The forest was still when the first spear flew.
Li Ren didn't see it.
Shen did.
Whistle.Snap.Clang!
He deflected the spear mid-air with the flat of his blade, sparks lighting the dusk.
"Ambush!" Shen shouted.
Too late.
From the trees:Ten rebels.Two crossbows.A captain wearing bone armor and a crimson scarf.
The escort soldiers scrambled into formation, but they were trained for ceremony — not real war.
Li Ren, to his credit, stood his ground.
"They shouldn't know we were here!"
"They do," Shen replied coldly. "They knew before we left the capital."
Steel rang out.
Shen moved like a storm — no wasted motion, no mercy.
Two rebels down in the first ten seconds.
But something was wrong.
He could feel it.
They weren't trying to kill him.
They were trying to get a good look at him.
A rebel finally got close enough — a young woman with a scar down her chin and twin knives spinning like wind.
Shen blocked her left strike, twisted her wrist, and spun her to the ground.
"Why are you hesitating?" he asked.
She stared up at him, wide-eyed.
"…It's you," she whispered. "The dragon from the lanterns."
Shen froze.
"What?"
The woman dropped her knives.
Kneeling. Arms spread.
"Forgive me, Ghost Prince. We thought you were dead."
The battlefield paused.
Rebels stepped back.
The captain snarled, "Get up, Mei! He's the enemy!"
"No," she said, louder. "He bears the Windlock. Look—his hand!"
All eyes turned to Shen's palm.
It glowed faintly in the dim light — the mark of Lei Cheng's seal pulsing like a second heartbeat.
The rebel captain hesitated.
"…That technique was lost. No one alive should have it."
Mei spoke, breathless:
"Only the heir of the Vanished Prince could carry the breath of the Silent Wind."
Shen stood silent.
Watching. Measuring.
"Why attack us, then?" he asked.
"We were told the Crown Prince rides with a shadow killer," Mei said. "A butcher. Not a brother."
Li Ren narrowed his eyes.
"And now what?" he said flatly.
Mei bowed again — this time to both of them.
"We will not raise arms against him."
Then to Shen:
"If you are who we think… then you're the one the South has waited for."
That night, the rebels vanished into the trees.
No further attack.No pursuit.
Just a lingering tension.
A silence that felt like prophecy.
As the campfire cracked, Li Ren sat beside Shen and said, "Do you believe them?"
Shen stared at the flames.
"I believe rebellion needs a symbol."
"And you fit the shape," the prince muttered.
He leaned back, tossing a twig into the fire.
"You know… I hated you when I met you."
"I know."
"But now?"A pause."I just don't know what scares me more. You being my brother… or you being better than me."
Far away, in the halls of the Emperor's secret tower, a new report arrived.
A hawk-feather scroll.
One line only:
"The rebels call him 'Prince.'"
The Emperor crushed the scroll in his hand.
"Then we are already at war."