Pain wasn't the only one numbing Kai-Se's mind. He shifted to his side, taking care of jostling his muscles too much. The wounds he retained from the recent punishment he had taken for not being able to satisfy Amatesu had long since faded. What remained were slivers of raw fear and the figment of the pain haunting his every movement.

Amatesu knew it well, how none of them would really feel any lasting effects of her punishments. This was Shaoryeong, where magic always interacted with the physical, no matter how tangible that might be. She knew there's no use in harming her prisoners when they could heal as quickly as slicing through the flesh. But she was also aware that unlike wounds easily forgotten, memories were not. Far from it. She knew her prisoners would have those events ingrained in their minds for as long as they lived, and how she loved to take advantage of it.

Now, Kai-Se stared at the darkness, vaguely aware of Kaname being somewhere behind the inky veil. How long was he supposed to be like this? His days were composed of him getting plucked out of the dungeon and thrust into the limelight. Amatesu would invite him to tell a story, and after he did, he would always get thrown here. The first few times, the Spirit Empress told him it was because he "failed to capture her interest", but recently, she had grown a habit of waving her hand to let the four-armed creatures do their thing.

He never really understood what else to do to avoid being punished and the more stories he told, the more pissed Amatesu became. What was he doing wrong? Should he try to see if he could cast magic as well? Other spirits seemed to be able to have access to it. Even Kaname, despite being imprisoned, could cast spells to heal and summon light.

An earlier conversation flashed in Kai-Se's mind. The lizard bounty hunters mentioned something about Kai-Se being a hybrid. What did that even mean? He's a hybrid between what? Besides, hasn't he been human all his life? And now, he's a human trapped in Shaoryeong, telling stories to the famed Spirit Empress who was nothing like the benevolent entity the myths and legends portray her to be.

"Hey, Kaname," he called to the darkness. Today, they hadn't bothered lighting up the lantern. The wax was slowly evaporating and they'd be left with nothing. They should save it in order to have something left when they need it. "How did you manage all this...insanity?"

He waved a hand in the air. It's not like Kaname would be able to see that because of the suffocating darkness in the room. For a while, there was no answer from the empty void. He was about to give up trying to start a conversation when the familiar sound of a match striking the stone floor echoed in the dark.

Kaname sidled towards him, sliding the lantern between them once more. It occurred to Kai-Se they had finally reached one of the walls, giving him the opportunity to sit up and lean his back against the cold, hard surface. A small gust of wind tickled his lips as he sighed.

"It doesn't get easier," the god said, tucking her matted hair behind her ears. Now that they're sitting almost shoulder-to-shoulder, Kai-Se noticed through the bright orange glow of the lantern that her hair was such a light lavender shade it was almost gray. "Some days, it's maddening. Most times, it's...boring."

She turned to him, her mischievous smile somehow back on her face. "That's why I escape from time to time," she said. "They'd catch me eventually and throw me here, but it's worth it."

Kai-Se licked his chapped lips. Since he ended up in Shaoryeong, he hadn't had a sip of any liquid at all. "Where do you go when you escape?" he asked. "You could have gone somewhere far away, somewhere they wouldn't be able to find you. Why didn't you?"

The god hummed, tapping her chin as if his question made her think. "Amatesu knows Shaoryeong like the back of her hand. The thing about the council? It's not because she is weak to watch over the realm. It's because she's lonely and wants people to worship her," she said. "There's nowhere I could go where she wouldn't find me."

"So, I don't go very far," Kaname rolled her shoulders in such a nonchalant way it didn't even occur to Kai-Se they're talking about her imprisonment and lack of freedom. "The guards know where I go and they don't even bother to drag me back with force. They know I'll come back. Always."

"How about the mortal realm?" Kai-Se wondered. "The gods were able to survive there for a long time. They're able to build a country and all."

Kaname snorted. "As much as I want to leave Shaoryeong, I can't," she said. "I'm too weak."

Kai-Se raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?" he asked. "And don't tell me because Amatesu convinced you so."

"You're so funny it's adorable," Kaname chuckled mostly to herself before shaking her head. "I know because I haven't manifested my power yet. You have other gods who can bend natural energies and other cool stuff. Some are incredibly wise, totally talented. You name an ability. I'm sure one of the others has it. Me? None."

"Nishi and his cohort are gods I would refer to as idealists," Kaname said, talking about the very people who made Kai-Se's first trip outside of Xuijae a nightmare. Hearing their names from her lips did make his experiences in Dansarun feel...real. "They're only able to open the gate between realms because they've managed to find an anchor. Some poor fellow tampering with magic managed to hit it. Of course, they died on the spot since their korza ushered the other gods' entry."

Kai-Se rubbed his chin. "You're saying...to get out of here, you need a hell lot of magic that should be defined, an anchor, and a gate?" He turned to Kaname. "What's a gate and how do we find it?"

"Gates are where the veil separating Shaoryeong and the mortal realm have thinned enough to allow matter to pass through them," Kaname explained. Her expression told Kai-Se this was something he should have known first-hand. Well, it's not his fault there was nothing written about the spirit realm apart from the shamanic text, that for the last century, has been outlawed. "We just don't 'find' them. They need to be called, induced, or forced. We won't get into the actual process of that or we'll be here for another millennia."

"Let's just say you have all of that," Kai-Se waved his hands in the air. "Would you want to go to the mortal realm?"

Kaname rolled her eyes like she was bored of the conversation. Even so, she answered, "Just to check how in Shaoryeong's gut did it end up creating humans like you," she stuck her bottom lip out. "Oh, and maybe find out what glutinous rice rolls are."

A laugh bubbled out of Kai-Se's lips. The sound was immediately swallowed by the darkness around them. It was a bit out of place in their circumstance, after all. "They're delicious," he said. "Especially if they're fried and coated with seeds."

Kaname scoffed. "If I didn't like it, I'm coming for you," she said.

Kai-Se shrugged. Comfortable silence filled the space between them for a beat. Then, Kaname snorted in amusement. "Though, for the record, I doubt you're human at all," she said.

He knitted his eyebrows as he faced the god fully. "Yeah, about that," he said. "I haven't told you about how I got here, right?"

When Kaname shook her head, he launched into a full recount of what happened ever since he woke up on the hilltop and stared up at the dark red sky. He finished on the part where he ran towards the Palace's gates and lied about him being a piper for Amatesu. Once he got all that out, he frowned. "Those lizards called me a hybrid but I still don't know if I should believe them," he said. "And here you are confirming that I'm not quite human. So...what am I?"

Kaname's head fell from its perch on her palm only to snap up once more. She blinked, her eyes cloudy and dim. From the scant light of the lantern, it looked like she was tired. "Sorry, you were saying?" she said. Kai-Se frowned. Had she...had she fallen asleep? It was a short story. Wasn't even an hour long. How could she fall asleep that fast?

Then, a playful punch tapped against his arm. He kept expecting to feel pain but all that reached his nerves was a light bump. "Just kidding," Kaname jeered. "I heard everything you said, although you could have cut off on the escaping parts."

Kai-Se rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," Kaname said. "I guess your point with all of that was to tell me I'm not the first person to tell you you're not exactly who you have been told you are. If you ask me, I don't know exactly what you are supposed to be, except for the fact that your korza is interesting. Very interesting."

Kai-Se drew his legs to his chest, resting his chin against his knees. "In what way?"

Kaname held up three fingers. "First, it contains enough energy from Shaoryeong—uncharacteristic of a human who was born and had lived in the mortal realm all his life. Second, it doesn't wrap around your physical body the way ours does. It's like you and your korza aren't even supposed to belong together. And lastly," she said. "My third reason is that your korza seems to hate Shaoryeong but can't stand to be apart from it at the same time. It's influencing you, even now."

He picked at his lips. Was that the cause of the dread he had been feeling all this time? Ever since he stepped foot in Shaoryeong, he always had the undeniable urge to figure out how to get out. Now that he's thinking about it, he realized it had grown stronger ever since he met Amatesu and the longer he spent trapped in this dungeon.

"Do you know the reason for that?" Kai-Se met Kaname's eyes once more. In the lantern's glow, her pupils looked more black than whatever color they were supposed to be.

Kaname scoffed. "Do I know how to revive a dead spirit?" she said, in a sarcastic tone that's slowly becoming iconic to Kai-Se. "No, I don't know."

"So...can you really revive a dead spirit?" Kai-Se asked after a few more beats of silence enveloped them.

His voice sounded hollow in his ears, but then again, that's maybe because his senses had overall been dampened. Kaname brushed her fingers down her hair, smoothing out the tangles with every swipe. "Spirits, especially the Ancestral kind, don't really die," the god said. She studied the ends of her hair with a frown. "Their energy just gets mixed into the natural flow of things, just kind of there, but not quite. Bringing them back would require having a remnant, something that once belonged to them or contained a sliver of their power. That thing acts as a beacon to call forth the rest of their energy and forge the spirit anew."

Kaname clicked her tongue and massaged her forehead. "But why am I even telling you this?" she complained to someone other than Kai-Se. It seemed impossible, though, considering there were only the two of them in this prison. "It's not like you have a—what's that?"

Kai-Se followed the direction of Kaname's gaze to find his fingers playing with a jade pendant hanging around his neck. He frowned. When did this get here? It's not like it was here when he woke up on the hilltop. Or maybe he had just forgotten it existed and went on his merry way. That's probably it.

His eyes roamed around the pendant, noting the dark green jade stone slotted on a silver ring dangling from a thin, silver chain. Cracks webbed across the stone but not deep enough to fracture it completely.

A hand whizzed from his periphery and wrapped around the stone. He was about to voice his protest when he felt a distinct tug against his neck, drawing him forward. Kaname's forehead smacked against his as she ogled at the pendant, her eyes as wide as the jade stone in it. "No way," she breathed. "How come you have this?"

Kai-Se pried the pendant from her hands and scrambled away from her. "It's...I don't know," he said. "I didn't tell you this, but my memory is hazy. Ever since I got to Shaoryeong, I've had a feeling I'm forgetting something important, something that spells my reason for opening a gate and coming here."

He tilted his head to one side. "You seem familiar with this pendant," he said. "Do you know what it is?"

Kaname blew a gust of wind from her mouth. "I can't believe you. Really, I can't," she whipped towards him and jerked her chin at the necklace. "The pendant itself was unremarkable, but it bears the remnant of one of the most powerful Ancestral Spirits of all."

Kai-Se scratched the side of his face. "And...do we have a name?"

The god locked eyes with Kai-Se. "An-Ri the Immortal Fox," she said. "She's the last of the Ancestral Spirits to stand against Amatesu."

That's when everything clicked together in Kai-Se's head. His memories arranged themselves in one neat row, all centered around the one being he couldn't believe he had forgotten. An-Ri. Her cloud-white hair, piercing purple eyes, and white, bushy tails she sometimes let Kai-Se play with as a child. The spirit who protected him since he could remember. The only person who had ever understood him and kept him company. His first friend. His guardian.

An-Ri. He had come here to figure out a way to revive her. After she lost her life in Dansarun in protecting him, he had to bring her back. Not just because he longed for her sharp wit and her sturdy presence, but because he needed a way to prove to the Empire that he still had the blessings of the divine. If it could save everything his father had built, then he wouldn't hesitate to throw himself into the unknown just to see it through.

That's what he came to Shaoryeong for. And now, he's one step closer to achieving it.

He just needed to take that step first.