Qingsai stood barefoot on the surface of a gently rippling pool inside the Sanctum of Stillness, hidden beneath a glimmering kelp-dome far beneath Corathal. The water was unnaturally still. Not even a ripple dared to disturb it—yet it shimmered with unspoken depth.
Beside him stood Mist-Speaker Selari, her expression unreadable.
> "Water does not obey command," she said. "It listens. And it reflects."
Qingsai inhaled slowly, reaching toward the elemental essence of water. For a heartbeat, he felt something—cold, familiar, ancient. But it slipped from his grasp.
> "You seek to bend the tide," Selari murmured. "But the Mirror Current shows you—not your power, but your pain."
The surface of the pool shimmered—and suddenly, Qingsai saw his reflection shift. Instead of himself, the image became his father, Master Luren, standing in the palace of Orilan, accepting the king's gold, smiling while his son was imprisoned.
> "Why…?" Qingsai whispered.
The pool answered with the memory of Meiyan, weeping over his letter, and Chunsi holding her wedding ring in silence. It showed his dragon Ruisu, glancing back the moment they left Emel.
Qingsai clenched his fists. The water surged—and then exploded upward in a ring of violent spray.
Selari said nothing.