Wei Lianfeng stood at the bow, arms crossed, robes whispering in the chill wind. His hair was braided high, tied with a bronze clasp bearing his personal crest, a spiraling wave within a dragon's eye. His Qi was calm. Focused. But a thread of something colder had begun coiling in his chest.
Something here does not want to be seen.
Behind him, Bai Yueyin, his second-in-command, adjusted the bindings of her silver-hafted spear and said what others whispered.
"The sea is lying, Your Highness."
He looked at her. She didn't flinch.
"Every sailor's instinct says we're in calm water. But I can't feel the pulse of the waves. Not through the deck. Not even through the hull. I've been on ships all my life, and this is... wrong."
Wei Lianfeng closed his eyes, extended his senses.
She was right.
