Chapter 452: Duel of Spouses

"Just who is this supposed to b-" Xir Xan Khan was cut off by a roar, then Kai fell on him.

Zae Zin Nim leapt to join him, hoping to finally kill the hateful man, but he responded by sending his columns of qi whirling around him. In her weakened state, they managed to knock her back several paces. Soon the two men were locked in combat, tearing at one another, savage monstrous blows matching refined strikes.

Because Kai could handle himself, Zae Zin Nim flitted around the side of the hill, exterminating all the cultivators who had come to support her enemy. Most of the Krysali were alive, and thankfully Cragrila and Nirka were helping them retreat. Once they were out of the way, she could concentrate fully on her enemy.

As she returned to the battle, however, she couldn't help but stare at the wildly uneven fight.

Xir Xan Khan managed to hold his own despite his injuries, calling up even more columns of purple qi that reinforced his martial arts. He looked like everything she was supposed to want: elegant posture, ornate robes, flawless skin, imperious eyes, sleek hair.

On the other side, Kai was a ragged beast of a man, huge and unnecessarily muscled and hairy. He'd obviously forgotten to shave while he was with the rebels, and instead of whipping around his head elegantly, his hair was a vicious snarl. His hands twisted into claws and his legs were no longer human, creating a grotesque mixture that should have horrified every woman who saw it.

And yet Zae Zin Nim wanted nothing more.

She entered the battle as light as the wind, her palm streaking toward her opponent's back. At the last second Xir Xan Khan managed to turn one of his columns toward her to block the attack, but she pressed on, adding a Coldfire Palm to the strike. The impact sent him tumbling off the hill, crashing through one of the trees.

When it became obvious he wouldn't return immediately, Kai turned to look at her. Maybe a real cultivator would have ignored her in favor of mercilessly killing the enemy without hesitation, but his burning gaze was like a balm for her soul.

"Are you alright?" Kai asked. His voice was deeper, as if something had changed inside him, yet still so clearly her husband.

"Only minor injuries." She stepped closer to him, reaching out, and felt a flood of relief as his hand touched her waist. He couldn't embrace her now, not with an enemy so close, but just that little touch made her feel stable again.

In their short time together, Xir Xan Khan regained control and returned to the hilltop. Despite his injuries, his back was still straight and his eyes flashed coldly. At least they did until he saw the way his opponents were standing, and then Zae Zin Nim saw a flicker of uncertainty.

"Surely not..." he breathed.

"Yes." Zae Zin Nim turned to face him, put an arm around Kai's waist, and glowered. "None of you will ever listen, but I'm not some pure maiden anymore. I have been married for years."

Unlike the others, Xir Xan Khan didn't babble any rage or false pieties, and she saw that he truly understood. More than that, she knew how repulsive the very idea must be to him, how it shocked him to the core of his being. For a moment she almost thought he was going to cough up a mouthful of blood from rage alone, but his surprise resolved into a cold fury.

"You've fallen further than I had imagined." He slowly withdrew his hands and placed them into his sleeves. "But not too far, not yet. Think about everything I said, Zin Nim, and wake up from this madness. If you resolve the Blackblood Physique, you can attain a second purity."

As his body began to transform into light, Kai leapt away from her with shocking speed. His claw lashed out, and she could see Xir Xan Khan's eyes widening in fear as it started to cut him, but then his body dissolved into purple qi. The light streaked away as he retreated, leaving only scraps of silk in Kai's claws.

Then it was over, at least this round. Even the Krysali seemed to know it too, rapidly going through the cultivators to take everything they could before retreating. The flying swords and other items would be a bounty for them, but Zae Zin Nim couldn't find it in herself to care.

When Kai returned to her, his body was shifting back, becoming the scruffy over-sized barbarian she should never have loved. Zae Zin Nim threw herself at his chest and finally relaxed as his arms wrapped around her. For a time they could stay like that... but not forever.

"I don't think we can pull off any deceptions in the future," Kai said. "Now that he's connected us, he'll realize that the rebel cultivators were a distraction, and we have to assume they'll put everything together. Omilaena was spotted too, and Kan Jin Kung remembered us before, so they might even figure out the plan."

"That doesn't matter," Zae Zin Nim pointed out, "if Omilaena stole everything we need. Did she?"

"It seemed to be going well last I checked. But they know our location now, and they'll suspect our general strategy. If they start looking for opponents in the swamp regions, we can't evade them all. I couldn't help but transform, so I wonder if they'll even connect the monster attacks..."

"Kai." She tucked her head under his chin and went limp. "I would fight a dozen more battles for you, but I don't have these logistics in me. I need you to handle them."

"Right. Of course." His arms squeezed her a little tighter, realizing that she needed comfort.

Everything was perfect here, in her husband's arms. The only way it could have been better was if her wife was present as well. But, for the first time, Zae Zin Nim couldn't escape the fear that this happiness couldn't last forever.

The blood within her veins pulsed darker every moment.

.

..

.

Kai had left a war and torn across the Southern Rivers to help his wife, so normally he would have been glad to dedicate himself fully to comforting her. But for once he wasn't sure what she needed, since she had receded into the murky emotions he still couldn't decode despite their marriage. Since she mostly wanted proximity, he let her shadow him while he dealt with their new problems.

"We have to assume they'll come for us in force," he told Cragrila. "They have other priorities, so it might not happen immediately, but it'd be stupid to wait here. So pack up the camp, make false trails, and get ready to move everyone via the ship."

"Got it." Despite having just faced an overwhelming cultivator, she seemed to have snapped back - maybe it was just an echo of crystalliers. "What happens if they start sweeping the swamps?"

"We may have everything we need here. We have the option to go straight north, maybe even leave the Southern Rivers entirely."

She nodded and moved off to obey. The Krysali were all getting antsy about staying here so long, now that he paid more attention to them, and they probably wondered when they'd be able to return to Deadwaste. At least Cragrila didn't ask the question now, when they were in the middle of so much tense work.

The one question was whether they needed to go north to find Omilaena, who had yet to respond to any messages. But she had seemed in control when she spoke to him, and there was no sign that the Verdant River sect was moving in force toward the barrier wall. If anything, they seemed to be ignoring it in favor of moving south and east.

He worried a little about the Redtree rebels, since they would get slaughtered if they kept trying to fight against the reinforcements. It was hard to worry too much about them, however, when his wives had even bigger problems potentially hanging over their heads.

As soon as he got a little room to breathe, Kai took Zae Zin Nim to an unoccupied corner of the ship and let her rest for a little while, just stroking her hair while she leaned against him. She seemed content with that, at least for now, and he didn't want to interrupt her with the question he was sure that she wouldn't want to think about.

Or maybe she already was, and that was why she was so quiet.

Still, in that quiet moment, Nirka happened to pass them and she stared more than should have been necessary. Almost like she was surprised to see them just being tender like that. Did she think that they weren't really married and just fucking on the side? When he caught her gaze, she hastily returned to her task.

Eventually he had to prod Zae Zin Nim to focus again. "What we've done so far is probably enough to escape the Verdant River sect," he told her, "but we might be facing much worse. What are the chances that Xir Xan Khan tells your father, and that he comes for us?"

"Oh..." She was silent a moment, then shook her head. "It could happen, but I'm not sure. I think Xir Xan Khan wants to steal me away from my father, not work together with him."

"How confident are you in that?"

"The Brightwind sect and the Coiling Island sect are nervous allies. My marriage would have helped smooth over old tensions, actually. So it could happen, but he would have to go out of his way. Given the way he looked at me, I doubt he'd go to that much trouble."

Kai winced at the dull ache in her voice. "Do you want to talk about that?"

Instead of answering, Zae Zin Nim buried her face in his chest, which was answer enough. Kai held her for a while and hoped that he didn't need to do more.

They had started to leave, abandoning the Krysali camp, when he finally felt someone on the horizon. Of course everyone was alert at first, but it quickly proved to be Omilaena. She was racing toward them on a flying sword, looking so intense that he worried she was being chased. And yet, even as she closed on them, there didn't seem to be anyone after her.

When she arrived, she ignored the Krysali trying to check her and dodged around them in a way that made him confident it was really his wife. Omilaena landed on the deck beside them and opened her mouth, but Zae Zin Nim tugged her into an embrace.

"Uh, okay." Omilaena settled in and cast him a strange glance. "Did something happen?"

"She just ran into someone from her past," Kai said. "How did your mission go? Do we need to run before the Verdant River sect comes after us for stealing their Insanity?"

"Oh, you have no idea." Omilaena took a deep breath. "Turns out we had this all wrong."

(Cognosticon here. I've closed the previous poll: the day with the highest number of votes was Friday with 29%, though the plurality of voters (37%) didn't care. For now, the schedule continues without any changes.)