"Ancestor!" a woman cried, her voice trembling.
She stepped forward and pressed her hand to his back, sending a surge of Qi into his body.
Her presence was commanding despite the fear in her eyes. She wore ceremonial robes woven with faintly glowing sigils, and her cultivation radiated immense power, though still shy of Transcendence.
She was the High Priestess of the Ephemera Sect, the Left Elder, counterpart to the Spatial Cultivator Lin Mu had slain earlier.
Unlike most sects, the Ephemera followed their own hierarchy. Their elders were priests and priestesses, their duties sacred and bound to the will of their dark mother, Ephemera herself. The High Priestess was, by all rites, their matriarch.
But now, with the Ancestor awakened and leading their final ritual, she had been relegated to his shadow.
"Xin'er…" the Ancestor whispered, looking at her through blood-streaked eyes. "You've grown so much… yet still you must bear this burden."
