The night after Yujin's vow at the ruins, wind coiled through Yinshi's alleys, carrying whispers that shouldn't be heard.
Hidden among shadowed eaves, two figures exchanged low words.
"The talisman fragment?"
"Lost. Or worse: in Lan hands."
"Then the boy must be removed before he brings them here."
"A clean death?"
"No. A scandal. Let Gusu Lan bury him themselves."
A glint of silver under the moon — a blade's curve — and then silence swallowed them whole.
Meanwhile, in Cloud Recesses:
Lan Qiren sat before an ink scroll, frowning deeper than usual.
The recent attack, the burnt ruin, the fragment of an ancient talisman Yujin had nearly recovered — all pointed to something old, something deliberately buried.
"Decades ago, Wei Wuxian unearthed secrets best left sealed," he murmured.
"And not all his enemies were ever caught."
Lan Wangji, silent beside him, traced a single line on the scroll with his fingertip:
余烬之怨 — The Grudge of Ashes.
"Even fire leaves embers," Wangji said, voice soft but cold.
At the Pavilion that night:
Yujin returned late.
Dust on robes, scent of burnt wood still clinging.
Xiao waited at his usual pillar, lamp casting long shadows across painted screens.
"Another ruin?" Xiao asked, voice teasing — but softer than before.
"Another silence," Yujin answered, sinking onto a low stool.
"But I saw something, Xiao. Old wards. Ones I've only seen drawn by a single hand."
"Whose?"
Yujin hesitated.
"The Yiling Patriarch. Or someone imitating him."