The forest changed as I moved away from the broken seal.
Not in shape or sound… but in weight. The air grew thinner. The pressure that had clung to my skin back at the circle lessened, though it never disappeared. I could feel its echo behind me like a forgotten breath… a silence that hadn't truly ended, only receded.
But ahead, the trees opened.
Not into a village. Not into a clearing.
Into sky.
---
A cliff edge greeted me, half-shrouded in wind. From here, I could see across the valley... wide and deep, layered with ridges of green and grey. Distant mountains loomed beyond it, peaks cut sharp against the sky like teeth. Rivers glittered like veins of silver running through stone.
And above it all… light.
Not sunlight.
Not starlight.
Cultivator light.
---
I saw them pass like comets in slow motion. Dozens of streaks, gold and silver and violet, trailing clouds of power behind them. Formation banners shimmered in the air. Flags of sects I had only heard whispered in market corners drifted like ghosts on the wind.
They were patrolling.
Looking for something.
---
I stayed low.
Not from fear.
From instinct.
Their light was not meant for me.
It never had been.
---
A sudden gust kicked dust from the cliff's edge. I crouched behind a crooked pine, narrowing my eyes.
Two of the cultivators slowed midair. They hovered above the valley... their robes embroidered with shining embroidery, their weapons floating at their backs. I recognized the emblem: Twin Phoenix Sect. Prestigious. Cruel. Loyal to Heaven's order.
One of them glanced down.
For a heartbeat, our eyes met.
He couldn't have seen me clearly... the shadows covered most of my face.
But I saw something flicker in his expression.
Something like suspicion… or recognition.
He raised a talisman.
I slipped into the trees.
---
No chase followed.
No alarm sounded.
But that didn't mean I was forgotten.
---
I moved downhill for hours, not running, just keeping to the edges. A slow, steady descent into the folds of a valley that had never known temples or trials. The kind of place no sect would bother mapping.
The kind of place someone like me could disappear.
---
The abyss whispered again by nightfall.
Not with words.
With sensation.
A pull in my chest. The mark on my hand warmed faintly… then faded.
I held my palm up to the moonlight.
Still only two fragments of the mark glowed.
Incomplete.
I didn't know how many pieces there were supposed to be.
But it felt like something was… missing.
Or waiting.
---
I made camp near a stream... no fire, no shelter, just a flat patch of earth where the wind couldn't reach. I sat with my knees drawn up, cloak wrapped tight, and watched the sky burn with stars I'd never named.
They looked like stories.
Stories I would never be part of.
---
A dream came.
Or a memory.
I stood in the middle of a temple I had never entered. Stone pillars rose around me, carved with swirling script. No roof. Just the stars above.
A girl knelt at the center.
Her hair was dark. Her back was to me.
Chains circled her arms, not binding… but connecting. They pulsed with red light.
She turned her head.
Her face was mine.
And then…
She shattered.
---
I woke cold.
Sweat clung to my neck.
The mark on my hand glowed faintly, flickering.
And I knew something had changed again.
---
I wandered farther the next morning.
No goal. No map.
Just instinct.
I came upon a ruined watchtower by accident. Half-swallowed by the earth. Its stones were cracked, its stairwell collapsed. But from the top, I could see a trail.
Not a road. A footpath.
Worn by time… and use.
Someone had passed here recently.
---
The trail led toward a cluster of cliffs, where mist rose like smoke from unseen caverns.
I followed it, silent, my footsteps barely touching the ground.
Eventually, I saw them.
A group of disciples, half a dozen at most. Their robes were dark green. Crest of a coiled serpent on the shoulder.
I didn't know their sect.
Didn't need to.
The way they moved… confident, careless… told me everything.
They didn't expect to be challenged.
They didn't expect to be watched.
---
One of them dropped something.
A small, bound scroll case.
The others kept walking.
I approached slowly after they vanished down the slope.
The scroll was sealed in wax.
Heaven's sigil on the outside.
---
I didn't open it.
I didn't need to.
Just touching it burned my skin.
I left it where it fell and walked the other way.
---
By noon, I found a cave hidden behind a crooked line of rock. The entrance was small, but the space inside widened into a hollow untouched by wind or light.
I settled there, breath slow.
This was not shelter.
It was waiting.
---
The abyss spoke again.
> "You walk beneath their light."
I nodded.
> "But you are not part of it."
"No."
> "Do you envy them?"
"No."
> "Do you hate them?"
I paused.
Then… "No."
> "Then what do you carry?"
"Resolve."
Silence.
Then—
> "Good."
---
The mark on my hand pulsed once.
And a third piece ignited.
Not fully.
But enough to sting.
I gritted my teeth.
The pain was brief.
But real.
---
Something had noticed me.
Not the disciples.
Not the sects.
Something else.
Watching through the eyes of the sky.
I had walked beneath their light… and chosen not to follow.
And in that refusal, I had grown.
---
I sat in the dark cave, letting my breath slow, letting the silence wrap around me.
I thought about the girl in my vision.
The temple.
The chains.
My face on hers.
Or hers on mine.
I didn't know which.
---
Was I remembering a path walked long ago?
Or seeing the one I was meant to finish?
Maybe both.
---
Outside, the light moved on.
Cultivators passed overhead, banners trailing behind them.
None looked down.
And I didn't look up.
---
Because I didn't walk beneath their light.
Not anymore.
I walked beside it.
Away from it.
Alone.
And the abyss…
Walked with me.
---