I sat at a black lacquered table before more plates of food than I had seen since the morning of my exile. At the far end sat the three miscreant youths. They had been forced to attend Hanari and me while the master sat across from the two of us.

  Wei had built herself a wonderfully traditional home within her dojo. Paper walls framed with red hardwood sealed us in on all four corners. Flat ceilings made from the same red wood made the sound echo from overhead. The only thing missing were rattan mats. Bamboo would have been easy to make, so I didn’t know why Wei chose stone for her floors over the more traditional mats. But I was certainly not impolite enough to ask.

  Though famished, I ate sparsely from the food presented me. Too many unusual sights, too many incongruities played at the back of my mind for me to sit comfortably, much less indulge my appetites.

  “…and you will not tell me where you are from or where you’re going?” Wei did not eat when she spoke, nor when we answered her question. Not only was her home the perfect image of the old ways, but her manners remained spotless and detailed as if she’d been trained to them at a very young age.

  Hanari on the other hand stuffed herself with ever single morsel of food Wei offered, save for meat. And it was no surprise to me when the master of the spear academy did not offer the alleged monk a plate of meat. Several such plates sat before me, their thick portions cooling in the pleasant atmosphere.

  Wei’s question had not been directed at either of us, but as Hanar’s face was stuffed, I felt obliged to answer if for nothing out of an attempt to demonstrate my upbringing had been as regal as her own. I inclined only my head as I said, “I am very sorry. But we can share neither our destination nor our origin. Please excuse our impropriety.”

  Three misfits tensed at the end of the table and stood stock still at a flick of the eyes from Wei. She waved them off and nodded back to me with a deeper angle still than I had used with her. “Then you must excuse my curiosity.” She pointed to Hanari, who had brown sauce dripping over Odgen’s clothing. “But I have not seen so oddly matched a pair in my entire life.”

  Hanari flashed Wei a grin as she continued to eat and I held my breath in the hopes the Kitsune would not disgrace us further.

  Vain hope ruined houses. It was an old saying, one I knew to be true to the center of my blackened heart.

  As Wei had not asked a question, I nodded at her and brought my chopsticks down to sample the rare cut of beef on the plate before me. In the old days I’d favored meat charred beyond recognition, almost to the state of coal. But a human form had taught me a sliver of pleasures denied me as a dragon. And rare meat was one of them.

  The morsel burst on my tongue. Wei’s chef had an exquisite hand at spicing food. A subtle heat which had nothing to do with the temperature of the meat rose up into my palate and through my nose. I breathed deep of the fragrance and savored the butter-like texture of the meat as it slid down the back of my throat.

  Ecstasy.

  The very reason I had denied myself such pleasures sprung on me the moment I closed my eyes and paused to enjoy my dish. Wei spoke, “Boys, leave us.”

  I opened my eyes to find Wei’s countenance transformed. Hanari ceased her endless gluttony and froze mid-motion. A flick to the right and I saw at once what had changed Wei’s tone. Hanari’s skin began to tighten and firm. Pale fur appeared at her neck and cheek and she began to cough. The hood of her robe concealed the transformation from the misfits, but Wei’s eyes locked on Hanari with a grim determination in her black pupils.

  “But master…” Wei brought her fist knuckle down on the stone floor and the three young men fled the room with the speed of boys pursued by an angry and vengeful aunt.

  The moment the paper door slid shut, Wei grabbed her long spear from behind her and I took the Mountain Cutter in hand. “Who are you both, really?” Wei’s accent had changed as Hanari’s white fur slid over her body and she yelped with a soft note of panic.

  “Fox flesh, did you feed me fox?”

  “I did.” Wei snorted. “Your reflection wavered in the pool outside, ‘grandmother,’ and I have never seen a monk with tits or an appetite as fathomless as your own.” Wei sprang to her feet and brought her old style naginata to bear as I let the cloth cover fall away from the Mountain Cutter. “Which makes you the Oni. I thought you knew better than to enter this place, demon.”

  I left the Mountain Cutter in her scabbard as I blocked the strike from Wei’s weapon. Hanari barked again as the robes billowed out around her and she seemed to lose her way through the folds. “I am no demon,” before I could complete my sentence, Wei dipped her blade toward the table and flicked a small bowl up and at me.

  With a small motion of my sword and scabbard, I intercepted the bowl and it shattered against the metal of my scabbard. It bursting fragments and sprayed me with a fine white powder. I took a step back and held my breath, expecting further treachery.

  But Wei tilted her head at me and took a half-step back. “What?” She turned her blade and pointed the tip in my direction. “I covered you with salt, demon.”

  Blinking at her, I snorted and plucked a few flakes out of the gap between my scales. I laid the grains on my tongue and tasted a bright explosion of brine across my mouth. “And it is remarkably pure salt at that.”

  Wei took a second half-step away when two things happened at once. The door to the room slid partway open and Hanari recovered her sense of direction and pulled herself from under my dead master’s robes.

  Wei’s voice cut through the room sharper than the sword on the end of her staff. “I did not call for you, students. You disgrace yourselves again.”

  The door slid shut faster than it had opened. Hanari emitted a grating bark at Wei and growled at her. A pair of tails swung from Hanari’s back, both low and curved like feathers under the wind.

  “What is the meaning of this, Wei Yun?” I schooled my voice to a chastisement and our host looked between me and the rampant white fox at my side.

  “You are not the Oni then?”

  I held up one hand as if to show it was empty. “I am no Oni.”

  “But that is a Kitsune. Are you both Kitsune?”

  I shook my head and Hanari let out a soft yip a few seconds later, she coughed and threw up a large portion of her meal under the table like an ill trained dog. Wei and I both stared at the fox with reflected looks of disgust on our faces as Hanari trembled and her fur began to recede.

  Catching sight of Wei as Hanari transformed, I found her curious over Hanari’s metamorphosis and wary over my own stoic, unmoving stance. When Hanari finally finished twitching and rolling on the floor, she stood up naked as I’d first seen her and wiped her mouth. The side of her lips and back of her hand came away red. “That was a dirty trick you pulled there. You could kill a girl doing that.”

  Wei flicked her hand toward Hanari with the same dismissive motion she’d used on her students. “You are no girl, fox-demon.” Though Wei kept Hanari in her sight, she turned to face me head on. “You however, are not what I thought you to be.” She motioned to the table and said, “now I believe you both owe me the truth. Yes?”

  I rolled my eyes at the sour look on Hanari’s face and fell to my knees with a smooth motion. “Fine. But if we are going to share stories, I would ask for wine. Or at least mead?”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Wei chuckled at my words and nodded. She pointed to Hanari and said, “do not let my students learn what you truly are or I will be forced to drive you out of my home and Tamanoe.”

  Hanari sniffed the air as if she were still in her fox form and grumbled at the tabletop before her. “Fine. Give me a moment.”

  Dragons could shapeshift, but our ability swathed us in light which matched our scales and kept outsiders from seeing anything we did not wish. Not so with Hanari’s transformation. Her skin bunched up, browned and speckled with age spots as I watched.

  Though I shared a kinship with the Kitsune as a fellow shapeshifter, or rather former shifter, I found myself repulsed by her transformation. Teeth receded into her gums, her eyes sank into her skull and her hair became sparse. A cackle later and she was nude before me with her body that of an old woman barely clinging to life.

  Wei sat down with her spear over her lap as if the transformation meant nothing to her. She waited until Hanari had gathered her ochre robes about her and rapped on the table three times. When the door slid open, the boys outside didn’t enter or even look in. One of them, Hua, called from the darkened hallway beyond. “Master?”

  “Bring a rag, soap and water, and a jug of the Avenfor.”

  “Master?” Hua sounded worried or dubious at her instructions.

  Wei rapped once on the table and spoke with a firm tone. “Now, apprentices.”

  The door snapped shut and the three men scrambled away, their feet skidding over the stone as they did. When they were out of earshot, I opened my mouth to speak, but Wei held up her hand. “Let us wait until I’ve sent the three of them home before you share the truth. As you may have noticed, my students are idiots and would not take well to such a… shattering of their minds.”

  I bowed and struggled to keep a smile off of my face to no avail. Though the events had turned against me and Hanari, I preferred the baring of truth to the swapping of polite fictions.

  By the time the door slid open again, Wei’s refined accent had returned. Hanari scooted away from where she’d been sick to allow one of the young men to clean up the mess while another held a bucket. The third, Hua, carried a massive clay jug almost too big for him in both arms. To his credit, or more likely to the credit of Wei’s teachings, he remained in place with the jug raised above the floor until the other two men had cleared the area under the table and left.

  Only once Wei motioned to him did Hua shuffle over to her, his face red from exertion. He bowed and set the full jug on the stones. “Master.”

  “And bring me three clay cups, the Xinwa set, if you please.”

  At Wei’s instruction, Hua turned his head toward us. And sucked in a breath at his own lapse. He bowed again to Wei and fled the room with all haste.

  “They are remarkably obedient.” I brushed another grain from my armor and onto the floor. “How did you manage that?”

  Wei nodded at me, but did not answer my question. We waited in silence until Hua returned with a black lacquered platter in both hands. He moved with deliberate certainty as he set the tray down at Wei’s side.

  The other two young lingered in the doorway and remained where when Hua scuttled back to join them. Wei said, “The three of you are dismissed for the night.” She raised a single finger, “and no mischief or I will recall tonight’s transgressions unfavorably and decide on a more severe punishment in the morning.”

  I couldn’t imagine what kind of mischief the men might have gotten up to in this small town, but I held my own council as Wei turned to the three small cups at her right. They bore bright red avian designs on their sides, raised from the cups as if they’d been added late in the turning process or the red dye in the clay gave it a different texture. All three of the cups breathed age into the air and I had the feeling my father would have admired them and commented on how he’d known the artisan who’d set their style into motion.

  Wei poured from the jug with deft motions, belying the jug’s weight or displaying her own strength in the process. I found myself studying the woman in her traditional clothing. The base accent she’d slipped into earlier had told me a great deal. As with the house and her mannerisms, Wei wished to affect the appearance of culture. But had dropped it the moment she mean to join in battle against Hanari and me.

  She lifted the platter and said, “as my guests, you may select the cup of your liking.”

  I admired the skill she’d displayed in filling the cups precisely the same level and waited for a beat before I chose the cup nearest me. Hanari lacked any of my restraint and grabbed a cup, almost spilling a portion of the contents. In different circumstances I might have chided her. But now our pathetic ruse was on display and I did not wish to pile further shame upon our heads.

  Wei took the remaining cup and held it high. “To the truth my guests.”

  I spoke the old tongue and said, “and may our words find fitting ears to receive them.”

  Hanari surprised me by adding the traditional conclusion to the toast. “And may our bellies be fit to receive this drop of life.”

  Wei sipped at her cup as Hanari upended hers into her mouth with one go. The liquor was fragrant, honeyed, but none too sweet. I took only the smallest sip of the drink and let the softness slide along my tongue. Berries mingled with bright floral notes the bees had dutifully gathered to create the drink and I offered silent thanks to their efforts as the sip hit my stomach.

  A subtle warmth spread and I waited to speak until Hanari had finished smacking her lips and patting her gut.

  “I shall go first, I suppose. I named Isha Blackheart, sometimes known as the Jade Serpent…”

  Wei followed my story and drank as I recanted my most recent adventure from Hakkaim to where I met Waru the Oni. I paused to wet my lips on the mead and Hanari cut in.

  “I can explain the rest!” She’d already drank two cups of the mead and slurred her words as she waved her hands in the air. I worried after Wei’s fine china as much as our hostess. But despite her exuberance and animation, Hanari did not spill a single drop of the beverage. “I am a Kitsune, but you already knew that. And until the demon Waru found me, I had three beautiful tails.” As she drank more, Hanari’s skin lost its aged quality and her hair filled out. “He was a vicious monster. When he laid eyes on me, he mocked me and assured me he would take me for himself.”

  “He wanted you as a fox?” Wei frowned, the unpleasant thought clear on her face.

  Hanari stuck out her tongue. “Oh no, I was a beautiful maiden at the time. And like a good beautiful maiden, I tried to kick his ass.” Wei snorted and I raised an eyebrow. Hanari nudged me. “What? I know a thing or two about ass-kicking. I just don’t like to show off.”

  This time I could not keep the grin from my face at Hanari’s words. “He caught you then?”

  Hanari frowned. “I guess you could say that. I kinda, well, I spent a good several months mocking him and teasing him until he cornered me. Before I could shift away or vanish into a shadow, he cut me down. I guess he didn’t think it was as fun as I did.”

  “What happened then?” Wei swallowed the last of another cup of mead and refilled it while Hanari waved her hands.

  “Nothing, really. When I died, I reverted to my true form and he skinned my corpse…” Hanari swirled her mead and shot the whole cup back in her throat. “I died, so I lost my third tail and with my skin attached to him, I never had a chance to shift away from Waru.”

  “You hung from his belt?” I blinked at the red-nosed Kitsune. She recounted at least months of horror as if it were nothing to her. Though I supposed at least she had not been the wicked evildoer in her story.

  “Oh yeah, for…” Hanari set her cup down and pointed to Wei. “What year is it anyhow?”

  My head shook of its own accord, as if my spirit would not believe the truth implied by Hanari’s question. She’d hung from Waru’s belt for years?

  “It is the third year of the crane.” Wei answered with a suddenly sober face, though her cheeks had turned as red as Hanari’s nose.

  “Oh, I mean who’s the current Sovereign of Heaven?”

  I swallowed the remainder of my mead. It was that or let my mouth hang open like one of Wei’s idiot pupils.

  “Gan Fan, the Wise, third of his name…”

  The room had gone quite still as Hanari reached over her cup and upended the jug into it. “Sorry, don’t know him. When was Bin Liu the Just’s time?”

  Wei and I both inhaled together as if we’d seen a malevolent spirit cross our paths. I had not yet been born when Bin Liu the Just had died and his great grandson ascended the seat of the human empire. Wei spoke first. “Over four hundred years ago…” Her cup hovered in her grip, shaking slightly.

  “That long then, I guess?” Hanari shrugged and upended her cup. “Time passes quick when you’re a pelt.”

  For the first time, I tossed back the liquor Wei had shared with us as quickly as the Kitsune. It was that or blurt out the fact Hanari was even older than I. And I did not wish to explain to our host my own origins.

  We finished the jug of mead in silence. Both Wei and Hanari were so drunk they could hardly move. Though confined to a human form, my body retained a good deal of my draconic heritage. As a result, I could have finished the jug of mead and three of its twins before I felt the effects. Wei showed us to a set of spare room, decorated in the traditional style and furnished with soft sleeping mats and raised pillows on wooden stands. She stumbled away and I perked my ears up to track her progress through the building.

  I could hear her humming out of tune when she opened a door and collapsed into her room. Seconds later, she took to snoring and I could rest assured she’d survived the night and I would not awaken to find a mob of villagers ready to murder me for poisoning their local weapon instructor. I shoved Hanari onto the bed and covered her. In her stupor, she tried to grab me and drag me down to bed with her. I appreciated the effort, though had no intention of sleeping beside a drunken woman. Or sleeping at all that night.

  Nightmares would have followed and I preferred to remain alert anyway. The fact Wei had not shared her own past with us had not escaped me.