Aunt Jieun and Willow left their home shortly after breaking their fast. Eager to get this task done with as much daylight left in the day as possible.

  Both aunt and niece made their way through the woods, with Willow making sure to keep her senses sharp so that no territorial beast or spirit would be able to get the jump on them.

  Her aunt was back to feeling grumpy and sad, but some of the lingering malaise from recent events had left her due to the encounter with Calypso last night. Which was a relief to the girl, as she didn’t like it when her family was feeling down at all, and if all she had to do was let her aunt play with one of her friends she’d do so happily.

  In fact…

  “Would you like me to bring out Calypso again?” Willow asked her aunt earnestly.

  Jieun smiled a little and shook her head. “Not right now, Willow. It’s best not to get distracted while out in these woods.”

  Willow pouted a bit, but saw the sense in her aunt’s words, even if the going was relatively free of obstacles. There wasn’t a direct path to this river from their little clearing, unlike the small creek a ways behind the Xin family home. However there also weren’t too many gnarled roots or dense bushes blocking the way forward either, making the trip to the river quite pleasant for the two of them.

  Well, as pleasant as a walk could be when there was potential danger lurking around them at all times.

  Eventually they reached their destination, a fast moving river gently burbling over numerous mossy rocks and tree roots. The sun was still mostly hidden by the thick canopy overhead, but the dense wood qi common to the region gave way to the cool and flowing feeling of water qi as they drew closer to the river.

  “So this is where you almost fell in?” Jieun asked of her niece.

  “Yup!” Willow said with a nod. “I was trying to cross over those rocks, but they’re slippier than I thought.”

  “I did warn you, if you recall.” Harmony spoke from her space in Willow’s crown.

  “Hush, you.” She sent back to her friend. Still a bit embarrassed by the result of ignoring her spirit’s warning.

  Jieun hummed as she looked around the river for any sign of the spirit that lived within it, but not finding anything recent.

  “Did you do anything else to draw their attention before you fell in?” She eventually asked her niece, though Willow could tell her heart wasn’t entirely in it.

  She couldn’t think of anything in particular that she had done.

  Except…

  “Change and Harmony were out so they could help me look for an earth friend.”

  “Then bring them out please, if they’re comfortable with that.”

  It didn’t seem like much, but the girl supposed that the twins' presence could’ve drawn the water spirit’s attention so it was worth a try.

  “You two all right with coming out for now?” She sent to her friends in their respective spaces.

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  “Always happy to come out and stretch my legs!” Chimed Change as he left the space between her brows.

  “I am unsure if our presence will help, but I am happy to assist.” Continued his sister as she emerged from Willow’s crown.

  The small group then spent some time travelling up and down the river a bit, trying to get the attention of the river spirit until eventually Willow sensed said spirit surging forth from downstream.

  ***

  Jieun was unsure what she was doing out here in the woods. While she appreciated her niece’s effort to find her a new spirit partner, she had only agreed to this outing in a moment of weakness after seeing little Calypso. She still wasn’t entirely comfortable with binding a new spirit so soon after the loss of her old ones.

  Even if the death of one was almost a blessing.

  Palkeu was a hate filled spirit of red ink that had been in her family for generations. Her parents had forcibly bound it to her and trained her in how to use its energies for potent curses.

  It was a miserable experience that she didn’t like to dwell on in recent times, but that skeletal serpent had been with her for the vast majority of her life.

  They were a hated companion, but a companion they had been.

  She still felt quite mixed at the manner it had sacrificed itself. It hadn’t really been trying to save her, but instead it saw the writing on the wall and decided to use its death to harm something one final time. Ever a creature of hate until its final moments.

  Angaebi was the one she truly mourned. A gentle spirit of misty rain, they were the first and only spirit that she had found and bound of her own will. They certainly weren’t the strongest, but they helped center her and added some peaceful serenity to her own nature that she hadn’t fully known she needed.

  Until it was gone.

  Her niece pulled her from her mournful musings.

  “The spirit’s coming.” She said in an urgent whisper. Willow’s seemingly boundless perception still impressed her, as Jieun only just noticed the ripples indicating the spirits' arrival.

  They emerged gently from their watery home, taking the shape of a large carp with blue-green swirling patterns across their body, evoking imagery of the moss covered rocks that dotted the rivers surface. From their size and the density of water qi she felt swirling near them, Jieun could tell that the spirit was moderately powerful. Not the strongest she had seen, but more overtly powerful than her previous companions.

  “Hello again!” Her niece called to the river spirit, which wiggled in a non-threatening manner. Willow fearlessly walked up to the watery fish and started rubbing its head, much to the spirits' shock and obvious delight.

  This was the spirit her husband was so wary of? Then again, while he was quite perceptive, he didn’t have the knack for understanding spirits that Willow seemed to. To be fair, in her experience most spirits were much more overtly territorial and hostile to intruders than this fish was.

  Her niece began waving her closer to the river spirit.

  “Aunt Jieun, come say hi to them!”

  The carp-shaped spirit looked at her cautiously as she approached, but some friendly pulses of qi from her niece made the spirit relax.

  “They’re surprisingly well behaved.” Commented Jieun as she patted the river spirit's cool head.

  “Yeah, this guy’s a real softie!” Chimed in the more annoying of Willow’s spirits. “Surprised that such a friendly fish hasn’t been eaten by one of the wood spirits yet.”

  Seeming to understand the yang spirit’s comment, the green-patterned carp submerged itself back into the water, turning basically invisible almost immediately.

  Fascinating. Jieun wondered if she could learn to do something similar if she bound herself to them.

  The river spirit emerged again, seeming quite proud of itself.

  “Impressive.” Jieun said to the carp, making them puff up even more in pride.

  Quite a vain fish for a coward, she mused to herself.

  Or perhaps they were just lonely and eager to receive praise from someone that cared.

  A concept that resonated quite strongly with her at this time.

  She noticed that her niece had pulled back a bit to give the two of them some space, which brought a small smile to her face.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to make a new friend.