The night over Phantom Moon Lake was steeped in water.
The silver-hook moon had only just climbed above the tip of Wangyue Mountain when the lake became a spread-out ebony mirror, wrinkling the mountain shadows in its surface.
The Flying Eaves of Jingyuan Pavilion jutted into the lake. Candlelight leaking through carved window lattice fell into the water, shattering into flecks of golden scales that swayed with the waves to the front of Moon-Watching Tower, where vermilion corridor pillars sank three feet into the surface. The Glazed Lamps hanging beneath the corridor reflected a blue-green sheen over the lake, as though someone had crushed the Night Sky and sunk it to the bottom.
A snow-colored shadow suddenly darted out from the reeds by the lake—it was an Illusion Moon Fox. Its whole body of white fur shimmered with a silvery halo like moonlight, and when the tip of its tail brushed over the grass, it stirred up fine glimmers of silver. It paced to the water's edge and lowered its head to drink, and at once a trembling moon-shadow rose on the lake surface, even the drifting fireflies circling around the tips of its ears.
Deep into the night, the bell of Wangyue Mountain washed over the lake. Each toll made the water tremble; strings of droplets fell from the corridor pillars of Moon-Watching Tower; the candlelight in Jingyuan Pavilion swayed three times; even the stalactites in the cavern beneath the lake seemed to pause. The Illusion Moon Fox lifted its head and gave a soft cry toward the moon, its voice clear and bright like ice and jade striking together, then sprang into the bamboo grove, leaving behind only a string of fading silver radiance.
The entire Huanyue Sect seemed steeped in this dream woven of water and moonlight.