The fire in the forest clearing flickered merrily without wood or any sounds of crackling. Four fish sizzled on a blue-bronze pan, placed to the side to cool enough to safely eat. Candles and incense sticks were set in the earth, smoke rising from the smoldering tips to curl upward into the night. The occupant of the tidy campsite was absolutely stunning, her outfit rival to the leading lady of any royal court, her hair glowing like flame in the light. Yet the most notable thing, the thing that should have given Qiu's partners a bit of a clue, was the elaborate green mansion that loomed behind her, a home fit for nobles in the middle of a forest.
Art by Vladislav Orlowsk
You would have to be an idiot to go near her. That's a fox woman if I ever saw one, Qiu thought to themself. So of course, Qiu's ox-brained partners had decided to rob the woman, and nothing the bandit had said could dissuade the rest of their party. Qiu had finally given up and left them to their fates, promising to be at their backs. And stay at their backs, far out of sight.
Qiu shouldn't have even been that close. Maybe they felt they should at least stay and see what happened—that they at least owed their companions that much for the victories and spoils that the others had shared with them over the years. Maybe it was the woman. It had been so long since Qiu had seen another fox hiding behind a human face, another person who Qiu knew was truly like them.
Qiu watched their companions approach. Yahui was being dramatic, as usual, trying to scare the woman with his friendly-traveler-turned-threatening-robber act, as if anyone believed he was ever friendly. Qiu instinctively ducked behind a tree as the woman stood up. Best not to be in the splash zone if any bits of giblets came flying their way. Even so, they couldn't help but lean an eye out to peek. The woman's hair seemed to lose its gravity as she conjured magic power around her...
...and then burst into flame, as her form morphed into that of a gargantuan bird of fire.
Phoenix, Qiu thought, their jaw dropping open in absolute stupor.
Yahui and the others weren't any more dignified, dropping their swords, falling to the ground, trying desperately to crawl backward away from the searing beast. They were bullies, not trained warriors. As they scrambled to their feet to escape, the phoenix gestured with a wing, causing a wall of fire to encircle the clearing. The magic blaze engulfed the trees, and yet the leaves and boughs did not blacken or burn. Yahui noticed, the same as Qui did, and decided to try his luck by leaping through the inferno. He was rewarded by his hair and clothes bursting into flames, and he shrieked in panic as he rolled against the ground to put himself out.
It was too much for Qiu to take, the shock causing them to lose their grip on their form. Qiu felt a muzzle and white fur popping out from their human guise, and rode the transformation a little further, shifting all the way past a tailed humanoid into a small, four-legged forest creature. If they were lucky, they could pretend to be a common fox—oh, but it had been a mistake, a terrible mistake; the heat was unbearable in this shape, and Qiu found themself blindly darting out into the clearing to get away from those terrible embers and the pain of singed fur and whiskers.
The woman looked human again by the time Qiu finished rubbing their paws on their snout. No chance she hadn't noticed them now, a snow-white fox in the middle of her clearing, icy breath fogging in the warm air. Qiu gulped and looked around at their fellow bandits, though they knew their companions would be no help. At least Yahui looked like he would survive, though he'd likely be burned and missing his eyebrows for a while.
“Banditry is punished by execution, in these lands,” their captor said. “Or at least, so it was. The law may have changed, for I have been absent a long age.”
It hadn't, but Qiu didn't feel it necessary to say that. The other bandits gibbered something unintelligible.
“But what I do now is also unlawful. So are all tragedies—to be caught between honor and humanity,” the woman mused, apparently deciding that responses were optional. She gestured to Qiu, then lowered her hand to the ground in a clear summons to approach. “You are a huli jing? Let us speak.”
Qiu didn't bother trying to act dumb. It would be futile. This woman was ancient—it showed in her speech, and her power, and her eyes.
“That's not a name I've heard used in a long time,” Qiu said, slipping back into their true shape, a fox-faced humanoid with two tails, so that they could more easily speak. Already they could hear the more common names for their kind whispered among their bandit colleagues. Fox-demon. Liver-eater. Qiu would never be able to work with them again after this. They surprised themself by feeling a sense of mourning at that.
“I am Qiu. What can this humble huli jing do for you?” Qiu asked, giving a sitting bow. They did their best to speak formally, out of respect, but Qiu felt more like they had managed to land on pretentious instead.
“I am Hao Jin,” the woman introduced politely, and Qiu at last understood, and believed it.
The Ruby Phoenix. The most powerful sorcerer of a nation and of an age. Perhaps of all ages. There were plenty of children named in her honor, but Qiu doubted any possessed the raw magic they had just witnessed.
She continued, graciously ignoring their expression, “I am looking for a dead-people.”
“A dead-people?” Qiu echoed. It wasn't a phrase they were familiar with, and the literal words didn't quite make sense. There were corpses a plenty in this forest, and likely some undead as well, but they didn't feel like what Hao Jin was asking for.
“This is no longer the word that is used?” Hao Jin asked, after a moment of hesitation. “A people that the empire of Lung Wa declared dead. Their houses are to be destroyed, their records of lineage burned. Their language must never be spoken. Their name will become a myth. They are erased. They are no longer real.”
Qiu chewed their gums at the weight of those words. Dead-people. “I do not know how anyone could find such a group. Even Lung Wa is something of a myth, these days.”
“I remembered their name, in defiance. They were the Xijae people. They lived here once,” Hao Jin said, standing up to walk inside her ornate green mansion and gesturing for Qiu to follow. When they entered, they found a museum room graced with armfuls of jewelry, books, and scrolls in a mysterious writing. Costumes and headdresses, every thread and color vibrant and pristine. Qiu reached out before they could stop themself, eyes open in awe as they examined the embroidery and delicately worked metal. They'd never seen patterns like these before, never seen this artistic style. It had been erased. Erased before Qiu had been born, stolen without them ever knowing—but wait a moment...
“I've seen these before,” Qiu said after a long thought, rolling a jade and silver bead between their fingers. “There was an old man who made them in a village forty li to the south.”
We robbed his shipment blind, Qiu did not say. They were starting to feel very bad about that. “I don't know if he's still alive, but...”
“Show me the way,” Hao Jin commanded, before Qiu could think of how to finish that sentence. She stepped back outdoors to set her pans and plates back in her house, ushering Qiu outside as well. Qiu watched in awe as the building shrunk down to the size of a child's wooden toy in her hands. She glanced at the other bandits, seeming to weigh their fate in her hands before she evidently decided they weren't worth the distraction. With a wave of the sorceress' arms, the wall of fire surrounding the camp vanished. Qiu thought they heard her trying to say 'Go forth and do no evil' or something else with suitable gravitas, but the bandits were running and screaming before she could get that far.
“Come,” Hao Jin said, with a sigh at the robbers' antics. A gust of wind blew out her campfire; another lifted the two of them into the air. They shot up above the earth, to a height that sent Qiu's head spinning—or maybe it was the speed, or the thin air. They barely managed to keep consciousness to point out the tiny speck below with one shaking claw. The descent was no slower or easier, leaving Qiu gasping for breath as Hao Jin approached the village on foot, having been kind enough to the nerves of the residents not to land in the middle of their town.
Now is the time to run, Qiu thought.
But just the memory of the phrase dead-people sent them staggering into the town on the heels of the sorceress. Qiu could see that she had taken out the strand of beads Qiu had picked out, holding them up to a tiny crowd of four people, as another man hurried out from inside his small house with a woman following behind him. By the time Qiu reached the scene, the man was holding out his own hand, a trio of similar jade beads presented in his palm for Hao Jin to see.
“I was given these for safekeeping a long time ago,” Hao Jin said, pulling some of her ancient books from seemingly nowhere. She offered them to the man with a humble bow. “It has been long past the age when I should have returned them. Please, forgive me.”
Qiu could see the emotions run rampant across the man's face as he carefully took the book and opened it. Confusion, morphing into recognition, then disbelief. Then a profound and deep-cutting sadness, one that ran back generations, one that could never be healed, but perhaps now could be soothed.
“My grandfather spoke this,” the village man said, sharply turning his face away so that the ancient book's precious, forgotten language could not be smeared and ruined by his tears.
The former bandit watched the villagers crowd around Hao Jin, their voices blending in questions and exclamations. A breeze rustled through Qiu’s fur, and they suddenly felt a cold loneliness buried within their chest.
To learn more about Hao Jin and her relics of the past, check out Lost Omens Legends when it releases on July 30th!
About the Author
Eleanor Ferron is a developer at Paizo, working primarily on the Pathfinder Lost Omens product line.
About the Tales of Lost Omens
The Tales of Lost Omens series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into Pathfinder’s Age of Lost Omens setting. Written by some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, including Paizo’s Pathfinder Tales line of novels and short fiction, the Tales of Lost Omens series promises to explore the characters, deities, history, locations, and organizations of the Pathfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.
