"If you know what's good for your life, girl—don't set one god rattled foot in that temple."
Lian Yue didn't stop walking.
" The old man's shout rang out behind her, consumed by the hiss of the wind rushing through the mountain fissure. She held onto her satchel, fingers touching the edge of her own soulstone—still warm from curing a fevered child back in that village.
She had not meant to go this far. But the tug on her mark — and its withering pain engraved upon her lower back since she'd drawn breath — was unbearable. It burned. It called.
She came to a halt on the lip of the ruins.
Blackened towers rose from the ground like bones, half submerged in weeds and ash. The temple's gilded roof that once sparkled in the afternoon sun now cracked under years of decay, and something else, something unnatural. The air itself trembled.
"It's nothing but a ruin," she murmured, but even in her voice was a lie.
No, it wasn't just a ruin.
This was the place from her dreams.
She had been watching those same columns of obsidian every night for a month. Heard the voice of fury (Or the echo of a) splattered voice. Felt a hand at her throat — and lips at her ear, whispering her name like both a threat and a prayer.
Lian Yue.
The wind shrieked, almost responding to her.
She passed through the toppled gate.
The stink of ancient magic inside made her nose prickle. In the center of the temple was a rock altar, neatly cleaved in two. Underneath hung, half-buried in shadow, a man.
No.
A thing.
His skin was covered in luminous, pale chains that glowed dim blue and coiled around him like a shroud. Black hair, disheveled and flowing, tumbled over the stone. Heaving — almost — his bare chest.
And the mark on his chest?
The same as hers.
Hers was hot, seething, as if in response to him.
Her knees trembled.
"This is not the right thing," she whispered. "This can't be real."
She turned to run—
"Lian Yue."
She froze. The voice was not from behind her.
It came from him.
Silver, inhuman, radiating with rage and craving, his eyes snapped open.
"I've waited long enough."
Chains cracked.
Stone groaned.
The whole temple blew up then.
---
She woke up choking on dust.
The world burned. The broken floor flickered with flames. It was all split open, the altar had burst wide open. The man or rather the immortal was no longer restrained.
He was standing in the ruins and was tall and all scary and shirtless and had weird symbols sparkling on his skin. Smoke snaked from his fingertips like in the wake of a storm.
Lian Yue stumbled back.
He stared at her as though he remembered her — and hated her for it.
"Who are you?" she croaked.
I ought to rip your soul out," he said coldly. "But I can't. Not anymore."
He moved a foot closer and the air distorted.
Her mark burst into flames again, violently.
His expression darkened. "You bear her soul."
"Her? Whose soul?"
He stopped inches from her. "The one who imprisoned me here, a thousand years ago."
He reached for her.
She slapped his hand off — hot lightning through her palm.
"Don't touch me!"
But then when she attempted to move again, something invisible broke. A thread of gold appeared between them, lit up and pulsating like a pulse beat.
They both froze.
His voice weakened, hoarse with disbelief. "No…"
Lian Yue's eyes were fixed on the line that linked them.
"What is this?" she whispered.
He stared at her as if she'd just condemned the world.
"The soul tether," he said.
Then his face contorted — fury and something more: regret.
"You have only roused the destruction of the immortals."
---
They fell silent for a while.
Only when Lian Yue pressed her back against the wall and demanded several answers did she tremble, shaking with her soulstone at her chest.
"You think I chose this?" she snapped. "Like I wanted to stumble onto you?"
"You did come and get me," he growled. "And by doing so, you've broken the seal which separated the realms from war."
"I just went with a pull —"
"A pull?" he mocked. "You don't even understand what you did. You think this bond is fate? It's a curse."
"I've never even heard your name."
He turned his back on her. "Raihan."
And then, in a soft murmur: "The God of Ruin. The one your people fear. The one that you committed treason against?
Lian Yue's blood turned cold. Her heart pounded in her ears.
God of Ruin.
Even in old village stories, they wouldn't say that name aloud — always in the whisper of cautioning behind the fire, behind the chaos.
"You didn't need to come back," he muttered. "Now you are that much yours to me … and they will come for you.
"Who?" she breathed.
He didn't answer.
He only reached for her again and this time, when his fingers made contact with her mark, images flashed behind her lids.
A field of battle everywhere impurpled with gold and blood.
A kiss beneath a bleeding moon."
A dagger in her hand.
She had called his name as she plunged it into his chest.
She screamed.
Before Raihan could react, he caught the falling woman, his arms outstretched by automatic instinct.
"You know," he said, voice rough.
"No," she gasped. "That's not me. I would never—"
His hand came out to caress her cheek, and his voice lowered to a whisper.
"But you did, my love."
---
Dark clouds started twisting outside the ruins.
Above, a silver-feathered bird screeched—and flamed out of sight.
Somewhere deep within the concealed Celestial Court, the Weaver of Fate tugged on a golden cord.
"She's roused him," the Weaver murmured. "And the tether is complete."
Another voice replied with a hiss.
"Then we hit before she gets the full recall."
---
In the temple, Lian Yue clutched her soulstone.
"I'm not her. I am not the woman who went ahead and did that to you."
"But your soul is," Raihan said. "And if she bound me ever once— what hinders you from binding me again?"
The room suddenly shook. Magic exploded in the sky outside the temple.
Someone had found them.
Raihan's silver eyes dulled into darkness. "They're coming."
"Who?" she asked again.
This time his response sent shivers down her spine.
"Enforcers of the immortals," he said. "They're here to erase you."
And he spun towards the door, calling forth fire and shadow in his fists.
"Stay behind me. If you die — I die, too, that's what I mean, and I don't want to go back to the dark."
"But I can't fight!" she said.
He tossed his head, rakish and beautiful and cruel. Then you better pray you know how … fast.
--
The temple doors blew inward and three figures glowing with an eerie, burning presence stepped into the room– their eyes ignited and swords drawn, and, inside his palm, Lian Yue's soulstone shattered in two.
And her sign burned white hot.