The Illusion

The first time I heard about Vespera, I laughed.

Then I stopped laughing.

Celestial gossip is vicious, but useful.

According to the young immortals near the lotus pools, Vespera had once been Aurelian’s beloved.

He planted an entire golden-bone rose field for her.

A flower field that required centuries of spiritual care.

He planned to propose there.

But Vespera refused to marry until he became a higher-ranking Celestial Lord.

“More dignified,” one fairy whispered.

“More impressive,” another added.

They quarreled.

He went to the mortal realm for a hundred-year trial instead of taking the quicker thunder tribulation.

A long heartbreak disguised as cultivation.

I hated this story.

Not because he had loved someone.

That was before me.

Probably.

Maybe.

Fine, it bothered me.

A golden-bone rose field.

A whole field.

I had not even received one flower.

Recently, Vespera came often.

Too often.

Once, she whispered something into Aurelian’s ear, and he followed her away immediately.

When I had begged him to take me to the market at Mount Watching-God, I had to flatter him for half a day.

She whispered six words and he left.

I sat beneath a tree, sour as unripe fruit.

That was when a man in black gauze appeared beyond the outer barrier.

He was handsome in the way forbidden things are handsome.

Sharp.

Dangerous.

Smiling like a knife.

“Call Aurelian,” he said.

“He’s out.”

The man looked me up and down.

“I’ve never seen you in Heaven.”

“I’m from the Underworld,” I said. “I serve Aurelian.”

His expression turned disdainful.

“A ghost serving gods. How embarrassing for our realm.”

“Our realm?”

Before I could ask more, Aurelian descended in a flash of light and stepped in front of me.

“Morcai,” he said coldly. “Your feud with the Ten Thousand Ghost Sect does not belong in Heaven.”

Morcai.

The Ink Wraith.

Even I had heard that name.

A ghost prodigy sealed for ten thousand years after trying to curse a mortal woman into loving him.

He traded his thousand-year inner core for a love spell.

The woman loved another man so deeply that she destroyed her own soul rather than submit.

Morcai had been hunting for ways to gather her scattered soul ever since.

Now he smiled at Aurelian.

“You hide the Soulcore Pearl here. Give it to me.”

“Dream on.”

“With it, I can restore her.”

“Using the Soulcore Pearl to force a shattered soul back violates heavenly law. Let go.”

Morcai’s smile widened.

“Easy for those who are loved to say.”

That night, Aurelian did not return.

I waited in the courtyard.

Moonlight silvered the stones.

Then I saw movement near the far garden.

Two figures.

I moved closer.

And stopped breathing.

Aurelian sat beneath the tree.

Vespera was on his lap.

Her legs around him.

His hands at her waist.

Their faces close.

Too close.

My body went cold.

The scene grew more intimate, more unbearable.

I stood frozen as Vespera later adjusted her robes and asked softly,

“Who tastes better? Me or her?”

Aurelian’s voice answered,

“She is not worthy of being compared to you.”

Something inside me broke.

So the mortal night meant nothing.

The meat dishes meant nothing.

His concern meant nothing.

I was only a little ghost who mistook kindness for affection.

I ran.

Tears blurred everything.

At the edge of the residence, I tore through the barrier I had secretly learned to break.

Behind me, a voice called,

“Lyra! Where are you going?”

Aurelian.

I turned.

He stood behind me, breathing hard, eyes wide with panic.

The garden scene still shone in my memory.

“You disgust me,” I said.

His face changed.

Before he could reach me, I crossed the broken barrier.

A hand closed around my throat.

Morcai’s laughter filled the night.

“Thank you for walking out yourself.”

Only then did the illusion behind me dissolve.

Vespera stepped from the shadows beside Morcai.

Smiling.

And I understood.

They had not wanted Aurelian.

They had wanted me.