Pov Author
The first thing I noticed was the smell.
Ozone—sharp and metallic—like lightning trapped indoors.
The second was the pain.
It bloomed behind my eyes without warning, a sudden pressure that made the room tilt. I gripped Shou Feng's sleeve before my knees could give out. His hand came up instantly, steadying me, grounding me.
"Anna," he said sharply. "Stay with me."
"I am," I whispered, though the voice inside my head was still echoing. Still too close. Too familiar.
The wards screamed.
Not aloud—but through the stone itself. The castle shuddered as ancient defenses awakened, sigils igniting along the walls like constellations dragged into existence. Light flared gold, then blue, then an ominous red as layers of protection stacked upon each other.
Too many layers.
That meant the threat wasn't external.
It was already inside the system.
"What was that symbol?" Shou Feng asked, his voice low, controlled in the way that meant he was seconds away from violence.
I swallowed. My mouth was dry. "A calling mark," I said. "It's old. Not meant to cross distances like that."
"Who uses it?"
I hesitated.
He noticed.
"Anna."
I met his eyes. "Someone who should be dead."
The silence that followed was heavier than any explosion.
Shou Feng didn't demand answers. He never did when he sensed the truth would hurt more than ignorance. Instead, he turned, issuing rapid commands to the air itself. Shadows detached from the corners of the chamber—guards made of spell and oath, sent to seal corridors and monitor rifts.
"Get Kiyoshi," he said to one. "And Yuvan. Now."
The shadow dissolved.
I pressed my fingers to my temple, trying to organize the fragments clawing their way to the surface. Memories I hadn't touched in years. A night soaked in rain. A voice whispering my name like it owned it.
"She knows me," I said quietly. "Or… she did. Before this world. Before everything."
Shou Feng stiffened. "She."
"Yes."
The air thickened.
"She's not like the others," I continued. "Not from here. Not fully. She walks between rules the way some people walk between shadows."
"And her name?" he asked.
I exhaled.
"Zara."
The name itself seemed to react.
Somewhere deep beneath the castle, a seal cracked.
---
Far from the castle, where the world thinned and reality forgot to be stable, Zara opened her eyes.
She stood at the center of a broken shrine—stone pillars floating at impossible angles, suspended over an endless void that shimmered with fractured stars. Her white hair stirred without wind, cascading down her back like spilled moonlight.
Black magic pulsed beneath her skin, slow and patient.
"So," she murmured, lips curling. "You felt that."
Around her, symbols ignited—circles within circles, layered spells feeding into one another. Each one anchored to a different realm, a different consequence.
Zara lifted her hand.
At her command, a mirror formed in the air.
Not glass.
Memory.
Anna appeared within it, pale and shaken, standing beside Shou Feng in his golden prison of stone and promises.
Zara's smile sharpened.
"Still hiding behind kings," she said softly. "You never did learn how to stand alone."
She traced a finger across the mirror. The image rippled.
"You were never meant to stay," Zara continued. "This world is rejecting you already. The seams are tearing because you exist."
Her eyes darkened.
"And soon," she whispered, "they'll realize it."
---
Back at the castle, the council chamber was no longer empty.
Kiyoshi stood near the sigil-map, his expression grim as he studied the unstable markers. Yuvan paced near the far wall, fingers twitching toward weapons that weren't there.
"This isn't random," Kiyoshi said. "The disturbances are synchronized. Someone is testing reaction times."
"And succeeding," Yuvan added. "The outer wards compensated—but barely."
Shou Feng said nothing.
He was watching me.
Not as a ruler watching a problem—but as a man watching something precious fracture under pressure.
"She's not attacking directly," Kiyoshi went on. "That means she wants something."
Yuvan stopped pacing. "Or someone."
All eyes turned to me.
I straightened despite the weight pressing down on my chest. "She won't come like an enemy," I said. "Zara never does. She makes the world push you toward her."
"Why?" Yuvan asked. "What does she gain?"
I met his gaze. "Proof."
"Of what?"
"That I don't belong anywhere," I said. "Not here. Not there. Not anywhere that needs stability to survive."
Shou Feng's patience snapped.
"That is not for her to decide."
The room went still.
"I don't care what she thinks she knows," he continued, voice carrying power now. "Anna is under my protection. Anyone who threatens her threatens this realm."
Kiyoshi hesitated. "My lord… the people are already noticing the disturbances."
Shou Feng turned sharply. "Explain."
"Minor rifts," Kiyoshi said. "Crops failing in border villages. Healers reporting symptoms they can't trace. The scholars are starting to ask questions."
Questions.
I felt sick.
"They'll connect it to me," I whispered.
"Not if I stop it," Shou Feng said.
But his confidence rang hollow.
Because Zara wasn't wrong.
The world was reacting to me.
And it would keep reacting—because I was an anomaly. A mistake. A tear that never fully healed.
The castle shook again—harder this time.
A bell rang.
One of the ancient ones.
Yuvan swore. "That's the eastern gate."
Shou Feng moved instantly. "Seal it."
"It's not opening," Kiyoshi said slowly. "It's… responding."
"To what?" Shou Feng demanded.
Kiyoshi looked at me.
"To her."
The realization hit like a blade.
"She's anchoring through me," I said. "Using my presence to weaken fixed points."
"Can you stop it?" Shou Feng asked.
I closed my eyes.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Not without—"
Without leaving.
The thought hovered unspoken between us.
Shou Feng saw it anyway.
"No," he said, fierce. "That is not an option."
Before anyone could respond, the air split.
Not torn—unfolded.
A figure stepped through the rift as if it were a curtain drawn aside.
Zara.
She stood in the center of the chamber, perfectly calm amid the chaos she had caused. Her black eyes swept the room, cataloguing every weapon, every threat, every weakness.
Then they landed on me.
"There you are," she said warmly. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't answer."
Every guard moved.
Shou Feng stepped forward, power flaring around him like a living storm. "You will leave. Now."
Zara smiled at him.
"So this is the king," she said. "You look… smaller than I imagined."
"You have ten seconds," he warned.
She didn't even glance at him again.
Instead, she walked toward me.
Each step made the wards scream.
"I told you," Zara said gently, stopping a few feet away. "This world would never let you stay."
I shook my head. "You did this."
"Yes," she said. "And no. I only showed it the truth."
Shou Feng raised his hand—
Zara snapped her fingers.
Time stuttered.
The guards froze mid-motion. Kiyoshi's breath caught halfway through an incantation. Even the light seemed suspended.
Only three of us could move.
Zara. Shou Feng.
And me.
"This doesn't concern you," Zara told him calmly. "It never did."
"She is under my protection," he said through clenched teeth.
Zara laughed softly. "Protection isn't ownership."
She turned back to me. "Come with me, Anna. Voluntarily. I can close the rifts. Stabilize the damage. Leave this world intact."
My heart pounded. "And if I refuse?"
Her smile faded.
"Then the world chooses for you."
Shou Feng stepped closer to me. "You are not going anywhere."
Zara's gaze sharpened. "Then you condemn thousands for one girl."
Silence roared in my ears.
This was her plan.
Not war.
Choice.
Slowly, inexorably forcing a decision until love and duty stood on opposite sides of a blade.
I looked at Shou Feng.
At the man who had given me shelter, trust, and a place to belong when I had none.
And for the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.
Not for himself.
For me.
"I won't let them die because of me," I whispered.
"No," he said immediately. "You are not the cause."
"But I am the catalyst," I replied.
Zara extended her hand.
"Decide," she said. "Before the next seal breaks."
The castle groaned—deep and ancient.
Somewhere far below, something gave way.
A scream echoed through the stone.
Kiyoshi gasped as time snapped back into motion.
"The southern barrier just collapsed," he shouted. "shou—we're losing control!"
Shou Feng's hand tightened around mine.
"Anna," he said hoarsely. "Whatever you choose—"
The floor cracked.
Light erupted.
And Zara's fingers closed around my wrist.
The world fractures.
To be continued...