Wind howled across the rim of Sky-Pier, a cliff-top ferry port once famed for cloud-sailing merchants and moon-hunters. Now its stone wharves sat empty, iron mooring rings groaning with every gust as if mourning the airships they once tethered. Tattered pennants snapped against broken masts, scattering flecks of faded crimson into the overcast sky.
Mo Lianyin, Soren Aldir, and the shadow-panther Thorne crouched behind a toppled cargo crane, surveying the desolate platform. A single glide-raft a narrow skiff with an enchant-cloth wing hung from the outer davit, hull swaying over a five-hundred-zhang plunge into mist.
"That one looks flight-worthy," Soren whispered. Weak sunlight glinted off fresh bronze rivets along the keel. "Someone's maintained it."
Lianyin narrowed crimson eyes. "Which means someone guards it."
Two someones, Lord Kareth murmured in her mind. One heartbeat pacing the helm barracks; another posted near the fuel cistern. Minor cultivators, third or fourth realm at best.
"Can we avoid them?" she murmured.
Why avoid what you can own? the Demon King purred. Claim the raft and their fear.
She ignored the hunger in his tone and eased a clawed shadow tendril over the crane boom, letting it slither across the pier like oil seeking cracks. Soren closed his eyes, feeling for hostile qi just as frost-white meridians began to respond after hours of freedom from the shackle.
"Two," he confirmed. "Both Dawnlight, but junior ranks."
Thorne's violet gaze followed the tendril, whiskers twitching with anticipation.
Lianyin gathered her robe, tattered hem snapping in the wind. "We move fast. Disable, don't kill if we can."
"Mercy again?" Kareth chuckled. Your enemies will not return the favor.
"Maybe not," she muttered, "but I'm not them."
She raised three fingers. Soren and Thorne tensed. The breath between seconds stretched then she dropped her hand.
Pier-Watch Barracks
Novice Brother Tao Yang stifled a yawn. Guard duty at an abandoned port bored him senseless, but Grandmaster Solas had insisted all transit points remain watched for demon escapees. Tao was picturing dumpling steamers back home when the lantern on his desk flickered and went out.
Darkness rushed in like a living thing, clamping around his lungs. He fumbled for his blade
Ink speared from the ceiling, coiling his wrist to the chair. Another tendril gagged him before he could scream. From the black stepped a girl no older than himself, eyes burning red.
"We need your glide-raft," she whispered. "Blink if you understand."
Tao blinked furiously. The tendril loosened around his mouth. "You're the demon vessel!"
"Semantics later." She twitched a finger; shadow tightness squeezed his wrist. "Where are the ignition runes?"
"Under the helm console, right side. There's there's a throttle rune keyed to my sect sigil." He swallowed. "It won't start without Dawnlight blood."
Thunder cracked overhead; wind rattled shutters. Lianyin nodded once. "Thank you."
She clubbed him behind the ear with the flat of his own sword, laying him gently across the cot.
Soft heart, Kareth sighed. One day it will break in your chest.
"Maybe after today," she whispered back.
Fuel Cistern
Soren approached the second guard from behind, broken sword glinting faint frost. The man was older, bulkier, his qi flaring steady but unremarkable. Just as Soren raised the pommel, Thorne padded from darkness, growling low.
The guard spun, eyes widening at panther and silver-haired prince both.
"Yield," Soren said. "No blood needed."
The man stared at the fractured blade, then at the violet-eyed cub. He dropped his spear.
Smart choice, Soren thought then lurched as a sudden connection pulsed along the soul-thread. Lianyin's heartbeat spiked: alarm. He turned toward the barracks
A golden flare burst from the roof above her.
"No," he breathed.
Halo Descends
Asha Kellen landed atop the barracks like a falling star, holy aura fanning swirling embers. Seraphine's blade sang free, its light slicing Lianyin's shadows in half. The roof cracked beneath Asha's weight; timber groaned, showering sparks.
"Yinyin," Asha called, voice steady yet strangled by emotion, "step into the light and I will end this pain swiftly."
Lianyin stood in the doorway, crimson eyes reflecting the golden halo. "You murdered children, Asha. Swift pains are luxury enough."
"I never wished that raid," Asha said, circling. "But the Demon King inside you would turn those children into weapons."
"Your grandmaster burned them first!" Lianyin's shadows coiled, quivering between attack and retreat. Thorne prowled at her heel, fur bristling.
Asha lifted her free hand between her fingers, a silver lotus pendant identical to the one Lianyin's parents once gave her. "I kept this. Proof that a part of you can still be saved."
The sight struck Lianyin like a thrown stone; memories of shared rice cakes, whispered stories under temple eaves flooded back. Her guard faltered a heartbeat.
Seraphine lunged.
Shadow tendrils shot up, parrying but holy aura scalded them, searing nerves through their bond. Lianyin hissed, stumbled back.
Soren burst from the cistern path, frost-coated blade raised. "Enough!"
Asha's gaze flicked, calculating distance then she pivoted, landing a palm strike that hurled Soren ten paces. Frost exploded across the pier, boards spider-webbing with ice.
Lianyin caught his fall with a cushion of darkness. Pain lanced through her collarbones where Seraphine's edge had grazed. "Take the raft," she rasped. "I'll hold her."
"No!" Soren pushed upright despite the tremor in his arms.
You'll both die, Kareth warned. Unless…
"Unless what?" Lianyin said aloud.
Accept my crest. Unleash the First Gate.
She felt the phantom sigil blaze at her sternum an ancient glyph shaped like an inverted lotus.
"If I open it, can I close it?" she asked.
That depends on your will.
Asha advanced, sword poised for killing stroke.
Lianyin met her former friend's eyes. "I choose my own path," she whispered and tapped the lotus.
Opening the First Gate
Shadow erupted not tendrils, but a cyclone. The pier disappeared in midnight whirlwinds. Boards cracked, mooring rings snapped, clouds churned into black funnels. At the storm's heart, Lianyin hovered a handspan above the planks, ink-lotus petals spiraling around her body like living armor.
Asha's halo flickered under the onslaught, Seraphine's glow guttering. She slashed arcs of light, severing several petals, yet more replaced them.
"Demon King's Sigil," she breathed, horror and fascination mingling. "So it's true."
Lianyin's voice echoed triple-layered hers and Kareth's entwined. "Leave. Or drown in the Night Tide."
Wind howled, dragging crates and shattered pennants into the maelstrom. The junior guard, revived, sprinted screaming into the barracks.
Asha remained, feet planted. "If I leave, the sect will send legions. I want to spare you that war."
"You can't spare me by killing me." Lianyin thrust palm outward. Waves of darkness surged; Seraphine blocked, sparks hissing.
Soren limped to the glide-raft, severing its docking chains. "Thorne! To me!" The panther bounded aboard. He slashed the final tether, wing unfurling with a snap.
"Yinyin!" he shouted. "Now!"
Lianyin's lotus armor rippled. Asha seized the opening, darting under a shadow crest to plunge Seraphine toward Lianyin's heart yet the sword stopped millimeters shy, arrested by a coil of violet claws: Thorne had leapt from the raft rail, intercepting mid-air.
Fur singed by holy light, the cub yowled but held.
"Soren, fly!" Lianyin willed a channel of shadow to shove Asha back; the paladin slid across splintered planks, boots carving grooves.
Wind caught the raft's sail. Soren hauled on the yoke; the craft lurched away from the pier. Ropes snapped, cloth billowed. Lianyin dismissed the cyclone abruptly, petals collapsing into one thick tendril that slingshot her and Thorne toward the departing deck.
They landed in a tumble. Soren caught Lianyin; the cub rolled into a crouch, hackles raised at the shrinking figure of Asha on the pier.
The paladin sheathed Seraphine and watched the raft glide into cloud-sea, halo dim yet unbroken. Lianyin's pendant half hung from her fist she hadn't realized she'd grabbed it mid-battle. Across the gap, Asha lifted her own identical pendant, pressing it to her brow in silent vow.
Then the mists swallowed Sky-Pier.
Above the Cloud-Sea
The glide-raft skated across updrafts, sail glowing with rune-stitch. Blood dripped from a cut on Lianyin's shoulder; Soren wrapped bandages torn from his cloak.
"You opened that gate," he said quietly.
"I closed it," she replied, voice hoarse. "For now."
Kareth's presence coiled warm and smug. You felt the power. Imagine the next gate, and the next.
"Quiet," she hissed. "One taste is plenty."
Soren nodded toward the horizon where a crimson smear foretold sunset. "Sky-Pier fades behind us. Where now?"
Lianyin studied the map stolen from their captors X river valleys, hidden sect ruins, rumored demon-safe enclaves. "East," she decided. "To the Gloaming Marches. Fewer sect patrols, more places to hide."
Thorne padded to the bow, nose in the wind. Lianyin followed, placing a hand on the cub's sleek back. "Thank you," she whispered. The panther rumbled approval, licking a burn on its paw.
Soren adjusted the yoke; the craft banked gracefully.
Below them, clouds parted to reveal the ravine now miles away its waterfalls shining gold under afternoon light. Somewhere on that dead pier, Asha Kellen watched and waited, blade still thirsting.
Lianyin curled her fingers around the pendant shard, feeling the faint pulse of the soul-thread linking her to Soren… and the darker resonance of gates yet unopened.
Hold on, she told herself, the wind stealing the words. Lotuses grow strongest where waters run deep and darkest.
The glide-raft soared east, carrying fugitives, shadows, and a destiny inked beneath a blood-red sky.