Transforming into oni. In other words, becoming demons. Lady Tennin's accusation hung in the air. There was no malice to it—just a simple observation, but one that cut deep into the heart of Yoshika's troubles. The Tennin had an unusual way of seeing the world, owing to her strange fusion between human and spirit. It was that very insight that led Yoshika to see her counsel, but it discomfited her to be seen through so easily.

"That's not how we would describe it, but yes. After suffering a grievous injury, we rebuilt Eui's body. The technique almost failed, but somehow our demonic core intervened and took over the process. Eui lived, but the demonic core changed. It's more powerful now, harder to resist, and our tennin core isn't enough to offset it."

Yoshika hadn't told anybody just how much she'd been struggling against her demonic core in the weeks following the Goryeon coup, and it felt good getting it off her chest. Lady Tennin listened attentively, and without judgment.

"It's been getting worse, hasn't it? Has the core started to show?"

Yoshika glanced up at the glowing blue orb nestled between Lady Tennin's brows—her own tennin core—before nodding.

"Yes, a little bit. On Eui's collarbone, ever since the reconstruction. Forgive us if we don't show you."

"Quite all right, I believe you. What have you tried to do to address the issue?"

Yoshika began counting off on her fingers.

"We tried eating cores and the meat from magical beasts in order to empower Jia's tennin core, we tried burning off excess destruction essence in order to exhaust Eui's demon core, and we tried meditating on it to just force them to balance out again."

"And?"

Yoshika shook her head.

"Nothing. We're too connected. Our demonic core takes as much essence from the magic crystals as Jia's does, if not more. Exhausting the demon core just made it start drawing essence from our bodies, and we were unsuccessful in our attempts to influence the cores through meditation. You're the only other Tennin we know of, and we were really hoping you'd be able to provide some insight."

Lady Tennin frowned thoughtfully.

"I could try feeding you some of my essence—oh, but you'd get in trouble from Shinji. I'm not sure that it would work, anyway. No, perhaps you've gone about this all wrong."

Yoshika tilted her heads and raised one eyebrow on each face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, just that none of those things sounded particularly…Tennin-like. Gathering power, spending essence, focusing on the self—none of these feel like things that would empower Jia's core. Certainly they aren't what I would do."

"What would you do?"

The Lady Tennin covered her mouth to giggle, shrugging helplessly.

"What I always do—whatever would best protect those that I care about. If I thought I was going to become a danger to my village, I would seek to crystallize as much of my power as possible within my core and then take my own life."

Her eyes widened as her own words registered, and she waved her arms in a panic.

"Not that I'm suggesting you do that! Please don't! I was just trying to answer your question."

Yoshika nodded solemnly, mulling it over. Obviously she wasn't going to kill herself, but the Tennin had a point. She had been keeping everything to herself—trying to solve everything with her own power. Perhaps if she wanted to empower Jia's core, she needed to think more like a Tennin.

"Do you mind if we try something? We're not asking you to do anything—in fact, if it works we'll be doing something for you."

"Of course."

Yoshika closed her eyes and cycled the essence within her bodies. Rather than focusing it into a technique, she drew a thread of pure essence out from within her and concentrated it on her fingertip as she would if she were feeding Heian a treat. Yoshika wasn't sure which element the Lady Tennin was attuned to, and had forgotten to ask, but her domain gave the impression of a summer breeze or calm clear sky so Yoshika focused on air.

Yoshika was unfamiliar with the process of giving an offering, and simply extended her hand, hoping the gesture would be obvious. Lady Tennin's eyes widened as she realized what was happening, and the core on her forehead reacted on its own, drawing the generous mote of air essence towards it. The mana had barely left Jia's palm before Yoshika felt a pain in Eui's chest. Her core pulsed greedily, snatching the essence out of the air and absorbing it before Yoshika could react.

Lady Tennin blinked.

"Oops! I suppose that didn't quite work the way you had hoped."

Yoshika frowned deeply.

"No…"

"Well, don't worry too much about it. I think you're probably on the right track. You just need to find something important enough to you that your demonic core doesn't interfere. I'm not surprised a token offering didn't do the trick."

"We wish we could share your optimism. But thank you for your advice anyway."

Lady Tennin smiled brightly.

"Anytime, Yoshika. I have every confidence in you. You and your friends are welcome to stay here as long as you like."

Yoshika rose and bowed in farewell to Lady Tennin.

"We appreciate your hospitality, but we'll most likely be leaving first thing in the morning—we don't want to keep our escort waiting too long."

The Tennin rose to her feet and glided gracefully across the room, drawing Yoshika into an embrace—one body in each arm.

"Thank you for visiting! It was very good to see you again. Try not to make me wait an entire year before your next, all right?"

Yoshika chuckled ruefully, returning Lady Tennin's hug with a gentle squeeze.

"We'll do our best."

Yoshika spent the rest of the night meditating. As she had almost every night for the last week, she retreated into her soulscape to ponder the nature of Seong Eunae's mysterious green soulfire. She had stolen a portion of the esoteric element from Eunae's inner spirit, after the Kumiho's fragment had 'highlighted' her divine spark by lighting it aflame.

The trial had gone a long way towards teaching Yoshika how to manipulate divine essence, which had been instrumental in winning the support of the divine elementals. In the process, however, the Kumiho had left some kind of mark on Yoshika—a geas enforcing a bargain that she could no longer remember. The only thing she knew for certain was that it had something to do with Eunae and the element of soulfire. Though she suspected she was playing into the Kumiho's hands, Yoshika couldn't think of any better way to get to the bottom of what she had done than researching the element as much as possible.

Unfortunately, 'as much as possible' wasn't turning out to be very much at all.

"Why is this so difficult?! It's fire that can burn the soul! That shouldn't be so hard to understand."

Yoshika paced irritably under the starry sky of her soulscape, shooting the occasional withering glare at the floating green fireball. Jianmo watched with an amused smirk as he floated lazily nearby.

"You realize how insane that sounds, right? Even in the divine realm, soul manipulation is one of the most rare and powerful types of arts. You saw what it did to that magma elemental—you wouldn't have had a chance against it if not for your foxy friend."

Yoshika grimaced at the simulacrum of her master. It was a tiny fraction of divine essence that the real Jianmo had left behind in order to aid her training, but the vast majority of its power had been spent in order to power the sacred art that she had used to defeat a xiantian magma elemental. All that remained now was a fraction of the capricious demon's memories—and all of his sassy attitude.

"I get that. Ancestors, Yan Yue spent more than enough time drilling how dangerous soul magic was into my head. But this isn't exactly subtle—it just burns!"

Jianmo raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure? That's a pretty arrogant assumption considering it's the source of your entire predicament."

Yoshika opened her mouth to protest, then stopped, furrowing her brows.

"Wait, you're right, that doesn't make any sense. But then why am I still so sure of it?"

Jianmo shrugged carelessly.

"That's soul magic for you. It can really fuck you up! You probably shouldn't have gotten involved with it, but I suppose it's a little late for that now."

Yoshika shuddered. It was insidious the way the Kumiho's magic influenced her thoughts.

"How am I supposed to know which thoughts are my own and which ones were forced on me?"

"You don't, usually. Or you find another soul mage who can fix you up—though that's a bit like trying to put out a fire with an even bigger fire. Easiest solution is to just kill whoever did it to you and then live the rest of your life with whatever damage was done, but I'm guessing that's not the route you're going to take."

Jianmo snorted as Yoshika gave him a flat look.

"Thought so. Well, the fact that you can realize something's wrong at all means that either Miss Fox wanted you to, or she's a rank amateur. Given the standards of this backwater little world, I'd give it even odds."

Yoshika sat down in the grass—her soulscape's recreation of the old Academy training field where she'd once spent so much of her time—propping her chin on one hand. She didn't think the Kumiho was an amateur, though perhaps the fragment that lived inside of Eunae lacked the power of her greater spirit ancestor. Still, it felt like this was part of the trial—some kind of hint, meant to guide her down the correct path. Just another part of the spirit’s manipulation.

She focused on the odd feeling of dissonance—the contradiction between what she'd observed and what she knew to be true. Soulfire only burned, yet hadn't the Kumiho done much more than that? Yoshika remembered the heart wrenching feeling of something squeezing her soul when she'd spoken to Eunae's inner spirit. The Kumiho was more than a destroyer, she was a manipulator and a trickster, an illusionist and shapeshifter. How could a being of living soulfire be all of those things if it was an element of pure destruction?

It physically pained Yoshika to think about, but she forced her way through it. She concentrated on that pain, mentally poking and prodding at it—trying to find the source. Before she even realized, Yoshika found herself walking through her soulscape as she searched.

Her soulscape was like an inner world—a semi-physical representation of her own soul. Each person and place within it represented some facet of her, and navigation within it followed a sort of loose dream logic. Her inner world was connected as much by concepts as by physical space and distance. Each step Yoshika took brought her to a completely different scene as the pain worsened.

Whatever the source of her headache was, it didn't want to be found. Or perhaps it did—it wouldn't be the first time the Kumiho had used pain as a tutor. With each moment the agony grew until Yoshika started to wonder why she was even following it in the first place. What was the point of subjecting herself to such suffering? Would she even find anything in the end, or was she just torturing herself for no good reason? Just when her resolve was starting to falter, Yoshika arrived—somewhere.

Yoshika's surroundings had shifted beyond anything that she could even recognize. She couldn't call it an inner world anymore—she was deep within her own soul, a swirling kaleidoscope of essence and power that made up the very fabric of her being. It hurt to look at. It was no wonder she usually conceptualized her soulscape as an inner world. Seeing it like this was overwhelming. And yet, she knew that it was her—all of her, condensed down into one mind-boggling vortex of incomprehensible color.

Except it wasn't incomprehensible. If Yoshika focused on one part or another she could understand it briefly, but in the way of spirits—as a confusing surge of jumbled concepts and feelings. There were, however, two places that stood out. Two concepts that did not belong in this place—channels of power that carved grooves in her soul, leaving scars in their wake.

The first, she recognized right away. The brand marking Eui as an exile of Goryeo. While her crimes had been absolved, the mark was permanent, and the scar still featured prominently on Eui's forehead. In her spirit form, Yoshika's horn took its place—both as a protest against the injustice of it, and as a way of embracing and accepting her more demonic nature. Yet, the scar on her soul remained, not because of the magic in the brand itself—Goryeon soul magic wasn't nearly that advanced—but because of her own belief that she deserved it. The wound was self-inflicted.

The second scar was different. Newer, cleaner, and much more deliberate. Yoshika sensed the traces of soulfire still lingering within it, but the more she tried to understand it the more her attention slipped away, as if she was trying to take hold of a flowing river. Though she couldn't comprehend the full extent of it, its nature was clear to her.

She had found the Kumiho's geas.