Different people, the same moon.
Similar things happened every day, but the moon was always quiet, a perfectly good audience.
On this perfectly ordinary night, the flames at Chernobog's highest point burned until dawn; Amiya of Rhodes Island embraced a hazy mass of ink and water, holding it gently without noticing when Fu Hua had left; and after Ch'en of Lungmen's dream shattered, she fell into a quiet, pitch-black slumber, dreamless and peaceful as a child.
Amiya suddenly found herself embracing nothing.
She rubbed her eyes, suspecting this was another dream, but then she noticed something strange. A pair of little feet dangled in midair, swinging gently, as pale and soft as two blocks of tofu.
Following the two short legs upward, she raised her head.
She saw a little person sitting on a sphere, fast asleep. The black-and-white sphere wobbled, yet she managed to keep her balance perfectly, her head bobbing up and down like an excellent camera stabilizer.
"Who are you?"
"Zzz..."
The hidden reward Hoshino had received was a special doll: Cang Xuan's Book, the Immortal's stabilizer.
"Who am I? I'm Cang Xuan's Book, a divine weapon passed down from Shenzhou in ancient times. And just like that... yawn..."
Shenzhou in ancient times.
The Immortal had never liked being called a Yan Kingdom native. She preferred the mysterious-sounding name Shenzhou, as though the Yan Kingdom of ancient times had been a primordial age where gods walked everywhere and fighting was as common as eating.
"Are you the Immortal's... pet?"
Amiya wanted to choose her words carefully, but right now, pet was the only word she could think of.
"Idiot."
Cang Xuan's Book opened her eyes, their clear azure blue gleaming.
"I already told you I'm a divine weapon, so of course I'm a weapon. How could I