I stopped. The statue's gaze seemed to follow me.
The silence here was not like the markets' noise fading away...it was deliberate, watchful, heavy with meaning. Even the drifting blossoms avoided the square, their glow bending outward as though repelled.
Dòu Dòu cleared his throat too loudly. "Well. Lovely craftsmanship, don't you think? Very… artistic. Certainly not ominous at all."
But his words rang false.
I looked to Mingzhu. He stood still, head bowed slightly, the shadows across his face sharpening his already cold features. Something flickered in his eyes recognition, perhaps, or warning.
I stepped closer. "What is this place?"
For a long moment he said nothing. When he finally spoke, his voice was softer than before, yet it carried like a weight through the water.
"A reminder," he said. "That the river does not forgive."
My breath caught. The mark at my ankle throbbed once, sharp as a knife, before fading again.
I wanted to ask more, but the silence pressed in, thicker than words. It wrapped around me like a net, and in it, I thought I felt the faintest tremor...like something shifting far below, waiting to rise.
The silence in the square deepened until even my own breath felt out of place. The statue's shadow stretched long across the pearl floor, its coils twisted like chains binding the water itself.
I could not look away. The longer I stared, the more the dragon's stone eyes seemed alive, flickering with something I could not name.
A tremor stirred the current faint, but real. The lanterns above shivered, their pale fire guttering as if a sudden wind had swept through.
I took a step back. "Something's here."
Dòu Dòu forced a laugh, too brittle to sound convincing. "Of course something's here. Statues, currents, the usual… absolutely nothing to fear. Right, Mingzhu?"
But Mingzhu's gaze remained locked on the monument. His stillness was sharper than any movement.
Finally he spoke, voice low, almost reverent. "This is where the first oath was broken."
The words meant nothing to me, yet they sank heavy into my chest, as though the river itself understood.
I swallowed hard. "And what does that mean?"
He turned then, his eyes dark, impenetrable. "It means you should not linger."
The current pulsed against my skin, insistent, as if urging me away. But beneath it, I felt another rhythm...a slow, ancient heartbeat rising from the depths. For one dizzying instant, I thought it matched the mark at my ankle, beating with mine.
I clutched the folds of my dress, breath shallow. I wanted to demand answers, to force them from him...but Mingzhu had already turned, his back to me once more.
Dòu Dòu floated at my side, uncharacteristically quiet. Only when we left the square behind did he murmur, almost to himself, "Some places remember more than they should."
The words lingered in the water, following me like shadows.
And though I forced myself to keep moving, my thoughts remained behind in that silent square, before the coiled stone dragon whose gaze had not yet left me.