The Lotus Pool lay in the heart of the Sect like a sleeping mirror—at least, that was how it looked on ordinary nights. Tonight, it was something else entirely.
The moon's fractured light shivered across the water, but the reflection was wrong. Where there should have been a clear image of silver clouds and bamboo silhouettes, the surface was warped, as if the pool were a doorway to someplace else—someplace colder, deeper, and hungrier.
Lau Rhen crouched at the edge, fingertips hovering just above the surface. He could feel the qi pulling at him, faint but insistent, like a tide trying to drag him under.
"Don't touch it," Xao Xao said sharply.
"I'm not planning to," Rhen replied without looking up. "But the current's strong. Too strong for the moon phase."
Xao Xao scanned the perimeter. The air here was heavy—thick enough that breathing felt like drinking warm water. "Where's the warding array? I don't see any active seals."
"That's because there aren't any," came a voice from the shadows.
They both turned, hands instinctively moving toward their weapons.
A figure emerged from behind one of the old willow trees—thin, tall, wrapped in a dark robe with the hood drawn low. The robe's hem didn't quite touch the ground, swaying just slightly as if it didn't entirely belong to the same space they were in.
Rhen's eyes narrowed. "You're not a sect disciple."
The figure tilted their head, as if considering the statement. "No. But I was… invited."
"By who?" Xao Xao's tone was all steel.
The figure ignored the question and stepped closer to the water's edge. "The fracture beneath the moon… do you feel it? It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"Beautiful isn't the word I'd use," Rhen said.
"Ah, but you don't understand. The moonstone was never meant to contain this much energy. All I did was free it."
Xao Xao's hand slid toward her blade. "You fractured the moonstone?"
The figure's hood shifted, revealing the pale curve of a smile. "I merely nudged what was already breaking."
The pool rippled—no wind, no movement, yet the water moved as though something beneath had breathed.
From the center of the pool, faint lights began to glow—soft at first, then growing brighter. Shapes moved within them: long, sinuous forms, gliding in slow arcs. They looked almost like fish, but their bodies were made of light, and their eyes burned dark.
Rhen took a slow step back. "Those aren't spirit fish."
"No," the figure agreed. "They are echoes. Fragments of a world beneath this one. Do you know why the moonstone was placed here? To hold the doorway shut."
"And you just opened it," Rhen said flatly.
A faint, sharp crack echoed from the far side of the pool—like porcelain splitting under heat. The fractured moon above seemed to shiver, its silver light refracting into too many angles.
Xao Xao drew her sword in one smooth motion, the steel catching the light. "You're going to tell us who you're working for. Now."
The figure's smile widened. "I serve the same master you do… in time."
Before either of them could move, the figure stepped backward into the pool. The water should have resisted, but instead it swallowed them whole in a single ripple—no splash, no sound, just silence.
The lights beneath the surface flared—and then the pool began to churn.
"Rhen," Xao Xao said, her voice low.
"I see it."
The water rose in a slow swell, and from its center, something emerged—something with too many limbs and a face that wasn't a face, just a mask of rippling moonlight.
The qi pulse he'd been feeling all night was now a hammerbeat in his skull.
"We're not going to be able to contain this quietly," Rhen said.
"No," Xao Xao agreed. "But let's make sure it doesn't leave the pool."
The creature's limbs struck first, the water exploding outward in a spray of cold mist. Rhen moved on instinct, his palm striking the air in front of him. The qi barrier flared just in time to deflect one lashing limb, but the impact shoved him back several paces, boots sliding on wet stone.
Xao Xao darted left, blade flashing in a tight arc. The steel sliced through one limb like smoke—it simply reformed.
"That's not encouraging," she muttered.
"It's an echo," Rhen said, gritting his teeth. "You can't cut what's not fully here."
"Then we'll drag it the rest of the way here," Xao Xao said grimly.
They fought along the pool's edge, qi surging and clashing with every strike. The fractured moon above seemed to pulse in time with the creature's movements.
And somewhere deep beneath the water, Rhen could feel it—something else stirring. Something bigger.
This… wasn't the true threat.
***
The echo-creature lunged, and the Lotus Pool's mirror-surface shattered into chaos.
Water rose in sheets, scattering moonlight into a thousand jagged reflections that turned the air into a storm of glassy shards.
Rhen barely ducked under one whip-like limb, the force of it snapping a willow branch clean off behind him. He caught his footing and thrust his palm forward, sending a compressed wave of qi straight into the creature's torso—or what he assumed was its torso. The impact rippled through its glowing frame, but it only paused for a moment before reforming.
"It's ignoring direct force!" Rhen shouted.
"I noticed!" Xao Xao replied, her blade spinning in a tight defensive pattern as another limb arced toward her head. The steel rang like a bell when it connected, sending a vibration up her arm that left her fingers tingling.
"It's feeding off the moon fracture's energy!" she added.
Rhen's gaze flicked up to the sky. The fractured moon's light wasn't steady anymore—it pulsed in uneven waves, each pulse coinciding with the creature's attacks.
"It's using the pool as a conduit," he realized.
"That means?" Xao Xao demanded, fending off another strike.
"That if we break the connection to the pool, we cut off its anchor."
Easier said than done.
The "pool" wasn't just a body of water anymore. The churning waves had formed a vortex at the center, and through that spinning dark, Rhen glimpsed something impossible—stone steps spiraling downward into nothing, flanked by floating lights that weren't fire or lanterns.
The doorway.
The fracture beneath the moonstone had been here the whole time.
The thought struck cold in his gut. If this thing was just an echo, what would happen when something fully real came through?
"Rhen!" Xao Xao's voice snapped him back.
One of the creature's limbs swept toward him low and fast, too fast to block with qi alone. He dropped into a roll, water soaking his robe, and came up beside the outer seal stone.
Except—
There was no seal stone.
Just a jagged stump where it had been, the runes blackened and broken.
"Damn it…" Rhen muttered under his breath. "The array's dead. That means—"
He didn't get to finish. The vortex erupted, and for a heartbeat, the world was nothing but light and noise.
When the light cleared, the creature had changed.
No longer a shifting blur, its limbs had taken on more form—scaled, jointed, and dripping with water that sizzled on contact with stone. Its mask of moonlight now showed the faint suggestion of eyes.
And it was smiling.
"That's new," Xao Xao said tightly, circling toward Rhen.
"Means it's more here than before," Rhen replied. "Which means we're running out of time."
They didn't speak after that.
Not because they had a plan, but because there was no time for one.
The battle became a blur of movement—steel flashing, qi bursting, water surging. The creature's limbs lashed in unpredictable arcs, forcing them to keep moving or be crushed.
Rhen tried to read its rhythm, but it didn't have one.
Every time he thought he had a pattern, it shifted. Like fighting a river in a storm.
"Rhen—behind you!"
He spun in time to see a limb about to wrap around his torso. Instinct took over—he released a surge of internal qi, burning through more reserves than was safe, and the limb recoiled with a hiss like boiling water.
That gave him an idea.
"Heat!" he shouted. "It doesn't like heat!"
Xao Xao's eyes flicked to the brazier stands along the pool's edge. They were cold—meant for ceremonies, not combat—but a spark of understanding passed between them.
She moved first, leaping over a sweeping limb and kicking one brazier into the air. While it was still falling, she slashed across it, sending a spray of sparks toward the creature. It recoiled again, the glow of its body dimming slightly.
Rhen didn't waste the chance. He poured qi into his palms until the air shimmered, then slammed both hands into the stone at his feet. Heat bled outward in a wave, turning the mist around them into steam.
The creature screamed—not in sound, but in vibration, a deep hum that made the water in the pool tremble.
"It's working!" Xao Xao said, moving to ignite the next brazier with the friction of her blade against stone.
But then the vortex in the pool widened.
The stone steps were now fully visible, and something else was climbing them.
Not light. Not an echo.
Solid. Heavy. Alive.
Rhen's heart hammered. "Xao Xao… the echo was just the scout."
She didn't answer, but the set of her jaw said everything.
The first shape breached the surface—a hand. Human in form, but stretched too long, the fingers ending in blackened nails. It gripped the edge of the step, and the water hissed where it touched.
Then came the head—tall, narrow, with eyes like shards of obsidian.
The echo-creature stilled.
Not out of fear. Out of obedience.
"Rhen," Xao Xao said quietly, "we can't win this fight."
"Not yet," he admitted. "But we can delay it."
She gave a tight nod.
"Then burn the pool."
Rhen hesitated. Burning the Lotus Pool wasn't just destruction—it was sacrilege. But the alternative was letting that come through.
He raised both hands, feeling his qi coil and compress until it was almost unbearable. Xao Xao slashed through the last two braziers, sending cascades of sparks into the water.
The heat rose fast, steam turning the air into a suffocating shroud. The echo-creature hissed and withdrew toward the vortex, but the figure climbing the steps did not retreat—it only moved faster.
Then Rhen unleashed it.
A wave of fire, not natural flame but pure elemental qi, roared across the pool. The water exploded in a wall of steam, blotting out moonlight, sound, and sight.
For a moment, there was nothing but heat and white.
When the steam began to clear, the pool was gone—emptied, the stone bed cracked and smoking. The vortex had collapsed, leaving only a faint, scorched circle at its center.
The echo was gone.
The figure on the steps was gone.
But the fracture in the moon above remained. And Rhen knew they hadn't closed the doorway.
They had only made whoever—or whatever—was on the other side angry.