The City's Murmurs
The Heavenly Synthesis Ceremony did not end when the array dimmed. It had only shifted to the mouths of the city.
Markets spoke of it in shouted rumors disguised as haggling. Scribes dipped their brushes deeper, convinced they were recording the moment when history chose to remember again. Courtiers whispered with fans raised high, each pretending they had seen through it all from the start.
Three currents. One locus.
The words rippled outward like a secret too heavy to sink.
And in the palace, the echo pressed down on the women like a second decree.
Qingxue
She returned to her chamber and unsheathed her blade, staring at the steel until it showed her face. Not the proud warrior. Not the first to kiss him. Only a woman who had stood at his side and discovered that sharing space did not mean holding it.
I was part of it, she told herself. But not his center.
