Omniscient
Far from the crowded shimmer of the markets, silence stretched within the walls of Mingzhu's house. The air was heavy, pressing against him as though the current itself knew what stirred beyond its borders.
Dòu Dòu leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, his eyes fixed on the figure seated in the shadows. "You let her wander," he said at last, his voice tinged with something between reproach and amusement. "Brave, considering what walks these waters."
Mingzhu did not look up. His dark hair fell loose over his shoulders, and though his wounds still ached, there was a strength in his posture that had begun to return. "She needed space," he murmured, his tone clipped, guarded.
"Space?" Dòu Dòu snorted softly. "Or an opportunity for someone else to find her?"
That earned a glance a sharp, fleeting flash of black eyes that carried both warning and weariness. "Do not speak his name here."
But Dòu Dòu only tilted his head, lips curling. "Avoiding the word won't erase him, Mingzhu. He waits. He always waits."
For a moment, silence. Only the faint hum of currents against the walls. Then Mingzhu's hands curled into fists, the memory cutting through him like salt in a wound.
"He should have been bound," he said, voice low, the edges fraying with something darker. "Yet the river's curse freed him as much as it bound me."
Dòu Dòu's smile faded. For once, the jest was gone from his face. "And now?" he asked quietly.
Mingzhu looked away, the shadow of his jaw tightening. "Now he hunts."
The words lingered in the stillness, heavy, unspoken truths coiling like shadows between them. Neither dared to finish the thought aloud but both knew who walked the markets beyond, whose eyes might even now be fixed on the girl they had tried, and failed, to keep from the river.
Dòu Dòu moved further into the room, the easy rhythm of his steps at odds with the tension clawing at the air. He leaned against the edge of the table, arms folded, eyes narrowing as he studied Mingzhu.
"You say she needed space," he murmured, "but I think it's you who needed distance."
Mingzhu's gaze hardened. "Do not twist my words."
"Twist?" A sharp laugh slipped from Dòu Dòu's lips, though it held no humor. "I've known you longer than anyone. You've guarded these waters with iron and silence. Yet this one girl stumbles into the current, and suddenly the river bends."