Yue's words hung in the air, soft and yet heavier than stone. Love stories written in defiance of fate. The phrase settled in my chest, a warm coal against the cold grief. I looked from the kind, golden eyes of the stranger to the glowing fruit in my hand, then back again.
"The Silent Prison," I said, my voice a raw whisper. "You're sure he's there?"
Yue's smile faded, replaced by a look of profound stillness. "The Tian'e value order above all else. An anomaly like Shi, a being of terrestrial power who defies their celestial mandate is not an enemy to be slain. He is a problem to be solved, a thread to be unraveled and re-spun. They will take him apart to understand how he works. They will not kill him. Not quickly."
The brutal honesty was a blade, but it was a clean one. It cut away the false hope of his survival and replaced it with a different, more desperate purpose. He was alive. And he was suffering because of me.
