The figure descended the collapsed wall with the steady precision of someone who had measured every stone long before touching it.
No sound marked his landing.
Not a whisper of salt.
Not a shift of breath.
Inquisitors were trained to erase presence.
This one had succeeded a little too well.
His robes were not black, but a pale, bleached gray, the color of stone without a shadow. The edges were weighted, unmoving, as if even the wind knew better than to touch him. A thin band of metal covered the upper half of his face, polished smooth. No eye-slits. No markings.
A mask meant not for protection, but for refusal. Refusal to see and be seen.
He stopped several paces away, posture relaxed, hands empty at his sides.
Ya Zhen inhaled sharply through her teeth.
"They sent a Resonance Inquisitor," she murmured. "Not a field hunter. Not a scout."
Ji Ming's stance tightened. "They sent someone who kills by listening."
The air around them shifted,subtle, but Sol felt it immediately. The resonance between her and Ji Ming dimmed as if smothered under cloth. The Mirrorborn curled inward, as though its existence bent in pain.
The Inquisitor bowed his head by a single degree, acknowledging their presence the way a blade acknowledges a throat.
"Three signatures," he said.
His voice was neither deep nor soft… simply exact.
Every syllable fell in place as though measured by a ruler.
"One Sky Wolf."
Ji Ming's grip tightened.
"One Lotus healer attuned to echo phenomena."
Sol felt heat rise at her collar.
Then the voice paused.
"…and one anomaly."
The Mirrorborn trembled. Light flickered frantically beneath its robe.
Ji Ming stepped in front of Sol fully now, blades angled low and ready.
"You'll turn back," he said. "Now."
No threat in his tone.
Just certainty.
The Inquisitor tilted his head, the movement chillingly similar to the Mirrorborn's, except without any echo of emotion behind it.
"Resistance noted."
His hand lifted.
But not as an attack.
He drew a single, thin line in the air with two fingers.
Qi gathered along the gesture… colorless, frictionless, like a strand of glass catching dawn light.
Sol recognized it instantly.
A Resonance Thread.
Ya Zhen cursed quietly. "Don't let it touch you. Ji Ming—"
"I know." His voice was a low growl.
Inquisitors didn't sever flesh first.
They severed connection.
Thoughts, technique, will.
Sol could feel it reaching even before the line finished forming, an invisible sweep across the space between them, searching for something sharp enough to cut.
She stepped forward before Ji Ming could stop her.
The Inquisitor's masked gaze turned toward her immediately.
"Identification affirmed."
Ji Ming's voice snapped like steel. "Sol… behind me."
She shook her head once, barely.
"If I hide, he'll think I'm the anomaly. We cannot draw attention to the Mirrorborn."
The Mirrorborn reached for her sleeve instinctively.
"…not… go…"
"I know," she whispered, placing a hand on its wrist. "But if he focuses on me, he leaves you alone. That buys us time."
Ji Ming's jaw clenched.
Ya Zhen's fan opened halfway, sigils simmering. "She's right. If he realizes that thing is an infant Mirrorborn—"
"He won't," Sol said softly. "I'll give him something else to look at."
Then she stepped forward one more pace.
"Resonance Inquisitor," she said, voice steady. "Your grid failed. You felt the distortion—yes—but not the completion. You know that means the city interfered. Not us."
The Inquisitor fell silent.
A long silence.
Then:
"Your signature bent the anchor-line," he said calmly. "Deviation of two degrees. No natural cause detected."
Sol's heart hammered. He felt the exact angle she pushed.
Ya Zhen whispered, "He's tracking your qi-wake. Depth, speed, pressure…"
Ji Ming's voice dropped low behind her. "If he knows her pressure, he can counter her before she moves."
The Inquisitor stepped forward by a half-degree of distance:
"Conclusion: The Lotus disciple attempted redirection of imperial resonance." Another pause. "This is treason."
Sol swallowed, but her chin lifted. "No. This is survival."
The Inquisitor raised his right hand.
The Resonance Thread in front of him curved—no, bent—toward Sol.
It was aiming for her heart-meridian, not to kill, but to extract.
Ji Ming reacted instantly.
He moved faster than breath, blades intercepting the thread with crossed arcs, one high, one low. The cloth-wrapped metal sparked faintly on contact, the thread vibrating like a plucked string.
It did not break.
It shifted.
Toward him.
Ya Zhen hissed, snapping two sigil papers forward. They struck the thread, flaring vermilion… and dissolved.
"Mirror-wipe technique!" she snapped. "He's erasing reflection residue in real time!"
The Inquisitor's voice remained flat: "Resistance noted."
Ji Ming felt the pressure push along his saber-hilts, like someone pressing fingertips directly into his veins. His knees bent, absorbing the strain.
Sol felt it too… an echo of pain through their bond. Her vision blurred.
"No," she whispered. "No… not like this."
And she stepped in front of Ji Ming.
The thread adjusted instantly.
Straight for her.
Ji Ming grabbed her arm, too late to stop her, not willing to drag her back.
"Sol—"
"I have Mirror Hand," she whispered. "You have blades. Let me take the resonance."
The thread sliced toward her sternum.
Sol raised her palm.
Lotus Mirror Hand emerged like a memory of water, smooth, soft, curved. She redirected the thread downward.
It hit the ground.
Salt shattered in a ripple.
The Inquisitor paused.
Not long.
But enough.
"Repeat."
He stepped forward.
Ya Zhen swore. "He's testing her. He thinks she's the anomaly now. Good, until he decides to capture her."
Ji Ming's hand hovered at Sol's back. "Say the word and I end this."
"You can't end an Inquisitor," Ya Zhen murmured. "You can only delay him."
The thread formed again.
Sharper.
Brighter.
Faster.
Sol braced—
The Mirrorborn suddenly grabbed her cloak and yanked her backward with surprising strength.
The thread sliced the air where she had been, humming coldly.
The Inquisitor stopped mid-gesture.
He turned his head toward the Mirrorborn.
Slowly.
Precisely.
The tilt of recognition.
"…impossible."
Ji Ming's heart stopped.
Ya Zhen's breath caught.
Sol felt her pulse shatter into fear.
The Inquisitor took one single step closer.
"…a living reflection." A pause. "Uncatalogued."
His mask gleamed.
"Objective updated."
He raised both hands now… no longer testing, but claiming.
"Seize the anomaly."
The Mirrorborn shrank back, shaking, its glow panicked.
"…no… no… no…"
Sol stepped between them without thinking.
"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM!"
Her voice rang through the salt like a bell.
The Inquisitor stopped mid-stride, as if the force of her words had altered the ground.
Then something stranger happened.
The salt beneath Sol's feet shimmered.
Once.
Twice.
A pulse.
Ji Ming stared. "Sol, your resonance…"
Ya Zhen froze. "That wasn't Ji Ming's echo. That was the city."
The Inquisitor turned his masked face toward the ground.
Then toward her.
Then again toward the ground.
As if recalibrating.
"Signature… incorrect." A beat.
"Lotus healer classification—invalid."
He straightened.
"Your resonance does not match recorded human parameters."
Sol's blood ran cold.
Ya Zhen whispered, "He's sensing your divine root."
The Inquisitor raised a hand again.
This time, the thread forming was not thin.
Not precise.
It was wide.
A strip of force meant to bind.
"Subject: unknown."
"Directive: capture."
Ji Ming moved instantly.
Ya Zhen pivoted, sigils igniting.
The Mirrorborn flared bright, light spilling from its chest.
And Sol felt the city's pulse answer her again… like Salt Fell Proper itself had woken enough to say:
Not this one.
The thread sliced forward…
And Sol stepped forward to meet it.