The soft light of morning filtered through the high-arched windows of Whispering Hollow Keep, casting quiet rays across the marble floors. Silence lingered where once the laughter of a young emperor-to-be had echoed.
Princess Meiyan Zhuanyi stirred in her sleep, her face peaceful—until her fingers brushed against a folded letter sealed with a wax crest of the Soulkindled Flame.
Her violet eyes snapped open. The soft parchment trembled in her hands as she read its contents. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Just silence. A silence heavier than any scream.
Moments later, cries echoed through the halls as Chunsi Fengrui and Lianhua Yanshou found similar letters tucked into the folds of their pillows. Three girls, bound by fate and love, gathered in the center chamber, tears staining their cheeks as they clutched Qingsai's final words:
> "I walk not away from you, but toward the fire that forged me. I will return. This, I vow on the soul I carry and the lives we have yet to live together."
— Qingsai Yuncao
Whispers spread through the keep by noon. The Soulkindled was gone.