika not learned to hold it within her dantian herself, the elemental would have found the tiny piece of Jianmo’s essence hiding inside of her. Yoshika met her friends’ eyes with a dark frown.

“Kaede, Rika...I think we’re going to have to be a lot more careful about what we say around those elementals.”