To my own surprise, I’d discovered that I actually liked the Yellow Graves.

The sea would always have its place in my heart, but you could find beauty in forests, too. And there was just so much life here. A living, vibrant piece of nature. Maybe I’d hate the other parts of the Graves, if I actually got to see them, but still.

It might also have had something to do with the fact that here, there wasn’t much to deal with in the way of paperwork, nobles, or - so far - actual fighting. Imperials who dismissed the Zarieni as barbarians might have been surprised to see how deep and involved their culture was. Once they’d decided to cooperate, they did it pretty well. Before we arrived at the base where some of our allied clans had gathered, they’d formed a war council, elected a chief to oversee everything, and set up quite thorough guard and patrol patterns, not to mention logistics support. I wondered if the Zarian made full use of their capabilities.

But that had been yesterday, and now, we were leaving the base again to head into danger. Aston wasn’t happy about this, and I’d told Tenira and Lei to stay back with the rest of the Zarieni. But we had enough of our soldiers and nomad fighters along that this shouldn’t be very dangerous.

Something tickled my qi senses, and I raised my hand. “Halt.”

The guards and the section of fighters around me slowed and looked around. I stepped forward, my eyes focusing on where my other senses could feel something even before it became visible to them. A moment later, a wispy figure materialized in front of a tree, looking like it stepped out or through it.

“Greetings, spirit.” I inclined my head.

The spirit nodded. Their mostly featureless face made its lips more prominent and smiled at me. ‘Little Light. I am happy to meet you.’

I returned the smile. ‘I see this is your home. If you have no objection, we will be passing through here.’

‘No objection. I have known of your coming. My fellows are excited that you are here.’

I nodded. ‘Is the area ahead safe?’

‘Safe for you, yes, yes. The dangerous beasties are gone or withdrawn. The other humans aren’t walking here.’

‘Thank you.’ I hesitated for a moment. ‘Have you seen Kiyanu? The man in the black stage who was with me?’

He still hadn’t shown up at the base. Well, I knew he could take care of himself. He could probably even kill that spirit beast without letting his presence shine through too much. I wasn’t too worried, but a little irritated. He was probably taking care of other things on his own somewhere.

The spirit shook a little, mostly with their head, but looking as if it spilled over to the rest of their body, too. ‘No, no. He isn’t close by here. I last heard he walked somewhere nearer to the rising of the sun over the great mountain.’

So, the east, maybe northeast. I nodded. ‘I see. I appreciate it.’

The spirit grinned. ‘Luck-luck, Little Light!’ With that, they took a step back and dissolved back into the tree. I could sense their presence receding.

“I have never heard a ghost of the land be so free with information,” a Zarieni elder said. The middle-aged man with long hair had come up beside me while we were talking. He frowned at the tree. “Usually, they need much more propitiating until one talks to us.”

I shrugged. Good, then I hope the Zarian don’t get info from them as easily. “Let’s keep going.”

I started walking again, and the rest of the group moved with me. I kept my senses peeled for further spirits and spirit beasts, but no one else approached us. Now that I was paying attention, I caught the occasional flicker that might be a spirit watching me, though they kept themselves pretty well hidden if that was the case. But in a place like this, it was almost a guarantee that something would be watching us, so I didn’t let it bother me.

After about an hour of moving quickly through the forest, we came to our destination. As we approached it, we started to slow down, and some of the Zarieni peeled off to go ahead. They’d look for and deal with enemy guards, or at least the ones patrolling the outer perimeter.

Through a gap in the foliage and with the help of a little technique that reflected light, I managed to get a glimpse of their camp. It was pretty small, made of huts that looked like they were assembled from premade parts of wood and woven reeds. They’d set up in a clearing, but the outer parts of the camp still brushed up against the trees. I could see a lot of sentinels. Several of them wore pretty distinct jewelry, sorting themselves into groups.

Scouting reports from our Zarieni allies indicated that this camp might host a gathering of enemy leaders, and this seemed to confirm it. There were probably some more hidden fighters. All of this could be a trap to bait us into an attack, but my intuition didn’t agree with that notion. Apparently, gathering this information had been hard for our scouts, and the enemy couldn’t have guaranteed that we would get it. Plus, they had a lot of better options if that was their plan.

We hid behind some dense undergrowth, with our auras pulled in tightly, and a few techniques to help us blend into the background. I put a curtain of invisibility above us, a small layer of light qi that would redirect light around us. It probably wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny, but that wasn’t the point.

The scouts were gone long enough that my nerves and anticipation gave way to boredom, and I was mentally rereading one of my favorite novels when they finally reported back. I forced myself to stay back and let the officers and elders handle things, although I listened in.

From the scouts’ reports, they’d made an effort to secure their camp, but our raiding force was big enough it shouldn’t be much of a problem to catch them. Still, some might escape, which meant any subsequent strikes would be harder. I’d expected that, though. They discussed the camp’s layout and which famous warriors were where, then we prepared for the attack.

Of course, Aston wouldn’t let me actually charge into enemy fire, even if I’d wanted to. I was mostly along because I couldn’t just sit in the base all day, and to show the Zarieni that I was serious. Well, and because the situation was fluid and opportunities might arise to step up our game.

“The Moon guide you,” I said to the fighters.

A few of them made what must have been a religious gesture, and the Imperials bowed. Then they were off. We’d only taken people at least in the fifth stage along for this, so they moved quickly and quietly through the trees. A few moments later, a stifled cry rose from the direction of the camp, a sign that the fight had begun.

I took a step to the side and took out my trusty old spyglass to get a better look. Our soldiers had taken most of the sentries watching the camp’s edges by surprise, and started brief, violent fights that were already winding down. By now, Zarieni were pouring out of the huts.

I pulled a bit of my light qi and carefully integrated a technique with my tool, shifting the light until I had rudimentary thermal imaging. Carefully, I swept it over the camp, looking for more enemies. As it turned out, I’d been right.

“Tell them that there are several warriors hidden underground, in what might be cellars or trenches, and sneaking upwards,” I said. “There are also still some in the huts and a few hidden in the trees.”

Aston passed my message, but I’d already returned my attention to the fight. It was in full swing now, and we could easily hear and even feel it from here, with the way the wind and trees carried echoes of the impacts. Our side had the numerical advantage, and from what I could tell, our enemies were about equal in composition when it came to different stages of cultivation. Unsurprisingly, our fighters kept pushing into their camp.

A flutter of qi beside me made me lower the telescope. I wasn’t quite alone with my guards, since a few Zarieni seemed to have elected to also wait here. Probably to keep an eye on me. Now, I met the gaze of the strongest one, the chief of a major clan, and saw him curl his lip.

“Enjoying the view, Imperial Princess?” he asked.

I gave him a flat look. “I’m watching the battle and seeing if I can spot anything that might be of use.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re all very relieved to hear that,” he said, tone still derisive. “After all, ‘watching the battle’ is clearly the most important task a warrior could do to contribute. Especially a war chief.”

“Might want to tone it done a little, Kevels,” one of the others said in their language. “Don’t piss them off too much.”

“Why should I tiptoe around their pride?” Kevels retorted. “The mighty Empire doesn’t seem too capable or eager to prove their strength, does it?” His lip curled again as he looked at me. “How fortunate that you have our warriors to actually fight that battle.”

I lowered the spyglass and frowned at him, careful to keep my tone and expression mild. “If you insist on staying here because you don’t trust us, then don’t blame me for not getting to fight in the battle. Unless you actually don’t want to. I assure you, we’re going to stay put here. In case you have never heard of it, keeping a strategic reserve is usually good tactics, and my guards are also serving that function here.”

He spit on the ground and growled something in Zarieni that I didn’t quite catch. But the other guy stepped closer and grabbed his sleeve, hissing something in a low voice. The belligerent chief gave me another dark look, then moved off with him, behind another cluster of dense vegetation. A few seconds later, I sensed an attack of concentrated qi shooting off to impact what might have been a watchtower at the edge of the enemy camp, catching one of the remaining hostile Zarieni.

We watched the rest of the fight in tense silence. Yarani stepped up beside me, covering where the Zarieni had been, and I couldn’t help but notice that she kept her hands free and had tucked a dagger into her robe. In addition to what she might have had anyway.

Finally, it was over. I sighed, straightened my shoulders, and walked forward into the camp. Or what had been the camp, it was pretty well destroyed by now. A lot of Zarieni lay dead on the ground, and others knelt in the largest clear area, hands behind their heads, as Imperial soldiers and allied fighters guarded them. I nodded at them as I passed, then joined a group of chieftains or elders and officers. They were currently questioning what I assumed to be an enemy chieftain.

“What have we got so far?” I asked quietly.

One of the officers, an elite commander named Lisi, answered, “There was indeed a meeting. We’ve also gotten hints of a larger gathering up east, close to the Green River. It seems like most of the clans allied with the Zarian are sending at least some envoys and fighters there.”

I nodded slowly. That might pose an opportunity, but it was also a concern. They wouldn’t gather their forces like this without a purpose, and holding strategic meetings meant they weren’t going to just sit around down here. An attack on the Empire? Or just a distraction to stop our advance? I suppose it doesn’t matter if we manage to stop their plan in its tracks.

I kept quiet and let them conduct the interrogation, though we didn’t get much. Apparently, what Lisi had just told me was pieced together from snippets the Zarieni fighters had let slip, and their leaders were too strong-willed or stubborn to reveal anything. Maybe they thought we’d just kill them after, which wasn’t exactly an unreasonable concern.

Before I could even speak up to ask what we were going to do with the man, one of the Zarieni elders stepped forward and crashed a fist suddenly covered in rock into his head. The captive sacked down, and the man crushed his throat with his boot.

I scowled. “Hey, what in the abyss was that?”

“We were finished interrogating him,” another Zarieni said.

“There was nothing useful left we could get from him, Your Highness,” Lisi spoke up quietly.

I shot her a sharp glare, then turned it on the Zarieni. But I chose my words carefully. “I still don’t appreciate this sort of behavior. Don’t just make decisions like this on your own. We’re a team here.”

A few of the Zarieni grumbled, but the man who’d done it simply nodded. “Sorry, I will next time,” he said with a heavy accent.

I closed my eyes for a moment, centering myself, then nodded. “Well, if we’re done here, it’s time to move on.”

They packed up quickly. The nomads were probably used to this. The weaker fighters rounded up the captives and herded them into the jungle. Meanwhile, I talked to the officers and a few of the elders. They weren’t happy at my decision to strike out with a group on my own, but there wasn’t much they could do about it, since the Zarieni fighters from the tribes I’d asked were happy to come along. We’d talked about the possibility of splitting up before, anyway.

Soon, my smaller band set off again. We moved quickly, guided by the locals familiar with the region and using game paths and even the occasional brook to make our way through the jungle. We were probably moving away from any enemy presence, so we didn’t have to be as careful, though I made sure that we still kept our auras tightly veiled. A few stronger spirit beasts took objection to us passing through their territories, but we either passed through or around them quickly enough, or they were scarred off by our numbers and, on two occasions, a demonstration of our strength.

But after a while, we started to enter a region where the trees grew more tightly together as the ground started to rise and became a little rockier. I could feel the change in the qi of the area. We had to slow down.

“Go left,” I called to our lead elements, then cocked my head and nodded to myself. “To that thicket there, I guess.”

From there, I managed to guide us onto something vaguely resembling a usable path through the area. I couldn’t have done it without having it described, and I still had to use my intuition to fill in quite a bit.

Finally, we reached a somewhat more open part, close to a quickly flowing river. I called the fighters ranging further around us back in and sped up to get to the front of the group. Carefully pushing my way through the undergrowth, stretching my senses, I finally found what I was looking for. In a small clearing in the shelter of what might have been a hunk of limestone, we encountered another group of cultivators.

They met us weapons in hand, with a few people I almost missed hidden in the trees close by and probably more I hadn’t found. I raised my hand and stepped forward, letting my aura be felt a little more clearly.

As soon as they recognized me, they put away their weapons and most of them went to their knees.

“Rise, please,” I said. “No need to stand on ceremony.” I smiled. “It’s good to see you made it here successfully, though. You have my thanks, Elder Jin.”

The old Zarieni bowed his head. “I’m glad I could be of service, Your Highness.”

I let my gaze sweep over the assembled group and nodded at the officers. Judging by what I’d seen and sensed on the way here, even the spirit beast and spirits in the area barely knew they were here. We could be pretty sure our enemies wouldn’t. And with Jin’s help, I planned on keeping it that way for as long as possible. After all, attacking your enemy on a second front worked much better if they didn’t expect it.

“We should hurry,” I said. “The Zarieni are all ready for a party, and we have some gate-crashing to do. Let’s see how they feel about getting a surprise party.”

That got some polite chuckles, but it seemed to have worked to break the ice, and the two groups started to merge.