The chamber tightened around them.
Not physically, its walls did not close, its ceiling did not bow, but the air drew inward as if bracing for what the Inquisitor was about to become.
Ji Ming felt it first: a sensation like the space behind his sternum had been hooked by an invisible thread and pulled taut. His breath shortened. His grip shifted instinctively, blades lowering a fraction as his stance adjusted to meet a threat he could not yet see.
Sol felt it too, not in her lungs, but in her resonance. Something intrusive brushed the bond between her and Ji Ming, not tearing it, not severing it… but testing its tension as if mapping its weave.
"Ji Ming…" she whispered.
"I know."
Behind her, Ya Zhen struggled to keep herself upright, one hand pressed against a cracked statue for balance. Even wounded, she recognized the pattern.
"Oh no," she croaked. "Not that. Not here."
The Mirrorborn clung to Sol's side, its glow stuttering. Each new shift in the air made its light ripple with fear.
"…wrong… wrong… wrong…"
Sol steadied it with a hand against its shoulder. "Tell me what you feel."
"…pull… cold pull… not hurt… but take…" Its voice trembled like a child describing a nightmare.
Ji Ming's jaw clenched.
"He's trying to strip our resonance," he said. "Piece by piece."
Ya Zhen swore under her breath. "Not strip. Unmake. This is a severance technique. Modified for mirror compatibility."
Sol's heart lurched painfully.
"He wants to break the bond."
Ji Ming looked at her, sharp and steady. "He will fail."
But the Inquisitor was already lifting his hands.
He spread his fingers as though shaping the outline of an unseen sphere.
Between his palms, the air stretched… bent… fractured… until a thin, translucent membrane formed, shimmering like a soap bubble forged from resonance. Fine lines spidered across it, threads of energy mapping angles and pathways Sol had only ever seen in forbidden Lotus texts.
This wasn't a technique designed to kill bodies.
This was a technique designed to kill connections.
To unstring qi from qi.
To tear heart-lines.
To silence resonance threads that should never have existed.
It was a technique meant for her.
The Inquisitor's voice dropped:
"…resonant entanglement detected."
"…correcting."
The membrane pulsed.
Sol felt the bond inside her retract… no, curl, like something protecting itself.
Ji Ming staggered half a step, his breath catching sharply.
Sol reached for him instinctively, and the resonance thrummed to life in response.
The membrane pulsed again, harder this time.
Ya Zhen hissed. "He's trying to force your qi threads to separate. If he succeeds, you'll both—"
"I know," Sol said, chest tightening. "Don't say it."
The Mirrorborn clutched Sol's arm, trembling violently now.
"…don't… break… don't break… don't break…"
Ji Ming grit his teeth. "I will not break anything."
The Inquisitor lifted the membrane higher.
"…commencing severance."
He brought his palms together slowly…
And the membrane shrank.
Toward Sol.
Toward Ji Ming.
Toward the bond between them.
Salt Fell's sanctuary did not remain silent.
As the membrane neared the cracked stone dais, the room's Lotus sigils flared, soft at first, then brighter. The statues vibrated with a low hum, forming counter-resonance patterns long buried beneath mineral crust.
The air thickened with stillness…
not passive,
not empty,
but anchored.
A stillness that said:
Connections made here are not so easily broken.
The membrane shuddered.
Its edges wavered.
The Inquisitor's head twitched as he recalculated.
"…environment interfering with severance."
Ya Zhen barked a bloody laugh. "Good luck breaking a bond the city has decided to help hold."
He ignored her.
The membrane brightened.
Sol gasped as the first thread of the bond began to pull…
not apart,
but outward,
like a stitch being loosened.
Ji Ming's hand shot out, gripping her arm.
The resonance surged in defiance, tightening between them.
The membrane shuddered again.
"…resistance detected."
Ji Ming stepped forward.
Straight toward the Inquisitor.
Sol gasped, "JI MING—!"
But he didn't attack blindly.
He moved with the precision of a Sky Wolf…
a single stride anchored by intent sharpened through years of training.
He swung the heavier saber low, not at the Inquisitor's body, but at the lower arc supporting the membrane.
A strike meant to disrupt… not destroy.
Metal met resonance.
A crack of light splintered across the chamber like lightning meeting water.
The membrane jolted.
Its surface rippled outward.
The bond inside Sol snapped back into place like a chord regaining tension.
The Inquisitor reeled a half-step, the first sign of imbalance since he arrived.
Ji Ming inhaled once. "If you touch her again—"
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
The Inquisitor straightened slowly.
"…Sky Wolf aggression noted."
A pause.
"…minimally relevant."
He spread his hands again.
The membrane reformed.
Sol's stomach dropped.
"He can do it again," she whispered. "He can do it as many times as he wants."
Ya Zhen spat blood. "Then we can't fight him on repetition. We fight him on meaning."
Sol turned. "Meaning?"
"Yes," Ya Zhen growled. "Lotus sanctuary techniques run on intent. This chamber's stillness wasn't designed for killing. It was designed for reflection. For truth. For—"
Her breath hitched.
"For heart-lines."
Sol's eyes widened.
The sanctuary wasn't helping by accident.
It was helping because their bond was not an error to erase.
It was a truth the chamber recognized.
Ji Ming stepped closer. "Sol. Use that."
She blinked. "Use… what?"
"The truth," he said. "What's real between us. The Inquisitor can map resonance, but he cannot understand choice."
Sol's breath caught.
Her heartbeat answered.
The bond warmed.
Strengthened.
Aligned.
The Mirrorborn, sensing the shift, touched Sol's hand and Ji Ming's sleeve simultaneously.
"…together…"
The chamber brightened in a soft, warm pulse.
The Inquisitor's membrane trembled violently.
"…anomalous emotional surge detected…"
"…resonance parameters destabilizing…"
Ji Ming's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Sol. Now."
Sol lifted her hands.
Not defensively.
Not to block.
But to receive.
Her qi rose not like water deflected, but water drawn from a well, steady, full, certain.
Lotus Mirror Hand unfolded…
Not in its traditional form, but something gentler.
She mirrored connection, not attack.
She mirrored trust, not force.
She mirrored the bond between her and Ji Ming—
a bond the Inquisitor could feel but could not interpret.
The membrane pulsed once more, harder, then buckled.
As Sol's resonance flowed toward Ji Ming's… the membrane split down the middle.
Not shattered.
Not countered.
Just undone.
Unmade.
The Inquisitor staggered a half-step back, genuinely off-balance.
For the first time, his voice lost its perfect cadence.
"…severance attempt… failed."
Sol lowered her hands.
Her breath trembled.
Ji Ming stepped beside her, shoulder touching hers. "We hold together. He can't break what we choose."
The Mirrorborn pressed against Sol's side, light glowing bright and fierce.
"…mine… my people… together…"
The Inquisitor straightened slowly, recalibrating once more.
But this time Sol recognized the shift.
It wasn't escalation.
This was frustration.
And something colder.
"…new directive."
He raised his hands in a different shape, not a membrane, but a reflective arc.
Sol's blood ran cold.
Ji Ming inhaled sharply.
Ya Zhen pushed herself upright, eyes wide.
The Mirrorborn's glow flickered violently.
This was not a severance technique.
This was something older.
Something crueler.
Something that targeted not qi… but memory.
"…erasure sequence initializing."
And the sanctuary walls trembled in fear.