Emilia emerged from the cottage prepared. Her guards blinked in shock at the transformation they witnessed, as the tired girl they had ushered in stepped out from the simple wooden door with far more authority than they had ever seen her hold herself. She seemed to fit their mental image of a spirit guide far more now than in any other moment they had seen her, although she was far from the calm echo of a passing wind, or far from the radiant dawn that broke over the treetops.

  No - she looked to them like a spectral beauty. Haunting as she might have been comforting. Emilia had made a point to apply her ritual paints - her face now painted a white to match the marble skin of her patron, bck covering her eyelids and matching the shape of her eye-sockets to evoke the imagery of a skull, bck lines painted over ruby lips, golden flowers painted along swirling patterns over her face and arms, with bck around the joints of her wrists and hands, to denote the bones of the dead.

  Her designated guards took a step back, as she walked past them. She didn't have her sword on her this time. She instead carried her Liuquin imperiously as she walked purposefully towards the edge of town, where she had seen the people begin to dig before she had gone to rest. The sun had passed over the horizon, the spirit nterns were lit, and Emilia could already hear the whispers of the townsfolk debating if the demon would choose to return.

  Emilia said nothing, as she walked. Nai met her along the road, her maidservant clearly worried about something as their eyes locked, the woman blinking in shock before nodding, and stepping in beside the young spirit guide. A procession began, vilgers bearing candles falling in behind the spirit-guide as she continued her march towards the graves at the edge of the forest. The graves y outside the spirit stones, which left the townsfolk uneasy as they followed, but they followed all the same. A single ntern had been pced over each of the fresh graves, simple paper makers inscribed with the names of the dead covering each grave.

  Lord Reian Liyung stood atop a simple wooden ptform, almost shocking Emilia by already being present, given that she had not announced her intentions, and had been deyed by her unexpected lesson.

  She cleared her throat, suddenly nervous.

  "I apologize for my dey, Lord Reian." She announced as clearly as she could. "I had to prepare."

  He nodded once, before responding in a surprisingly strong voice. "Your preparations are appreciated. Our people have been buried. I would ask you to beseech the spirits to protect them now, from any harm or interference."

  Emilia nodded, then stepped up onto the stand, facing the small crowd of people bearing candles.

  "Those of you who have a loved one buried here. I would ask you to retrieve something they loved in life - or to find an object to represent something they loved in life, and pce that item upon the grave of your lost family, or friends."

  The townsfolk blinked, and hesitated, but in the end, many rushed off to do as she had requested. Emilia gave them some time to return, many bearing simple cups, or tools, or in a few cases that made her heart ache, toys, that were pced upon the graves. Ink sticks, carving knives, she lost track of the countless objects.

  She took a breath, and lifted her Liuquin. She struck the first note, and the crowd fell silent, as spectral glowing petals appeared in the air around Emilia. Then, she began to py in earnest, her strings vibrating. The ivory iny of her instrument took on it's own ethereal glow, as her voice filled the air, chanting out words she didn't fully understand the meaning of, trying to match the rhythm La Catrina had drilled her on for the past hour. Sweat began to bead, as she focused entirely on the music, eyes drifting shut.

  For the spectators, significantly more was happening. The glowing petals swirled around the girl in bck and white paint, keeping time with the music of her instrument, the funeral dirge that suddenly seemed to grow brighter, to split into multiple voices, multiple tones, multiple instruments even. Everyone turned around in shock trying to find the source of the other instruments, before their attention was quickly drawn to the graves before them. Each began to glow with it's own soft light, as spectral petals began to swirl over most of them, only the oldest graves remaining dark in the dimming light. Their candles fred, as ughter filled the wind, as the sound of drums began to match to Emilia's pying.

  A man took a woman's hand, and her eyes widened in shock and familiarity as he smiled at her, a ghostly figure of light, pulling her into the cemetery.

  He was not alone. Other ghostly figures danced into view, with steps Nai only vaguely recognized. Two spectral children appeared, taking a third by the hand, making a ring that began to spin with raucous ughter. Tears and sobs filled the air as wives were pulled into the field by ghostly husbands, as a pair of soldiers embraced - one of them translucent, glowing the self-same amber as the flower petals that now swirled like a storm around the spirit guide.

  Nai could see now where the music was coming from. Other spectral figures now stood with Emilia on the improvised stage, pying instruments they must have once known in life, their songs joining in a perfect harmony with the clear melody that still sang out from Emilia's strings. Nai recognized one as the man Emilia had brought back to interrogate in the poor part of the town.

  The Jiak of the town stared in shock, and fear, with a few others, as the dead swept in from the streets of the town itself. Nai noticed that a few even stumbled out from the trees themselves, before they embraced their families. The party began in full, a dance of the dead filled the graveyard with ughter, movement, and joyous weeping, as the dead swept their living family off of their feet, each ending up atop, or next to, their own gravesite. Most were far from perfect dancers. Nai tried to find repeating patterns, to prove to herself again that this was some kind of illusion, some kind of trick, and almost hoping that it was as doens of dead spirits danced around her. She forced herself to see some of the amber spirits stumble - to see them trip over their feet in ways that brought tears and recognition to the faces of their family. Some couples didn't dance at all, but simply stood on the sidelines, smiling. Nai saw two entire families huddled in an embrace, scared to move, scared to break the moment.

  It was too much.

  This was impossible.

  This was necromancy. There was no other word for this. These were the dead. Emilia had brought back the souls of the dead. This... was this disturbing their rest? Was this... She didn't let herself finish the word.

  Decades of fear filled her fingers, as a poisoned needle dropped from her sleeve into her hand. Her wrist trembled. She licked her lips, staring up at the girl in the middle of the ghostly musicians, hair let loose in its natural curls, eyes closed in concentration, light fring almost like a floral halo behind her head in the early night. Each note pulsed through the incorporeal forms of the dead, like a heartbeat granting them false life, and she swayed with the ghostly tune she brought to the air.

  Nai's head began to pound. Her heart raced. Those dead who huddled or grasped their families reluctantly broke away, or led their loved ones to their own freshly dug burial sites.

  Nai felt horror rising in her chest. Was this a sacrifice? A sick joke to drag an entire vilge to the afterlife in a single moment? If so, could she stop it? Could she understand it? She tensed the muscles in her arm, ready to cast her dart towards her charge - then Emilia opened her eyes, the normally brown depths now vibrant as two golden pools.

  Nai froze.

  The music fred to a rising crescendo, the spirits bowed to their families - and the music stopped.

  Emilia colpsed to the wooden deck of the shoddy stage, falling to her knees before colpsing onto her back. The spirits of the dead stood calmly at the head of their own graves, nodding or waving to their family members as whatever magic that kept them present in the world rapidly dissipated, leaving them more and more translucent with each passing second. The ghostly band members set their spectral instruments on the ground, and each pced a hand on the girl's head before they faded away, leaving, in the end, a small girl with a flute, to face the crowd.

  "The Bone-singer helped us make a deal with her goddess. We will protect this pce, and wait for you to join us someday. Don't forget us."

  The little girl smiled, waved to a sobbing woman near the back of the crowd, and dissipated in a cloud of flower petals.

  Fresh sobs filled the air, but they were... different. They were not the cries of the distraught, or the devastated. Laughter mixed in, families hugged each other with tearful sobs as they fell to their knees. Nai noticed that each and every item pced on one of the graves - even those graves which had remained dark - now glowed with a soft inner light, that pulsed warmly in the darkness, pulsing with the same rythm that had been present in Emilia's song.

  Nai gnced wildly around the crowd, her eyes locking with those of a man with long dark hair, who scowled up at the stage. Nai gnced at his fists. clenching and unclenching.

  The man from Goka. He scowled up at the stage, rage fshing briefly across his face, before he turned into the night, and a momentary war waged in Nai's mind.

  Rush up to the stage, or pursue?

  She chose her charge, rushing up the few seps to cradle the unconscious girl, briefly inspecting her instrument to make sure it wasn't broken, before carefully lifting the strap off of Emilia's shoulders. She felt for a pulse, relief flooding through her when she felt the telltale thrum of life beating in the girl's neck. She didn't know why Lord Langshen wanted to speak to the dead, but Nai knew she had to get this girl back to him alive, whole and well. Nai had to help the girl finish this mission, and return to the City. Hyungjae would know the value of this. He would decide what needed to be done. She knew exactly how strong he was - she was intimately aware of both his ruthlessness and his ability to take advantage of an opportunity. As the Jut'yi of Langshen, he would know where the line y between an opportunity too good to give up, and a risk to dangerous to allow.

  Emilia's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled weakly.

  "she... warned me... not to overdo it..." Emilia moaned.

  Nai wanted to sp the girl.

  "Well, you did. Congratutions." She forced her voice to a softer tone. "what did you do?"

  Emilia gestured to the cemetery limply, unable to do more than fil an arm blindly towards the graves.

  "I... gave them the chance... to protect their bodies... to rest... with La-Catrina." Emilia's eyes began fluttering closed. "Can I... sleep now?"

  Nai nodded, pursing her lips.

  "Yes, Emilia-Yun. You may sleep."

  Emilia nodded in relief, closing her eyes, and going limp.

  Nai stood, facing the Jiak. "The spirit guide is indisposed, ensure all menfold of the town are prepared for another attack from the Demon." She turned to the crowd. "I need a strong man who can carry the spirit guide back to our residence! I will instruct them on how to carry her."

  While Emilia did not care about proper social rules, and decorum, Nai did. And Nai would ensure that Emilia was treated properly - conscious of it or not.

  When she woke up... Nai would decide what do do with her. She gnced down, looking at the silver needle still resting in her palm. She trembled. She began to pray - to whichever god, great or small, would hear her, that she would not have to take this girl's life.

  She prayed that the girl's goddess would be smart enough not to demand her servant do things which would break the only w agreed upon across all of Tian-Xia.