🌗 ----
Morning light filtered into the ruined shrine, pale and quiet.
Lian Yue—no, Xing Yue—sat on a broken stone step, staring at her hands.
The name still echoed in her mind.
Xing Yue.
It felt like opening a door that had been sealed for far too long.
Li Yun watched her from a short distance, saying nothing.
"You've been calling me Lian Yue for so long," she said softly. "Does it feel strange to say my real name again?"
He smiled faintly. "Both names are yours. But… yes. It's a little strange. And a little right."
Lian Feng stretched and sat up. "So my sister used to be… older than heaven itself."
"Not older than heaven," Li Yun corrected. "Older than the current order of it."
She looked at the sky through the broken roof. "What was I like?"
Li Yun thought for a moment. "Curious. Stubborn. You liked to wander where you weren't supposed to."
"That hasn't changed," Lian Feng said.
She almost laughed.
Almost.
---
As the day went on, fragments came back.
Not clear memories.
But impressions.
She touched the stones of the shrine and felt… familiarity. Like greeting an old friend she couldn't quite remember.
"This place," she said. "I've stood here before."
"Yes," Li Yun said. "This was one of the last places you went before the Council took you."
Her heart tightened. "Why?"
"Because you sensed something," he replied. "The same thing they were afraid of."
She looked at him. "The thing inside me."
He nodded.
"You found it first," he said. "Or rather… it found you."
---
They were not alone anymore.
Li Yun felt it first.
A pressure, faint but precise, like a thread being pulled tight somewhere far away.
He stood up sharply. "We need to leave."
"Why?" Lian Feng asked.
"They've begun preparing something big," Li Yun said. "I don't know what exactly. But it's not just hunters anymore."
Lian Yue felt a chill. "The Star Execution Array?"
Li Yun's eyes widened slightly. "You heard that name?"
She nodded slowly. "In my dream. Or… memory. I'm not sure which."
His expression darkened. "That's not good."
"What is it?" Lian Feng asked.
"A weapon," Li Yun said. "Or rather… a ritual. Designed to erase something from existence completely."
Lian Yue's hands clenched. "Me?"
Li Yun didn't answer.
Which was answer enough.
---
They packed quickly.
Before leaving, Lian Yue stood in front of the broken statue.
"I don't remember you," she said quietly. "But… thank you. For waiting for me."
For a moment, she thought she saw the stone crack shift.
Like a smile.
---
They traveled east this time, toward a range of black mountains that cut the horizon like broken teeth.
Li Yun said the spiritual currents there were chaotic—hard to track.
"But dangerous," Lian Feng said.
"Yes," Li Yun replied. "But so are we."
---
That night, as they camped on a high ridge, Lian Yue couldn't sleep.
She sat alone, looking at the stars.
They felt closer than before.
Not in distance.
In familiarity.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" she asked quietly.
Li Yun joined her. "You weren't ready. And neither was I."
She nodded. "Do you… resent me?"
He looked at her, surprised. "For what?"
"For being the reason all of this is happening."
He shook his head. "The heavens chose to make you a cage. That's not your sin."
She looked down. "Sometimes I'm afraid that if I remember everything… I won't be able to forgive them."
Li Yun's voice was gentle. "You don't have to forgive them."
---
Far above, in a place where stars were arranged like pieces on a board, light began to gather.
An enormous formation slowly took shape.
"The coordinates are being locked," one voice said.
"The vessel's location will be fixed soon."
"And the Sun God?"
"He will be accounted for."
Silence.
Then:
"This time… there will be no escape."
---
On the mountain ridge, Lian Yue suddenly felt dizzy.
She grabbed the ground.
Li Yun was at her side instantly. "What's happening?"
"I… I can feel them," she whispered. "They're… measuring something. Like they're trying to find me."
Li Yun looked at the sky.
"…They're anchoring the array."
Lian Feng stood up, fear in his eyes. "How much time do we have?"
Li Yun's jaw tightened.
"Not much."
---
That night, Lian Yue dreamed again.
She stood in a sea of light.
Chains of stars stretched across the sky.
And a voice—not the sealed thing, but something older and gentler—whispered:
If you remember everything… you will have to choose.
She woke with tears on her face.
And the feeling that the world was slowly, inevitably, closing in.