The horn blast still echoed through the cavern when Ji Ming moved.
"Go," he ordered, voice low, sharp, controlled.
Sol and Ya Zhen followed him toward the far side of the ley chamber, where a narrow passage twisted into the deeper mountain veins. The ley lines overhead dimmed as if retreating into stone, their warm glow vanishing into a cold, colorless quiet.
The cradle's last pulse lingered in Sol's chest like a second heartbeat.
Choose.
She shook the whisper from her thoughts… now wasn't the time.
Before they reached the passageway, another sound cut through the chamber:
—steel dragging
—boots striking stone
—breathing muffled behind glass
Ji Ming raised his hand.
Silence fell.
Ya Zhen slipped into the shadows, fan angled like a concealed blade.
Sol pressed her back to the wall, listening.
Three silhouettes emerged through the far opening of the cavern, tall, straight-backed, their mirrored masks glinting silver in the dim light.
Mirror Division officers.
Not scouts.
Not foot soldiers.
Command-level.
Ji Ming's body lowered instinctively into a defensive stance. "They shouldn't be here. This chamber was sealed centuries ago."
Ya Zhen whispered, "They didn't find it."
"They followed us," Sol said softly.
The officers stopped at the center of the cavern. Their mirrored masks reflected the ley lines like fractured constellations. For a moment, none of them spoke… but the air hummed with tension.
Then the one in front, the commander, raised a hand.
A mirrored talisman hovered above his palm, humming with dangerous, refined resonance.
Ji Ming's breath sharpened. "Imperial Mirror Seal."
Ya Zhen hissed, "That thing strips qi from the body. It's designed to neutralize sect techniques."
The talisman released a pulse of silver light.
Stone trembled.
Ley lines flickered.
Sol flinched as the energy surged toward them, cold as iron, sharp as broken glass.
Ji Ming stepped in front of her instantly. "Stay behind me."
The blast struck Ji Ming's domain instead of Sol.
His Quiet Pond field collapsed, shattering like porcelain. The blow slammed him back, boots skidding across stone.
"Ji Ming!" Sol rushed to him, catching his arm.
He steadied himself, but she saw the shock in his eyes, not fear, but realization.
"They've upgraded the seals," he muttered. "Too quickly."
The commander lowered his talisman.
His voice echoed through the mask… distorted, layered, devoid of any humanity:
"Return the Lotus Heir. The Empire will show mercy."
Sol felt her blood run cold.
Ji Ming's head snapped up. "Heir?"
Ya Zhen muttered, "Word travels disgustingly fast."
The commander continued:
"The Lotus Sect's last divine inheritor is required by Imperial decree. Do not resist."
Sol stepped forward, just enough to be seen.
"I'm not your heir."
The commander tilted his head slowly, like a beast analyzing prey.
"You awakened the Echo Monastery. You carry resonance beyond measurable form. You are exactly what the Empire requires."
Ji Ming moved to block her again.
"No one touches her," he said, voice like steel pulled taut.
Two officers drew their mirrored sabers. Their movements were precise, almost synchronized, reflections of each other.
Ya Zhen whispered out the corner of her mouth, "We can't outrun them. We fight or distract."
Ji Ming's jaw tightened. "Neither. We're at a ley-line convergence. Sol—"
"I know," she said softly.
She stepped forward before either could stop her.
Time slowed.
The ley lines overhead flickered again… thin streams of light descending toward her like strands of silk. The cradle's echo pulsed once beneath her skin—
Choose.
Sol opened her palms.
And the ley lines answered.
Light spiraled downward, gathering around her hands. Not destructive, not yet… but responsive. Curious.
The commander stiffened. The mirrored masks glinted sharply, exposed to a force they hadn't calculated.
Ji Ming whispered fiercely, "Sol, don't—"
But the ley energy grew stronger, forming a halo of pale blue around her fingers.
Sol spoke calmly, her voice steady despite the tremor in her veins.
"I don't belong to the Empire."
The commander raised the talisman again.
"Then you will be taken."
Ji Ming lunged the same instant the officers moved, steel clashing against mirrored blades.
Ya Zhen swept in behind him, her fan slicing a crimson arc through the air, sigils igniting along the path of her strike.
The cavern erupted.
Ji Ming's blade locked with an officer's, their qi colliding with a ringing shockwave. Ya Zhen spun behind the second, landing a flurry of precision cuts that disrupted his balance.
The commander aimed the talisman at Sol again.
She reacted.
Instinct.
Resonance.
Memory.
The ley lines around her flared, then extended outward like living threads. They wrapped around the talisman's energy, bending it, redirecting it with frightening ease.
The blast backfired.
The commander staggered.
Ya Zhen gasped. "Sol—that—how did you—"
"I didn't," Sol whispered. "It did."
The ley lines pulsed under her feet, warm, encouraging, as if saying:
You listened. Now we answer.
Ji Ming struck the officer engaging him with a clean, decisive arc, sending the man crashing against the cavern wall. He moved toward Sol instantly—
"Sol—stay back—"
But the commander hurled a secondary seal.
It struck the ground between them… a self-spreading mirrored net that expanded like metal ivy, aiming to trap her entire body.
Sol's pulse flared.
Ley lines shot downward in a surge of instinct.
They collided with the mirrored net, light and silver fighting in fierce sparks.
The ley energy buckled… The net cracked… And a shockwave blasted outward.
Ji Ming shielded Sol with his entire body as the blast rolled through the chamber.
Ya Zhen slid across the stone, boots scraping, catching herself at the last second.
When the dust settled, the commander staggered, mask cracked down the center.
Ji Ming rose slowly, blades crossed in front of Sol. "You won't touch her."
The commander's voice distorted into a snarl.
"Then the Empire will burn the mountain to ashes."
Ji Ming didn't respond. He just stepped forward, sabers gleaming.
Ya Zhen flipped her fan, sigils blazing. "Sol, move!"
But Sol wasn't looking at the commander.
She was staring at the ley lines behind him, shaking violently.
"Ji Ming—Ya Zhen—stop."
They froze.
Because the ley lines weren't reacting to the commander…
They were reacting to something behind him.
The mist at the edge of the cavern thickened.
The stone shuddered.
A low rumble echoed, the same one from earlier.
Ji Ming's eyes widened. "Not now…"
Ya Zhen cursed. "Revenant?"
Sol shook her head.
"No," she whispered. "Something even older."
The commander turned…
Too late.
A shape emerged from the mist… slow, deliberate, its outline just barely human.
Not a reflection.
Not a revenant.
Something the ley lines had been hiding… until now.
Solar resonance flared so sharply Sol nearly dropped to her knees.
Ji Ming stepped in front of her again.
"Sol," he said quietly.
"Tell me that thing is on our side."
She swallowed.
"I don't know."
The creature stepped forward, and the mountain exhaled so hard that every lantern in the cavern blew out at once.
Darkness swallowed them whole.