It was well past midnight when Coneti arrived at the temple. The livelier sounds of the mountain had softened to the chirping of crickets, the hooting of owls, and the susurration of leaves in a gentle breeze.

  The silhouette of the temple in the night was mostly simple boxes of mountainous stone that clung to the mountainside. In the centre of the temple were several shrines dedicated to the gods and the land, but they weren't visible from the path upwards.

  There was a surprising elegance to the place, perhaps because of how well it hugged the contours of the mountain. Yet at the same time, it stood out somehow, like a spectre.

  She wouldn't have called the temple "ethereal", but it nonetheless had the appearance of a building lifted from a different time and place.

  As she came up the final leg of the hike, rough well-trod dirt turned into stone steps.

  She waved at a couple of Syaan's disciples who were sitting outside, gazing at the stars, and went to find the temple's keeper.

  Syaan was where she expected, sitting in the grand meditation chamber. It was a wide rectangular hall for prayer, practicing forms, and, of course, meditation. The floor was pietra dura, polished tiles inlaid in a way to outline gorgeous geometric shapes. Here, their design hinted at the movements of the heavens. The roof was open to the air, letting in the quiet and laying bare the infinite night sky.

  The floor was scrubbed clean of dust. Syaan had set up a round wooden table that stood close to the ground. It was intricately carved at the edges and a colourful mosaic dominated the middle of it; it was built into the table itself.

  Syaan was kneeling by the table, his face turned from her, but he spoke first, even before he turned. "Coneti. Have you news of the outpost down the mountain?"

  That was what he called the inn. The temple was sometimes 'The Oasis.'

  "Some people from my youth are staying there tonight. I don't think they showed up without reason. I don't think they showed up without an eye for trouble."

  "Well, what do you think you should do for them."

  "Kill them."

  "Coneti," Syaan chided, his voice was gentle, as though guiding a child.

  She sighed. "Are they guests?"

  "If that is how they come, then yes, isn't that right? That they be guests?"

  "One of them has a particular habit of intruding where he's not wanted just because he can."

  "Perhaps you ought to do as you always do. Shelter and feed them."

  "Feed them?"

  "Are they guests?" Syaan raised an eyebrow.

  Coneti sighed again. "You said they are."

  "Then feed them. Not all come to search, but even the unwitting find."

  "Syaan. You are insufferable. Not everyone has to be a guest, wanting of spiritual fulfilment and naught else. You sure you're meditating and not daydreaming?" The latter comment was particularly odd, she realised, given the how long ago the sun had fallen.

  Syaan laughed. It was a warm sound, although it wasn't loud - it didn't quite fill the room, as flooded as it was of starlight.

  "If they want to come this far up with minds to be sharpened, am I to deny them? Is the sky mine that I can reject one to behold it?"

  "Trust me. This lot's minds could do with sharpening."

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  Syaan laughed again, softly.

  "You are tired. If you've nothing else, you should rest."

  There was the slightest restraint to his voice that Coneti was starting to recognise. "There is something else, isn't there?"

  Syaan bowed his head toward the table again. Coneti looked at it. It looked like a grand map, only not of any place she recognised. When he turned and spoke, she realised he hadn't been indicating it after all.

  "I have a favour to ask. There is a beast near the temple grounds. One of my disciples came upon it the other night. They are in the healing ward, resting. But by his account, the beast is large and dangerous. It may take days, but I'd like you to hunt it down."

  Coneti took a few steady breaths. "I'm starting to think you hate the taste of my food. Didn't you hire me as a chef?"

  "Did I?" Syaan looked mildly bemused.

  "Surely there must be someone else better suited to this."

  "You know there are none."

  Coneti thought about that. He was probably right. But still... Her hands felt like they itched.

  "I will sleep. And then I'll hunt a beast. But I think you'll owe me one, Syaan."

  "This is acceptable."

  Coneti left the room.

  She rested.

  In the morning, she went down to the kitchens and cooked, she and that day's kitchen attendants.

  The heat, the steam, and the smells of cooking oil and spices and meat wove delicate magic in her nose and mouth.

  After midday, she packed. Her sword and crossbow, she tested their weight in her hands, before stowing them away. She wore clothes that could brave the pricklier parts of the mountain forest, and a cloak that would fend off the dirt and dust she kicked up.

  She would not return to the temple, safe and sound.

  The hunt took the rest of the day. And it took the entire night

  In the evening, she found tracks.

  The beast was, in fact, large. The tracks were wide and weighty like a mountain lion's, but there was a strange green residue in each footstep.

  If Coneti had to guess, it was a strange mutation from when Titanex had bled into the land.

  She needed more to work with. She unhooked her crossbow from her pack and slung it over her back. She focused Second Sight.

  The firmament settled in her vision, and streaks of vibrant colour quivered and pulsed in all she took in. Her heart beat like a drum.

  A tinwhistle kestrel dozed in a nearby tree.

  Little colonies of ants dotted the land. These ones were biters, she knew from experience.

  Foxes and adders and rabbits were curled away in their dens.

  A thread passed from lion track to lion track westward and northward. The beast wasn't moving fast. If the green residue weren't confined to its prints, she would've guessed it was injured - it did seem to be moving as though it were.

  She unfocused Second Sight and trekked onward.

  The rest of the hunt was surprisingly easy.

  Before sundown, she found the beast itself.

  When she saw it, there was a hollowness to it. It was like a mountain lion, yes, but had stubby horns like a young mountain goat or a scorchy. The chest cavity was spongy and almost translucent. There was a green substance, a pale milky sort of mucus, that clung to its body, here and there. Most of the strange liquid filled its chest. Somehow it hadn't left impressions all over the trees as she'd followed its trail.

  It must have been more greatly injured than she'd thought; it hadn't spotted her. Her crossbow bolt flew like lightning.

  Its howl was terrible. It seemed already on the verge of dying. Coneti wondered what could have harmed it so.

  The green blood of it spilled now, from both wound and hollow stomach. It spouted as if from a tumbling bucket until there were pools of it on the earth. Where it hit ground or greenery, it boiled and steamed, and the beast darted further into the woods with great, gallumphing bounds.

  Lupe's words were there to latch onto her to in her puzzlement. Wouldn't you rather be the Emptier of Heaven again?"

  Damn the man! Why would he show up now? Did the very gods orchestrate to disrupt her peace? She was beginning to relish cooking for the temple's denizens. The walk up and down the mountain soothed her weariness. Talking to Syaan and his disciples was, for lack of a better word, fun.

  Yet she knew he wasn't wrong. It felt right to be on the hunt again. For there to be a quarry.

  She followed the beast again.

  She had hit what would be a vital point on a normal mountain lion. And as she waited out the hour, she saw that its strength waned.

  Eventually, when she had found it again, it was collapsed under the trunk of an old pine. The upper half of the tree had fallen and was.

  She inspected the beast. The fur at its head and hindquarters seemed healthy and full and normal. Only its torso was a sickly reflection of a death beyond death. She turned it over.

  The skin there seemed to peel in layers. Seemed almost sewn. It was scarred underneath. They were angelic marks.

  Coneti's eyes narrowed, and she immediately scanned her surroundings. She had seen no sign of angelic presences, Protectors or otherwise, and she didn't either now.

  No matter. She had the beast in hand, and Syaan would want proof of her prize.

  She looked again at the disgusting green runoff. Best to construct a sled.

  Using rope she'd brought and wood she gathered, she laid it in a and carted it off.

  Her body was beginning to feel sore when she returned, but the aching was suddenly a small thing when the temple came into view.

  It came into view earlier than it should have.

  It was alight with fire.

  She dropped the beast and ran toward the temple.